Looking Back on Blogger

Overall, the blog writing was a very positive experience for me. I enjoyed writing on my own blog and also enjoyed reading other peoples blogs and their thoughts on different topics. After reading over most of my blogs, starting from the beginning and moving toward the last blogs I posted, I started seeing my own thoughts change over time. In the beginning I saw myself very skeptical of all the issues and trying to fight all the facts with my own, low factual mindset. Over the course time, I was brought to the attention of many different environmental issues and what is going on with the world around me and also the food I eat every day. I started opening up to all the different facts. You could see this in my blog writings because by the end I was more open to the information that was being presented to me.

The quality of my blogs started out very strong and I believe they continued to stay that way with an exception of a few. The one that sticks out to me as the worst post I posted was, Lost Mountain Part 3. I believe this was my worst post because I took a quote out of its context and used it to explain how Reece was a sympathetic type mind. I was kind of carless with my pickings and I believe that hurt the credibility of my post. I do believe that I finished strong with that post on the other hand by bringing the reader into a first person type of mindset. I discussed a little bit about the third country and how if Americans would go there and live without showers and air conditioning, they could come back and go right back to the way of their living before they left with no second thoughts. I believe one of my strongest posts was, Food Inc. Part 1. I believe this was my best post because every time I read this post it brings me right back to the movie and all the horrible things I saw as I watched it. I think I did a really good job on explaining the horrible things that happens to our food before it gets to the grocery store. I also believe that I did a fantastic job incorporating the book and some interesting facts it brought to the table.

With all this writing you would think I would consider the fact it is open for the public to read, but honestly I did not even realize it was open to anybody until half way through the quarter. All the writing I did through this course was mainly done for the professor to read as well as the students in my class to comment on. Throughout my writing, I would think about what my thoughts were and what other in the class would think of them as well as wondering what they would write as their comments on the material. I was always excited to come to class to read other students writing as what their thoughts were on different topics. Sometimes, I would even read other students posts on my free time when I had nothing else to do.

The comments on the posts were a very important part of the class, but I do not believe that had a huge impact on what I would write or other students would write in their responses. I believe having others reading my posts encouraged me to actually read the readings fully so I did not have a blog that was completely off subject. I very much enjoyed commenting on other students blogs because it was a time for me to let others see where I agreed or disagreed with their comments. I also enjoyed reading what others posted on my blogs and looked forward to having a couple posts on my blog because I like to see what others think about my writing, truthfully. I believe having both classes commenting on the posts encouraged people to write their true thoughts rather than sugarcoating information because they potentially had never even met the person they are commenting for. This was overall my favorite part of this course because it was a way for me to feel as if I was contributing my part as a student as well as a peer.

Argument Essay Outline

I. Introduction
a. Thesis: Climate change is a huge issue that many people do not know much about. Climate change is mainly caused by natural occurring events within the environment and also a small amount due to human activity.
II. Mars
a. data is evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun (Mars Melts Hints at Solar)
b. scientists that say the main cause of the climate change on Mars is due to the Wobble in its orbit around the sun. (Same as Earths)
III. Greenhouse Gases
a. The average global temperature and concentration of carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases) have fluctuated on a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years as the Earth’s position relative to the sun has varied (What is Global Warming).
IV. Human Activity
a. Greenhouse gases
b. The amount of climate change effected by humans
V. Conclusion
a. Restate the thesis and reiterate the facts that climate change on Earth is mainly caused by the natural environment rather than mainly caused by human activity. Also saying that humans also effect the climate just not nearly as much as the natural environment.

Bibliography
Lovett, Richard. "Arctic Ice Melting Much Faster Than Predicted". National Geographic. February 5, 2010 .
Naymushin, Ilya. "Effects of Global Warming". National Geographic. February 5, 2010 .
Nicklen, Paul. "What is Global Warming". National Geographic. February 5, 2010 .
Perlman, Howard. "Glaciers and icecaps: Storehouses of freshwater". Science of a Changing World. February 5, 2010 .
Ravilious, Kate. "Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says". National Geographic. February 5, 2010 .

