Energy Part 3

For the number one spot I would have to say is solar energy because Nicaragua it is almost sunny all of the time expect for the occasional rain fall. This is a perfect energy source for the country because it simple and cheap. The most expensive part of solar energy would have to be the storage of it. I don't think the size of the is bad I think it's a fair size, Nicaragua is also in a great location where they can get sunlight, however they do not have all of the resources ythat are needed but that won't change the fact of that this would be a great source of energy for them.

For the second place I would have to the would have to be wind energy it may not be the cheapest type of energy source to install but in long term it would be a great investment. The climat in Nicaragua is good for having this, I think that the country is located in a great place for something like this and they have the resources to have it in there country. 

In third place is nuclear energy. The reasoning why is because it is very costly, Nicaragua does not have funds for nuclear power. I would have to say the the climate is relevantly good and same with the location of the country and the size of the country I would say is okay. Still I don't think it is a safe why to produce energy and again it is very costly. 

Currently the government is trying to install wind produced energy and have already started using geothermal power as a energy resource. 

I ranked them the why I did on the facts of what I think would be safe for the country, what would be the easiest why to get energy and what cost less because Nicaragua is not the wealthiest country. 

Energy Part 2

The type of energy source that is used in Nicaragua is geothermal  energy they are also working on wind energy and are trying to get that going. The use the geothermal energy to as e all know to provide energy to the cities and towns, however Nicaragua is one of the only countries in Central America to have a low energy use. They are also trying to get wind turbines going, like I said before. To provide more energy for the people of Nicaragua to use. It has a major impact on the country because it is not a very wealthy country, so having a energy source is very important, it has a major impact like o said before. It cost the country about $60 million in the last 15years or so. 

Energy Part 1

Nuclear energy: pros, it has relatively low costs other than building the the power plant, they provide a stable base load of energy, create low pollution however the nuclear waste is very harmful and has a high energy densit meaning that it releases ten million more amount of energy than burning fossil fuel. Cons, the nuclear waste posses has a huge threat to the environment and is dangerous to humans, difficult to find a place to store the nuclear waste, the plants emit negligible amount of carbon dioxide into the air and meltdowns pose as a threat if a plant does go boom the blast radius is 300km. 

Solar energy: pros, it's  renewable energy source, sustainable, it's also very environmentally friendly, refuses electricity costs and low maintenance. Cons, expensive to install a solar panel, energy storage can be expensive, I can be associated with pollution do to the nitrogen trifluroide and surlfur haxafluroide that is found in the panels and exotic materials certain solar cells require expensive and rare material found in nature.  

Wind energy : pros, renewable energy source, space-efficient, low operational costs however some wind turbines need more maintenance than others and cause no pollution. Cons, unpredictable do to it needs wind to work, costly to put a few of them up and noise they create a lot of noise when operating. 

Landslide in China

The devastating landslide in China has had a major effect on China's communities where these landslide has occurred. One example is the mudslide that had happened in Zhouqu China. during this mud slid on August 7, about 1,200 people where left dead and about 490 where still declared missing. According to the Xinhua news agency that this was the worst landslide to ever happen in the past 60 years. A geological risk survey was taken of this area back in 2002 which warned the people of Zhouqu China that of disasters like this are going to happen. The CIGEM told the southern weekend that the report that was taken of the area showed that there are at least 140 danger zones where these kind of mud slides are bound to happen, such as the one that occurred in August. Which makes this area a serious threat to the people who live there.  

Waikiki Beach

1) Some of the causes that have caused the erosion at Waikiki beach are when the state removed a jetty out of the of the beach which increased the erosion process and sped it up. 

2) Some of the attempts that where made to save the sand of Waikiki beach was bringing in 24,000 cubic yards of sand to replenish the sand that has eroded way. However a year after the sand was replaced it had disappeared a year after it was put down. 

3) Economic impacts: Some economic problems that have come with this was the waste of money that came to replacing the sand in the beach which was eroded away after a year. So things like that have caused some problems with ye economy. 

Social impacts: One is the erosion of a famous beach which is visited by 1,000's of people.

Environmental impacts: there has been huge environmental impacts do to this erosion of the sand on Waikiki beach. Such as losing some wild life that may live in the sand such as some types of crab. 

Glacial Retreat

Part A

1. Antarctic glacier behavior: every summer there is a melting period where the the ice melts and opens up much of the land. Since then records began about 50 years ago the temperature has risen about 2.5°C which has caused the ice of the glacier to melt rapidly. Do to the the Antarctic environment has had dramatic effects on the wild life that relies on the glacier. Around 14,000 km2 of the glacier has melted and about 84% of it has retreated because of this the Antarctic glacier is shrinking. 

Glacier National park glacier behavior: the glacier in the national park forms when the  snowfall exceeds summer melting. It retreats when the melting out places the new snow that has fallen. The glacier has to be about 25 acres for it to move and less the glacier will not move.  

