Chapter 8

• Global disease burden is changing
• Emergent and infectious diseases still kill millions of people
• Conservation medicine combines ecology and health care
• Resistance to antibiotics and pesticides in increasing
• Who should pay for health care?
• How do toxics affect us?
• Endocrine hormone disrupters are of special concern
• Solubility and mobility determine when and where chemicals move
• Exposure and susceptibility determine how we respond
• Bioaccumulation and biomagnification increases chemical concentrations
• Persistence makes some materials a greater threat
• Chemical interactions can increase toxicity

 

Global disease burden is changing 

Since the mortality rates only focus on deaths rather than impacts of nonfatal outcomes of disease and injury health agencies now calculate disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to counter this. DALYs combine premature death and loss of healthy life due to illness or disability. WHO an organization estimated that chronic diseases account for nearly 60 percent of the 56.5 million total deaths each year worldwide. While there have been great advancements in medicine so far as many diseases have been nearly eradicated, but new diseases or diseases that where not so prevalent are now become more rampant such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. According to WHO by 2020 heart disease will be the leading cause for disability and deaths worldwide, and cancer will increase by 50 percent. Many of the disease of the top diseases that kill people will be different in 20 years predicts WHO as heart disease, depression, traffic accidents, stroke, and chronic lung disease will be the top five by 2020.

Emergent and infectious diseases still kill millions of people

Thought medicine has greatly improved communicable disease are still responsible for about one-third of all disease-related mortality. In the U.S. there are 76 million cases of foodborne illnesses which hospitalize 300,000 people and kill 5,000. Malaria the most prevalent disease in the world has about 500 million new cases each year and kills about one million every year. An emergent disease is a disease not known before and had not been recorded in over 20 years. Some of the diseases include the H1N1 flu, Ebola, and Marburg fevers. Of the emergent diseases HIV/AIDS has killed the most people it is estimated that 33 million people are now infected and 3 million die from it each year. 

Conservation medicine combines ecology and health care

An ecological disease is a sudden or widespread epidemic that affects animals in the wild and domestic. Ebola hemorrhagic fever is by far the most deadly disease for animals as it kills 90 percent of its victims. This disease had an outbreak in 2002 on humans along the Gabon-Congo border and research’s also found that of the 221 of 235 western lowland gorillas had disappeared along with many chimpanzees. When the researchers did find the dead gorillas 75 percent of them had the disease altogether researchers estimate that over 5,000 gorillas died in this small area. Parasites are a major problem for as evidence of billions of oysters killed in the Chesapeake Bay. These two parasites can kill up to 90 percent of the oysters in the bay. Conservation medicine is a discipline which looks to attempt to understand how our environmental changes threaten our own health.

Resistance to antibiotics and pesticides in increasing

In recent years methicillin-resistant Staphylococcous has been increasing at an alarming rate. As most people have forums of these bacteria’s, and only cause sore throat and skin infections they are not that dangerous. With the increase in methicillin-resistant though these bacteria’s are resistant to penicillin and of antibiotics which can cause these bacteria’s to grow and in people with weak immune systems can caused deadly infections. This MRSA is most frequent in hospitals, nursing homes, correctional facilities, and other areas which you are in close contact. An estimate in 2006 stated that at least 100,000 MRSA infections in U.S. which caused 19,000 deaths. In the United States there are an estimated 100 million antibiotic does prescribed are unnecessary or are the wrong ones. 

Who should pay for health care?

The burden of illness is often borne by the poorest people. Women in Africa suffer six times the amount of disease that women in European countries. WHO estimated that 90 of the burden of diseases occur in developing countries, these countries often have less than one-tenth of the all health care dollars spent. Of the people with AIDS have access to medicines and every year 600,000 infants acquire HIV through mother-to-child transmission during birth or breast feeding. All of this transmission can be prevented with antiretroviral therapy and although is only costs a few dollars it is still often still too expensive for most in developing countries. Epidemiologists expect that almost all of the 2.2 billion people expected to enter the world in the next 30 years will be in developing or megacities in the world. 

How do toxics affect us?

