Blog 8:

There are so many things I’ve learned today in class.
At the beginning when we had to do this project I was kind off “afraid and a little mad” about it, because I really don’t like doing oral presentations in front of people! I just hope everyone understood what I said =) lol!
I just have to say that it was very interesting to know that all this religions have something in common (their love and respect for the environment). This was actually my first time on getting to know all this religions. I heard a little about them when I took a history class here at LaGuardia, but never so much in depth. I love all these religions even though I’m Catholic.
· What I liked about Judaism is that they have certain laws concerning the environment, such as not cutting fruit bearing trees, locations of industries should be far way from where people live, not to eat limb torn from a living creature, etc. Another important point they made was that God shows his angriness with nature disasters.
· What was interesting for me about the Islam is that it is a universal religion that believes in no God, but Allah, and they believe that Allah is the creator of all living things. They also believe that it is extremely important & permitted to every Muslim to contribute to the Earth’s better environment. Also that they should be active in growing more trees for the benefit of all people, and also someone from the class said that usually make a prayer before killing an animal.
· Buddhism was also a very interesting religion because this group did a good job explaining the history, and also they’re concern about killing living creatures.
· Hinduism says that plating a tree is a religious duty, and they also have the BISHNOIS MOVEMENT which focus is on protection of trees and animals.
· And last but not least my group on the Daoism religion. I think I had a very interesting religion, which in a way is very similar to the other religion, but they believe in no God, they say that everything in the world in created equal, and if nature suffers from human kind, nature will retaliate against man.

In overall all groups did a good job, some slides where more interesting than others but I think everyone was great. All these religions share something in common and it was obviously the main point of doing this project, to learn that there are so many religions around the world, but that the Earth is only one, and we should love it, respect it, and care about it, even when our minds are more concentrated in shopping and wasting money!!!!

Blog 7:

Last Thursday was the best class day ever!!! We went to the museum of Natural History.
We were supposed to go through four halls that mostly related to our class. The exhibitions were very fascinating.

The hall of biodiversity was the best. In here we were able to see the variety of Earth's living things. In here we were able to see, hear, and read about the organizations that are working now to preserve the world’s ecosystems. This is an important quote I wrote down in my notes. “Sustaining functions that all life requires: Cleansing, recycling and renewing. We depend on biodiversity in our creative and spiritual lives, and for our physical survival.” Another important point found in this hall was the extinction and biodiversity loss, I wrote the name of few species that have been recorded on extinction since 1500’s.
INSECTS: Arotisfascata
AMPHIBIANS: Bana Fisher
BIRDS: Aepyorhis Marimus

Human activities have stigmatically altered global systems. CO2 and other gases from agriculture and industry accumulate in the atmosphere, contributing to a rise in Global temperature. “By converting and polluting forests, prairies, and wetlands; overexploiting wildlife and fisheries; and transporting alien species across the globe, humanity is greatly altering the surface of the planet, causing the dramatic decline of species in today's ‘Biodiversity Crisis.’” On the other hand these biodiversity and ecosystem disruptions alter disease patterns that damage the ecosystems. This can cause changes in disease ecology, leading to the emergence of rare and unknown diseases. For example “CALUMYS MUSCULINUS” which is like an ugly rat, and grows in corn fields, but later on spreads to towns and cities, causing severe fevers.
Another important point is that people are VACUMING the worlds largest oceans. Humans catch about 85 million tons of fish and other species each year
REDUCING RESOURCE DEMAND: North America consume their body weight in natural resources extracted from farms, forests, rangelands and mineral deposits.
Consumption is equal to ecological degradation.

The other hall was the Warburg hall of New York State Environment. This section mainly focused on agriculture, the soil, its structure, and the things that make it possible for plants to grow. In here we were able to see how humans and animals depend upon certain kinds of plants.

On my way to the Spitzer hall of Humans Origins I got stopped by the professor who asked me and Edward if we saw the big tree, and we said no! L …so we came back and we saw it on the wall…It was HUGE. The name of the tree is (Sequoia Gigantean). It’s about 2,900-8,800 feet long. It was cut in 1891.
And the Spitzer hall of Humans Origins presents the history of human evolution from our earliest ancestors millions of years ago. I loved this hall; the galleries looked so real, the similarities between their whole bodies to us is amazing! It was easy to imagine that you are walking through millions of years of history.
The Gottesman hall of Planet Earth was our last stop. In this section we were able to see how the earth evolved. The different type of rocks, how the geologist read those rocks, the causes of climate change and so on.

This trip helped me understand more the importance of our natural environment. It is definitely something that we must forever take care of, treasure and respect. Unfortunately, we only have one planet, one earth, one environment and if we ruin it, we risk destroying it forever and causing irreversible damage that will be devastating for us and our generation but even more so for the future generations that haven't had a chance to live, experience and enjoy what we have.

Blog 6:

It was very difficult on picking up only one region of the world and a topic to talk about in this research paper. But as Colombian, obviously I wanted to pick a region of my country and research about it.
Colombian indigenous people continue to be the victims of human rights violations, including killings and "disappearances" in many parts of Colombia, but not only that, they are also facing other problems such as the war, policies and laws of government that are used to expel the people of this land. As a result of this plunder people are dying of hunger and only found violence, exploitation and misery. According to the Indigenous groups of Colombia, Government wants to take away the lands that were once promised and given to them. They complain that the State will not surrender the land promised to them, and the Colombian president criticizes them by saying “for what reason do they want more land if you already have much.”
The aim of the indigenous groups of Colombia is to pressure the government into returning land to indigenous farmers, the legalization of their lands.

I have chosen a few sources which I know will definitely help me discover and undertand more on this issue, and of course for the development of my final paper.

* This 1st source if simply a video I found on YOUTUBE, which shows brifly what the issue is about, alleging that 10,000 indigenous Colombians are marching against President Alvaro Uribe's policies. The protest comes one week after violence erupted during demonstrations to press for land reform and dialogue with the government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7MkZoCMJws

The 2nd source is a web I found on Google. I found this article to be very interesting because it explains what is going on right now with the indigenous Colombians, and how the president is trying to solve this issue.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/32577.php&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=5&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dproblema%2Bde%2Blas%2Btierras%2Bindigenas%2Ben%2Bcolombia%26hl%3Den

There are a few more sources I’ve found so far, but I think I have to go over a little bit more in order to understand and see if they are really usable and helpful.
I think my topic is very broad, but I think it’s interesting since it is affecting hundreds of poor people in my country, by forced displacement, murder of its leaders and violation of its rights and the privatization of the natural resources.