PDS AP Environmental Science 8th Period 2010-11

China began planning to build the Three Gorges Dam along the Yangzi River in 1919 by Sun Yatsen. Although planning took decades, this monumental dam (the world’s largest hydroelectric dam) is finished with most construction, and hopefully it will be in maximum use within a couple of years. In a hydroelectric dam, the flow of water [...]

Yes, I had to do it. I try to teach environmental science without preaching, but this one topic is hardest for me to avoid. There are probably hundreds of other posts out there on the topic, but I still feel the need to let this out (sorry as it is a bit long with the [...]

Yesterday in class, we learned about how harmful oil pollution can be on the environment. We never really knew the extent oil pollution would have on the environment until the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound occured in 1989. History: The Exxon Valdez spill occured in Prince William Sound in 1989 when the [...]

Today we watched a good bit of the PBS documentary Empty Oceans, Empty Nets. Feel free to click around the movie web site if you want want to explore the issues further. What were the main points? 1. The Problem. Yes, we seem to be overfishing the oceans. In the last 4 years, numerous articles [...]

Some scientists have estimated that there is 315 billion pounds of plastic floating in the oceans. There is not an island of plastic, as some rumors say, but more of a soup of smaller particles of plastic and ocean. Out of all the plastic in the ocean, only about 20% originated from ships at sea; the [...]

On any given day, each one of goes to the bathroom at least a few times, and most likely without any thoughts of where our waste is going or what it will become. After venturing to the Mallard Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility; however, what happens when we flush, at least for me, is a much [...]

Flooding, as most people know, occurs when there is too much water from rainfall or runoff. It is important to note that it is a “natural phenomena,” but that humans have made flooding worse. Floodplains: Floodplains are very fertile areas along a river that occasionally floods, depositing minerals and nutrients along its banks for plants [...]

Despite the fact that most of the Earth is covered in water, there is a large dearth in the amount of water available to humans. Most of this is due to 97 percent of water being salty and most of the remaining fresh water being stuck in glaciers and ice caps. However, in specific areas [...]

In class on Friday we discussed the water, or hydrologic, cycle.  The water cycle plays an important role in all of the previous nutrient cycles we have discussed in class.  The three largest reservoirs of water are, 1. Oceans, 2. Ice forms (glaciers/caps), and 3. Groundwater.  Although water makes up the majority of our planet, [...]