Friday, December 11, 2009
Marine Life in Danger Regardless of Global Warming
Al Gore touched on fisheries in his speech about global warming and implied that marine life was in danger due to global warming. New studies suggest that independent of global warming the carbon dioxide that is being absorbed from the atmosphere by the ocean is raising the acidity of the ocean. This is relevant because if the acidity raises too much it could pose a huge threat to shellfish. Their shells will literally disintegrate if the pH level gets too high. The pH level has been gradually rising but has begun to raise even more in the last 200 years. This article predicts that by the end of the century shellfish could be extinct if this pattern continues. This article can be found at science daily.com. It compares the disintegrating of the shells to chalk in vinegar. This is a scary thought because while it would not happen to us the same way, these creatures would literally just disintegrate. How can we let this happen. I found it interesting that Al Gore touched on fisheries but not so much on this because I think it is more attention grabbing to say that the fish could literally disintegrate. On the issue of fisheries I almost feel that it is selfish of people in developed countries to be buying fish and taking so much of the oceans supply when developing countries completely rely on fishing in some cases. Our demand is literally taking food out of starving peoples mouths when all we look at it as is another meal or a delicacy in some cases. This is a silly problem because it could be solved so easily with some regulation. I doubt that it will ever be completely regulated because the sad truth is that people can be truly greedy and just want to get as much as they can for themselves.
E.D.
As a child who attended the Earth school, i remember one of our special days that we celebrated being Earth day. This is a day that a lot of people are not aware that it does exist and this may be the reason why we treat our environment the way we do and why the earth may soon be in shambles. Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22nd, and this day was created to inspire awareness and appreciation for the planet we live on. It was founded in the year 1970 by a man named Gaylord Nelson who was in fact a senator of the united states. The symbol that u can see along this blog is the symbol for the day which is a combination of E and O representing environment and organisms. On this special day in school we were asked to plant trees, make everything natural, and were forbidden or at least try to not kill any creature. We enjoyed the earth and were taught it's importance. I believe if the world as a whole recognized this day and celebrated it like we do other holidays there would be a major difference in how we treated the earth and all of our natural resources.
New media spread the word on H1N1
“When you think of the Boston Public Health Commission, you probably think of a suit, very strict, very straight to the point,’’ said Ethan McCoy, a 22-year-old who stars in the YouTube video, which has drawn nearly 5,000 views. “When you loosen it up, and people realize the people relaying the message are from their community, they’re going to sing it to themselves over and over - ‘I’ll cough in my sleeve’ - and they’ll start coughing in their sleeve.’’
I thought after watching this video was every useful to spread the information to the public about the swine flu and the vaccination H1N1.
Importance of college education
Many students after high school think of starting an income. They may be repelled by the rising cost of tuition while it is true that the higher education is one of the largest expenses that we will ever face. The main reason of going to college is for better opportunities. As of today high school graduates are not able to find a high paying jobs like they used to. I feel like US has been changed from manufacturing based economy to to an economy based on knowledge and it serves as way to have better opportunities. There are many other reasons why college education is important too. Students will have the opportunity to read books and listen to lecture of top experts in the field. This encourages students to think, ask questions and explore new ideas.The more connections we are collected during the college career helps us a lot when we start looking for a job. (http://www.collegeview.com/importance_of_college_education.html)
Some people find college boring and they start doing their own business like Bill Gates. And some other become successful in life like Former US president like George.w.Bush. But those are risky. What if Microsoft wasn't success?. What would Bill gates has done?. I want to become a Doctor and I know without going to college, I can fulfill my dream. So education is everything that we need. Its not something tat we gonna lose after a while. We need it forever. Like Michelle Obama says, it is cool to be smart.
Some people find college boring and they start doing their own business like Bill Gates. And some other become successful in life like Former US president like George.w.Bush. But those are risky. What if Microsoft wasn't success?. What would Bill gates has done?. I want to become a Doctor and I know without going to college, I can fulfill my dream. So education is everything that we need. Its not something tat we gonna lose after a while. We need it forever. Like Michelle Obama says, it is cool to be smart.
House Passes Financial Regulation Bill, 223 to 202
Today the house of representatives passed the Financial Regulation Bill, 223 to 202. According to the New York Times, "It creates a new agency to oversee consumer lending, establishes new rules for transactions that contributed to the meltdown, and seeks to reduce the threat that one or two huge companies on the verge of collapse could bring down the economy".
We need this bill to make sure major companies like Wal-mart doesn't take over our economy. We need to bring companies to the US. We need to go back to how we were a little while ago, and start to be the producers rather than the consumer. The US became a dependent nation and used to be a very independent nation. Now almost everything we buy is from overseas.
As we mentioned many times in class, we need to start buying from local farmers, and corner stores, so we can circulate the money that we are spending. We need to make sure that money can remain in our community instead of this money going into the pockets of rich CEOs of major companies. We should all start to buy little things we need from the cornor stores and from the farmers market and see how we can build relationships with our producers and how they look out for you. If you continue to buy something from the farmers, you can actually tell those farmers what you want, and the next time they have it available they will save it for u.
Lets hope this new bill brings the best for our economy.
We need this bill to make sure major companies like Wal-mart doesn't take over our economy. We need to bring companies to the US. We need to go back to how we were a little while ago, and start to be the producers rather than the consumer. The US became a dependent nation and used to be a very independent nation. Now almost everything we buy is from overseas.
As we mentioned many times in class, we need to start buying from local farmers, and corner stores, so we can circulate the money that we are spending. We need to make sure that money can remain in our community instead of this money going into the pockets of rich CEOs of major companies. We should all start to buy little things we need from the cornor stores and from the farmers market and see how we can build relationships with our producers and how they look out for you. If you continue to buy something from the farmers, you can actually tell those farmers what you want, and the next time they have it available they will save it for u.
