Payments for Ecosystem Services

For my term paper, I am choosing to do the powerpoint option.  I will be researching the topic "Payments for Ecosystem Services."  I will cover most types of ecological services, focusing on marine ecosystems.  Here is my rough slide outline.  I will also be including pictures.

Slides 1-3

What are ecological services

Definitions, types of ecosystems/communities involved

Slides 4-6

Who do they affect?

Incentives?

Pros/Cons?

Dangers?

Slides 7-10

Current programs

Are they successful?

Have they failed?

Slides 11-15

Focus on marine ecosystems

Are there current programs?

Programs being considered?

This is just a very rough draft.  I'm sure once I get everything together and add pictures there will be more slides and other subtopics I can include.

Climate Change.

Many people argue that climate change and global warming is a normal cycle of the planet and that humans have no influence in climate change and global warming whatsoever.  The opposing side of that argues that climate change and global warming is due to human impacts and that we need to be more conscience of what we are doing to our environment.

I would have to be somewhere in the middle.  I do think that global warming and climate change is something that is normal, since the earth has experienced climate changes in the past.  At the same time, I do think the impacts and effects of global warming are increased due to human impact.

(This use to be a colorful, thriving coral reef.  It has been bleached due to increases in sea levels and ocean temperature.)

I do believe that the impacts and effects will be detrimental to ecosystems, plants, animals and humans.    The earth is warming at such a high rate that plants and animals do not have the chance to evolve and adapt to their new, hotter environment.  Even animals and plants that prefer warmer climates.  As the planet heats up we will be seeing increased droughts, massive hurricanes, and devastating floods.  Many people do believe Hurricane Sandy, the drought in the midwest and tornados that rip through the midwest and south each year and linked to climate change and that they are getting worse.  I would have to somewhat agree.  I do feel like every year each natural disaster gets worse and worse and each year I think it was hotter than the last and each summer is more unbearable than the last.

The fate of the planet does concern me and it hurts my heart to think that some of the worlds most beautiful creatures won't be here in ten years because their habitats will be destroyed, due to global warming.

What the US and Europe would look like once all of the ice melted.

The Ranchers.

It is unfortunate that money seems to have so much power over everything.  It is especially unfortunate that money is more important than generations and generations of a family's ranch.  Large companies are coming in and pretty much giving ranchers no choice but to give up their land.  I don't think that is it really fair to have the ranchers in the Southwest exploited in a way that their animals are placed on an endangered list in order to avoid the ranchers making a profit on their land.  I don't think it is fair or ethical that the large investment companies are placing the blame on the farmers and ranchers in order to get access to their land.  

I was happy the rancher in Arizona successfully defended his position and his cattle, (that they did not degrade the area he was using) and that he was awarded some sum of money.  Hopefully this offset some of the legal costs that I am sure he endured.  

The Not-So Tragedy of the Commons

An example of a resource that people have access to but do not overuse would be public parks.  Public parks are put into place for people to enjoy, play, be outside in fresh air, exercise, walk their dogs etc.  The play ground equipment, picnic tables, public pools, public baseball, soccer and football fields are there for people enjoy and use at their leisure.  Public parks, along with the features found within them could be considered resources that are used by people who enjoy being outside, wanting to exercise etc.  These resources could be used or borrowed numerous times by numerous people and would never be overused.  Since the resources are being used, returned to the way they were found and reused again there is no tragedy taking place.

Too Many and Too Little.

First, I would like to comment on the graduate work done by Professor Ericksen.  I found the presentation very fascinating.  I was really interested in the content about women, men, marriage and the number of children that families have or want to have.  As I was reading this, I found myself asking a lot of questions.  

Why do women and men feel they need to have so many children?  

Why do men prefer younger brides over older brides?  

Do the women marry more than once like the men do?  

If people living in Niger already mentioned over population and feeling overcrowded why don't more families practice family planning or want to have less children?  

Instead, most women want at least 10 children and men want even more (even though these numbers may not be realistic).  Is it their culture? Are they educated in this area?  And if they were, would they still want 10, 11 or even 15 children?

This was all very interesting to me.  Maybe men and women in Niger feel they need to have a lot of children because infant death rates are so high and the average life expectancy is so young.  I could understand if you have five children and expect only four of them to live until age ten (only using this as an example) you would want to have as many children as possible.

This topic and these questions would be something I would definitely like to research a little more.

Here is a very interesting TED Talk about population and child survival.  It's only ten minutes, and worth a watch.

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth

In regards to the reading; I knew that scarcity has always been a concern and population growth is not making it any better.  It is kind of unsettling to think that population will out number our resources sooner rather than later and it may seem like we are not doing anything to reduce our carbon footprint, live sustainably or are trying to prolong our resources as much as possible.

