"ECOLOGY AND THE BIOSPHERE"
Textbook: Cunningham & Cunningham, Principles of Environmental Science, McGraw-Hill
Links to Sustainable Energy websites about 13 "clicks" below.
Field Trip opportunity: (stay tuned)
(Website revised every other day or so. This is my personal site for the course in Environmental Science that I teach at Bellevue Community College. Neither the content, links nor views are necessarily those of the College. I take full responsibility and credit for what you find here!) Last Updated: 5/13/04
QUIZ REVIEW QUESTION ACCESS:
FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS: mailto:sandyrock@sandyrock.com
Read fyi:
(on DDT)---> "Better Living Through Chemistry" by Alexander Gourevitch
(on Bush Admin influence on public health)---> http://www.house.gov/markey/iss_environment_rpt021008.pdf
The 2006 Toyota Prius Hybrid..... 52+ mpg! Want to know more about cars that make sense? Go here.
ˇ Bellevue Community College (Bellevue, WA)
Go here for a map of campus
Doctor Rock's Curriculum Vitae (Resumé)
Textbook: Cunningham & Cunningham, Principles of Environmental Science, McGraw-Hill
Interesting Reading:
TRY THIS QUIZ: The Official PPRC P2 Quiz
The new Yosemite will be less car friendly; Farmers challenge state on toxic cleanup; Billions of viruses, germs sail into U.S. ; Pesticides linked to Parkinson's disease - 1/11/2001 - ENN.com); Clear Medical
ˇ Air Pollution (A "Breakout" report by Skyview JHS 9th Grade student Phillip G of Bothell, WA)
ˇ (See Global Climate Change below)
ˇ Risk
Another view on risk: Why Do We Worry About Trace Poisons?
ˇ WOODSMOKE
Woodsmoke---go to this page for information
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency---go here to file a woodsmoke complaint
ˇ PBT's: EPA's Chemical Program: About PBTs
ˇ LEAFBLOWERS and other polluting yard equipment: California enforces emissions standards for lawn and garden equipment;
ˇ NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
ˇ Radiation Exposure (I-131 in particular) A lot of stuff about ionizing radiation
For a definition of "Environmental Justice," go here: Nat'l Academy Press, Toward Environmental Justice: (1999), 1 Introduction and Executive Summary
ˇ Clean air's cost fails to stir high court
ˇ Effect of pollen from Bt corn on Monarch butterflies
ˇ British Broadcasting Corporation's Web Site on GCC
ˇ Pollution trading a contentious issue at climate talks
ˇ Clinton Seeks to Regulate Common Gas to Clean AirPollution trading a contentious issue at climate talks
ˇ Climate Change Could Bankrupt Us by 2065
ˇ Scientific American: Feature Article: Is Global Warming Harmful to Health?: August 2000
ˇ Global Warming -- Environmental News Network
ˇ Climate protection begins at home---Seattle Mayor Paul Schell, December 2001
ˇ NO SUVs Why, you ask?--- SUV Environmental Concerns
ˇ Governor to unveil a sweeping energy plan
ˇ Compact Fluorescent Lights (Information You Can Use)
ˇ EnergyIdeas.org Energy Solutions
ˇ Fuel cells may redistribute power
ˇ World's largest solar project to power Philippines - 4/6/2001 - ENN.com
ˇ Drilling the ANWR: Unhealthy
ˇ The Sustainable Energy Company (AQUA Energy)
ˇ Saving salmon off to promising start
ˇ Dams' cost to nature is found excessive
ˇ The Scientist - What Price Salmon?
ˇ Forest-fish plan: Was it too political?
ˇ Fern Soaks Up Arsenic From Soil
ˇ NRDC:Arsenic in water report
ˇ EPA's PBT Initiative: About PBTs
ˇ Health Effects of Mercury.ppt
ˇ EPA/OSW Waste-Derived Fertilizer
ˇ American Public Trasportation Association
ˇ Trasportation Choices Coalition
ˇ WDFW -- Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary Program
ˇ Compact Fluorescent Lights (Information You Can Use)
(more links below)
ˇ Ask a naturalist - 10/25/2000 - ENN.com PAPER or PLASTIC????
ˇ King County Index Map of Watersheds
NAIA: Book Review: Playing God in Yellowstone Park by Alston Chase
In a Dark Wood: The Fight over Forest and the New Tyranny of Ecology
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's
lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the
great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
-Wendell Berry
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However, [U.N. Climate] conference spokesman Michael Williams said no agreement was expected yesterday on the most controversial items.
