" The problem is not lack of knowledge, but preconceived ideas."
We share our world with 7.3 billion other people. We are beginning to outrun the caring capacity of the earths natural support systems. We are working too fast for the earths forests, fisheries, grasslands, aquafers and soils. We are adding 200,000 people to our planet each day. The exponential growth we are seeing is averaging a billion more people every 13 years. To put this into perspective it took until 1804 to for earth to see it's first population of one billion. While you have been reading this, earth has gained 70 more occupants, and this number will continue to rise. That being said, unlike any time before, we have the technology to help.
We have knowledge, and we are spreading it all across the globe. In 1970, the average Bangladeshi women gave birth to 7 babies during their life time, and had an average life span of 50 years. Now Bangladeshi women have an average of 2.2 children and live to over 70. The same goes for India, the second highest population of all countries and today the average women has 2 children.
Things are getting better.
So I say don't panic. It will be okay. Our job is to preserve our natural resources, and help out our environment, allow it to sustain our huge population. I also believe that we should get on board with the efforts of Bangladesh, India and so many more countries to decrease family sizes. In poor, Bangladeshi school, kids are being told that big families lead to many problems, and small families will have no difficulties. If the average Canadian and American family averages 2 children per life time, it will allow our population to balance with much greater ease. The driving force in a declining population is education, so with a bit more knowledge, we may be able to stop the population crisis.
Wednesday 22 February 2017
Sunday 5 February 2017
7: The Human Experiment
This week in IGS we watched clips of the documentary " The Human Experiment." The few clips that we watched was enough to make me want to see the whole thing. Luckily, it was on Netflix. Over the next few days I finished it, and some of what I learned was astonishing. I had no idea the kinds of toxins and harmful chemicals I was being exposed to on a daily basis. The primary toxin that was featured was biphenyl A. BPA is a common chemical used in plastic. It can be found in everything from water bottles to rubber ducks. We have now learned that BPA can cause brain and behavior problems. We have learned it is a carcinogen and can cause heart problems, and this is only the beginning. I frantically checked my own water bottle to see if it said anything about being BPA free. Nothing. With my new knowledge I knew it was time for an upgrade, and I bought a new toxin free, metal water bottle that was as organic as water bottles get. Feeling slightly better about my water bottle situation, I still knew there was more to the story. Some of the facts I learned were unbelievable. After watching the documentary and doing some further research it is clear to see the linkage between the dramatic increase in autism, cancer risks, brain problems and infertility rates and the dramatic increase in chemical usage in the world. Right now in the United States 80,000 chemicals are being used to create the products we see in stores. Of those 80,000 chemicals, 200 have been tested for our safety.
What we must remember of this is that we have a choice. Us, the consumer can do our research to see what is safe for ourselves and our families. Huge corporate companies cannot thrive if the consumers do not by their products. If we check for ourselves, we can turn to companies who use green chemistry. Companies who invest their time to care for their consumers by using healthy materials and green chemistry are the companies we should be giving our money to anyway. Corporate companies are not going to tell us their products are going to hurt us, so it is up to ourselves to do the research, make smart decisions and save yourself and your families from the human experiment.
What we must remember of this is that we have a choice. Us, the consumer can do our research to see what is safe for ourselves and our families. Huge corporate companies cannot thrive if the consumers do not by their products. If we check for ourselves, we can turn to companies who use green chemistry. Companies who invest their time to care for their consumers by using healthy materials and green chemistry are the companies we should be giving our money to anyway. Corporate companies are not going to tell us their products are going to hurt us, so it is up to ourselves to do the research, make smart decisions and save yourself and your families from the human experiment.