From an economic perspective, once these resources become more scarce their price will sky rocket leaving them unattainable to many people.  This will not help the problem that developing countries are having in regards to their economy, poverty, infant mortality rates as well as social and environmental issues.  

It is all a viscous cycle and until we realize that we need to conserve our resources reduce our ecological footprint, mankind is settling itself up for ultimate and complete disaster.

Singer.

As a reflection on the pieces by Singer, Animal Liberation and Famine, Affluence, and Morality both pieces have the same underlying message, minimal suffering.  Animal Liberation highlights freeing animals from undue pain and Singer goes on to say that factory farms and animal experimentation cause animals undue pain therefore they are wrong.  Singer also suggests to stop animal experimentation and factory farms in order to stop these pracatices.  

In a perfect world it would be very easy to stop animal experimentation and factory farms but it is not always the most effective or most realistic route.  Just because these practices would be halted does not mean that all animals are free from undue pain somewhere else in the world.  In the case of factory farms, they control the majority of our food supply. I definitely agree with Singer that all animals should be free from pain and suffering but believe I also that it is our fault that they have pain and have to suffer at the expense of the newest cosmetic product, food supply etc.  

I think that having better guidelines, rules and more consequences for companies that test on animals and factory farms would be the better route to take.  If factory farms had guidelines and rules as to the minimum amount of land that is required for x amount of animals, requirements on the size of pens and better living conditions then I think animal suffering would be minimized.  As for animal testing is concerned I definitely think that using an animal to test out a new type of mascara is wrong; why don't we test on the sex offender down the street that watches your kids walk home every day instead? Oh yeah, because he/she is a human and thats wrong.  Well I'm sorry but causing an animal to suffer is just as wrong.

I was also left wondering how Singer would feel about using animals for clothing, such as wool, cashmere, mink etc. Or how mink is used for false eyelashes or the ivory "trade" in general.  These animals suffer just as much, practically being skinned and ripped apart alive and are only killed for their fur or their horns; the rest of their bodies get tossed into the trash or left to rot.

As a disclaimer, I am by no means a vegetarian or vegan.  But as an aware, educated human being I try to make a conscience effort to not support companies that test on animals, try to buy "free range, organic" if I can and I will never, ever buy a cashmere, wool or any type of clothing or cosmetic product that uses animal fur.

In Famine, Affluence and Morality Singer as the same perspective on human suffering as he does on animal suffering.  I, too, think suffering and poverty should be prevented as much as possible and I think that countries that have the means to help poverty stricken countries definitely do not help out as much as they could.  I agree with Singer in the sense that not everyone can claim to be oblivious to what is going on in the world and that our priorities are not in line.  For example, we should not build another rail system when millions of people and children go without food, water or shelter day in and day out.  However, I think that it is difficult to delegate and guarantee that help goes to the actual cause and that we should be helping the system that caused poverty in these countries.  In my opinion if a country has that many suffering and poverty stricken people it is not the people's fault, but it is the system that lead to these horrible circumstances and that is what needs to be fixed first.  If we do not fix the problem at the top then the problem at the bottom is only going to get worse.

Nature and the Wilderness.

I have read some works by Cronon before (I can't remember titles off hand) but I have studied his work and the more I read it the more I feel like him and I have the same values, the same beliefs and the same attitudes toward nature.  Each time I read something he has written I get a little girly crush on him.

That's supposed to be me after reading some writings from Cronon…

Awkward.

Anyway.  Having only lived in Tucson my whole life I would like to think that Tucson and the surrounding areas are in tune with nature and that many residents here appreciate nature more than the average city dweller does.  Think about it. Many people have the mountain ranges around Tucson to explore; there are lakes south of us; and various outdoor activities that people can par take in like mountain biking, hunting, skiing, rock climbing, camping and hiking.  These are places where people and go and enjoy being outside, within nature and I would like to think that people who live in Tucson take advantage of these opportunities and do not take them for granted.  

I remember growing up and visiting Mt. Lemmon all the time.  My family and I would go up there nearly every weekend, it was great.  I always remember my mom telling me "Don't take anything from the forest because if everyone took something from it there would be nothing left."  Basically she was saying to enjoy it but leave it as it is.  I still think of that to this day.  One day my husband and I were in Sabino Canyon and two little boys had a handful of rocks and sticks that they were planning on taking home.  I was interacting with them and I told them that if every visitor took something from Sabino Canyon there would be nothing left!  

That didn't go over well with their parents but hey, I tried.

