Eye Opener: Environmental Learning Activities

Here are the answers and observations I was able to complete for who was done with their activities!

 

 CARLY

Carly did a crossword puzzle and I thought this was a great way to put information together and to really get us to think about what was going on.  She also included a quiz and some other links in her post that taught us even more information about food borne illness. As Carly said in her post, this illness effects over 76 million people a year....which is a lot!  It is important that we are aware of this and understand what it is so that we can hopefully never have to experience something like this. Thank you for sharing this knowledge with me Carly in such a beneficial way!

 

 JD

JD had a crossword puzzle that he wanted us to complete. I thought this was a neat way to go about doing this and I enjoyed trying to find some of the answers. His crossword puzzle was ways that we can be more eco-chick! I found a bit of them to be a bit tricky, but overall they went well :)

 

MATT

Like my own post, Matt's post dealt with the dangers of smoking cigarettes. He had us play a game where we used a picture of us and there was a glass Popsicle and we tried to get it into our mouth and when we missed it would make us bleed.  I feel like this was equivalent to how harsh the effects of tobacco is, but some of the more serious effects we do not see until way later in our life so people at our age do not always take the risks as seriously as they should.  This was an interesting game that opened my eyes up about how "gross" smoking really is. I am almost 100% sure that if this is what happened to us every time we smoked, people would NEVER smoke!

 SAM

Sam who was in my group had an activity where we took a quiz that was about asthma. Like I stated earlier to Sam, Asthma is quite common and can be pretty serious.  My dad has asthma and it can really affect someones life. I found Sam's quiz to be beneficial and I did okay, I got 3 out of 6 so there was certainly things I can improve on! There was a flyer that Sam contained in her post as well that she wanted us to take a look at. When I was doing this I learned some more information like where I can go to find out more information about this or how air symptoms can trigger asthma to be more serious than normal.

DANE

Dane had a post about the oil spill and wanted to to write a reflection on what we had learned. I think this was a good idea because it got us to really think about how this spill would affect us and our life because we do not always think of it in that way because it does not always directly affect us at first.  This is kind of similar to smoking in the way that sometimes people do not always consider it a huge problem if they are not seeing the effects of what is going on first hand and immediately.  This is not a good way to go about thinking about things because it can end up catching up with you and really hurting you in the long run! His post was pretty detailed and in depth. 

 

HOW MY JOB WOULD BE INFLUENCED:

My job is to work at Boulder Ridge so I do not feel that the job that I currently have would be affected anytime immediately by this.

 

FREINDS AND FAMLIES JOBS:

My friends and family do not have any jobs in that location so I do not feel like they would be directly affected either.

 

PLACES I GO AND THE THINGS I DO & HOW THEY WOULD BE INFLUENCED:

I like be around nature and doing activities outside. If this area was blocked off I feel that it would take a lot of excitement away from the activities that I enjoy doing most.

PERCEPTION OF DULUTH AND HOW IT WOULD BE AFFECTED:

If there was a lot of pollution in an area I feel that it would end up keeping a lot of people away. People would more than likely not want to vacation in this area anymore because I know I sure would not want to.  Not only would Duluth be polluted then, we would be losing a lot of tourists who bring in money and all of this would end up being pretty harmful. The people of this area would also be affected in unhealthy ways!

--THANK YOU FOR SHARING THESE EVERYONE! YOU ALL DID A GREAT JOB:)

Reflections: Weeks 13-14 & Overall Course

Over the past few weeks I have learned a lot in this class.  Some of the things I enjoyed the most over the past two weeks would be the trip that we look to Goodwill!  The tour was very interesting and eye opening.  I was never aware that they did so many things there and I thought this was a good experience that we were able to have.  I thought that the activity that we did was also fun and a good way to have a chance to look around the store.  I also enjoyed being able to find "junk" around my apartment and turn it into something new and something that I can still get use out of.  I found it interesting to be able to see what everyone else in the class made as well.  It was really neat to see how unique all of my classmates were. 

Throughout the entire class I learned so many new things that I did not know before.  I made more of a conscious effort throughout the semester to try and be more environmentally friendly and make sure that I was recycling whenever possible.  The goal that I made "forced" me to drink more water and make sure that I was not doing so out of a plastic water bottle.  So many of the documentaries that we watched were really eye opening and made me realize things and look at the environment in a way I never had before. I am happy that I was able to have this class and get such a wonderful experience and learn so many new things that I can continue to apply to my everyday life.  I will take a lot of the information that I gained in this class with me and continue to pass it on to those around me. :)

-picture from here

PICTURES FROM WHAT I MADE:

The first picture located above is all three of the items that I made and the second picture is more up-close of the candle holder that I made from a recycled fruit can.  I decorated it and then used part of the old garbage can to make a bottom for the holder.  The other two items are also recycled pieces that I turned into something "new and improved." What was once a garbage can I turned into a lamp shade and something that broke off of my air conditioner, I decorated and turned to into a picture frame.

