Working Planet

 

Geography

 

Great Lakes Turn Out Not So Great

 

Hello, my name is Dr. Christopher Smith and I am a U.S. marine biologist. I have lived in Michigan since childhood and grew up in a small town near the Great Lakes. As a child I was very interested in the study of marine life and the Great Lakes offered as a great observatory. I am qualified for this editorial because I have studied marine biology for over twenty years.

 

The Great Lakes have been polluted for many years since 1969. The pollution of the Great Lakes is serious because since the beginning of the pollution many animals have received diseases and been poisoned. The Great Lakes are infested with animals that are destroying food chains, such as Sea Lamprey. I think there should be something done about the Great Lakes and fast before the situation gets worse. Pollution in the lake will eventually spread into parts of the ocean and poison even more animals. People are unable to eat fish or drink water from the Great Lakes because of pollution so now is the time to act and clean the Great Lakes.

 

In the Great Lakes there has been many invasive species taking over the lakes and they have received diseases and given them to other animals. The problem of invasive species is many food chains are being changed and ruined. If more invasive species leave the area and carry diseases that they have from one place to another then they are destroying more food chains and this process continues to contaminate throughout all of the lakes. One invasive specimen is the sea lamprey. The sea lamprey killed and gave diseases to a handful of marine life in the lakes but by about the year 2000 90% of sea lamprey was gone. This is a great success in helping the cleaning process of the Great Lakes. I would say invasive species is now not a worry when pollution is the major cause.

 

Loss of habitat has been a problem in the Great Lakes because of the pollution. Loss of habitat is when an animal loses its home. Loss of habitat is serious because marine life are left without homes because it was destroyed by pollution. Without homes the creatures have no place to stay and are forced to evacuate the area. This leaves the polluted area empty and the creatures that leave carry pollution with them.

 

What should be done? The first step in preserving the lakes should be to clean up any trash on the area around or in the Great Lakes, another is to stop polluting around the area of the lakes, a third is to capture any diseased fish and invasive species, take out most of the algae, and a final thing to be done would be to test the water every few months to see if it’s contaminated. Doing all of this would help the Great Lakes to recover into a state of good condition.

 

Geography response using evidence of the Aral Sea and the Great Lakes

What will happen if we do not care for the environment?

 

    If we do not care for the environment many bad things will happen. The bad things that will happen are: sea levels will rise, the earth will have many dead plants and trees, many animals will die, some animals will be mutated, people will receive diseases, it would be harder to breathe, rivers would be polluted, there would be a lot less paper products, it be harder to get electricity, it would be harder to get fish, there would be invasive species traveling into other areas, food chains will be broken, sea creatures will be mutated and poisoned, and it would be dangerous to swim in some areas. Not caring for the environment makes earth worse in many different ways. Such as the Great Lakes how they are being polluted and now it is very difficult to clean them. People think that its okay to litter once in a while but it is not okay because that was probably how the Great Lakes were polluted because of a few different things that “accidentally” fallen in the rivers. What I mean by “accidentally” is that people might have thrown it by not caring. Factories are polluting in the rivers not caring and sometimes not noticing and that is a bad thing and it is not only happening in the Great Lakes but it is also happening in other lakes. I think that the government should put trash cans close to any river but the trash cans cannot be too close. For example I do see that next to the Charles River are trash cans and that shows you that people are trying to care for the environment but still there are places where people are not caring for the environment. We need to try hard in trying to care for the environment because it won’t only hurt everything around us but it will also hurt us. For example the people that used the Aral Sea for farming and for cotton and even more reasons they treated it badly and then many people started getting diseases and dying. That shows you that we need to be careful of what we do with the environment. If we continue not caring for the environment then we will be left with harder living conditions and harder living styles. So it is better to act now before all those things happen. There are ways in helping the environment without having to plan it or pay for it or work hard. Those are the ways that I use to help the environment and some of them are: turn off the lights when you leave a room, take shorter showers, don’t leave the water running when you are brushing your teeth, and recycle any plastic, paper, etc. Remember that if we do not care for the environment bad things will happen to the earth.

 

 

Geography Dialogue

 

Supporter: The evidence from Antarctica I’ve seen clearly shows that global warming is occurring. How could you continue to doubt that it is happening?

 

Doubter: I’ve looked at some of the same evidence. My conclusions are different.

 

Supporter: Well that can’t be right because I’m sure that the fact of Global Warming is true.

 

Doubter: I’m not so sure that you are correct so prove it!

