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Aquaculture is sometimes called aquafarming. It involves the farming of fish, aquatic plants, Mollusca (clams), crustaceans (lobsters and shrimp), and many other freshwater and saltwater species. Populations of fish are raised under very controlled conditions verses commercial fishing, which is the catching of “wild” fish, plants, or other aquatic plants or animals.

Aquaculture has expanded because it is highly efficient, requires only small areas of water, and requires little fuel.

Benefits:
There are benefits and concerns about aquaculture. One benefit is that it is extremely efficient. Aquacultures create a healthy habitat that is raising healthy fish populations. Aquafarming helps restock depleted or threatened populations of fish that may be considered endangered. Finally, there can be economic benefits to the individuals and communities where aquaculture is being done.

Concerns:
There are concerns about aquafarming too. One is controlling the waste from the fishing. The waste can be damaging to the surrounding ecosystems. Aquacultures can destroy habitat and with all the fish in close proximity, it is really easy to transfer a disease from fish to fish. Finally, if farm raised fish escape into the wild, they can change the genetics of the wild fish. Aquaculture fish are generally one genetic makeup and do not have any biodiversity. This means if the farm raised fish escape and breed with wild fish, the biodiversity of the wild fish will decrease.

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Growing two or more different crops at the same time on a plot. For example, a carbohydrate-rich grain that depletes soil nitrogen and protein-rich legume that adds nitrogen to the soil may be intercropped.

Terracing is a farming practice used to cut out flat sections within hilly areas.  If you see this type of farming from the air, it will look like a series of steps. This practice helps reduce soil loss and erosion in hilly areas. Strip farming is done when a series of long rows that are alternated with areas that are not planted. This is a technique used in crop rotation.

Strategies to improve soil fertility include crop rotation and the addition of green manure and
limestone.

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An important concept related to food production is a sustainable yield. Sustainable yield is the amount of food that can be harvested without decreasing the food supply.  This concept applies to timber harvesting, freshwater, fish populations as well as all crops.

Areas that have historically not been able to manage a sustainable yield are resources that are considered a commons. Fishers worldwide are being fished at a rate faster than they can reproduce causing their populations to crash. This crash often results in one of two outcomes, extinction of the species or a regulation that stops harvesting. Either option results in humans losing access to that resource. If the fishers are managed at a sustainable yield then they should be able to have a consistent population and be able to provide that resource to humans.

Sustainable yield is the amount of a renewable resource that can be taken without reducing the available supply.

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Specifically, environmental sustainability refers to humans living on Earth and utilizing our natural resources in a way to ensure they are available for future generations.  The factors that are important to sustainability are biological diversity, human population levels, resource consumption, CO2, CH4 and other greenhouse gas concentrations, and food production.

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Sustainability refers to humans living on Earth and their use of resources without depletion of the resources for future generations.
Environmental indicators that can guide humans to sustainability include biological diversity, food production, average global surface temperatures and CO2 concentrations, human population, and resource depletion.

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Some individuals or companies have a much bigger footprint or impact they will leave on the environment than others. We can compare and even calculate the impact a person has. Look at these two scenarios as examples: Person A. lives in an apartment, bikes to work and eat a vegetarian diet and Person B has a very large house, drives a large car a long way to work and eats a mostly red meat based diet. These two people would have a very different lasting impact on the world around them. However an individual's impact will be small compared to a corporation’s. Some very large corporations are responsible for massive amounts of CO2 production, plastic pollution, deforestation, and water usage among other environmental impacts.

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Ecological footprints can be determined for an individual, community, town, region, country, and planet Earth. There is a “cost” to produce goods and provide services.

Examples of questions or criteria that are used to calculate an ecological footprint include the following:

1. How do you get around? Walking, driving, etc.

2. How often do you fly in an airplane?

3. How do you eat (Do you eat meat?  Are you a vegetarian?

4. How often do you buy new clothes and other things?

5. Do you use renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) for heating your housing?

6. How long do you shower?

7. What temperature do you keep your housing at in the winter?

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Human beings alter the environment when humans utilize any natural resources.  An ecological footprint measures how much “nature” it takes to support human beings (people) and or an economy (production, trade and exchange of goods and services, etc.). It is a measure of the biological impact humans have on the land and water while producing goods and providing services.

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Ecological footprints compare resource demands and waste production required for an
individual or a society.

