Blog Reflection

Organic outputs is makes up that mass of the output of waste that people put as individuals. For what is flushed down the drain or toilet goes to water treatment facilities. In my case sewage is directed towards the West End Pollution Control Center where it goes through primary treatment which involves water and solid matter being separated. This solid matter is called sludge and is sent to the North End Pollution Control Center where it goes through a process called sludge digestion. Here anerobic bacteria is used to break down the organic compounds within the sludge producing which then has any excess liquid removed. This produces about 65% methane and 30% carbon dioxide this combustible gas is used in the boilers which heat the plant. The leftover dry solid material is then applied agricultural land as fertilizer. This greater reduces nutrient loading of nitrogen and phosphorus and recycles it directly back into food crops. It is good to know that my city is making a effort in better system of water treatment and waste management for its citizens. When a municipal government is willing to budget toward more stable practices in shows the people the opportunities of sustainable development.
This marks good way to end the material covered is this course. sewage and waste is the end of the human cycle where our excess goes back into the ecosystem. And with or own material in the world's natural cycles there is no denying the fact that future generations will require the same compounds for their own well being. Since the waste we produce will some how have an effect on the products of the future (particularly food). Such emphasis put on recycling because everything is nothing. None of the products we manufacture never just disappears, it goes somewhere we need to need to understand this basic fundamental especially chemicals such as plastic are a part of this. The difference is that their cycle is impossible to utilize by biotic systems. This means that this once natural product will very slowly degrade always remain in its current state forever never the less they are still a part of a cycle of waste which is also changes the dynamics of the cycles. Since all these cycles are intertwined it is very likely that these manufactured compounds will make their way into the more essential resources. Unatural chemicals of are appearing in the worlds freshwater sources. Chemicals like mercury and PCB's are being found in the great lakes as well as many unknown substances little is known about the long term health affects of these chemicals to people and wildlife. How long they will stay in the environment yet industry is creating knew unknown compounds faster than they are being discovered. If people understand the cycle of matter then their will be a better chance of them being able to create a sustainable and prosperous future.

Citations:
http://members.shaw.ca/gp.lagasse/process_summary.htm
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
http://www.babelgum.com/118286/edump.html

Picture:
http://www.dacorum.gov.uk/images/waste_hierarchy%20graphic.gif

Waterlife

If the Great Lakes were a country it would be the second largest economy in the world. "The gross rgional product of the great lakes region is $4.2 trillion. The only greater economy is the United States." The Great Lake Basin stand as a true testement to the the economic and lifegiving power that freshwater water has in the world has 20% of the worlds freshwater. Split between 10% of the U.S. population and 30% of the Candian population who call this place home.
With all this pressure for production the great lakes are under sevre pressure from biodiversity loss to high levels of toxic chemicals in drinking water. Awarness is the first step towards solutions and a cross-platform new media project has produced somthing called waterlife.nfb.ca this website produces an interactive and insightful resource of the wide array of issues that face the Great Lakes watershed. As we look through we see that all these problems are intertwined. Chemicals never seen before from industry and agriculture are accumulating in the natural system and the people living within them. The effects though largely unknown since "Scientist are having a difficult time determining the fate of these chemicals... The interst of the corporation be it a goverment orginization or in business come first." There have already 10 Canadian and 5 and US-Canadian AOC (Areas of Concern) and many adverse health effect to native wildlife and people throughout the Great Lakes Region including defrominalities and biomaccumulation in wildlife. The St. Lawrence Beluga is believed to be the most contaminated marine mammels on the planet were one quarter of the adults are dying of cancer. In the area Sarnia Ontario that is exposed to high levels of water and air pollution there has been a girl-baby boom. In the Aamjiwnaag First Nations community twice as many girls are being produced to boys. This is believed to be caused by an endocrine disrubter.
Pollution from residents themselves are also causing tremendous damge from sewage caused by overflows of rainwater and raw sewage which bypass treatment plants and go straight into the water nearby leading to mass eutriphication. It is estimated that 90 billion litres of CSO (combined sewer overflow) is released by 20 cities alone in a single year. Also today one third drink bottled water over tap water but they are disillusined by the fact that they are drinking tapwater anyways. In fact municipal water supplies are inspected on a daily basis when bottled water plants are inspected 3 times a year. This creates a huge amount of plastic going directly into a landfill.
With all these problems becoming apparent communities are pressuring their goverments on a local and national level. The Obama adminsitration has recently allocated $475 million in their 2010 annual budget toward recovery and protection of the Great Lakes. Canada has not yet made such a commitment yet this year. It is essential that Canadians become aware of this great responsibilty which the must acted upon.

