Global Warming Endangers the Lives of Grizzly Bears
There are less then 1000 grizzly bears left in the lower 48 United States, around 400 of them live in Yellowstone National Park. These endangered, and beautiful bears, are threatened by many factors, most significantly the fragmentation of their habitat by roads. The latest threat to this species is the Global Warming trend that is threatening the White Bark Pine Tree, which is very important to the grizzly bear diet.
Grizzly bears need to eat a great deal of fat in the fall in order to prepare for hibernation. Female grizzlies who don't get enough fat may develop fertility problems. White Bark Pine trees produce pine nuts that are considered to be the grizzly bears favorite food and provide up to 40% of the fat they need.
Global Warming threatens the White Bark Pine in two ways. First it reduces the area in which the trees can grow. They depend on a cool, alpine habitat, so as the climate warms they are forced to grow higher on the mountains. Since mountains are conical the higher they go, the less space there is for them to grow.
Second, the warming climate creates fog banks in which European Blister Rust thrives. European Blister Rust is a plant disease that was accidentally introduced into the Pacific Northwest in 1906. Blister Rust girdles the infected tree, eventually killing it. Since the introduction of this disease more than 98% of White Bark Pine stands in the northwest have been destroyed.
In recent years Blister Rust has been noted getting closer and closer to Yellowstone Park. White Bark Pine stands in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta and Blackfoot Reservation, Montana have suffered serious declines. Nearly 30% of the White Bark Pines in these areas have been killed and more than 70% of the remaining, living trees are infected. In the past five years Blister Rust has been seen in Gallatin National Forest, just south of Yellowstone, where Yellowstone grizzlies often forage for food.
How does this threat to the White Bark Pine Tree also threaten Grizzly Bears? In two ways. First since the White Bark Pine Tree provides as much as 40% of the fat requirement of grizzlies, the loss of the White Bark Pine directly threatens the fertility of female grizzlies. With only 400 grizzlies living in an isolated pocket around Yellowstone Park, a threat to their fertility is a grave threat to their very existence.
In this research paper, I will address the changes that occurred within the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park since the reintroduction of the grey wolves. The paper will consist of four sections; the first section will include the history behind the extirpation and subsequent reintroduction of the gray wolf in Northern America. The second section will explore the political controversy that surrounds the reintroduction of the gray wolf in Yellowstone. The third section will contain discuss the gray wolf and its impact on the ecosystem of Yellowstone. I will conclude my essay by explaining how the gray wolves act as climate change buffers in Yellowstone amidst global warming.
The devastating chestnut blight was discovered invading its first victims in 1904. After exposure, the fungus enters into the trees cambium through the bark causing a canker. The fungus then spread around the cambium, girdling the tree, cutting of its life support and ultimately causing death. Many methods were used to try to prevent further infections, chemical fungicides, and burning other chestnuts around infected areas, but all were unsuccessful. The blight would soon reach through the Southern United States destroying all known native American chestnut trees.
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
Written by author Tim O’Brien after his own experience in Vietnam, “The Things They Carried” is a short story that introduces the reader to the experiences of soldiers away at war. O’Brien uses potent metaphors with a third person narrator to shape each character. In doing so, the reader is able to sympathize with the internal and external struggles the men endure. These symbolic comparisons often give even the smallest details great literary weight, due to their dual meanings. The symbolism in “The Things They Carried” guides the reader through the complex development of characters by establishing their humanity during the inhumane circumstance of war, articulating what the men need for emotional and spiritual survival, and by revealing the character’s psychological burdens.
Although they are now rare, grizzly bears inhabit the dense forest of Montana’s Rocky Mountains. Grizzlies grow as tall as eight feet and can weigh up than 1,000 pounds, yet they can move as fast as a horse. There are six national grizzly recovery zones, and three are in Montana. They are Cabinet-Yaak, Northern Continental Divided, and Yellowstone (Av2 books).
"The Things They Carried," is a fiction story-telling book about the Vietnam War by Tim O'Brien that describes the physical and emotional burdens the men carry not only during their time in Vietnam but also years after leaving the warfront. The book is a series of stories told with O'Brien as the main narrator. O'Brien tells of the journey he takes alongside his unit, revealing his fight for courage and decision to commit to the serving in the war. It is a groundbreaking meditation on war, memory, imagination and the redemptive power of storytelling.
“War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead,” (80). In the fiction novel The Things They Carried, the author Tim O’Brien reminisces fighting in the Vietnam War and the aftermath of the war with his platoon mates through short stories and memories. He goes in depth about the emotional trauma and physical battles they face, what they carry, and how Vietnam and war has changed them forever. O’Brien’s stories describe the harsh nature of the Vietnam War, and how it causes soldiers to lose their innocence, to become guilt-ridden and regretful, and to transform into a paranoid shell of who they were before the war.
“The Vietnam War was arguably the most traumatic experience for the United States in the twentieth century. That is indeed a grim distinction in a span that included two world wars, the assassinations of two presidents and the resignation of another, the Great Depression, the Cold War, racial unrest, and the drug and crime waves.” (Goldstein 1). The Vietnam War is widely regarded as one of the most traumatic experiences in all of American History. Innocent boys trudged through the mud, the heat and the fear that came along with fighting in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien paints a picture of how difficult and traumatic Vietnam was for the soldiers who experienced it in his book, The Things They Carried. Throughout the course of the book the elements of fiction: plot, character and setting all act to serve the purpose in conveying O’Brien’s theme of his work which is revealed to be at the conclusion: a message of universal immortality. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried setting is the most crucial element in understanding theme, followed by character then lastly plot.
