Psa- Child Soldiers

The Pacific Trash Island

Old sea legends are coming true! For several hundred years a human made monster has been growing larger and larger in the North Pacific Ocean. This monster is an island of trash that has formed because of trash in the ocean and the Northern Pacific sub-tropic gyre. According to “The Trash Vortex” it is as big as Texas. Trash island consists of 90 percent plastics and 10 percent other large trash items such as creates. This trash island is deadly to animals and even humans and must be taken care of as soon as possible.

            The Pacific Trash Island is one of the many trash islands around the world. It is located between Hawaii and California. While it was forming, shippers and boaters both felt that it was just a phase and the trash would eventually disperse. Then as the years went on and the trash continued to pile, they asked where it came from. Well 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean comes from land sources. For example, a plastic water bottle is tossed down a New York sewer and then that sewer leads off to the ocean. The other 20 percent of the trash comes from ships at sea. This island has been overlooked because it has had direct impact to humans or that’s what we thought.

            Trash Island consists of many different forms of plastics ranging from netting to bottles. This is why it is so dangerous. According to Amanda Briney, when plastic decomposes in the water it splits into millions of pieces of shinny plastic pellets, each one having a toxic quality. Everyone knows how much fish enjoy eating small and shiny objects. Knowing that, the sea food industry will be and is already selling semi-poisoned fish. How was your last fish fry? Although not all the fish that have encountered the poisoned plastic survive.  According to” The Trash Vortex”, many sea turtles in Hawaii have been found off the coast dead with plastic in their stomachs. They are just one of the countless numbers of marine life that are directly affected by the trash islands. If this continues then there will be no fish in the sea to eat or enjoy. Another thing is that the larger chunks of trash can often become shuttles for animals like barnacles to hitchhike on. This is bad because evasive species are dangerous to the ecosystem. They could become new, fierce predators or eat the food chain dry in an ecosystem.

According to John Trimmer, the US Coast Guard is the only organization that is working to clean up the Pacific Trash Island, but they have stopped due to lack of government funding. An estimate of a cost the government would have to pay out in the clean up of the Pacific Trash Island is the equal to the wages of one Coast Guard crew.  We believe that this is not enough help for all the trash islands all over the world. The U.S. should invest more money into finding a way to make recycling more convenient. This would encourage people to recycle the plastics so they never end up in the ocean.  According to Christopher Chantrill, the U.S. government is spending $18.7 billion on the general research department, and 10 percent of that could go toward the clean up of the Pacific Island, which is sitting in our back yard.

If America does not take control of this trash collection, it could grow to reach the coast of California. Think of all that fish that humans consume then ask yourself if you just ate plastic. Humans eat what their food eats, one way or another. Think of all the whales, sea turtles, and other sea animals that are dying, and ask yourself how you have helped to keep trash out of the ocean. My partner and I use about two bottles a week, and we are going to recycle each one every time. How many do you use, and most importantly, how many do you recycle?

                                                                                                                                               Briney, Amanda.  Trash Islands: Trash Islands of the pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  About.com.  New York Times Company, 5 May 2010. Web. 2 March 2011.

Chantrill, Christopher. Government Spending Details. U.S Government. 2 Wednesday 2011. Web. 2 March 2011

The Trash Vortex.  Greenpeace.org.  Greenpeace.  Web. 2 March 2011.

The Tech Museum.  This Year’s Challenge is Trash Island: The Great Pacific Gyre.  TheTech.org. The Tech Museum, 1994-2010.  Web. 2 March 2011. 

Trimmer, John.  Floating, Texas-Sized Garbage Patch Threatens Pacific Marine Sanctuary.  Arstechnica.com.  Condé Nast Digital, 23 October 2007. Web. 2 March 2011.

PSA- Recycle Bottles

Bottles kill

Water Conservation

Did you know that 97.5% of all the water present on Earth is not drinkable? Did you know that only about 2.5% of water is consumable, and roughly 1% of that is 

available for human use? Due to global warming, the weather and rainfall patterns have changed throughout the world. As a result there has been water scarcity throughout many countries (“Water”). With this in mind, it is now time for citizens all over the world to realize the importance of water conservation. According to Answers.com water conservation is the protection, development, and efficient management of water resources for beneficial purposes. If we plan to continue to use water in their daily lives, we need to find alternative ways to use water properly with our now limited resources.

            One misconception that a lot of people have about water is that it is a renewable resource. In reality, this in fact is not true. This misconception is the main reason why many people have failed to pay attention to this issue in the past. If people are not made aware of the possible shortage of water in the future, then they will continue to waste this essential resource. With the help of global warming, this problem has just continued to get worse .It is time for water conservation to be addressed now.

