Every disaster movie begins with a scientist being ignored. Coronavirus is a perfect example of that type of movie. Li Wenliang first realized that COVID-19 was not the typical flu in December. However, he was punished by local authorities for "spreading rumors". Now, 4 months later, we are in a global pandemic and not allowed to leave our houses. Perhaps we should start listening to the scientists, right?
Climate change is that same disaster movie, just in slow-motion. Scientists have been warning the public about how real climate change is for fifty years, yet we continue to ignore them and their solid evidence, just like we ignored Dr. Wenliang. We need to stop being ignorant. We need to stop avoiding the obvious because it's "too scary", and confront it for what it actually is, just like we all had to finally stop pretending everything was going to be fine by spring break and cancelled our plans. We need to listen to the experts, they're called that for a reason, and we need to make a change. If this quarantine taught you one thing, let it be that the scientists know what they're talking about. You pretending that what they have to say isn't valid will only result in more damage, just as it did with COVID-19. We saw coronavirus coming, it was an ominous threat in the distance. Yet, most of us rolled our eyes and did not prepare for what was to come. I bet now that you wish you did. Climate change right now is at the same stage, just an ominous threat in the distance that some people still cannot really see. But it is coming. Australia showed us that. We cannot let history repeat itself by not preparing for this disaster too. It is time. Time to stand up, unite, and work together. It's time to forget the political circus, party lines, and pointless debates. It's time to realize that this is now or never. We waited too long to confront the disaster of COVID-19, and we are paying that cost. Let's not repeat our mistakes. Let's stop this before it's too late. Look at my other articles for information on how to approach, and lessen, the threat of climate change.
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The other day in Environmental Science we dissected the stomachs of birds that had been found dead on Midway Island in the middle of the ocean. Sounds disgusting, right? You would expect blood, guts, dead organisms, etc. Instead, it was almost all plastic. Fishing lines, sharp micro-plastics, etc. We are drowning Earth's animals in plastic.
In case you need some more motivation, let's remember the following: As seen by the picture above, if Americans made a true effort, there would be very little actual trash. Plastic, metal, paper, and glass go to recycling. Food scraps and yard waste can be thrown in a bin in the backyard to make a compost (it's really not that hard guys. Just leave it alone and if you want the process to go a little faster turn it over every once in a while). Hazardous waste in your house (such as batteries) can go to hazardous waste management (look up where the nearest facility to you is or if your city has a collection process). Finally, remaining waste (which is really not a lot) goes to landfill. Ways to recycleThe following is a complete list of items that can be recycled in every major room of your house from SWALCO (Solid Waste Agency of Lake County, IL). Remember that all of these items MUST be washed out of any contaminants (including food, soap, shampoo, or whatever was in it before), or else your ENTIRE BAG of recycling will be dumped in the landfill because it is seen as contaminated.
You also must use a recyclable bag to put your recycling in!!! As easy and straightforward as that sounds, many people forget (including me!) and use trash bags for recycling, which will immediately be thrown into the landfill and the whole bag won't be recycled. You can buy recyclable trash bags from any store, or use a paper bag (NOT plastic bag, because those are not recyclable!). BATHROOM
BEDROOM
LIVING ROOM
KITCHEN
LAUNDRY ROOM
OFFICE
Remember that REUSE is important too. Many items can be cleaned and reused over and over again! I hope this article helps you realize what impact you actually have on our Earth, be sure to check out your ecological footprint online as well to see other ways you can reduce your impact on the planet! Little to popular belief, toxins infiltrate our society. They are in our air, water, soil. Not only that, but they are in our cooking pans, our childrens' toys, our furniture, our house. They are everywhere. In my environmental science class, we did an overview of toxins, which I am now going to give you. It provides you the source of the toxin, and what effects the toxin has on your health. I will also provide ways to avoid the toxin, both for individuals, as well as an app at the bottom that will make sure you have clean products in your home. First up, PBDEs. PBDEs are used as flame retardants in foam furniture. It was a way to stop all of the house fires that were occurring in the 70s due to the constant use of cigarettes. Instead of making a self-extinguishing cigarette by adding PBDEs to that, the tobacco industry turned the problem to furniture companies, saying their furniture was the fuel in the fires, and therefore it was their fault. So, to combat this, a known carcinogen, endocrine disruptor and neurotoxin was put into everyday American furniture. PBDEs are known to disrupt brain development and hormone systems, as well as cause cancer. You are sleeping on these chemicals. To avoid this, buy European furniture. Most of it does not have PBDEs in it, but to be safe call the company or look on their website. Phthalates, despite being an endocrine disruptor and teratogen, are found in many everyday products, from cosmetics to lotion. It helps keep lotions and shampoos smooth, and is unregulated in basically every industry. This chemicals causes reproductive problems in both genders, including