Josef Elliott

Bio 105

Lab 3

Part 1Why do you think Carson titles this chapter “A Fable for Tomorrow?” Think about the choice of words in the title. Think about what fable teaches us and apply that here.

A.    A fable is a story about animals as characters. I believe she titled it this way so that the animals would be the main focus. Creating it this way would allow her to create a bond between the reader and the animal characters, which in turn when we saw the affects pesticides has on the animals it will hurt on a deeper emotional level.

1.    What did you know about pesticides before watching the Earth Days segment or reading part of Silent Spring?

A.    I have known about pesticides as far back as I can remember. I know that I used to think they were a good thing and kept animals and bugs from destroying crops. It wasn’t until biology my first semester of college that I learned of some of the affects it has on the environment. It does more that just protect our crops it kills animals, pollutes the soils, pollutes the waters, gets carried in the wind to other places and affects them, and even poisons our food.

2.    What do you feel so strongly about that you would want to fully dedicate yourself to it, producing a groundbreaking work of literature, film, music or other media, even if this risked your professional reputation and how others thought of you? Your answer can be hypothetical! Not everyone has a passion that they would carry this far.

A.    Hypothetically I would devote my life to finding a pesticide that would only target certain pests and would have no additional affect to other animals, plants or people. It would not pollute anything or kill anything it wasn’t intended to.

1.    Name four places pesticides exist.

A.    Fields

B.    Air

C.   Water

D.   soils

2.    What are two effects of DDT on birds and mammals?

A.    It poisons them.

B.    It kills a lot of their food sources.

3.    “Our aim should be to guide natural processes as cautiously as possible in the desired direction rather than to use brute force...Life is a miracle beyond our comprehension, and we should reverence it even when we have to struggle against it...Humbleness is in order; there is no excuse for scientific conceit here.” – Rachel Carson in Silent Spring.

Take a little time to define humbleness in an appropriate manner for this question before answering.

A.    ”having or showing regard for the decencies of behavior, speech,dress, etc.; decent:” (dictionary.com)

How can we exhibit humbleness in terms of our relationship to nature?

A.    We can do this by changing our nature to appreciate the environment and the animals. By changing the way we use pesticides or even pesticides at all.

Part 2 drawing of biological magnification example –

Part 3 –

Part 4 –

1.      Review concept of personal ecological footprint.

2.      Predict how many Earth's each person needs, if they all lived your lifestyle

A.     I don’t believe that my ecological footprint will be that great I try to recycle as much as possible. We also have solar panels. I even have a car that gets 28 miles per gallon.

3.      Calculate your ecological footprint using the,Earth Day Footprint Calculator (Links to an external site.) (http://www.earthday.org/splash_page.php (Links to an external site.)). Many other variables may come to mind as you do your assessment, or the questions might not "fit" your circumstance. Just do your best. It is probably best to ignore the donation request.

A.     

4.      How do you feel about this? Comment on your reaction in at least five sentences.

A.     I was extremely surprised. I honestly thought I lived a fairly simple life. I had no idea I had this big of an impact on the world. I never would have guessed. I find it insane even the amount of acres that I alone need. This is definitely an eye opener.