Mercury and our Society

       On essay 4 I am planning on writing my paper on the dangers of mercury from an environmental and social stand point. Currently, I feel as though there are a lot of people that are either unaware, or underestimate the issue at hand. Through my paper I am hoping to change the minds of those who wish to truly know what is going on and raise awareness and concern. Mercury is a toxin to humans that should not be ignored.

            

     Through my survey findings I have come to find that the majority of people are aware of the issue. Some of my questions however were oriented in the way that questioned what they really know about the issue; for instance, I asked, “Do you know how mercury can be found in food?” Even though 20 of 22 people were aware that Mercury can be found in food they eat only a good 50% think they know how it gets there. Through my paper I wish to express the truth of what really causes Mercury to end up in our food. I also asked who people blame for this occurrence, and I found the results to be as I anticipated. Out of 22 people, 10 blamed corporations, 4 blamed the government, 5 blamed people in general, and 3 blamed themselves.

         

     In all honesty the majority understand that corporations are to blame for most of the pollution in the world. The amount of output of hazardous wastes a lot of companies do is just ridiculous. During my senior year of high school, my forensics teacher was explaining to us her previous job as a chemical engineer and how she worked for a company called Dupant. For her job she had to go from company to company testing the amount of hazardous wastes they are dumping into the environment and how much damage it is causing. If a company was exposing well beyond the legal limit they were fined; however, she explained to us how this didn’t stop the major companies like GM or Coca-Cola who say they do not have time to worry about the waste they are disposing of and just take the fine annually.

        

      The attitude of these companies and certain people are due for a change. It is reckless, irresponsible, and unfair how they are affecting everyone else’s life with their dangerous wastes. What about the person that buys a common national product such as a bottle of water, or maybe a can of tuna? That consumer trusts the market, the corporation, and the people that distribute that product to not affect their health, other than the way stated on the nutrition label. When people consume products there shouldn’t be any unexpected toxins or dangerous substances being found in that product, and unfortunately this is currently happening.

          

     Today Mercury is being found in abnormal amounts in many fish products. It is being said that the average person should watch how much fish they consume in a month, due to the increase of Methylmercury being found in fish products. It is funny because there use to be a time when the public was encouraged to eat fish almost on a daily basis for dietary reasons, but now it is dangerous. The reckless ways of pollution do not need to be controlled, they need to be stopped.

American Education

    In the article Education and the Proliferation of New (Old) Concepts the author argued that the education that the children of America are receiving is setting them up for corporate America. The author's perception of American education is that the students are currently being trained for an economic role in society, based off of the new educational project of this country. My response to the author is, "Is this necessarily a bad thing?"  

      One of the problems that currently exist in the public education system is that students are learning all the basic fundamentals to every subject but are not getting any hands on work of applying the information they are receiving. Students are taught a lot of things that seem to have no real world meaning which is pointless. Some may find some of this information necessary, but lets be honest, it is not. Currently there is a lot of fluff that just is not necessary to be teaching our students, because everyone needs to remember that students will not retain everything they are taught, that is just the way it is.

      Paul Theobald and Hibajene Shandomo both make a lucid summary of the way the current education system is doing. They say, "one might also hear a resurgence of concepts advanced many decades ago, things like project-based learning, social reconstructionism, community-based curriculum and much more." What good is a community-based curriculum? In the real world there is no need for knowing what has happened in your community and what is going on. The whole purpose of a education is for students to learn ideas and the key concepts of things. It is not the state's responsibility to teach them what has been going on in the local community, that is just a waste of tax payer money. If parents find it an essential for their kid to know about whats going on locally then it should be their duty to teach them that.

