...The Prestigious Ocean World Waves hitting against the shore, gulls freely wandering around the sand, and sea creatures swimming liberally above or below the abyss are common characteristics which describe the world of the ocean. However, ocean life is by far too enormous to know its ceaseless evolution. Therefore, the nonscientist should gain knowledge through unbiased interpretations of the sea to know what occurs above the ocean or what it holds in its deeps. In Lost Woods, Rachel Carson attempts to eliminate human perspectives of the sea by entering vicariously into the world of the ocean and its strange creatures. The world of the ocean is filled with incredible forms of life that live instinctively by day and night. Rachel Carson helps us understand this world better through a lyrical piece which demonstrates the ordinary and fantastic lives of sea creatures. “Undersea” paints the non-scientific reader a clear picture of ocean life by interpreting two important themes, “the ancient and enduring ecology that dominates ocean life, and the material immortality that encompasses even the smallest organism” (Lear “Intro to Undersea” 3) But in order to comprehend the different worlds that coexist with each other “we must shed our human perceptions of length and breadth and time and place and enter vicariously into a universe of all pervading water” (Carson “Undersea” 4). Rachel Carson mentions the underwater traveler as an example of a human perception. If the underwater traveler...
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...United States, it is the ocean. Ocean energy may be the last investigated for its potential. The ocean is so vast and deep, until recently, it was assumed that no matter how many chemicals or how much trash humans dumped into the ocean, the effects would be negligible. Dumping into oceans have even got the catchphrase: “The solution to pollution is dilution” (National Geographic, 2013) Impacts Associated With Agriculture Pollutants from agriculture have affected the marine’s ecosystem in ways that may not be reversible, and may also be slowly harming rivers, streams, and coastal waters. Pesticides and fertilizer are two major components that have disturbed the marine’s ecosystem; both contain harmful chemicals that can be hazardous to living organisms in the water. Fertilizer and pesticide run-off from large farms may have initiated bursts of marine algae which may disrupt the ocean’s ecosystem by causing massive blooms in marine waters (Schwartz, 2005). Winds cause nitrogen and other nutrients from the seafloor to surface, which promote the growth of algae called phytoplankton. Phytoplankton is a main source of food for many living organisms in the marine waters. Agricultural pollutants may have triggered phytoplankton to produce harmful blooms in tides, which are giving-off poisonous toxins to marine life. These poisonous toxins are dangerous because the oxygen levels are gradually diminishing in waters, which may have deadly consequences for marine life (Schwartz, 2005). Aquaculture...
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...It Is A Bad Idea If mining companies start mining the hydrothermal vents down at the bottom of the ocean it could damage the ocean floor and the fragile ocean life, causing a species to be extinct which means we won’t be able to study and learn about them. Hydrothermal vent mining is a bad idea because it damages the ocean, ocean floor and the fragile ocean life. A hydrothermal vent is a chimney like structure that is made out of minerals like gold, silver, and copper, etc. Hydrothermal vents are found at a depth of 2000 meters which is approximately 2.42 miles. They are found at the ring of fire in the ocean, at tectonic plate boundaries and where water and maga mix. Because of the volcanic activity under the ocean it pushes up water...
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...The Ocean Cleanup Every year humans tend to produce about three million tons of plastic. Most of the plastic will eventually enter the rivers, streams and the ocean. With this much plastic entering our oceans it becomes exposed to sea life and endangering them. Boyan Slat founder and CEO of the “The Ocean Cleanup begun his project in 2013. His main plan is to create the world’s first largest ocean cleaning platform. In all honesty, I believe this is and interesting topic, for the fact that no one ever thinks about what happens out of our surroundings or wants to discuss. So, who is Boyan Slat? Born and raised in Netherlands Slat enjoys spending his time diving into the abyss and capturing the beauty of the sea life. In...
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...floc settles to the bottom of the water supply, due to its weight. This settling process is called sedimentation. Filtration: Once the floc has settled to the bottom of the water supply, the clear water on top will pass through filters of varying compositions (sand, gravel, and charcoal) and pore sizes, in order to remove dissolved particles, such as dust, parasites, bacteria, viruses, and chemicals. Disinfection: After the water has been filtered, a disinfectant (for example, chlorine, chloramine) may be added in order to kill any remaining parasites, bacteria, and viruses, and to protect the water from germs when it is piped to homes and businesses. Throughout history humans have been directly or indirectly influenced by the oceans. Ocean waters...
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...modern civilisation. The prospect of a rapidly changing global enviroment is enough to cause considerable concern towards life on earth for future generations. Therefore it is important to understand how climate change works, what is causing the climate to change, what effects these changes are having, and how they may continue to affect the global environment. What causes the environments on earth unable to support life? What can be done about these predictions of climates in the future? How will these climate changes affect South-West Western Australia? How does climate change work? Climate change is a natural process that has been functioning on earth for billions of years, it is the regulator of the earth's abililty to support life by the cycles of The Greenhouse Effect. The Greenhouse Effect has made the earth an environment for supporting life through the cycling of energy from the sun via short-wave radiation, which heats the earths surface, then is released into the atmopshere as long-wave radiation. This cycle is made possible by the prescence of Greenhouse gases, which redside in the earths atmopshere, and absorb most of the long-wave radiation given off by the earth, with the remainder being expelled into space. This process cycles the heat from the sun around the earths atmosphere and a climate is the result, without this circulation of energy life cannot exist. Greenhouse gasses absorb long-wave solar radiation, enabling the Greenhouse Effect. The main gasses are...
