Ephilan Thropy Course Education Tips

In the ongoing energy debate, biomass energy is getting a lot of play among politicians. To understand the concept, it first helps to understand the bio pyramid.

Bio Pyramid

All of the organisms in the world follow orders of classification. Whether you choose to put them into groups of plants and animals, herbivores and carnivores, or any other of the many different types of classification systems, organisms can be put into many groups in order to understand their relationship to one another. One way to classify organisms is to put them into their order, or hierarchy, in the food chain. In this way, we can see how animals and other organisms relate to each other based on what they consume.

There are several different ways to look at the food chain, and one important and useful tool in this area is the bio pyramid. A bio pyramid is a graphical chart that shows the comparative mass of the consumers to the producers in the food chain. This can be helpful in determining how energy is transferred to the top levels of the pyramid from the bottom levels.

Each level in a bio pyramid is composed of a trophic level. Trophic levels are groupings of different “consumer” groups, such as primary producers (usually just plants or other photosynthetic organisms) rising all the way up to carnivores (such as humans). While a typical biological pyramid might group these consumers in order of energy produced, a bio pyramid shows them in order of total mass from highest to lowest. This often means that the primary consumers, such as the plants, are at the bottom because they are more numerous and take up more mass. The levels are built upon then by how many upper level organisms could survive based on the level below. An example can be seen in this sea bio pyramid:
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As often seems the case, less developed countries seem to receive the bulk of the impact when it comes to negative world developments. The third world and climate modification is no different.

Third World and Climate modification

By definition, climate modification impacts the globe as a whole. That being said, is it possible to predict specific results in certain regions of the world? While there is no definitive answer, the impact on third world countries in Asia and Africa has been the subject of much discussion. Let’s take a look.

Africa is considered a third world continent because a vast majority of the African countries have underdeveloped economies and living standards. Unfortunately, Africa is also believed to be one of the most heavily impacted areas when it comes to climate modification. More than half the people in Africa live in rural areas with agricultural economies. These communities rely heavily on naturally occurring rain resources, to wit, planned irrigation is minimal. This, of course, results in the horrific famines we see on television. Climate modification is predicted to devastate Africa because it is believed the greenhouse effect will reduce the amount of rain received on the continent. As the Sahara Desert expands, less land will be available for farming and the problem will grow worse. Malnutrition from famines will lead to weak immune systems and disease will be prevalent. If the predictions are accurate, Africa could become a living nightmare.
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Are we humans beings really the masters of this planet? Do we have the authority to self-righteously assume global dominance? The following article is my view to the questions. It is certainly not definitive. It is just an expression of my own thoughts and opinions.

In my opinion, perhaps we should not assume that our species is central to the world and planet at large. A human economic system should ideally also take into account the well being of the entire ecosystem, which is body of Mother Earth. I will tend to regard the Mother Earth as a living consciousness with her various elements (water, air, wildlife, etc) constantly seeking to remain in harmonious equilibrium. Come to think of it, isn’t this quite like the way the body of a living being functions?

Perhaps, economy and civilisation’s progress should not be about humans for humans only. We tend to see ‘less-than-holistically’ and believe that money-making has little or nothing to do with the welfare of our Mother Earth and the ecosystem. But the fact is we humans do take sustenance from the atmosphere, animal and plant kingdoms; therefore we are dependent upon other species and resources on Earth. As such, human activities should be accounted for within a equation that does not place the human species upon a pedestal (which is being treated as superior); but rather assigns the ‘so-called intelligent biped’ objectively with other species and elements of this diverse planet. In my opinion, the current human activities are simply too self-absorbed within our own kind. The truth of things is that everything, ‘however insignificant it may appear to be, is in actual fact, unique. “Feeling special” and “above others” are simply beliefs concocted by the human psyche, and have relevance only in a human society.
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With all of the fervor these days about the dangers of global warming many people are concerned about the fate of Antarctica. The fears are that the ice that makes up the continent is melting faster than normal and not freezing back as it usually does with a very even ebb and flow. The concerns are that this will eventually raise the sea level enough to put major cities and land masses under water and leave millions of people homeless and/or even dead.

So who are making these claims? Well there are many scientists that have been looking at the earth’s climates and weather systems for a long time and trying to make sense of them. The earliest reason for doing this was not to measure the affect of the greenhouse gases that are magnifying the suns intensity and causing the heat to stay within it. They originally wanted to learn about the earth so that they could by recognizing signs be could warn of natural disasters like earth quakes and hurricanes and tsunamis. Since they have kept data to look for these signs they have noticed disturbing trends in things like the average temperature and the increasing sea level and other things like the sized of the ice cap over Antarctica and they seem to only be going in one direction which spells trouble.
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