Advocacy Project: Household Emissions

For this post I was interested in seeing how many chemicals my car put into the air. I found something better. I found the "Household Emissions Calculator". This calculator asks you a few simple questions about how much energy you use. It takes this information and tells you how much CO2 your activities put into the air. After calculating how much pollution you create, I gives sugestions on how to cut back. It does this by asking if you will cut back on a certain activity and by how much. Not only does it show how much the CO2 level goes down, It shows how much money you could save.

About this Calculator
What I like about this calculator is that it shows how much money you save and give reasonable ways you could reduce your emissions. Something I didn't really like is that it dosen't get into anything really specific. One thing I would have liked to have seen them ask was the year of the car you drive. This would be helpful to know what kind of emissions devices your car has like a catalytic converter.

What I'm Going to do
One thing I'm going to do is star playing less video games and just go for a walk or a bike ride. Anothing thing I will do is drive my motorcycle a lot more than my car. It gets way better gas mileage and pollutes less. For the short trips, I will just ride my bicycle.

One thing I have already been trying to do is buy Energy Star Appliances. I recently bought an Energy Star certified computer.




Overall, I think this is a very useful site to show you how much you activities affect the earth.

Reflection Weeks 11&12

Week 11

This week, we watched the documentary "Unnatural Causes". This showed a city and it's different neighborhoods. It showed the education level of the people living in the areas and their standard of living. It showed that the higher the education, the higher the standard of living usualy is. It was sad to see some of the problems some of the people living in the poorer areas faced.


Week 12

This week, we had Shar as a guest teacher. It was a really fun class and I think she did a great job. I think we had a really interesting discussion about the hole in the ozone closing. After reading chapter 20 in our books, we discussed how the information might not be accurate.

Reflection: Weeks 9& 10

Week 9
This week in class we discussed taking pictures. We talked about the basics of picture taking like how to use your camera, getting the right angle, and watching the background so that a person in the picture dosen't look like they're wearing a hat. something else we discussed was getting permission to use people in your pictures. I confused me a little bit.

Week 10
NO CLASS

Reflection: Weeks 7& 8

Week 7

This week we watched the documentary "Green". This documentary was about an area on the Mississippi river known as "cancer alley". This is a stretch about 100 miles long with many chemical factories located along the river. It showed some of the people living in the area and some of the problems that they face. One of the biggest problems is cancer. This is how the area got its name.

Week 8

This week we watched the documentaty "Thirst". I was gone for the first day of the video, and the second day didn't go so well either. What I did see is that this video focused on the privitization of water. It also showed that people are trying to treat water as more of an asset that a right to life.

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

The product that I use is Crest Fluoride anticavity toothpaste, whitening plus scope extreme.

Ingredients in this product are linked to:
Cancer
Developmental/reproductive toxicity
Violations, restrictions & warnings
Allergies/immunotoxicity

I found this very surprising. I wouldn't have ever guessed that there would be chemicals linked to cancer in my toothpaste. I looked at the list of chemicals in this product and some of them were rated at a 9 out of 10. Even with these chemicals, my toothpaste was still only a 5 out of 10 on the scale. It's hard to imagine what's in the products that are rated a 10. Something else I find scary is the the warning on the lable says "Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age". This is the stuff we're putting in our mouths. It also says that if you swallow more than what you use for brushing, you should contact poison control. Can't we find something better to clean our teeth? I think that I will probably use this site for some research before I buy any new cosmetic products.

Reflection: Weeks 13& 14

Week 13

On tuesday, we watch a little video called "The Story of Stuff". It had a lot of information for such a short video. It showed the cycle of goods being produced and who it affects along the way. On thursday, we had our walk through Bagley. It was really fun actualy learning how to use a compass. There was a lot more to it than I thought.

Week 14

This week, we did a fun activity. Dr.V had a bunch of objects, and we had to think of a bunch of different uses for them. We realized that preaty much everything can be used for a candle holder and a candy dish.

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/ THOMAS

Goal: Promote health for all through a healthy environment.

Sub-goal: 8-3 Improve the nations air quality by increasing the use of cleaner alternative fuels.

Target: 8%

Baseline: Cleaner alternative fuels represented 0.8 percent of U.S. motor fuel consumption in 1997

Target setting method: 10-fold improvement.

Related Bill: H.R.1787

Share & Voice: Electric Motorcycle

Something I find very interesting is a new, all electric motorcycle. The article I read was about the Mission One EV electric sports bike. The article says that the bike would have a top speed of around 150mph and a distance of about 150miles. This is very similar to my 600cc sportbike. My motorcycle has a top speed around 160mph and goes about 170miles on a single tank. With such equal performance, I think an electric motorcycle would be very practical. One of the drawbacks though is the price tag. This bike costs nearly $70,000.