Citations and sources from http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
as well as:
-Ada Lockridge, Aamjiwnaag First Nation
-Pamela Martin, Canadian Wildlife Service
-www.inesl.org
-www.ec.gc.ca
-www.polarinstitute.org
-www.insidethebottle.org
-www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/press-releases

Picture:
http://absolutemichigan.com/

Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services

The significance of Biodiversity especially in the worlds oceans is important. This article describes how human ties to global fisheries are only possible in the future if the fragile biodiversity is restored and maintained. "What is the role of biodiversity of in maintaining the ecosystem services on which a growing human population depends? Recent surveys of terrestrial literature suggest that local species richness may enhance ecosystem productivity and stability. However, the importance of biodiversity changes at the landscape level is less clear, and the lessons from local experiments and theory do not seem to easily extend to long term, large scale management decisions. These issues are particularly enigmatic for the world's oceans, which are geographically large taxonomically complex, making the scaling up from local to global scales potentially more difficult." Part of the solution require better understanding of the three dimensional ocean ecosystem. More experimentation is required to make more effective policies of conservation. "In summary, experimental results indicate robust positive linkages between biodiversity, productivity, and stability across trophic levels in marine ecosystems. Identified mechanisms from the original studies include complementary resource use, positive interactions, and increased selection of highly performing species at high diversity." A few of the issues that the world's ocean's are global warming, affluent runoff from industry, high pressure fishing practices and coastal development. "A mechanism that may explain enhanced recovery at high diversity is that fishers can switch more readily among target species, potentially providing over fished taxa with a chance to recover. Indeed, the number of fished taxa was a log-linear function of species richness was negatively related to the variation in catch from year to year and positively correlated with the total production of catch per year. This increased stability and productivity are likely due to the portfolio effect, whereby a more diverse array of species provides a larger number of ecological functions and economic opportunities over time. This portfolio effect has independently been confirmed by economic studies of multispecies been confirmed by economic studies of multispecies harvesting relationships in marine ecosystems. Linear (or log-linear) relationships indicate steady increases in services up to the highest levels of biodiversity.This means that proportional species losses are predicted to have similar effects at low and high levels of native biodiversity." The writer is optimistic that it is possible for many areas to be rehabilitated back to their full potential. "Community variability, as measured by the coefficient of variation in aggregate fish biomass, was reduced by 21% on average. Finally tourism revenue measured as the relative increase in dive trips within 138 Caribbean protected areas strongly increased after the were established." Summarizing the this summery with this passage. "High diversity systems consistently provided more services with less variability, which has economic and policy implications. First, there is no dichotomy between biodiversity conservation and long term economic development; they must be view as interdependent societal goals. Second, there was no evidence for redundancy at high levels of diversity; the improvement of services was continues on a log-linear scale. Third, the buffering impact of species diversity of ecosystem services generates insurance value that must be incorporated into future economic valuations and management decisions."

Citations:
Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services
by: Boris Worm et al.

