EARTH HOUR

Starting in New Zealand's remote Islands, thousands of cities, towns, and landmarks around the world will start to go dark for Earth Hour on Saturday evening. Up to a billion people worldwide were expected to participate in this global voluntary blackout by switching off their lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time. The movement, sponsored by the conservation nonprofit WWF, is designed as a symbolic gesture in support of action against global warming. Now in its third year, Earth Hour has been attracting some high-profile advocates. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently pledged his support for Earth Hour, saying it has the potential to be "the largest demonstration of public concern about climate change ever attempted." Secretary-General Ban urged people to participate as a way of letting politicians know that they expect progress at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, when world leaders will meet to draft a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol. Other big names endorsing Earth Hour 2009 include actors Edward Norton and Cate Blanchett, musicians Alanis Morissette and Big Kenny, and the band Coldplay.

R0B0TiC FiSH

Robot fish developed by British scientists are to be released into the sea off north Spain to detect pollution. If next year's trial of the first five robotic fish in the northern Spanish port of Gijon is successful, the team hopes they will be used in rivers, lakes and seas across the world. The carp-shaped robots, costing 20,000 pounds apiece, act just lke the movement of real fish and are equipped with chemical sensors to sniff out potentially hazardous pollutants, such as leaks from vessels or underwater pipelines. They will transmit the information back to shore using Wi-Fi technology. Unlike earlier robotic fish, which needed remote controls, they will be able to navigate independently without any human interaction. Rory Doyle, senior research scientist at engineering company BMT Group, which developed the robot fish with researchers at Essex University, said there were good reasons for making a fish shaped robot, rather than a mini-submarine."In using robotic fish we are building on a design created by hundreds of millions of years' worth of evolution which is incredibly energy efficient," he said. "This efficiency is something we need to ensure that our pollution detection sensors can navigate in the underwater environment for hours on end." The robot fish will be 1.5 meters long roughly the size of a seal.

PUBLiC WORKS

While I been at the Aquarium I haven't really did anything that had to deal with my project. It was fun going seeing all the different animals and the feeding tanks but, as far as the environmental side to it all I wasn't really getting that. So, I decided to be proactive and change my sponsor to help me out a bit. Mr. Robert Lodovici is head of the Public Works and does a lot with recycling and managing waste here in Lindenwold. I thought that would be even better because Public Works is right there behind the school and is it directly related to my studies. Also, while in class I was discussing my trash sculpture with Mr. Abrams. We decided to have the sculpture planted here in school instead of having dragged all the way to Philadelphia. We also, decided to have to used as a learning tool with facts and information about recycling and global warming itself. I want people every year like the environmental classes here at school to add on something to every year. I want it to be MOVEMENT! I can't wait to start and make a difference.

ENViRONMENTAL RACiSM

In March of 1963 Martin Luther King’s famous march on Washington to protest the

government’s failure to safeguard the civil rights and physical safety of civil rights workers and blacks took place. This is considered one of the most important events in the fight on racism in the past 50 years. The march did make specific demands with some being the end of segregation of public schools, meaningful civil rights legislation and a $2 minimum wage. Racism has changed over the years but it still exists. In the years following 9/11 people of Middle Eastern heritage were targets and even now we have people who are still experiencing racism. Is the type of racisms you are exposed to based on the color of your skin, sexual preference, political beliefs or by just where you live.Environmental Racism is defined as the intentional or unintentional racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, the intentional or unintentional targeting of minority communities for the siting of polluting industries, or the exclusion of minority groups from public and private boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies. In the United States researchers have been investigating why minorities are more likely to live in areas where there is more pollution than Caucasians. It has been suggested that the segregation practices of the past have contributed. Even affluent minority communities are more likely to be in high pollution areas than similarly affluent Caucasian communities. From 1987 to 1992 researcher James T. Hamilton studied American Zip Codes for targeted expansion of hazardous waste facilities. He found that the average minority population in the targeted areas was 25% compared to only 18% in the non-targeted areas. Of the more than 9 million people estimated to live within 2 miles of one of the nation’s 413 commercial waste facilities, 5.1 million are people of color and Caucasians only make up 25% of the estimated total.While this study shows a startling reality in the USA, Environmental Racism is not limited to affluent countries. Between 1989 and 1994 it is estimated that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries exported 2,611,677 metric tons of hazardous waste to non-OECD countries. The question of "Why is this happening?" ends with the answer of "Racism and Profit." The large corporations continue with the "Profit before People" mindset. Corporations have become more powerful than nation states and feel that they are not accountable to anyone except their shareholders. Second, around the world people of color pay a far greater and disproportionate price for economic development and industrialism with their health. Is there a solution? Experts point that the solution is Globalization based on a global civil society that puts accountability of moral, legal and environmental issues of the leaders on the people they govern. This means that we should hold the governments accountable. In a democratic society this accountability exists with the ability to remove existing governments from power. Unfortunately, the world is not all democracies. The fact is that humanity still has a long way to grow up and mature. This is exactly what Martin Luther King was hoping for; let us hope that one day we can realize his dream.

