Case Studies

Ecological and Social Costs of Cotton Farming

Ecological and Social Costs of Cotton Farming

In today’s age, cotton is one of the most versatile crops that the earth has to offer. Many of us are familiar with the usage of clothing in cotton, but cotton is also used in beauty products and food products as well. Look at the clothes that you are wearing right now, a majority; if not all of it is made out of cotton material. Cotton is favorable in clothing because of its softness, durability, and insulation characteristics. The leftover cotton seed can be used to make cottonseed oil and cotton meal. The oil can be used in cooking, such as deep frying foods or used in salads as a dressing. If not used in cooking, cottonseed oil can also be used to make tons of oil-based products such as soap, candles, or even cosmetics. Cotton meal is rich in protein and is used for human consumption or for animal fodder. These cotton products and byproducts are used by people all around the world, the amount of cotton consumed must be insane! The growth of cotton takes up approximately 2.5 percent of the world’s cultivatable land across 85 different countries. During the year of 2015 to 2016, the world consumed a staggering amount of 24.2 million metric tons of cotton. This includes uses of cotton in all its forms. However, with the good comes the bad and although cotton has a ton of benefits, it also carries many social and environmental drawbacks.

Golf Course Conservation Management

Golf Course Conservation Management

Urbanization is a trend that continues to remain consistent and dominant in our world today. Countries continue to expand infrastructure and grow industry in order to meet both global and national demands. As countries develop, rural landscapes are continually transformed into urban settings. In 1950, only 30% of the population lived in an urban setting compared to today where over half of the population resides in cities. This statistic continues to rise which sparks many questions dealing with conservation. Primarily, conservationists examine how to find new avenues of protecting the environment within the confounds of an urban setting. One possibility lies within golf courses since many urban cities have various golf courses within a close vicinity of them. While nothing overcomes the conservation value of an untouched piece of natural land, are golf courses the next best option? Being that golf courses often try to display and showcase natural beauty, do they also help conserve nature? While there is value to be found in golf courses, most of it is not actualized and remains as potential.

Suburban Golf Course

Suburban Golf Course

There is much debate within our society today about whether or not golf courses provide conservation value. While some articles portray golf courses as improving conservation value by creating habitat for sensitive organisms, others sources are cynical in their outlook towards the conservation value of golf courses. The naysayers suggest golf courses remove the habitat of the natural organisms, replacing it with habitat that only suits common, urbanized species. Many of these differences in opinion stem from both sides understanding about what defines ‘conservation value’ since there are various aspects that contribute to it. Many of these aspects work independently from each other; thus, it is very difficult to come up with one definition for the term ‘conservation value.’ Despite this, most sources do agree that improvement on conservation value stems from improvements in management decisions.

Cultural Keystone Places

Cultural Keystone Places

The Colorado river delta was once a thriving and biological productive region, which spanned two million acres across Northwestern Mexico. However, by the middle of the twentieth century, the Colorado river began to be diverted and dammed for irrigation, triggering the collapse of the extensive delta ecosystem. The Colorado river spans from the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming through Western Colorado, New Mexico, Southeastern Utah, Nevada, California, and Arizona, eventually draining into the Pacific Ocean through the Gulf of California in Mexico. There are fifteen dams on the main tributary of the Colorado river. Since the 1963 construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, the last 100 miles of the river rarely reaches the ocean; resulting in a barren delta, reduced to a tenth of its former self.

Biofuels

Biofuels

Biofuel is the product of the refinement of plant biomass which can then be burned for heat or light energy. It is made of organic matter, either directly from plants or indirectly from domestic, industrial or commercial wastes. There are different types of biofuels. Before fossil fuels, firewood was the primary source of fuel domestically, especially for heating and cooking before the 19th century. Materials such as wood, hay, straw, and dung are collected, dried, and then burned as a fuel source. The amount of energy that a well-seasoned firewood can produce is approximately 15 MJ per kg, which is one-third to one-half of what fossil fuels can produce. Even today, nearly 2.6 billion people, primarily rural areas of developing countries, still depend on firewood as an energy source.

Teacher Blogger

Teacher Blogger

Sarah has recently begun her first contract as a certified teacher at a high school in Vancouver. The position allows her to teach Physical Education and coach one of the school’s basketball teams, which is exciting for her, as she is able to bring together her love of working with students and her passion for fitness. She is not sure, however, that she will teach for her entire career. In fact, she thinks that in the future she might want to work as a personal trainer or run her own personal training company. She has thought about doing this since she began working part time as a fitness coach a few years ago to help her pay her tuition at UBC, something she is continuing to do as a new teacher to help pay her student loan debt.

Snapchat Mishap

Snapchat Mishap

After being encouraged to take advantage of communication apps as a teaching tool with her high school Social Studies classes at the beginning of her practicum, Jessica decided to make teaching accounts on a few different apps and websites in order to engage her students. Having looked her up online prior to the start of her practicum, Jessica’s school advisor suggested that, if she wanted to use social media, she should probably make her current accounts private and consider creating new accounts to use with her classes. After discussing the idea and getting permission to create school-related social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat with the school administrator, Jessica made the accounts under her name Ms. Yu.

Rate My Teacher Candidate

Rate My Teacher Candidate

After hearing stories about teachers being disciplined or criticized for online posts, Mateo decided not to use social media during his practicum. He was not a regular user of social media anyway, having only a Facebook account that he posted on occasionally. Between using the highest available privacy settings and continuing to post very little from the account, Mateo felt confident that he was unlikely to run into any problems related to social media while teaching. While completing his practicum, he knew other teacher candidates who had multiple social media accounts and were more active online. They would sometimes express concern over the potential for certain posts or pictures to have a negative effect on their reputations as teachers and Mateo was grateful not to have the same worries.

Questionable Comments

Questionable Comments

Before beginning their practicums, a group of teacher candidates who were placed in the same school to teach created a private Facebook group and a group chat through text so that they could share resources, discuss their experiences, and plan times to get together outside of school. Because they were all trying to monitor their use of social media in order to avoid breaching any policies, they decided to communicate through these private groups, as opposed to posting on any public profiles. Recognizing that they could help one another succeed by monitoring their social media interactions, all of the teacher candidates agreed not to post comments about each other or share any photos from their parties without asking for permission, especially if they were drinking alcohol or wearing revealing clothing that they would not wear while teaching.

Pop-Up Problem

Pop-Up Problem

Shira is always looking for creative ways to engage the grade 3 students she is teaching in her practicum. While searching online for fun ideas to incorporate into one of her upcoming art classes, she comes across a lesson plan that involves painting using toy squirt guns, which she thinks her students would enjoy. While her students are working on their math problems, Shira decides to search for inexpensive squirt guns she can purchase to use with the lesson. She uses a personal laptop that she brought to school because her school advisor is using the classroom computer for her own work.