Another semester down

This is my first semester as a Communication major, so it was definitely and eye opener. The last three years at the University I have been an education major, but it did not work out the way I wanted it to, so here I am. I took the course because it was required as an elective and I could say that I have learned a lot from it. The information from the lectures from this class was a little overwhelming at some points, but my favorite section was health, the first section. I have never really thought about how important it is to talk about our own health and your own experience.

Family influences so much on ones self-health and beliefs, that is one thing that I didn’t really take into consideration. Like, some parents will rush their children to the hospital if they are just coughing a lot for example, and with my parents I could literally be coughing up a lung and my parents would say, “we will see how you are feeling tomorrow”. I also noticed, how friends can have an impact on health from their stories and their past that will make someone notice that something could be wrong with oneself.

The structure and content were all enjoyable to me and were all so relatable and eye opening on how realistic things are around us. Which has made me less regrettable on changing my major, and I enjoyed this course.

Before the Flood, literally preparing for the flood

As everyone likes to agree to disagree that climate change is not happening to our planet, but it is. The documentary, “Before the Flood”, is such an eye opening movie that all young people need to watch to become more educated. I wrote my research paper about this documentary actually, but one thing I did not get to touch base on was Global Warming and it effecting Florida. Sea level rise is already increasing flood threats everywhere. But it is set to become a greater problem much sooner than most people expect. It is time that American’s prepare for higher seas and storms if ‘we” want to avoid their worst effects. South Florida is taking precaution and making their roadways more adaptable to the actions yet to come. Some counties are being taxed to make their communities safer from what is yet to come. 900 miles of roadways from Palm Beach to Miami will be impacted by a three-foot rise in sea-levels and 65 and 71 percent of hospitals and emergency shelters that will be located below sea level within just one foot of sea-level rise. With the money the people are paying in taxes is helping their lives for the future rise of the sea levels.

Below is a video of someone showing their local city of how it is effected by climate change

The New Famine Product

When we think of green washing, famine products don’t really “come to mind” if you are a male. And most of the time it doesn’t come to a woman’s mind as well. I just got to the store and pick out the same products I have always used. But apparently tampons and sanitary pads can be “green-washed”. It is gross to think about in some cases, but how could women survive without out these disposable products? Most women would use rags, cotton or sheep’s wool in their underwear to handle their menstrual cycle. Today, tampons are being made without applicators, like O.B., claim to save up to one pound of landfill waste per women, per year by foregoing applicators. But they do not mention the tons of herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, fungicides and other chemicals used to produce cotton crops in the United States. In my defense, with using these chemicals, there is nothing about them that are saving the planet when they are in garbage disposals. The landfills are already polluted but other things that will not be biodegradable. Brand name tampon applicators contain petroleum-based plastics that are not biodegradable, and where do they go… the landfill. So how’s that for the monthly contribution? The O.B. brand is physically taking away the applicator, but women do not know how to make the switch because they do not know how to use this new invention.

Link provides video:

http://www.ob-tampons.com/feminine-products?&utm_source=google&utm_term=ob%20tampons&utm_campaign=PLX-OB-15_Branded&utm_medium=cpc

 

 

One Small Idea of Green Advertising

 

A company in California invented a coffee cup that is not only biodegradable, but even has seeds in its walls so that it can be planted and grown. The company is called, “Reduce. Reuse. Grow”. The cups are being used in a Kickstarter campaign and will have seeds in the walls of the cups at select locations. The participating stores encourage people to plant the cups themselves or return them to be planted by the company.

Alex Henige, the inventor shares his idea about his reason behind the cups.

“We have such a diverse ecosystem here that we have the ability to test over 1000 species pretty much all in our backyard with some of the world’s leading soil scientist and eco gurus,” Alex Henige explained to Bored Panda. “This is where we will work out all the details and be able to then start testing other regions to make the process run smoother”

He then talks about the temperature of the cups will not effect the seeds because they are not located in the same place, just in another layer of the cup. 1 cup of coffee will group at least 1 tree, which will extract 1 ton of C02 over a 40-year span.

This article was written over a year ago, and millions have viewed the video of the inventor. Since this product they have made more biodegradable products. The overall idea was to reduce the waste by an average consumer a day. Hengie, explains the problem and people are willing to pay the extra money to buy a reusable mug for coffee. This product was made by a 23 year old who has seen the damage from not only the convenience of a K Cup, but the long term effects from them.

