Reflections: Weeks 1-4

I have learned a lot already in the first few weeks of class.  We have covered a lot of interesting information and touched on many different topics.  I am glad that I am taking this class because I am learning skills and facts that I had not known previously. 

Blogging is something that I had never done before this class.  I had heard about blogging but had never known too much about it or had ever blogged on my own.  When we were told to make a blog and to start posting I was kind of overwhelmed by it and everything that we had to do!  As the weeks have passed by, I have learned more about blogging and do not feel quite as lost as I did when it was first being introduced to me.  Blogging is an interesting means of communication for this class and I have really liked being able to connect with my classmates on a different "level."

I also thought it was informational and beneficial when we had one of our class periods held in the outdoor classroom.  I had heard different things about the classroom, but nothing was for sure.  It was nice to be able to go inside and take a look around as well as hear the different plans and efforts that went into the construction of the classroom.  I feel like having that classroom and the surrounding land and trails adds a lot to the UMD campus.

So far, Environmental Health class has been a positive "adventure" for me.  I have learned a lot both inside and out of the classroom.  When I am reading through posts, I always tend to pick up something new that I was not aware of previously.  I have also enjoyed some of the activities that we have done, like the online questioner that asked us questions and let us know how many planets we were using with the lifestyle that we live.  I am looking forward to continue blogging, getting to know my classmates more and to keep on learning new facts and information!

Picture taken when searching Google!

Share & Voice: How To Be Environmentally Friendly

I came across a really interesting website that states a lot of different ways to be environmentally friendly.  It contains some good tips, some may common sense, but I thought this would e a good website to bring to our attention.  When I was going through the blogs and commenting/reading some of the other posts, I noticed that a lot of people were shocked when they took the quiz and found out the number of planets there were using.  A lot of people said they thought of themselves as more environmental friendly than the results were showing.  Here is a website to help you out and to make sure you are doing all that you can for the environment! :)

How To Be Environmentally Friendly

Picture came from Google, which then linked me here

Read 'n' Seed 2: First Quarter of: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

I have started to read the beginning parts of my book.  I have gotten up to page 100.  My book does not really have chapters, but it breaks the book up in a different type of way.  Each new section that is addressed in the book has a header that says something like, We're made out of sunlight," or "Slavery and Freedom."  The book has different "Parts" and all parts are broken into sections that contain different headers. 
The first Part is mainly about sunlight.  It talks about how all things come from sunlight and explains a breakdown of this.  Some of the different topics within this first Part would be things such as, "how can things look so good yet be so bad, the death of trees, climate changes, water, survival," and it talks about some other topics as well.
I have learned many new facts and information while reading that I was not aware of before.  Honestly, almost everything I read was somewhat "new" to me because it is so in depth and goes into such great detail and gives a lot of numerical data.  A few things that stood out to me would be:

• We are currently pouring over six billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year
• The history of the small island Haiti, in many ways, is a microcosm for what's happening in the world today
• The United States has lost a third of its topsoil since 1950
• The timber industry's ads that show loggers planting seedlings after stripping trees from a forest are misleading with regard to the water cycle....they are creating a decades-long gap in the water cycle
• Because of our consumption of oil, gas, and coal, we are pumping more than six billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into that thin layer of the atmosphere and because of this in the past 20 years the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased from 280 parts per million to over 370.9 parts per million

These tidbits of information were all collected within the first 100 pages of the book.  Some of them are really shocking and there are MANY other facts and information in the first 100 pages that go into more detail than these.
I think it is clear to see why we should care about this information.  They are stating facts that we need to know about and effect the planet that we live on.  We need to be aware of these things in order to be able to do anything about them.  Furthermore, much of the damage that has been done has to do with human impact.  I feel that solutions are trying to be accomplished and society is attempting to address these issues overall, but people need to take it seriously and try and do their part.  Something rather frustrating though, is that documentary we viewed in class that showed how the White House is not letting scientists reveal accurate data on some of these major environmental issues.  This is really going to do us no good in the end.  I am eager to keep on reading this book because the author says it is suppose to have a "positive" ending.

Share & Voice: DuluthStreams.Org

I went to the UMD homepage and searched Environmental topics that relate to our campus and surrounding city.  There were a lot of different interesting websites and links that popped up.  One of them that I found rather interesting and wanted to bring to your attention was a website called DuluthStreams.org.
On the UMD reference link page (http://www.duluth.umn.edu/ceed/reference_links.html) it says that this website talks about history, geology, biology, water quality, recreation, human impacts, and management of 42 streams in Duluth, MN.  I thought that this information seemed interesting and some of the topics related really well to some of the things we are discussing and learning about in Environmental Health.  Two if the topics that stood out most to me were human impacts and water quality. 
This is an interesting website to visit and you are able to check out some of the information and facts listed and talked about on the homepage of this website.  Hopefully you will be able to learn something new!  Let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

This picture was taken from Google.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

I read about the ecological footprint and decided to do an activity that related to what I read about.  I took the Earth Day Footprint quiz and found the results rather interesting.  When I was answering a few of the questions, I didn't even realize that some of the stuff they were asking about related so directly to the "footprint" that I am leaving, for example the question relating to how much meat I consumed.  My results showed that with a lifestyle like mine, I use around 4.2 planets!  That is definitely more then I would have assumed if I never would have done this exercise.  It said that 47% of my "footprint" was consumed in services, so this is really something I need to focus on and something I need to work on to continue to improve.  I also may want to consider other small things that I can do that will all add up to the "big picture."  Some of these may include, carpooling when I really need to drive, or else trying to take the bus most of the time.  I can watch my intake on meat products and try and eat more food that is grown in Duluth.  There are so many things I can do to make my footprint decrease, so these are things that I am going to start paying more attention to now that I am more aware.

Here is the website from where the picture comes from and I got it off of Google!
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/carpooling/carpooling.html