Read 'n' Seed 3: Second quarter of "The Last Hour of Ancient Sunlight"

The second quarter of "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" was much different than the first.  I read 7 chapters from pages 91 to 191.

The first part of the book was more about what's going on in our world with our environment.  It talks about the oil crisis, and deforestation, and climate change.  In the second quarter of the book the author is more focused on how we got to this point in the history of the world.  It's a lot of history involving more westernized cultures swooping in and taking over native cultures (such as the Inca's, and Native Americans).  The other main topic is younger cultures verses older cultures.  Again, that would be more like westernized cultures that seek to instate dominance over other cultures.  Pretty much these "younger cultures" gain by consuming the lives' of others.  They feel that they have a right to everything and that humans are superior to all other creatures and that everything on our planet was placed here to serve humans.  Older cultures on the other hand are the cultures that believe we are a part of the world, not rulers of the world, and that we are supposed to cooperate and live in peace with the rest of creation.

 I learned a lot of history in these chapters.  I learned quite a bit about Christopher Columbus.  He was a rapist, a murderer, and a thief who took advantage of primitive cultures by enslaving them and stealing their wealth.  There are so many misconceptions about Christopher Columbus and the fact that we give him credit for discovering American, teach this in schools, and have a day named after him is a bunch of bologna (in my opinion).  This is kind of a side tangent and has little to do with the environment, but it was in my book, and it was shocking and eye-opening, so I wanted to include it.

More relevant to this class I learned a number of things.  I learned that our population growth is out of control.  Here is a little scale of population growth from the book:
In 1960 there were 3,038,930,391 humans on earth.  That year the earth saw the addition of 40,622,370.
1961 - +56,007,855
1962 - +69,393,370
1963 - +70,987,231
If this many more people are born each year than die we are adding to our population dramatically.  This was about 50 years ago. In about 40 years we had doubled earth's population.  Each person who is born requires a certain amount of resources - 3 meals a day, a couple gallons of water, a certain ration of oil.  These are resources that won't last forever.

The implications of what I learned is basically that we don't really think about ourselves competing for resources in our day to day life, but we are.  We are competing everyday with the 6.6 billion other people who share this planet.  Our resources are far more scarce than we could imagine.  We are running out of oil, we are running out of forests, we are draining our aquifers.  We always think of America as the land of plenty and it is in comparison to many other places...but for how long?  We have a scary future ahead of us if we don't start getting realistic with our quickly disintegrating resources.

Share & Voice: Enviro-Cool Blog Award

I received the Cool Blog Award from Danielle for my Share & Voice entitled Worry About More Than Just your Water Bottles.  Basically a woman who owned a health store came in and talked to us about supplements and herbal products.  She also talked to us about cosmetics.  She raised many issues that I'd never even thought of, opened my eyes to safety issues, and cleared up some of my concerns and uncertainties regarding some of these products.  It was really interesting and important stuff so I'm glad I could pass it on to everyone!  Thanks for the award Danielle!

I am passing the award on to Ashley for her awesome post on UMD's Smoking Policy Forum.  She recapped the forum really well and I think it's waaayyyy cool how she voiced her opinion, and was really a voice for many people on campus who feel the same way!  I applaud her courage! Everyone should check it out!

• Leave a comment below so that I know you "picked up" the award.

• Within 1 week, create a Share and Voice post that says you've received the award and indicate who the award is from (be sure to hyperlink).

• Also indicate to whom you are going to pass on the award and why. Be sure to hyperlink the blogger (use main blog URL) and the blog title (use the specific URL for that blog post).

• Copy and paste these instructions at the bottom of your post.

• Publish the post.

• Visit each blogger you've awarded and leave a comment telling them they've won. 
• Continue the process...

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

My SMART goal is to use reusable bags 100% of the time I shop. This week I completely succeeded!

I guess saying that I successfully completed my goal this week is kind of cheating because I was successful only because I didn't go shopping at all.  I mean there aren't really any challenges or issues with using a reusable bag when you don't go shopping!  I guess the only thing I learned is that not shopping at all saves bags and money?  I guess I just don't have a lot to share this week!

