Archive for year: 2024

POPULATION ECOLOGY

Population ecology is the branch of ecology that studies the structure and dynamics of populations. Population biology is the study of population characteristics and the factors that affect their size and distribution. Environmental Science merges both of these, using basic ecology to understand the structure of populations, and population biology to understand how humans affect population size , distribution, and change over time.

Environmental scientists are interested in:

· Demographics (the study of vital statistics such as births, deaths, immigration, and emigration).

· Biotic potential

· Environmental resistance

· Age structure

· Growth curves

· Survivorship

· Patterns of distribution.

They will use these concepts, along with cultural, societal, religious, political, and economic factors, to predict how populations will grow and affect the environment in the future.

I) DEMOGRAPHICS (for our general purposes, we will use the following simplified definitions):

BIRTHS = the number of humans born in a given time period.

DEATHS = the number of humans that die n a given time period.

IMMIGRATION = individuals entering a population from another related one.

EMIGRATION = individuals leaving a population for another related one.

Thus a simple equation to determine change (∆) in a population’s size over time is:

∆ in pop size = (factors causing growth) – (factors causing decline)

time

So plugging in demographic definitions above, the equation becomes:

∆ in pop size = (births + immigration) – (deaths + emigration)

time

Thus populations grow with births and immigration. They shrink with deaths and emigration

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II) BIOTIC POTENTIAL is the maximum number of offspring a female of the species can produce in her lifetime under optimum (ideal) conditions. (Offspring = births, eggs, seeds, spores.)

Biotic potential is NEVER realized in nature due to ENVIRONMENTAL RESISTANCE.

AN EXAMPLE: If we say that a human female becomes capable of reproducing at 13 and finishes menopause by 53 that gives her a 40 year reproductive life. If she has a child every 9 months, then her biotic potential is 53.3 children. How many women do you know that has produced 53.3 children? Can you give reasons why women don’t reach their biotic potential.

A more reliable measure is TOTAL FERTILITY RATE (TFR) which can be defined as the number of offspring a female of the species can produce in her lifetime under normal conditions. Why is this more reliable? How does it differ from the definition of biotic potential?

III) ENVIRONEMTAL RESISTANCE prevents a species from reaching its biotic potential by controlling growth of a population.

Environmental resistance operates through biotic and abiotic factors, called LIMITING FACTORS (LF) which limits a population’s growth.

The two types of LF are:

1) DENSITY-DEPENDENT LIMITING FACTORS which limit population growth (density) after a critical size has been exceeded. They tend to increases with increasing population density.

The critical size referred to above is CARRYING CAPACITY. Carrying capacity is the total number of individuals an environment can support indefinitely. Any population that exceeds carrying capacity will be reduced to a size below carrying capacity by density-dependent limiting factors.

Density-dependent LF are biotic (biological) factors such as predators, parasites, diseases, competitors, lack of food, etc., and tend to aid in maintaining population size equilibrium.

Any population that exceeds its carrying capacity will be driven back down below the critical size by the action of density-dependent LF.

2) DENSITY-INDEPENDENT LIMITING FACTORS limit the growth of populations regardless of their size (density). These could be physical factors or catastrophic events.

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These are abiotic (physical or environmental) factors such as fire, light availability, drought, storms, natural disasters, etc. These are not involved in maintaining population size equilibrium. (NOTE: some ecologists don’t consider these to be limiting factors, and generally only recognize density-dependent LF. We will recognize both types of LF.

IV) AGE STRUCTURE:

AGE STRUCTURE diagrams show how a population is distributed. It divides the population into pre-reproductive, reproductive and post-reproductive phases . The shape of the diagram can show you if a country is growing rapidly, slowly, or negatively by comparing the relative sizes of each group. It can also show is there is zero growth.

–

1) A simple Pyramid age structure diagram:

This population will grow over time due to the larger number of pre-reproductive individuals.

2) A simple inverted pyramid age structure diagram:

This population will decline over time due to the larger number of post-reproductive individuals.

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3) A simple hour-glass age structure diagram:

This population will remain relatively stable over time (maybe even achieved zero population growth) due to the larger number of reproductive individuals.

Actual age structure diagrams are more complex than these. Please see slides 10 and 11 in the Population ecology PowerPoint presentation on the Moodle page.

V) GROWTH CURVES:

These curves describe how populations grow and what type of Environmental Resistance is limiting the population’s growth

There are three types of growth curves:

1) J-GROWTH CURVE:

This type of growth is unregulated. Thus it never persists in nature. It is important because it forms a component of the more common growth curve types

(See the next page for a drawing of this type of curve.)

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a = lag phase

b = exponential growth phase

2) INVERTED J-GROWTH CURVE:

This type of curve is regulated by DENSITY-INDEPENDENT limiting factors.

(See the next page for a drawing of this type of curve.)

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–

a = lag phase

b = exponential growth phase

d = decline phase

3) S-GROWTH CURVE:

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This type of curve is regulated by DENSITY-DEPENDENT limiting factors. NOTE CARRYING CAPACITY IN SECOND EXAMPLE.

A drawing of this type of curve:

Note that the dotted line represents a fluctuation around carrying capacity. If it exceeds carrying capacity, density dependent factors will drive it down.

a = lag phase

b = exponential growth phase

c = equilibrium phase

VI) SURVIVORSHIP:

Suvivorship is a measure of the number of individuals belonging to a cohort (individuals born in the same year) that are still alive in the population at the end of a given time period. Survivorship is indicated by curves like those below:

The curves are designated as Type I, Type II, Type III and type IV

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Survivorship Curves Vary by Species

.

There are four general patterns:

1) Full physiological life span if organism survives childhood (TYPE I)

Examples: elephants and bears

2) Probability of death unrelated to age (TYPE II)

Examples: gulls and mice

3) Mortality peaks early in life. (TYPE III)

Examples: trees, sea turtles and fish

4) Mortality occurs early and late in life, with maximum survival during reproductive maturity.

Examples: deer, antelope

VII) DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS:

A DISTRIBUTION PATTERN illustrates how the members of a population are arranged through the populations range.

