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Post by Ms. McDermott on Sept 11, 2013 16:53:05 GMT
We listened the story of Fritz Haber and how his desire to help create resources for the human population was used for "good" and "evil". How do humans affect our community, our population, or ecosystem, our biosphere when we try to control the human survival and/or growth rate? You may highlight either a positive or negative effect. You may concentrate on when or many levels of ecological organization. Please use a specific example you have learned about in other classes or that you research specifically for this discussion.
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Post by Erin Fago on Sept 12, 2013 21:57:11 GMT
Humans negatively affect our biosphere when we try to control (increase in the case I am giving) the human survival/growth rate. As the population grows there is a greater need for food and resources. The food could come from nature or be imported from other places. Asking too much from the soils and nature around us can strip the ground of nutrients. Those nutrients are needed for growing more crops and supporting other organism’s energy supply. If communities can’t provide for the population (and have the money to) they import resources from other places. The pollution from the planes, trucks, ships, and etc. is horrible for our biosphere and is breaking down our ozone, causing further problems for the environment. In America, with our growing population, we import vegetables, fruits, grains, animals and other products from China. The US is the top buyer of exports from China. I couldn't tell you the exact amount of pollutants put into the air made during exports annually, but it would be a dangerously high number.
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Post by Dylan Lloyd on Sept 13, 2013 0:13:43 GMT
Humans have a negative affect on our planet when we attempt to control the growth rate and how we survive, because humans begin to forget about the consequences and move on with their ideas. For example, the more and more the growth of the population rises, the less space there is to fit everyone comfortably. This causes people to begin to cut trees and other key vegetation down. The more trees we knock down, yes there will be more space for people to live, BUT then we lose key nutrients that the soil and roots create, and most importantly oxygen for the air. Oxygen is what keeps us living, and you know what will happen if we lose that. Also as the population keeps growing, humans will have to adapted to different habitats the have never been occupied. Animals will have no place to go, and will eventually live a little to close for comfort. Farming field that grow our essential food supply with turn in to house complexes. If the growth rate is not controlled in the correct manor, The world and its inhabitents could be in a mode of survival.
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Post by Jason Meisner on Sept 13, 2013 0:35:19 GMT
In an effort to create resources that will help the human population thrive, humans knowingly and unknowingly affect our environment in varying ways, some being good and some bad. One specific example of a human affecting the environment would be when a specific country installs the idea of Human Population Control. Human Population Control consists of a specific government limiting the amount of children a family is allowed to conceive. One reason why this method might be practiced would be a result of increasing poverty levels, or overpopulation. In many people's eyes this method could be very effective in that it helps a country in a time of overpopulation. For example, still to this day China is facing a serious case of overpopulation, and the idea of Human population control has been in affect since 1978. It is said to have helped prevent about 400 million births since the policy was put into affect. But, it is still a very controversial matter because it is also believed that the amount of female births has declines, which may cause a problem in the future for the Chinese Population. This is just one of the many way that people of the world have effected our community and our population in an attempt to control the human growth rate.
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Post by Luna An on Sept 13, 2013 0:50:30 GMT
Humans negatively affect our biosphere when we try to increase the growth and survival rate of our species. As we continue to live longer, more resources are needed to sustain ourselves. Resources such as food, living space, are becoming more and more scarce, especially in highly populated areas such as China or India. As life expectancy rises, people continue to use more resources to live through every single day of our lives. The US, with less than 5% of the world's population, use approximately 25% of all the world's natural resources. With all the fossil fuels that are used everyday, tons and tons of pollution is released into the world. This pollution not only harms us, but also destroys other animals and things that live on this planet with us as well.
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Post by Joe Werthan on Sept 13, 2013 1:12:34 GMT
Humans have a negative affect our ecosystem and community when we try to control the human growth rate. As the population becomes increasingly high, we need more space to live. When we build houses, roads and other necessities that humans need where current animals were living, their homes are destroyed and they need to find new sources of living and food, causing their population to die out. When the population increases, the more crowded any given area becomes. This causes several problems. First, there is more gas being used which creates pollution and we need to rely on other countries more for oil until an effective and inexpensive other resource is helpful and available to us. Also, this slows down everybody's lifestyle when traveling to certain places. This again going back to the new roads point mentioned earlier destroys animals habitats, because the slower commutes are, the more roads are needed.. Human population growth has a negative affect on society in many ways, and these are just a few.
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Post by Pino Henry on Sept 13, 2013 1:22:30 GMT
Humans can negatively affect the earth as we try to gain resources for our rapid population growth.A great example of this is the destruction we cause in the tropics everyday. Although tropical rain forests only take up 7% of earth's dry land, they harbor almost half of the species in the world.Despite their role in regulating the climate, stabilizing rainfall, and housing rich ecosystems humans destroy 80,000 acres of rain forests and kill off 135 animal species daily. This is all done for commercial reasons such as logging, cattle ranching, and mining. If the destruction of these rain forests continue it will not only affect the many species of animals that live there but also affect humans by increasing the rate global warming and the concentration of CO2.
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Post by Ally Huelbig on Sept 13, 2013 1:49:38 GMT
As humans attempt to control our population, we severely harm our biosphere. As our population continues to increase, so does our need for resources. In order to survive, each person needs food, water, shelter (space to live), and air, all of which are dwindling resources. Much of the food that we eat everyday s chemically treated to grow faster and larger when it is not in season, and processed. In this attempt to provide the food that we need, we are just harming ourselves by putting food that is not natural into our bodies. Living space is on its way to becoming hard to find, and several parts of the world, such as parts of Europe, India, and China, are already overpopulated. Much of the water in several parts of the world is dirty and dangerous to drink due to pollutants. This affects every part of the ecosystem, from plants to animals, even abiotic factors such as rocks which erode faster due to polluted water. Humans also pump about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide, more than can be safely removed, into the air every year. The pollutants fill the atmosphere and sunlight, though absorbing its heat, causing global warming and climate change. This is harming biotic factors in the biosphere, including us and everything around us.