This is just something so small that has seen the eyes of so many in California and two other states, but can make such an impact on the regular coffee shops today.

 

http://www.planttrash.com/

 

The link I have provided is Alex Henige’s story, you just have to scroll down on the main page to get to it.

Animals Staring as Humans in movies help get the attention of “the big picture”

Last week in our book Communicating Nature, the chapter five reading we were introduced to Television and Films as being one of the most popular form of entertainment in this country. Most American’s view TV programs to reflect environmental issues or values, as our book states. Or children, like myself grow up watching Disney movies without knowing the real meaning of the setting of the movie. For example, our book talks about the movie, FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) really told the tale of the ecosystem.

Children views just see the movie as animals that are not really about humans at all. Essentially the animals play the humans, which makes the movie more entertain-able for children. In this movie it features “fairy people” living in this enchanted rainforest. The story line makes the viewers want to know more about these creatures and their home lives into the plot. The setting and the colors, images and animals look foreign to young viewers and automatically pulls them in. It is something different and new to them. But what really is happening is, that the “humans” are tearing down their homes and uprooting their rainforest for profit.

The movies, is explaining what deforestation is for a child’s view. But I did not notice when I was a child about what was happening on our planet from one of my favorite movies. The two main characters, Crysta and Zak fall in love and vow to save the forest, but it may be too late because of what is happening around them. Deforestation is a metaphor for what is happening in this movie. Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. An estimated 18 million acres of forest, which is roughly the size of the country, Panama, are lost each year to this act.

What I am trying to say is, I did not know that the movie Ferngully, was about deforestation growing up and reading this chapter has opened my eyes to the issue that the director was trying to get across to children and their parents in 1992. Although, it is not a Disney movie it still has the controversial current event happening to tell the story like a Disney movie does.

Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104254/

Open Your Eyes People, get informed

Last week we were told to close our eyes, and to get into a deep meditative state, I felt as if this activity did a lot of “eye opening experiences” for me. I pictured what the majority of the class pictured, a more recent experience of being away from the city and surrounded by trees, hills or mountains. But to go into detail about what I was thinking about is when I visited my family in Corona, California in the summer. My cousin had just purchased a new four door black jeep and we went exploring in his jeep for hours. Bryan, my cousin, had drove away from the city and the over populated town he lives in to a hilly escape. The road had a trail that we just followed for hours and I saw the most beautiful sites that I could not see here in Cincinnati. It felt like a movie honestly. But back to the topic of the blog, I did not think about the future of the planet until our last class meeting. Our children’s children may not be able to experience the outdoors, camping, or any other experience that someone can be one on one with the Earth.

I am one of the people that take this beautiful planet for granite, and I can say that now from this past weeks class. When the definition of ideology was introduced to me I began to think about the things that not only me, but also everyone else does to our planet. Our decisions about recourses are just based on immediate human desires and not the long term effects our desires have on the planet. That’s why I am going to start thinking about the long-term effects that my choices will do on the earth and the ecosystems that also live here. No, I do not dump things into the river or litter plastic but others do and that’s why I believe people should be more informed and why they should listen to people who are into preservationism, another term we learned about in class. These people conserve resources for current an future use and also they see environment as a site of escape, beauty and therapy.

What I am trying to say without going into a huge rant, people should become more informed about our planet and the harm that we are doing to it. From exporting our industries and not making our country the one that’s doing all the damage but notice that everything humans are doing can harm our planet and to be more cautious on our actions because future generations may not be able to have the experiences that we all pictured in last weeks class, they may just picture cities and the over population that is going to happen.

Women Need Information on Family Planning in Developing Countries

 

Setting into context, this article is a story about a woman who visited a hospital in a undeveloped country. “Last month, Stembile Mugore, visited a hospital in Togo, where she met a 24-year-old woman who had just given birth to her fifth child”. She had then learned that the mother’s labor had been difficult and she did not want to become pregnant again in the near future and did not have any idea of how to prevent it. This woman of now five children had never heard of the term, “family planning”. Family planning, is the practice of controlling the number of children in a family and the intervals between their births, particularly by means of artificial contraception of voluntary sterilization.

This woman is not the only woman who does not know about family planning and the options behind it. There are 867 million women living in the developing countries who want to avoid becoming pregnant and 222 million of them have unmet their contraceptive needs. As most of us know, supply chains do not extend to the remote rural areas in these developing countries. It is sad to know here in America, woman have so many choices to help them prevent pregnancies, have the aid to help them go to doctors when they need more information about their bodies. IntraHealth International is an organization that is trying to spread the word of “family planning” to these women in need. Along with the misinformation on what the definition is, on how to use contraception and the lack of having this information is all put to rest in countries that are touched by this organization.

