KA BOOOM

Cherimoya is deciduous shrub or small tree that reaches up to 7 m tall. The tree flourishes in the coastal lowlands of Ecuador; is rare above 5,000 ft (1,500 m). In Guatemala, it is nearly always found below 4,000 ft (1,220 m It is sensitive to frost and must have periods of cool temperatures or the tree will gradually go dormant. It is cultivated in many places throughout the Americas, including California. Cherimoya's prefer a summer temperature of 65-80F, and a winter temperature of 41-65F. Cherimoya an be grown by seed, grafting, and air layering. Seedlings with 70F bottom heat germinate in about 21 days. Without heat, seeds may take 1-2 months for germination. Flowers are almost never pollinated by their own pollen, and without proper pollinators which do not exist outside its native range, cherimoya's must be hand pollinated. Pollen is generally collected from a few male flowers and stored in a small bag while it is used to pollinate female flowers. Pollen cannot be stored for more than a few hours before it loses viability. Flowers bloom from late winter to early summer, followed by fruit which ripen from October to May. Fruits are large, from 4-8" long, and sometimes weighing over 5 pounds. Harvest fruits when skin turns slightly yellow or pale green, or when skin gives a little to touch. The soil should be a porous medium that retains some moisture, but also maintains air pockets within its structure. It does best in low-lying, deep, rich soil with ample moisture and good drainage. A peat-based soil mix with sand or perlite added is appropriate. Soil pH requirements 5.6 to 6.0 (acidic) 6.1 to 6.5 (mildly acidic) 6.6 to 7.5 (neutral). The seed of this fruit are poisonous and can be used to kill insects.

BLAH!

Population: Enough of us now

The purpose of this article is to point out how population has been influenced by external and internal forces and how that will play a role in the future

• 25 September 2009 by Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich
• Magazine issue 2727

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327271.500-population-enough-of-us-now.html?full=true&print=true

• By 2050 there may be about 35 per cent more people on Earth than there are today.
• More people mean less food, less water
• There are only two ways by which population can stop increasing: a falling birth rate or rising death rates.
• Rise in death rates in southern Africa and Russia
• Indian Ocean tsunami killed nearly 250,000 people. Another 160,000 died that day of other causes, and the day's 370,000 births couldn't compensate
• 70,000 deaths caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945 outweighed the population growth of around 60,000
• the Black Death of the 14th century, which killed 75 million people and reduced Europe's population by 30 per cent.
• after 2050 the world will enter a new era when the population will shrink on many days.
  
• We will simply be having fewer children.
• There has to be a recognition, at the highest political level, of the importance of reducing birth rates
• Uganda's population,  growing from around 33 million today to 91 million in the next 40 years
• 2.3 billion people likely to be added to the human population by 2050

Addressing Our Global Water Future
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
Sandia National Laboratories
http://www.sandia.gov/water/docs/CSIS-SNL_OGWF_9-28-05.PDF

This study is about the management of water resources in the future

Many efforts over the past twenty-five years have focused on alleviating water
scarcity and providing clean drinking water and sanitation to effected populations
across the planet. These efforts provide valuable lessons and successful models for
new strategies and actions for new levels of crisis in the future.

At issue with industrial facilities are the quantities
of water withdrawn and the quality of water returned to the natural water system.
Industrial withdrawals of water are expected to rise by 55 percent from 752 km3 per
year in 1995 to 1170 km3 per year in 2025

this increase will come from the developing world as countries continue to industrialize.

Overall, about 80 percent of the world’s electricity production
comes from nuclear and fossil fuel plants, where large amounts of water are used to
remove waste heat from the processes. Several closely linked factors determine the
potential impacts on associated water demand

Why Britain faces a bleak future of food shortages

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/13/britain-faces-food-shortage

food shortages are a result of too little water and too many people. This article talks about the changes that need to happen in order to sustain life.

