Blog #12

Last Blog

Overall I really enjoyed blogging. I would always hear people talking about blogging and I would think to my self “what’s all the hype about”. Now that I have done it I understand. I can equate it to an online diary. If anyone has written in a diary they can understand the personal feelings an individual invests in a diary. It holds all a persons thoughts, dreams or passions about anything and everything. Blogging is a way you can express yourself and feel as if you are having a conversation with someone in cyberspace.




It wasn’t frustrating at all except for the commenting part. If I had to go somewhere for the weekend I would sometimes write my blog on Thursday or Friday. At that time virtually no one had there blog written yet so I could not comment on anyone’s blog and as everyone knows that knocks off ten points from your grade. So my suggestion would be to next time having a dead line for the blogs and then a separate deadline for the comments. This would give everyone a chance to make their comments.




I thought writing 250 words every week was going to be hard but it turns out I would always go over that amount. It was a very reasonable task. The topic matter was something I felt strongly about so it did not bother me and I wasn’t at a lack for words. I am a sucker for a cause. I have to say I would take blogging over three to four papers aside from our research paper for the class. It just flowed and it didn’t feel as if I was writing, it was more like talking. When I first started writing the blogs I treated them as if I was writing a technical paper like I was expected to do for other classes. After a while I got the hang of blogging and it became easy because it was as if I was having a discussion between me and my fellow students not just writing down facts with my opinion scattered in between in a paper.


Commenting did help especially when we had to comment about each others research papers, plus it gives a different perspective on your thoughts or confirmation of your thoughts. That is what I feel is most important about blogging, the interaction with other people. This is how it differs from a diary. A diary is only meant for your eyes, its private but bloging is meant for you and anyone who wants to read it. If it didn’t have this aspect about it people could just write in a journal or diary. Why have a blog?



I will definitely continue blogging about many other issues whether it is minor or major so keep checking out my blog. Signing off for now but catch you all later.

Blog # 10

Hello Nayelly,


I was looking over your research paper and I can say that it is very informative on the facts of the issue about the Colorado Rivers. I was unaware of this issue as I am sure many people are so that was good because you made me aware of it. I am glad you chose a topic that isn’t so publicly covered by media because it shows people about the amount of other problems out there in this country.




One of the things I enjoyed reading was the interview between the reporter and the young boy from Colorado who made it a point to take on the role of advocate for the endangered species of fish being affected by the rivers depletion of water and the new dams being built blocking the migration of fish. It engaged me even more to get a personal point of view by an individual who is witnessing the negative effects of this issue, especially such a young person like this boy who took a pro active approach. That’s impressive. This was on the third and fourth pages. I don’t know if you made up this character but if you did it was a great touch because it is convincing and original.





There are a couple of suggestions I have for your research paper. I would like to hear more of your personal feeling on this issue being expressed in the paper somehow; something that shows me your opinion on the issue. Maybe you can express some type of person experience you had that was similar to the issue you are talking about or just express why you feel so strongly about this issue. Maybe it can be because you have a compassion for animals or maybe because your strong belief in how everything natural and living in this world is important and we as human beings have a responsibility to be aware of that and stop negative things like this from happening. Or maybe just the fact that the people of Colorado are suffering in some way and it is disturbing you for reasons which you can state.





The second suggestion is that I would like to know more on the negative repercussions of how the people of Colorado are being affected from the problems with the Rivers. You touch slightly on this and I don’t know if you were working on adding more about it but it does give it a human perspective and not just how it is negatively affecting the fish which is just as important. If you are going to mention how this problem is affecting both beings than try to equally tell both stories. Last Which I am sure we all have to do is fix some of the spelling and grammar.


I did not find anything confusing but there was in the first and second page a bit of repetitiveness when it came to the explanation of why the Rivers were in danger. You kept talking about how there was a lack of sufficient water and you said it in about two paragraphs when you could off said it in one. There is great information in the research paper but I don’t know what authority you got the information from because you do not mention it.



Other than that I feel that all your facts are on point. Maybe you should add a few important comments from an authority or specialist point of view. I also feel the main idea is well thought out and is basically there but you need to tweak it a little bit and you got an A paper.



Hello Fidel,


Your paper is intelligently written and touches on a subject which I find to be extremely important, Environmental Racism. It is amazing all the injustice Haitians had to endure throughout history which incidentally is not the only country who has suffered under the dominant race’s tyranny.



