At first, Mike thinks he is going to die, because nothing grows on mars, and the mission did not have enough food to last him until someone could bring him back to earth. He then decides that he will not die on mars, and sets out to create a sustainable living.
He uses dirt from mars, along with feces to grow potatoes. This provides him with a viable way to eat until he can be rescued. Another thing he needs to survive is water, and his potatoes also need water to survive. He comes up with a way to synthesize water, and directs it to his plants.He calculates when the next mission is coming to mars, and sciences his way through it. He makes some changes to a rover he has, so that it can travel farther, and finds a solution to keep himself from freezing that would not suck the power out of the rover. He ended up using a container of radioactive plutonium as a heater.
Earth already provides an atmosphere that supports plant life, as well as an atmosphere that keeps water in. Naturally, our atmosphere also has breathable levels of oxygen, so we don't have to worry about being able to breath either. We don't have to worry about synthesizing water. Our atmosphere also traps just enough heat that we don't have to worry about freezing or overheating. Although we are still at risk for global warming. We also have better soil for growing dirt, which better supports plant life. On earth we have multiple food sources as well, instead of just potatoes.
He also has to find a way to make contact with NASA. He ends up using this really old satellite thing, and manages to contact NASA. The people at NASA told him how to hack the rover, so they can better communicate. He suffers many obstacles, especially when one of the airlocks explodes, and all of his potatoes are gone. He manages to fix the airlock with duct tape and plastic tarps. He stretched his rations as best he can. The supply launch blew up, so not he must find a way to get food again.
In the future, humans could build multiple biodomes on mars, or any other planet or moon for that matter. This would create an earth-like environment that would support crops, and you would probably need a water recycling system of some sort, but plant life would provide all of the oxygen you needed by recycling CO2 from humans. Humans would be able to live there, and eventually create a self sustaining planet. Essentially the bidomes are an artificial atmosphere.
Friday, February 26, 2016
Diversity Matters
Diversity really does matter. There are many factors that may affect diversity, and changes in diversity could affect many more organisms than you may think. For now, I'm going to focus on how a genetic change in one species could increase the biodiversity of a specific ecosystem. So let's imagine that there is a particular ecosystem in which there are many different species of trees, and there are many different bugs that feed on these trees. There are plenty of organisms such as birds, wolves, bears, deer, and other heterotrophs to complete the ecosystem. So over the course of a few years, the supply of trees decreases because some humans decided to cut them all down. As a result, there is no place for a certain species of insect to live, and its food supply has decreased because the seeds it normally feeds on are no longer being dropped by the trees since the trees are no longer there. So a few individuals of this particular species posses a genetic mutation that codes for an enzyme that allows it to better digest the leaves of a certain bush, that has been thriving . So those individuals prosper, and multiply. The trait for digesting the leaves of said bush continues to be passed throughout the species, and the organisms that previously ate said bug's food supply are able to multiply and thrive as well. So the genetic change in one organism increased the biodiversity allowed not only one organism to thrive, but continued to support an entire ecosystem.
Now, let's look at a very different example. Now, we are going to look at what would have happened if that one genetic mutation had not occurred. If that one bug had not been able to find another food source, then it would have eventually died off. And if that one bug had died off, the food source for a certain type of bird may be gone. Once this birds food source is gone, and we are going to assume this bird is not able to eat anything else, then whatever eats this bird will also have no food. So killing that one bug will eventually result in many more organisms dying that were never meant to die. So by cutting down a forest, you have cut an essential thread in the intricate web of biodiversity, and the entire web will eventually unravel. Also, let's keep in mind that I assumed cutting down those trees only affected one organism, whereas in real life, this would have affected many many more organisms.
Scorched Earth
I think the most likely way for life as we know it to end is biological warfare. Biological warfare is basically when someone uses an extremely deadly and extremely contagious pathogen, to get rid of an enemy. History has shown that deadly diseases can wipe out entire populations. For these reasons, most nations signed an act called the Biological Weapons Convention, around 1975, which banned the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weaponry. They also agreed to provide information annually about research laboratories, vaccine production, and biological defense research. There are many different methods of biological warfare though, not just the normally assumed attacking humans with infectious diseases part. It is also possible, that someone would attack the food supply, which could successfully disable a region. There are a few diseases that make prime candidates for spreading disease among humans, one such pathogen being Bacillus anthracis, or Anthrax. Anthrax is spread in the form of spores, making it into a prime candidate for an aerosol spray, and the most dangerous form of anthrax is inhalation anthrax, or directly inhaling the spores. Lastly, attackers may target the food supply with diseases such as Rinderpest, a virus that mainly affects cows. It is a respiratory infection that could successfully wipe out a cow population fairly quickly.
