Gary Liss

Gary Liss "Zero Waste" speech. Our goal of getting to zero waste in year 2040. It is really far but alot of companies have started to reduce a lot of their waste already. Buisness have recycling programs. Like Best Buy recycles old cell phones and electronics. It was interesting to learn that Ricoh electronics hasn't thrown anything away since 2001.



Its interesting to know that by resusing material we are creating more jobs. this is a good thing because we need jobs right now so it will give people the incentive to resuse material.

Overall I really liked his speech. I think that more people need to hear this information. And hopefully one day we can live in a zero waste society.

Joe

Joe talked about green careers. I thought green careers was more like scientists before his speech. There are many environmentally friendly jobs these days like environmental lawyer. Also many buisnesses are becoming more sustainable. He gave the example of Ray Anderson who made his carpet company more sustainable.

He also talked about how people neeed to want to have that job and have a passion for that subject. That people shouldnt go into a job because of the money. I agree why would you want to have a career the rest of your life that you are going to hate?This made me think about what I want to do with my life. I want to make sure that i can support my family but also that i do love my job and that im excited to get up in the morning to go to work.

Earth day!

I think that we should have Earth day one day a year. That way people will acknolowedge something needs to change. It shows more importance if we make one day out of the year just for Earth day. But I do think that we shuld still do the same things that we do on Earth day. We should always be thinking about ways we can help save the earth.
This class has really influenced me to become better at conservering. I dont keep the water on while brushing my teeth etc. I think that every little thing counts now and before I didnt really think I had any impact on the eath. But I now know thats wrong.
Everyone needs to start treating the environment with respect!

Joe Mederios the Artic

The podcast class was very interesting. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, In the United States, where 8 million acres is set aside for wilderness, 180 bird species thrive in the spring and summer, 36 species of land mammals roam the area, 9 species of marine mammals live, and 36 species of fish occupy the water. Its amazing to know that this kind of place exist.
He talked about our oil problem. We go to war with counrties where only 16% of our imports is in those areas.
I really liked watching him on the podcast.

Joe Mederios #2

Sustainability is meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

He talked abouthow evryday that 25,000 people are born each day. That is sooo many people. 116 sq miles of rain forests are destroyed and 15 million tons of carbon are added to the atmoshpere. Also that 50-100 species will go extinct everyday.

He talked about the triple bottom line. This is the balance between sustainable environment, economy and society. We usually think about one aspect. He talked about if we used all 3 of these we could benefit more.

Ray Darby

I can't believe how much energy we waste everyday without even noticing it. He talked about how people should become more energy efficient. Also he talked about how our food is transported from other countries. Also that we use gas to drive to the store to get food. And people dont think about all the little things like that.

We should buy locally grown food. This is because it takes less resources. My dad has solar panels and he always comes and tells me about how much he saving. They did cost a lot of money but they are defiantly worth the money in the long run.

He just help us show the little things that we can do to become more energy efficient. I really liked his talk.

nature perspective

I would dfeiantly say that my views on nature have changed over the course of this semester. When I first started the class I knew we had problems with the environment. But I didnt realize how big the problems were until this class. I think that all the speakers really helped me change my perspective on nature now. I never really payed attention to all the commercials that talk abou the animals going away. But now its sad to know that our generation is the last generation to see a polar bear. I defianlty think that everyone needs to play a part in helping. Even the little things count which people dont think about.

I think that people should take this class. I enjoy it a lot. All the speakers made it very interesting. I have started to carpool more to school and other places. Also always turning off the lights and trying to recycle. I am more aware of how all my actions can affect everything.

Overall I have learned a lot. And have changed a lot of my old habits to help save the environment. Ya they are only little things but it does count in the long run.

Laird Thompson

Laird Thompson talked about the history and the future of oil. 60% to 70% of our oil from an oil well. We are very dependent on oil even though we get it from other countries. There are a lot of injuries and accidents from oil that we never hear about because its not in our country.
there are fires that creates lakes of oil this is very dangerous to the environment. We now import 2/3 of oil . We use oil in everyday life. We use it get from here to there but no one every thinks of the damage it causes.
Some ways he suggested to help oil consumption. We could use synthetic oil which lasts longer.
Its weird that oil is found in tables and plastic.People should be aware of the problems goin on. The drilling in the oceans and all the oil spills that are killing.

Frank DeCoulter

Frank described global warming. There are 5 parts to it which i didnt know.
The artic and the poles are in danger the most. The polarbears in danger. This is because of the 1 degree celius change. I didnt know that one temperature change could make such a difference. We are seeing a decrease in ice glaciers. The sierras is the most affected temp change in california. It was scary to see a potentional 10 degree temperatre change in california.

All this temperature drop isnt goood. People dont think that 1 degree is a big deal. the warming isnt distrbuted evenly. the north hemisphere because the north pole there is no land which makes the dark ocean absorbs heat versus the white antarctic ice reflecting light.

I thought his speech was very intriging and i learnd a lot. I was also very suprised about it all.

Jane Haproff's

Jane made me think abot the book Ishmael. She talked abot the ties of religion and environment.
Christianity views the material world as a place of suffering to be escaped from. Heaven is our true home. The view of religion helps on how to view the environment. The western view view the environment as a sorce of life and value. Nature was made for humans to enjoy. It was ment to live to the fllest
Hinduism believe that all life is ensouled with the "gods". Some religions view us as dominate others think that we are there to cultivate the land.
This speech was interesting to hear our world and its creation Adam and Eve falling to chaos.We can all be destroyed. I really liked this speech.

