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
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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.