Reflections: Weeks 13-14 & Overall Course

(Junk Project- A scarf that I sewed together using two of my girlfriend's old T-shirts)

Reflection of Weeks 13 & 14:

Well as I figured the past couple of week flew by without hesitation. During these past couple of weeks we got to go to Goodwill to check out their operations of business and learned a lot about their company in general. I had no idea just how big the store actually was and how detailed their production line is. It was cool to check everything out and I thought it was awesome that they give special needs populations the opportunity to work within their company. I could tell by just walking through the company that they were really happy to be working there and had the opportunity to be a part of something. I used to work at Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) here in Duluth and it was the same way; the special needs individuals would light up when they had the opportunity to work on something or be a part of something. It's very cool to see things like that. Goodwill is such a great company in that not only are they environmentally friendly and cost efficient but they offer jobs for those who really need it and appreciate it. Another thing that we accomplished over the past couple of weeks is that we got to show off our junk projects and create an online learning activity/game. I thought the junk projects show and tell was really cool because we got the chance to see what everyone made using odds and ends that they found or took (lol), along with their creativity. I made a scarf using two old T-shirts that my girlfriend was donating to Goodwill. The picture is seen above. The last assignment that we did was to create an online learning activity that our blog members were to complete. I came up with a game called Kiss My Glass that came from The Truth's website which shows people just how manipulative and dangerous cigarettes and Big Tobacco are. My fellow blog members also came up with some very interesting activities as well. I thought Kristen's videos were very eye-opening and shows just how bad smoking really is!!! JD's activity was a refresher Eco-Chic crossword puzzle that covered a lot of what we learned over the semester in this course. Dane's activity was also very opening and showed us what it would be like if Duluth suffered a major oil spill. Sam's activity covered Asthma and it's affects on people who have it and don't have it. Lastly, Carly's activity taught us a lot about food safety and what we should do to keep ourselves safe from food borne illnesses. Once again I learned a ton of stuff in just a couple of short weeks.

(Tettegouche State Park)

Reflection of Entire Course:

Like I stated above, where has the time gone really??? I was actually just talking to my buddy the other day on how when you're a kid time just seems to drag on and a year seems like an eternity, but the older you get the faster time goes by. I only brought this up because as Christmas approaches think back to when you were a kid you just couldn't wait for Santa to come and bring you your presents; time just stood still it seemed, but as an adult time flies right by the older you get and the more responsibilities you inherit. Anyways back to the reflection shall we. As I said in class this past week, what haven't I learned from this class. I've learned so much about not only the environment but about myself as well from taking this course. I learned how to blog which I've never done before and now find to be very fun. Other things I've learned: The carbon footprint assignment was very eye-opening to me and found out that I consumed about 4.4 planet earths which made me feel very ashamed and embarrassed. Since then, however I've changed some aspects of my life including recycling much more than I previously did, cutting back on plastic materials, using different products, and other things that would take to long to mention. The documentaries that we watched were also very interesting and I took a lot of information from them (Tapped, Fresh, and Consumerism). For example, I tailored my SMART goal after the video Tapped. My SMART goal was I will drink five or fewer plastic bottled beverages per week and will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. I now only drink like one or two bottles a week now (Yay!) and recycle all of them. Another thing I learned was the hazards of cosmetics from the Cosmetic Database. I had no idea just how hazardous some of our everyday things can be. I recently changed my toothpaste and mouthwash because of what I learned from this assignment. I now use Tom's of Maine toothpaste and alcohol-free mouthwash. The advocacy projects were also very beneficial and helpful because it had us find out who are representatives are along with picking a topic that was important to us. By knowing who are reps are gives a resource tool in the future if we need or want to advocate something of importance. Lastly, I really enjoyed the photo essays because it gave us the chance to show who we are as individuals along with things that we are passionate about. I could go on forever about other things that I have learned from this class but I would be here for hours. Again I cannot tell you guys just how much I've taken from this course and how much it has impacted my life for the better and how I see the environment. Thank you Dr. V for what you've shown us this semester regarding being environmentally friendly.            

