Category: Cullen’s Posts
Cullen Krieg
Dr. Jack
CODES
12 October 2023
Analysis #4
In this podcast that we listened to this week, I thought it was hard to understand. They continued to jump from many different main topics. However, I did learn about some information that I usually wouldn’t have learned.
The Botanical Gardens that they spoke about were used for spiritual redemption. It wasn’t based on plants but more religious type of terms.
Another one of the people that spoke talked about how gardening doesn’t always have to mean that you have a full fledged garden with many different types of plants. But gardening can be as small as one singular plant on the window sill. He also spoke about how gardening is a peaceful and life saving way to cope.
The next guy that was up to speak spoke about how gardening is for everyone. He said that everyone can be in botany and having people say that you may not be ready to become a gardener should not stop you from letting you start.
All in all, I was able to understand a little bit from the podcast but it was also very hard. I liked that I was able to catch the key things that stood out to me. Those few topics have stood out to me a little bit more than others in the podcast because that’s what I feel like I implement in my life and my sports.
Cullen Krieg
Dr. Jack
CODES
5 October 2023
Overgrown?
In the article, “City clears Edwardsville man’s yard deemed out of compliance” there is a man that wanted to grow out natural vegetation in his yard and keep it maintained. He wanted it to be labeled as a nature preserve so that individuals could come look at the beauty. He told the writers that he wasn’t planting anything invasive, leading the reader to assume that he was taking care of it.
However, Edwardsville had gotten different news delivered to them. Vest had gotten many complaints from the city telling him that it needed to be taken care of but he never took action. He understood what he needed to do to “maintain” his yard and the regulations that were allowed. Vest feels like he has done everything in his power to keep it contained in his yard. I kind of agree with what Vest says because if he owns his own property he should be able to grow whatever he wants as long as it is nice looking. I can also see how Edwardsville would want the growth cut down. Too much vegetation on a property that is less than .5 of an acre will make it look overgrown even if it is taken care of.
A key factor in the article that really caught my attention was that when it said: “Risavy said there are many yards and sites such as at the Edwardsville Children’s Museum that have native plants grown with a plan, managed and kept up, and they meet city ordinance requirements. This caught my attention because it shows that other yards are doing just what Vest has done yet they meet the city requirements. Which leads me to believe that Vest must have a neighbor that doesn’t like to look at that many items of vegetation.
Cullen Krieg
Dr. Jack
CODES
September 14 2023
Analysation of Sustainable World
In chapter three of Sustainable World it speaks about how present-day conditions need an individual or group of individuals to have a full understanding of the issue which will allow room for present-day solutions. An analysis of the problem allows the problem drivers to become detected by the problem solvers. The problem drivers are usually known as stress or pressure that is being enacted on an individual or topic. A driver can vary vastly, it could come from humans or from natural causes. Eutrophication has many different contributing factors of why it takes place: Watershed area, Population density, Human activities, Natural sediment load, Presence of dams, Flushing rate, Coastal wetland area, Government policies, and Cultural norms. No matter what happens in the world, Eutrophication will most likely always take place.
After the problem drivers and the system that they are affecting it is very important to look past the larger issues that most individuals can see but to zoom in and realize what is going on in a smaller portion and take the time to look more in depth of what is happening. Being able to analyze closer to the problem allows an individual to see different, smaller problems that could be combined to cause the bigger picture problem. As an example from the book, if farmers were to grow a certain crop that the townspeople didn’t want it would cause a problem because the farmer had spent so much time and effort maintaining his crops and his produce isn’t being sold because the townspeople wanted carrots instead of corn.
There are two different broad drivers, one being indirect and the other being direct. Direct is when it is directly affecting the behavior of a system whereas indirect is when the behavior in a more spatial way, not a direct punch to the problem. An example of direct factors that are directed towards an Ecosystem is: habitat change, climate change, invasive species, overexploitation of species, and nutrient pollution. These are drivers that will have a major hard hitting impact on the ecosystem. The five different indirect drivers towards an ecosystem are: demographic, economic, socio political, cultural & religious, and scientific & technological. These are the drivers that will affect an ecosystem in a slower, more laid back kind of way.
Most individuals establish a causality in a system. When they establish this they are making the set of drivers and the influence on the certain system very evident. In the book they relate it back to a cause and effect situation, which I completely agree with because the individual has a cause towards the system and the effect is the outcome of his or her cause. A way that increases throughout a system is influence, the power of influence goes a long way. If an individual sees another doing something and joins them in taking part of whatever the cause towards the system is, the effect will become greater. Implementing solutions to fix the problem allow individuals to weed out the drivers that are causing the direct problem. But it is also important to look at the relationships from the drivers to the system to try and come out with a better understanding of what exactly is happening.
When the book talks about the wicked problem general characteristics they list of characteristics that seem very bland, I think that when they explained characteristics on the following pages it opened up my knowledge of why those are considered Wicked Problem characteristics. I like how the book says that there are defined solutions that are made to fix certain problems. One problem will most likely have only one solution, but depending on what the problem is there could also be many solutions that are just as good as the MAIN Solution. The web diagram on page 77 shows the human system and the natural system. The natural system has a lot more ways that they connect to the others. In the human system each box only has 3. It also shows that human actions have an effect on the natural system and ecosystem services have an impact on the human system which I think is pretty cool. (ecosystem events that take place play a big role in what happens to the world.) In the reef picture it shows a healthy reef that supports human life and the other reef shown is dead and didn’t support human life.