Share & Voice: GREEN Ideas for the Holidays!

Hey guys, I thought this would be beneficial to share with you all for the holidays. It is some green ideas for the holidays :) It has a lot of interesting unique ideas and tips if you want to take a closer look it is pretty neat! Let me know what you think...!


Take a look.

Picture from here!

Advocacy Project:Smoking is HARMFUL for your HEALTH!

-Title: If Smoking is SO Harmful, Why Start!?! NOT to mention, why would you put other people in danger with your second hand smoke?
-Purpose: To hopefully encourage people to not even try to start smoking because it is so harmful for people and not good for the environment and also very harmful for those people around the smoker who are getting the second hand smoke.
-Background/Reasoning/Evidence:I want you to know a little bit more about smoking and all of the harmful damage and effects that it causes people and the people around then who smoke or use tobacco products. Also, me and my grandma were really close all trough my childhood and she was a heavy smoker.  Despite me and my mom's numerous attempts to get her to stop, she would not.  Sadly, my grandma was diagnosed with severe lung cancer and died a few months later. This is not something I would ever wish on anyone and think that it is important you understand the dangers and risks. If you know how bad and harmful smoking is for you...I would hope that there would be no chance that you would even want to start! IF you are a current smoker, I understand it is addictive....but would hope that you would make every effort to stop because it is so dangerous and harmful to the people who are around your second hand smoke.
-Instructions: Please watch some of these videos and let me know one fact that they taught you or something they made you aware of that you did not know. If you knew this stuff, please share a feeling that you had when watching these. Thanks :)



VIDEO LINKS:

-VIDEO 1--SECOND HAND SMOKE
-VIDEO 2--QUIT SMOKING IF YOU CURRENTLY DO
-VIDEO 3-- SMOKING IS HARMFUL!

Share & Voice: Smarter Appliances

My parents just bought a house in St. Paul because my sister will be attending college at the U of M next year.  They looked for a nice and reasonable priced house for her that her and some friends could rent from them.  One issue was that the house needed all new appliances. When my dad was looking I mentioned to him to try and find some appliances that he could buy that would be better and more beneficial for the environment. My dad thought this was a really good idea so we looked into some options online.

I decided that this would be a good idea to share this with this class considering it is beneficial to the environment and some of us may be getting houses on our own soon.  If you guys need any additional information I will attach a few of the websites that we were looking at! :)


http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/03/06/ge-to-deliver-smarter-appliances/
http://www.hitachi-ap.com/company/environment.html
http://www.42u.com/environmental-monitoring-appliances.htm