http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Bio/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769905/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100330012033/http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au:80/health/3957.html
http://www.un.org/disarmament/WMD/Bio/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1769905/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100330012033/http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au:80/health/3957.html
Monday, February 22, 2016
Lunar Landing
We all know what the moon is. It's that big rock in the sky that orbits around earth. But what does the moon do for Earth? And what would happen if we had no moon? You know how when you go to the beach, the water is at different levels at different times of the day? And how the moon orbits Earth (or does it really)? Well these are both affected by the moon.
If we didn't have the moon, there wouldn't really be any tides (well technically there would still be tides, but those are caused by the sun, and since the sun is further away, they are much less drastic). As far as the moon orbiting Earth, it doesn't technically orbit Earth. The earth and the moon both orbit a point between them, which is just inside of earth if you were to look at a diagram, called the barycenter. So if you took the moon away, Earth's orbit would change drastically. Earth's seasons also depend on the moon. As I mentioned above, the moon affects Earth's orbit, and as was mentioned in a previous post, Earth's orbit around the sun affects the seasons. So as you can see, if you took away the moon, not only obvious things like the tides and seeing the moon in the sky at night would change, but many less obvious things would change as well, such as our seasons.
This could affect life on earth, because if our orbit is thrown off, there is a chance we could move out of the habitable zone. This would result in severe climate change, and mass extinction, after which life may never reform. If Earth's tides are drastically changes, many water dwelling species activities may be affected, and many organisms depend on them for food. This would also eventually result in mass extinction.
So let's be glad we have the moon.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u3nKf1aheWKK2D7YMIroWhBKEs6GzOLDCU17hqbe2a8/edit?usp=sharing
If we didn't have the moon, there wouldn't really be any tides (well technically there would still be tides, but those are caused by the sun, and since the sun is further away, they are much less drastic). As far as the moon orbiting Earth, it doesn't technically orbit Earth. The earth and the moon both orbit a point between them, which is just inside of earth if you were to look at a diagram, called the barycenter. So if you took the moon away, Earth's orbit would change drastically. Earth's seasons also depend on the moon. As I mentioned above, the moon affects Earth's orbit, and as was mentioned in a previous post, Earth's orbit around the sun affects the seasons. So as you can see, if you took away the moon, not only obvious things like the tides and seeing the moon in the sky at night would change, but many less obvious things would change as well, such as our seasons.
This could affect life on earth, because if our orbit is thrown off, there is a chance we could move out of the habitable zone. This would result in severe climate change, and mass extinction, after which life may never reform. If Earth's tides are drastically changes, many water dwelling species activities may be affected, and many organisms depend on them for food. This would also eventually result in mass extinction.
So let's be glad we have the moon.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u3nKf1aheWKK2D7YMIroWhBKEs6GzOLDCU17hqbe2a8/edit?usp=sharing
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Envirogamer
Mario Kart
In mario kart you race cars around a track three times. I think this kind of relates to EEV because cars emit a fair bit of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, that poses a serious problem to our home. More and more of the sun's radiation is being trapped it our atmosphere, leading to higher temperature. Since the climate has never changed this fast before, many organisms will not have time to adapt, and will therefore go extinct. So as you can see, climate change is a huge problem, and i feel like if mario kart was a real thing, then we might not even still be here today, so lets be glad its just a game.
In mario kart you race cars around a track three times. I think this kind of relates to EEV because cars emit a fair bit of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, that poses a serious problem to our home. More and more of the sun's radiation is being trapped it our atmosphere, leading to higher temperature. Since the climate has never changed this fast before, many organisms will not have time to adapt, and will therefore go extinct. So as you can see, climate change is a huge problem, and i feel like if mario kart was a real thing, then we might not even still be here today, so lets be glad its just a game.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Book Club- Cinder (Lunar Chronicles Book 1)
In the first 100* pages of the book, it discusses the life of a girl named Cinder, who happens to be a cyborg. I love the idea of some of the technology discussed in this part of the book, and think it could be very useful. It also discusses some everyday aspects of life, including a disease the people refer to as letumosis, that is ravaging the people. I found it surprising the way they treat cyborgs as inferior to normal humans. There are also people called lunars, who are from the colony that was founded on the moon. The colony on the moon was not founded because the humans were destroying earth surprisingly enough, it was just founded for some unsaid reason. In fact the humans now have hover cars, which hardly produce any pollution. In fact, most of their technology is virtually pollution free.
