Foothill Toll Road's
All those that are regulars of the I-5 south know how agitating it is to sit through the bumper to bumper traffic, especially on those 90 degree plus summer days. An alternative route is under construction which will help to alleviate some of these traffic woes. The proposed toll road will run parallel to the I-5 and will connect the current portion of the Foothill Tollway to the I-5, just south of San Clemente. As good as this sounds, many sacrifices must be made to accommodate this preferred route. Those that will feel the greatest wrath of the new road are the animals and plants that reside in the San Onofre State Park. The preferred route will be composed of a toll road which will cut directly through the 3,126 acre park.
Those that are in favor of the toll road estimate that by the year 2010, the Foothill Corridor is projected to relieve Interstate 5 of 35,000 cars per day, Interstate 405 of 22,000, PCH of 13,000 and Moulton Parkway of 20,000. It is estimated that the corridor will carry 170,000 vehicle trips per day. The 15 miles of roadway will require 24 million cubic yards of earthwork and 1.1 million tons of asphalt paving. The Foothill Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA) has designed a plan with the greatest transportation benefits and the least environmental impacts. The mitigation of biological impacts includes 4 wildlife undercrossings, the creation of over 26.7 acres of wetlands and planting or enhancing 262 acres of the coastal sage scrub habitat.
Environmentalists oppose the development of this because of the wildlife that will be endangered and threatened, primarily the California Gnatcatcher. Species that will be endangered include the Pacific pocket mouse, Arroyo southwestern toad, Tidewater goby, Southwestern willow flycatcher, least Bell's vireo and the Riverside fairy shrimp. Those animals that will be threatened consist of the California red-legged frog and the southern steelhead trout (which will no longer have viable habitat in that area).
The route would cut through the canyon area that is the home to the "core" population of the California gnatcatcher. The Fish and Wildlife officials estimate that 35 pairs of the birds, which are listed as an endangered species, would be disrupted or displaced by the road and effects of the noise created by construction. There are about 100 pairs of these birds occupying the canyon area and it is from this "core" that the gnatcatchers produce new birds to surrounding areas.
“The irony of thousands of ash trees being cut down this Arbor Day marks a tragic chapter in the history of Metroparks,” Jack Gallon, President of the Board of Park Commissions wrote in a letter to TCP, “One way we can channel our disappointment in a positive way is to urge our federal lawmakers to close the door to exotic species that arrive on American shores at the rate of one every eight months. The cost of prevention is small compared to the cost to our native plants and animals. Pearson Metropark is proof of what we stand to lose.”
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
The Elizabeth River Tunnel, downtown, and midtown tunnel tolls are completely unfair for anyone who lives or works in Portsmouth; people shouldn’t have to pay to drive to work, or even simply drive in their state. The tunnel tolls have forced people to rearrange their whole life because of one simple tax. There happen to be upsides to this new tax, which is that over the course of 58 years the infrastructure of the tunnel will be a lot stronger since the population in Virginia has increased.
Throughout its nearly 60 year history, the Interstate Highway System has served the United States of America far beyond its original goals. From its original purposes of uniting the country and aiding defense to the more mundane, (but equally important)such as ferrying goods across the country, the Interstate Highway System has firmly entrenched itself as one of the greatest feats of engineering the world has ever known. Record setting bridges, tunnels, and length of pavement have all been made by the vast expanse of the IHS FACT. As Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president, stated “Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear -- United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts” (http://todayinsci.com/Events/Transport/HighwayInterstate-Quotations.htm 22 Feb 1955)
As tourists wander the trails of Mesa Verde National Park they might see wild horse and elk competing for the same water source. Wild horses from the nearby Ute Mountain Ute Reserve wander into Mesa Verde on a daily basis. The horses have been around since the opening of the park in 1906, but with recent water shortages from drought, there is not enough water to fulfill the needs of all the animals in the park. Since the horses are considered trespassing, the National Park Service and The Bureau of Land Management are trying to find a way to keep the horses away from the park. The wild horses of Mesa Verde National Park deserve to live in the park even though the horses have caused some complications within Mesa Verde, and the National Park Service needs to provide better management services for the horses.
Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).
Childhood onset overweight and obesity and its’ associated health consequences are quickly becoming major significant public health issues facing America today. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define overweight as a body mass index (BMI) between the 85th and 95th percentile while obese is defined as BMI above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex . The prevalence of overweight children, defined based on 2009 CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics data, has more than tripled in the past 30 years. Between 1980 and 2006, the incidence of overweight among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% to 17.0% while overweight levels for adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 17.6% . Not only has prevalence of child and adolescent overweight and obesity increased dramatically over the last several decades, but being an overweight or obese child puts one at a heightened risk for adult overweight and obesity .
Every year, over nine million hikers and adventure seekers travel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park making it the most visited national park in the United States. There are abundant reasons for this, but many popular reasons include over 150 hiking trails extending over 850 miles, a large portion of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The park houses roughly ten thousand species of plants and animals with an estimated 90,000 undocumented species likely possible to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all this land into a national park. My research was started by asking the question; how did the transformation of tourism due to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affect surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in return, its effect on the popularity of the park?
Unfortunately, besides the animal being such a stately and scientifically contributing creature, it has been endangered by various factors.
With so much focus on the positive elements of free trade, the negative aspects of an open system are often overlooked. However, they do exist, and protectionism is needed. Consequently, safeguards are built into the system. States look out for their own good, whether that is through the use of escape clauses or the choice of the optimal forum for dispute settlement based on the precedent they do or do not want set. This paper argues that protectionism is valuable and inherent in the current system; however, not enough. Powerful states exploit weaker states, and “free trade” exacerbates the problem. I will first discuss why free trade does not work. Then, I will explain how the current system enables the inherent protectionist attitude of states. Finally, I will analyze the fairness of the system.
To discuss how the World Trade Organization impacts international trading and national sovereignty we must first explain what it is and why it was established in the first place. The World Trade Organization is designed to create the rules involved with trade. These trading rules include all countries, not just the US, and can therefore be a little tricky at times. "The WTO establishes a framework for trade policies, it does not define or specify outcome...
The human right to health means that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes access to all medical services, sanitation, adequate food, healthy working conditions, and a clean environment. (“What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care”, n.d.). Health should be a human right and should have access to all people. It will also show that all human beings are treated equally. Many people ask this question is Health a human right? Should people have given access to human right? I believe that health should be a human right because it provides quality of life, encourage equity, provide prevention and awareness and eliminate discrimination among people.
In Wilcove’s article, it is examined within the 50 states the four types of animals being discussed such as mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians with the possibility of becoming extinct or critically imperiled determined by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). David Wilcove states that, “A total of 2,490 imperiled species, subspecies, and populations fit these criteria” (Wilcove, Rothstein, Dubow, Phillips, & Losos, 1998, p. 607). In response, within these 2,490 animals at risk the science of these problems is that their home is destroyed, and when introduced to a new environment they cannot adapt to the normal life in the same manner. Native animals cannot compete with the new species discovered and...
NASA’s planned missions to Mars, should it come to fruition, will be the furthest distance any human being has ever traversed. While this is an impressive feat in and of itself, it becomes even more so when one takes into acco...
One's surrounding can also affect one's health. People have stopped buying healthy food due to its inavailability and expense issues.4 They alternated to eating fast, unhealthy and high-fat meals. This phenomenon is also supported by food companies which encourage this movement towards an unhealthy lifestyle by advertising fast food as more delicious, less expensive and more power providing6.