Are We Really Helping The Earth?

I have never in my entire life thought about all of the useless things that I own; until we had to count it. But before we did that we had to compile a list of 100 things that we definitely need to survive. Each item such as pants, socks and shirts counted as its own item. For example on my list, items 10-17 were just shirts. I only kept the necessities such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, clothes, shampoo and deodorant. After all of those were listed I was at about 40 things. I am also really dependent on technology so I wrote down my iPod, laptop, phone and camera. But along with those items I needed all of their accessories which added up the list to over 60 items. That number was incredibly shocking and I could barely imagine how I would keep track of all of those things or why I needed them.

I was even more shocked to find out the results of the items in my room. I had to count everything twice to make sure it was actually true and I estimated it to be about 500 things, just in my room. That didn't include any of my things in my brothers, sisters or my parents room. When I told my mom she was shocked and told me that I can't buy anything for a while. Where did all of those things come from anyway? Stuff in my room has been their since I was little and it included paper, wigs, baseballs, hats, board games and books that I don't read anymore. This has made me think twice about all of the things that I actually need and utilize.

Afterwards we started a "Mapping the Impact" project and it made me feel even more guilty of all the things that I own and take for granted. My group decided to choose a pizza and we had to make a poster of what it takes to create a pizza. It seems simple right, get some flour to make the dough, add some sauce, cheese and toppings and then pop it in the oven until its done. Right? Think again. We discovered that almost every ingredient to make the pizza is from a different country. They ranged from Italy to China to South America. Not to mention all of the gas needed to transport it to the pizza shop and then to your house. Its not just one pizza, its all of the products in the world that we take for granted. Think about it. Pens, baseballs, clothes, hats, shoes etc. We need to change the way we do things and that time is now.

If you want to figure out your ecological footprint and impact on the earth click here to take a quick but important survey. My results showed that if everyone on this earth lived like me, we would need 5.33 earths to fit all of us and our things. That is horrifying. I thought of all of the people who live like me and the people who are worse. There are people on this earth doing everything they can from recycling to using less and I want to be one of them and help the earth. Will you join me?

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.

When we hear the 3 R's, we immediately go straight to recycle and don't think about reducing or reusing. In fact, recycling should be a last resort and we should pay attention to our garbage and try extremely hard to not use as much. After we reduce we should reuse objects and share them with others through collaborative consumption. The recycling unit has opened my eyes to all of the garbage that we as humans produce. I often think that my garbage won't harm anything or anyone because it's just me, but I don't think about it adding up through the years and combining with other peoples trash. I learned about the different numbers of recycling and I had no idea that there were 7 different categories. Some of which are rarely recycled and only at certain recycling centers!

As a part of the Green Team, I have accomplished a few things. To begin with my classmate Alec and I went around to about 25 teachers and surveyed them on recycling. We had them evaluate both the school and themselves. We discovered that all 23 of the teachers stated that they recycle regularly at home and try to at school but they don't do it as much. I think that we are all motivated to improve the recycling program at our school but it takes a leader to stand up and start it and that's hopefully what we are doing. I also did fact research on how recycling can save our school money and talked to the facilities director at our elementary school for ways to get the teachers and students on board.

This will always stay with me because it was really eye opening, especially when I look in the garbage cans and see so many recyclable items. Also, I try to stop people if I see them throw recyclable materials in the garbage. Another thing that stuck out to me was when we counted the number of the recycling bins and trash cans at our school. It's set up so that every 5-10 feet there is either a trash can or recycling bin so the lazy people don't have an option. We found out that there are way more trash cans than there are garbage cans. With all of this in mind, I hope to continue to change the way the school recycles.

Little Big Planet: Play. Create. Share

Recently, my class watched Rachel Botsman's TED talk about collaborative consumption which can be found here. In the video, she talks about new and useful ways to recycle things by sharing. She is the co-author of the book What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, which further explains the idea.


After watching the video, I was given a company/organization/game that was based around the idea of collaborative consumption. My topic to research was Little Big Planet. Little Big Planet is a video game created in October 2008 by Sony Computer and Entertainment Europe. Basically, the player starts off with Sackboy or Sackgirl and they familiarize themselves with the game by playing on pre-built levels. Afterwards the player can create their own objects, levels and platforms to share online with other users in the LittleBigCommunity through the Playstation Network. There are currently 4,026,618 users online and 4.5 million copies have been sold since March 2010. The only profit the company makes is from the price of the game and the reviews were spectacular. The users liked the imaginative levels, excellent music, high replayability factor and gave it a 5 out of 5 score. 

Should Andrew Jackson Be on the $20 Bill?

