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."