Lets hope this new bill brings the best for our economy.
Cry for help
I was searching the web and came across this disturbing headline "Enslaved children rescued from GAP sweatshop." In west Bengal 14 children were rescued ranging from ages 8-14. The building where they worked had rooms crammed with embroidery tables. The building smelled of a dirty bathroom and they all lived, ate and slept in these crammed rooms. One of the boys who were rescued had open wounds on his face and had a severe case of chicken pox, and had not been taken to a doctor. These children who were sold through trafficking are unpaid and malnourished, and sadly are working for one of the biggest clothing companies, GAP. The GAP has admitted to condoning and participating in child-labor, but the question is when will they put a stop to it. With the average child being 10-years old why is a corporation that is so large participating in this cruel act, and why are people still buying from this company. When we purchase items we never realize the process behind it and who makes what. We never consider that these items are sold for way more than what the people who are making it are getting paid. Most of the products sold in the United States are not made in the states, and with corrupt governments and their lack of care for the children and their well-being but rather the money they will gain from it, there are no consequences. There is no one listening to the cries of these young children. Who will hear them and when?
leavers and takers.
Leavers and Takers in the novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, refers to primates and civilized people respectively. Charles A. Weiss, does a great job describing the difference between the two, in his brief take on Ishmael (http://www.mobar.org/journal/1997/mayjun/prezpage.htm).
He says "The premise of the Leaver story is that man belongs to the world. Right from the beginning, everything that ever lived belonged to the world — and that's how things came to be this way in the Leaver culture. The single cell creatures that swarm in the ancient ocean belonged to the world, and because they did, everything that followed came into being. Those club-finned fish off shore of the continents belonged to the world and because they did, the amphibians eventually came into being; and because the amphibians belonged to the world, the reptiles eventually came into being; and because the reptiles belonged to the world, the mammals eventually came into being; and because the mammals belonged to the world, the primates came into being; and eventually man as we know him today came into being. That is the way the Leavers lived for three million years — as if they belonged to the world. Under this premise, creation goes on forever. Each species has the opportunity to evolve to whatever state possible. Our culture, the Taker's view as to how things came to be this way, provides the rationalization for what appears to be the inexorable destruction of the community of life, including the devastation of the rain forest, the deterioration of the ozone layer, the pollution of the oceans and the disappearance of dozens of species of life every day."
I couldn't find any better words to explain this. We, the takers, want to find the reason behind everything. We have the brain capacity to do this. The primates didn't have the ability to research the history and discover the fossils and find the missing link, and map out the Earth from 4 billion years ago until now. In our Evolution class we were discussion the origins of life, and we were discussing how old the Earth earth really is and our teacher was trying to put it into an analogy that we can all understand. He, Professor McKeon, gave the example of taking a road trip that starts at California and ends at the top og the empire state building. This was very interesting because he along the way listed the important events that took place in the world. I think this was a great way for him to get his point across. His point was that the Earth is waaayyy older than us, and that the amount of humans have been on this planet is nothing compared to the age of Earth. In his analogy, middle of the empire state building is when humans came into being, and the last 3/4 of the bell tower, of the empire state building represents the last 20 years, which is how old we actually are.
Humans have been on this planet for not that long, but we made a huge impact on the development, and the shape of this world now. Some are positive but mostly we concentrate on the negative effects that the humans caused in the environment. Primates didn't care about what happens in the world and whether the water supply was depleting, all they cared about was saving themselves from predators. We concentrate on ourselves a lot but we do focus on the environment as a whole, because we want our future generations to survive.
He says "The premise of the Leaver story is that man belongs to the world. Right from the beginning, everything that ever lived belonged to the world — and that's how things came to be this way in the Leaver culture. The single cell creatures that swarm in the ancient ocean belonged to the world, and because they did, everything that followed came into being. Those club-finned fish off shore of the continents belonged to the world and because they did, the amphibians eventually came into being; and because the amphibians belonged to the world, the reptiles eventually came into being; and because the reptiles belonged to the world, the mammals eventually came into being; and because the mammals belonged to the world, the primates came into being; and eventually man as we know him today came into being. That is the way the Leavers lived for three million years — as if they belonged to the world. Under this premise, creation goes on forever. Each species has the opportunity to evolve to whatever state possible. Our culture, the Taker's view as to how things came to be this way, provides the rationalization for what appears to be the inexorable destruction of the community of life, including the devastation of the rain forest, the deterioration of the ozone layer, the pollution of the oceans and the disappearance of dozens of species of life every day."
I couldn't find any better words to explain this. We, the takers, want to find the reason behind everything. We have the brain capacity to do this. The primates didn't have the ability to research the history and discover the fossils and find the missing link, and map out the Earth from 4 billion years ago until now. In our Evolution class we were discussion the origins of life, and we were discussing how old the Earth earth really is and our teacher was trying to put it into an analogy that we can all understand. He, Professor McKeon, gave the example of taking a road trip that starts at California and ends at the top og the empire state building. This was very interesting because he along the way listed the important events that took place in the world. I think this was a great way for him to get his point across. His point was that the Earth is waaayyy older than us, and that the amount of humans have been on this planet is nothing compared to the age of Earth. In his analogy, middle of the empire state building is when humans came into being, and the last 3/4 of the bell tower, of the empire state building represents the last 20 years, which is how old we actually are.
Humans have been on this planet for not that long, but we made a huge impact on the development, and the shape of this world now. Some are positive but mostly we concentrate on the negative effects that the humans caused in the environment. Primates didn't care about what happens in the world and whether the water supply was depleting, all they cared about was saving themselves from predators. We concentrate on ourselves a lot but we do focus on the environment as a whole, because we want our future generations to survive.
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