In the article "Pollution Alert System Launched in Scotland", it discusses how Scotland is now sending text messages or emails to people who subscribe to air quality alerts. These alerts tell people the air quality that day. Sending alerts to people about the air quality is important because it lets people know if they should not be spending a lot time outside that day. The air quality in Scotland is improving, but some days it can be extremely dangerous. It is damaging to people's health and can lead to breathing problems or heart attacks. As Postel mentioned in her article, "Water Adapting to a New Normal", technology is and will be important for solving environmental problems. As technology is able to send alerts to farmers about irrigation levels or operators about leaking pipes, technology is now able to tell people who live in Scotland when it is safe to be outside. I believe that technology has a lot of opportunities to help benefit the environment by alerting people about problems.

In the Patagonia Trailer, a group of guys spend two months traveling around South America. Hitchhiking and camping out in the wilderness, these guys show how nature is so enjoyable. From the video, they recorded the places where they traveled too. This video, in response to the Patagonia Feature Story, shows how wonderful nature is. One can see from this video how the environment, in this area, has not been destroyed by construction and human population. Many places are being destroyed by the growth in population and industrialization, but this video shows an area that has yet been affected by the changes in the world. It is important to keep areas like this and preserve the environment.

         In response to the Patagonia feature story "End of a River", Waterman talks about his hike and trip to the El Rio Colorado. During his journey with his good friend, they notice on the way the changes in nature and the way we are damaging nature. While they are paddling in the Rio Hardy, they are presented to a hidden river that has not been touched. This river is pure and has not been affected by humans or the damages other environments are being affected by. They are trying to cherish this paradise while they can, because they know that eventually it will no longer be a paradise. Many bodies of water are being run to the ground because so many people rely on the water it is providing. Waterman is trying to inform readers and the public that paradises are no longer paradises because of the damages people are doing on the environment. He is showing that now, paradises are rare to find because humans are damaging the earth. In the Youtube video "Water Changes Everything", it explains how many places around the world, especially Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, are dealing with a shortage of water. People and animals are having to travel far to find any water because the earth is so dry and water is no longer available. Water is essential to humans and animals and most of the water families and animals are receiving, in this poor areas, is dirty and contaminated leading to health problems and death. Not only is water shortage in these areas, but it is also becoming a problem in many other places around the world that are not poor areas. In "Water Crisis", it names the reasons for water shortages are industrialization, population growth, urbanization, and global warming. World delegates are coming together to try to find solutions for the water crisis by coming up with ideas like, reusing sewage water and cleaning it, so it can be used for irrigation systems. There is a way to fix these problems and by thinking of solutions and giving to charities that are trying to help poor areas of desperate need of clean water is important and the only way to end these problems.

Since I was little, I have always wanted to become a dentist. I am not sure at what exact point I decided this, but there have been multiple times in my life where I catch myself being so interested in dentistry. I think one thing that has really made me interested in dentistry is the fact that I have spent so much time in dentist offices. Growing up, I always thought that my teeth were fine and I knew that I would eventually need braces, but I never thought I would have any more problems with my teeth. When it was time to finally get braces, my dentist took an x-ray of my teeth and told me that I was missing a tooth. I had one baby tooth left in my mouth and it would always start getting loose and then reattach itself because there was not a permanent tooth above to push it out. From this point, I have had braces twice, a bone graft, and dental implant. When people ask me what I want to do when I am older, they are often surprised that I want to become a dentist. Having so much work done on teeth, they think that it would drive me away from every wanting to become a dentist. Having a lot of different work done on my teeth has shown me and given me a lot of experience of what dentists actually do.

Last year in high school, we were given a week off of school to work as an intern wherever we wanted. I chose to be an intern at a dentist office and although I observed the whole time, it was so interesting watching the dentist fill a cavity, bond a tooth, take impressions, etc. I was only able to intern two days because I received permission to have my wisdom teeth removed during this week. Not only did I get my wisdom teeth removed, but I also had a bone graft. I rested the day of the surgery, but the next day, I felt fine, so I went and shadowed my oral surgeon, although my face was so swollen and my face was covered with bruises.

Right now, I am majoring in Fashion and Brand Management. I applied to Textiles undecided because I have always loved fashion and clothes and knew that one did not have to major in a science to go to dental school. During the first couple of weeks of the first semester, I was taking T 101 and TT 105. T 101 was focused on what Textiles is all about and what jobs one can gain from a Textile major and then the other class focused on Textile Technology and Medical Textiles. I found myself really enjoying learning about medical textiles, but as the semester went on, I no longer found interest in either side. I am hoping to change my major to psychology and get the prerequisites for dental school, so I can pursue my dream of becoming a dentist.  

Seeing a lot of different sides of dentistry has been so interesting to me and has made it so much harder to decide on what I want to do. Whenever I am given the chance to write about any topic of my choice, I always choose dentistry because I know I will not get tired of researching or talking about it. When I am bored, I often find myself looking up facts and information about teeth and rare diseases. Being able to have so many chances to go to the dentist office for all the problems with my teeth has really shown me how interested I am in dentistry and how much I have been learning. Although I am not thrilled about what I have to go through, I am almost thankful in a way that I have gone through all of this because it has given me the chance to experience and learn about dentistry.

