Blog #12: Questions for Media Saves the Beach

1. What are the helping organisms and hurting organisms?
I thought this question was interesting because we also have a partnership with biology so I thought this tied both classes really well. We always hear about the bad microorganisms in the water, but then we hear about how the environment breaks things down and actually cleans itself. It just confused me a little and I'm sure it confuses others too, I thought it would be the most educational. I think knowing the balance of good and bad organisms gives us better insight on what exactly is in our water and what exactly is happening.

2. What/How does the environment react to humans?
We always hear about litter, pollution, storm drain water, etc. Humans have probably done the most damage to the environment when we could be limiting our effects. I picked this question because I'm wondering how the environment copes with mass amount of pollution. We see litter everywhere we go and yes we fail to realize, on a large scale, what that does to the environment. If we were more informed about what the environment does to react to our carelessness, maybe people will understand, "Hey, because of me throwing this piece of plastic on the ground, I am polluting the ocean." Perhaps this person likes to surf, so now, knowing how his actions effects the environment he likes to surf in, he will have a reason to be more ecofriendly.

3. How much do humans contribute to the water?
I liked this question because we always seem to be quick in saying, "Yeah, humans pollute everything." but how much of it is actually our fault? We have already learned before about the toxic animal fecal matter that is released into our ocean from seals. Humans are pretty filthy and all, and I'm sure the amount we contribute to the pollution is a higher number that's off the scales, but what is it compared to other animals? We are the most destructive, yes, but compared to other animals, are we really making pollution increase in speed due to our carelessness? How much does our carelessness hurt the water? How much of us "just being animals" hurt the water? This question brings up more specific questions that I would be interested in researching too.