        The problems that I continue to read occurring in the world disturb me to no end. I am sick and tired of all the crap that people do to the environment all in the name of humans. The idea that a human can think, "i get what I want" is just wrong on every level. What our population is doing to our harvest of crops and animals should not be happening. It is wrong from an ethics, a moral, and a health stand point. A new process of maintaining our food supply must be found.
         Philosophy is one of the most interesting subjects an individual can study; it deals with the questions of human mind and questioning their importance and value to the world. Ethics and philosophy hold a close relationship, due to the fact the both pertain to the importance of figuring out whats right and whats wrong. Today people need to ask themselves if genetically modifying foods is the best answer. My environmental science professor- Dr. Bruck- was telling the class the other day the dangers of genetically modifying food. The other day there was a farmer that had his chickens babies come out mutated with their body parts where they should not be. He said this farmer was arrested for not carefully using the process right. If genetically modifying foods can do this to an organisms offspring imagine the effects it can create on the human population.
          Another issue that humans do not seem to understand is the moral duty that is owed to the organisms that surround them. There are 8 billion humans and 19 billion chickens in the world. Many would look at this statistic and say "great", but they do not seem to ask why there is 19 billion chickens. Humans have been drugging them and forcing them to grow and reproduce at uncanny rates which can be considered animal cruelty. It is undoubtedly unfair that humans do this for their benefit.
           Eventually there will come a time where human ways will bring chaos to the world whether it be through food, global warming, or nuclear terror. As a race, we must make our duty to ensure that we treat the world as the responsible, intelligent species that we are. It is time to realize the problems that currently face the world and attack them before its too late.

Natural gas Fracking

Alex Ruth

3/1/2012

Eng 101

Dr. Hill Taylor

Synthesis

            In Wyoming there is a huge issue of natural gas fracking affecting the water supply of the local communities. After reading all the information in the article I felt a sense of serious disturbance; if companies, like EnCana, can go around in a reckless manner and not be punished or controlled for their wrong doings then I can be in just as much danger as the people of the communities in Wyoming. When a community’s water supply is contaminated there is a huge question over the risk of the people’s health. Water contamination has been known to cause serious problems such as cancer. If the government cannot protect the people, control reckless companies, and limit environmental hazards then who will?

            The people of Wyoming are no different than the people of any other state. They are just looking to live their lives in peace just like anyone else. When drilling companies such as EnCana came in, their lives became in danger of serious health risks. The people had no say in what the company’s boundaries were and could not control the situation at all. The people were nothing more than a group of gazelle in a field of lions. Water is one of the few things in life that are required to live, and when companies contaminate the water they are putting many people’s lives at risk. In a world where people are not in control over the actions of organizations, such as companies in this case, then it is the job of the government to control and protect the interests and safety of the people.

            The government holds the greatest responsibility to the people. The government’s purpose is to serve and protect the rights of all of the country’s civilians. With all of the concern over politics of who’s elected and whose not creates a fog over the government’s ability to do the right thing at all times. Often, the people that make up the government only have their interest kept in mind instead of the people, and in this case this seems to be the problem. In the article made by The Scientific American, the people of congress completely shut down the science and finding found by the EPA and one congressman stated that they were deeply offended over their findings. Deeply offended! Science is science, fact cannot be changed. Why would one be offended over their findings? How does it play an effect in that congressman’s life? Is he in any way connected to the company under attack, and if so why? The people of the government do not always have their priorities in the right place, which can obviously be seen in this instance.

            Natural gas drilling and transporting needs to be made sure it is done in a safe manner in which no-one’s health is at risk. Coming up with an alternative solution over the one that currently exists is not a problem to the company just maybe an inconvenience. In any company the number one concern should always be safety no matter what.

     I found that using a Powerpoint was more convenient than an essay because I can express my views in an more organized manner. Writing essays are a hassle, because maintaining a fluid flow of what your trying to say is difficult. The thing about Powerpoint  presentations is that they are clear to the point. The facts are presented in a way that are easy for everyone to understand and its more enjoyable. With Powerpoints I can express everything on my mind in an instant without forgetting a what I am trying to say, unlike an essay. Powerpoints also hold the pro of time, meaning they are not as time consuming as righting an essay. My essays take me hours upon hours upon hours to write due to my lack of fluidity. Overall, Powerpoints destroy essays in head to head combat.

Waxhaw Environmental quality

          After doing a little research on the local environmental quality of where I live, I found nothing out of the ordinary. However, I did learn a few new things; for instance, a superfund site. A superfund site is an area of land that has been contaminated by hazardous materials and has been identified by the EPA. Superfund sites can occur from pollution, leaking underground tanks, chemical spills, and hazardous contamination; they are most always the byproduct of a a company. Waxhaw has only polluter that has been identified by the EPA, Boral Bricks Inc Van Wyck Plants. The polluters were found by a special program called the Toxic Release Inventory Program. The Toxic release inventory program provides communities with information of the chemicals and waste management currently going on in the local area.

