Team,
Each of you will be expected to bring in some form of outside information related to the content of the day's assigned reading. You will do this once during our study of No Impact Man.
This will be worth another 10 points. Here are my expectations:
1.) You will not just google a topic and read us what you find online. We can do that on our own.
2.) You will post your information on the blog (I will have a specific post for this) along with your sources. Be honest.
3.) You will challenge us to see an issue in No Impact Man in a new, fresh, perhaps local, definitely thought-provoking way.
You will earn anywhere from a 6-9 if you meet the above requirements. Want a 10? Get super creative and go above and beyond. Wow us.
Menominee Indian Tribe of Michigan and Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteMost live in a reservation they have in Wisconsin. Have their own form of government. Their leader is called an okemaw, who is democratically elected, but they are still American citizens who must obey US laws.
Name means "wild rice" people-one of their most important and traditional staple foods.
Created in 1854.
Five main communities: Keshena, Middle Village, Zoar, Neopit and Legend Lake.
Total of about 2800 Menominee.
They make money by operating a casino since 1987. It is in Keshena, Wisconsin.
"At the Menominee Casino-Bingo-Hotel, time is yours to do with as you please. Seek entertainment, entertain yourself, relax, and enjoy the experience." -although this is a very modern thing that you would think goes against the whole "living happily" idea, they make this casino in a way that is very enjoyable, not stressful and all about making money.
Their main language is English, but some of them speak Menominee, which is dying out.
"posoh" is a greeting in Menominee.
Their language is very important to them, as is their culture, and they really strive to keep these instilled in their youth.
In 1868, a group of outsiders tried to take advantage of the timber owned on the Menominee land. They wanted to clear-cut these forests, but 8 of the chiefs protested, which paid off, and their land wasn't clear-cut.
1882, Congress passed an act allowing the Menominee to cut down the timber on their land that is already dead or very weak, but they couldn't sell it at that point.
1888, this was taken away from them, and they were told to stop cutting down this timber.
1890, Congress passevd another act that re-allowed them to cut down the timber, and this time allowed them to also sell it.
"The Menominee's philosophy…demanded that they never took more lumber than the forest could sustainably offer them." (59)
In his blog, "the Menominee tend to cut only the weaker trees, leaving behind the strong mother trees and enough of the upper canopy for the arboreal animals to continue to inhabit. They have figured out what the forest can productively offer them instead of considering only what they want to take from it."
In 1870, they had 1.3 billion standing board feet of timber. Now, because of their works of conservation, they have 1.7 billion board feet.
But then he says, "They've become my symbol of good living, of living happily, taking from the planet what it can sustainably offer and not taking what it can't." (58)
Although they do a great job of preserving the timber and only using what they need, I didn't find this to be exactly true. In Beavan's book, he talks about "living happily" as often involving no cars or other things that get in a way of having a happy life. Their lives are not actually that much different from most of ours. Most of them live in houses or apartments, wear "normal" clothes most of the time and drive their own cars. Their lives aren't completely "eco-friendly," like their timber business is.
I wonder if Beavan knew that information, since he says what he heard about the Menominee was just a "smidgeon" he had heard about their "wood-harvesting philosophy."
Sources:
http://www.menominee-nsn.gov/
http://www.bigorrin.org/menominee_kids.htm
http://www.menomineecasinoresort.com/
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/the_no_impact_m.html
It looks like in 2016 we’re going to run out of landfills.
ReplyDeleteOur recycling rate has increased but our generating of trash rate has also, so is that really doing anything?
180 million tons of trash; containers and packaging make up most of that
Yard trimmings made up the third largest portion
- Which is about 5 pounds of trash per person per day
- I counted up my trash and picked through it and it was pretty much ALL stuff that could be avoided that’s not really making anything more convenient.
o Lots of wrappers
o Plastic silverware
o Paper products like liners and NAPKINS
o Plastic plastic plastic
You could make a line of full garbage trucks and reach the moon, which is around 250,000 miles. Which is also twice the length of the entire state of Texas. Or you could take that trash and dump it into almost 100,000 football fields, letting the trash come up six feet high.
So if you think about how quickly it’s all filling up it’s almost like we’re going to slowly fill up the US with the amount of trash.
The landfills are as big as 1000 football fields long and as tall as the Washington monument. And it can’t decompose because there’s barely any oxygen present and it’s shoved down in such a small space with so much material.
Although the US is only 5% of the global population we contribute to 30% of the worlds waste.
