Week 5 Environmental Systems

This week we're on Chapter 2, Environmental Systems.  There, your text discusses the concept of ecosystems--"complex assemblages of animals, plants and their environment, through which materials and energy move" (Cunningham and Cunningham 2011, 28).  We can approach the idea of interdependence and the miraculous creativity of life through knowing the carbon system or nitrogen system. We can also approach them by marveling at their complexity. In this podcast, the conversation is about ethics and the earth.

Please listen to this podcast, a conversation between Krista Tippett and Sylvia Earle. Alternatively, you can read the transcript but their voices are nice and you can listen while you're working out.

Sylvia Earle describes being the only woman on a deep sea exploration to the Indian Ocean in 1964 and then, being the first (and still the only) person to walk the ocean floor at 1,250 feet without a tether.  What was it like for women in science at the time? Do you think a lot has changed for women in science? What are Sylvia Earle's concerns? What's happening to the ocean? Tell us about what struck you from this podcast.