            Through the homefacts website I was able to find all of the information going on in my local community, all the way from criminal activity to local polluters. I found this website very interesting and I would suggest it for those that are trying to keep up with their community. I am also glad to know that the area that was affected by the hazardous waste is no where near me. Overall I found Waxhaw is not such a bad place to live.

Environmental Artifact

The bulldozer has everything to do with the technology that has remodeled the environment. Thanks to the bulldozer there are millions of less trees and forests left in the world. The bulldozer may be considered an entity to society, but as an environmentalist I see it as unnecessary. The world that we live in today is uncontrolled, from the population up to the governments. The landscape we are choosing to remodel comes with implications, and with these implications society shall be punished. The bulldozer can be accredited for tearing apart the world.  

                The relationship between religion and environment correlates to what is right and wrong. Often in today's world, people fail to see the difference between right and wrong, which causes our world to suffer drastically. It is sad to think that we ditch the values that we are taught throughout our childhood, all in the name of greed. The balance between environment and religion exists on the line of morality. It is not necessarily what one believes but what one does. The environment is being destroyed today all because people don't know or understand how to overcome greed. People will put money over the people that surround them any day just because the human mind struggles with thinking in an appropriate manner. Everything that we choose to do, say, and believe  has an effect on the world that surrounds us whether we realize it or not.
               There is a saying that  goes, " Greed is human nature" and this statement is 100% true. The basic definition of greed is putting one's personal interest over another. With that being said, everything that we do as humans we do for as an act of greed, whether we realize it or not. There is always a choice to be made; feed your children for 5$ or feed 100 African children for 5$. Most people would feed their children for 5$, which is definitely understandable because I would do the same thing to, but can't this be justified as an act of greed? Can anyone say with sheer resiliency that one life is of definite value over any other? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that when there is a choice to be made that effects our personal interests, we will always value our personal interests over something that might deem to be just as equivalent in value  based off of the concept that the human nature of greed is instilled within us.
            Just to be clear I'm not saying that everyone is a bad person for being greedy, greed is a loaded word that can often be misinterpreted. I'm just simply pointing out a different perspective behind the word that may not be recognized or understood.

“Towards Ecopedagogy” Synthesis

          Has the wave of catastrophe already hit or is it only on the verge of hitting our world? Some may say that this wave hit a long time ago; some may say that there is no such wave and we are all just a bunch of radical, ludicrous thinkers. To those who question the wave of catastrophe I say take a look around; there is oil dispersed throughout the Gulf’s waters, our Arctic glaciers are practically gone, many animals are going or have gone extinct, the world is faced with a heavy economic crisis, and greed has defaced the population more so than ever. The wave of catastrophe has yet to hit, but every day society see the remnants brought forth by this oncoming wave.

          In Kahn’s paper Towards Ecopedagogy, he mentions our society as a transitioning technocapitalism society that is a threat to organisms and their environment. I took this comment to great lengths of thought asking, “What exactly is a transitioning technocapitalism society?” I came to a consensus that Kahn is referring to a free market that is solely reliant on its technology and rapid expansion. The common person would probably see no problem with this type of society at all; however, there is a huge problem. In a society that is comprised of technological sufficiency the rate of growth is highly inclined. With a high rate of growth, the people, the animals, and the environment suffer. The more people there are in the world, the more the world’s resources are exhausted. Most of the resources that exist in our world are limited; therefore it’s important that we watch what we are doing and watch the rate at which we consume our resources. Kahn goes on to make many important points in his paper; such as, living beings and organic habitats are being culled and destroyed for human production of goods, tree consumption for paper products has doubled over the last forty years, and throughout the oceans, global fishing also has doubled resulting in a recent report finding that approximately 90% of the major fish species in the world’s oceans have disappeared. These statistics are truly fascinating; the people of today’s world need to take a good look around and realize what they and not take it for granite. Our nation is extremely fortunate to have the lifestyle it has; there are many people around the world that would kill for it.

