Read 'N' Seed Third Quarter of "Under a Green Sky"

Main Topics
a main topic first discussed was that millions of years ago there is evidence that the Earth was at one time called a 'snowball Earth.' This was ended by a rapid rise in greenhouse gases that were probably volcanically produced. These gases were measure in parts per million, but even with such a small addition of these gases it was enough to completely change the temperature all around the World.  Greenhouse gases are believed to be the major culprit for causing climate shifts throughout Earth's history. When the World warms it affects the oceans circulation system.  Greenhouse extinctions were also explained.
Currently, the global temperature is around 15 degrees and 16 degrees celcius. Each time the carbon dioxide levels double the global temperature's increase by about 2 degrees celcius. According to this book, in just a century the Earth's temperature should be around 20 degrees celcius which would, "conceivably bring about the greatest mass death of humans in all of history."

Terminology

'snowball Earth': This was a possible time in Earth's history when the entire Earth became so cold that the oceans may have frozen from pole to pole.

Greenhouse extinction:Where low oxygenated bottom water is at depths were sunlight can hit it green sulfur bacteria start to grow and expand filling the low oxygenated water.  Living amoung other bacteria that produce large amouts of hydrogen sulfide, this gas rises into the atmosphere, breaking down the ozone layer and killing a lot of the plant and animal life. With an increase in ultraviolet radiation most of the phytoplankton are killed. With the heat of the planet rising and the high levels of hydrogen sulfide creates a mass extinction oin Earth.


Implications
It stated in the book that " the key to climate change seems to be both the level and the rate at which carbon dioxide rises into the atmosphere." Climate change is obviously something that is affecting us today. The scary thing about reading these chapters was that rises in carbon dioxide levels most likely played a huge role in extinctions from the past. Since our greenhouse gases have been rising today I think it is extremely important that we do something about now.
The last part of my main topics about temperature increase and carbon dioxide levels was shocking! If things keep going the way there going in just 100 years there could be a huge mass extinction. This is just goes to show that something NEEDS to be done and changes need to be made.

Carbon Dioxide Levels

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 6: Weekly Update

My SMART goal for last week was that "I will use a reusable bag everytime I go to the grocery store or Target." This week was the worst week I've had so far :( . I went grocery shopping twice and BOTH times I didn't have my bags in my car!! The ironic thing is that one of the trips to the grocery store was only to get the stuff I needed to bring the snack to class this past Monday. So annoying. I also never went to Target this week.

Challenges
Obviously this week was a challenge for me. I'm not sure why this week was any different than any other week  but I just could not remember to bring put my bags back in my car. For me, that is by far the most difficult part of this goal.

Strategy
I think so that I can get back on track of being successful with this goal I'm going to need to purchase 1 or 2 more reusable bags. This way the bags can be rotated more easily, and if I happen to forgot to put a couple of the bags back, chances are I'll still have 1 or 2 of them in my car.

Successes
Needless to say, I was very unsuccessful this week.

What I learned
 I mostly learned this week that I actually felt really guilty that I didn't use my bags. When I got home and put the plastic bags from the grocery store into my house's little pile of other bags we have accumulated I felt soo bad. I think that this will really help me to be successful in achieving next weeks goal.

Next Week
Next week I plan on keeping my goal the same; "I will use a reusable bag everytime I go to the grocery store or Target." I am confident that next week will go more smoothly!

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

President

Barack Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111

Switchboard: 202-456-1414

"Contact the White House"


U.S. Senator

Al Franken

320 Hart Senate office building

Washington DC 20510

DC Phone: 202-224-5641

MN Phone: 651-221-1016

Contact Page



U.S. Senator

Amy Klobuchar

302 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

Northwest and Central
Main Fax: 202-228-2186

Contact Page and Information Page



U.S. Representative

John Kline


Minnesota Office:

101 West Burnsville Parkway  #201
Burnsville, MN

Phone: (952) 808-1213


Contact and Information Page
 
 
 
State Senator

Julianne Ortman

100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

State Office Building, Room 125
St. Paul, MN 55155-1206

Phone: (651)296-4837

Contact Page

State Representative

Joe Hoppe

317 State Office Building

100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155
 
Phone: (651)296-5066


Contact and Information Page




Minnesota Governor

Tim Pawlenty

130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155

Phone: (651)296-3391

Contact Page


County Board

Gayle O. Degler

541 Pine View Court

Chanhassen, MN 55317

Phone: (952) 403-7047


Contact and Information Page

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.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

My smart goal was to use a reusable bag everytime I go grocery shopping. And it went really well this week ! A challenge that I faces was that I walked into the grocery store this week and realized I forgot my bags. So when I remembered, I turned around and went to my car to get them. This made me feel really proud of myself for actually turning around then get my bags and using them! Another challenge for me is when I do use my bags I often will leave them in my house and always have to remind myself to grab them on my way out the door. So far I've always had at least one in my car at all times. I've learned that it can be a challenge to always remember to bring my bags, but it's really rewarding when I use them :)

My plan for next will will remain the same. I will use a reusable everytime I go grocery shopping.

Eye Opener : Environmental Working Group

From the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database I chose Degree Ultraclear anti-perspirant and deodorant, Pure Rain.

