1. In your main response, start by briefly describing your own personal experien
ID: 289123 • Letter: 1
Question
1. In your main response, start by briefly describing your own personal experience with one or more national parks, state parks or wilderness areas. Include specific problems faced by the park(s) you have visited. If you have never visited a national park, state park or wilderness area, research one park that you find interesting and maybe would like to visit on day.
2. Then answer the following questions:
A. How much do you realistically believe we as a society should invest in conservation efforts?
B. Were you surprised by any of the information learned from the Living on Earth segment? What did you find most interesting?
C. How do you rank conservation of ecosystems to other issues like growing the economy and increasing the employment rate?
Explanation / Answer
Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon, true to its name, is amazingly GRAND. It can be explored from the North, South, East and West Rims. The South Rim is open year-round while North Rim is closed in winter. At South Rim, we were able to drive along Desert View Drive, a 25 mile stretch of road that runs along the canyon’s edge, with views over the Colorado River. It is also one of the best places in the country to go stargazing (one of my favourite things to do with kids). Every glimpse has its own peculiar glow, hue, and outlook on the canyon’s labyrinthine topography. Don’t miss the sight of canyon ablaze with shades at sunrise and sunset.
Trail of Time at Yavapai point – a teeny-weeny hike (a little over a mile) to understand the geological history and Junior Ranger Program are free and fun activities for kids. For adventure seeking teenagers, river rafting in Colorado adds to the thrill. Visit to Grand Canyon is pure wilderness and a great learning experience for kids of any age.
specific problems faced by the park
Development vs. Environment
On a pristine day in Northern Arizona, a yellow haze hangs over the rim of the majestic Grand Canyon. In recent decades the state has seen an explosion in development both residential and commercial. Even when the heat abates and cool winter breezes blow through the largest Ponderosa pine forest on the continent, the smog from cities and highways pollutes the pristine high desert air.
The prospect of further tourist and residential development near the canyon’s rim threatens the delicate equilibrium of nature. While tourism provides an important source of revenue for the region, the environmental impact of millions of annual visitors cannot be calculated in dollars and cents and is a major environmental issue in grand canyon national park.
Litter, Litter Everywhere ---- While it is the park’s intended purpose to be seen by all who wish to visit, the canyon’s ecosystem pays a heavy price. Hiking through the high desert is thirsty work. Thirty percent of the park’s litter each year is made up of plastic bottles. Park officials planned to ban single-use water bottles in the park, a move that echoes a very successful program instituted in Zion National Park in 2008.
A Clean Conundrum
The region surrounding the Grand Canyon contains a large reserve of yellowcake uranium and a battle wages over the right to extract it. The Obama administration hopes to extend a two-year ban on new mines into a 20-year moratorium. Eleven uranium mines are currently under operation and will not be affected by the ban. Proponents of the ban point to the delicate environmental balance of the Colorado River, which runs through the canyon and provides drinking water to 26 million Americans. A report filed by the U.S. Geological Survey says that in random testing, several water samples showed levels of contaminants including uranium above maximum safe levels.
Those who oppose the ban counter that by restricting mining, the administration is depriving the U.S. of a domestic source of uranium, damaging the country’s ability to produce clean energy, impeding national security and hindering job growth. While increased mining would reduce uranium imports, recent events in Japan have made Americans question the safety of nuclear power.
we as a society should invest in conservation efforts fully because
One compelling benefit that comes from wildlife conservation efforts is that it ensures food security. Protecting forests from deforestation and rebuilding forest habitats to preserve biodiversity aids in the carbon-sequestering process, provides new economic opportunities, and guards against erosion.
In addition, wildlife conservation promotes agricultural biodiversity, which plays an important role in building a secure, robust, and thriving food system.
Another compelling benefit that comes from wildlife conservation is that these initiatives protect human health. Conservation International reports that “more than 50 percent of modern medicines and more than 90 percent of traditional medicines come from wild plants and animals.” These traditional medicines thereby represent an essential pharmacopeia and body of medical knowledge that cannot be replaced easily by synthetic alternatives.
Moreover, a world that promotes healthy ecosystems and biodiversity provides crucial buffers between disease and humans. A number of studies have linked reduced diversity among mammals species and overall decreases in biodiversity to an increase in the transmission of animal-born diseases to humans.
Perhaps the most compelling benefit that comes from wildlife conservation is that it provides us with opportunity, whether it be economically, social, or culturally.
Unsustainable resource extraction industries – such as the clear-cut logging industry, thebushmeat industry, the poaching industry, and the charcoal trade – extend the gap between the poor and the rich and have been linked to civil war and political strife.
In addition, increasing biodiversity and healthy ecosystems through conservation improves agricultural productivity, thereby allowing farms to become more profitable. Healthy ecosystems that are home to unique species lure in tourists from around the world, which helps the local economy and invites in a new fusion of investment. Wildlife conservation projects bring the community together as well, as they call for a team effort.
Our unsustainable, unconscious, self-interested relationship with the environment has lead us into an exceedingly destructible world. If we do not take action and go about changing our ways, we are at risk of losing more vital and irreplaceable ecosystems and biodiversity, or at least until the sixth great extinction claims one final species: our own.
B Living on Earth segment?? we NEED more information..
There should be a balance between conservation of ecosystems to other issues like growing the economy and increasing the employment rate etc so that we can achieve sustainable development goal.
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