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"

Human Obligation

Five Things that Obligates me to other Human Beings
Personal
1. I’m obligated to my father for his help and caring throughout my life. My obligation to my father is endless. He not only nurtured me and provided all the necessities I needed as a child he truly loves me and would give his life for mine. This is how most parents feel for their children but my father goes well beyond the call of duty. Aside from my childhood my father continued to help me in my adult life with anything that I needed assistance with. He watched my son when he was young and I needed to go to work for no cost because he would refuse to make any profit from spending time with his grandson which was a big help to me because I did not make much money. He would always be the first one there with me to care for me when I was ill or needed to go to the hospital. He even helps me study sometimes thirteen hours at a time for very difficult tests that I have had to take in college so I could perform to the best of my ability and continue to guaranty my success. He has never judged me no matter what mistakes I have made or decisions I have made in my life and he is undeniably an incredible individual who I owe my whole life to. So I absolutely feel morally obligated to this wonderful man because without him in my life I would not have been able to survive the way I have with all the help he has provided me and he taught me that all people on this earth are morally obligated to care and help one another because human being just as every living thing on this planet are precious and deserve consideration.



Personal
2. I am obligated to my husband who is an important and supportive person in my life.
I am obligated to my husband because first and for most I dedicated myself to this man for as long as I shall live. But without him I would not be able to live the lifestyle I live today while going to school and raising my children. He not only financially supports me but he supports me emotionally and without that emotional support I seriously doubt I could of gotten as far as I did with school while working and raising my children. This is an important amount of help that I could not do without and I feel forever obligated to my husband for that.



Abstract
3. I am obligated to the doctors who dedicate their lives to helping develop cures to diseases, medications and treatment for illnesses so that me and the people I care for can stay healthy.


Momentary
4. I am obligated to the nice man who owns the deli next store to my job for making my breakfast and delivering it to me the mornings I go to work. He is a very pleasant man who does a very sweet thing for me. Its small but it makes me happy and when I feel like I am losing faith in peoples inclination for kindness this man shows me that it still exists.


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5. I am obligated to all of the people who go out there in this world and sacrifice themselves and some of their happiness to help keep this world running for their fellow man. This represents the factory workers or the retail employees who help produce my food and sell me my material products that work 14 hours a day sometimes with no
overtime money or benefits so that I could get my products quick, efficiently
and cheap. That’s nice and convenient but at what cost. This also represents police
officers who put their lives on the line to keep me safe. The people from different
countries who work to help sustain my life and lifestyle in general while they get
explioted. These are just a few examples of the work that people do and the suffering
they endure that helps me directly or indirectly. As moral human beings we all have an
obligation to our fellow men and woman of the world not just ourselves.

My Passion and My Contribution

Question #1 How will you follow your passion?



My passion was, is and always will be to help people. I choose to enter the field of psychology to somehow contribute to the people of this world who need my help. This is an environmental issue. Human beings are a part of this world. This world is our environment. I think there are a lot of issues with our environment not just the degradation of our physical environment.

I will follow my passion through my career. My career will satisfy my need to want to help individuals who suffer with mental illness at the same time as satisfying my fascination of the mind. I hope to not only handle the therapeutic part of this issue with mental illness but also become a advocate for the fair treatment for the individuals who suffer of this illness but don’t have proper resources to obtain help and hopefully try to get rid of the stigma mental illness has amongst society such as all mentally ill people are violent. People did you know that a mentally ill person is more likely to become a victim of a violent crime than to commit a violent crime.

Letting individuals know this information will help not only the people who suffer from mental illness but the communities they live in by educating individuals in these communities on these facts to better deal with these issues.This will help our people, our communities and our overall environment.

I don’t know if this is contributing on the same level that Mr. Gore has with his cause but I feel it is important. If we consider how we can contribute in small ways to help the physical environment such as not driving to school everyday than this is that one little thing that will help make a difference with this issue.
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Question #2 How will you use your education to make the world a better place?

I think I somewhat touched on how I would use my education to make the world a better place when I stated I wanted to help individuals with mental illness in this world and use my education to do this by becoming a psychologist. I would also use my education to better this world by trying to educate new generations of people on world issues such as Global Warming, poverty and mental illness by maybe teaching.

Mr. Gore used his political career which his education got him to bring awareness and recognition to a world issue that was important to him and hopefully so will I. Politically he gained popularity and eventually used that popularity to further his cause. Now it wasn’t politics helping his cause any longer or solely it was his public figure status.

Education does not only mean to go out into society and educate others on issues but the most obvious way I will use my education to better this world is by knowing the truth about these world issue and take personal responsibility to not contribute to the problem and personally try to prevent the problem from happening by doing the right thing.

We all need to become educated to teach our children which will be the next generation what is important in this world and what they need to do to help better this world not make it worst. If that is the only way you use your education to better this world than you have accomplished a lot.

Important Websites:
www.energystar.gov
This site helps show individuals ways on how to save energy and buy energy efficient products such as appliances.
www.freecycle.org
This site is one of my favorites because it focuses on trying to conserve what you have and reuse perfectly good items while donating items so others can use them without wasting more resources and money in the process.