I loved the way your voice came out in the paper. You definitely expressed your passionate opinion about the way the Haitians have been treated unfairly throughout time and how the course of their destruction was a product of European and Western dominance and exploitation. I am assuming your thesis statement is “Economically, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and ranked among the most undeveloped of the world. But, more disastrous is the fact that Haiti is now almost completely deforested and eroded”.




What I found to be extremely interesting was when you stated that, “After the invasion of 1915 the United States established complete political control of Haiti with the convention Haitiano-Americaine. However, the final drop that spilled the water occurred in 1918 with the introduction of a new constitution in Haiti under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. But this measure was opposed by even the Haitian elite. Americans then proceeded to dissolve “the parliament and put the question to plebiscite” (Farmer 92). Upon arriving at voting stations people were given white ballots that said: yes. Interestingly enough 99.9% of Haitians approved the new constitution”. This really got me infuriated and got me very emotionally involved in the paper.




There was only one complaint and that was the really long paragraphs which are the third paragraph to the sixth paragraph and take up about 2 ½ pages. It is about the atrocious history of the Haitians not to say it was not important but I feel you went into it a little to far in depth when you could have given a round about idea of the invasions and exploitation of Haitians with less text. It became a bit tedious. Other than that I adored your paper.




The paper was clear as a whistle with its points and not boring at all. It did not have a fictional character which I think would be nice to hit home with your already passionate and emotional paper. The draft states the sources and I do not think you need to go to the writing center you just need to fix a couple of parts that go on to long about the history and add a personal story to the paper through a fictional character.

I am floored by my topic


Everything that I have become aware of this semester in this class has been great but at the same time disturbing. The way human beings abuse this earth is atrocious and I can’t help to feel like a contributor at times. But for some reason when I see how corporation not only abuses the earth but also people at the same time it makes me even more frustrated.


My paper as you all know is about environmental racism and it specifically focuses on the high cases of asthma among children in Harlem that some believe to be the cause of the overload of pollution coming from the MTA’s bus depots located there. The more research I do about this issue the more and more I get disgusted. Public officials neglecting the issue, wealthy CEO’s who become richer and don’t care how and the ignorance involved with the repercussions of this environmental problem.


I come back to my senses after a while but I can’t help but to get mad. If people don’t get frustrated or mad a times they become content and compliant, so we need to get mad to get things done. On the flip side there are a lot of good people forming pro active organizations to try and stop problems like these from going on. I can’t help to wonder though what would happen if we didn’t have people who were willing to take the time and effort to dedicate themselves to causes that help other people; then what would these individuals who are suffering and can’t help themselves do? That’s why we need to spread the word so that more people could become involved.



Here is a link to an organization called WE ACT that is helping the asthma issue in Harlem, just in case you would like to find out more about this problem:

http://www.weact.org/

Hope everyone’s paper is going well.

Blog # 8

My topic has finally been narrowed down. I will focus on the connection between the high cases of asthma amongst children in Harlem New York and the high level of air pollution due to the concentration of bus depots in the area. I found it amazing that there have been many articles written about the extraordinarily high cases of asthma in Harlem but very few have made the correlation between that and the air pollution in the area because of the bus depots. What is even more amazing is that certain doctors have called these cases of asthma a mystery. A mystery, are they kidding? Aren’t they supposed to be knowledgeable about the causes of these medical conditions? I think this is a no brainier. This topic is some what personal for me because there is a large number of minorities that live in Harlem and they are suffering the effects of environmental racism. I can relate because I grew up in an area of Queens called Astoria which is predominantly Greek but the area of Astoria I lived in was very close to Astoria projects and it had a large minority population including myself and my family. It was also located next to Con Edison’s biggest power plant in all of the tri-state area. This plant had toxic waste coming in and out of its facility on a regular basis and it also had a waste dumping ground for these toxic materials on the premises. This caused health issues for the residents in the area especially the children and it was never directly linked to the plant even until this day despite the fact that community officials were constantly trying to fight the plants permits from being renewed every time it was time to renew it because they stated that it was compromising to the residents health. I was lucky enough not to be affected by the pollution or at least till this day I have not suffered any physical affects that I am aware of. I can not say the same for my children who were also raised in the area for the first half of their infancy and toddler years who developed infant asthma which I believe was partly due to the toxins in the area caused by the plant. I wish I would have been aware of the possibilities of the affects the plant’s toxic exposure might have on people in the neighborhood because maybe I could have prevented my children’s early health issues. This is the reasons I am writing about this topic because I feel that people who are unable to defend themselves from injustices such as environmental racism due to ignorance should have help and the proper information to educate themselves on these issues so they can prevent it from going on any further. Just as I wrote in my last blog I want my paper to be able to be used as a reference for students researching the topic. I would also like the reader to be able to use my paper as they would a web site or a pamphlet which is to get direct simple answers to questions they have on the issue, assuming they were even aware of the issue. I plan to find sources that hint at or directly make a connection between the cases of asthma in Harlem and the air pollution. I hope to get this information from environmental organizations and civil rights groups in the area of New York. I will also look for sources that state the opposing view to here the other side of the story, something tells me a lot of those sources will be written or linked to industry itself. Some of the sources I already found are articles such as “Where the air leaves Them Breathless” By Laura Rivera in The City Weekly Desk; Neighborhood Report which I found in Lexis Nexsis. Another article is “Elevated Asthma and Indoor Environmental Exposures Among Puerto Rican Children of East Harlem” by Sally Findley PhD and Colleges Which I found in Lexis Nexsis. My thesis is going to be: The overwhelming pollution from the bus depots located in Harlem are causing the record braking numbers of asthma amongst children in the area which is the product of environmental racism.

