The landfills are filling up and soon the earth will be one large garbage heap. As time goes on people are starting to realize the impact that humans are having upon the world they live in; they are becoming more aware of ways in which they can help to mitigate the negative effects that those impacts are having upon the environment. Every inhabitant of the Earth has a responsibility to take on the role of environmental steward to the planet. Although Fairbanks, Alaska, has a few good recycling centers, the local community needs to put into place a glass recycling program because there is a large amount of glass that is going straight into landfills, littering is increased due to a lack of places to recycle, and glass is a material that is easily recycled given the correct resources.
Glass that is put into the garbage is taken to a landfill along with the rest of the non-recycled waste. Unfortunately this waste accumulates and causes a very large amount of land to be used up as storage for the garbage as the very long process of decomposition takes place within these landfill facilities. Glass is one of the worst materials in relation to the amount of time that it takes to break down; Earth911 says, “A glass bottle can take up to one million years to break down…” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). Recycling glass offers opportunities to not only make something useful out of something that is “used up,” but it also frees up a lot of room within the landfills that could be used to store other waste products. With no resources available to recycle glass, it is not only ending up in landfills, but also littering the streets.
Littering is of course a problem everywhere, in every city in America, and in every country in the world. However, in Fairbanks, Alaska, the problem is especially bad due to the fact that there is no local glass recycling program. An example of this is the fact that the author knows first-hand that one local restaurant which will remain unnamed, dumps all of it’s glass bottles into a pit in the ground behind the building; when asked why they do this, the establishment expressed that they would like to recycle the glass but there is no way to, therefore they would rather just throw it out back then send it to the landfill. This type of an attitude is the direct effect of a lack of recycling resources around the Fairbanks area.
Glass is one of the easiest and most useful materials to recycle. An online environmental website called Earth911 says that, “Unlike other substances such as paper, glass can be recycled infinitely without any loss of purity or quality” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). This means that a product made of recycled glass is absolutely no different from a product that is made from non-recycled glass; a glass jar for instance could be made entirely of recycled glass and one would never know the difference. This is an important fact to take into consideration when thinking of how critical it is to have a glass recycling program in place in Fairbanks, Alaska.
A local glass recycling program was instituted at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2004, however it was cancelled after a year because, “…the glass recycler in Anchorage was no longer able to process the glass coming from Fairbanks.” On the Associated Students of the University of Alaska website they went on to say that they are, “…presently looking for an economically feasible method of shipping plastics [and glass] to Anchorage” (Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, n.d.). This means that the local community of Fairbanks, Alaska, needs to work with the University of Alaska in finding a feasible transportation method of glass to Anchorage in order for Fairbanks to operate a local glass recycling program. This obstacle is not a huge hurdle; it is something that has not been given enough energy to in order to overcome. Some would argue that the program has already failed once therefore it would be foolish to try it again; however there is no proof of this, and someone making that argument would be committing themselves to an argument by using a logical fallacy. Not only that, but many people feel that the time and resources needed to recycle glass are just not worth it, but as this essay has pointed out, glass is actually one of the most easily recycled materials there is and the only thing standing between the community of Fairbanks and a glass recycling program is to find a cost effective way of shipping it. The community of Fairbanks, Alaska, has a large mix of environmentalists cohabitating with industrialist miners and people with a large variation of views on the earth and the world. However, the one thing that most Fairbanksians have in common is that the majority of the residents enjoy being outside in the clean fresh air of Alaska; if glass continues to pile up in landfills, litter the streets, and get scattered throughout the beautiful landscape of Interior Alaska the clean fresh air will soon begin to smell like one large trash dump.
Overall the idea of a glass recycling program in Fairbanks, Alaska, would benefit the community and the environment greatly. There is no reason why the people of this community cannot find a solution to the one hurdle that stands in the way of being able to recycle all the glass that is filling up the local landfills and littering the land. It is time to act; it is time for each person to take responsibility for the land that they call home.