Food, Inc. Part 3

After reading part three of Food, Inc., I truly feel that I will be more cautious of what I eat and where I get my food from. After watching the movie I had a couple thoughts about what food to buy when I was at the store the next day. After reading more facts and information about different foods and where they come from and what I can do to eat healthier, I believe I will be giving it a shot. First of all, I believe watching the movie beforehand has me really engaging in the book reading points that the movie made. After the book restates the movies points it goes into more detail and gives more facts about the different situations. The one that stuck with me the most from this reading is on page 188, when it says, “The industrial pig growers are even trying to find the stress gene so it can be taken out of the hogs DNA. That way the pigs can be abused but won’t be stressed out about it. Then they can be crammed into even tighter quarters without cannibalizing and getting sick.” This statement is really disheartening that I am eating these pigs that are being transformed everyday to be different so they can produce more food for the people. Another thing I liked about this reading is that it gives you a way of going about trying to eat healthier or “opting out.” It gives you different ways to no participate in the unhealthy lifestyle that is being pressed on us every day by saying we need to learn how to cook. It talks about how some people don’t even know how to cook their own hamburgers. This is a scary thought because in the old days women cooked everything for their families and received much of their food from their farm and gardens. Growing your own gardens is another way to stop eating the unhealthy food served by massive organizations. The book also says to buy from local farmers because then the money would be going to organic farmers rather than industrial farmers hopefully one day ceasing their existence. And another interesting way is to buy what’s in season.
With all this information I am probably not going to go out and plant my own garden, but I will try to invest in organic foods and try to cook some more food rather than going to the quick heat and eat types of food. I am very happy were had to read this book because it opens my eyes to what is really going on with all the “healthy food” that I buy from the supermarkets on a weekly basis. I am definitely going to be much more cautious of what I will be feeding my body from here on forward.

Food, Inc. Part 2

The second part of the Food Inc., is very informative on specific facts and statistics which was kind of confusing to me in the beginning. The Ethanol part of the reading was distant to me because I have never heard or cared so much about these issues before. Reading this though, had me realizing how ignorant some of the government plans are, looking at the fact that they would rather spend all the money on turning corn into food for our cars rather than feeding us humans especially the poor people that are out looking for food. Another thing that was a mind opener to me was the exposure to pesticides. I cannot believe that eight industry-leader baby foods reveal the presence of 16 pesticides, including 3 carcinogens (p.103). This is very frightening considering that chemicals are up to 10 times more toxic to children than adults. It also said that children from ages two to four have concentrations of pesticide residues six times higher in conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables compared to those eating organic foods. This is unbelievable to me because a person would think that having a child eat any fruit or vegetable would be good for their health. After reading about this I definitely am interested in the solutions of organic foods. It said that organic farms create healthier soil; converting 10,000 medium-sized farms to organic would store as much carbon in the soil as we would save in emissions if we took one million cars off the road. This is a great statistic to me and makes me wonder why the government is talking about laws to create more organic farms. This is a huge fact to me and should be an eye opener to the government to create some law that would help the global warming issues as well as the health to our people.

Research Argument Essay

My topic for my research papers has been Global Warming or to be more specific Climate Change. I will be taking the side of Climate change is due to the environment more so than human behavior. I believe that there are many question marks about human activity being the main reason for climate change and I will like to expose those. This does not mean that I believe that humans do not cause any of the climate change I just believe that it is not mainly caused by human activity as it is caused by the environment. One of my main issues would have to be that Mars is going through a global warming the same time the Earth is.

Food Inc. 1

The film Food Inc., has not necessarily changed my eating habits on a regular basis, but when I went to the store following that movie I did buy some organic food. When I was at Wal-Mart buying eggs, I went straight to the organic section for them because all I could think about what the chickens in the film. In the film, they discussed how chicken are fed to grow almost much faster than a normal chicken so there legs can’t even hold themselves up for more than one or two steps. Another part in the movie that was really mind changing was the cows and ecoli. The cows are fed corn so they develop much bigger and with more meat. The ecoli comes from the cows eating the corn because they are grazers, which means they should only be eating grass. The ecoli develops in the cow’s body and the farmers do not care because they have to find ways to have their cows growing much faster and larger than others so the top business will keep using their cows. This is a terrible thought because many people have died from this disease and the only thing the business did was find a chemical that can be put on the meat that will kill the ecoli, instead of just having the cows eat there naturally given diet. And finally the last thing that comes to mind about the film is the corn. The corn industry is much larger than I ever imaged considering that corn is an ingredient in pretty much anything I eat. When watching the movie my neighbor was drinking an iced tea which was even one of many things corn is chemically changed to create. I would think quickly by saying that this is a good thing for the economy because corn is so cheap and we could be getting it at a surplus, but thinking about all the different chemicals in my body from the transformations makes me sick. When the film was showing all the different types of food that corn is a part of I pretty much saw my grocery list flash before my eyes . The scary thing here is that I have no control over this problem because pretty much all food has a different chemically made corn in it.

