Trash and Waste and Environment and Soup

SOUP!!!!

For dinner, I was making some nice Campbell’s Mushroom Kettle Bisque, a very delicious meal. Even in making such a simple meal, there was a lot of waste. The container is non-microwaveable, so you must use a bowl. Opening the soup, there is a tin-lid underneath the original lid. Then to microwave the soup, I had to put Seran Wrap over top the bowl as to not splatter in the microwave. After the soup was heated, I put the soup in a new bowl because the one from the microwave was burning hot. The soup takes about 5 minutes to actually eat, but wastes all of this within the process. Soup may be the simplest meal like ever, so just imagine how much waste is produced from any other type of food. Everything is so individualized and packaged for convenience within these busy lives, but the waste that is created is so much greater than we can imagine. A case of water for instance, the plastic used for every individual bottle and paper. The bottles are stacked on cardboard then wrapped all together in more plastic. The water gets consumed, but the plastic, all the plastic, is what is left in the environment. This is another reason why recycling is so important. The immense amount of waste needs to be reused in some type of way, so it doesn’t just sit and pollute the land and the oceans. In Virginia Beach, they have a Mount Trashmore, which is a park created on top of a landfill. The waste is now underneath grass and paths that can be used for walks, Frisbee, bike rides, skateboarding, exercise, picnics, playgrounds, and kite flying. I’m not sure if this is the answer for all of the waste, but it is a way to utilize this area that would be a dump, for people to be outdoors. This famous park took a negative use of land and turned it into a positive one.

Mt. TRASHMORE

Overpopulation and Nature

 

Yesterday I went to Bake Oven Knob with my brother and my friend. It was a beautiful October day, no clouds in the sky, brisk fall air, and the hope for an adventure along the way. While we were hiking up the path, we passed 4 hikers with backpacks who were hiking the Application Trail. When we got to the top, there were other kids up there. Even up on a mountain range, miles away from the city we came from, there were other people where we were. During the readings about overpopulation, the images of the extreme, filled earth could not escape my mind. I realize that this is a known spot, with a trail and specified view, but one would hope to be alone within nature. We tried to sit as far away from the other people, trying to capture a moment purely the nature and us. The fall is a beautiful time, and I can’t imagine a world without trees and other nature alerting us to the changing the seasons. Ehrlich’s writing on the overpopulation created a horrible view in my mind, where people are stacked above each other like an “ant heap” creating a new heat limit. After reading this I thought “Wow” and am glad the world is not at that stage, yet. After imaging such a world, I appreciate the space I have, even within a suburb.  Ehrlich wrote about the future, if we were to continue to reproduce at this rate. It may seem extremely exaggerated, but the truth is that one-day the world will be that much of a mess. With the more people produced, the less room there is for the nature.  During winter, I always get seasonal depression. Being stuck inside, breathing the same circulated air, and everything outside is bare and dead. When the nature dies, a part of human beings die too. This dependence on the nature is something that cannot be overlooked. Humans should take into account the reality of such an overpopulated earth, and maybe begin a serious discussion on how to plateau the numbers.

 

iShop -- so you don't have to

           

Today (as well as everyday leading up to today) at work I was thinking a lot about the need for recycling. I strongly believe that if we are going to be  using such resources, especially with our intense rate of consumption, the least we can be doing is recycling our used products. I work in the iShop Department of Weis. We shop customer's grocery orders and they come to pick it up. This process takes the online order and puts it on a shopping gun, telling us what asile each item is located. The gun has all the information as the online request, yet everyone in the department also prints out a copy of the order. The printer, due to being junky, only is programmed to print on one side of the paper. I have asked the computer tech if he could change it to print on both sides and he replied that because the printer isn't high quality, the paper just gets stuck and he would be there every day for repairs. I'm the only one who does not print out the order and only shops using the gun. When we are done shopping, we upload the order and print the exception report. I print page one, then put the sheet back in the printer and print pages 2 -3, and so forth. It upsets me greatly that I am the only person who is conscientious about how much paper is wasted. I'm almost certain that few of the customers actually look at the stack of paper we had them. On average, each customer probably receives at least 10 pages, one sided, of their order. The thing that is even more aggravating is that the name, iShop, stands for "Internet Shopping" aka all of their order requests and also what items they received ARE ON THE INTERNET.  I do my best to save the paper, and choose to take it home instead of throwing the paper out with the other recyclable products in our trash; ironically is a recycle bin. One person can only do so much.
I am glad that I do my part of recycling, but it is nearly not enough to compete with what my co-workers do not recycle. I think of this ratio in a mass scale and it is absolutely saddening.
The earth recycles as dead animals decompose into the soil for new life to flourish. We use the plants for oxygen, as they use us for carbon dioxide. I believe all the answers to life and lessons needed to be learned can be understood through the earth. The word recycle even explains itself, we are cycling the process again. The life cycle recycles itself and therefore creates sustainability.


