Eye Opener: Photo Essay

I think that I will use the opportunity presented by this photo essay to tell you all about something that puzzles me. That issue is two things I commonly hear students here complain about; no where to park, and high gas prices. I have no sympathy for those who complain, because there are things they can do to avoid those things.

I could definitely drive to school everyday, but I don't. Why not? Because I can ride the bus. I ride the bus firstly because it is cheap, and secondly I know that it is good for the environment. I feel like the bus is overlooked by a lot of students.

This picture I took Monday morning stopping at the school. I noticed that it was only about half full, with about three fourths of the passengers being college students.  The bus that I rode just before this one pulled up had nine people on it and three got off at Kirby Plaza. Why don't more people ride the bus? Being a smart guy I would think that there is a relative reason, like its inconvenient or expensive.

 So then I got to thinking about the convenience of the bus. It must not be because there aren't enough stops because I see sign like this one all over town. The one that I stand by most often is actually less than one block from my house. Then I though that maybe it was because of the times the bus came by. But the bus I ride for my class at 8 every morning stops at my house at 7:37, and gets to the school at 7:48. I can't find much of anything inconvenient about that.

So then It must be because of the price that people drive instead of taking the bus. Lets look at just the price of parking at UMD.  A couple of my roommates have parking permits which they paid around $200 for. Or they can park in the lot shown below and pay each time they park, let's do some math from that sign; say you pay on your U-Card just 3 days a week for 15 weeks (one semester) and that come out to around $78.75. So that must mean that the bus is more expensive than these two options if all the parking lots fill up. Right? But wait, the bus is FREE. 

So maybe the reason why drive is because you can park so much closer to the door, and not have to walk so far. But this picture taken at 7:30 Monday morning when the this parking lot was just about half full, you couldn't even see the library door. And the bus drops you off literally 15 feet from the door. I stood at the entrance to this parking lot for a few minutes counting the cars that came in and I tried to determine how many had more than one person in them. I counted 25 cars coming in, and only one had more than one person in it, so I gave up on that idea.

So why is it that so many people drive to school? I understand that some people live off bus routes, or out of town so that is not an option for them, and some people have to drive for other reasons, but why do all the parking lots get filled? Why would you spend all that money on parking and gas, while doing your part to destroy the environment? Maybe somebody can help me out with understanding why more people don't take the bus. It is free, it save you the hassle of finding a place to park, and most importantly it saves all those emissions from entering the air we breathe. 

I hope that all of you will consider riding the bus if you don't already, and help talk your friends into doing the same thing. More information about bus schedules and routes can be found at the Duluth Transit Authority website.

Advocacy Project: Issue Overview

The issue I am contemplating is the lack of drinkable water in developing countries. Lots of places are either without water, or without safe water. H.R.80 is legislation that aim to fix that. The Global Water Access and Equity Act will bring financial aid to countries that lack potable water.
There are two groups of people who are affected. There are the people who live in these developing countries, and also the American people who are the ones paying for the financial aid. Both parties are really the winners of this bill. The foreigners get clean healthy water to drink, and the taxpayers save in the long term by helping keep these people from getting sick.
If this bill is not passed there will be millions of people who cannot find water to drink. There will be children dying of water-borne illnesses. There will be people dying of dehydration all over. And all just because somebody wants to save a few dollars off their taxes. It wouldn't take much money either. If every American gave $3 a year, and there are 300 million citizens here, that would create almost one billion dollars of aid. Just a little bit from everybody would have a huge impact.
Some might say that this will create economic hardship for some people, but I would have trouble finding anybody who couldn't save $3 a year by not seeing that movie, or making your own dinner rather than eat out. And all of these people in developing countries can become productive members of society. Because they don't spend all their time being sick, or looking for water. Then they can start working in their communities, and make it a better place. So there you have both social and economic advantages. And the only disadvantage that I can find is the pockets the money comes out of, which is very minimal.
This bill is new, so there are not a whole lot of barriers yet. All that can be expected is getting the money, as money is short for everyone right now. But when other barriers arise as this bill moves through committees I will keep you updated.
The resources needed can be described as money. And where that money comes from is what the problem is. The funding for this bill will probably come out the the general fund, which is where your taxes go. Then that money will go directly to the developing countries.
This bill started with the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005. It is basically a restructuring of how the money is distributed, where it comes from, where it goes, and who decides those things. Without this bill the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005 would essentially fall apart and become nonfunctional.
Everybody should support this issue, because it seems to be good for everybody. It keeps people safe and healthy, and therefore saves future money from trying to reverse health conditions from spreading. The ones who would oppose this bill are the ones who would rather keep the money for themselves. And it's not very much money they are keeping either, just about as much as a cheeseburger a year. But by explaining to these people how spending a little money now can save more in the future, and be an investment, rather than an expense, would be a win-win situation.
If our elected officials are smart, logical, compassionate individuals, they should pass this bill. It will bring safe water to many developing countries and perhaps millions of individuals so they can become productive members of society. All for just a small initial investment.

Share and Voice: "Environmental Health : How to Save the Earth"

I had a novel idea the other day, I was wondering how we could save the earth. So I asked google how to save the earth, and this what I found.

