The Great Plains Infographic

The Great Plains is a diverse region of states where climate and water are a large of life. Although, changing climates, including increasing temperatures are taking a toll on the biodiversity found in the Great Plains. Development for energy production, land transformations for urban areas, and economic pressures to remove lands from conservation are creating threats to natural systems. 

The Great Plains were given the name "dustbowl" because it was hit with drought during the 1930s when drought was so strong that high winds were able to pick up the loose top soil from the ground causing dust storms. New agricultural and livestock practices will be needed, species will need to adapt to habitat fragmentation, and planning efforts will be advised for increasing climate change.

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References:

 Traditions and Family Life. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://greatplains.weebly.com/traditions-and-family-life.html  

 Great Plains. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/impacts/greatplains.html 

 Dust Bowl. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl  

 National Climate Assessment. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/great-plains  

Mining: Buenavista del Cobre Mine, Mexico

Bienvinedos! The mine that we were given to research is the Buenavista del Cobre mine of mexico owned by Grupo Mexico and German Larrea Mota Velasco, the second richest man in mexico. The mine is located in the the northern part of Mexico near the city of Cananea in the state of Sonora. The Buenavista del Cobre Mine is among the world's largest open pit mines for copper in terms of reserves. Buenavista del Cobre Mine is considered Mexico’s worst environmental disasters in modern times because of a spill of more than 40,000 cubic meters of copper sulfate acid into public waterways near Cananea.

Our mine occupies Cananea which is a city of the state of Sonora in northern Mexico. Cananea is nicknamed the copper city in Spanish. This city is a rural/desert city with sub-humid Mediterranean climate where mining and industrial jobs are very popular. The type of mining that takes place in the Buenavista del Cobre Mine is open pit mining.  German Larrea Mota Velasco owns this mine, making him the 2nd richest man in Mexico. (Estevez 2014)

Here at the Buenavista del Cobre mine, high grade ore, gold, silver, copper, and Molybdenum are mined. (Buenavista Del Cobre Expansion - BNamericas)

The minerals like gold and silver are used for things like jewelery, and coins, while Molybdenum is used for things like missle and aircraft parts,  and copper is commonly used for many things like electrical generators, motors, electrical wiring, and radio and TV sets.

The mineral extraction methods used at this mine are those of open pit mining, also known as strip mining, where layers of earth and rocks are scraped away to get to the coal buried underneath. Doing this leads to soil erosion, destroys habitats, landscapes, and forests. It can pollute waterways when it rains by washing the sediments into waterways, and can create lots of dust and noise pollution. (Mining Impacts 2010). These extraction processes of the mine were to blame for massive tailings release in 2014 when a tailings dam failed at the mine and 40 million liters of copper sulfate were released into Rio Sonora. The mine's operators are not only blamed for the release but the incident was also not immediately reported to authorities. 3 million pesos or $230,000 are looking to be applied as the penalty. More control, emergency systems, and detection systems were recommended to be put in place since 88 schools in the northern Mexico state had to be shut down because of the dangers of contaminated water. ("Recent Tailings Failure in Mexico and Canada “justify Expensive and Time Consuming Permitting Process” 2014). People in the affected communities do agricultural and farming work and they now have trouble selling goods because of fears of contamination. (Wilton, Jen) “The are leaving us to die slowly,” claim residents in a Contributoria article titled “Mexican Mining Disasters- The Human and Environmental Cost.”

Overall the Buenavista del Cobre Mine has had a very negative impact on the environmental health and people around it. The fact that the mine tailing dam failed and a public water way was filled with toxins hindered the living and agricultural practices of many residents. The mining company came to an agreement with the federal government to support the community with water supply and resolve damages from the accident (Wilton 2015). According to the article “Mexico's 'worst Environmental Disaster in Modern Times,” by Jen Wilton, some residents are worried because they are yet to see this help. Despite this, hopefully this community recovers soon and miners are more aware of accidents like this happening. Precautions should be taken more seriously and control should be ready if something were to go wrong in any type of mine.  

Works Cited:

Wilton, Jen. "Mexico's 'worst Environmental Disaster in Modern Times'" New Internationalist All Posts RSS. 8 Jan. 2015. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. 

Estevez, Dolia. "No Apology From Mining Tycoon German Larrea For Worst Ecological Disaster In Mexico's History." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 2 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. 

"Buenavista Del Cobre Expansion - BNamericas." BNamericas. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

"Mining Impacts." Greenpeace International. 15 Apr. 2010. Web. 14 Jan. 2016. 

