Why We Shouldn't Drill in ANWR

Have you ever wondered, if America was running out of oil? The answer is no; America has a large amount of oil located in Alaska, in a place called ANWR, which stands for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Some people say that drilling is what we need to do. I think that there are much better reasons to not drill in the arctic. It is definite that this will improve the environment of the entire world, not just America.

Drilling in the ANWR will hurt all of the ecosystems that it encompasses through Alaska. It is a large 1.5 million acre land, which is 4 time the size of massachusetts. "More than 200 species make the refuge home including: Caribou wolves, Arctic fox, 36 species of fish and millions of birds." -NG If we were to drill there than millions of animals would have little places left to go, which would cause them to die off, which will have horrible effects on the ecosystem of alaska as a whole.

The ANWR is one of the few places on earth that remain untouched by humans. If we start drilling in the ANWR then we are ruining the landscape of a place, which might be able to lead us into the past of our speicies and the planet. "It remains much the same as it was about 10,000 years ago" Bob Reiss wrote in an article covering the topic. It would also destroy the oceans, which also hold many secrets to humanity.

Some people say that Alaska needs the money to survive because that is where most of their income comes from. It is true that the oil industry provides jobs for about 1/3 of Alaska's total population, this would also be a good way to switch from oil to a renewable energy source. If Alaska stopped employing people into the oil industry they can work in places that use solar or water energy. It has already been proven that gas emissions have better effects on the environment than oil like in this article: https://news.energysage.com/health-environmental-benefits-of-solar-energy/ on Energy Sage.

I think that we should not drill in the ANWR because it will do no good for the environment and make Alaska create no new opportunities for the future. This will make the millions of animals that live in the arctic lose their habitats, which will in turn mess up other ecosystems. It will also make us lose the opportunity to see more into our past and destroy evidence that will help us find our past. Lastly it will also make Alaska not turn to renewable energy, which helps the environment. So that is why I think that we should stop the government from drilling for oil in Alaska and switch to renewable energy.

Africanized Bee 02/16

Summary: This week in class my teammate learned about the Africanized Honeybees. Africanized Honey bees are an invasive species that were created in a lab to make more honey than the average bee. While the Bee makes more honey they are also highly defensive and will not hesitate to kill threats to the hive. They have currently gone to South California and many southern parts of the U.S and all throughout Middle America

Backwards Looking:
I knew quite a lot about invasive species before working on this project. But I did not know much about the Americanized Honeybee, in fact; I had no idea they even existed. Some things I did learn about invasive species is that they have almost no natural predators and that all they do is feed while providing nothing for the ecosystem.

Inward Looking:
This piece shows how I can hone in on a specific topic and learn about the specific topic entirely. I went from the very broad topic of invasive species as a whole, then chose the Africanized honey bee and learned all about it. I learned about its origin how it behaves and good ways to stop the species from coming into ecosystems that are no theirs.

Outward Looking:
I would give this project a B. I would give the project a B because it gets the information across nicely but it is not visually appealing. It is more text heavy and requires more images than text. We went with a more text driven project though because it was the easiest way to convey what the species is all about and how to stop them.

Forward Looking:
One goal I would like to set for my self next time is to put more effort in. While I am happy with my current project I would like to have it be more visually appealing rather that just going for the easy way out and just making it text based. I want to get it done being better than just putting less time and effort into it than it truly deserved.

Invasive Species 02/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIgysZ5Hho8

Summary: This week in class we learned about Invasive Species. An invasive species is an animal that goes into ecosystems from, which it did not originate, and hunt for food. This breaks the ecosystem because the animal has no natural predators and will just eat prey that hasn't adapted to defend from the animal. A lot of invasive species  come over on boats and through human transportation.

SP6: Constructing explanations and designing solutions
This week in class teams of two researched various invasive species an several documents, and found out how people are helping the cause and various other solutions to the invasive species problem. They then compile this information into some way of presenting it, like a video, or some sort of info graphic.

Symbiosis 02/04/18

https://lkosto.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/symbiosis-scoreboard-finished/

Summary: This week in class we learned about symbiosis. Symbiosis is an interaction between animals that can: Help, Harm, or Do nothing to an animal in the interaction. There are three types of symbiosis: Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism. Mutualism is when two organisms benefit from an inter action, like in the sea where small animals clean out the mouths of larger animals, which gives them food. Commensalism is when one animal benefits and nothing happens to the other, like when Orchids grow on trees, the Orchids are getting sunlight and the trees are unaffected. Lastly, Parasitism is when one animal benefits and the other is harmed, like how leaches and suck your blood, which can lead to death.

SP1: Asking questions and defining problems
This week in class we asked about what the different types of symbiosis do. We asked specifically about how they affected the animals involved and if it helped, harmed, or did nothing to the animal in question. We also asked why do animals need to depend of each other to survive in the world because wouldn't it be better if there was more of the animal rather than it being hunted for food.