Let me know what you think!
PICTURE

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

1. What was your SMART goal? How did you do in achieving your SMART goal: My smart goal was do drink 12 oz of water daily and not drink out of any plastic bottles!
2. Address successes & challenges. What strategies helped you to be successful? What challenges did you face? How did you deal with them? My successes were that some days I did drink 12 oz. of water which was good. Some days, unfortunately, I did not quite get all the way up to 12 oz!  The challenges were that I went out with a few friends and on the way home we were all thirty and hungry and stopped at a gas station and I was really bad and bought a bottled water :( Oops...after I drank it I felt really bad so I have not thrown it away yet and try to keep reusing it!
3. What feelings did you experience? When did you feel them? I felt good when I met my goal and it showed me that it is possible for me to drink 12 oz of water each day and not do so out of plastic bottles! I felt bad when I bought a water out of a plastic bottle (as I mentioned above).
4. What did you learn this week? I learned that my goal is possible as long as I make an effort to stick to it and make sure that I plan ahead! I have to make time to get to the school store to buy myself one of those camel back water bottles, I have just been so busy!
5. What are your plans for next week? Will you continue with the change as is? Will you modify to make it more achievable or more challenging? My plans for the following weeks are to stick to my current goal and keep working toward it. I also have a mini goal to try and buy the reusable water bottle so that I will drink at least 12 oz of water and not do so out of ANY plastic water bottles!
6. What was your SMART goal? Did it change at all during the project? Explain. My smart goal is to drink 12 oz of water each and every day and to not drink any water from plastic, non-reusable water bottles. My goal changed a bit throughout the weeks because I upped my water consumption from 8 oz to 12 oz.  I upped my consumption after I was able to consistently drink 8 oz of water daily.
7. What helped you be successful? What things got in your way? How can you address these in the future? It helped me to be successful to plan ahead and to remind myself of my goal and that I can do it! Things that got in my way was when I did not plan ahead I found myself drinking out of plastic bottles for convenience.  Sometimes I did not drink enough water because i chose to drink other beverages instead such as juice or pop.
8. How did you benefit from this project? What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about behavior change? I benefited because I stared drinking more water than I had in the past which is healthy for me. I learned that I can reach my goals as long as they are reasonable and as long as I try and put forth a conscious effort. My behavior change was realistic and I learned that it was a possible behavior change to be accomplished
9. How did others and/or the environment benefit from you changing this behavior? The environment benefited (when I met my goal) because I did not use plastic water bottles which are bad for the environment.  The environment also benefited from this goal because when people would ask me why I did not drink out of a plastic water bottle I explained to them why it was bad for the environment and passed on the word.  Furthermore, when I was home over Thanksgiving break I also told my parents about my goal and explained to them why plastic water bottles cause a negative effect on the environment and they agreed to stop buying them as well.
10. Will you continue this behavior? Why or why not? I will try my best to continue this behavior. This is a positive goal not only for myself but also for the environment that I live in so I feel it is a good idea to continuing meeting this goal and hopefully further down the road begin to increase my water intake even more.
11. What recommendations do you have for others about making a lifestyle change? For people who are making a lifestyle change I recommend that you choose a goal that is realistic, you can always start your goal a bit lower and if it is going well you can make it more challenging.  It is harder if you make your goal really complicating at first and then try and work backwards because this can be discouraging to people.  I also recommend you pick a goal that is important to you so that you have motivation to work toward the goal.
-Picture is from here.

 

*Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain.

 

Advocacy Project: Letter and Fact Sheet

December 5, 2010
Michele Bachmann
House of Representatives
107 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Michele Bachmann,

I am writing to you concerning HR 1432: Stop Adolescent Smoking Without Excessive Bureaucracy Act of 2009 which was introduced in House Energy and Commerce.  I believe that this is an important law and should be passed because it has to do with the health and wellness of others.  People who smoke are not only harming themselves, but also the innocent people around them.
This is important to me because I do not smoke of use tobacco products and I do not want meself or my environment to suffer the harmful side effects.  Woodbury has come a long way with smoking issues but there are still so many things we can do to make tobacco products used and purchased less that they currently are.
Please pay close attention to this and vote yes to pass and enforce this law. Thank you!

Fact Sheet:

• In the United States, an estimated 24.8 million men (23.1 percent) and 21.1 million women (18.3 percent) are smokers
• The use of smokeless tobacco has been increasing, especially among America's young people.
• According to the CDC, more than 3,000 young people become regular smokers every day, which is more than one million new smokers a year.
• 1 in 5 teens smoke cigarettes. 
•  17 percent of kids in 9th grade reported smoking cigarettes. The rate of smoking then increases to a high of 26 percent in 12th grade. 

As we can see, smoking is and CONTINUES to be a problem! I am a graduate of Woodbury High School and I know that tobacco is an issue here as well. We need to continue to pass laws and stop the harmful effects of smoking!
Picture from here.

Reflections: Weeks 9-12

• Over the past few weeks in class we have covered a lot of different information. We watched a video in class that gave us a better understanding of how fast Americans are consuming and going through things, how most people feel they have to keep buying new things to have value in this society and contribute to the "golden arrow" as well as information on recycling and other facts and tips on how to try and save our environment. This video was rather eye opening and did a great job showing us the "whole picture."  I found this video so interesting to me so when I went home for Thanksgiving break I actually showed it to my mom and sister to try and spread the word. 

• Something else we did was a project called the photo essay.  Not only did I enjoy doing this on my own and telling a little story through pictures, but I liked how we got to share our photos in class so we were able to get to see what everyone else did and listen to them give an explanation.  There were a lot of unique and interesting photo essays to learn about.

• One day we had the opportunity to look at junk items and try and think of different things we could do with these instead of just throwing them away or buying something bran new.  It was neat to me to hear all of the different ideas that everyone had and made me realize that next time I am about to throw something away that I should think outside of the box and see if I can somehow put it to a different use!

