User:SalazarNadia/sandbox

The Sonoran Desert

Component I: Sense of Place

"Welcome to the Sonoran Desert"

The desert is not simply a sandy place, but it encompasses a wide variety of characteristics that are unknown to others. As humans, we have a limited understanding of the relationship between humans and nature./ Nadia

"Biomes and Communities of the Sonoran Desert Region"

The implication of how the classification of bioregions work and how scientific classifications work, imply just how broad and diverse nature can be interpreted due to the great diversity of geography and biota found here./ Nadia

Component II: Biodiversity

"The Upshot"

The right to existence should be granted for all living species, not just those who represent a meal for us. Preservation is a crucial part in our ecosystem, and getting rid of predators can only damage the cycle in which in entails./ Nadia

"Wilderness"

Nature has its own way to work, and its own means to why it does such actions, but if we interfere with them, we interfere with the cycle of life that comes along with it./ Nadia

Component III: Geology/Climate

"The Deep History of the Sonoran Desert"

The Sonoran Desert is enriched with much environmental and climatic history. The land holds the many stages that the Sonoran Desert has undergone to become the ecosystem we know of today. The biological community has had to adapt to the various changes the Sonoran Desert has gone through, from tropical to glacial ecosystems to the present day desert./ Nadia

"The Geologic Origin of the Sonoran Desert"

When speaking about a desert, one tends to immediately picture a dry, flat land. A place that seems incapable of sustaining any form of life. However, in analyzing the landforms of the Sonoran Desert, that image begins to vanish./ Nadia

Component IV: Water

Gregory McNamee, Life and Death of an American River

Legends have come to show the efforts people have put to place an explanation for what has happened in nature. It comes to show just how much the human race has made an effort to connect with nature, and to bring in a sense of familiarity with it./ Nadia

Chloe Sevigny, The Rights of Rivers

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Component V: Human Ecology and Conservation

Human Ecology of the Sonoran Desert

Throughout history, mankind has been known to dominate and own everything that surrounds them. Humans tend to act without taking into consideration the long term consequences that such actions may have. Instead, the focus is placed on the benefits of the moment. However, this nature has come to be changed as time progresses. Little by little, human nature becomes more aware of the land and its surrounding. It will be possible to suppress the impulse that we have as humans in order to survive./ Nadia

Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, "Conservation Issues"

The fundamental purpose of conservation efforts is to save humanity. The damages that have been done on the planet can heal within the course of a million years. Planet Earth would still continue on without us. It is us who will now longer be able to survive./ Nadia

Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, "Biodiversity"

Restoring biodiversity comes to a big expense for people. It becomes very difficult to restore biodiversity if we don’t have the resources to properly do it. Instead, the focus should be on all the human population to preserve biodiversity and not have to be placed in the situation of having to restore it./ Nadia

Component VI:Resource Use and Policy

"Will California finally fulfill its promise to fix the Salton Sea?"

If an action is not put into practice, we will be faced with repeating the same story in regards to environmental problems; as resources are beginning to be focused on environmental problems, something happens that we did not plan for, and those resources are taken away. If we continue this pattern, when will environmental issues be given the attention that they need? Are we going to wait until a massive climate-change issue occurs for there to be an emergency response?/ Nadia

"Will the Climate Crisis tap out the Colorado River?"

Adapting to change is not easy; it takes a lot of effort to achieve…To change that idea will take time, however, it could eventually be achieved. People can adapt to change, but the effort must be practiced in order to achieve it./ Nadia

Component VII: History and Culture

Mary Austin, "Land of Little Rain"

Water sustainability is a big concern within the desert, and the problem of disappearing water has been present throughout time./ Nadia

Yuma Folklore, "Why the Desert is Hot"

The Yuma Folktale seems to particularly emphasize the sunniness of Yuma, after all Yuma is the sunniest place on Earth./ Nadia

Carl Lumholtz, "The Pinacate"

For those who don’t live in the desert, their imagination runs wild in efforts of interpreting McNamee’s writing, but for those who have lived in the desert, it enriches their appreciation of the area in which they live in./ Nadia

Tohono O'odham song, "Salt Gathering"

In the Native American folklore, there always seems to be a direct relationship with man and nature… Nature is represented not only as it is but through various representations of higher power./ Nadia