Colloquium has been a very interesting class, allowing us to bring up varying point of views of discussion. It was interesting to hear what every person had to say, and follow along with different debates. All that encompasses the class, the readings, the field trips, the service, and the class discussions have created an interesting learning environment that is very multidisciplinary, though based on economics and political discussion. Throughout the class, many students expressed their disdain, because that is the vibe of colloquium for many college students despite the teacher or how the class is from the beginning simply because it is required. If any student opens his or her ears and eyes to the topic, he or she will generally appreciate it more.

This is Emma, Signing out.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2010/12/101203-amazon-brazil-carbon-market-deforestation/

Different large companies are offsetting their carbon emissions by buying land in the amazon and preserving it."Brazil is wary of letting foreigners essentially buy rights to the Amazon in order to keep polluting".Rather than endorse a patchwork of independent REDD projects, Brazil encourages countries to donate to its new Climate Change Fund and to an Amazon Fund managed by its national development bank. Norway has pledged $1 billion by 2015.

Google Earth Engine. Technology for the benefit of our earth

"A new online technology from Google called Google Earth Engine allows scientists and researchers to track environmental changes by analyzing 25 years worth of images from the LANDSAT satellite, the longest continually orbiting satellite on earth. The new project, which will be posted online for free, was introduced at the COP16 talks in Cancun last week and will include applications that monitor and measure deforestation, land use trends, water resources and more. In honor of the conference’s location, the first major creation of Google Earth Engine is the most comprehensive scale map of Mexico’s forest and water resources to date. Google officials touted the power of Google Earth Engine by saying that the amount of data processed in the Mexico map would have taken three years using a single computer, but only took one day with this new platform (1,000 computers in parallel processed more than 53,000 LANDSAT scenes from 1984 - 2010). To kick-off the project’s launch, the company is offering 20 million CPU hours free to developing nations and scientific organizations to utilize this new tool. The technology was developed by Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, and according to Google officials, will show the public how the earth is changing under a changing climate and hopefully drive public policy. "


http://earthengine.googlelabs.com/#intro

Article: Farmers Find Organic Arsenal to Wage War on Pests

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/science/30farm.html?pagewanted=2&ref=science
According to this article, conventional farming is in fact making the pest problem worse. Many different insects, as we already know, eat harmful insects. The key is to identify how to draw them in. Organic farmers plant sunflowers that draw in Lady Beetles as well as other 'good bugs' that eat harmful ones.Instead of using herbicides and insecticides, much research has been going on in order to attract good insects.

I have to say, one of the most interesting field trips was this one at ECHO farm. IN this photo, we learned about urban agriculture and it seems like plants can grow in any circumstance if you just know what to do. Which is why this group is so important. It teaches people to share knowledge about growing and how to do so efficiently.

Wi-Fi Radiation is Killing Our Trees

What is next? Really? I feel like reading Popular Science is now one of the most depressing things ever. Our trees are bleeding! And I am sure, where there is wifi there will continue to be wifi.

"To test the hypothesis that the mystery illness was caused by radiation poisoning, the researchers took 20 ash trees and exposed them to various kinds of radiation for three months. Sure enough, the ash trees exposed to Wi-Fi signals showed telltale signs of radiation sickness, including a "lead-like shine" on their leaves, indicating the oncoming death of those leaves. In the Netherlands, a whopping 70% of urban trees are suffering from radiation poisoning, up from only 10% five years ago--understandable, considering the explosion in Wi-Fi use in the past five years."

Pain-free cows? what?

There, of all things, are now cows engineered to not feel pain. Although all the cows that have this are eventually slaughtered, and it does make it slightly more humane, does that mean that they don't suffer? I remember learning in another class that for animals, pain is one thing, but fear is much more of an almost excruciating feeling for these animals. I cannot imagine how the slaughterhouses will change because of the fact that the animals can no longer feel pain. The moral responsibility to reduce pain will be extinguished an the slaughterhouses will increase the unhabitable conditions of these animals.

"How Science is Changing your Thanksgiving Menu"

Popular Science wrote an article about something we had talked about in class, the abundance of GM foods. The article itself was very interesting, even mentioning Monsanto. It is hard to think of all the delicious foods that my grandparents make transitioning over years into more and more genetically modified, until there will no longer be any food untouched. I guess that one of these days, there will be a report 'Erin Brockovich' style about how it is hurting a certain part of the population, and we will try and revert back to non-GM organic foods.

"And just as we built them, we took the buildings down, brick by brick. We took the steel and the gold and the silver and the oil and put them back beneath the skin of the earth where they belonged. We turned the roads back to rocks and grass and flowers. We told the animals "We're sorry." We took our clothes off and felt the wind on our skin and you and I, we were not ashamed.

Then we turned around, and walked back into the sea".

Sounds morose, but more ironic right? We are a consumer society, and really is there anything we can do to change it at this point? we need a revolution.

The wedding, the reason we were in california, was amazing. It was up in the mountains, in this cute park. Right after the wedding, we went to this very fancy restaurant with the bride and groom and families. The food was all locally grown/raised/caught. It was honestly the best food I have ever had. The meal was ultimately a surprise for the bride and groom, because although they had tastings, the food had to be in season.

This set of trees is called 'family trees'. The center part of the tree had caught on fire during a forest fire up in the mountains of california.Because of the thick bark of the tree, it doesnt die. However you can see that the center is very ashy. From this part, many little trees grow big. The supposed little trees are in fact very very big.

Here's me at John Muir Natl Park by a huge redwood tree. It's amazing to realize how many generations, centuries, this tree has been around.

I flew to California on the 7th of October. It was a long flight, but I did happen to see something quite incredible. As we were flying over the gulf, we flew right over the location of the oil spill. Here you can see the streaks of copper-color in the ocean. It is amazing that this is still visible. We all know that the oil is still down there, but we say that its at the bottom. Well, there it is. Low and behold. Now what are we going to do about it? Did other window-seat passengers notice this? and how many flights a day flow over this very location? Why isn't this a bigger reality?

I have only been to Miami twice, and the second time, I got to drive by this scene during the day. I was awestruck in wonder about what may have happened to these poor trees. it seems that the fire that may have burned them down did so quite a while ago. the young growth underneath them is quite tall.

Green Aid : Creating Small Changes in our Cities

Common Studios: Green Aid from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.

This concept is to create small positive changes to our cities. In many cities, young people never have the opportunity to plant something and let it grow. Also, there are certain parts of cities which seem very abandoned and unfriendly. Although this is only a small attempt by two design students to make a difference, it can grow.

Day 1: Visit to Corkscrew Swamp

Our trip to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was very fun. We had broken off into two groups and our group saw so many different types of animals and vegetation. It was a little disheartening that there were not as many birds as I would have liked. I quickly learned that the key is to be extra observant. In a world or at least a culture where people spend more time planning on getting from one place to another without even realizing the incredible sights to see, it can be easy to forget that is the real reason why we are here.

On another note, I think that it is incredible that no matter what is built by man, plants or animals manage to continue as if nothing were in its way. We were surrounded by lack of development, and even where our walkway was, plant life was still growing. In this photo, a small plant is growing between the railing and around a sea of lichen. very cool.