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When urban growth spreads to rural areas and seems to have no limits in the urban areas, it can be called urban sprawl. The perception is that there is very little planning for the expanding commercial and housing areas. This unplanned growth puts a lot of stress on the environment and often leads to environmental problems like water pollution, reduction of available water supply, habitat loss and problems with proper waste disposal.

Urban sprawl is the change in population distribution from high population density areas to low density suburbs that spread into
rural lands, leading to potential environmental problems.

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Because of the increased number of people in an area, the natural resources in the area are stressed, such as the availability of freshwater. Urbanization affects the nitrogen cycle by influencing plant growth by a change in nitrogen availability in soils. The water cycle is impacted by the decrease in the area of land where water can percolate into the ground and that decreases the amount of available groundwater. Parking lots and roads are examples of structures that prevent water from seeping into the soil. The carbon cycle is impacted by the burning of petroleum based energy sources or fossil fuels that increase the amount of atmospheric CO2. In addition to creating more CO2, the process of building man made structures results in deforestation, further reducing the number of plants to capture the CO2.

Urbanization, through the burning of fossil fuels and landfills, affects the carbon cycle by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Impervious surfaces are human-made structures—such as roads, buildings, sidewalks, and parking lots—that do not allow water to reach the soil, leading to flooding.

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Urbanization is an increase in the number of people living in cities and towns. With more people in cities and towns there are changes in the land use and economic development in the area.  Two potential reasons for the increase in urbanization include more opportunities for employment, and potential better schooling.

Urbanization affects a natural biogeochemical cycles with the changing balance of increased human populations.

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Mining waste is produced during the extraction of minerals or ore.  These waste products are called slag or more commonly tailings. Mining is an industry that is important for the economy for many states and has helped provide low cost fossil fuels for energy.

For example, coal mining often destroys habitat and can contaminate ground and land water supplies. Coal mining produces a lot of dust and methane gas. There are many pollutants in the mine tailings including mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals.

As coal mining has become more difficult because the coal reserves are decreasing, more coal mining is done underground. This process is very expensive and very hazardous for the workers in the mine.

Mining wastes include the soil and rocks that are moved to gain access to the ore and the waste,
called slag and tailings that remain when the minerals have been removed from the ore. Mining
helps to provide low cost energy and material necessary to make products. The mining of coal
can destroy habitats, contaminate ground water, and release dust particles and methane.

As coal reserves get smaller, due to a lack of easily accessible reserves, it becomes necessary to access coal through subsurface mining, which is very expensive.

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Surface mining is the process of removing the soil and rocks to remove the mineral or ore.  Surface mining is often used when there is very little ore in the rock and a lot of rock needs to be processed to obtain the ore.  The rock and soil removed over the ore is called overburden. There are three types of surface mining: open pit mining, strip mining and mountaintop removal.  Open pit mining is used when you have to dig deeper for the ore. Strip mining is used when the ore is closer to the surface. Mountaintop removal is used in coal mining in Appalachian mountains. It is a type of strip mining that removes the top of a mountain and pushes the waste into surrounding valleys.  Surface mining causes a lot of damage to vegetation because most of it is removed and therefore the lands are very prone to erosion.

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As the more accessible ores are mined to depletion, mining operations are forced to access lower grade ores. Accessing these ores requires increased use of resources that can cause increased waste and pollution.

Surface mining is the removal of large portions of soil and rock, called overburden, in order to access the ore underneath. An example is strip mining, which removes the vegetation from
an area, making the area more susceptible to erosion.

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Mining is the extraction or removal of minerals or material that is considered to be valuable and useful. Mining materials are used to obtain construction materials for roads, to generate electricity, and many other items. Mining is extremely important to the economy for many states and countries. As the easiest to access mining ore is removed, the continued removal of ore tends to require more resources and increase the environmental impact of mining, including more air pollution from the process.

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Overfishing has led to the extreme scarcity of some fish species, which can lessen biodiversity in aquatic systems and harm people who depend on fishing for food and commerce.

Poor management and disagreements about who manages the fishing in the open ocean have led to overfishing.  Developing better management and fishing regulations or rights will help the long term health of the fishing waters. The overfishing goes back to the Tragedy of the Commons concept about learning not to overuse our natural resources.