          The world is a gruesome place; we have vast fields of slaughterhouses for fast food chains, we attack our forests with heavy machinery all for the sake of some paper, and we pollute our world’s air with millions of factories. The fact of the matter is that people know the world is being destroyed, and the problem is nobody cares. Man’s greatest flaw is his greed and with this flaw comes the great downfall of civilization. In life we are all given an opportunity to do the right thing when time calls for it, and now is the time. Do the right thing and don’t be the cause, but instead be the solution.

         

          

          The water crisis is no laughing matter and something needs to be done about it. Too many countries are suffering from drought, which is causing many families’s health to suffer. Sandra Postel attacks this problem in a brilliant manner in her article. The daunting statistics she provides just invigorates the mind to action. If there is little water available and the population keeps increasing then it is obvious that we are going to have to change our ways. There just isn’t enough water per person. Our world is stricken with too much greed- we all want to have our way whether or not the ramifications affect the people that surround us. The common saying is that greed is human nature and I believe if we want to continue living in a healthy world we need to change that.

              I set my Google alerts to search for articles pertaining to sustainability and so far I have to say that it has been quite informative. When typing in my search preference I have come to learn that it probably shouldn't be such generalized topic. The articles I receive back vary all over the place; they range from economic sustainability all the way to environmental sustainability. I have come across a few pretty interesting articles so far. An article I read the other day talked about how Europeans are becoming picky about their source of fish and how it affected stocks based off of which ones they bought. A lot of species of seafood have been over fished in the past decade which is why the European market is encouraging people to try new exotic fish to reduce the over fishing. I have come to find Google alerts very promising and I plan on continue using it in the future to come.

In Necho's video it talked about the water crisis occurring in Africa and how all the people often go to bed thirsty. I was touched by his video and how the people in the Sudan have to handle it. the video stated scary statistics such as 12.3 million people only have access to contaminated water. I can't even imagine living a life in which my water was contaminated on a day-to-day basis. Its a scary crisis that is occurring in Africa and I'm just happy to be fortunate enough to where our country doesn't struggle as bad as this.

water crisis

Why My Academic Discipline is My Choice of Study

                Choosing a plan of study for college is no easy decision. Thousands of factors go into making a choice; such as, course difficulty, percent job placement, likeability, problem solving skills, peoples’ satisfaction rate with this major, its ability to challenge my potential, and etc. Often this decision overwhelms college bound students; I was no exception. As I progressed towards my college career as a high school student, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I tried basing my choice off of what I liked to do, as well as what I excelled at. When I broke down my basic skills I knew my strengths were math, science, art, and philosophy. With these skills I knew I had to somehow shape my future around them. Once I figured out what career choices I was interested in, I then had to figure out what colleges offered promising programs to these choices. My final three choices came down to graphic design, criminal justice, and engineering.

                Growing up I was a terribly slow person. I was always the last one to finish my test, eat my lunch, finish a race, and etc. When it came to figuring out what I was good at it took me up until high school to start realizing my strengths. One of my strengths I mentioned earlier was art; I had an uncanny ability to translate exactly what I saw into a realistic sketch. I had a great passion when it came to doing my art work. The feeling I got from people telling me, “Wow that’s amazing!” or “Did you do that?” was just indescribable. Art gave me a feeling of accomplishment unlike many things in life. Considering the possibility of transferring my pleasurable hobby into a career was a nice thought; however, many problems occurred with this idea. Art Isn’t exactly a field one goes into to make money. There are millions of artist in the world and with millions of artist comes high competition, and I think I have had enough competing throughout my high school career to eliminate this idea as a job choice.

                After scratching out the idea of being an artist I transferred my time debating between a life in criminal Justice or in Engineering. I have always found the work that detectives do to be somewhat fun. One of my favorite television shows has always been law and order, which was one of my biggest influences for considering criminal justice.  There is just something that has always intrigued me about the criminal mind. Ideas and concepts I don’t seem to understand fascinate me, and when it came to criminals I wanted to be able to understand why they do what they do. If I were to go into criminal justice my goal would have been to become a detective. There is nothing better than having the epiphany that solves the enigma. All detectives have to do is be able to make connections, which is nothing more than what the average everyday person already does. That is the very reason why I chose not to pursue a career in criminal justice.