80% of the products we use in the US, we use once and then throw away
we throw away a quarter and a half more trash at work than we do at home because that’s where we find all the momentary things like napkins, straws, wrappers
Giant garbage patch floating in Pacific
ReplyDeleteOctober 22, 2007
An enormous island of trash twice the size of Texas is floating in the Pacific Ocean somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii.
Chris Parry with the California Coastal Commission in San Francisco said the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, has been growing a brisk rate since the 1950s, The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.
The trash stew is 80 percent plastic and weighs more than 3.5 million tons.
"At this point, cleaning it up isn't an option," Parry said. "It's just going to get bigger as our reliance on plastics continues."
Parry said using canvas bags to cart groceries instead of using plastic bags is a good first step to reducing reliance on plastics, the newspaper said.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Source:
How are we contributing?
- Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
- Each day the United States throws away enough trash to fill 63,000 garbage trucks.
- Almost 1/3 of the waste generated the U.S. is packaging.
- Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year. Most of it winds up in landfills.
- U.S. landfills are closing at the rate of 1 per day.
Something I don't usually think about recycling: Aluminum Cans
- Throwing away one aluminum can wastes as much energy as if that can were 1/2 full of gasoline.
Avg. aluminum can = 12 oz.
1/2 can = 6 oz.
1 gal = 128 oz
Average MPG for US cars & light trucks = 19.8 MPG (google.org/recharge/dashboard/calculator)
.155 miles/oz. = avg car
.930 miles = 1/2 of an aluminum can
A car can drive .930 miles on the energy in 1/2 of an aluminum can. A whole aluminum can could power a car for 1.86 miles.
- Sixty-five billion aluminum soda cans are used each year.
○ 10,075,000,000 miles
○ From San Francsico to Lubec, Maine = 3,452 mi.
○ Cross the US 2,918,597.914 times
We could cross the US almost 3 millions times
Positive News:
- 1,500 aluminum cans are recycled every second in the U.S.
- Recycling an aluminum soda can saves 96% of the energy used to make a can from ore, and produces 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution.
- Producing recycled white paper creates 74% less air pollutants, 35% less water pollutants, and 75% less process energy than producing paper from virgin fibers.
- It takes 90% less energy to recycle an aluminum can than to make a new one.
Americans in general:
- Each American exerts three times as much pressure on the natural environment as the global average.
- America is home to 5% of the world's population, yet it consumes 1/3 of the Earth's timber and paper; making paper the largest part of the waste stream at 37.5% of the total waste stream.
○ Waste stream is the aggregate flow of waste material from generation to treatment to final disposition.(Source: businessdictionary.com) (from beginning to end)
Sources:
www.answers.yahoo.com
www.google.org/recharge/dashboard/calculator
So, easy ways to try and help?
- Cancel catalog subscriptions you don't use
- Re-use wrapping paper - so open packages neatly
- Use a re-usable water bottle
- Instead of using coke cans, use a cup in the cafeteria
- Recycle paper, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans
- GOSE paper!
Cattle consume 16 times as much grain as they produce meet
ReplyDeleteThe livestock themselves take energy to process beyond the energy that goes into their feed. And then there's refrigeration, including during transport, necessary for meat but not for grains and beans. And then there's the transportation itself.
A whole year's worth of showers takes about 5,200 gallons, but it takes 5,214 gallons to produce a single pound of beef.
If you gave up beef, you'd save over 300,000 gallons a year. A whole lot more than you could save by never showering.
Calories of energy per Calorie of food energy
Beef- 54
Wheat- 3
Corn - 3
Soybeans- 2
Gallons of water needed to produce one pound of food
Beef- 5214
Pork - 1630
Chicken- 815
Apples- 49
Tomatoes- 23
Lettuce- 23
Some people have proposed grass feeding the livestock instead of grain
Grass-fed beef isn't a solution, because that requires evenmore
land per unit of meat. And since the amount of land we have is fixed, what that really means is less meat. By going grass-fed, we'd have less meat, but still use just as much land. Animals are grain-fed because we can feed more animals that way.
What WE can do-- Without pressure from the consumer, the companies wont change their ways
Information, communication and education will play critical roles in enhancing a "willingness to act". With their strong and growing influence, consumers are likely to be the main source of commercial and political pressure "to push the livestock sector into more sustainable forms",
Livestock's long shadow
says. Already, growing awareness of threats to the environment is translating into rising demand for environmental services: "This demand will broaden from immediate concerns - such as reducing the nuisance of flies and odours - to intermediate demands for clean air and water, then to the broader, longer-term environmental concerns, including climate change and loss of biodiversity".