Proper management of our aquatic fishery resources is critical for many people.  Maintaining proper biodiversity among fish populations is important for people who depend on fishing as a means of income or to catch their own food for survival.

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This occurs when animals consume plants faster than they can regrow, this can lead to vegetation loss and increased soil erosion. Overgrazing can lead to desertification. Desertification occurs in dry areas with low precipitation and depleted water supplies.

Meat production is economically important for different countries around the world. Brazil, the US, and China are examples of countries where meat production is economically important.

Today there is research suggesting to reduce meat consumption. One reason is for a healthier diet and consuming less meat as humans can lead to reduced methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen based gases.  Also, reducing meat consumption will help conserve water and decrease the use of antibiotics used to help animals grow faster.

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This is another method of meat production.  The animals have access to pasture areas all the time. The animals are able to move and roam around without being confined 24/7 like CAFO farming. These animals are not fenced in and are able to roam and graze freely.

There are pros and cons to free range grazing.  Some pros include the animals are free of antibiotics, happier, and healthier.  Some cons are free range grazing is more expensive for consumers and waste is deposited everywhere.

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Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO)

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Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO)

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One method of meat production uses the concept of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). This method of industrial farming is a very intensive and concentrated animal feeding operation. The animals are all very close together. CAFOs are classified by the type and how many animals are in the area and by the ways waste or pollution enters the water supply. Poultry, pork, lamb (mutton), and beef all use CAFO methods.

There are pros and cons in using CAFO farming.  Some pros are that CAFOs provide employment opportunities, keep prices lower and farmers can raise more than one type of animal on the farm.  Cons include a lot of pollutants that can contaminate surface and groundwater supplies from the organic waste products and air pollution from the decomposition of organic waste products including the production of greenhouse gases.

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Livestock meat farming or production has changed significantly over the years.  It has shifted from the smaller, family-owned business to larger farms with open air buildings.  Open air buildings have a roof but no outside walls.

Overfishing is a major problem today. It is estimated by some that at least ⅓ of the world’s fisheries are in trouble.  Simply put, overfishing is catching way too many fish at one time. This depletes the populations so much that the breeding population left cannot reproduce enough fish to maintain the fish population. Overfishing tends to be wasteful.  Unwanted fish are often just thrown away and not returned to the water, and this decreases these unwanted fish populations too.

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Substances that kill insects. Different types of insecticides can be used to repel insects and be tracked back to their nest, like an ant. These chemicals often kill organisms indiscriminately and end up killing ‘good’ insects accidentally. Bee populations are in collapse globally due to exposure to insecticides.

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Pesticides used to kill rodents. Rats, mice, squirrels and porcupines are examples of rodents. Some rodenticides are lethal and others may require more than one exposure.

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Chemicals or biological organisms (biofungicides) that are used to kill parasitic fungi and their spores. A fungicide purpose is to inhibit growth. A fungus (fungi) can cause severe problems due to the loss of viable crops. Free living bacteria or fungi can be biofungicides.

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A substance that is toxic to plants often used to kill off unwanted plants or vegetation. Herbicides can be designed to be selective or non-selective. Selective herbicides are designed to kill specific kinds of vegetation and non-selective herbicides kill all plants. One “herbicide” that has been in the news recently you may have heard about is Roundup. Monsanto is a company that makes Roundup and the ingredient glyphosate has been linked to cancer in humans.

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Any substances used to “control” different types of pests. These “pests” include plants and animals. Four common types of pesticides include herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides and insecticides.

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There are benefits and shortcomings of using a variety of methods of pest controls. Examples of pest control methods include the use of pesticides and using genetically engineered crops.

One consequence of using common pest-control methods such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, and
insecticides is that organisms can become resistant to them through artificial selection. Pest control decreases crop damage by pest
and increases crop yields.

Crops can be genetically engineered to increase their resistance to pests and diseases.
However, using genetically engineered crops in planting or other ways can lead to loss of
genetic diversity of that particular crop.

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A process by which salt remains in the soil after the water evaporates.  This salt buildup overtime is toxic to plants. Monitoring your soil, maintaining proper vegetation and the utilization of proper irrigation techniques for the soil conditions help reduce the chances of salinization occurring. Aquifers are underground water storage for groundwater. It gathers water that seeps through porous rock, permeable rock (like sandstone or soil), and percolates down to where the water is trapped in by non porous rock, such as clay. One of the largest aquifers is the Ogallala aquifer found in the great plains. To use the water from an aquifer, the water needs to be pumped out and an aquifer can be recharged with water, but it takes a long time to replenish.

