RJA #15b: Reflection on What You Learned

I am very glad I had this class with Professor Clark. She did a very good job showing us cool new ways to express our thinking online. We used online blogs which I thought was very cool because almost all research these days for papers is online so a great way to review things was through our blogs. I look forward to continuing using all the resources that were given to us in order to better enhance my skills for my academic future.

RJA #15a: Word Cloud

RJA #14: Annotated Bibliography, Part 2

Butler, Rhett A. "Tropical Rainforest Conservation." Mongabay.com. San Francisco. 20 November 2009.

Rhett A. Butler has a degree in economics/management science and has worked in management consulting, venture capital, and information technology. His passion has always been the outdoors and these days he devotes a great deal of time to biology and Earth science. The whole purpose of this article was to answer to question of, why is the Brazilian Amazon being destroyed? This article had great charts and pictures that were very helpful to my research.

"deforestation." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 2 December 2009.

Always a great resource for not just definitions but with help pronouncing words and finding antonyms or synonyms.

Dudley, Nigel. Death of Trees. London: Pluto Press, 1995.

Nigel Dudley is an environmental consultant and senior forest adviser to WWF-International. His book mainly focused on forest conservation, deforestation of different forests/rainforests around the globe, and soil and social impacts. This source is unique because it was written a little earlier than most books I found so a lot of the technology we have these days wasn’t mentioned in the book, which I thought was interesting because it goes to show you that with technology we haven’t solved the problem of deforestation.

Fujisaka, S, W Bell, N Thomas, L Hurtado, and E Crawford. "Slash and-Burn Agriculture, Conversion to Pasture, and Deforestation in Two Brazilian Amazon Colonies." Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 59. 1-2 (1996): 115.

Sam Fujisaka PhD is an agricultural anthropologist at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical in Colombia. In this article settlers were interviewed in two Amazon colonies about land use, and rates and causes of deforestation. Farmers in Pedro Peixoto, Acre, cleared about 2 ha per year per family, and settlers in Theobroma, Rondonia, cleared some 3 ha per year to produce first rice, which was then followed by beans, maize and cassava. Settlers then converted land to pasture not only to raise cattle, but also as a way to add substantial value to their lands for ‘improvements’—i.e. for more clearing, pasture, fencing, corrals and ponds. Analysis of satellite images of the Pedro Peixoto site agreed with data reported by farmers on rates of deforestation and improved our understanding of the dynamics of deforestation.

Griffiths, Peter. "British company barcodes trees to protect forests." Reuters 10 July 2009 [London] : 1+. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.

No additional information was found about the author Peter Griffiths. This was probably one of the most interesting articles I found while searching for information on deforestation. A British company, Helveta, is using a new technology keep track of the timber reserves it has. It is using barcodes that are stapled into the trees and handheld barcode scanners to keep track of each and every tree. This is just one way companies around the world are keeping an eye on the amount of trees being cut down by their company. I found this article very interesting and useful.

Haskins, Jeff. "New Study: Farmers protecting and growing significant amount of world's trees." Eurek Alert! 23 Aug. 2009: 1-3. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.

The article was not written by Jeff Haskins but more by The World Agroforestry Centre, based in Nairobi, Kenya, is the world's leading research institution on the diverse role trees play in agricultural landscapes and rural livelihoods. Scientists used detailed satellite images to reveal the vital role of trees on 1 billion hectares of agricultural lands in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Lamb, David, and Don Gilmour. Rehabilitation and Restoration of Degraded Forests. Gland, Switzerland: The World Conservation Union, 2003. 1-110. Print.

I was unable to find biographies for both David Lamb and Don Gilmour. Lamb and Gilmour present approaches to restoring and rehabilitating the vast area of degraded, fragmented and modified forests which cover much of the world. They argue that by applying best practice at the site level it is possible to enhance socio-economic and ecological gains at the landscape level.

Laurance, W F, M A Cochrane, S Bergen, P M Fearnside, P Delamonica, C Barber, S D Angelo, and T Fernandes. "ENVIRONMENT: The Future of the Brazilian Amazon."Science. 291. 5503 (2001): 438.

