scrAPES #3 "New Guinea Flatworm, one of the Worst Known Invasive Species, Found in US"

New Guinea Flatworm, one of the Worst Known Invasive Species, Found in US by Aamna Mohdin was published on June 23, 2015. This article is about one of the worst invasive alien species. The New Guinea Flatworm has been founded in 22 counties or territories including the U.S. The New Guinea Flatworm is a huge problem for biodiversity. The flatworm is a predator of land snails and of many other soil invertebrate. The flatworm was only found in Florida in the whole U.S. Yet because of its nature to spread it can cause a huge problem in the mainland of the U.S. Most adult flatworms can survive in pots or on plants and can be easily spread through moving soil, roots, garden waste and more. Up until it was found in Florida, the flatworm has only infected islands but the spread between islands has been limited.  

This article caught my eye because I have always been interested in animals, insects and living things in general. So when I read the title my first thought was "I have never heard of a New Guinea Flatworm." So in knowing myself i wanted to learn about them. Now, that I know what they are and what they could do it kind of scares me. Not just by the looks of it but the fact they can spread around the U.S. very easily. 

The Environmental Science involved in this article is the New Guinea Flatworm. The flatworm can be very bad for biodiversity and to soil invertebrate. They target one of the most important component in our ecosystems, which is the land snail. The flatworm also has the highest rates of extinctions.

scrAPES #2 "Plastic in the Ocean Podcast"

The podcast I listened to was all about the plastic problem in the world. Almost 8 million metric tons of waste ends up in the ocean every year. 80% of the waste are coming from land and the other 20% is coming from cargo-ships and containers. There is so much waste and plastic in the ocean that there is a huge area called the Great Pacific garbage patch. In the middle of the Pacific ocean the water currents go around in a circular formation which causes the all the waste to go to the middle. In 10 years there will be equal to 1 ton of plastic to 3 tons of fin fish (Fish with fins). From the 8 million tons of waste 50% of the waste comes from 5 rapidly developing countries in Asia and Southeast Asia. The United States is also in the top 20 for most generated waste. We need to be more like Sweden! Sweden produces 1/5 of the waste

The most interesting about this podcast to me was all the metric tons of waste that ends up in the ocean. Also, what interested me about this podcast was that 20% of the waste came from ships and the big containers on those ships. A connection I am making is when I heard about the trash problem we had but I did not know how serious it was.

This podcast is very important to environmental science because the plastic affects all of our resources. The plastics can affect our food and water resources. I think what we can do is while having trash bins on every block and street can reduce the waste but also having a recycling bin next to them. This helps reduce the waste go down and it will be a lot more convenient.

"ScRAPES #1- " The Last 3 Of The World's Rarest Rhinos Are Unable To Breed " -

The Last 3 of the World's Rarest Rhinos Are Unable To Breed by Tisha Wardlow was published on 19 March 2015. This article was about the last three northern white rhinos living on this Earth. Many scientist have tried to breed the rhinos but it just could not work. The female rhino, Najin (25y), is very weak and can not endure the breeding attempts while the male rhino, Sudan (38y), has weak sperm and can not provide enough. The other rhino, Fatu (14y), is infertile meaning these three northern white rhinos are the last to roam the lands of earth.

This article caught my eye because I love animals. When reading the title it interested me to read more of these soon to be extinct rhinos. I wonder why now that there is only three left of the WORLD'S RAREST rhinos that we now want to do something about it. Now there to old to even breed and we are gonna watch them go extinct which really saddens me.

The Environmental Science involved in this article are the animals involved. The northern white rhino was very sought after from humans. Humans have slaughtered these rhinos to the point of no return. Humans have slaughtered these rhinos to extinction and I think its something to be ashamed of.

"My Connection to Nature" Reflection

 I think nature is the environment around us. The trees, plants, grass, animals around are all apart of nature. I feel that I connect to nature but not as much as I should. Over the summer and this school year i have worked with a program that tries and helps to better the environment  and neighborhood. Some past activities for example, we helped plant plants and put new mulch on the the places that needed them. I think connecting with nature should include helping the environment by planting trees and plants and not littering. I feel that you should never feel like you should connect less to the environment but to connect more than you you do now.  I wish I could do more to help the environment rather than just sit home and do nothing.

I think its very important to connect to your environment because what we are doing and not doing is all affecting the Earth. I worry that people don't contribute enough to the environment to make it better. I hope for the future of nature that there will be more trees and plants and more people interested in their environment.