Effects:
Salinization occurs when the salts in groundwater remain in the soil after the water evaporates. Over time, salinization can make
soil toxic to plants.

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A localized irrigation system that conserves water and distributes water close to the plant roots. Drip irrigation uses a hose with holes in it and is by far the most efficient way to irrigate but it is the most costly as well.

Effects:
Drip irrigation uses perforated hoses to release small amounts of water to plant roots. This system is the most efficient, with only about
5% of water lost to evaporation and runoff. However, this system is expensive and so is not
often used.

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This Is a type of surface irrigation that uses trenches that are dug between rows of crops. Furrow irrigation is inexpensive and there is some water loss.

Effects:
Furrow irrigation involves cutting furrows between crop rows and filling them with water. This system is inexpensive, but about 1/3 of the
water is lost to evaporation and runoff.

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Is a type of surface irrigation. Water is dumped onto the land and distributed all over the field.

Effects:
Flood irrigation involves flooding an agricultural field with water. This system sees about 20% of the water lost to evaporation and runoff. This can also lead to waterlogging of the soil.

(Waterlogging) Waterlogging occurs when too much water
is left to sit in the soil, which raises the water table of groundwater and inhibits plants’ ability to absorb oxygen through their roots.

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Water is distributed and sprayed over the field from a central location. This method is more efficient than flood irrigation because it requires less water and a lot less water is lost to evaporation or runoff.

Effects:
Spray irrigation involves pumping ground water into spray nozzles across an agricultural field. This system is more efficient than flood and furrow irrigation, with only 1/4 or less of the water lost to evaporation or runoff. However, spray systems are more expensive than flood and furrow irrigation, and also requires energy to run.

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Irrigation accounts for approximately 70% of freshwater use worldwide. There are various types of irrigation.  These include spray irrigation, flood irrigation, furrow irrigation and drip irrigation.

Aquifers can be severely depleted if overused for agricultural irrigation, as has happened to the Ogallala Aquifer in the central United States

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This shift in agricultural practices has had positive impacts, but the strategies and practices have raised new concerns. The use of GMO (genetically modified organisms) plants, new fertilizers, pesticides, and advances in irrigation are some of the new strategies being implemented today that created new challenges. These challenges include pesticides killing good insects for agriculture and harming other wildlife.

Increased farming modernization includes more reliance on petroleum-based fuels, but it has led to increased profits and efficiency. Also, the modernization of farming is a concern because the traditional “family farms” are vanishing.

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There was a growing need around the world to find ways to produce more food in an efficient and effective way.  By being able to produce more food for less cost it would help decrease starvation around the world and help feed more people around the world.

The Green Revolution started in the late 1960’s focusing on increasing agriculture production.  One of the leaders was Norman Borlaug, often called the “Father of the Green Revolution,” who is credited for saving over a billion people from starvation.  He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for using new technologies to create high-yielding varieties of wheat and other grain plants.

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The Green Revolution started a shift to new agricultural strategies and practices in order to increase food production, with both positive
and negative results. Some of these strategies and methods are mechanization, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), fertilization, irrigation, and the use of pesticides.

Mechanization of farming can increase profits and efficiency for farms. It can also increase reliance on fossil fuels.

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The tragedy of the commons suggests that individuals will use shared resources in their own self-interest rather than in keeping with the common good, thereby depleting the resources.

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The oceans are often seen as the world's largest commons.  It is hard to regulate fishing practices conducted in international waters.  This often leads to some individuals or groups of individuals taking more than their share. In the case of fishing, this translates to taking as much as possible as fast as possible and is the result of almost all fishers being in decline or crashing.

Bluefin Tuna are one example of a fish that is in danger of extinction due to being heavily overfished. These fish are valuable in the sushi trade and hunted relentlessly in pelagic ocean waters. Even though it is illegal in some countries to hunt these fish, a tragedy of the commons is occurring in that others are still driving them to extinction.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Tragedy of the Commons is the title of an article written by Garrett Hardin. In summary, it discusses the population problem. One of the key points suggested from the article is that individuals will share common resources for their own benefit and not consider the common good for all people who use the resource. Such a resource may be a common area of land or the ocean.