The Dam Debate
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, John Muir, a naturalist, and Marsden Manson, an engineer for the city of San Francisco, engaged in a heated debate over the construction of a dam in Hetchy Hetchy Valley. Muir wanted to preserve nature for the future, so he objected to the dam because he felt it would destroy the beauty of the area. On the other hand, Manson believed building a dam would provide water and electricity to the thousands of people who lived in the city of San Francisco, and this would preserve the well being of the human race for the future. Both men had good points and arguments to support their views; however, in the end you have to look out for your own kind. If there is a choice about the well being of the human race or nature, I believe there is only once choice to be made – the future support of the human race.
John Muir supported saving Hetchy Hetchy Valley for several reasons. He believed building a dam would close the area to the public and restrict access for people to enjoy the outdoors through camping, hiking, or just getting in touch with nature (Muir). Manson, however, believed that there was more need to provide a future source of water and electricity to the tens of thousands of people who lived in the city during that time (Manson). It is possible that Manson saw the influx of people moving to San Francisco and knew the population would explode over the years and thus, saw the need for preserving some basic essential needs for human survival. He felt that preserving nature for a few hundred people who might go hiking or camping was far less important than preserving the human race. We all know that electricity is not an essential need to survive, because people have lived by fire and candlelight for centuries, but water is essential to survival.
Another argument that was discussed was building a dam would exclude the public to the watershed above the dam. This was only partially true because it would only be closed for about three and a half months of the year. Yosemite Valley had been doing this for decades to keep Tuolumne Meadows clean. Closing the area for a brief time as Yosemite Valley does would be for the same reason – to keep the watershed clean.
The primary purpose of Friend dam is to help regulate the flow of San Joaquin into available uses of its environmental, wildlife, and farmer’s impacts. The dam controls the flow of water delivery where it needs authorization first before the schedule can release any delivery waters into canals, steam, and wild life habitats. There will be agreements and many protocols to do with it first to avoid unnecessary spilling. There are 5 release schedules which include quantity of water available, time water, flood control requirements, release schedules from storage reservoir above Millerton Lake, and water user requirements. These benefits of flood control, storage management, modification into Madera and Friant-Kern Canals, to stop salty water from abolishing thousands of lands in Sacramento and throughout San Joaquin Delta, as well as deliver masses of water into agricultural lands in 5other counties in the San Joaquin Valley.
The topic the essay is mainly talking about is whether to initiate the San Joaquin River Project. I am with Bill McEwen on his article, “River Plan Too Fishy for my Taste Buds.” I chose this author because I do not think the government should spend more money on the river rights project. The author convinced me that he is more credible and can be trusted by all the experience he has. The article was published in Fresno Bee on March 26,2009 and is surrounded by farms so the people there know what will happen if big businesses were to start a project. McEwen demonstrates how this project will impact the city in a negative way by stating ethos, logos, and pathos.
The one feature common to the Hoover Dam, The Mississippi river and the three gorges dam is that they all tried to control nature’s swings, specifically in the form of flooding. Before the Hoover dam was built, the Colorado river “used to flood spectacularly…but after 1900 the Colorado provoked a vehement response” (Pg 177). The response was simple, but large. The U.S. built several large dams, including the Hoover dam, on the Colorado to decrease its flooding and increase power and irrigation. Unfortunately, just as human control of the Colorado’s flooding increased, its organisms and habitats were detrimentally influenced, and the water became more and more salinated.
The bond between humans and nature, it is fascinating to see how us has humans and nature interact with each other and in this case the essay The Heart’s Fox by Josephine Johnson is an example of judging the unknown of one's actions. She talks about a fox that had it's life taken as well as many others with it, the respect for nature is something that is precious to most and should not be taken advantage of. Is harming animals or any part of nature always worth it? I see this text as a way of saying that we must be not so terminate the life around us. Today I see us a s experts at destroying most around us and it's sad to see how much we do it and how it's almost as if it's okay to do and sadly is see as it nature itself hurts humans unintentionally
The negative aspects of Glen Canyon Dam greatly exceed the positive aspects. The dam’s hydroelectric power supply is only three percent of the total power used by the six states that are served by the facility. There is a surplus of power on the Colorado Plateau and with more and more power-plants being created in the western hemisphere, Glen Canyon Dam’s power is not needed (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss). Although the ‘lake’ contains twenty seven million acre feet of water, one and a half million acre feet of water are lost yearly due to evaporation and seepage into the sandstone banks surrounding the ‘lake’ (Living Rivers: What about the water supply?). The loss of that much “water represents millions, even billions of dollars” (Farmer 183). If the government were to employ more water efficient irrigation practices, as much as five million acre feet of water per year could be saved.