Not only did the film show the negative aspects of the health issues this humans and animals, but the book did the same. The book focused in a little more on the human’s health issues rather the animals but over all they both were explaining different negative facts about the issue. One issue explained in the book is that cows that graze have much better benefits for people to eat rather than the cows that are fed corn all their lives. The omega-3 fatty acids are much better for people than the chemicals and chance of ecoli that people get when eating a cow that is fed corn. The film makes this much clearer about the ecoli when you can see a veterinarian inside the cow pulling out the corn that is not yet digested in the cow. The book on the other hand is better in its own way because they give more facts about the different omega-3 fatty acid you get when eating a grazing cow. The quote that triggered all my thoughts was, “beef and milk produced from cattle raised entirely on pasture (where they ate only grass) have higher levels of beneficial fats, including omega-3 fatty acids, which may prevent heart disease and strengthen the immune system," on page 22 of the text.

A Forest Returns

This film was an inspirational film because it talked about all the success the Wayne National Forest has had over the years. It did not make the government out to be the bad guys like many things do when it come to protecting the environment. This film talked about how the government did things right and created jobs by having people plant trees to create this magnificent forest. This movie was very interesting and had me leaving wanting to go out and do my part of helping the environment and plant a tree. This film overall was very informative in a positive way that gives people hope that we can all do our part in helping the environment.

Research Prospectus and Bibliography

Global Warming has been a major issue that I have been hearing about for the last ten years or so of my life. Some people say that the human activities of the emission of greenhouse gases are causing the earth to warm. On the other hand, people are saying that global warming is a hoax and is not being caused by humans and actually an increase in carbon dioxide has increased plant growth. After hearing people around me talking about global warming so much I decided to look more to the facts and find out what really are the issues of global warming, if any.

I truly come into the debate undecided because environmental issues are not one of my top priorities to learn more about. This statement does have me coming of as selfish, but this topic has been coming up more recently, which in turn, I am finding myself looking for answers about the specific topic of global warming. Global warming has actually been changed to global climate change in the recent years because scientists have found that the world is changing but not necessarily warming.

One of the main issues with climate change is the potential killing off of animals, humans, or just the environment in general. There is an article that states, “Rising carbon emissions might kill off the oceans coral reefs by 2050, warns an international coalition of scientists (Scientists).” One of the main reasons the death of the coral reef is so important is because according to studies, coral reef fisheries in Asia feed an estimate of one billion people (Scientists). This is definitely a serious issue if this is the case, because not only are humans losing a source of food but the coral reef is home to many different types of fish which would most likely go extinct.

One the other side of the issue, an argument is, “Atmospheric CO2 fertilizes plants. Higher CO2 enables plants to grow faster and larger and to live in drier climates (Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric CO2).” The main reason this is a good argument is because plants provide food for animals, which in so doing is also enhanced. The amount and range of plant and animal life have both amplified during the past half-century.

With this debate going on and the points from both sides being given, you can see that this is a tough topic to side on. With many different reasons for climate change being caused by humans and bad for the environment a person could easily jump on that side of the debate. But listening to the other side of the argument and why climate change is not caused by humans and CO2 increases helps the environment people could easily find themselves on this side of the debate.


Bibliography

Robinson , Arthur B., Noah E. Robinson, and Willie Soon. Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide. Cave Junction, Oregon: Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 2007.

Rowlands , Ian H. . "Ozone Layer Depletion and Global Warming ". Peace and Change July 1991: 260-281.

Scannell, Leila , and Grouzet Fredrick. The Metacongnition of Climate Change . British Columbia; Canada: Elsevier Ltd., 2009.

Scientists: Global warming could kill off reefs by 2050." USA Today [No Volume/Issue] (2007) [No Pagination].

David Maywhoors Presentation

When I was listening to David Maywhoors presentation I was finding myself confused at some of his points. I believe he was very educated about his point of view but he was so set on not touching the forests at all. He would say that he doesn’t want to do anything to the forests but we as humans need roads for transportation and also need the wood for our houses. I understand the point that he wants to save the environment and leave the forests alone all together but in reality we need to use the wood from the forests, unless us humans can find another way to build houses and fires without wood. I enjoyed listening to David Maywhoors presentation; I just believe that he was to one sided about a majority of his topics. The one thing that I did agree with Mr. Maywhoor about was the burning of the fires should be prohibited. I do feel as if the parts of the forest we do not need to touch we should leave alone and not burn them to clear the land to start over fresh. The points he was making about this topic I definitely agreed with.