"Recent Tailings Failure in Mexico and Canada “justify Expensive and Time Consuming Permitting Process”." Rosemont Mine Truth. 18 Aug. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

 

 "Contributoria." Mexican Mining Disasters. 1 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

Biodiversity Hot spot: Philippines

Biodiversity is the different kinds of life found on Earth. It can measure the variety of species found in each of earths ecosystem. Biodiversity is important because the loss of it can result in a loss of resources necessary for the survival of humans(Lee 2010). The biodiversity hotspot that we chose is the Philippines and it is considered a biodiversity hotspot because there are over 7,000 islands and of all the wildlife on Earth, a large percentage of it can only be found on the Philippines.

Background Information:

Our chosen hotspot occupies the Philippines. The Philippines is in the Asia
continent and the latitude and longitude for the country are 11.8728° N, 122.8613° E. The capital of the Philippines is Manila. Tropical rainforest is the biome in the Philippines, which has a rich biodiversity. More than half of all the plants and animals in the world are to be found in tropical rain forests, threfore the net primary productivity in here is high.

Figure 1: A food web from oneocean.org

Discussion:

The Philippines hot spot provides the economic and natural services that any hotspot of extreme biodiversity would contain. A few of these things include fertile soil, fisheries, and cropland. The Philippines is a cluster of more than 7,000 islands where their waters are part of the coral triangle.
This biodiversity hotspot has undergone many impacts of environmental degradation. Since it’s of volcanic origin, the land has experienced active volcanoes. Earthquakes, heavy rain, and flooding by typhoons are a few of the other natural disasters experienced here (goconqr-Disaster Hotspot Case Study- Philippines). Land has also been destroyed by destructive resource use, conversion to cropland and mining, and human population pressure, having the highest population in southeast Asia, excluding Singapore (Ecosystem Profile The Philippines Hotpot 2001). “The Philippines is one of the world's most threatened hotspots, with only about seven percent of its original, old-growth, closed-canopy forest left. A mere three percent is estimated to remain in the lowland regions. About 14 percent of the original vegetation remains as secondary growth in various stages of degradation; these areas would probably be capable of regeneration if they are not disturbed further” (McGinley 2008). With such a high population and population growth, more of the land is going to be desired for agricultural use. Invasive species have also negatively impacted the wetlands of the philippines by interfering with the food web of giant cat fish, black bass, toads, frogs, the american bullfrog, and the leopard frog. Any sort of destruction has a severe impact on the Philippines hot spot because it has such a high rate of endemism. Endemism means a species is native or indigenous to that certain place. The Philippines holds 35% of the 580 recorded bird species, 60% of the 167 species of mammals, and 65% of the 10,000+ species of plants are endemic. The Philippines hot spot contains 193 threatened species and the extremely large amount of about 70% of the  21,000 record insect species here are endemic to this land, 65 endemic fish species, 160 out of 235 reptiles are endemic, and 85% of the 90 amphibian species (McGinley 2008). To conserve these critical species and extinction, protected land is crucial and enforcing that the land stays protected. To help increase the small amount of the 11% of land that is protected, there are organizations like cepf, who are a joint initiative that strive to protect hotspots in nature, that really focus on ensuring certain areas are properly protected through conducting research, investing, building awareness, and preserving the areas. They claim that ,"the National Biodiversity Conservation Priority-Setting Program convened a series of regional consultation workshops to identify, assess, and prioritize geographic areas that best represent biodiversity of the different centers of endemism in the country and to formulate the strategy and actions needed to conserve Philippine
biodiversity" (Ecosystem Profile The Philippines Hotpot 2001).

Figure 2: A KBA map of the Philippines 

KBA's are used to measure Key Biodiversity Areas

Conclusion:

In conclusion the citizens of the Philippines should stop destroying the land because of their lack of appreciation of the unique, endemic biodiversity that it holds. Resource management, financial commitment, and enforcement of laws needs to be stepped up before these special species begin to go extinct. The organizations that strive to conserve what the Philippines hold should be taken more seriously and the public should be more informed. If the people of the Philippines were more informed on what their land holds, they surely wouldn’t want to destroy it. 

Works Cited

 McGinley, Mark. "Biological Diversity in the Philippines." Biological Diversity in the Philippines. 22 Aug. 2008. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

 "Ecosystem Profile The Philippines Hotpot." Www.cepf.net. 11 Dec. 2001. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

 "The Philippines' Forgotten Resource: Seagrass and Its Management." The Philippines' Forgotten Resource: Seagrass and Its Management. 1 Feb. 2003. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. 

 "Biodiversity." Foundation for the Philippine Environment. 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

 Goldman, Lee. "A Biodiversity Hotspot in the Philippines." WorldWildlife.org. World Wildlife Fund, 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

 "GoConqr - Disaster Hotspot Case Study- Philippines." GoConqr. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. 

 "Tropical Rainforest in the Philippines." Tropical Rainforest in the Philippines. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.