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Post by Amber shi on Sept 13, 2013 1:56:15 GMT
With the development of human society, the boom of population and the shortage of usable resources lead to the exploration of new energy. While people benefit from the application of new energy, the overuse of them negatively affect the human environment, even more, the whole ecosystem. A great example can be showed in the use of nuclear energy. The generation capacity of nuclear energy holds 16% (of the world)per year, and only 3%-4%of the element Uranium can be used to generate power, which means the rest of them is reckoned as the nuclear waste. The disposal of nuclear waste poses much pressure on environment, because the radiation of nuclear to any living things is incalculable(lethal to people, and land will be poisonous to grow plants), like the nuclear leak in Japan and Russia. Moreover, the use of nuclear power as a weapon also poses a big threat on human society.
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Post by Con Don on Sept 13, 2013 2:16:15 GMT
As the ever-growing human population begins to exceed Earth's carrying capacity, humans' demands for quintessential resources grow even larger. The need for energy-- electricity and oil-- has severely impacted our planet's atmosphere, not to mention several ongoing reckless wars fighting for this demand. The need for shelter and land; necessary housing is needed to accommodate new families, and as this need accumulates, properties are built on land that used to be owned by Mother Nature. Finally, the need for food, and in a lot of cases, the quite unnecessary need. Soil has been chemically treated to produce a surplus of hearty crops, and livestock is being genetically mutated to produce leaner, and "beefier" meat. Not only does the growing population need more food, but in more cases than not, humans devour twice to three times as much as what is needed. No cliche intended, but humans have an appetite for destruction. All things considered, humans have risked the stability of many of Earth's ecosystems to accommodate to their (our) needs. The only animals that are probably not affected by human interaction are bugs, because no matter hard humans try, they never seem go away.
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Post by Arnob Dam on Sept 13, 2013 2:56:59 GMT
The rapid human population growth of the last century or so has had a very negative effect on our ecosystem. I do want to give "props" to people such as Fritz Haber because Haber, for example, discovered a way to increase food production growth and the main reason he conducted his research was because he felt patriotic and very proud for his country (I do not give him "props" for his weapon development though). I think people like him that advanced research on increasing food production might have had the impression that human population would rise, but I do not blame them for causing the horrible tolls population growth has been taking on the ecosystem. By 2025, the world will have to close to double the food production that it has today. Chemicals being used more and more in harvesting crops have been damaging the soil and leaving once prosperous farmland into wasteland. More land for agriculture is needed by the minute and more tropical and temperate forests are being cut down for the land . That means thousands of species' habitats are being destroyed to feed the more and more humans. Water use for irrigation is rising exponentially in proportion to the increasing land for agriculture. Rivers and lakes are running dry because of that, which means habitats for marine species are also depleting along with the species with forest habitats.
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Post by Ryan Davison on Sept 13, 2013 3:23:54 GMT
Our biosphere is negatively impacted in when humans attempt to intervene and control our population. Humans use resources in order to survive. Those resources include air, food, water,and housing or a type of shelter. These resources are not unlimited. For example, if we were to farm the same patch of earth over and over again, eventually we would drain all of the essential nutrients for the crops to grow, out of the soil. This would be very detrimental to our food resource because we would not be able to grow anything. Also, due to medical advancements over the last century, the average human life span has increased. This means that humans are using more resources per person for a longer period of time than ever before. Eventually all the pollution that we cause will have a greater affect of plant life and other organisms.This will affect all negatively unless something is done to reduce our amount of pollution. Also, in the case of Haber, he tried to intervene and fix a food shortage issue and he eventually used that technology to murder hundreds of troops. Human intervention is best left at a minimum when it comes to controlling our growth rate.
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Post by James Murphy on Sept 13, 2013 11:01:08 GMT
Although there have been many negative interventions due to humans, i believe the most drastic of them all is deforestation. we have cut down so many trees not only to build shelter and paper but to give space to cattle and crops in aid of the human growth. it is said that once rainforests covered 14% of the Earth's total surface and now they just cover a mere 6%. An are the size of Wales id destroyed each day in order to keep up with human demand. large areas are burnt down to make room for cattle to roam. this has a detrimental effect on the ecosystem as primates lose their habitats and members of the food chain change in numbers affecting every step of the chain. in this example we are also harming the human population. This is because the trees are the rock for life. they convert CO2 into O2 which not only lets us breath but reduces the Carbon footprint of the planet. the more trees we cut down results in that the global warming issue increases as it has been proven that trees help reduce temperatures. therefore deforestation is having an extremely bad effect on the world.
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Post by David Loughran on Sept 15, 2013 21:49:45 GMT
Humans affect our community, our population, our ecosystem, and our biosphere in many ways when we try to control the human survival and/or growth rate. These affects vary from good to bad, but I want to talk about the bad. By trying to control the growth rate, we are greatly affecting the environment in which we live. In order to create space for our ever growing population, we are cutting down many trees, resulting in the deforestation of our forests. Also, in order to sustain our growing population, we must have food in order to survive. However, farm land is getting increasing overused, in order to keep up with demand. Because of this, their soil is losing their nutrients and is not as fertile, resulting in not so nutritious crops. (These crops are very small, due to the fact that they have not had any nourishment from the soil). Water is also an issue in this sense; however it is not a pressing one. As we continue to grow, our resources are being depleted, and we must find a way to protect our resources, in order to survive. Or else.
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