GENETiCALLY MODiFiED FOOD

Genetically modified food, also known as GM food or genetically engineered food, entered the food supply in the 1990s. GM foods contain small pieces of foreign DNA from other organisms and often from another species, however SA companies are not required to label foods that use GM ingredients. The foreign DNA in GM foods is engineered into the food in hopes of producing desirable traits like resistance to herbicides and pesticides, or resistance to specific pests. Insect resistant maize, for example, is modified by inserting a bacterium gene that produces toxins and acts as an insecticide. Others have a gene that makes them indestructible when sprayed with certain herbicides. The proGM faction mainly GM seed producers such as Monsanto, Du Pont, Dow, Bayer and Syngenta say GM increases crop yields, reduces farming costs and increases food security for developing countries. Environmental bodies worldwide are strongly against GM food growth, saying that this is a dangerous experiment with health and could have a bad effect on the environment. They say it "violates a natural organism's intrinsic value; that modified genes are being spread through pollination; and that it allows a few giant corporations to control food production worldwide, forcing farmers to buy new, expensive, patented seed from them year after year." Many countries, including most of Europe, most Australian states, Angola, Sudan, Venezuela and Zambia, have declared themselves GM-free zones, refusing to grow GM crops. So strong is the anti-GM lobby in the UK that the industry has abandoned all attempts to get GM seeds approved for growing in that country. South Africa, on the other hand, has adopted the crops wholeheartedly. Since 1997, South Africa has grown GM crops, including maize, soya beans and cotton commercially. The Government does not require GM crops to be separated from non-GM crops during production, processing and distribution, which means there's no way of tracking GM food from farm to plate; if one strain caused adverse effects in humans or animals, it would be virtually impossible to trace the offending variety.

THE 11TH H0UR

Leonardo DiCaprio is a rare phenomenon. He's certainly not the only celebrity trying to raise awareness of environmental issues. But whereas for so many celebrities, charity work is an add-on, an obligatory social tax they feel they must pay to justify public admiration, for DiCaprio it is a thread that runs through everything he does. He's championed some of America's most effective environmental organisations, such as the Natural Resources Defence Council and Global Green and has led calls for the expulsion of oil money from US politics. His new film The llth Hour is a very personal project where the two parts of his life merge. Hot on the heels of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, The llth Hour is very much the sequel and to be amongst the first to view it even before it debuted at Cannes was a privilege. "I expected something impressive. I expected something profound and depressing--a catalogue of human errors and a stark warning, said a viewer of the movie." But the llth Hour takes the debate about the environment to a whole new level. It places the problems we're now mostly aware of in the context of something bigger, describing climate change, oceanic dead zones, soil erosion, the destruction of the world's forests and the spread of disease in the context of system failure. It is shockingly ambitious, and it works.