Many people may want to know why we should conserve water when it seems to be available anywhere and everywhere. According to the Environmental Protection Agency at least 36 states will be facing water shortages by 2013 (“Water Conservation”). Keep in mind that this is less than two years away. Water is more than just a resource. It is a necessity for daily life. Water makes up about 50%-70% of a person’s body weight (“Why do”) and it performs other jobs such as flushes out toxins from vital organs, carries nutrients to cells, and it also provides a moist environment for the ear, nose, and throat tissues (“Water: How”). Without water there would be no human life. 

Surprisingly, there is a lot being done about water conservation. There are hundreds of websites available that give helpful ways to cut down on the current waste of water. Some of these tips include simple things such as cutting your shower down by a minute or two and turning the water off when brushing your teeth (“100”). It is small tips like these that make it easy for everybody to help in the effort. Also, the United States government has given funds and grants that help possibly cut down on this problem. We believe that enough is being done as far as funds are concerned, but there could still be more education on this affair.  

According to Usgovernmentspending.com the U.S government spent about $63 billion in funding for water conservation last year. However, this funding is not enough and should be increased. In 2010, $100 billion was spent on fuel and energy. If you ask us water, fuel, and energy are all of equal importance, so why not also increase the amount spent on water conservation to $100 billion too. All of these items are necessary for our daily living and without them life would be difficult, probably even impossible.

It is important that everybody help in the water conservation effort. If we as citizens do not help resolve this issue quickly, then life as we know it would not be the same. All you have to do are little things such as turning the water off while brushing your teeth and cutting one or two minutes off your showers. All it takes is one person at a time to do his or her part and eventually over time there will be an abundance of people helping out in the situation. After all, water is an essential part of our lives, and life is always worth living.

Psa- Water Conservation

Water Conservation Poster

When you waste water your puring lives down the drain

PSA- Pollution

Teen Pregnancy

           

Did you know that thirty-one teenage girls become pregnant each day in Indiana?  

Did you know that we, as tax payers, pay billions of dollars each year to support these teen moms? (Cockrum). Over the past several years it appears that a trend has begun among teenage girls. Everyday we seem to find out that someone we are close to or that we know will become a mother. No one knows for sure why this trend is occurring, but it may be due to a lack of education in our communities and schools. While many people believe that there are several other ways to solve this problem, I believe that education is the only way to teach a lesson.

            In many of our schools and communities, the idea of abstinence is being taught to students. In Jackson, Mississippi, however, a young mother of seven is urging law makers to pass a sex education law that goes beyond teaching abstinence. Lori Roberts, who had given birth to three children before the age of eighteen, stated that she believes that the choices she made when it came to sex would have been wiser if she would have been educated on the matter in school (“House”). While many politicians find this issue to be a controversial one, someone has to be willing to educate students about the consequences that come with such actions. Lori Robert’s case is just one of the many examples that proves the importance of education beyond just abstinence.  

One of Indiana’s own well-known health clinics is on the brink of loosing funding. About a year ago Planned Parenthood of Indiana was forced to close down six health centers around the state due to changes in the distribution of federal funds in Indiana (Cockrum). As a result patients are now not able to receive proper care or education on their reproductive conditions, and they have nowhere else to go since no one else will step in and help. Without education in centers such as Planned Parenthood, we will continue to see an increase in the number of teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and abortions.  

I’m aware that many people believe that whether teenagers are educated more on the subject of teen pregnancy and sex that they will still do as they please. While this may be true, it is hard to tell how much of an impact you may have on a person based on something that you told or taught them. I can personally say that receiving information on subjects such as this definitely opens your eyes to what is happening in your community and that the more you know, the more you make your decisions more wisely.

As teen pregnancy continues to rise, more should be done as far as sexual education is concerned. Education is the only way that we can ensure that students are aware of the information, but just choose not to use the information to their advantage. Teaching teenagers more about teen pregnancy and making them aware of the risks that follow will help to lower the teen pregnancy rates. As Albert Einstein once said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

                                                            Work Cited      

Cockrum, Betty. “Cuts would only hurt Hoosiers’ health”. Indystar.com. Indystar.com, 8 

            Jan 2011.Web. 3 Feb 2011    

“Help for troubled teens” Familyfirstaid.org. Familyfirstaid.org, nd. Web. 7 Feb 2011

“House hearing focuses on sex education”. Picayuneitem.com. Associated Press, 14 Jan 

            2011. Web. 3 Feb 2011

Adolescent Violence

                 Today teens are influenced by other teens, music, and or drugs. They are very gullible and emotional. Tending to crumble under the pressure of others, they feel that they need to prove their worth. “By the time children reach high school, many already have begun dabbling in high-risk behavior” (Edelhart). Some go to the lengths of taking another’s life if not their own to prove it, doing it all for the approval of others. Most are on the right track, but the remainder are in trouble and are in need of structure and direction. The teens of today hold the key to the future, and we need to help these children find themselves. The problem is that they are not mentally stable to lead. They know not what they do, until it is too late. What we need to do as a mature group of adults is teach them better ways to control their anger, try to help with the personal problems at home, and inform them about others.

