Biodiversity

I was so excited to listen to this lecture. No seriously. My favorite part is when he showed the video. Within a few minutes I knew the video was filmed in Costa Rica. The animals that were shown, the sounds of Oophaga pumilio (formerly Dendrobates pumilio) in the background, a species of poison dart frog, and the sound of the Chestnut Mandibled Toucan gave it away. I have been to Costa Rica and it really was amazing. But when he went to La Selva OTS, where I have been, it was awesome! I love fancying myself a nature nerd, and it was so cool to see a place I have been before. If You ever have a chance to go to the neotropics....PLEASE.....do it. It is amazing. It is like watching Discovery Channel all the time. Going to the tropics really let me see the fascinating amount of life that exists in our world. There is so much to marvel at in our world, and I promise you, it is worth protecting. It's worth is quite literally undefinable.

Just for fun, I am going to post some pictures from my Costa Rica trip for everyone in the group to look at. I am going to encourage everyone to really look into going to the tropics.
Chesnut Mandibled Toucan The bridge at La Selva, OTS

Oophaga pumilio, POISON Dart Frog Red Eyed Tree (Leaf) Frog

The giant buttress of a Kapok Tree San Fernando Falls

Toxic Sludge

Do I care that there are toxins in our environment? Of course I care. But do I think that we should try and clean up these toxins, specifically from mining? It'd be nice, but it would be ridiculously expensive and hard to carry out. Not only are these toxins still leaching into our system, they are also locked up in our system. Organisms have stored these toxins and continue to pass them on in the food chain. Heavy metals like mercury don't just go away, they have to go somewhere. Some are flushed into the ocean, others are absorbed by organisms. So I don't know if we truly could do something about the mercury pollution in our environments. How bad does it have to get before we do something about it? Unfortunately, pretty bad. We tend to be shortsighted and don't really give attention to areas that need it until they are screaming at us to do something. Where are we going to put these wastes if we do clean them up? Well, you could make a LOT of thermometers with all the mercury...........I'm not exactly sure where you would put a heavy metal like mercury. Lock it up and sink it? Shoot it to the moon? Store it underground? Who knows. The last question is my favorite. How can we avoid adding more toxins into our environment? There are a few simple things. Choose organic produce to minimize pesticide, fungicide, insecticides and other harmful chemicals. Use better cleaning products that don't have harsh, environmental pollutants. Make sure you are disposing of waste properly (ie, disposing of oil properly, disposing of batteries properly). It's all about prevention and each one of us has the ability to act responsibly.

Gold Fever

Mike's speech was nice. A lot of people don't realize what kind of harm gold mining does to areas. And certainly, we are not in the clear yet. Mining is a very invasive process. I grew up with a big field behind my house in the foothills, right be Sierra College almost. Secret Ravine Parkway didn't exist, and I spent a lot of days playing in the fields there and fishing in the creeks. Recently, there have been signs posted warning people not to eat the fish in the streams because they are contaminated with Mercury. If you want to see lasting impact, look at the fish in the sea that feed high up on the trophic levels. We have warnings on these packaged fish that say that we should restrict our intake because it has such high amounts of Mercury in it. In addition, has anyone heard about the story where this movie star guy ate too much sushi and was hospitalized for Mercury poisoning!? Google that S**t

Sierra Nevadas....Range Of Light

Gary's speech was pretty cool, and I would love to hear his full lecture one day. I used to have a hard time thinking about the "economy" of nature, but I realized prior to this lecture that it gives people who are otherwise unaware of its importance something to focus on. He brought up how the sierras have helped and influenced our lives, and how we have helped and influenced their journey. It reminded me of this book I read called Life Counts. No it's not a self help book. It's a book that shows a lot of the economical value of our nature world. Like how much work Earthworms do. How helpful rivers are. How much energy the sun produces for us to harvest. We really should be thanking the Earth more than we do, and especially our local Earth, like the Sierra Nevadas. Maybe if we do she'll give us a good snowpack this year!

Conservation of Species

How do we know which species to protect. Well, that's a pretty broad question. For me, the first thing is that the species must be NATIVE. It has to be a part of that ecosystem originally. Although a lot of people say that the "cute and fuzzy" animals get all the funding, it does sort of make sense. Apex predators keep wild populations of their prey in good health and in control. Without these predators, food would be overgrazed and there would be a population crash. Nonetheless, most species that are endangered are not the poster child we need it to be. Some of the species are absolutely essential to maintaining balance in an ecosystem. To me, these creatures took millions, or billions even, of years to carve out their specific niche in the world. Every nematode, beetle, bat, and frog is important to our world. We tend to ignore these guys, and give the big furry animals all the funding. However, many times, these big furry creatures need wide tracks of land, and conservation of these lands makes them available to other animals that may be suffering from habitat loss.
There is no way of truly knowing if we should be saving a species or not. But we do have to try. I feel like we are obligated to act responsibly to our fellow earth inhabitants.
Sometimes, an animal becomes endangered and the decrease in population is due to a change in nature (ie, evolution). The California Condor had an enormous range across the US, but when the ice age ended and the huge amounts of land animals (mammoths, sloths, etc) disappeared, the Condors range was significantly lessened. We can never expect the Condor to truly recover. In many parts of it's range, people have to put out carcasses for the birds to eat because there is not enough food for them. Coastal California has been promising for Condors, however. The large sea mammals/animals that wash up on the shore provide a good food source for them.
Introduced, invasive species should try and be removed. The damages these do are insane. From Starlings to Star thistle, kill 'em all
The needs of humans and animals can be met. But it takes some creative thought and yes, some effort. We need to start thinking more highly of nature. We need to think of it as a friend and our home rather than something to exploit.