Read 'N' Seed 2: First Quarter of Under a Green Sky

I've read the first two chapers,61 pages, of Under a Green Sky by Peter Ward. And I'm not going to lie, as of right now I don't really like the book. It's like reading a text book from a paleontology class. A lot of the really specifc details go over my head and I have to repeatedly re-read paragraphs to make sure I read it right. However, what I do understand of what I've read so far is pretty interesting.

Though there is lots of background information about the theorys and viewpoints. There has been one main topic that has been talked about a lot so far. And then another that has been touched on.
The first being the K-T extinction. This took place inbetween the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. This extinction caused a lot of controversy because a father and son scientific team from the University of Berkley named  Alvarez published a paper saying that this extiniction was caused by a giant asteroid that hit the Earth caused huge environmental changes through out the whole world. Many critics didn't believe his theory and challenged it for a long time. They believe that it the extinction was caused by a long term climate change and extinctions happened over a course of a long time.

Alvarez explained his theory was like a domino effect. The first being that it wasn't just the impact itself that would have killed off so many species, it was a period of darkness that occured after the impact because of the large amount of debris in meteoric and Earth material that was blown into the atmosphere. This would kill much of the plant life on earth. Next, large amounts of sulfer was also in the atmosphere after the impact, that rained down as acid rain. Also, because so much sunlight would have been absorbed by atmosphereic dust particles the Earth cooled down to almost, or to, near freezing temperatures. Which before the impact the Earth had mostly tropical. With all of these drastic changes a mass extiniction was a definite possiblity.

Later, Peter Ward was able to vist a K-T boundary site, which are located all over the world. In his journey there he made a discovery that supported Alverez's theory. He found, tiny pieces of platinum and iridium- which is what stars and asteroids are made out of. Platunum and iridium were then discovered all over the world at other K-T boundary sites. By the 1990s very few people doubted Alvarez's theory. Were the asteroid supposedly hit was the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the impact site being called the Chicxulub Crater.

The other topic, was another boundary that was discovered that was first thought to be a time period when very little extinction took place. But it was discovered, through investigation of carbon and oxygen isotopes, that instead the shallow water of the oceans being more than the deeper water it was just the opposite. The water was being warmed from the bottom. Since the water was becoming more warm, there was less oxygen in the water many organisms living in the ocean started to die out fairly rapidly.

Implications

The topics so far affect society because the more we know about Earth's past the better we can prepare for the future. Actually many scientists in the book said that it is very possible that many of Earth's extinctions could have been caused my meteors, and that it could happen again. So far, not much has been mentioned about a rise in CO2 or global warming but many of the reviews of the book have said it's a big part of Under a Green Sky. So I think that implications that can affect society today are going to be addressed more later in the book.

Share and Voice: Plastic Bag Pollution

Here is a Youtube video that I found about plastic bag pollution. It's called Plastic Bag Pollution.

This video has a lot of sad facts about what plastic bag pollution does to the environment, along with pictures. But there is hope at the end of the video!

This is a perfect Share 'N' Voice for me because of my SMART goal. It makes me glad that I chose the goal I did. One fact from the video I found really interesting was that if 1 out of 5 people in the U.S. used reusable bags we would save 1,330,560,000,000 in one life time!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

SMART goal is to use a reusable bag everytime I go grocery shopping.
I did really well with it the past week! I brought a bag with me every time I went to the grocery store. However, once I only brought in one of my bags, and ended up needing two. So i  chose plastic. I went one other time just for a few things and remembered my bags. I also got 10 cents taken off of my bill! :)

The challenge I faced was not remembering to have both of my bags in my car. The strategy I used was that earlier in the day that I knew I was going grocery shopping again, I wrote a reminder note to myself on the white board in my living room.

I felt really great to use my reusable bags! I felt like I could help inspire someone else to use them, by seeing me do it.  My plan for next week is going to remain exactly the same :) Even though it didn't work out perfectly I think it's definitely still an attainable goal.

also: the reusable bags pictured at the top are from Greenraising.com

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2 hosted by Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eye Opener: CSPI

Eating Green Calculator
My Eating Green Calculator Results are listed below. This asked me how many servings of beef, pork, chicken, eggs, cheese, milk and yogurt I eat each week. My answers were 0 servings for beef, pork,chicken. milk and yogurt. 5 servings a week for cheese. and  egg a week. According to this calulator it would take:
0.1 acres of grain or grass needed for animal feed.
4.3 pounds of fertilizer needed to grow the animal feed.
0 pounds of pesticides
693 pounds of manure would be created.

When I selected 'improve your diet and protect the environment' the only change I made was to eat 2 less servings of cheese a week. So I went from 5 servings to 3. The impact this made is as follows:
-Fat will be decreased by %4
-Saturated fat will be decreased by %10
-Cholesterol will be decreased by %14
-and my fiber will increase by %7
The impact of my possible changes on the environment are as follows:
-2.9 pounds of fertilizer. As compared to 4.3.
-423 pounds of manure. As compared to 693.
I'm not sure if I could honestly take the pledge to eat 2 less servings of cheese each week. I'd like to, but since I already don't eat meat I like being able to eat cheese on a normal basis. I should because I'm semi-lactose intolerant, but I do anyway. 5 servings a week may have been a stretch for me anyway. It varys a lot.

Score your Diet.
The 'Score your Diet' calulator asked how many servings a week I eat of certain foods. Such as vegetables, cheese, pork, and candy.
I scored the highest for vegetables, 66; Which was in the green. And the next highest for cheese, -9;which was red. I also scored well in fruits and whole grains which are both green. I scored -1 for both eggs and candy, which is red.  I scored the lowest for environmental health, which was -15. I could improve this by trying to each more organic vegetables, since I do eat so many. And also try and cut down on eating cheese.

Summary
First of all, I completely missed that Dr. V said choose ONE CSPI activity.... I did all three... My bad. But I deleted the first one because I didn't think I did very good on it, and kept the other two.
I thought the two food calculators were fun to take. I liked the 'score your diet' one better because gave me more food group options and gave information about how my actions affect the environments' health, animal welfare, and my own health. I was kind of surprised that only eating around 4 or 5 servings of cheese a week could have such an impact on the environment and drop my over all score so much. But it gives me motivation to try and cut back a little!

Share and Voice: Green Guide

Here's a cool website I found from National Geographic. It's called Green Guide and has tons of information on ways to better the environment. This site offers a 'buying guide' that helps consumers learn what the best 'green' options are from a variety of topics, such as personal care, and cleaning products. With a list of specific items under each topic that you can click on bringing you to a new page with information specifically for that item, for example hand and body lotions. This gives you information like the 'greenest product' and 'what to look for.'

The Green Guide homepage also has plenty of other sites to explore. Flashing along the top are the features from this site. Right now there are topics like, 'plants that will suck your yard dry', and 'infinite photograph-as seen on Earth'. It seems like pretty much every page as other links connecting you to other green pages, or beautiful pictures. Check the Green Guide out, there's so much information, fun facts, and pictures!