Change for the Issue

Change. We are constantly affected by it. Every part of our lives is an aspect of a change in the status quo. Some changes are small and others are shifts that bring the establishment to its knees. Everyone adapts to change differently and it has become evident that if you don’t learn to adept you will be left behind. Its is evident from the wealthiest of world that those who can predict change or adapt quickly will lead the world. Some see change as a source of fear and trepidation others see change as a rallying cry to the masses.  Change .org is the trumpet for many such movements that wish to correct the wrongs of society blanketing causes for the animal rights, to economic justice to human trafficking. It is more than just a website it is the reason the Trayvon Martin case has received such publicity. It is the united voice of the masses who want to see the world have more compassion, be more just and accepting of what it currently shuns.

We live in a mobile world.  People have increasingly instantaneous access to people on the other side of the world. The internet is the new frontier for communication and change. This increased contact and flow of information has created a medium for inspiring change.  Change .org wields this power by creating a platform for the average citizen to create a petition that anyone can sign. These pettions are organized into categories have a lot in common, a reliance on pathos and the fuel of specific fallacies.

The most commonly used rhetoric was pathos. Its quite obvious especially from the titles of the movements. I’m not surprised that it is being used so often because it can be effectively used without a lot of research and development. From the photos to the little backround stories behind the petiton change.org lives off pathos.

 I think that change.org could help me with my cause because it gives me a face and a platform to stand on . it also has a reputation for change . my only fear is that my issue  is that my issue is too local to gain any real momentu  but if anything it is a good pace to start. I would use change.org to start a petition. I think that petitions are very powerful things when enough people sign them.

We use so much paper as a school but don’t actually recycle or give back to the enviorment

There are no bike lanes where I live 

People believe that if you like fashion you must be gay

There isn’t enough accses to affordable  dance  or instruction in the arts.

Synthesis

When the leaders of today either in politics, science, or business are considering policy to effect the environment and address the issue of global warming they should focus on the what is really happening far moa than the cost or the incontinence.  The environment is our home and we have to learn to coexist with it. The road to this will be difficult but it is a cultural shift that needs to be made if we want to survive.

            The first issue to address is the skeptics who believe that these abnormal weather patterns are just some Mother Nature hiccups. This statement is false and more importantly shows the ignorance towards the issues.   Hurricane Katrina wasn’t an anomaly, hurricane Irene wasn’t a miscalculation these were caused by changes in our environment that needs to be addressed and are being politically and economically shot down by special interest.  Is the success of a society measured by its accomplishments or by how much it gives back?  There are something that we are going to have to live with, partially clean dishes, cars, Nuclear waste from failed reactors. These are realities. We cannot escape them in the same way the northeast couldn’t escape from the almost twenty feet of snow. When America and decided not to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 2005 they loss the chance to be a leader in the development of environmental technology and setting the standard for the rest of the world in cutting carbon emissions. Of all countries we should have been the first to sign because we are largest contributors to the issue.  If it is not plain that our way of life needs to change I sons know what is a greater indicator.

            How should we attack this issue? This is one of the most fought over issues when it comes too global warming. Some suggest cutting carbon emissions; some say that we should reforest largely devastated forest. But we need to go farther; Source E argues that the Kyoto protocol doesn’t go far enough in its regulations, and the standards it sets. In this current climate economic, and political it is a good base line for the world to start with before start hacking at the carbon foot Print.  The graph in source b explains that the even with a base line set in 1971 we are increasing that temperature exponentially in a shorter amount of time than ever before. The Usual shift in climate take Hundreds of years but we have raised the temperature almost .3 degrees in under twenty years. Why should we care the world is getting warmer, so what?   Our attention to this issue is not isolated to our present situation but the future. We are on the edge but we still have time to change our habits. Even Business are beginning to see the benefits of joining the green movement as well as the pressure form international agreement to do there part in cutting emissions.

            “In general we need to confront out myth of the economy undercutting the environment.” We as a nation and as a species have found our self between welfare and the environment. But what many politicians and business don’t see is that there is a connection between the two.  The environment effects how we live there is no question about it. Remember the dust bowls of the 1930’s. When the Farmers are no longer able to provide for them selves it is no surprise that the rest of the nation will suffer. 