THERE ARE THREE DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS:

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1) CLUMPED

2) UNIFORM (aka REGULAR)

3) RANDOM

For each distribution pattern, list the factors that would account for that pattern (example 1a, 2b, 3a) for each of the three patterns

The pattern is determined by the interactions of several factors: Three of these are:

1) ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS throughout the range

a) uniform

b) non-uniform

2) TENDENCY FOR SOCIALIZATION (=forming groups like herds, flocks, packs)

a) yes

b) no

3) INTRASPECIFIC (=between members of the same species) COMPETITION

a) little to none

b) intense

 In a CLUMPED pattern, the individuals occur in distinct, separated groups.

In a UNIFORM pattern, the individuals occur a specific and equal distance apart.

In a RANDOM pattern, any individual can be found anywhere in the range at any given time.

IX) HUMAN POPULATION ISSUES:

Human population growth is influenced by other factors such as societal norms, culture, religion, economics, wars, and education. Also PUSH AND PULL FACTORS also play a role in population increase or decrease. PLEASE SEE SLIDES 25-34 in the Population ecology PowerPoint presentation on the Moodle page for a discussion of these factors.

Mortality occurs early and late in life, with maximum survival during reproductive maturity. Examples: deer, antelope

 

Type III

 

 

1. The age structure for the US was a pyramid indicating that our population is still growing.  Give one reason why our growth is slowing and one reason why we are still have a pyramid age structure.

2. Explain why organisms like trees and sea turtles have a Type III survivorship curve while most mammals have a Type 1 survivorship curve.

 

3.  Give 4 reasons why humans might have either a Type I or Type III survivorship

curve.

 

4.  For each distribution pattern in slide #23, list the factors from slide #22 that would account for that pattern for each of the three patterns

 

5.  What might account for a developed nation having a pyramid age structure?

 

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Here is the Transcript of the Video:

Please read all of it then answer the discussion question form

 

