The Process And Problems Of Land Clearing Environmental Sciences Essay

The Process And Problems Of Land Clearing Environmental Sciences Essay Land clearing is an activity of chopping down trees, stumps, and other obstacles from an area as required to increase the size of the crop producing land base of an existing farm, to obtain logs or for urbanization. Australia native forests cover about 164 millions hectares which is about 21% of the continent (WWF 2007). Therefore, 50-100 plant and animal species are disappearing. Australia has the fifth rate of land clearing and clears more bush each year than poverty-stricken countries. It can be said that the number one threat to the survival of plants and animals in Australia is the large scale clearing of mature bushland. Biology A forest is an area with a high density of trees. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines forest as a land with trees cover the area of more than 0.5 hectare. 5 metres is the minimum height the trees should be able to reach at maturity in situ (FAO 2006). Forests are further subdivided into cultivated area and natural forests. Natural forests are forests composed mainly of original trees and not deliberately planted. The forest floor is frequently covered with decaying leaves, twigs, and other detritus where recycling occurs. Herbaceous plants such as grasses and ferns blanket the herb layer and get less. Shrub layer is categorized as woody vegetation that grows rather close to the ground. Small immature trees and trees that are shorter than the main canopy level of the tree predominant the understory of forest which give shelter for numerous animals. Canopy is where the most of the forests trees meet and form a thick layer and lastly emergents layers are trees that crown s emerge above the canopy (Klappenbach 2007). Reasons the lands are cleared Some native vegetation communities in the Southwest Australia region has been cleared, basically for food production upwards of 90%. Most landowners are economically stressed to put more land more intensively. In Tasmania, over 100000 hectares of native forest across public and land have been converted to plantation during the last 10 years (WWF 2007). Another constant pressure on Australiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s forests is livestock grazing and also fires. The international timber trade is currently the major reason of global forest destruction that contains the highest levels of biodiversity (WWF 1997). Areas of high biodiversity is likely to contain the oldest, thus in many case the largest and most commercially valuable, trees. The global timber trade tend to get appealed to forest with high biodiversity and exploit it. The conversion of non-forest lands from forest areas for settlement and agriculture is lead by rapid population and housing area developments together with urbanizati on. More people need more timber to construct houses, malls and business centres. This takes a great loss of forest lands for harvesting forest products. Besides, road constructions through the forest make the rainforest accessible for transportation and movement of timber produced from the forest. Moreover, large hydroelectric projects have led to widespread forest loss. This is due to large areas of the forest are flooded to construct dams. Effects of land clearing One of the bad impacts of land clearing is the greenhouse effect. The burning and degeneration of cleared vegetation, and the subsequent oil emissions causcausedhe greenhouse effect. from the entire transport sector every cleared vegetation, e Australiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s total carbon dioxide emissions produced to be and the subsequent oil emissions. over 13%. This equals to emissions from the entire transport sector in Australia. Over 5 million honeyeaters, parrots, robins and other land birds are killed every year as a result of land clearing. Nearly half mammal species, including wallabies, wombats and bandicoots, are either threatened with extinction or extinct because of land clearing. Australia has lost more mammals and plants to extinction than any other country and has more endangered animals than 98% of the worlds countries (Bush Heritage Australia 2002). A report (The University of Queensland 2007) showed that 150 years of land clearing added significantly to the drying an d warming of eastern Australia. Mean summer rainfall declined by between 4% and 12% in eastern Australia, and by 4% and 8% in southwest Western Australia. Runoff rapidly flows into rivers when forest cover is lost, thus rising river levels and subjecting downstream areas to flooding. During the dry season, such areas can likely to have long droughts that last for months which disturb river navigation, wreak destruction on crops, and disrupt industrial operations. 5.0 Solutions It would be ideal to replant the cleared lands quickly so as to avoid soil erosion and soil saliently instead of clearing large areas of land all at one time and leaving the soil open to the elements, to help maintain natural habitats. Sustainable Commercial Logging Options is an effort to control logging to ensure it is done in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way by authorising logging at a minimal rate. Government also has to stricken laws so that cutting trees in forest becomes a major crime. Besides its flow may be reversed, it will also lead to deforestation being controlled in a major way. All cities have to be managed properly, have enough green cover and new trees have to be planted where ever possible. Other solution is by establishing Good Wood. Good Wood is timber harvested from well managed forests or plantations or reused, recycled or salvaged wood. It allows consumers to continue using wood products without causing forest destruction (Greenpeace Good Wood Gui de 2009). Moreover, the development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative (CAR) system of reserves for Australias forests has been advocated by Australias National Forest Policy Statement. The aims of the national CAR reserve system are to safeguard old-growth, biodiversity, wilderness and other natural and cultural values of the forests (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2003). 6.0 Conclusion Land clearing can lead to the destruction of natural habitat and extinction and various climate problems. The developers have to balance out between suburbanization and environments. Everyone plays an important role on this planet to save the environment from being destroyed.

