Reflection Post: Week 7 and 8

Week 7
I wasn't in class again this week becuase I was still sick. But I did watch the documentary Green. and Wow! It was really heartbreaking to watch parts of this. I had never even heard of a petroochemical plant before! The fact that these people living in Louisiana have to live with these conditions and suffer from these health aliments because of these plants is so sad. In some areas as many as 150 of these petrochemical  plants and those plants can produce around 25% of the nations petrochemicals. These areas have the the nations highest toxic emissions. 
Also, Steve sent me an e-mail with the worksheet that Dr. V handed out during class. The all natural homecleaning tips are really cool! I actually almost bought some fruit and vegetable wash today at the grocery store and then didn't changed by mind. I'll have to give the all natural way a try! And I'm for sure going to try the rust remover trick of just using a little salt and lime and letting it sit on the rust spot for a few minutes.
This week we almost had a eco-chic lifestyle change post and an eye-opener post. The eye-opener post was about what kind of harm that some porducts we use on our skin can cause. The website we went to called Environmental Working Group. I chose to look up the deodorant I wear and was concerned with some of the health problems it can cause. 


Week 8

This week in class was watched the film Thirst. This was about the controversy over water in different parts of the world. In Stockton, CA the community's water system was in the processes of going from public to being owned by a private company. This was causing an uproar with in the community. If that happened in the town I lived it a was be angry too! Havinng my water be owned by a company to do what they want with it would be a scary thing! Also, I found it interesting that in India water is being sold for the price of milk so then some people aren't able to afford it. I am so frustrated that this starting to happen with water. I agree with the video, water should be for people- not for profit!
Also this week I changed my eco-chic lifestyle change to make it a little more difficult. I am now always going to use reusable bags when I go to Target. Another blog from this week was our eye-opener. it was a really neat website that gave fun tips of "junking" and  "upcycling".  I picked 3 of my favorite projects from the website Junkmarket Style.

Read 'N' Seed 3: Second Quarter of Under a Green Sky

I'm posting this Read 'N' Seed now because I was all of last week and wasn't able to do any reading, so I got an extention.
For this quater of the book I read chapters 3 and 4, pages 61-106. Originally I was going to read 3 through 5, but since I'm already behind I'm going to read chapters 8 and 9 for my 4th quarter of the book, instead of just chapter 9.

Main Topics

Chapter 3 the author discussed his journey toBethulie, South Africa to examine fossils of the Permian era, and from the Triassic period.Peter Ward, and his crew were finding many fossils from both of these periods, such as the Lystrosaurus and Dicynodon.  The Permian Rocks were below and the Triassic rocks were right above, creating the P-T boundary. The Permian extinction was the largest exctinction there ever has been. About 90% of all the species disappeared. Ward believed that this extinction was caused by an asteroid impact, just like the previous extinction I had talked about.  However, there was also possible evidence of global warming, and  Siberian lava eruptions at the same time of the extinction.

Then in 2001, with new technology, a new, strange substance was discovered called buckminsterfullerenes. Long story-short this proved that there had been an impact on Earth, and that the comet or asteroid that hit Earth was about 6 to 12 kilometers in diameter. This wouldn't have been big enough to cause a mass extinction. The book went on to talk about a couple different possible hypothesis as to why the Permian extinction took place, such as a possible rise in methane, a greenhouse gas, that would have made the temperatures on Earth greatly increase. But no for sure answer as to why the Permian extinction took place has been discovered. Or not yet anyway. 

Terminology

This book is full of new terminology and scientific information that is new to me. I'm going to give information about the most relevant terminology.

Buckminsterfullerenes: or "Buckyballs" were most likely filled with mostly helium-3, where as most terrestrial helium is filled with helium-2 with only small traces of helium-3. Therefore, "all of this star stuff" would of been brought by an comet that hit the Earth, spreading these buckyballs.

Permian Era: this era had been diverse species and experienced the largest mass extinction ever known. The Triassic Era followed the Permian Era.

