After taking the Diagnostic Ch 1-3 from “Build Your Proficiency” my scores were all 80%
and above which was higher than I expected. I took a few science classes in high school
and my first years of college; I didn’t know I would recognize some key terms and
problems. My highest was in Chapter 3 “Economic approaches can be used to reduce
environmental pollution and natural resource degradation” This part I remember in my
class as I did a research paper on writing many ways to reduce environmental pollution
globally.
I loved learning about the different people that have contributed to different
environmental movements over the years. One of my all-time favorite people to learn
about was John Muir which he wanted to protect the natural resources of the West. Muir
came to believe in nature's inherent right, especially after spending time hiking in
Yosemite Valley and studying both the ecology and geology.
New Information I learned was the IPAT Model proposed by Ehrlich and Holdren in early
1970s as a way to calculate the impact of humans on the environment. This describes
the relationship between environmental impacts and the forces that drive them. The
equation for this is (I=PxAxT). The breakdown of this made sense and could lead to many
helpful pathways in finding solutions to environmental issues.
After completing my proficiency test, what I thought I knew was correct at all. I think may
have only gotten 7 or 8 correct out of the entire test. I plan to pay a bit more attention
to my reading g material throughout this course. So far the reason material has been
been interesting and right at the beginning of the chapters I found interesting
information about the worlds population. The two challenges I think we gave is pollution
and poverty. Poverty has been and still is on a all time rise...and the resources are
getting more scarce. More people are dying of hunger and it seems to only be getting
worse. With the world populating at the rate that it’s going, it’s no doubt we’ll continue to
see more of this. Pollution is another challenge I think the world faces on a daily basis.
Air pollution is one of those things that little to no people are interested in hearing
about, until affects them or someone close to them. Most people believe that the whole
“going green” is only for recycled items but it’s also meant to decrease the things that
pollute our fresh air.
After this week I realize I did pay some attention to my teachers in high school thank
goodness. Two major environmental changes would be like climate change there is so
much to learn about why and how this is happening our animals and nature are being
affected the most by climate change I think and another one is pollution we all know
how the world is being polluted in the many different ways that is is happening. Our
vehicles, and our waist being some of the major factors in the pollution the world sees. I
actually just refreshed my memory mostly this week I think I am going to enjoy this class
it’s already got my attention and that is a rare and hard thing to do when it comes to
school work and taking different classes I am definitely looking forward to the up coming
weeks in this class.
The build your proficiency was really an eye opener on how much I forgot and how
much more I need to learn. I really need a refresher and I think this will help me. I also
think that the more I read the more I think will come back to me. Two environment
changes we face would be climate change and pollution. Pollution is one that I think of
the most I think it is because there are all types of different pollutions air,land, and water
pollution.