Research Prospectus: Global Warming

With the Research Prospectus project presented to me, I immediately thought of the idea to investigate and do extensive research about the different thoughts on global warming. I hear many different problems with global warming and how humans are killing the earth little by little everyday, but I want to know if it is really us humans or if it is just the cycle the earth goes through. The say that global warming is happening, but where did the great lakes come from? I believe they came from global warming melting glaciers to create the so called great lakes. If you look at maps from many years ago and then take a look at the maps from today, you would see the continents sifted and changed sizes over time. I have read that we are now starting to go through a mini ice age, so after reading this I would like to go find out the facts and see if this is true and why the media is so set on trying to help global warming.

My main point of this paper will try to use information from both sides of the issue to find out which side is being backed up with better or more facts. For instance, for the side trying to prevent global warming’s main points would be on the side of the emissions of greenhouse gases. The side saying that global warming is a hoax would say that global warming is caused by the environment and humans have some, but little to do with it.

Lost Mountain Part 3

Wendell Berry discusses two different mindsets, Rational and Sympathetic. He discusses a rational mind as the people that are not worried about the environment as much as they are about the profit they are making and the economy they live in. He goes on to talk about how the sympathetic minds are the people that are all about the environment and the wild. He explains that rational people to “think like the mountain,” or in other words look at the entire environment as a whole. He, you could say is a rational mind by the way he discusses it and makes it out to be a more healthy way of living.

Reece shows his sympathetic mind by showing his frustration on page 184 by saying, “It’s already f***** up anyway. Why not mine it.” He is saying that this is the way these ignorant people think. He discusses how the ignorant people already trashed the mountain and then further believe since it is already trashed why not mine it. By showing his frustration this is a clear time where Reece shows his sympathetic mind. Another time he shows his sympathetic mind is when Peter Edelman was giving his speech, he was discussing the benefits of the level land and how he believes the way they are mining is a great way and hope to be doing it ten years from now. Reece then writes how he could have mentioned forest fragmentation, species loss, flooding, and the sham of reclamation. He is showing here how he is thinks first about the environment rather than profit or the economy.

There are many great quotes that Reece said in the conclusion but the one that keeps coming back to me is, “In America today, the environment is almost a wholly other. We are over here, and it is over there. We are in the air-conditioned mall; it is hot and crawling with bugs. And anyone who prefers the out-there is an environmentalist, that oddly dressed guy who thinks this diminutive planet might be worth saving (p.230-231).” I also agree with Reece on this quote because Americans do think in this manner about the environment. Americans feel as if they could not live without air-conditioning in their houses because it would not comfortable. If Americans were to switch lives with people in a 3rd world country, we would quickly see how spoiled and dependent on clean water and air-conditioned building Americans are. This is not to say it is wrong because anyone that is raised with the privileges Americans have would all feel deprived going to other a 3rd world country and living without the necessities we have here in America. I do believe that Americans can give some of there living styles up for the better of the world’s environment.

Flow E.C.

After attending the movie Flow on Monday, I have had many different feeling about the information the movie provided. The movie made many points about the water supply running out for people to drink and all the harmful chemicals we are polluting the water supply with. If I do not recall, I was taught growing up that water goes through a cycle and is not capable of running out on us.

The arguments throughout the movie had people saying that it was the scariest movie they have ever seen, and feel they need to help in some ways to protect the remaining water we have on earth. The movie also stated, at the rate we are consuming the water; it could kill off humans in the next twenty years. After hearing all this, I just kept coming back to the thoughts that humans have already found different types of technology to clean the salt water for drinking water. I just did not find this portion of the movie very life threatening or “scary” as others would say.

On the other hand, the film discussed the fact that humans have been polluting the waters with harmful chemicals. They discussed a specific situation going on in poor countries over seas where Coca Cola has built manufacturing plants that are using up all the water supply and also polluting the water supply that many different groups of people use for drinking water in there communities. This I do not deal with first hand, but knowing that companies are polluting water supply that people are drinking out of because they do not have enough money to pay for clean water is wrong. They instead are threatening people’s lives and on top of that charging them for the water that they are in a sense taking from the communities.