Blog 7

Blog # 7 My Topic


My topic is Environmental Racism against minority based, low income urban communities. This is probably one of the hardest topics to narrow down and research. I was originally going to try to narrow it down even further to environmental racism against hispanic communities in N.Y. but I found virtually no literature on this topic so I had to broaden it and I hope that will be ok. Let me know what you think people, please.



Environmental racism is exactly what it sounds like, just as I stated in my paper it is basically the degradation of the environment by industry in communities of vulnerable people who are targeted because of race, income or ethnicity. Let me give you an example which I feel will explain it the best way. Did you ever see the movie with Julia Roberts called Erin Brockovich? For those of you who did not it is about a woman who starts working for a small law firm in a rural area in the United States and was given a case to help work on that involved a large company.This company contaminated a community of people with toxins that was produced by a facility they placed in the area. A lot of these residents acquired cancer because of the toxins that was produced from this facility. The majority of these people were hard working but of the lower social economic status and uneducated. This made it very easy to take advantage of them and that is Environmental Racism or Environmental classism which usually goes hand in hand. These people's health was sacrificed by a toxic environment due to the actions of this wealthy powerful company who specifically targeted these people because it was the easiest way to get what they wanted and they placed little value on the health of these residents because of their economic status.



My goal is to explain to people who are unaware of this issue and people who are being affected by this issue the cause, effects and possible solutions of Environmental Racism. This is the audience I feel is the most important to reach because knowledge is power and it might get people to become pro active on such an important problem within our society. I hope that I can give my readers a clear explanation of what environmental racism consists of and instill in my readers a deep concern about this issue with examples of what happens to individuals affected by environmental racism.




I want my paper to be able to be used as a reference for students researching the topic. I would also like the reader to be able to use my paper as they would a web site or a panflit which is to get direct simple answers to questions they have on the issue and that was difficult for me to do. Whenever I read about an issue I want to cut to the chase and get the answers I am looking for in laymen terms and with good interesting examples to help me understand the issue better. That is my objective with this paper.


Here are some of the sources I will use for my paper with a brief explanation of what it is about:


http://academic.udayton.edu/

This web site has an article titled “COINCIDENCE OR ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM?” that looks at whether environmental racism exists or not. It researches the issue of hazardous waste facilities and if they are concentrated in communities of color. It looks at cases that argue for and against environmental racism.


http://www.unrisd.org/

This website has another article titled “Environment and Morality: Confronting Environmental Racism in the United States” which describes what environmental racism is in detail and also its connection with dominant society and its institutions.


http://www.ncpa.org/ National Center for Policy Analysis

This website has an article titled “Environmental Racism?” It brakes down environmental racism by categories such as, The Search for Environmental Racism and Moving to Areas With Pollution.

Reflection

Blog #6

When I first registered for this course I really thought it would be just another English course that would help teach me how to structure a paper well and how to find good sources for a research paper. I am happy that’s not all it is about. I am glad that we are actually speaking about something that I find extraordinarily important and interesting.