– [Voiceover] What if economic and financial markets 00:27 could save the planet? 00:31 (birds chirping) 00:33 – We use nature because she’s valuable, 00:35 but we lose nature because she is free. 00:39 – If we invest money in protecting nature, 00:42 we’ll earn very, very high financial return. 00:46 – [Voiceover] Economists, bankers, investment funds, 00:48 and financiers are taking an interest 00:51 in the environmental crisis. 00:53 They say that they can protect 00:54 the planet their way, with money. 00:58 How much is the beach that you visit 00:59 every year actually worth? 01:01 How much for the forest that you love to walk in so much? 01:05 What is the value of a plant, a mammal, an insect? 01:09 Does this combination seem at all unnatural to you? 01:14 – Financialization equals the rape of the earth. 01:20 (monkeys chattering) 01:23 (snake hissing) 01:29 – [Voiceover] Endangered species and forests 01:31 are treated like financial products. 01:34 Can markets succeed where politics have so far failed? 01:38 But at what risk? At what price? 01:45 (crowd talking) 01:51 – Sometimes I describe the challenge that we have 01:54 as the economic invisibility of nature. 01:56 What I mean by that is that most of what nature 01:58 provides is not transacted in markets. 02:01 Whether it’s clean air or fresh water, 02:03 or whether it’s the pollination of bees for fruit trees. 02:06 When did a bee ever send you an invoice? 02:12 – [Voiceover] Billions of workers toiling away without 02:13 a break, in silence, and for no pay. 02:18 For millennia, no one recognized neither their 02:20 value nor all the work they do. 02:24 It took a tragedy for us to finally 02:26 recognize their economic value. 02:29 (buzzing) 02:34 – [Voiceover] In the US, a large part of the natural 02:37 wild bee population has died off. 02:39 The same thing is happening in Europe. 02:41 There are hundreds of people who 02:43 keep large numbers of bees. 02:46 They keep them in hives, and when 02:48 a farmer wants his field pollinated, he actually calls 02:52 one of these commercial pollination firms. 02:56 There’s a rate for hiring a million bees 02:58 for a week to pollinate your crops. 03:06 – [Voiceover] What if tomorrow they 03:08 were to disappear entirely? 03:10 What if we had to replace these bees 03:12 with humans, and therefore pay them? 03:16 – [Pavan] The pollination service of bees is economically 03:18 invisible, but the total value of that 03:21 was found to be something like 200 billion dollars. 03:24 That’s almost eight percent of the total 03:27 agricultural output on earth. 03:30 – [Voiceover] We look at these little creatures differently 03:32 now that we know that they’re worth 03:33 200 billion dollars, don’t we? 03:36 We immediately pay more attention to them. 03:39 All that wealth in a beehive, 03:42 and we humans never realized it. 03:49 But what if the solution was already here? 03:51 We just need to put a price on everything 03:53 that nature provides, pollination, 03:55 the pleasure of walking in a park, clean air. 03:59 – How much would it be worth? 04:01 Wow, that is a good question. 04:05 Hmm. 04:07 – How much would it be worth? 04:10 You can’t put a price on it. 04:11 – Can’t put a price on it. – You can’t. 04:12 You just can’t. It’s priceless. 04:14 – I want nature to be free. 04:16 Nature was there before we were, and we should learn 04:20 how to protect it, and that should not 04:22 have to do something with money. 04:24 – [Voiceover] But now, nature’s worth 04:27 is measured by its price. 04:34 Having plenty of clean air, water, and animal species 04:38 is of no interest to the markets. 04:40 They hate things that are abundant and free. 04:44 The equation is beginning to change. 04:46 – [Voiceover] Our economic system was created 04:48 in a very different era. 04:50 It was created hundreds of years ago when what was valuable, 04:53 what was scarce, were capital and labor. 04:58 So that’s what we put a value on. 05:00 All the natural resources, all the ecosystems, 05:03 all the clean air, clean water, there was too much of that, 05:07 so we didn’t put a value on it. 05:12 – [Voiceover] Nature is the El Dorado of the 21st century. 05:16 A new economic sector with promises 05:18 of huge returns for investors. 05:21 Banks, finance, corporations, 05:23 and states are attracted into it. 05:26 They all know that on a dead planet, 05:28 no one will do business anymore. 05:33 – [Ricardo] That’s fundamental economic theory. 05:36 Supply and demand, and effectively right now, 05:40 the price we’re putting on the environment 05:42 and on natural services is zero, effectively. 05:46 But that’s going to have to change as the supply 05:48 of these natural resources continues to dwindle, 05:51 and the demand in the form of people continues to grow. 05:55 (elephant trumpeting) 05:58 – [Voiceover] Applying the law of supply and demand 06:00 to natural resources and species is something new. 06:04 Until now, almost no one had ever thought of putting 06:07 life itself into the economic machine. 06:34 (train whistle) 06:36 – [Voiceover] Since the Industrial Revolution, 06:38 the world’s population has increased sixfold, 06:42 water consumption risen by a factor of three, 06:46 the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has doubled, 06:50 the global temperature has increased, 06:54 and half the world’s rain forests have disappeared. 06:59 Our ecological footprint is escalating. 07:02 To satisfy our needs, we’re using 07:05 the resources of one and a half earths. 07:08 If we continue at this rate, by 2030 we’ll need two planets. 07:13 By 2050, two and a half. 07:17 – What happens if there are very much less trees? 07:22 If there’s not the clean water we need 07:24 where we need it, when we need it? 07:26 If there isn’t the clean air where 07:28 we want it and where we need it? 07:30 That becomes scarcer, that becomes more valuable. 07:33 We’re just going to start to put a price on it. 07:35 We’re going to start to put a price on the destruction 07:37 of it, and we believe there are opportunities 07:40 in that transition, to profit from that transition. 07:45 – [Voiceover] Besides, business has already started. 07:49 About a hundred miles east of Los Angeles, there’s a fly. 07:54 Probably the most expensive fly in the world. 08:12 – Through here. Here it comes. 08:15 Right here, flying right by us. That is one of them. 08:18 Here it is again. (buzzing) 08:19 See that up there? 08:22 A century ago, there may have been on the order 08:26 of around 40 square miles of habitat. 08:32 That is essentially the distribution of the sand dune, 08:36 and over the 20th century, 95 percent of the remaining 08:41 habitat has been destroyed or converted over to other uses. 08:47 (train bell) 08:49 Only a small fraction of that five percent supports 08:53 good populations of this rare insect, 08:57 this Delhi Sands flower-loving fly. 09:03 (buzzing) 09:05 – [Voiceover] Colton County underwent 09:07 huge economic development. 09:09 Business and industry gradually swallowed the sand dunes, 09:13 while the so-called Delhi Sand flower-loving fly 09:16 had the sad honor of becoming the first American 09:19 fly on the endangered species list. 09:22 To protect it, in 1993, the state froze 09:26 all commercial activity on its habitat. 09:29 Colton’s growth dropped to zero, all because of a bug. 09:34 – The citizens here want jobs. 09:37 The citizens want retail services. 09:40 They want more businesses to be here, 09:43 and right now, we’re prevented from bringing them into town. 09:47 – [Voiceover] So the fly found itself hated by the entire 09:49 population, but one man’s misfortune… 09:52 – [Voiceover] The fly is a rare species with rare property. 09:55 It makes a very good financial investment. 09:58 We can create as much value for both our stockholders 10:01 as well as create a biological opportunity 10:04 for conservation by turning that into a mitigation bank. 10:08 So our most recent sales have been $250,000 an acre. 10:15 – [Voiceover] A bank saw an opportunity here, 10:17 a mitigation bank. 10:19 It realized that it could make money 10:21 off these useless little sand flies. 