BP Oil Spill

Before I watched the videos that were shown in class today, I thought that the oil spill wasn't actually such a big problem. I thought, sure, it's bad but it's just like other news. It's going to be cleaned up sooner or later and then all will be okay.
But the videos proved that my way of thinking was wrong. The spill caused by the BP in the Gulf of Mexico is deeper than previous spills, such as the spill in 1979. Like Rachel Madden said, in the 31 years that has passed since the previous spill, all the oil companies have gotten better at is drilling deeper and expanding their market to become more wealthy. But in the 31 years, one thing that they have not gotten better at is finding a way to help oil spills and how to clean them up.
The oil spill can affect events all over the world. The oil spill is affecting the breeding season of the animals in the ocean and the birds. Because the ocean is covered in oil, the animals breathe and drink in the oil and this can cause problems with their offspring. Also, many birds by the sea feed on fish and other sea creatures. Unfortunately, these creatures have oil in them. When the birds feed, they consume the oil and when they immigrate to other places as the climate changes, they bring the oil in them and spreads the oil all over the world.
But the oil spill isn't only affecting the animals. It's also affecting the people of the US though the problem is supposedly cause by the BP. As the oil spreads, the people along the coast of the gulf of mexico start to smell the oil in the air, taking away fresh air. These smells have been causing headaches and sicknesses in the people.
So far, the oil spill hasn't reached Asia and Taiwan but I think that sooner or later, news of the spill will reach Taiwan due to the lose of sea creatures and the affects of the spill on the ocean and people on land. From the videos, it seems like there hasn't been much done so far so the spill will keep spreading and hurting creatures. This also affects us because the BP isn't the only company who might cause this problem. For all we know, there might a spill in Asia soon and we'd hope for help from others so I think that the US shouldn't blame this on the BP but compromise with them to try to find a solution to the problem.

All the Invisible Children: Tanza

It's so weird that while we go to school and use our laptops everyday, there are children still in their childhood, but are forced to act like adults and have to put behind their fears to kill people they don't know. But as we reach the end of his story, when we stop the bomb and also when he removed the block from the wall, revealing a slingshot and a white cloth, you realize that though he's a soldier he's still a kid and misses the joy of playing and a life with fewer worries, one where he can just act like a kid.

Random

Writing your homework with a pen is permanent. You can't erase. Only covering it with whiteout. Covering something permanent is ugly

Shop till You Drop!!!!!

In this activity, I was supposedly lucky to get a lot of money, but when we started working on the poster, I realized how little people there were that had that much money and how lonely it became when you have a lot of money but no one else does.

In the Global Items Mall, you can see that the cheaper the items are, the worse they become either for the environment or socially. The majority, the poor people could only afford the cheap items, that proved to be unhealthy but because of this they have more time to spend with the people close to them.

A lot of poor people couldn't afford education because they had to spend their money on basic human needs, like water, heat, and food. Because they don't go to school, they probably spend that time doing something else like collecting water or farming for food, but because of this, they can spend more time with their community members.

Food is considered a basic human need to live, but health care can save a dying person. But over a long period of time, I would say that food is more important because it is needed to live and stay alive.

Many times, hospitals have saved the lives of many people. If medical care hadn't been able to be reached, a lot more people would have died and in bad times such as after a natural disaster or in war, if not for medical care, the mortality rate would have gone up by a lot.

It seems that the rich people have more impacts environmentally due to the fact that the products that they consume are more complex and require more resources and workers. For example, to grow food for the people who can afford them, rain forests might be cut down to get more land to grow the crops. But because of this, the rich people don't have to produce their own products and don't spend as much time with the ones around them.

The poor people get the things that they need from around them because they don't have enough to import products. They farm their own food, gather their own firewood and water, and this results in higher mortality rates and more disease. But because of this, they can spend more time with their community members from when they go out as a group to gather firewood and they experience more hardships together.

Hidden Feelings

The main idea on the interview is how girls/women are affected all around the world because of the way the world still thinks that girls have to please others and they have to do certain things to fit in or seem like a "somebody".

Though Eve Ensler could just live an easy life, she chooses to go live in hard conditions in order to learn more about the hardships of girls to make their voices heard and let others know about their hardships.

For example, a girl might stay in a bad relationship just so she can have someone to go out with... someone to brag to her friends about... to make it seem like she is liked.

Both are things in the process of producing goods that we don't think about. We don't think about which conditions the product was made in and who made it. We just buy it and probably will soon throw it away though a worker such as the girl making barbie heads probably used a lot of effort to make it.

2010 Haiti Earthquake

An earthquake of 7.0 damage recently happened in Haiti. An estimated 3 million people were affected by the earthquake. More than 200,000 people died and there has been at least 54 aftershocks or 4.5 and above. The capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince received major damage and many capital buildings were destroyed.

Luckily, many countries have pitched in to help providing food, supplies, etc. This earthquake is one of the greatest earthquakes recorded in history.

Dear Mr.Bernard

Thanks so much for your presentation. Before I had known that Kiribati was in trouble but I had no idea how much culture and history would be ruined. I really learned a lot. I learned about where Kiribati actually is (I'm ashamed I didn't know before) and about the daily lives and culture of the citizens there. What affected me the most is the fact that Kiribati is in trouble but so many people don't realize it and just put it aside. Thanks for letting us know how much trouble your country is in and I really hope help will soon be on the way!

To help with global warming, I think before we think about saving electricity and recycling, etc. we should first think about the countries who can't do anything about global warming, the ones that don't have recycling factories or are the ones that are being the most affected by global warming. To do this, for example, Kiribati, if the citizens don't want to move, we should think of ways to if not stop, then reduce the flooding that is happening. I really believe the building some structures would really help.

Anyways, thanks for talking to us today!!!!