Steve Goes Green

Reflection: Weeks 15 & 16

2009-05-12T20:06:00.002-05:00

Hey again everybody. So the class is over, and it has definitely been an eye opening class. So after I reflect on these past couple of weeks, I'm going to reflect on the whole class.

Weeks 15 started out with Sue Whitney, Professional Junker, coming into our class and talking to us about all things junk. This was a nice little treat for a couple of reasons. Reason the first, she was an interesting lady. Just hearing her story, and hearing what she thinks about junking was cool. Reason the second, she gave us one of her awesome books. It worked out perfect because my mom is an avid junker, and later that day I was sending my Mother's Day gift. So when we received the book from Ms. Whitney, I put the book right in the package along with my original gift. I talked with my mom on the phone a couple of days later and she loved it.

Next class period, we reflected on the class as a whole. It was a nice relaxing day outside.

But our main online activity was to do a blog post on an online learning activity to educate our Blogging Groups on our main issue in our advocacy project. I created Name That Phobia. We then had to go into our each person blog and complete their learning activity. I enjoyed each and everyone one that I completed.

But now to look back and reflect on this past semester.

Our first activity - Where we had to stand inside the rope circles, and Dr V kept taking them away. Good times
All of our readings due. Not always exciting to read, but they were still essential to the course.
Watching 'An Inconvenient Truth'. Our first huge eye opener.
Cosmanics
Water Privatization - No one started out wanting to talk about it a whole lot, but then we all realized how big of a deal it really was.
All of the different Photo Essays. All equally awesome
Story of Stuff, which talked about what all it takes to make a product and sell it.
Our nature hike
Junking. From hammerhead shaped cookie cutters, to ship in a bottle, to an M shaped yard decoration for Ms. Marquette.

So overall, this was an awesome class, and I am glad I had the opportunity to take it. Have a good summer everybody! Steve out!

Eye Opener: Learning Activity Results

2009-05-10T17:33:00.005-05:00

Hey everybody. So in last weeks reflection, I put in a video clip from Toy Story, just as a different way to say hello. So I got thinking about another way, and I thought of a song, 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles. I've never loved the Beatles, they're awesome, just not my favorite band ever. But 'Hey Jude' is an amazingly awesome song. So below is a video of the song that you can listen to when ya read the blog if you'd liked.

So this Eye Opener asked us to go to out Web Groups blogs and check out and complete their Online Learning Activity posts. So I'll go through one by one and give you my results.

-=SHAR=-
For Shar's activity we had to go to the Health Canada website and there was an Indoor Air Pollution Chase game. We had to click on things and it would let us know if it was an allergen. We had to find them all. I'll go room by room.

ROOF
Water Damage
(Birds can potentially be)

BATHROOM
Cleaning Products

BEDROOM
Mold
Paints and Varnishes
(Plants can be as well)

KITCHEN
Gas Stoves

LIVING ROOM
Wood Smoke
Cigarettes
(Indoor Water Fountains Too)

BASEMENT
Furnace
Ozone Generator
Mold Again

LAUNDRY ROOM
Dryer

GARAGE
Cars

The item I chose that is mostly likely to affect me is Cleaning Products. And the solution was to read and follow safety information on the label and manufacturers instructions.

-=HEATHER=-
So for Heather's activity we had to go to Health Partners site, and check out their Cost of Care activity. It will show us what it would cost to get treatment anything. I have chronic back pain. And here is what it said it would cost me without health insurance.

I also had Bronchitis a couple years ago. Here's what it would have cost.

-=KATHY=-
Kathy's activity was to do a crossword puzzle about lead based paint and it's potential harm. This was another fun activity and I actually learned a lot from it. Here are my answers.

DOWN
1) Fetal
3) Older
4) 1978
5) Myth

ACROSS
2) Gasoline
4) 1940
6) Paint
7) Sperm
8) 80%
9) Dust

And as I did this, I was in a room with a couple of people so I started to talk to them about our house, and I gave them some neat facts that I found from doing this activity!

-=Kaileigh=-
For Kaileigh's activity we had to go to the FCIC's page and learn about Long Term Health Care. Once we did that, we had to comment on what we learned.

I didn't even realize what long term health care was until I read this. But I know now that it is the health care you get when you are either older and need to be in a nursing home, or even an assisted living home. It is also for people who are in a serious accident and need constant care.

I also learned that about 19 percent of Americans aged 65 and older experience some degree of chronic physical impairment. I dont know how many people that actually is, but I know it is a lot of people. And they all need Health Care.

Also, one year in a nursing home can cost about $50,000. Holy schnikes that's a lot. I'm pretty sure I haven't made that much money in all of my years of working.

So what's my opinion. I don't really know. Because I can see the side's to both arguments. In the end I'm sure my vote would go for affordable LTC for everybody.

-=Christen=-
For Christen's activity we had to watch 'The Health Insurance Game', and discuss whether we felt the video showed bias or whether it was an appropriate demonstration.

I thought it was a good thing to watch. They showed heavy bias, but in this situation I don't see why they wouldn't. But overall I thought it was a good way to get their point across. Because it definitely a huge issue, one that's only going to grab our attention more and more as soon as we get off of our parents health insurance.

Share and Voice: National Geographic Awesomeness

2009-05-07T10:47:00.005-05:00

Hey everybody. So odds are, this will be my last Share and Voice post. It was fun while it lasted.

So National Geographic runs an awesome site call The Green Guide. Basically anything you want to know about going green, they have it. But I found one thing in particular that was cool. It's called the Infinite Photograph. Hundreds and hundreds of people submitted outdoor photo's, and the good people at NatGeo made a picture that goes on and on and on. They call it a photo mosaic. It is pretty amazing.

The above picture is what you see first. Click once on any spot in the photo, and it will show you about a hundred smaller photos. click any spot again, and itll bring them closer. Then you can click again and it gives you all the little photos that made up that photo you just clicked on. You can double click on any photo and it will give you some info on it. Check it out at the link above.

Adios!

Advocacy Project: Online Peer Environmental Health Learning Activity

2009-05-03T18:48:00.003-05:00

Name That Phobia
Purpose: To educate people on the different types of phobias documented.

But first, some information on the subject.

A Phobia is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people. (Wikipedia.com)
Phobias are the most common mental disorder in the U.S. (About.com)
18 million U.S. citizens have mental disorders. (MentalHealth.com)
A quote from Wikipedia - "Phobias are more often that not linked to the amygdala, an area of the brain located behind the pituitary gland in the limbic system. The amygdala secretes hormones that control fear and aggression."

Phobias can be treated and cured thankfully. This is usually accomplished by different types of therapy: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Visual Therapy, and the Emotional Freedom Technique.

But now, on to the game. There are two sections. Section 1, I will list 10 phobia names, and you have to tell me what it is a fear of. Section 2, I will list 10 fears, and you have to tell me what phobia it is. The phobias from section 1 don't carry into section 2. Now you can either guess the answers, or go here to see the list of phobias, and use it to help you out. Let the games begin!