These were a few of the things that I enjoyed doing over the past few weeks along with some of the new information that I learned. I am looking forward to going to Goodwill on Monday!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

-SMART GOAL: to drink 12 oz. of water a day out of the facet or a drinking fountain and to not drink out of a plastic bottle.
-Success- I did it! I drank 12oz of water everyday and did not drink our of any plastic water bottles. Me and a girl were studying in the library one day and she bright a snack and some plastic water bottles for each of us. I thanked her and told her how I am not drinking my water out of a plastic bottle and explained why. She understood and said she is going to try and cut back on her consumption of water out of a plastic bottle, so that was good.
I did not really face any challenges this week with my goal so I was rather pleased.
-This week I felt really good because it was the first week that I fully met my goal. I felt successful and happy about doing so!
-I learned that I can set reasonable goals and meet them when I put forth my best effort and really make a conscious effort about meeting my goal.
-For the upcoming week I am going to up my water intake. I am going to try to drink 16oz of water each day and make sure not to drink out of any plastic bottles. I am also going to try to put some money aside to purchase a camel back water bottle which I hear will contribute to my success with this goal even more! :)

Picture of camel back water bottles

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain

Share & Voice: Environmental News Network

Hey all! Just want to share a website with you all about good ways to find out environmental information and updates. Some of you may already know about the website, and for those of you that do not feel free to check it out. It shares top stories, environmental advertisements which are rather interesting as well as having the option to sign up for a free newsletter via email. They have a lot of facts and interesting stories so I encourage you to take a quick peak :)
Environmental News Network
(Picture from above is taken from this website as well)

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

My theme has to do with environmental contributions that we do in my apartment to try and contribute to bettering the environment.  I took a few pictures of some things in my apartment that contribute to this and I will explain them all briefly and the benefits that I feel they have.

First of all, we make sure that we have a separate location for our trash and our recycling at our apartment.  Recycling is important and a good way to help the environment.  We place our trash in a garbage under our sink as you can see above.

The items that we recycle we place next to our sink and when the collection grows we place it into a cardboard box and our roommates bring this box down when we empty the garbage and then bring it back up to continue to add more recycling items to it.

Another important thing to us is eating healthy and we try and eat/buy organic fruit and other products as often as possible.

 

Something else we do that contributes to the environment is taking the bus as often as possible.  This is something I try and do as often as I can!  I live at Boulder Ridge so we have a shuttle/bus that goes to and from campus so this is very convenient and a good benefit for the environment as you could conclude.

 

Furthermore, me and my roommates have come to the agreement that we will try and use as little napkins or paper towels as possible. Our goal is to use none so we make an effort to always have towels hanging up to dry our hands or wipe up a spill.

This is another example that contributes to using less paper towels.  We use rags and always have a clean one sitting in the sink so that this is a better option than grabbing a bunch of paper towels, napkins or other wasteful paper products.

We always try and use the dishwasher instead of washing dishes by hand because using a dishwasher vs. doing dishes by hand saves a lot of water in the long run.

At the apartment we try and do the majority of our bills and mailing by computer.  This also saves on paper consumption! 

 I make a conscious effort when I drink water to do so out of the faucet.  This is resourceful.

To go along with the contribution above we have a lot of reusable cups so that we do not use plastic water bottles or any other items that contribute to additional and unneeded waste.

--These are some ways that my apartment tries to contribute to the environment and take that extra step!--

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

Smart Goal: to drink 12oz of water everyday and not drink it from a plastic bottle.
-I was successful with this goal for the most part when it came to drinking water but I slipped twice and drank from a plastic bottle.  One time was when I was driving home for Thanksgiving break and I stopped at a gas station and was very thirsty so I was going to buy something and I thought to myself, "hmmm, I can buy a pop or something from a plastic bottle or at least accomplish part of my goal and buy a water from one," so that is what I did.  I also went to my aunts for Thanksgiving who is in the process of moving so she had a lot of her items packed up so she just had bought some plastic water bottles for people to drink.
-I am most successful with I am in my own surroundings and am able to make my own choices.  I also need to take into considertion getting one of those "straw water bottles" a few people have mentioned to me!
-I felt successful when I would accomplish my goal and I felt bad when I did not. It is starting to become a routine now though, so that is a good sign for me.
-I learned that there will be challenges to overcome and I need to plan ahead and think ahead so I can overcome my challenges/obstacles better.
-I think I am going to stick to the same goal again because I want to be able to make it one week without messing up before I change it or make it more challenging.

