Clear Cutting - An Environmental Disaster

-- Jordan Swerid
April 29, 2010

Clear-cutting forests is by far one of the most controversial timber harvesting techniques in the northern hemisphere. For more than a century now, changes in the northern New England tree harvesting companies have become vast and many people have been left scratching their heads. However, since the beginning of the 1970’s, clear-cutting forests has become both a very successful way for tree-harvesting businesses to make money fast and also cause an environmental disaster.
There are many reasons why clear cutting forests should not be taking place. Some of these include: (1)Clear cutting can cause unstable soil cohesion resulting in mass landslides. (2)Clear cutting without replanting seeds to help re-grow forests is terrible for the environment (includes animal people, etc.). (3)The largest argument about clear cutting is that the rate of time it takes to clear cut an area versus the rate of re-growth is at such a decreasing rate, it takes forests too long to re-grow. (4)Also, by losing trees, it causes us to breathe in less clean air. The only real reason why we do clear-cut forests is because we are living in an era with rapid population increase and we are confined to using up more resources. We also look for projects that can get money fast and efficiently.
Numbers in different areas of North America support the argument. In Nova Scotia, Canada, nearly two square kilometers of forests were clear cut every day. Also, clear cutting accounted for 98.9 % of forest area harvested in Nova Scotia in 1997 and 1998. However, in the United States, there has been some good news. Trees in the U.S. are growing 2–4 times as fast as their long-term norm. Smithsonian researchers measured a series of forest plots at different stages of growth from 5 to 225 years of age. They found that more than 90 percent of the trees grew 2-4 times faster over the past 20 years than predicted from baseline growth rates. This is all great news, but as reported before, clear-cutting is a swift process. Trees get cut down in a matter of seconds. Even if a tree were to grow back to its original size in twenty years (which would be extremely fast), that’s twenty years of treeless or barely treed land.
The last major impact that clear cutting has on the environment is one that is talked about so much now in the present. It is of course, Global Warming. Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. If clear cutting continues, the risk of global warming having a higher impact on the earth will continue. It’s an ongoing cycle that needs to be put to a stop soon.
Clear cutting is a major factor in the timber industry today. For us to just completely "clear cut" it from our way of collecting timber is not possible. We need to find a more productive way so we can save our environment before we hit a spot that we can not come back from. Globally, clear cutting is a major issue to every person here on our earth.


Sites Used:
http://www.clearcutnovascotia.ca/stats.htm
http://www.cfact.org/a/1725/Why-are-US-trees-growing-faster

UMaine Club Programs Square-Off for Bragging Rights

Jordan Swerid
April 13, 2010

On April 11, 2010, the University of Maine Club Football Team played against the University of Maine Club Baseball Team in a “bragging rights” type of game. The game was played at 2:00 p.m. on Mahaney Diamond; however, most players were taking warm-ups and stretching out by 12:30 p.m. Since most of the football players hadn’t thrown a baseball since high school and many of the baseball players hadn’t thrown since the fall, both teams were trying to get the rust off before the game started. In what seemed would be an easy win for the University of Maine Club Baseball Team, the Maine Club Football Team decided early on that it was going to be no “walk in the park” for the Club Baseball Black Bears.

The game started with a very strong performance by the Club Black Bear’s pitcher John Frey. He was throwing heat and bending curve balls that kept the Club Football’s players guessing. Frey left the game after three innings on his own will, just giving up one hit, one walk, and two runs on errors. Those two runs on errors proved to be costly as Frey’s counterpart, Steve Siviski from the Club Football Team blew past the Club Baseball team’s lineup. Steve, and younger brother Scott (catcher), went seven strong innings of one hit baseball. Steve dominated the game with strikeout after strikeout behind solid defensive plays from his infield.

As the older Siviski began heating up, so did the Club Football Black Bear’s offense. They scored one run off pitcher Harry Austin, one run off Brandon Rexford, and two runs off pitcher Jeremy Levine. Brett Davison (nicknamed “Franchise“), the quarterback for the football team described the football team’s play as, “Error-free baseball. We just worked walks and did work on the mound. We pounded out a couple key hits by first baseman Matthew Finer, catcher Scott Siviski, and right fielder Eric Whitman (among others).” At the end of the day, the Club Football Team proved to be the stronger team on that specific Sunday, winning 5-1 on Mahaney Diamond.

Other strong performances were had by left fielder on the Club Baseball Team, Jaime Wallace. He “gunned” out Matthew Finer at home plate taking a run away from the Black Bear’s Club Football Team. Also, quite possibly the “ESPN Game Turning Moment” happened when Club Football’s Pitcher, Siviski, captured a ground ball, passed it to “Franchise” at 2nd base, and he turned the ball over to first to complete a beautifully handcrafted double play.

In conclusion, the game was a ton of fun for both teams on the diamond. Relief fielder, Eric Bezanson said, “Playing baseball was a great way to draw the two club programs closer together… and how much more cliché could it be for the football team to win on a Sunday afternoon.” Now both club programs will be looking forward into their “spring ball” continuing into the next few weeks. The Club Football team will continue practices and workouts while the Club Baseball team plays Harvard this weekend at Mahaney diamond. Good luck to both teams in their upcoming seasons and hopefully they will continue the new Club Football vs. Club Baseball annual baseball game in the future years.

