Polar Bears are Precious!
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| taken at San Diego Zoo |
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| Taken at San Diego Zoo |
We all know about global warming. We all understand even just a little bit about how global warming isn’t good for the environment. It’s HUGE to understand that global warming is also destroying animals…
Polar Bears. They’re cute, fluffy, white bears that we occasionally see at some zoos. But out in the open, in their own natural habitat, polar bears are slowly declining. As global warming increases, the more ice caps melt, which means less hunting ground for the polar bears. The polar bears have to swim out further to get more food, and sometimes they don’t make it to the ice caps in time. Their habitats are slowly getting destroyed and WE can do things to help!
Small simple things can help like riding your bike more often than taking your car, taking shorter showers, RECYCLING, and maybe even hang drying clothes. 
Endangered Species Protections
Oct 10.2011
Top&most recent endangered animal list (taken from humanspot.org)
- Mountain Gorilla
- Leatherback Sea Turtle
- Northern White Rhinoceros
- California Condor
- Brown Spider Monkey
- Red Wolf
- Chinese Alligator
- Snow Leopard
- Giant Panda
- Blue Whale
- Tasmanian Devil
- Bonobo
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| taken at San Diego Zoo |
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| Taken at San Diego Zoo |
Take the Giant Panda in China as an example. They are endangered because the lack of bamboo and people!
Bamboo is their ultimate food source and pandas eat about 85 pounds of these in a single day for nutrients. However, as more and more poeple start to move into China, the more and more the pandas’ habitats are destroyed, which means less food. Another reason is because female pandas are only able to mate 3 days of the year, which is harder for them each year because of the lack of the panda population. More people, less habitat, less food, less pandas.It’s important to know what kinds of animals are and why they’re endangered.
Toilet Paper Tragedy
Sep 23,2011
Toilet paper. It’s a “necessity” that we take for granted. Probably a resource that we don’t even notice unless we’ve run out. However, did you know that about 75% of the world can’t even afford toilet paper?! But, the average person who does use toilet paper, actually uses about 57 sheets (100 rolls per year) PER DAY? Now that made me think twice about how much extra toilet paper I use and how much I actually need.
So what’s the deal about toilet paper? Toilet paper is made from virgin paper, which is taken from hardwood and softwood trees. Once the trees are cut down, the tree pieces are bleached with chlorine based chemicals for the white color. In order to keep the toilet paper demand going, huge amounts of trees are wiped out. In some cases, there is a better way to making toilet paper, an Eco-friendlier way. Some toilet paper are made my recycling white and black stock, which saves tons and tons of trees from being torn down.
It’s pretty simple. The more toilet paper we use, the more trees are cut down. I’m not suggesting to STOP using toilet paper, I’m suggesting that we all pay attention to how much sheets we use and how much of it is unnecessary.
Earrings for the Earth | ||||
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Today was my school’s garbage dress up day, where we basically wear trash! I decided to be a little spirited and made newspaper earrings in less than 10 minutes! All I needed was a little tape, a little newspaper, and an old pair of dangling earrings! It’s simple, easy, and quick to make!
Throughout the day I got a lot of comments on how unique and cute my earrings looked! One of my teachers even said I should wear them again on Earth day! There’s tons of ways newspaper earrings can be made, but I put 5 simple instructions for anyone that wants to make earrings like these!
FIRST STEP: cut out various sizes of triangles from any old newspaper (cut out pictures for colors if you prefer)
2: find an old pair of dangling earrings that your willing to use (don’t worry it won’t damage the earrings)
3: tape the triangles of newspapers onto the earrings so that the tips of the triangles are at the top of the earrings, taping the big triangles first and then the smaller ones on top (make sure you cover your old earrings!)
4: after your done taping the triangles on to the earrings, trim the triangles to any shape or size you want
5: FINALLY you just cut lines at the bottom of the triangles for a feathery look!
500,000 trees are cut down for the weekly Sunday newspapers.
Just by recycling our newspapers, we could save 250,000,000 trees each year.
