Wednesday, May 4, 2011

China's Energy QQC

Quote:
"Renewable energy is positioned strategically in China's energy structure and is one of the most important instruments for boosting energy security and tackling climate change."

Question:
When will the rest of the world pick up the idea and start using the same things in terms of energy?

Comment:
I think it's a really great thing that China is starting to really heavily rely on energy and environmentally friendly sources of

Sunday, April 10, 2011

An Inconvenient Conversation

My mother and I talked for around 20 minutes, and basically what we covered was how a lot of people are in denial of climate change and why that is. The hardest thing about addressing it would therefore be first acknowledging that it exists and that it isn't going to stop or go away if we ignore it. Something will have to be done about it, or it will continue to get worse. It may not even be 'global warming' that seems to be so controversial everywhere, the type of deal where people are imagining a picture of the earth being put in a microwave and left to warm. The climate is changing, be it warm, cool, or both and more.
Certain things that go on make this inevitable. Cutting down forests means less oxygen and greater wind strengths around the world, along with sands being able to move it and turn the land into more desert.
One of the things that was in most people's minds about the earth and how it's being treated is something along the lines of; I'm only one small person, and the world is so huge, how can I even have an impact, be it negative or positive? The same feelings are put towards what people feel they can do about the climate change and how to potentially reverse negative effects of it.
One of the points I brought up was kind of an analogy about how when someone wants to get a pet, all of their friends and family warn them to get a plant first and keep it alive for a year. Then move up to a fish, and from there maybe a cat, then a dog, and slowly work their way up to harder pets to care for. The way it worked for us as humans is, we got the earth, and we skipped all the other steps that prepared us for taking care of such responsibilities. Now that we've begun to realize this, we have to figure out a way to reverse some of the harm we've done, and turn it around to where we start taking better care of the earth instead of just using it for our needs and then moving on.
My mother feels that just in small cases where people have started growing their own gardens at home or with a community it's making a huge difference. Even by people coming to small realizations that something needs to be done, and taking enough charge of their own situations to start a garden, they're starting with that first step of taking a plant and working their way up to greater responsibility.
The second people realize that they don't have to take on the challenge of fixing everything that's going on in the world, things will start to change, and even if it's just recycling one little bottle cap that you happened to find laying on the ground, hey, it's a start.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Living in a day before 1983

Having a day where I was restricted from using any electronics wasn't really that difficult for me. I've been camping before where I'll be gone for 7-12 days or so and there's really no electricity where we're camping, so I can't use a cell phone, or iPod, or what not. The day I did choose to go without electronics was the second day into our One World Week, which was the Saturday the 19th.
We woke up early in the morning, ate breakfast, and set out biking, so there wasn't much to do in the way of electronics anyway. We would take little breaks throughout the day and so on, but it was easy not to take my phone out. That was also the day it was raining really badly I think, so we were pretty much all drenched and just wanting to get to our destination. None of us really fancied sleeping in our wet tents again, but it was better than catching hypothermia in the rain. We slept in our tents again that night, so we all just went to bed early. There was no real time to call anyone on my phone, so I had a relatively easy day in terms of going without electronics.
Of course, on top of all that, when I went to pull out my phone the next day and call my friend to wish her a happy birthday, my phone, I found out, had been waterlogged. Which made it completely useless for the rest of the trip. I couldn't even get the numbers I needed out of the phone, so I had to dance around from number to number until I could find the right one.
So overall it wasn't very hard to go without, just like any other day camping.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

What San Diego Eats; Very rough draft/research

Many things have groan in size over the years; cars and trucks, buildings, grocery stores, etc. Portion size is one of the things that gets easily overlooked, even though it's managed to grow by two to three times what it should really be.
In order to stop this 'super sizing' that is going on with us and translating into extra pounds on us, we need to realize how our portion size has changed over time.
If I were to ask someone to tell me what a food chart looks like, what would they tell me? If I were you ask you, what would YOU tell me? Would pasta be somewhere in the middle, meat near the top, fruits and vegetables somewhere in there? If I were to ask you how much food is recommended as an average daily meal, what would you say?
Someone who goes into a restaurant, orders their dinner plate, finishes it, and then leaves, has just eaten two to three times more food than they should have.
People eat because there is food there, not listening to their body when it's had enough. If it is placed in front of us, we'll most likely finish it.
One of the things we have a hard time realizing is that a single portion size can contain multiple servings. Even restaurants do this, and it's hard to notice because the plate your food comes on is so large, that it doesn't look like it's THAT much food. On average, cup both of your hands together and look at how much fruit/meat/pasta you could hold in there; that is your average portion size.
On average, coffe over the last 20 years has gone up in calories by almost an astounding 300. and it's size has only doubled. Where it was one an 8 ounce 45 calorie sized coffee, it is now a 16 ounce 330 calorie drink. Even bagels have gone from 3" diameters to 5-6" diameters, which adds another 210 calories to it. The same goes for pizza, burgers, and pretty much everything else.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Blue Gold: World Water Wars, film commentary

