1) Science articles are difficult to write due to the high concentration of complicated concepts. When writing on scientific topic, one must really tailor the story to their audience, to write as if they are explaining the story to their neighbor. If the story contains too much jargon, it will lose the majority of readers after the first paragraph.
2) Prior to this class, I did not know the concept of an embargo. I now know that it is a request by a source for the information they provided to not be published until a certain time.
3) In articles presenting new technological advances, the result it produces can be as important as the technology itself. Even failure is news too. It can produce new ideas for study.
4) When dealing with journalists, scientists are very cautious. They fear being misrepresented or misunderstood. I know even as an accountant, if I tried to explain something accounting related to a journalist, I would be very afraid that my point would not be understood.
5) One of the biggest mistakes one can make in environmental journalism is exaggerating the importance of a finding. All of the figures and facts may be correct, but there should also be constants used for comparison to give perspective on the importance of the issue.
What I learned about the Amazon
1) The main pressures causing deforestation are logging, mining, and cattle ranching. The only way to solve the problem is to provide alternative means of living to the citizens. They must have a way to live that does not include deforestation, whether it is green deforestation or not.
2) When trees dies in the rainforest, the mercury in the trees is absorbed into the forest naturally. When trees are cut down in large concentrations, as in deforestation, the mercury cannot be absorbed naturally and runs off into the river. There it goes up the food chain from the algae to the fish. This creates high levels of mercury in the fish in the Amazon river, due to bioconcentration.
3) Although there are laws regulating the deforestation of the Amazon, they are seldom enforced. Even when they are enforced, the benefit of deforesting the Amazon greatly outweighs the consequences.
4) The natives who live in the rainforest hunt all sorts of animals for food, such as anacondas, jaguars, and alligators. When they have eaten all the meat, they trade the skin, teeth and bones to people on the edges of the forest, who make arts and crafts with the materials to sell in the city. No part of the animal goes to waste.
5) The Amazon is both an estuary and a delta. It flows out into the Atlantic ocean, making it a delta, and it is large enough to have tides, making it an estuary.
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