-My smart goal is listed above and I did not change it at all because I wanted to be able to reach this goal so I did not want to give up or make it any less challenging.  I also did not want to make my goal any more challenging or change it too soon because I want to set myself up for success.
-In the future I will make sure to set goals that I know I can reach and I know will lead me to success and better my health and well-being as well as the environment. 
-This project was beneficial to me because it taught me how to make a goal and stick to it.  It showed me how to work through challenges and it also bettered my health by having me drink more water and benefited the environment at the same time by having me not use or waste as many plastic bottles.
-I will try and continue this behavior because it improves my lifestyle and those around me.
-I recommend that you make sure when you make a goal to have it be reachable and something that you know you are willing to work toward and that you have motivation for!


Picture

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain

Share & Voice: Tmobile.com

Hey everyone! I was going to Tmobile to check out some things for my phone and I came across something kind of interesting I thought I would share. Tmobile is doing something for the environment by moving to paperless billing. They are encouraging customers to sign up for this by saying "you will not only same time, stamps and money but you will reduce waste and save trees." I understand you may not all have Tmobile but I encourage you to check out your cell phone plan and see if this is an option if you are still having paper bills sent to your home!  Visit this site if you want to read or see any more detail.

-Picture from here.

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

Introduction:
-Current Issue: reduce illness, disability and death related to tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke
-This is what has been done to address this so far: initiation of tobacco use (27-3).

Who is affected by the issue:
-Those who are affected most are the people who are doing the smoking or using tobacco products.  They are not only harming themselves but also those around them with their second hand smoke.
-People who are smoking loose. They loose their health, well-being, money and it can be as extreme as their loss of life.  The people who breathe in the second hand smoke also are at a loss because they are being damaged for something they are not choosing to do.
-I feel like with this law, no one is really gaining when using or being around tobacco products.  If you look at it in a bigger picture, the tobacco products are gaining in the sense that they are making money off of the people who are choosing to buy or use their products.

What are the consequences of the issue:
-The consequences of the individuals mostly affected would be their health. By using tobacco products you are really doing damage to your body and well being.
-The families are affected because they too may be forced to be around the second hand smoke.  This is unhealthy for them.  They may also have to watch a loved one suffer from the effects of smoking. Smoking also smells really bad so if you are around someone who smokes this may be a minor consequence you face.
-Society has to face second hand smoke. This is a huge issue and something that this law is trying to prevent because of the dangers associated with second hand smoke.


What is the economic impact of the issue:
-What are the economic costs of the issue, and who bears these costs? The costs would be the high price of tobacco products. The people buying these products bears these costs. If they choose to smoke, more than likely they will get sick more often, possibly get cancer or other serious diseases and if this is the case there are also the cost of medical bills, etc.
-What are the economic benefits of the issue, and who benefits? Benefits would be that the tobacco companies are making more money so they would benefit mostly from the sales of tobacco products. Hospitals and insurance companies may have benefits as well by making more money if more people are ill or getting sick.

What is the social impact of the issue?
-Social costs would be taxes being but on tobacco products and the people consuming these products would more than likely be the ones bearing the costs.
-Social benefits would maybe be less people choosing to smoke do to the taxes and therefore people would benefit first hand and second hand because there would be less people smoking and less second hand smoke.


What are the barriers?
-Barriers addressing this issue is that the tobacco companies are large and powerful and as long as they have some people buying their products they are going to want to stay in business. They also have a lot of money so they are able to use this as a resource. Tobacco is also addictive and people who use it have a hard time quitting.
-People can be educated on how harmful tobacco is for you. Hopefully barriers can be overcome be getting people to use less tobacco products or not do so around other people. If this happens the tobacco companies will continue to get less and less business.

What are the resources?
-We will need Health Educators and other people who support the issue and are willing to fight to make it effective. We will need money and programs set up, campaigns, etc.
-This can be tapped by getting appropriate funding and advertising for this issue.

What is the history of this issue?
-Before there were more people smoking and using tobacco products. Now, there are more people cutting back on the use of tobacco products due to more awareness on the issue and the dangers associated with it. Here is some progress that has been made.

Allies & Opponents:
-People who would support this issue would be health educators, doctors, nurses, people who do not want loves ones to continue smoking or people who have seen the effects first hand and some people may support this issue who currently smoke but want to try and quit
-People who would oppose this issue are the Tobacco Companies mainly and probably others who currently smoke and do not show any immediate effects
-You can try and bring these two groups of people together by educating them and by showing them you are trying to help benefit them and the community and others who live there as well. You can try and get both sides to understand where they are both coming from

-I recommend that people vote to pass this law because it will benefit more people than it hurts and it is a good law to be passed for health and well being of the people.