Materials Economy

Stuff In our society today consumption is such a way of life that we don’t think twice about the things we buy or waste. We don’t think about whether or not we really need it or if we can really afford it. We have fallen victim to this constant need to have the newest and latest thing on the market that we have lost site of how it is taken effect on our environment and if it is even healthy for us. If I had to choose what position I hold in this materials economy I would definitely put myself as one of the less important people, the consumer. I know that on plenty of occasions I have found myself consoling myself with useless material consumption. When I am having a bad day and I need something to pick my spirits up I go shopping when I can afford it. When I feel inadequate as a woman by today’s standards I go shopping to upgrade my appearance. If I am trying to make someone happy or show them their worth to me I go shopping and buy them useless material things that I feel they would value instead of my time and affection as if it was not as valuable. I do this with no thought in the world on what these products represent to me and the environment. I have been ignorant to the logistics of this system on all levels. I did to my defense educate myself on some of the issues that are involved in corporations systems of production. I found out about some of the issues that arise with the way corporations profit partly because of the way they skimp on employee’s salaries, their benefits and how they outsource their manufacturing companies for slave labor. I have always had a problem with this system because of how employees are exploited but I did not take into account all the other damage this system does. Wall mart is in my opinion one of the worst corporations in this department that you can find. They participate in all these horrible legal business practices. If I could be in another position in this system I would probably want to become a political advocate against immoral corporate practices such as exploitation of workers and the degradation of the environment. This would probably be very difficult to do considering the government now a days is run by corporations but that is the position I’d like to hold. The only contribution I can give to making a difference at this point is to try and be conscious of how I consume and dispose of my products as well as what I can do not to pollute the environment any more than it already is, like using biodiesel fuel for my car. I would also like to get involved with some of these environmentally friendly organizations and educate people on the facts of this system and how it affects the world but that is highly unlikely considering my current situation and limitations on time. I will tell everyone around me who will listen. I have already shown this clip on material economy to 5 people. They were in shock on the way products are made and how detrimental it is to people and the environment on so many levels. In the end we are all responsible to keep this earth clean and flourishing but under a system like materials economy it is pretty difficult to do.

Blog #1 The Environment

List of Ten Things I Did Today

1) Brushed my hair
2) Got dressed
3) Took my son to school
4) Went back home and dressed my daughter
5) Smoked
6) Washed my hands
7) Brushed my daughters teeth
8) Took my daughter to school
9) Drove to LaGuardia College
10) Bought my Psychology text book

Driving to school and to my children’s school everyday is effecting the environment by polluting the air and contributing to global warming. Smoking is also polluting the air and my lungs. One thing that I try to consciously do to help the environment is to conserve energy by not always turning on the heat in the winter and in the summer I try not to keep on the air conditioner for long periods of time. These small efforts might not be much but I feel that it helps. One thing that concerns me about the environment is the over consumption of our natural resources such as water. There is such a shortage of clean water in this world that many people in other countries do not have access to any and Americans take for granted the access they have to clean water, that is why they should not waste it. If you go to http://www.wfs.org, The Futurist Magazine’s Annual Outlook Report it states future predictions of the world. One of the things it predicts is, “Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century. Global fresh water shortages and drought conditions are spreading in both the developed and developing world. In response, the dry state of California is building 13 desalination plants that could provide 10%-20% of the state's water in the next two decades. Desalination will become more mainstream by 2020”. Another issue that is disturbing is overpopulation. This is scary because with the combination of the lack of natural resources in the future and overpopulation there will be a lot of suffering for human beings in this world. The Future prediction is, “The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event. The twenty-first century could witness a biodiversity collapse 100 to 1,000 times greater than any previous extinction since the dawn of humanity, according to the World Resources Institute. Protecting biodiversity in a time of increased resource consumption, overpopulation, and environmental degradation will require continued sacrifice on the part of local, often impoverished communities. Experts contend that incorporating local communities' economic interests into conservation plans will be essential to species protection in the next century” ( The Futurist Magazine’s Annual Outlook Report)
ABOUT ME
My name is Lisa Morales. I am married to a wonderful man and I am a mother of two beautiful children. This is really my purpose in life, my two children that is why whenever I am asked to write about myself I start of by introducing the fact that I am a mother. I am finishing up my last semester here in LaGuardia and hope to transfer to NYU on a scholarship that I was nominated for. I then hope to finish my BA and eventually acquire my PhD in neuropsychology. I have had personal experience with mental illness in my family and see how stifling it could be, not only for the individual with the disease but for everyone who cares for them. This is why I chose to study and one day become apart of the field of psychology. I am also fascinated in other cultures. I have not been able to personally experience a lot of them because of many reasons one being that I am terrified of flying but I hope to one day get over that phobia and expose myself to all the different cultures this world has to offer. I am also interested in the arts and fashion. My husband is a fine artist and I am a hair stylist. I know this line of work seems to be the complete opposite of the field of psychology but they do have a lot in common. Being a stylist does not only consist of styling someone’s hair, it also includes being there friend and therapist. Stylists get to here some of the most personal issues in their client’s life and have to console them or give them advice when the client asks because that is the typical bond clients expect from their stylist. It is not so different from a therapy session. I once read that most hair stylist who go back to school end up majoring in psychology because of these reasons. In my profession I get to meet a diverse group of people. It is an interesting and creative line of work but it can be testing. My greatest achievement is being able to raise my two children, work full time and go to school full time while keeping a good grade point average. It is not easy and I did not know when I decided to start school whether or not I would be able to maintain everything well enough but it has been very rewarding. I am also what I like to refer to as, in the words of Hillary Clinton a progressive person, which in the past has been called a liberal. That word, Liberal has acquired a negative image throughout the years but I don’t see anything negative about it. I believe in the plight for the needy people of this world. I believe in tolerance of difference. I believe that as human beings we have a moral responsibility to everyone in this world. I also believe in equality. Every time I say this some people think I am a communist especially since my family is from Cuba (Ha,Ha). I don’t believe in communism, I simply feel that people have lost sight of caring about one another and that individuals should not only think about what is best for them and start thinking about others. Now that I have lectured everyone who is listening I am really a very lighthearted person and I try not to impose my views on others I just like to speak about what is important to me.