Drip. Splash! Tidal Waves!!!! Come on, a little water won't hurt you.

Drip. Splash! Tidal Waves!!!!

            Ah water. It is life’s most tranquil and destructive elements. Who would have thought that it would be the source of so much debate? With almost 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water; with only 30 % covered by land. I’m guessing we have a bit of a water situation.  According to Mr. almost president Gore, who I don’t understand why people are still listening  to him, says that due to rising temperatures caused by increased CO₂ the earth is getting warmer and therefor the water temperature is rising.   I just have two issues with this one, what is everybody getting worked up for? This is a good thing warmer water means I can finally swim in the Sound without freezing.  And umm excuse me but don’t we exhale CO_2. Mr. almost president how can you stop people from breathing?  No wonder he wasn’t elected president this guy is trying to kill us with his earth loving Nazi’s, looks like the country is going to the Third Green.

 I know that blue and yellow create green but this is ridiculous. The greens have are taking over everything.  From the deep blue seas to the hazy air we breathe the Third Green are on a warpath with all things American, from what we can drive to how long we can take a shower. Imagine trying to fit a family of 6 into a smart car, even if it was a family of midgets, it still wouldn’t work.  How clean can you really be in a one minute shower? I can tell you from experience it not much. Everyone seems to have their view on this “Global Warming” controversy. For me there is no controversy it either exists or not. Let’s talk logically. The car that I drive in American can’t have an effect on the polar ice caps. They are millions of miles away.  And even if the polar ice caps melted and fell into the ocean, who cares. The penguins are psychotic, and besides they can dance their way out of the issue or even better, ever hear of migrating. Mr. Gore you need to learn to let go  just because you lost the election doesn’t mean we want to live under the Third Green Regime. 

Oh and P.S. I checked the Bible, why are you worried about the rising water levels again, God promised to never to destroy the earth by water again. That’s why we have rainbows dugh.  So relax, go to the beach, enjoy the sun, and that toasty 70 degree sea water near your new beach front property in the middle of Manhattan.

Morbid Irony: A Silent Spring inspired Blog

Morbid Irony: A Silent Spring inspired Blog

            The life we live in is not one that is not as restricted to the bubbles we have created for ourselves. The very actions we take to control nature are as futile as a snowflake against a forest fire.  But, when you have human intelligence and will that snowflake is quite potent and sometimes far more than we ever realized. The constant repeating irony of the human race and creation has become linked unlike no other for we don’t see the dangers of our own creation. The same is true for our relationship with the earth. We constantly create poisons to handle the pest which in turn becomes the very poison that infects from the most innocent of plants to us. Nature wasn’t meant to be fixed.  Creativity and ingenuity are human beings greatest and most abundant resource but in our ignorance it becomes our greatest curse. It’s ironic; our greatest gift destroys our greatest most needed resource… water.

Carson’s chapter entitled Surface Waters and Underground Seas begins a systematic treatment of all the areas of earthly life that are affected by pesticides. She begins here with the water, what she calls our greatest natural resource. In the previous chapters, she endowed her reader with knowledge; the beginning of a silent spring, our own obligation to endure, and the types of chemicals being used and their horrific function. Here, her purpose is to show the widespread use of pesticides and the effects of that use on the environment.   The irony begins with water. It is the most important of our natural resources and even though it covers the earth, its use for people is limited. With most of the water ocean water and unusable you would think that we would do our best to preserve as much of it as possible. But when it comes to  insects all regard is thrown to the poisons and chemicals.  From Pennsylvania, where water from an orchard was found to contain high degrees of insecticides, to cotton fields that were sprayed with insecticides continued to be contaminated even after it was passed through a purifying plant. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The threat to groundwater is the most disturbing of the water pollution problems. "It is not possible to add pesticides to water anywhere without threatening the purity of water everywhere." Nature doesn’t operate in closed and separate compartments. But our suburban life style promotes that lifestyle more than anything else. It’s no surprise that so many people are aware of the threat they pose to the environment and in essence themselves.  But Carson’s tactics to drive her message home is quite ingenious.