SECTION 1

Pteromerhanophobia - The fear of ________
Tachophobia - The fear of _______
Wiccaphobia - The fear of _______
Autophobia - The fear of _______
Bathmophobia - The fear of _______
Glossophobia - The fear of ________
Chronomentrophobia - The fear of ________
Cacophobia - The fear of ________
Leukophobia - The fear of ________
Mysophobia - The fear of ________

SECTION 2

____________ - The fear of cooking
____________ - The fear of birds
____________ - The fear of houses
____________ - The fear of needles or pointed objects
____________ - The fear of clowns
____________ - The fear of cats
____________ - The fear of the sun
____________ - The fear of gaining weight
____________ - The fear of strangers or foreigners
____________ - The fear of large things

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

2009-05-02T09:44:00.004-05:00

To quote the shark in Toy Story, Howdy Howdy Howdy! (If anybody knows what I'm talking about, you are officially awesome. If not, here is the clip. Such a good movie)

I'm wondering if there is such a thing as Super-Senioritis...if there is, I may have it. Either way, lets take a look back at the past couple of weeks.

WEEK 13
13 started off with the Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard. It was about how the things we use on a daily basis go through a chain of events that effect the environment. It mentioned the extraction of the goods needed to make a product, then the actual production of it, then onto the distribution, then when consumers consume/use the product, then the disposal. When I was watching the video, I simplified it to 'Take it...Make it...Sell it...Use it...Throw it...'

Then on Thursday we ended up at Bagley Nature Area. At first I thought we were just going to go on a little hike, but we ended up using compasses and having to navigate around in the woods. Honestly I had a lot of fun trying to get around. I was half expecting me to get lost out there, but it all worked out.

WEEK 14
This week started off with a guest speaker from the Civil Engagements Office. He mainly talked about some career options in Environmental Health. He did get me thinking about whether or not I could like having a career in EH. Honestly, I don't know if I could or not. That's another conversation in itself.

Then Thursday comes along. Dr. V brought it some junk, and we had to figure out ways to make the items useful. It was a heck of a lot of fun. My mom likes to do stuff like this, so I had some minor experience with it prior to the class period.

Another thing we had to do these past couple weeks was blog about our Advocacy Projects. We had to look into our issues, and then write a letter to our public official. A lot of political stuff. I am not good at it. I realize how important all of this stuff is, but its hard for me to pay attention to this type of stuff.

Onward to week 15!

Share and Voice: Sports Leagues Going Green

2009-04-28T16:22:00.003-05:00

Hey everybody. So people who know me know that I like sports. My dream job would be the General Manager of a National Hockey League team, meaning I would get to make all the decisions (who to draft, trade, sign, etc.). So I got to thinking again, and I decided to investigate what the four major sports leagues are doing to go green. So below, I have a section devoted to each league, with a little bit of info as to what they've done.

National Football League
At the Super Bowl a couple of years ago, the NFL made a huge effort to go green. About 60,000 lbs of food that was made was not eaten at the stadium alone. So, instead of creating 30 TONS of waste, they decided to give the food to soup kitchens, shelters, churches, and other organizations. No waste, plus good karma! Another thing most people wouldn't even think about is all the costs (in terms of carbon emissions) of having to haul it to the garbage dumps. So they saved there as well.

Then, through all the car and electricity used in and around the stadium, it amounted to 1 million pounds of Carbon Dioxide. To go Carbon Neutral, the league planted 3,000 trees in the Miami area.

Major League Baseball
MLB has joined forces with the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) to help each team make a stronger effort to be more eco-friendly. Here is what they will help each team do.

• Adopting an official environmental policy

• Incorporating environmental language into contracts, purchasing policies and requests for proposals that specify preferences for environmentally sound products and services

• Encouraging the use of renewable energy

• Providing information about how to credibly offset the carbon emissions related to team and fan transportation

• Using post-consumer recycled content paper for all paper products

• Implementing paper reduction strategies in offices

• Offsetting the environmental impact of up to half of team and employee travel

• Establishing club eco-committees

National Basketball Association
One article from the NBA that caught my eye was about the Chicago Bulls. Instead of just having their team go green for the first ever NBA Green Week, they put an emphasis on educating the fans. Throughout their game on April 9th, they had random ways people can go green on the scoreboard. They also had displays throughout the arena further educating fans. The team also gave out 20,000 Energy Saving light bulbs to fans as they left the arena.

National Hockey League
This one's a little more complicated. The NHL teamed with the David Suzuki Foundation to create the NHLPA's Carbon Neutral Challenge. When players have to travel to cities via airplane, that puts carbon emissions into air, which aren't good for the environment. So the NHL is rewarding players who do things to go green, which 'evens' out the carbon level. Think of it this way. Air travel is bad for the environment, going green is good for it, so they equal each other out so to speak. Read more about it here.

Advocacy Project: Letter to a Public Official

2009-04-28T09:46:00.003-05:00

(Yes I photo shopped the above photo to make it look like Oberstar is holding a letter)

Steve Anderson
1894 Legendary Lane
Awesomeville, MN 56789
----------------------------------------------------------
April 28, 2009

Congressman James L. Oberstar
Duluth Federal Building
Room 231
Duluth, Minnesota 55802

Dear Congressman Oberstar,

I am writing you today in regards to H.R. Bill 1931, 'The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act', which aims to improve the treatment of juveniles with mental health or substance abuse disorders by establishing new grant programs for increased training, technical assistance, and coordination of service providers, and for other purposes.

I feel that 'The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act' would greatly improve society. If juveniles are treated better while in a facility, meaning rehabilitating the juveniles so they are able to go back into society, everyone would benefit. The juveniles would be able to live a normal life, the families of the juveniles would get their kid's back, and the rest of society would gain more members.

Another set of people who would benefit from this Bill being passed would be the employees at the facility. With the increased training they would receive, they would acquire new skills that will help them with jobs throughout their life.

Your support of Bill HR 1931 would help ensure that the juveniles and employees at the mental health facilities would have a better life. So to support these people, I urge you to vote YES on Bill HR 1931: The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act.

Should you need any other information, feel free to contact me at 1-800-AWE-SOME (293-7663). Thank you very much for your time. Have a good day.

Sincerely,

Steven A.

Share and Voice: Big Green Cookbook

2009-04-27T17:03:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! First off, yes I'm blogging about a cookbook. (Don't care if it isn't manly or what not, I like food, it's delicious.) So whenever I get bored, the mall seems to be the place that I always end up at. And my first stop is always Barnes and Noble (which is weird because one of my enemies on my Enemy List is 'reading'). While I was at B & N, I noticed a book that caught my eye, the Big Green Cookbook, by Jackie Newgent.

Like it's name implies, it's a cookbook that involves going green. So I checked it out, and it had some really good recipes in it. The thing I always hate about most recipe books is when the recipe has 45 ingredients. Like 8 different spices, and 3 different oils. Most of the recipes in this book had very few ingredients thankfully. Here's a little bit of a book description.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Going green" has spread to the kitchen! Big Green Cookbook is the first comprehensive, climate-conscious cookbook, ideal for both culinary novices and experienced cooks. Food and health expert Jackie Newgent reveals simple, practical, and sometimes even money-saving solutions for choosing and preparing food in planet-pleasing ways. It has never been easier to create everyday meals that maximize flavor while minimizing your environmental impact. Inside you'll find:

A green kitchen checklist
Over 200 delicious, easy-to-prepare, seasonal recipes that feature fresh, all-natural foods
Guidelines for going organic and tips for buying locally
Nutrition information and earth-friendly cooking tips with every recipe
Clever, new techniques for low-carbon cooking
An eco-friendly shopping guide and seasonal produce guide

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So if anyone out there is lookin' into getting a new cookbook or anything, I suggest trying this one out!

