Becca's Weblog

A Convenient Truth

Becca — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:23:36 +0000

Awhile ago in class we watched A Convenient Truth. This was about the city of Curitiba in Brazil. Curitiba made huge improvements to its city in effort to help the environment. They did four main things in the city. Which were, transportation, recycling, housing and built parks. I think the most important thing that they did was revamp the transportation. What they did was they changed it so there were two roads for one way traffic. In doing so they increased the flow in traffic. Then they added specific streets for buses and emergency vehicles. Also in doing that buses became a huge way to get around for the people because buses were stopping in very convenient places at very convenient times. There were also special colored buses for certain destinations. One colored bus went around to the out area of the city and another went in the city. This helped the people greatly. I think what Curitiba did was incredible. All other cities around the world need to take notice and see that this system could work. It can improve our environment.

A Convenient Truth Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil. Del Bello Pictures, 2007

Cortland makes reuseable plastic ware

Becca — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:41:30 +0000

It’s quite surprising to find a local place taking the step to be green. But the J.M. Murray Center is and they have created a branch called GreenTEK. In this article, they are taking the “number 5″ plastics and turning them into reuseable plastic tableware. They unveiled this new product today at the Business Showcase. But what they are most concerned about with this new plastic is that people won’t seperate the number 5 plastic from the others. Gregory Frank, from GreenTEK industries said, “We’re working with Recycline, to try to raise consumer consciousness of that, and get it to the point where everyone will separate and keep their number 5 out, because you can make all kinds of fantastic products out of it.” And most people don’t know that everyday containers like your cottage cheese or yogurt cup is the number 5 plastic. So knowing this information, look at your plastic containers at home and seperate out the number 5′s.

Original article: http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story/Cortland-company-makes-new-from-old/eCjIHKr7mEO2LAQbW6fR2w.cspx

Plastic Ad

Becca — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:20:32 +0000

So I was looking through one of my magazines and I came across this advertisment. It kinda shocked me how such a widely produced magazine, Rolling Stone, is trying to get the word out about these problems. And I didn’t just see this plastic ad, I also saw some for a Chevy “go green” car, and an alternate energy source ad. Anyways, this is the ad I found.

If anyone can’t read the little label it has on it, it says: “Galveston Beach, TX. Plastic Surprise.” Then a little further down it says: ” In regions of the Pacific, plastic particles outnumber Plankton six to one. Make waves, go to surfrider.org”

An Inconvenient Truth

Becca — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:48:55 +0000

Al Gore did an amazing job with this presentation. I don’t see how anyone can say that all the global warming information he showed us isn’t happening. It’s so obvious in our lives today that you could just walk outside or watch the news and see it happening. The weird thing for me is I’m seeing changes in my lifetime. That’s really scary for future generations. It’s kind of upsetting how even after this film came out, I haven’t seen anything major happen in the relief effort for global warming. Al Gore is saying we need to do something, and we need to do something fast. He knows what he is saying and he knows that what he is saying is true. More people need to look at the facts and see that global warming is happening.

An inconvenient truth. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2006.

An inconvenient truth. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2006.

Trashed.

Becca — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:20:20 +0000

The DVD Trashed shows the public how their trash is taken care of after they get rid of it. Mainly, the trash is being dumped and isn’t being recycled. When this happens, global warming is on a rise because all the harmful chemicals that reek off the trash float up into the atmosphere and ruin the ozone. One thing I liked was how people are trying to find new ways to get rid of the garbage. The solution shouldn’t be just to bury the trash. Soon enough we will run out of land to dump the stuff. And then once it rains, all the garbage gets run off down into rivers and streams and in turn, polluting them. So if we don’t do anything about all the trash that people are producing, global warming will come sooner than anyone wants.

My family disposes of trash, what I think, the normal way. We put it out on the curb along with our recycling bin filled with our plastics, cardboard, and newspapers. We try to recycle everything possible but I do feel there is more my family can do.

Trashed. OXI Productions, LLC, 2007

Ban on plastic bags

Becca — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:22:56 +0000

Just recently I found this article about Virgina wanting to ban plastic bags from stores. Why some may ask? Well when you look at the big picture, its simple. Plastic bags have been linked to chokings of animals, getting caught in trees, and just sticking around much longer than paper. Basically, it’s pollution. Although Virgina isn’t well known for its enviromental policy, they are still looking for ways to stop this plastic pollution. One way they were discussing was charging the customer 5 cents for every bag they received. Another idea was that they would ban thin, single use bags and only allow sturdy, reuseable bags. But the one that not just Virgina is looking at closer but the whole country is looking at is recycling them. Many stores across the U.S. have already set up recycling programs so people can dump their plastic bags. Sadly, about 90 million plastic bags are used a year and only a fraction of them get recycled.

