Some people might just say ewwwww

Even after reading these articles I am still not convinced of dumpster diving. I think it’s just unsanitary. Especially, the food part is yucky. Maybe if the dumpster was kind of clean than I probably would think differently. My thinking comes from the way the garbage smells during the summer. The odor sometimes makes me vomit, but the good thing about the smell is that it makes me come back to reality LOL. Dumpsters make me think of poop.

Dumpster diving makes me think of all the germs and insects beyond my imagination that hide there. I think that we are exposed to enough doses of germs and such. When people throw out perfectly fine furniture maybe because they had bed bugs. This year on TV they had many programs about an epidemic of bed bugs and that they can hide practically everywhere even in the cracks of your floor. So that is why I am so skeptical about taking furniture from a stranger.
My concern about garbage is that sometimes people should really think about what they are about to throw out. For example of the furniture is perfectly fine maybe we should try to redecorate it, put our artistic side into use. If that doesn’t work we should ask our friends and see if they need something that we are about to throw out.

Another point about garbage that I have to make is that food stores or restaurants dump a lot of perfectly fine food. But when a homeless person comes along and asks if they have any left overs he or she is kicked out from the store or the restaurant (so sad and true) =(.
Supermarkets and restaurants should give back to the community’s homeless and that also should be an act of kindness and not because they have to.

But going back to the dumpster diving people should be really careful because GERMS are everywhere especially in those places, but for the daredevils here is a website that I think might be helpful: http://www.wikihow.com/Dumpster-Dive

Blog 4

Before I came to U.S.A. I was born and raised in Poland. I lived in a small town and the areas around were farms. Mostly, milking cow farms. Because most of the people started to live in the cities this part of Poland had the highest unemployment rate because a lot of people who had small farms couldn’t earn a decent living. Agriculture just didn’t cut it anymore. The small town, which I had lived in wasn’t thriving so my family came here to America. (This is kind of hard to explain because towns in Poland are very different than towns here).

The difference that I saw in the clip The Story of Stuff was that we didn’t cut our natural resources for example forests to a point were the are only handful of them left. Poland is greener but the most polluted part of Poland is in Southwest. The similarities that I saw were: people mostly men who worked in the factories and were exposed to the dust and smoke developed more of lung cancers.

The difference in consumption is now changing a great deal because the boarders are open and it is just a matter of short time when for example something like ipod will appear on the market and something like that is directed toward the younger consumers because the older generation is scared of the new ways and is more traditional for example my dad he never used a computer even though he has it right under his nose.Also, there is no difference in advertising the commercials are the same but spoken in Polish so everybody could understand (even tough most people in Poland know how to communicate effectively in English). Poland does not have a well-established recycling plan everything goes into one garbage disposal. But the good thing is that my country has more leisure time because everybody has 32 days in a year off without taking extra vacations.

Part 2 of Blog 3

Some sources of renewable energy are:
Solar energy or the energy obtained from the sun which creates electicity (Radiant heat),
Wind power which can be turned into electricity by using wind turbines,
Rain provides fresh water wich is a source of renewable energy,
Hydropower is the energy obtained from the moving water for example: tides,
Geothermal power is the energy genereted by the heat stored in the earth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy#Solar_energy_use

Also, Michael Oppenheimer "is the Albert G. Mibank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also the Director of the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) at Woodrow Wilson School, and Associated Faculty of the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences Program."
http://www.scienceschool.usyd.edu.au/index.php?page=lecturers/oppenheimer

BLOG 3

My biggest concern for the environment is the melting of glaciers. Glaciers are when snow falls in certain mountain areas, it builds up and it is converted to ice, as it builds up the pressure from the ice pushes down toward lower altitudes and that is a simple way of explaining on what is a glacier.

But, the glaciers are melting very rapidly. The drinking water might be gone in a very short period of time and we don’t even realize it. They are melting away and the loss of water is at its highest. Of course lest not forget because it is caused by global warming and higher than average temperatures which cause the ice to melt. The melting of glaciers causes the sea levels to rise and destroys the natural storage of water.

Moreover, the solution to stop the melting of glaciers is to reduce the levels of disposing the fossil fuels and invest more money into renewable energy. Something interesting that I heard was on the Polish news this morning, China is trying out this new plan. One day of the week cars with certain numbers on the registration plates can’t ride their car. Maybe this solution will not help as much but if very country would start doing it, then the positive results for the environment would flow in more rapidly. Another solution to the problem is if the world nations would have more restrictions on how much of greenhouse gasses could be released into the atmosphere.

I got my information from these websities:

http://ecologicalproblems.blogspot.com/2008/03/glaciers-melting-at-rapid-level.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/03-ask.html

This is a very interesting video (an interview with prof. Michael Oppenheimer):

http://www.videojug.com/interview/global-warming-melting-glaciers

Blog 2

How will I follow my passion? I think that this is a very difficult question for me because I still haven’t figured what is my true passion. I care about many things like music, fashion, animals and the environment, but I don’t know if I am passionate about them enough to call them passions. I think I am still in the process of finding me or exploring the world to find out what really interests me. But when I find that thing I am sure that it will be something worth of telling and doing. I will follow my passion by learning about it more and I will definitely not keep it to myself. I will try to find myself a team who have the same interests and explore our passion in various different ways to make the world better.
I will use my education to make the world better by learning about the world more. The school plays a big role in my educational process because it gives me ideas and different points of view. It also makes me think in a critical way. Moreover, school taught me to ask questions if I don’t understand something I will seek an answer until I get it. It is also, very important for other people to understand that knowledge is power and asking questions is OK. My education will help the world because I will tell the causes and effects of global warming to who ever wants to listen and then together find ways that will improve the planet.

Blog !

While I was brainstorming, I came up with two things that I did and are important for the sake of the environment. The first chore in my house that I had done was cleaning. I cleaned my home with various different types of chemicals like: Windex or Clorox. These chemicals are very strong and are not healthy for the environment because the fumes that they give off are let out to the air and humans, animals and plants breath it in. The second thing that I did was going through my neighborhood’s stores with food and drinks and look for glass bottles of water. I wasn’t surprised because out of 7 stores none of them carried glass bottles of water. This affects the environment because most of the people would choose a plastic bottle over glass bottle even if they would know that glass bottles are ecosystem friendly.
To help the environment I recycle garbage for six families including mine that live in my house. I think it is very important to recycle because even though we have separate garbage cans for regular, paper and glass or plastic garbage people still manage not to recycle. They put plastic or big loads of paper in the same garbage. I am the person who separates the waste and puts it into proper containers.I have one big concern about the environment because it becomes worse and worse in front of our eyes and we do little to help it. If more people would know that something as recycling is a huge help I think more of them would do it. In order for others and me to help the environment I need to learn how I can improve it and I education is the solution.