Chimpanzees Essay -- essays research papers

Chimpanzees are a genus of the great ape of Africa, with long black hair and log protruding ears. Humans know them for their intelligence and there very similarities. They have developed family ties similar to man. Over the generations they have even had developed tools out of natural materials. Food for chimpanzees is very important to them due to the excessive amount eating. Chimpanzees eat a variety of foods. They will get their food in many different ways. Bananas are one of the most favored foods of chimpanzees. They will eat it with the peal on or they will take the peal off. Researchers in Africa had video camera and had been taping the primates while eating. One day while video tapeing they caught a male chimpanzee stealing a bundle of bananas from the storage tent, and put the bundle of bananas over his shoulder and walked out. The researchers did not try to top the adult male, because they knew that the adult male are very strong and can get violent if they are bothered while eating. These primates also eat variety leaves, twigs and seeds that are found through out the jungle. Chimpanzees are nomadic they will travel up to six miles a day for food. Once food is found they will spend up to seven hours a day eating. Chimpanzee will also eat meat, but it has to be fresh meat. This means that the male’s hunt and kill there own meat in groups; some of the animals they look for are baby baboons, antelope and bush pigs. Chimpanzee’s intelligence is the one that is clos...

Nature is our friend Essay

Time has come now to realize that the energies of the Earth’s own kingdoms are very precious! The plants own natural state of love, joy and pride, is the core essence of Life. This is the understanding we all need to free ourselves from limiting thought forms. see more:trees our best friends essay 150 words The new consciousness contains a great love both for the planet and the nature. The new thinking will make us change our attitudes to plants and animals that continuously give us gifts. Many people on Earth have taken the nature for granted. It is here as en obvious part of life, it seems, and very few of us have really noticed how many gifts we are receiving from plants and animals. Every single particle in what we eat is conscious. Everything we take into our bodies comes from nature! The development has now entered a new track. We will all soon feel the connection to nature in a new way and start giving thanks to the specific plants that we love to eat and use as a part of our life, for example cotton an linen. It is really a gift from the plants to us. As they consist of conscious particles, they receive the gratitude from us by the particles’ mutual togetherness system. The Earth is an interesting planet for beings from many dimensions because it is very special†¦ because we have water and we have the rich life in nature as a consequence of that. This is an enormous abundance, consisting or the light particles of our solar system. It is really time to appreciate that we live on the most precious planet in our galaxy. The journey through the suffering and separation is soon over. The next years to come, we all will open our eyes for the true gifts of nature. It will lead us to new choices. When we chose to incarnate in physical body, one of our goals is to enjoy nature because this is the only planet where we can do it. When we one day move on, our love for nature and our ability to visualize what it looks like, make us able to create trees and flowers in our gardens in higher dimensions..:) by our own thought power. We live on a planet where we originally have developed from simple beings, like Darwin discovered. However, we have not developed because the  strongest won like Darwin said. The human race is what it is because we were transformed from Neanderthals by creating masters that originally came from other civilizations in our galaxy thousands of years ago.

