I personally want to grow strawberries. It is my favorite fruit and just tastes amazing and after talking to you seems like it is completely possible. Due to our hot, dry desert like climate, I went out to make sure that it would be ok to even grow strawberries in the desert and pretty much everyone was like no. After scrolling farther I found a few helpful suggestions from a person who just started growing his own strawberries for the first time. His suggestions after three years of trying was to make sure they get enough food, sunlight and start them in the fall not the spring, because it may be too hot for them to grow. Although I am going to start growing them in spring I am sure if I give them shade at times and hope the weather stays ok, I feel we will have a good crop and will be able to use this for the next three years because after reading it seems like the average life span of a strawberry plant is three years if you want large amounts of productivity.
After looking at a few gardening websites I see the best way to grow these strawberries is to have them on a raised bed, which is kind of what we have now with very nutrient rich soil. They said to make sure we used mulch and to have lots of organic matter in the fertilizer we use because it will allow the strawberries to grow quickly and produce the most fruit possible. Keep the beds well mulched, to control weeds and keep the fruit clean. Strawberries prefer a slightly acidic soil of pH 5.0 - 6.0. Avoid soil that has previously grown other berries or members of the tomato family (Solanaceae) to reduce the danger of viral diseases. Drip irrigation is preferred over overhead watering because it stops chances of fungal disease allowing the plant to live longer. A fortnightly spray with seaweed fertilizer improves the vigor of the plants. They recommend using the strawberries in jams or preserving them if it is our first time, because it takes time to perfect the art of growing strawberries, especially in such a hot climate. Some facts about them are that they contain a very high amount of vitamin C. Almost all their roots are contained in the top 3 inches of the soil. California produces 75percent of the nation’s annual strawberry crop, so what makes them think that I cannot grow it in San Diego. Strawberries are my number one goal but I will also be helping my friends with theirs although mine seems very difficult to do after reading about how much work it is to maintain and guarantee a successful crop.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
First Write Up
Aaron Rucinski
1/21/10
Environmental Science
Coal’s Impact on the World
For my project, I am interested in looking into the rising levels of coal and how it will affect the world as we know it. In the past, the United States was the number one user of coal powered factories and power plants, but now with modern technology, and lot of that has changed and become powered by petroleum. Another country took our place, China. China is the number one user of coals in all of their factories because it is much cheaper to use coal to power it than making nuclear power plants or hydro electric dams. Coal emits CO2 which is just further worsening the climate problem that people have been talking about for the past 10 years. This quote talks about how coal is such a necessity in China and is acting as the main supply of energy for the Chinese people. “China currently has more than 21,000 coalmines in operation, and around 2,000 coal-fired power stations, with plans to build at least 500 more. Zeng Peiyan, a vice-premier for the nation, said that coal output had doubled in the last five years, and experts predict that the country will burn 2.5 billion tons of the material this year.” While this is bad, it is said by the EIA that the coal production and usage in America is dropping drastically as the Untied States starts to switch over to other fossil fuels and alternative energies such as wind and solar power. Although things are getting better and coal consumption America is going down they are still producing a lot of CO2 like said in this quote, “The 77 million tons of coal American Electric Power burns each year pumps well over a hundred million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making it the nation's biggest polluter.” This coal pollution that is emitted is not good for anything, the earth, the plants and people. Due to Chinas need for coal power, pollution there is at an all time high. “China itself is suffering immediate effects as well. Smoking is already popular among the populace, and cancer rates are climbing rapidly thanks to the pollution, which is thought to cause roughly 400,000 premature deaths annually.” That is horrible and is a sign that things need to change quickly before they get any worse. That is why I want to research this and find if people are trying to fix b finding better methods to burn the coal without releasing so much CO2 or by just stop burning coal all together and trying to find a solution to the problem that has been in front of us for years.
-Mecanik-2009. "A New Green Idea for Dirty Coal Emissions - CBS Evening News - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010..
This gives a great idea on how to lessen the pollution from coal but it also gives good information on how much CO2 is emitted by the United States every year. It also talks about in depth the process of stopping the CO2 emittions and how they will be going about using a method called Carbon Capture.
-"Coal emissions blanket China with pollution." Independent news on natural health, nutrition and more. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010..
This article talks about the crisis in China, and how much CO2 is being emitted into the atmosphere by china alone. China has so much pollution from all of their coal energy, that it is acting as a blanket causing deaths, increasing cancer rates and lowering the life span of the Chinese populace.