Lynn Medieros

She is a very good speaker and passionate. Some of the things she said are, " America love it or leave it", "we have to bomb Afganistan since we love our country", "boys are better at math and science, girls at reading or writing". We are a very black and white country. We dont look at all the grey inbetween. We all know that these sayings arent always true
She talked about matter of fact verse matter of value. You have to know both sides to know the position and to argue. I learned a lot from her speech. I want to take one of her classes now.

viewpoints

I never really had views on the environment until the class. My viewpoint comes from my parents. They never recycled. Cuz in Granite Bay we dont have a recycling program. I was outside swimming playing at the park etc. I have a pool in my back yard so i was outside like everyday during the summer. And I have a park across the street that i was always playing at. So I love being outside.This helped for my appreciation of the environment. During middle school we had recess so we were always outside playing games.I loved playing wall ball. Also we had p.e.
I did camp when i was a kid. I thought it was fun because it was so beautiful. We were covered by forests. I think that camp was a very good experience. We would go hiking horse back riding. I think that every kid should experience camp.
Since i live in Granite Bay i was very sheltered. My mom thought old roseville was a scary place lol. So she would always freak out when I went to that side which is so ridiculous. I probably would have changed that lol.

Vernon Martin

He started by showing us a dollar. Which grabbed all of our attention. He said that its just a piece of paper with ink. This is so true it only means something to us because we make it mean something. We make it valuable. I never thought about money like that.

Also he brought up the mall and how it is set up. Most stored have windows to make you feel like you are outside. And to let natural sunlight in. Decorations are set up to look lik eoutside. This makes people feel calm and relaxed because they dont feel trapped inside. I never thought about this tell he brought it up which is so true.

Us as humans want to save all the cuddly animals. Even thought most of the time they arent the ones that do more for the environment. We always see commercials for the panda bears.

It was also weird to think about how people buy nature. But what they bought probably harmed nature so that is funny to think about. As people we do what is convenient.

Joe Mederios

We are all part of the ecosystem. We need all the different species or we will not survive. He also talks about what species to save or not save. We need to look at key species or the ones that are more of an impact then the cute animals. Insects and ants play a major role here on earth. They are the backbone. I cant believe that rainforests only cover 6% of the world but are essential and provide a lot of oxygen for the earth.
I think that we need to make changes in our living style. The US holds 5% of the worlds population but we consume 25% of the world resources. This is horrible.

toxins

Yes I care, the stuff in mining waste is very toxic to our health. This must be dealt with for the safety of everyone in the Sierras. Mike Thorton showed me that my environment isn't as clean as I thought it was. I don't want my kids playing in basebell fields that are toxic to them. As soon it becomes toxic enough to hurt anybody its time to do something about it. I think that the abadoned mines should have warning and be reinforced better so that people dont walk into them or fall. I dnt know how to get rid of them because we cant put them in the ocean. Mabye put them away so that they wont harm anyone. We need to inform people about the toxins. We could ride our bikes,reuse bags etc.

Gary Noy

I also think Gary Noy did a good job informing us about the sierras. Like that we get are water from the sierras. I thought it was very sad hearing that people would get payed to kill the native americans. There is a lot of diversity in the sierras its been there for more then 600 million years. The sierra has 3500 different plant species, and 400 vertibrate species.
Its interesting that so many people risked their lives to build the railroad and mine. Most people died within 8 months of building the railroad. That is so scary.
I also liked should we contain the fires or let them keep going. Also the roles of women making a impact. that they climbed Mt. Whitney. I cant believe that the sierras were different before humans came to the sierras.Overall I learned a lot form Gary Noy.

Mike Thorton

I was really intrigued by his presentation. He did a really good job with informing us about all the tozins in mines. I didnt realize that there was so many dangers to left over gold mines. I have been on field trips to gold mines back in elementary school. I thought they were so cool. But now that i think about it i wonder if our school teachers knew the dangers they were putting us in. I think its realy suprising that kids playing baseball are at risks in some places. I dont eat fish but I dont think after hearing his presentation I ever will. Because fish get the mercury and then we are eating the fish. Which isnt very healthy for us humans. I think we should notify more people about this problem. As we saw in the class no one was familiar with this problem.
He also talked about the there are over 47,000 abandoned across california. There are lots of toxins in these mines. like mercury,lead , arsenic. All these toxins are very dangerous to humans. They mostly affect pregnant women and kids which are the ones we should be most concerned about not harming.

Preservation of Species

I think that you should conserve that a lot of other important animals are dependent on. If it is a species that will have a large affect on the food chain, then they should be conserved. If a species is dying because of a man made crisis that they should be saved because its not part of evolution because its not part of the natural order. Otherwise if a species is to die naturally then it should be considered a part of evolution. New species that are introduced should not be disregarded, for that is how we have the new species now. Humans need to be conscious of how our actions affect the environment.

Ecological footprint

My ecoloigcal footprint was 4.54 earths. I can recycle more and become more aware my energy uses. I can spend a little time researching ways for me to become less of an impact. Yes I care because its my world and I dont want to destroy it. Some long term affects are global warming. We have more of a industrialized nation resulting in having larger footprints. Yes there will be some left but we should attempt to leave big footprints.