Advocacy Project: Issue Overiview

2009-04-21T10:15:00.001-05:00

Introduction
The goal of my program is to ensure better screening for Mental Health and Mental Disorders in Juvenile Facilities. But the bill I am focusing on is set out to improve treatment of juveniles with mental health or substance abuse disorders by establishing new grant programs for increased training, technical assistance, and coordination of service providers.

Who’s Affected?
I would say the people affected most are the juveniles and the employees at the juvenile facilities. Both of these sets of people will benefit. The juveniles will be treated better, while the employees will learn a new skill in their increased training. But another set of people who are affected, who may be opposed, are taxpayers. Most of the money put into grants comes from taxpayer’s money. So people may say ‘I don’t know any juveniles in treatment centers, so why should I give them my tax money?’

Consequences?
Well the consequences for the taxpayers would be simply the fact that they lose money. But the families who have juveniles in the treatment center would have only positive consequences. Their son/daughter would be treated better, making everyone happier. Society should theoretically improve because of this too. If the juveniles are treated better, and are able to function normally sooner, they will be able to go back into society with a seamless transition.

Economic Impact?
The economic costs of the issue are simply the taxpayers are paying more for this. While the cost per taxpayer would be minimal, people would still be opposed. People who benefit economically I guess would be the juveniles themselves. If after treatment, they are able to go back into the business world, they should be able to get jobs.

Social Impact?
Kind of along the same lines, the people who benefit socially would be the juveniles and the families themselves. Once they get out of treatment, life should theoretically be better for them.

Barriers?
Taxpayers. Whenever anyone here’s they may have to pay a tax on something new, they are automatically opposed until they find out what it is going towards. People will especially be opposed because of the state of the economy right now. People don’t want to just throw around money anymore unless they directly see the effect of it. But they can be overcome by getting the word out about the bill. Put ads in newspapers, commercials on TV, anything to get people to take notice.

Resources?
Resources that will be needed to address the issue are basically just money. But resources that WILL be affected if the bill goes through would be first and foremost, the employees. The money would go directly to training the employees. But another resource affected would maybe be the devices and tools used to measure Mental Health. By this I mean money may go to a new computer, which has programs on it designed specifically for this purpose.

History of the issue?
This is a section where I searched and searched and found literally nothing on bills like this. So unfortunately, I cannot comment on this section just yet. But I will keep looking into it, and when I do find something, I will put it in this post.

Allies and Opponents?
People who would support this issue would be the various Juvenile Mental Health Facilities. Also, such organizations such as the Minnesota State Advisory Council on Mental Health, as well as Minnesota Mental Health Clinics. Opponents would simply be taxpayers. I don’t see any other people who would oppose, (Any ideas???) mainly because it seems like a good cause. If juveniles are treated and cured or mental disorders, it really benefits everyone.

My Recommendation?
Please vote YES on HR 1931 – The Juvenile Crime Reduction Act!

Reflection: Weeks 11 & 12

2009-04-18T12:07:00.003-05:00

Hey again everybody.

So as the weeks fly by, the end of the semester is in sight. But thankfully, the classes are still interesting (Except for Human Physiology). Week 11 started with a movie titled Unnatural Causes. Due to me being sick, I only got to see the first half, but from what I saw, it was an eye opening movie. It showed how people with more money have better health than people who don't have as much money. But thinking about it, yah, it makes sense. If you have money, you have more resources at the palm of your hand, i.e. the ability to go to the doctor, or go to the drug store and get medicine.

Week 12 began with an eye opener on Healthy People 2010. We did some research and looked into some important topics. Mine had to do with Mental Health and Mental Disorders. Once we found which topic we wanted to research, we looked at the Goals of the program, objectives, what kind of progress they are making, and what challenges may lie ahead. Then we had to look into what type of Bills are attempting to get passed in our subject. I unfortunately didn't find any that we closely related to my subject in Mental Health. And then good ol' Shar ran the class on Thursday, and she did a wonderful job!

Advocacy Project: HealthyPeople and THOMAS

2009-04-14T11:09:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone. It feels like a really long time since my last post. Been kind of busy with Methods stuff I guess. Anywho. The goal I chose to look into was Focus Area 18: Mental Health and Mental Disorders. I've always taken an interest in Mental Disorders, so I figured this would be a good topic to look at.

GOAL
The goal of this topic is to improve mental health and ensure access to appropriate, quality mental health services.

OBJECTIVE 18-8
Juvenile justice residential facilities that provide mental health screening

BASELINE: 50% in the year 2000

TARGET: 55%

PQC - The Progress Quotient Chart has shown that now 60% of Juvenile Facilities provide mental health screening.

PROGRESS: The Baseline was at 50% in the year 2000. It then moved to 53% in the year 2002. And it is now at 60%, still trending up.

DISPARITIES: According to the disparities charts, the data for this particular section are unavailable. Mainly because the topic is about Juvenile facilities, not race or gender or anything.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES:
Cost is a big one here. They can't screen if they don't have any money. Lack of availability of services is another problem. Odds are, they would have to hire more people to be able to do the screening.

EMERGING ISSUES:
The main issue coming up is co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders and the outcomes resulting from this combination. About 50% of adults who have a mental disorder, will also at some point have a substance abuse problem.

H.R.1931 - Juvenile Crime Reduction Act
•TITLE - To improve the treatment of juveniles with mental health or substance abuse disorders by establishing new grant programs for increased training, technical assistance, and coordination of service providers, and for other purposes.
•SPONSOR - Rep Kennedy, Patrick J.
•LATEST MAJOR ACTION: 4/2/2009 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Alright so there was a little bit of information I couldn't find because every time I clicked, it would say 'Temporary File Open Error'

Reflection: Weeks 9 & 10

2009-04-03T16:21:00.005-05:00

•Hey again everybody. So it seems like we haven't actually had to be in class for a long long time! I know it's only been a week, but the time is flying by. Week 9 started off with us checking out some things about advocacy. This is a pretty important issue for us health educators, considering advocacy is pretty much what we do.

•The week then moved on to us doing a blog post on our political representatives. Not the coolest thing ever, but it's still important for obvious reasons. I know we are going to have to use this information later on in the class, and I'm kind of intrigued as to how though.

•Then week 10 comes along. I feel that this week was the busiest I've been so far this semester. Due largely in part to the Photo Essay. I chose to do mine on different was to go green, but did so with my cartoon(check the blog post below for that). It took me around 15-20 hours to complete. Of course I usually had the TV on when working on it, and it was usually Minnesota Wild games on. So I'm sure that slowed me down a bit. And honestly, I'm attempting to try all of the different ways I suggest, with the exception of a garden.

•So that is the past couple of weeks in review, and I will see everyone in class!

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

2009-04-01T21:03:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone. Alrighty then. About 15 hours of work later, I finally finished my Photo Essay. As many of you know, I kind of have aspirations to get this cartoon I am working on on TV someday. So I got to thinking, and I thought of ways to combine the cartoon along with the photo essay.

Well, I decided to have the 3 main characters of my cartoon showing different ways to go green. Now let me start off by saying I, by no means, draw very well. If I somehow get my cartoon on TV, the first thing I'm doing is hiring people to draw for me. So if the drawing and such is ugly, I apologize. Another thing of note is you will notice quickly that the words are a little hard to read. (The scanner kind of isn't the best thing ever) So below each page, is the dialogue.

The title of the cartoon is 'El Zoo De Mexico,' and it's about three janitors who work at a Zoo in Mexico. They are called the Zooperheroes because they stop a mad scientist from doing something bad in each episode, making them superheroes so to speak.