10:23 It bought a part of the fly’s habitat, 10:26 and then it did nothing, leaving the insect 10:29 to live in peace while selling shares. 10:33 If a business wants to develop a project on the land where 10:35 the fly lives, it will find itself blocked by the state, 10:39 but by buying shares, the entrepreneur can offset 10:42 his impact by investing in the insect’s protection, 10:46 and secures his right to develop his business. 10:49 The bank has already made 20 million dollars. 10:53 – [Michael] The free market tends to find out 10:54 a good balance between adequate conservation, 10:56 shareholder value, and allowing development to go forward. 11:03 – [Voiceover] A bank making money by protecting a species. 11:07 That sounds like a win-win situation, right? 11:10 But for the inhabitants, the bank is still 11:12 a fly in the ointment. 11:15 – [Greg] The fly is winning the war. 11:19 With the flies in place, we’ve lost 11:21 millions and millions and millions of dollars, 11:23 years and years and years of time. 11:26 We can’t replace what we’ve lost. 11:30 It would be cheaper to pay people to go out 11:32 and kill the flies than to mitigate. 11:34 Joke, joke. But true, but true, but true. 11:41 (trolley bell) 11:46 – [Voiceover] In the United States, species protection 11:49 is in the hands of these new bankers. 11:52 Businesses, estate agents, road builders, anyone 11:56 whose activity endangers animals, has to pay these banks. 12:03 They protect more than a million acres of land. 12:10 They sell wetlands credits, cacti credits, 12:14 prairie dog credits, even lizards credits. 12:26 Wildlands is the biggest mitigation 12:28 bank of the American west. 12:31 – Our annual revenues exceed 40 million dollars 12:34 a year in mitigation sales. 12:37 We mitigate for giant garter snake, 12:40 for salmon, steelhead, Delta smelt, splittail, 12:45 Swainson hawk, for burrowing owl, for desert tortoise, 12:50 elderberry longhorn beetle, tadpole shrimp, fairy shrimp. 12:57 Our customers are aware of the local 12:59 solutions that we can provide. 13:01 These customers will come and say, 13:03 “I’m building a shopping center and I’m affecting 13:05 “vernal pools, we’re affecting a burrowing owl, 13:09 “do you have something that can help me 13:11 “offset my requirements?” 13:13 So we take a look at our inventory, we provide 13:16 them a quotation for a solution, and then 13:19 we barter those credits to them. 13:22 It’s in a non-tangible transaction. 13:24 We give them a relief of their liability 13:27 as a certificate of goodwill. 13:32 – [Voiceover] But how do these banks choose to invest in 13:35 and protect one species rather than another? 13:40 And what happens to those endangered species 13:42 living in areas of the US where there’s nobody? 13:45 Where there’s no economic development, 13:47 and therefore, no one to buy credits? 13:51 – [Steve] Choosing between one endangered species 13:53 and another endangered species all depends on market demand. 13:59 Buying landscapes, protecting landscapes, 14:01 accumulating the landscapes, it’s a phenomenal opportunity 14:05 to be able to use a business model 14:09 to achieve sustainability of nature. 14:12 If we weren’t profitable, we wouldn’t have money 14:14 to re-invest in these future projects. 14:17 – [Voiceover] The laws of the market 14:18 applied to endangered species. 14:21 Surprising, right? 14:23 How can we let banks decide which species 14:26 are worth saving, and which one’s not? 14:30 Which ones deserve to live, and which are 14:32 to die on the order of profit? 14:38 (howling) 14:44 – [Voiceover] If you were to go on the 14:45 SpeciesBanking.com you would find 14:47 probably about 700 different banks. 14:51 It’s roughly between two and a half to three and a half, 14:56 four billion dollars a year that are in banking. 15:01 – [Voiceover] This market for endangered 15:02 species is developing. 15:05 Today, all these mitigation banks are listed. 15:08 You want to know which one protects the California 15:10 Gnatcatcher, the Tiger Salamander or the Swainson’s Hawk? 15:15 With one click, the endangered species appear 15:18 with the number of credits issued. 15:51 – Hi, I’m John. 15:54 I work for a company. A big company. 15:57 A company that still doesn’t realize it relies on nature, 16:00 which is why I’m organizing a meeting, 16:03 a big meeting, to discuss natural capital. 16:06 It’s a new idea to boost our business. 16:08 You’ve heard of financial capital, right? 16:10 So what is natural capital? 16:12 – Natural capital is capital which nature created, not us. 16:18 The climate system is natural capital. 16:20 The trees are the natural capital because they take 16:22 carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and produce oxygen. 16:25 Biodiversity is a form of natural capital. 16:30 – So let’s take a shoe. 16:32 This one’s a leather. Leather comes from cows. 16:34 To make a cow, you need grass and grain. 16:37 That’s a lot of land and a lot of water. 16:41 – [Voiceover] It provides the clean water that we need, 16:44 the healthy food that we need. 16:46 Nature, through things like forests, 16:49 provides us protection from storms or floods, 16:52 and that’s what I mean by “nature’s fortune.” 16:57 When we speak like academics, we call what 17:00 nature does for us “ecosystem services.” 17:04 – [Voiceover] So nature has become a real business. 17:07 It has its own capital, and can 17:09 offer its services to consumers. 17:12 Without rain in the Amazon rainforests, there would be 17:15 no agricultural economy in South America, 17:20 a service estimated to be worth 240 billion dollars. 17:26 – The total loss of value every year 17:29 was almost two to four trillion US dollars. 17:32 That is two to four million million US dollars. 17:36 That’s almost the same size as the loss that was suffered 17:39 in the financial meltdown in 2008, 17:42 which was about five trillion dollars. 17:44 So that gives you a sense of how big these losses are, 17:47 and yet, they are invisible, because we are not 17:49 accounting for the capital when it disappears. 17:51 When the forests disappear, when the wetland is closed, 17:54 we are not accounting for the losses 17:56 because we are not accounting for the income. 17:57 The assets are invisible. Same problem. 17:59 Economic invisibility of nature. 18:44 – [Geoffrey] There are certainly some people who feel uneasy 18:46 about putting a price on nature. 18:48 They feel that somehow nature is intrinsically invaluable, 18:53 that bringing the profit motive and associated greed 18:56 to bear on natural phenomena is somehow 18:59 just the wrong thing to be doing. 19:04 I think that’s short-sighted. 19:07 – [Voiceover] Certain others are indeed 19:08 not so short-sighted. 19:11 They have chosen their side, that of the 19:13 so-called economic efficiency. 19:17 The Ecosystem Marketplace is a non-profit company 19:20 which issues environmental economic reports. 19:23 It is growing with each passing year. 19:28 – [Michael Jenkins] And the idea was to create a 19:30 Bloomberg of environmental markets, where you had 19:33 literally all the transaction data 19:36 publicly, transparently, and credibly available. 19:39 Then that stimulates markets, so we created 19:43 what we call “The Matrix,” which really lays out 19:46 the 24 different kinds of market instruments. 19:52 – [Voiceover] The Matrix is the Bible of the markets 19:54 for ecosystem services, markets in biodiversity, 19:59 water, carbon, green tourism, genetic resources. 20:04 The Ecosystem Marketplace invented this matrix 20:08 to show the potential for growth in these new El Dorados. 20:11 For instance, 10 percent each year for biodiversity 20:15 markets, 55 percent for carbon. 20:22 – [Michael Jenkins] What we’re seeing that’s exciting 20:24 is that it’s starting to get uptake in other places. 20:28 China, Brazil, Mexico, Peru. 20:31 We’re starting to see some real interest in these kinds of, 20:35 an instrument for compensation around biodiversity laws. 20:41 – [Voiceover] This jungle in Borneo is worth 20:43 some 34 millions dollars. 