Review of Documentary: Unnatrual Causes

We just watched the Documentary titled Unnatural Causes. This film was about the inequality of money in the United States and the effects it has on our health. The first statistic that hit me was that the U.S. is responsible for spending almost half of all the health dollars spent around the world and 47 million people in the U.S. do not have health insurance. This film examined the different areas in Kentucky that had varying life expectancies from district to district. For example, in district 5 life expectancy is 69 but in district 16 the expected life span is 79.3. That's over 10 years difference withing the same state!

I enjoyed how the film introduced us to different people who all lived in different districts with different lives. One story that was sad to hear was about a lady who lives in a poorer district named Mary. Mary only eats 1 meal a day towards the end of the month just to make sure her 3 children get what they need. Not being able to provide for your family and having to worry about where your next meals are going to come from is extremely stressful and this film discusses the correlation between heavy stress and being unhealthy. When people are under stress their brains release a hormone called cortisol which helps the body deal with situations but when someone is under too much stress for long periods of time, the cortisol starts to decrease the immune system. When an immune system is threatened, a usually normal healthy person is less likely to be able to fight infections.

The film made several comments on how things in our country need to be changed. There are other countries who are not as rich and the U.S. but have a longer life expectancy and in this film the U.S. is compared other countries. I do agree that something does need to change and maybe we need more equal distribution of wealth but I'm sure it is not as easy as it sounds. This documentary really opened my eyes to another issue and this idea that-just because somebody doesn't make a lot of money they are without the opportunity of living a life as long as their rich neighbors....?

Review: Reading 22 Climate Policy Needs a New Approach

This article was written by David Applegate in May of 2001. This reading starts off talking about former President Bush and how he reversed a campaign pledge to regulate power-plant emissions of carbon dioxide and also made a statement that he would not take any action "that will harm our economy and hurt the American workers." My first thought was what good is our economy and our workers if we don't have a stable environment to survive in? This reading also stated that global warming is a problem and the public is realizing it but Bush needed to take action by enforcing a clear climate policy.

No Regrets
It has been known for some time now that carbon dioxide levels are rising and we are starting to link these levels with our warming climate. No Regrets strategies are policies focused on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases without the having to wait for extensive scientific research on climate change and an agreement on what it causing it.

Resilient Today, Adaptable Tomorrow
This section suggested that some geologists argue that hurricanes and natural disasters will occur more often and become more deadly with or without global warming. Wealthier people see the coast lines as the optimal place to live with its warmth and beauty, these people in some ways are just putting themselves in harm's way. I found this section to be interesting because it brings up points questioning the impact of human lifestyles on global warming. It is stated that the Antarctic ice sheet has been melting for thousands of years which would suggest that it is not all human related. For me I find this debate on whether global warming is happening or not to be silly. Who cares if its not? If its not happening and we take precautions and reduce our impact on the earth what do we lose? If we don't take any precautions and keep living the way the majority of us are living what is going to happen? What are we going to lose?

A Modest Proposal
David Applegate suggests that the President should consider a strategy that helps our society more resilient to natural hazards and policies for addressing climate change. Basically, we need to make progress and start moving in the "right" direction. Its better to be safe than sorry

Opposing Views
I found something interesting on the Douglass Report website, it was called The Truth about Global Warming. It calls the idea of global warming a "cash cow." Dr. Douglass is stating that global warming research has generated millions for the scientist, he even brought up Al Gore saying he has everyone brainwashed. The funny thing about this page is that there is advertisements all over saying "just enter your email address here to get your FREE copy of Dr. Douglass' The Cold Truth About Global Warming, Plus Dr. Douglass' Health Newsletter!" If this doctor was really trying to improve peoples knowledge and be beneficial to societies views, why is it necessary to plug his book and newsletter all over?
Another opposing viewpoint I found was on the Minnesota Public Radio website. It stated that the founder of The Weather Channel, John Coleman said "I can't find a single link between any warming that may have occurred and the activities of mankind." John Coleman also thinks global warming is a hoax and blames the media for creating this scam.

My Views
I am not any kind of doctor or scientist but from what I have read and learned on this topic there is a lot of convincing evidence that proves global warming is real and if we don't take specific action to stop harming our environment, very soon we are going to be in hot water. I found the reading informational and I agree with David Applegate the our country needs to take the initiative. I found my opposing view points not to have much of an influence on me and I am going to keep trying to get more green and learn more about this topic. I guess this assignment leaves me with one question. Is there any reason why we shouldn't reduce our emissions and be more environmentally friendly even if global warming doesn't exist??

Review: Reading 15 Feeding the World

This reading was very informative but also created some concern for me. The first sentence states that in 1999 the world's population grew over six billion! Currently supply and demand are growing at the same rate but there is growing evidence that demand will soon grow higher than supply. This reading is broken into five sections that explain the concerns with this issue, Society's Four Transitional Stages, Evidence for Negative Poplulation Growth, Future Food Supply/Demand Balance, Protecting the Environment, and The Challenges Ahead.

Society's Four Transitional Stages
The four stages of society discussed are traditional, developing, developed, and mature. These stages are based on demographics, economics, agriculutrual productivity, and technical advancements. Each stage referrs to a society's upward movement toward higher food production and technological output, lower death rates, and investments in education and science.

Evidence for Negative Population and Growth
Issues such as declining marriage rates, high divorce rates, increasing career goals, more women in the business world, and growing desire for financial success leave some to beilieve that fewer people are making having childeren less of a priority. This section was a little confusing when it states the United Nations projections of populations. I think it is good to be aware of the different things that may affect the population around the world but I find it hard to narrow it down to a certin ratio as they do. The low/medium world populaiton the UN projects for 2050 is 7.9 billion people and then a decline to 6.4 billion by 2150 (Mckinney, 56). I am assuming that these numbers will change over the next few years but crazy to think that in about 40 years our world popluation is going to be raised by about 2 billion!

Future Food Supply/Demand Balance
This section describes that in the future the demand for food will pass our food supply. This is kind of a hard thing to think about, right now we can access food almost anywhere and with little effort. I wonder what it would be like if there was a shortage and we actually had to worry about where to find food. I think most of us living in the United States have been spoiled with our resources and it's time to start making sure we can preserve them for as long as possible.

Protecting the Environment
The benfits of becoming more "green" and what do for our world is looked at in this section. The more people we need to house the more land we need to clear of forests and natural habitat. This section explains that the more people we have with higher incomes the more stress is put on saving our environment. Higher income promotes lower population growth, better recyling and consuming practices, more environmental quality concern, and more educational research all can contribute to preserving our environment.

The Challenges Ahead
This section pretty much sums up the rest of the sections stating agian that if we want our resources to keep providing for us we need to keep an eye on our population growth, the products we use and how we dipose of them. We need to look at all the possoble outcomes and be ready for anything. It would be silly of us, as one of the most developed countires to put off this likely disaster.

I think this reading gave me another view of what is needed for us to sustain our way of living. While it is great that people recycle and try to reduce emissions, a lot more needs to be considered. The growing population really needs to be looked at. As our healthcare gets better and better the average life span is getting longer and its taking a toll on environment. Education along with getting all of the up to date information on these topics is key if we are going to be successful in keeping our supply and demand equal as long as possible.

Hi everyone and welcome to Keepin it green with Shannon! My name is Shannon and I am a Community Health Education major at UMD. I am using this blog for a class I am taking this semester called Environmental Health. Our goal this semester is to have no paper assignments, our class will keep in contact and use our enviornmental blogs to do our assignments.

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