Journal 2

The second week of class was fun and more active than the first. We got to do a variety of things such as take notes during lecture, participate in class discussions and learn about current events. This week was my week to monitor and document current events. I did things like watch the news, listen to the radio, surf the web and subscribe to sites such as the daily grist. I found a plethora of things going on in the world and I was able to discuss three of them with the class because I only had one other person monitoring with me. My events included a story about decreasing numbers of Blue Fin tuna in the Mediterranean and how that can have effects on it’s ecosystem, another story about push from Californian’s for regulations on emissions from large ships and vessels and a last event regarding the new placement of certain corals on the endangered species list. Although I was nervous to talk in front of the class, I got up there and did my best and felt as though I did a decent job.
Looking at the questions assigned for this week I have interesting viewpoints and feelings towards all of them. The first question asks about things that I do to effect the environment when it comes to certain things and what I can do to lessen those effects. I think that directly effect the environment by participating in things that emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Some of these activities may include driving, burning materials, purchasing products that are manufactured by large machinery that gives off lots of pollutants and many other things that involve burning fossil fuels. I also use things such as detergent for laundry or other types of soap that may include phosphorous. This means I am effecting the phosphorous cycle as well and I was not even aware of it. Another question that I am asked to answer is about where we stand on the food web. I believe that as humans, we are at the tertiary level of the trophic levels because there aren’t really any predators to humans and humans eat a wide variety of plants and animals. My level in the web affects the world and environment because we as humans can choose to consume a wide variety of specific plants or animals. When we do this though, we should be careful not to throw off the ecosystems and eat too many but of course this happens all the time. This relates directly to one of my current events that talked about people eating too much tuna. People do see these things as problems sometimes which is why we take it on ourselves to breed animals to eat and grow massive amounts of crops to eat as well.
I directly use products that directly and indirectly come from living things. I eat living things such as cows and chickens or broccoli or lettuce and I also use byproducts of these animals such as milk or cheese. I believe almost everything that I consume comes from something living. These things include meats and leather, cloth and vegetation, paper, wood, and many other things. Just this week I have used paper for schoolwork, leather for my shoes, my apartment made of wood, meats to eat and many paper products such as napkins, boxes, cups and more. On top of all of this, I really make it a point to never waste food as much as possible. I can reduce waste by only purchasing what I will eat for a period of time so things don’t rot and go to waste; I can only plate what I will eat for meals and save leftovers in reusable Tupperware for later. Small portions can help me to do this and making sure I eat everything I make and buy is smart. When eating out I can always take home leftovers for later and make sure to only order things I will eat (if I don’t like tomatoes, I can make sure to ask to leave them out so I don’t have to throw them away.)
A last part that I will discuss from this week’s questions deals with our food and where it comes from. I did some research and looked at Wendy’s information. I found a lot of specific information about their animal regulations and rules. There was a lot of surprising information and very informative. I learned that the animals including beef, chicken and pork were transported all across the country. There are specific shipping regulations when it comes to temperature, bedding, room etc. Wendy’s also has regulations on health, handling, housing and usage of antibiotics in animals. I hope that I can choose to eat food that is more local and organic. If I do this there will be less chance of unnatural things begin put into the animals and myself and the animals will hopefully be raised more naturally with real food and living circumstances.