The characters all have back stories, but that's for a different time (Two of the characters are people we see every day walking around campus). Also, if the quality of the pages on the blog still isn't that great, I'll be carrying around the comic with me, so if you wanna see it, just ask.

Hope you enjoy it people!

Box 1 - Howdy everyone! My name is Tom!
- I'm Ramon.
- And I'm Calvin!
Box 2 - And we're here to tell you 21 ways you can go green! They're all easy, and every little bit counts!
Box 3 - Let's get started shall we?
Box 4 - Ride a bike whenever possible! This way, you won't be emitting and emissions like when driving.
Box 5 - And if you need to drive, carpool!
- One car on the road is better than three!
Box 6 - Waiting in the car for more than 30 seconds? Turn it off instead of idling.
Box 7 - Buy a reuseable water bottle. One time bottles use plastic and energy to make. Not exactly good for mother nature!
Box 8 - Plant a tree! Every tree you plant will provide enough oxygen for two people for the rest of their lives!

Box 1 - Tree's take in stuff we dont like, Carbon Dioxide, and give out Oxygen, which we do!
Box 2 - Grow your own food! It will cost less, and could be a nice little hobby!
Box 3 - Also, support your local farmers! Typical grocery store produce travels nearly 1500 miles before it ends up on your plate. All this traveling burns fuel and results in carbon emissions.
Box 4 - And when you do go, use "Eco-Friendly bags." Reusable, cheap, and you won't waste paper or plastic everytime.
Box 5 - Say "No thanks" to ATM receipts. If everyone in the U.S. did this, it would save a roll od paper so long that it could circle the equator 15 times.
Box 6 - Download music instead of buying CD's. Each month, more than 45 tons of CD's become obsolete and end up in landfills.
Box 7 - When you go on a walk, bring a bag to pick up trash along the way. What good is it doing lying next to the sidewalk?
Box 8 - Buy rechargeable batteries. You save money, and throw away less batteries, which can contain hazardous materials.

Box 1 - Shower smarter! When lathering or shampooing, turn the water off until you need to rinse off.
Box 2 - Fix that leak! A leaky faucet can waste up to 74 gallons of water a day.
Box 3 - Turn the water off when brushing! It could conserve as much as 5 gallons of water a day!
Box 4 - Do full loads of laundry and dishes. Wash two fewer loads of clothes and one fewer load of dishes a week, and save up to 4,500 gallons of water a year!
Box 5 - Ditch paper napkins, and switch to cloth! Cloth napkins will save you both types of green: money and paper.
Box 6 - Unplug things when you aren't using them. Better yet, get a power strip. As much as 75% of electricity used by home electronics is used while they are turned off.
Box 7 - Change lightbulbs from incandescent to compact fluorescent. CF bulbs use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 10 times longer.
Box 8 - And occasionally, use candles to light parts of your house instead of electric lights. Do you really need them all on?
Box 9 - And finally, let kids know the benefits of going green! Remember, kids are like sponges. Things you teach them early on in life are more likely to stay with them throughout their life!

Share and Voice: Blog Award Pass Along!

2009-03-30T19:26:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone! So I recently was awarded two Blog awards for my post on Captain Planet! I received an EnviroCool award from Jeff @ Cuddling Conifers with Jeff, and a Blog On award for expressing my inner health educator from Ben @ Ben's Virtual Ecosystem. First off, thanks to both of you.

But now I must pass the awards off to others. I'd like to give the Blog On Award for expressing your inner health educator to Kaileigh @ Kaileighs Nature Log for her post Northland Country Club. She took initiative and helped out at her work to make them go green! That is truely Legendary!

And as for the EnviroCool award, that goes to Sara J. @ A Leaf of Sara's Life, for her post Denver International Airport: Going green? I think this was a great idea for a post, and it would be awesome if every airport did things like this!

So, Kaileigh and Sara...
Here are directions for you to accept the award!

1. Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.
2. Create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).
3. Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).
4. Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post.
5. Publish the post.
6. Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won.
7. Continue the process...

Share and Voice: Green Pets (Not Literally)

2009-03-30T18:03:00.012-05:00

Helloski once again everybody! So my original idea for this post was to do it on the most Eco-Friendly pet that people could have. Yeah, that idea didn't get very far. Didn't find one word on the subject.

So I moved my focus else where, and decided to look at ways you and your pet can be more Eco-Friendly. I love dogs, honestly I'll probably have 5 when I get out of college, so this is a good subject for me to look into. So, I found a great website on the subject, EcoPetLife.com. Let's look at it pet by pet. (Dogs, Cat, and Birds. They don't have any others unfortunately)

DOGS

Adjustable Hem p Collars

•Retail Price - $19.00
•100% Hemp, hypoallergenic, come in 2 different types; Kody, and Jewel.
•Hemp leashes also available

Huck

•Retail Price - $7.98
•Made of a material called Zogoflex, its durable, and made to be recycled. Whenever it gets to the point where you can no longer use it, mail it back to the company and they will turn it into new toys. Comes in three awesome colors; Aqua Blue, Tangerine, and Granny Smith

Organic Dog Cookies

•Retail Price - $5.99
•95% organic ingredients
•Two flavors - Chicken, and Peanut Butter

Eco Plush Frog

•Retail Price - $13.00
•Made out of Recycled Soda Pop Bottles. (How awesome is that??)
•Also comes in Salamander and Turtle.

CATS
Catnip

•Retail Price - $5.50
•100% natural organic catnip

Cat Kit

•Retail Price - $16.00
•Contains one Shelby the Mouse, one Shelby the Refillable Mouse, one Catnip Spray Bottle, one Cork Ball and a half ounce of potent Organic Catnip Leaf and Flower

BIRDS

Avian Herbal Tea Blend

•Retail Price - $11.85
•Apparently Birds drink tea. Either way, its all natural, and helps birds immune systems.

Bird Food

•Retail Price - $15.95 for a 2 lb bag
•All Natural whole foods. Available for Parakeets, Cockatiels, Canaries, Finches, and Parrots.

Mkay. So there are some various Eco-Friendly pet products you can buy. Hope this helps anyone who wants to look into the subject!

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

2009-03-26T09:55:00.002-05:00

Hows it hanging everybody? Here are my findings for all of the politicians. (Click names for link's to websites)

El Presidente - Barack Obama - DFL
Couple of ways to contact him...
•You can email him at www.whitehouse.gov
•Or send a letter to...
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Governor(Or as Schwarzenegger would say, Gubernator) - Tim Pawlenty - RNC
•Phone - (651) 296-3391
•Address - Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
St Paul, MN 55155

State Senator - Yvonne Prettner - DFL
•(651) 296 -4188
•75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
St Paul, MN 55155

US Senator - Amy Klobuchar - DFL
•(202) 224-3244
•302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

US House Representative - Jim Oberstar - DFL
•(202) 225-6211
•2365 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20510

St Louis County Commissioner - Dennis Fink - DFL
•(218) 726-2458
•Room 208
100 N the Ave. W
Duluth, MN 55802
Mayor of Duluth - Donnie Ness - DFL
•(218) 730-5230
•Mayor's Office, Room 402
411 W 2st St
Duluth, MN 55802

Reflection: Weeks: 7 & 8

2009-03-18T17:54:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone. Alright so this has been a struggle. My mind went blank, and I completely forgot to do this by last Friday. So I apologize for the tardiness.