                I wanted to do something that not everybody is able to do. I felt the need to be able to challenge myself, as well as having a career that has the potential of changing the world. The world has too many problems occurring in today’s society and I want to change that. With all the pollution that is going on I want to see if I could somehow divert the contamination that occurs on a daily basis. The world’s fresh water supply is narrowing down at an alarming rate, and in some areas of the world the crisis is being shown such as in New Dheli. As an Engineer I feel as though I could have a chance to make the world a better place and that is why I chose engineering as my main academic discipline.

Resource Sustainability

In our world there are many resources that we use as a civilization; however, many that are crucial to our survival are being exhausted at the rate at which they are being used. Oil, Trees, fresh water, and food are just a few of the resources that are highly vital to our civilization, and as a civilization we must have a balance of sustainability upon our resources. Why are these resources decapitating at such a high rate? Overall I believe that these resources are being drained out due to overpopulation, economic expansion, and greed. As the highly intelligent human beans that we are, we must find ways of overcoming these issues. Sustainability isn’t always the easiest task, but once we find a way to preserve our resources to the point where we don’t have to worry about exhausting them, then we will be one step closer to a better world.

With a world of 6 billion people comes a great responsibility on our civilization to preserve the health and wellness of others, and currently we are not doing this. Everyday America talks about the horrific lifestyle of third world countries and how most of the people that live in them go to bed every night hungry or thirsty. Our world I believe has too many people and this needs to change. Employment rates are low, Money is tight for most families, our food and water sources are limited, and our world’s environment is being destroyed significantly; these issues are capable of being solved if we choose to limit our population growth. When I say limit our population growth I’m not saying kill anybody, but limit the amount of births that come into this world by having one child per family or none. I understand many people will have a problem with this and they find it unfair to limit their freedom, but isn’t selfish when you’re the ones that are hurting others by limiting the amount of resources per person because you chose to have an ample amount of children that must be provided for?

Economic expansion is another concern I believe to be a problem. All companies want to see the same thing- higher profit. They do this by spreading out their business through chains of stores. At first this doesn’t sound bad at all but as you start to think about it you’ll realize that as all these companies are growing the resources that are being used are being used related to the rate at which they grow, and with all the businesses in today’s world we have been using up ample amounts of resources on a daily basis. As a society we must come up with ways of making sure our basic resource necessities aren’t being used up, or destroyed by these companies. A company relies on growth and as it grows so does the amount of resources it uses for production.

Sustainability is no easy task. Every day we have to think of issues we have to solve to make sure our world is in balance. I say it’s time we make it easy on ourselves and do the simple things in everyday life that can help preserve our resources, recycling is a huge step towards this direction and I feel like we know what we have to do to preserve our world but I think we don’t do enough. Our minds our unlimited; however, our resources aren’t.

Food Production

            In life people need three essential things for survival- water, shelter, and food. Food in our world has never been an item too difficult to come by; however, it will be shortly at the rate our population is growing. The technology our society has been using has sustained efficiency for quite some time, but my main concern is will it continue with the rate at which our world is growing? With every environment comes a carrying capacity and I feel like we have hit ours.  The problems that we are facing with food production are the chemicals we are spraying into our crops, the drugs that are being given to the animals we eat, and the question of ethics about how the animals we eat are butchered on a daily basis. Mankind is superior to all species on Earth, and being so we have a responsibility in our hands to keep our world in balance. When I say balance I mean we aren’t doing drastic things to keep our population at its uprising rate in exchange for a higher rate of food production; therefore we should watch ourselves and what we are doing to our world and its resources. http://www.globalissues.org/issue/749/food-and-agriculture-issues

Alex Ruth

1-10-12

Island Civilization Blog

            In Robert Nash’s essay-island civilization: a vision for human occupancy of Earth- he talks about how society tends to progress immaturely and does not seem to understand the world’s true value. Nash goes on talking about how society doesn’t respect wildlife and nature, and how society seems to put its needs in front of the environment. In this essay, Nash gives society a negative connotation that I believe it deserves. When I look at society it seems as though it doesn’t seem to care about the aftermath of its products as long as it gets the results it’s looking for. After all selfish is human nature so what are we to expect of ourselves? Can we change the animal that we are? With the American mind that society has today I’m not sure if we can.