• Wheat prices across the globe soared by 130%, while shopping bills in Britain leapt by 15%.
• a global food shortage would drive up import costs and make food more expensive
• "We are going to have to produce as much food in the next 50 years as was produced over the past 5,000 years. Nothing less will do."
• bluetongue disease, a virus that affects cattle, sheep, deer and goats and is spread by midges.
• Other diseases like epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD) and African horse sickness are also spread by midges and threaten Europe and Britain
• About 40% of crops in Britain are vulnerable to destruction by weeds, fungi and insects,

Write up.

Paul Santillan

3/26/87

Environmental Science

Writeup

    100 years is a ling time for humanity. 100 years ago, polio threatened to wipe out thousands and thousands of people. The outlook was bleak and there were rumors that the united stated would never recover. 100 years in the future, the world will be a much different place than it is today. Food will be scarce and water will be in high demand, no doubt if wars have been fought over oil, wars will be fought over food and water. Humanity will be shrinking as a result to these non prime conditions. The reason for these shortages all stem down to population, in the next 50 years our population will grow to nine billion unlike polio however, population growth has no vaccine.

    I have had many ideas about what I could do to combine all of these idea into one product. I have come up with the idea of playing into the template of "yesterdays tomorrow". The house of tomorrow videos were once a platform used to showcase the technology that a company could provide. I want to make new house of tomorrow, but tomorrows house of tomorrow. Rather than diving into the bleakness of what possible futures we could have, I plan to make a house of tomorrow based in 2110 that showcases the perfection that 2120 will bring. Through the presentation the inherent issues of this dystopian future will become painfully apparent. Item such as in home food synthesizers will promise to alleviate the rubber taste of "normal" test tube meat.

    If population will rise to 9 billion by 2050, and that population increase alone, threatens to destroy our current way of life, If we are to believe that industrial withdrawals of water are expected to rise by 55 percent , if we are going to have to produce as much food in the next 50 years as was produced over the past 5,000 years. If all of these things are true, then this means that be 2110 our world will be transformed and altered beyond our wildest dreams

  

Farmer in Chief

We live in a world full of warnings and apocalyptic claims. Growing up in such a world, has numbed me to the alarmist theories and claims that are so frequently made. So it comes as no surprise to me that, upon first scanning the article by Micheal Pollan, I was skeptical. I was skeptical that so much of our society is so intertwined with the food industry.Upon deeper scrutiny, however, I noticed that this article was so much more than simply a warning but more of a wake up call.

We had focus in class on "junk food" and though even the text pointed out that the term is one of ambiguity, we never seemed to grasp that fact in class. The focus of our classroom discussion, the prohibition of junkfood, was met with both proponents and opponents. I was on the the opposing side and throughout the conversation, I started to grasp the full gravity of the situation. Americans as a race, are so ignorant they simply cant see change as a reality.

As a classroom of people who come from the varying backgrounds of San Diego, we represented a sample of America. As a sample of America we couldn't even come to a conclusion on the outcome of junk food. I do not believe we can decide for our selves.

My Farming History

My family history is a long winding one, where the soil is rich and fertile.

In the begging there was my great great grandfather Eirek Vigoren, a man of many seeds. In the great land of Bemidji Minnesota, he grew many crops and raised cows and chickens.

Then we progress to good ol' Elmer Vigoren my great grandfather,  Also a farmer he grew cattle, wheat and corn.

and now my grandfather, His responsibilities lied in taking care of chicken and milking cows. When he was 12, a tornado destroyed his family farm and he moved to california

Something that interests me!!!

So much of our natural world today is starting to change. The advent of genetic engineering has started to create new an exciting changes to the world around us. I find the field of genetic engineering on plants fascinating.

As you should have gained from the video above, Genetic modification is the simple process of exchanging DNA from one item to matching DNA in another. A processes easier said than done. But what does it matter you may ask?

 

Who DOESN'T want a glowing sheep???