Figure 1 & 2
Figure 3
Figure 4 & 5
Figure 6
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Polynesians first discovered these beautiful islands of ours over 1,500 years ago by navigating the ocean with only stars to guide them. Our ancestors started from nothing and had to build self-sustaining communities to feed and care for all the community, which they did. They created land division systems called an ahupua'a which was a section of land from the mountain to the ocean. From this they would raise and receive all things required for life. Food from the plants they grew, animals they grew and hunted, as well as materials from the variety of plants they had. Before the contact with white people in 1778 who overthrown our islands, there were about 100,000 to 1 million people on our islands. The European settlers, being around 31,000 people, brought much disease which caused much of our Hawaiian population to die. Back then, there wasn't a cure for many things as well as the only medicine Hawaiians used were all natural. The continuation of growing our own food to consume wasn't the only thing the food offered. We used food and materials to trade for a variety of food and materials, which different ethnic races grew or shipped from around the world. The topic of locally sourced food has been an issue in our islands. We went from growing everything we needed to survive to relying on ships and people around the world to grow and import our food for us, what happened? Beginning in the 1830s to 1840s, Hawaii was known for the sugarcane and pineapples we produced. In 1850, the the import of foreign workers began, which boosted this economy tremendously. Unfortunately, overtime our two well known foods having produced changed from sugarcane and pineapple to macadamia nuts and coffee. In addition, majority of the food we grow doesn't stay here locally. Just like foods from other places, it is shipped around the world. Hawaii is so reliant on importing products we need in order to survive. Only 10% of the food we eat are grown here in the island, the other 90% is imported from all over the world. Now imagine if something had happened to the importing system. What would happen here in Hawaii? Would we be able to survive and thrive? Would we have enough food and farms on our island to sustain life?
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Carbon CycleThe carbon cycle is the series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, chiefly involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the of fossil fuels.
Figure 7
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Oxygen CycleThe oxygen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle of oxygen within its four main reservoirs: the atmosphere (air), the total content of biological matter within the biosphere (the global sum of all ecosystems), the hydrosphere (the combined mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of planet Earth), and the Earth's crust.
Figure 8
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Nitrogen CycleThe nitrogen cycle is the series of processes by which nitrogen and its compounds are interconverted in the environment and in living organisms, including nitrogen fixation and decomposition. The nitrogen picture is very similar to the carbon cycle and consists of various reservoirs which exchange nitrogen.
Figure 9
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Positive LoopsPositive feedback loops enhance or amplify changes; this tends to move a system away from its equilibrium state and makes it more unstable.
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Negative LoopsNegative feedback loops tend to dampen or buffer; this tends to hold a system to some equilibrium state making it more stable.
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Reinforcing LoopA reinforcing loop is one in which an action produces a result which influences more of the same action thus resulting in growth or decline.
Figure 11
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Balancing LoopA balancing loop attempts to move some current state (the way things are) to a desire state (goal or objective) through some action (whatever is done to reach the goal).
Figure 12
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