Reflection Post: Week 3 & 4

      The third week of Environmental Health I met with Steve for 15 minutes to go over the progress of my blog and to make sure I was understanding how to use everything. During this session I was able to learn a lot more about blogging and even some short cuts. I learned how to schedule a posting so that if I choose to work on an assignment a few days ahead of time I don't have to submit it at that moment. I also learned how to view the people I am following in Google Reader. Google Reader makes posts much easier to find and read.
      The fourth week of Environmental Health the classed played a game quizzing everyone on what we had previously learned. This was a great way to get the class involved and to teach others, the best part was everyone got a prize when they answered the question correctly. From the quiz I learned more about navigating the course homepage. In class we also discussed what we plan to do for our lifestyle changes, I am excited to read about what everyone chooses to do. During the second portion of class we watched An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore. One thing that I learned from the movie was that 10 out of the last 14 years have been the hottest recorded years. 2005 was the hottest year, this seems to be a trend and one that is not easily fixable. I also learned about how weasel words are used to get people to believe one thing when really it may not be completely true or accurate. This movie was a huge eye opener, especially with a person of political power like Al Gore. Al Gore went public with this information which it appeared the government didn't want people to know about.

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the changing colors!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

My SMART lifestyle change for the next 10 weeks, is to use reusable water bottles and stop using plastic water bottles. To start out I am going to finish up the 12 plastic water bottles I currently have and not purchase anymore.

What does this look like to you?

My lifestyle change is eco-chic because I will be drinking water out of the facet and not spending money on water bottles that just end up in landfills. This change is also eco-chic because I will be saving on resources and not damaging the earth as much.

Can you tell now?

I chose this behavior because I drink a lot of water, not only is it unsafe for me to continue to refill plastic water bottles it is a waist of resources and money. I feel strongly about changing because this is a bad habit I have always wanted to change but never really took action, until now. I don't even want to add up how much I have spent on water bottles and how many have gone into landfills, it's very depressing how many I have used over the years.

Is this what you expected that sea looking picture  to be?

Today is the beginning of a new day for me! I am going to start today by using my reusable water bottle and slowly get rid of the 12 plastic water bottles I currently have. To do this I am going to drink out of one plastic water bottle per day and when that is gone switch to my reusable water bottle. Another approach I am going to take is when a person staying at my apartment asks for a plastic water bottle I am going to encourage them once they are finished it to get a reusable water bottle and use it. I hope to make this a great change in my life over the next 10 weeks, so much so that I am able to continue using reusable water bottles.



















Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Share & Voice: Submitting Assignments Online

This semester I have started submitting my papers and assignments online as often as I can. Although, it is not always possible to submit assignments online, I have made a point to ask my teachers if this would be okay when possible. Currently I am able to submit homework, papers, and assignments online in ALL of my classes. By doing this we would all save on paper, cutting down less trees.  I am not only saving myself money on printing and ink but helping the environment at the same time. I encourage everyone to ask at least one professor if it is okay to submit assignments online via email or web-vista. If you are doing so already, great job; now encourage a friend to do submit online too. I encourage everyone to leave a comment and let me know what their thoughts are and if teachers allow them to submit online too.

Eye Opener- Ecological Footprint

Ecological footprint is the demand humans put on the earth's ecosystem. Most of what I learned about ecological footprint comes from wikipedia.com. Quizzes to inform people on their ecological footprints was developed in 2002. I read about ecological footprint progress at the redefining progress website. This gave people a chance to look at their effect on the environment and what they can do to change their ways.

I took a quiz about my ecological footprints at the Ecological Footprints Calculator website. I was asked about transportation, foods I eat, living, and recycling habits. I was able to find out my ecological footprints breakdown was mostly used by services like transportation,electricity usage, etc. When I am at school I use the bus everyday instead of driving to school. It not only saves me money but it also is better for the pollution when less people are on the roads. The least percent of my ecological footprint was mobility. I found out that if everyone lived like me, we would need 4.4 planet earths to provide enough resources to accommodate. After finding this out it is rather disappointing on my part, I need to make a effort to make sure I am doing my part to keep the planet clean. If everyone lived like me, we would need 4.9 earths to sustain life (From Ecological footprints). The travel site seems to think I travel about average. However, I do not completely agree with this. I think I travel less when I am in Duluth rather than when I am at home in the cities.

A few small things I can do to change my behavior are buy items that do not have a lot of packaging,continue to search for a recycling can instead of throwing things in the garbage, and take public transportation more often.