DROWNiNG OUT

The northeastern U.S. coast is likely to see the world's biggest sea level rise from man-made global warming, a new study predicts. However much the oceans rise by the end of the century, add an extra 8 inches for New York, Boston and other spots along the coast from the mid-Atlantic to New England. That's because of predicted changes in ocean currents, according to a study based on computer models published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience. An extra 8 inches on top of a possible 2 or 3 feet of sea rise globally by 2100 is a big deal, especially when nor'easters and hurricanes hit, experts said."It's not just waterfront homes and wetlands that are at stake here," said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Those kind of rises in sea level when placed on top of the storm surges we see today, put in jeopardy lots of infrastructure, including the New York subway system."For years, scientists have talked about rising sea levels due to global warming - both from warm water expanding and the melt of ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica. Predictions for the average worldwide sea rise keep changing along with the rate of ice melt. Recently, more scientists are saying the situation has worsened so that a 3-foot rise in sea level by 2100 is becoming a common theme.

SATURDAY NiGHT

After being so stressed in school these few past weeks, on saturday I was able to spend some time with my friends. Torrin, Erica, Alona, Ikeedah, Turquois, Thomas, Ciara, and I spent some time together over Ikeedah's house after the play. We sat on the porch outside playing cards and playing around. Even though, it was like 34 degrees outside, it didn't stop us from having a good time. Music was playing, everybody was dancing, and it was the first in a long time we had everyone together like that. We were having so much fun we lost track on time that by the time we decided to leave it was like 4 in the morning! I can't wait for spring break to come because that is when we will really have fun. We plan on having something like that similar again but a bbq too insted of not having anything at all and also maybe going to out somewhere also. There is only 3 months left and I want to enjoy myself as much as possible before graduation comes and we all have to go our seperate ways and we won't be able to spend time like that any more. A lot times we take little moments like that for granted and don't realize how precious they are. I'm trying to enjoy every moment I get with my friends. There is only three months left and it's going bye so fast.

LiFE iS EXPENSiVE!

During 8th period Sam, Nat, and I were talking and Nat was telling us about her blogs and journals and how she talks about money and things about her project. I asked, "Money? Why money?" She then replied saying, "I have been saving up money over the summer and I had $700. Since I have no job and I been using it to pay bills, I now only have $200 left." Sam and I looked at each other and said, "Where did all your money go?" Nat then said, "Just life....life is expensive." I then thought about it and she is so right! Life is really expensive when you think about it. Between phone bills, food, clothing, and etc. it can really add up. I spend about 150 in two weeks and I don't know where it all went. Even though I try to save my money there is always something coming up. With the senior trip coming and prom a week after, I have no time to save money because all my money has to go to events coming up. Once I start college I can't imagine how harder it will get to get a job and find time to study when I will be far away from home. When Nat said that she made me appreciate money a lot more. I am determine to find a way to save my money and still have the things I need. Thanks a lot Natalie!=]

SAVE OUR OCEANS

Yesterday, I went to the Aquarium and I had fun. Yesterday I was learning about aquatic life and how global warming affects it. The coral reefs in Austrailia and New Guiena are in trouble. Because of global warming the waters are getting warmer and the different fish such as stone and cuddling fish, have to go further south to get to colder water. They have to leave their homes behind and it is harder for the corals and algea to stay alive. Coral bleaching due to global warming is the most serious threat to coral reefs. Rising water temperatures heat the coral, breaking down the complex biological system that coral have evolved to survive. In some places, water temperatures are nearing the coral's heat tolerance. Already, 27 percent of the world's reefs have died, and by 2020, temperatures could rise enough to destroy most of the world's remaining coral reefs. Within a ten year span the waters have rised to 4 degree Fahrenheit. Another problem that is becoming big is acidification because it affects how coral reefs and shellfish grow. It is related to the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels which pumps carbon dioxide into the air. Much of this carbon dioxide pollution hangs over the earth in a heat trapping blanket, causing global warming, but some of it is sinking into the ocean, where it dissolves and reacts with water to form carbonic acid. Carbonic acid interferes with the growing of coral, preventing reefs from growing fast enough to keep up with the natural rate of erosion. It also makes coral skeletons more brittle. The combined stress of warming and acidification has many coral reef biologists worried. When coral reefs suffer, the entire community of aquatic life that depends on them for food and shelter suffers. Shellfish are also at direct risk from ocean acidification because carbonic acid reduces the levels of a critical raw material, calcium carbonate they use to grow their shells. Many creatures at the base of the food chain rely on calcium carbonate. Depending on what our future carbon emissions are, in certain regions ocean life could shift dramatically toward the spineless, as one scientist put it, to "the reign of jellyfish." The good news is that the key to preventing the worst outcome is already in works. Slashing global warming pollution. Carbon dioxide is the main global warming polluter. By cutting carbon dioxide emissions from cars and power plants, we can curb global warming as well as the acidification of our oceans. The ocean is filled with all types of amazing fish and mammals. The way the ocean works is that they all rely on each other to survive, its like one big family. I would hate to see our oceans destroyed because of mistakes that us humans are making. We need to put an end to this soon.