20:46 The state conceded it to an investment fund 20:49 that set up the world’s largest mitigation bank. 20:53 It intends to make a profit by offering its credits 20:56 to customers, such as pension funds and insurance companies. 21:01 – [Voiceover] There’s not very much of that forest left 21:03 in Sabah, and there’s not very much left in good condition. 21:06 There’s maybe only about 80,000 hectares 21:09 of good lowland forest, they’re called 21:11 primary forests, that hasn’t been lodged. 21:14 So that’s what makes protecting this lowland forest 21:16 very important, and that’s where the main iconic 21:20 species actually live, in lowland forest. 21:23 It’s where the fruiting trees are, 21:25 so that’s where the orangutans are, the elephants. 21:34 – [Voiceover] Borneo is the third 21:36 largest island in the world. 21:38 Its forest is almost 150 million years old 21:41 and a century ago, it covered the entire island. 21:45 Today, two thirds of it have vanished. 21:53 – [Voiceover] Malua BioBank is a 34,000 hectare 21:56 forest reserve in Malaysian Borneo, 21:59 and what’s unique about this particular project 22:02 is that it seeks to take a commercial approach 22:05 rather than a charitable approach to conservation. 22:08 It’s trying to monetize the ecological value in the forest. 22:12 – [Voiceover] Palm oil plantations 22:14 have replaced the primary forest. 22:16 Today, the island is an ocean of monoculture. 22:20 The ecological catastrophe is complete. 22:23 At this rate, the last remaining organutans 22:25 will have disappeared by the end of the decade. 22:29 – [Darius] If Malua has converted their ecological value 22:33 to a monetary value, instead of being worth nothing, 22:36 and those banteng and orangutan being worth absolutely, 22:41 having no value, then the palm oil company next door 22:44 would have to pay that price in order to be able 22:47 to destroy it and develop it. 22:51 – [Voiceover] The Malua bank sells its jungle credits 22:53 to palm oil producers, and any other 22:55 food processing companies around the world 22:57 that use the oil in their products, 23:00 while forcing those who destroy primary forests 23:03 to pay for this destruction, save the great apes. 23:33 – [Voiceover] Pavan Sukhdev is the global 23:35 reference of natural capital. 23:37 He argues that there is nothing shady about putting 23:39 a price on nature, and it doesn’t mean that 23:41 it’s being turned into a commodity. 23:44 He simply hopes to make states more aware 23:46 of their ecological riches, and companies more responsible. 23:51 Pavan made his career at Deutsche Bank. 23:55 Can a banker change his own nature? 23:59 – I’m a banker. 24:01 I understand the difference between prices and values. 24:04 I also understand that nature has huge value, 24:07 which we have simply not learned how to appreciate. 24:13 – [Michael Jenkins] With a bank you look at both 24:15 the risk and the opportunity around these issues, 24:19 and I think all of them are recognizing that 24:22 natural resources are very important. 24:26 So the JPMorgan Chases, and the Merrill Lynches, 24:29 and Bank of America, all of these major banks, 24:33 they’re the institutions that invest in the businesses 24:36 that are doing the projects that are having 24:40 an effect on biodiversity, positive or negative. 24:43 They’re a very important piece of our coalition. 24:50 – [Voiceover] So that is who is behind 24:51 the Ecosystem Marketplace, who is interested 24:54 in these markets, in their potential, 24:57 and who sits on their boards and committees. 25:00 Some of the names that bring back a few memories. 25:11 – [Voiceover] When we look at the development 25:12 of biodiversity markets, we find some very 25:14 well known actors, banks in particular, 25:19 and what’s curious and scary at the same time 25:23 is that often times these are the very same banks 25:27 that were also very actively involved in the trading 25:33 that led to the last large financial crisis. 25:41 Banks, of course, don’t do that because they have, 25:46 at the heart, protection of nature. 25:50 They do that because they see a business in this. 25:54 They want to become the ones 25:56 who provide the trading platforms. 26:01 – [Voiceover] Bank of America Merrill Lynch was fined 26:03 a record 17 billion dollars by the American government 26:07 on charges linked to the subprime mortgage crisis. 26:11 JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the USA, 26:15 had to pay a 13 billion dollar fine for the same charges. 26:18 (wolf howling) 26:21 Citigroup, saved from bankruptcy by the same government, 26:24 paid hundreds of millions of dollars to escape 26:26 legal proceedings by disaffected clients. 26:30 (lion roaring) 26:32 We can even find companies set up by former employees 26:35 of Goldman Sachs, the same bank that made 26:38 billions in profit by speculating on the crisis. 26:47 Can leopards change their spots? 26:55 – [Michael Jenkins] For decades and decades, we have been 26:58 trying to save biodiversity and forests 27:04 and those things, out of the goodness of our heart, 27:06 out of the fact that we know that’s the right thing to do, 27:09 and we have failed, we have failed miserably. 27:13 I will challenge anybody in the 27:15 environmental movement about that. 27:19 – [Mark Tercek] You might even think they’re the bad guys. 27:22 Maybe they even have been the bad guys in the past, 27:25 but sometimes they were the bad guys because 27:27 they were making mistakes, they didn’t know better, 27:29 and see whether you can convert a bad guy, 27:33 or somebody who’s just not paying attention, 27:35 into being an ally, because if we can do that, 27:38 we can get so much more done. 27:40 – [Voiceover] That was the boss of one of the biggest 27:42 nature protection agencies in the US. 27:44 His remarks are somewhat surprising, aren’t they? 27:47 – [Mark Tercek] I had a really fortunate experience 27:50 when I worked at Goldman Sachs. 27:53 I had been a mainstream investment banker 27:55 for more than 20 years, and then my final position, 28:00 before I joined the Nature Conservancy, 28:01 was leading an environmental effort for the firm. 28:04 – [Voiceover] Ecologists and bankers, these are 28:06 the new faces of nature conservation. 28:09 With their economic weapon, 28:11 they have targeted the politicians. 28:13 Protecting the environment is an expensive business. 28:16 Certain areas of the planet are already contaminated. 28:20 Money has to be gotten from wherever it can be found. 28:25 – [Voiceover] When you finance biodiversity, 28:27 you can logically look to the public funds, 28:31 but at the end of the day, 28:34 many look at the public funds, and there are many 28:36 needs which you would need to address through 28:37 the public funds, so it is utmost important 28:40 that you use also private funding. 28:43 That’s why this innovative financing 28:46 mechanisms logic started to emerge. 28:51 – In Brussels, the lobbyist capital of the European Union, 28:55 you have between 15,000 and 50,000 lobbyists, 29:00 and most of them work for corporations. 29:07 The World Business Council for Sustainable Development 29:10 is a group of some 200 corporations, 29:12 many of them actually with very bad records on environmental 29:16 issues, like Rio Tinto, Shell, BP, etcetera, 29:21 and it was created in 92 with a goal 29:24 of influencing the original Rio summit. 29:36 – [Voiceover] I think we’re slowly but certainly moving 29:38 to a state where it will become 29:41 equal partners in a discussion. 29:44 Maybe I’m expressing a hope more than a reality today, 29:48 but it’s certainly a trend that I see happen. 29:51 Only if we get business and governments as equal partners 29:56 in this debate will we find the solutions, 29:59 and the scale to the solutions, that the world needs. 30:04 (jazz music) 30:07 – [Voiceover] The bet has paid off. 30:09 At the last Earth Summit, the United Nations 30:11 rolled out the red carpet for the private companies. 30:20 All these corporations met in a luxury hotel in Rio. 30:24 Oil, chemical, steel giants, themselves regularly 30:29 accused of practices harmful to the environment. 30:34 – It means we do have to, in good management sense, 30:38 explore risks and opportunities. 