Picture:
http://naturalpatriot.org/

Life and Death of the Salt Marsh

This article speaks about the ecological and economic benefits of salt marshes as well as the many issues that conservationist face in their preservation. "Along the eastern coast of North America, from the north were the ice packs grate upon the shore to the tropical mangrove swamps tenaciously holding the land together with a tangle of roots, lies a green ribbon of soft, salty, wet, low lying land, the salt marshes... Unfortunately, in marshes which have been disturbed, dug up, suffocated with loads of trash and fill, poisoned and eroded with the wastes from large cities, there is another smell. Sick marshes smell of hydrogen sulfide, a rotten egg odor. This odor is very faint in a healthy marsh." The writers J & M Teal emphasize on the fact that the deterioration of North America's salt marshes is purely a man made impact. "The dangers to salt marshes stem from human activities, not natural processes. We destroy wetlands and shallow water bottoms directly by dredging, filling, and building. Indirectly we destroy them by pollution. Much of this destruction is simply foolish. The marsh would often had been much more valuable as a marsh than it is in its subsequent desecrated form. The increase in population pressure along the coast will inevitably destroy more and more of the frail marsh estuarine system. We do not propose the preservation of marshes simply for the sake of their preservation. Instead, we regard them in light of their benefit of marshes will accrue to everyone, not only those who venture onto the surface of marshes but to fishermen along the coast and to consumers of fishery products who may live far inland. Some destruction is inevitable. Even for those marshes preserved as wildlife areas, an access must be constructed so that people who want to enjoy these pieces of nature can do so. Roads must be built to the marshes, along the edges of marshes, and to impoundments that are designed for mosquito control and waterfowl hunting. Also, building roads to boat-launching ramps so that the network of creeks and rivers in the wetlands can be enjoyed is not only a convenience but a preservative: damage to the marshes will be less if adequate access is provided from the waterside." This can be extremely difficult since developmental pressures usually outweigh the benefits of preservation in short term. "whatever method is used to preserve marshes, it must include safeguards against the increased pressures to develop because of the ever increasing population. There have been too many cases in which the last land in the town, land reserved for park and playground, has been diverted for industrial use. The diversion occurred because the industry threatened to move to another town or even another state if it were not allowed to secure the land. This sort of corporate blackmail is hard to withstand and will inevitably bring pressures on organizations controlling the marshes. Pressure even comes from the state officials who are trying to encourage industries to come to their area by offering filled marsh for building. The battle between the forces of development and conservation need to be won only once by the developers but must be fought and won every year for conservation to triumph."

Citations:
Life and Death of the Salt Marsh
by: John Teal and Mildred Teal

Picture:
http://saltmarshlife.com/

Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment

This article looks at increasing cancer rates and their links with the environment. Sandra Steingraber emphasizes that cancer research is far to focused on the genetics rather than the environment that an individual is brought up in. "What runs in families does not necessarily run in blood. And our genes are less an inherited set of teacups enclosed in a cellular china cabinet then they are plates used in a busy diner. Cracks, chips, and scrapes accumulate accidents happen." She delves into her own personal family history of how in the year 1974 marked a monumental year in breast cancer cases. "My mother was first diagnosed in 1974, a year that is considered an anomaly in the annals of breast cancer. Graphs displaying U.S. breast cancer incidence rates across the decades show a gently rising line that suddenly zooms skyward, falls back then continues its slow ascent. The story behind the blip of '74 has been deemed a textbook lesson in statistical artifacts. In this year, First Lady Betty Ford and Second Lady Happy Rockefeller both underwent mastectomies. The words breast cancer entered public conversation. Women who might otherwise have delayed routine checkups or might otherwise have delayed routine checkups or who were hesitant to seek medical opinion about a lump were propelled into doctors' offices. The result was that a lot of women were diagnosed with breast cancer within a short period of time, my mother among them." She talks about how scientist are starting to realize how people lacking certain gene sequences are susceptible to different cancers but it is the combination's of the sequences that seem to give a better idea of the different factors contribute to the extent and the chance of it occurring. "What my various file folders do not contain is a considered evaluation of all known and suspected bladder carcinogens-their sources, their possible interactions with each other, their possible interactions with each other, and our various routes of exposure to them... Several obstacles, I believe prevent us from addressing cancer's environmental roots. An obsession with genes and heredity is one." Her she sums up her argument that environments contributes more than most researchers are lead to believe. A shift in focus is needed. Suppose we assume for a moment that the most conservative estimate concerning the proportion of cancer deaths due to environmental causes is absolutely accurate. This estimate, put forth by those who dismiss environmental carcinogens as negligible, is 2 percent. Though others have placed this number far higher, let's assume for the sake of argument that this lowest value is absolutely correct. 2 percent means that 10,940 people in the United States die each year from environmentally caused cancers... It is the annual equivalent of wiping out a small city. It is thirty funerals every day."

