Blog reflection : Afluenza.

 Before i start talking about the epidemic of affluenza. i would like to introduce a short quiz by the university of Minnesota that i took recently.

Take the following quiz, to find out if you are infected by affluenza.  Read the following
statements, circle your response to the statement, and total your score.
1. I use shopping to forget my troubles.
    1              2                  3                             4               5
Disagree  Disagree    Don’t Care                Agree          Agree
                Somewhat                                Somewhat
2. I go to the mall to hang out with my friends, not planning to buy anything, but end up
spending my money.
    1 2  3  4  5
3. I never think about spending or saving my money.
    1 2  3  4  5
4. When I buy something, I feel happy.
    1 2  3  4  5
5. I will buy clothing if it is “cool” or the “latest fashion”.
    1 2  3  4  5
6. I recently bought something only because I saw it on T.V.
    1 2  3  4  5
7. I have doubts that I will ever reach my future money goals.
    1 2  3  4  5
8. I regularly gamble, play poker, or buy lottery tickets.
    1 2  3  4  5
9. When buying something, I am more influenced by the price of the item than the quality and
durability.
    1 2  3  4  5
10. I feel my buying habits do not support my values and goals.
    1 2  3  4  5
  
Check Your Score:
Total your points for all statements and compare your points with the
categories below.
40-50: You are showing signs of being infected by affluenza. When making money decisions, it is
important to think carefully about your values and goals, and the consequences of your choices.
30-39: Beware! You are bordering affluenza. Watch your shopping and spending habits.
29 and below: Congratulations! You have avoided some signs of affluenza.
Remember to beat affluenza by doing the following: Before you buy, think it over and assess the
choice—creating savings versus creating debt.

==>  I personally had a score of 34, and among other people the score may be higher or lower than mine for sure. afluenza is seen among peolple of all ages and categories. we, students. stress and overwork sometimes. the latter is to achieve our dream and the picture we have put in our heads -our american dream in other word. the affluenza is spreading and as an evidence of that is the way it is affecting our decisions regarding day to day activities. in order to fight this epidemic, i think that youth in general should shift their attention to other activities such as sports, art, leisure activities in general that makes people forget about their stress and work life. that way, any person will not seek entertainment from other sources such as shopping for instance.

Blog Activity: Protection of our ocean.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_wish_to_protect_our_oceans.html In this video Dr. Sylvia mentions that we are facing a loss of our oceans. According to her, In 50 years we’ve eaten more than 90% of fishery resources (tuna, sharks, whales..). While diving is a leisure activity for some, for her, it was how she discovered the sea wildlife, and it was a start to a research.  No life support system can live with no oceans, everything was generated by the sea. The ocean has abilities to maintain its stability and lives of species that live in it and the environment around it. Therefore, health to oceans results in health to humans and the rest of living organisms. It has been found that Excess C02 is degrading oceans; and what effects sea affects the rest of the living beings. Moreover, as we take out great amount of fish, we replace the deficit by toxins in high amounts. Ignorance of people is the reason  of this, the ocean may turn without fish in the future. Actions are being taken  to preserve lands but oceans issue are not being taken seriously since it takes a long time to restore too many fish being taken away.  However, in my opinion, humanity cannot cut on the consumption of fish . the issue came about from our ignorance for sure, but cutting fish consumption will not result in a balance of the ecosystem neither since fish also has to be eaten by another being to complete the food chain. The problem should be resolved in decreasing the amount of fish being taken out and  toxins being put in the ocean.

Selection20: Impacts of biodiversity loss on ocean ecosystem services.

Considering biodiversity and  the ecosystem. Biodiversity plays in important role in its services. Local species richness improves indeed the ecosystem productivity and stability.  Marine ecosystems offer great variety of goods and services, including necessary food resources for millions of people, especially that a wide population lives close to the coast. However, marine biodiversity is being human dominated, experiencing a loss of species and unknown consequences. This marine biodiversity loss is impairing the ocean’s ability to provide food, and water quality and other disastrous consequences. These changes were caused in first place by exploitation, pollution and destruction of habitats, or even climate change and ocean perturbations. With the usage of experimental approaches along trajectories of diversity loss and recovery. Positive relationships between diversity and ecosystem functions and services have been found. The findings cites that the omission of locally adapted species impede the ability of marine ecosystems to feed the human population that keeps increasing. Moreover, it destructs their stability and compensation potential in a rapidly changing marine environment.

