1) Reflect on this relatively unique set of experiences we are experiencing and how you are managing to stay sane and healthy. This is the first time all of my classes have been online and so far it hasn't been too bad. This is an opportunity to set my pace for my classes and get ahead if I want to. To keep my sanity and stay in the present I have been doing yoga every morning, today was day 8 and I'm not sure if it's helping as much now as it was in the beginning. I chose yoga because focusing on the breath is what draws you to the present and takes your focus off of the past or the future. I have also continued to journal nightly when I first started to journal I only did it when something really big would happen. Then as I switched to nightly I had wished for something exciting to write about, but this is not what I had intended. I have also tried to go on a walk every day but with it snowing in it makes it less desirable. As for staying healthy, I saw a video on the internet about how to properly wash your hands without missing a spot and now as far as I'm aware everyone in my household is using the proper technique. When I go to work I make sure to wash my hands often and have had to learn how to take a stand against clients who don't want to follow our no-contact policy. 2) Reflect on any concerns about your job, family, or education that you are experiencing right now. Things at home are getting a little weird, just last night my aunt called my mom and she was talking about how fights are breaking out in the parking lots up in Washington over toilet paper... she then recommended to my mom that we get a gun to protect the house in case neighbors get desperate. I do not see this as necessary because at least in Utah there is still a heavy religious moral compass. I also pointed out that none of us know how to use a gun so it would do more harm than it would help. At my work, we have been deemed an essential business since we are the only clinic in Utah that gives medical care to exotic animals. We have gone to no contact so we have people drop their pet at the door and we as reception bring the carrier in, wipe it down and then take it to the back where we handle all conversations with the owner over the phone. I like this plan because it helps us all stay healthy, however, this has lead to idling in our parking lot which frustrates me as well as people getting nasty and cross with us for taking the needed precautions. 3) On pages 7 and 8 of Chemicals, Cancer, and You FS.pdf, it discusses several risk factors that increase your risk of cancer. Which are factors that you can control? What are you doing to limit your risk? Reflect on your lifestyle choices. For example, are you consciously limiting your exposure to chemicals that might be carcinogens? Things like age and genetics will always play a part that we can't change, but things like behavior what I put in my body or on my body, exposure to chemicals what I bring into my house in my food or household cleaners & viruses and bacteria are kind of a factor you can control, you can control how you react to catching a cold or flu as well as what measures you take to ensure you don't catch them to start with. Breast cancer runs in my family, so when the scientists were talking about putting your phone in your bra increases the likelihood of you contracting breast cancer so I don't ever put my phone there or in pockets close to my chest. Other than that, the CDC says to limit alcohol consumption and not to smoke. And since I can't legally drink and I don't find smoking appealing I can say I am taking care of myself in that way as well. Since I'm not sure what carcinogens are out there other than the five mentioned in the pdf. I can't say for sure, however, we are super particular on what we buy and bring into the house. My mom has a deep knowledge of what chemicals to look out for in food so we don't buy it until we read the ingredients and know that what's in it isn't as harmful as it could be. Realistically living in America it is impossible to stay away from chemicals in food, lotions, and aerosols but we do try to do out best. 4) Describe your Instagram photo and why you chose to take and post that particular photo and what is its connection to the topic of the week. I chose my dry shampoo because it took me an hour and 5 other cleaners before I asked my mom for help and she had all the good ideas of the stuff we use in our hair and how it affects us while we breathe it in. I didn't know that it would have butane, isobutane, and propane in it, I knew that all canned aerosol have so many things in them to make them pressurized and then able to spray and I know that all aerosol cans are flammable, but I was really surprised that it had things as flammable as propane and butane. By sharing this I hope to bring this awareness to other people. Here are my sources: FDA Cosmetic Info Effects of Butane 5) What was one thing that you found particularly interesting this week?
