INFORMATION LITERACY

I’m back again for this week’s blog post. It's the third blog post for my environmental science class and it is all about information literacy. The directions were to find a news article pertaining to environmental science and sort of analyze how reliable the source is and the information that they are providing. I did a bit of searching and I found an article posted on BBC News’ website that I believe is interesting and relevant to the blog assignment. This article—titled “Sea level fears as Greenland darkens”—discusses the worries that some scientists have had about the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which is about seven times the size of the United Kingdom. These scientists have observed that the melting is in large part due to the growth of algae within the ice sheet, which causes the ice to become darker, and the dark spots of ice cannot reflect as much sunlight, causing these areas to melt more quickly. The melting of the ice sheet is concerning because it will cause sea levels to rise, something that those near the coast should be especially worried about. Because the ice sheet is so large, it can have a major impact on all parts of the world if it melts too quickly. 

Now, moving on to the reliability of the news article; I do believe that the source, for the most part, is a reliable one. The are several reasons that led me to believe this. The article comes from BBC News, which is a very popular news source in the United Kingdom. However, just because BBC is "popular" does not mean they are necessarily reliable. They do seem to be, by popular opinion, one of the less biased news sources that exist, though.  They were also founded in 1922 (according to Wikipedia), which gives them 94 years of experience with broadcasting and reporting news to the general public. This factor, I would say, gives them a lot of credibility as a news source.

The main factor that leads me to believe that this source is reliable is the fact that the author of the article, David Shukman, spoke directly to the scientists involved in the study. For example, one of the first statements made by Shukman in the article is, "They say warmer conditions are encouraging algae to grow and darken the surface." He then supports this statement with a direct quote from a glacial microbiologist, Dr. Joe Cook, someone who is actually on location studying the ice sheet: '"This is an extremely difficult place for anything to live but, as we look around us, all this darkness we can see on the ice surface is living - algae, microbes, living and reproducing in the ice sheet and changing its colour."' So, David Shukman makes several claims in this article, but he is able to support them all through information that he has gathered directly from the scientists who have made these discoveries about the melting ice sheet. 

Shukman is made to seem even more reliable because he actually visited the scientists on location in Greenland as they were conducting the study, giving him a firsthand account of all the information that he provides within his article. He is shown on location in this video: 

Although the video is humorous, it is also informational and it proves that the author, Shukman, was able to actually receive information all about this study directly from the scientists involved with it.

Overall, I was impressed with this article, because it was incredibly informative and the author really seemed to give an unbiased account of the work being done to find out more about the algae growing on the ice sheet. Although I found this article very interesting, I was mostly concerned by the information that I discovered within it. The potential, rapid melting of the ice sheet in Greenland could have a negative impact on many parts of the world, and it is due to warmer climate, most likely caused by climate change. It is extremely concerning, and I hope, through all the research that is done, we will find a way to do something to change the state of things.

Sources:

MAIN ARTICLE: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40686984

BBC Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC

Ice Sheet photo: https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0113/Greenland-s-melting-ice-sheet-a-breakthrough-in-understanding

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8QWEfUzVgA&ab_channel=BBCNews

CHEMICAL HAZARDS &

HUMAN HEALTH

I’m back! And the second topic that needs to be discussed for Wednesday night’s environmental science blog is chemical hazards and their possible effects on human health. One thing that a lot of people do not realize, and that I didn’t even realize myself prior to taking an environmental science class, is that harmful chemicals are everywhere. Something that people are even less aware of is that a lot of the household products that we know and trust contain these harmful chemicals, and could, in turn, be affecting us negatively. Whether these chemicals are found in the products themselves, or in the packaging that they come in, it is important to be knowledgeable about these chemicals and their possible harmful effects on humans. There’s been extensive research on chemicals found in common products, but it is hard to say exactly how extreme the consequences of using these products are. Some chemicals have been found to have relation to cancer or nervous system damage, both of which are incredibly serious side effects. However, as we talked about in last week’s lecture, the products that you find in the store are innocent until proven guilty—meaning, a product is assumed to be safe until something horrible results from using it, and only then will it be removed from the shelves.

There are two common chemicals that I have decided to do a little more research on: BPA and parabens. Bisphenol A (also known as BPA) is a chemical that is found in many items, ranging from water bottles, to DVDs, to artificial teeth. On a BPA fact sheet found on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ website, I discovered that the chemical may have negative effects “on the brain, behavior, and prostate glands of fetuses, infants, and children.” Evidence for these claims have been found in experiments on laboratory animals. 

Another chemical that could be harmful to human health is parabens. I learned about parabens in my previous environmental science class and was surprised to learn of all the products that they could be found in that I use everyday, ranging from lotions to shampoos and conditioners. Some of the negative effects that I discovered on the Scientific American website included disruption in hormone function and links to an increased risk of breast cancer. Evidence for this link to breast cancer is shown in a British study that found traces of parabens “in the breast tumors of 19 out of 20 women studied.” Although this study does not prove that a relationship exists between parabens and breast cancer, it is still good information to know, in order to be aware of how parabens are able to “penetrate skin and remain in breast tissue.”

