I am just asking......

does anyone care that our grand military still cannot locate one man...Osama bin Laden?

If an earthquake happens.....

...on the other side of the world, but you do not feel it did it really happen...?

I find it appalling that on all the major news sites main pages, lead stories, and major newspapers did not adequatley cover (if at all) the earthquake that shook China Monday. The earthquake registered a 7.9 and lasted over THREE minutes. Most continue for only a few seconds, but three minutes at this magnitude is astonishing. I read the newspapers the following day to view the cover story not about China, but about Hilary Clinton and Obama's exhausting campaigns. Seriously, how long are these primaries. The coverage over this tragedy has been poor at best, and all the local papers can run with is Jason Giambi's use of a golden thong. Believe me I love sports, but I expect more from the journalism/newspaper industry.

But it is all the way over across the world....does anyone really care?

Recycle, Reuse, Conserve

Do you ever wonder how much garbage we produce? I do, as I walk around the neighborhood I am shocked to see mounds of garbage on the sidewalks from residential houses. As our population increases yearly, so does the amount of garbage we produce. While our efforts to recycle have certainly helped, the U.S. still produces an inordinate amount of waste. An estimate of 254 million tons of waste are generated by America in 2005, as the average America consumes ten times the garbage a person from China and thirty times as much from India. One person in the United States produced on average 4.54 pounds of garbage per day, 29 pounds per week, and 1,600 pounds during a course of a year. This number has almost doubled since 1960.

In 1990 the U.S. recycled only 8 percent of its waste; today this number has increased to 32.5 percent. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 52 percent of all paper, 31 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging, and 67 percent of all major appliances are now recycled. In 1986 only one, yes one, curbside recycling program existed in America. By 2006 this number has balloned 8,660.

Here are some intriguing recycling facts:

• Recycling a four-foot stack of newspapers saves the equivalent of one 40-foot tree.
• Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for 4 hours.
• Making cans from recycled aluminum saves 95% of the energy required to produce cans from virgin material.
• Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire commercial airline fleet every three months.
• In a lifetime, the average American will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage.

More interesting and depressing facts can be found at:
recycling.colorado.edu/education_and_outreach/recycling_facts.html

Statistics gathered from:
www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/pubs/mswchar05.pdf
www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/recycle.htm#overview

Check out:
greenliving.lovetoknow.com/United_States_Recycling_Statistics
recycling.colorado.edu/education_and_outreach/recycling_facts.html

Teacher Resource:
www.epa.gov/teachers/waste.htm

The EPA’s movement to increase recycling programs should be applauded, however, we as a nation still are creating more waste then landfills and recycling plants can handle. Are our increasing efforts too little to curtail the impact on our environment? Please comment.

Your computer and multimedia waste (E-waste)....where does it go?

More to come...

A foreign world

We blindly admit there is a world foreign to us, a world we barely understand, yet we do nothing. This thing we use everyday called the Internet is largely unexplored. Content is out there to be found, we should allow time to inspect what we have access to in hopes of learning not just the facts, but also with an intent to learn more about our own identity.

Strangers in the light

To say we are a unified nation would be wrong. Why is this? The answer is not simple. Look around, we are a country filled with people going in the same direction, yet we do not see one another. Never acknowledging the people on the train who travel to the city to perform mindless labor and receive a measly check for their services. We do not see those who share the same struggle, as we endure daily. You wake up every morning and trek to work, carrying your materials necessary for the day, to make money. We all do the same; day laborers, store clerks, secretaries, etc., all looking to make enough to get by, to feed their children, to buy something they can call their own. Why then do we not identify with the people we share so much in common with? Why do we not want to associate with the people who are struggling just like us? Is it race, status, culture, having higher standards, or is it just the American way; to be involved with oneself to the extent where one does not see the world, which has become a stranger passing by.