BS+Week+1

The first information which I read up on from the links page was the Wikipedia article on Gaia. I chose to look into this because while I was aware on some level what the Gaia hypothesis was, our discussion in class spurred my interest further to learn exactly what it entailed. I was surprised to learn that the actual Gaia hypothesis is in fact far from the “new age living earth” stereotype that I had ignorantly bought in to. The Gaia hypothesis, while still controversial, is accepted (based on empirical data showing that the earth seeks to maintain the most suitable environment) by many members of the scientific community. Examples of its legitimacy include the difficult to explain constant salt concentration in oceans as well as constant levels of atmospheric oxygen necessary for life. On a similar note, the composition of the atmosphere has changed since life appeared on earth to result in a 5% increase in the amount of energy the earth receives from the sun. One article which I read was the most recent post on the Ecology based blog, southern fried science. In this post, the author describes the negative effect that the stereotype of “environmental doom and gloom” can have in that it results in the creation of an “Ocean of Pseudoscience.” I found this argument to be a surprising assertion bug one that was valid. The author showed that in one African desert, it was assumed that human actions had resulted in the speeding up of desertification, when after a closer look it turned out that the actions of villagers living in the area had helped to slow down the process. The villagers had been planting fruit trees to diversify their diet and these trees consequently helped preserve the ecosystem. It was particularly interesting to read some of the responses people had posted to this assertion. Some were upset by it, while others pointed out that overzealous protection of coral reefs had resulted in the creation of bad science which did more harm than good. Possible Research Topics:
 * 1) 1. Global reliance of Genetically modified Food in relation to reliance that developed when pesticides were developed.
 * 2) 2. Oil Drilling in Alaska
 * 3) 3. Human impact on global biodiversity – empirical perspective.