It's Not Easy Being Green

The foundation of The United States government and our way of living is driven and motivated by the basic ideals of a capitalist society. This mentality and way of life has made our very young country very wealthly indeed, along with many of its society members. According to www.dictionary.com, by definition, capitalism refers to: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. In other words, business is business, and money makes the world go round. Given the ongoing and current concerns of the environment, is it even feasible for our businesses to go 'green' while maintaining a profit?

One theory suggests that continuous growth can be environmentally compatible if clean and efficient technologies are adopted, and if economies abandon production of material goods and focus on services. This is known as sustainable prosperity. Sounds pretty good, right? There's only one major concern: the cost it would take for businesses to adopt and comply might be inconcievable for many of them-literally putting them out of business. Most of American businesses are smaller, privately owned and operated; and the affordability factor to go 'green' is the major issue. In addition, in an effort to raise the capital needed to adopt the newer, more efficient technologies, layoffs would be inevitable.

It's so easy to point your finger at these companies and demand they be environmentally friendly; but if it meant losing your job, would you still be pointing? Bottom line: it's not easy going green in a capitalist society.

Global Warming

Poverty

I recently traveled out of the country and noticed that there are places in which the cost of living is much higher than here. Everything was more expensive than here in the United States and people get paid about five dollars a day! What would we do with that amount of money? I remembered reading more incredible facts such as how 50% of the world lives on less than two dollars a day. Searching for more facts I came to realize that here we spend a lot of money on cosmetics (about $8 billion), pet food ($17 billion), and of course the one thing many people hate: war (an incredible $780 billion). Why doesn't that money get used for better purposes, such as a better lifestyle for all people that need it? It is interesting to note that the richest 20% of the people account for more than three quarters of the world's income...why not close that gap between the rich and the poor? We should take into consideration our friends and family members in other parts of the worlds and if we can give them a hand because we do not know if they might be in a tighter squeeze than we are. Sometimes all they need is someone to talk to. Also remember what goes around comes around, so if you help someone out today, someday unexpected you might get helped back. So that's how you will be putting in your grain of sand to help fight poverty.
To read about some more fascinating facts about poverty today look at

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp

Global Warming and the Polar Bears

Due to the growing concern of global warming and its effects on the polar ice caps, environmentalists have become more and more concerned about the Polar Bear population. According to the Los Angeles Times, “listing polar bears as “threatened” with extinction could trigger limits on development in oil and gas exploration in and around Alaska.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska states that the Polar Bear evolved from the common Brown Bears of the lower United States and is suited to live on the polar ice fields. With global warming melting away the bear’s natural habitat it is causing a reduction in the population due to their inability to get to their food source. According to the film “An Inconvenient Truth,” the melting polar ice will not only endanger the home of the Polar Bear, but will also endanger our home due to the raising ocean levels. The U.S. Geological Survey forecasts a “future reduction of sea ice in the arctic could result in a loss of 2/3 of the world’s Polar Bear population within 50 years according to a series of studies.”
If we don’t start looking for other ways to run our factories, cars, and our throw away lifestyles, we may be next on the endangered species list.

By Stacey

Prius: Environmentally Friendly? Or...

Aww... the Prius...what would you think if you invested your hard working money into a car that deceivingly paraded around as the ultimate 'green car' only to find that your good moral consciousness has in fact, misguided you into making a rash purchase based on phenomenial marketing techniques that banked on current trends revelling in the political and environmental arena?(Ahh...now you can breath.)

Personally, I wouldn't believe it. Because nobody, especially not a respectable company like Toyota, would promote their product, the Prius, to be the most environmentally friendly of cars, when other research has shown, it does more damage to the enviroment than the world's most hated SUV, the Hummer. How is that possible? And are these allegations valid?

In essence, it comes down to the manufacturing of the nickle based battery the Prius possesses. The nickle, which is mined and smelted in Ontario, has devasted the land so drastically, that life no longer exists for a radius of miles and miles. However, other sources are quick to point out that the land had been previously destroyed over the last 30 years prior to the existence of the nickle plant. But this is just the start of the problems for the nickle based battery. When you take into consideration the battery's travel route, from Ontario to Europe to China to Japan to the U.S., one can't help but to wonder the impact this vast container ship has on the environment. This, in addition to the Prius's costs of an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles, which is the expected lifespan of the Hybrid; the Hummer, with an average cost of a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles, starts to looks a little more appealing.

Maybe by 'Going Green', Toyota was really just shedding some truthful light on their premium priced cars, and not the affects on the environment. But you decide for yourself. Check out these controversial websites that support both sides to the issue.

http://clubs.ccsu.edu/Recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188
http://www.thecarconnection.com/Auto_News/Green_Car_News/Prius_Versus_HUMMER_Exploding_the_Myth.S196.A12220.html
http://www.katu.com/news/7561002.html

Take a Moment

As many may have noticed our posts seem to focus on some of the aspects in which our planet is suffering so its time to try something a little different...Hope you enjoy. Today, we are so busy with our daily life that we sometimes do not see life's beauties. While doing our daily routine, we might be so busy that life might just pass as by. Although we know that everything in this world has its problems everything has something great about it as well, so why not take the time to appreciate it before it is too late. Beauty is all around us just have your camera near by and flash around and you will see it. So why not try it and if you have a great picture and you want to share with someone, share it with us. So the lesson is to take a moment sit back and just enjoy the beautiful views in front of us.

Here's the link to my friend's video showing us more beautiful pictures, hope you enjoy them as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hkKf4jh_f8c )

~Damaris