Becoming an Optimist

I woke up early, finished the reports I was supposed to submit during the day drove to the office and I was not late. Then, my boss hands me the memo and says that I am given until tomorrow to submit a written explanation. I mumble incoherently but feel crushed and almost in tears and angry at my boss. Belief I am not a good worker, I am always tardy and hence I have become a liability to my department. I do not have any place in this office anymore. I have no choice but to resign.Consequence I am depressed and angry and hurt. Disputation I am not a bad worker, I have met deadlines, I have been innovative at my work and I give my best in every task I am assigned to. I have had high performance evaluation ratings for the last 4 years in this job. My reaction to the memo was overreacting; of course it is company policy to call the attention of employees who had been late for work a number of times to make sure that they can do something about it.I was late a couple of times but that di d not mean I am a lousy employee, even my boss comes to the office late at times. I had been working two jobs and going to school at the same time and it means that I am tired and exhausted thus if I wake up late in some mornings it is understandable because my body has to rest at some point. Thinking that I am a bad employee and that I have to resign is not really doing me anything good, instead of checking my behavior; I felt utterly depressed and had to miss work in the afternoon.It does not do anything good to think these thoughts. Energization I decided that I can prove to myself that I can be punctual everyday, thus I have made a contract with myself saying that I will never be late for work anymore, starting today! Being optimistic is related to motivation because it gives that extra boost to the person who is faced with challenges and difficulties (Seligman, 1991). Optimism is a state of mind and heart, that is, to think positively about the outcome of the situation or event .When a person thinks that a problem is a challenge, and then he/she would face it head on and believe that he/she can overcome it, if a person thinks that a problem is a punishment, then he/she would not do anything at all since he/she has already accepted defeat. References Kady, L. (2006). Being an optimist. Retrieved December 11, 2006, from http://www. articlejuice. com/Article/Being-an-Optimist—Part-1/200 Seligman, M. E. (1991). Learned Optimism. Alfred A. Knopf Inc.

Solidification Definition and Examples

Solidification Definition and Examples Solidification, also known as freezing, is a phase change of matter that results in the production of a solid. Generally, this occurs when the temperature of a liquid is lowered below its freezing point. Although the freezing point and melting point of most materials are the same temperature, this is not the case for all substances, so freezing point and melting point are not necessarily interchangeable terms. For example, agar (a chemical used in food and the laboratory)  melts at 85 C (185 F) yet solidifies from 31 C to 40 C (89.6 F to 104 F). Solidification is nearly always an exothermic process, meaning heat is released when a liquid changes into a solid. The only known exception to this rule is the solidification of low-temperature helium. Energy (heat) must be added to helium-3 and helium-4 for freezing to take place. Solidification and Supercooling Under certain conditions, a liquid may be cooled below its freezing point, yet not transition into a solid. This is known as supercooling  and it happens because most liquids crystallize to freeze. Supercooling may be readily observed by carefully freezing water. The phenomenon can occur when there is a lack of good nucleation sites from which solidification can proceed. Nucleation is when molecules from organized clusters. Once nucleation occurs, crystallization progresses until solidification happens. Solidification Examples Several examples of solidification may be found in everyday life, including: Freezing of water to form ice in an ice cube trayFormation of snowCongealing of bacon grease as it coolsSolidification of melted candle waxLava hardening into solid rock

