User:BrittanyTH/sandbox

Sunrise behind the clouds

Discussion Board Discoveries

This discussion board used the context of the below cited book to spark conversation on the issues.

Component 1: Overview of the Sonoran Desert

The readings imply that we as humans tend to not connect to nature or even realize that there is more to nature than what most realize and that our ignorance to it has effected and harmed nature. Even they mentioned in their first books they also misjudged nature and did not find it to be as wonderful as they do now, but now they realize that humans blind relationship with nature is killing it.

Component 2: Developing a Sense of Place

Many people would say that hunting for sport should be banned. I also don't understand the purpose of trophy hunting, I personally find it unethical and cruel. But I do know that in some parts of the world, regulated trophy hunting is actually an attempt at protecting the wild animals that are being hunted. Which sounds very counter intuitive, but people who go trophy hunting in Africa pay large sums of money to the conservation group who then allows them to hunt but with some restrictions. The money they pay go towards efforts to safeguard the animals from poaching, and also provides the resources needed to care for animals and make sure they don't go extinct. It sounds horrible, but with all the money that is made from trophy hunting, the conservationists are able to maintain the balance of nature.

Component 3: Geology/Geography

The book mentions the Sonoran desert may have evolved throughout time with transition periods from Tropical deciduous forest (Grandmother) to thorn bush (Mother) then into the Sonoran desert we know today. Then it mentions climate change which makes me think that this transition may be due to change in climate over the years (Global warming), along with the extinction of certain animals. Which this would make sense, but also be concerning because if this pattern continues the land here would be just as desolate as people think it already is.

Component 4: Water (Gregory McNamee and the Gila River)

This type of writing style is helpful in creating awareness on these topics where many people may not be informed or educated on. Writing more of a narrative of the history of nature and current events makes it easier for most to understand what exactly is going on rather than pushing facts and data on people. Although being too poetic is also a deterrent for those searching to understand the environment because poetry can be too creative and wont depict a consistent message to everyone and come off as subjective rather than objective.

Component 5: Water Continued

McNamee mentions the dams as one of the things that need to be removed slowly, my guess is that that is one of the things people have done to nature that is for selfish reasons and not an intention to preserve. I don't know much of any destruction upon the the Sonoran, maybe when people build communities here there is some removal of nature. But there are plenty of examples in the world where we alter nature but not to benefit the environment, like the removal of pests or any animal completely. Or when dams are built to supply water and energy for us but it drains water away from another place.

Component 6: Sevigny and the Rights of Rivers

Sustainability which would mean we are trying to preserve what we have and continue to use our resources without losing them further. I think we could potentially raise our goals to try and reverse some of the damage we have done on the environment but that it kind of sounds like we are at a stalemate in this sense since we cant just tear down everything, the whole population wouldn't go for that, but we could at least incorporate more environmentally friendly aspects into our infrastructure.

Component 7: Human ecology of the Sonoran Desert

This issue is probably one of the harder issues to solve about earth conservation, once you tear apart the ground you disrupt nature, and the supplies we harvest cant be returned, but in addition to this mining also uses an incredible amount of water. This adds to the ongoing desertification of the Sonoran desert.

Component 8: Conservation Practices

I think restoring the desert here is way more complicated than just "replacing it" with so many people traveling in and out of areas and taking with them varying plants and animals, you would have to flat out ban such transportation. We do regulate what we can take across states, but I think they are usually only worried about invasive species. This desert seems to be full of life and sustains many different plants and animals, and That in my eyes doesn't describe a desert. Again, like we've said in previous discussions, I think people perception of desert is bare land and little life. but this bioregion is not lacking life.

Component 9: Salton Sea

I think at some point the farms getting more access to the water and dumping into it is what started the snowballing issue here. And one of the problems with it drying up is the toxicity the salty dirt leaves behind. Fixing this would cost a lot of money that government in California doesn’t want to pay, and especially with a pandemic they aren’t going to focus on this and focus their money elsewhere like they have been doing anyways. The pandemic just makes it worse. Along with more and more people abandoning the place it is essentially becoming desolate and toxic. This is a prime example of human arrogance, or maybe just ignorance at first and then arrogance amongst the local government not wanting to spend the money to recover it even though it poses a huge health risk to locals. Though the difference between this and the pandemic is that there is much more media attention on the pandemic than this. I have never heard of this issue and i even used to live in the Bay Area in California.

Component 10: History/Culture

She talks extensively about Yuccas, which just are the genus term for all the different shrubs and such of the desert, and how they "need space" which I thought was kind of a cute way of thinking about it, one interpretation of that could just simply be another way to think about a desert, not in a way where you think that plants are so spread out because of lack of water or inability to thrive, but rather just that they need space. The other way of interpreting that could also be just the opposite meaning there is so little water that they need such a larger area of soil to extract that little sum of water which explains why they are so spread out. Literature like this is slightly up to interpretation when its written like this I feel. She also mentions humming birds, and lizards, various other types of birds species which our book also mentions that there are a ton of different species of birds and fish apparently.