“Home” Video Lab

1.) As the Earth cooled water vapor became condensed causing it to fall as rain. The Earths balance in distance from the Sun enabled it to conserve this water in a liquid form. The water cut channels, took minerals from the soil and was added to the oceans. Oceans became heavy with salt. There are two types of bacteria that were then talked about in the film, Archaebacteria and Cyanobacteria. Archaebacteria survive in environments similar to those found on the young Earth, in hot springs, boiling muds around volcanos (Wassenaar). All of these bacteria feed off the Earths heat, all except for Cyanobacteria (University of California Museum of Paleontology). Also known as blue/green algae, Cyanobacteria are aquatic and photosynthetic, it is able to turn to the sun for energy and food. Here after microorganisms grew by using carbon in the atmosphere, dissolved in the ocean. Carbon drained from the atmosphere and allowed other organisms to develop, plants fed off of suns energy, which enabled it to break apart the water molecules and take the oxygen. Oxygen filled the air. From the Oxygen life was able to develop.
2.) –Farming, population, fossil fuel use, ecosystem balance, 4 laws of ecology, species, adaptation, the water cycle, biodiversity: stability and sustainability, global warming, extinction, fossil record, evolution, agriculture.
3.) The two concepts that I would like to talk about are the 4 laws of ecology, specifically the first law of ecology: “ everything is connected to everything else”, and adaptation. I believe that the first law of ecology is extremely important to understand, how it relates to the environments sustainability. Most people do not realize that by humans over populating the planet it is hurting all other species we share the Earth with as well as the Earth its self. By having too many people for the planet to sustain we are using up all of our nonrenewable resources, as well as excessively polluting the air and water in which all other species on this planet use to survive. The key word is links. Every decision made by humans is directly linked to everything else. We need to make conscious decisions and think about the causes and effects of all actions we make. Humans have the ability to adapt to environments in ways that no other species can. We are able to change the environment to meet our needs; this directly ties back the first law. By choosing to live in a desert for example, humans need to find a way to get water to their homes. Places such as Las Vegas are not meant to sustain such a large population, if a population at all. The water from rivers and being pumped to these areas and essentially is drying up the water resource. One example of this is the Colorado River, which does not reach the ocean anymore. We are draining the Earth of its resources because we are not living practically. Animals that no longer have the environment that supports their life style needs are unable to adapt and are becoming extinct. The Golden Toad once lived in the remote mountains of Costa Rica until global warming changed the climate of their habitat and caused the environment to drastically change. Within 25 years these rare toads have become extinct. The reason for these global changes can be directly tied back to the actions and greediness of the human species.
4.)
–Transportation: transportation sources emit greenhouse gases, which contribute to climate change. Even in my life time the availability of cars to a household has grown drastically and in the United States it is common that each person in a household owns a car. In a world of globalization, transportation plays a key role in the every day lives of humans.
-Industrial: after the industrial revolution our world has drastically changed. We are now able to produce products in mass amounts. Thousands of companies all around the world are competing to make money, thousands of companies are emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere everyday as they pump their machines to make goods.
-Deforestation: hundreds of thousands of acres of forestland has been cut down and used for fuel. When a tree is cut down and burned it releases carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Permanent removal of standing forests leads to CO2 emissions because the carbon is released in these trees and no counter-balanced by re-growth of new ones. In Haiti only about 2% of the trees are still standing (Home video).
-Agriculture: The invention of agriculture was the first revolution. It gave birth to surpluses that could feed more people, cities developed. We learned to adapt food to our soils and climates. Agriculture led to deforestation, which led to industrialization, which lead to transportation use and globalization. All of which leads to over population and excessive carbon dioxide emissions. When humans began to use agriculture of a way of feeding themselves they stopped moving around, they stopped being hunter/gathers and began to rely on the Earth for food. Agriculture sucks the Earths soil of its nutrients. The use of farming machines emits carbon dioxide, the use of pesticides kills off bugs, and the use of topsoil does not replace the depleted soil for species to survive in their habitats.