It's time to share all of the hard work you've done investigating and writing about your issue. Copy and paste your article as a comment in this post after you have shared it with me. Reply to at least 3 students. Find a positive craft move that they made and compliment them on it.
“We found as you get into higher stress zones, there are few coral species and there’s fewer coral in general, But there are some species that are there and seem to be doing just fine.”
ReplyDeleteClimate change has been going on for a long time and we still haven’t stopped it. It is an easy thing to stop, but nobody does anything for it. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is one of the main reasons for coral destruction. Anthropogenic gases are gases that happen because of humans.
When corals start to heat up because of climate change they release the symbiotic algae living in their tissues. The algae is zooxanthellae. This algae gives the coral its color. Without if, it turns white.
Coral can be heal from bleaching in a couple of days. The stressors of the coral have to be completely gone for it to regain it’s color. Each time a coral gets bleached, it overall health goes down.
There is a bunch of different reasons for coral destruction. There is climate change that has to do with coral bleaching. The sea level has been rising over the past years which has caused more sedimentation. All the dirt and rocks floating around have hit the coral and cause smoothing. Climate change effects storm patterns which ruins reef structures. There is an increase in runoff with has cause algae blooms and murky water.
If corals stay bleached for a long period of time they will die off. In an interview with Justin Bauman, he said “While you may not live by the ocean, the principles still apply if we are talking about farmlands or droughts in the West.” He is trying to make a connection with other people that don’t live by the ocean. If they lose the coral reefs than there won’t be as much fish around, just like if people lost farmland than they won’t have as many animals.
Most people didn’t know that anthropogenic gases were the biggest stressor, but they are. Oceans are getting more acidic because of them. If we can get rid of carbon dioxide emissions to slow the pace of climate change to give corals a time to adjust. NOAA says we have to the carbon emission by 40% to 70% than what it was in 2010 by 2050 or every single coral will die.
Pesticides that include neonicotinoids which is like nicotine to bees. That bad thing is that they are commonly found in pesticides used on farms. Some scientists at the University of Maryland First thought that the bees die right after taking the pollen from the drop. But after doing more research they found out that actually kills them over a certain period of time.
ReplyDeleteWhen farmers put pesticides in their crops it will affect the entire plant from the time it gets planted to when it’s fully grown. After this happens during its growing period the bees pollinate the flower and when they do that it will start to kill the bee slowly sometimes affecting their nervous system which is another way that they die. In an article on PBS Dave Goulson, who is a biologist at the University of sussex said “ But certainly both of these studies suggest very strongly that exposure to these pesticides is one of the factors causing bees to decline”. Then later they found out that the pesticides when it rains it gets caught in runoff and that affects other plants like trees or wildflowers that aren’t supposed to have those pesticides and this could cause pesticides to spread to whare they aren’t supposed to be found killing more bees.
Later the EPA banned 12 pesticides from different companies. According to NRDC which is the National Resource Defense Council, Inc. Scientists from the U.S. have found out that those pesticides could cause long term health effects including cancer. An article on harvard University I read that Hawaii banned the manufacturing and distribution and use of chlorpyrifos. That means that people are already taking action with the pesticide problem.
Many people think that pesticides are good but they are actually very harmful to bees and humans. A lot of people just want to ban pesticides and not use any so the bees won’t die as much and we can still have food to eat.
Bees are very vital to humans, insects and wildlife. National geographic have researched bees for years now. They have figured out that ⅓ of the food we eat is because of bees. Just picture that in your mind. Bees also help other insects live and wildlife grow.
ReplyDeleteBees are very important to everyone. Bees can help us stay healthy. Researchers have found that bees also help pollinate fruits and vegetables.
Bees are very fragile and can only make ½ of a teaspoon of honey on there lifetime. But in 2013 bees made over 76 million pounds of honey in canada. That helped make more bee products like gum, candles, cheese, skin care products and more.
Many people believe that bees are just any other insects but many scientists can prove them wrong. Every year bees pollinate about 80% of the flowers in europe. Bees also help pollinate cotton, coffee, and vanilla. Bees are even the hardest working animal on the planet.
The scientists have found that the bees are the hardest working animals for many reasons. For example: They have to fly 1 ½ of the circumference of the earth in just 6 weeks.
Picture this… being exhausted all the time working your whole life then dying just to make ½ a teaspoon of honey! Yeah, it would be very horrible.
Before scientists just researched why bees are so important they had to compare to other animals in how they affected us too. They also had to figure out just how bees work so hard. Bees work harder than humans to. Which is a lot of work for just an insect. But most people don't even realize how bees work so hard. And even with bees working so hard people also dont realize about the decreasing population because of pesticides. Their losing there habitat ad no one cares!
