I will be addressing how Jeff Wilson took on an extreme project to enlighten people about what it without a doubt means to live deliberately. I will be explaining how Jeff Wilson took on this intense project that also had an environmental educational aspect to it as well. Another point of view on this outlandish project is that it progressively alters a dumpster in to something way more than a person would ever expect.
Carson’s next argument is that the volume of new chemicals coming on the market each year, the universal use of these chemicals on farms, gardens, forests, and homes, and the lack of information on the short or long-term effect of these
This book was focused on the concern of pesticides that industries, along with us as individuals, have been dumping (both knowingly and unknowingly) into water. Carson was concerned that the chemicals which the farmers spread on their fields, and even the chemicals we use in our homes (among others), in the end, might come back around and harm us. The beginning of the book tells a story of a place, that was once so beautiful, turned dead and ugly due to a “strange blight that crept over the area” and destroyed everything. Later in the book, she goes on to explain that chemicals, particularly one known as DDT, are the major cause of environmental damage and the near extinction of
“Waste” is a short essay in which Wendell Berry critically analyzes the growing epidemic of trash that is polluting the nation’s land, waterways, and the air. Berry explains to the readers how the remnants of floods and litter that leave farmlands scattered with trash, makes more work for the farmers who have to rid their land of the trash before they can use it. Along with the floods, roads and highways also lead to a barrage of garbage from people who are too lazy or ignorant to take proper care of their garbage, which Berry claims leads to “. . . a constant precipitation of cans, bottles, the plastic-ware containers of fast food joints, soiled plastic diapers, and sometimes whole bags of garbage,” (Waste 1) along the edges of their fields. The garbage of the country continues to be a burden for everyone, whether it impacts them directly or not. Although it would be impossible to eliminate garbage completely from the country, the waste could be greatly reduced. Most of today’s trash is a consequence of the laziness of American society.
One of the environmental groups in the area, No Waste Louisiana, partners with local businesses and organizations to coordinate actions to minimize the environmental impacts in the region. No Waste Louisiana representative Catherine Schoeffler Comeaux writes, "Cleaning up the mostly plastic litter on our Gulf Coast and in our bayous will not be accomplished by a few do-gooders picking up trash. Recycling will not take care of the excessive and egregious amount of single use disposable plastics produced worldwide every day. No matter how much you pick up, no matter how many litter bugs you reform, no matter what you recycle — unless we reduce our waste on the front end as individuals while demanding changes in industry, we will continue to see our landscape, our food chain, our very genetic code contaminated.” Here, the representative identifies the high amounts of waste found in the area. While the representative recognizes that recycling, on its own, will not solve the problem, recycling is part of the solution.
Eighner wants to confront his audience about how wasteful we actually are. The three main ideas; what is safe to eat, scavengers vs. scroungers, and the stories told by items, all tie into Eighner’s overall theme of trying to open everyone’s eyes to how wasteful we are. Many people do not realize what they are actually throwing away because most of us have more than we need. We don’t have room in our fridge so we just throw good items away that are perfectly good. We also throw away more than just good food. Many people in America throw away practically brand new clothes instead of taking the time to go donate them at a shelter. Even I as a college student do this. You need more room so it just easier to toss it into the trash. Although it may help someone who
To address the issue of unregulated fertilizer pollution in water supplies, Glennon quantitatively analyzes the amount of fertilizer that is used in the United States: “According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agricultural industry annually applies 110 billion pounds of fertilizer to one-eighth of the landmass of the continental United States” (69). With this statistic, Glennon creates opportunities in his piece to include new and compelling evidence that demonstrates the dangers of water pollution and its impacts on the nation. Along with this statistic concerning fertilizers, Glennon further expands his claim to describe the issue of runoff from other chemicals, such as perchlorate, in water supplies: “…the contamination plume from the Kerr-McGee plant contains 20 million pounds of perchlorate dissolved in more than 9 billion gallons of water” (69). By including the words “million” and “billion” in his data about chemical runoff, Glennon intimidates the reader into believing that these contamination issues affect populations on an enormous scale. He also frequently uses authoritative figures to strengthen his claim: “[A 2004 EPA report] alarmingly predicted that as many as 355,000 hazardous waste sites would require cleanup over the next thirty years, costing $250 billion” (75). Glennon attempts to alarm the reader and expose the detrimental costs of water pollution and its widespread consequences. However, while Glennon usually cites his evidence, he also includes information from unknown sources, which causes the reader to question the validity of some of his claims. In one argument concerning TCE, another industrial chemical, Glennon declares the dangers of the chemical without
