Climate Change
Climate change through my studies has something to do with the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The chemistry in the atmosphere has altered in composition, trapping gases by increasing the temperature from burning fossil fuels, such as coal. The carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere has increased by forty percent, due to actions such as deforestation. Forests and trees are destroyed to make way for residential and commercial construction. While removing plants is good for the construction market, it actually rids the environment of its natural resources. Forests and trees take up the carbon dioxide for their own livelihood. With deforestation, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go and there is no use for it, so it gets stuck in the atmosphere.
Climate related extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires can affect us both directly and indirectly. Working in extreme heat can make us ill or reduce our productivity. Temperatures can exceed the international standards for work safety and school activity. Children are kept at home in Australia, when the temperature reaches thirty-seven degrees Celsius, or one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Just recently reports came through telling parents to keep their children home from school, warning people on the east coast of America to stay off the roads, due to extreme winter weather hazards.
Extreme weather events do affect humans and animals' livelihoods. Storms, floods, drought and heatwaves are regular events these days, on larger scale, causing much devastation. Extreme weather can affect health, it can kill, while exposing us to deadly infections. Just this week WHO reported that there has been in excess of one hundred and fifty thousand deaths from climate change initially in disaster events and its effects on our health.
Bay of Plenty
Regional Council
Toi Moana
Bay of Plenty Regional Council
PO Box 364, Whakatāne 3158
0800 884 880
Climate Change Is So Many Things
Affecting so Many People and Lives
What are Fossil Fuels? How do they affect our health?
Fossil fuels have emissions they release into the atmosphere. They reduce the ozone layer causing a greenhouse effect, which is caused by a buildup of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As the gases get trapped and cannot escape, near the earth's surface, our planet has become warmer. Greenhouse gases consist of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. Water vapor tends to react to temperature changes, by increasing the effect of forces, which cause the initial warming.
Scientific studies have shown that if carbon dioxide was to be removed from the atmosphere and our environment, the earth would cool. During the coronavirus outbreak world-wide, all industry and business came to a standstill. It was reported that the ozone layer during this time reversed itself and the earth corrected the effect of humans using fossil fuels. As all industry came to a standstill, that included everything, including the fossil fuel industry and coal production.
The earth's atmospheric conditions were just right. Not too hot, nor to cold. As the years have gone by, from burning fossil fuels, (which have led to the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases), this has disrupted earths energy balance. This has led to an increase in carbon dioxide levels in the oceans and the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide level has increased consistently for decades and traps the rising heat under the earth's surface. It has nowhere to go, so it builds up and damages our planets ecosystem at a delicate level.
What then is the Solution?
I suppose if we had a solution there would be no problem. Fossil fuel have emissions which reduce the integrity of the ozone layer, causing a Green House effect. As people inhabiting this planet and for future generations, serious thoughts and actions must be in place by all countries, to minimize its danger and to try to minimize the effects of climate change.
We should be lowering our carbon usage or emissions. Governments, both local and federal, along with special interest groups, can promote policies which help to reduce the structural violence that undermines basic needs. To address these health threats, climate change is causing, they must understand the links between the environment, health and lifestyle. There are also health benefits in reducing the smog and pollution caused by not taking the threat from climate change serious.
There has been a push for the fossil fuel industry to invest in renewable energy sources and consequent services to the public, customers and big business. The British Medical Association wrote in an article tabled 26th March 2014, how the campaign has persuaded the World Medical Association (2016), to call on members and health organizations, to re-invest in company's upholding environmental principles, which benefit human health in the short term, and decades to come. A temperature increase, of about one-degree Celsius, by the end of this century, could produce a negative effect on yields for major corporations' staples, such as wheat, maize, barley, and rice in tropical and temperate regions. Reports of late, stress the coarse grain from Russia, could be reduced by seventeen to twenty-two percent, as a result of climate change in the near future.
Climate change is already affecting the abundance of produce and its distribution of aquatic species in different parts of the world. This destruction equates to both marine and freshwater production, systems, threatening the survival of its sensitive ecosystem. Without adequate adaptation, by the year 2050 there could be between twenty to twenty-five million undernourished children, under the age of five as a result of climate change only.
Violence can be due to violent events and events or incidents recorded and shown on social media, and the television alike. Violence is also a negative attribute, especially if it is not controlled. It can run rampant and destroy a society. Structural violence exists at all levels in society, connected to happy events, abusive behaviors related to social and economic abuse and rights, undermining basic human rights.
