Reflections: Weeks 15 and 16

OH. MY. GOSH...blogging is over with for this class. Sad day..
Last reflections we'll ever have to do...I learned a lot in this class about myself and other class mates! It was really fun seeing how creative everyone got...we went from freaking out the first day because we didn't know expectations to...posts where there was creativity and everyone's personality really came out! I've enjoyed this class a lot and I think Dr. V had a good idea of adding the blogging aspect into the class...it was a good learning experience for us all, whether we want to continue blogging or be done with it...I for one have become quite the addict. I think I'll probably still be trying to think of share and voices over the summer! The fact that Sue Whitney came into our class was really awesome. It was great that she took time out of her busy schedule to travel up to the boonies just to talk to a bunch of college kids... I thought it was amazing how much passion she had for "junking".
So I'm gonna wrap it up. Keeping it short and sweet. Thanks everyone for reading the posts and leaving those comments (5 times, in 5 different ways haha) I think we've all grown from this class and left with open minds...

Eye Opener: Online Learning Activities

I completed Derek's, Sara's, and Kevin's online learning activities
Derek's Online Learning Activity
Know Your Drinking Water Quiz
The quiz was based off of the costs of infrastructure in the United States. I got an 80% on his quiz...it was a toughy! I'm not very educated on the whole water..money.. business He provided some good sources that I looked through. They had some really insightful information. I think it made me realize how much I take for granite the water that comes so easily out of my faucets.

Sara O's Online Learning Activity
Spelling Bee
It was asked that we choose between 4 activities, I decided to do the environmental/healthy online spelling bee. It's a little embarrassing how bad I did! I couldn't spell... anesthesia for some reason (sure now I can spell it right on the first try, must have been the pressure!)

Kevin's Online Learning Activity
Urban Sprawl Quiz
I got an 83% (It told me I would make a great lobbyist ha) on Kevin's quiz. It was about Urban Sprawl. I never really even knew what "urban sprawl" was until his advocacy posts. I have to admit that it is an interesting conecpt.

Share and Voice: ESG's Road Side Clean Up

Unfortunately for some, finding a trash can is a hard concept to grasp...so we as good community health students and members of ESG went to do a Highway Clean up on our Adopted Highway. It's between fire markers [4950-4969] on Caribou Lake Rd in Duluth. We put on our walking shoes, those sweet orange vests, and the nasty rubber gloves to walk opposite ways and gather trash along the road. Referring to the picture above you can see we have about 4-6 bags of trash in only a mile or so radius! A little ridiculous I thought. What I did notice was that a lot of the trash we were picking could be recycled. So that got me thinking..is there a way to have separate bags for recycling and trash? Fortunately there is some good ideas that I found:
- Divide your volunteers into two groups; one for
trash, one for recyclable materials.
- Throw recyclable materials to the side of the
road and pick them up later or have another group
follow behind to pick them up.
-Bags of recyclables can be put out in normal
curbside fashion (try to label to be extra specific), or dropped off at local recycling
centers.
So next time I participate in a highway clean up I'm going to make sure to mention this.

Share and Voice: Super One

Thanks to Dave who so kindly gave us the Super One bags. I have another to add to my collection! I ended up using it right away and forgot to take the tag off of it. The guy at the counter almost didn't believe me that I had already owned it before I put it on the counter..ha just my luck. Anywhos I decided to look a little farther into reusable grocery bags and found a sweet website!
Why use Reusable Grocery Bags:
-Some grocery stores even offer discounts for customers who bring their own bags - now that's incentive!-It requires 13% more energy to produce one single paper bag than to produce two plastic bags. (The co-op does!)
-Ireland, the first European country to impose a tax on them, has decreased plastic shopping bag consumption by 90% since 2002, reducing overall plastic bag usage by 1.08 billion. (Ask Ingrid she was there and could tell you, I remember her mentioning something about it)
-In the past five years, over a dozen countries have banned or put a tax on disposable bags. (why don't we!!)

According to this website we are now on the cutting edge of a unique Grassroots movement that is sweeping the nation! It's believed that within five years over 90% of the country will be using a reusable grocery bag! Woohoo and Dave just brought us closer to that 90%!