For my AP History I class, we had to debate whether Andrew Jackson should be on the $20 bill or not. My group had to argue from the African American slaves point of view. Also, part of our project was to create a visual aid that represented how we felt. So since I love to make movies, I decided to create this and felt that it has a greater affect than a poster or brochure. Do you think Jackson should be on the $20 bill?

Remembering The Holocaust

Recently, my Gifted and Talented II class went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Before going to the museum, I had no idea what to expect. I had been hearing a lot of things about how great it was but I was curious as to what made it that way and how it changed so many people. I expected this museum to be like all the other one's by just being educational and not actually showing us or putting us in a particular person's shoes. But they held nothing back and showed us everything.

The way the museum was set up was brilliant. The
pictures, actual videos, shoes, hair and machines that they used clearly showed me what was happening during that time. Furthermore, two of the things that stuck out to me the most were the hair and the shoes. There was about 15,000 pounds of hair that was cut off from human's by the Germans and used for slippers, rugs, socks etc. I remember turning to my friends and saying that hair doesn't really weigh anything, let alone 15,000 pounds. Also, right across from that were thousands of old dirty shoes in a glass case ranging from adult shoes to baby shoes. For most people, including myself, it is really hard to visualize 6 million people. The shoes in that case were not even close to that number but they started to give me an idea of how big the number really is. The baby shoes especially stuck out to me because they had to suffer through this at such a young age. Their first years as a human were spent being tortured. Even the disabled people were suffering on top of their disability.

Another one of the rooms that amazed me was a whole room full of pictures. There were hundreds of pictures displaying the people and things that were happening. I didn't get a chance to see the Darfur exhibit but it broke my heart to hear that the murdering of humanity is still happening today and we are not doing anything to stop it. I came out of the museum a different person and learned so many things that I didn't know occurred. I would definitely recommend visiting the Holocaust Museum. It will change you and hopefully educate the world to stop genocides and wars.

It's a Wrap!

Well it's been a while since i've blogged but i'm back! Recently I just finished my study on the hope, humanity and human spirit unit. As our final project, my group and I decided to interview various students, teachers, parents and kids about what it really means to be human. The questions we asked were:

1. What does hope mean to you?
2. What does it mean to be human?
3. Is there an experience you can share with us when you gained or lost hope?
4. Can you have hope without going through a hardship?
5. Do you have hope for humanity?

These are the questions that our class has been pondering for a while now and the responses we got were unbelievable. Many people didn't want to respond because it was harder than they thought and others took about 3-4 days to come up with an answer that they were content with. All of the different answers to what made us human and what hope truly is, surprised me. When we wrote down the questions, I had no clue as to what my answers were going to be and I sort of thought others would be able to answer it easily and not as thorough. Also, people shared personal experiences of when they had hope or someone they know and love concurred a struggle so it gave them hope.

When it came time for me to answer the questions, it took me a while to prepare. In the end, I believe that hope is the thing that keeps us going and looking on the positive side. It gets us through major and/or minor struggles and therefore can be used in many situations. The first time I was describing humanity or being a human, I couldn't do it. I thought of us having emotions but animals have emotions too when they want to protect their young. I finally figured out my definition of being a human and it is that we feel for others, communicate in a different and more technological way than animals and we have taken over the world and put the responsibility among ourselves to save the world.

From all of the responses we got, my group and I created a video that I think greatly shows the various answers we received. It's a brief trailer from what our actual video will look like. Take a look and please comment your opinions to the questions and video!

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is the African Philosophy that describes humanity towards others. It basically means, "I am because you are". I see it as we are who we are because of the people, things and creatures surrounding us. The Zulus would say, "Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu" which means that a person is a person through other persons. We are defined by what other's see us as. We often don't spend enough time acknowledging the things around us and how amazing they are. Most of the time we look at how different we are but in the end we are all related.

This concept can be related to Jeremy Rifkin's video "The Empathic Civilization". Click Here to Watch. This video amazed me in ways that I can't even describe. It talked about how we are all different but related becase of one man and one woman. It linked it to other ideas and concepts that helped me understand what he was truly talking about. He was basically saying the same thing as the Ubuntu concept. To make it even better, I could actually visualize and keep up with everything Rifkin was saying because it was drawn on a white board. This video will make everything make sense. You have got to watch it!

The video and Ubuntu philosophy took me a step closer to what I want to learn in this unit. We are all different because of the things around us. Genetically, all humans are related because of two people. But we have more things in common with the things surrounding us than we can imagine. Humans need to work with the rest of the world and be positive to resolve problems. We also need to pass on lessons and values so we can be the best we can be. In the end we are all human. If we look past the differences, the things we could accomplish will amaze everyone.