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAcid Precipitation
ReplyDeleteHow it happens
○ natural sources, such as volcanoes and decaying vegetation
○ man-made sources, primarily emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides resulting from fossil fuel combustion
○ these gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form various acidic compounds.
Facts
○ In the United States, roughly 2/3 of all sulfur dioxide and 1/4 of all nitrogen oxides come from electric power generation that relies on burning fossil fuels, like coal.
○ Wet/Dry deposition
Wet deposition refers to acidic rain, fog, and snow.
□ affects a variety of plants and animals
□ The strength of the effects depends on several factors, including how acidic the water is; the chemistry and buffering capacity of the soils involved; and the types of fish, trees, and other living things that rely on the water.
-acid chemicals may become incorporated into dust or smoke and fall to the ground through dry deposition, sticking to the ground, buildings, homes, cars, and trees.
□ Dry deposited gases and particles can be washed from these surfaces by rainstorms
□ runoff water makes the resulting mixture more acidic.
○ Effects on Forests
Researchers now know that acid rain causes slower growth, injury, or death of forests
Acid rain has been implicated in forest and soil degradation in many areas of the eastern U.S., particularly high elevation forests of the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Georgia that include areas such as the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain National Parks.
Other factors contribute to the overall stress of these areas, including air pollutants, insects, disease, drought, or very cold weather.
The impacts of acid rain on trees are due to the combined effects of acid rain and these other environmental stressors.
The Acid rain itself doesn't kill the trees. It simply weakens them and they are then killed by other threats
What we can do
· As a nation
Clean up smokestacks and exhaust pipes using coal containing less sulfur, washing the coal, and using devices called “scrubbers” to chemically remove the SO2 from the gases leaving the smokestack. Power plants can also switch fuels—for example, burning natural gas creates much less SO2 than burning coal.
Use alternative energy sources such as nuclear power, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy, and solar energy. Nuclear and hydropower are used most widely in the United States, while wind, solar, and geothermal energy have not yet been harnessed on a large enough scale to make them economically-feasible alternatives.
But we have to remember that all sources of energy have environmental costs as well as benefits - nothing is perfect
· Individual action
energy production causes the largest portion of the acid deposition problem
· Turn off lights, computers, and other appliances when you're not using them.
· Use energy-efficient appliances:
· Turn off lights, computers, and other appliances when you're not using them.
· Use energy-efficient appliances
· Carpool, use public transportation, or better yet, walk or bicycle whenever possible
Source:
http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/index.html
Recyclable toilet paper:
ReplyDelete7th generation toilet paper is one company that makes recyclable toilet paper - Made from 100% recycled paper and 80% is post consumer. It is whitened using chemicals without chlorine. There are no added dyes or fragrances. Safe for septic systems and ideal for low flow toilets. This company also make more things that are "green" like napkins and tissues and paper towels and laundry liquid type of stuff.
(http://www.seventhgeneration.com/Recycled-Toilet-Paper)
Another company called Marcal says that
It's almost certain that the roll of toilet paper you're using is made not of recycled fiber but from felled/virgin (clear cut) trees
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1903778,00.html
"Using toilet paper made from virgin trees is the paper-industry equivalent of driving a Hummer."
It is estimated that if every household in the U.S. replaced just one 500-sheet roll of virgin-fiber TP a year with a roll made from 100% recycled paper, nearly 425,000 trees would be saved annually
(http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/going-green-one-stall-at-a-time-1.1498638)
"Recycled material simply can't match the level of comfort that virgin fiber provides — and that U.S. consumers have come to expect so they won't go for a green product unless you can make it equal to or better than the conventional alternative"
(http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1903778,00.html)
One tree produces about 100 pounds (45 kg) of toilet paper and about 83 million rolls are produced per day.
An average American uses 50 pounds (23 kg) of toilet paper per year which is 50% more than Western countries or Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper
"My life begets waste, what does that say about my life? Is a waste of resources a sign of a waste of life?"