The book begins at the source of the original problem; Boston Harbor having raw sewage dumped into it causing it to be “the dirtiest harbor in America” or as it was called “The Harbor of Shame”. Therefore, came a solution the second largest state of the art sewage plant would be built so the treated remains would go through the 9.8-mile tunnel under the sea floor and be discharged out into Massachusetts Bay. Well, as the book explains in great detail it was not that simple neither was the content of the book. As I explained above, it starts with the contaminated Boston Harbor and with an astounding
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin explores the history of one town’s struggle and analyzed the epidemiology in Toms River, New Jersey. The drama and conflicts between public health, large chemical companies, and actors in this book present real scenarios that occurs in an environmental dilemma. Toxic chemicals, acid-laced wastewater, and private dumping grounds that impacted the community’s health is essential to acknowledge for improvements of waste management and prevention. Indeed, Toms River becomes a lesson for future studies and relevant to the study of environmental
When food waste rots, the waste attracts rodents which soon poses as a health hazard. It then releases methane which converts to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. With urban farms, landfills could be reduced by turning food waste into soil and energy. Allen did this by, going to local stores and made deals to instruct the employees to dump their produce and trimmings in buckets he provided and would pick up a few days a week to prevent it from going to landfills. To look at the big picture, if more urban businesses cooperate, all of their food waste could be turned into soil rather than rot and contribute to global warming.
“In Waste Not, Want Not” author Bill McKibben, makes several arguments about how wasteful Americans are. Throughout the essay McKibben provides facts that show the degree of how much waste is built up daily. The author emphasizes waste throughout the essay by giving the reader an idea of much plastic, aluminum, paper, lithium, and food are wasted daily. If humans do not come together to help reduce the amount of waste, eventually planet earth will not be able to provide a stable environment to sustain life. Life as we know it is slowly coming closer and closer to the end, and without a joint effort to protect the environment and limit waste the end of life will come sooner than expected.
Most human waste in the United States flows down the pipes to a facility such as DC Water's Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world. Blue Plains receives an average of 370 million gallons of urine. This includes what washes down the kitchen drain, fills up washing machines, and flushes down toilets.
In 1854 the city London was the most populated in the world. In just ninety square miles there was over two million currently living there. During this time period having so many people in such a tight place was unknown. With the constant population growth it caused a number of problems. The main problem that was faced was the mass amount of waste and where to put it. Families used water closets, but even with the water closets their waste was emptied into cesspools. It wasn’t uncommon for these cesspools to over fill often, even with night- soil men continuously emptying them. The streets of London were fifthly. With the constant mass amounts of waste the London government came to a decision to dump of the
In the essay the author, William F. Baxter, held the view that environmental issues should be human-centered and cost beneficial. In other words, his observations are that our effect on the environment is irrelevant except as it affects human interest. He also feels that we have no obligation to respect the balance of nature because no natural state of nature exists. Baxter 's main goal was to have an "optimal state of pollution" which means an amount of pollution that yields the highest amount of human satisfaction. Baxter used the example of the use of DDT hurting the penguin population. His thoughts were that we, as a human race did not halt the use of DDT for the penguin 's sake but rather for our own enjoyment. People like watching penguins "walk about on rocks" and to see them is more important than using DDT. Baxter 's observations of environmental problems are people oriented, he has no interest in saving penguins for their own sake. Although Baxter stated that when people act as if each person represents one unit of importance is undeniably selfish, it is the only starting place for analysis. He felt that this is the way we really think, or "correspond to reality." One example he used was that we as humans are surrogates for plant and animal life. The point being that clean air is important to humans for their own sake, yet the penguins and pine trees will benefit from this desire. Another example Baxter used in substantiating his position was that if one person is
Tom Szaky is an entrepreneur, known for starting TerraCycle, a company that makes consumer products out of waste. Although the environment and the venture itself changed a lot throughout the development, Szaky always remained true to himself. He believed that a waste management business could make a profit and promote environmental protection at the same time. However, gut instincts and being in the right place at the right time was also an important issue for the former success - commencing with the idea for the startup business when he visited his friends and discovered the fertilizer which they had developed. Shortage