Wednesday 17 December 2014

Human Impact on the Environment





Chapter 3.2 and 3.3  Please read text and do the Provincial Exam Study Guide pages 59 to 69 within the pdf.

Key words: 
Sustainability
Habitat destruction
Habitat fragmentation
Deforestation
Soil degradation
Soil compatcion
Soil remediation
Resource exploitation
traditional ecological knowledge
Native species
Foreign species
Invasive species
Proliferation
Competition
Predation
Disease and Parasitism
Habitat Alteration

Our lessons looked at the effect of urbanization on natural habitat and was a reflection on the effect of Human impact on global ecosystems.  We were introduced to wilderness dude and city chick and examined the sweetspot between the wilderness and the city.  Next we watched the Story of Stuff, a sobering look at the resource based economy.  Finally we reflected that it is actually possible to design a city for sustainability and even in our own city of Vancouver, we see recent examples of sustainable city planning such as Habitat Island.  This landscape and the wetland next to it attracted shorebirds, river otters, herring.  And one day, in 2010, a gray whale wandered into False Creek.  Perhaps it was following the scent of herring which laid its eggs on the shores of habitat island.  Many thanks to Margot Long, the landscape architect of Habitat Island and also JB MacKinnon who gave a lecture about rewilding. He shared the video about the gray whale.

Try the provincial exam study guide questions, the sample exams from the ministry website, and then attempt this quiz of chapter 3