William F. Laurance is a research scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The article firsts talks about the rapid pace of deforestation and its several causes. It then touches on a few international and domestic initiatives to help promote conservation planning and sustainable development. They also talked about major development trends and explained their models that were designed to predict the condition of the Amazonian forest in the year 2020. I thought this article was very hard to follow because of the depth it went into things; very science based.

Lindsey, Rebecca. "Tropical Deforestation." NASA: Earth Observatory (2009): 1-3. Web. 11 Nov. 2009.

No further background information was found about Rebecca Lindsey other than she is employed by NASA. This short and brief article about tropical deforestation was packed full with useful information. It featured great pictures and explanations about the impacts of deforestation. Some of those impacts included biodiversity impacts, soil and social impacts. It also briefly talked about climate impacts which I found very interesting. This was a very good article put out by NASA.

Myers, Erin C. "Climate Change and Forestry: a REDD primer." Ecosystem Marketplace 19 May 2008: 1-7. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.

Erin C. Myers is a consultant for Resources For the Future and a Master's candidate at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management – University of California, Santa Barbara. This article was a summary of the key issues in how to tackle climate change with the role of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). Only parts of this article were of help to me and most of the article talked about the policy and its technical issues, which I didn’t find helpful at all towards my paper. This was more of an debate over how to address these issues but was still very informative.

Myers, Norman. The Primary Source: Tropical Forests & Our Future. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1992. 1-416. Print.

Norman Myers is a British environmentalist and authority on biodiversity. In this book topics range from Bio-Ecological Background to the Impact of the Modern Man to What We Can Do. I found almost all the information in this book helpful and interesting. He discusses what progress has been made in the past decade and why it has been slow; the current status of the tropical forests; and what actions need to be taken now to save the ones we still have.

Schneyer, Joshua. "Metals: Big Business in the Amazon." Business Week 18 Mar. 2008: 1-2. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.

Joshua Schneyer is a special correspondent based in Rio de Janeiro. This article was about the leading ore mining company in Brazil, Vale and how they were struggling to keep up with growing steel demand and still be environmentally friendly in the Amazon. Vale says it seeks to minimize the environmental impact by recycling the water they use and to “reforest” the areas surrounding its mining properties. I thought this article was very good. It goes to show that there are companies out there doing what they can to help reduce deforestation.

Stock, Jocelyn. The Choice: Doomsday or Arbor Day . 04 May. 2005 .

I was unable to find information about Jocelyn Stock but the article she wrote was awesome. The authors seemed like experts of the subject as they went on to talk about why trees matter, population growth and deforestation, logging in conjunction with deforestation, cattle grazing, and other causes. All these cause were very well explained with a lot of graphs and pictures to go with it. Another good section of the article talked about the effects of deforestation and what they mean to us and the impact they may have on us in the future if deforestation continues to occur.

Williams M. (2001). The history of deforestation. History Today. 51 (7), 30-7.

Professor Michael Williams was Professor of Geography at Oxford University, and a Fellow of Oriel College. He discusses the history of deforestation its purposes and uses of trees, Impact of pre-literate societies on the forests, creation of non-forested patches, cause of widespread coastal and inland deforestation in Europe, and size of area cleared in Australia during the 20th century. The author provides an expert opinion and good understanding of the history of deforestation and why it started.

World Rainforest Movement. Rainforest Destruction Causes, Effects, and False Solutions. Penang, Malaysia: World Rainforest Movement, 1990.

Written by the World Rainforest Movement, an international network of citizens' groups of North and South involved in efforts to defend the world's rainforests, the book provides a cogent analysis of the causes and effects of deforestation, from the viewpoint of the leading environmental groups involved in the defense of the forests. It also points out that the "solutions" proposed by established institutions like the World Bank and the timber trade accelerate (and not reduce) deforestation. This book was very helpful in understanding the background of deforestation. I also thought it was very interesting that it was written by international group of people.

Power Point Presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/nhltfour/deforestation-power-point

RJA #13a: Field Research Report–

Interview: question posted on AllExperts.com

Expert: Nik Kaestner - 7/18/2007

Question
What is deforestation?