Practicing Sustainable Healthcare
On the ABC late news tonight, I just watched how Hover Flies are now being used with bees as Pollinators. Both pollinators can work together on the same flower according to Rob Mcgready. He like so many farmers are concerned about the use of fossil fuels. He now uses electric, and battery run bikes and runabouts. The journalist Meg Powell reported that electric tractors won't be available to buy until 2026.
The health system contributes to climate change by producing vast amounts of waste, in the form of toxins. Reducing carbon emissions, can reduce the severity of climate change. De-carbonizing sparsity can help to reduce non-communicable lifestyle related diseases by discussing what can be done.
The Power of Sustainability
Renewable energies and other resources need to be in production now. Countries such as Holland have been using a form of renewable energies through the use of windmills.
It has only been in the last several years that wind farms have been established around the country.
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In Asian countries weather extremes are causing classrooms and their environments, to be a place of extremes.
Read the latest at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-27/climate-change-forces-female-students-out-of-the-classroom.
Are you a Hero?
Check this website to see if you're a climate change hero?
What the World Health Organization have to say about Climate change
Making a Compost
Compost not only provides nutrients to any soil as a fertilizer, but it also conditions the soil, increasing the humus and humidity of the soil, which assists in the decomposition of the nutrients in the compost.
Earthworms and various bacteria help mix the humus with minerals in the soil.
Humus is the dark organic matter that forms in the soil when dead plants and animal matter break down through the action of anaerobic organisms, which live in the soil without the need for oxygen and they create a rich soil perfect for a fertilizer to be added to the soil. These bacteria require no atmospheric oxygen to do their job to create humus. The bacteria grow by anaerobic respiration or fermentation. Without these, the compost wouldn't become a successful product to produce or throw into a garden ad fertilizer. This, therefore, has the effect of reducing expenses on commercial chemical fertilizers for recreational gardens and farms.
Humus affects the bulk density of soil while contributing to its retention of moisture and nutrients. It ranges in colour from brown to black depending on how far through the decomposition stage, of the soil breakdown. Its composition is made up of 60% carbon, 6% nitrogen, and smaller components of sulphur and phosphorus. As it decomposes, its components are changed into forms usable by the plant's soil. Humus assists in the uptake of nutrients into the plant's system, while microbes suppress the pathogens in the soil.
Creating a compost can be a cheaper alternative to buying pre-prepared produce from a retail store. It could also be a perfect product to add to your garden with a product from a retail store because both products are not only beneficial for any garden but necessary. If you're a home gardener or a market gardener a few basic requirements can supply your crop with the nutrients it needs to survive. Soil preparation is a must especially if it has never had produce grown on it. From my experience as a home gardener, the first crop can make it easier for future crops, which could be of better quality. The first crop I grew, I prepared with fertilizers I brought from a local shop. Preparing compost in advance would have added vital nutrients to the ground that the soil needed.
The soil I was working with was quite rocky, but it was workable and reasonably fertile when the garden bed was created. I prepared the soil with what I considered necessary additives, not taking into account what I now know. I could have grown a healthier plant not being eaten by bugs and insects if I had of used products to spray around the crop to kill bugs and insects while protecting my crop with a fence to keep out stray cats and other animals looking for a meal. I recommend products from Osmicote and Yates. Fertilizers and compost give the soil the pH which your soil could lack. With the correct products added the pH of your soil should be suitable for what you want to grow.
If your soil is more alkaline or acidic grow vegetables or flowers which grow well in those conditions or alter the pH of the ground to grow what you desire.
A compost preparation is one made from food scraps, green and brown leaves and other products. A healthy compost is one which doesn't smell after being left to mature. Don't add fish, chicken or meat bones or whole products to your compost pile. Homemade compost is very rich, a soil colour and it is easy to pick it up in your hands to distribute in your garden, depending on the amount of compost you have made, in which case if it's a large area then using a shovel to distribute it might be more appropriate.
Compost should be attended to regularly, turning it with a shovel or a smaller garden utensil. As it is aerated, the products such as kitchen scrapes are moved around and further mixed with the other products, which should include green and brown lawn clippings, wood chippings, hay and straw, shredded paper and cardboard, tree clippings and grass and wedded clippings off your plants, and dead plants can all be added. The worms and bacteria go to work turning your compost into a product ready to use as fertilizer for your ground, enriching the soil to help your crops grow healthy and bountiful.