I loved learning about the health impacts of pollution, as homo sapiens we think we are so wise and what effects animals won't reach us at the top of the food chain (not everyone feels this way this is just a generalization). Yet not even we are safe from what we do to this planet and the lives around us. In the article that talked about the microplastics that were found in human fecal I wasn't even surprised, I did a project on microplastics and found that Washington D.C. has some of the heavily ladened plastic particles in their drinking water. I did not, however, think about it getting to us through in our air and through dermal exposure, that is really scary and interesting for me to learn.
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This week we learned about the impact of climate change and we went to Tracy Aviary to see what birds are the most affected by climate change. This was hard to do since none of the workers knew any of their birds who were specifically affected by climate change so not that I'm home I have only found data on the North American birds and I only have a picture of one of them so... I will just be gathering my images from photo sharing sites online. Below I will talk about three birds I found who are impacted, this will include their name and how they're impacted. Then the two standard reflection questions about my Instagram post and what I liked most about the week. 1. Baltimore Oriole They live in the Eastern/ Middle of North America, bird, as well as most animals, rely on their instincts, of the things that helps trigger what they're supposed to do are the seasons and by relation the temperature of the world around them. Warmer temperatures have lead birds to mate earlier in spring but as temperatures, warm caterpillars are hatching earlier than most egg clutches are laid and this causes birds to miss out of the peak prey season. As far as I can tell this hasn't taken a huge hit on the wild population but it is important to remember that what we do affects animals in our backyards as well as animals at the North Pole. Source: https://www.environmentalscience.org/birds-changing-climate#_ENREF_2 2. Dickcissels This bird where it is native to Northern America, they have become an invasive species in areas like North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Extreme weather caused by climate change could have pushed them to find a new home. Because climate change changes can cause intense weather such as hurricanes, floods or heat waves. This causes birds to want to move and find a friendlier place to live and then they become an invasive species. One way scientists are gathering data on this occurrence is by using different types of satellites, one of them takes a picture of the ground and they pair that with the data from weather satellites. Then if they see a bird species not where they should be they can look at its natural habitat and see if there was an occurrence that might have pushed them out. Source: climatekids.nasa.gov/extreme-weather-birds/ 3. Black-throated Blue Warbler This species is very dependent on insects as they might up their entire diet in the summer seasons. They there breeding grounds and hunting grounds are primarily in maple, beech or birch trees are losing their trees due to temperature changes chasing them away. Trees like oak and hickory and other southern (Florida, Mississippi area) growing trees that like the warm weather are spreading their seeds farther and are having a better chance at taking root due to their favorable temperatures. In contrast maple, beech and birch trees thrive better in cooler temperatures and so as the southern seeds invade and thrive these cool-climate trees don't have anywhere to go and so they are being pushed out. This then causes the birds to go further north to find the trees they need and so as they move to Canada they become an invasive species. Sources: www.massaudubon.org/our-conservation-work/climate-change/effects-of-climate-change/on-birds www.massaudubon.org/our-conservation-work/climate-change/effects-of-climate-change/on-natural-habitats/forests 4) Describe your Instagram photo and why you chose to take and post that particular photo and what is its connection to the topic of the week. This week's post showed off the only bird at the aviary that I could relate climate change to, a lot of the others are because of habitat loss or illegal pet trade. And it is, of course, the Baltimore Oriole, I included the picture of its sign so others would know about its migration pattern, this high lights what I was saying about how their migration is affected by temperature change. This is also why I added the sign that brings awareness to the effects of light pollution on bird migration. The sign also has some great ideas to implement what kinds of bulbs have the least effect on them. 5) What was one thing that you found particularly interesting this week?