Answer:

Deforestation is the loss of forests through burning or logging. Usually this is done to make room for farms or livestock. While most (though not all) developed countries replant trees to replace the ones they lost, most developing countries do not. Hence, over time, the amount of forest land is decreasing and carbon is being released into the atmosphere. This contributes to global climate change. Even in the US, large tracts of forest are still clear-cut to this day, meaning that every single tree is cut down instead of selectively logging, where a few trees are taken from a particular area each year.

Expert: Dr. Jesse LaPrade - 5/1/2008

Question
Hello,
I was wondering if you could tell me how deforestation is effecting the future of our planet,
Thank you very much.

Answer:

Deforestation is cutting trees and that deletes their beneficial effect's on global warming. Trees and all plants use carbon dioxide for growth and give off oxygen. All animals use oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. Since the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is said to increase or enhance global warming and when trees can and do reduce carbon dioxide levels significantly, you can see why trees and plants play a key role in balancing the planets carbon dioxide levels.

Trees also clean up water and purify it by using it and then respiring water to the environment as a gas or vapor. The water then comes back to earth as rainwater that has been cleaned up.

There are many needs and uses for forest trees which man currently exploits. This requires that more trees and plants be planted and grown to replace the ones that are harvested.

Also when trees are burned they release great quantities of carbon dioxide which wastes the tree resources and significantly adds to global warming.

In essence it is bad enough to cut the trees and use their harvested products but even much worse to see trees burn from forest fires.

Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 8/29/2007

Question
At what rate is the rainforest shrinking and at what point could our resources from the rainforests be depleted?

Answer:

I think you will be able to find the answers to these questions and more here:

http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

The current rate of deforestation of rainforest is about 1.5 - 2 acres per second--about 130,000 acres per day. Scary.

Extra Credit Assignment #2: Create a Twine

http://www.protopage.com/nlongwell#Untitled/ENG_1020

RJA #12c: Introduction Check

http://eceng1020.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-vs-propaganda.html?showComment=1257812778035#c5693996396373744332

http://cdegelau.blogspot.com/2009/11/rja-11.html#comment-form

RJA #12b: Presentation Plan

Presentation Plan:

-An Introduction into Deforestation

-Causes of deforestation

-Effects (negative)

-Effects(positive)

-What we can do to reverse deforestation

-Pros and Cons

-Visual aid of deforestation in the rainforest

RJA #12a: Progress Report

1) What I have accomplished:

-A solid Introduction

-An intriguing thesis statement

-A solid outline that should be very helpful in the full creation of my argument

-The start of a very rough rough draft

-Have found most of my sources

2) What I NEED to accomplish: (the bigger list)

-Need to work more on the refutations that refute my argument of being against deforestation

-Need to find a few more articles that are "pro" deforestation

-Need to continue writing/creating my rough draft that is due in 10 days.

-I plan to write at least 1 page a day and hopefully that will help me with piecing together my final paper with just alot of reviewing to be done

-Need to create a powerpoint for my presentation

*Due November 17th...

-write, write, write, edit, edit, edit

RJA #10b: Argument

Ethos: I feel like my audience would have a hard time finding appeals based on ethos to be persuasive because of the appeals to credibility and authority that I may have pointed out in my argument becuase of the fact that all of the information I am gathering is coming mostly from government released documents. How can one say that getting information regarding the world's ecosystems from the goverment, isnt credible? Me being the author will try and make it more understanding and believable for the author because I can prove the point using visual aids and numbers found on the web

Pathos: The audience may in fact find it easier to appeal based on pathos because it deals with emotion. Because my topic is on a very sideable environmental topic people that are very environmentaly friendly may find a very emotional way with very good reasons to side with the side that deforestation is "killing" our world's ecosystems.

Logos: If I support my claims, reasons, and evidence enough it may be very difficult for my reading audience to find appeals based on logos [logic] to be persuasive because my goal is to back these claims and such enough that my logic and all my readers logic match up to create a very good understanding with what is going on with deforestation and what we can do to reverse this.

Reason 1: In defense of deforestation, logging companies and other companies that profit from deforestation argue that they replant that which is lost at a rate faster than they are cutting down forests. Neither side of this issue can guarantee that their proposed plans will eliminate population growth or forest destruction, so the effects of both will inevitably build until the planet cannot sustain the amount of life it currently supports, and mass extinction of a form never before seen will ensue.

