Yucca brevifolia

Climate Change And Its Side Effects In The Mojave Desert When someone thinks about the Mojave Desert, one can imagine sand and Joshua Trees, but no one thinks about the problems that face this land. To make matters worse, this problem faces all of earth. Climate change is a huge problem that not too many people want to face, or admit. There are also others who strongly oppose of this proposal. But whether or not we believe it, it is in fact true, and our earth is slowly dying from it. This problem is caused by the one and only, humans. Climate change is a real issue to all of earth and the Mojave desert, and this can become to grow into a disruptive, indestructible force if it is not acted on now. Climate change can cause major issues that can destroy the desert terrain, like wildfires and an increase in drought. A statistic by Erika Spanger-Siegfried from the Union of Concerned Scientists states that “ Wildfires in the western United States have been increasing in frequency and duration since the mid-1980s, occurring nearly four times more often, burning more than six times the land area, and lasting almost five times as long”. Climate change is making these wildfires increase, making them worse as time goes by. The National Wildlife Federation states that global warming is making these problems worse by making wildfire season longer, producing drier terrain, and developing an increase in chances of lightning (Staudt). All of these conditions increase the probability of…

aphids. Many mutualistic interactions developed due to an adaption by a resource species in what was previously a predator/prey or parasite/host interaction. The interaction between Yucca plants and Yucca moths is an excellent example of the coevolutionary transition from an antagonistic to a mutualistic relationship. Yuccas are exclusively pollenated by yucca moths, after pollinating a flower the yucca moth lays a small number of her total eggs in the flower, and moves on to repeat the…

The Yucca Mountain Project Nuclear waste is a problem that plagues the United States due to dilemmas surrounding its handling. A scientific consensus shows that the best way to get rid of nuclear waste is through geological disposal, however, this method creates several barriers. Geological disposal includes storing nuclear waste in an underground repository site in hopes of it being contained without the need of surveillance for thousands of years. Due to the fact that nuclear waste contains…

Containment is a documentary directed by Peter Galison and Robb Moss. The film looks at how countries like the US and China they deal with nuclear waste from Nuclear Power Plants. What we learn is that nuclear waste is some of the deadliest, most long-lasting substances ever produce by man that ruins everything that it comes into contact with. While Nuclear Power Plants are very safe with most having multiple failsafe in case of a meltdown there are cases where these failsafe’s fail. Such as…

Beginning in the 1960’s nuclear power was believed to be an attractive alternative to fossil fuels and was even referred to as the energy source of the future. To the uninformed the use of nuclear energy may seem frightening because the only thing rumored is the negatives like: the waste, major spills of material and disastrous radioactive accidents, but there are many benefits from the use of this energy source such as: saving millions of lives, a mass reduction of pollution, and an advancement…

continued to pollute the Land of Native Americans in the U.S. government’s construction, exploration and conservation of nuclear bombs. The NCAC have put together a nuclear hazards management plan to help put a stop to the continual pollition. a. The nuclear hazards management plan consists of putting together community education programs, monitoring of the environment, legal options, medical scrutiny, and health and ecological analysis. b. The NCAC also believe that unlike in past times, they…

Centralized Nuclear Waste Storage Introduction Approximately twenty percent of the electric power in America is generated through a nuclear reaction, and as a result of the production, high-level nuclear waste is created. Imperatively, the nation must find a way on how to store its nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain in the state of Nevada was identified by the Department of Energy and subsequently approved by both the Congressional and the Executive branches of government as a repository site for…

The two sides are debating the support or fear of nuclear power plants. After the events at Fukushima, the earthquake and tsunami, the power plant sickened a lot of people due to its radiation. Professor George Monbiot and Melissa Block discuss the opinion to support nuclear power plants. He states that if so many people can die or become injured due to mining, then how is that any different than people dying or becoming sick from nuclear waste radiation? He said that coal was a bigger issue…

“I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” These famous words were uttered by the J. Robert Oppenheimer - creator of the atomic bomb - at its first test in 1945. A few months later, two bombs were dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the world was changed forever. Now, over 70 years later, we are using this same destructive power, but we are using it for supposedly peaceful and harmless purposes, such as creating electricity by splitting the atom. We seem to have forgotten what this power was…

Most of the nuclear waste that was disposed of in and around Armstrong County was produced from manufacturing fuel for commercial nuclear power plants and the Navy’s nuclear submarines. Two of the multiple sites are found near my home. One is right in town by the Kiski River, and the other is found about 5 minutes out of Leechburg which is also close to my home. The Apollo one is totally cleaned up. Though, it was said to have a lot more waste than they thought. It took about 3 to 4 years to…