Recycle the paper, people!! -- it's driving me crazzy

Bikes and Trikes

I love bicycling; the wind in my face, feet on the pedals, speeding through the world. The feeling of satisfaction I receive from riding is amazing. I can release my energy and stresses, while exercising and being outside. To me, it is the ultimate passage of time.
While on the way to my desired destination, usually the Lehigh Parkway, I find myself on main roads. I like riding in the Parkway because it is an escape from everyday life. There, I am surrounded by nature; animals, water, trees, air and other people enjoying the day. Spending an hour or so on the path frees my mind and creates my body to feel rejuvenation. But on the main roads, where the cars zoom by, is where I am snapped back into reality of the everyday. When a car passes me riding on the side of the road, I am immediately overwhelmed with the exhaust. It hits me like a cloud, but not the type up in the blue sky. It always disgusts me that I have to breathe this into my lungs in such close proximity to where it is produced. My breathing rate is increased due to exercising and also what I depend on to continue. The effect from one car passing is nothing in comparison with the total exhaust produced by cars. We do not notice how much is exhaled from our use of transportation -- it's disgusting. When I'm passed by a car, inhaling the fumes, I can only think of how our pollution has to be inhaled and absorbed by nature. I feel awful that our daily lives have to result in forcing the natural world to absorb the pollution. It's great that trees and plants absorb this CO2, but the rate we are depleting them, and increasing our waste is not an even balance.
Minneapolis, MN is the number one bike city in the country. According to the Minneapolis city website, "Minneapolis has 46 miles of streets with dedicated bicycle lanes ... and 84 miles of off-street bicycle paths."
More people should bike to get around town. I'm glad there are cities that incorporate those to cycle into their plans for building. This issue is like the art imitates life or does life imitate art type of question. For example, if more people biked, maybe cities would be more interested in helping the commute become easier and safer. On the other hand, if cities naturally would incorporate bike lanes and paths, maybe people would bike more because the option is there. Being aware of alternatives to conserving gas and reducing pollution need to be considered as part of the solution in helping to save our environment, because in fact "this land is our land."


http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/bicycles/

http://www.bicycling.com/news/featured-stories/1-bike-city-minneapolis

The reading we had by Henderson entitled Letter from the Dustbowl was very emotional and interesting to read. I have never read something from someone living during that time and had only learned about the Dustbowl from an educational perspective. Reading about her hesitance to leave gave a good insight to the love and need for the land that the farmers possessed. She explained that they were "trying to rescue [their] home." Her writing about the transition from the green, lush land to the desolate dirt was heart breaking. I cannot imagine the experience of seeing this process occur on your own land. She further writes about a neighbor who tried to seal their windows but "no method...is effective to keeping dust out." The impact from the overuse of the land caused the earth to dry out. The cause of this occurrence was due to the people's impact of not rotating crops; they overused the nutrients and essentially killed the dirt. Now we know that each year the crops must be changed, this is why we see corn one year and soybeans the next. The different plants absorb different nutrients from the earth. This got me thinking a lot about our daily use of the land. Today, we are more educated on the correct farm practices and how to utilize the land in a maximum manner. I’m not sure if this is caring for the land, as much as it is for our own personal profits. Henderson states “perhaps if we do our part [trees, birds and flowers] will return someday.” Even in present day we know that we need to do our part to protect the environment. There is a constant craving for profit, and over use of the earth. With the dust bowl, there was a something physical, the dirt, to have a reaction to. It was coming inside the houses and causing devastation throughout the entire region. With our overuse of the land today, there is not something immediate and physical to witness the repercussions of our actions. Human beings need to realize that their actions are going to affect the future, especially with using the earth at our disposal. The reading of this letter made me think about how much the earth needs to be catered to in order for its own survival. The earth must survive first, in order for us to live in harmony with it.