Selection10: Life and Death of the Salt marsh

Marshes, green ribbon of salty, soft and low lying lands. The latter found along the eastern coast of North America. These healthy salt marshes offer so many pleasable benefits and unusual perceptions to all visitors.  Pleasable music, clean, fresh smells. However, these marshes are no longer healthy and undisturbed. Human activities in the first place poisoned these salt marshes, suffocating trash and large cities waste into them. They suffer by smelling as hydrogen sulphide. Marshes differ in the north and south. In the north, the SPARTINA PATERS marsh is covered with dense grass. In the southern marshes, on the other hand, only one grass covers the whole marsh area, it is the SPARTINA ALTERNIFLORA.  Humans have been putting a lot of efforts into destroying these marshes. This is by polluting shallow water bottoms in wetlands, and the coast which will result in frail marsh estuarine system pollution. The preservation of marshes is not only for the sake of marshes and people who venture onto the surface, but also for the benefit to all humanity who fishes from these waters along the coast and consumes its fish. In order to preserve these marshes, we have to take into account that some destruction is not avoidable.  For this matter national planning with a classification of the significance of every marsh along the coast is necessary. Preservation should also include safeguards against the increase of pressure from population, and also state officials.

Selection33: At the shrine of our lady of Fatime: or why political questions are not all economic.

Humans have been making economical and political decisions about the environment.  We begin to encounter environmental problems only when some resource is efficient anymore. This approach to environmental policy is set at the level of the consumer. The distinction between consumer and citizen preferences has vexed the theory of public finance. The real question is if we may collectively attempt to get only the things we individually compete for and consume. The cost-benefit analysis vs regulation grows from political considerations rather than economical ones. Taking  a different approach into consideration, efficiency and safety. An efficiency criterion as it is applied to evaluate public policy, assuming that the goals of our society are contained in the preferences individuals reveal or would reveal in markets. This approach treats every singular as equal. The cost-benefit analyst does not ask economist how much they are willing to pay for what they think the workplace and the environment are made efficient. This approach treats people as of equal worth because it treats then as of no worth but only as places where willingness to pay is found. Therefore, the question that concerns whether cost-benefit analysis should play a significant role in policy making should not be made by cost benefit analysis. Moreover, the politician role is also more important to the individual than the consumer role.

Selection 31: Living Downstream: An ecologist looks at cancer and the environment.

Getting to deeply know bladder cancer, and researching it . it has been found out that bladder carcinogens were among the earliest human carcinogens ever identified. However, almost half of all bladder cancers among men and one third among women are deemed to be linked to smoking cigarette. Smoking has always been thought to be the single most known reason for such a disease. On the other hand, among scientific articles, ongoing presence of known and suspected bladder carcinogens in seas and groundwater, indoor air even. For instance, industries that report toxics release of the aromatic chemical forms in refineries and other manufacturing plants. Even if levels of these contaminants are within their legal workplace limits, but blood and urine collected from employees were found to contain levels of these toxic chemicals. Our issues with genes obsession is what is preventing us from addressing cancer’s environmental roots. It is required that we begin to survey our present situation, with a human right approach such as regulating the use, release and disposal of known and suspected carcinogens. a human right approach would also recognize that we are not all taking equal risk when it comes to carcinogens circulating within our environment.

Selection24: Restoring rivers.

When we talk about rivers in the united state, we also talk about how dirty and polluted they are. More than one third of rivers in the United States are impaired. As a result of this, water shortages are increasing; aquatic wildlife is going extinct at a high rate because of eutrophication. For instance, drinking water in Wisconsin was found to exceed the safe level of nitrate. Not to mention the dead zone created by high levels of nutrients and sediments from river tributaries in the Chesapeake bay.  River restoration, which is repairing waterways that can no longer perform essential ecological and social functions,  such as floods, providing clean drinking water, removing excessive nutrients and sediments levels before they get to coastal zones;  moreover, supporting wildlife. However, the nation can do much better.  Our rivers are destructed and ecologically dysfunctional because the majority of people live in coastal cities and water. At first, dilution came to be the solution for polluted by carrying away waste by streams and rivers. Riparian forests also were cut down to fill small tributaries and wetlands for transportation. What is making things worse is the increasing population and industry growth, the latter pump raw sewage and wastes into streams and rivers. Despite the efforts the government makes to solve these problems, rapid changes in land use and effects that urbanization and agriculture have had on water are not easy. Many attempts, though, have been made to minimize those effects specially in the department of agriculture