Read, Write, and Recycle- Jen Cader



Students Read, Write And Recycle!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/students-read-write-and-recycle-2012-05-07

5/7/2012 Published in Market Watch by PRNewswire

 

Picture: This is a picture of the winner of the "Read, Write, and Recycle" event recieving their $1,000 check towards science and athletic programs.

Summary: Merced Elementary School from West Covina, California came in first in the event called "Read, Write, Recycle!” This even was an effort to demonstrate the importance and value of recycling to students K-5 in the West Covina Unified School District. The students who won received $1,000 to go towards the science and athletic program at their school plus a pizza party. The students earned this by recycling 4,514.7 pounds of plastic, aluminum, glass, and other valuable materials. Vine Elementary School came in 2nd place while Cameron Elementary School came in 3rd. Together; the three schools recycled a total of 11,014.2 pounds of material throughout the competition. Throughout all three schools, a total of 1,400 students participated in this recycling event. This program is funded by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and supported by Keep California Beautiful, San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps (SGVCC), and the West Covina Unified School District. Steve Russell, vice president of ACC's Plastics Division, says "We're always looking for ways to increase recycling awareness, and this group of partners built a program that delivered fantastic results." The Senator even recognized the student's efforts and are encouraging them to continue to recycle. "You can already see how a program like this instills important values in our children. I hope it inspires them to continue recycling at school and at home," says the principal of Merced Elementary School, Gordon Pfitzer.

Opinion/Reflection: I think that this is a great program. If the adults of the future are learning to recycle that only means that our issue with pollution will get better. The problem now is the adults have not learned the importance of recycling as a child, so they may not be used to recycling. If the students get used to recycling at a young age, our future will be bright. It is crazy to see that over 11,000 pounds of plastic and other recyclable goods were recycled instead of thrown in the trash just between three schools. I think that our schools in Pennsylvania and even all around the nation should begin to have recycling events with money prizes. People will do anything for money, and if they are awarded $1,000 to recycle, they will be more motivated to do so. In science class, we learned about all of the plastic and glass bottles and jars getting into the ocean and affecting aquatic life, and if all schools have a recycling program like this, there may be less and less pollution going into the water.

Questions:

1. Do you feel if an event like this came to our school, that it will be helpful? Why or why not?

2. Why do you think recycling is so important?

3. How do you feel about the plastic and glass in the oceans due to lack of recycling?



Recycling

Part of Waste Problem Is Now Part of Solution

By ELIZABETH OLSON
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/business/media/part-of-waste-problem-becomes-part-of-solution.html?ref=recyclingofwastematerials

Picture:  The Honest Tea company has put in Time Square on April 30th a 30 foot high recycling bin.  Their goal is to recycle 45,000 bottles, about the same amount they sell every day in the city.

Summary:  The Honest Tea company is going green.  They generate about 20 million glass bottles and 60 million plastic bottles annually. Over all, Americans used 38.6 billion glass beverage containers, and 71.9 billion plastic beverage bottles in 2010, according to the Container Recycling Institute, an antiwaste organization based in Culver City, Calif.  The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that only about 33 percent of glass bottles, and as few as 27 percent of plastic bottles, are recycled.  They want to make a change and start saving the earth so on April 30th they put this hige recycling bin in Times Square to remind people to recycle.  After they are done in Time Square they plan on moving to other cities as well to help remind people to recycle.  Only about 15 percent of the city’s total waste is being recycled. The New York Department of Sanitation says 182 tons of glass bottles and jars go into the trash every day.  The giant recycling bin isn't all they are doing to help remind people to recycle.  They are also advertising on city billboards, and at businesses and colleges in the city’s five boroughs.  Participants will be able to claim a rewards point for each recycled container, and add points with a recycling pledge made on stage. Using points, they can claim items including cold bottles of Honest Tea, T-shirts, tickets to concerts and Broadway shows, yoga mats and skateboards.  Honest Tea is doing everything they can to spread the word, they even have their own site called Thegreatrecycle.com where users can recycle an old Facebook status message in return for points in a program devised with Amalgamated Advertising.  What they are doing is truly amazing.