            To find more information about air pollution, I used Google Alerts to show me articles and blogs about how different people, communities, and the government are trying to help decrease air pollution and protect our sustainability. In the article “What Can Be Done to Slow Climate Change”, researchers from NASA have concluded that they need to control the exposures of harmful fuels and gases that are damaging the earth and hurting humans and animals. They are trying to apply specific everyday emissions reductions to increase climate benefits. In Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Clean Truck Program is banning trucks that do not meet certain standards to enter the ports. The ports are also buying new trucks that are releasing clean energy and getting rid of old, dirty trucks that were emitting black diesel gases into the air. In just the first year of this program, air pollution has reduced by 70 percent and they are expecting that it will reduce by 80 percent this year. Before these areas were full of diesel gases that were causing serious health problems to the people who worked in these areas and people who lived around these areas. With this new regulation, it providing the area with much cleaner air and helping the surrounding communities become healthier. Other articles included, that we are trying to come up with ways to reduce air pollution. Last year many bills were created to try to help protect our health, but they were instead going to increase air pollution. Thankfully, none of these bills were passed. I think we are trying to help stop or reduce air pollution by working to promote and support a cleaner environment with the Clean Air Act passed in 2011. The EPA is trying to come up with ideas to help protect sustainability with technological advances. I think that promoting healthier environment is important in trying to reduce pollution, but I also think more people need to be more informed about the serious issues our earth is facing. Before reading and researching this topic, I did not know how serious air pollution was, but now I feel more informed thanks to Google alerts for showing me what air pollution is doing to humans and wildlife and what our government is trying to do about it.

An environmental issue that contributes to the need for “island civilization” is air pollution. I believe air pollution is big problem today because it is leading to health problems. Air pollution can come from a lot of things, cigarette smoke and exposure to chemicals, gases, coal, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, natural radioactivity, and pollen. Air pollutants can be man-made or natural, either way they are harming the earth. A lot of studies have shown that air pollution is a major factor in causing lung cancer, decrease in lung functioning, and morality. Being exposed to these chemicals and gases are very dangerous and harmful and it is something that would be changed if we were to adopt the idea of “island civilization”.  In the article “An Association Between Air Pollution and Morality in Six U.S. Cities”, researchers studied six random cities and sampled people in the area and looked at the deaths between the years of 1979 to 1989 in these towns. The researchers took participants and recent deaths and recorded the age, sex, smoking history, medical history, and occupational exposure of everyone. The researchers also monitored the air quality in the cities and the surrounding cities. From this experiment, they concluded that air pollution does contribute to mortality and health problems. Many people are dealing with lung problems that are exposed to these harmful and poisonous chemicals and gases. Obviously, these chemicals and gases are not good for anybody’s health, so in order to eliminate exposure to these dangerous chemicals, we need to start carpooling, drive green vehicles, use energy conserving gas, recycle. Although we cannot change natural air pollutants, we can change how much exposure of man-made pollutants are released everyday. By starting to change the way we live, we dramatically change the air quality for the better.

Source: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199312093292401#t=article

Anne Steed

Dr. Taylor

English 101

12 January 2012

            In “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium" by Rodrick Frazier Nash, Nash talks about how humans are destroying nature. He believes that humans have developed too far into nature and are no longer taking care of the earth. In the beginning of time, God made the earth and the nature was a big part of the earth. It was beautiful and untouched, until Adam and Eve ate the apple, and from here, the world started changing their idea of integrating with nature. As time as progressed, we have torn down trees and come into nature, in order to build houses, pave streets, polluted the air, etc. Nash says that we did this because we are more concerned about ourselves than we are about nature and the wilderness. He believes that our changing of the earth to suit our wants and needs is hurting the natural wilderness and what was there from the beginning. Slowly, nature is disappearing and if we keep doing what we are doing now, it will eventually completely disappear. Nash presents four ideas of how we can start changing the way we live to help gain back the wilderness and nature. He believes that nature should have its own rights, just like we have our own.

 His last proposal is called “Island Civilization” where humans are all over the earth, but they live in groups of people that are in 100-mile circles. The spaces between these 100-mile circles are to be left to wilderness, where it can be natural and unharmed. People are allowed to go into these areas of nature, but they have to live like the wilderness. He calls this plan “the dream” because he really feels like this would return nature to how it used to be. He thinks that everyone would be happy with this because everyone and everything would be given liberty.

            I think Nash presents a good argument. I think that nature is disappearing and people are going over certain boundaries that are hurting nature. I have seen pictures of my parents’ houses when they were little, and it is amazing how much things have changed over a small period of time. Overtime, I have slowly watched the wilderness disappear in my hometown. I remember when there were forests that covered most of the land near my house, and now, it is about the opposite. I think it is sad seeing nature disappear because of buildings, streets, or homes taking their places. I think the wilderness and nature are important because it is what God created and it is home to many species. Although I think Nash presents a lot of good ideas, I do not think they are realistic. I think Nash knows that his ideas are not the easiest to achieve because the world is so big and not many people would ever commit to one of his ideas. As the world is getting bigger and the amount of people is getting larger, nature is going to keep being destroyed and disappearing. I wish that Nash’s plan to preserve and to help nature would work, but I believe that the world is going to continue getting worse. It would be extremely hard to ask such a large task to all the people in the world. There are people today that are trying to save the environment by asking people to do small and easy tasks. I think asking people to do simpler and easier things to help nature are more realistic and maybe overtime, people will be more willing to do larger tasks.