Share and Voice: Greening Up Your Holidays

I realize that there's not much time left to finish your holiday gift buying, but despite all the craziness there's always time to think green for the holiday season. People make thousands of choices when buying gifts for their family and friends. However, you decide what's best for whomever you're buying for, but do you think about what's best for the environment? If you want to make that part of the equation think about how much packaging comes with each choice. The majority of that packaging will probably end up in a landfill. If the gift comes with a lot of packaging think about which parts can be recycled. Hartel's DBJ has worked with area vendors to recycle used wrapping paper turning it into material for ceiling tiles, but there are some materials which are not meant to go in the recycling bin. It's a good idea to take a little time to look for packaging that's 100 percent biodegradable and buying items made in the Northland is also an easy way to live green this holiday season. By shopping carefully you may be able to cut your waste in half this holiday season.

Sources: Greening Up Your Holidays and Hartel's DBJ

Eye Opener: Environmental Learning Activities

Sustainability with Sam

Sam's activity was a quiz from Web MD regarding asthma. I took the quiz and got all of the answers correct, YAY! I didn't realize that asthma can be triggered by emotional stress as well as environmental factors. Also, by taking the quiz I didn't realize that a person without asthma can exhale about 75% to 85% of the air in the lungs within a second, emptying them within three seconds. Sam's activity was very informative and I learned some new things that I wasn't aware of prior to taking her quiz. Nice job.

Go Blue Too with Carly

Carly's activity was a crossword puzzle that tested your food safety knowledge. I couldn't access the actual puzzle because of a server error but I did take the quizzes and read over some interesting information regarding food safety. I took some of the quizzes and found out some very interesting facts about food safety. You're supposed to wash fruits and vegetables under cold water instead of warm water. The refrigerator should be set at below 40 degrees, canned tomatoes can be stored in the pantry for 18 months, and you're supposed to wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds under hot water just to name a few. Carly's activities were very interesting and informative. Nice job.

Earth and Me with JD

JD's activity was very cool in that he related his activity to what we've been covering in class. He used a crossword puzzle to test our knowledge on being Eco-Chic. I believe these are the answers but I'm not 100% sure: 1. down-recycling, 2. down-reuse, 4. down-hybrid autos I think, 2. across-reduce, 3. across-eco-chic, 5. across-junking, 6. across-bus. I enjoyed completing JD's crossword because it was a bit of a refresher on what we did this semester. Nice job.

Kristen's Atmosphere

Kristen's activity was a link of three different videos that showed the effects of smoking. This issue was identical to my advocacy project and I thought her videos were very creative. The parody of the Brady Brunch video was quite comical but showed just how bad secondhand smoke can be as it showed two of the kids with serious health conditions-asthma, and heart disease. the second video, which was extremely eye-opening and morbid showed what smoking does to your organs including your lungs, heart, brain, and eye-sight, just to name a few. This was a very informative video and if people stopped to watch it they might think twice before smoking!!! Lastly, the third video showed and experiment where cigarette's are being burned into a water bottle and after a while the water turns completely black representing the tar that's in cigarettes. Each cigarette contains 18mgr of tar and at the end of the experiment the person boils the black water on the stove and the water evaporates but the tar remains. Absolutely scary! Awesome post Kristen.

Dane's Trail of Health

For Dane's activity we had to write a an essay or picture ourselves in the shoes of those who live in the gulf states whom were affected by the BP oil spill. Dane noted, which I wasn't aware about was that Duluth's economy takes in $400 million dollars from tourism a year. It would affect my job in that with less money comes cutbacks and layoff's which equals no job. It would affect family members and friends in that they too would probably suffer from job losses and money gained overall. It would affect the places that I go in that they would probably have to cut hours of operation and possibly shut down all together and that would affect when I could go there based on my schedule, etc. The national perspective on Duluth would probably be one that not a lot of people would want to visit due to poverty levels I'm sure, which is really sad and I now feel very sorry for the businesses and people of the gulf coast, more than I previously did. Nice post Dane.

