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Weekly Blog #5 - Population, Urbanization, & Sustainability

The human population seems to have expanded each day. New homes, apartments, offices, and other major architectural developments keep on appearing in major cities like San Jose and Sunnyvale. Additionally, it feels like there are always more people around cities. Though, to be fair, the Bay Area attracts many people in employment and education. The technology industry has increased dramatically and has offered opportunities for people looking for employment in that industry. According to Career Outlook, the technology industry was the fastest-growing industry in 2023 and is set to increase 19.5% by 2033.  Furthermore, another factor that contributes to the rapid growth of the population is migration to urban areas. People move to new cities and countries to find better opportunities or start fresh. As people take advantage of these opportunities, cities would have to expand housing, infrastructure, and transportation to support the increasing population of people in the cities...

Weekly Blog #4 - Sustaining Forest & Aquatic Biodiversity

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After learning more about aquatic biodiversity, I found it very interesting that humans have explored only about 5% of the ocean so far. The ocean has millions of species, and many of them have already been discovered and studied. Researchers are still discovering the ocean and finding new species. For instance, they have recently found the bumpy snailfish around 2025. Even though the species was found in 2019; researches identified the bumpy snailfish recently. This deep-sea fish reminds me of a blobfish, which is one of my favorite fish.  A major takeaway I gained from AP Environmental class I took back in high school was that human activities had a huge impact on the marine ecosystem. Human activity, such as pollution, overfishing, and dumping, harms sea life and their habitats. Overfishing affects the food web, and that can reduce the population of sea animals later on. Pollution and dumping can harm the habitats of sea animals. These harmful effects can reduce these speicies p...

Weekly Blog #3 Biodiversity

  After reading the New York Times   article, it made me think differently about how protection and wildlife management workers do their jobs. Before, I used to think that park rangers made sure people follow the basic rules of parks and protected the safety of tourists. After reading and learning more about wildlife protection workers taking care of invasive species, just like the pythons Amy Siewe hunts for. Now I realize how dangerous and deeply involved Amy and other wildlife workers' efforts to protect the lives of other species within the ecosystem.  Whenever I go to public parks around my neighborhood or on the San Jose College campus. I see lots of "Do not feed wildlife" signs labeled around the parks. I don't think many people pay much attention to those signs and still feed squirrels or leave scraps of food left on tables. The food that we give to wildlife could harm their digestive system, or rely on humans to feed the animals. One time, I fed a goose a pie...

Weekly Blog #2 - Sustainability and Critical Thinking

The word sustainability can mean a lot of things; however, in the use of context of environmental use. It could mean reusing items and being more cautious in the choices we make. For instance, buying products with less plastic wrapping, being cautious of how much waste we throw away, and being mindful of the items we use. Even these small choices may not have a huge impact on the environment, though it can help reduce the amount of waste we discard, slowly improving the condition of the environment over time.  A few ways I practice being sustainable are by using a reusable water bottle and recycling soda cans and plastic water bottles. Furthermore, I don't really go out and buy clothes unless I need to. A recent trend I have heard is "Fast fashion," and it is where people buy something new each time. This can cause a negative impact on the environment because consumers would buy clothes every month and toss away old clothes or wear them less. This causes a cycle of overco...

The First Blog

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