Researchers cant really stop the bees from dying. They cant because most people dont really know how bees are important. It would partly help the problem if people knew and tried to help.
Swap outs are occurring at hawaiian hotels to help coral reefs. This is where people have to swap out coral damaging sunscreen for healthier sunscreens. These swap outs are free, but they also are healthier for skin and coral reefs. Besides hotels, the sunscreen can be found at honolulu's waikiki aquarium for free as well.
ReplyDeleteThese swap outs are occurring because there is harmful sunscreen damaging coral reefs.
Due to these harmful sunscreens, coral reefs are becoming injured and bleached.
This is because some sunscreens contain a harmful chemical called oxybenzone. Oxybenzone is also used in other personal products. One side effect of this chemical may be a skin reaction. Other side effects may be hormone dysfunction. Also, oxybenzone may be found in blood or breast milk. Oxybenzone is used in fragrances and nail polishes.
According to Yale medicine, there was an experiment that was conducted in 2001 in switzerland. In this experiment, rats were given oxybenzone. These rats were found to have increased uterine size by 23%.This unfortunate result from this chemical shows that we should not be applying it to your skin.
Other chemicals included in sunscreen that may be harmful are octinoxate and avobenzone.
When the sunscreen washes off while swimming or showering, it accumulates into tissues of the coral. This can also damage the corals DNA and even deform or kill young coral. Sunscreen can also induce abnormal skeleton growth and unpleasant looking deformities of baby coral. It is thought by National Geographic that around 14,000 tons of harmful sunscreens are being washed into the oceans per year.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution. Start buying oxybenzone free sunscreen, by stopping the use of this chemical it will help coral reefs and your skin. There are many more sunscreens that are better that what is being used today. There are also many other solutions to this issue, for example start wearing clothing instead of sunscreen.
It isn't a lot to ask, all you have to do is switch to a healthier sunscreen. This will help your skin and the coral reefs.
When you go to the beach, the first thing you always do is apply sunscreen. But is it the right kind? In Rhode Island national beaches they give you free sunscreen that is not only good for your skin but also good for the coral reefs. Rhode Island thinks it’s important to have this option for the citizens because it is saving people from toxic chemicals and saving the coral reefs.
ReplyDeleteIn an article published by NOAA’S Ocean Service, several chemicals were listed that are not good for you or the coral reefs. Some of them were oxybenzone, benzophenone-1 and 8, nano-zinc oxide, and many more.
Why is this a problem? These chemicals are harming your skin, and if it harms you, how many other things does it affect? This would include the coral reefs!
In an article published by Harvard Health, the topic was discussed whether or not these chemicals gave you skin cancer.
An assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, Dr Jennifer Lin says that it hasn’t been scientifically proven. Although it hasn’t been proven, it can still be bad for your body.
Dr Jennifer Lin says that “oxybenzone has received the worst press because of concerns that it may act as what is known as a hormone disruptor.”
About half of the 80 sunscreen lotions, sprays, and sticks in current sunscreen ratings, half of them contain oxybenzone. This chemical is also one of the causes for coral bleaching. So how can people be saving the reefs and them?
Raw Elements is a coral reef safe sunscreen that is also good for your skin. Their ingredients include 20% non-nano zinc oxide. Along with black and green tea extracts. This is the sunscreen that Rhode Island is giving away at their beaches.
Peter Gash managing director of Lady Elliot Island near the Great Barrier Reef, recommends using non harmful sunscreens. This will not only save our reefs, like Rhode Island is doing. It also will save people from chemicals that are toxic enough to darken your day.
Richard Coy, a beekeeper in Arkansas noticed a decline in the amount of honey his bee hives have been making in the past two years and wasn’t sure why until he noticed withering weeds close to the soybean field as he was observing a soybean field. The field was being sprayed by Dicamba, a weed killing chemical approved by the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) saying “We expect there will be no adverse impacts to bees or other pollinators.” Even though many scientists warned that dicamba would drift onto weeds outside the fields that bees would need. The dicamba was killing Richard Coy’s bee’s source of food and even killing the bees too.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that in North America alone, bees will pollinate almost 95 different fruits and vegetables. Honey Bees will usually pollinate plants that produce about a quarter of our food supply as well as other resources we use everyday. But when the honeybees are dying or getting harmed it could cause us to run low on the things we like to use. Most scientists point to pesticides as one of the main causes of bee decline. The pesticides we use for our fields hurt bees ability to survive by reducing their immune system and ability to fight back against harmful pathogens by getting into pollen and nectar they pollinate. Although there are other pollinators out there, scientists say that bees usually provide the most when it when it comes to pollinating plants we need. The EPA use neonicotinoids a widely used pesticide as a seed coating for farmers fields, even though many farmers say it doesn’t actually help their crops but continue to use it. So as the pesticides grow into the plants the bees pollinating the plants get the pesticides on them and could hurt them by getting into the bees system. The EPA continue to use the seed coating since they do not count it as “Pesticide application” so they do not track or regulate them. Scientists other pesticide groups warn pesticide companies and others who use pesticides about how it can affect the bees, yet they still continue to sell there chemicals and pesticides are continued to be sprayed on about 46 million pounds of pesticides on our homes, gardens and public places.