Findings:

The Ingredients in this Product are linked to:

- Developmental/reproductive toxicity

- Violations, restriction and warnings

- Allergies/immunotoxicity

- Other concerns for ingredients used in this product: Neurotoxicity, Endocrine disruption, Persistence and bioaccumulation, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive), Miscellaneous, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Contamination concerns, Occupational hazards, Biochemical or cellular level changes

What it Means to Me:

I can't believe the harm that some of the ingredients in my deodorant can cause! It's scary because I obviously use my deodorant every single day, if not twice a day! Like developmental and reproductive toxicity, just from putting something under my armpits... Crazy! This makes me want to look into another, more natural, deodorant. Out of 10 this product was ranked a 5, not absolutely terrible but definite room for improvment. In my ingredient list what ranked the highest was the fragrance, which scored an 8. It can cause neurotoxicity, allergies/immunotoxicity, and some miscellaneous concerns. I think the next time i buy deodorant I'll be looking into a fragrance product!

Reflections: Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5

Starting week 5 off I  two of the the CSPI eye openers, both of the quizes involed learning about how what I am eating affects the environment, my health, and in the 'score your diet quiz' it also showed my animal welfare score. I also took a look at the 'tour of the food supply' website which had lots of information about slaughter houses, restaurants, etc. It was a great site!
In class we watched, the movie, Future of Food. This video sparked a lof of great conversation, and questions from the class. I couldn't believe how that farmer and his wife lost their farm of 50 years just because they had a few GMO crops in their field that they didn't even know were there! And I also really dislike the fact that manufactures who use GMO foods in their products don't have to tell us!! It raises the question in my mind about what if a seemingly vegetarian food really has parts of genes from animals, would it still be vegetarian? Being vegetarian, I know that I would be really upset to find out there were parts of animal products being used in some of the food I'm eating. Like the mentioned in the movie, a company manufactured a tomato that has part flounder gene in it.

Week 6
I was actually unfortunately sick this past Monday and wasn't able to make it to class. However, I did watch the video 'Diet for a New America.' The part of the movie that showed a tube of blood with a ton of fat in it after a man had eaten a cheese burgur was distgusting!  I also found it interesting that in China only about  %10 of their diet comes from meat, and in America it's about %70. Sick. The section of the video about baby cows and how they are raised in tiny little crates so they can't move so their meat is tender made me so sad.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly update

My smart goal was that ' I will use a reuable bag everytime I go grocery shopping.'

Success
I have barely gone grocery shopping since last week. But I did go pick up a couple things yesterday and remembered to bring my bag. Which was a good success for me because I wasn't going to bring my bag into the store because I was only going to get two things, so I didn't think I needed one. But I ended up with a more than that so I was happy I grabbed it :)

Challenge
This week was an easy week for my SMART challenge since I didn't do any major grocery shopping.

What I learned
I learned this week that I really enjoy using my reusable bag. It makes me feel like I may help inspire someone else to use them too.


Plans for Next Week
I'm planning on continuing with my goal for this next week. "I will use a reusable bag everytime I go to the grocery store."

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!

Reflection: Weeks 3 and 4

These last two weeks have been really informational. I started by meeting with Steve which was so helpful, because I was struggling with learning on this blogging stuff! I'm becoming much more confident in learning how to blog. I also picked my book for the my Read 'N' Seed posts, which is now "Under a Green Sky," by Peter Ward. I've started reading it and it seems like it's going to have a lot of good information in it.  I really liked the movie An Inconvenient Truth that we watched this last week. It was so eye-opening and scary! It makes me really want to start pay attention to my actions and how they may affect the environment. The same goes for the Earth Day Footprint quiz I took on monday. My results we're surprising so I'm excited to start with my Eco-Chic lifestyle change of using a reusable bag every time I go grocery shopping. I went grocery shopping for the first time today and remembered my bags! I hope I can everytime!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My Smart Goal

The SMART goal that I have chosen to do for the next the next 10 weeks is as follows:

"I will use a reusable bag everytime I go grocery shopping."

picture citation

This is eco-chic because all of the plastic and paper bags from the grocery store can really start to add up. By using a reusable bag I will cut down on garabage and there will be at least at least a little less trash in landfills.  This is important to me because I read on the National Geographic website that it can take months to hundreds of  years for a plastic bag to decompose, and as it does so small amounts of toxics leak into the soil, lakes, oceans, and rivers. Aslo, a lot of the bags end up floating away and landing on river beds. However, a paper bag consumes % 40 more engergy, and  produces %70 more atmospheric emmissions, than a plastic bag. So though a plastic bag is the better choice between the two, to me it's still a lose-lose situation, and a reusable bag is by far the best way to go!

Ecological Footprint

I completed the "EarthDay foorprint Quiz" Quiz. I answered questions that pertained to my normaly habbits such as how much meat do I eat, how often do I ride the bus, and how much trash do you think you generate compared to the typical American. My findings were that it would take 3.9 planet Earths to provide enough resrources for me! It also takes 17.4 global acres of the Earths productive area which is 18.2 TONS of carbon dioxide. I was shocked by my results for this quiz. I knew I wasn't doing everything I could to live 'green', but i was surprised to learn that my habbits can make that big of an impact. I think everyone should take this quiz at some point just so they can become aware of how many resources we use and how much carbon dioxide just one person can produce. This makes me want to start taking the bus more often, and also when I'm not living in a rental house to be sure that I have energy efficient appliances in my home. Eating more locally grown produce could be something that I could start doing now to help improve my ecological footprint.