Reflection: Weeks 1-4

Well let me start out by saying that this is an extremely interesting class and I've learned a lot about the environment thus far. I had no clue how to blog before this class and have never done it before and let me say that I'm really starting to enjoy it! I was a bit skeptical at first because as everyone well knows technology can be a major pain in the backside. But overall it's been really fun thus far and hope to continue reading some very insightful ideas/information from my web group members. The biggest thing I've learned so far and was completely shocked about was the ecological footprint exercises that we did. Wow! I had no idea that we take advantage and take for granted the resources that we have here on planet Earth. I was quite disappointed and embarrassed in myself that I scored so high when I thought I was pretty good about not damaging our innocent planet. The exercise we did in class was very eye-opening and insightful when you put it into perspective and look at the bigger picture. So many people so little space........... I also found the information regarding the building and how eco-friendly and efficient it was, I hope to build something similar in that I can cut back on hurting the environment (solar panels may be in the cards). I'm also very happy with the book that I chose for the Read 'n' Seed because I've been in a similar situation with absolutely nothing stranded in the unknown wilderness for three days. I've learned some very insightful information from Bear Grylls and can't wait to read what's next! In closing, I really enjoy this class and hope to continue to make strides in living a greener lifestyle.

Share and Voice: "Natural Cleaning Products"

Cleaning products touting the word "natural" have popped up all over store shelves. But is that word misleading? Does the word 'natural' attract you to purchase a particular product? If it does you should be aware that "Natural" on the label could be misleading. In cleaning products the word is not defined and not regulated by any government body or environmental agency. Cleaning products are not required to list all their ingredients on their product label. To win the seal the natural products association requires full disclosure. Clorox Greenworks is the first cleaning product line to earn the NPA "natural" seal since the organization started testing cleaning products in February. It's not just cleaning products the Natural Products Association is testing. It started giving it's "natural" seal to personal care products such as cosmetics, shampoo, and soap a couple of years ago. When buying supposed "natural" products make sure you take a good look at what's really in it (Natural Cleaning Products).

Share and Voice: Seat Belts

I wanted to talk about an aspect that a lot of people overlook and that is the use of seat belts. A statewide increased seat belt enforcement campaign starts Friday following a deadly start to October — at least 12 traffic deaths in the first six days. The deaths included eight vehicle occupants of which only three were buckled up. That means five people died in which by simply clicking a safety belt could've saved their lives. The increased enforcement runs through Oct. 28. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Office of Traffic Safety is coordinating the effort. The aim of this enforcement effort is to encourage belt use to prevent tragedies. Around 400 Minnesota law enforcement agencies will conduct seat belt patrols. Half of the enforcement will take place during nighttime and overnight hours, as each year 70 percent of motorists killed during 9 p.m.–3 a.m. are not belted. DPS reports 75 percent of drinking drivers killed crashes are also not belted. Officers will enforce the state’s primary seat belt law, which allows law enforcement to stop and ticket motorists or passengers solely for belt violations. A seat belt fine is $25 but will cost more than $100 with court and administrative fees. The campaign also will include enforcement of Minnesota’s strengthened child passenger safety law that requires children to be in the correct restraint until they are age 8 or 4 feet 9 inches tall, whichever comes first. This law requires booster seats for children usually starting after turning age 4; boosters help adult seat belts fit children correctly. The seat belt enforcement is a component of the state’s core traffic safety initiative, Toward Zero Deaths (TZD). TZD focuses on the application of four strategic areas to reduce crashes — education, enforcement, engineering and emergency trauma response. The goal of the program is 400 or fewer deaths by the end of 2010. To-date, there have been 319 traffic deaths in Minnesota compared to 320 deaths at this time in 2009.  The message here is to BUCKLE UP EVERYONE!!! Seat belts are built-in to vehicles for a reason: to use them and to save lives. You can read more about this story at: (Seat Belts). 