causing ovarian, breast, or testicular cancers. Pesticides are weed, insect, or another inhibitor that is sprayed on anything from agricultural lands to your own body to your food. Pesticides can come in forms ranging from carcinogens, neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors. They can cause leukemia, brain cancer, parkinsons, liver and kidney damage, cancer, and blood disorders. To avoid pesticides, buy food from pesticide-free brands (look at pesticides 101 for more), avoid chemical inhibitors in your home or body such as mosquito or ant spray, instead use structural or biological inhibitors, which one can find online, such as a mosquito net. PFOAs are known carcinogens, yet are still used in no-stick pans They are also found in scotchguard, stainmaster, goretex, and microwave food bags. Due to their prevalence, PFOAs are found in the blood of 98% of Americans. They are linked to liver problems, maturation delays, and cancer. Avoid products listed above, and especially products from the companies Teflon and 3M. PCBs are carcinogens and neurotoxins, yet are used as coolants in electric motors and transformers. They are persistent, meaning they do not leave your body, and impact the brain, nervous system, and hormone systems. Dioxins are carcinogens, yet are produced through incineration of waste, bleaching, production of plastics and pesticides, and in the production of fatty foods, especially beef. They can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system and create birth defects. Avoid fatty foods, plastics, pesticides and the processes of creating them. BPA is one of the only one of these toxins that you will have heard of. They are what makes plastic water bottles bendable. They are known as carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and teratogens, and can leach into your water if you use a plastic water bottle more than once (for this reason maybe don't use plastic water bottles at all?) They are known as "gender benders" because they bend hormone levels and can cause reproductive problems. They can also cause birth defects, cancer, and genetic damage to the next generation. Mercury is a neurotoxin that is produced from ash from coal fired plants. This ash goes into our oceans, which is absorbed through photosynthesizing plants. As small fish eat these plants, and then big fish eat those fish, and then we eat the big fish, the mercury is biomagnified through the food chain, and we end up absorbing more mercury than we could have ever thought. This much mercury from eating seafood can cause mercury poisoning, which can cause seizures, uncontrollable shaking, blindness, pain and numbness in muscles, and death. To avoid such poisoning, avoid eating larger fish, limit seafood consumption, and almost completely avoid it while pregnant. Arsenic is a carcinogen that is found in pressure treated wood, which is often found on playgrounds. When kids play on these playgrounds, the arsenic is absorbed through the skin, which then makes it way into the body when kids put their hands in their mouths. For this reason, make sure your kids or the kids you're babysitting do not put their hands in their mouths, and talk to your city about pressure treated wood in community areas. To find more information about the toxins in the products you use on a daily basis, get the app EWG. It rates the cleanliness of your products, as well as giving you suggestions of the cleanest products. Additionally, watch the video below if you haven't already on my Pesticides 101 article to discover more about how the everyday chemicals we are exposed to affect us and our future generations. I just don't get it. Why do you, Donald Trump, hate our Earth so much? It truly does not make sense. You don't give a single shit about climate change, it's getting truly ridiculous. Your newest policy is basically destroying the only true, cohesive environmental regulation we have. You're getting rid of NEPA The newest regulations on the law will result in no federal environmental review of most construction, which could result in major environmental damage.
This would result in the building of oil pipelines, dams, mines, and more without environmental review. This has left me in utter shock. Truly all I can say is, "seriously?". Australia is literally on fire. Like, the continent is glowing red from satellites. Lake Michigan is at record highs. The Amazon is still burning. We had the hottest July ever this summer. Yet, somehow you, our president, have blinded himself to the catastrophic damage your new regulations are causing all around us. You are blinded to the millions suffering from the impacts of climate change. You are the definition of greed. You are the prototype of what we should not do when it comes to climate change. I don't mean to be partisan, as I am usually not. I try to respect everyone's views, because I want everyone to view climate change as a real issue. But you have gone too far. You and your administration are ravaging our Earth. You are ripping it apart, from hydro-fracking in Alaska, to rolling back environmental regulations, and now this to "help the American people". You know what would "help the American people", Mr. Trump? Not killing our Earth. Not killing everything that provides our way of life. Not indirectly killing us. Write back soon! xoxo, An Environmental Advocate In the article below, it explains the best homes that have ever been made. They are bulletproof, fireproof, and helps the environment more than one could ever realize. They are built out of plastic bottles. Through this, Nigerians are meeting their portion of reducing emissions. Despite living in poverty, they are still helping the planet more than Americans. Imagine how many lives this would help if we implemented a similar housing construction style in the States. Not only does it rid our Earth of plastic, but it creates houses that don't need a lot of upkeep.