Over time the products added to your compost will break down into smaller pieces as the weeks go by. Adding products to your compost gives it consistency and will add to the quantity of the soil, which should enable your plant root system to take up the nutrients and grow a healthy plant or crop. Add water just as frequently as you add to your compost. Water is a necessity for any compost heap. Spray it with a hose regularly.
If your soil is sandy, the compost and other products you add to the soil will give your soil bulk, while adding water improves the quality of your soil's pH balance which should grow a healthy crop. Position your garden in a sunny spot where it gets six to eight hours of direct sunlight a day, adding plenty of water. These basic essential elements will give your plants the best chance to survive and do well.
To find out more about composting, watch this YouTube video
Composting is a video showing you how to organize your compost before it is all placed together. It touches on what I have written about but in video form. Hope you enjoy it. If you are beginning a compost adventure this is a must-see.
How To Make a Compost
Buy compost bins or use a dedicated area in your background for the compost pile.
Bins can be brought from
Amazon online
Bunnings
Hardware Stores
Backyard container preferably with a lid or flat boxes to cover it, if it's on the ground.
You need a container with three sides and a lid or the ground. All the ingredients added along with the anaerobic microorganisms make a good product for producers or gardeners like you and me.
TO BEGIN
- ad a layer of organic material, some soil and water.
- wait for the material placed in the bin or ground to turn into humus, virtually the end product called a compost success.
- ad kitchen scraps and other organic matter such as fruits, vegetable peels, coffee grounds, filters and egg shells. Worms are naturally attracted to this type of material and they help produce the humus as is humus acid.
Avoid adding these products to a compost.
Meat/fish scraps because they stink, and attract skunks, rats and flies, raccoons and other wild critters.
Dog and cat waste carry ringworms and roundworms and could turn the compost poisonous because they carry organisms that are hazardous substances with actions of bacteria parasites and cause human disease.
Dairy products, rats, and oils attract unwanted pests, such products such as cheese, butter, milk, sour cream and yoghurt.
Processed foods that contain lots of dairy kill insects and control plant diseases.
Plants and wood treated with preservatives and pesticides, fungicides and herbicides kill the beneficial composting organisms. Many kinds of wood these days are treated with high-pressure painted or garnished finishes. Limit the quantities of wood burnt from a fireplace or outdoor fire pit.
An acidic compost is unsuitable for most plants.
Charcoal briquettes are infused with chemicals.
Diseased insects infested plants because the heat inside a normal compost can't reach temperatures to kill pests and diseases cannot survive.
Don't forget that anything dead added to any compost must have decomposed, such as animals, and humans which could cause the compost to stink and be an unproductive plant product harming the soil it is added to.
Balancing the Compost products
Balancing the equilibrium of the matter inside the vehicle you're using to make your compost is important.
Green garden materials should be high in nitrogen with more moisture content.
- Used coffee.
- Unseeded weeds
- Fruits and vegetable scraps
- Lawn clippings and plant clippings These are added to form a cold compost.
- Horse and cow manure
- Finished plants.
Brown materials and leaves are high in carbon with lower moisture content.
- Hay and straw, sawdust and untreated wood
- Autumn and winter garden cuttings
- Shredded paper and cardboard and newspapers
- Dead plants only if the leaves are completely dry and the plant is dead.
- Finely chopped wood and bark chips
- Horse manure, hair and fur
- Aquarium plants and homebrew waste
- Used paper towels and napkins and paper plate pieces uncoated.
- Old spices and herbs and unpropped burnt pop corn.
- Wooden chopsticks and toothpicks.
Anything added to the compost which is dead must have decomposed. If it has not then the compost can become smelly and be an unproductive additive to the garden if added. Its use could be of no use to your garden causing roots to root and the ground to die instead of thriving and the plants or crop planted won't reach harvest. They might not even grow. The ground will be infected through the dead matter not being properly prepared for the compost.
A balance is needed between the ground and the matter inside the compost container or ground.
Fertilizer needs to be well rooted.
When adding to your compost do so in small amounts such as onion scraps of citrus peel, eggshells and stale bread, and green and brown produce.
A HOT COMPOSITE
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant and food waste, recycling organic materials, and manure. The resulting mixture is rich in plant nutrients and beneficial organisms, such as bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, and fungi. Compost improves soil fertility in gardens, landscaping, horticulture, urban agriculture, and organic farming, reducing dependency on commercial chemical fertilizers. The benefits of compost include providing nutrients to crops as fertilizer, acting as a soil conditioner, increasing the humus or humic acid contents of the soil, and introducing beneficial microbes that help to suppress pathogens in the soil and reduce soil-borne diseases.