An allergen is a substance that activates the immune system, with some allergens they will act as an antigen. Formaldehyde a produce that is widely used is a powerful sensitizer of the immune system. Sick building syndrome which is caused by materials that release toxic chemicals, these can cause headaches, allergies, and chronic fatigue. In U.S it is estimated that poor indoor quality costs 60 billion a year in absenteeism and reduced productivity. Neurotoxins are a metabolic poison that specifically attacks the nerve system. Heavy metals like lead and mercury kill nerve cells and will cause permanent neurological damage. Mutagens are agents, such as chemicals and radiation, that damage or alter genetic material (DNA) in cells (Cunningham & Cunningham). These mutagens can cause birth defects if affected during the embryonic growth. Teratogens are chemicals or other factors that specifically cause abnormalities during the embryonic growth. The most used teratogen in the world is alcohol. If a women drinks during pregnancy it could lead to fetal alcohol syndrome which will last throughout the child’s life. Carcinogens are substances that cause cancer. With cancer rising around the world and especially in industrial nations there has been demand for testing of chemicals used in the household as only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the U.S. have been tested for human toxicity. The reason for this change in testing is due to the fact cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. as it kills half a million people each year. "Just after midnight on December 3, 1984, a thick, acrid, gas cloud rolled through the quiet streets of the industrial city of Bhopal, the noxious gas blanketing the city was methylisocyanate (MIC), a component of the pesticide Temik, which was being made at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal (kumars 1). This is a study done on the events and the effects it had on the people of Bhopal in 1984 due to toxic chemicals in the air.

Endocrine hormone disrupters are of special concern 

A more recent health threat is that of endocrine hormone disrupters, chemicals that interrupt normal endocrine hormone functions. Hormones are chemicals that are naturally in your body and will release into the bloodstream by glands to regulate the development and function of tissues and organs in the body. Some of the most insidious effects of persistent chemicals like DDT and PCBs is that they interfere with the normal growth or development in humans and animals. In small doses these chemicals can alter the growth or cause an abnormality. If these chemicals alter or cause sexual dysfunction they are called environmental estrogens or androgens.

Solubility and mobility determine when and where chemicals move

Solubility is the most important characteristic in determining how, where, and when a toxic material will move in the environment or through the human body. Chemicals are divided into major groups the first is one one’s that dissolve in water and the other is one’s that dissolve in oil. Chemicals that dissolve in water move more rapidly and widely through the environment. Chemicals that dissolve in oil on the other hand generally need a carrier to move through the environment or with in a body. With the oil soluble toxics penetrate readily into tissues and cells as cells in the body are also oil-soluble materials. These chemicals can be in the body for many years as they are often protected by cells that where in the body. 

Exposure and susceptibility determine how we respond

Just as there are many toxic materials there are several ways it can enter into our bodies. The most harmful is airborne toxins. The reason for this is that we breathe more than we drink and eat in a day or in a life time. Another reason is our lungs absorb the toxins very well. It is estimated that over 3 million people die each year from air pollution and two-thirds are children. The toxins found in food, water, and skin contact can be very harmful too thought and people in industrial settings as people are exposed to thousands of times higher than found anywhere else. One of the most deadly toxins for children is lead poisoning and while lead paint and leaded gasoline are banned in the U.S., places like China reported that 1.1 million children are born with birth defects attributed to environmental factors like lead poisoning.

 

Bioaccumulation and biomagnification increases chemical concentrations

Cells in our body have mechanisms for bioaccumulation. These mechanisms store molecules which allow use to have or nutrients from food and minerals from water. At the same time these mechanisms are storing these good items they often will also store harmful ones. Toxic chemicals in the body can reach dangerous levels due to this process. Toxins can also reach our body thought biomagnification which is where animals at lower tropic levels accumulate these toxins and animals in a higher tropic level eat these animals and in turn accumulating the toxins from the lower trophic level. 

Persistence makes some materials a greater threat

Toxins often degrade when exposed to the sun, air, or water. This can destroy or convert them to inactive forums, but there are some that don’t degrade at first and can last for years. Many of these materials that don’t break down can bio accumulate in food webs to which they can reach dangerous levels. Mercury in U.S. found in the environment is due to burning coal as every year coal plants release 48 tons into the air. Persistent organic pollutants are now widespread around the world and can be found all over they often bioccelate in animal food systems. Most of these food systems are that of top predators which is causing many to be concerned. These chemicals range from polybrominated diphenyl ethers, perfluorooctane sulfonate, perchlorate, phthalates, bisphenol A, and atrazine with all of the chemicals they are wildly used from materials, prevention, cosmetics, making plastics, and pesticides for unwanted varmint. 

