4-18-17

The first sentence I chose to quote is “Appalachians, or at least non-Cherokee Appalachians, sometimes are represented as being exploiters of the environment; at the same time, they also may be characterized as having a strong sense of place.”. This quote is in Michael Ann Williams article "When I Can Read My Title Clear". I chose this sentence because I find it interesting that the people of Appalachia have two stereotypes. In my perspective, I see the first one to be partially true and partially false. They are thought to exploit the environment which I think is partially true because a lot of the communities want mining to produce jobs or use nature to promote tourism. I find it to also be partially false because a lot of people in the communities fight against this because they want to protect their homes and community. The second stereotype of characterization is that the people of the Appalachians have a strong sense of place. I agree with this because most people in these communities don’t leave or travel anywhere so this makes their homes the only place they know and they are very attached.

http://blog.okfn.org/2011/09/06/freeing-train-data/

The second sentence I decided to quote is also from Michael Ann Williams article. “More to the point, even if the non-Indian settlers had wanted to exploit the environment, their ability to do so was limited by the difficulty of transportation.”. I chose this sentence because to me it is saying that the stereotype of people in the Appalachians exploiting the environment could not be true because the transportation in and out of the mountains severely limits the ability to exploit it.

http://www.sunset.com/travel/outdoor-adventure/national-parks

The third sentence I quoted is from T. Young’s article. “As land acquisition began in late 1925, the property that would become the park was held in more than 6600 separate tracts, all of which had to be purchased and vacated”.  I chose this sentence because I find the subject controversial. Parks are very important but is it fair the remove the current residents of the land needed to create them. I think that if the government offered an appropriate amount of money to the residents then maybe it would be less controversial; however most of the time the residents are offered an extremely inadequate amount of money for their land.

Williams, M. (2002). Culture, Environment and Conservation in the Appalachian South. Board of Trustees

of the University of Illinois: Illinois.

Young, T. (2006). False, cheap and degraded: when history, economy and environment collided at Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Journal of Historical Geography: Pomona.

4-11-17

The first sentence that stood out to me in this article is “The total production of natural gas has increased by more than 30% during the past decade.” (Environ. Sci. Technol). This sentence grabbed my attention because I find it amazing that this percentage has increased so dramatically. I think that the use of natural gases is very important and is changing energy use in a huge way.  However, I think that drilling and fracturing described in the same paragraph as this quote is too harmful to the environment.  Since this kind of extraction is so harmful and invasive to nature I think that the benefits may not be enough to justify it.

http://blogs.idahostatesman.com/natural-gas-drillers-get-pemits-from-state-for-payette-county-wells/

The second sentence that I decided to use as a quote is “Elevated levels of methane and other aliphatic hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane in shallow drinking water wells pose a potential flammability or explosion hazard to homes with private domestic wells.” (Environ. Sci. Technol).  I chose this sentence because I feel like not enough people are educated on the water contamination to extraction of natural gases. If more people were educated on this repercussion, then maybe there would be more rules and regulations to protect water. The protection of water against contamination from natural gases is not only important to the environment but also to people because it is very dangerous.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2013/05/13/federal-government-expected-to-unveil-fracking-regulations-for-public-lands-soon/a-natural-gas-drilling-rig-operates-as-natural-gas-piping-rises-from-underground-outside-rifle/

The third sentence I chose because it really sums everything up, it is “Our survey of the literature has identified four plausible risks to water resources associated with shale gas development and hydraulic fracturing” (Environ. Sci. Technol). The fact that there are 4 risks just stated in this article alone should tell people the dangers of gathering natural gases in the ways described in the article has way too much of a risk. Hydraulic drilling and fracturing is harmful to all of nature and not just our water supply, but our water supply is the biggest issue. It causes contamination and even explosions in homes due to the gases contaminating the water being flammable.

Vengosh A, Jackson B, Warner N, Darrah H, Kondash A. (2014). A Critical Review of the Risks to Water Resources from Unconventional Shale Gas Development and Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States.file:///C:/Users/akoch/Downloads/Vengosh%202014%20Review%20of%20risks%20to%20water%20resources%20from%20fracking.pdf

4-4-17

The first sentence that I chose was “This multilayered region is increasingly the focus of debates pitting the short-term economic value of coal and timber against the long-term value of a diverse forest system and topography”(Howell). because it reminded me about what we talked about in our North American Environment class. We talked about how one of the ideas the new president is trying to pass is additional mining in the mountains which would create additional jobs for the communities that need it. Whether I like the presidents views overall or not, I did not agree with this one. Yes, it will create jobs but they will be short term ones, and this will also aid in the deconstruction of nature in those areas.

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2013/jan/20/king-coal-underground-economic-engine-routt-county/

The second sentence I chose is “For projects that radically transform ecosystems, the checklist approach of federal legislation designed to protect air, water, wildlife, prime farmland, and a narrow range of cultural resources is inadequate.”(Howell).  I chose this one because there is a lot of truth to it. I agree that there are inadequate laws and regulations regarding the protection of our environment from industries that damage the environment. I know that in some areas there are rules that companies must leave the environment that they do their mining/logging in the same condition or better than before they started the project.

The third sentence that I chose from the article is “The prime locations for ginseng are found on the north-facing, wet sides of these depressions.”(Howell). I chose this sentence because I have heard a lot about the ginseng plant from my sister and people I work with, but I have never really thought about what it looks like or where it comes from. In this section of the article I especially liked this sentence because it included a detailed description of the type of places you would look for it in the environment. I think that this plant has many holistic uses for it and society needs to be more aware of where the supplements or ingredients they use come from.

http://identifythatplant.com/virginia-creeper-and-ginseng/ginseng-3/

Howell B. (2002). Culture, Environment, and Conservation in the Appalachian South. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Chicago.