Well, the movies 'Green' and 'Thirst' were definitely two eye opening movies(The parts we got to see). Green was more of the emotional one however. It showed how bad things can be for some people in America. It was hard to watch and think about how much life would suck--pardon my french-- if I had to live in those conditions. One part that really caught my eye was when the man was saying he used to garden every year, but the ground is so polluted that it wouldn't be safe to plant and eat food from his garden anymore.

Thirst, from the little that we got to see unfortunately, talked about water privatization. While it isn't the most fascinating subject ever, it is still an important one. If water gets privately owned, it'll cost us even more. And being a college student, paying more for water isn't something I'd be happy to do.

The Eye Opener we did through the Environmental Working Group's website was kind of a fun thing to do however. We took whatever cosmetics, or if you are a guy, cosmanics, we use and we found out how hazardous that item is to the environment and to us as well. The item I decided to check out was only a 2 out of 10 in the hazard scale, so it's good, but it still could be better of course.

So that is the past couple of weeks in review! Hope everybody's spring break has gone well thus far, and continues to do so!

Share And Voice: CAPTAIN PLANET!!!

2009-03-09T23:20:00.004-05:00

~~"By your powers combined, I am...Captain Planet!!!"~~

•Can I get an Amen to that!?!? I don't know how it took me so long to do a Share and Voice on Captain Planet! 'Captain Planet and the Planeteers' was one of my favorite TV Cartoons growing up as a kid!

ABOUT THE SHOW

•For those of you who did not watch this legendary cartoon, Captain Planet was a superhero who was out to save the world from pollution. He would basically have a 'sixth sense' that would let him know when something bad was happening to the earth, like a forest being cut down, or someone dumping toxic waste.

•When he got this sense, he would summon his 5 helpers -- known as the Planeteers -- to help him fight for the cause.

Kwame - Hailed from Africa, and had the power of Earth
Wheeler - Coming from North America, had the power of Fire
Linka - From Russia, had the power of Wind
Gi - From Asia, held the power of Water
Ma-Ti - Hailing from South America, had the power of Love

•The Spirit of Earth was Gaia. The voice of wisdom for Captain Planet and the Planeteers, she too felt the sixth sense when the earth was in trouble.

•Ted Turner actually created the show. Attempting to create a show that was fun and awesome, as well as educational. I'd say mission accomplished Mr. Turner.

TIDBITS

•While taking a stroll down memory lane and looking at some Captain Planet websites, I came across some interesting information, to me atleast. A lot of celebrities were voices on the show. I saved the best for last

Whoopi Goldberg - Voice of Gaia
Ed Asner - Voice of Hoggish Greedly
Martin Sheen - Voice of Sly Sludge
John Ratzenberger - Voice of Rigger
Meg Ryan - Voice of Dr. Blight
Tim Curry - Voice of MAL
Jeff Goldblum - Voice of Verminous Skumm
Sting - Voice of Zarm
Lavar Burton - Voice of Kwame

•Lavar Burton was the host of Reading Rainbow! Yet another classic! Also, John Ratzenberger was Cliff Clavin on Cheers. And Tim Curry was the clown in IT, and the Butler in Clue, and he was also in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

•Ok so there were a few more random celebrities scattered in the show, but pretty much no one except me knows who they are, so I left them out. But if you want to know, check out IMDB's site on the show. IMDB (The Internet Movie DataBase is pretty much the greatest website ever.)

LINKS

Captain Planet - Here's is the unofficial offical site of Captain Planet.
Captain Planet's Favorite Links - Links that have to do with the environment and such
Planeteer Alert's - Basically :30 second Public Service Announcements
Eco Tips - "Captain Planet's Top Ten Eco Tips. Heck yes.

SONG

Anybody remember the song that they always sang? If not, here are the lyrics for it. Enjoy.

"EARTH!"
"FIRE!"
"WIND!"
"WATER!"
"HEART!"

"Go Planet!"

"By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!"

Captain Planet, he's our hero
Gonna take pollution down to zero

He's our powers magnified
And he's fighting on the planet's side

Captain Planet, he's our hero
Gonna take pollution down to zero

Gonna help him put asunder
Bad guys who like to loot and plunder

"You'll pay for this Captain Planet!"

We're the Planeteers
You can be one too
'Cause saving our planet is the thing to do!

Looting and polluting is not the way
Hear what Captain Planet has to say!

"The Power is Yours!"