Chemical interactions can increase toxicity 

Some materials produce an antagonistic reaction to chemicals they could either interfere with the effects or stimulate the breakdown of other chemicals. Two that reduce the response to some carcinogens are vitamin E and A. Some can also be an additive when they occur an example of this is when rats are exposed to lead and arsenic they show twice the toxicity of only one of these elements. Synergism is an interaction where one substance exacerbates the effects of another. An example of this is when an individual that smokes already has a 20% greater chance of getting cancer and if this individual where working around asbestos would have a 400-fold increase in cancer rates. 

 

Chapter 12

• How do we measure energy?
• Fossil fuels supply most of our energy
• How do we use energy
• Coal resources are vast
• New plants could be cleaner
• Have we passed peak oil?
• Domestic oil supplies are limited
• Oil shales and tar sands contain huge amounts of petroleum
• Natural gas is growing in importance
• Green building can cut energy costs by half

How do we measure energy?

The measurements used to measure energy help to understand the magnitude of energy. The application of force over distance is referred to as work which is then measured in joules. Energy is the capacity to do work. Power the rate at which energy flow or the rate of work done. Watt is one joule per-second. In most American households the use of kilowatts-hour is 11,000 per year.

 Fossil fuels supply most of our energy

Most industrialized nations use the vast amount of the energy from fossil fuels. The fossil fuel oil makes up 37 percent of this supply. Natural gas is at 24 percent while coal is at 23 percent. The 20 richest countries consume nearly 80 percent of the natural gas, 65 of the oil, and 50 percent of the coal every year. Only one-fifth of the world’s population is in the countries, and yet it dominates more than one-half of the commercial energy supply. Renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectricity, but only make up about 7 percent of the U.S. commercial power. Nuclear power is slightly greater amount at 9 percent, but even this only provides about 20 percent of all electricity in the U.S.

How do we use energy

The greatest amount of energy consumed in the U.S. is in industry. Areas that classify as industry include mining, milling, smelting, and forging with these three they consume about one-third of the industrially used energy. While coal provides about one-quarter of our total energy in the United States, it supplies about half our electricity (Cunningham & Cunningham). Residential and commercial customers use about 41 percent energy consumed in U.S. Transportation uses about 28 percent in a year. About three-quarters of the transportation energy used is used by cars. Of the energy used in transportation energy half of it is lost in the conversion. This same thing happens with coal as two-thirds of the energy is lost in thermal conversion in the power plant and another 10 percent is lost during transportation and stepping down to household voltages.

Coal resources are vast

Coil deposits are considerably vast compared to oil and natural gas as much as ten times with both combined. Most of the coil in the world is found in North America, Europe, and Asia and the United States, Russia, and China are the only countries with proven reserves. Coal is usually 100 m thick and can be extend thousands of square kilometers. Whether it’s underground, strip, or mountain top removal these mines are often dangerous and harmful to the works as the extracting of the coal is considerable hard and not to mention is hard on the environment itself. The actual burning of coal releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide which is the biggest problem with coal. In the United States there is an estimated 1 billion tons of coil burned every year, which releases one trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the environment. Coal often has toxic impurities like mercury, arsenic, chromium, and lead. Coal while releasing carbon dioxide also releases a variety of other chemicals such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide.

New plants could be cleaner

While these cleaner plants like the integrated gratification combined cycle system are cleaner they are extremely costly. These systems often produce zero-emissions electricity from coal. These kinds of power plants have been in operation for over a decade. The reason these power plants operate different than normal power plants and don’t have emissions like them is that they don’t burn the coal but instead convert it to gas and then burns the gas to a turbine. These power plants also preform 15 percent more efficiently than normal ones. Because these plants cost so much to build there is still only one in the United States and plans to build only two more of the planned 20 is a problem. In Japan there are currently 18 of these zero-emissions power plants.


 

Have we passed peak oil?

The U.S. peak oil production happened in the 1970s as it was predicted in the 1940s many also predicted that global oil production would also peak in 2005-2010 and while oil production has not yet slowed many fell it will in the next few years. It is estimated that we have recovered half of the 4 trillion bbl liquid oil in the world. Of the oil we have used from proven resources which half and the other half is only expected to last for 41 more years with current consumption. Consumption of oil is still rising in both developing and industrial countries. Due to China’s development it know needs more than three times the number of energy it needed 35 years ago. Oil prices in have risen from 15 dollars in 1993 to 150 dollars in 2008. "Although only limited exploratory drilling has been permitted in the refuge, geologists estimate that it may contain as much as 12 billion barrels of oil and several trillion cubic feet of natural gas, mostly in small, isolated deposits (Administrator 2)." While this is not a proven oil reserve this could be in the future and help to keep the oil production not to drop off. 
 