-Evidence 1: For those pro clear cutting and logging the evidence is clearly seen that they believe nothing that they are doing with cutting down the world's forests is hurting the ecosytems because they are "re-planting" all or most of the trees removed.

Reason 2: Irreversible damage

-Evidence: Anti-deforestation activists base their arguments on the simple statistics and facts that when one cuts down forests, irreversible damage is inflicted on the local ecosystem. Eventually, when enough forests are eliminated, damage will begin to show worldwide4. This is a truly compelling argument. The more forests that are destroyed, the more harm that is brought upon every species in existence, including humanity. If humanity is to survive, it has to slow its population growth, and more specifically slow the cutting down of forests and the ruining of Earth’s ecosystems.

Reason 3: Re-planting may help out in the short-term but what about the long-term

-Evidence: The problem with deforestation is that even though it may be true that companies plant more trees than they cut down, these companies do not (or cannot) rectify damage done to certain organisms.

Objections your audience might have:

-Objection 1: Re-planting may not be the only way to replenish the forests that have been torn down.

-Objection 2: Deforestation is obviously happening for a reason, whether be that good or bad, isnt there some way we can make it less harmful on the environment.

I should feel the need to qualify all my claims and reasons in order to gain qualification and the audiences trust that these sources are in fact credible.

Internet Research Project

Internet Research Tool

DEEP DYVE

-a search engine desgined to search into the "Deep Web"
-the Deep Web is a huge-collection of high-quality hard to find information

-Less than .2% of the Internet is indexed by traditional search engines
-the remaining 99.8% represents the "Deep Web"

-WHY DEEP DYVE?
-It searches the "Deep Web", which is sometimes difficult to search because content is unstructured or subscription-based, making it difficult to index

-Less junk and irrelevant results

-Highlight and search function
-Can highlight certain word groups and search all of Deep Dyve for that group of highlighted words.

-As of right now it really only deals with medical and science areas of interest but is quickly expanding into other specialized areas of interest.

-Doesnt have an advanced search function because of how advanced it already is.

-All search operators and stop words can be used when searching.

RJA #11c: Thesis Statement Check

Elvis- http://elvisenglish1020.blogspot.com/2009/10/rja-10a-thesis-statement.html#comment-form

Ali- http://alexandria-alieng1020.blogspot.com/2009/10/research-journal-assignment-10.html#comment-form

RJA #11b: Visual Aids

1. Graph of the amount of deforestation each month/year in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

2. Pie Chart of the largest areas of deforestation around the world.

3. World map of deforestation

4. Significant pics of deforestation and its impact on the environment

5. Visual depiction of what deforestation does to the atmosphere and its impacts on global climate change.

RJA #10a: Thesis Statement

Research Question: What is Deforestation and what can we do as humans to reverse this?

Precise Claim: Deforestation is destructive and we, in fact, can do something about it.

Reasons:

-Attack the world's ecosystems

-Trees are a renewable resource but they can not be renewed fast enough to account for the amount of trees being cut down.

-Irreversable damage inflicted on the local ecosystem

-Can attribute to the worlds global climate crisis that we may be heading into

Thesis Statement #1: (Complete Thesis Statement)

At a proposed standstill, world deforestation is attacking out planets forests and rain forest at a mind-blowing increasing rate. This environmental phenomenon has many negative attributes that are destroying our world's ecosystem. This destruction can and should be reversed in order to keep a stable environment on our planet.

RJA #9: Evaluation of Sources

SOURCE #1: Book

Richards, John F., and Richard P. Tucker. World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century. Duke Press policy studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 1988.

From first glance even without digging further into this evaluation I noticed that this book was published by Duke University which is a probably a good indication that this source is credible. But if I didn't know that at first I would want to look further into this source...as I did. Another thing I noticed was the publish date, 1988. This kind of turns my mind away from using this source alot because deforestation has definitely become more and more "into" the media in the last 10-20 years. Just for grins I did a search through the Auraria library with just the authors name, John F. Richards, and 107 items came up. This makes me feel even better about this source and its credibility. John F. Richard was a professor of history at the University of Duke and long-time supporter of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies.

