Gary Liss: Zero Waste

I thought Gary's speech on zero waste to be interesting. It was nice to know that businesses out there are putting the environment into consideration when running their business. I think that it should be mandatory for companies to be zero-wasters, especially companies that produce massive amounts of things daily.

Joe Medeiros : Green Careers

Joe's speech on green careers was pretty interesting. I was surprised as to how many "green" jobs there are out there. Joe definitely has helped me out in deciding what I want to be in the future that will have a positive impact on this planet.

Environmental perspective

I think taking this class has made some minor changes in my environmental perspective. I put some of the things that I have learned in the class to good use. For example, I told my parents about supporting our local farmers, and now they also think about the groceries that they buy and how it impacts the environment. There was definitely a lot of neat facts that I learned in this class that has made me more aware of my impact on the environment.

guest speaker Laird Thompson

This guest speaker made me think about the future of oil and what we are going to do about it when it all runs out. I mean, just about everything we do these days requires us to use something that uses oil in it's production. For example, the computer that I'm using here to post this blog has oil based products in it, just about everything in the supermarket required oil to get there, anything that has plastic required oil to make, and these things are made everyday! In factories that probably need oil to run. And yet somehow I don't feel or notice any panic in the area or world I live in. I wonder, with all the oil we use each day, how the Earth still has enough oil in it for us to function the next. I bet some scientists know how much oil there is on Earth right now but I'm too lazy to search for it, so I'll just try to do my best in conserving oil and try to lessen my "footprint" on the use of oil, my car is pretty fuel efficient at around 30 mpg's so I guess that's a start.

guest speaker Jane Haproff

It was interesting to listen to her speak about how different beliefs can affect the way people view the environment such as how some religions view the environment as human dominant where everything is made for humans to use. Another view is that everything on Earth has a soul. Overall I thought the guest speaker did a decent job, it was a bit boring for me though.

Joe Medeiros

I think that his speech on biodiversity was pretty interesting. It made me realize how un-diverse the human species really is compared to all the others on this planet, and how completely dependent we are on other species. Are other species dependent on us? The video he showed was also interesting and talked about the importance of biodiversity and how humans have sort of unbalanced the whole ecosystem, decreasing the biodiversity on Earth because of the lifestyles we live. Biodiversity is something we have to keep and maintain, because without it probably means the end of life on Earth.

Toxins and Me

I don't really care that much about the toxins in my environment, mostly because there is not much I can do about it. I don't live on a piece of land that has any toxic waste from a past mine, and the air I breathe is already filled with pollution. I think the level of toxicity something has to be before people have to take notice would be something that will affect the health of everyone in the entire state of California in a short period of time. But for things like asbestos infected dirt in a school, it is up to the local individual and community to decide what to do with it. I also think that when storing toxic waste, researchers should find a way to completely get rid of it so that the toxic waste is not just sitting around somewhere else.

2nd guest speaker Mike

I thought this guest speaker spoke about a very interesting subject. I did not know that California's water was pretty much toxic. And also that there was a risk of eating too much fish. Its a good thing that I don't eat too much fish from California anyways. I also liked how he went more in depth into the different types of mining. It is sad to know that what happened in the past has made California's water tainted with mercury forever, or until the government or somebody finds an efficient way to get rid of it.

1st guest speaker gary noy

I thought this guest speaker was pretty good. It was interesting to learn about the legacies of both the gold rush and logging that has happened right in my own backyard! He has made me more aware that the paths humans choose to take in this developing world have to be taken with care and regard to not only the environment, but for the people in future generations.

conserving species

I think that doing something is better than doing nothing at all. Even though some organizations concentrate their efforts in conserving one species rather than another, it is still a step in the right direction. As for which species we should concentrate on more is a hard question, because I think that all species are important to the Earth. Maybe the ones that are on the brink of extinction, like those goats that live on a vertical wall in the Planet Earth video, should be a priority. I also think that the extinctions of more species is inevitable as the human population continues to grow and develop, only the species that can adapt to that are the ones that will stay, and the ones that cant will disappear.

My Carbon footprint

After taking the quiz, I found out that my carbon footprint is 4.46 earths. I think its because I have some pretty good energy saving habits such as turning off the lights in rooms that no one is using and turning off the water when I'm brushing my teeth, mostly common sense stuff. But apparently I still need more improving. Some things I could do is walk to the grocery store instead of drive there, and change my diet so that I will have less of a carbon footprint.