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...Do you think ocean pollution is an issue? Well, over two thirds of Earth's surface is covered by water and all of it has been affected by some sort of pollution. Ocean pollution causes many chemicals and foreign substances to get into our air, water, and food, killing the wildlife and affecting the cleanliness of our waters; it is extremely important for us to all come together in order to stop ocean pollution. "The single biggest problem in reaching international agreement on a topic lies in convincing sovereign nations with different goals, opposing political systems, and fluctuating positions in day-to-day politic that their interests all lie in the same direction" (Cousteau 106). Pollution gets into the ocean from many sources but has...
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...Discovering Ancient Climates in Ocean & Ice | Rob Dunbar | Summary What Dunbar discussed in this lecture was sea level rise, ocean warming and ocean acidification. He also explained the environmental conditions revealed by marine sediments and the negative effects that carbon dioxide has on the ocean. It was easier for me to understand how sediment works and how he went upon researching it. When he talked about carbon dioxide and the negative effects it has on the ocean I was shocked. I did not know greenhouse gases could affect shells and corals in the ocean. I also did not know that it can decrease marine life. He also talked about the dangers of low sea level islands and how high sea level waters can affect them. Dunbar also explained how El Nino affected the ocean. He briefly explained that El Nino warmed up the ocean by a few degrees Celsius and temporarily changed the world’s climate. Furthermore, What I also found interesting was how he sampled corals. He would sample corals to figure out the temperature of the ocean. Dunbar would use a diamond drill, send fragments of limestone back to a lab and analyze the temperature of the ocean. In conclusion, the lecturer explained the danger of how sea level rise can affect low sea level islands, he talked about ocean warming and he talked about how acid affects the ocean Reflections One idea that I found interesting about the lecture was concerning billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse...
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...2016 Annotated Bibliography: Ocean Acidification Research Questions: What is ocean acidification? What are the causes? What are the consequences? Blackford, Jerry C. "Predicting the Impacts of Ocean Acidification: Challenges from an Ecosystem Perspective." Journal of Marine Systems 60.2-4 (April 2010): 12-18. Science Direct. Web. 23 Mar. 2016. This journal answers all three of my posed research questions. Ocean acidification is marine uptake of carbon dioxide emissions. These emissions can come from two sources, anthropogenic: originating in human activity, and natural causes: respiration, decomposition, etc. The consequences range widely and greatly depend on future rates. There could potentially be changes in composition, size, structure and succession in ecosystems that would then lead to greater consequences, energy flow and resources. In the greater picture food sources and economics could also be a resulting consequence. The journal includes several models that try to predict the future pH of the ocean and the effects each pH will have. Dupont, S., O. Ortega-martínez, and M. Thorndyke. "Impact of Near-Future Ocean Acidification on Echinoderms." Ecotoxicology 19.3 (2010): 449-62. ProQuest. Web. 31 Mar. 2016. This article focuses on how severe the issue is. By 2100 carbon dioxide concentrations are predicted to double. The ocean, being a major carbon dioxide sink, absorbs more than half the excess carbon, causing huge impacts on marine life. They will be forced to face...
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...Blue” is to protect the ocean in the same way we protect the land. To an Environmental Studies student, it may not appear as though protecting the oceans would be so easily swept under the rug; however, this documentary proves otherwise. As was mentioned in the video, “as the ocean’s dying, it looks the same- the waves are the same.” Perhaps because of this reason, we have postponed action in conservation efforts of the sea. Most people do not have the opportunity to see under the waves and therefore have no visual for the extent of the damage we have inflicted on our oceans. At the surface, a person does not see the schools of millions of fish that no longer swim, or the once colorful corals that...
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...1. A synapsid was a group of “mammal-like reptiles” and were Earth’s first great dynasty of land vertebrates. Since they were once Earth’s dominant land vertebrates, their fossils are the most visible today, embedded in the rocks, and provide us with the best evidence as to what caused their extinction and how the Earth evolved. 2. The fungal spike was a moment in time when there was an elevated level of fungi all over the world (now seen in Permo-Triassic rocks), to decompose the vast amount of dead trees. One hypothesis as to how this happened is a possible asteroid impact. This would have sent billions of particles into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and immediately killing plants and most living organisms, triggering the fungal spike. 3. The three lines of evidence for an asteroid impact are the tiny quartz crystals marked with microscopic fractures in rocks from the time of extinction, the enormous 75-mile wide crater in Australia, and also the fungal spike - which proves the extinction of many plants due to the particle blockade of the sun. The meteorite is thought to have made impact below Australia and to be the size of 4.8 km wide. Furthermore, the effects of a meteorite impact would have been again the blockade of the sun by noxious gases, initial lowered temperatures and acid rain, and global warming from the mounting CO2 from fires and decaying organic matter after the clouds had cleared. 4. Focusing on the Earth’s systems, the meteor impact would have...
