Conservation Biology

Conservation Biology

  There are billions of species on our earth, and we human being is one of them. If we want to protect our planet, we should protect these variety of species. The term 'conservation biology' is derived from this reason. The conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the dispersal, migration, demographics, effective population size, inbreeding depression, and minimum population viability of rare or endangered species (Benton and Ferry, 2010). 

  Conservation biology is concerned with with phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biodiversity and the science of sustaining evolutionary processes that engender genetic, population, species, and ecosystem diversity. The biologists should work hard to protect those aspects by research and education. And in my opinion, there are not too many biologists, so we normal people should be involved in to this activity.

   Education is a good method to make our younger generation to be informed that the biodiversity is very important. We cannot live without those different species, and only all these creatures including our human beings live in harmony, we can make our planet become better.

   The approaches that we can do are simple. First of all, especially women should reduce to buy furs which are made by rare animals. There is a word, 'no business, no massacre'. If we restrict to buy them, those animals won't be killed. Second one is that we shouldn't involve much more in the wild animals, such as catching them into zoos, we should just leave them on the wild environment, and do not destroy their habitats.

   Although, we are not experts, but we should and we can do something indeed to protect our friends-other species, and our planet-Earth.

Picture from the following website:

http://www.frostburg.edu/home/academic/majorminors/graduate/master-of-science-applied-ecology-and-conservation-biology/

Who kills Our Communication Time?

Who kills Our Communication Time?

  With the increasing technology, people have more chance to buy a private phone. And those phones are smart phones which would help people to live a convenient life. 

  In the modern time, almost everyone processes a phone no matter he or she is a children or old person. We have to admit that those smart phones could help us to do much things. And I believe that in the future, the artificial intelligence could occur. However, there are some disadvantages of this kin of technologies. The first one comes to my mind is the loss of communication between persons. 

  

  Just like the picture above, we can see that two people site opposite to each other, but they are playing with their phones instead of talking to each other. This kind of phenomenon is very prevalent across the world. More and more people cannot live without phones. They ignore the importance of communication and social activities.

  As my experience, my boyfriend likes to play his Iphone 6 when we eat at the restaurant. I'd like to chat with him about my life and things that happened to me. When I see that he plays the phone, I just feel that I am ignored and he do not care about me. Over the time, people may be hard to communicate with others, and people may be easy to become strangers.

  Yes, technology could help to improve our life quality, however, we may lose many happiness on the phone.

Picture from the following website:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/19/world_goes_sim_free_leaving_sony_and_htc_trailing/

Could we save our habitat-Sea Level Rise Problem

Could we save our habitat-Sea Level Rise Problem

  Accelerated sea-level rise is one of the more certain consequences of greenhouse-induced climate change and would have many adverse impacts on the world’s coastline. The main reason which contributes to this phenomenon is the melting of ice sheets and glaciers (generally due to the global warming). 

  Nowadays, the argument of a global issue— sea-level rise constantly exists among the world. Because of the global climate change, the global temperature increases causing the melting of ice sheets and glaciers. However, there is a fact that should be noticed, the melting of marine surface ice do not directly contribute sea-level rise, on the contrary, the sea-level could fall because of the high marine salt concentration.

According to the 2013 IPCC report, it indicated that there is high possibility that the rate of sea level rise has increased during the last two centuries, and it is expectable that GMSL (Global Mean Sea Level) has expedited since the early 1900’s.

  As the increasing concern of this problem, we should find the solutions to mitigate the sea level rise. First we should understand the causes which lead to the issue. It is acknowledged that climate change is the major reason which may be responsible for the issue. If we can mitigate the climate change which focuses on the global warming, thus we can mitigate the sea level rise. How to solve this issue? There are some possible responses to global warming:

• Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

  There are many activities which may help to reduce the emission including: energy conservation and increased energy efficiency; the use of low-carbon energy technologies, such as renewable energy and nuclear energy.

• Policies to reduce the global warming

  Our government or international organisations should implement the related polices to limit the industry to release less polluted air which may increase the air temperature.

• Climate engineering

  This is also known as 'geoengineering' which is the deliberate modification of the climate.

  From those methods above, we could save our habitat from sea level rise. 

Picture from the following website:

http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/07/climate-scientist-sea-levels-could-rise-10-feet-by-2065/

Please Appreciate What We Have-Food Security

Please Appreciate What We Have-Food Security

  Food always is a global topic that many countries concern about the supply and demand. And the food price increases which draw attention of the world's policy-makers and news media to food security. How serious the situation is, we should understand this first. This blog will focus on this and provide some probable solutions for this global issue.

  

What is food security? 

  Food security has a various meanings, and the most common one is that food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals' access to it. To be more specific, the food security does not mean that food which may be poisonous, but means food shortage. Concerns of food shortage have existed throughout history. At the 1974, World Food Conference defined the term 'food security' as an emphasis on supply. 

  This kind of global issue even occurs in the ancient China which was a large country of grain production. Food insecurity is not necessarily a lack of food, but is underpinned by a lack of accessibility to diverse produce, and the implications that has. In another words, the food shortage should include the diversity of food and nutrition.

Why there is food security?

  One of the reasons is agricultural industrialization. Using pesticide or chemical fertilizer may deteriorate the soil texture and pollute the underground water system. Increasing reliance on chemical fertilizers in agricultural production leads to declining crop yields, exacerbating global food crisis.

How to mitigate this issue?