Read 'n' Seed 2: First Quarter of "Man vs. Wild"

1. In the first quarter of the book I read the first 64 pages. 
2. Some of the main topics in the first quarter were:

• The Priorities of Survival: Protection, Rescue, Water, and Food
• The Psychology of Survival
• Fire: Gift of the Gods
• The Preparation of Food
• Navigation and Weather
• Knots, Snares, and Tools
• Survival Medicine

     3.  I learned a lot of significant things from this book thus far and could write a novel discussing everything that I read so I'll keep it to a few things. The difference between life and death often boils down to a matter of choice. The "reality" of your situation will be what you believe it to be. If you decide that the odds are so heavily stacked against you that you have no chance of survival, the battle is already as good as lost. If, on the other hand, you choose to be inspired by the stories of those who have survived with no wilderness skills to fall back on, you will know that the seemingly impossible is indeed possible. No one is more likely to survive than those who can convince themselves they can. The following are the four priorities of survival:

• Protection: Priority number one in a survival situation is the protection of yourself-whether from extreme conditions, dangerous animals, or an airplane about to explode. You must protect yourself first-there is no point getting water but becoming hypothermic in the process!
• Rescue: The next priority is to set yourself up to be rescued-lay out objects, stones, or whatever material is at hand, in a large SOS near your shelter. Rescue services will start their search as soon as they know you are in trouble, so don't miss those early opportunities to be saved; be prepared. As long as it is safe to do so, you should wait where you are. Stay put. If you are in a vehicle, don't stray from it. Stay nearby. Be smart; make yourself safe, make yourself visible, and then wait to be rescued.
• Water: Once you are protected from the elements, and prepared for rescue, you must stay alive long enough for rescue to come! Water now becomes your top priority. Think in 3s: you can live three hours without decent protection from extreme heat or cold; three days without water; but you can survive for three weeks without food. Get your priorities straight. You must find water!
• Food: Energy is needed even more so if your plan involves self-rescue. But remember, you can survive much longer without food than than without water, and your body has plenty of reserves of both muscle and fat to work through. If water is in short supply, restrict your eating, especially of too much protein, which requires more water to digest. Learn to scavenge as early man did. Find berries, maggots, or grubs before you chase the big game! This is how you really stay alive. The acronym for these priorities is: Please Remember What's First!

          Fire is another important aspect to keep in mind when battling the elements and is best known as the gift of the God's. Location is vital, choose the site for your fire carefully. Wind and its relative proximity to your shelter are probably the most important aspect to consider. There are three distinct ingredients that your fire will need if it is not to die before it has even started. These are tinder (cotton material or dry grass, dry moss, or pine needles), kindling (softwoods such as pine cut into small pieces), and fuel (softwoods such as cedar, spruce, and pine and hardwoods such as hickory, beech , and oak). It's important that when gathering fuel, look for sources above the ground. When looking for food it's better to hunt smaller game, like rabbits, snakes, lizards, and birds. Whenever possible, make sure you keep all your food out of smelling distance of insects and predatory animals. Soft fruit and berries will be best preserved wrapped in leaves or moss and if you're on the coast, keep seafood moist by wrapping it in seaweed. Also, NEVER store food in your shelter or your camp area as it will attract unwanted guests who may not distinguish between you and the food they're after.

       4. What I would like people to take away from this initial quarter of reading is that we as a society take technology for granted whether we admit it or not. What happens when technology is suddenly and unexpectedly stripped away? When suddenly we have no means to communicate. When we find ourselves alone in a strange new world. Our growing dependence on technologies of all forms is a double-edged sword. The fact that our modern world has, at least on the face of it, become increasingly reliable and plain clever has, paradoxically, made us more and more vulnerable. People are no longer able to cope for more than a very short time when these "systems" fail and when technology does fail, at even the most basic level, we often feel peculiarly helpless. This book is a "how-to" book on how to survive when the lights go out......and stay out. I want to show people by the information in this book that it's not impossible to survive in this world when put in an extreme situation or without technology for that matter.

Eye Opener: Ecological Footprint

After reading the ecological footprint data on the Wikipedia site I was very surprised that humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them. I thought that this number would be much higher than this personally. According to Wikipedia the ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprint).


I was very shocked after taking one of the ecological footprint quizzes. According to the assessment if everyone lived like me we'd need 5.5 Planet Earth's to provide enough resources, 24.5 global acres of the Earth's productive area, and Services and Food were the highest percentage on my pie chart. I was kinda in disbelief by this information because I truly didn't think/realize that I used this much energy, services, etc. We recycle like crazy at my apartment! After looking at it and thinking about it the electricity we use and the amount of time I spend driving my car probably contributes to most of the damage on our planet. In closing, we as a population as a whole need to conserve natural resources and find other ways to live a more reasonable, less taxing lifestyle on the environment. 
Source: (Ecological Footprint)