U.S. PIRG, as well as other groups spreading “pesticide awareness” have been asking for the EPA to ban harmful pesticides nationwide for several years but have failed every time and won’t give up. US PIRG also says that's if states take action we could get rid of more than 40% insecticides, saving a lot of bees as well. Other groups like the U.S. fish & Wildlife Service have committed to phasing out the pesticides out on public lands they manage in hope that it will decrease the harm the pesticides do to the bees, and think it is a good idea to do. Many other groups and scientists are finding ways to stop bee decline and you could help too. Some things that you can do are making sure that you are reading the labels on pesticides you use so you know that you aren’t using to much or putting it on during the wrong time. The Michigan State University suggests that you should try to avoid spraying the flowers close to to when the flowers are being shipped to garden centers saying it will help the pollinators be healthy.
Bees dying can be a big problem, especially for the people who use the things they are pollinating, like most fruits and vegetables, honey and many other things. One of the main causes of the bees dying is pesticides.Although there are many things that could be done to help honey bees, like using less pesticides or planting more pollinator plants, there isn’t just one way we can help bees. Also if pesticides cause bees and other pollinators to die then is it really a good thing for us to be using?
How Humans are killing the bees
ReplyDeleteBee populations are plummeting. One beekeeper in central Idaho by the name of Tony Kaneaster said to Idaho States Man “This is just totally devastating. They can’t just pick up from something like this.” Tony used to have around 5,000 bees and now he’s down to 2,000. In 2018 they had lost 60% of their hives. One decade ago they were 15-20% of their hives. The family said at this rate they could go out of business. Dave Kaneaster had said “ It’s been my life. What am I supposed to do now? Just retire? What are you going to retire on when all of you bees are dead?”
Although the bee’s population has been on a steady decline for a long time. Most reasons for bee death links back to humans for things like air pollution, fungicides, pesticides, global warming and a lot more though the number 1 bee killer comes from humans and its pesticides. Pesticides are types of sprays that farmers use to keep bugs and insects out of their crops. Some pesticides can kill bees even if they come into contact with them. One type of pesticide would be a fungicide. If a bee pollinates a plant that has a fungicide on it they give food from it to their young it lets mites and other pests grow inside of their stomach then starving the young of nutrients from the inside. The effects that pesticides cause has even had Europe ban pesticides for two years.
However, through all this bad there is a couple of things that experts recommend to do to help the bees.Greenpeace.org says that we should ban the seven most dangerous pesticides. The Mother Nature Network talked about buying only organic foods and support farms that use natural farming methods. Lastly, Greenpeace.org said to protect wild bee habitats.
If human beings follow through on these solutions we could positively impact the bees population and survival.
PLASTIC POLLUTION NEWS ARTICLE
ReplyDeleteWith plastic pollution worsening people have been finding more creative ways to combat it. One man made his own company called Ooho that produces edible water bottles. You can drink the water!
In 1907 the 1st mass produced plastic was made. Mass production actually started in the 1940s during WWI, since then plastic has been growing faster and faster. Over half of all plastic has been produced in the 2000s. Most of that plastic ends up going to landfills. 11% of all waste is plastic and is takes 450 years for 1 water bottle to decompose. The average american uses 250 Lbs of plastic per year and 8 million tonnes of it ends up in the ocean.
This plastic is detrimental to ocean life. Plastics main problem is when animals get stuck in it or they eat it. If they get stuck in it, it ruins the animals movement making is easy prey, but, once it gets eaten the predator now has plastic in it. If the animal eats plastic it will make them feel full but plastic has no nutritional value so the animal ends up starving to death.
Adrienne Bernard in her article about plastic pollution says that “Recycling is a step in the right direction but, to truly reverse course we need to look towards plastic alternatives and renewable resources for a sustainable future” What they’re saying with all that is that recycling isn’t stopping plastics from being made it isn’t stopping them from reaching the ocean, that we need to use alternatives to plastics that are biodegradable or have multiple uses. (biodegradable means that they degrade in nature.
These are some of the alternatives being used.
