Case Study on Natural Capital

pp. 48-52 Ecosystems and Natural Capital

Section 3.6  Ecosystems and Natural Capital

Built Capital:  The Airline Industry 

Built Capital:  Spoil Material

Built Capital:  Golden Rice

Built Capital:  Water for Drinking

Above are 4 case studies.  If you don't like one of them, I can provide you with another.


Your goal is to identify natural, human, and built capital within the system.  The case studies provide you with the scenario at hand.   You should use the information provided to help you make decisions, but you DO NOT have to complete the case study.   You must organize the information you find into the two graphics provided yesterday.


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11/28/2012

Digitize the pyramid you made yesterday, and explain how you used the second graphic to identify the waste in your built capital.  WHAT is the waste, and HOW WIDELY does it impact your scenario.  Be specific.

Each of these scenarios has some degradation of natural capital that has occurred.  Identify the problem.   What need to happen, specifically, to encourage sustainability:

• within the ecosystem found in the scenario?
• within two specific cycles found in the scenario?
• to the attitudes or behaviors of the people found in this scenario?

Reflect on the built capital and its impact on the local community.  How will we best change attitudes and behaviors in this scenario to encourage sustainability?  You may choose voluntary actions, economic policies, or government actions.

Summarize the pyramid, and the information you found today in a 6-slide (maximum) google presentation to be shown to the class on Thursday, 1/2 hour into the period.

Grading

Completeness of pyramid:  5 pts
Identification of waste impact: 5 pts.
Sustainability solutions:  15 pts
Action Steps:  5 points
Presentation quality:  10 points

Text and Reflection Time

You will be reading pp. 207 to 215.  As you read, divide your comments into PROBLEMS and SOLUTIONS.

Then look at the Table on p.220 and compare it to this:

Linked from http://www.biomaya.com.my/v2/index.php/blog/2?view=blog 

Question 1: Contrast the two tables and decide which natural capitals are connected to the nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle, and the sulfur cycle.

Question 2:  Have we made industrial agriculture into a Built Capital?  Why or why not?

Crosslinked from: http://sustainabilityadvantage.com/2010/08/03/4-reasons-our-current-business-model-is-unsustainable/

Question 3:  Explain how this graphic connects to the pyramid above.

Question 4:  Define different roles for business owners, consumers, bankers, and government must undertake to help shift the scenarios shown to win-win. How likely is this today?  What three things can we do to change things over to a sustainable model?

A Focus on the Nitrogen Cycle

http://www.farmingfutures.org.uk/resources/nitrogen-cycle-farm

Reading about the Cycles

Today, you will be focusing on self-guided notes  using a shared Google Doc with your team members:

Chapter 8:   Sections 3-8

Focus on the Key Concepts found in these sections, and be ready to discuss your understanding of the terms.


Chapter 7:  Sections 1-5

Focus on the relationships detailed in the Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur Cycles as you read this.



**For each section, you should be writing 1-4 sentences, or creating a graphic that lists pertinent information.   I will ask to see these materials tomorrow FOR EACH PERSON.   These must be generated by hand, not copied and pasted.**

11/14 and 11/15 Climate Change Claim Evidence and Reason

Day 1:

Powerpoint Case on Climate Change

Data for presentation 1  (Enter your responses).

Class Discussion

photo credit: net_efekt via photopin cc

Day 2:

Now what?  Based on what we did yesterday, reviewing evidence, you now have a more informed decision that you can make about climate change.  Your goal is to take this viewpoint and expand on it to create a meeting agenda for an upcoming town hall. (Here is a sample agenda) The two documents below may help you expound on your arguments.

Remediation and Change (Group 1--the believers)

Politics and Change (Group 2--the still-skeptical)

Town Hall Planning Kit

Artifact to be handed in:  Town Hall Agenda

photo credit: net_efekt via photopin cc

Personal Response on Climate Change (this is due on Monday, 11/19.   It may be handed in or submitted digitally). This is your chance to decide which of the graphics  in this post best represents your viewpoint on the issues:

OPTION 1

Climate Anthropology

OPTION 2

Climate Tradeoffs

photo credit: net_efekt via photopin cc 

Evidence for Climate Change

Carbon Dioxide Trends:  http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
Methane Trends:  http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/atm_meth/lawdome_meth-graphics.html

Ice Core Trends  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/warnings/stories/
Extreme weather events:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_weather_events
Extreme weather events 2:  http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/extremes.html
Ocean Temperature Trends:   http://chartsgraphs.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/global-sea-surface-temperature-trends-1850-2009/

Water Depth Trends:   http://flood.firetree.net/

Unit 1 Alternative Assessment

This is a two-part personal project.  It is due on Wednesday.


Part 1:  Your class data on 7 political issues that could be considered a commons is listed on yesterday's blog post.   Take a look at the raw data and the trends and pick ONE of these these.

Tell me how you can prevent this issue from becoming a tragedy of the commons for the USA or how you can solve this issue if it already is a tragedy of the commons in the USA.  Remember to look at the second link under the Tragedy of the Commons links for ideas.   Prepare a digital artifact (poster, 30 second video, song, or a timeline) using a Web-based tool to get your plan across.

Grading Rubric Considerations

Is the commons defined correctly? (3)
Is the tragedy defined correctly? (3)
Are ways to prevent the commons from becoming a tragedy addressed? (8)
Are human beings currently on earth protected from harm (although they may be inconvenience) by the actions suggested? (8)
What is the quality of the artifact?  (8)
What evidence presented in this chapter (biomes or biome organization), population pyramids, natural disasters) was used to provide support for your viewpoint? (10)


Call if you have questions, please.


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Part 2:   Look up food security for a country (on the right hand of the page) and a report that tells you about current and/or future prospects.

Using the data from yesterday find it's accompanying population pyramid.

Print both reports.

Write a one page summary (handwritten is fine) explaining how/if this could be a tragedy of the commons now and 10 years from now.   Provide evidence from the reports and the pyramids to support your viewpoints.

Tragedy of the Commons Sol'n

Class Priorities

Population Pyramids by Country

Population Pyramid and Life Expectancy



Discuss How your population is affected by your biome discussion

Population as a Type of Commons

Answer the questions

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/file/martha-11-population-pyramid-cb1297294129.pdf

Answer the questions

http://www.plaidavenger.com/images/uploads/Population_Pyramid_Activity_Sheet.pdf



Look for the Commons that are inherent in each set of links.

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/


http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/worldclock/


http://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=5&secNum=2

Tragedy of the Commons

The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen. (from Wikipedia)


Tragedy of the Commons

Personal Solutions

Tragedy Revisited

Evaluating Sandy articles

Using your three articles, answer the following questions:

1. Is this information a primary or a secondary source of information?
2. What overriding message is being communicated by the information in these articles?
3. What information is missing from these articles?
4. List possible reasons (or motives) for the publishing of each of the articles you chose.
5. Which of the following best describes the information presented in this study?

• Differing opinions regarding which events are newsworthy
• Conflicts within the science community
• Differing political agendas
• Conflicts between scientists and politician

How do you personally deal with the issue of bias in the news to which you listen?

====this reflection should be at least one page long====

Read 4-3 to 4-8 in the digital book and FIX the biome-niche efforts.  Put all corrections on the back page.