SOURCE #2: Book

Laurance, William F., and Carlos A. Peres. Emerging Threats to Tropical Forests. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006

1. Published from the University of Chicago Press: GOOD. in the year 2006: EVEN BETTER. The author William F. Laurance is a Staff Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: VERY GOOD THING. I think this is a very credible source and that it could be helpful in my research assignment.

Source #3: Website

http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/vacation/deforestation-reforestation.htm

This website I found was published by Deborah Mitchell, who is a senior editor for environmental protection volunteer opportunities. With her working for a volunteer agency makes me think that this could be a website with information with what she thinks and not the facts of turning deforestation into reforestation. It is pretty much a website that shows the reader the challenge of deforestation and how we can make a difference. I feel like this could be an OK place to find information but not the best place. Deborah Mitchell has been a freelance writer and editor for more than twenty-five years. Mitchell has authored or coauthored dozens of books on health, nutrition, and medical topics, all with major publishers. She began her career while simultaneously attending Trenton State College for a bachelor’s in English.

Source #4: Article

Laurance, W F, M A Cochrane, S Bergen, P M Fearnside, P Delamonica, C Barber, S D Angelo, and T Fernandes. "ENVIRONMENT: The Future of the Brazilian Amazon."Science. 291. 5503 (2001): 438

This article was found through the Auraria Library. The article is from the magazine Science which is a very highly respected magazine when it comes to publishing things about science. The magazine Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The first author listed of this article is actually the same one found in my Source #2. Read that and you can see that this is a credible source.

Source #5: Social Media

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/brazil-amazon-deforestation-reduction-plan.php

This article is from treehugger.com is a place where blogs can be found and referenced. The article/blog I found was about Brazil announcing planning to slow Amazon deforestation by 70%. There were links to the BBC where news articles could be found about this announcement. I feel like this is a very credible source.

Source #6: Website

http://kanat.jsc.vsc.edu/student/callahan/mainpage.htm

This website I found seemed very useful but I then found out it was from a student that created his own page and created this article. The information that was credible and linked seemed legit but all other info was from the college student. I would use this article for links to other more credible websites.

RJA #8c: Multimedia

• Resource searched or tool used: Blinkx.com
  
• Keywords used: Deforestation AND Wildlife
  
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): Boolean
  
• Date of search: October 13th, 2009
  
• Number of hits: 73
  
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): High Relevance. Came back with very good websites from credible sources.
  

http://www.blinkx.com/video/environment-indonesia-deforestation-affects-on-wildlife/XhOjlulZkQ_pld9tL39XZA

RJA #8b: Social Media

• Resource searched or tool used: Addictomatic then digg.com
  
• Keywords used: Deforestation
  
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): none
  
• Date of search: October 12th, 2009
  
• Number of hits: 120
  
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): 4 high relevance. Addictomatic had a weird set-up of search strategies.
  

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/brazil-amazon-deforestation-reduction-plan.php

RJA #8a: Websites

• Resource searched or tool used: MetaCrawler
  
• Keywords used: Deforestation AND rainforest AND cause* AND effect
  
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches)
• Date of search: October 12, 2009
  
• Number of hits: 66
  
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): Top 5 were useless but the rest of the searches were very relevant
  

http://kanat.jsc.vsc.edu/student/callahan/mainpage.htm

RJA #7c: Field Research Plan

For my field research portion of my paper I plan on getting in touch with someone in the Metro science department first. I also want to email the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and try to set-up a phone call or email based interview where I can ask questions to someone about deforestation and its impacts on climate change, or the other way around, climate changes impacts on deforestation.

RJA #7b: Internet Research Tool Test

• Resource searched: DEEPDYVE
• Keywords used: Search #1: Deforestation

Search #2: Deforestation and how it affects the environment

• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches)
• Date of search: Monday, October 5th, 2009
• Number of hits: Search #1: 86, 751

Search #2: 2,786,539 (which surprised me)

• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): Depending on what my search string was the relevance was easily changed.

RJA #7a: Internet Research Tools

The only search engine is really use is google just because of the ease to use it. It (most of the time) returns the correct thing I was looking for, maybe not on the first search I create but certainly after I rearrange my search terms. I feel like google has a very big footprint for searching and that is why I currently use just that search engine. With you broadening the search engine horizon I have found new search engines that I didnt even knew existed. For example I think I may use dogpile more often for when I am starting a research project and need many results to help me choose an area of interest, or maybe to reduce the amount of searches returned because I am focusing on a certain topic.