A hot compost becomes a workable product faster, by generating high temperatures inside a heap or bin, you can naturally compost biodegradable materials more quickly and efficiently. Unlike cold composting, which will deliver compost in months to years, hot composting can deliver high-quality organic compost in a matter of weeks.
Soils & Habitat
So, what is habitat?
It is the natural home or environment we live in. It also relates to the home of an animal, plant or any living organism. It is the location where a person, or a plant lives.
What happens when man decides to destroy his own land, and tree environment?
The term which can be used for land clearing, downing trees for the use of paper and other necessities man uses to live on this vast space and globe called earth. It is also called deforestation. By clearing the land new communities and suburbs can be built, for people to live in.
While working as a contractor recently in the customer service industry, I allocated work to myself in several of these now thriving communities. In particular, one of these localities was only six years into its establishment. I asked the bus driver about the area. I could see that much work was yet to be completed.
While deforestation can be done for several reasons, I discovered that another locality of Rouse Hill, while established for some ten years now, the designers managed to keep trees in the environment, and around streets and roads in a healthy way. An even distribution of land clearing, house and township building, surrounded by the natural environment and part of their community, maintaining a healthy ecosystem thriving together.
If care in design structure is not structured accordingly, deforestation can cause many problems.
It is their own home or place, the place the person depends on for survival. It is a physical place.
Activities such as mining, deforestation such as logging, oil drilling, cleaning land for agriculture and road production can lead to the destruction of people's own habitat, the place the person, animal or insect calls home. When habitat is lost or damaged, it becomes endangered and like animals extinct.
Whales live in the ocean; elephants live in zoos and the forests such as the amazon and grasslands. Dolphins, sharks and fish live in the water. They all feed off each other with cannibalism their major survival tactic.
Recently it was reported that the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland has regenerated, and its pristine physical appearance has returned to its original state, which encourages site seeing and the state's tourism. Opposition to this type of positive happening is where all the waterways have become polluted with sewerage which has accidentally leaked into the drinking reservoirs.
The plant wasn't able to hold the large amounts of waste trucks were trying to move. The article said that the only two trucks were made available and the sewerage instead of being captured it ran into the system at a fast rate.
The Geelong beach in Victoria became toxic with green algae many years ago. It was so polluted I couldn't venture into the water because of the color and the stench.
For us humans and our four-legged fury friends this habitat which kept people and animals cool, suddenly turned toxic and the habitat became unbearable to enjoy. A place where people loved to enjoy and keep cool, was a danger.
The fires of 2020 destroyed the Koalas and Kangaroos habitat. It was horrifying to see. The fires that year also wiped-out humans' habitats, with families finding their way to the beach, only to be confronted with a savage fire which landed on top of them, and they had nowhere to go.
Droughts bring no rain and in some cases no water to drink. The moisture in the soil dries up as well as the amount of water in streams, lakes, rivers and other tributaries, with the ground water or table lands becoming so dry the ground becomes exposed, cracked and uninhabitable.
The physical factors of a habitat, include the soil, moisture and the range of temperatures and light intensity. Biotic is a word used to describe the environment, its conditions and influencing factors. It can be said that it consists of all living creatures such as humans, animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, organisms, flora, fauna and algae. The abiotic factors are in the world's oceans which include moisture, climate, sunshine and temperature, atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, minerals, precipitation. Its factors are elements such as fungi, algae, fish, plants and coral reefs and other water creatures.
Both the biotic and abiotic factors which affect the flora and fauna impact the survival of different species in the ecosystem.
The biotic factor in any ecosystem relates to how the ecosystem affects one another than the specific living or non-living things, and the abiotic factor is a physical part of an environment only. Both biotic and abiotic terms or factors shape the ecosystem. One cannot survive without the other. They not only affect the reproductive process of the organism but its survival. If the components or make up of these environments are altered the whole ecosystem like the Barrier Reef is affected.
Biotic resources are referred to as producers and consumers, decomposed and detritivores which refers to all the non-living factors which present in the ecosystem. They obtain their nutrients by consuming decomposed animal parts and plants as well as feces. They feed on organic matter.
Both detritivores and decomposers breakdown the dead and decaying material in any ecosystem, which recycles nutrients and are part of the biogeochemical cycles, such as the carbon cycle.
The decomposition cycle is formed from the tissues of the animal or plant that has died. They could have shed their skin and antlers could have molted and fecal matter and micro-organisms add to the detritus nutritional value. An example are worms which live in the soil and assist with the decomposition of food stuffs and organic matter. Worms are found in all layers of soil, while some live on the surface and in the upper layer of any soil.
