Environmental Health

GARBAGE ISLAND:
     In this video a man who traveled from Hawaii to California via boat reported seeing tons and tons of trash in the ocean on his way back. He said the amount of trash seen would be double the size of Texas. There was tons of broken plastic and other identifiable objects. He stated that plastic does not biodegrade, but photodegrades. This means that the sun breaks down the plastic into smaller pieces, but the plastic always stays plastic. It never fully degrades. He stated the the plastic to plankton ratio was 6-1! Ocean life ingests these bits of plastic and debris and eventually we end up ingesting it by eating food from the sea. All this garbage and debris is said to possibly affect our reproductive system and even increase our risk of diabetes and other diseases.

POPULATION GROWTH:
    The main idea of this video comes from a quote by Sir David Attenborough stated in the video which says, "Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, maybe we should control the population to ensure the survival of our environment." The video talks about how quickly our world population is increasing and how fast it will continue to grow in the coming years. If it continues to grow at this rapid rate and we continue to thrash our environment we will suffer great consequences. The video offers 3 suggestions to help control the population and to help the environment. First, we should reduce consumption and sustainable solutions. Second, we should make family planning tools such as contraceptives universally available. Lastly, we should empower women and educate them on health care and birth control.

BOTTLED H2O:
     The negative effects on the environment that bottled water consumption has are real. It's interesting to point out that in blind taste test, tap water is preferred over bottled water. Although we blindly prefer water from the tap, bottled water companies have manufactured demand of buying water in bottles. They tell us we need it, that water from the tap is unsafe to drink, which in most cases is actually false. They seduce us with nice designs of bottles and mislead us with skewed facts of bottled water versus tap water. All our plastic water bottles are piling up in landfills and not being recycled. We should say no to buying bottled water and invest in public water infrastructure. 

THE GIRL WHO SILENCED THE WORLD FOR 5 MIN:
      This is a pretty powerful video of a young teenage girl who is speaking in front of the leaders of the world in fight for her generations future. She is boldly telling them that if they don't stop their ways there will be none of the Earth's beauty for future generations to enjoy. She said that they need to do more in the way of action and less in speaking. Their actions need to match their words. A powerful statement was that if you don't know how to fix something, don't destroy it. We don't know how to bring back extinct species, so we shouldn't kill endangered ones. I think this video is good for all to watch because we all could be doing a little more to ensure the environment's safety.

AMAZON DEFORESTATION:
       Amazon deforestation contributes 20% of greenhouse gases. This is more than all the transportation methods put together. The most common reason for deforestation these days is plantations to supply cheap feed for major companies' livestock. Chain restaurants and other major food companies want as much product as possible for the least cost. All this selfish demand, is majorly contributing to the health of the environment.

SAVING VALENTINA:
       While boating in the Sea of Cortez a couple comes across a humpback whale. They watch as the whale stays still for several minutes. One of the boaters decides to jump in the water with his snorkel gear to assess the situation and he finds that the whale is tangled in a large fishing net used by local fisherman. Careless acts such as littering or misuse of equipment are negatively affecting the ocean and its wildlife.

CANARY IS DEAD:
      In an intense coral reef study, findings show that two-thirds of the Earth's coral reefs are at serious risk of disappearing. One quarter of the Earth's coral reefs have already disappeared. In this study, the Phoenix reefs proved to be some of the most pristine coral reefs. Just a short 5 years later however, the Phoenix reefs are all dead. Some of the causes of coral reef decay are the killing of ocean wildlife, pollution and over heating. Major overheating of ocean waters in the region of the Phoenix reefs was shown between August 2002- March 2003.

GLOBAL WARMING:
       Over the past 2.5 million years the Earth's temperature has fluctuated. Over the last century however, the temperature has risen greatly. Human activity has caused a 1.2-1.4 F increase in temperature over the last 100 years. Greenhouse gases trap heat near the Earth in what is known as the greenhouse effect. As the temperatures continue to rise, we will see a decrease of polar ice and weather changes that will affect environmental health.

Additional Sources for Bottled Water:
http://www.saynotobottledwater.in/index.php?id=1
http://pacinst.org/publication/bottled-water-and-energy-a-fact-sheet/