UNDER THE SEA 3D

Tomorrow I will be seing an imax 3d film called "Under the Sea."The movie shows the most exotic and isolated undersea locations on Earth such as New Guinea and Southern Austrailia. It shows the most mysterious creatures that roam the ocean floors but it also shows the impact that global warming has on the sea. I am so excitied to see this movie because for one its imax and 3d and that is so incrediable and two this is something I am very interested in. I didn't know that global warming was affecting land and ocean at the same time. My fear is that many animals will die and become extinct because of this rapid change that is happening. One animal that is already affected by this is polar bears. Because the polar ice caps are melting and water levels their homes are being lost. Polar bears can only swim for a short amount of time so they usually drown trying to make to swim where. I feel so bad about it but I can't wait to see it.

MAKiNG LiNDENWOLD HiGH GREEN

I want to challenge Lindenwold High School to see how green we can make our school. I want Lindenwold to become one of the biggest go green schools around. By doing so here are some things I want students and teachers to think about. I want us to have a Waste-Free Wednesday. On Waste-Free Wednesday, this will be one day a week where students and staff will minmize there waste useage that day. For insistance, teachers should try to do all work on the smart board and not give out any papers that would cause trash. At lunch it could be a waste-free lunch by not eating anything that comes in containers such as juice boxes and sandwhich bags and use reusable food containers. Next we should baned all junk food from our lives. We have done that here at school already such was a good step into going green. Junk food is not only bad for your health but also bad for the environment. Teachers should also have green studies in each class. It would be nice to have a little green fact here or there in classes to make students aware of what's going on. Maybe some students would learn something and pay it forward to other places they go. Lastly, a report card should be made to see how much progress our school has made. If the first time around the grades are bad we want to get better and better at what we do until we pass with flying colors! Once I get a hold of this and start this with my school.

NiGHT iN AC

Saturday was so gorgous outside that Miguel, Nia, and I went to Atlantic City. Our plans at first was to go to Philly but the gallery was going to close by the time we got there. We got on the train about 6:30 and the train ride was nice. Even though, it was dark seeing the water and the different buildings was nice. As we were pulling up you could see the bright city lighting up in the sky. Once we got off the train and walked out into the city it looked so pretty out. All the buildings were lighting up and all the outlets were open. We walked into some stores and looked around and tryed things on then we walked to the broad walk. There were so many people on the broad walk especially wrestlers because finals were there. While we were walking around it got a little colder but I still enjoyed the night. We went into this one candy store that was crazy! It had so many different kinds of candys, candys that I never even heard of. I wanted so badly to get some but I forgot about how much my teeth were bothering me. Then we went to the Rain Forest and it wa so much fun. The inside of it actually looked like a forest and it had all animal noises too. After we left there we walked the board walk a couple of times and then we went home.