Pages 101-200*
Another thing that i find interesting in this book is a genetic mutation in the lunar peoples, that allows them to control peoples minds. The lunars live in structures called biodomes, and their original resources were shipped up from earth. After a while, Luna became a self sustaining "planet", and the lunars no longer had resources shipped from earth. The biodomes basically created an earth-like atmosphere that the people could breathe, as well as use to grow crops, and produce goods from raw materials.
There are another 287 pages in this book, which contain more of the story line, but are not really relevant to earth and environmental science.
*this is an approximation
Pages 101-200*
Another thing that i find interesting in this book is a genetic mutation in the lunar peoples, that allows them to control peoples minds. The lunars live in structures called biodomes, and their original resources were shipped up from earth. After a while, Luna became a self sustaining "planet", and the lunars no longer had resources shipped from earth. The biodomes basically created an earth-like atmosphere that the people could breathe, as well as use to grow crops, and produce goods from raw materials.
There are another 287 pages in this book, which contain more of the story line, but are not really relevant to earth and environmental science.
*this is an approximation
Pale Blue Dot
Steps to create an earth clone:
1. Find a region in the habitable zone of your solar system.
2. Create a core of iron and nickel. You need to make sure that this will create a magnetic force field around the planet, to protect it from the sunlike star.
3. Add a mantle composed of silicon, iron, magnesium, aluminum, and oxygen, that completely surrounds the core.
4. Lastly add a crust made up of oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium. After this is all done there should be so much pressure on the core that the innermost part of it is solid.
5. You will also need an atmosphere with a breathable level of oxygen, that has a sufficient level of CO2 to trap in some sunlight, but not enough to overheat the planet.
6. The planet will need to have approximately a 24 degree tilt, which will change slightly over time.
.....or you could just crash some really big rocks together and wait millions of years
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F2nblkYrJrCnqdCP2EAMrjwJudulvZ106LB77uQ_dQQ/edit?usp=sharing
1. Find a region in the habitable zone of your solar system.
2. Create a core of iron and nickel. You need to make sure that this will create a magnetic force field around the planet, to protect it from the sunlike star.
3. Add a mantle composed of silicon, iron, magnesium, aluminum, and oxygen, that completely surrounds the core.
4. Lastly add a crust made up of oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium. After this is all done there should be so much pressure on the core that the innermost part of it is solid.
5. You will also need an atmosphere with a breathable level of oxygen, that has a sufficient level of CO2 to trap in some sunlight, but not enough to overheat the planet.
6. The planet will need to have approximately a 24 degree tilt, which will change slightly over time.
.....or you could just crash some really big rocks together and wait millions of years
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F2nblkYrJrCnqdCP2EAMrjwJudulvZ106LB77uQ_dQQ/edit?usp=sharing
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
What's Out There
This is my galaxy, it consists of many different structures, such as stars, planets, comets, and many more
This is a structure called a nebula. They are formed from the collapse of interstellar medium.
This is a type of star called a yellow dwarf. It is composed of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, iron and carbon. It is formed when hydrogen and helium are pulled together by gravity and react to form a star. I picked this type of star because its what our sun is.
This is a white dwarf star. It is made when another star gets really old and collapses. It is composed mostly of carbon. I just think white dwarfs are cool.
This is a black hole. It i formed when a star collapses on itself. The gravity is so strong that even light cant get out.
This is Saturn, a gas giant. It is composed of mostly hydrogen and helium, like a lot of other things in the universe. It was formed when gasses flattened and then stuff collided to form a planet. I picked Saturn because it has rings.
Mars is a terrestrial planet. It is made of basalt, along with many other things. It was formed in a very siilar way to Saturn. I picked mars because it is a very stand-outish color.
A comet is composed of an icy core, surrounded by particles such as dust and water, which is then surrounded by gasses, and it has a long gaseous tail as well. Comets were formed from remnants of ice and dust after the planets were formed.
This is an asteroid. it is a large rock, that is to small to be a planet. It is composed of mostly oxygen and silicon, though different asteroids have different compositions. Asteroids are also leftovers from when the solar system was formed.