Saturday 7 January 2017
6: Where To Invade Next
In this blog, I am writing about the Michael Moore documentary "Where To Invade Next." This was not your everyday on the block social studies documentary. It was interesting. In the film, stereo- typical American Michael Moore travels the globe in search for the most innovative and spectacular ideas around the world. His first stop, Italy. What he soon discovered was that the Italian government gives all of it's workers eight weeks paid vacation. EIGHT weeks. I couldn't believe it. My mind immediately imagined all the Disney lands and worlds that could be visited, big league ball park hot dogs that could be bought, with eight weeks of paid vacation. I think the Italians have it right. How can you expect to enjoy a vacation that you can't afford. I think if we brought this idea back to Canada we would all benefit from it. The whole philosophy thought up by the Italians is based on relaxation and happiness. Couldn't we all use some more of that. By going on more paid vacations, you would come back rejuvenated, relaxed and ready to take on the world (or your cubical). Don't let stress take control of your life, show stress who's boss with a couple weeks in Hawaii. So in conclusion, I believe we most certainly should steal this page out of Italy's book, and reward hard working Canadians with more time off to relax and be with their families. As the Italian couple said in the documentary " You only have one life, enjoy it."
Wednesday 30 November 2016
5: WW1 Projects
This week in IGS, we were given a project in Social Studies. At first my only thoughts were, "not another project." But know I'm seeing it has turned out to be a pretty good learning experience. This is because of the topic I was assigned; communism. I always just thought that communism was no more than every citizen getting the same amount of money for their job. Well, I wasn't wrong, but there is so much more. In fact a whole history on the in's and out's of this interesting system.
Through my brief studies I have learn that in some ways, communism sounds like the best idea to ever grace the planet. A world where everyone is equal, no wealth to fight over, everyone is given a equal chance. Sounds alright to me.
But time and time again it has shown that it just does not work. Why? There are a few key reasons. A simple way of putting them would be people become lazy, they have no initiative to work hard for more money as they have fixed wages. With no initiative to work products like grain or greatly under produced, therefor many mouths go unfed and profits from purchase of grain go down, causing a countless list of problems for the Country.
Today there are very few total communist countries due to it's reputation of bad endings. It will be interesting to see if those few remaining countries stay strong with their political belief. Maybe perhaps we will see a time were communism is done right and see it become more globally accepted and practiced. Only time will tell.
Until next blog,
Trevor
Saturday 19 November 2016
4: Fritz Haber
Fritz Haber was a Nobel Prize winner. He was awarded this for his work in chemistry for his homeland of Germany.
His path on his on way to glory however, is what makes his story interesting and intriguing. Fritz Haber was the inventor of mustard gas. One of the most effective and torturous weapons ever to bestow itself on a battle ground. Mustard gas would liquefy the inside of enemy soldiers lungs and would make the affected soldiers drown to death in their own lung fluids.
Haber is known as the "Father of Chemical Warfare". His discoveries lead us to the question, were his actions ethical in the situation? When I think of the horrors the thousands of soldiers went through, I can't think of a much worse way to go, even in war. I think the deciding line is drawn with the intent behind the actions. In this case, If Haber's only intention was to protect the citizens of Germany, I think his legacy would be quite different. But they were not. Mustard gas was created to inflict pain, to torture. For these reasons, I believe his actions were not ethical, even in the extreme circumstances. He could have created weapons just as effective without the unnecessary torture.
This is not to say that some of what Fritz Haber did was not amazing. He single handedly helped Germany avoid a national food crisis, with his work in plant fertilization, which earned him his Nobel prize in 1918. He was a genius, but used his talents for what I believe are the wrong reasons. His own creation would come back to haunt him in more ways than he could have ever imagined in the second world war. Haber was of Jewish decent. He was driven out of Germany, and his chemical discoveries were used to kill his own family in gas chambers. Slightly ironic?
Until next blog,
Trevor
His path on his on way to glory however, is what makes his story interesting and intriguing. Fritz Haber was the inventor of mustard gas. One of the most effective and torturous weapons ever to bestow itself on a battle ground. Mustard gas would liquefy the inside of enemy soldiers lungs and would make the affected soldiers drown to death in their own lung fluids.
Haber is known as the "Father of Chemical Warfare". His discoveries lead us to the question, were his actions ethical in the situation? When I think of the horrors the thousands of soldiers went through, I can't think of a much worse way to go, even in war. I think the deciding line is drawn with the intent behind the actions. In this case, If Haber's only intention was to protect the citizens of Germany, I think his legacy would be quite different. But they were not. Mustard gas was created to inflict pain, to torture. For these reasons, I believe his actions were not ethical, even in the extreme circumstances. He could have created weapons just as effective without the unnecessary torture.