ReplyDeleteI thought about these questions and realized that as a high school girl I spend a lot of my time at school and a lot of the time I don't spend at school I spend studying or playing sports so that I can spend even more time at school when I go to college. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, on average an American worker spends 7.9 hours working on weekdays and 5.0 hours working weekends. An average American then spends 2.3 hours on housework, such as cleaning and working inside the house. Add on another 2.8 hours a day for "leisure time" which mostly includes TV or visiting with friends or hosting social events. On average, with parents with children between the ages of 6 and 17, 47 minutes were spent with their children. All other time was spent sleeping or eating or driving from one thing to another. In my opinion these statistics are most harmful to the children between the ages of 6 and 17. 47 minutes of family time is not enough. So much time is spent doing sports activities and school and school work at home that there just isn't time in the day to spend with family. A lot of families eat together as a family but that can only last so long because the child would have homework or want to watch tv or talk to friends. Too much time is spent on temporary happiness or things that don't even cause happiness, like school or work.
On Sunday I decided to walk to the park with my family instead of looking up statistics. I did look up how much time an average person spends time with their family because I know I never get to spend time with my family on a daily basis.
So instead of listing off statistics and ratios and numbers that hold no meaning, I decided to just tell you that story and tell you how happy I still am that I got to spend time outside on a beautiful day with my family and encourage you to do the same. I got all my homework done and I was happy while doing it. I even went outside to finish reading No Impact Man. I think the key to not wasting your life is to spend as much time doing things that matter to you, for me, spending time outside with family, instead of or before doing things you feel obligated to do. To waste less in my life I have decided to spend at least 2 hours every Sunday outside with my family, I challenge you to change your schedule and spend more time doing things you want to do, not need to do.
Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm
You may think that lack of clean is only an issue in third world countries, but even here in Chattanooga citizens face serious health risks because of pollution in the Chattanooga Creek.
ReplyDeletePollution in the Chattanooga Creek:
- The Chattanooga Creek has been a dumping ground for industries for over 100 years.
- Today, there are at least eighteen industries that release chemicals into the air or water.
- The creek has several unhealthy effects on South Chattanooga due to its toxic sediments and water.
- One of the major effects the creek has is on Howard School of Academics and Technology. When it rains, the creek floods the practice football field and the water runs into the weight room at the bottom of the gym. After the contaminated water is drained into the soil, the soil is then contaminated with the same things that are in the creek. The athletes are exposed to toxic substances and bacterial diseases. Some of the athletes have complained about getting bumps and rashes after practicing. After floods, the water at Howard School comes out a light brownish color, which prevents the students from using the water fountains and showers. After floods, classes cannot be held in the bottom of the gym for about a week.
So, what is the community doing to help? The Alton Park/Piney Woods Environmental Health and Justice Collaborative educates Chattanooga’s Youth about the pollution of the Chattanooga Creek.
Alton Park/Piney Woods Environmental Health and Justice Collaborative:
- The EHJC, started in September 2005.
- It is funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.
- The three primary partners are the Alton Park Development Corporation, Southside/Dodson Avenue Community Health Center, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- Its long-term objective is to facilitate and strengthen neighborhood empowerment and leadership, ongoing information exchange, health promotion, and policy improvements in regard to environmental health and justice – with a focus on industrial and commercial chemical contamination – in the AP/PW neighborhood of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- The EHJC hold classes that provided a chance for Chattanooga Youth to:
- Study and explore the history of the local community
- Learn more about what environmental research is and how to do it
- Learn more about environmental careers
- Learn more about issues facing people in the community
- Develop important leadership skills that carry over to every part of life
- Work cooperatively with other students to improve the community
Sources:
http://www.utc.edu/Faculty/John-Tucker/EJ/chatcreek.htm
http://chattanoogacreek.utk.edu/
http://chattanoogacreek.utk.edu/youth.htm
Every flush, 6 liters (1.6 gallons) of water is flushed down into the toilet → 14,234 liters per year (3,760)
ReplyDeleteShowerheads use only 2.5 gallons per minute
Washer
The largest daily user of water in the home is the toilet
Average household water use annually: 127, 400 gallons
Daily: 350 gallons
AT GPS: If every girl goes to the bathroom once during the day..
1040 gallons of water per day
5200 gallons of water per week
20800 gallons of water per month
To help reduce water usage:
Install low flow fixtures (use only 4 liters per flush)
Double flush, don’t flush unless you need to
If all houses switched to low flow toilets, water use would drop 30% and people would save $11.3 million every day, and more than $4 billion in a year.