30:40 We have to understand our ecosystem. 30:44 – [Voiceover] Just to bring that alive a little bit, 30:46 this is the Nestle commitment to no deforestation. 30:49 I think we were the first major company 30:51 to make this kind of commitment. 30:56 – It was pretty clear to us the area that we really needed 30:59 to think about was biodiversity and ecosystem. 31:03 – [Voiceover] Dow Chemical was one of the manufactures 31:05 of Agent Orange, a herbicide used in the Vietnam War 31:08 that caused thousands of cancers and malformations. 31:12 It is also linked through the purchase of Union Carbide 31:14 to the Bhopal catastrophe, where a factory exploded 31:17 in 84, releasing 40 tons of chemicals, 31:20 killing 10,000, and causing sickness to another 300,000. 31:27 – [Belen] The same companies that belong to this group, 31:30 in their real daily activities, in their lobby towards 31:32 government, are lobbying for exactly the opposite, 31:36 are lobbying for policies that benefit their commercial 31:41 interests, that don’t affect their activities, 31:44 that they don’t need to make any structural change, 31:46 that they can keep on having devastating impacts 31:50 on communities, on the environment. 31:54 – [Janez] We want to have this partnership 31:57 with the business sector, because without that partnership, 32:01 we have practically no real chance to succeed. 32:09 – [Voiceover] It only took 20 years for the banker, 32:13 the politician, and the businessman, a symbolic trinity, 32:19 to begin speaking in harmony about the environment. 32:25 – Post-war economic history has been a very exciting time, 32:28 because it’s seen the emergence of the multi-national 32:30 corporation, but part of that emergence, and part of that 32:34 success, has been through the deregulation 32:39 and the innovations in trade in capital markets. 32:42 – So, basically I do believe that I am not talking about 32:46 environmental interests here, and that I am talking 32:49 about new industrial policy needed. 32:53 It’s actually not about green growth, 32:57 it is about growth, full stop. 33:01 Thank you. 33:02 (clapping) 33:15 (lion roaring) 33:17 – [Voiceover] So are the politicians, bankers, 33:19 and corporations all in bed together? 33:23 Is there an international plot against nature? 33:28 And what if this alliance was the only 33:30 means of saving the planet? 33:36 We would like to believe in this brave new world. 33:43 Believe that the banks and the 33:45 business corporations have changed. 33:49 Is it a metamorphosis, or just greenwash? 33:56 – I’m an ambitious guy, as you may have noticed. 33:59 I think we can do this, change the rules of the game. 34:03 I’m really looking forward to the next 10 years because 34:05 it will completely transform the way we run our economies. 34:10 We will strike a balance between financial or economical 34:14 success, natural or environmental, and social success, 34:19 and if we can do that, then the vision that I’ve 34:21 said before, nine billion people, all living well 34:26 within the boundaries of the planet, 34:28 will become a reality, because that’s how, 34:30 with a measured way, our economy performs. 34:37 – [Voiceover] The promise of additional profits, 34:39 coupled with a desire to improve their image, 34:41 has certainly encouraged some businesses 34:43 to commit themselves to preserving the environment. 34:47 Vale is a mining giant, and a member of the 34:50 World Business Council for Sustainable Development. 34:53 The corporation operates in 38 different countries. 34:57 Its train is an institution in Brazil. 35:01 Over 500 miles, from the heart of the Amazon 35:03 to the Atlantic ocean, the company transports the people 35:08 (train horn) 35:12 and 100 million tons of iron ore every year. 35:18 Aware of its ecological impact, the company decided 35:21 to reforest certain areas of the Amazon. 35:26 It has already replanted over 100,000 acres of trees 35:30 with a further 400,000 acres in the pipeline. 35:44 (clapping) 35:47 – [Voiceover] And yet in 2012, Vale received the 35:49 Public Eye award, the prize for corporate irresponsibility. 35:54 – With these nominations, some of the worst 35:56 examples of corporate irresponsibility 35:58 in the last year have been identified. 36:01 What is needed is not just the recognition of what is wrong 36:04 with, say, their environmental and labor practices, 36:08 but systemic improvements. 36:10 I hope that these awards will raise consciousness 36:13 of some of the kinds of worst practices 36:16 that are going on in the world today. 36:19 (yelling) 36:20 – [Voiceover] What did Vale do to deserve such an award? 36:24 What did Vale do to trigger the creation 36:26 of an international victim’s organization 36:29 while spending more than a billion dollars 36:31 each year promoting sustainable development? 36:38 Along its railway track, there are, amongst other things, 36:42 five factories working 24 hours a day 36:44 transforming the ore into cast iron, in the process 36:48 spitting out foul-smelling and hazardous smoke, 36:52 and just below, there’s a village. 37:56 – [Voiceover] In the heart of the Amazon, 37:58 the multi-national operates the planet’s most important 38:00 iron ore mine, and even if Vale plants trees to offset 38:04 its impact, it also knows how to transform 38:07 its good deeds into profitable shares. 38:11 These investments allow it to be listed 38:13 on the Sustainable Development index of the stock exchange. 38:17 However, while claiming to replant the Amazonian forest, 38:21 Vale is only growing a single species of tree, eucalyptus. 39:03 – [Voiceover] In 30 years, all the land 39:05 with eucalyptus will become barren. 39:09 Until then, the financial markets will have 39:11 rewarded Vale for their green investment. 39:14 Ultimately, the multi-national will make even more profit 39:17 by selling its trees for biofuel. 39:21 Disguising a monoculture into 39:23 a millennia-old Amazonian rainforest. 39:26 This is one of the great deceptions of the green economy, 39:30 a lie that consists in claiming 39:32 that markets can protect biodiversity. 39:35 – Biodiversity markets are not an entirely new invention. 39:41 There are other types of markets 39:44 with parts of nature that we can look to 39:47 to see how they function, and who wins and who loses 39:52 when those markets are put in place. 39:55 (crowd talking) 39:59 – [Voiceover] In December 97, a majority 40:01 of countries signed the Kyoto Protocol. 40:04 They accepted the risks brought by climate change, 40:07 and committed themselves to reduce 40:09 their greenhouse gas emissions. 40:13 They also put in place market mechanisms to encourage 40:16 businesses to offset their impact on the environment. 40:20 That’s why Western companies began investing in protecting 40:22 nature or planting forests in developing nations, 40:26 from small businesses to huge multi-nationals. 40:31 Uganda has attracted some of these carbon investments. 40:37 – [Voiceover] To get the volumes and the amounts 40:39 of carbon that you have, you need to measure the trees. 40:44 Like diameters, heights, and then you get those values 40:49 and feed them to the formula to get 40:51 the carbon quantities that we have. 40:57 – [Voiceover] These men work in a profession 40:59 that did not exist before the signing 41:00 of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. 41:07 They are carbon hunters. 41:10 – Height to is 20.6. 41:13 – [Voiceover] Each ton of CO2 stored 41:15 in the trees equals one carbon credit. 41:18 – 25 point zero. 41:20 – [Voiceover] Credits which a German company 41:22 offers to the international market. 42:18 – [Voiceover] In the past, this plantation land 42:21 was used often illegally by the villagers, 42:24 but in such a poor country, these people grew just enough 42:27 to eat or to sell at market, or to feed their cattle, 42:30 but everything changed with the arrival of Global Woods. 42:41 Vacancies for Forest Security Manager. 42:44 The jobs are to ensure that a forest plantation 42:46 stays free of damage caused by illegal grazing. 