RJA #6c: Protopage

Link to my protopage: http://www.protopage.com/nlongwell

RJA #6b: Search Strings

Deforestation + Rain Forests

Deforestation + Rain Forests - Global Warming

Clear Cutting + Rain Forests

Deforestation OR Vegetarian

Deforestation AND Economy

Science AND Deforestation

Deforest* AND impacts OR consequences

Deforestation AND awareness AND action*

(Cattle OR Meat) NEAR (carbon dioxide) NEAR (global warming) AND deforestation

RJA #6a: Periodical Articles

• Name(s) of author(s): William F. Laurance, Mark A. Cochrane, Scott Bergen, Philip M. Fearnside, Patricia Delamonica, Christopher Barber, Sammya D'Angelo, and Tito Fernandes
  
• Title of article: Environment: The Future of the Brazilian Amazon
  
• Title of periodical: Science
  
• Volume and issue number (if available): Volume 291, no. 5503
  
• Date: January 2001
  
• Pages on which article appears: p. 138-139
  

• Resource searched: Auraria Library
  
• Keywords used: Deforestation + Amazon
  
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches)
• Date of search: 9/24/09
  
• Number of hits: 1284
  
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): 4 with 5 being a high relevance
  

RJA #5c: Search String Check

http://eceng1020.blogspot.com/2009/09/rja-4a-generating-key-works.html#comments

http://alexandria-alieng1020.blogspot.com/2009/09/research-journal-assignment-4.html#comment-form

RJA #5b: Books

• Name(s) of author(s), editor(s), translator(s), and/or compiler(s) : John F Richards, Richard P Tucker, Duke University: Center for International Studies
• Title and subtitle of the book: World Deforestation in the Twentieth Century
• Edition number or information: Duke Press Policy Studies
• Number(s) of volume used: N/A
• Name of series: N/A
• Place of publication (include state if needed): Durham, North Carolina
• Name of publisher: Durham, Duke University Press
• Date of publication (copyright): 1988

• Resource searched: Auraria Library
• Keywords used: Deforestation
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches)
• Date of search: 22 September 2009
• Number of hits: 3,318
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): 3 because I could have made my search not as broad.

RJA #5a: Reference Articles

• Name(s) of author(s) of the article: Jeff Haskins
• Title of the article: New study: Farmers protecting and growing significant amount of world's trees
• Title of reference work:

  Scientists use detailed satellite images to reveal the vital role of trees on 1 billion hectares of agricultural lands in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe

• Place of publication (include state if needed): NAIROBI, KENYA
• Name of publisher : World Agroforestry Centre
• Date of publication: 24 August 2009
• Page number(s): 1 page

• Resource searched : Science Accelerator to find EurekAlert!
• Keywords used: Deforestation AND impact
• Search strategies used (including operators and types of searches): boolean
• Date of search: 17 September 2009
• Number of hits: 694
• Relevance of hits (on a scale of 1 to 5): 4 out of 5 when 5 is of high relevance

RJA #4c: Checking Research Questions

http://elvisenglish1020.blogspot.com/2009/09/rja-3c-developing-research-question.html#comment-form

http://eceng1020.blogspot.com/2009/09/research-journal-assignment-3.html?showComment=1252895535575#c1240972623966178681

RJA# 4b: Writing Search Strings

Directory > Society and Culture > Environment and Nature > Global Change > Deforestation

Directory > Society and Culture > Environment and Nature > Water Resources > Rivers and Streams > Individual Rivers and Streams > Amazon River and Rainforest > Organizations

Deforestation + Rain Forests

Deforestation + Rain Forests - Global Warming

Clear Cutting + Rain Forests

Deforestation OR Vegetarian

Deforestation AND Economy

Science AND Deforestation

RJA #4a: Generating Keywords

FOREST LOG

FO=Forms
RE=Related
ST=Synonymis terms

LOG=Ladder of Generalization

Question: What is the future of deforestation and is there anything we can do about it now?