Himalayas glacier behavior: 
The Himalayas are the youngest and the worlds highest mountains and have the largest glaciers outside of the polar ice caps. The glaciers on the Himalayas cover about 33,000 km2. This region is called the water tower of Asia. The glaciers on this mountain feed some of the major river in Asia. The temperature in the area increases 0.22 degrees every 10 years. So this acceleration in temperature has caused, but in the northwest region of the mountains the temperature has risen 1.6 degrees between 1901-2002. Due t this major change in the temperature it has caused the pattern snowfall on the mountain.

2.Environment:  Well the worlds mountains bear somewhere between 150,000 to 200,000 glaciers and nearly all of them are shrinking do to the increase of temperature. Also to add to the the freshly fallen snow cannot make up for the snow that has been lost, the glaciers just tend to retreat up slope and grow smaller. The mountain glaciers powerfully demonstrate how the worlds climate is changing.Do to the melting of the ice it creates a naturals hazard cant affect the water sources and can change the landscape in which that they are surrounded by.
Social: So since the ice is retreating this mean the less snow related sports people can play on a mountain side or hike or climb. As a direct result of this is that there will be less people coming to the mountain side lodges, and this leads to income loss for the people that own these lodges.
Economics: The melting ices has caused floods to near by cities or town which has cost a ton of money to repair the damages that has been done.

Part B

It will have a great effect on the tourism because there are many companies that are based off of the glaciers. Lots of them we'll lose lots of business and most likely go out of business. So things like the Alaskan cruise will not have the things that people want to see when they are on the cruise. 

Part C

Some impacts that melting glaciers can have on the environment overall is rising sea levels which can cause flooding on coastal cities. It also shows how drastically the climate on the earth is changing and what effects is having on the glaciers. 

Land use and agriculture in Nicaragua.

1. In Nicaragua about 1.76% of land is used for permanent crops with in the country. So about 42.76% of the land is used for agriculture and about 26% of the land is covered in forest and about 17% percent of that has been cut down since 1990. About 13% is used for the urban community across the country, in the big picture that is a a lot of land that is used.

2. Monoculture: 

Pros; cheap production, market driven and high productivity for commercial crops. 

Cons; depletes the nitrogen level in the soil, causes environmental damages, displacement of local crops, less food being produced and reliance on fossil fuels and chemicals.

Polyculture:

Pros; faster sowing, less pest loss, better falvour and nutrition, fertility grown on site, better pollination and improved yields.

Cons; slower harvest, difficult to calculate income and predict results and seed loss/ hight up front seed cost. 

Slash and Burn:

Pros; easy to clear land, very effective, little cost.

Cons; causes a lot of co2 to go in to the atmosphere, wreck's the land and can cause forest fire. 

For each of them it does not cost a lot of money to so however it does have a huge impact in the environment and cost a lot to repair the land if something goes wrong (Slash and Burn).

3. the common agriculture used in Nicaragua is polyculture and the crops that they grow are coffee beans, cotton, bananas, sugar and livestock. The current state for agriculture in Nicaragua is i guess alright there is not anything major that is affecting the growth of the crops in the country.

Flooding in Brisbane Australia

1) The flooding in Brisbane was caused mainly by humans effect do to the dams that are built along the river. The dam operators some decisions by neglecting the forecast of the further rainfall and not coming up with a scenario to see what heavy rainfall could do to the dam. So because of that mistake it resulted in a flood which devastated the city. 

2) Some of the social impacts of the flood are that it stopped access to the city by air and by land, it also cut off health services things that are a associated with health are; food poisoning, people getting sick from drinking the water and other diseases that may come about from the flood.

Some economic problems that will arise are that it cost the cites and town about 13 billion dollars when there was loss of production and infrastructure destruction. Also do to the flood the food prices had spiked up, while there was a huge scope of the rebuilding could add a price raise throughout the year. 

Some environmental impact do to the flood are that many species have been killed while other thrive to survive, but the ecosystem will bounce back from this disaster. Other problems that have come up are that water ways have been impacted the most because they have been eroded and contaminated and littered with debris. Do to this many animals that lived in the water are now dead. The flood has caused just havoc for the environment. 

3) the government is preparing for potential floods by getting awareness program to teach people what to do when a flood may occur. 

Desertification in Botswana

1) Desertification: This is the process by which fertile land becomes a desert and is typically a result of a drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.

2) 80% of the country is covered by Kalahari desert, however it is not a true desert because it is covered with vegetation and has about 650mm of rainfall in the north a year and has about 250mm of rainfall in the southwest a year. The country is also 582,000 km2. There also has been an increase of human an cattle population growth with in the country in the past 2 decades or so. Also the country is located in the Tropic of Capricorn. 

3) human are making it worse in this area because they are over stocking and growing a lot more crops then the area can handle do to the low rainfall. Also there has been an increase of population of humans and cattle in the country and animals grazing the land; eating the vegetation. 

4) Some of the problems that have come about in trying to solve the problems in Botswana are or could be not having the resources to do, what is needed to be done to protect the environment and the people. Or closing of area where people can not grow crops and let cattle graze the landscape.