Advocacy Project: Environmental Learning Activity

Kiss My Glass

• Title: Kiss My Glass
• Purpose: To educate people on the harmful effects of and poisons that smoking contains/causes.
• Background Information: 1,200 people die each day in the U.S. from tobacco related disease. Nicotine is highly addictive and cigarette smoke contains about 4,800 poisonous chemicals including: Ammonia, Benzene, Arsenic, Carbon Monoxide, Chromium, Acetaldehyde, and Cyanide to name just a few. Young adult smokers are 1.43 times more likely to have a stroke than their nonsmoking peers. It's important to learn about tobacco and its affects because nicotine like I stated above is highly addictive and advertising for tobacco is everywhere! Knowing the facts is the first step in combating tobacco use.
• Instructions: The directions for this game/activity is explained when you click on the link at the top of this post listed Kiss My Glass. It's a game that shows you and explains just how bad Big Tobacco tries to manipulate you along with how bad smoking really is for you. 
• Sources: The Truth, Smoke Free Kids, and NIH 

Share and Voice: Motor Oil Recycling

Automobiles have longer intervals between oil changes than they used to... But whether you're changing your oil at three thousand miles or ten thousand miles; your used oil still needs a safe place to go. Rolling up your sleeves to change your own oil can be a great way to learn about your car and save a little money in the process, but it's critically important to the environment that you dispose of that used oil in a safe manner. Experts say that one drop of oil can contaminate two quarts of water and one quart can contaminate two million gallons of water. Scary thought if you ask me! Most places where you take your car in to service that do oil changes will let you bring in your own oil for recycling and some locations may even find a way to give that used oil a second life. At places like the London Road Car Wash, they re–use oil brought in to heat their facility. It's one of the reasons they were awarded the Sustainable Twin Ports Seal in 2008. So while protecting your pocketbook, make sure you're also protecting the environment. 

Source: Motor Oil Recycling  

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Weekly Review and Final Reflection

Weekly Update: 

I must admit that I thought I did a really good job this past week on staying on track with my SMART goal which is: I will drink five or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, soda, etc.) per week and I will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. I stayed well under my target goal and only drank like one or two beverages from a plastic bottle this past week. The stainless steel water bottle that I bought has really helped me the past couple of weeks along with drinking a lot of things out of my coffee cup at home. I know you're all probably wondering what, coffee cup? Yes, I use my trusting old coffee cup to drink out of; I rinse it out of course after I drink my coffee, but I figure hey why not save on water and dirtying another dish and just re-use my cup and be more eco-friendly. So again like I stated above I felt I did a good job in following my SMART goal and to be honest it's almost becoming second nature now.

Review of Entire Process:

My SMART goal to start out with was as follows: I will drink three or fewer bottled beverages (Gatorade, Vitamin Water, soda, etc.) per week and I will recycle all of them when finished drinking them. My goal did change throughout the process. I tweaked my goal just a bit and changed it from three to five or fewer bottled beverages per week. By doing this it made my goal much more attainable. This goal was much harder than I first anticipated it to be simply because I never realized just how much I drink out of plastic bottles. Since I changed my goal from three to five I haven't gone over one time and I'm really proud of myself for doing so. I think it would have been much wiser to start out with five bottled beverages and scale it down from there because now I only drink like two or three bottled beverages per week. The things that helped me be successful in achieving my goal was the suggestions and advise from my fellow blog members along with some self-dedication and support from friends. My blog members gave me some really good suggestions which included purchasing Gatorade and Vitamin Water powdered packets and buying a water bottle. Some things that got in the way were: deer hunting season and I purchased two cases of Gatorade and Vitamin Water prior to starting my SMART goal. I say deer season because there's no running water or electricity where we hunt and we pretty much have to drink out of  plastic bottles which stinks, however I took all of the plastic bottles that accumulated over the weekends home with me and recycled them so there was a positive that came out of the situation. I can address these types of things in the future by being more aware and prepared of what's ahead and start early on possible goals to allow for miscues that may arise. 

I've benefited not only from this SMART goal process but also from this class in that I'm much more aware now of my environment and I'm being much more eco-friendly. I've learned a lot about myself during this process in that I now realize that I can in fact change my behavior if I really want to do so. I have the self-motivation and dedication inside me to change. I learned throughout this SMART goal process that behavior change is indeed not easy to accomplish due to various physical, mental, and environmental factors and temptations but is attainable if you put your mind and will power to it. Like Bear Grylls says, if you keep your psychological status clear, calm, and collected anything is possible and you can in fact do whatever it is you set out to do. The environment benefited from my behavior change in that I recycled all of my bottles and by not purchasing or using plastic bottles the less factories had to make them no matter how nominal just my change was. Others benefited in that my girlfriend is now much more eco-friendly and she has helped me follow my SMART goal along with partaking in other environmentally friendly things/changes with me. I will continue this behavior and will continue to be more eco-friendly in other various ways that I can. Recommendations that I have for others about making a behavior change is choose a behavior that is indeed attainable and fits for you along with self-motivation and dedication. This has been an awesome experience and has taught me a lot about myself.