 

Supporter: Well there is sudden rises of temperatures and penguins are dying because the ice that is melting.

 

Doubter: The sudden rise of temperature I’m sure was because of climate change. I know there is climate change because in some places of Antarctica it is getting warmer but in some places it is getting colder.

 

Supporter: The real reason why the ice is melting is because of the greenhouse gasses of the greenhouse effect.

 

Doubter: Mmm. Nice point. The ice from Antarctica have been falling because of how people are breaking off the ice to get water then the ice becomes ice shelves so that is one reason why there is less ice in Antarctica.

 

Supporter: But only some companies cut ice from Antarctica. Anyways Antarctica is a very large area and is very thick but it is getting smaller because of the greenhouse effect and the ozone layer.

 

Doubter: Well can you give me the definition of the greenhouse effect?

 

Supporter: Of course I can! The greenhouse effect is when the sun’s heat rays travel down into earth’s atmosphere then some of the heat rays are reflected back through the atmosphere, while some are absorbed by atmospheric gases and radiated back to earth.

 

Doubter: Global Warming is anyways a preposterous idea. The real reason why earth seems warmer is because of climate change and I know it and it all makes sense that there is no such thing as global warming.

 

Supporter: There is such thing as global warming!

 

Doubter: (said calmly) I guess people will always think two different ways.

 

Supporter: (sigh) You’re right about that but we still have to care for the world because many biomes are dying.

 

Doubter: That is true and we have to stop interrupting nature’s habitat before it is too late.

 

 

Religion

Islam and Christians

Similarities and Differences

 

   Islam and Christians have all different kinds of similarities and differences and I am going to start telling you now.

 

  The similarities of the Islam and the Christians are they both believe in one god, pray, have holy book, worship, make peace, help one another, and are located in many different locations.

 

  There are more differences than similarities. The differences are: Muslims pray 5 times a day, need to pilgrimage, fast, pray toward Mecca, walk barefoot, have a different holy book, and they are unable to donate because they are too poor.

 

  Christians are able to donate, they receive the 7 sacraments, have popes, bishops, priests, deacons, and have saints, different churches, 10 commandments, Easter candle, Lent, Easter, Christmas, Ordinary Time, All Saints Day, holy water, and the body and blood of Christ which is bread and wine.

 

  As you can see there are many similarities and even a greater number of differences between the two religions Islam and Christianity.

 

Religion Prayer

 

  God thank you for making earth so beautiful with its green fields, oceans shining blue, and the amazing creatures and I hope that people will protect and preserve earth and everything on it. Thank you for giving us the ability to keep earth a beautiful place and hopefully earth will stay a beautiful place. In a document which is named Care for God’s Creation says that people around the world are trying to make earth a beautiful place again but we find it hard, but we believe we can do it and God please help us complete this task. The Reference Catholic Social Teaching on Ecology has been doing great work on saving the environment and teaching how to save the environment. They have showed a great example and helped the world move another step further. A goal that I will set for myself is to turn off lights when I leave a room in my house.

 

 

     As a seventh grade class we have been studying the subject of going green and we have discussed many different topics of going green and the topic that I was interested was saving energy and I thought why not recommend the Arrupe to use energy saving lights. So I recommend that the Arrupe should have energy saving lights. I am recommending this because the other lights waste a lot more energy. This would help the energy bill cost less and it would help save the environment by using less energy. Using less energy will help save the environment because electricity is coming from nature and nature is being destroyed by the pollution we are making in just getting electricity. At my house I use the energy saving lights and it helps a lot.

                                                                                       Math “Going Green”

Topic: Saving Energy

  I have chosen the topic saving energy because I do this everyday. I do this everyday because of these examples: whenever the thermostat is not on and it is cold I put on a sweater, whenever I watch television I always turn it off even if I just leave for 3 minutes, whenever I am charging something I unplug it after it has been charged, and I do a lot more to save energy. I also have chosen this topic because I think that energy cost too much to waste so I would like to learn more ways to save energy.

Energy Star houses are 20-30% more efficient than standard houses

Energy Star homes save $200-$400 each year

A typical house’s annual utility bill is $1900 total but having an ENERGY STAR home you save $600 a year

98% of consumers think that it is important to save energy in their houses

49% of electricity comes from coal

20% of electricity comes from natural gas

19.4% of electricity comes from nuclear

7% of electricity comes from Hydroelectric

3% of electricity comes from oil

3% of electricity comes from other gases

 

Topic: Saving Energy

Answer the following Question:

What should we do to preserve and care for the environment?