This is just a short video about one thing you can do to help save the environment. In this video Ray Olson talks about the impact you can have just by growing your own food. He points out that food in the grocery store travels an average of 2,000 miles. You can really cut down on your carbon footprint by not buying food there. Another advantage of growing your own is that you know exactly what you are eating. You know that you are not getting a vegetable soaked in herbicides, or a fruit covered with pesticides. Also you are getting the freshest food possible by going out to your garden, picking something, then eating it; rather that having it harvested, processed, and shipped all the way to your store.
This same guy has several other short videos on youtube that have good tips also.

Advocacy Project: Healthy People/ THOMAS

Environmental Health Objective: Surface and ground water quality.

EH-4 Increase the proportion of persons served by community water systems who receive a supply of drinking water that meets the regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Baseline: 89 percent of persons served by community water systems received a supply of drinking water that meets the regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005.
Target: 91 percent.

H.R.80:
Title: Global Water Access and Equity Act
Sponsor: Rep Jackson Lee, Sheila [TX-18] (introduced 1/5/2011) Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 1/5/2011 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Recommendation: Vote yes on H.R. 80 Global Water Access and Equity Act.
My political representative: Congressman Sean Duffy

Share & Voice environmentalhealthnews.org

To start with, I am not a very creative person, therefore an assignment that you can take however you want is difficult for me. So the first thing I did for this assignment was to ask google. I entirely expected to have to wade through pages of junk before finding anything worth reading, but on the very first search I found the Environmental Health News. This website just blew my socks off. I had no idea of two things this website brought out.


The first thing was the fact that this existed. Who would've guessed that there were people out there just to report to you all the environmental injustices. All in one place you can find out nearly anything about what is going on with the environment right now. They have editorials of pieces from mainstream media, as well as their own original articles. 





The second thing I find interesting about this page is the stuff they are reporting. There are so many things that I have never even heard about on there. Who knew that 1.6 million pounds of lead fall off vehicle tires each year? I know I didn't. Where would you go to find information about new biofuels, or renewable energy? Until now I would have had to spend time surfing the web looking for a reliable source. But having just about everything you want to know about the environment in one location is so much more convenient.


This website is a great resource, no matter what you are working on. It is also updated every day with new articles impacting our environment.

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

The following are my political representatives and their contact information. I also have a link to each of their websites.

PRESIDENT

Barack Obama

Democrat

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 

Washington, DC 20500

Website: www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama

CONGRESSMEN

Herb Kohl

U.S. Senate

Democrat

Contact information

330 Hart Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-4903

Website: kohl.senate.gov

Ron Johnson

U.S. Senate

Republican

Contact information:

386 Russell Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-4904

Website: ronjohnson.senate.gov

Sean Duffy

U.S. House

Republican

Contact information:

1208 Longworth House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-4907

Website: duffy.house.gov

GOVERNOR

Scott Walker

Republican

Contact information:

Office of the Governor

115 East Capitol
Madison, WI 53702

Website: walker.wi.gov

STATE LEGISTORS

Pam Galloway

WI Senator

Republican

Contact information:

Room 409 South
State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882
Madison, WI 53707-7882

Website: www.legis.state.wi.us/leginfo/contact/legislatorpages.aspxhouse=Senate&district=29

Mary Williams

WI House

Republican

Contact information:

Room 17 West
State Capitol
P.O. Box 8953
Madison, WI 53708

Website:

 http://legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/contact/legislatorpages.aspx?house=Assembly&district=87

Reflections: Weeks 1-7

Looking back at the first half of the semester. We sure did go through a lot.
Starting with all the new things I learned. I had never before used a blog. I thought it was going to be just terrible, hard to learn, and annoying to use. But after a few weeks of use, it does't seem that bad.

Moving towards the things we learned in class. I have always considered myself somewhat of a "tree-hugger", but there sure a lot of things that I never looked at.

The first video that we watched was really what I would call an eye-opener. It was just a clip from 60 minutes, but it had some really important things in it. It exposed all of the reasons why we might not know as much about the environment as we should. It showed how the government seems to have more control over what we know that the people who do the research. That made me wonder whether the government actually knows what is best for us, or are willing to admit it if they do know.

The next video "The Future of Food" really got me to think about what is in my food. It goes in depth into the unpublicized dangers of genetically modified food. I had never know anything about that, and that documentary shows a little bit why.  All they were really fighting for was to have labels on what is and is not genetically modified. It doesn't seem that hard, but certain people in certain places are willing to spend more money to hide the issue.

Then the documentary "Fresh" helps us see all the ways that we could be growing our own food. I had never before thought that somebody in downtown Milwaukee could have his own successful produce operation. Also there are so many things they pointed out that farmers could be doing to help the environment, but they aren't, just to make a buck. They show where the cost of cheap food really ends up.

Then "Green" really showed what the toll is of our oil refineries and chemical factories on the environment. I had never thought of before, what happens to all the chemical waste for all the products out there. I never knew these plants were causing cancer to the nearby residents, nor did I know they were building houses on top of contaminated landfills.

Lastly the movie "Tapped" points out what is really in that bottle of water we are drinking. I had always know that the plastic bottles were bad for the environment. But I had never seen the beach where you couldn't tell the difference between the plastic parts and the sand. And who is supposed to be making sure these products are safe? Apparently one person (among other duties) is solely responsible for the safety of millions of bottles of water sold every day.

Overall I learned a lot of things is just seven weeks. But those things raised a lot of questions. Like what are we doing? Who is going to stand up for our safety? Who is going to suffer the consequences of the choices we make today? One day someone is going to pay the price for what we do today to save a dollar.