Blogged for the Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5 and Final Reflection         

Advocacy Project: Letter and Fact Sheet

December 6, 2010

Senator Amy Klobuchar
U.S. Senate
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C.

VOTE YES ON H.R.1261: YOUTH PREVENTION AND TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION ACT OF 2009

The proposed bill on educating our youths about tobacco use and its effects is extremely important. Increased tobacco prevention programs and anti-smoking campaigns would significantly impact a teen's desire in using tobacco. As a future health educator, I believe the increased creation of anti-smoking campaigns and tobacco prevention programs throughout the state of Minnesota will help greatly reduce the number of teens who currently use tobacco or those who are thinking of using tobacco. This act will provide opportunities for our young people to discuss pressures and issues they experience in regards to using tobacco or the possibility of using tobacco at this critical time in their lives.

This act would provide education and awareness for teens on the effects that tobacco use causes, especially to one's overall health. Educating young people on this topic would help lower health concerns and deaths (i.e. various cancers and respiratory issues) associated with tobacco use. According to The Truth, 1,200 people in the U.S. die every day from tobacco related disease. Some other facts from The Truth about tobacco include: In the U.S., about 50,000 people die each year from secondhand smoke-related disease. In the U.S., smoking results in 5.1 million years of potential life lost each year. Smoking causes impaired lung growth during childhood and adolescence. Lastly, in the U.S., 443,000 people die a tobacco-related death every year. Increased programs that provide education, awareness, and counseling about tobacco and its affects on our health will help these young people make the right decisions when it comes to using tobacco. We need to keep people, especially young people educated and informed on the consequences that tobacco causes.

Opponents of this bill might say that advertising does not increase the overall quantity of tobacco sold, rather the tobacco industry maintains that advertising merely enhances the market share of a particular brand, without recruiting new tobacco users. Others might say that parents need to do a better job of setting rules and guidelines along with policing their kids on the consequences of using tobacco. However, lets be realistic here shall we. Advertising is everywhere no matter where we turn and the increased use and availability of technology only enhances it. Young people are extremely impressionable so to say that advertising doesn't affect tobacco use among teens is absolutely absurd. In fact, according to one source, six year olds are familiar enough with cigarette advertising that they match the 'Old Joe' Camel character with cigarettes as often as they pair Mickey Mouse with the Disney Channel. As far as the parents angle goes, kids are going to do and try things no matter what their parents say or do to them. This only fuels my point and argument that more programs and anti-smoking campaigns are created so that young people are correctly informed and educated about the effects and consequences that tobacco has on us.

I appreciate your support of the Youth Prevention and Tobacco Harm Reduction Act. I hope you realize the best course of action to protect our young people from tobacco is to vote "YES" to H.R. 1261. If I can provide any further information please contact me at (contact info would be here).

Signature

Matt

Fact Sheet About Adolescents and Tobacco Use:

• Close to 1,000 of the 3,000 youths who begin smoking every day will prematurely die of a tobacco-related disease.
• An infant's risk of dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) increases 5 times if he or she is exposed to secondhand smoke in the room. Secondhand smoke also increases the risk of lung cancer and asthma.
• Smoking in childhood or adolescence increases the risk of developing cardiac disease – the number one cause of death in the United States.
• Young adult smokers are 1.43 times more likely to have a stroke than their nonsmoking peers.
• Smoking is linked to not only lung cancer, but also other respiratory problems like coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
• Children and adolescents who use tobacco have smaller lungs than their peers, and therefore tend to be less physically fit than their peers.
• Lastly, adolescents' use of smokeless tobacco increases their risk of oral cancer and nicotine addiction.

Sources: The Truth and Smoke Free Kids