This week's topic was exciting for me because climate change is my jam, it is the one thing that I know all kinds of things about so a lot of what was discussed in our readings wasn't new to me. But I do still think it's interesting how many birds are affected by what people do, both through how we are changing the climate but also how something as small as what kind of light bulb we leave shining has a significant impact on them and their migration. My favorite thing Jessica said in class today was that climate deniers don't think that scientists have factored the natural change of Earth into their climate calculations, but in reality, they know that the Earth goes through fluctuations and that the orbit of Earth and it's tilt and its rotation change. And yet with all the natural change we still see big shifts in our climate which means it's not something that is meant to happen and we didn't do it and can't stop it. It means we do have an impact on it and in order to correct it, we need to do something different. This week we learned about waste management and I am shocked to find that there are different types of 'landfills'. There are places for green waste and this is where it will be decomposed and turned into mulch, there is a place for all mixed recycling to go and then there is the landfill for everything else. It's not just important to recycle but to know what to recycle, half of the problem with recycling is that people throw things in that can't be recycled and it contaminates everything else and causes all of the good recyclables to be thrown away. I think it's important we all know how to be smart recyclers to have the biggest positive benefit. Below are questions prompted by my professor. 1. Do you agree that recycling options lead people to waste more? Explain your answer with specific examples from your life. I do agree if people can get the sense that "oh it'll be recycled " it definitely leads people away from the idea of reducing, reuse before jumping to recycle but still gives them the good feeling of doing what's "right". 2. In our second week, we discussed 4 factors that are contributing to environmental issues (1. Human Population Growth 2. Wasteful and Unsustainable Use of Resources 3. Poverty and 4. Market Values for goods do not take into account the true costs). Describe connections between these factors and issues with resource use and waste management. For example, you could discuss how market values for goods do not take into account the true cost of people in other countries who are recycling resources from the US (think plastic in China and other Asian countries, textiles in Kenya, and electronics in Ghana. The US is far inferior in our recycling when compared to other countries in the world, not only are we bad at it as individuals but you can see the individual effect when looking at the country as a whole. When we do get material that can be recycled we then rely on other places to do the recycling for us, and now that places like China have said they aren't going to accept any of our trash the US needs to be less wasteful in what we already have as well as look towards reusable options. 3. Tackling wasteful and unsustainable use of resources is going to require that we each become less dependent on single-use or short-term use products. Document every single-use item that you encounter/ use in a 24 hr period. An OPTIONAL fun way to do this is to take a photo log of it and you can post it on Instagram if you would like. Reflect on this activity and a realistic alternative (i.e. something that YOU can actually do) to replace a single-use item with something that is more sustainable. In daily school life, I will have a protein bar for lunch when I don't make time to pack a lunch or if I don't want to carry a lunch box. Snack food wrappers are definitely an everyday trash item for me. And I know the alternative is to bring lunch in a lunch box with a reusable container, utensil and carrying bag. The next best thing I can do is find ways to make carrying and transporting lunch less of a bulky matter so then I'll be more willing to pack it. 4. Describe your Instagram photo and why you chose to take and post that particular photo and what is the connection to the topic of the week. I chose the triceratops made from soda cans because it's impressive to see how many aluminum cans a glass bottle recyclery accumulates in their piles. Tracy Triceratops was created to raise awareness that sorting out your glass is important.
The blue bin is to raise awareness that your city might be paying momentum for FREE community glass pick up. I urge everyone to find out if their city does or not and start recycling! The third photo was just a bit of machinery that I thought was cool because it's all the glass crushed up to be moved on to be crushed smaller. The last was just to promote Clever Octopus, they sell art supplies at very discounted prices as well as take supply donations for the community. 5. What was one thing that you found particularly interesting this week? I found it interesting that there are different kinds of landfills and I think it's important to know the difference. First "dump" is not the correct term, a dump refers to dumping trash into a hole in the ground. This is NOT what happens at landfills, landfills are a lot more thought out and they have a lot of criteria they have to meet. One of these is protecting the groundwater from the infect waste that comes from landfills when it rains, this is called "leachate". To protect the groundwater they make sure the base of the landfill is covered in a layer of compacted clay and plastic to keep it from seeping into the ground. When a landfill is at it's maximum they they "dry tomb" the waste this is done by putting another water prevention layer on top as well as topsoil. This prevents the decomposing process but it also ensures that these materials can't infect the wilderness around it. I also think it's so cool to see how glass is recycled, I knew that class is the most recyclable material but now I can really see why. Plus the perk for recycling glass is that it can become a new glass of all varieties, the last destination for glass is to become plexiglass because the chemistry is in such a way that it doesn't behave like normal glass anymore. |
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