Gulf oil still a major issue, even 6 months later!

The hole that is causing all the oil to flow into the ocean is plugged, but the problems that this leak has caused are far from over.
But, let us rememberhow it all started. On 20th of April this year, the Deepwater horizon platform that drilled oil exploded. It slowly sank two days later. However, the long pipe that brought oil to the platform crumpled when the platform sank, and the oil started gushing out.
On July 15th, this year engineers plugged the hole that was causing so many problems. However this was no easy task. The hole was a mile underneath the surface of the water, and the cap that was supposed to plug it weighed about 75 tons. Between April 20th, and July 15th, about 4.9 million barrels of oil were wasted, and released into the ocean. That is enough to fill up 300 Olympic swimming pools. This oil spill is the biggest one in U.S history!
However, the problems are far from over. Some of the oil has reached the surface, but much of it has not. Scientists, government officials, and others are trying to figure out where all this oil went. In August one organization said that about 17 percent of the oil that leaked was immediately collected from the top of the well, before it had an opportunity to go into the water. Also, they said that 5 percent was burned, and 3 percent was skimmed and taken off the surface of the ocean. However, other scientists strongly disagree. One of those scientists, Ian MacDonald says that only about 10% has been taken out of the water, and that 10% could have evaporated. Some other scientists are studying and analysing the oil firsthand, from research ships that are floating around the Gulf. Those ships have mapped a giant cloud of oil floating beneath the surface. This cloud is as tall as a 50-story building, and a mile long. This cloud is expected to be around 3,000 feet beneath the surface of the water. Scientists were shocked with this discovery. This oil cloud could totally destroy some species of deep-ocean fish, but also, they do not understand how oil is still underwater. Oil is less dense then water, and, naturally, it would float to the top of the water's surface. Oil and water cannot mix.
One mathematician, Roberto Camassa, thinks he knows the answer to this mystery. He suspects that the tiny little microbes are eating the oil molecules. A lot of scientists agree with this theory, since lots of oil clouds are slowly disappearing from under the surface of the ocean.
However, we cannot rely on tiny microbes to solve the major eco disaster that we have created. It would take a very long time, and most of the marine life would have already die out. So we need to take the matter into our own hands, and fix the major eco disaster that we, ourselves, have caused.

Link: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63094/title/FOR_KIDS_Gulf_oil_finds_many_paths
Author: Stephen Ornes
Date published: September 7th, 2010

Reflection on "Our Human Footprint"

I have found this movie really fascinating, but also quite shocking, at the same time, as well. Who knew that we could produce so much carbon dioxide and so much pollution in just a few years of our life, through diapers and milk. I found it really sad that no one knows how much we waste, and how much we affect the planet. I had no idea, until now, that we have to waste so much crude oil and wood, just to make diapers for the toddlers. That is insane! The oil can be used for many other, more useful, purposes, such as powering cars, generating energy, etc. As for the wood, why would we deforest, just so we can make diapers? We ruin habitats, and we end lives, just so babies can keep clean. I find that horrible and inconsiderable for all the animals and plants.  

But, this is just for the few first years of our life! As we get older, we keep on producing more, and more waste. This waste comes from groceries, clothes, beauty products, building materials for houses, medicines/pills, etc. All of this adds up 64 tons of waste, per person, per lifetime. That is an AWFUL amount of waste, for just one person. There are 6 billion people on the Earth, and this number is still increasing! Just imagine THEN how much waste we produce!

However, just a few simple changes can help our environment. Instead of throwing out cell phones away, we could recycle them. We could also recycle paper, plastic and metal more. Instead of using cement and concrete to make our houses, we could make a small part of the house out of eco—friendly materials. Some of them are bamboo, or recyclable materials such as aluminum and steel. Also, you could just decrease your house-temperature by 2 degrees in winter and wear a jumper, and increase it by 2 degrees in the summer and wear lighter clothing. This could stop 2 tons of carbon emissions a year!