“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” (n.d.). Earth911. Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://earth911.org/recycling/glass-recycling/benefits-of-glass-recycling/
Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://asuaf.org/recycle/faq
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Comma Splices - (Reading Assignment - Week 7)
Comma splices have long been a problem for the author of this blog. Unfortunately writing with a “stream of consciousness” type of an attitude often leads to placing a comma where there should not be one. Years ago the author was dating a girl that lived two hours away; communication took place mainly through letters and email. It was then that the author was first made aware of his over-abundance of commas within his writing. The girl made it a point to poke fun every time the author used unneeded commas and in actuality this harmless act made the author examine each and every comma before using it. To this day the author continues to examine his commas before use; of course there is still the occasional slip of the comma. It is in fact one of the author’s biggest challenges in writing, and one that he constantly works at to improve.
"The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation" - A Review (Reading Assignment, Week 7)
In “The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation” (2007), by Scott Carney, he makes the argument that organ donation should not be a choice; instead Carney believes that organs should be donated regardless of the wishes of the deceased and their family. In this article Carney quotes Eric Johnson, a professor at Columbia University as saying, “…there would be a [an] increase of between 16 percent to 50 percent in the availability of organs, and others have speculated that this would eliminate the shortage of organs in some categories” (2007). The argument that Carney has put together is very effective and is quite persuasive to solving the problem of a lack of organs to those that need transplants. However there are holes in the argument that Carney has proposed.
For example, although the opposition is stated briefly within the article, there is little attention given to the argument of spirituality and the beliefs that come along with some people’s thoughts on the afterlife and what happens to the human body after one passes away. Carney also uses an argument made by Aaron Spital and James Stacey Taylor in their article, “Routine Recovery of Cadaveric Organs for Transplantation: Consistent, Fair, and Life-Saving,” published by the American Society of Nephrology, that states, “…the government reserves the right to draft young men against their will into war and risk their lives in combat operations” (as cited in Carney, 2007). This statement seems to constitute a fallacy in that it is drawing the reader’s attention away from the actual argument and is instead trying to play upon a sense of patriotic obligation. It is in the author of this review’s opinion that this quote is distracting from the argument and takes away from the validity of what is being proposed.
The target audience of the proposal is the American public, those that have the ability to put a policy into action to make organ donation mandatory, however the author of this review does not believe that the target audience would be completely convinced by the article that Carney has written. All in all there is a lot of good information contained in the essay, and there is definitely a problem that needs to be confronted, however the proposed solution does not seem to have been completely convincing to the target audience.
Carney, S. (2007, May 8). The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation. Wired. Retrieved March 17, 2008 from http://www.wired.com/print/medtech/health/news/2007/05/india_transplants_donorpolicy
Spital, A. & Taylor, J.S. (2007, January 31). Routine Recovery of Cadaveric Organs for Transplantation: Consistent, Fair, and Life-Saving [Electronic Version]. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 2, 300-303.
For example, although the opposition is stated briefly within the article, there is little attention given to the argument of spirituality and the beliefs that come along with some people’s thoughts on the afterlife and what happens to the human body after one passes away. Carney also uses an argument made by Aaron Spital and James Stacey Taylor in their article, “Routine Recovery of Cadaveric Organs for Transplantation: Consistent, Fair, and Life-Saving,” published by the American Society of Nephrology, that states, “…the government reserves the right to draft young men against their will into war and risk their lives in combat operations” (as cited in Carney, 2007). This statement seems to constitute a fallacy in that it is drawing the reader’s attention away from the actual argument and is instead trying to play upon a sense of patriotic obligation. It is in the author of this review’s opinion that this quote is distracting from the argument and takes away from the validity of what is being proposed.
The target audience of the proposal is the American public, those that have the ability to put a policy into action to make organ donation mandatory, however the author of this review does not believe that the target audience would be completely convinced by the article that Carney has written. All in all there is a lot of good information contained in the essay, and there is definitely a problem that needs to be confronted, however the proposed solution does not seem to have been completely convincing to the target audience.
