Justin S

4th

baseball, and a little basketball

baseball

I am enrolled in this class to hopefully get some college credit.

I hope to get some college credit from this class.

Links of Interest (you will be adding to this as you go through the semester).

Uploaded Homework Assignment and Class projects

Chapter 2:  Some analysts believe that the world’s remaining hunter-gatherer societies should be given title to the land on which they and their ancestors have lived for centuries and should be left alone by civilization.  They content that we have created protective reserves for endangered species, so why not create protective reserves for cultures?  What do you think?  Explain.

I believe that the hunter-gartherer societies and other cultures like it are entitled to the land that their ancestors lived on.  It has been theirs for centuries and I believe that it should not have been taken away from them.  It makes it much more special for them to hunt on their ancestors land because they know whose footsteps they are following.  It would make everyone happy. 

Chapter 4:  Why could the total amount of animal flesh on the earth never exceed the total amount of plant flesh, even if all animals are vegetarians?

The reason that all the animal flesh would never exceed the amount of plant flesh is because in order for the animals to be alive, it would take more plant flesh to keep the animal alive.  Therefore it could take five pounds of plant flesh to achieve one pound of animal flesh.  Also when an animal decomposes it helps to grow more plants.  If a plant dies and decomposes it will also help to grow more plants.  So due to both points the animal flesh could never outweight the plant flesh.

Chapter 8:  Suppose a hurricane blows down most of the trees in a forest.  Timber company officials offer to salvage the fallen trees and plant a tree plantation to reduce the chances of fire and to improve the area’s appearance, with an agreement that they can harvest the trees when they reach maturity and plant another tree farm.  Others argue that the damaged forest should be left alone because hurricanes and other natural events are part of nature and the dead trees will serve as a source of nutrients for natural recovery through ecological succession.  What do you think should be done and why?

I think that we should salvage the fallen trees because the fallen trees have many uses that people use.  Even though the trees were lost, a tree farm is created right after it.  The tree farm has many advantages also, the new trees are placed just right to prevent wild fires and the trees are still making oxygen for the planet.  Also the trees that are harvested create more jobs because someone has to do it all which then makes our economy stronger. 

Chapter 9:  Suppose because of disease or genetic defects from inbreeding, the wolves on Isle Royal (page 197) die off.  Should we (a) intervene and import new wolves to help control the moose population or, (b) let the moose population grow until it exceeds its carrying capacity and suffers another population crash?  Explain

I think that we should import the wolves back onto Isle Royal.  If the moose population gets too big then there would be too much competition and then the moose population could also die off.  If we put the wolves back in, then Isle Royal would go back to normal and work on its own.