This is something that should be seriously considered in other parts of the world, and something you should consider too. I know that I already am seeing a plastic bottle house in my future! Food travels far and wide, the video below explains the trucking of strawberries across the US. Countries spend tons of resources and money to send food to far away places where it does not grow naturally. This drains our resources quicker than we could ever imagine. For this reason, one of the best and pretty easy things you can do to help the environment is to eat local. Not sure wha foods grow near you? Here is a comprehensible list of where to find the most local, fresh, and sustainable foods. The link above lists local suppliers in your area of grass-fed meat and dairy products Food Routes explains where to find local food in your area and gives explanations to find sustainable and local foods at your supermarket This link helps you connect with farmers, CSAs, and farmer's markets nearby. Help support family farms across the nation by buying their products or simply donating. This helps encourage the continuation of sustainable and local agriculture, instead of a rise in agribusiness through corporations This website promotes the elimination of pesticides and offers advice and tips to get rid of pesticides in your own home to protect your family's health This website explains the ins and outs of having a 100 mile diet, meaning that you only eat food that was grown within 100 miles of where you live. It also provides a map of your 100 miles to show where you can get your food from
Pesticides are much more prevalent in society today than we think they are. They are in your food, self-care products, cleaning products. We are exposed to them 24/7, yet no one realizes this. In this video, the Environmental Working Group explores the different toxins that are persistently present in our body. I know the video is long, but it is 100% worth watching. It accurately displays how many chemicals we put into society today that we know are not safe. After watching this video, I was shocked. We have found links of cancer, autism, and more in these chemicals that are present in our car exhaust, factory smoke, and more. Why are there no bans on these chemicals?
The reason why is synergystic reactions. Something that chemical companies and the EPA does not study. When determining if a chemical is safe, they only look at that specific chemical's effect on humans. They do not look at the reactions that take place between chemicals in the body, something that causes more harm than we could ever realize. We must stop this, but how so? Well the foremost answer to that question is policy, but that is hard when you don't control the EPA. So for starts, vote! Vote for someone who cares about the environment and ask for their take on chemicals in the human body. Another thing you can do is get the app EWG, and check out their website. On their website, they have what is called the dirty dozen and the clean fifteen, where they list the dozen most unsafe foods out there, while also listing the fifteen cleanest foods. Additionally, the app allows you to look up almost any product and see how safe the chemicals in it are for you, regarding allergens, carcinogens, etc. They also provide recommendations for the cleanest products, and it really gives you an idea of just how exposed we are to so many chemicals on a daily basis. I had never really thought about the bees before. I know they were endangered, and I had heard about "save the bees", but I never really got it, until we watched a video in Enviro today. In the video, they discuss the true importance of bees and how much they contribute to our planet. They also discuss all of the things that are killing them, from parasites to pesticides, and these things hardly even touch on human activities. As you can see, bees provide more than we could ever know. They are one of the foundations of our planet. Yet we roll our eyes and say, "But they sting us!"
Without bees, millions will die. It's as simple as that. So help make a difference. by doing some of the following: -buy more products that are produced by bee farms, such as honey. This supports the farms and keeps bees alive -buy products from pesticide free or low toxicity pesticide farms -protest deforestation -don't spray that hive near your house with toxins, let the bees live! (or hire a professional to move the hive) -if you're really feelin' it, start a bee farm! (it leads to lots of free honey:)) This amazing book continues with a segue into factory farms, displaying the industrialized, toxic, awful business that our meat comes from. So let's continue with our quotes, shall we? As we know, "cattle is raised in densely packed animal cities. These places are called CAFOs- Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations... Thanks to CAFOs, meat is now so cheap that many of us eat it three times a day... But there are other costs involved in raising cattle this way that shoppers don't see when they buy a steak at a supermarket...The waste from CAFOs is a huge source of very toxic pollution. Tons of animal manure are produced with no good way of disposing of it. The feedlots are also breeding grounds for new and deadly bacteria. Some of these bacteria are finding their way into our food. "Cattle has evolved to eat grass. But in a CAFO they are forced to eat corn- at considerable cost to their health, to the health of the land, and ultimately to the health of us, their eaters." Cows have something called a rumen, which is essentially a second stomach that works something like a fermentation tank. It breaks down the nutrients in grass (what cows are supposed to eat) and turns it into fuel. "But it is not good