"Coal consumption (most recent) by country." NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010..
This Chart gave me an accurate representation of how much coal is used in each country. It also allows me to figure out how much CO2 is being generated as a country and per person.This chart can be shown in many different ways whether it is a pie chart or a line graph. The pie chart in my opinion shows how more than 50 percent of the coal usage is done by either the United States or China.
1/21/10
Environmental Science
Coal’s Impact on the World
For my project, I am interested in looking into the rising levels of coal and how it will affect the world as we know it. In the past, the United States was the number one user of coal powered factories and power plants, but now with modern technology, and lot of that has changed and become powered by petroleum. Another country took our place, China. China is the number one user of coals in all of their factories because it is much cheaper to use coal to power it than making nuclear power plants or hydro electric dams. Coal emits CO2 which is just further worsening the climate problem that people have been talking about for the past 10 years. This quote talks about how coal is such a necessity in China and is acting as the main supply of energy for the Chinese people. “China currently has more than 21,000 coalmines in operation, and around 2,000 coal-fired power stations, with plans to build at least 500 more. Zeng Peiyan, a vice-premier for the nation, said that coal output had doubled in the last five years, and experts predict that the country will burn 2.5 billion tons of the material this year.” While this is bad, it is said by the EIA that the coal production and usage in America is dropping drastically as the Untied States starts to switch over to other fossil fuels and alternative energies such as wind and solar power. Although things are getting better and coal consumption America is going down they are still producing a lot of CO2 like said in this quote, “The 77 million tons of coal American Electric Power burns each year pumps well over a hundred million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making it the nation's biggest polluter.” This coal pollution that is emitted is not good for anything, the earth, the plants and people. Due to Chinas need for coal power, pollution there is at an all time high. “China itself is suffering immediate effects as well. Smoking is already popular among the populace, and cancer rates are climbing rapidly thanks to the pollution, which is thought to cause roughly 400,000 premature deaths annually.” That is horrible and is a sign that things need to change quickly before they get any worse. That is why I want to research this and find if people are trying to fix b finding better methods to burn the coal without releasing so much CO2 or by just stop burning coal all together and trying to find a solution to the problem that has been in front of us for years.
-Mecanik-2009. "A New Green Idea for Dirty Coal Emissions - CBS Evening News - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
This gives a great idea on how to lessen the pollution from coal but it also gives good information on how much CO2 is emitted by the United States every year. It also talks about in depth the process of stopping the CO2 emittions and how they will be going about using a method called Carbon Capture.
-"Coal emissions blanket China with pollution." Independent news on natural health, nutrition and more. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
This article talks about the crisis in China, and how much CO2 is being emitted into the atmosphere by china alone. China has so much pollution from all of their coal energy, that it is acting as a blanket causing deaths, increasing cancer rates and lowering the life span of the Chinese populace.
"Coal consumption (most recent) by country." NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
This Chart gave me an accurate representation of how much coal is used in each country. It also allows me to figure out how much CO2 is being generated as a country and per person.This chart can be shown in many different ways whether it is a pie chart or a line graph. The pie chart in my opinion shows how more than 50 percent of the coal usage is done by either the United States or China.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Summary of Article
Aaron Rucinski
1/18/10
Socratic Seminar
Our Socratic seminar was a great way to see everyone’s views on the environment. It allowed us to see how people look at the environment and how things are today. It was enlightening to see that everyone believes something needs to change whether it is us or the giant corporations so we can all be on the same page to protect our earth. It was really different to hear that the earth will be here way after we are gone and no matter what we do we can never destroy the earth, we can only hurt it and thus hurting ourselves. This path we are going on full of destruction and pollution is so small to the earth but could be an essential factor in the survival of the human race. The ideas that were brought up about community farms, food limitations and stricter food laws were all great ideas just hard to implement during these tough economic times and how cheap unhealthy food is ingrained into our economy and as I heard someone say during the seminar, “Our gluttonous way of life.”
