20.000 views under the sea

This is not going to be a really big post. And its amazing to see less than a year in here 20.000 views.

I have been sick for the past 5 days with loads of fever and spent them in bed. Apart from today. Today i had a presentation at university in the environmental assessment course. For you interested in that, an environmental assessment is an activity/process that is used to determine the impact of projects or phenomena on the ecosystem/human health and they offer solutions, methods to minimize or prevent them.

I felt the need to write about what happened today. I had 39 fever and i made a colossal effort to stay awake all night and complete my presentation. I presented about the Great Barrier Reef and the effects of dredging and the politics behind this in the Australian government.

I was there sitting for 3 hours with burning eyes waiting patiently for my turn. We were around 10 people in the room plus the supervising professor, Henrik. He is pretty young, cool and helpful.

I spend hours in the presentation. I really did. When i hear the word presentation i expect some visual material, at least in academia. Or something innovative that will keep me interested or that i will be able to absorb the information.

So we were stuffed in a microscope room for presentations. The computer had issues working as well. Definitely not a great start! Moving on Erika starts first. I like how she is not only pretty but also very intelligent. She pays attention, she has always questions to ask and she has a vibrant and colorful personality too. I was a bit nervous because i did not know if i picked the correct structure for my topic. So she reassured me that i was in the right path after she finished.

The problems started after that. Another girl spoke for 3-4 minutes when the presentation should be around 15. She had around 8 slides when i had 22 so i started to worry again. Then another one showed up and she had only one picture with a few information and she went on to talk about her project for 10 minutes. It is very hard to retain all the information and make constructive criticism just like this.

Then another one from my group came on. She had an interesting project on wind mill parks in northern Sweden and the Sami people are protesting. And then she says she has no presentation. She pulls out a chunk of papers and starts reading from them. I frankly do not remember almost anything. And that makes me sad because i really liked the topic and i really like the Sami people.

Then my turn comes. I do great considering my condition. But when you are up there and you look at everyone, you are like a teacher. You see every detail going around. And i could not take my eyes off someone in the far back who was sleeping or trying to keep his eyes open every 10 seconds.

Most of the presentations had great topics and some came with good presenters too. But i felt really offended by the other occurrences. In the effort i put to make one and others didn't at least. I don't know maybe that's me. Maybe i do not expect this in a masters level program. Oh well.

Lastly i might make a review on the Dumb and Dumber To movie one day. It's is unreal. You should watch it in 24 monthly doses because i just close it every 5 minutes. Its unbelievably bad.

That's it for now. Goodnight Sweden

Sex, Sex, Sex - Raping the planet, one step at a time

Disclaimer. If you came here for sex and boobs, go back to your caves, get your eyes checked on a doctor or simply reread the title.

Back in 2009 there was an advertisement.

A job offer to "The Best Job In The World". An opportunity to become a caretaker for the islands in the Great Reef Barrier in Australia. Around 35.000 applications flocked from all over the world. I was one of them. The salary was huge, the chance to experience such beauty and exotic locations and being responsible for them even greater.

But what is the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)? Here are some brief facts.

It is the largest coral reef system in the world. It is considered one of the most beautiful places on earth as well as it's biggest living organism. It was declared a Natural Wonder of the Earth in 1981 and a world-heritage site. It is massive, around the size of Italy, comprising of around 3000 reefs and 900 islands that stretch over 2300 kilometers off the coast of Queensland, Australia. No wonder it can be seen with a naked eye from space.

I wish one day i visit that place.

So what is the problem? There are three mainly. One is that climate change is slowly eating the reef. The global warming effect causes the ocean temperature to rise, which causes coral bleaching and makes the fish and organisms migrate elsewhere since their preferred temperature and environment is disturbed. That leads to loss of biodiversity and chain deaths that greatly affect predatory carnivores from fish to birds.

The other one is pollution. Simply put the coastal area close to the GBR is used for farming. Tons of fertilizers pollute the soil and decline the water quality due to runoff and cause eutrophication, an effect that ends up killing the fish due to depletion of oxygen.

Pesticides, ship wreckages, mining and over-fishing are the other reasons and they are pretty self-explanatory.

Do you see any link between all these? They are all linked to human activity. We are effectively raping the planet. We are destroying our own heritage in the name of money and power. Oil spills, coal mining, fake reports that try to divide and mislead the public.

Tony Abbott of the Australian government announced in 2013 that the reef was not in such a poor condition so they intended to construct a massive coal factory nearby for a massive 16 billion dollars. It sounds like death by a thousand cuts to the reef. Some might say that i am talking bullshit but i am writing a scientific paper based on these assessments and strategic management of the reef. I am not going to supply all the information because that would be impossible, but i would be happy to answer any of your questions or concerns. I also found out that the main driving force of Australia's income is tourism and that it is more important and bigger than the coal industry. The Cost-Benefit analysis might show an advantage to the coal factory initially but when the reef is destroyed in the long run it will lead to devastating effects not only in the country's physical beauty but also in its economic power and income.

These statements were sort of pulled back during 2014 and there was a new assessment going on about the management and the plan to sustain the reef until 2050. If you want to read more and try to sign petitions or make a difference, head up to GetUp!

I am pretty sure you can find Nemo here!

I got so angry reading about all this. Do not let them rape our planet one step at a time. Do something about it. It is time to make a difference.

Good Weekend Sweden!