bees!

Since the mid 2000s, honey bees have been mysteriously disappearing all throughout the world, leaving the future of much of the world’s food supply in question. The decline of bees could have an enormous impact on the environment, which is dependent on the insects for pollination. If there is no pollinating insect life, fruits, vegetables, and field crops would be obsolete and there would be extreme economical hardships for the farm and food industry.  We can do our part by planting a bee friendly garden or even start a honey hive bee as they are  responsible for pollinating more than 100 crops, from apples to zucchini, have been dying by the tens of millions.  For example, California harvests more than 80% of the world’s almonds. But you can’t grow the nut without honey bees and it takes 60% of the US’s remaining colonies just to pollinate that one $4 billion cash crop. If this carries on, there will be no more bees to pollinate our crops and we will face a global crisi

s. 

Fish farming on a global scale!

I believe fish farming is the answer to the increasing global demand of fishes but it has to be properly guided, not only it will only help feed an expanding global population, but also play a role in healing marine ecosystems battered by over fishing. Sustainable fish farming will also require a fundamental change in public attitudes,includes a willingness to prioritize fish that are lower on the food chain, such as shellfish and tilapia.The need for more sustainable fish farming is critical  and is on target to exceed half in the next decade, yet there are no widely accepted standards for what constitutes “good” fish farming. This points to a greater role for aquaculture certification and standards in the coming years, Halweil says. Efforts currently under way seek to model the effective labeling systems that exist in other areas of agriculture, such as for wild-caught fish, heritage breeds of livestock, and organic and local foods.

 

No impact man!pac

No 

The value of no impact man is compelling and they attempted not to harm the environment for a year, that makes me think about my own causal daily consumption and waste. The part where he gave out toilet paper, his message was give up what you can and help in any way you can, basically do all you can to save the environment. At least that was what I got out of it. The film is more about a couple then a movement, I feel that it was about how they try to live the way they did rather then the cove, they got a lot of people involved.  

Species Museum

 

I thought this was worth sharing, a peacock spider, tiny in build but when its attracting the mate, it does a dance. 

 

the link above is a video, you guys should check it out!

The Cove

I have heard about this film a while ago but I never actually watched it before. The film have exposed the slaughter of more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises off the coast of Japan every year, and how their meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is sold as food in Japan and other parts of Asia, often labeled as whale meat and The majority of the world is not aware this is happening. It just shows how ignorant humans are. It made me feel how selfish as an individual to only bother to find out things that only concern ourselves.

I am really appalled by the dolphin slaughtering that the people at Taiji are doing. I just feel that they should have more empathy for dolphins and other creatures that show human like emotion and signs. The government is not going to do anything to help them unless we take the first step towards saving the dolphins

 

We should protect our wildlife because with the rate of killing and destroying all their natural habitat, who knows what will still exists 10 years from now.

Palm Oil Plantations

 

The conversion of forests to oil palm plantations is an example of habitat destruction impacting a species, in this case are the orangutans. They are rare and endangered species and the destruction of their home not only affect their number but also affect their genetic diversity. 

Orangutans are not the only species, animals such as tigers, elephants are also being affected.  People who harvest these animal for food and pet trade are involved in these destruction. They use poisons to eliminate rats within their oil palm plantations also poison other animals attempting to recolonize plantations. Oil palms have very devastating impact on plants and the animals that live there. 

dogs!

 

I got to say, dogs are my favorite animals, they are one of the most lovable animals that you can ever like. They look to you for comfort and they would tag along with you everywhere you go.That’s my dog back home, he’s name is humphry, he’s 12 years old but still going strong. He is a shih Tzu breed, I know he probably do not look like one, probably because my family always shave his hair.Shih Tzu are known to have the following hereditary problems, hypothyroidism  , breathing problems and life span.  My dog has a bow leg problem which I do not know if its genetic or if when he was growing up, we did not help him stand right. The american kennel club state that all shih tzu should have straight front and fore legs.

Anyway, I watched a video in class about dogs and their genetic variability and I would like to point out about the part where they were trying to see the difference between domestic wolves and dogs. They were taken care of the same methods as dogs but when it comes to problem solving, the wolves takes it own form of independence and try to solve its own problems where as the dog would give up half way and look to the human for help. Its interesting to know that the way the dogs connect with humans is so different. Despite dogs being breeded by man by choosing the phenotypic traits such as size, shape,coat and behavior and even after many centuries of doing so, dogs today still look to humans if they want food or help.  Its really sad that dogs suffer from a lack of genes that causes blindness and other illness like compulsive disorder in dogs and all because humans mutate dogs so much to get the different variation.I think its ground breaking that they have found cures to dogs who are sick due to lack of a gene because after all, dogs are our best friends and its time we should look after them.

 

What Darwin never knew! and what I never knew!

 

I really enjoyed this video a lot because the whole program is a new thing to me. There are so many interesting things like how different types of birds evolve different because of their food source and it did not occur to me that such small detail would cause such an extraordinary change in genes. I never had the opportunity to learn about DNA and how/why things evolve. I certainly did not know that we share the same DNA as the early fishes that have legs. The part where many millions years ago, fishes had the ability to push themselves off the water was very interesting and I thought salamanders would have a connection with that, but they did not mention it, so I’m not sure about that. 

It was also interesting to know that we are so different from chimps even though we share 99percent of the same DNA, that 1 percent is what separate us as humans and chimps. 1 percent may not seem a lot but in actual fact is it a whole lot different.  Every animal in the wild adapt to changes and it goes the same for humans, we adapt to changes everyday of our lives. I feel that the only difference that makes us not wild animals is our brains. Our other instincts are similar to animals, they adapt to survive.