"Othello." Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Vol. 68. Detroit: Gale, 2003. N. pag. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 8 May 2014. .
In the last decade, from the Rockies to New England and the Deep South, rural and suburban areas have been beset by white-tailed deer gnawing shrubbery and crops, spreading disease and causing hundreds of thousands of auto wrecks. But the deer problem has proved even more profound, biologists say. Fast-multiplying herds are altering the ecology of forests, stripping them of native vegetation and eliminating niches for other wildlife. ' 'I don 't want to paint deer as Eastern devils, ' ' said Dr. McShea, a wildlife biologist associated with the National Zoo in Washington, ' 'but this is indicative of what happens when an ecosystem is out of whack. ' ' The damage is worse than anyone expected, he and other scientists say. Higher deer densities have affected growth, survival, and reproduction of many plant species which have aesthetic, economic or ecological value. In some cases, many species of trees have also been shown to have reduced growth as a result of high deer density (Environmental Benefits of Hunting, 1). Deer prefer certain plant species over others and frequently feed on economically valuable tree species. For example, they prefer oak and sugar maple seedlings, as well as acorns, over less palatable species like American Beech and striped maple. Thus, less marketable species are more likely to survive to maturity,
They can be malicious or they can be passive, but Grizzly bears are normally solitary animals. Grizzly bears as big and ferocious as they are aren't very territorial and may be seen together eating where food is abundant, like in a stream where they can catch salmon. When a mother grizzly has her babies she tries to keep them away from other male grizzlies because they can be dangerous to the cubs and try to kill them. When they do venture close though the mother bear might fight back to protect her cubs, ( even considering the big size difference the males and females have). Grizzly bears will do pretty much everything to protect her cub against all of the dangers in this world, fighting back against everything that dares step close to her cubs. Well that’s all for this blog post see you next time on blog posters
When O’Brien first arrives to Vietnam, the men of the platoon show him how the grief of war can be covered up by humor. As the men were patrolling near a village off the South China Sea they suddenly started to encounter sniper fire. The firefight only lasted a few minutes but Lt. Cross decided to order an airstrike on the village anyways. After the strike was over, the platoon proceeded to the smoldering village to find nothing but “…an old man who lay face up near a pigpen at the center of the village. His right arm was gone. At his face there were already many flies and gnats.”(). To many, this image of a destroyed village and the mutilated old man would cause horror and plight. Instead of that normal reaction, “Dave Jensen went over and shook the old man’s hand. “How-dee-doo,” he said.”(). The other men of the platoon also went up to the dead man’s body and shook his hand while adding a comment. This disturbing response the men have to the dead old man isn’t one of disrespect, it is their coping mechanism for realizing what they just did. Because O’Brien was new to Vietnam he had yet to understand why the men were all doing this. He was awestruck by the actions...
Throughout the novel, up until his insanity, Othello is described as a temperate man whose honor does not allow him to believe assumptions unless he has been shown proof. Firstly, when the men of Brabantio, Desdemona’s father, confront Othello’s men, Othello calmly says, “Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.” (10). Othello is confronted on the matter of his elopement with Desdemona with force and with words. Not only is he very cool about his dealings with violence, but also when he is asked to tell the story of how he had Desdemona fall in love with him he states the truth, and he doesn’t leave out any details of how he accomplished it. He openly admits that had any other man told his story, that man also would have won her heart. Only a truly honorable man can admit that it was a story, and not his personality that truly won the woman’s heart. Othello’s honor is shown by his trust in the people he knows and loves. When Iago tells Othello that he believes Cassio and Desdemona are having an affair, Othello does not believe Iago initially.
National Parks are the cornerstone of every country because it preserves the rich cultural and natural resources of a nation, such as Yellowstone in the United States of America. Yellowstone National Park is the World’s First National Park which brings millions of attraction each year, it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combine and have over a thousand species of plants and animal (Yellowstone Media). However, a very important type of species has been missing in Yellowstone National Park for a very long time. Wolves, which got reintroduce back into Yellowstone National Park, should stay there because without them the ecosystem would be out of balance.
The character Othello, from the tragedy Othello, is portrayed as faultless in many ways in the beginning. However, as the story goes on, many unattractive qualities are revealed through Othello’s actions. One flaw of his is that he is too trusting. Othello believes Iago’s lies and so unable to trust from then on. Such as, when he believes Iago when Iago tells him that Desdemona gave Cassio her handkerchief, although this is quite untrue. Later on, he does not believe Desdemona when she continually tells him that she is not cheating on him, as his trust has been destroyed. Another equally important flaw of his is jealousy. Othello is jealous of the suspicious relationship between his lieutenant Cassio and his wife Desdemona. This is ironic because there really is no such affair between the two. Othello has many flaws which allow him to seem more humanlike and connect to society.These many flaws of Othello allow for more genuineness to be seen within him, and as a result he appeals more to the public. Authenticity is imperative for the public to connect with the character Othello and really enjoy the Shakespearean tragedy. Othello is...