My thoughts on the environment were very limited before this course. I rarely thought of the physical environment other than not to litter because my father always taught me that this was improper. My focus on issues such as global warming was only beginning to come into light because of all the new found media coverage on this topic and the movie “The Inconvenient Truth”. I have to say that my concerns about issues within the social environment for groups of people were always a concern for me, so in that particular department of the environment I have always been interested and somewhat knowledgeable about. Overall I was just another consumer in this materialistic, capitalistic and individualistic country that was ignorant to these issues.



Looking back on the first day of class I remember the class discussion revolving around the question, what is the environment? I automatically thought of what I always think about when I hear this question which stems from my psychology classes and that is everything in the external world that effects an individual’s development. This to me meant communities, people, culture and institutional leadership which is basically government. I wasn’t on the wrong track but it is much more than just these things. Everything that I spoke about does affect the other departments of the environment but it is not solely what makes up the environment. All the physical aspects of our environment such as nature is a big part of environment.



Watching the movie “The Inconvenient truth” was enlightening. It made me question everything I do. Maybe that’s a good thing but I can’t save the world alone and that disturbs me. Another thing that bothers me is that now that I know the logistics of how we destroy our environment can I live up to the standards that I will impose on myself, probably not. I can’t beat myself up when I don’t turn the water off while brushing my teeth or make sure to turn off all the lights before I leave the house or use my mug when I buy a cup of coffee. I just have to try to remember next time and make an effort.



Reading the blogs and looking at the websites was interesting. It made the issues with the environment real and also not so hopeless. Seeing how people felt about the environment inspired me as a member of this society to contribute to helping with environmental issues such as global warming. Seeing sites like http://waterpowergas.com showed me the resources out there I can use to help become a greener person. I had no idea that there was such a thing as green energy, call me dumb. Don’t mistaken my comments like Vanessa says I am not going to quite my job move to the mountains with my family and become a hippy but I realized I need to become more responsible for this earth. Just the simple fact that I sit here and have all the materials I need to survive and abuse the extra resources out there when people around the world don’t have any should put me to shame.




I don’t want to run on and on but I need to talk about one more important part of our class that stands out for me up until now and that was the research on how certain religions relate to the environment. Hinduism really impressed me aside from my topic which was Daoism because it displayed the most respect and practical solutions for using nature without abusing it. One aspect of Hinduism that I remember was the principle which title slips my mind that basically states, if you are going to chop down a tree to build a home or for any other important reason than plant another tree in its place. Take and give back at the same time. Think about it 1-1+1=1 just like Colin Beavan from the blog no impact man said his motto was when he started his journey. With this principle you haven’t disturbed a thing in nature, its death but then rebirth, it is the Ying and Yang of nature and I’ll leave you with that.


Another great website that teaches people about going green, why and how to do it:http://earth911.org

Green Sites

1.Blogs on the Environment

The Sustainable Cities Blog

This blog was very interesting and useful. It showed me about the way that the
CUNY institutes are becoming involved in the environmental movement. It was
impressive. I liked finding out about some of the projects that are being done
in our city and around the country to get people involved in environmental
issues such as the Expanding Access to Science project were the foundation
called National Science Foundation sponsors trips for 300 people to the
continent of Antarctica for research purposes but also to encourage people of
diverse backgrounds to become apart of the science profession. It was wonderful
to hear that this foundation was paying for three students from a Harlem middle
school to go to Antarctica with their teacher and a science researcher. It
exposes the children to this field and puts enfaces on the environment as well
as give them an opportunity to experience this continent which they might not
have been able to otherwise.



The site gave me a lot of information on environmental issues in the city of New
York and the projects being done in regards to environmental issues here such as
City by the Coast which educates New Yorkers on the problems facing the city
with the water pollution in the water that surrounds the city. The project’s
objective is to get New Yorkers involved with developing strategies to
rehabilitate our polluted waters. There is a lot of information like this on the
site and there is also links like News on environmental topics, N.Y. Blogs were
people talk about the issues going on in the city and how it affects New Yorkers
and the environment and Environmental Groups that you can find out about. This
was one of my favorite sites.

Some cool websites on this site:
http://earthpledge.org/
This site tries to get business and government to help with producing sustainable products.

http://www.pps.org/
This site is focuses on topics related to building better communities environmentally, socially and economically.


2.Gristmill

This site was good but a little more difficult to keep up with. It seemed like a
site that was more for professionals or individuals who were involved in depth
with political and scientific environmental issues. I need things explained to
me in laymen terms when it comes to certain environmental topics or issues not
so scientifically technical or even politically. There were blogs from
individuals who seemed like they either were involved in politics or science
that spoke about environmental topics but I was lost in some of the subject
matter.