Opinion/Reflection:  I am so shocked that they have a 30 foot high recycle bin in New York!  What they are doing is truly amazing and I am glad people are taking interest to try and spread the word of recycling.  I am very surprised though that only 33 percent of glass bottles and as few as 27 percent of plastic bottles are being recycled and that needs to change.  By this company doing what they are doing to help spread the word of recycling is truly fantastic and I think people will start to catch on and start to recycle more.  I can really relate this to what we learned in Scinece about how the plastic bottles that aren't thrown away end up in a dead zone in the ocean.  This dead zone is killing millions of animals.  If people were more aware about recycling we would not have these dead zones and animals wouldn't be dying.  I hope by this company advertising so much about recycling that people will stop littering and do what is right for the world.

Questions:
1. Do you think Honest Tea's advertising will work and make more people recycle? Why or why not?

2. What do you think will happen if we continue to not recycle plastic bottles?

3. If the world starts to do a better job recycling do you think the dead zones in the oceans will go away?  Why?

Alternative Energy

11 Bizarre Sources of Clean Energy, from Dead Turkeys to Urine
By: Stephanie Rogers
http://earthfirst.com/11-bizarre-sources-of-clean-energy-from-dead-turkeys-to-urine/
                                                                                                                                                                                 
 Picture: These are examples of alternative energy. They are all crazy ideas. They are way different than coal, oil, and natural gas.


 There are many well known sources to provide us with energy such as wind turbines, solar energy, thermal, and more. You might be thinking they are the only sources of energy. However, not many know that there are other very weird alternative energy sources. Some of the alternatives are using watermelon juice, turkey guts, urine and human waste, garbage, onions, viruses, alcohol, and chocolate. A lot of people never would of thought of  using these objects. If you thought some of the regularly used energy source were weird already, you should be in for a surprise.

   You would normally think of watermelon as just a source of food. Now it is possible to use it as energy. It can now be a source for biofuel. Scientist have said that imperfect watermelons can be used to be fermented into ethanol. Don't worry about wasting the watermelons because since they are imperfect we would have just ignored them or not have used them anyway. Next, we can use turkey guts as energy. They are used to make oil. Just think after Thanksgiving you can use your turkey to make oil. A company called Changing World Technologies use turkey guts, feet, intestines, and rotting heads to make oil. However, this type of alternative energy needs to be refined before it becomes well known. It may be gross but yes we can use human and animal waste as a source of energy. It is used for buses to run on in Norway. The name is called biomethane. Also cow waste could one day power homes. Then, there is urine powered batteries. This would be a easy way to provide energy. Garbage can be used to provide electricity as well but it is a controversial topic because it isn't necessarily clean and it can pollute the air. Onion can also be a source for energy because the juice can be made into fuel. A farmer has tried this and save $700,000 off their electric bill because the farmer used the onion juice in his refrigerator and lighting. Another interesting source is viruses in a computer. You can use it to charge lithium-iron batteries. As weird and disgusting as it sounds you can use dead bodies to keep you warm. In a Swedish town they use dead bodies to produce heat. Then, we have alcohol. We can use it to be created into methane which can be used to fuel biogas-powered vehicles. Finally we have chocolate that can be an alternative. It is not necessarily chocolate that is used but the cocoa bean shells. It is mixed with coal to be made into fuel.  All of these sources are very different then the source taught in school and are unheard of.


Opinion/Reflection: I am extremely shocked from reading about all of these alternative energy sources. This information could be really helpful in the future if something were to happen to our other sources. I just want to know how scientist find this stuff out. I never would of guessed that these objects would be used for energy. I think it is kind of gross being heated using dead bodies and using human waste as energy sources. I wonder if there are problems with any of these or if it is just as good as the energy source we use regularly. I like how most of the alternative energy sources are wastes so we would not be losing anything if we used them.


