Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Assessing Natural Resources and Environmental Regulations by Andrew Curry

Environmental Studies, PHS 100 
July 29, 2014
  
     Scientists, ecologists, environmentalists and many people concerned about our planet are constantly seeking new ways to assess natural resources in ways less damaging to the environment. Prioritizing the management and restoration of natural resources and the environment is often a difficult task, given that there are other competing priorities in today’s society. There is no single approach  or answer for conducting assessments, implementing,  restoring, or minimizing the impacts of the reconstruction. When  an approach is chosen in assessing our natural resources it must be selected, timed, and designed to meet the needs of a specific goals and the capabilities of  of completing goals for both government policy as well as the civilian sector.

    For example, minerals in soil can be indicators for deposits containing economically valuable minerals, such as gold, silver and copper just to name a few. So assessing these rare earth elements deposits are of greatest interest for both political relations and the global economy. Supported by imagery, soil conditions can be assessed before, during, and after the growing season. In this way, farmers can better evaluate critical needs such as irrigation, nutrient supply, and cultivation allowing increases in their crop harvesting and eventually profits. Capabilities for working together between farmers and environmentalists at multiple scales and across different social and physical environments are not well developed. There is such a lack of cooperation that opportunities for two-way learning between farmers, researchers and  policy makers that if they could come to a resolution farmers could develop more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to produce and harvest.

      As the human populace grows we continue to stress our ecosystem and consume natural resources at an alarming rate. We as a society need to establish guidelines and regulations in order to sustain and leave the planets to many more generations to come. I believe we have become more conscientious about the effects we have on our planets and have started to develop ways of minimizing the damage we do. One example would be the regulations we have in place for logging, as a result the logging industry has suffered tremendously. In the Pacific Northwest logging companies can only take a certain number of tress that regulations allow. In addition after taking those trees the logging company must replant up to ninety percent of what they have taken in the area. The replanting of the trees is a great way to restore our natural resource of wood and shows that companies are becoming more conscious of our resources.

     Another example of regulations would be the multiple regulations put on sea fishermen. Crab limits have been put in place as well as seasons being shortened. This has been done so that the crab population isn’t depleted and goes extinct. After all as humans a lot of us enjoy some tasty crab every now and then, I know I do. These regulations are put in place for populations and species to have time to regenerate and recuperate. Once a species is wiped out it won't come back. Everything in our system is connected, so if one species goes away for good many more could follow in the wake of its destruction. Therefore as humans we need  maybe not to create more regulations but, perhaps continue to improve on regulations constantly making them better and better in order to preserve the great creation that is planet Earth for ourselves, our children, grand children and so on.


Resources

Dematte, J. A. M., J. Morelli, E. Nelly, and R. Negrao (2000), Precision agriculture applied to sugar cane cultivation in sao paulo, brazil, in Second International Conference on Geospatial Information in Agriculture and Forestry, vol. 2, pp. 388–394, Lake Buena Vista, Florida

Shah, Anup. “Stress on the environment, society and resources?.” Global Issues. 18 Sep. 2001. Web. 29 Jul. 2014. <http://www.globalissues.org/article/214/stress-on-the-environment-society-and-resources>.


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