Carney, S. (2007, May 8). The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation. Wired. Retrieved March 17, 2008 from http://www.wired.com/print/medtech/health/news/2007/05/india_transplants_donorpolicy
Spital, A. & Taylor, J.S. (2007, January 31). Routine Recovery of Cadaveric Organs for Transplantation: Consistent, Fair, and Life-Saving [Electronic Version]. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 2, 300-303.
"A Modest Proposal" - (Reading response - Week 7)
In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “A Modest Proposal” (1729), Swift makes a wild and far-fetched proposal to the people of Ireland to eat the young of the poor people. He proposes several reasons for this solution to the problem of an over-abundance of poor people living on the streets of Ireland. However, it is the opinion of the author of this review that Jonathan Swift did not successfully answer the question of how to pay for the rearing of the children. Therefore the argument is not truly effective.
At the same time, it is in this authors opinion that the solution given within the proposal was not in fact meant to be an actual answer to the problem, instead it was a call to arms for the people of Ireland to begin thinking about the growing problem of the poor, and to perhaps come up with some answers to the problem at hand. The solution itself is not that persuasive, however the emotional reaction to the solution itself is persuasive; therefore overall I believe the proposal served its purpose well.
The target audience of the essay is the people of Ireland, and it seems that there is a glaring propensity within the essay to speak directly to the rich and well off citizens as a whole. The overall response to the essay was probably one of shock at first, however once the initial shock value wore off I would assume that many of them began to look closer at the problems facing the country.
Swift, J. (1729). A Modest Proposal. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from
http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
At the same time, it is in this authors opinion that the solution given within the proposal was not in fact meant to be an actual answer to the problem, instead it was a call to arms for the people of Ireland to begin thinking about the growing problem of the poor, and to perhaps come up with some answers to the problem at hand. The solution itself is not that persuasive, however the emotional reaction to the solution itself is persuasive; therefore overall I believe the proposal served its purpose well.
The target audience of the essay is the people of Ireland, and it seems that there is a glaring propensity within the essay to speak directly to the rich and well off citizens as a whole. The overall response to the essay was probably one of shock at first, however once the initial shock value wore off I would assume that many of them began to look closer at the problems facing the country.
Swift, J. (1729). A Modest Proposal. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from
http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
A Case for Glass (Essay #2 - Rough Draft)
The landfills are filling up and soon the earth will be one large garbage heap. As time goes on people are starting to realize the impact that humans are having upon the world they live in; they are becoming more aware of ways in which they can help to mitigate the negative effects that those impacts are having upon the environment. Every inhabitant of the Earth has a responsibility to take on the role of environmental steward to the planet. Although Fairbanks, Alaska, has a few good recycling centers, the local community needs to put into place a glass recycling program because there is a large amount of glass that is going straight into landfills, littering is increased due to a lack of places to recycle, and because glass is a material that is easily recycled given the correct resources.
Glass that is put into the garbage is taken to a landfill along with the rest of the non-recycled waste. Unfortunately this waste accumulates and causes a very large amount of land to be used up as storage for the garbage as the very long process of decomposition takes place within these landfill facilities. Glass is one of the worst materials in relation to the amount of time that it takes to break down; Earth911 says, “A glass bottle can take up to one million years to break down…” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). Recycling glass offers opportunities to not only make something useful out of something that is “used up,” but it also frees up a lot of room within the landfills that could be used to store other waste products.
Littering is of course a problem everywhere, in every city in America, and in every country in the world. However, in Fairbanks, Alaska, the problem is especially bad due to the fact that there is no local glass recycling program. An example of this is the fact that the author knows first-hand that one local restaurant which will remain unnamed, dumps all of it’s glass bottles into a pit in the ground behind the building; when asked why they do this, the establishment expressed that they would like to recycle the glass but there is no way to, therefore they would rather just throw it out back then send it to the landfill. This type of an attitude is the direct effect of a lack of recycling resources around the Fairbanks area.
