In Glenn McClure’s skype session, he starts by talking about the geography of Antarctica and how it is completely flat, making it very easy to get lost especially at night and in the fog. As the students ask questions, the things that caught my attention are that there are about 800 people living in the station right now, which I thought it was a much smaller research station than that. Also, the size of the seismometer, 5ft wide 7ft deep, that there is a difference in the sound of the snow crunch depending on the temperature, that there’s so much marine life but the land is barren, and that there are other stations doing other research related to Glenn’s but also not. He also talks about how the scientific data is hard to relay to the public and how he will help through music where people will wonder more when they heat it. Calling it terrible beauty and somewhere where human are not meant to be but because of that it strips away the distractions of life which sounds scary but at the same time freeing. His part in this research is quite unique and you can tell he is very passionate about it.
In The Heart of the Antarctic by E. H. Shackleton in the third appendix, I choose the scientific results of the western journey to analyze. In section three of appendix three is the results from the effect of the summer sun on different varieties of ice and snow. It talks about how when the snow falls in the summer at night it will either become a coating of ice or water. This water will collect into a hollowed hole and eventually from overflowing create a stream that, in this instance, flows to a cliff and roars off of a glacier. Also the noise that the ice falling off a glacier makes when it starts to melt and make icebergs during the summer. This made me think about the natural sounds that could possibly be in Antarctica since there’s not much noise there, relating back to the past reading about sound pollution. This also made me think about in Bromirski’s research on Ross Ice Shelf Vibrations when he talked about how the seasons affect the vibrations, relating to the science and arts.
In Bromirski’s research on Ross Ice Shelf Vibrations, he talks about gravity waves and their effect on waves and then their effect onto the Ross Ice Shelf. Gravity waves can sometimes be changed into free waves which make swells in the water that hit the ice shelf and create stress.
These waves make vibrations which can relate to the arts and sciences, by recording the different vibrations you can tell the season. An ice free summer has small icebergs and during the colder winters there are many more floating icebergs and that buffers the waves so that there are less vibrations hitting the ice shelf. These vibrations are measured in seismic measurements. This article makes me think of when you’re in a pool and you make waves and them getting so big they crash over the side but does not create any question for me to research.
In “Whisper of the Wild” by Kim Tingley he describes his trip to do research about acoustic data, the natural sound in Denali. He tells how human have changed the sounds of the world because of all of the noise we make from machines and such. These block out the noise of the raindrops and creatures which if we could cancel out the sounds of human nad take data we could be able to tell a healthy ecosystem from an unhealthy. He also tells how more recently natural sound is being seen as something we should be protecting. The sounds of humans can have a big impact on ecosystems, he uses examples such as whales fleeing sonar. This makes me wonder what other things this effects in this way, what other animals flee because if the sounds of planes or helicopters and does it change how they act and does it have an effect on their surroundings as well.
In “Land Divided, Coast United” by Josie Glausiusz from Hakai Magazine, she explains the issue of waste and clean water in Gaza and the issues between Gaza and Israel. She makes the point that there is over 36 olympic swimming pools dumped of sewage dumped into the Mediterranean Sea every day. This makes an increase in organic matter in the sea and could be very harmful to marine life. But the main point of this essay was that if Israel and Gaza shared their knowledge instead of preventing one place to function and make sewage plants and water plants then they would both make a lot of progress. I don’t relate to this very much but I do know it is happening in the world and even near us. This also makes me think why Israel won’t help Gaza with starting up the plant, if they have people monitor where the materials go then there would be no threat they were doing anything else with them.
In the short essay “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” by Terry Trumpest Williams, she tells the story of her experience living through the “The Years We Bombed Utah”. She starts off with background about her family of mormons and how her grandmothers, mom and 6 aunts and herself have all had mastectomies. They believed this was a result of bad genes, but made the connection that it was rare in mormon families. Then after she is told that her memories of a bright light when she was a child was really the result of a bomb testing she realized that this is where the cancer could have come from. Then she goes on to stand up for what the government is doing to the families around the bomb testings by protesting with other women. My family is not affected by anything like this or environmental concerns.
Strange Reappearance of the Once Vanished Green Sea Turtle
In this article by Ben Goldfarb from Hakai Magazine, he tells the story of the green sea turtles in the Caribbean. Goldfarb starts with the recent finding of a baby green sea turtle by Frank Burchall and his granddaughter on the east end of Bermuda. Burchall then brought the turtle to the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo where the aquarist was shocked at what had just been brought to him. Even though the turtle is found in other tropical places they have been hunted down to none in the Caribbean, making this an incredible find. Then, Goldfarb tells the history of the disappearance of the turtles on the islands in the first place. Back in the 1800’s, turtle soup became more and more of a popular meal. Turtles were taken by the thousands to be eaten and eventually they disappeared from that area. After decades with no sign of nesting green sea turtles, the efforts to repopulate them by Wingate and others also failed. Although it is unknown for now where the mother of the baby turtles found came from, the project to repopulate them 40 years ago could have been effective, learning this, Wingate says in an interview “There is always hope.”
This article is appealing to readers because it gives a sense hope to the dwindling world and the other species that are in situations just like this. If the green sea turtles can return, maybe other things can too.
From the “Skeptics May Object” and “So What? Who Cares?” text, what I would say the skeptics would say about my essay about the vines is that to take my argument and tell what others would “say against me”. Possibly by starting with a summary of a naysayer could make my argument more credible, also this could give me more to say in the end. By explaining why you should care about an issue and answering the so what can make a contrast to what you are arguing for. Answering all the questions can make it so people will more likely not dismiss your idea. Things skeptics would say abou the vines are, why do the vines on the building have any significance at all, what makes them important to the “wilderness”.
