LSP Environmental Studies Community Event Reports

Robb LoCurto
Leah Schwartz
Environmental Studies
10/15/08
Community Event…The Bronx Zoo

Going to the Bronx Zoo was not only an extremely exciting event for me to partake in, but it also fulfilled something that I needed to do for school. It was the perfect trip to just enjoy the surroundings, all of the animals and the company. One of the first exhibits that we saw had the gorillas, and it was shocking to see them interact with one another, and with the people watching. It said on one of the plaques giving information about the gorillas that they share just over 97% of the same DNA as us humans. That to me was incredible to read and almost didn't believe it, until I saw the way they acted. It was surreal how human-like they were, the way they looked at each other, the way they looked at us, the way they horsed around with each other, it was truly a sight to see. However, one of the exhibits that we stopped at towards the end of the trip was the polar bear exhibit. This was an eye opening time for me as I saw one lonely polar bear, laying limp, looking dehydrated and rundown. Its coat was browning, it looked lethargic and the display was horrific as there was barely any water for the bear to swim in as polar bears do. Obviously this polar bear is not being affected in the same way as most polar bears are at the polar ice caps, but to see this polar bear the way it was made me realize how threatening global warming is to polar bears at both ends of the spectrum of the earth.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/299130795_72d8e07cf8.jpg?v=0 

Scientists and anyone with half of a brain now know that CFC's is one of the main causes of the ongoing problem known as global warming. The Ozone layer is being depleted right in front of our eyes and only few people among the midst of the entire world's population seem to want to do anything about it. Polar bears are dying off by the masses simply due to the temperature increasing a few degrees. The more ice that melts, the more the polar bears need to swim from one destination to another and polar bears simply aren't designed to swim for long periods of time. The harsh truth is that many polar bears are drowning because they have nowhere to go. Ice that was once in a spot that they remembered is gone by the time they return and they are left stranded to find land and quick before their bodies give out on them, leading to their eventual demise. What the CFC's ultimately do is they travel up into the sky and pierce through the levels of atmospheres, creating large, gaping, growing holes that allows ultraviolet rays to pass through down to the earth's surface easier than it ever has before. Polar bears aren't the only species that are directly affected by this newfound occurrence, humans too are in danger. It may not be immediate, but the horizon is closer than many people think, that by the time our children have children, or even when we have children, these generations are going to have quite a mess on their hands. Rapidly growing rates of skin cancer will begin to occur as the ultraviolet rays will have nothing preventing them from searing down straight from the sun, with no layer to prevent damage to the human body. We are already seeing effects of global warming in Australia, as skin cancer rates have spiked in the past few years.
I hadn't really thought about global warming too much before I saw this poor polar bear lying out by his lonesome. Of course I knew what was touched upon in class and just general knowledge of how the climate is changing (from An Inconvenient Truth and things of that nature), but it never really hit me that the world we live in is changing very quickly, and not for the better. I think it is very important that not only as a nation, but the world take a good, hard look at what they take for granted every day…the very air we breathe is in jeopardy and to go one step further, ourselves and our future families are in jeopardy as well unless we take action. Now I'm not sitting here saying that I'm going to go out and be the number one advocator of stopping global warming, that's just ridiculous to think. But what I will do is make more of a conscious effort to be more eco-friendly and if everyone does that simple task, just be more aware of what they do, I believe eventually we could aid in leveling global warming off to normal climates around the world and especially at the polar ice caps.
All in all the trip to the zoo was a fun, eventful day and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to partake in such an event. Yes, the polar bear exhibit put a damper on my day, but on the bright side it gave me something to write about for this event blog. The thing that I will take most out of the day at the Bronx Zoo is definitely the gorilla exhibit. Just seeing how they reacted to the way people were reacting to them was really a sight to see, and it proved that we really do share 97% of the same DNA because it was almost scary how human-like their behavior was. The babies would wrestle each other, then stop and realize that people were staring at them and watching their every move. They would run up to the glass and start pounding on it as if they knew that they were entertaining us, and they probably did know. I don't know how much I directly learned from this experience, but it absolutely opened my eyes to what I need to learn more about to help maintain the prosperity of the earth, humans and polar bears alike.

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http://buddydon.blogspot.com/Polar_Bear_Bronx_Zoo.jpg

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