Application Assignment 1: This Land Is the Only Land There Is

Section 1

Robinson Mayer has been studying the environmental and human impacts on the one Land we have earth. Mayer links both to the new climate changes happening in the world, in which he summarizes his findings in the article, This Land Is the Only Land There is. In the article, humans are obtaining the land and resources on the land. Humans are using the land to obtain food, freshwater, pull out carbon, and live their lives.  The land humans are occupying are producing large amounts of green-gas pollution such as fossil fuels, gas, and oil. By occupying such large amounts of land, we are also obtaining the potential net primary production for food, energy, fiber and our own selfish needs. Potential net primary production is a result of photosynthesis, when the plants combine with sunlight. Humans are either occupying the land for this plant growth, eating plants or things that eat plants taking away the chance for production. We obtain these plants by eating large amounts of red meat like cows who eat grass. The main issue is that humans are occupying too much land which needs to be for trees and plants instead to positively impact climate change. 

The way Mayer presents the environmental impacts of climate change on the earth puts into perspective how damaged our world is becoming. The article discusses the land temperature significantly rising, more than 1.5 degrees Celsius and as the land temperature rises, so does the earths. This decreases cold weather or cold land areas like icebergs. These areas are homes for the cold animals like polar bears, penguins, etc. The biosphere has two environmental impacts. When the temperature of the biosphere rises, there is more evaporation. The causes the land to dry out, and also offsets carbon levels. Extended periods of time when the land is dry can cause random forest fires and heat waves. 

The sad part is that human health is going to be impacted due to the environment changes, most of which are our faults. The negative effects the environment have been showing. The more land humans occupy, and with the exponential growth of the human population, eventually we will be too large for this earth to occupy. The land also isn't meant to be all for us, humans need to understand that.  The land temperature unless further actions are taken will increase by 10 degrees fahrenheit. Their are already farming issues due to the current climate change. This drastic heat increase will cause vegetation to die off meaning we will not be able to produce nearly as much food as the human population needs. This will lead to risk of food shortages and famine. The increase of heat will dry out water sources and cause mass thirst and dehydration effects on human health. 

This image shows what our earth is heading towards (desserts, no vegetation)  if heat temperatures and climate change continue to rise. (image is not mine and is taken from pixabay)

Section 2

The human impact on land compared to human impact on the plastic industry are similar and different in many ways. Humans have the control to change the earth to leave a positive legacy instead of a negative one. Both issues are mainly due to human impact and less natural causes of the environment. One similarity is the land issues are due to overcapacity of humans and the plastic is due to overconsumption, meaning both solutions mean to cut back. Humans are taking up too much land as discussed in the article which is reducing food rates. Plastic is taking up too much room in the ocean killing animal species. Plastic bags are not biodegradable meaning when they are being degraded the chemicals going into them are polluting the earth. Climate change is due to pollution from the excess produce of fossil fuels as discussed in the article. Both issues are due to the ecological footprint concept. The ecological footprint is the concept of how a person, group, or organization occupies the land.The more plastic we use and the more land we occupy the less nature we have to support ourselves.

The differences are humans taking too much of the one land we have has greater  environmental effects than the plastic issue. The plastic issue is an action by humans factoring into several of the negative situations on earth. While the human population expanding on land and population wise, is a lifestyle humans will continue to live and harder issue to change. Plastic has had more improvements, however humans continue to use excessive amounts of plastic bags, and bottles. 

The plastic build ups forming in the oceans (image taken from wikimedia commons)

Section 3

Being a student at Keene State College, I can see where the school can improve and implement on issues to help positively affect the environmental and health issues described earlier in my post. It used to be in previous generation humans actually cared for our earth because we appreciated how much it gave us. Now especially as a college student, other priorities are factored in such as school work, social life, and jobs. It's part of the world we live in but we can change this by having a mutual respect for our earth like we do for our friends, families, jobs. It takes understanding this is a larger issue than yourself and that the efforts just to reduce meat. The dining commons could serve less red meat options at keene state so we aren't killing animals that are grass fed. This also would promote kids to eat healthier just because it's the only food choice available. Lloyds in the student center sells tons of food and drinks in plastic bottles and containers. We could reduce the bottles or containers sold by putting them in reusable containers. Students could then bring their reusable containers for their food or drinks next time. The school book store could see more reusable water bottles and containers as well. There is plenty of unused land across campus that we could plant trees or plants on.

Plant or tree being planted into the dry ground (image taken from pixabay)

Resources source:

•  slides 4 and 5 from Module 2; the human population
•  Definition and understanding of biodegradable: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-does-biodegradable-mean-2538213

• Ecological footprint:https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/