-Image from here

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

• My Smart goal is to drink at least 12oz of water daily and to make sure I am not drinking it from a plastic bottle. I want to mainly get my water from the drinking fountain at school or from my faucet at home.  So far this is going well other than I am not a huge fan of water (weird, I know) so a few of the days I did not drink all 12oz. but I am pleased that when I was drinking water it was coming from the facet or the fountain.
• It helped me to be successful by when going grocery shopping to not buy any plastic water bottles.  I also succeeded in this by making sure that I had a reusable water bottle that I could keep filling.  It was a challenge for me to drink water though when I had other choices surrounding me such as pop or juice. To deal with my challenges I am going to buy less juice and try and buy no pop the next time I go grocery shopping so that when I am at my apt. water is one of my only choices which will force me to drink more of it.
• I felt good that I was sticking to my goal for the most part and happy that I am contributing to my well being and benefiting the environment at the same time.  This also made me feel successful.  
• I learned that it is possible for me to be able to stick to my goal and that there are ways to go about doing so!
• I will continue with this change for next week.  I will keep the same goal and continue to work towards it because I think right now this is a good and reasonable goal for me to keep working at. After I have success with this goal I will try and up my water intake consumption. 
• Picture from here! 
• Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain
• 
  

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/THOMAS

-The goal that i chose is Focus Area 27 which is dealing with tobacco use and the exact goal is to reduce illness, disability and death related to tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke.  The objective that I chose to focus on was: initiation of tobacco use (27-3).
 -The data for this objective is not available at the time unfortunately. Here is the Progress Quotient Chart to show that.
-Some emerging issues with this goal would be:

•  Use of and risks from potentially reduced exposure products (PREPs) that purportedly deliver lower amounts of toxic, carcinogenic, or addictive agents to the user compared with conventional products
• Smokeless tobacco
• Internet sale of tobacco products 
• Youth access to retail tobacco is declining so access to tobacco products through other sources

-Information in the bullets above come from here.

Some disparities deal with race and gender or income and/or disability.  To go into more detail objective 27-3 has the most concern with White (non Hispanic) for this issue. To see the chart for this and to view more information click here.

H.R.1432 : Stop Adolescent Smoking Without Excessive Bureaucracy Act of 2009
-Introduced in House Energy and Commerce
Official title=to reduce youth usage of tobacco products, to enhance State efforts to eliminate retail sales of tobacco products to minors, and for other purposes.
-Latest Major Action=3/11/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
-Sponsor: Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] (introduced 3/11/2009)--(There are 4 cosponsors.)
 -Recommendation: Vote YES for H.R.1432 Stop Adolescent Smoking Without Excessive Bureaucracy Act
--Information from above came from here.
 --Picture from here.

Share & Voice: EcoBlog

Check out this EcoBlog:
Hey guys, here is something interesting that I found from the UMD homepage from the office of civil engagement....It is an EcoBlog that I thought relates well with this class and it was also neat that it is a blog! This blog is updated pretty regularly and talks about different environmental information and shares some interesting facts. I encourage you to check this blog site out and let me know what you think! The link is provided above!
Picture

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

• My goal: I will drink 12 ounces of water everyday from the facet or a drinking fountain only.

• This goal is friendly for the environment because water is not only good for you and natural but by me only drinking from the facet and from drinking fountains will eliminate the use of plastic bottles and other products that harm the environment. 

• This behavior is important to me because I need to start drinking more water, I do not drink enough and this is something that I really want to work on and improve to benefit my overall health and well being. 

• I will start today by drinking an 8 oz. glass of water before I leave my apartment and drink water the rest of the day from drinking fountains around campus!

Picture from. 

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1 hosted by Amy@Amy in the Rain

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

President: Barack Obama, Democrat 
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama

Congresspeople:
-The Senate is Amy Klobuchar, she is a Democrat and you can find out more information about her by visiting this site:http://klobuchar.senate.gov/
-The other Senate is Al Franken, he is also a Democrat.  His contact information is: http://franken.senate.gov/
-The house is Michele Bachmann, she is a Republican and her website is: http://bachmann.house.gov/ and contains a lot more detailed information about her!