Carson skillfully uses a myriad tool to persuade her audience who may be skeptics of the real threats we pose to the environment and ironically us. If the reader doesn’t care about the graceful and beautiful birds that are being killed by the hundreds, she changes in hope that they might care about the fish that she or he takes home to eat after a day of fishing. By describing the path of a chemical from the tiniest microorganism that has been contaminated to the person who eats the fish freshly killed. She brings awakens her reader with words like, “invisible, never detected,  and mysterious” Carson is able to play on peoples fear of the unknown to make the reader aware of what we have been forced to endure for the good of progress.

 She describes the efforts to control agencies to discover the causes of the deaths and mutations, thus making the reader see the difficulties of cleaning up after a mass infusion of poisons into the environment. This is assisted by her statistics which helps her ethos and logos. Interestingly when combined with pathos the staggering facts make her argument very difficult to counter. The most you can say is deny that the bodies of animals are all fallacies.  But this all plays into her subtle idea of irony for we are the engineers of such evils without fully thinking about how it will affect us in the long run.  

FDA: it’s more than just letters or is it?

FDA: it’s more than just letters or is it?

            F is for Food! D is for Drug! A is for Administration! Those three letters are a part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.  They are the regulating force behind many of the items in your either in your kitchen cabinet or medicine cabinet. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision from the eggs, to the granola bar, to your Olay and L’Oreal beauty products.   Travel to FDA.gov and there motto sits. Protecting and Promoting Your Health. But what does the FDA really do? After having read the NYT bestseller Fast Food Nation I am a little worried about this agency that is responsible for regulating the food industry. Is the FDA just another outdated agency created in response to the muckraking book The Jungle by Upton Sinclair? Or does it actually fulfill its purpose and does protect us from the capitalistic food industry.

            Note to self never ask the government for a straight answer. What do I mean? As you scroll through there site you become bombarded with information about recalls, newly approved drugs, and so forth.  In regards to food “some of the agency's specific responsibilities include:”

• labeling
• safety of all food products (except meat and poultry)
• bottled water  

In reality the FDA regulates only some foods and is the truth checker when it comes to labeling for the products that we buy. So who actually has power to regulate the Meat and Poultry industry? The answer according to Schlosser is no one really since these industries have so much power. The meat industry is a “powerful political force, both in the legislative and the regulatory arena, even though the way they wield that power is different from many industries on Capitol Hill.” And though they make very few donations they have learned how to pay the piper that matters most instead of throwing breadcrumbs for the political pigeons. They have become shockingly good at “weakening or preventing many new meat-safety initiatives in recent years.” But it does help when for the last fifty years many of the top members of the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) have been a former member of the Industry.   

We can’t avoid eating. Science has proved that we can survive for a month without food.  But it has become near impossible to escape the bureaucracy that surrounds our food. So what does the FDA actually do? It checks the facts, clear drugs, checks the labels, and makes sure that the American people don’t die from anything other than meat and poultry. But when most of us eat some form of meat it is quite troubling to know that there is no political force that can reign in this capitalistic power house. With the revelation of  pink slime there is far more to worry about what qualifies as food in one of the world’s most powerful country.

Works Cited

FDA. "About FDA." What Does FDA Do? US FDA, 27 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm194877.htm>.

Johnson, Steve. "The Politics of Meat." PBS. PBS. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/politics/>.

"Vegetarianism In America." Vegetarian Times. Web. 28 Mar. 2012. <http://www.vegetariantimes.com/features/archive_of_editorial/667>.

Look, down your plate. Its low in calories, it’s high in nutrients, It’s Super foods!

It is the substance that by which the world spins round. As the number one energy supplier of the world food plays a huge part of our lives. It gives us energy, it nourishes us, and it reminds us of home. Who could ever have imagined a substance that has such a profound effect on us all?  For me and for many people food is just that food.  as a result of the fading holiday season, the beginning of spring time weather, you receive that new spring fashion catalogue, you look down to those areas that are always under inspection, your dissatisfied , what you find is as always, I need to lose some weight.  As you look across the Yahoo News Headlines you find the answer.  Superfoods.