Domestic oil supplies are limited

The U.S. has used more than half of its recoverable petroleum resources. There are about 30.7 billion barrels that are proven in place which would last 4.2 years at the rates of which people use oil. The potential of oil in America is now in coastal areas like Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. The damages done by these oil spills in are catastrophic as it often kills or sickens hundreds of thousands of animals. With these disasters that have happened in the Gulf of Mexico have many people want offshore drilling banned. Cars account for a large amount of the oil used in America each year as 40 percent is used every year and the fact that transportation is dependent upon oil as 90 percent of the cars use gasoline or diesel fuels.

Oil shales and tar sands contain huge amounts of petroleum

Estimates of oil often don’t account for areas with potential or from unconventional resources. The World Energy Council estimated that oil shales, tar sands, and other unconventional areas contain ten times the amount of oil than liquid petroleum reserves. Tar sand is a sand and shale particle coated with bitumen. The tar sands are shallow and can often be excavated easier than regular oil reserves. The two biggest tar sands are in Venezuela and Canada. The problem with tar sands is the conversion process as a plant that produces 125,000 bbl of per day will release 15million m³ of toxic sludge and 5,000 tons of greenhouse gases. Oil shales are fine-grained sedimentary rock rich in solid organic material called kerogen (Cunningham & Cunningham). Unlike tar sands the process that converts it to energy is with acceptable environmental impacts.

Natural gas is growing in importance

Natural gas has become a very important energy around the world as it makes up 24 percent of the global energy consumption. Natural gas only produces about half the amount of CO₂ of what oil and coal emits. The total number of recoverable natural gas is 10,000 trillion ft³ which is roughly more than 80 percent as reserves of crude oil. Large amount of methane from the Rocky Mountains could equal up to 10 percent of the total world methane supply. These drilling areas in Wyoming have had an effect on the water and many question whether there is a better way as not to pollute the water and land. The worlds consumption of natural gas is growth by 2.2 percent each year, which is at a great rate than that of coal or oil. Most of the increase is in developing countries due to increase concern to environmental issues. The problem with natural gases is it has to be moved and often by ship which can be extremely dangerous. If a ship with these gases where to explode it would be like a medium-size atomic bomb.

Green building can cut energy costs by half

Many of the innovation in green buildings have happened in commercial buildings due to the ability to save more money and a larger amount of money. New elements to be green are being invented even just changes like extra insulation in walls, roofs, even coated windows can save energy used to heat and cool your house. There are even appliances that help to limit energy use. Several of these appliances have smart metering which helps you to understand how much energy it is using and the source of that energy and how much it costs you. In Sweden super insulated houses are being built and will help to cut costs on heating and cooling there house by 90 percent compared to an average American’s house. Cities like Ann Arbor are also getting involved as they replaced 1,000 streetlights with LED models which saved the city over 80,000 dollars in the first year alone.  

Chapter 15 

• What drives policy making?
• Policy creation follows a cycle
• Cost-benefit analysis can aid priority setting
• NEPA (1969) established public oversight
• The clean air act (1970) regulates air emissions
• The clean water act (1972) protects surface water
• The endangered species act (1973) protects wildlife
• The superfund act (1980) lists hazardous sites
• The legislative branch establishes statues (laws)
• The judicial branch resolves legal disputes
• Major international agreements
• Enforcement often depends on national pride
• Environmental education supports society
• Citizen science lets everyone participate
• How much is enough?

What drives policy making?

While power and influence control most of the decisions on or environment in U.S. along with other countries there is still hope. This hope is in the general public or the people as many are forming groups organizing public events as a way to their opposition. Many of the environmental Acts passed into law were due mainly with the individual citizens. The main one’s the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Voting Rights Act, and many others were among the ones that citizens got behind and lead to push to have them passed and made into laws. This movement for citizens to get involved has spread globally. In 2005 87,000 Chinese citizens protested conserving the environmental issues and because of these protest the 23 new dam that where going to be built on the Nu River where canceled. Public perception of the environment has changed considerably over of the years to as a poll done by the BBC found that 70 percent were ready to make sacrifices to protect the environment and 83 percent felt that they would have the change their lifestyle in order to protect the environment. 