  In order to mitigate this issue, we should find another way out to replace the agricultural industrialization. Some think that genetic engineering is a method to solve this problem, however there are also some drawbacks of this method. In contrast, there are some methods called 'Intelligent Farming' which includes the tillage methods may be beneficial to the biodiversity.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Market-Trends/Africa-top-continents-set-for-food-demand-rise

http://environment.utk.edu/event/global-issues-conference/

We Need to Embellish Our City-The Urban Landscape Architecture

We Need to Embellish Our City-The Urban Landscape Architecture

The most important role of a city is to provide shelters for people who live in the city. And there are other three basic functions of a city;

• Political                                                         

         -Security 

         -Stability

         -Relative Calm

• Economic

         -General Commerce

• Social Welfare

        -Religious

        -Learning

        -Health

        -Recreation

        -Overall Quality of Life

  The urban landscape architecture is a kind of recreation for a city, and it is very important in the urban development. Although the basic function of a city is offering shelters for residents, people do not only need a house to live in, they also need some nourishment for the mind, and some spaces for entertainment and relax. The urban landscape should provide this kind of role for residents.

  Industrial Revolution brought a new design aesthetics, which focus on the machine. The machine was thought as a universal thing, therefore, coming out the Le Corbusier's rapid urbanisation model holding that a city was designed for the machine, and eventually turned into a machine. However, city is not a machine, it is a container. People who live in the city need space to entertain and relax after hard works. So the city need to provide some places which is open space for this reason. The only open space is not enough for residents, the space need to be decorated with trees and landscape.

  Landscape architecture is a multi-disciplinary field, it contains botany, art, design, and even some policies. A successful landscape design not only can improve the visual standard of a city, it even can improve the quality of residents' lives. The people who live in this city will feel comfortable and enjoyable.

Pictures from the following websites:

http://landarchs.com/top-10-landscape-architecture-projects-2015/

The Ghost City

The Ghost City

  As a planner, I am concerned about the whole plan of a city if its aggregate planning is appropriate. And I just heard of a news which attracted my eye on it which is the Detroit Bankruptcy. The city of Detroit, Michigan, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 18, 2013.

  In my opinion, the city of Detroit was famous for its automotive industry, and it is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the largest city on the United States-Canada border. 

  Because of the federal bankruptcy, the Detroit became a ghost city with few people lived there. The housing price in this city is extremely low same as the social security. This kind of issue obviously has adverse impact on the whole country's development, and it violates the sustainable development.

  The reasons for abandonment can be defined as the following aspects:

• Economic activity shifting elsewhere
• Human intervention
• Disasters, actual and anticipated
• Disease and contamination

  The city of Detroit became a ghost city because of the economic activities. And I think this is the main cause of forming a ghost city. In China, there are also some ghost area which are caused by the economic activities such as real estate transaction. 

  In many Chinese cities, especially those second-tier cities, the governments do not consider the practical situation of the demand of housing, they just want to gain more political achievements in their official careers, so they construct more houses which exceed the demand of the city. Those houses or apartments are abandoned. 

  This kind of issue is also a result of unsustainable development. This phenomenon is a social issue that impact citizens' daily life. The specific reason why the Detroit bankruptcy is the shortage of manufacture. Without manufacture, people have no chance to get jobs, so they move to another cities to find jobs, the city of Detroit bankruptcy. Similar with the Detroit, Chinese cities which lack the industries providing jobs and necessity of daily life, the city is easier to become a ghost city. Another factor is infrastructure. A developed service system can help to attract people to live in the city and provide a better life quality.

  From the case study of the city of Detroit, the elimination of ghost city is not complex. If the government can provide the factories which means the job opportunities, thus the people can live, the city won't be a ghost city then.

Pictures from the following websites:

http://evolvedweb.deviantart.com/art/Ghost-city-81835915

http://coolinterestingstuff.com/modern-ghost-town-motor-city-detroit-usa

Light pollution-A cause of eye diseases

  In my blogs, I talked about several different pollution which are air pollution, visual pollution and E-waste. And in this blog, I want to talk about the other pollution which is called light pollution. According to Wikipedia, the light pollution also known as photopollution or luminous pollution, is excessive, misdirected, or obtrusive artificial light. Pollution is the adding -of/ added light itself, in analogy to added sound, carbon dioxide, etc.

Light pollution compares with starlight in the night sky for residents, interferes with astronomical observatories, and like any other form of pollution, disrupts ecosystems and has adverse health effects, and the pollution can be divided into to major categories:

• Unpleasant light that intrudes on an otherwise natural or low-light setting
• Excessive light (generally means indoors' lights) that leads to discomfort and adverse health effects

  The consequences of this kind of issue can be seen as the following:

• Energy waste
• Effects on animal and human health and psychology
• Disruption of ecosystem
• Effect on astronomy
• Increase in atmospheric pollution
• Reduction of natural sky polarization

  The reduction of this issue includes many things such as reducing sky glow, reducing glare, reducing light trespass, and reducing clutter. And some possible solutions include (Wikipedia):

1.    Utilizing light sources of minimum intensity necessary to accomplish the light's purpose

2.     Turning lights off using a timer or occupancy sensor or manually when not needed

3.    Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with fewer side effects

4.    Adjusting the type of lights used, so that the light waves emitted are those that are less likely to cause severe light pollution problems. Mercury, metal halide and above all first generation of blue-light LED road luminaires are much more pollutant than sodium lamps: Earth atmosphere scatters and transmits blue light better than yellow or red light. It is a common experience observing "glare" and "fog" around and below LED road luminaires as soon as air humidity increases, while orange sodium lamp luminaires are less prone to show this phenomenon

5.    Evaluating existing lighting plans, and re-designing some or all of the plans depending on whether existing light is actually needed

  I hope that we can mitigate this kind of issue and help to protect our planet to let we human beings live in a beautiful and environmental friendly earth.

Picture from the following website:

http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightinganswers/lightpollution/abstract.asp