Questions:
1) Out of these alternative energy sources, which one would you want to use? Why?

2) Do you think any of these could actually be a legitimate energy source in the future? Why or why not?

3) Which one of these alternative energy source do you think could cause problems? Why?

Desalination of Ocean Water

Desalination: Drink a Cup of Seawater? By: Howard Perlman 3/9/12

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/drinkseawater.html

Picture:

This picture shows the process of desalination. This what goes on to make seawater drinkable. There are many of desalination plants in the world.

Summary:

Humans are only able to drink fresh water. However, out of the water in the world only 3% of it is fresh water. Soon there will be no longer any fresh water in the world and there needs to be another source of water we can drink. This issue will affect our population and world stability. Fortunately, there is a solution which is making salt water drinkable for humans. This process is called desalination. 

97% of the world is made up of salt water and that is plenty of water to last a very long time. To be exact the ocean water contains 35,000 ppm (parts per million) of salt. It may seem like desalination is a new process but it was actually used long ago when people would travel using ships. We just upgraded their way of doing it. Now we have factories for it. The factories actually use a similar version of the hydrologic cycle. Water evaporates from lakes, rivers, streams, and other surface water from the sun and is turned into water vapor where it interacts with cool air. This makes it re-condense and make rain. That is what is tried to be duplicated in factories. In 2002 there were 12,500 desalination plants in the world. This shows that we've taken some action to try to prevent from having no fresh water to drink. There places in the world that are considered major users of desalination which are the Middle East and North Africa. The Middle East has 70% of the worlds population and North Africa has 6%. With more than 76% of the world using desalinated water, it should not be long before more starts to use it.

Opinion/Reflection:

I did not know that there was more than 76% of the world using desalinated water. I honestly didn't realize how severe of a problem this was. It would be scary if there was no more fresh water in the world and I hope that day never comes. I also didn't know that there is desalination in the hydrologic cycle. A lot of this information is new to me and gives me a new insight on the availability of our drinking water. I hope that desalination doesn't lead to any problems. If this is what we need to have fresh water I am all for it. 

Questions:

1. Do you think desalination could lead to any future issues? Explain.

2. What do you think would happen if there was no longer any fresh water?

3. How much of a problem is the availability of fresh water to you? Explain.

4. Do you feel this is a waste of money? Why?

Unsafe school water

School Drinking Water Unsafe

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-5338720.html

 

Picture:  To the left the picture is taken in Cauchero of 2 bowls of water.  The bowl to the left is the school water and the water to the right is bottles water.  You can see how the bottled water is much clearer then the school water. 

Summary:  In the last decade, the drinking waters at many schools across the country have had unsafe levels of lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins.  An Associates Press investigated both private and public schools in every state in the U.S. and found that contaminants have surfaced in small towns and inner cities alike.  Most of the appearances of contaminants occur at schools that have their own water wells but this is 8 to 11 percent of schools all around the nation.  About every 1 and 5 schools with their own drinking water have violated the Safe Drinking Water Act in the past decade, according to the data from the Environmental Protection Agency analyzed by the AP.  Some schools in California with their own wells have such contaminated water from pesticides that children stuff their backpacks with water bottles so they don’t have to drink from the water fountains from fear of getting sick.  But not only schools with wells have contaminants, but schools that draw water from public utilities, in schools with lead-soldered pipes, and schools that get water from local utilities.  All of these can also be very hazardous and can contaminate the water.   This also affects children much more than it would to adults.  The contaminants found in the water is especially dangerous to the children because children need more water per pound than adults and they are much more vulnerable to the substances and the substances will have a much more hazardous effect on them.  The water in 100 school districts and 2,250 schools breached the federal safety standards.

