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I chose this photo of a lemon tree because it encompasses everything about the role of plants for society and the environment. As a society we require nutrition, and all forms of nutrition are linked to plants. The environment requires plants for purification purposes and water regulation. Plants also provide shelter for many species. Without plants, society and the environment would cease to exist.

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I chose this animation of the process of photosynthesis because it really simplified the process for me in a way that was easy to grasp the basics. When reading the materials, I had some difficulty in piecing together the order of what the process was. But now I understand that the plant absorbs the carbon dioxide through the stomata. Then, along with water molecules the chloroplast absorbs the carbon dioxide and converts it into glucose. I think that simplifying it a bit will help me have an easier time in understanding the more complex details regarding photosynthesis.

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I chose this link as a list of plants that are native to Georgia because it is one of the most extensive sets of data that I found. It is produced by The University of Georgia and through the main link there are multiple links for categories of types of land plants. Each link brings up a pdf publication that gives the taxonomic and common name and all of the information for each individual plant. Something that I found interesting about this source is that additional to the standard description, there are uses listed for each plant. For example, the  BLACK COHOSH. Cimicifuga racemosa has uses listed as:  Has insect repellent properties; used as a treatment for snakebites, menopausal symptoms, labor pains, arthritis and as a gargle for sore throats.

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The tundra is in the most danger of ecological change. The tundra is the most fragile of the biomes. The melting of the permafrost from global warming is threatening all the wildlife and plants that survive there. Also, humans directly negatively impact the tundra with deforestation and contamination through air pollution and oil spills.

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This diagram about the Neolithic Revolution is very informative and hits most of the key topics concerning the consequences of that revolution. From the creation of gender roles, issues leading to war, and the formation of social classes. It includes some pretty interesting videos showing actual representation of the life of the humans from that time period.

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The Neolithic Revolution and the Rise of Civilization

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1. Settling in towns and villages 2. Job Specialization 3. Man/Woman Relationships 4. Trade and Economics Developed The Neolithic Revolution Around 8000 B.C.E. the Neolithic Revolution began Neolithic Revolution - it is best defined as the shift from hunting and gathering to

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I am using this website for the display of the third agricultural revolution. This website shows the complete history of the tractor from the beginning when it was completely manpowered through steam and then fuel powered. It even discusses the future of driverless tractors. It shows how farming has become less of a need for human farmers to produce larger crops, leaving people to choose paths that lead to further growth of a global society.

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History of the Tractor

How the Tractor Changed Farming in America

How much thought have you given to the great American tractor? If you have food on your table, you have the tractor to thank for it. While most of us will never see the inner workings of a farm firsthand, we can still appreciate the purpose and power of the tractor that brings America's food supply from farm to table.

Froelich's steam-powered thresher left much to be desired. The machine was cumbersome and difficult to transport. Its basic use was costly, and it was also considerably dangerous-just one spark from the thresher boiler could set fire to a prairie on a windy day.

In 1890, Froelich embarked upon a new design. He and a blacksmith worked side-by-side to mount a one cylinder gasoline engine onto the thresher steam engine's running gear. Froelich was pleased to find that this rudimentary tractor could be drive safely at roughly 3 mph. Froelich and his crew brought the new machine on their annual harvest tour with successful results. The first tractor required only 26 gallons of gas and threshed over 1000 bushels of grain a day without any safety issues.
Froelich expanded to create the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Campany in 1849 with four prototype tractors. Froelich later branched out on his own, while Waterloo continues to produce tractor designs in the early 1900s. Waterloo Tractor Works is now owned by John Deere.

Early Froelich Tractor

Thank goodness for the invention of the tractor. Froelich brought a new working concept into agricultural America. He streamlined tedious processes to save farmers precious time and money spent on unnecessary manual labor.

Froelich was born in Iowa in 1849. Froelich was more than familiar with the American agricultural industry at the turn of the 19th century; he operated a mobile threshing service and grain elevator. He charged farmers a fee to thresh their crops at harvest time with the help of his crew and a steam-powered thresher machine.

Within the first few decades, tractor use was slow to catch on. Yet once farmers realized the benefits that could be had in tractor-driven farming, popularity soared. There was no need for cumbersome manual labor when a simple machine like a tractor could do the job for you. From 1910-1970, tractor production drastically increased from 1000 tractors to nearly 5 million.
Falling prices contributed to tractor to tractor growth. Early tractors cost as much as $785 in 1920. Just two years later in 1922, a tractor could be purchased for only $395. The price dropped by nearly half in just two years, making tractors an affordable piece of agricultural machinery for almost every farmer.

