Final Impact Journal

Final Impact Journal

I have always wanted to take an environmental class at BCC and my last quarter here I finally did it and glad I did. My family is somewhat big on environmental issues but my older sister at Seattle University is an environmental nut! Needless to say she got me really excited to take this course and always had someone there that I could discuss the issues with. I remember the firs t few days of class we discussed population and growth within the U.S. and the world. To be quite honest it grossed me out and made me depressed about the direction our world is going in. I had no idea the extent and severity that population growth had moved to. Going hand in hand with this was consumption and I am glad we talked about this because being Americans it relates the most to us.
From this class I honestly have been impacted and affected in my everyday ways in a lot of senses. From the bottled water discussion I have completely changed my usage and awareness of bottled water and passed on the knowledge and facts to people around me that may not have known this information. I also try to conserve more weather it be water or food or material things. Recycling doesn’t just mean re-using paper or cans but rather taking clothing, furniture and other useful products to a place where other people can use them and they are recycled rather than put into a landfill.
Many of the issues we learned about I had a brief understanding about but the way we were able to go in depth and really break things down made me really see the light of things. Instances like food webs and biodiversity really showed me the value in consuming a variety of things and being aware of the source for many foods such as fish. I was also able to better understand how animals and living organisms can become extinct, what makes certain things more susceptible and what we should and should not do to certain habitats.
I thought one of the most fascinating areas we discussed this quarter was evolution. Although we didn’t spend a great deal of time on it, it was interesting to learn about the different impacts that have affected evolution and how there is evidence to prove the evolving of things. Nature is incredible in the way that things can evolve based on the changing ways of the environment.
I valued learning about why water and soil is important and what effects we have on it. The most important thing that was taught throughout the quarter though was how to improve and prevent issues from furthering. All too often I find myself in class or lecture learning about the many negative occurrences but I leave not knowing what can be done to change these things. Having a list or lists of different ways I can helped the environment on a regular basis gives me hope and a sense of contribution to a better Earth and that is essential to getting there.
Probably my ultimate favorite thing discussed was the issue regarding genetically modified plants. I had never really understood this and all of this came as sort of a shock. It changed a lot of the ideas I had and gave me a sense of hope for the future farmers. I shared this information with a lot of my family and friends and was able to debate and understand both sides of the spectrum. I am surprised this isn’t in the news on a regular basis!
There were many interesting current events that w4ere talked about. Mine were interesting and dealt with emissions requirements and extinction of a certain tuna. These harsh realities made re evaluate my consumption and opened my eyes to some of the issues and politics that are caught up in the environmental world today. As we all agree the event of the giant floating plastic wasteland in the Pacific was something that stuck out. I could not believe that this was allowed to happen in today’s society and that it is still out there right now. I hope that this is taken care of and hopefully dealt with in an effective way. Another current event that I remember vividly was one that dealt with a school and parents that thought the “Inconvenient Truth” was too harsh and dramatic. Well it’s funny because the truth of our current world’s state is harsh and dramatic and people need to be aware of it before it’s too late. There is no time for sugar coating the truth nor is there any reason to,
Looking at my long list of resources I see that I consume a great amount on a regular basis. Form plants and vegetables that use soil, trees for any paper or homes, petroleum for tons of plastics and gasoline, gas for heating, water for drinking, cleaning, cooking, heating, etc, animals for eating, metals and other mined materials for countless things I am a major consumer of environmental materials. I nee to cut back on the usage of plastic by using reusable water bottles, reusable grocery bags, less or no disposable kitchenware and many other plastics. I can also aim to conserve more water by cutting down on my showering and faucet running to a bare minimum.
Unfortunately in this quarter I have also come to terms with the amount of waste and pollution I put out into the world. The three different worksheets really helped put that into perspective. Through things like driving a vehicle and using electricity I learned that on a daily basis I put off about 100 pounds of carbon dioxide each day; not a number I am proud of. The worksheets allowed me to see the massive amounts of water I use each year and made me re-think some of my daily habits. These are just some obvious and major ways I directly impact the environment but there are countless other ways as well such as consumption. I learned the concept of energy totals that are truly behind a product or material and I was able to see how even the consumption of a product mean I was contributing to pollution often.
Overall this class was a success for me. I really enjoyed the reflective weekly journals and the periodic class discussions. I was uneasy about the idea of having to talk and discuss out loud in class about certain topics but by the end of the quarter felt more than comfortable to speak my mind. I thought our class had a lot of different opinions and discussed well. We almost had too much to say at times! Not only have I successfully completed yet another course at BCC but I have honestly acquired a broad understanding for the environment and the environmental issues on our world today. Many of the topics we discussed I was unaware of and am happy to now be educated about them, I look at the purchasing or a bottle of water differently, the flushing of a toilet, the flipping of a light switch, the type of detergent I use, the type of fish I order at a restaurant and many other things that effect the environment that I never thought twice about before. The fact that I in more than a few ways, will alter my ways means that much more chance of helping the environment and conserving what e have left. I would recommend this class to anyone that had any sliver of interest in the environment and I feel truly impacted from this course.