FIGHTING FOR THE CAUSE
•So I leave you all with this. As you see above, Captain Planet's big catchphrase was 'The Power Is Yours!' If ya think about it, that really is a great catchphrase for the class. If we want things in this world to change, it is up to us. People may think that if one person does something, it won't matter. But every little bit counts, people. Every little bit counts...

~~~~~
•I don't think anyone has done a Share and Voice on this yet, if so I apologize for repeating. But I couldn't help but take a stroll down memory lane!

Share and Voice: Fresh Picked Water

2009-03-05T11:07:00.003-06:00

--Hello everyone! So one of my favorite websites is the Star Tribunes, one of the two main newspapers from down in the Twin Cities. One of the articles they had on the main page was done by a student intern, Nicole Tommerdahl. It was about how St Cloud State is heading a new trend among drinking water. I'll summarize but here is the article.

--This new type of drinking water intrigues me greatly. What they do is, they take a drink dispenser, 1/2 gallon thing, and fill it with water, ice, and then freshly cut fruit or vegetables. And it basically makes water that tastes like the fruit or veggie, comparable to things like Vitamin Water. They put fruit like apples and oranges, and veggies like cucumbers in the water, and combine things like lemon lime water among other things(hopefully they can get water that tastes like Mountain Dew, if they do, sign me up!)

--The cool part is they have it in Garvey Commons, which is comparable to UMD's DC and food court. The 'Hydration Station' has pretty much replaced Soda machines. Which helps the environment (Think about it, less soda consumed means less resources needed to make the soda). The other cool part is it's healthy for ya obviously. Not only are ya getting your daily dose of water, but you're also getting small amount of fruit and veggies in every drink, which of course is always healthy.

--There are unlimited refills for students, so even if they are just walking by, they can stop and fill up their water bottle! I really think it would be awesome if UMD caught onto the trend and got some Hydration Stations here on campus. One in the Food Court, and one in the DC. Personally, I know this would help me drink more water, and I think the change would be well received among a majority of the student population as well.

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

2009-03-04T19:01:00.008-06:00

Hey everyone! The weeks keep on flyin' by, and so do all the blogposts! So for this current post, we have to go to the Environmental Working Group's website. They have a neat little Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. Ya put some type of cosmetic item you use (I was really confused at first because men don't use cosmetics, women do. So, I decided to call the stuff that guys use (i.e. body wash, shaving gel) cosmanics. I like it.) Anywho, ya put your Cosmetics/Cosmanics into the database, and it'll tell you how harmful your particuar items are to you and the environment. Here are my findings.

I use Nivea For Men Body Wash. Just recently started using it. It smells nice. And honestly, my findings were alright. It gave me a 2 out of 10 on the Hazard Scoring System(1 good, 10 bad). Only 22% of similar products on the market are considered better. I think thats pretty good. It also found that I had a slight chance of getting cancer from the Nivea Body Wash. but, the ingredients found that can cause cancer have only limited evidence relating cancer to the body wash. Some other ingredients were found to cause organ system toxicity. But all of the Hazard Scores were 4 or below, so I am quite happy with all of my results!

Review of Film: The Future of Food

2009-02-27T13:32:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone. So I'll be honest, for me, this movie was hard to pay attention to at times. Movies I like usually involve comedy or action, not farming. So bear with me while I try to summarize the film 'The Future of Food'.

Summary
Farming always used to be done the same way. Until the 20th century, when chemical fertilizers and insecticides became the new norm. Right away, this film shocked me with a quote. They said 'Nerve gas was modified to make insecticides. Sounds healthy right?

Then Round Up comes along. Round Up is basically just a weed killer. So Monsanto comes along and makes Round Up ready seeds, meaning they can't be killed by the weed killer. After becoming the first company to patent a seed, the trouble started there. While passing a farmers field, a Monsanto truck filled with seed let some seed fly out of the truck and into his field. The seed mixed some of the farmers crops, creating Round Up ready crops that were not technically the farmers, because Monsanto had their seed patented. Well the farmer didn't know this, Monsanto found out, and sued the farmer.

One other thing of note is labeling. There has been a strong public demand for GMO food to be labeled. Why? Because labeling makes companies liable if anything happens. For instance, someone could be allergic to something in the GMO food, but if it isn't on the label, the person doesn't know that they are about to eat something they are allergic to. This is something I too feel strongly about.

My thoughts
Like I just said, the labeling aspect is something I feel very strong about. I don't know if the law is still in place where companies don't have to put GMO's on labels, but I sure as heck hope so. Otherwise, the whole Monsanto thing is just as disturbing. The fact that you can get in trouble for not knowing that some random seeds flew into your yard is wrong. If you go out and steal patented seeds and put them in your crop, then yes, you are wrong. But if it is all by accident, then I really don't think that person should be held liable.

New Vocab
Germinate - is the process whereby growth emerges from a period of dormancy
GMO - is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques
Monoculture - is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area
Superweeds - Any wild plant that has become a hostile plant as a result of acquiring resistance to herbicides through pollination with a genetically modified plant
Transgenic - of, pertaining to, or containing a gene or genes transferred from another species

Reflection: Weeks 5 & 6

2009-02-27T12:55:00.008-06:00

&

- - -Hey again everybody. So Weeks 5 and 6 were a little bit different than normal, but it was still a nice change.

- - -We started out with the movie Diet for a New America, created by John Robbins. It went over a lot of ways of how our current diets are killing us. Whether it be Heart Disease or Diabetes.But they also went over our current methods of using animals for food. How we keep cattle in confined areas just so they taste a little bit better. One other big thing they mentioned was the size of American's food portions. How one of our meals would feed 5 people in another country. Crazy to think about it like that.

- - -Another thing we did in the first week was a CSPI eye opener. We could choose from three different quizzes and things like that, and most of us chose the Eating Green Calculator. It really opened everybody's eyes and showed us each of our impacts on the environment. With my current diet, I 'create' more than 10,000 lbs of manure, through cattle and pigs and such. Ugh. Don't like to think about that either.

- - -Moving on to week 6, we started out with having an assigned reading due, each person having a different reading. While mine wasn't the most interesting, it was still an important topic. Global warming isn't just affecting humans, it's also throwing the birds off of their normal habits. When it gets hotter earlier in the year, birds migrate earlier, moving to places that don't have their food just yet, meaning they could die off because they don't have the food they like. You can read more about it in my post below.

- - -Another week 6 topic was the movie The Future of Food. This was another movie that really made ya think. The main topic it talked about was a company by the name of Monsanto, that were farmers enemies. After making a 'Round Up ready' seed (one that can't be killed by the weed killer round up), Monsanto was involved in quite a bit of lawsuits. The one that stuck out to me was when some Monsanto seeds flew off of a Monsanto truck, into a farmers field. The Farmer didn't know this happened, so when he noticed that some of his foliage wasn't dieing when RoundUp was sprayed on it, Monsanto took notice and sued him for using their patented seeds. Pardon my french, but that really sucks for the farmer. He didn't do anything wrong, but because the seeds were patented, he gets screwed.

- - -So that is my reflection on the past couple weeks, and I see that we have a couple movies the next couple of weeks as well, so we'll see how they go!

Share and Voice: Green Shirts

2009-02-24T19:46:00.010-06:00

~Hey again everyone! So as I sit around, watching me some hockey, I notice how much advertising is going on. Whether it be along the boards of the rink, or how every stat is sponsored by someone, or just the good ol' commercials. So I get to thinking about ways to advertise the thought of 'Going Green.' And one simple way to get the word out is to create a T-shirt. Thus, I decided to show everyone some different 'Go Green' t shirts that are out on the market.

~But I also have a miniature challenge for everyone. Create a 'Green' t-shirt slogan. Ya don't have to go and create one on the computer or draw one up or anything, just give an idea for a t-shirt. I have an idea that relates going green and an awesome childhood TV show. Don't know what the slogan would be, but it would have to do with going green and having Ninja Turtles on it, or perhaps Gumby, or Yoda, and they are planting a tree. I don't know, just a thought. Anywhoooo, here are some T-shirts that are out there, the photos are linked to the site that offers em. Have a good one everybody!

Eye Opener: Review of Reading 15: Silent Spring: A Sequel?

2009-02-22T15:52:00.005-06:00

Summary
Hello everyone. First off, the above picture made me smile, so I decided it was worthy of being the main photo. Anyways, the chapter I read was about birds, and how global warming is making them migrate early, and the effects it is having. Here are some quick things to think about from the book.

Most American bird species are migrating an average of 9 days earlier, and breeding 10 days earlier than they did 30 years ago.
The huge down side of birds migrating early is that the breeding cycle of birds will be out of sync with it's food supply. As a result, 'Early birds may not get the worm.'
State birds such as the Baltimore Oriole (Maryland), and the Black-Capped Chickadee (Massachusetts)will no longer even be in those states.
In some ecosystems, if a bird that helps control insect population leaves, the results would be pretty bad. A bird called the Nesting Wood Warbler eat the Eastern Spruce Budworm. The Budworm defoliates millions of acres of forest each year as it is. The Warblers already eating 85% of the budworms, so you can imagine what would happen if 100% of the Budworm went uneaten. The millions of acres of forest defoliated would rise significantly.

But, climate change might not be a horrible thing for a few species. A bird called the Prothonotary Warbler of Virginia have been arriving from the Caribbean an average of one day earlier since 1987. It is predicted that they sson could become a year round resident of the U.S.A.

New Terms
Avifaunal - the birds of a given region, considered as a whole
Neotropical - belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising that part of the New World extending from the tropic of Cancer southward.

New Concepts
Well, this whole chapter was a new concept to me. When I think of global warming, birds and the effect is has on them is not the first thing that comes to mind.

The part that really stuck out to me though was where it talked about what would happen if some birds left, and the insect population got out of control. I had bugs. So I pray this doesn't happen.

Links
American Bird Conservancy - A website dedicated to preserving birds in every aspect

Eye Opener: CSPI

2009-02-18T18:46:00.002-06:00

~Hey everyone! So I chose to do my eye opener on the Eating Green Calculator.

INITIAL RESULTS
~So after the initial results were calculated, it told me that my burden on the environment was 1.5 acres of grain and grass needed to feed the animals, .4 lbs of pesticide used to grow the animal feed, 53.1 lbs of fertilizer used to grow the animal feed, and finally, the one that made me giggle, 10525 lbs of manure created by the animals I eat and use.

~It then went on to give me my average daily intake from the animal products I use. 725 calories, which I think is alright, no Fiber which isn't good, 43 grams of fat which I would like to lower, 20 grams of saturated fat (AKA bad fat), and 237 mg of cholesterol, which is 79 % of my Daily Limit. The fat and cholesterol parts scare me.

IMPROVED RESULTS
~So then it gave me the option to see how I could improve my burden on the environment by making better food choices. After I did this, it told me that if I changed, I would use a total of 1.1 acres, 38 lbs of fertilizer, .3 lbs of pesticide, and 8000 lbs of manure. While a lot of it may not seem like a lot, an ongoing theme of this class is 'every little bit counts,' and it's just as true right now.

~It also went on to tell me how it would improve my health numbers. I dont understand how, but it told me it would give me 8 more grams of Fiber. Considering I had none to begin with, and I am eating less, this confuses me. But it would also take away 8 grams of Saturated fat, which would help a lot, and it would decrease my cholesterol intake by 30%. Considering my dad has had cholesterol problems, this is something that hit's close to home so to speak.

PLEDGE
The next question asks 'Did you take the pledge?' I did so. For those of you who did not complete this, the pledge goes as follows...