                    Anger, a feeling capable of destruction, has infested in our youth. Where does it come from? Well it all depends on the person. Many are bullied by other students, which fuels their hate. Some were raised in abusive households and that influences the way they act toward others. Others do it to feel good about themselves. Anger can cloud good judgment and can force a person to throw their lives away in a matter of seconds. We should find a way to help them direct that negative energy and turn it into a positive, something productive. Offering outlets such as poetry pubs or art studios are great ways to allow these troubled teens to express their feelings without harming anyone. Maybe one day that poem or sketch may turn to a masterpiece and could help shape his or her future. There are some teens that do productive things but are confused by other factors.

                    Youth who fight a lot and run the streets are usually raised by abusive parents.  Those who were abused as a child are traumatized by the arguing and fighting of parents. They grow up and fight because it is what they are used to. They think it’s normal. Same goes for those who don’t have abusive parents. These kids take advantage and run over their parents. They back-talk, disobey, and disrespect parents that want to plan a good future for them. That motivates them to use more drastic actions like shooting and killing others if not his or herself. So what we could do to fix this is offer intense intervention programs or a big brother/sister program.

                    Ethnicity, gender, and or religion are very influential factors that decide how our teens interact with each other. In our high schools, there are students that join gangs, cliques, or groups. Regardless of what name they go by, they are still labeled or stereotyped but are most importantly misunderstood. They join whatever they feel is comfortable for them or whom they can relate to whether they share the same native tongue, skin color, sex, activities, and the list could go on. Some groups don’t necessarily get along with each other, at all. The slightest provocation could lead to a fight that could result in serious injury or even death. They act on impulse and may not even know why they don’t like the other. Educating these groups about each others differences may bring them closer together. I propose an idea to educate them a group at a time, figure out why they hate the other so, then teach them things they may not have known. Whether this is effective or not every little bit helps.

                     Youth that have anger problems, little to no home training and unclear hatred toward others are not capable to lead us to a better future. It’s up to us to steer them while they are young because if we wait they may never break their habits or even live long enough to do it. I hope that I have made it clear to you all that violence in teens is a raising problem in this community and we must at on making our youth better fit to lead us to a better future.

Work Cited

Edelhart, Courtenay.  "Tweens in transition :Middle-schoolers face risks and temptations once more common among older teens. " ProQuest. Indianapolis Star, 28 Dec. 2006,Indianapolis Star. Web.  9 Feb. 2011.

Pollution

Pollution is a huge problem and is many times not taken as serious as it should. Pollution is more than littering; the definition of pollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment (“Pollution”). Did you know that Americans use approximately 2.2 million pounds of pesticides every year (“Our Pollution.”)? Pollution can come from factory smoke, ocean dumping, and car emissions the list can go on and on. As inhabitants of this world we must all be aware of the dangers pollution has not only on ourselves but on the environment in which we live.

Emissions from ocean-going ships contribute to approximately 60,000 deaths each year, mostly from heart and lung-related cancers (“Ten”). The Co2 emissions from ships that transport goods are twice the amount of airlines, and can account for about four percent of the total Co2 output. Not only are these emissions harmful to the environment, they’re killing thousands of people. Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong rank within the world’s top 5 busiest ports, and experience a higher impact from emissions-related health issues such as cancer and heart attacks.

The air is not the only concern with pollution; water pollution gets worse every year. Water contamination could easily be fixed, but for some reason we as people seem to turn a blind eye to this issue. With oil spills, chemical dumping and trash pollution, marine life are being contaminated and killed by harmful things being put into the water. This problem can easily be fixed if we all just become more aware of the effects we all have on our environment. We wouldn’t want to contaminate the water or air in our homes, so why trash our planet?

Change is already far over due. If we all work together we could change our lifestyles to be more eco-friendly. How hard is it to pick up a piece of trash that’s about to fall into a sewer drain, or try to reduce pesticide use, or even travel a more green way. Simple changes on our behalf could make huge impacts on our environment.

