“And I Went to School” by Joe Suina is about his time attending school and his issue of identity. Before going to school he was taught prayer and other teaching by his grandmother who was highly involved in vermonial settings. At the age of 6 he started school where he became confused with who he was, school picture books made his way of living look not enough. After the age of 6 Joe started going to a boarding school 30 miles from Cochiti. During his time there he became more distant from his home. After being taught the ways of the white men he became disconnected with his home and himself when he got to go back home for fall break. He began to take on the white man's way that belittled his own. It didn’t take him that long to get back into it and later felt at home again. Joe later went back to school with a handful of cornmeal in his right hand. 

I have a connection with Joe’s article because I also felt the same way he did about school. I too felt confused about who I was and what teachings are more important. When I did go back to my grandmas for the weekends it felt like school wasn’t relevant any more. All together I felt like Joe’s article relates to a lot of people.

"15 Organizations Creating Healthier Soil to Save the Planet" 

An article I read "15 Organizations Creating Healthier Soil to save the planet". is about multiple organizations trying their own ways to create healthy soil. The organizations believe that soil plays an important role to climate changes about 75% of greenhouse gasses comes from agriculture. There is one organization called Biome of Australia Soil Environments, they map soil diversity on a continental scale. A lot of the organization stalk about trying to reduce carbon in the air via soil ( carbon sequestration) I like this article because it gives great examples of how everyone and every country can work together to restore degraded areas.

Green, Liza et al “15 Organizations Creating Healthier Soils to Save the Planet - Food Tank”. FoodTank.com. 4 december 2019. Accessed 24 October 2023

I read this article about the Karst land forms in south west China, karst land forms is where the dissolving bedrock has created different features in the landscape like caves, sinkholes, and springs. The Karst landforms are highly vulnerable to environmental impacts causing the degrading forest into shrub and grass land. Understory vegetation is the underlying layer in forest ecosystems, understory flora is more active in soil enzymes, fertility and energy flow. The scientist thought that the reason the karst landforms is degrading because of the slop of which the forest is on, but now its due to the elevation of the forest. 

Ou, Z. Pang, S. He, Q. Peng, Y. Huang, X. & Shen, W(2020. July 21) “effects of vegetation restoration and environment factors understory plants in a typical karst ecosystem in southern china”. NatureNews. Accessed Oct 26, 2023

This youtube video was about how restoring degrading land can benefit people around the world economically and the planet. By the year 2055 the earths population will reach 9 billion people with little food and land for farming left, restoration degrading lands for farming can give the people of the world more food to eat. The Youtube video also talks about 2 restoration projects, 1 taking place in south korea, and another taking place in niger, africa. The south korea project spent $92 billion to boost air, water quality, and wildlife habitat. The project in niger was just about planting trees to boost the soil quality for agriculture farms. 

Video. “Restoring degraded land to benefit people and planet” World Resource Institute - YouTube Jul 14, 2016. Accessed Oct 26. 2023  

Land Degradation, Community Perceptions and Environmental Management Implication in the Drylands of Central Tanzania. A chapter from a book about sustainable development talks about a semi-arid area in the Kondoa district known as the Kondoa Eroded area, located in Central Tanzania. 10% of the district is affected by sheet and gully erosion caused by agriculture, overgrazing of livestock, and evaporation rates. The long rain season starts in March to end in May, the short rain season starts in October to early December. Average rain fall is from 600mm (millimeters) to 800 mm per year, areas with higher elevation is getting 900mm per year. The three villages Mafai, Baura, and Bolisa located in the Kondoa Eroded area were subjected to questionnaires and field visits about their experiences with soil erosion. 1,470 households were recorded to have aware about erosion, 80 samples of soil were taken in all 3 villages in which they all had a low ph level soil having less nutrients and elements available to the plants. On each filed visit researchers found evidences of soil erosion, soil run off, and crop vigour. The people that were doing the research suggested some solutions for the residents but they didn't want to do it and help out. It was because of the economic status of the villages, district, and country. They didn't want to use their funds for restoration.

Kangalawe, Richard YM. “Land Degradation, Community Perceptions and Environmental Management Implications in the Drylands of Central Tanzania.” IntechOpen, https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/38100. Accessed 7 March 2024. 

This article is about Nigeria over coming climate change mainly soil erosion. The Nigeria Erosion and Water Shed Management (NEWMAP) established in 2012, is a a community participation based program, it helped 12 million people in 23 states in Nigeria. NEWMAP to start off restored 90 erosion sites and created storm water diversion plans. A premiere in Africa, green bonds were established to help the government to fund "green investments". $30 million in 2017 and $41 million in 2019 were reaised from the bonds. NEWMAP establised initatives to reduce green house gass emissions and bring environment friendly goods into their lively hoods. They also trained 185,000 local government officials and community members everything about conservation. 

“Land, soil and climate change: How Nigeria is enhancing climate resilience to save the future of its people.” World Bank, 19 October 2022, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2022/10/18/land-soil-and-climate-change-how-nigeria-is-enhancing-climate-resilience-to-save-the-future-of-its-people. Accessed 7 March 2024.