I also think that nature does not have to be hiking, camping, mountain ranges, lakes etc.  Take people who live in New York City for example.  A huge city.  Buildings as tall as can be and gardens few and far between.  A trending topic in NYC is rooftop gardens where people can grow their own food, flowers and herbs.  Even though this may not come to mind when people think of "nature" or "wilderness" it still being outside and sometimes the only area people in big cities have to go to enjoy fresh air. 

Sugar. Ah, honey, honey.

Who knew that sugar had so much history?  Most people in the world eat sugar everyday and probably do not even think twice about where it came from or its background.  When I was little (and most kids are probably this way) I always wanted candy and sweet things that had a lot of sugar in them but who knew that there is actually a process that goes into making sugar crystals.  The process of making the actual sugar crystals starts from the actual plant, sugar cane, which is a grass.  After the sugar cane grows and matures, it is cut and drained of its juices by chopping, grounding, pressing or pounding the sugar cane grass.  After all of the juices are collected, heat is added to the liquid that contains sucrose.  Evaporation occurs, leaving behind very concentrated sucrose.  Finally, after the concentrated sucrose cools, it leaves behind how we are use to seeing sugar, in its crystallized form.

Aside from the process of making sugar, the actual sugar cane grass is thought to have been around since 8000 B.C and was first domesticated in New Guinea.  It is fascinating to think this agricultural staple has been around that long.  Even though sugar cane has been around for a long time, it is very difficult to grow and climate conditions have to be near perfect.  For example, in the Mediterranean region, sugar cane was being grown in the northern areas as well as the southern areas and also being grown in the summer.  It was difficult to grow sugar cane in the northern parts of the Mediterranean because the growing season was so short and sugar cane needs quite a while to grow and mature. Sugar cane also requires a lot of water, tropical to subtropical climate and very little temperature fluctuations.  In the southern parts of the Mediterranean long and hot summers made it difficult to water the sugar cane and keep it growing.

Fast forward to the 21^st century and sugar is everywhere.  There are probably very few things in the grocery store you can buy that do not contain some sort of sugar.  In a political ecology sense, sugar is the cause of many controversial topics and can be related back to our discussion about capitalism, social justice and equity.  In Brazil, sugar cane is a leading crop and can be tied in with big companies exporting the sugar from the area and paying the farmers and workers who cut and maintain the sugar cane plantations very little money.  It is very much a capitalist market in which the main goal is to maximize profits, with very little cost to the companies, no matter how bad the working wages and conditions are.   Sugar cane is also grown in very few places around the world and since the demand is high, suppliers can charge as much as they want for their sugar, knowing there are few markets to choose from.

Sugar cane farm on the island of Negros in the Philippines.

http://www.reap-canada.com/international_dev_4_3_3.htm  (where I got my picture)

Capitalism, Equality and Social Justice.

Personally, I do not think capitalism, equality and social justice are compatible.

 For one, the main goal of companies is to maximize profits.  If equality was compatible with capitalism, there would be no price differences and companies would not care about maximizing their profits.

On the social justice side, capitalism definitely is not compatible with social justice because companies will pay the lowest wages possible, and have the worst working environments in order to make the most profit on the product they are selling.  Take Apple for example (nothing against Apple, I am actually writing this blog on a MacBook and have an iPhone…).  The working conditions of this company is no secret, it can be read all over the news.  Yet their computers start at $1,000 and their phones at $600 (rough estimate on both).  But yet the people working to assemble these phones and computers are barely making a living wage and are working awful 18+ hour days, with no vacation, benefits, breaks and half the time they don't even go home at night to see their families.  At the end of the day it is all about the profit for the company and if they can pay low labor wages and use outside resources to get these lower costs which increase profits then they will.

Get to know me.

This is the first time I have ever tried a blog and let me tell you… it's a little strange.  I do not find myself to be very website or Internet savvy so it may take me awhile to figure out this whole blogger thing.  Anyway, I'll just go ahead and introduce myself and that can be my first ever blog post.

I was born and raised in Tucson, AZ and that is also where I currently reside.  I am a first semester junior and my major is Public Management and Policy with two minors in Environmental Studies and Marine Science.  I am not a traditional student by any means.  I graduated high school in 2008 and even though I attended college right after, it has take me a while (and a couple semesters off here and there) to really figure out what I want to do.  Sometimes I still think I have no idea what I want to do and that can be frusturating.  However, I am very interested in environmental policy and would like to go to grad school one day and pursue a career in marine affairs and policy.

…. Basically, I want to save the whales and other marine animals, as well as protect their environments and spread awareness about conservation and sustainability.  Other than that my hobbies include cleaning up after my three crazy dogs.  I have two cocker spaniels and a hound mix.  I also like to hang out with my cat, she's pretty much the light of my life and also spending as much time as I can with my husband of almost three years.

Happy blogging everyone.