Sports Day Event 'Give It a Go' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sports Day Event 'Give It a Go' - Essay Example Aims and Objectives Engaging students in sports events in order to bring the best in them making them Good leaders, Team builders and discipliners. To promote healthy competition amongst students of the Childwall Valley Primary school (Lang-8 2011). A good psychological and physical health for students To encourage interaction (communication skills) between the students and Parents so they can learn from one another (Bigelow, Moroney and Hall 2001). Work plan of Event The event requires extensive preplanning, which is not possible with the help of the School staff as well as Students. For the success of the event the Sports Instructor of the Childwall Valley Primary School will be given the task of short listing students participating in the event and under which aspect will they be participating (Gomez 2011). The heads of departments need to be patient with allocating some time from their classes during the last two weeks of the Sports Event. Parent volunteering is welcomed and high ly respected for the event. The event will have an opening ceremony, gymnastics and cheer leading squad, field sports, relay races, tug of war and event ceremony with prize distribution (Lang-8 2011). Persons in charge of event Responsibility Name Head of Sports Event Daniel Roffman (Sports instructor) Speaker and Disciplinary head at Event Rachel Mike Gymnastics and Cheerleading Kathrine Jones Field Sport Rohit Adwalia and Hilton John Drinks and Food Parent Volunteers Nurse Kamila Scott Score Board (Spectator) High School Volunteers Award and Closing ceremony Rachel Fo (Director) (Merriam Webster 2012 ) Equipment Required Equipment Required Whistles Boundary Ropes Hurdle Exercise Mats Microphone and Speakers Baseball kit Cricket kit Basketball Nets kit Soccer Goals and kit Stop watch Relay sticks Score board Trophy and prize distribution gifts (Sports Equipemnet Supplies 2012) Explanation of Event The event will take place in the premises of the Child Valley Primary School’s Playground. This option was feasible and convenient as it is economical and will avoid transport issues for students and teachers. The School bus will pick students from the bus stop for the event at nine in the morning. The organizers of the event will be in school from seven in the morning preparing for the event. Safety is the most important aspect for this event. Therefore, the school Medical nurse will be available at the ground at all times during the event (Omelianovych 2010). The event will start at 10 in the morning with the Opening Ceremony and the settling of the students with energy drinks and water bottles. Then, the cheer leading squad and gymnasts will perform their exercised performance. Shortly after this, the races and rallies will take place around the ground with the help of the sports instructor and parent volunteers. The high school students will maintain a Scoreboard throughout the event for the avoiding confusion at the end of the ceremony (Omelianovych 2010 ). The Baseball, Basketball, Cricket and Soccer will be played in the teams made during practices for the event. After the last game of Soccer students will be given a break of twenty minutes to rest and change. The ending ceremony will take half an hour with the awards being trophies, medals and certificates for volunteers (NSW Department of Planning 2009

Yanomamo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Yanomamo - Essay Example The Yanomamo â€Å"foot-people† are spread out in about 125 villages scattered far and wide (Chagnon, 1983). Yanomamo is essentially a kin-based foraging and horticultural society. Kinship is a basic human trait. It is an important component that drives social behavior in every culture around the world. So also among the Yanomamo. Their social and political life is wholly controlled by kinship relationships (Chagnon, 1983). The Yanomamo communities live in small settlements or villages numbering 363 having 30 – 90 residents each, but sometimes reaching 200 or more (Hames, 1995). According to Chagnon (1974), larger the village size more intense their warfare. The people (numbering about 30 to 200) grouped by families live in one large circular communal dwelling, called a Shabono, having an open-air central plaza. Such an area of residence helps create strong bondsamong the people living there. Social organization of the Yanomamo based on kinship The people of the Yanomam o tribe classify themselves into two groupings - sibs (that is, clans) or lineages, both of which are formed based on kinship ties (Kensinger, 1996). Sib members trace their descent through their father from a named ancestor, â€Å"†¦.are dispersed throughout many villages and provide hospitality and safety for visiting kin.† (Kensinger, 1996).... As lineages are generally formed to promote the political ambitions of actual or wannabe leaders, they reflect the oscillations in political power. Usually disputes over leadership within lineages leads to village fissioning, and thereby to the scattering and even destruction of lineages. Yanomamo marriages The marriage exchange system of the Yanomamo people is generally based on kinship. It follows 4 main principles namely, lineage exogamy, bilateral cross cousin marriage, village endogamy, and polygyny. The Yanomamo society is exogamous and persons from the same localized lineage are prohibited from marrying. The members jointly take part in the selection of marriage partners for their children from within the allied lineage groups. The marriage system builds regular relationship between pairs of lineage groups who commonly intermarry through a system of bilateral cross cousin marriage (www.umanitoba.ca). A moiety system is created by such intermarriages when the intermarrying unit s co-reside in the same village. The co-settlement of intermarrying lineages is an example of village endogamy .Although under such a marriage system the Yanomamo lineages have collective rights to marry off their women and claim wives in exchange, they are not vested with the rights of administering joint assets such as land (www.umanitoba.ca). The practice of polygyny by the Yanomamo is exemplified by the fact that the men of the tribe commonly marry more than one wife. Polygyny among the Yanomamo is typically associated with the men’s rank or other achievements (Chagnon, 1983). Yanomamo political system The Yanomamo political system is not centralized which is because the community does