There are also people that convert their gas powered motorcycles into electric motorcycles at their own houses. I have even posted some videos of some of these homemade bikes. Another great thing about the homemade bikes is that they keep the original styling of the bike they started with.

Quitgas! Clean, Quiet, Fun, Electric Motorcycle
Electric Motorcycle Sighting

Mission One Electric Motorcycle

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

Barack Obama (D)
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

U.S. Senetors:
Amy Klobuchar (D)
Washington, DC
302 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510
phone: 202-224-3244
fax: 202-228-2186

U.S. Representatives:
Michele Bachmann (R)
107 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2331

Keith Ellison (D)
1122 Longworth Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-4755 Phone

John Kline(R)
1210 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2271

Betty McCollum (D)
1714 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-2304
202-225-6631

Jim Oberstar (D)
D.C. Office
2365 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-6211

Collin Peterson (D),
2159 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2165

Tim Walz (D)
Washington Office
1722 Longworth House
Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-2472

Governer:
Tim Pawlenty
Office of the Governor
130 State Capitol
75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
Telephone: (651) 296-3391
E-mail: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

County Commissioner:
Wallace Strand
33361 710th Ave.
Kimball, MN 55353
320-398-6782

Mayor of Eden Valley:
Dan Thielen
453-5251

Reflection: Weeks 5& 6

Week 5
One thing we did this week was the CSPI eye opener. I toured the food supply for this eye opener. The website I visited had a lot of interesting and hard to think about facts. Another thing we did this week was watch the Documentary "Diet for a new America". After hearing all of the facts from the documentaries and activities, it's really making me think a lot more about what I eat. I have even been trying to eat a little healthier and eat fast food less.

Week 6
This week we watched the documentary "Future of Food". this video showed some of the effects that farming can have on the environment and our health. This video was especialy interesting to me because I come from a small farm town. It made me mad to see the people from Monsanto sueing farmers for having thier seeds in their fields when they couldn't do anything to stop it from happening. I was also very surprised to learn that there is no law requiring products to be labled that contain genetically modified crops. I really think that more people need to have their eyes opened to this information.

Eye Opener: Review of Reading 28 "A Forest Path out of Poverty"

Summary

The reading started out talking about a man named David Andi. He is a man from Equador who was having a hard time making a living. To make money, he could either log the rainforest or trade with Columbia. He knew that logging was bad for the rainforest, but if he traded with Columbia, it would spread the Columbian civil war into Equador.

The reading then talked about a project taking place to stop deforestation. The project is called the Callari Project. It was started by a woman named Judy Logback. While she was visiting Equador, she tried to persuade some of the communities to stop cutting down the rainforest. one of the local teachers told her, "If you want to save the rainforest, help us find a way to make a living without destroying it."

She saw some of the things that the villagers were making and started selling them to tourists. the villagers were used to getting only about $1 per item from intermediaries, were surprised when they received the full amount of what is was sold for from Logback. within two years there were products being shipped to 10 different countries.

The Callari Project has received many grants because of its reputation for doing the most with the least. It has the highest results per dollar spent.

Just How Much Is A Rainforest Worth?

Eye Opener: CSPI

For this post, we were supposed to pick an activity from the calander. I choose to tour the food supply. This website had a bunch of facts about food. I told where it came from, how it was made, and even had other health facts. It was actually very interesting.

After "Touring the Food Supply", I should probably be one of the least healthy people in the world. All of my meals consist mainly of meat because I really don't like vegtables. I have recently been trying to squeeze more vegtables into my diet, but I still don't enjoy them.



One thing that shocked me the most is the amount of animals being slaughtered. Where is all of this meat going? I'm preatty sure I don't eat half of an entire cow every year. Who is making up the differance?



One thing I not sure about is that vegitarians are less sick, and get sick less often. All I eat is meat, and I am almost never sick. I think what they were saying is that it's more long term types of illnesses. I can believe that with all of the fat in the meat and eating everything deepfried.



I have already been trying to eat healthier, but reading this makes me really want to cut back on the amount of meat that I eat. If I keep up the diet that I have now, I don't think it be too good for me.

Review: "An Inconvenient Truth"

For the 3 past class periods, we have been watching the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". I wasn't sure what I would think about this movie. I had heard that it was just Al Gore preaching about how we're killing the planet. After watching the movie, I was way wrong. One of the first things discussed in the movie was Roger Revelle. Revelle was the first person to propose measuring the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Starting in 1958, he found that as time went on the carbon dioxide levels would rise. One of the things I found most interesting was that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere depends on the season. This is because in the fall, the trees loose their leaves and absorb less of the carbon dioxide. In the spring, the trees start to get their leaves back and absorb more carbon dioxide.

