Manufactured Landscapes

Responses to the film by Ed Burtynsky

Plastic Mass: Bottled Water

Hopefully you are well aware of the alternatives to using disposable bottles and recycle the ones you do use (consume). The advent of bottled water sent our already wasteful consumer culture into pollution overdrive and it’s a tremendous task to put the brakes on the momentum of this waste. Here is a list of plastic bottle facts that put the magnitude of this pollution into scope.

* Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting
* 90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself
* 80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
* 38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda)
* 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
* The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
* Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water
* Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States

Although it can be easy and convenient to pick up bottle beverage products the end cost to the environment is staggering. So be mindful when you drink…and remember, friends don’t let friends drink from disposables!

The Water Cycle

This video is great for grasping a basic understanding of the water cycle and how we, as humans, affect it.

In case the video gets clipped, which I suspect it will, link (here)

Climate Change

Climate change doesn't need to be a political matter, though it seemingly becomes one. Data collected from leading scientific institutions from all over the world points to climate change on planet earth, that has already begun to effect our ecosystems. When you can watch Antarctic ice shelves melt and fall off live on the internet, it makes you wonder what is up for debate. Yes, drastic climate change has happened on this planet before (e.g. in the time of the dinosaurs), but there is no doubt that industry and deforestation has caused CO2 levels to rise in the atmosphere.

What do you think about this? Climate change is something we can't really feel or see (at least right here right now in MI), but that doesn't hold true for others all over the globe.

Check out some climate change stories (here)
On October 24, people around the world are taking a stand for a safer global climate.

People are taking what action they can to help! "Leading global warming author Bill McKibben's 350.org is asking activists who want to highlight the need to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million - the highest level that scientists tell us is safe - to participate in an International Day of Climate Action. All you have to do is make a statement, whether you're at a rally with a digital camera or at home with your friends and a cell phone, incorporating the number '350' in a very visible way," (Whit Jones, PowerShift 2009, University of Michigan).

Check out Bill McKibben's 350.org

Check out these cool and calm NASA scientists explaining some aspects of climate change:

Group Projects

Please use this space to converse about your group projects.

1. Share your idea.

2. Discuss.

3. Communicate to me who is in your group.

4. Search out group members if you do not have one(s).


My Best,
Ashley

All About Water

This posting is all about water, our most precious and dwindling natural resource.

I have commonly heard the argument "I don't see how water is of issue, the water that is on the planet now, is the same amount that has been and will always be on the planet."

True, the water table remains the same. The earth is a closed ecosystem.

The problem arises when we consume water at unsustainable rates, which we have been. Think about it like this: you live in a house with 4 people who all depend on a well for fresh water. The ecosystem is able to replenish the well (via rain and groundwater) to sustain the water needs of these people. If an entire village starts using the same well and it is then depended upon for a large scale farming operation, the well will be depleted before it can naturally be replenished. Now apply this same scenario on a global scale. Now add in the rise of the middle class on a global scale, population growth, industrial agricultural methods, and global climate change (rising CO2 levels and hotter temperatures)... Houston, we have a problem.

Nearly 1 billion people lack access to safe water, and experts expect this number to rise within this century.

Less than 1% of the worlds fresh water is readily accessible for direct human use (World Health Organization, 2008).

We need to be (re)thinking about how we use water now.

GET SOME FACTS (HERE)

Video about water contamination, NY TIMES (HERE)

Beautiful photos about world water, TIME (HERE)

About Geo-Engineering, BBC News (HERE)

Bag the Bag!

Americans throw away one hundred billion polyethlene bags a year: They choke thousands of marine animals annually; the inks used to print all those smiley faces break down in landfills and create a toxic seep. Though plastic bags take up less than 4% of all landfill space (they're easily compressed), estimates on how long they take to decompose range from a hundred years to a thousand.

Clean up in aisle A2...

-From onearth. "It's Not My Bag, Baby!" by L.J. Williamson.

Treehugger: "Ban or No Ban: The Debate over Plastic Bags in LA" by Jeremy Elton Jacquot

World Is Green: "...Is there an Alternate Solution?" (Green Economics)