42:49 Abilities and qualifications, trained in policing 42:53 or army skills, including martial arts. 43:02 This is the main solution offered by international 43:05 politicians and the markets to protect the planet. 43:09 The developed nations pay to have trees planted, 43:12 rather than trying to change their ways. 43:17 But how should land be used? 43:19 To live on and grow food, or to replant trees? 43:23 In order to protect the forests in various locations 43:26 in Africa, the villagers have been expelled, 43:29 and their homes burned to the ground. 43:34 In Honduras, dozens of farmers have already died 43:37 protesting against these sorts of expulsions. 43:43 How can trees be worth more than people? 43:54 But for now, nothing can stop the charge 43:57 of the raging bull of Wall Street. 44:03 It has barely a second thought for who it tramples underfoot 44:06 when it finds new sectors in which to make money. 44:42 – They use speculation as if it were a bad word. 44:47 I don’t necessarily see speculation as always a bad thing. 44:51 Basically, what speculation is, is people taking risks, 44:56 and hopefully, the people who are taking the risks 44:59 can assume the risks if they don’t pan out. 45:03 Already we’ve seen millions of dollars being invested 45:06 in projects that protect forests, why? 45:10 Because people are hoping that they will be able 45:12 to make money selling carbon credits in the future. 45:15 They’re not making money now. 45:16 Most of them are not making money now. They’re speculating. 45:24 – [Geoffrey] During my lifetime, we’ve had plenty 45:25 of stock market crashes, so could these environmental 45:28 markets be liable to crashes of the same sort? 45:31 The answer is yes, in principle they could, and in fact, 45:33 we’ve actually lived through one of these recently. 45:36 – [Voiceover] Because the price of carbon 45:37 on the markets has collapsed, from around 45:40 30 dollars a ton to less than three. 45:43 How can we entrust our future to a market that sometimes 45:46 recognizes the value of nature, and sometimes doesn’t? 45:51 – The Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the World Bank 45:53 have announced a plan to offer World Bank green bonds… 45:59 – [Voiceover] Major banks and businesses have offered 46:01 “green bonds,” a monetary product 46:04 invented by the World Bank. 46:07 They have already issued tens of billions of dollars 46:10 worth of bonds in order, they say, to redirect 46:13 finance to serve the environment. 46:17 What is the guarantee that this so-called 46:19 green finance will benefit the planet? 46:28 – The likelihood that banks, traders, 46:35 will be developing the hardware and software 46:39 of this new market in a way that benefits them 46:43 rather than benefits nature will be the same 46:48 as was the case in the financial crisis, 2008, 2009. 46:55 These financial derivatives, financial products that were 46:59 being traded very rapidly, were not helping 47:02 house owners to safely finance their home. 47:07 No, they were developed and used 47:11 to increase the profits that banks could make. 47:15 – [Voiceover] This is where the financial crisis started. 47:18 The banks played on the dream of owning your own home. 47:22 In the USA, they used the promise of this illusion 47:25 to lure modest households with precarious finances. 47:29 Once the families were no longer able to repay their loans, 47:33 the house of cards collapsed, leading to the subprime crisis 47:37 that made millions of Americans homeless. 47:40 The world tipped into a social crisis. 47:44 – [Voiceover] Well, we’ve seen the consequences 47:46 of financialization, we’ve seen the collapse of Wall Street. 47:50 We are witnessing around the world, 47:52 this hungry money, which is only looking at how 47:56 to make the next profit, devastating economies, 47:59 devastating ecosystems, devastating the planet. 48:04 For them to say that the reason the planet 48:09 is being destroyed is because there wasn’t a price, 48:11 all we have to do is a map. 48:14 Wherever there was a price, the minerals 48:17 have been mined, the earth has been raped. 48:21 Where there was reverence and respect, 48:24 nature stands in high integrity. 48:26 The evidence is very, very clear. 48:29 Price has led to degradation and destruction. 48:31 Pricing and financialization is a disease 48:35 that we have to overcome. 48:37 It’s like a cancer on this planet and in the human mind. 48:49 – [Voiceover] But what is the connection between 48:50 junk bonds, speculators, and houses, 48:53 and forests, insects, and orangutans? 48:58 In the past, when people wanted to buy a property, 49:00 they went to their bank to ask for a loan. 49:03 The bank would assess their ability to repay the loan. 49:06 The financial crisis made everyone realize 49:09 that loans were no longer just the domain of banks. 49:13 In fact, household debts are transformed into securities, 49:17 bought by investors, then split up and mixed in 49:19 with other debts to create derivatives more or less risky, 49:23 therefore more or less profitable, 49:25 and finally put onto financial markets. 49:28 One day, too many homeowners were unable 49:31 to continue paying back their debts, 49:33 triggering a flood of bankruptcies. 49:36 The world then discovered that some investors had speculated 49:39 on the inability of homeowners to repay their loans. 49:44 – It’s not that big a stretch of an imagination 49:48 to use the same logic of dividing up 49:54 the biodiversity credits, and dividing up 49:57 biodiversity, in a sense, and saying, 50:00 “You can now speculate on 50:06 “the future date of extinction of that species.” 50:10 (crowd talking loudly) 51:26 (dog whining) 51:30 – Yes, securitizations are sometimes bad, 51:32 and they led to the financial debacle. 51:34 Those were bad securitizations, 51:35 but securitizations also can be very, very good. 51:38 That doesn’t mean there should be no securitizations. 51:39 That means we must work harder, but just because 51:42 there’s a chance of something going wrong, 51:44 or just because there’s a chance that someone 51:45 might not like it, should we stop and not do it? 51:48 I think that would be a foolhardy mistake. 51:51 (birds chirping) 51:54 – [Voiceover] But if things were to go wrong, 51:56 what would the consequences be this time around? 51:59 Is there a level of acceptable risk? 52:03 Investment funds are already proposing species portfolios. 52:08 You could choose 50 orangutan, 30 fly, or 40 locust credits. 52:14 The Amazon rainforest is already listed 52:17 on the world’s first green stock exchange. 52:21 – [Jutta] Some people will say, “Well, but this is 52:24 “all conspiracy, this is not going to happen. 52:26 “This is not the purpose of nature accounting. 52:29 “We don’t want that.” 52:31 But how will they prevent this kind of development? 52:34 Once the methodologies are there to start speculating, 52:39 to start trading biodiversity? 52:43 You provide the instruments, and the use of those 52:47 instruments will be out of your hands. 52:52 – [Voiceover] At stake is our future on the planet. 52:55 Can we really mortgage that out, 52:57 and place it on the financial markets? 53:01 Lots of banks have committed to protecting species 53:04 for just 50 years, just enough time to make a profit, 53:08 yet just a speck of dust as far as the earth is concerned. 53:38 – [Vandana] We need to learn to get out 53:40 of the valuation on the market, which is only price, 53:43 where everything has a price and nothing has value, 53:46 to everything of nature having value, 53:48 and not being measured in price, 53:50 and finding other ways for humanity, 53:52 as humanity, for most of its history, has done. 53:56 It has not related to nature’s values through price. 54:04 – [Voiceover] The world of finance toyed with 54:06 the homes and households of America, 54:08 sparking a crisis around the world. 54:11 Only a handful of experts foresaw the danger 54:14 of the mechanisms we engendered. 54:16 Now we all know. 54:18 The same recipes are applied, 54:20 but this time their toy is nature. 54:23 Is it a good idea to leave the planet in their hands? 54:30 (dramatic music)

