Renewable Resources

The life cycle of the salmon as explained in the video is an incredible journey that begins in freshwater streams. Female salmon prepare nests, called redds, by cleaning and shaping gravel into shallow indentations. They deposits thousands of eggs in their nests and their mate follows closely behind and fertilizes the eggs. The fresh, cool water helps bring fresh oxygen to the eggs and eventually a fry is born from the egg. They are born with the yolk still attached, which they need for nourishment. At this point they live in the shallow "backwater and stream waters". As they grow to be an inch long they are called fingerlings. Once they are large enough they leave the shallows and move into the deep channels where they use large rocks and wood for safety and shade. Smolting is the next stage as the baby salmon are big enough to travel in schools and they head down river for the migration out to sea. Their bodies start undergoing physiological changes as their environment tra

The video "The story of bottled water" ( https://vimeo.com/10441794 ) really went into detail about the bottled water industry and talked about how it has become a trend. Tap water is basically free and very accessible for many people so how did people come to the decision that bottled water is better? Annie Leonard asks this question of us and explains that big corporations changed the way people perceive their tap water. They created a manufactured demand by scaring us into thinking our tap water is bad and convincing us through advertisements that their product is much better. Pepsi and Coke are certainly instigators in this game, and it's all just a ploy for us to give them our money. In fact, bottled water is not always what it appears to be, as some companies are actually selling tap water and making a huge profit off it. I think this video should be shared with others because it exposes large companies as the heartless money-grubbers that they are. What a scam t

It is quite obvious from watching the video "6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World" that the speaker Paul Stamets is quite brilliant. His opinions and knowledge of myselium is so extensive that an an 18 minute lecture seems only to graze the surface of his knowledge. In fact, he spoke so quickly it was hard for me to follow his train of though sometimes. I ended up watching the video three times and still didn't feel like I was getting everything he was saying. I did my best to piece together what I thought his 6 ways mushrooms could save the world: 1). myselium can be used as a treatment against consumption 2) myselium can help control pests like carpenter ants and termites 3) they can provide habitat restoration for polluted waterways by treating polluted water 4) they can work against pox viruses and flu viruses because they produce strong antibodies 5) fungi could be used for alternative energy if we used "econol" which uses myselium to convert cellulose into

                                                  Where Does Your Composting Go? This was a great little film about where our local compost goes once we put it in our green bins on the street for pick up. In this video compost is described as a process of breaking down our "green waste", which includes things like food scraps, leaves, coffee grinds, and Christmas trees. Compost is the end result of this process. The process is a six step process starting from the point it leaves your house. Once the collection trucks pick them up from your street the trucks 1) bring your compost to a transfer center. 2) There the trucks dump their contents into larger transfer trucks that deliver the contents to Redwood Landfill. The trucks dump their loads on a concrete pad. 3) The compost and all the vital water that comes out of the trucks get put through a grinder where it is ground into smaller pieces. 4). These pieces are put into piles, called Covered Aerated Static Piles, or compost

The video "Soil Solutions to Climate Problems (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxqBzrx9yIE), narrated by one of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan, was extremely informative. It was helpful for me in the sense that it broke down the overwhelming dilemma of carbon dioxide levels in our environment . Something I liked about the video was it didn't focus on the negative impact of carbon in our atmosphere, it more focused on the importance of a balanced carbon cycle. the most important things I learned from the video:      -Carbon dioxide is an important element to sustain life      -Carbon in important for the health of the soil, which equates to the health of humans      -Healthy soil is responsible for 95% of our food      -Carbon dioxide is released from the soil when land is tilled and prepared for agriculture and farm use      -Excess carbon in the atmosphere, which is causing global warming, can be put back in the soil by planting more plants      -One big step to re

Shopping at Oliver's is a good example of the "multiplier effect" in Sonoma County where you can support the local economy. Oliver's Market has local headquarters, employs local residents and purchases local businesses, so inevitably some of their profits will also stay local and help keep the economy healthy.

                                   Conservation- Consciousness Runs Deep This is a really catchy song. It begins with a young man who appears to be in a music/art studio and walks outside where the street literally turns into a "river of consciousness".  I like the message, especially being spoken from the perspective of Mother Nature. It flows like a poem about why we should conserve nature and it makes the connection between human destruction of the planet and the need to learn from our past to protect our future. I really like the use of the river in the video, it speaks to the importance of clean water and seems to act as the living embodiment of Mother Nature. The video is sponsored by a  few different types of organizations and businesses like Sierra Club, Oakley, Simms, Northwestern Exposure, and The Freshwater Trust. The video itself  was created by Soul River. Based on who the sponsors are (Oakley sells sunglasses, Simms is a fishing apparel company, Sierra is an e