Another thing Mr. Gore discussed was why the poles are being affected faster than other regions. He explained that the ice caps at the poles act as mirrors. The caps reflect most of the incoming solor radiation and keep the earth cool. As the ocean gets warmer, the caps get smaller and reflect less radiation. This speeds up the melting process. Something I found interesting was that a warmer ocean creates larger storms. I think that this is quite evident with storms like Hurricane Katrina.

The warming of the earth also create even more problems. One thing that has happened from this is structural damage. Some structures that had been constructed on the permafrost are now collapsing because of the melting permafrost. Global warming also causes drought in some areas. Another problem is that the precipitation that is no longer falling in some areas is being relocated to other areas. There was even a place in India that had 37 inches of rain in a 24hour period.



For the people who still don't believe in global warming, there was a study done in which a sample of 928 peer reviewed journals, and none of them disagree with the FACT that global warming does exsist. When they looked at the public press, they found that about 53% of the articles stated that global warming hasn't been proven.



In my opinion, I think that everyone should see this documentary. It has truley opened my eyes.

Reflection: Weeks 3& 4

The last two weeks have been getting better. I think I finally have a better handle on the blogging. We have done a few reviews, with some good discusions. The class is now a lot more fun and more interesting now that we're covering more of the book content and not just playing on the computers. I also really like the Eye Opener post that we did. It really put into perspective the amount of resources we all use. In weeks 3& 4, we watched the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth". I thought this was a very good video. I think that the weeks to come will be even better.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

The ecological footprint is the measure of the amount of land and sea needed to regenerate what we consume. Currently it would take about 1.3 earths to keep sustaining life.

I used the Earth Day Network Footprint Calculator, and found that it would take 4.1 Earths to sustain a lifestyle like mine. This is quite surprising to me. I had an environmental health class when I was in high school, and since then I have tried to conserve more resources. In other ways this doesn't surprise me. Although I drive a motorcycle that gets about 50mpg, I can only drive that for half of the year. The rest of the year, I drive a 1992 Buick Century. I don't think that any of the exhaust even makes it through the catalitic converter. I have also tried to recycle, but it is very hard to do when none of the people I live with will do the same. The quiz did have some helpful tips to reduce waste. One of the tips was to buy Energy Star rated appliances. This is actualy something I try to do. The quiz also told what would happen if everybody followed these tips.

I did a few other quizes and didn't really like them as much as the Earth Day Network footprint calculator. I found some of them confusing to read and understand.

Review of Reading 1: The Challenges We Face

The first reading was like an introduction to some of the problems we face on this planet. Some of the topics that were discussed include: food, water, energy, and climate.
In this chapter I learned that the population of the world is currently on the decline from what it was 50 years ago. I also read that it is predicted to peak at about 11 billion people. I was also shocked to learn that AIDS is as huge of a problem as it is. "Worldwide at least 68 million people are expected to die of AIDS by 2020" (McKinney, 4). Which as I read may also help to reduce overpopulation. This reading had interesting and unknown facts all over in it.

Although many people may see genetic engineering of crops to be only a detriment to the human species, this reading points out that doing so would actually produce more food and produce more food more efficiently; this would be beneficial to the many people in the world who can not obtain food because of costs and it would help them obtain food with a real nutritional value. These crops are also beneficial because they use less water for the same amount of output. Using these types of crops with more efficient irrigation would allow humans to have more water for themselves to use for drinking and bathing.

Energy sources and pollution also rank among the top of many of the challenges we face in today's world. In the world, nearly 42% of the world's population has no access to modern energy. Today much is being done to curb the use of energy and also to replace more hazardous ways of producing energy with new, cost effective and renewable sources. Such examples are windmills, hydroelectricity, even using flourescent light bulbs is a good way to conserve and produce more energy with less of an impact on our environment. I, personally, would like to see much more development and usage of the solar panel in our world. I think that this renewable source seems to go overlooked far too often.

Reflection: Weeks 1 & 2

The first two weeks of class have been an introductory period. The first day of class I was feeling a little under the weather and was not in attendance. The second day was very interesting. I walked into the classroom to see Dr. V passing out ropes to people. I was puzzled trying to figure out what kind of activity we would be doing. It was interesting to see how people squeezed to fit inside the ropes. Dr. V showed us that there were many ways this could relate to the environment.

The second week Dr. V showed us how to create a blog. She showed us all of the great features and tools that blogger has to offer. It seemed a little confusing in the beginning, but the more you play around with it, the more you learn. It seems like everyones blogs are looking better every day. I think that doing these blogs is a great idea. I think it will be a great way for the entire class to communicate.

I'm really looking forword to the rest of the semester. I think that this will be a very interesting class with usable real world information.

Intro Post

Hi, my name is Randy Reiter. I am a sophmore at UMD and created this blog for my environmental health class.

There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

Advocacy Project
Eye Openers
Reflections
Reviews
Share and Voice

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1.Sarah O.
2.Derek
3.Jayme
4.Kevin

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