 

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At the Florida Springs website, above, watch parts 1, 2, and 3 of Water’s Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida.  In this video, you will discover the underground system of caves and tunnels and the journey of water beneath society on its way to springs.

If the above link doesn’t work, use these youtube links instead to watch the videos:

Water's Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida, Part 1 of 3 (Links to an external site.)

Water's Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida, Part 2 of 3 (Links to an external site.)

Water's Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida, Part 3 of 3 (Links to an external site.)

For further info on Florida Springs, check out this link from the Florida Springs Institute: https://floridasprings.org/springs-101/ (Links to an external site.)

Watch the video at the link above and then provide a review of the video, describing the connections between human society above ground, and the quality of aquifers below ground. This assignment will be evaluated based on how well the response summarizes the main points of the video, utilizing proper grammar and spelling, and creative writing skills. Your response must be between 1000-1500 words in length. Please use Microsoft Word or PDF when completing your assignment. See below for detailed grading rubric. 

You must write in your own words, as Turnitin will be used to check for plagiarism. As per the course policy, plagiarism will have serious consequences. Detailed information on what constitutes Plagiarism is provided in USF Regulation 3.027. Basically, using the exact words, opinions, or information from another source (websites, books, etc.) without citing that source will be considered plagiarism. Failure to abide by these guidelines and to cite all sources used will result in a “0” for the assignment, a report to the dean, and any further infractions will result in an “F” or “FF” grade for the course. USF libraries have various resources to help you with plagiarism and proper citations: http://guides.lib.usf.edu/c.php?g=451607&p=4980659.

Assignment objectives:

• Provide a short summary of the video
• Provide a description of at least 2 ways that Floridians are impacting the springs
• Based on your readings and the video, offer at least 2 innovative solutions to these impacts

 

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ENMT 310 Project Three

Scenario and Site Plans

Scenario:

You are to assume the duties of the safety and environmental officer for a large industrial facility located on a river in a medium-sized town, population 23,231. There in a small, non-trauma center, hospital located in town. The local fire department has a Hazardous Materials Response Team trained to respond to chemical releases and spills. You also have a trained Industrial Fire Brigade on-site with first-responder training and equipment.

Your facility produces and ships a product called Methyl-Ethyl-Peanut Butter by rail, highway, and river barge.  The product is produced from mixing liquid Acetone, gaseous Sulfur Dioxide, and Magnesium powder. It produces a mixed waste product to be disposed of properly.

Your assignment is to develop an Emergency Action Plan meeting Federal OSHA requirements and an Facility Resonse Plan meeting Federal EPA requirements. You plan must address the minimum requirements of these Federal regulations. Part of the exercise is for you to locate the appropriate OSHA and EPA requirements in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Hint: OSHA regulations are contained in Title 29 of the CFR and EPS’s regulations are contained in Title 40 of the CFR.

You may use your imagination to come up with all the details of your plans, but be sure to address all aspects of potential emergency releases within the facility and potential local and international threats to your facility. You plan must meet, as a minimum, all of the applicable EPA and OSHA regulations.

You may prepare two separate plans or one comprehensive plan to meet the requirements. Once prepared, submit you plan to your assignment folder as you did with Project Two. Use this exercise as if your job depends on it, be comprehensive, but have fun coming up with the means you will save your city. Include response actions from all of the first-responder organizations and resources available to you on and off-site.

The length and format of the plans are up to you. Just make sure you cover the requirements and all expected threats and hazards.

 

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