This is Phobos (fear), one of mars moons. I really like mars moons because of their names (phobos and deimos), which are the horses that pull Ares chariot. It has a composition similar to that of an asteroid, and may even be an asteroid that got pulled in by mars.
This is a structure called a nebula. They are formed from the collapse of interstellar medium.
This is a type of star called a yellow dwarf. It is composed of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, iron and carbon. It is formed when hydrogen and helium are pulled together by gravity and react to form a star. I picked this type of star because its what our sun is.
This is a white dwarf star. It is made when another star gets really old and collapses. It is composed mostly of carbon. I just think white dwarfs are cool.
This is a black hole. It i formed when a star collapses on itself. The gravity is so strong that even light cant get out.
This is Saturn, a gas giant. It is composed of mostly hydrogen and helium, like a lot of other things in the universe. It was formed when gasses flattened and then stuff collided to form a planet. I picked Saturn because it has rings.
Mars is a terrestrial planet. It is made of basalt, along with many other things. It was formed in a very siilar way to Saturn. I picked mars because it is a very stand-outish color.
A comet is composed of an icy core, surrounded by particles such as dust and water, which is then surrounded by gasses, and it has a long gaseous tail as well. Comets were formed from remnants of ice and dust after the planets were formed.
This is an asteroid. it is a large rock, that is to small to be a planet. It is composed of mostly oxygen and silicon, though different asteroids have different compositions. Asteroids are also leftovers from when the solar system was formed.
This is Phobos (fear), one of mars moons. I really like mars moons because of their names (phobos and deimos), which are the horses that pull Ares chariot. It has a composition similar to that of an asteroid, and may even be an asteroid that got pulled in by mars.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Envirogamer
In Terraria, you must find minerals essential to your survival. The only problem with this is that minerals rarely regenerate themselves (there is one way to get more minerals in your world, plus "grab bag" type items that have a chance of containing ores, as well as some boss fights that may give you ores). Trees also do not grow naturally, so if you use up all of the trees initially in your world, you are the one responsible for planting more. You have to use your resources wisely, because the world is not infinite, and resources are limited. If you waste resources, you may have to make a new world, in order to find those resources. This is very applicable to real life, where wood and precious metals are slowly being depleted.
Screenshots:
1. Copper, a fairly common resource in some worlds, not present in others
2. Tungsten, still fairly common
3. Chlorophyte, the only ore that regenerates naturally, (other ores can be obtained from sources mentioned above)
4. Cobalt, also fairly common
5. A glowing mushroom biome, once it is gone, there is no getting it back
There are many more ores than the ones listed above, I was just not able to find the rarer ones, as I have already mined a great bit of my supply.
Screenshots:
1. Copper, a fairly common resource in some worlds, not present in others
2. Tungsten, still fairly common
3. Chlorophyte, the only ore that regenerates naturally, (other ores can be obtained from sources mentioned above)
4. Cobalt, also fairly common
5. A glowing mushroom biome, once it is gone, there is no getting it back
There are many more ores than the ones listed above, I was just not able to find the rarer ones, as I have already mined a great bit of my supply.
Racing Extinction
People are awesome, and people are also terrible. And this is one of many cases where people are pretty terrible. Extinction is currently a huge issue, and most people don't realize that they are living through a mass extinction. The evidence is right in front of our eyes, and endangered species list growing longer and longer each year. Yet all people care about is money, money, money. If there is a way to make money, someone is going to find it, and if it is profitable enough, they aren't going to care if it is legal of not. I just think that sometimes people need to care about something other than a piece of paper that humans decided had some sort of value. People need to care about these animals they are killing, not just about money.
The Sumatran Elephant is one of many species currently classified as critically endangered. People are affecting these majestic animals in multiple different ways. Deforestation is removing their habitat, causing them to go into towns and villages, often resulting in the food crop being trampled, and sometimes humans are hurt, or even killed. This results in the humans shooting, or poisoning the elephants to make them go away. These elephants are also hunted for their tusks, which are sold on the illegal ivory market. Since only males have tusks, this hunting has resulted in a severe decline of male elephants, which is messing up the reproduction of the species. People could always make carvings from different things, but other than this I don't really know how you could stop ivory trade. As far as deforestation goes, they could farm trees, instead of harvesting the ones that grow in the wild.