In “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments,” Thomas Hill tries to explain why destroying nature is morally inappropriate. His main argument is that rather than asking whether this action is wrong or right, we should ask what kind of person would destroy nature. Beforehand, one view is that since plants have right or interests, one should not violate their interest by destroying them. But Hill’s view is that we cannot address the interests of plants in order to criticize those who destroy the nature, because this approach is good for sentient beings. In this essay I am going to examine whether sentient is a necessary condition for interests to be counted? My upshot is that Hill’s view is correct.
Over the years Glen Canyon Dam has been the spark for hundreds of debates, rallies, and protests. These debates have been going on for almost forty years now. The fact is that the dam created a huge lake when it was built, this is what bothers environmentalists. This lake is called Lake Powell and thousands of people depend on its tourists for income. The lake also filled up a canyon called Glen Canyon, some people say it was the most beautiful place on earth. The anti-dam side of the debate has its basis in the fact that Lake Powell is currently covering Glen Canyon. It was very remote so few people got to witness its splendor. This is probably the reason the dam was built in the first place, ignorance.
Anaphylaxis shock occurs when someone who is sensitive to a substance they are exposed to which results in constricted airway and possible inability to breathe. Parents with children that experience any form of allergic reaction most notify the day care provider so appropriate precautionary steps are taken to maintain a safe health environment for these children. As allergy conditions have slowly increased within our society day care providers have taken more aggressive action to protect these children by extending a “peanut free environment” within the school setting. The percentage of children who experience their first allergic reaction outside the home has increased by 77% over past years daycare providers need to be trained and prepared to handle all types of allergic reaction situations. Steps that a provider and parent should take are as follows: 1. Food allergy action plan, 2. Inform all staff, 3. Post child’s name and allergy,
In the early 20th century, California became the battle grounds of one of the most famous water wars in U.S. history. It was the dawn of progress for the city of Los Angeles but progress requires an exorbitant amount of money and resources. Unfortunately for the citizens of Owens valley, the leaders of the growing city would target the river that provided thousands of ranchers with water as their primary source for water.
Allergies are hypersensitive immune responses to substances that either enter or come in contact with the body. In layman's terms allergies are, a food or natural substance. These include pollen, ragweed, peanuts, shellfish and pet dander are recognized by the immune system as a threat.
Sociology has been around since the Age of Enlightenment, as both the French and other European men desired to learn more about society. This widespread desire to evaluate the science of society led to sociology, which is now officially defined as the study of the development, structure and functioning of human society. Sociologists can study virtually any topic as long as it has a relation to a society, which means sociology can be argued to include virtually every subject or thing one can think of.
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
Every day, people enjoy foods like bread, peanut butter, and cheese; foods like these have become commonplace in normal diets. It’s probably hard to imagine life without them, but many people are unable to eat these foods and others without uncomfortable or dangerous bodily reactions. As many as 15 million Americans may suffer from food allergies ("FARE" 3), which result when a person’s immune system attacks harmless food proteins with potentially fatal consequences. Because of this, food allergies affect every aspect of a person’s life and need to be taken seriously by both the affected person and those around them.
Sociology is exemplified by the study of a society or societies. Society is shaped by set of tradition that will shaped the behavior people by an assortment of rules that govern individuals within a certain society in their daily transactions and interactions. After watching and analyzing these videos and concept, this has given me a greater insight on what can be taught and learned.
Though Blackstone created these thoughts well over 200 years ago, they are more relevant now than ever before. He reasoned that “changing environmental conditions” require us to restrict traditional freedoms and property rights in the name of public welfare and equality (Desjardins, 104). Due to dwindling natural resources and rising concerns of pollution, those previous rights and freedoms can no longer exist if the welfare of posterity is to be protected. To say that millions of unborn humans have a right to anything, even before existing in our world, is an odd concept. However, this sentiment conveys perhaps the single most compelling argument for why an anthropocentric approach to environmental ethics is in fact, the most justified. It is the instinct of all living beings to prioritize oneself and ensure a future for those to come (Acari, 2017). Though this justification for protecting the natural world might seem selfish or short-sighted, it is in fact, the nature of all life to preserve self-interests. In response to the counterclaim that plants and animals should be regarded with natural rights like humans, Blackstone would rebut that these beings are incapable of “free and rational thought” (Desjardins, 103). This is most likely in part due to his purely anthropocentric perspective that human life alone is worth consideration. Thus,