Incineration. There are multiple forms of incineration, the “regular” way is by well… Incinerating them and using the steam to spin a turbine that produces energy. The 2nd way is by burning it at a low heat in a vacuum and transforming it into new plastics and stuff. (like recycling) The 3rd way is by incinerating it in a vacuum at an extreme temperature to fire up turbines for energy.
Biodegradable plastic. These act like regular plastic but they degrade naturally. They only take 3 weeks to fully degrade and leave no mark on the environment. They are made like compost, using various food items and such.
Some companies have been coming up specifically to replace plastic and other materials. Some examples are: StoneWool by RockWoolGroup, it is made from a mixture of igneous rock (Cooled lava.) and slag. (A byproduct of steel making.) Then spun into fibres. It’s used mostly as an insulator.
Have you ever thought about where all of this plastic goes after we’re done using it? Yeah, the ocean. 9.2 billion tons of plastic has ever been made, and over half of it ends up in our oceans. Plastic pollution doesn’t just affect drinking water, but it affects over 700 marine species. They even eat plastic because it’s mistaken as food. By 2050, scientists are predicting that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Read on to find out how species are affected and how we can make a change.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, plastic is just overall incredibly dangerous to our environment. But now marine species are eating plastic, as it is highly mistaken as food. Because of our plastic pollution, corals and shellfish are being reduced. Why? Great question.
Plastic is so cheap and durable, also very beneficial. But it threatens many species in our oceans. It’s really hard to clean up because no country will agree to do a cleanup or try to figure out the problem. This is why we have the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located in the northern part of Hawaii’s islands. That’s because only 18% of plastic is recycled around the world annually.
Plastic affects over 700 species. The majority of those items are oil, fertilizers, and sewage, and chemicals, which all consist of plastic. Toxins from plastic also hurts our environment. Ocean acidification is a rising concern because of this issue.
Over 700 species are affected by plastic pollution. It’s blocking digestive tracts of over 267 species. Species die from starvation because of all the plastic they consume, there’s no more room for real food. In 2018 in Indonesia, a young beach sperm whale was found dead with over 200 pounds of plastic in its system. They eat this plastic because it’s there and they don’t know any better, which is on us humans. Orchestia gammarellus can shred a plastic bag into 1.75 million microscopic fragments, which microbial slime is their normal food. Therefore, we have to start making our own resources such as food, tools and beneficial objects. Some people are taking action to help the plastic pollution problem.
Ocean cleanups happen everyday, but that’s not the only thing people are doing to help. Some cities in the United States are taxing or banning plastic bags. We are encouraged to use reusable bags and items. Plastic straws are becoming less popular/banned. Starbucks and Hilton Hotels don’t use plastic straws. Alaska Airlines switched from plastic stirrers to paper stirrers. One group, Milo, is part of the anti-straw movement. Four countries have banned/taxed plastic items; China: plastic bags in 2008; $10,000 fee, Taiwan: utensils, bags, cups, and straws by 2030, Zimbabwe: banned foam containers in 2017, United Kingdom: cotton swabs and straws in 2019.
We can really make a difference in our world by not using plastic. Marine species would be so grateful if we made changes that saves their lives. What can you do to stop plastic pollution from affecting our marine species and protecting our oceans?
Charles
ReplyDelete“Charles”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a kindergartener named Laurie. First thing to remember is that Laurie makes up an imaginary boy who is blamed for all the mischief. I believe the theme of this short story is telling the truth will benefit you in the end. The narrator of this story is Laurie's mother. This short story includes imagery and repetition.
One of several figurative language moves in this story was repetition. For example, Laurie came home everyday and told his parents about Charles. He repeated or made a habit of coming home and telling his parents. In detail, Shirley Jackson used this to show the theme by showing that he did something wrong everyday. This was just building a larger lie; which made the impact so much greater in the end.
One other figurative language move used was imagery. I decided to demonstrate imagery by showing this part of the story. “He climbed down from his chair and squatted down and touched his toes.” This, I believe was imagery because it makes me picture an image of charles in class.
Laurie is a very loud and rude child; however, he also has a creative imagination. He would have to in order to create Charles. Though Laurie does do a good job of pretending charles is real, he does a bad job of not keeping his mom home instead of going to the PTA meeting; which reveals the truth.
Another subtopic I decided to use was dialogue; for example, “I suppose this time it's charles’ influence.” “Charles?” says the teacher. You must have your hands full in that kindergarten, with charles.” “We don't have a charles.” This shows the theme of this short story because it proves that charles was made up. However, some may argue that the theme could be that his parents overlooked their own mistakes with their own child. It could also be argued that the parents should have “cut the other parents some slack.”
In conclusion, Laurie will not be benefitted by his decision to lie to his parents and misbehave. This shows that lying is bad and that the theme could be telling the truth is most likely the best option. So, it is better to tell the truth because it will benefit you in the end.