Tractor farming just made sense. Farmers saw
immediate benefits in tractor use, like:

Quick response to rush demand.

Ability to finish work on time to meet a deadline.

Money savings in reduced farm overhead costs.

Dependable daily work machinery, compared to a horse.

Reduced manpower hours in field labor.

Ease in operation-driven by an adolescent, adult, or elderly person.

Promoted recreational farming- gardening and landscaping.

Reduced lengthy work days and cut down on fatigue.

Improved overall farm production.

Rural farming populations decreased as tractor use increased. In the 1940s, tractor use peaked; due to social changes brought on by World War II, farming communities experienced drastic shifts.

At the beginning of the
war, 30 million people
lived on farms with 1.2
million tractors in use.

Tractor use jumped to
4 million by 1950,
while farm populations
dropped to 23 million.

It only takes a quick Google search to confirm the continued popularity of tractors in agriculture today. In the U.S. alone, tractors are searched 5 million times a month.

"Dorothy Bell Belin, daughter and wife of farmers, remembers when her father first bought his tractor for $1000. It was a Farmall, and her father had the support of her mother for this purchase. Bell did not sell his horses but kept them and bought more. Farming was easier with the tractor, but ' it cost money to operate. You had to buy the gasoline. That was a problem.'" - The Tractor Changes Rural Life, Anna Carlson

Based on search popularity, the top tractor
brands in America are ranked as:

John Deere is hands-down the top tractor company in the U.S., established in 1868. In the U.K., John Deere also reigns supreme, followed by Massey Ferguson and Ford. There is strong evidence to suggest that John Deere is the number one global tractor brand today as it also corners the top tractor search results in Australia and Canada.

We've only scratched the surface of American tractor history. Read on to learn more about how tractor development shaped farming in the U.S.

"None of the first tractors had a battery in them," LeRoy says. "You had to crank the Farmall... We had it standing out in the yard there one time. Our boy was about four years old. And I was in the house for something. And all at once the missus says, 'You know, the tractor is running.' And the boy come in the house, never said a word... He just took a hold of that crank and turned it one notch. Everything was just right, and it started."

- Farming in the 1930s, livinghistoryfarm.org

1837

Tractor pioneer John Deere created the first self-cleaning plow made from an old saw; John Deere began mass-producing his newly popular saws instead of making them on-demand, a customary practice for blacksmiths at the time.

1890John Froelich introduced the first gas powered tractor to the farming industry.

1913

The Bull Tractor Company introduced the first tractor manufactured for small farmers. Standard features included a single "bull" wheel, a two-cylinder 12 hp engine, and a cone clutch instead of a transmission gearbox.

1934

John Deere was able to survive the Great Depression by focusing on product development; Model A and Model B tractors remained the most popular Deere models in company history, produced until 1952. Caterpillar Inc. also experienced growth through the Great Depression.

1959

John Deere successfully produced over 1.25 million two-cylinder tractors; from that point forward, John Deere manufactured four- and six-cylinder engine tractors.

1960Four-wheel-drive tractors were introduced within the decade. Caterpillar expanded to manufacture in Brazil, which continues to the present day.

1963

The best-selling John Deere tractor of all time, the John Deere 4020, hit the market. Farmalls remained the top selling row-crop tractors until 1963.

1966

John Deere surpassed $1 billion in sales for the first time. In the same year, the DICKEY-john Manufacturing Company electronic monitoring device for farmers launched to improve crop planting efficiency by monitoring seed numbers and spacing.

1973

John Deere sales hit $2 billion.

2000

John Deere updated the company tractor name and numbering system to display engine horsepower in each model number; example: John Deere 2010 8R/8 RT.

Industry experts endorsed the transition to driverless tractors in the near future. Major manufacturers, including John Deere, supported developments in autonomous machinery design.

Modern farmers still can't live without heavy-duty tractor machinery. Tractors continue to streamline rigorous farming processes to cut down on overhead and improve productivity. As we anticipate new innovations, the future looks bright for the agricultural industry indeed.

In 2012, the idea of the self-driving tractor launched.

While self-driving cars have yet to hit city streets, self-driving tractor technology makes even more sense to automate farming processes and save time and money. The Autonomous Tractor Company invented a self-driving tractor as a brand-new agricultural system; instead of updating clunky farm machinery, the company reinvented the wheel in an entirely new autonomous tractor model. The one-of-a-kind tractor was unveiled at a farm machinery show in 2012.