The Governor of Minnesota is is a Republican by the name of Tim Pawlenty.  His website is http://www.governor.state.mn.us/


Minnesota State Legislators:
-The house representative is Julie Bunn.  She is Republican.  All of her more specific contact information can be found at this site: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?district=56A
-The Minnesota Senate is Kathy Saltzman. She is Democrat. Find more information about her at this site: http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/members/member_bio.php?leg_id=15248

 For some reason I was not able to find a county board president!

Woodbury's Mayor is William Hargis. He is independent.

His phone number is: (651) 739-1040 and his term expires: 12/31/2010
The information gathered on him was found from: http://www.ci.woodbury.mn.us/govt/mccmembers.html


Here are my political representatives for Woodbury, MN
Picture is from here.

Reflections: Weeks 5-8

  Overview of Some Topics Covered in Weeks 5-8

Weeks 5-8 in Environmental Health have been an interesting few weeks.  We have done different things, such as:

• watched a few documentaries that covered environmental issues

• created new headers for our blogs 

• learned some new facts about "junking"  and other related terms  

• found out some places around the Duluth area where these types of sales and activities go on  

 What I Personally Learned in Weeks 5-8

I learned some new information throughout these weeks that I was not aware of previously.  When watching the documentary, Tapped, I learned some things about water bottles that had never even crossed my mind!  After watching that video, I am really trying to limit and cut back on my use of plastic bottles.  An activity that I really enjoyed doing in these weeks was making the new blog headers.  I think these made our blogs look a lot better and I also enjoyed being able to create it on my own and add details and colors that I thought looked good with my blog and went well with my blog title.  Overall, I have learned a lot of new information these weeks that made me more aware of some of the behaviors I currently have toward the environment and some ways to make my behavior more positive, such as using less plastic bottles, to benefit not only myself, but others as well who live and share the same environment as me.


Picture From Here.

Share & Voice: Environmental Stories to Watch in 2010

I found an interesting website on Environmental Stories in 2010.  This website is useful if you want to take a closer look at it yourself and it relates to some of the topics and issues we have been talking about and going over in class.  All of the things being discussed relate to the environment, they have videos you can watch, articles you can read and easy access to all different kinds of information throughout the site.


Picture is from this site.

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

Part 1: Defined Terms:

1. Antiques/Antiquing- This term is Latin for old. It is an old collectible item and is desired to someone by characteristics such as its age, beauty, condition, rarity, personal emotion connection, along with other unique features. It represents a previous era or time period in human society.  Antiquing is an activity done (shopping) in which one searches for specific objects of interest to the oneself. This information came from the link above!
2. Junk/Junking- this word has multiple meanings.  It can be used as a noun to mean old or discarded material, as metal, paper, or rags or possibly to mean anything that is regarded as worthless, meaningless, or contemptible. Another similar meaning word may be trash. You can also refer to junk as a verb.  When used as a verb junk would mean to put aside as junk, discard or no longer of use, referred to as a scrap.  Junk can also be used as an adjective to mean cheap, worthless or trashy.  It is said that some peoples' junk may be someone else's treasures. Junking is the action of collecting junk. This information was found from the link above.
3. Flea Market- a place where second hand materials are sold or bartered and it can be indoors or outdoors.
4. Thrift Shop- aka Charity shop which is a retail establishment operated by a charitable organization for the purpose of fund-raising. They typically sell second-hand goods that are donated by people of the public and usually staffed by volunteers.  The items are typically sold at low or rather reasonable prices. This information is taken from the link above as well.
5.  Upcycling- is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value. This definition is taken from the link listed above as well.
6. Resale Shop- a place where items are sold but the majority of the items are clothes.  The majority of these clothes are used and resold.

Part 2-Answering Questions:

1. They relate to environmental health because they are helping our environment by reusing things instead of wasting them or just throwing them away.  It is a unique way of "recycling" and reducing the need to make new products.
2. In Duluth, you can find antiques at a place called Father Time Antiques. It is located at 395 S Lake Ave # 1, Duluth, MN 55802-2311 and you can contact them by phone at (218) 625-2379 () ‎ . To find out more about this location or to get directions visit their site! To find junk in Duluth, I guess it depends on what type of "junk" you are searching for.  Henderson Towing is near Duluth, about 4-5 miles away.  You can contact this junkyard by phone: 770-990-4978. A flea market in Duluth is located on Lake Superior College, 2101 Trinity Road in Duluth, MN and opens annually 2nd Sunday in August.  To find out more about this flea market visit their site. To find a thrift shop or charity shop in Duluth try visiting Savers, located on 1740 Mall Drive.  You can reach them by phone by calling this number: 218-722-1894. For a resale shop a good idea would be Plato's Closet.  Here they sell mostly used clothes that are in good condition and mainly name brand but the prices are much more reasonable. I know this information from visiting this store and location.  This store is located on 5115 Burning Tree Rd Ste 315C and can be reached at 218 733-9455.  I was unable to really find any locations specific to upcycling unfortunately.
3. I do a few of these things when I can. I have been to Plato's closet (as I mentioned previously) and when I needed to get furniture for my apartment I looked at used items instead of buying new things.

