Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts

credit : Cheryl Slew Asian tiger shrimp 2006 Dominican Republic

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released an update last Thursday on the status of the invasive Asian tiger shrimp.

This invader is not good news for the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.

According to the Office of the Registrar, our final is on Thursday 10 May at 0900 hrs – 1100 hrs.
Alas, that is not what appears on the syllabus so use the (correct) information from the Office of the Registrar!

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

[That quote, by the way, was nominated for the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Quotes list. Do you know what film it originally appeared in? The film was voted #6 on the American Film Institute's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list.]

This assignment will count as both your participation grade for the day (if you were in attendance) as well as part of the written part of your grade.

A hard copy is due to me before week’s end, in class. Note that a digital copy, in the form of an .rtf file, must be submitted to turnitin.com.

1. Go to turnitin.com and register.
2. Use the courseID and password in the syllabus to access turnitin.com for this course
3. submit your .rtf file to the “invasive species” slot
4. obtain a similarity score less than or equal to 10%
5. please be certain that the .rtf filename is something close to ensp2324sp2012_assign03_lastname_firstname.rtf

Choose an endangered or threatened species – not one discussed at length in the text – and explain

1. the reasons for its situation
2. what we know about its value
3. what is likely to result from its loss

The hard copy

1. double-spaced, two pages (minimum) not counting the literature cited section.
2. must contain cited references in-text for all facts, figures, and claims.
3. cite full bibliographic information (authors(s), date, title, etc.) in the literature cited section

This assignment will count as both your participation grade for the day (if you were in attendance) as well as part of the written part of your grade.

A hard copy is due to me Tuesday, in class. Note that a digital copy, in the form of an .rtf file, must be submitted to turnitin.com.

1. Go to turnitin.com and register.
2. Use the courseID and password in the syllabus to access turnitin.com for this course
3. submit your .rtf file to the “invasive species” slot
4. obtain a similarity score less than or equal to 10%
5. please be certain that the .rtf filename is something close to ensp2324sp2012_assign02_lastname_firstname.rtf

Choose an invasive species – not one discussed at length in the text – and explain

1. qualitatively, the problem(s) it causes
2. quantitatively, the cost of the problem(s) it causes
3. why / how this organism was introduced
4. why this organism has become a pest species
5. do all introduced species become pest / invasive species?

The hard copy

1. double-spaced, two pages (minimum) not  counting the literature cited section.
2. must contain cited references in-text for all facts, figures, and claims.
3. cite full bibliographic information (authors(s), date, title, etc.) in the literature cited section

A Lenni Lenape once told me, “Scars on the land are the gateways to Hell.”

Barringer Meteorite Crater (Winslow, AZ) is a 50,000 year old scar resulting from a collision with an extraterrestrial rock.

He might have been correct, judging by the depth and dimension of some these. All but the first of these are the result of recent human (mining) activity.

Barringer Crater (Winslow, AZ)

image     info

Kimberley (Australia) Big Hole, a diamond mine. This is possibly the largest hand-dug hole on Earth and where de Beer’s got their start!

image     info

Bingham Canyon Mine (Herriman, UT), a copper mine.

image     info

Mirny diamond mine (Siberia).

image     info

Chuquicamata (Chile), a copper mine. This is claimed to be the largest open pit copper mine on Earth.

