Survey Results Checkpoint 2

The first question I started with in my survey was "Are you a student at NCSU?".  Later on in the survey, I ask if there was a free consultant available for nutritional services, would you visit? A majority said yes, and one hindsight regret is not including a textbox asking "why?".  I hope to show that with students at NCSU knowing that there is a free nutritionist available, they will visit and make healthier choices in a group.  For those not at NCSU, yet still wishing they had access to that free nutritionist, it just shows how students should take advantage of this and set healthy life goals for their food and physical activity while it is free, rather than pay by the hour for such consulting advice.  Also, as expected, most students would be more likely to adhere to a set fitness and healthy eating plan if they had support from their friends, which supports my theory.  This paper seems to be fitting together nicely, but as I continue to analyze my survey and actually write the essay, I'll think of a million other things I wish I would have asked, as well.

Survey/Essay 4 Checkpoint

So far I have interviewed five people with my survey, that surveymonkey was awesome in helping me set up! I feel my questions lead in a logical order and progression as well as help emphasize some points that may not come across with just one question.  I'm also planning on meeting with the nutritionist once I get a moment during her hours to breathe and not freak out over the inundating amount of tests and what not this week.  Yay school!  But I definitely find the applicable research aspect of this essay enjoyable and actually fun to be a part of.  I guess that's a sign I'm either getting old and boring, or just intellectual.  Who knows?

Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival

In Marker's essay "Indigenous Resistance and Racist Schooling on the Borders of Empires: Coast Salish Cultural Survival", he explains the tragic fate of the Salish Indians in the Northwest United States.  Separated by the 49th parallel, the Salish Indians were divided into the United States and Canada and forbidden to cross over.  However, both countries decided to destroy the Salish culture and matriculate the Salish Indians into their own lives.  Both Canada and the United States took the children of the Indians and forced them into boarding schools.  In Canada, the children went to school with other Canadian children to try and pick up their habits and the "Canadian" culture.  If any of their old culture was seen, the children were severely reprimanded. This caused the Salish children to become ostracized by the other students and some ran away to the United States.  In the United States, boarding schools were also used, but it was only Salish children. However, they were still severely punished if any of their old Salish habits were being shown or if they were not accepting this new "American" way of life quickly enough.

Both countries went beyond their reign to wipe out their culture, yet between the two methods, the United States' boarding school was much more effective than those in Canada due to the reduced racism.  However, both were still wrong and should not have happened.  In a country where individuality is celebrated, we should encourage pride in one's culture instead of abolishing any trace of it.

Sustainability in Spain - not mainly on the plain

Felix Hernandez details the environmental sustainability efforts in Spain in his article "Environmental Sustainability and Global Warming in Spain", published in Energy Policy, Volume 32 Issue 3.  He opens his argument by detailing the complex relationship between the human impact and the results on the environment.  For example, fossil fuels are not the only contributing factor to the steady incline of global temperature on Earth.  Hernandez breaks down this environmental trouble into what he defines as "three dimensions": Ecological sustainability, economic sustainability, and social sustainability.  If all three can be achieved, then the global CO2 count can be drastically reduced with Spain as a global leader in environmental sustainability as a whole.  Spanish efforts currently include RE deployments and initiatives at all levels of their government so that the general public is aware of the environment's distress and how they can do their part.  Long-term goals for the Spanish include reducing fossil fuel dependency as well as deforestation.  Hernandez concludes that should this work, the Spanish can be a global leader and role model for other countries in the same economic distress, and yet are still able to create an environmentally sustainable society.

"Environmental Sustainability and Global Warming in Spain"

Environmental Ethics

In Ned Hettinger's article "Environmental Ethics", he creates a synthesis of several articles regarding their view points of environmental ethics.  Some of the points he addresses are those that the environment is the responsibility of the whole world, and not just one country can be held accountable for the environmental degradation that has occurred.  A second main point he concludes with is that the world needs to resort to a bioregionalist movement, similar to that of island civilization.

"Fracking Fury"

In Janna Palliser's article "Fracking Fury" published in the journal "Green Science", Palliser weighs the pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", as a mechanism used to obtain natural gas from deep within the earth.

Some pros were that fracking created hundreds of domestic jobs for Americans, as well as the fact that using natural gas versus fossil fuels is a lot cleaner; less CO2 is produced as a byproduct.

However, the cons heavily outweighed the pros, categorized with water pollution, human health, animal health, and then the cause of earthquakes.  Water pollution is caused by fracking because once the fluids used to displace the natural gas are released into the ground, they seep through the earth until they reach reservoirs of ground water and all of the chemicals in the fracking fluid are then combined with the ground water.  This then affects human health because any contact with this polluted water causes irritation, and even serious infections.  Humans are not the only species affected by this pollution; cows, goats, and chickens have been found dead as a result of fracking in a close radius.  Most severely, earthquaked are a severe byproduct of hydraulic fracturing.  In Youngstown, Ohio, as soon as the fracking fluids were placed into the ground, several earthquakes erupted over the time span of one year within five kilometers of the fracking site, and the epicenter of these earthquakes was at the same depth as the fracking, three kilometers below the earth's surface.

Palliser makes it clearly evident that the cons of fracking severely outweigh the pros, and then discusses the EPA study that the class read about in the week prior.  The link between fracking and pollution is irrefutable, and government regulatory action needs to happen before the earthquakes or health effects become more severe.

"Fracking Fury" by Janna Palliser, published in "Green Science"
http://ehis.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=aca0bfc0-005d-4df8-8d84-dd1ad8bb6eb6%40sessionmgr110&vid=2&hid=102

EPA Fracking Water Pollution

           Fracking is a process of extracting natural gas from the ground by means of inserting liquids into the ground that displace the gas and allow it to be collected and used for energy.  This process has been used for several decades and there have been regulations as to where and how deep the fracking occurs, but ever what chemicals are placed within the water that displaces the gas.  Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a study in Pavillion, Wyoming, which is home to several fracking locations, and has also experienced water contamination.

            In order to accurately monitor these sights, the EPA first did their research of the area.  Before the fracking first occurred in the 1950’s, a preliminary water quality study was conducted and several contaminants were found without any fracking fluids in the area.  Several decades later, the EPA returned after several residents complained that their well water turned brown and there were other peculiar qualities.  The EPA then monitored several wells and collected data as deep as 1000 feet below the surface.  The data was irrefutable: several of the fluids found were identical to those contained in fracking fluids – many of these even carcinogens, meaning they cause cancer.  EPA quickly advised the residents to not drink their well water and also recommended that they ventilate their houses while showering, since the high concentrations of methane in the water might ignite an explosion.

            When presented with the findings of their research, the fracking companies denied any correlation between the fracking and the pollution, saying that there were other reasons and fracking should not be pin-pointed as the sole contributor.  The EPA then did an extensive historic study of Pavillion, Wyoming and found that there were thirty-three abandoned oil and gas wells dotted across the city, and that those are also possible contributors of the pollution.  However, they could not have contributed to pollution 1000 feet deep; the technology to extract that deep was only used with the fracking companies.

            Although no conclusive data has yet to be presented to the fracking companies or government regulating the laws, the EPA’s findings is scheduled to be peer reviewed and released the following spring.