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...some ways but difference in others, per example The beauty of California if I compared to Florida it is the Mediterranean, tropical weather, its vast ocean front waters, the beauty of its coastlines, the Agricultural land, and the reaches of the Employment opportunities, all in contrast makes California more desirable place to live than Florida. Introduction California is one of the best and desirable places to live in the world. In the winter of 1987, I was living in Florida city, one morning I got up to go to work, the day was very nice from one minute to the next the sky started to get dark, darker clouds cover the sky. People at the trailer park was so fearful, they started to run to shelter places, they were right that day, it rained so hard, and it was lightning and thundering, the winds were so strong that, it could take a tree up from his roots. The people who did not have enough time to run to the shelter place, suffer very big loss, the next day I went to the town to look around, the little city was devastating, windows from business broken, trees were laid on the streets, cars were upside down, and broken homes all destroyed, it was a disaster that I will never like to re-live again, and it was a big experience in my life. I. First main point. California’s tropical weather makes life enjoyable, when the rain is falling it rains so smoothly that it is hardly any lighting or thundering to the point for people to get scare, everybody...
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...Dr. Charles Brooks EPS 202 - 104 30, April 2013 The Effects of Whaling and the Ecology Whaling is one of the oldest human activity for hunting done by man since the beginning of time. Whaling can come with a cost, and result with a set of consequences that can affect the ecology and the world. The consequences of whaling can not only endanger and extinct whales, but destroy and kill the oceans that can eventually kill all life. Whaling is the hunting of whales primarily for meat and oil. It is believed that whaling dates back to a millenia. According to Encyclopedia infoplease.com, “whaling for subsistence dates to prehistoric times. The early people of Korea were hunting whales as far back as 5000 B.C., and those of Norway began whaling at least 4,000 years ago. Various peoples of the NW North American coast and the Arctic have a long tradition of whaling. Whaling, done from canoes or skin boats, often when migrating pods of whales passed nearby, was a very dangerous undertaking. Over time, many, such as the Qwidicca-atx (Makah) people of the Olympic peninsula, developed set spiritual and hunting practices that became the core of their culture.” The origins of commercial whaling started according to online encyclopedia infoplease.com: “The hunting of whales is thought to have been pursued by the Basques from land as early as the 10th cent. and in Newfoundland waters by the 14th cent. It is not until the middle of the 16th cent., however, that the appearance of Basques...
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...Agency, or EPA, claims that "with offshore drilling comes substantial routine pollution in the forms of oil and gas." By routine, the EPA means "a near constant flow from oil rigs and derricks" (Sisskin). Nothing is ever done about the pollution, and until something is done about the oil being put into the sea, our oceans are at risk. So just how much oil is put in the oceans? According to a study conducted by the World Research Institute, "...between 3 and 6 million tons of oil are discharged into the oceans every year" (Gorman 48). To put this in perspective, that is approximately 4 football stadiums filled to the top with oil. That is just every year...and this has been going on for more than a decade. In total, 45 million tons of oil in the past ten years that have been put into the oceans. There are several ways that oil ends up in the oceans. One method is through drilling accidents and another is through spillage from tankers and other transports. These large concentrations of oil often devastate marine life, and can lead to extinction of species that inhabit that area. The current effects of dumping raw oil into the ocean have severe impacts on the marine life, and the surrounding environment. Companies that dump raw...
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...where the main events unfold, we follow a bottle from England and through the world’s vast oceans. The short story’s maincharacter is Harold, a sensitive poet with the ocean in his blood. The story follows him, trying to win his love back, as she studies eels in the Caribbean. Harold was born close to the sea and raised by parents whose love for the waves and the marine life were eternal. His father was an oceanograph, as was his grandfather, and Harold’s mother was an English teacher who wrote “fierce little poems about the waves and weather”. (p. 1, ll. 8-9) It was through his mother that Harold decided to become a student in English literature and this is the distinct difference between him and Laura. Harold chose life on land. Although he carries the sea at heart, he chooses to stay on land and become a graduate in English literature, whereas Laura chooses life in the sea among the waves and the nurdles. She is in ways the opposite of Harold; A “marine Goddess” (p. 4, l. 127) who rises from the deeps of the ocean and steals Harold’s heart. With her long and white-gold hair she ascends from the ocean and Harold describes her as a “seal”. (p. 2, l. 42) and this way of describing her encapsulates their relationship all along; she is the ocean and he is the land. He chose life on the shores, writing poems and studying English literature and she chose life in the ocean, studying the life circle of eels. From their first meeting by the side of Harold’s boat they were doomed...
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