WHY?!? |
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My volunteering at the aquarium is over, but a memory from it still haunts me. I remember what the lady told me. I remember how that night I researched for hours. I remembered how I actually cried. I had thought , why would people do such horrible things? Now, I understand it’s legal, and that people have reasons. I just want to share what I’ve found, which you’ve probably have heard of anyways. (I’m not trying to offend any cultures or anyone in particular, this is just my research)
so this is my dog, Miso, and I’ve fell in love with dogs ever since I got her. So the idea of eating dogs totally disgusts me. I’ve heard and I know that people all around the world eat dogs. So to all the dog lovers out there, it may be heart wrenching, and officials are helping save many dogs to this day. In China, for example, people use to eat dog. However now, there are strict rules that ban eating dog, (ex. Hong Kong) and Taiwan had banned dog meat as well!
The sad thing is, even though it’s not legal to eat dog in Korea, the government doesn’t enforce the rules so many people are still killing and selling dog meat. over 2 million dogs are killed (and even tortured to death) just for meat. There are organizations and local groups that are trying to petition, but no big actions are being done. It’s not just Korea or China but a lot of other countries did as well, take Vietnam for example. They still do eat dog, and it’s normal to them. I’m not saying eating dog meat is wrong I’m just a devoted dog lover ( I guess it’s the same as seeing us eating cow and pig), but countries don’t have to tortue dogs…(dogs are beat, electrified, drowned …etc).The best way to help is to spread awareness and to not encourage sells!
The lady at the aquarium didn’t talk to me about people eating dogs. She told me about dolphin slaughter……My summer at the aquarium made me realize my intense passion for not only the ocean, but all the creatures in it. I realize that I want to help the animals and help spread awareness…so when this lady came up to me and told me about Denmark’s annual dolphin slaughter (on Faroe Islands), it shocked me. I looked it up and it’s true to this day. It was an old ritual and belief that once a “boy” was ready to truly be called a “man” he had to go out and kill dolphins to prove it. They would get boats to circle the pilot whales and lure them in and pretend to play, but seconds later they would slaugther them. The ocean would turn bloody red and over 1000 pilot whales killed in this little hunt. They would use the whale for food and other necessities…but it’s now considered a tradition that anyone could participate in but recently Faroe Islands considered the toxin levels in the whalte to be dangerous to eat (which can be dangerous only it consumed in great amounts). It’s considered legal but it can be seen as us eating beef or pig as well….but to me it’s just really sad and depressing. It’s not just Faroe Island either, many other places are killing other types of dolphins for their insides…) Have you seen “the cove”? It’s a movie about trying to stop dolphin slaugther. There are also other tv shows that are trying to get awareness about this problem to viewers around the world. It is legal in some countries, but people all around the world are trying to petition to stop this. You can help too!
Again, the best way to help is to spread awareness!
&last but not least…shark finning!Movies that portray sharks as vicious creatures give people the impression that sharks are mean animals. They aren’t though. Ok, we do have shark attacks every year, but did you know that people also kill them too? We only get about 30 to 100 shark attacks a year while people kill over 100 MILLION sharks a year. Plus, sharks only attack humans because we might look like a sea animal to them. Imagine a surfer on a surfboard. From an underwater poing view, it looks like a seal swimming on the surface. The shark population in constantly decreasing since the death rate is faster than the growth rate…Over 200,000 sharks are killed every day just for their fins. They’re taken just for the fins and are dropped back into the water, where they drown to death. Their fins are used for shark fin soup, a chinese delicacy. Even though, there are rules on shark fin soup, it’s still not enforced. Without sharks,our oceans will be imbalanced and our marine ecosystems will be unhealthy. THIS situation is completely harmful for our environment…. and
again, the best way to help is to NOT PURCHASE SHARK FIN SOUP and spread awareness to people you know.
(update*: Importation of shark fins is now banned, but shark fins already in the US can be sold until the 2013)
African famine continues to spread?!
Aug 4, 2011
Somalia was already facing trouble from other non environmental factors which I will not discuss, but it’s the environment has a lot of impact overall. While doing research, I noticed that Somalia was a place that had limited access to wood resources and yet they became involved in a business that required cutting down trees for charcoal. This wipes out the possibilities for farmland, animals, crops, and even water, which is basically sucking out the life of their society. Somalia was even a place for hazardous waste dumps which leads to cancer, premature births, deaths, and so much more toxic effects! I see why so many families are willing to travel distances for weeks just to get to a better place for resources. The sad thing is that as more families move to places like Kenya, the environment still is pretty devastating with droughts and food decline…
The current situation is that the Somalia famine is the worst hunger crisis since 1990′s with over millions of victims. Somalia particularly holds the record for the worst drought in 60 years with over 1.5 millions victimes in search for refugee camps. Some say that the crisis might even spread to Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia!
