Ellie S. in the Enviornment

  Loon Endangerment in New Hampshire:     I have been researching the loon population in New Hampshire and the reasons why it is going down. I am interested in this topic because I go fishing on lakes, more specifically Clement Pond in Contoocook and there are many loons on the pond. I have always been told to be careful with the loons and to watch out for them but never knew why they were so endangered.       I found a source that explained it all. The main reason why loon deaths are so high is because of lead poisoning. According to the Loon Preservation Committee: "Once ingested, the lead tackle goes into the loon’s gizzard. The acid and grinding action of the gizzard erodes the lead, which then passes into the bloodstream and organs and poisons the loon. Even a single small lead split shot sinker is fatal to loons, which will die within 2-4 weeks of ingesting a piece of lead fishing tackle.” Doesn't this sound like torture? In 2018, the New Ha...

     Throughout this week I have been watching TED Talks about broadly the oceans and many topics and issues came to my attention and need to be addressed. The main idea that I found from most of the talks was things that humans are doing that need to stop or be reduced because our oceans are looking bad right now, let alone the marine life. What are Dead Zones?      One thing that really made me interested was things called dead zones. Dead zones are when the oceans are not getting enough oxygen for species to survive. This happens when mainly farms, for example, soybean farms use a fertilizer that contains nitrogen and phosphorus. Those harmful gases runoff into lakes and rivers which ultimately end up in the ocean. When the wastewater gets to the ocean there is a build-up of algae, the algae sinks and then that decomposes the water down at the ocean floor. Nancy Rabalais, a marine scientist talks about this topic. “The problem is that there's just too m...

     Overview:     Welcome to my first post! In this blog, I will talk about the environment. I love the outdoors, hiking, fishing, and hunting. I feel very strongly about many topics because I want to conserve our world because right now many bad things are happening. This week, I read “ What you can do to help prevent climate change, according to experts” , which is an article that focuses on what is causing climate change and what to do to help prevent it. The main idea of this article is to tell the reader what are some actions that we can take to reduce climate change and how it is being “spread” right now and what people and companies are doing wrong. One idea that I found interesting was the part when the author talks about the numbers. Seeing how much carbon is being released into the environment really shows me how bad all of this is getting and we need to make some changes soon.     It made me wonder what actions we can take right n...