FORMS:

Future
-upcoming
-nearing
-approaching
-what we have to look forward to
Deforestation
-clear cutting
-destruction of rainforest
-tree removal
"Anything we can do"
-help
-things to turn it around

RELATED:

Future:
-Past
-Present
-Current
Deforestation:
-purpose
-attacking
-removing
-economic pros and cons

LOG=

Directory > Society and Culture > Environment and Nature > Global Change > Deforestation

RJA #3c: Developing Research Question

1.

Who is deforestation impacting the most?

What is the future of deforestation and is there anything we can do about it now?

When is someone going to take some global action to stop deforestation?

Where is deforestation making the biggest impact?

How can you and me make a difference for the world and help stop deforestation?

Why should we be scared and what do we have to be scared about?

Should there be more strict laws to govern deforestation?

Would the forests ever go back to the way they use to be if all deforestation for the worse seized right now?

2.

3. I am writing to all college students with interests in anything from snowboarding to dance to cars to sports. My purpose in my writing is to fully pursuade and argue my point to the correct side that something is wrong with the way people look at deforestation right now.

4.

What is the controversy surrounding deforestation and what do we as humans have to look forward to in the future if we minimal forests thoroughout planet earth? Some may not even know what deforestation is but I feel like it is a global threat that all should know about; all the good and bad things it brings.

RJA #3b: Narrowing Research Topic

I feel like broadening my topic of deforestation is going to be for the better. I think with this move I can bring in more stregthening topics to help bolt down my argument. Throughout the world deforestation is occuring and alot of people dont know how many problems it is causing both directly and indirectly. Cutting down of the rain forest can account for alot of the carbon dioxide emissions were are afraid are leading to global climate change. Another issue with deforestation is that ranchers are moving into the forest areas to let their cattle graze. Cattle and meat create a very high carbon dioxide emission in which some believe to be even greater than the global co2 emissions from cars. This is very interesting! Could being green and vegetarian be the next thing to help solve global climate change ( and no that is not the same thing as global warming - - a hoax )

RJA #3a: Exploring Research Topic

After reading Chapter 3 in the textbook I learned that identifying a topic can be easier than you think. This chapter easily displayed great ways to narrow down your topic and to start your research off on the right step. It also helped me to develop a strong research question for my argumentative paper.

Here is a link to my delicious account... http://delicious.com/nhltfour

all entries for september 3rd are all websited I found that may come in handy when I really start to rip apart this subject and start my argumentative paper.

RJA #2c: Delicious Account

Link to my Delicious account:

http://delicious.com/nhltfour

RJA #2b: Research Topic

Deforestation and the Destruction of the Rain Forest is the topic I have selected in order to present in writing the results of my research in support of my argument as well as opposing arguments. At first glance I sort of know the definition of deforestation but the reasons behind why it is happening is what I want to learn more about. I understand deforestation as the act of cutting down and destroying the world's forests and rain forests in order to gain capital or to make space for commercial and residential buildings. I choose this topic because I am very interested in environmental actions of the world and things we have to do now before the rain forest is completely gone and the up-coming generations have absolutely nothing. As far as the choice of my topic and what I know about it is very small. I pretty much know that forests and rain forests around the world are being cut down to open up opportunities for others like cattle grazing and such. I don't fully agree with the idea of Global Warming but I would have to side with the fact that deforestation can make a global impact on climate change. What I don't completely understand is why they have to cut down the rain forest to achieve these goals. Why the rain forest and why so many acres? I would like to get more informed on the social impacts, soil impacts, and just general world-wide impacts of deforestation.

RJA #2a: Possible Topics

From the last entry my mind has sort of swayed away from what I had initially brainstormed and have come up with a few more possible topics for this argumentative paper...

-Computer Dependency and the Future
-communication in the world and how it is going to change the face-to-face contact in the future

-Destruction of the Rain Forest
-Deforestation

-Advertising
-Information or Manipulative?



-I feel like the best topic for my paper would have to be Destruction of the Rain Forest (Deforestation)

Research Journal Assignment #1: Areas of Academic Interest

Create a list of your scholarly and academic interests on which you might base your research and writing for class this semester:

Scholarly and Academic:

• GIS - - Geographic Information Systems
  
• PHYSICS
• ART - - Visual Design/Architecture
  
• GEOGRAPHY
• GEOLOGY
• MOUNTAIN RESCUE/WILDERNESS EMT