Like many environmental problems, together we created them. If we created these Problems we can certainly help fix them. So I challenge you to think about the next time you throw that piece of trash on the side of the road, or buy that can of pesticide to think about the harm your doing to your environment, and research ways you can stop pollution. Change begins at home.

Works Cited

“Our pollution.” Web. Environmental Facts. July. 2010. 8. Feb. 2011

"Pollution." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 08 Feb. 2011.

“Ten pollution Fast Facts: Statistics to make you think.” CleanAir. 11 April 2008.Web. 8. Feb. 2011.

Unseen Negative Effects

               Pornography is a terrible thing that is sold and advertised in many ways. It has become an evasive material in today’s society. Not only have adults become engulfed by its lies but also teens and children. There are so many things that are repulsive about porn that it has no defense for its existence.
                Finding pornography on the internet is as easy as Googling the word “sex” which other 40 million Americans could admit to have doing so each year.  Many different types of people access porn each but it tends that the men are more open to admitting it. Each year about 40 percent of teens and preteen visit sexually explicit sites either deliberately or accidentally. In a study in the February Pediatrics (Vol. 119, No.2, Pages 247-257), a psychologist Kimberly Mitchell, found that 42 percent of a nationally representative sample of 1,500 internet users ages 10 to 17 had been exposed to online porn in the last year, and two-thirds were reporting only unwanted exposure. It is clear that the internet is holding to much unprotected porn for all ages to view. Over 75 percent of the internet database is dedicated to online porn. This is a repulsing idea that people don’t even see. 
                Next many people don’t fully understand the effects of porn on the viewer. Porn is known to desensitize its viewer. This means most people start out looking at soft porn and gradually work there way to hard porn which can be anything from rape to animal porn. Next thing porn does is it dehumanizes women. When a man looks at porn the learn that women are only there for there sexual qualities and features. This is 100 percent wrong!!! Also after looking at porn it leaves you feeling down and dirty and this can often led to seclusion.
                Now that you know the effects of porn and how easy it is to find it, make a choice to stand against it. Parents need to learn how to block it on the computer. Most parents today don’t even know anything about a computer. Parents need to be more open with their children and help them better understand the opposite sex. This is better than them looking up lies about what sex is not. Parents should let their kids know that sex is not just a physical activity. It’s a way to bond with a lifelong partner. We as a people lastly need to look to the government to clean the internet surfing.
                Looking back you see that sex is a easy word to gain access to an unlimited source of online porn. Then you see the bad effects like seclusion and dehumanizing women. Now look and see how little effort you would have to give to make a huge difference. Then ask yourself am I doing what I can to help this problem.
   

Work cited

DeAngelis, Tori. “Web pornography’s effect on children” (Monitor Staff) 10 Nov. 2007. 9 Feb 2011. Wolf, Naomi. “The Porn Myth”( in the end) 9 Feb. 2011

The Worst Companies for the Planet

American Electric Power 

 American Electric Power (AEP) not only provides electricity to states such as Arkansas, Indiana, and Kentucky, but it also unfortunately spewing a lot of Carbon dioxide into our planet.

Consol Energy

Consol Energy, one of the country's biggest coal miners, is one of our planet's worst environmental offenders according to Newsweek.  

Are All Businesses going Green?

Starbucks is on the right track with their "bean-to-cup" program. This consists of the company useing coffee cup sleeves made of recycled paper saving roughly 78,000 trees per year since 2006. Starbucks has also partnered up with Conservation International to the Earthwarch Institute, an environmental organization. This company has directed Starbucks to become more green.

McDonalds has been know in the past to take out wild animal habitats to make a new fast food place. Now they are working hand in hand with PETA on finding very humane and friendly business practices to help the environment and animals.

Home Depot has been known for taking out parts of the Rainforest with their "old-growth wood products." The company has put into place a " no old-growth sale" policy. This ensured that the days of the harvesting of the Rainforests trees were over.

Wal-Mart has put into action a new long-term plan to use 100% of its renewable energy sources. This will make them more eco-friendly than they ever have been.

Coca-Cola has narrowed down 3 environmental goals on which to focus their efforts: water stewardship, sustainable packaging, and climate & energy protection. At their corporate website you can read exactly how they plan to attain these goals.

Toyota made the world's first large scale hybrid vehicle production. Also this hybrid car is being sold in over 40 countries world wide.

Dell  products have been known as one of the hardest and most costly things to safely dispose of. Thanks to the " no computer should go to waste" recycling program, anyone who has a Dell product can send it back to the company for free.