~~~~To protect my health and the environment, I will eat a more plant-based diet—more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and fewer fatty meat and dairy products. When I do eat animal products, I will emphasize ones that are lower in fat and raised in humane ways that minimize harm to the environment.~~~~~

~The part of this that I will really attempt to follow is eating less fatty meat. I like Cheddarwurst. It's delicious. But I know it isn't good for me, so that is something I need to stop buying at my neighborhood grocery store.

SUMMARY
~So after looking at all of this, I plan to eat less fatty mean, which will of course lower my saturated fat intake, but also lower my cholesterol intake, which is something I should really stick to. Hope everyone's Eye Openers went well!

Share and Voice: Eternal Reefs

2009-02-17T10:23:00.011-06:00

~Hello again everyone. Yet again, as I sat around on campus like I usually do, I was exploring the World Wide Web. One of my most frequently visited sites is CNN's. So as I was browsing, a title of an article caught my attention. It said "Green Burial' creates undersea home for fish." This intrigued me.

~First off, everyone should read the article. It starts out talking about a woman, Carole Dunham, who was diagnosed with cancer and didn't have long to live. Since she knew she was dieing, she wanted to have the last thing she did on earth a 'green' one.

~After that, you should all check out Eternal Reefs website. It's kind of a cool idea. Their theory is(if I'm understanding it right) that to prevent cemetery's from filling up and to prevent from using all of the materials necessary for caskets, etc., that they cremate you, then make you into a reef house to put in the sea or ocean, and then fish and starfish can use you as a home. Cool eh? I think this is something that is going to be a big hit, really soon. Here are a couple of pictures that their website has.

~Check out the steps to creating an Eternal Reef on their main website, on the left side of the site.

~Also, here are some numbers from the first article that show how much materials we use in terms of burials, per year.

Reinforced concrete: 1.6 million tons
Toxic embalming fluid: 827,060 tons
Steel from caskets: 90,000 tons
Hardwood from caskets: 30 million tons

~The number that really sticks out to me is the Hardwood from Caskets. 30 million tons. That is a ridiculously large amount of wood. Hope people find this informative!

Share and Voice: Coffee!!!!!!

2009-02-16T10:58:00.006-06:00

~Hellllooooo again everybody! So as I sit at the Coffee Shop on campus, my mind began to wander(it happens quite often-imagine JD from Scrubs and his little daydreams, and that's what I do). After I thought about random things, I thought about how much coffee I drink....I'm addicted to the stuff, and I'm not afraid to say it(Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm a Coffee-holic). So as I think about it, I begin to think if there is an 'environment friendly' coffee, and coffee related products. I had never thought about it before, and I decided to investigate. Not to this extent, but just doing some investigating online. These are my findings.

~About.com has a great little site about ways to be more considerate of the environment when making the sweet java. It went over 5 main points...

Buy Organic Coffee - I have done this occasionally, but not on a regular basis. I'm happy with Dunkin' Donuts bags of French Vanilla coffee.....I smiled just thinking about it
Don't use paper filters - Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought about this. I use paper filters. They come in packs of like 200, for about 4-5 bucks. The site suggest using a reusable filter, which I am now going to look into.
Reuse old coffee grounds - It suggest using them in a garden for fertilizer or ant repellent. I don't have a garden, but in the summer we did have a huge ant problem. So this is now something I am going to look into.
Don't use bottled water - The point they are making is in relation to the plastic used for bottled water. Since I don't buy bottled water, this isn't an issue.
Brew your own - Here the point they are trying to make is if you go to your local coffee shop and get a paper cup each time, your not being smart. Now I'll admit, I do this a couple days a week. But on the other days, I brew at home. I've been trying to stop going to the coffee shop on campus for about 4 years now. It's just so darn accessible! And it's less than 2 bucks for plain old coffee, it's hard for me to say no. What I need to start doing more is brewing at home and bringing it in a mug to campus.

~Another helpful site was CoffeeReview.com. It has pretty much every type of coffee on there, and has a lot of helpful information. The advanced search tool was the best, because you can search for organic coffee and it will tell you available coffee that you may like.

So anywho, those are the sites that I found the most helpful. So if any of you out there are avid followers of the Bean like I am, I hope this information helped ya!

Reflection: Weeks 3 & 4

2009-02-13T12:35:00.003-06:00

Helllllloooooooo Everybody. Sorry for chit-chatting, so onto the Reflection!

An Inconvenient Truth
This movie was definitely an eye opener. While I knew Al Gore was really into the whole Global Warming thing, I never realized how serious it was, and how serious he is about it.

Mr. Gore showed a lot of interesting facts and figures. Like what he showed with the Auto industry and how all the American manufacturers were going under, and the International manufacturers were on the rise. Another interesting thing he showed was if Greenland or Antarctica broke apart. How it showed how all the coasts around the world would rise up, creating entire cities to go under.

Its amazing to think that the U.S. is doing so little, even when these figures are brought to their attention. Maybe things will be a little bit different with President Obama in office. But who knows, maybe it's too late...

Ecological Footprint

This was another very useful eye opener. While yes I had some trouble with the websites, the one that I was able to complete was nice to look at. According to the Sustain Our Planet website, if everyone lived like I do, it would take 4 earths to be able to stay up and running. While I know I could be better, I still think I'm doing alright. I conserve, recycle, all that. But I'm sure there are still things that I don't even think about, which is something I need to look into.

That's it for me, and I'll talk to everyone later!

Share and Voice: What is UMD doing?

2009-02-10T11:08:00.006-06:00

~~~Helllloooo everybody! So as I sit in the food court, looking at all of the paper products and such that we use (and thankfully recycle), I thought to myself, 'What is UMD doing to make sure we have a green campus?'

~~~I believe it was the great Kermit The Frog that said "It's not easy being green." Well said Kermit...well said. It takes a lot of time and effort to create a green lifestyle, and I often find companies that aren't doing enough to go green. So I looked into it a bit, and found UMD's Environmental Initiatives Website. I was surprised to find out that there are quite a bit of websites that show what UMD is doing to better the environment near us. Here's a few that caught my eye.

~~~ Ad ding Up To Zero I feel is the most student friendly site. It shows current efforts on how UMD's Office of Sustainability is currently trying to figure out how much carbon emissions are being tallied thanks to the campus, which will ultimately help us figure out ways to lower them. It also has a section where us students can suggest ideas in terms of what UMD can do better.

