Field trip- river restoration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Field trip- river restoration - Essay Example As a function of understanding this, this particular course has analyzed a great many human development projects and the varying degree that they have affected upon the surrounding ecology and environment as a whole. In much the same way, this particular essay will consider the case of the Bellefonte dam and subsequent ecological and environmental factors that many decades of variable types of industrialization has affected on the region and the environment. Furthermore, as a means of highlighting the long-term nature of what unthoughtful human development can affect on a given region over a period of time, the analysis will highlight the negative factors that human development have affected within the given environmental and ecological models that Many times we are tempted to believe that even though humanity and economic projects can alter the course of nature that there is some type of corrective mechanism that the environment is able to employ that over time will correct the mist akes that humans have made. Although it is true that the environment can eventually, if given long enough, ameliorate many of the negative factors that inattentive human development has affected, there is no mechanisms whereby nature can rapidly or quickly undue the destruction and changes that human development have wrought on it.1 A good example of this can be found in the way that the Bellefonte sight has been developed over a period of the past 230 years. Beginning as early as 1790, water powered industry began to spring up along the Bellefonte site as hydro power was utilized to drive what was then the very first vestiges of industrialization in the United States. However, the changes did not end there as the development of industry led to the site being utilized for steel and iron smelting and production. With the presence of such industry and the construction of a dam to regulate water rates and flow, several key ecological issues have since developed. Although this site has been in use perhaps longer than any other site that this course has discussed thus far this semester with regards to the impact that humans have on the environment and the way that the ecological landscape develops, the fact of the matter is that the ecological impacts that have been affected have been notably and demonstrably proven to be for the long term. For instance, the first and most pressing is with regards to the migration of natural species that the dam itself retards and/or prevents. As trout can no longer have any approachable means to reach the upper regions of the watershed or river system, a whole host of issues surrounding spawning, food chain management, and the diversity of species with a given region are affected. Other concerns regard the buildup of sediment at the base of the dam, the regulation of an otherwise variable flood plain that had existed prior to the construction of the dam as well as a litany of other issues, as well as the existence of a powerful wh irlpool at the base of the dam which acts to collect garbage. Of course such situations as have been illustrated only serve to highlight the importance that environmental and ecological remediation and planning must be taken into account prior to affecting any major changes within a region. Although it is within the realm of possibility and human ability to work to remediate some of the

Factors Affecting Presidential Leadership Essay

Factors Affecting Presidential Leadership - Essay Example Presidential leadership can be affected by the personal capacity of the individual for leadership (Patterson 338). This is especially the case where the nation is facing a crisis and it needs the leadership of the president to see it through. The personal leadership capacity of a president often proves to be a decisive factor in the exercise of executive power because it determines whether or not his leadership is a success. The current expectation of presidential leadership in the United State is for the president to be very assertive in his actions because it can be considered to be a show of strength. This was especially the case where after the 9/11 attacks, President George Bush took the decisive action to launch the war on terror and go after al Qaeda by invading Afghanistan (Patterson 342). Therefore, the exercise of presidential power can be considered to rely heavily on the president’s personal leadership as well as how he conducts himself in diverse situations that a rise.National and international conditions have a significant effect on presidential leadership (Patterson 361). This is especially the case considering that the United States has become the most powerful country in the world and that it has to show leadership in order to not only serve its own national interests, but also those of its allies. In times of crises, both national and international, the president of the United States is often expected to display leadership and to chart the way towards finding a solution.

REFLECTION paper on Bilingualism, American Style (will fax chapter) Essay

REFLECTION paper on Bilingualism, American Style (will fax chapter) - Essay Example da who were already fluent in English; now immigration has steadily increased to include many diverse countries in which English may not be spoken at all. Data shows that in successive generation of non-English speaking immigrants, the tendency to embrace English as the primary language used has increased. Several factors are cited for this trend, including the fact that society has placed a stigma on the use of any language except for English; this is only combated when immigrant families maintain their heritage language at home and when specific cultural groups occupy their own neighborhoods (for example, Chinatowns). Where a few decades ago schools in the United States did not have any real need to include secondary English language classes or primary foreign language classes into their curriculum, now 1 in 5 students in America is either a foreign-language immigrant or the child of one. This means that the call for updated language classes is much more demanding, particularly when English remains the only official language used in the United States. In 1968 the Bilingual Education Act focused on Native American groups and other minority language groups like the Chinese; these reforms were minimal, however, and the modern classroom finds them very lacking. Half of the country’s population growth in the 1990’s came from non-English speaking immigrants or their children, and while such groups traditionally have held onto their cultural and language differences while living in America, now we are seeing that more and more of them feel the need to take on English as the functional language of their country of business. While non-English speaking immigrants and Native groups that reside in rural areas of the United States tend to hold onto their own languages more stubbornly that their counterparts in urban areas and cities, all of them have increasingly made an effort to integrate in terms of language. According to demographic and linguistic data