Technology in the Amazon

  The Amazon rainforest is one of the most important parts of our ecosystem. It helps support the lives of many living creatures within its vast amount of plant life. Technology has affected the rainforest in both good and bad ways. Technology has been helpful in reducing loggers and miners. It is also the number one cause of the reason loggers and miners are there in the first place.  The increased knowledge of what is going on in the Amazon rainforest has been very helpful for a more thorough understanding about how technology has been helping but also destroying the Amazon.

 Thanks to technology we have been able to give the aboriginal groups who would like help,  trail cameras, GPS and other tools to help find the people doing illegal activities.  Thanks to a program that is going on with China and another program that is going on with NASA, they have many different satellites currently on the Amazon with real time footage. They can easily find patches of trees that show evidence of tractors and other vehicles. With the current improvement of cell phones, there have been many apps that have been created so that if you see anything illegal, you can take a photo and it can be immediately sent to authorities. This has been helpful with delivering  justice for the people in the Amazon.

  Technology is also the number one reason why there are so many people in the Amazon doing illegal things.  With the need for building materials such as wood and stone, there are multiple illegal businesses going on. These businesses are transporting the materials from the Amazon to other continents.  As medicine is constantly improving, people are trying to get materials from  the Amazon as it is a big supplier of the plants needed to make medicine.  The Amazon is also extremely rich with minerals such as diamonds and copper so people are constantly looking for those.

 

 The Amazon is a very important part of our climate. Technology is also a very important part of our progress but by having both of them collide it can be extremely dangerous because of what will eventually happen if people continue to use technology for worse things.  We also have technology to thank for slowing down the amount of people starting these  illegal businesses and taking down the current illegal business.  Technology is important, but so is our forests, so we must remember to protect our ecosystems.

 While I was doing research on this I realized just how important technology has been in the stopping of illegal loggers and miners in the Amazon. I also realized that it is important to reflect on the ways we have treated the Amazon in the past and in the future. It's important to spend the resources that we have to research and keep our amazing Rainforest alive.

Bibliography

Amazon Frontlines. (2024, March 8). Surveillance Tech helps indigenous groups protect the Amazon. https://amazonfrontlines.org/chronicles/surveillance-tech-helps-indigenous-groups-protect-the-amazon/#:~:text=They%20rely%20on%20their%20ancestral,our%20elders%2C%E2%80%9D%20Andy%20says.

Butler, R. A. (2020, July 16). Extraction of minerals and energy from the Rainforest. WorldRainforests.com. https://worldrainforests.com/kids/elementary/505b.html

English, V. L. (2023, July 29). NASA offers Brazil satellite technology to help fight Amazon deforestation. Voice of America. https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/nasa-offers-satellite-technology-to-help-fight-amazon-deforestation/7200781.html

Heggie, J. (n.d.). Can technology save our forests?. Environment. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/paid-content-can-technology-save-our-forests

Andrew Jackson Foster

 Andrew Jackson Foster was the first African American to get a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University. He was also the first African American to earn a master's degree from Eastern Megan University. He used this education to provide Deaf education in many countries in Africa. He was born On June 27th, 1925. When he was about eleven, he and his brother got spinal meningitis, which caused both of them to become deaf. In the years following, He received six years of Education At the Alabama School of coloured death people. He would have had more but during that time racial segregation was still going on in Alabama, so any African American could not get more than six years of education. He moved to Michigan and got two more years of schooling while living with his Aunt. Then, he took classes with the American Correspondence School while working multiple jobs.  A short time after the war, Eric Malzkuhn, who was a teacher at Gallaudet University, told him on multiple accounts that he should attend Gallaudet University He attempted multiple times but was rejected because of his race. He received a diploma to be an accountant in 1950 and high school diploma from The American School in Chicago. After earning these awards, Gallaudet University finally accepted him. He then moved to Africa and started preaching about God and the ways that he helped him through the tough times of being a deaf African American. He died on December 3, 1987, at age 62. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Foster_(educator) 

Track meet

On Friday the 26th me, my mom, my brother and a friend went to the annual HCOS track meet.  We had to wake up extremely early to get there on time.  The first activity that we had was the 100m dash.  Then we had shot put, disqus and then took a break until the 400m and ended with long jump.  I got 2 4ths, 5th, 8th, and participation.  There were 16 people in our age group.  I accidentally raced in the grade 9 race and got a 4th.  

I trade my higher ribbons to get lower ones because I liked the colour better.

 

Jeff Kinney

 In 2020 I did a research project on Jeff Kinney. During that research project, I sent him a letter.

 I just got the letter back this week! Here are some pictures of it.

I also got his signature

The Mystery Challenge

 

Zach sat in the clammy, spider-infested corner and thought to himself that he had to find a way out before they caught him. To understand how we got to this point, we have to start a couple of hours before. Zach was doing his daily routine right before he began recording for his video blog. He noticed that his keys still felt sticky from the Coke he had spelled on his keyboard the day prior, but that would not keep him from reading the comments of his last video. Today he was extra careful and put the Coke in a water bottle. In the previous video, he said he would do whatever the most liked comment said. The most liked comment said to explore the closest abandoned building to his apartment. The closest abandoned building was a rundown prison right next to a deep brown alligator-infested swamp, thus making the ground extremely uneven and making it way too easy for prisoners to escape. However, few prisoners tried because of the swarms of mosquitoes, making it hard to see. It was about 1.5 miles away. The road going through had multiple times where you couldn't even drive because the swamp overran it.