Personally I feel we strayed way off of the article, we used it as a stepping stone to go on to talk about our own feelings using that as a example of things to change and what is needed to be done for the world to progress. It allowed us to see both the pros and the cons to mass produced food and how it may be good for the large scale farmers, the smaller scale farmers are hurt was well as all the people who eat all the pesticides and other hazardous materials every day. These are all issues that need to be raised and a question that was asked was how much would prices go up if we were to change our food production methods, who could fast food restaurants sell the food for the low prices at they are if they are having to pay for their food at such a higher price. These are all questions that were asked that are very hard to answer. Another big thing is getting people to change their way of eating, who’s to say that they never will until they are forced to whether it be diabetes or a new law, what will need to happen to cause the American public to eat healthy and maintain themselves better. In the end we were left with what the government should control and what they are able to control. Do they really have the right to control what people eat? Can they decide where you go for dinner? Those are not things the government can choose for you that is what a person can choose, whether it is to go to a Mcdonalds or to the farmers market to pick up some freshly grown fruit. These are personal issues that may need to be stressed more. In America it is accepted to be fat or obese, people do not look down on you because in most cases, people are just the same weight as you. We are in a country that the average weight of a person is growing every single year, where is it going to stop. Taking from the article, should we go back to our old way of farming or to go and make this public farming areas so people can eat all the vegetables they need and have all the fresh fruit they want or will that be an unachievable goal. In the end I really liked the Socratic seminar and would love to do more of them. I feel I learned a lot and it allowed everyone to voice their opinions and see what everyone else thought. I feel we need to work on letting everyone participating and not 2 people talking but that will be fixed with time.
1/18/10
Socratic Seminar
Our Socratic seminar was a great way to see everyone’s views on the environment. It allowed us to see how people look at the environment and how things are today. It was enlightening to see that everyone believes something needs to change whether it is us or the giant corporations so we can all be on the same page to protect our earth. It was really different to hear that the earth will be here way after we are gone and no matter what we do we can never destroy the earth, we can only hurt it and thus hurting ourselves. This path we are going on full of destruction and pollution is so small to the earth but could be an essential factor in the survival of the human race. The ideas that were brought up about community farms, food limitations and stricter food laws were all great ideas just hard to implement during these tough economic times and how cheap unhealthy food is ingrained into our economy and as I heard someone say during the seminar, “Our gluttonous way of life.”
Personally I feel we strayed way off of the article, we used it as a stepping stone to go on to talk about our own feelings using that as a example of things to change and what is needed to be done for the world to progress. It allowed us to see both the pros and the cons to mass produced food and how it may be good for the large scale farmers, the smaller scale farmers are hurt was well as all the people who eat all the pesticides and other hazardous materials every day. These are all issues that need to be raised and a question that was asked was how much would prices go up if we were to change our food production methods, who could fast food restaurants sell the food for the low prices at they are if they are having to pay for their food at such a higher price. These are all questions that were asked that are very hard to answer. Another big thing is getting people to change their way of eating, who’s to say that they never will until they are forced to whether it be diabetes or a new law, what will need to happen to cause the American public to eat healthy and maintain themselves better. In the end we were left with what the government should control and what they are able to control. Do they really have the right to control what people eat? Can they decide where you go for dinner? Those are not things the government can choose for you that is what a person can choose, whether it is to go to a Mcdonalds or to the farmers market to pick up some freshly grown fruit. These are personal issues that may need to be stressed more. In America it is accepted to be fat or obese, people do not look down on you because in most cases, people are just the same weight as you. We are in a country that the average weight of a person is growing every single year, where is it going to stop. Taking from the article, should we go back to our old way of farming or to go and make this public farming areas so people can eat all the vegetables they need and have all the fresh fruit they want or will that be an unachievable goal. In the end I really liked the Socratic seminar and would love to do more of them. I feel I learned a lot and it allowed everyone to voice their opinions and see what everyone else thought. I feel we need to work on letting everyone participating and not 2 people talking but that will be fixed with time.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
People i know
I asked and most the people in my family have been in the military, owned their own business, been in pharmaceuticals, sang or was an athlete for track or the olympics. Thats it, nothing agricultural but a lot of varying fields.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
One Thing I am Curious About
What is one thing i am curious about?
I am curious about how plants grow, and what certain things need to be done so they grow correctly. I want to be able to grow a garden of my own when i grow up and be proud of my yard and see how this can be a great learning experience to do that. I also want to know how the people affect the environment and everything they do to cause earthquakes and tsunamis and other horrible disasters. Last thing i am most curious about is just how the ecosystem stays in balance, how it checks itself and make sure everything works.
I am curious about how plants grow, and what certain things need to be done so they grow correctly. I want to be able to grow a garden of my own when i grow up and be proud of my yard and see how this can be a great learning experience to do that. I also want to know how the people affect the environment and everything they do to cause earthquakes and tsunamis and other horrible disasters. Last thing i am most curious about is just how the ecosystem stays in balance, how it checks itself and make sure everything works.
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