Opinion/Reflection:  After reading this article it really shocked me.  I never knew that there could be so much contaminants in the water I drink every day and that is very concerning.  To know that the water in our schools might not be safe for us is scary.  When learning that they have conducted research is all 50 states and finding contaminants in the waters for each state is very awful and something needs to be done about it.  This is a very personal topic for me and I can really relate to it because I go to school every day and drink the water there and never thought twice about it.  But now after reading this article it made me much more cautious to drink the water and now I will be much more hesitant to drink it.  I hope soon they will eradicate this problem so that parents and children won’t have to worry about getting sick from the water.

Questions:

1.        Do you think this problem will ever be fixed?  Why?

2.       Do you think there is enough being done to prevent the contaminants getting in the water?

3.       After reading this article has it made you more hesitant to drink the water in your school?  Why?

4.       Why do you think this problem hasn’t been taken care of before?



Contaminated Water-Corey Milewski

1.8 billion people still drinking contaminated water
By: ANI
Published On: March 24, 2012
URL for article: http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/03/24/319-1-8-bln-people-still-drinking-contaminated-water.html

Picture: This is a picture of a person that is drinking contaminated water. 

Summary: At the University of North Carolina they have done research on peoples drinking water. They believe that more people are drinking contaminated water then headlines suggests. A goal was launched to improve drinking water but UNC's study has estimated that about 1.8 billion people still consume contaminated water. This number is over 1 billion more people that headlines mentions. People think that if water is coming from an improved source it is clean, but by the time they drink that water it will be contaminated. Out of 5.8 people that have water from pipes UNC's study estimates that 1 billion people are still receiving contaminated water. A lot of water sources have been improved but a lot more has to be done. 

Opinion: I have never thought about what is in the water I am drinking. After reading this I am shocked to see how many people are consuming contaminated water. I always walk to my sink and get a glass of water but I never stop and think if its clean. This article made me think if my tap water is clean. I think it is good that people are trying to improve water sources and I hope to see that number go down. This article opened my mind to a different issue in the United States. 

Questions: 

1. Do you think this issue needs to be taken care of soon? why? 

2. Have you ever asked yourself about the water you are drinking? what were your thoughts? 

3. What do you think drinking contaminated water can do to you in the future? explain. 

Clean Drinking Water-Jen Cader

http://allafrica.com/stories/201203211311.html

Picture: This is a picture of two boys from Africa drinking the only clean water that is available to them.

Summary: There are more than 800 million people worldwide that do not have access to clean drinking water. Over 200 million women have wasted hours upon hours each day collecting as much clean drinking water they can. Both the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and The Coca-Cola Company are trying their hardest to find new ways to supply clean drinking water to the millions that lack it each day. Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are improving the way less fortunate live by investing in clean water and sanitation. This leads the improvements in health, school attendance, productivity and entrepreneurship for children in Africa and other third-world countries. $793 million has been invested into WASH projects by the MCC in nine countries. This investment obviously demonstrates the demand for clean drinking water if they are spending that much money on it. MCC CEO, Daniel Yohannes says, “There is a link between MCC’s mission to reduce poverty through economic growth and our commitment to expand access to water and sanitation for the world’s poor. The bottom line is that improved access to clean water and reliable sanitation improves lives. We can’t afford not to invest in water and sanitation. True to the MCC principle of country-owned, led-, designed-, and implemented development solutions, more and more of our partners worldwide are seeking investments in water and sanitation.”

Opinion/Reflection: I think the fact that there are more than 800 million people in the world that do not have access to clean drinking water is a very appalling statistic. To think that someone could go through their day without a drink of clean water is very sad. Many Americans do not live like this, and I am grateful, but it is awful that people have to live like that. Although people do live like this, there are always people willing to help. What MCC and The Coca-Cola Company did to help these people was very kind. It is crazy to think that MCC spent $793 million on investments into the WASH project. This really goes to show the need for clean water in other areas of the world.

Questions:

1. Do you think you would put all of your time and effort into helping people who lack clean drinking water?

2. Why aren’t we informed about this in the media very often because it is clearly a big issue?

3. What are some ways you can help people who lack clean drinking water?

4. Do you think this could happen to America soon?  Why or why not?