The Story of Bottled Water

I was fascinated by "The story of stuff project" videos so I entered their web page, doing this I discovered that they had 3 video available, and another one that will be put on web at May.





The story of Bottled Water tells how bottled water got market. I really liked this video because I've always been wondering why does bottled water is sold if you can get water for almost free at your kitchen and also, why is it so popular drinking from them if they are just one of the many reasons that contaminate our world.



This video talks about how Fiji's publicity campaign got people to drink from bottles of water. They used three methods:



First they scared us by telling us that bottled water was cleaner than tab water. Then, they seduced us by putting a forest on their etiquettes trying to tell that the water was obtained from those forests when in fact they are harming them and infact those bottled water have always been gotten from.. a tab. Then, finally they mislead us, lets say that most of a country's water is polluted and we are obligated to buy and drink a bottle of water, while in fact those companies where the ones responsible for the contamination of the water in the first place.



I've never knew that bottle water companies had a lot to do in our society's global warming issues, it just isn't the fact that they are making more plastic stuff like bottles, but they are creating a bad habit on people's minds, like buying something we really don't need.

The Story of Cap and Trade

The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.

This video posted on You tube explains how Cap and Trade works on a comic and interesting style.

The Cap and Trade law is a solution for a climate change by reducing the carbon dioxide emissions on companies. This works by giving a certain amount of permits to pollute or the use of fossil fuels to companies. Every year there will be fewer and fewer permits and companies will replace them for cleaner alternative nergies, as permits get fewer they will become more valuable, so companies will sell their carbon to other companies at a high price. It is a great solution for our climate change and economy too but unfortunately, it is not like we think it really is. Why?

This permits will be free. So it like we are paying them to pollute?

Offsetting. This works by removing the use of carbon and then government will sell the carbon just removed to another company. The issue here is that some companies will lie about their carbon removal and government will give carbon without even noticing that they shouldn't. In order words, companies will begin to lie about their carbon emissions.

Distraction. The Cap and Trade system is distracting us from seeing the real solutions to this environmental issues, like clean energies.

So, how will we solve our environmental issue? The video proposed this solutios:

-Having solid Caps
-Strong Laws
-Citizen Action
-Carbon Fees

So, what do you think about Cap and Trade now?

Our Choice by Al Gore

We have been reading a book for our Ethics class named Our Choice: A Plan to solve the climate crisis, written by a man named Al Gore. First, I did not even know who this man was, but later searching in internet I found out that was a man who run for president against George Bush Sr. And later become a well-known politician for being in Bill Clinton’s office.
What Gore try to say to us in this book is principle how to use other resources to stop sending contaminating molecules to the atmosphere that destroy our planet, principally carbon dioxide. The most important thing to me in the book is how Gore tell us about alternative ways to produce enery, without contaminating Earth. Those ways include. Solar energy, how do we use sun and solar panels in order to store and produce energy, as well with wind and the turbines made to produce electricity.
And of course there is the geothermal energy, and the always controversial nuclear power, that became more disliked by people after the incident of Chernobyl. Every page of the book contain at least a graph or image to illustrate us of how it works a turbine or a solar cell, in order to make it easier for the reader.
I think we need more people to make this kind of books, even though there is people who says global warming does not exist, it is important to take no in this kind of actions in order to have a cleaner planet, so we can enjoy it as best we can.

Breathing Earth

This page I found is just a simulator where you can found the carbon emissions of each country and their born and dead rate. Why is this important to know this information? So that we can grow out consciousness of what is going outside our little world and notice how big the world is in reality and the way we are impacting on it. We have to take in consideration that this page is just a simulator, so it's not 100% accurate, but still I think it was a nice and creative idea to start with what can later be a more real simulator. As I entered the page, the first thing I noticed was that China and India are have a really high born rate and death rate, as well. Overpopulation can be a real big problem in the future, if our species continues growing in such a fast rate as it had been. However, that's the worst-case scenario, changes can still be made. For example in China, now there is a "One Child" policy, which the government is keeping an eye on closely. As resources are being used, more people are coming to the world, so how will we be able to sustain the human race if resources are scarce? That's a global problem that I think we should pay more attention to. Education and being informed are two powerful tools that can be used in order to combat overpopulation. If we had to go to extreme cases, we can apply policies not only to China but to India as well, which has a bigger birth rate.

Other important aspect that this page shows is our environmental impact each country made on the world. In each country we can see in how much time each country produces 1000 tonnes of CO2 emissions to the air. When I checked the data, I think that this simulator was lying, since for me the data it showed was too much. There's some information below on the page which says that the CO2 emissions that show the page were more probable to be too low than too high. Well, maybe the page is not 100% accurate, but sometimes truth is hard to swallow. Some of the countries that emitted more CO2 were China, Russia and the U.S.



In conclusion, I just thought that this page was a great idea to start with. I hope you have a look and decide for yourself if it's useful or not. I totally like it since it put things in perspective and one more thing: reduce has to become part of our culture so that we can continue living in this world with no side effects.

SAVE THE EARTH

Glaciers are melting and the ice caps are disappearing into the oceans. What is all this causing? The ocean is growing and in other words we can say that the meters of the ocean are increasing even more. Now at days scientists confirmed that Earth is melting at both ends. All this can bring terrible consequences and damages to the coastal cities and villages.

We can be finding new effects around our world but even though the experts and scientists are giving us an advertisement about this problem we continue damaging the surroundings. Maybe we are thinking that we aren’t going to presence all this destruction, but imaging if a volcano erupts or an ice age come, or an incredible hot weather rule the earth. Imagine that, we weren’t going to be capable of doing anything.

Probably, humans are going to disappear or maybe some of us are the only ones with luck; but this problem is unpredictable, the time pass and even more trash and contamination is recollected in our atmosphere, our soil and our body.

But the problem right here is not the lack of solutions, because we have them (enough), but we can’t make them work because we don’t have the culture to use all this sources. The world is ending even more every time. There is also a theory of 2012 that the world is going to suffer a big change and tremendous destruction. So, please think about it and try to start from here, by cleaning your homes, your school, because we can’t change the world if we don’t start from zero.

Global Problem: Global Warming

Global warming might be the most complicated issue on the world today. I will start by defining the term Global Warming' is ''the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping.'' (environment.nationalgeographic.com) The consecuences that follow the earth's atmosphere to overheat are the melting of glacieres, which causes the seas to oververflow, species like the polar bear, which is already an endangered specie due from man's hunting, to die because this animals depend so much on iced seas to hunt for food. We are causing so much danger for polar bears and millions of other species who depend on cold, icey climates to survive, and we are destroying their environment. How are we contributing to global warming? Everyday. When we use our car exessively, we need to know we are not the only ones who use a car in the world, just imagening how many people drive for hours and how many carbon dioxide is being liberated is unbelievable. We can make a difference, by just changeing daily attitudes and activities that due to the cause of global warming. Some of this changes might be tuning off lights when not needed, people should open windows insted, being lighted by daylight instead. We could ride a bike when we don't need to go too far, people are exerciseing themselves and at the same time helping decrease global warming. Simple everyday tasks like the ones mention will make a difference, be concious of your doing everytime you turn on a light, or a car, and ask yourself, how can I fulfill this actions but at the same time help our environment? Spread the word and make the action.