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.