As is the case with many documentaries, Blue Gold brings to light many hard to hear but prominent facts about the worlds water sources. It helps explain the cycle of water, or at least, how it's supposed to cycle around. And it delves into why the cycle is being disrupted, and how, and why it needs to be reversed.
One of the parts that struck me about it all is that we're pumping so much more groundwater then is being put back in, so the cycle is stopping, and draining some lakes and rivers until they're pushed to desertification. We've managed to cover most of the ground with cement, which successfully prevents water from soaking into the soil, and we've rerouted water with the use of dams to suit our needs. But is that necessarily a good thing? By doing all of this, our water supply is now dwindling, and some people in further out countries are even dying of dehydration, which is something that's hard to imagine.
Personally I feel that Blue Gold spent a lot of it's time going over the problem, and why it's a problem, and just generally making everything out as bad, and wrong, and why that is, rather then spending a larger portion of its time saying what we COULD do. Sure, at the end there was about five or ten minutes where it talked about how there was some research going on, and a few good things that were starting to happen, but really, the film only served to depress me more about how humans are destroying our planet. I feel like these documentaries need more time talking about the good things, and talking about uplifting things that are being done around the world.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

What San Diego Eats

What is Slow Food and why is it beneficial?

Works Cited

Unknown. "Slow Food Is Good, Clean and Fair : Slow Food USA." Welcome! : Slow Food USA. Spring 2006. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/slow_food/good_clean_fair/.
Slow food is basically the opposite of fast food. The principles that slow food are based off of are that it's all natural, grown and raised, and prepared naturally. It's based off of having food for everyone, at an available and affordable price for even lower class families, or people who are struggling.
Slow Food is a great thing that's suddenly started taking hold more. Not only is it better for people and their health, but it's better for the environment because it's naturally grown, no toxic waste from anything and so on.



How drastically has portion size changed and why is it such an issue?

Works Cited

Unknown. "Portion Sizes Grow with Waistlines - Health - Diet and Nutrition - Msnbc.com." Breaking News, Weather, Business, Health, Entertainment, Sports, Politics, Travel, Science, Technology, Local, US & World News - Msnbc.com. 6 Dec. 2006. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
Portion size is one of the big problems that people are facing in terms of their weight gain/loss. This article talks about studies done with groups of students on whether or not they can judge, just by eying it, how much the average 'healthy' food portion is.
The conclusion is basically that it's hard to tell, and coupled with the fact that plates are larger now, and bowls are deeper, it's almost impossible to tell. Along with that, people aren't listening to their bodies as much as they should be, listening to when they're full.
I really agree with everything this article had to say for the most part. Especially about the parts where it brought up ignoring your body because there's still food on that plate to be eaten. And about how plates and bowls are bigger, so it's harder to gauge portion sizes.



Navy Medical Center San Diego. "Portion Distortion-Serving Sizes Are Growing." Navy Medicine. Spring 2003. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
This article shows a comparison between what portion sizes were like during the 50's and how much they've changed over the course of a little over 50 years. It talks about how restaurants have changed their portion sizes and so on, and then shows a chart which clearly shows portion sizes going up by 2-8X bigger then they used to be.
I think it's really great that they've shown the chart, it really puts it into comparison well.

Diabeasity QQC

"One of my patients, 16-year old Max who weighed close to 300 pounds, told me that he drank a 6 pack of sweetened soda every day."

He's on the football team, and he's at school from early in the morning to late in the evening. How he even has time to drink that many sodas is beyond me. He says later on in the article that he drinks them before classes and then later one at home, and that he didn't buy water because they didn't sell it at school. The fountain water is brownish, and not appealing, so he went with 6 sodas every day instead.
The article is talking about how it's inconvenient for families on the go/who have busy schedules to take the time to prepare a good meal, or something healthy. But really, in the long term side of things, I think that should be a priority. Sure, you may have a busy schedule, and every once in a while you may not be able to prepare a lunch from home or buy something healthy, but think of how unhealthy that is for your body in the long run.
On top of that, buying water in bulk and just taking two or three to school every day might actually save money. It would certainly save on medical and dental costs in the long run.