 

Policy creation follows a cycle

Polices are often described as a development which has a cycle. The first part is the identification of a problem and then design plans to resolve the problem, with the plans new rules are often introduced. With these new rules a support will build and if then the rules are accepted they will be implemented. After the rule is implemented the evaluation starts all over as flaws will come about in this new rule and people will try and make a new rule to replace this one. Problem identification can be done by an individual, group, or elected officials. With forming groups is it better to choose the area to debate at identify your objective, build support in the community, and implement your plan as often the problem is that you don’t follow through.

Cost-benefit analysis can aid priority setting

Public decision making is rational choice along with scientific-based management and a basic rule with in this approach is cost-benefit analysis. With cumulative benefits should outweigh the costs. With conflicting values cannot always be compared to needs. Very few people can agree-upon broad societal goals. Policy makes often do what is in their best interest rather than societies. With past investments in the same field it is often hard for them to change to an alternative. When policymakers are faced with uncertainty they will often stick as closely as possible to previous policies. Even when a well-meaning policymaker don’t have enough data it is hard to make the right decision when there are stakes. Segmented policy making is how large bureaucracies work which makes coordinating decision very difficult.

NEPA (1969) established public oversight

The beginnings of environmental policy began with the National Environmental Policy Act. The law was passed into law in 1970 under President Nixon. This law does three important thing the first one is it establishes the Council on Environmental Quality, which is the board that oversees general environmental conditions. The second one is it directs federal agencies to take environmental consequences into account when it comes to decisions. Third and finally it requires an environmental impact statement for every federal project that will have an effect on the environment. An EIS must contain these three elements: first it must have a purpose or a need for the project; second there must be an alternative to the project even possible not doing anything; and third a statement that cauterizes the positives and negatives on the environment that the project would have.

The clean air act (1970) regulates air emissions

The next major legislation to follow NEPA was the Clean Air Act (CAA). Many had problems with the air quality when the industrial revolution started and after years of having pollutants enter the environment these had to be done. One example of air pollution causing massive loss of life is the 1952 Great Smog of London this event caused the dead of 4,000 people and another 8,000 month later due to respiratory illness. Even though these kinds of events don’t often happen the effect of having to breath contaminated air over a long time is very bad over an extended period of time. With the CCA act is helps to monitor, identify, and reduce air contaminates in the air. Since the CCA was passed pollutants entering the environment have declined in the U.S.

The clean water act (1972) protects surface water

The Clean Water Act has to goals the first one makes water areas to be able to support life in the form of fish and shellfish which would help to create recreational areas for people going fishing. The other part of the act was to make the water safe enough for swimming. The first job was to identify the contaminated areas find why it was polluted and what could be done to stop the pollution and to clean it up. In the 1980s point sources were increasingly under control due to the CWA even though CWA was mainly started to stop non-point sources. Within recent years both the CAA and CWA have lost funds to help control pollution and has many struggling to pay for aging and deteriorating sewage treatment facilities. "At times the water has been so contaminated that long stretches the river were emptied of living fish. In recent years several European governments have made special efforts to clean up and protect the Rhine" (Administrator 1). this case study looks at the clean up of the Rhine river which is mainly in the western part of Germany along with to other countries. 

The endangered species act (1973) protects wildlife

The was to help end the extinction of an animal by identifying and listing species and once an animal is on the list rules are put into effect that will help to protect it and its habitat. The main part of the ESA is to help animals have a recovery in numbers once it is listed on the endangered list. The list in 2010 had 1,969 threatened and endangered species, 753 of which are plants. The endangered list is a worldwide list now and though most countries are working to make sure animals on this list do begin to get protection or assistance that will help the animal to live and grow back in numbers there are still problems when it comes to the worlds view of animals and plants.

The superfund act (1980) lists hazardous sites

This act was created to be able to create a giant fund to help remediate abandoned toxic sites. The CERCLA is not only created to clean up orphaned sites but also to help emergency spills along with uncontrolled contaminations. While the superfund doesn’t actually do the cleanup its job is to fund the cleanup of the project. Before recently the fund was supplied mainly by contributions from industrial producers of hazardous waste. In 1995 through congress overturned the tax and now the public pay it through taxes. The superfund has had more than 47,000 sites that may require cleanup.        