The autonomous tractor is only one piece of the puzzle in impressive, modern-day tractor technology.

Other top tractor innovations to improve American farming include:

Tractor sales have yet to slump.

With the latest agricultural technologies and innovations hitting the market year after year, tractor use is multipurpose and widespread. U.S. farm tractor sales hit a five-year high in 2013, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. 24,171 farm tractors were sold in May 2013.

We can attribute the success of the agricultural industry and the slowly growing American economy to the pride tractor manufacturers take in their craftsmanship. As the man behind the industry's leading tractor brand stated so eloquently:

I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me. - John Deere

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History Of The Tractor - How It Changed Farming

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History of the Tractor How the Tractor Changed Farming in America How much thought have you given to the great American tractor? If you have food on your table, you have the tractor to thank for it. While most of us will never see the inner workings of a farm firsthand, we can still appreciate ...

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I feel that alcohol is one of the most influential chemicals that is derived from plants. People throughout the entire world consume it. Some to the point of letting it control their lives. I chose this website because it displays the various types of alcohol and what plants are used to produce it.

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The alcohol that you can drink, called ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is produced by fermenting carbohydrates, such as sugars and starches. Fermentation is an anaerobic process used by yeast to convert sugars into energy. Ethanol and carbon dioxide are waste products of the reaction. The reaction for the fermentation of glucose to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide is:

The fermented product (e.g., wine) can be used, or it can be distilled to concentrate and purify the alcohol (e.g., vodka, tequila).

Just about any plant matter can be used to produce alcohol. Here are the source materials for several popular alcoholic beverages:

Ale: Fermented from malt with hops

Beer: Brewed and fermented from malted cereal grain (e.g., barley), flavored with hops

Bourbon: Whiskey distilled from a mash of not less than 51 percent corn and aged in new charred oak barrels for at least two years

Brandy: Distilled from wine or fermented fruit juice

Cognac: Brandy distilled from white wine from a specific region of France

Gin: Distilled or redistilled neutral grain spirits from a variety of sources, flavored with juniper berries and other aromatics

Rum: Distilled from a sugarcane product such as molasses or sugarcane juice

Sake: Produced by a brewing process using rice

Scotch: Whiskey distilled in Scotland typically from malted barley

Tequila: A Mexican liquor distilled from blue agave

Vodka: Distilled from a mash of potatoes, rye, or wheat

Whiskey: Distilled from a mash of grain such as rye, corn, or barley

Wine: Fermented juice of fresh grapes and/or other fruit (e.g., blackberry wine)

Any material that contains sugars or starches could be used as a starting point for fermentation to produce alcohol.

Although all alcohol is produced from fermentation, some beverages are further purified via distillation. Fermented beverages are consumed as is, possibly after filtration to remove sediments. The fermentation of grain (beer) and grapes (wine) can produce other byproducts, including toxic methanol, but they are present in low enough amounts that they don't typically cause health problems.

Distilled beverages, called "spirits," start out as fermented beverages, but then distillation occurs. The liquid is heated at a carefully controlled temperature to separate components of the mixture based on their boiling points. The portion that boils at a lower temperature than ethanol is called the "heads." Methanol is one of the components removed with the "heads." The ethanol boils next, to be recovered and bottled. At a higher temperature, the "tails" boil. Some of the "tails" may be included in the final product because these chemicals add unique flavor. Sometimes additional ingredients (coloring and flavoring) are added to distilled spirits to make the final product.

Fermented beverages usually have a lower alcohol content than spirits. A typical spirit is 80 proof, which is 40 percent alcohol by volume. Distillation may be considered a method of improving the purity of alcohol and of concentrating it. However, because water and ethanol form an azeotrope, 100 percent pure alcohol can't be obtained by simple distillation. The highest purity of ethanol that can be obtained by distillation is called absolute alcohol.

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Alcohol That We Drink Comes From Sugars and Starches

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The alcohol that you can drink, called ethyl alcohol or ethanol, is produced by fermenting carbohydrates, such as sugars and starches. Fermentation is an anaerobic process used by yeast to convert sugars into energy. Ethanol and carbon dioxide are waste products of the reaction.

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As seen in most apocalyptic photos, I think this would be a realistic view of what the world is headed for if humans do not do something to stop the damage we are creating. Global warming, pollution, overpopulation and lack of resources are all very real problems that are putting far too much strain on many fragile ecosystems here on Earth. If humans do not find a way to change their disposable and wasteful lifestyles, we may destroy our only home beyond repair.