I think to help me improve on only using reusable bags I need to look for those kind that can fold up and have that snap on them that keeps them all folded up.  If I had one of those I could always keep it in my purse and would be far less likely to forget it! 

I totally need one of these sweet fold up reusable bags! ^

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4 hosted by Amy@Eco-Chic with Amy.

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

This is a great eye opener because we just had a women come and talk to us about some safety issues involving cosmetics in my Women's Health Issues class. 

This kind of website sparks a lot of curiosity, so naturally I tried out a number of the products I use.  I tried eye shadows, concealers, lotions, and hair products.  The one I want to talk about though is the shampoo I use.  I use a shampoo (and conditioner) from the John Frieda collection.  Although I'm sure it switches, the exact one I'm using right now is called "John Frieda Sheer Blonde Lustrous touch Strengthening Shampoo".  This one was rated a 6, but other very similar shampoos of the same brand were more like 8s.  The only difference would be something like "Highlight Enhancing" or something like that and it would be an 8 and linked to cancer, so at least the one I'm currently using isn't linked to cancer!  When the ingredients were broken down fragrance was at the top with a score of 8 and a 100% data gap.  That really sucks because the main reason I buy the shampoo isn't because I think it does wonderful things for my hair, but because I like the smell!  I also learned that this product tests on animals because towards the end of the page under the section about cancer and developmental concerns they would list a substance and then say something like "One or more animal studies show reproductive effects at high doses."  There are so many things that don't even go through my head as a consumer when I'm at a store picking out shampoos, or eyeshadow. 

What was also really interesting was how they told you what percentage of the same type of product had lower concerns.  Between the handful of products I typed in all of them had a score at a 6 or above and had 60% of products with lower concerns.  How does that happen?  It appears that everything I choose is toxic!  Either I have bad luck, or I'm shopping in the wrong places!  I guess I can no longer be a blissfully ignorant consumer.  At least now with this website I can look into the safety of products before I buy them. 

Reflection: Weeks 5 & 6

The last two weeks have been informative to say the least...
During week 5 we watched a movie called "The Future of Food".  This movie really stirred up a lot of questions for me.  Mostly about patents on nature and GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).  I mean honestly, this movie just made me so mad.  There is so much injustice in the agriculture industry and I had no idea.  My dad is a farmer in North Dakota and it just really hit home for me when I saw that farmer from North Dakota getting sued by Manosato.  It made me sacred for the future of my own family farm.  Something else that really grinds my gears is the fact that foods that have been genetically modified don't have to have that on their label.  Where's the LIABILITY?!  How are we ever going to know if these things have negative effects on our people if we aren't tracking them?  Corporations who push modified food act like it's going to solve world hunger when we know full well that it isn't necessarily lack of food that's the problem, but lack of equality.  There are just so many problems with our world today and thanks to this class many more are brought to my attention all the time.  It's just so frustrating.

For week 6 we watched a film called "Diet for a New America".  It wasn't too long, but it was interesting.  The narrator was the son in line to inherit the Baskin Robbins empire; however, he turned it down after realizing the negative health and environmental effects of the corporation (and many just like it).  He turned down millions, maybe billions, of dollars to stick to his beliefs which I think it pretty amazing.  I don't think I could be that strong.  Some things that stuck with me from this video was the part where they were just pulling this fatty white sausage link looking material out of the arteries of the heart.  GROSS!  It really freaked me out.  What are Americans doing to themselves?  I mean it's our culture.  To eat out, and eat whatever is convenient, cheap, and available in a hurry is our lifestyle.  It's going to take a lot of effort to change an entire nation's lifestyle, but still it's very important that it does change.  Something else shocking was the idea that there are 4 cows for every 1 person in America?  This provokes the question: how much cow is each individual person eating?  I mean, I don't have any exact statistics, but jeeze!  This video definitely forced me to take a look at my own diet and examine some things I might like to change.