PDS APES 8th Period 2009-10

Here, in two 10-minute segments, is a recent 60-Minutes report on the accident in the Gulf of Mexico and a link to a report on progress (finally) capturing some of the escaping oil: Part I: Watch CBS News Videos Online Part II: Watch CBS News Videos Online

Day 23 (May 12): Check out this 3 minute report from ABC’s World News: and here is a great interactive history lesson on major old spills from the NY Times.

I doubt many of you are still checking this since the AP exam is over, but here are some Gulf oil disaster updates for those that might be… After Setback, BP Scrambles to Find New Solution http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126629347&sc=17&f=1007 Sopping Up an Oil Slick with Castaway Hair (“hair sausages?!”) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126536482 And, here is the slick viewed from [...]

Alright, I know I post a lot of stuff on here, but I just spend some time on stumbleupon.com and I stumble upon lots of relevant stuff. Take this for instance. It is a really helpful model showing how all of our trash ended up in the middle of the Pacific ocean in the gyre. [...]

Hey guys, I just stumbled upon this cool website about our use of the Great Lakes: Water life It’s a bit dramatic and biased, but if you are looking at it for nothing else, it has cool music and graphics.

Hi folks, You all may notice the fish tank is empty this week.  Some of the non-AP environmental students and I drove up to the NC mountains to release them. If you want to know more, check out the blog post on it: http://pdsblogs.org/apes509/2010/04/18/free-at-last/ *There is a sweet underwater video clip of the fish swimming [...]

Letterman and Moore Here is a video of Captain Charles Moore on the David Letterman show. It’s pretty interesting and they discuss the danger of plastics in the water. Enjoy!

This is for those that missed our most excellent field trip Monday and for those that want a good review.  I made this 6.5 minute video podcast a few years ago, but it still hits all the highlights:

We’ve mentioned effluent several times in class while discussing water pollution.  I’m a little confused as to what it actually is… I know we labeled it as the “discharge of pollutants,” and that makes sense considering how we labeled the material being released into the water in the decomposition zone of the oxygen sage curve [...]

Alright yall, this could not be a more perfect current events issue for what we are talking about.  Its got algal blooms, cultural eutrophication, overfishing, food webs, dead zones, D.O., and government intervention of course!  Its pretty much exactly what we are talking about but a real world example.  Crazy picture too. http://reefbuilders.com/2010/03/08/algae-blooms-threaten-choke-baltic-sea/