Implications
Since an asteroid most likely hit Earth again during the Permian Era could affect society today because this seems to be something that has repeated in Earths history. Even if it hasn't been proven that an impact is what caused this extinction I have been currently talking about, it is something that worrys me to think it could happen again. The book also discussed briefly that greenhouse gases may have played a role in the extinction during the Permian era. This is almost a bigger concern for society since global warming is an obvious problem facing us today.

Share and Voice: Roommate Lifestyle Change

A roommate of mine brings a new plastic water bottle everyday to school. I have made a few little comments to her before about what a waste it is, how bad it is for the environment, and that she should get a reusable one. She always has had some type of excuse for why she 'can't have one, such as she gets sick a lot.

But she's getting surgury on her foot this week, and I knew her mom would buy her a couple presents while she's at home. So I was like, "hey! Since you havn't been sick in awhile you should have your mom buy you a Sigg water bottle!" -Because that's what I have. She called me yesterday and told me that she got one! It made me feel really good, because she really does go through more water bottles then anyone I know and little changes like that can make a difference!

This is the one she bought!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 5

My SMART goal for this week was to use a 'reusable bag everytime I go grocery shopping.' It went really well this week, except that I went to Target yesterday to get like 2 things so I wasn't going to use any bag, and ended up buying grocerys there, of course. So that was kind of a disappointment for me.

Successes
When I went to the actual grocery store this week I remembered my reusable bags. . The cashier that rang me up was like, "good for you!" Which makes me feel really good, especially to be acknowledged for it from time to time. 

Challenges
When I decided not to bring a grocery bag because I didn't think that I'd need one and then having it turn out that I did I was pretty bummed. Even though Target isn't technically part of my smart goal I felt like I needed to have a bag since I bought grocerys, and it just bothers me in general now to ever use plastic bags. 

Strategy
I havn't really been needing to use any strategie's lately because I've been remembering to use my bags. The reason I've been so successful is that my bags are almost always in my car.

Next Week
I am going to modify my SMART goal for next week to make it a little more challenging. " I will use a reusable bag everytime I go to the grocery store or Target."

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part 1
antiques: A collectable item. Collectable or desired because it may be rare, old, or has unique features. It may also be because of the item's condition.
antiquing: The act of shopping for antiques at garage sales, estate sales, resort towns, antique districts, or international auction houses

junk: waste or recyclable waste that can be used to build new things.
junking: to discard as usless or reuse parts.

flea market: Is a place where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold. It may be indoors or out; seasonal or year round. They are held in every state in the U.S. and lots of places in Europe.

thirft shop: Is a place where second hand goods are sold and often donated by members of the public. Thirft shops are typically staffed with voluteers.

upcycling: turning used materials into new products, re-use an item that doesn't work item for a alternative purposes, prevent waste, reduce the need for fresh raw materials, lower energy usage and air and water pollution, and to lower green house gas emissions.

resale shop: A shop where secondhand items are being sold.


Part 2
1) The terms above relate to enivronmental health because they are all forms of recycling. Instead of just throwing old items away and allowing them to end up in a landfill the items may be reused by someone new. One man's trash is another man's treasure. :)

2) A local thrift shop in Duluth, MN is Savers. It's located at 1740 Mall Dr. Duluth, MN 55811.  Saver's e-mail address is customercare@savers.com.  And their phone number is (218) 722-1894.

3) I've been to savers before when I needed a costume. I've also gone antiquing with my parents a lot, we have a lot of antiques around out house.  I've also donated a lot of my clothes to GoodWill and to Plato's Closet.


Part 3
From the website Junkmarketstyle.com I found the project called 'Serving up a "light" snack - vintage junk-style!'. I think that this was a really cool idea. The contributer, Kathy Stantz takes antiques and turns them into serving trays. Such as an old, glass lamp fixture flipped upside down. They look really artsy and would be a great conversation starter.
I also found another idea called 'Trundling Along' by Georgia Terrell. In this project an old trundle bed was turned into a picture holder. It would look really interesting hung up on a large wall.

How to Create a "Living Green" Centerpiece by Sue Whitney was a really pretty idea! She just used the bottom of an old bird cage, and placed moss and other plants onto it. But you could use anything for your base. I really like this idea and kind of want to try it when I'm at my parents house.