You can the famine situation by making a donation to any organization willing to help. Anything can be done to help, even a $1 can help a family in need. 
Coral Reefs need help too!
July 28, 2011
ng days at the aquarium, I learned to really fall in love with CORAL. Theyre beautiful, beneficial, and wonderful animals of the ocean. I see coral reefs as little cities for the fish; big and small, different colored, and even soft and hard. They lighten up the ocean not just for the sea creatures but for us humans when we spot them. The thing is, coral reefs need help too!
ng days at the aquarium, I learned to really fall in love with CORAL. Theyre beautiful, beneficial, and wonderful animals of the ocean. I see coral reefs as little cities for the fish; big and small, different colored, and even soft and hard. They lighten up the ocean not just for the sea creatures but for us humans when we spot them. The thing is, coral reefs need help too!
Coral reefs die out when the temperature gets too hot, which is due to too much carbon acid in the water. They also die out when oil spills and toxins get into the ocean (this is the same for pollution as well) since it suffocates the water and coral aren’t able to get light. Another huge factor is blast fishing (which is a whole other situation) which basically harms the coral due to the explosives used to catch fish. Sometimes when people go diving they break off small pieces of coral on accident, or sometimes cities destroy reefs for piers or other constructions.
The sad part is sometimes the whole coral reefs can die out, and they’re white leftovers are just there. Plus, they only grow about 4 inches per year! Coral are homes to fish (like clown fish from finding nemo!) and food to some (like the parrot fish), so it’s best to help be aware of the dangers for coral and find little things to help the pollution, like eco friendly hairsprays and riding bikes.
Small things everyday can not only help the environment overall but also other factors like in this case…CORAL!
Japan Research& Radiation affects
july 14,2011
Japan Research
I know it’s kind of late and all but here’s what I researched about on Japans radiation status and earthquake disaster effects. Hope I got all the facts and information correct!So on a perfectly normal day, March 11, 2011 to be exact, Sendai, Japan was hit with a 8.9 earthquake, one of the worst earthquakes the world has had in quite a long time. To make matters worse, a tsunami followed; but it wasn’t just over yet. Following the natural disaster duo was a radiation leak. I can still remember by watching the news that no one really knew the status on the radiation, how harmful it was, how many people got affected, or if it was dangerous enough for people to evacuate.
It was like the Chernobyl nuclear melt-down in 1986. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had nuclear radiation leaks due to a hydrogen explosion in the facility, which meant that the surrounding people had the possibility of radiation poisoning. Radiation sickness wasn’t pretty either: people could get dizzy, diarrhea, fevers, headaches, hair loss, bloody vomit, nausea, and other similar symptoms. The sad thing is that the consequences could take up to months to even show up. The good thing was that there was eventually an evacuation of about 20-30 km for precaution.
As people evacuated Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Co used cooling efforts to prevent the radiation levels to continue to rise. They even used UK firm robots to go into the nuclear reactors to test for radiation and cleaning. Japan currently is continuing to try to cool the reactors, and the Tokyo Electric Power Co plans to control the reactors by the end of the year.
About 14,000 victims passed away and 14,000 still missing. Thanks to associations like RedCross, Save the Children, Aidmatrix, Global Giving, International Medical Corps, and much much more organizations many victims were saved and lives are being repatched…
Radiation Effects
Radiation poisioning is in fact genetic, and in some cases can actually mutate into cancer cells…almost everyone knows that radiation can harm humans quite a lot, but did you know it can affect plants, animals, and not to mention the environment??!It’s already sad enough to see clouds of pollution lingering in the sky or patches of nature’s beauty torn down for housing complexes; and now radiation also damages the environment even more! Let’s start with plants. Just like humans, the plants’s cells can mutate as well, which results in a lower survival rates. Radiation also stops the plants from sprouting or fertilizing. Animals, on the other hand, I think, have it far worse. When their cells gets radiation sickness, they actually grow more and form tumors. Radiation can also cause brain damage, heart failure, blood vessel damages. In some cases, depending on the type of radiation, it can stay in the environment longer (like uranium 238 will stay active for 4.5 billion years). It all comes to stay that radiation is bad, horrible, and just plain sickning, so let’s do all we can to help the environment!