Citations:
Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment
by Sandra Steingraber

Picture:
http://www.ewg.org/

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima or Why Political Questions Are Not All Economic

This article speaks of the complexities of decision making environmental policies. Between the political and economic values tend to contradict each other."some people have suggested that ideally these should be the same, that all environmental problems are problems in distribution. According to this view, there is an environmental problem only when some resource is not allocated in equitable and efficient ways. This approach to environmental policy is pitched entirely at the level of the consumer. It is his or her values that count, and the measure of these values is the individuals willingness to pay. The problem of justice or fairness in society becomes, then, the problem of distributing goods and services so that more people get more of what they want to buy: a condo on the beach, a snowmobile for the mountains, a tank full of gas, a day of labor. The only values we have, according to this view, are those that a market can price." Mark Sagoff states "In principle, the ultimate measure of environmental quality," as one basic text assures us, "is the value people place on these... services or their willingness to pay." Only those willing to invest in their values will ever be heard, talk is cheap is essentially what he is refers to. "Not all of us simply think that of ourselves simply as consumers. Many of us regard us as citizens as well. We act as citizens to achieve what we think is right or best for the community. The question arises, then, whether what we want for ourselves individually as consumersis consistant with the goals we would set for oursleves collectively as citizens. Would I vote for the sort of things I shop for? Are my preferences as a consumer consistent with my judgements as a citizen?" This may be one reason for so manys dicontent and mistrust in federal goverments since the ethics and economics rarely run paralell. "Shall the courts uphold only those political decisions that can be defended on economic grounds? Shall we allow democracy only the extent that it can be constructed either as a rational response to a market failure or as an attempt to redistribute wealth? Should the courts say that a regualtion is not "feasible" or "reasonable"-terms that occur in the OSHA law-unless it is supported by a cost benefit analysis?". Just filling space with quotes. Sagoff also describes that values are not subjective "The analyst supposes in all such cases that "this is right" and "this is what we ought to do" are equivalent to "I want this" and "this is what I prefer" Value jugdements are beyond critisim if, indeed, they are nothing but expressions of personal preference; they are incorrigible since every person is in the best position to know what he or she wants." Since this a very complicated issue Mark Sagoff talked about value which is worth being quoted as well. "In contrast, consider a Kantian conception of value. The individual, for Kant, is a judge a values, not a mere haver of wants, and the individual judges not for himself or herself merely, but as a member of a relevent community or group. The central idea in a Kantian approach to ethics is that some values are more reasonable than others and therefore have a better claim upon assent of members as such." Sagoff has pointed out that these issue are far from trnasparent and that more vigourous cost-benefit analyisis as well as regualtion. "These distinctions cannot be made out and have no significance within an emotive or pshycological theory of value. To adopt this theory is to imagine society as a market in which individuals trade voluntarily and without coercion. No individual, no belief, no faith has authority over them. To have power to act as a nation we must be able to act, at least at times, on a public philosophy, conviction or fait. We cannot abandon moral function of public law. the antinomianism of cost benefit analysis is not enough."

Citations:
At the Shrine of Our Lady Fatima or Why Political Questions Are Not All not Economic.
by: MArk Sagoff

Picture:
http://www.timescontent.com/