~~~The UMD Eco Blog is another good website for students here. While I wish it was updated a little more often (last post November 12, 2008), it still has some interesting tidbits. The part of it that I liked to look at was the Carbon Sequestration Presentation near the bottom of the page.

~~~One last website I wanted to point out was the Lake Superior Streams Program. Basically, it looks at the 'health' and cleanliness of any water near the north shore of Lake Superior. Pretty sure it has everything one would need to know about the water around here, including fishing stuff.

So everybody, hope this blog post answers, or atleast points you in the right direction, of any questions people have about what UMD is doing to go green. Have a good one everybody!

Share And Voice: ENVIRO-Cool Blog Award Goes To...

2009-02-09T12:40:00.003-06:00

~~~Hey again everyone! Ok, so. Thanks Dr. V for the blog award! I have another kind of creative blog challenge that I have that I will throw on the blog at some point in the semester as well.

~~~Alright so my blog award does not go to an outstanding blog post, but it goes along with my challenge. So I decided to pass the award along to the person who I felt posted the best picture to my challenge. So without further ado....the award goes to.....(drumroll)......Ben@ Ben's Virtual Ecosystem for this cool photo! When I first looked at the photo, it kind of made me do a 'whoa' type reaction. So that was kind of the deciding factor in seeing who won. (Honorable Mention to Kaileigh@Kaileigh's Nature Log for her Photo, and Lauren@EnvironmentalEscapadesOfAStudent for her Photo too!) But also thank you to everyone who participated! It was a lot of fun looking at all the photo's everyone submitted!

~~~So Ben, here are the instruction's for how to pass along the award!

~~~Award Instructions

Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.
Create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).
Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).
Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post.
Publish the post.
Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won.
Continue the process...

~~~Have a good one everybody!

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

2009-02-09T12:12:00.009-06:00

~~~Hello all! Where to start, where to start? First off, thanks for everyone who participated in my photo contest!

~~~Now onto the Ecological Footprint. Now I already had done one of these before, and I believe it was for Foundations of Health, but I could be wrong. I has some problems with a couple of the websites, but I found one to be very helpful

~~The Earth Day Network's website I found to be the most helpful. This is actually the only one that could give me an answer! It said that by the way I live my life, if everybody lived it as I do we would need 4 Earth's to survive. At first, I thought that was really bad. But looking at my answers, and realizing I could do a lot worse, I feel OK with my lifestyle, but still know I can do better of course.

~~~Carbon Footprint Offsetter's calculation stuff confused me. I started it out, and didn't finish it because it was very confusing. I'll probably take another look at it later on in the semester.

~~~Sustain Our Planet's footprint calculator was a little bit easier to navigate through and complete, but when I finished, it wouldn't let me sign up and see my results. I don't know why it was doing that, but either way, I did not get my results.

~~~Overall, This activity did help me realize I could live a greener lifestyle, even with the problems I had completing some of the calculators. What can I do? I don't know yet. But it is definitely something I will look in to! Have a good one everybody!

Share And Voice: Favorite Photo

2009-02-03T09:32:00.007-06:00

So I have a challenge for everybody. Find your favorite photo that has something to do with the environment, going green, recycling, whatever ya want as long as it has to do with the class so to speak. So leave a comment and include the photo somehow, either linking or copying it in, and we'll see how the challenge goes. I think once I get a certain amount of photos, ill put them on my blog as a post, and then have a vote for who had the bestest and most awesomest photo
-The photo I chose was in my last post, and it's going in again. I feel it kind of put's things in a different perspective.

Have a good one

Review of Reading 1: The Challenges We Face

2009-02-02T12:15:00.012-06:00

-Hello again everybody. I just wanted to start off with a quote out of the book, that says ''The globe doesn't need to be saved by us, we couldn't kill it if we tried. What we do need to save, is the earth as we like it...'' I kind of took that as saying we can only do so much to 'save the earth', and we need to try and save the things we care about.
This reading went over different things we need to think about, in terms of the world and it's environment. The main topic they went over that caught my attention was water. 70% of the earth is water, and only 2.5% of that water is fresh, with only a small portion of that being accessible to people.
-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan was quoted as saying "by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may be living in countries that face serious water shortages." The WASH program (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for All) is something that should hopefully be able to help out. It aims to get water and hygiene training to people who need them by 2015. Since it is already backed by a lot of the U.N., it looks like this will be a big topic of interest in the coming years.
-Another topic that caught my eye was how more than 11,000 species of plants and animals are already nearing extinction, and half of all species could become non-existent by the end of the century. While that is a long time away, it is something that could ultimately lead to our demise if ya think about it. Think about the animals we depend on to live our every day lives. What if cows became extinct, or pigs. We get a lot of our meat from those two alone. But I digress.
-The last topic is the one that made me think the most. I had never really thought about how many species could become obsolete, so to speak. And I had never thought about ways to stop them from becoming extinct. But there are programs like the Global Conservation Trust that wants to raise about $260 million to help hold on to some genetic material that will keep necessary plants around for a longer period of time.
-GoGreen has a great website about ways to cut carbon emission in our atmosphere, like carpooling suggestions, among other things. I checked it out and it has a lot of things that are very easy for people to do that we would never really think about.
When I first saw the word 'biodiversity', the first thing that came to mind (besides the classic Pauly Shore movie 'Biodome'...awesome) was thinking it meant the differences in the environment. Looking at the dictionary thought it gave me the definition 'the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat.' I feel I was half right, because I wouldn't have guessed it would have had to do with the animal life as well.
-So, back to that first quote, "the globe doesn't need to be saved by us, and we couldn't kill it if we tried. What we do need to save, is the earth as we like it." I find that even more true after reading the chapter. I care about the animals and the plants and such. So I should do things that involve helping those aspects of the environment out. Looking at some sights, I found The World Society For The Protection Of Animals. It's a good website, I suggest ya check it out.
So that's it from me today people. Hope everybody has a good week.
PS: Whoever voted 'Yes' with me to eating the moon if it were made of ribs, thank you.

Reflection: Weeks 1 & 2

2009-01-29T20:50:00.003-06:00

Hello again everybody! So two weeks of classes have come and gone and it's time to reflect. I think that this is going to be one of the more interesting classes I've taken thus far.

The blog's will definitely be intriguing to say the least. Although I already know a lot about them because I do a different blog on my own, it will be nice to learn even more about them.

Google Reader will also be nice to get to know how to use. I've had an account for a while, but I haven't had any reason to use it, so it will be nice to be able to finally use it now.

I am curious though as to what we are going to go over in the class. Yes, it'll be the environment, but what parts exactly? One thing I will be looking forward to hopefully learn about is ways to save energy. It's obviously a big deal, and would be a great thing to learn more about. Another topic I'd like to go over is recycling, specifically where the recyclables actually go when they get picked up on the street, and how much it actually helps.

First post

2009-01-28T12:00:00.005-06:00

Hello everybody! My name is Steve Anderson, and I am a super senior here at UMD! After switching majors a couple of times, I have finally settled on Community Health, and am liking it alot. I am writing this blog for Hlth 3305, Environmental Health.
There are 5 different types of posts for this blog...

Advocacy Project
Eye Openers
Reflections
Reviews
Share and Voice

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