31-8-12 (I think)

Today in Environmental Systems and Societies we began work on what later became our homework. We were working on drawing pyramids of biomass and pyramids of numbers to demonstrate and calculate the energy loss between trophic levels in a predetermined ecosystem. I think it was a pond of sorts and included strange fish and organisms that fed on each other. We were given four levels to deal with, Detirivores which fed on dead things, Herbivores which fed on plants and then two levels of Consumers which fed on the Herbivores and Primary Consumers in turn. Although it was complicated maths, we did manage to get most of the first few questions down working out the number of things that were eaten by what and the energy loss between the levels. This was all to further enforce the idea that lots of energy is lost up trophic levels and that eating lower down is far more efficient. I think that in the latter parts of this class we began to watch Food Inc, and some of us discovered while others rediscovered the deep truth in the American food empire. We also discovered Mr.Carmichael is a vegetarian and he is disgusted by the idea of meat, even bacon, perhaps especially bacon. I myself was proven wrong again by a vegetarian who seems very healthy and not lacking in protein in any way, Mr. Carmichael, like most vegetarians relies on tofu and nuts to get up his proteins. Although the movie isn't finished, it is certainly... food for thought... ha.



By James

P.S I'm not 100% certain if this was the class I was meant to do, so if I'm wrong I'll change it. :D