Part 3: Get Your Junk On:

When I visited this website, I liked these three projects: The junk picture frames, and I like it because I enjoy pictures and have a lot of picture frames so this is a unique way to display pictures and reuse materials I may have previously thrown away. Vintage redesign jewelry was also interesting to me. I found this unique and pretty and it relates to me because I like to wear jewelry.  The last item I found was the simple gate for some vintage photos. I thought this would be a good item to display the junk photos!


Picture of junk. (located at the top of this post)

Share & Voice: Global Waring

I found an interesting website that relates to global warming.  I thought this site was helpful because it says things you can do on an individual level that will help to lesson global warming.  Some people may already be aware of these things you can do, some of you may not and there may be some new ideas that you have not thought of yet.

This website has the top 10 things you do to reduce global warming.  Here are the top 5 listed on the website:

1. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
2. Use less heat and air conditioning
3. Change a light bulb
4. Drive less and drive smart
5. Buy energy efficient products

I suggest you to visit this website to see the other 5 things you can do.  This site is interesting because under the ideas listed it will give you a more in depth description and even provide some links to some more specific sites, pictures and descriptions! Check it out and let me know what you think. 
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Read 'n' Seed 5: Fourth Quarter and Final Review of: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

I finally finished the book that I am reading for this class, so I made it through all 358 pages!  The main topics that I read about this time were some things we as the "modern day people" can do to make some improvements to the environment that will be beneficial in the long run and have more of a positive effect than some people realize.  The book also discussed how important family is and that families make up our communities which in turn make up the world we live in as a bigger picture. It also discusses rituals in our life and ways to bring them back into our life because they are important.  These pages also touched a bit on politics and the importance of them. Here is a direct quote from the book, page 343:

 "Political parties can bring about such transformation only if we, in massive numbers, join them, embrace them, and ultimately gain a powerful and decisive voice in their policy-making and selection of candidates."

 The book states how we always tend to feel that "something will save us" rather it be technology, or another human being, we tend to often times think this way.  Once again the book broke down the way the younger cultures think about the "something will save us belief."
The tend to feel there is only one right way to live (which is "our" way) and that everybody should live the same way as we do. The author states that the younger cultures feel that people are essentially flawed or sinful and that we are waiting for someone to save us.  An example in the book that was used to compare the younger culture beliefs to the older culture beliefs was that the younger culture may say something like "Who cares what our children's children will inherit: that's their problem and they can work it out the same way we have to work out our problems."  The older culture may say something like "We are here now and must deal with the practical realities in this life.  Any decisions we make must consider their impact on our grandchildren seven or more generations from now."

New Terms Learned:
-Verboten-means to be outlawed or prohibited
There were really no other words I came across that I had trouble understanding!


The book ends with some "easy answers to difficult problems."  The first is summarized to say that history demonstrates that the deepest and most meaningful cultural/social/political changes begin at the individual, not the organizations, governments or intuitions.  When helping to save the world we have to get people to understand their own "stories" and believe in them because people tend to act out the things that they believe.  Once we get everyone on a similar "page" we can come up with solutions in ways that right now, we may not even be able to imagine!

This book is important and the last few points I wrote about above do a good job of summarizing the book and the main ideas discussed.  This booked walked us through some of the problems that we are facing today, some of the actions that lead us there and some of the ideas and ways we can adjust our lifestyles to benefit us and the future.  When we do this, we will also be helping to improve the environment.  Some important things that I learned and that I can apply to my everyday life is that changes do start at the individual.  Sometimes this is hard to realize when you feel like something you do is so small compared to the big picture, but when you think about it you really are making a difference and contributing.  I also learned the value of family and how that contributes to the individual, the community and again, the big picture.  I always knew family was important but I never really thought of it as relating directly to the environment.  Another big fact I learned was how important of a role that history plays in the future, especially with the environment as the main focus.

I would recommend this book, it is a good and informational read.  It can be a little drawn out and confusing at time but overall it has a really good message and is explained well.

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