Zach decided that he would get a good sleep before he headed out the next day because it was getting late.  During the night, he had a nightmare of being surrounded by shadowed figures that he couldn’t make any distinctive features out of.  He woke up in a cold sweat but still decided to head out.  As he started driving, about three minutes into the drive, he came into the first patch of undrivable swamp.  He parked his car and started walking through the putrid and humid swamp while being attacked by swarms of mosquitos.  It was at this point that he was glad that he brought mosquito repellent.

After walking for about twenty minutes, he made it to the prison and started walking towards the front door.  The only problem was that the front door had been chained and boarded up.  So, he walked around and found one door hidden by vines and alligator nests that seemed to have been pried open recently.  As he started walking in, he took out his camera and started to record.  He had done some research the prior night about the prison, so as he was walking, he was explaining all about the prison.  Just as he made it out to the first courtyard at the center of the prison, he heard a strange noise coming from the smelliest room that smelled like years of decomposing feces.  As he walked in, he realized it was the bathrooms, and one of the stalls had been broken open to reveal a giant press used for pressing alligator leather.  When he saw that, the first thing that came into his mind was the law that was passed about six months before that said no killing or selling the leather of the alligators in the swamp because they had begun to become endangered.  It seemed that these people here were continuing to press down the leather.  It smelled of a strange oil.  Just as he went to exit the bathrooms, he heard footsteps coming his way.  He immediately went to hide in one of the bathroom stalls.

 

As he bolted towards the nearest bathroom stall, he heard their footsteps get closer and closer.  While he was closing the door, they stepped foot into the bathroom.  Surprisingly, they did not notice, but it was enough time for him to get a glance at them.  The guy closest to him had a pale, foggy cataract and a surprising lack of a jawline.  The white cataract explained why they hadn’t seen him.  They both seemed to be wearing different fast-food uniforms.  One was Subway, and one was Burger King.  The second guy reminded him a lot of his grandfather with a long beard and a short mustache that didn’t fit him all that well.  As they were walking in, they were talking about the Blue Jays and the Mariners.  They walked right out and through the bathroom into the press room.  Zach thought to himself that there had to be some way to escape. Just then, he heard one of the men run out of the room and down the hall.  The other guy ran the opposite way.  He had been awfully confused but thought it was the perfect time to make a break.  As he was running, he heard an engine start-up and get louder and louder and louder until it was all he could hear.  He was trying to run, find an exit, and escape the horrific noise.  Just as it started to get dimmer, he turned a corner and ran face-first into a bright green wall.

 

He felt arms quickly wrap around him as the guy dressed for Subway loomed down and stared at him.  The man first asked, “What are you doing here?”  in a raspy but light voice.  Zach immediately started rushing through ideas on what to say and whether or not to tell the truth or try to come up with some sort of lie.    Zach said the first thing that came to mind, “I was lost.” This seemed to surprise the man, and he loosened his grip just enough for Zach to shimmy out.  He immediately bolted down through the mazes of hallways and rooms with the fading light shining through the windows.  He finally stopped to rest about 100 feet from where he came in.  But just sitting there and about to turn the corner was the other man.  Zach immediately darted into the closest room, which happened to be one of the jail cells.  This jail cell seemed to have been used for some sort of escape because there was a hole about a foot into the wall.  Instead of making a risky break towards the man, Zach attempted to call the police.  The moment he pulled out his phone, he noticed there was no cell service, meaning he couldn’t call anyone.  Just then, the sound of the machine cut to an abrupt stop, and the other man started heading back toward the machinery.  Zach immediately made a break for it and made his way out of the building.

As Zach was running, he heard a strange grunting noise coming from behind him.  He looked behind him, and there was an alligator chasing him because of the placement of the door, which led right to its nest.  This fueled the adrenaline already rushing through Zach’s body to push him to move even faster.  This entire time, Zach had been trying to get any type of cell service he could.  Just as he got a bar, he dropped his phone and tried to stop, but he kept sliding forward through the mud.  When he had finished sliding and looked behind him, the alligator stopped on top of the phone and stared him down.  After multiple painstaking moments of the two of them exchanging stares, the alligator turned around.  Just as Zach picked up his phone, he heard noises coming back from the way he came, so he booked it back to his car.  Then Zach started calling 9-1-1.  After a quick explanation to the operator, there was one police car sent out, and he was told just to go home and rest.  The next day, the news was filled with some of the video footage Zach had taken and the story of the alligator lether ring in their little town.  After getting permission to use some of his footage for his YouTube video, he posted it and decided that he would just stick to posting videos about his normal life for a bit.

 

Iqbal

 Iqbal Was a 13-year-old born in Muridke, Pakistan. Just like millions of kids there, his parents had fallen into debt, and they had to sell him to a Carpet maker to help pay off his parent's debt. He worked from dawn untill dusk with a very short lunch break in the middle. One day, he escaped when he was ten and went into the village where he found an organization of people who saved slaves because it was illegal for the kids to be working. He went there and told the organization about the carpet maker and helped shut down his first carpet factory. Instead of deciding to go back and live with his parents again, he decided to stay with the organization to help many more slaves. After two years, he saved 3000 kids from these carpet factors, and brick factories but when he was visiting his parents he ended up getting shot when he was only 13.

I really enjoyed this book that was based off of real events.  I would definitely recommend it.  It was quite moving and through the help of Iqbal many more kids have found out about this organization and helped free more slaves.

Visible Disabilities

 This is a project about famous people with disabilities.  We were talking about the differences between hidden and visible disabilities.  Jordan is doing a poster about a hidden disability and I did a visible one.  I think that hidden disabilities can be harder for people because there are many people that believe that those disabilities are just made up.  Meanwhile, it's harder to argue that visible disabilities aren't real.