Advocacy Project: Air Quality Index

The focus of my advocacy project is CLEAN AIR...and reducing emissions from cars. The purpose of the activity is to understand what the AQI is. 

If you click on "CLEAN AIR" above you can visit an interactive website that explains the Air Quality Index. It is basically a chart to tell what the air is like based on colors (green "good", yellow, orange, red, and purple "bad") and numbers ranging from 0-500 (lower the better). It's meant for kids but it's actually really interesting. Essentially it's just an virtual tour breaking things down step by step as well as a little quiz. 

Transportation accounts for more than half of the state's air toxins that contribute to asthma and the degradation of our lakes and rivers. Transportation also attributes to 1/4 of the states global warming emissions. Adopting the Minnesota Clean Cars Program can bring up the number of "good" days over "bad" by manufacturing new cars to a 30% reduction in emissions. The car industries are not too happy about it and think it'll hurt their business.

In the mid-1970's cities including Duluth and Twin cities had such dangerously high levels of smog that the federal government came up with new clean air requirements. Those requirements forced automakers to put catalytic converters on vehicles, even though they thought it was an "unreasonable risk of business catastrophe". In the scheme of things, the air got cleaner. The automobile industry did not die. And millions of people breathed easier. Now here we are 30 years later with the same issue. 

14 states have taken action to require the automakers to bring these advanced technologies to consumers..something Minnesota needs to take part in to bring that number up to 15.

References: 

http://www.cleanenergyminnesota.org/cars.htm

State Representative Melissa Hortman

Here is a close to home article a college student from St. Olaf advocating for the same topic 

Global Warming Solutions News

(Sorry group! My internet on my computer has not been working..it's been driving me crazy)

Reflection: Weeks 13 & 14

Mkaay..second to last reflection. I'll have to say I'm a little excited..ok I'm REALLY excited for summer to come! It's bizarre to think that this next week coming up is our last! Anywhos..

Week 13: We watched this eye opening video..Story of Stuff. It's definitely one of my favorite videos so far. Next we did the Advocacy Project Issue Overview. I changed my topic from the first advocacy post to reducing car emissions by 30% by the year 2016. Lastly we got to go out in the nature and navigate ourselves through the woods!

Week 14: Tuesday we had a grad student come in to talk about future things to do in Environmental Studies and wrote our Advocacy Letters. Thursday we had a "Junking" activity! It was so much fun, I love being creative! :)

I'm looking forward to this last week! Bring on the summer!! :)

Share and Voice: Penn and Teller

So this past weekend I went to visit Paul, "my man"..as Sara J would call him ;) in Staples Mn, which is about 30 miles from Brainard (let me tell you it's a pretty exciting town..) He helps run a golf course out there. His boss was kind enough to let me work there this weekend (just to make a few dollars for my broke self as the school year is coming to an end) As I was helping to clean up all the garbage and pop bottles from the tables I was surprised to find out THEY HAD NO RECYCLING BINS?!? Of course I made a smart comment to Paul, he's always giving me grief about my rants on recycling, littering, etc. Then I went right to his boss and made a comment (friendly but honest) and asked why he didn't recycle. He simply answer "I don't believe in that crap"...I was speachless. Then he went on to ask if I'd ever seen the show "Bull Shit" (sorry thats the name) by Penn and Teller. I have seen that show and I actually like it. But that doesn't mean I change the way I live just because some magician tells me it's not true!? The show is based off mostly controversial topics that they "prove" to be one way or the other. It's a really interesting show, but if everyone believed everything they say there'd be no recycling, endangered species aren't real, and college is a scam..(the list could go on and on it's been aired since 2003). Basically I guess I was just looking for a better answer from him. I was hoping fees would have been an excuse, or the fact they are only open for a couple months, but no he didn't "believe" that recycling did anything?? It's my goal the next time I go back to bring back some proof for him..if you got any good ideas let me know :) I have a few that I've been looking into..I'll let you know how it goes.

Here is a link to the video..they swear a lot but if that doesn't offend you I think you should check it out and watch with an open mind..it's just 1/3 of the show because they're an hour long but if you have time check it out.