As Human Beings, we hold the most power on Earth over any other species- we can build skyscrapers, fly to the moon, build nuclear bombs, and even create virtual universes. With this power I believe we owe a great deal of responsibility to our world and the ecosystems within it. As Humans, we often forget our power and lose the ability to control it, which is why we are beginning to face serious problems in our world today. In Robert Nash’s essay island civilization: a vision for human occupancy of Earth, Robert raises a great point about how we should really think about if we are progressing for the better or worse as a civilization. As I look at the world today and see all the environmental and ethical issues our society faces I believe that we are in trouble.

Factory farming, deforestation, pesticides, global warming, pollution, and overpopulation are just a few of the environmental issues that take place in our world. Everyday these issues continue but yet we decide to do nothing about them. As we live our lives these problems affect us every day whether we realize it or not. The foods we eat, the water we drink, the air we breathe are all being contaminated because of the terrible decisions we choose to make. It’s sad but most of the general population is not even aware of the chemicals that are put in the common tap water. In tap water contaminants such as chlorine, mercury, fluoride, copper, and Barium are part of our everyday drinking water-if you don’t believe me you can go to water.epa.gov. All though these chemicals are found in trace amounts they are still not meant to be digested in any way.

 In today’s world it’s nearly impossible to come by anything we digest that doesn’t have any chemicals in it; for instance factory farming animals like chickens are given drugs to increase their growth rate so they can be killed quicker for us to eat but what happens though is that the drugs they eat go into our system causing us to become sick. The rate in which our population is growing is just terrifying. It is going to create even more problems for our world; such as food shortage, less jobs, higher poverty rate, higher taxes, and less land per person. In Nash’s essay he goes on to say similar issues that would occur with a high population growth rate, “Accelerated human-caused decline in biodiversity amounts in the opinion of many biologists to a Sixth Great Extinction. More humans than existed since the start of the species occupied the planet in 1950 and population surged upward at the rate of a billion every fifteen years. Sprawling into open space at the rate in the United States alone of six thousand acres each day…” Earth is only so big, as any other environment in our world it too has a carrying capacity.

Preservation and conservation are positive steps to action for fighting the issues concerning our wildlife. In Nash’s essay he mentions a few of the nation’s wildlife protection acts: The Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972) and The Endangered Species Act (1973). These acts are an important step to preserving our wildlife and wilderness; however we must do more. Deforestation is a dreadful topic of concern happening in our world. Without our forests our Carbon Dioxide levels stay high, due to a loss in plant cellular respiration. What’s so special about plants’ cellular respiration is that they take in Carbon Dioxide and excrete oxygen, and with less and less plants to do this our world becomes a world with higher Carbon Dioxide emissions, and a world with higher Carbon dioxide emissions means severe global warming.

Global warming is a severe epidemic that is destroying our world. It is causing our polar ice caps to deplete, our animals to become extinct or near extinction, and creating a world of unbearably hot temperatures. With the emissions we are giving off we are soon to turn our world into a toxic wasteland. The emissions factories give off are just outrageous! The chemicals today that factories emit cause many health issues, cancer being the predominate one.  This problem can be attacked with simple every day decisions; ride your bike instead of driving your car, buy energy efficient appliances, or limit the emissions your heating and cooling system gives off. We have control over our world and I believe it should be kept that way.

Towards the end of Robert Nash’s essay, he talks about his solution to our intrusive progression towards self-destruction, called island civilization. His idea basically states how there should be a border nature and civilization, which to me sounds absurd. I feel that this idea is absurd due to the fact we already do this. We already have national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, if you suggest that society should have more of these then I would agree, but I’m not sure I can agree that you came up with an idea that is already in existence. Nash feels that since we are so good with technology we can create a simulation of our world to get our needs, but I don’t believe this to be true. I feel like we have come a long ways since the creation of the wheel, but I feel as though we still have a long way to go. Civilization is at disasters footsteps in the years to come and I feel as though the idea of island civilization does not solve our problems.