UMaine Vandalists 11-1

A problem that seems to be progressing as the cold winter nights leave the students at The University of Maine is vehicle vandalism. Since the months of January and February have quickly passed by in the beginning of 2010, more and more people have been walking around the streets with different objects used for vandalizing peoples cars. Whether it be car paint for writing profanities or knives for slashing tires, the vandals have been recently doing work on The University of Maine campus. There has not been a pattern regarding a specific time or day of the week that the vandalisms have been striking. The incidents have been scattered through a couple of recent months. I recently read an in depth analysis of a police file related to car vandalism that occurred on April 6, 2010 at 11:39 p.m. in the Hilltop Parking Lot.
The car that had been vandalized was a red, four-door, 2004 Peugeot 406 ST D9. The license plate of the car was 4569 RD (Maine Plate). The vandalism that occurred included profanities sprayed on the front and side windows of the Peugeot along with a loss of air in the tires. The car paint was colored in blue and yellow paint. The car owners name was left undisclosed and the vandals have yet to be found. If you have any information or evidence of who may be committing these crimes, the UMaine PD would be interested in hearing from you.
There are five important facts to follow if your car has been vandalized. The first is to keep your information data handy. Make sure you have your insurance company phone and policy number with you at all times. Include with it your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and license plate number. The second is to call the police. The third includes contacting your insurance company immediately if any damages have occurred. They will take down relevant information and guide you as to what to do. Make sure you ask them any question you may have, such as towing or rental car needs. The fourth step is to make sure you document everything. Every little bit of information is important and worth documenting. And finally, the fifth step is to remain calm. You may feel extremely disrespected and almost violated, but getting worked up will get you nowhere.
In conclusion, if you have information regarding vandalism, as stated before, report it to the UMPD. Also, follow the five important steps if it happens to you. Leave valuables out of your vehicle and try to park where your car faces the street, or at least as close to eye-view as possible.

New Media Saves Lives

Jordan Swerid
April 2, 2010

A recent disaster occurred in Haiti on January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants. Haiti is known for being the poorest country in the America’s and the disastrous earthquake has only worsened the conditions. There had already been over 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti since 2004, but after the earthquake, that number increased exponentially as over three million people were in need of emergency aid. Reports indicate that there have been over 150,000 people who have died from the earthquake. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now called Haiti (previously not Haiti). All of this information has been supplied to society in many ways. One way that information has been spread, support groups formed, and great amounts of money supplied to Haiti has been through what we call today, “New Media.”
The definition of New Media is: “New media is a term meant to encompass the emergence of digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies in the later part of the 20th century. Most technologies described as "new media" are digital, often having characteristics of being manipulated, networkable, dense, compressible, interactive and impartial. Some examples may be the Internet, websites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMS, and DVDs. New media is not television programs, feature films, magazines, books, or paper-based publications.” Through this so-called “New Media,” we have found programs such as Twitter, Facebook, and the use of texting to work as a great advantage to society. Not only has it helped people stay connected and relay information globally at a fast pace, but it has heavily helped through worldly disasters and other events.
After the tragic earthquake in Haiti occurred, it took only a few seconds before social media networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter began to explode with information. Videos, photos, and messages started popping up everywhere and before some news stations even had a chance to put together the information, most of the world had already known what was going on. The update of Twitter accounts has been very beneficial too people in other ways also. Twitter has been providing updates on where clean drinking water is available in Port-au-Prince and where people are still trapped under rubble and debris. But Twitter and Facebook are only a few “New Media” ways that have been used through the disastrous event. The use of texting on cell phones proved to be evenly as valuable or possibly even more valuable than other “New Media” technologies. The Toronto Sun reported, “… the $37 million that poured in over the first few days [of money relief], $8 million was from text messages. Callers were able to text a specific number and have a $5 or $10 donation added to their phone bill. Some earthquake victims, it has been reported, even used text messaging to alert rescue workers to their whereabouts in the hopes they might be found.” People were able to help people in need just by a click of a few buttons and some others were even able to help themselves.
Many people find “New Media” to be very helpful but have different views of why they believe its so important. One view is by Basil Guinane, a professor at Humber College’s School of Media Studies. He believes New Media is so important because, “It’s the ability to reach large numbers of people instantly, and get them working in a concerted effort,” he said, adding new media immediately connected an entire world to the Haitian earthquake.” “It’s not some disaster that happened way over there and doesn’t impact you. You’re suddenly exposed.” His theory is interesting and very true. We do have to be careful how we use it. Greg Goralski said with a slight worry, “We have to be very careful with how we use it,” he said. “In a lot of ways, it (new media) is out of control when compared to traditional media. It can be used for very negative and for very positive things.” If you have ever used New Media, you would know of all the mistakes that can happen while using it. Whether it’s through sending accidental texts, receiving incorrect information, or getting the wrong idea of what someone is trying to say (among many others), you will have or eventually in some way make a mistake using New Media.
In conclusion, the positives are very high when it comes to New Media. It has already saved millions of lives so far and there will be many more lives it saves in the future. The benefits that people from Haiti received after the earthquake was astronomical. Although there are negatives from it, I strongly believe that New Media is important to society today and for the future.


Websites Used:
http://www.torontosun.com/news/haiti/2010/01/17/12504141.html
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/01/13/fast-facts-haiti-earthquake/
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=define%3A+new+media&aq=f&aqi=l1g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=