This is not to say that some of what Fritz Haber did was not amazing. He single handedly helped Germany avoid a national food crisis, with his work in plant fertilization, which earned him his Nobel prize in 1918. He was a genius, but used his talents for what I believe are the wrong reasons. His own creation would come back to haunt him in more ways than he could have ever imagined in the second world war. Haber was of Jewish decent. He was driven out of Germany, and his chemical discoveries were used to kill his own family in gas chambers. Slightly ironic?
Until next blog,
Trevor
Monday 14 November 2016
3: Chemistry
This week in IGS 10 was an all science week. So it would seem fitting that I would do a science blog, so here we are. This week we finished off biology and began our chemistry unit. Heading forward I think I can expect straight forward science classes as I find that chemistry is a lot like math. With all of the ions, adding elements and finding formulas I think it is quite different from the other forms of sciences.
Chemistry to me is different because I think it relies less on being able to trap information in your head, and more on your minds ability to do an equation. I would consider myself a fairly strong math student, but it is a very, very long way from being my favourite subject.
So far we have just started to review elements, go over the periodic table and make sure we have a vague idea of what we are doing. We have started a project of labeling and defining elements which we will work on throughout the week. It's pretty straight forward, but I think it is only a matter of time before we really start getting into the chemistry...behind chemistry.
Until next week.
-Trevor
Chemistry to me is different because I think it relies less on being able to trap information in your head, and more on your minds ability to do an equation. I would consider myself a fairly strong math student, but it is a very, very long way from being my favourite subject.
So far we have just started to review elements, go over the periodic table and make sure we have a vague idea of what we are doing. We have started a project of labeling and defining elements which we will work on throughout the week. It's pretty straight forward, but I think it is only a matter of time before we really start getting into the chemistry...behind chemistry.
Until next week.
-Trevor
Thursday 3 November 2016
2: Friends or Food
Early this week, our class was visited by a guest speaker. This presentation was about meat. In greater detail, the journey the meat takes to get to our plate. In this presentation, we were shown amazingly powerful images, like the one below, that would make any carnivore think twice about what or rather, who they are eating.
Here are young dogs that have been captured for selling as food in Chinese markets. We were asked why this thought and image made us uncomfortable, compared to a similar image, shown below, where some of the audience barely batted an eye.
But to me, this was a serious thought provoking idea. The presenter told us that pigs were in fact smarter than dogs. This was brand new to me. It started to feel as though there were no differences at all in the slaughter of pigs and dogs. Why would only one seem horrible when the other is just as, if not more capable of making the same strong connection with it's human counter parts.
Then she turned on to the environmental facts. Did you know, factory farming of animals causes more pollution and harm to the earth than all transportation methods on earth combined? Cause I did not. I was blindsided by this. So now not only was I killing a smart and fully aware animal like this,
but also causing an unbelievable amount of harm to the planet. All this so I can have bacon in the morning? I don't think so. So I guess you could say I took the bait on the presentation. So much in fact I've stopped eating pork entirely. I know one person not eating pigs isn't going to change anything, but maybe one day the rest of the world will realize how much damage factory farming is doing, and jump on board. So until next week, that's all I have to have to say.
-Trevor
Here are young dogs that have been captured for selling as food in Chinese markets. We were asked why this thought and image made us uncomfortable, compared to a similar image, shown below, where some of the audience barely batted an eye.
But to me, this was a serious thought provoking idea. The presenter told us that pigs were in fact smarter than dogs. This was brand new to me. It started to feel as though there were no differences at all in the slaughter of pigs and dogs. Why would only one seem horrible when the other is just as, if not more capable of making the same strong connection with it's human counter parts.
Then she turned on to the environmental facts. Did you know, factory farming of animals causes more pollution and harm to the earth than all transportation methods on earth combined? Cause I did not. I was blindsided by this. So now not only was I killing a smart and fully aware animal like this,
but also causing an unbelievable amount of harm to the planet. All this so I can have bacon in the morning? I don't think so. So I guess you could say I took the bait on the presentation. So much in fact I've stopped eating pork entirely. I know one person not eating pigs isn't going to change anything, but maybe one day the rest of the world will realize how much damage factory farming is doing, and jump on board. So until next week, that's all I have to have to say.
-Trevor
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