Blog 4 Wild Mustangs

Wild horses should be safe and live their own free life. 

  Did you know mustangs are wild horses that live in the Great Plains of the Western US? Most of them live on government land. Cattle also live on government land. The horses are being blamed for overpopulating the land and destructing the land. The cattle owners and the government wants the horses off the land. On the other hand, the American Wild Horse Campaign argues the mustangs are "a scapegoats" for the cattle (A scapegoat is a thing or an animal being blamed for something that someone else did.) Wild horses should stay and be free. 


There is a law called The Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act" Protects the horses and burros from being removed from the land. They can only be moved if they have too many horses in a herd or if they destroy the land. (Oh, let me show you what a burro looks like.) 
The US government thinks there are too many horses and they are hurting the land. Aljazeera reports that the US will spend "5bn and 15 years" to remove the horses off the land. Last year the government " had adopted out more than 7,000 mustangs and burros" (Aljazeera). The US government uses a helicopter to herd them. Their goal is to " shrink the size of herds from 88,000 to the 27,000..." Does the government think that 61,000 mustangs and burros will be adopted? The government doesn't want to slaughter all the mustangs and burros  They "approved $35m last month" for "expanded fertility controls". After they capture the mustangs, vets will make so the males can't create sperm. I feel sad about the horses because they may not be hurting the land. I think I am going to read more about wild mustangs because horses will always be a part of my life.

Let horses run free.

Works Cited

Brungardt, Kurt. Wild Mustangs. vanityfair.com, Nov. 2006 ,
     www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/11/wildhorses200611. Accessed 19 Dec. 2019.

"Official: Controlling wild horses in US will take $5b,15 years." Aljazeera . aljazeera.com,
     www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/official-controlling-wild-horses-5b-15-years-
     191024010034689.html. Accessed 13 Dec. 2019.

Urquhart, Jim. "Wild horses facing slaughter after US government proposes new regulations."
     ABCnews.com, ABC.News.com, 23 Jan. 2018, abcnews.go.com/US/wild-horses-facing-slaughter-
     us-government-proposes-regulations/story?id=52538898. Accessed 19 Dec. 2019."Wild Horses and
     the Ecosystem." American Wild Horse Campaign, American Wild Horse Campaign,
     americanwildhorsecampaign.org/wild-horses-and-ecosystem. Accessed 13 Dec. 2019.

Look for Blue Tress in Manchester

The Currier Museum of Art is in Manchester NH and they have an outdoor exhibit of curious-looking blue trees. 

Volunteers helped artist Konstantin Dimopoulos paint about 100 tree trunks and branches with paint that fades after a while. "The biologically - safe colorant will wash from the trees, and they will eventually return to their natural state." 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHuVg9cJztQ&feature=youtu.be   

The artist has made these exhibits around the world, including:
Germany, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the USA. I think it is nice that he did an exhibit in NH. I think it is good that people are helping him paint lots of trees. If he keeps painting blue trees then people that care about trees and the environment. 

Konstantin says he painted the trees blue because " blue trees do not exist in nature." Trees are usually brown. When a person goes by the blue trees they might stop and think about why the trees are painted blue. People might talk about the trees and what they represent. 

Why don't you ask your family if they would like to visit the blue trees at The Currier Museum of Art in Machester NH? 

   

Dead Zone are Bad for Sea Creatures

I recently heard someone compare a dead zone to be as big as New Jersey. I didn't know what a dead zone was, but I do know about New Jersey because I see my NJ relatives for Thanksgiving every two years. I don't know what my relatives think about the dead zone comparison.

I guess a dead zone is part of the ocean that can´t survive. I heard about dead zones from a Ted Talk called Nancy Rabalais: The ¨dead zone¨ of the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Rabalais is a Marine scientist that works for the US government who says she ¨owes it¨ to US citizens to tell them about dead zones. She explains that in the Gulf of Mexico there is an area where all the oxygen is being used up by the microorganisms. If there is not any oxygen, then the sea creatures can´t survive. She compared the size of the dead zone to New Jersey, which is 8,729 square miles. That sounds big even for a small state. The Ted Talk was from 2017. In 2019 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports the dead zone is now the size of Massachusetts. Massachusetts is 10,565 square miles. In two years the dead zone has grown massively. I hope scientists can shrink the dead zone before it gets to be the size of California.

