Group items tagged

For those interested in the gulf oil spill: "Yesterday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) made public a new website, the NOAA Deepwater Horizon Library. The site contains a treasure trove of information relating to the oil disaster in the gulf oil disaster. This includes reports on the incident itself, scientific reports on the wildlife affected, and a detailed history of the response and cleanup efforts undertaken by governments, private companies, and individuals. It also describes ongoing efforts to rebuild the coast and the Gulf ecosystem."

In SOAN249 today we briefly touched upon genetically altered Salmon, I looked into it more tonight--here's what I read. It seems like a crazy idea, like we talked about in class the Salmon are eating and being treated not so much as fish but another species. Fish live in the ocean, and Salmon are carnivorious, the fact that we are feeding them corn and other plant based materials, furthers the absurdity of the idea. Its taking an animal and reconstructing not only the biological make up but reconfiguring the behavioral patterns and 'lifestyle'.

British Petroleum when the oil got spilled in the ocean. Note: it is also just a practice of using this Diigo website

An interesting piece that highlights the need for sustainable fisheries. This article discusses the damage deep-sea fisheries have done to ocean life; sea life at the bottom of the ocean is significantly slower than other forms of fisheries.

An interesting article related to overfishing of sharks and the progress of their conservation. Animal club lobbied this past spring to pass a ban on shark fins in Oregon, and it's nice to see that legislators are getting on board to protect a portion of ocean biodiversity.

Solomon, Steven. 2010. Water: the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization. New York: Harper. Steven Solomon's book Water: the epic struggle for wealth, power and civilization takes a look at how the control and efficient use of water has shaped human society from the ancient past to the present. With a look at water's influence in history from ancient civilizations to modern day, in his book, Solomon stresses that beyond the high value of precious resources such as oil, the control of water is far more important to the development of powerful societies. Weather through oceanic knowledge/skills or freshwater resource control/manipulation, throughout history water, Solomon argues has been the essential key to the rise and fall of great powers. Looking at different turning points in history, such as the rise of the Egyptian Kingdoms and Europe's establishment of the world trade system, Solomon shows how the control and advancements made in relation to fresh water control and/or seafaring highlights how water was the catalyst in each society's ability to gain and elicit control for a time being. With the support of his historical background in how water has played a keys role in the rise and fall of powerful kingdoms and nations, Solomon believes that water issues have the ability to impact political, economic, and environmental realities across the globe. Although lengthy, the book had a detailed amount of historical points that brought strength to his argument. I found his books to be very convincing in the fact that water played a pivotal role in explaining who in history were and were not able to rise to great power and take control impacting the direction of human civilization's growth. Throughout the past, water has shaped that way humans have developed. I agree with Solomon that it is by no means that this reality should change in the outcome of the future human history. For water related research or personal water related interest this book

Alternative energy on public land, and from the ocean: http://atlanticwindconnection.com/?page_id=37 The solar farm is a government initiative, the wind farm is a private business initiative. I'm relatively econ-illiterate, but I have a hunch that this might make a difference. Those who have a better understanding, what could this mean about the respective success of alternative energy projects?

Here's to some interesting art with plastic that washes up on OR beaches!