Sustainability means “the capacity to endure”. In ecology it is also referred to as “the ability of biological systems to remain diverse and productive over time”. When I think of sustainability, I think of sustainable energy sources. Those are renewable energy sources that do not have very big affects on the environment, and do not cause greenhouse effects or pollution. Some of those sources are wind power, solar power, geothermal, hydrothermal, etc.

When my family and I calculated our human footprint, it showed us that, if everyone lived our lifestyle, we would need 5.3 earths. The biggest effect on this score was the amount of gasoline my family consumes, and the distance we drive each year. I feel terrible, and I think that there are a few ways we can reduce our footprint. Firstly, my parents could follow my sisters’ and my example, and walk to nearby places, instead of always driving. They could also ride the bike. I could also reduce my human footprint by changing some other impacts, such as food, fuel, etc. I could reduce the amount of animal-products that I eat. So, just eating less meat, would help to reduce a lot of food being thrown out, and it would help (even a tiny bit) stop mass food production. Also, my family could make a change by generating, even a small bit of our heat and electricity, by using renewable sources, such as solar panels, or wind turbines. This year, we could also take a holiday in Serbia, instead of going out of the country, and reduce the amount of gasoline we use, and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we cause.

This video opened my eyes, and it successfully got its point across. We are consuming much more then we need, and if we want to save our lives, and our planet, we need to stop. This movie is a wake-up call.

Algae classification

Algae are plants that usually survive under oceans, seas, ponds and rivers. They vary in size, shape and colour. Agricultural workers use it as fertilizers, some nations eat is as food and scientists use it to comprehend the marine food webs better. However, algae can be very dangerous, especially when it shows up as a red tide, a poisonous algae bloom, that kills many animals.
One of the other problems for many scientists and biologists is that algae is very hard to classify. Some types of algae can look the same, when in reality they are quite different. Algae can be a lot of different colours, as well, including red, brown, yellow and green. Some algae are giant, like the sea kelp, that can grow to over 100 ft in length. Some are tiny, and can only be properly viewed under a microscope (such as the phytoplankton). Also, you can find algae that is unicellular (which means that the whole algae is made up of only one single cell), and multicellular (made up of more then one cell).
Another really strange thing that makes algae extremely difficult to classify is the fact that some species of algae behave like animals, and others like plants. Most algae produce thier own food through a process called photosynthesis, but when algae lives very deep in the ocean, and there is no sunlight available, it can also feed off other organisms, including other algae. Because of all those diffculties, scientists suggest that we should stop calling algae, algae all together, but this name has been around for so long, it is too late to change.
However, scientists have come up with some amazing discoveries that could eventually help them when classifying algae. They believe that one of the first organisms on the planet is a type of bacteria called the cyanobacteria (sometimes known as the blue-green algae). Scientists say that this bacteria could perform photosynthesis, by using sunlight, coarbon dioxide and water. Many other organisms fed on this bacteria all the time. One of those organisms was an ancient ancestor of the green algae. However, when this anicent algae ate the bacteria, the bacteria didn' digest by the algae, it was absorbed by it! That is how the bacteria became a permanent resident inside the algae. So, the genes of the two species of prehistorical organisms mixed up, make up the genes that are essential for the algae the live on our Earth today.
I think that this opic is really interesting, and that scientists will keep on coming up with new discoveries and thoeires to make the precise classificaton of algae possible.


Link: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100512/Feature1.asp
Author: Barry H. Rosen
Date published: May 12, 2010

Jellyfish smoothies

Even though this title probably sounds really wierd, actually it is not! Putting thousands of jellyfish in a blender and mixing them, is a way to source igredients for new solar power solutions that could help medical science and offer cheap energy. Scientists strongly believe that by squishing glow-in-the-dark jellyfish, they can use a green fluorescent protein to create very small fuel cells. Those cells can power nanodevices, that would be placed inside the human body, helping with blindness and cancer. While this is going on in U.S., in England, Cambridge, scientists have worked out a way to turn live algae into a biological solar cell, which can be used to generate power from alomost any body of fresh or salt water. By using organisms that get food through photosynthesis, and generating power out of them, has gotten scientists to running a digital clock. The major challenge is how to use the organisms as much as possible, without ruining and hurting all the proteins and nutrients within them.
I think that it is very useful to create power from those sources, because they do not create any pollution, such as greenhouse gasses, and global warming. However, I don't think that it is very nice to kill all those jellyfish. They deserve to live, and they shouldn't be slaughtered like that. If this kind of animal abuse doesn't stop, some organizations might take this discovery to the court. I honestly think that plants are the only type of living thing that those kind of experiments can be done upon.