It is educational but extremely technical it at times put me to sleep which is
not really serving its purpose. There was some great links to web sites and
other blog pages that were really good sources for environmental topics such as
African American Environmentalist Association and even though some of the blogs
are difficult to read it is a site that speaks about every aspect of the
environment such as lead in toys, climate, legislation regarding the environment
and how business contributes to and against environmental issues, so you could
learn a lot on what is going on with the environment within all these different
departments (but beware you might have to do a lot of googleing for the explanations on a lot of the information being offered).



3.Green as a Thistle.com

Ok I have to be honest what Vanessa has done is commendable as I wrote in the comment I sent to her but I can’t help but to get a little annoyed at her cynicism. She is a great writer and very informative but the vibe of her blog seems to be off. It seems to be more like her high school diary than a serious blog about trying to go green which is a hard but great achievement. Maybe it is just me and the way I write is strictly with a direct purpose which might tend to get a bit boring a times so who am I to talk. Hey I am writing a bit off kilter for me so I might have been influenced by Vanessa’s blog. Instead of criticizing her blog I will point out the highlights that really caught me.


I really enjoyed the Loving it and Regretting it part of her blog because it showed the reader what worked for her like her tote bag that helps her save plastic and paper by not needing to use them and her electricity bill which is pretty much easy to figure out why. Then she gives you insight on what has not been working for her like her shampoo which I found out was grouse but environmentally friendly. This has always got me thinking; if I were to try these green methods do they all work or at least replace your old methods with equal convenience and pleasure? So I got my answer which by the way does not divert me from being inspired to try and go green. Overall I did like this site and will recommend it to people to view. It is different, Young, very attractive and an important site for the environment movement.

Cool website from this Blog:
http://www.cafepress.com/ This site has really trendy environmentally friendly clothing.
Green as a Geek

This blog reinforced some of my fears about certain people who start some of these ventures and that is that it is all for sensationalism and profit. I don’t want to judge this man who has been through a lot to try and take care of the environment by not contributing to waste and planting trees through organizations while ridding his bike not to pollute the air with more green gasses but when I heard he had a book and a movie coming out on it, this made me question his intentions and his sincerity. If this was for money and recognition than will he continue his plight for a better environment or will he revert back to his old ways all together and say “mission accomplished”? Well once again I will try not to be a pessimist like Vanessa and focus on the positive qualities of this site.



When no impact man spoke about comparing the way we as a society see the environment issues like we look at drug addicts as having no hope to change the destruction they do to themselves. This was a great comparison because it makes sense. This mentality is what stops us from helping everyone involved in the situation which ends up being the population. Let me give you an example:



People in prison are viewed as the garbage of society. We stick these individuals in a cage in prison and say throw away the key. Right? We as a society don’t even like the idea that our taxes pay for their room and board as if they are in some type of club med that we support, anyway we say NO to putting more funds into the prison system for rehabilitation purposes because prisoners #1 can’t be rehabilitated and #2 why should we pay for these creeps rehabilitation. In essence what we are doing is saying there is no hope to better the situation and give up but what people don’t realize is that some of these individuals can be rehabilitated and going into an environment like prison with no help usually perpetuates the individual’s behavior. If we rehabilitate these individuals than when half of them are let back on the streets they will not pose any sort of danger to society which means you and me.




This applies to the way we keep denying the environmental issues as if there is no hope anyway or why should I sacrifice my conformable lifestyle for the environment and the masses, Because it is going to destroy your future and the future of your family.

Good website:
http://solar1.org/ This site is set up by an environmental education center to educate New Yorkers on the environment


Eco Geek

This is a useful site because you can find a lot of products that are on the market or going to be on the market that are good for the environment. I have to admit I must have been in the dark but I never knew about all the alternatives out there for environmentally safe products. This site’s blogs are pretty good also. My favorite was the one where the person says that they are upset with the way humans in this country consume bottled water when we have clean water to drink and so many people in the world don’t aside from the environment repercussions from drinking bottled water.

I also loved the idea of the Zero houses. These houses are environmentally safe and use solar power. They need to fix all the odds and evens and have it available for people to purchase. I like it so much I will give you a website that is awesome and shows zero houses:
http://gizmodo.com/

Well that’s all folks because I am exhausted and my children will be waking up soon.

I put my comment for Vanessa under "The Final Post"