The Sumatran Elephant is one of many species currently classified as critically endangered. People are affecting these majestic animals in multiple different ways. Deforestation is removing their habitat, causing them to go into towns and villages, often resulting in the food crop being trampled, and sometimes humans are hurt, or even killed. This results in the humans shooting, or poisoning the elephants to make them go away. These elephants are also hunted for their tusks, which are sold on the illegal ivory market. Since only males have tusks, this hunting has resulted in a severe decline of male elephants, which is messing up the reproduction of the species. People could always make carvings from different things, but other than this I don't really know how you could stop ivory trade. As far as deforestation goes, they could farm trees, instead of harvesting the ones that grow in the wild.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Interstellar
In the movie Interstellar, the humans are forced to find a way to survive without Earth. A disease called blight has been ravaging their food crop for many years now, and has nearly wiped out their food source. In addition to wiping out their food source, it also causes the plants to consume atmospheric nitrogen, reducing the oxygen concentration on Earth. In order to avoid this, I think they could have genetically modified their food to be resistant to the disease, and replant it. They begin searching for a new planet, which must have some type of atmosphere with breathable oxygen, water, and some type of food source must be ale to survive there also. I think that a self sustaining space station might be easier to manage, because we could expel greenhouse gasses into space.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Earthquakes
Since there are no plate boundaries close to where we live, it is highly unlikely that an earthquake would have it's epicenter here. Although there is still a chance, since a fault can form anywhere, it probably won't happen. Earthquakes mostly occur along plate boundaries, and there are none of those close to us. Going even deeper, they are mot likely to occur along transform boundaries, and not all boundaries are transform boundaries. So in conclusion, no an earthquake will probably not have it's epicenter here, and even if it did, it would most likely not be very strong.
As far as an earthquake from some distance away affecting us here, that is much more likely. Seismic waves can travel quite far, so they could possibly be felt here. In fact, a few years ago, there was an earthquake a ways away, and some people here felt slight shifting or shaking of the ground. The chance that an earthquake could cause damage from far away though is slightly less, since there are only a few minor spots that earthquakes are likely to occur near us, and even those are quite a ways out. So in conclusion, yes there is a chance that we could feel the effects of an earthquake whose epicenter is not located here.
The images below help support the statements I made above:
http://educade.org/lesson_plans/create-your-own-flip-book-of-earths-surface-with-puzzling-plates-level-1
http://www.nishkian.com/what-happened-to-seismic-zones/
https://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/03/u-s-earthquake-zones.html
http://www.quakes.uq.edu.au/html/quake_info/OZ_QLD_info.html
As far as an earthquake from some distance away affecting us here, that is much more likely. Seismic waves can travel quite far, so they could possibly be felt here. In fact, a few years ago, there was an earthquake a ways away, and some people here felt slight shifting or shaking of the ground. The chance that an earthquake could cause damage from far away though is slightly less, since there are only a few minor spots that earthquakes are likely to occur near us, and even those are quite a ways out. So in conclusion, yes there is a chance that we could feel the effects of an earthquake whose epicenter is not located here.
The images below help support the statements I made above:
http://educade.org/lesson_plans/create-your-own-flip-book-of-earths-surface-with-puzzling-plates-level-1
http://www.nishkian.com/what-happened-to-seismic-zones/
https://www.creditwritedowns.com/2011/03/u-s-earthquake-zones.html
http://www.quakes.uq.edu.au/html/quake_info/OZ_QLD_info.html
Drinking Dino Urine
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwsifPJVhFGPb2R2WGRIZGlQNkE/view?usp=sharing
This is the link to my paperslide video of a water molecules journey.
This is the link to my paperslide video of a water molecules journey.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Crucial Skills-Data
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/sitting/faq-20058005
How was the data collected?
How or through what methods were the results obtained?
Whats in there to learn?
What can we as outsiders gain from this article?
How reliable is the information?
Can we trust this source?
How was the data collected?
How or through what methods were the results obtained?
Whats in there to learn?
What can we as outsiders gain from this article?
How reliable is the information?
Can we trust this source?
- What does the word "sustainability" mean to you?
- If everyone on Earth today lived like you, how many planet Earths would we need in order to be sustainable?
- Think about the things you do each day that either produce waste or use resources that don't need to be used. Commit to taking one step to make your day-to-day life more sustainable. This could come from one of the suggestions provided by the results of your quiz or something else that you know would result in less resource use and / or less waste. Please take this seriously, as you will be expected to keep track of your results and reflect on your experience at the end of the semester. Think of it as being like a New Semester's resolution that will result in a more sustainable lifestyle.
You would need five planet earths
Plugging everything in my room into a power strip and turning it off when I'm not using it
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