Mr. Watts' visit reflection

I really loved how Mr. Watts discribed all those species as though they're like us! He used such discriptive words, and even some human characteristics, which just made the whole presentation seem so much more interesting. I find it fascinating that he went and analyzed all those amzing creatures. It takes great courage and determination to do that, I can just congratulate him for going this far. Over the course of his presentation I have developed curiosity for those animals, that are so cool, and it is really amazing that some people take the opportunity to go and see their habitat. I would love to have a chance to explore all those extraordinary creatures! The animals I found the most interesting are deffinitely leopard seals. I think that it is really cool that they are ever so gracious in the water, and are able to catch so much prey with no problem whatsoever. I also love the penguins because they just look so cute and vulnerable :). I also find it very useful how he explained in detail the whole algae process, and even described some of the most important foodwebs. I felt really relieved when I heard that most of the animals on the Arctic are not endangered. That it is really good, and we should deffinetely do something to make it stay that way.
Overall, I found this presentation really cool, and I appreciate the fact that Mr. Watts took the initiative to come and share all his findings with us.

Current events: "Haiti's ecosystems facing disaster"

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/09/10/haiti.biodiversity/index.html

In the past few months everyone has been talking about the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January, 2010. This island is facing an ecological disaster. Haiti's forests have some of the most endangered species living inside them. An area called Massif de la Hotte, is a home to 42 mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, who are considered threatened. Thirteen species of frogs, who are on the verge of extinction can only be found here. However, only 3 percent of Haiti's forests are here today, and they are disappearing at a shocking rate of 10% every five years. Those forests are being cut up by very poor Haitian people, who use the trees for firewood, and the land for crop growth. Some institutions tried to help by giving the local people employment, and starting the planting of trees again. Beside the frogs, there are also two species of endangered mammals that live only on the island. Those are:
-a solendon (a giant shrew)
-hutia (a long-legged guinea pig living in the trees)

I think that this is really sad, because we keep ruining the ecosystems, endangering thousands of species. I understand the needs of Haiti people, and I do think that someone should do something to help them. They should open more new jobs. I bet that if Haitian people had a job, they wouldn't even need to chop down the forests. Also, people could try to help by donating money to replant the forests, and help the many endangered species.

Current events: "Pea-sized amphibians" :)

Scientists believe that they have found the smallest amphibian in the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), in the forests of the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. This creature was discovered by Drs. Indraneil Das and Alexander Haas. Dr. Das is also leading a scientific team, which is searching for lost amphibians, some of them which are believed to be extinct.
The tiny frog was found near the Gunung Serapi mountain, which is withing the Kubah National Park. The species was name afer the plant it depends on for survival, Nepenthes ampullaria, which lives in dark, shady places. The males vary in size and go from 10.6mm to 12.8 mm. The way those species reproduce is through laying eggs inside Nepenthes ampullaria, where the tadpoles grow, in the accumulated liquid.
Amphibians are one of the most threatened group of animals, with over a third of them in danger of being completely extinct. If this happened, it would be a complete disaster for human kind, because amphibians help us by eating insects that can spread diseases, and eat up crops.
I think that it is really cool that they have found a new species, and they should do everything they can to save them from being effected by things such as global warming, greenhouse effect, etc. The frogs seem really amazing, and I find it really interesting that they are so tiny. I was also really shocked when I found out that a third of the amphibians can get extinct. It is really sad to see all those animals dying, just because of us, and our careless ways of living.