BROADWAY EXPERIENCE

Yesterday I went to go see Cats at the Merrian Theater in Philadelphia. Cats is ablout Jellicle cats who are all different, it goes through different characters throughout the play. At first I wasn't so excitied about going because I wasn't show if I like the whole broadway thing. When we first got there we took lots of pictures and I saw some of the actors outside before the show. Once we got in there it was packed. So many people were there and I was amazed by that. When the show started it was outstanding. The different cat outfits and make up was done very well. The dancing and singing was my favorite part of the show. Each of the cats had different personalties and two of my favorites were Rum Tum Tugger and Grizabella, the Glamour Cat. Rum Tum Tugger he was the cool cat. He was like a heartthrob and was like a rockstar. His oufit was the best and I loved his style. Grizabella, the Glamour Cat was the saddest cat and made me cry. Back in her prime she was the prettiest cat who everyone adored. Now, she had grown to become ugly and wore down and no one treats her nice. She had the best songs and you could feel her pain without the play. At the end of the play everyone becomes good friends with her and she has a happy ending. After the show was over we went to the back and wanted for the actors to come out. I was able to get 4 autographs from people and I was happy. I can't wait to go to any show like this.

MORE HARM THAN GOOD...

Biofuels are supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They do the opposite. Almost all of them produce more greenhouse gases than petrol or diesel, for two reasons:"emissions of nitrous oxide caused by the application of nitrogen fertilisers” the destruction of grassland, wetland and forest caused by the expansion of agriculture stimulated by this new market, you see this study on the biofuel carbon debt and this one on biofuels increasing greenhouse gases.
Biofuels, especially biodiesel made from palm oil also cause other kinds of environmental havoc. They are now among the major drivers of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, wrecking tens of millions of hectares of primary forest and driving orang-utans and other wildlife towards extinctionYesterday the EU imposed temporary tariffs on US biodiesel because subsidies over there distort trade - but that shouldn't be the only reason to stop the biofuels juggernaut
Is there any trade crazier than the liquid biofuel business? Apart from a handful of cars and vans running on used chip fat, it exists only because of government rules and subsidies. So what social benefits do these buy?

R.I.P HIP PIERCINGS

Last night I went to Empire Tattoo to look at different piercings with my friend Torrin. As we were looking at different things I asked the piercier to look at my hips to see if they were healing properly and he told me that they weren't. As a piercier, when doing surface piercings you are not supposed to use bars and more but instead use microdermals. The person who did mine wasn't very good at all and did it with bars anyway. Without having any knowledge of this before getting them done, I let him. As months went on they weren't healing and every move I made it would be painful. I couldn't understand why it was happening and then I found out that because I am so short any move I made it would stretch the skin. When he told me this bad news I cried so much! I was upset because I put in a lot of time and effort to take care of them and get them and I did it all for nothing. As soon as he took them out the holes closed right up but, I now feel relieved and pain free! I actually had a good night of sleep. But, you would think I would say after this I'm never getting another piering again. NOPE! In a month when they heal I will replace it with the microdermals. I can't wait!

Dear President Obama,

President Obama, I humbly beseech you to make your new home, The White House, a model green home. You have an incredible opportunity to make it a home from which all Americans can learn, and of which we can all be proud. What better way to start our country off on a bright new green path to the future than by making The White House the Great American Green House? I’ve been encouraged by some of the things you’ve said about your intentions to make your home more eco-friendly, and we’d like to offer some thoughts on how you might flesh-out your green home renovation program. The White House is over 55,000 square feet and has 132 rooms. There are over 35 bathrooms and the building has three kitchens. Using the Household Environmental Impact Calculator, I estimated that that The White House has a carbon footprint in the range of 1.2-1.5 million pounds of CO2 per year, uses somewhere around one million gallons of water, and generates over 50,000 pounds of trash each year. As a point of reference the average 2000 sq. foot American home has a carbon footprint of 65,000 pounds, uses 90,000 gallons or water and generates 3,800 pounds of trash per year. So The White House is no low-impact house! Fortunately your predecessors have already taken some steps in a positive direction. President Carter famously a solar water system in 1979, which was then unfortunately taken down by President Reagan. However, in 2002 a new solar system was installed to power lighting for the grounds. Apparently the toilets have been changed to low-flow models and many of the water fixtures have also been upgraded. President Clinton commissioned the Rocky Mountain Institute to do study on the White House and make recommendations for environmental improvements. I am not sure how many of those got made you’ll want to kick the tires on that one.