Springtails are winged arthropods, which are invertebrates with jointed legs and makes up 75% of all animals on earth. There main role is maintaining the ecosystem. They are the pollinators and recyclers of nutrients, such as bees and insects, ants and dragonflies, while decomposers are bacteria and fungi. They don't eat their own food they decompose it externally. they consume nutrients at a molecular level, while detritivores eat large amounts of decaying materials and excrete nutrients.
All this I find interesting because bacteria were the first forms of life on earth over 4 billion years ago. The bacteria and archaea were the most prominent organisms.
Multicellular eukaryotes are an organism made up of many cells. Animals, plants and fungi are unicellular organisms reproduce asexually. The specialized cells of an organism, its organs and tissues form nerves, skin cells which live in the epithelium cell gametes, or fertilized egg cells. The zygote contains the genetic material. Soil is then referred to as earth or dirt. it is a surface geology that has gone on and undergone one or more processes. It relates to the process that adds, transfers and transforms, and removes soil constructs called pedogenic.
Climbing Plants
WHAT ARE THRY?
Climbing Plant are photosynthetic, meaning the plant goes through the process of photosynthesis. This means that the plant obtains its energy from sunlight. If there was no light like any animal, or species, it would die.
Plants are eukaryotes and are form the Kingdom Plantae. Thet thrive with variety; that is being placed next to another plant, or growing on a structure or device, such as a trestle, or a trellis, to your garden, can give it a whole new dimension of visual interest.
These photos show you what climbing plants look like.
HOW DO PLANTS CLIMB?
This refers to not what structure they use to climb on, but what features within themselves which enable them to climb on a structure. Climbing plants either climb up a plant on its stem or twine itself around its leaves.
Tendrills.
Peas use their tendrils are skinny wire structures along the plants stem that reach around in the air, until they make contact with something they can grab and curl onto, forming a coil which enables the plant to adjust its degree of pull or tension on the support. These particular plants use their tendrils to find a structure which can support them, which is horizontal in nature. Netting also works well as long as it is greater than a 2" square wire, with the wire being no greater than a quarter inch in diameter.
Twiners are plants which twin around their stem or their leaves. These types of plants twine around supports like ropes and rods. They grow upwards. They cannot grow without something to twine around.
7 Climbers include:
pea plant, money plant
grapevine, jasmine, runner beans
sweet gourd, green peas
There are two types of true climbers:
- self-clinging
- twinning varieties
Plants such as Clematis, Honeysuckle,
Jasmine and Wisteria, grow by wrapping,
themselves around poles, wires and trellis,
They need a framework to wind around
How to grow Plants Successfully in Small Spaces
How to grow Plants in Small Spaces
Check the link out above. This guy is growing 280 plants in his home and studio office establishments.
It just goes to show that people can grow whatever they want, as long as it grows well in small spaces. A pumpkin plant for example sprawls over any large area. It can be cut off though to produce a crop which grows in a smaller space; but not the size of a small space, I am talking about. I managed to grow pumpkin for six months. Instead of carrying it from the shop to the car or to a cart and home, I carried it from the backyard into the house.
I also managed to produce some large pumpkin, which were tasty.
Ever tried growing tomatoes? Here's a lady who seems to know what she is talking about.
Ever tried to grow tomatoes in small spaces?
use transplants in containers, or plant seeds in a large pot at least eighteen inches deep and wide.
Buy tomatoes which grow well in compact spaces.
Keep the plant watered but not oversaturated.
Keep the plant pruned as it grows.
When the plant begins to grow and gets bigger and the stalks higher, support the plant in a tomato cage, tomato ladder, such as a trellis or vertical structure such as a sturdy block of wood or straight thick stick. As tomatoes frow upwards, attach them to the support with string or twine, to support them as they grow.
DO YOU NEED TO KILL BUGS ON THE GARDEN EATING YOUR PLANTS?
Check out this guide by "Homes & Garden" magazine.
Receipts to Create with Kill Bugs on Plants.
Click on the above link to find out about
1. Insecticidal Soaps
2. Neem Oil Bug Spray
3. Vinegar Spray These are all made from natural products, which won't destroy
4. Garlic Spray your plants or crop as it is applied.
5. Tomato leafy Spray
6. Cinamon Spray
CONTACT THE WEBSITES FOR FURTHER ASSISTANCE or contact me via my contact form on our home page by clicking on the three lines at the top left corner of the website.
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