Lost Mountain pt. 2

After reading the next section in Lost Mountain, I find myself siding more and more with the idea of banning coal mining. This second part was really moving in many ways, first starting of with the flyrock. Flyrock is everything that scatters when the explosives are detonated (P. 88). The example that was the scariest to me was about the older couple that was sitting around their pool and a massive bolder came flying into the pool and cracking the cement underneath. This presents a huge problem because the coal mining companies are not always following the rules about staying a certain distance from residence, which in turn will most likely kill humans as well as all the animals already being killed.

Since I am on the topic of human death, another huge problem that was presented was humans killing themselves off. Krupa said, “With our levels of population and rates of consumption, it’s just a matter of time before we kill ourselves off.” With the rate that people are demanding coal for energy, the environment is taking a huge punishment and will soon be so bad that we will no longer be able to live with a clean environment, especially the water.

The final thing that was the most important to me was the coal slurry impoundment that broke through an underground mine shaft and spilled over 300 million gallons of black, toxic sludge into the headwaters of Coldwater Creek and Wolf Creek (P.129). What worries me about this the most is that after 10 years there is still sludge and the President of the Kentucky Coal Association had claimed that coal is as harmless as mud. This just brings to mind how many different ideas coal mining companies come up with to try to influence the public that coal is clean and not a threat to the environment.

After reading this much of Lost Mountain, I am already changing my initial thoughts about using coal as a primary source of energy and now believe that we must find different ways to create energy that is not such a threat to the environment, and especially to the humans future on earth.

Lost Mountain #1

Eric Reece has very strong feelings about leaving the forest of Appalachia intact. He gives many different examples of why he believes what he does. Some of these examples are the Appalachia Mountains are not supposed to look like the western deserts in Arizona. Also, he talks about the wildlife and how different types of birds and mammals populations are taking a huge hit with the destruction of the mountain tops. He goes into talking about how the how the forest demonstrates an intelligence that has been honing for 290 million years. He states how he believes that the forests economy is superior to the human economy because it has a design and also says that the forest knows what it is doing. He later explained the scene when he snuck onto the worksite to see the workers bulldozing the trees down one by one. He explained how it looked and the saddening environment it was turning into.
In the reading Eric Reece was explaining the activist and counter activists and what different signs read which one caught my attention the most, “If it can’t be grown then it must be mined.” With this statement the author was trying to make a statement on how ignorant people can be. This statement means a couple of different things to me. First of all, if money cannot be grown then mining is creating jobs for people to make money and also if energy cannot be grown then it needs coal (or mining) to create the energy we need to live our complex lives. This is not necessarily the best way to look at this issue for the environmental side of things, but for the economical view it is the better way.
It would be very difficult for me to relate myself to these issues because I do not live near the Appalachian Mountains to see what is going on or what is being destroyed. I do believe if I lived near there to where I could see the destruction of the mountain; these problems would be running through my head more often. Another problem that brings me to the environmentalist side of things is the effect on the wildlife. The coal mining and mountain top removal is killing mass amounts of wildlife which I believe needs to have a law against or different ways to prevent this from happening.

Clean Coal

When looking into both, This is Reality and America’s Power, my first impression was that Americas Power was set up in a more formal layout. With America’s Power, the site was set up to where the readers come to find out that majority of America’s power sources come from coal and also that coal is the cheapest form of energy. Because it is set up more formally than, This is Reality, it seems more credible. This is reality, is more informal and is not set up as well as it should be. The first page on this site is called “Reality Fly By” and on the page there is nothing but a signup pop-up on the bottom corner. This pushed my first impression to thinking this site is not as credible as America’s Power.

The audience for both of these sites is hard to pinpoint because everyone uses coal for energy. I would say that America’s Power is directing more of its attention to home owners because they have a game on the website that shows where possessions of homeowners energy comes from, for example, they have a washing machine that uses lots of energy which would need coal otherwise it would be a costly wash. This is Reality, is even broader when it comes to the audience because they are just looking for anyone that is willing to read the site and inform them about the bad issues of coal.

Seeing how “America’s Power” is sponsored by the ACCCE, and This is Reality is sponsored by the Alliance for Climate protection, I would have to say that I believe America’s Power seems more credible. I find America’s Power to be more persuasive because in this webpage it shows were all the energy sources come from and how coal is the least expensive. Also, it shows that there has been a ton of money spent trying to clean up the coal plants and the pollutions. I also like the example that talked about either you plug in your car, which is “going green”, or use fossil fuel from other countries, but the problem is either you use coal for the energy for your plug in cars or you pollute the environment with burning fossil fuels.