Recommend a Film

     I believe that a great film for this class would be AVATAR!  This class is primarily about nature habitats, how they are important to the people who live in them and how to preserve them and make them last longer.  Avatar is a great film showing just how you can interact and be one with the environment.  When a marine is dispatched on a unique mission he becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world in which he believes is home.  Even though it is his alter ego that is involved in the place he calls home he still feels it is his and feels the need to protect it.  This movie shows just how important an environment and ones natural habitat is to sustain life.  Once their "tree of life" was cut down there was no longer a home, no where for their food, sleep, or no place to talk to their God.  I think this film incorporates a great deal of what we learned in class and puts in into perspective in a way that is entertaining to college students.  Avatar is a great film and I recommend it to everyone.  Here is the link for a trailer of the film.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdxXPV9GNQ

The Day After Tomorrow

     Everyone has their own depiction of the end of the world and we are all worried on when and how it could possibly take place.  The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film depicting catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling and leads to a new ice age.  It is a great film with intense special effects in which shows the results of long term greenhouse effects.  It is a film with great reality and fact based concept that shouldn't be taken lightly.  Many studies show that the present day climate is very unusually unstable and although the severe and instant wild weather changes shown in the movie may not occur this unstable climate can cause drastic changes in weather.  This movie gets me to think what can really happen if we all keep living the way we are, not minding the effect we have on our environment.  Its a powerful movie that helps me to really step back and take a look at how I am living my life.  Not only to help move to a more sustainable future but also to enjoy life because you never know what can happen.  The plot of the film got me a little nervous about what could possibly happen and that the end of the world could eventually take place.  We all live slightly selfish and yet if even if we make it through our era, don't we want the Earth to be there for the future generations and allow them to have the same life we did?  

consumerism

      Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts. Consumersim today has an impact and plays a major role in the degradation of our economy.  Consumerism tells us what to buy, when to buy it and when to throw things out.  This leads us to own and waste a lot of stuff.  It has a huge effect on our economy because since we have the freedom to consume and by everything that we deem is important we need the money to do so which creates a demand for money and ultimately debt.  The United States holds a small percent of the worlds population and yet uses a great amount of the worlds resources and creates more than their share of waste.  What we don't realize is that materials that go into the stuff we by have to be extracted from natural resources and buy using up those resources and ultimately throwing them away as things get "old" we are causing our own downfall.  We can't grow another planet but we can all work together to take action to protect the Earth in which we live and all its natural resources.  We have created a culture in which people are encouraged to accumulate and show off material wealth to define their status in society.  The statement "keeping up with the Jonses"refers to the comparison to one's neighbor as a benchmark for social cast or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.  We as a society have turned consumption into a necessity and this has resulted in rapidly stripping the World of its natural resources in order to satisfy this demand.  We all need to learn to live within the means of nature.  

WALL-E ; Reduce, reuse, recycle reclaim

     

     This animated film was entertaining and I think Disney and Pixar did a great job in not only making the film but also incorporating an important topic into a light hearted, fun, kid friendly film.  The film took place in the future where human beings have destroyed Earth and evacuated the planet and although this film places it in the "futuristic world" this is very well where we are headed.  The film had an underlying message for the older crowd and minus the robots, this film has very realistic qualities on the fact that one day the we as humans can easily leave the earth covered in garbage.  
     The 4 R's reduce, reuse, recycle and reclaim represent the steps for responsible waste management.  These steps help to reduce waste of natural resources and cut down greenhouse gas emissions which are generated by transport and land filling.  One of the greatest sayings is " the easiest waste to manage is waste that is not generated in the first place."  The idea of reducing helps people think about their consumption and how much waste they generate.  The idea of reusing means finding a second life for a product and using it repeatedly.  Recycle means transforming waste in order to create new products rather than using new material.  Reclaim means deriving value that would otherwise go to waste from an item that has reached the end of its useful life.  Reclaiming is converting waste into resources such as electricity or fuel.  Reclaiming certain matter can be important in managing and controlling climate changes.  These 4 R's refer to taking material components and extending their life by re-incorporating them into a cycle of use.  By educating people on this idea and topic it will greatly impact the way people think about their consumption and will also impact those involved in waste companies to strive for the path of zero landfill.  This is great way to help our planet go green and to be more resource efficient.  It is important to understand that although one person can make a difference it, a group effort is beneficial and everyone should make positive choices not only for themselves but for the future and those who live on after us.  

Field trip to Lee County waste to energy facility

       I think this by far was my favorite field trip.  Although it was smelly and many would think its weird that I would like a field trip about trash it is something that really hits home and truly makes you sit back and think about your environment and how many people just don't care.  We as humans produce so much trash and the fact that there are very few counties that have facilities that convert waste to energy is unbelievable.  The landfills of trash and those things we call "mount trashmore" are only getting bigger and we will soon not only run out of space, but the effect on the environment will be significant.  It is important that people come together and use the stuff that we see as waste and better the planet by reusing.  The presentation was extremely interesting and I thought that tour was really cool to see how it all worked.  Also walking going over the the recycling facility was very cool too.  I learned a lot on this trip and I think what Lee County is doing is so great and many need to take their lead.  It is amazing that the stuff we call waste and don't want can be used as energy and provide power for many people to live off of.  

This is the cubes that they make for each type of
thing recycled after it has all been sorted 

This is all the pictures we saw during the presentation.  He is pointed to the picture in which he explained that that was the only amount of land and area their facility would need, since most of the waste is turned into energy and then the rest is plowed over and able to make room for more

 This is the picture of the control panel and the control room.  It is important that the workers in this area are always alert and are safe.  

Shows what was talked about in which this crane takes the trash dumped from the trucks and puts it into the next part of the system.  It was said that this crane can hold a large amount of trash.  

This is a great picture of all of our class going out to the dumbing site.  We were able to smell those wonderful smells! (not) and able to watch some of the trucks come in to do their shipments 

This is the picture of the model that was in the presentation room in which shows how their facility works and what processes the trash goes through to ultimately reach the final goal and product of energy.  


You can't help to imagine what it would be like to work in one of these facilities and separate peoples waste and trash for a living however what we don't realize is they play a huge role and are the people who are helping our environment.  Facilities like this in which turn waste into energy are much needed.