 

 

     To help preserve and care for the environment we should save energy in a variety of ways. These are some ways in saving energy: Turn off the lights whenever leaving the room, turn off the thermostat and put on a sweater, whenever charging something unplug it after it has been charged, change light bulbs into compact fluorescent light bulbs, wash cloths in cold water, use a drying rack or clothesline instead of using the machine dryer, turn off television if no one is watching it that also applies with computers and radio, use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable batteries, and take short showers. Saving energy also comes into other going green categories such as saving water, global warming, reusing, reducing, and recycling. If you follow some or all the ways in saving energy that would make a big difference that would help the electric bill a lot and it would help the environment. Saving energy would save the environment because using a lot of energy causes pollution in many different ways. Pollution is of course bad for the environment and we have to try and stop that. I would suggest starting with saving energy.

 

What will happen if we do not care for the environment?

Saving Energy

 

  If we do not care for the environment many bad things will happen. The bad things that will happen are: sea levels will rise, the earth will have many dead plants and trees, many animals will die, some animals will be mutated, people will receive diseases, it would be harder to breathe, rivers would be polluted, there would be a lot less paper products, and it would especially be harder to get electricity. It would be harder to get electricity because of the bad conditions of earth. Life without electricity would make living conditions harder for example people would have to light a fire and use a pot above it to cook it and then after you would eat you would have to find clean water to clean the pot but it would be very difficult to find clean water. So it is better to save electricity because it will help a lot so you would not have to live in such bad living conditions. If we do not care for the environment it will be a big chance for harder living conditions so we have to act now before it is too late.

 

How would the consequences of being irresponsible

with the environment affect your life?

Topic: Saving Energy

 

  The consequences of being irresponsible with the environment would affect my life in many different ways. Those ways are: I would not be able to take many or be able to use that much tap water to brush my teeth because water would be scarce, the heater in my house would almost never be on in the winter, it would be hard to find a lake I could swim in, I would rarely be able to eat fish, other sea food, and a lot of meat, I would have to start using solar energy and fluorescent bulbs, and using energy would be a problem I would probably be able to watch television 3 hours maximum in a week and using any other electronics that is plugged into a socket would have to be used carefully. I would be unhappy everyday to live like that. It would be harder especially how careful I would have to be with using energy. The consequences would not only make it harder on me at my house but also everywhere else like school, restaurants, and stores. So that means wherever I go it would be the same for me sometimes worse and sometimes better.

 

 

  The Maya, Aztecs, and Incas were very interesting groups. I will now talk about the Mayans.

  The Mayans had at least 166 gods. The maya gods had one identity or more. The Mayans had gods to do with the earth such as the corn, rain, wind, and the sun. The Mayans believed there were three universes Xibalba, the underworld,s the earth, and the heavens. The Mayans believed that they had to sacrifice people so the gods will be able to get the blood.

  Now I will be talking about the Aztecs. The Aztecs sacrificed many people to the gods. The people they sacrificed were the people they captured in war and their own people. The main Aztec gods were Ocelot, wind, rain, and sun god. Huitzilopochli was another main god and he was the war god. For human sacrifice the priest killed the person in different ways at the top of a temple. The Aztec priests and rulers believed the sacrifices restored prosperity to the valley.

  I will now start talking about the Incas. The Incas did not believe in many gods. Their main gods were Viracocha, Cocomama the health god, Inti the sun god, and Apocatequil the thunder god. The Incas believed that if they did not obey the gods they would be punished. The Incas rarely sacrificed human they usually sacrificed animals and earth resources such as wood. The priest was expected to participate in religious rites, make divinations, interpret oracles, offer sacrifices, pray for suppliants, and cure the sick.

  That was the amazing history of the Maya, Aztecs, and the Incas.

 

  The slogan is: Turn off the lights, buy a new bike, ride around, tell the town. I wrote this slogan to encourage people to not pollute the air and get some exercise. I said turn off the lights because many people leave rooms and never turn off the light and that wastes electricity and it always adds up to a lot of electricity wasted.  My slogan is important because I see very few people in the United States walking or biking and all I see people are doing are driving cars. Driving cars are bad thing because it causes pollution in the air and that can kill animals and sometimes even people. Tell the town means spread the word about what you are doing and that will help people learn what they can do to save the environment. I think this slogan is very important to follow because it states 4 things you need to do to help the environment.