at digesting corn. So why then are cows forced to eat corn instead of grass? The answer is one word: speed. Cattle raised on grass simply take longer to grow than cattle raised on corn." In the fifties, cows were slaughtered at 2 or 3 years old. These days, cows are killed between 14-16 months. Cows are about 80 pounds when they are born so, "what gets a steer from 80 to 1,100 pounds in fourteen months is tremendous amounts of corn, food supplements, and drugs. Fast food indeed." Yes, the meat you eat ingests food supplements and drugs. Cows do not live the normal cow life that you learn about in elementary school. In addition to that, they are given liquified fat (usually beef fat), protein supplements made of molasses and urea (a synthetic nitrogen similar to fertilizer), liquid vitamins, and antibiotics. Other possible ingredients include the following: That's right. Your meat is eating itself. Along with maybe some cardboard and cement and candy. Their feed is ground up in a factory and sent to them in huge trucks, so the possibilities of what could mixed in along the way are simply endless. "Corn-fed beef contains more saturated fat than the meat of grass-fed animals. Too much saturated fat has also been linked to heart disease and other health problems... Just as it is not healthy for cattle to eat corn, it is not healthy for us to eat corn-fed cattle." The cattle in CAFOs also have "hospitals" because they get sick so often. "The most serious illness is bloat. Remember, there are bacteria in the animal's rumen and they produce a lot of gas. Usually cattle belch a lot to release the gas (which releases methane and contributes to climate change). But a corn diet keeps the gas from escaping. This is called bloat. The gases in the rumen get trapped and the rumen inflates like a balloon until it presses against its lungs. To save the animal, a vet must force a hose down the animal's throat to release the gas. Otherwise, the pressure will choke the animal to death" Eating corn also gives cattle acidosis (too much acid in the blood), which can result in liver damage. "Between 15 and 30 percent of feedlot cattle have damaged livers" "What keeps a feedlot animal healthy- or healthy enough- are antibiotics. Most of the antibiotics sold in America today are for animal feed, not for humans. Without these drugs, cattle could not survive." This is solely because of the conditions in which they are raised. But, like with anything that requires pesticides or antibiotics of any sort, it can breed superbacteria that is resistant to the drugs. This creates a vicious cycle in which we keep having to pour money into research for new antibiotics due to genetic resistance. But if we just stopped the cycle all together and began working with nature instead of against it, we would save millions of dollars, and save thousands of lives, animals and humans alike. The book continues with a visit to a CAFO, "My first impression was that this home wasn't too bad. It was far enough from the feed mill to be fairly quiet and it had a view of what I though was a pond. Then i noticed the brown scum. The body of water is what is known as a manure lagoon. I asked the feedlot manager why they didn't just use the liquid manure as fertilizer on neighboring farmers. The farmers don't want it, he explained. The nitrogen and phosphorus levels are so high that it would kill the crops. (He didn't tell me that the feedlot wastes also contain toxic chemicals and drugs that end up in waterways downstream.)" Yet again, we see the cycle of nature, manure being used as a source of life for plants, being forcibly reversed, causing millions of dollars and a huge larger sacrifice to our Earth. This is not a sustainable practice. It's probably as far from it as you can get. It is the purposeful sacrifice of the environment and nature so that we can get these products a bit more often and a bit faster. Is this really worth it? Why not work with nature to provide food? Why must we have this self-destructive mindset and ravage the Earth only to be left in helpless circumstances in 50 years, where our environment is devastated and nature is so defenseless that it cannot continue its natural cycles? After reading this, I really did not want to ever eat meat again. However, my mom loves to cook meat and there's usually plenty of leftovers that will go to waste if I don't eat it, which is equally as bad. So, we settled on a compromise: she would buy only grass-fed meat, none of the gross, industrialized, high in fat stuff. The meat she bought would come from farms that decided to have an environmental conscience, as all farmers should, and work with natural cycles, instead of working against them and slapping bandaids over all the consequences that follow it. This is something everyone should start doing. Cows are not meant to eat corn, so why should we encourage that? Why should we encourage the polluting of our Earth? Why should we encourage animal cruelty in CAFOs, when Trump just passed a bill banning animal cruelty throughout the country? You can also try being a weekday vegetarian, or a flexitarian (like me!). In both cases, you avoid meat most of the time and save it for special occasions or times when you really can't avoid it. You also make sure any meat you do it is actually organic (aka grass-fed beef, or pasture-raised chicken). |
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Willow VolkertWillow is a senior in high school and has found a passion in the environment and raising awareness to the issues within it. Through this blog, she hopes to help others understand why this issue is so important, and how people can easily contribute to the cause. Archives
March 2020
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