In 2019 Scientists show how massive the dead zone is in the Gulf of Mexico.
The dark red area presents where there is the least amount of oxygen for the sea creatures. 

Rabalais claims small steps can help on farms, where the problem starts near the Mississippi River. Farmers use fertilizers on their land. When it rains the fertilizer washes into the river and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. She agrees with the NOAA that humans are making the dead zones. The fertilizers make the microorganisms grow in the gulf. When they die they sink to the bottom and then kills the oxygen where some sea creatures live. If the farmers stop growing corn or use fewer chemicals, then there will be fewer fertilizers in the water. Rabalais is not a farmer, so she tries not to eat meat, not use corn oil or drive a car that uses ethanol gas.


The white crab and fish had died because they didn't have enough oxygen. 

I hope the scientist can tell farmers to protect the sea creatures because they´re just as important as farm animals. I will be in New Jersey next week for Thanksgiving. If I remember, I will tell my relatives about the dead zone comparison to New Jersey, and I won't eat corn because I don't like it.

"The Dead Zone of the Gulf Mexico ." YouTube , uploaded by Ted Talks, Google , 2017,                      www.ted.com/talks/nancy_rabalais_the_dead_zone_of_the_gulf_of_mexico#t-703456. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

Hardy, Steve. "'Large to very large' Gulf of Mexico dead zone expected this year; Here's what caused it." theadvocate.com, The Advocate, 16 May 2019, www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/environment/article_b28f1bd0-77e7-11e9-a33d-97289e73dd28.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

LUMCON. "Map ." 2019. Earth Sky, 16 Aug. 2019, earthsky.org/earth/dead-zone-gulf-of-mexico-2019 . Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

Slaff, Jerry. "NOAA forecasts very large 'dead zone' for Gulf of Mexico." NOAA , 12 June 2019, www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-forecasts-very-large-dead-zone-for-gulf-of-mexico. Accessed 22 Nov. 2019.

Blue Trees

I am concerned about climate change. When people talk about climate change on the news I get worried. I hear arguments on the news and I see pictures of wildfires, floods, tornados, and hurricanes. Sometimes I get scared when storms come near our state and where my relatives live. I don't know how I can help stop global climate change. I want to help so I won't worry as much.

(This is an example from CNN) 

 https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/14/politics/fema-climate-change-pete-gaynor/index.html 

I read an ABC News article about how people can help others think about global climate change https://wakelet.com/wake/2a5d8a64-d093-483a-b25d-0d4227bd5e4e. ABC News reported, The Union of Concerned Scientists say, "that nearly 1,500 gigatons of carbon have been emitted since 1751, with more than half of that since 1988." I didn't know what a gigaton is, so I had to look it up. This University of Calgary Energy Education site was helpful. It says one gigaton is "...roughly 200 million elephants..." You would have to multiply that amount by 1,500. ( 200, 000, 000 x 1,500). I don't have enough room to type that out. I also know that most of this carbon was created in my twin brothers' lifetime. In the next 30 years, we should put less carbon in the atmosphere, so my brothers and I will be safer. The ABC News story gave me ideas when it said, "... make art to inform and inspire..." My first thought was an artist likes to paint. I also like to paint and do art projects. 

My second thought was when I was in Mr.Dickson's biology class, we went outside in the woods to learn about how trees hold onto carbon. The ABC article suggested that its good to plant trees. In my thoughts, I said, "I don't think that I'm good at planting trees.'

Then Ms.Thesing told me about the artist that paints trees blue. She said  Mr. Dickson and the artist use trees to teach about global climate change. I can't wait to tell you all about this artist's work next time.  



Hanania, Jordan. "Gigatonne - Energy Education ." Gigatoone - Energy Education , University of 
     Calgary , 25 June 2018, energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Gigatonne . Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.

Jacobo, Julia. "What you can do to help prevent climate change, according to experts." ABC News,
     ABC News , 28 Sept. 2019, abcnews.go.com/US/prevent-climate-change-experts/story?
     id=65721423. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.

Wallace, Gregory. "FEMA nominee says he does not know the causes of climate change ." CNN 

     Politics , CNN , 14 Nov. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/11/14/politics/fema-climate-change-pete-
     gaynor/index.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.