image     info

Diavik (Canada), a diamond mine

image     info

Udachnaya pipe (Russia), a diamond mine

image     info

1. The due date first written assignment has been been extended until Tuesday 2012-04-17.
2. The assignment is to determine the amount of mercury emissions that will result over the next five years due to replacing incandescent lamps (which do not contain mercury) with compact fluorescent lamps (which do contain mercury).
• Assume that all lamps are now CFL.
• Assume that a typical CFL has a life of 10,000 hours and is powered for 6 hours daily … that is roughly a five year life.
• Assume that the source of electric power to light these CFLs is either from coal or from ‘not coal.’
• Electric power from combustion of coal results in mercury emission.
• Electric power from ‘not coal’ results in no mercury emission.
• Assume that there are only two strategies to deal a CFL at the end of its life.
• recycle (which results in no mercury pollution) or
• discard in a landfill (which releases 100% of the mercury content as pollution)
• So, by this plan of attack, there are four distinct strategies :
1. power CFLs with electric power from coal, use-and-discard CFLs
2. power CFLs with electric power from coal, recycle CFLs
3. power CFLs with electric power from ‘not coal’, use-and-discard CFLs
4. power CFLs with electric power from ‘not coal’, recycle CFLs
• The following questions can be addressed :
1. How many lamps are in use in the USA? How about the world? Estimate the average wattage per CFL.
2. How much mercury emission from coal combustion is required to power the CFLs?
3. How much mercury pollution results from not recycling CFLs?
4. How much total mercury pollution results from each ofthe four strategies listed above?
• Fully explain your methods of estimation and cite sources of information.
3. Write the assignment from the perspective of scientist-citizen who has been asked to testify before the state legislature on the issue of mercury pollution
• Hard-copy submission to me on or before 2012-04-17
• Submit your entire written assignment on 8.5″ x 11″ paper in a standard manila folder. Staple or paperclip the sheets together. Do not fold-over (dog-ear) the corners.
• Print out and append copies of short articles that you cite as part of your work. do not attach these to the assignment.
• Tips for a better grade
• Remain neutral. Present fair and even coverage of both the advantages and disadvantages of your chosen alternative.
• Be critical! Don’t just accept what you see on the printed page (or monitor screen).
• Be concise and analytic in your writing. This is not Shakespeare so no flowery prose is desired.
• Avoid hyperbole … exaggeration.
• Avoid the use of run-on sentences. Avoid creating pages that consist of a single long paragraph.
• Craft an opening paragraph that sets-up the whole assignment.
• Be certain that all citations in the Work Cited or Literature Cited section contain full bibliographic information.

Due Tuesday 2012-03-06

Reminder : These short write-ups contribute to your class participation grade. If you miss the class that these are assigned then you should not turn them in.

Don’t sweat it if you miss one. There will be plenty of these through the semester and I’ll drop the lowest one.

1) In two pages – maximum – of double-spaced 12-point type, compare / contrast the population reduction programs in China and India.

Which do you think was more successful? Fully justify your answer.

What, if any, are the obvious unforeseen consequences of each of these national programs?

I’d suggest four references sources – aside from the textbook. Show evidence of personal initiative and pride in your work. As always, no more than one should be a wikipedia entry. Cite your references in the text (so that I know which source(s) provide information to which paragraph(s)). Provide full bibliographic citations on a separate sheet of paper.

The unit 2 quiz will be given on Thursday 22 March.

Material from chapters 04 – 07 will be covered.

Look for reviews, outlines, etc, before the Wednesday.

The unit 1 quiz was returned in class today. Overall, y’all did well.

The quiz contained 20 multiple-choice questions (@ 2 points) plus 2 essay questions (@ 5 points) for a total of 50 points. Your percentage score is the ((number of correct multiple-choice questions x 2) + points  from essay questions)/0.5

The class average was 77.7% (standard deviation = 8).

score          frequency

> 90              =      3

85 – 89.9       =      5

80 – 84.9       =      6

75 – 79.9       =      6

70 – 74.9       =      5

65 – 69.9       =      4

60 – 64.0       =      2

< 60              =      0

Ecnomiohyla rabborum, Rabb’s fringe-limbed tree frog, is one step closer to absolute extinction. The species was discovered in Panama in 2005 but had not been observed in the wild since 2007.

I say absolute extinction because, for all intents and purposes, the species has been extinct since 2008. Two males in Atlanta are all that remained of the species.

Unfortunately, Zoo Atlanta announced that the male in its care suffered a decline in health and was euthanized last Friday. The sole surviving representative of this species is housed at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

The cause of the extinction was not the destruction of its habitat to supply our lust for timber and paper products. Nor was the tree frog over-harvesting for the pet trade. Rather, the direct agent of its demise was an amphibian-exterminating fungus that goes by the name of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.

The fungus, specifically a chytrid, arrived in the tree frog’s habitat in 2006. There is some speculation that the fungus has been spread around the globe with the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis. Forty-three amphibian species in Latin America and 93 amphibian species globally have suffered declines due to B. dendrobatidis infection[1].

Amphibian species across the globe at at risk. As of 2004, 427 amphibian species (7.4%) are on the brink of extinction. By contrast, 179 bird species (1.8%) and184 mammalian species (3.8%) are in similar trouble [2].

[1] Speare R., and L. Berger. 2000. Global distribution of chytridiomycosis in amphibians.

http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/frogs/chyglob.htm

[2] Stuart, S.N. et al. 2004. Status and trends of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide. Science 306:1783-1786.