The number one contraception that is being used in third world countries is, what we call in the United States “the shot” but the technical term is the dose of Depo-Provera shot. It is currently being used in 11 countries, and its considered the biggest game changer in developing countries. With this movement woman are understanding that they can prevent an unplanned pregnancy. Family planning is something that needs to be more of a movement in developing countries and they are doing ground breaking work.

“Woman should know that family planning is an human rights issue and we need to have the movement be bigger to bring governments together, bring partners together to raise the issues to the families that are not getting their needs met… How many women that have unlanned pregnancy will die because of that? There should be a movement all over the world”. I found this quote at the end of the source where I found this article. I wish more organization spent the time, money and effort to inform a woman of what she has as options to prevent unplanned pregnancies and to be informed on how to plan a family the safe way.

Sources:

http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/09/26/why-222-million-women-cant-get-the-birth-control-they-need

http://www.who.int/topics/family_planning/en/

How do people survive without health care?

Key Facts About Health Care

As of 2006, most American’s get their health care coverage through their workplace. That is only about 60 percent of American’s, but what about the rest? They are covered through Medicare or Medicaid, that then covers the next 30 percent, so what about the remaining 10? I am sure that people that have health insurance like myself use it for annual physical examinations. The basics are covered, your vitals so like blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature. Next, general appearance so by how much you weigh and you keep yourself together during the appointment. Finally, the lung and heart exam; so if there is an irregular heartbeat, heart murmur or another trigger if there is a heart disease. The lung exam includes listening with the stethoscope if there are any unusual noises and breath sounds that would lead to lung disease. Then if you are a man or women it goes into greater detail.

The reason for health care is prevention. If someone is aware of their health, they will be able to prevent illness and disease. Although, the annual exam most likely wont figure out if something is wrong with someone, but it will help draw the lines if there is something wrong. The doctor is there to detect if there are any signs of something that is wrong within a certain exam and then they will go to a specialist if there is. So what happens to the people who are not insured and have health conditions?

People who do not have health insurance have been going to the emergency rooms to seek help for little aches and pains. For example, a under treated cold. Like bronchitis or an inner ear infection. People are spending hundreds of dollars to get a simple treatment that is well over done. America needs to do something to make sure everyone is getting the coverage they need so people can get proper treatment. The solution that is nationwide is the ACA, the Affordable Car At. It has expanded the coverage for health care for people who cannot afford it. The ACA has helped to lower the number of uninsured Americans, but monitoring coverage changes, coverage affordability, and who is left out of coverage expansions is still important. People who are unsure of the cost of insurance need to make sure they are informed about this and to be more aware of how people who need to be treated can be treated and not let money be an issue anymore.

 

Adding citrus to your drinks, is it worth the taste?

After the first week of the class it made me feel a little uneasy about the life choices that I make for my heath and myself. I am the type of person that likes to drink lot of water because like any other person we think its better for us than pop, caffeine and alcohol. The amount of calories that some drinks have in them can really add up. That is why I chose water versus the rest.

Usually when I am on the go I will cut up a lemon or a cucumber and throw it in my water bottle. But why do people choose to put these items in their drinks? Because it tastes good? Or that we think it keeps our metabolism running? Honestly, I just like the way it tastes but studies are showing that is not healthy for us to add these items to our drinks. Literally everywhere someone goes to get a drink either at a restaurant or a bar they will ask if you want a lemon, lime or orange in your drinks.

The article I found talks about as a consumer we should steer clear of placing a lemon in our waters, an orange in our beers and limes in our Mojitos. Although it will make our drinks taste fresh, the citrus is covered in microbial growth. This study was taken on 21 different drinks at different restaurants. A microbial growth is how fast bacteria is growing (rapidly) and separating to make the growth happen faster. It happens when the temperature reaches a certain high. I could only imagine how it happens in a restaurant if the citrus is not placed in the refrigerator. I have never worked in an food environment setting, I am just being biased.

Although at home, I do clean my citrus before placing it in my refrigerator and keep it in they’re before cutting and placing it into my drinks, I still am going to wash it before adding it to them from now on. As the end of the article states, “You’ve been warned”, but seriously think twice before agreeing to a lemon.

 

You should never ask for a slice of lemon in your drink