Those include the emissions caps and penalties for noncompliance, proposals for an international market in pollution quotas and allowing countries credit for trees and flora designated for carbon-dioxide absorption.
"The problem is everything is interlinked. You can't have a decision on one thing and not another," Williams said. [11/19/00]
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I look forward to the day when cars get 100 or more mpg and power is decentralized. Exhaust heat formed in the process of generating electricity can be recovered/recycled for other energy needs, such as space and water heating. The result is a dramatic reduction in energy use: the same energy source produces both electricity and heat, instead of having a separate energy source for each. Envision a household back-up generator with a heat exchanger of proportionate size. Put this system in your back yard and watch your electric and gas bills shrink. Carbon emissions will also decrease. (Seattle P-I, 10/13/2000)
Sophia C.A. Jones
Olalla, WA
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"Our society must come to terms with the fact that we cannot sustain endless growth in a world of finite resources. Unlike the white-tailed deer that have no knowledge of the future, we are capable of anticipating and averting catastrophe. We urge lawmakers and the president not to get caught in the headlights of extraneous issues. It is time do what is practical and what is right. It is time to move ahead." To read entire column: Escalating population puts planet at risk
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Natural Gas -- Commentator David Fleischaker says we're facing high prices and a shortage of natural gas, with fewer rigs drilling, new fields less productive than old ones, and an explosion of demand. Natural gas has become the clean fuel of choice for consumers, industry, and the electric utility industry. The solution, he says, lies in balancing fuel development and the environment -- and learning to consume less.---NPR's All Things Considered, 9/26/00
A couple related sites: The End of Cheap Oil, by Colin J. Campbell, Jean Laherrere and The Post-Petroleum Paradigm -- and Population
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"Most data cited to support claims of greater environmental exposures in poor communities rely on indirect surrogates for exposure, such as proximity to pollution sources, and statistical associations between race and income. These studies consistently report that members of socioeconomically disadvantaged communities are more likely than their affluent counterparts to live near sources of environmental pollution. Because racial minorities are more likely than whites to be disadvantaged in terms of education, income, and occupation, it follows that these groups are at higher risk for illness resulting from environmental exposures. The great need at this time is to conduct exposure assessment studies that define actual exposure levels, to investigate genetic and racial differences in susceptibility to these exposures, and to identify biomarkers of disease risk. Use of these three elements in future studies would bring a refinement in the data set that would be optimal in determining the boundaries of the environmental justice issue. In the meantime, a conscious effort needs to be made to prevent further encroachment on the environment, and thus health, of the socioeconomically and politically disadvantaged. Encouraging results have been produced by grass-roots advocates in concert with concerned environmental scientists and regulators to develop more sensitive and equitable solutions to environmental justice problems." ---Dr. Kenneth Olden in The Scientist: "The Complex Interaction of Poverty, Pollution, and Health Status" (bold italics mine) Doctor Olden was the keynote speaker at (and NIH represntative attending) the first annual Town Meeting: Voices for Healthy Environments, Healthy Communities held in Seattle on September 29-30, 2000.
Links:
David Suzuki Foundation - Home
The Northwest Council on Climate Change. Home Page.
Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (A.K.A. "P2") P2 means preventing pollution at the source so that it never enters the environment.
Northwest Guide to Pollution Prevention by the Healthcare Sector
NRDC:Natural Resources Defense Council
ECO: Earth Communications Office
Sierra Club Home Page: Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet
Environmental News Network - Your leading news source on the environment
ASTHO - Environmental Health Newsletters Page
Environmental Science Course Descriptions, Bellevue Community College
Environmental Science (McGraw-Hill Higher Education)
Google (Search Engine)
Burning Issues-Clean Air Revival
The Izaak Walton League of America
Environment (The Environmental Issues section of ABOUT.COM)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
More than you ever wanted to know about composting
HERE@UW Home page (Health and Evironmental Resources for Educators)
Howstuffworks.com's \What does octane mean?
Interpretive Consultations, Inc.(Sandy Rock's professional Web Site)
[For office use only]
SYLLABUS Spring 2002 for Sections 3459 and 3461
(Website revised every other day or so. This is my personal site for the course in Environmental Science that I teach at Bellevue Community College. Neither the content nor views are necessarily those of the College. I take full responsibility and credit for what you find here!)
3/29/04