The legislative branch establishes statues (laws)

A federal law or statute are enacted by congress and signed by the president. There are hundreds of proposed laws each that can affect a single road or the whole country and often many of the laws have more than one writer. While congress and the president write or sign into law citizens can be involved by calling, writing to your representative or even appearing at a public hearing. In written letters it is often helpful to have other people sign it or have a petition enclosed as often the representative will take note of it especially if these are voters. While all representatives have email it is often better to call or write as they will often be taken more seriously.

The judicial branch resolves legal disputes

The judicial branch decides three things they are: (1) what is the precise meaning of a law is, (2) whether the law or laws have been broken, and (3) whether that or other law violates the constitution. The process of this for court case is known as case law. With all decisions there is interpretation of what a law as they are often vaguely written thus this means that to make a decision they depend on legislative record. If this law broke the law it is then a matter for criminal law. A civil law is where there is a dispute and it tries to resolve it. As is often the case people and court can interpret a law to be different than what someone else might interpret it to be and because of this justices in the court can have far-reaching influence over laws, policies, and practices.

The executive branch directs administrative law

Federal agencies over a 100 of them and a thousand of state and local boards and commissions oversee environmental rules. They make the rules and make judgments on the rules. These executive rules are done quickly and often with little to no interference by congress. The executive branch has many groups in it like the EPA which oversees and enforces public laws that involve the environment. The EPA is rule by a person selected by the president and in turn responsible to the political interests of that president. Another agency is the Department of the Interior as it oversees the public lands and national parks. Agencies with in the Department of the interior include U.S. fish and wildlife service, the department of agriculture, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Major international agreements

The Convention or international trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is an agreement that wild flora and fauna are valuable and irreplaceable and that human activities are threatening there existence. Because of this a list was made of endangered and threatened species that could be affected by trade. This international agreement has no position on the species with in its countries but will not have trade across boundaries. The Montreal Protocol this treaty was done so as to phase out the production and use of several chemicals that destroy the ozone. The Basel Convention restricts shipment of hazardous waste across boundaries. The UN framework Convention on Climate Change encourages information on climate change to be shared much of this was to help developing nations. Kyoto Protocol was a binding target for signatories to reduce greenhouse gases to that of 1990 by 2012.

Enforcement often depends on national pride

Often these international agreements depend that the country cares how it seen to other countries. Because of this there is no policing the activities going on in another country. Often in international negotiations there is an attempt to have unanimous agreement. While most of the agreements in international talks don’t happen or a followed there is the fact that many nations are agreeing on that there needs to be change in greenhouse emissions. In many cases the embarrassment of fact coming about often is what forces countries to comply or come close to following to the predetermined agreement.

Environmental education supports society

The National Environmental Education Act which passed in 1990 looks to educate to national public on the environmental issues facing use today. There were two main goals to this act one was to improve the public knowledge of the environment and second to encourage postsecondary students to pursue careers in fields that involve the environment. Environmental literacy is term used to describe the understanding and knowledge of how the environment and its systems. With this act especially it is spread the understanding of the environment and how it effects or life’s which in turn often makes people think about what they are going to do.

Citizen science lets everyone participate

As many people are discovering that they can make contributions to scientific knowledge through active learning in research programs. These forms can range from internships in agencies or environmental organizations. Another is a citizen science project where ordinary people join with established scientists as a way to answer real scientific questions. Another one of these research opportunities is the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. A much smaller but intensive opportunity to take part in the actual research is a earthwatch. One of the last opportunities is the American Rive Watch which has students go and measure water quality.

How much is enough?

Because goods are so cheap more people in even developing countries are able to buy more goods that they in cases don’t need or use. One term known as conspicuous consumption, which means the buying of items that we don’t need or don’t even like, but buy them as a way to impress others. When you consider that people in America buy more than twice what they did in the 1950. Houses are twice as big too, yet the average family is half as many people. If you look at people thought too many now cauterize or define themselves as shopper. There are many things that could help to reduce your consumption from cooking simple food instead of going out; grow a garden; spend less time on just shopping (Cunningham & Cunningham). Because so many people are now in the vicious circle of buying more items there seems to be no end to it unless there is an acceptance to want to change. 


 

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