FMHS APES Fourth Fall 2019

Amazon Rainforest is ON FIRE By: Jessica Anyolo So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve heard about the Amazon rainforest and how its burning to the ground or whatever. Probably not a big deal right? It’s like 3400 miles away. WRONG! It’s a huge deal! The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest on the planet, serving as a home to hundreds of species found nowhere else. The Amazon rainforest, mainly contained in Brazil, covers 2.1 of the 2.7 million square miles of land known as the Amazon Basin, and is home to more than 40,000 plant species, approximately 2.5 million insect species, and 1500 bird species, as well as a few thousand Amazon natives, living in tribes that have not yet made contact with the world. The forest also produces a very large amount of the Earth’s oxygen, storing vast amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) the trees to photosynthesize. For years now, deforestation and small forest fires have been eating away a...

      Why Vegetarians Can Save the World By: Umar Ahmad      Many of us like to believe eating meat is a necessity or no worse than being vegetarian. The truth; however, is far from that. The consumption of meat and many other products from animals that are often sold in grocery stores is quite frankly very damaging to the environment and often causes major problems in ways you may not even imagine. It's time to stop hiding in the bubble of carefree consumption and learn the truth of how your choice of food can have disastrous effects on the environment.      Excessive and unsustainable production of greenhouse gases is a real and serious threat to humans and the earth. While many blame the egregious rate of production of these gases as the result of excessive burning of fossil fuels, according to earthsave.org and the research of Dr. James Hansen, who has been called a "grandfather in the global warming theory," non-vegetarian foo...

Hi! This is Ms. Westbrook Welcome to our APES class blog! This blog serves several purposes for our class: 1. Literacy and science, believe it or not, have very important links.  As people of science, it is important to learn to speak and write the language of science in order for us to convey the essence and specifics of what we need to learn.  It is important to practice and learn how to talk about science in academic, yet engaging language.  This blog gives us a chance to practice and learn from each other. 2. APES is a class of immediacy.  There are relevant topics that surface in the media and in everyday life consistently.  Whether the topic is oil drilling, pipelines, climate change, plastic straws or testing on animals, environmental science is in the news!  We need to learn to read and discern the messages we are receiving and to find out what everyone's talking about.  This blog gives us a chance to discuss and challenge what we read ...