It has been quite the interesting
journey in this class. It went by faster than I thought it would. This might be
because I am taking seven classes and am always busy doing something. But I can
honestly say that this class has been, by far, the most interesting. I have learned more than I will be typing
today in this blog, as it will be mostly about a couple of things I thought
were important/interesting. So the
assignment this week is to give my opinion on what exactly I feel is the most
important environmental issue today and why. I can honestly say this one is easy. When I was doing research for the climate
change blog I definitely felt the massive amounts of pollution, specifically
CO2 levels from them, in large quantities are by far, in my opinion, most
important environmental issue.
In
class we discussed just how bad it could be, which I had also concluded in my
blog...polar ice caps melt…water levels rise…no more awesome vacations to fun
tropical islands because they no longer exist. I really liked the example used
in class about how permafrost which has been frozen for well…a very long time…THOUSANDS
of years, yet around the time we start releasing vast amounts of pollution into
the atmosphere…it starts to melt. The Larsen B ice shelf’s collapse in 2002
which started to rapidly crack existed for some 12,000 years before
disintegrating into small icebergs, a good article on it can be found here.
The evidence is right there but many skeptics and others with agendas refuse to
admit it is an issue, otherwise they may have to do something about it. Fact is
that the water level rising because of the climate change involved in global
warming is one of the greatest issues but not the only one. The pollution
itself is a danger to animal life as well as humans. And polar bears are
awesome, just sayin’! As a nation we could impose a much more regulated cap and
trade system and also change fossil fuel dependence with alternative methods
and strive for better technologies to make this a thing! Interestingly enough
we are working on an assignment about this stuff this week! As what I can
personally do about it. Well, probably the best thing I can do is lessen the
amount I drive. I usually do not go nuts with driving without a good reason for
it. It could be said that purchasing certain items could contribute indirectly
by promoting more shipping of said products. That being said, I could purchase
more locally made/grown products to combat this.
Okay,
now my opinion on the most interesting thing we have learned. I would have to say,
the most interesting and by far the most shocking, for me, had to do with the
research on tap water vs. bottled water. I have to admit that it blew my mind a
bit. It was interesting to learn that the EPA has stricter guidelines on tap
water than the FDA does on bottled water. And it wasn’t long ago when I was mostly
drinking bottled water. Over the summer I wanted to stop purchasing bottled
stuff so I stopped using them and used a water filter instead. Now I am glad I
did for a different reason…my tap water might be better…especially after being
filtered. It was by far the biggest learning experience for me. I learned quite
a bit about our water system and how it was regulated, and of course that
bottled water may not be as good as tap water.
Another
interesting factoid that I thought was rather interesting had to do with our
consumerism. I never gave it much thought really but when it comes down to our
products breaking at a set time so we either buy the latest model or the same
thing…I never really thought about that in depth. And believe me, I contributed
to this consumerism more than most, however, when things broke…I bought another
brand. The story of stuff here,
as well as many of the other videos on the site were really informative, and I
learned quite a bit checking them out. Overall, I learned quite a bit and
enjoyed this class a whole lot.