I use lotion and beauty products just about everyday, so I wanted to find out if anything that I use on a daily basis contains parabens.  I looked up the face lotion that I use everyday and I found that years ago it did contain at least two different parabens, but I was pleasantly surprised to found out that today, the same lotion is no longer made with parabens. However, I rummaged around a little more and discovered that my shaving cream does contain the chemical, methylparaben, which is classified as a paraben. Because of this discovery, I will probably throw the shaving cream away and switch to a new one or none at all. It also works just to use lathered up soap as a shaving cream. I think that as the awareness of the possible dangers of parabens is growing, there are a lot of safer products on the market that are paraben free. And while they used to be more expensive because of this factor, it is now becoming more mainstream to ditch the parabens, which keeps prices generally the same as products that do contain parabens. I did find that there are also a ton of homemade shaving cream recipes that are easy and I’m looking forward to trying them out!

sources:

shaving cream recipes: https://wellnessmama.com/2628/shaving-soap-recipes/

water bottle picture: https://www.quora.com/Why-should-we-not-drink-water-in-plastic-bottle

parabens picture: http://yaletownnaturopathic.com/blog/

BPA fact sheet: https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/bisphenol_a_bpa_508.pdf

parabens:https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/should-people-be-concerned-about-parabens-in-beauty-products/

other sources:

lecture: http://faculty.rcc.edu/huff/Fall%202017/Eviromental%20Science/Powerpoints/Lecture_2_Sci_Literacy_and_Process_Info_Literacy.pdf

book: Environmental Science for a Changing World by Susan Karr, Jeneen Interlandi, Anne Houtman

BIOGRAPHY & ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Hi! My name is Chloe, and this is our first blog post that we are meant to do for our Wednesday night Environmental Science class, which is required to start with a biography of ourselves. So, where do I begin? Well, I guess I can start with the basics. I was born in Riverside, raised in Moreno Valley and Corona, and I am now living in Riverside again, just about ten minutes down the road from RCC. This is my first semester at RCC, but I have previously taken classes at the Norco campus, and even before that at San Diego State University. When I first started at university, I planned to pursue a film degree, and become a successful director. However, I quickly changed my mind and decided that I wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps and become an elementary school teacher. I really did enjoy being a liberal studies major and learning about what it takes to become a teacher, but I have changed my mind again, and I’m hoping environmental science is the true major for me.

As for personal information, I am passionate about a ton of topics and activities. I have always loved movies and music since high school. Going to the movies and concerts are two of my favorite hobbies. One of my favorite movies is the 1997 Romeo + Juliet starring Leonardo Dicaprio (I went through an intense Leo phase in high school).  My favorite musicians—at the moment—are Radiohead and Björk, both of whom I had a chance to see in concert this year. I also love to read, watch television shows, go to Disneyland, go to the beach, swim, bike, and draw. I have five dogs: two beagles, two yorkies, and one chiweenie. Although I love music, I do not really play any musical instruments well, but it is my dream to play the harp perfectly someday.

I am mostly taking this class, because I have always had an interest in the environment and sustainability, and I want to explore it further in order to see if it is something I could have an enjoyable career in. I took AP environmental science in high school, and I really enjoyed it and became passionate about it, as challenging as it was for me at times. I also took a botany class last semester, which had some topics on the environment as well. I’m very excited to take this class, and I’m hoping I will finally be able to decide on a major in environmental science.

MY FOOTPRINT:

The second part of this blog requires us to calculate our ecological footprint on footprintcalculator.org. I answered all the questions on the website to the best of my ability, and I was surprised to find that if everyone lived like me, we would need four planet earths to supply enough resources. That’s three too many! 

When I viewed the detailed bar graph after receiving my results, I found that the aspect of my life that accounts for the largest part of my footprint is food. I tend to eat meat everyday, sometimes in both my lunch and dinner, which I know plays a huge role in depleting grazing land and fishing grounds. As I viewed the different solutions that were suggested to me by the website, I thought one of the best suggestions was to try to be a smarter shopper and maybe even try a vegetarian option once a month or once a week. I thought this option sounded easy and especially good for me since the largest part of my footprint is due to my meat intake. Eating vegetarian options does not require as many resources as eating animal products. I hope to start trying this solution out as soon as possible in order to decrease my footprint for good!

gif source: http://coderavana.me/aboutme.html

footprint picture source: http://www.smart-development.org/news/2017/5/18/5-worst-and-best-countries-for-the-environment-ranked-by-ecological-footprint

ecological footprint website: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/calculator