I believe the problem with plastic pollution does need to be addressed and I also think the recycling the bags is a very good idea. They should just get on the ball faster and tell all stores to have places where people can drop off their bags.

Here’s the original article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012103538.html

Harmful chemicals in plastics leads to health problems

Becca — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:06:19 +0000

I read a article telling all about how this harmful chemical, bisphenol A or BPA has been found in plastic bottles. It said it can have long term affects on the body such as heart disease or diabetes. Doctors are seeing high levels of BPA in babies because of their bottles and formula containers. Since babies can’t break down the chemical as quickly as adults can, it starts to build up in their bodies. Also, the National Toxicology Program recently stated that there is enough evidence to show some concern over BPA’s overall effects on the brain and reproductive organs in children. Congress could ban the use of BPA but the FDA has said that “products containing BPA currently on the market are safe and that exposure levels . . . are below those that may cause health effects.”

Obviously if there is enough evidence to support the fact of damage on the brain and in organs of children, there needs to be some law or legislation passed banning the use BPA’s.

Here is the link to the original article: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/heart/2008/09/16/heart-disease-diabetes-linked-to-chemical-in-plastics.html

Three Organizations

Becca — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:33:51 +0000

The three organizations I chose are about Plastics. Each one gives vaild information to what plastics are about.

The first one I found is titled, The Trash Vortex. It talks all about how plastic is harming our marine life and the ocean. It tells about how the ocean is becoming so polluted with plastics and it is ruining it. One specific thing they mentioned was these things called “Ocean hitchhikers” and these bad boys live upon the floating pieces of plastics. They can travel hundreds and thousands of miles and end up in an entirely new environment. And if that happens, they could become a constant nuisance to the already living animals on or in that habitat.

Another site I found was the Plastics Historical Society. Now this is a little different from the last site I found because this, obviously, gives the history behind plastics. One cool thing on this website is it has pretty much everything and anything you would need to know about plastics. The links on it are different pictures including, What are Plastics, Design, Inventors, and so on.

The last website I found is called PVC Information. PVC means a polymer of vinyl chloride. Which in easy terms, plastic. On this site it tells about the dangers in making PVC. Some examples they used were people living next to factories that make PVC, are getting this very dangerous toxic chemical in them, dioxin. This pretty much means those people are being poisoned. Another part to this website is PVC alternatives. This explains different things people can buy that aren’t harmful to the environment and to themselves.

Overall, these organizations that I chose tell all about plastics harm, where they come from and different things to use instead of them.

“Better Planet Garbage Patch”

Becca — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:35:41 +0000

I read this article, Better Planet Garbage Patch, and it tells about how the Pacific Ocean became the world’s largest dump. Off the coast of California, about half way to Hawaii, there is this huge floating mass of garbage, mostly plastics. They say the size of this garbage patch could sprawl over one and a half times the size of the United States, and reaching a depth of 100ft or more. The way all this trash is reaching the patch is just by it floating there. Someone having a picnic or beach outings. It also takes years for the trash to finally reach the patch. With all this decomposing material just floating in the ocean, its found its way to affect us. As marine life is swimming and eating things in the ocean, the chemicals and toxic materials that seep off of the plastics and other junk in there, get ingested by the animals. Then the animals are hunted or captured and turned into food for us. So really, we are eating all that harmful chemicals and toxic material. Which probably eventually, can have some lasting effects. So overall, the things we can do to prevent the Eastern Garbage Patch from getting even bigger are simple. Recycle, clean up after yourself, and reduce your use of plastics as much as possible.

To read the full article on the Eastern Garbage Patch: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=16&sid=c358141d-952e-43d5-9111-a71ac87f768c%40sessionmgr9&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=mfh&AN=32580464

Obama 2.0

Becca — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:21:38 +0000

Barack Obama is revolutionizeing the way our new President is choosen. He is using Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and even his own social networking system, My.BarackObama.Com. By using these systems, Obama can reach out to thousands of young people and older people through the internet. I think Mrs. Buerkle wanted us to read this article because it has information on how to communicate and how he communicated over the internet, which is not seen often. This is similar to what we are doing in class because we are blogging in class, just how Obama did to reach out to the public in the masses. This could also relate to Enviromental Science because researchers and scientists can use this to share information with eachother and put it out on the internet.