Can it be? The answer to those entire stubborn pounds lie in what we eat.  Superfoods have “high phytonutrient content that may confer health benefits” as well as, “essential nutrients with proven health benefits.” I can bet what you’re thinking right now, “ Why have I been wasting my time and with diets when all I had to do is eat these superfoods?” Well sorry to burst your bubble of weightless ecstasy and movie star body perfection, but if it was so easy wouldn’t we take the super out of Supermodel.  Eating is only a part of the problem. These superfoods are what I like to call healthy powerups for our bodies.  They, “makes a body healthier, helps flush out toxins more frequently.”   But why are we experiencing a new gold rush in  food industry? What is there really to gain?

People are always searching for that balance between nutrition and enjoyment. They find that pristine balance in superfoods. Foodmatters.com lays out the different types of superfood and their properties.

·       Green superfoods have the highest concentrations of easily digestible nutrients, fat burning compounds, vitamins and minerals to protect and heal the body

·       Fruit and nut superfoods are high in anti-oxidants that fight free radicals in the body.

·       Seaweeds are the most nutritionally dense plants on the planet as they have access to all the nutrients in the ocean.

To quote a few.  But it’s quite interesting to see the power that food has over us. We have become so consumed with this image of bodily perfection portrayed by stars that we rifle through ancient texts just to find the answer. But I am here to tell you that this entire ploy has only one goal in mind.  Create a demand in the market for healthier and more nutrient foods to entertain our ever health conscious stomachs.

Works Cited

Clinic-Feature, Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LDWebMD Weight Loss. "List of 10 Super Foods for Your Diet." WebMD. WebMD. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/10-everyday-super-foods>.

"Sizzling New Superfoods - The Celebs Can't Get Enough." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://news.yahoo.com/sizzling-superfoods-celebs-cant-enough-163224034.html>.

"Superfood." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfood>.

"Where to Buy Vancouver Fashions..." Www.vancouversun.com. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. <http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Twelve superfoods 2012/5941407/story.html>.

Barfblog.com: Your one stop for all things food.

“Come on computer. Load for goodness sake!” I think as I wait for the internet to load barfblog.com. First reaction… few, thank goodness I thought I was about to have to take this site in glimpses. For such an amateur name it is a very professional blog. The background is plain complemented by muted shades of brown, orange, and green. I guess they believed that the information was revolting enough.

I scroll through the sight I skim the first post. It is concerning a woman’s diagnosis of listeriosis that could be related to a New Jersey restaurant’s cheese. Talk about sniffing the cheese before you eat.  On the right in headed by brown and highlighted by salmon are the topics. The only thing comes to me in this time of panic. What on earth is this pink slime hysteria? From what I have heard it’s spreading faster than One Direction.

In a recent news story pink slime infest about, “70% of the ground beef we buy at the supermarket.” “Pink slime” is beef trimmings. Once only used in dog food and cooking oil, the trimmings are now sprayed with ammonia so they are safe to eat and added to most ground beef as cheap filler. Great we solved the mystery of the mystery meat. No way can the hairnets and the suits can hide this secret any more. So great we know that they are ripping us off and that we are being fed meat filled with the unwanted pieces. If this is what we are putting into our bodies every time we eat a burger. No wonder they call it junk food.

Bar blog’s writers bring a sense of community, knowledge and ethos in their writing. Many are doctors and college students voicing their opinion on the shadowy world of the American food industry. They shed light on the issues and simplify our plates. Pink slime, food poisoning, restaurant inspections, outbreaks, nothing is off the menu. It’s nice to know that we have a competent and concerned neighbor who I keeping an eye on those nets and suits so the rest of us don’t have to take century.  Thanks Barfblog, let’s keep those suits in line for we can’t give up our own safety and quality of living for a mere few dollars savings.  Our world, our nation, and our stomachs deserve so much better.