Also, 5.4 billion billion gallons of water per day would day would be saved
http://www.toiletabcs.com/toilet-water-conservation.html
*Sorry for the weird formatting, but this is how it copied from word.
ReplyDeletePema Chodron
• Became a novice nun in 1974 and was ordained by his Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa when he came to England
• She met her root teacher and studied with him until he died
• At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received full monastic ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong
• Currently teaches in the US and Canada and plans to undergo solitary retreat
• From what I read, her teachings aren’t so much about faith and god, but humanity. She believes in the basic goodness possible in all human beings and that humans can be swayed against aggression with peace, love, and kindness.
• Her explanation of Buddha: he was an ordinary human being who was just like any other humans in the sense that he gets caught up in emotions. But Buddha was able to get past these automatic and unthinking emotions through the practice of mindfulness. He showed how humans can control their own reactions which will bring more peace and happiness to the world as a whole.
This is what Beavan is talking about in the conclusion of chapter 7. We, as humans, react with the masses or how society tells us to react. Because everyone hated Osama Bin Laden, we all hated him. But to bring peace into the world, we need to choose our own emotions.
Personal Example: All of my emotions match those of people around me. When I thought about it, I couldn’t think about a single emotion I had that wasn’t influenced by someone else.
• Sadness when someone dies, but so does everyone
• Anger when attacked, like in 9-11
• Anger towards my parents when I don’t agree with a rule they enforce…but why? They are just trying to protect me. Does it really make me that angry or am I just told to be angry when this happens?
9-11
• Culmination of hatred towards US due to aggression we had been imposing on other people
• Why are we so hated?
• We escalated the aggression insolvable because it’s gotten so much worse
• “Get back to vulnerable place of standing in the shoes of those who hates us and trying to bring some warmth and lovingness and compassion into the equation”
Halocarbons- human produced gases that all contain carbon, halogen which is fluorine, chlorine, and bromine
ReplyDelete-First synthesized in 1928
-used as propellants in aerosol cans, in refrigeration and air conditioning, and cleaning products
Airplane pollution
-CO2 makes up about 70% of aircraft engine emissions
-put carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere
-chemicals used to de-ice airplanes during winter storms are also dumped into waterways
-air traffic is expected to double nationally by 2017
-other than airplanes releasing pollutants into the air, they are the mode of transportation that uses the most fuel
-and powering a jet, although it may be a faster form of transportation, emits almost as much carbon dioxide as it would if each passenger drove a car to their destination
Bright side:
-Aircraft manufacturers, airports, and airlines are planning to reduce the amount of CO2 produced by new aircrafts over the next 15 years
-offset climate impact by buying “green tags” to pay for the pollution reductions elsewhere
Green tags
- Bonneville Environmental Foundation
- http://www.b-e-f.org/
- Represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy source
- Most cost over $100
- Regular people can purchase them
- Looked up a list, didn’t recognize any of the organizations though
Transportation in Chattanooga:
93% of people carpool or drive
Public transportation 2%
Walk or bike 3%
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Certificates
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/qa/105-12focus/focus.html
http://www.engineeringservicesoutsourcing.com/b/fe/2008/03/online-guide-to-airplane-pollution.html
http://cityinfo.local.com/city-information/chattanooga-tn-transportation
"Trees are like the lungs of the planet"
ReplyDeleteCould you live without your lungs? Well, neither can the planet.
Facts about trees:
• CO2 is one major elements for the greenhouse effect. Trees trap this CO2 from the atmosphere.
• "Trees reduce urban runoff and erosion by storing water and breaking the force of rain as it falls."
• Ever wonder why there are so many trees on the freeways? Well, they help reduce the noise pollution! Who knew?
• "The Arbor Day Foundation states that the overall effect of the shade created by planting a healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day!"
• Trees can help people suffering from ADHD. Research has shown that ADHD kids living around trees are calmer and better concentrated.
• Planting trees can increase your property values. People like to live in places with lots of trees in the surroundings. It makes them calmer and happier.
• Trees can reduce floods by slowing down the water.
• Trees provide a shelter for many birds
• Trees can help block strong winds.
So what can you do? Plant a tree!
Sources:
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/plantingtrees.html
http://www.arborday.org/kids/kidsdifEnv.cfm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPG/is_4_35/ai_71767533/
I was surfing net and fortunately came across this site and found very interesting stuff here. Its really fun to read. I enjoyed a lot. Thanks for sharing this wonderful information.
ReplyDeletehttp://clearviewsurfaces.com