Glass is one of the easiest and most useful materials to recycle. An online environmental website called Earth911 says that, “Unlike other substances such as paper, glass can be recycled infinitely without any loss of purity or quality” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). This means that a product made of recycled glass is absolutely no different from a product that is made from non-recycled glass; a glass jar for instance could be made entirely of recycled glass and one would never know the difference. This is an important fact to take into consideration when thinking of how critical it is to have a glass recycling program in place in Fairbanks, Alaska.
A local glass recycling program was instituted at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2004, however it was cancelled after a year because, “…the glass recycler in Anchorage was no longer able to process the glass coming from Fairbanks.” On the Associated Students of the University of Alaska website they went on to say that they are, “…presently looking for an economically feasible method of shipping plastics to Anchorage” (Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, n.d.). This means that the local community of Fairbanks, Alaska, needs to work with the University of Alaska in finding a feasible transportation method of glass to Anchorage in order for Fairbanks to operate a local glass recycling program. This obstacle is not a huge hurdle; it is something that has not been given enough energy to in order to overcome. Some would argue that the program has already failed once therefore it would be foolish to try it again; however there is no proof of this, and someone making that argument would be committing themselves to an argument by using a logical fallacy.
Overall the idea of a glass recycling program in Fairbanks, Alaska, would benefit the community and the environment greatly. There is no reason why the people of this community cannot find a solution to the one hurdle that stands in the way of being able to recycle all the glass that is filling up the local landfills and littering the land. It is time to act; it is time for each person to take responsibility for the land that they call home.
“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” (n.d.). Earth911. Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://earth911.org/recycling/glass-recycling/benefits-of-glass-recycling/
Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://asuaf.org/about
Glass that is put into the garbage is taken to a landfill along with the rest of the non-recycled waste. Unfortunately this waste accumulates and causes a very large amount of land to be used up as storage for the garbage as the very long process of decomposition takes place within these landfill facilities. Glass is one of the worst materials in relation to the amount of time that it takes to break down; Earth911 says, “A glass bottle can take up to one million years to break down…” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). Recycling glass offers opportunities to not only make something useful out of something that is “used up,” but it also frees up a lot of room within the landfills that could be used to store other waste products.
Littering is of course a problem everywhere, in every city in America, and in every country in the world. However, in Fairbanks, Alaska, the problem is especially bad due to the fact that there is no local glass recycling program. An example of this is the fact that the author knows first-hand that one local restaurant which will remain unnamed, dumps all of it’s glass bottles into a pit in the ground behind the building; when asked why they do this, the establishment expressed that they would like to recycle the glass but there is no way to, therefore they would rather just throw it out back then send it to the landfill. This type of an attitude is the direct effect of a lack of recycling resources around the Fairbanks area.
Glass is one of the easiest and most useful materials to recycle. An online environmental website called Earth911 says that, “Unlike other substances such as paper, glass can be recycled infinitely without any loss of purity or quality” (“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” n.d.). This means that a product made of recycled glass is absolutely no different from a product that is made from non-recycled glass; a glass jar for instance could be made entirely of recycled glass and one would never know the difference. This is an important fact to take into consideration when thinking of how critical it is to have a glass recycling program in place in Fairbanks, Alaska.
A local glass recycling program was instituted at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2004, however it was cancelled after a year because, “…the glass recycler in Anchorage was no longer able to process the glass coming from Fairbanks.” On the Associated Students of the University of Alaska website they went on to say that they are, “…presently looking for an economically feasible method of shipping plastics to Anchorage” (Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, n.d.). This means that the local community of Fairbanks, Alaska, needs to work with the University of Alaska in finding a feasible transportation method of glass to Anchorage in order for Fairbanks to operate a local glass recycling program. This obstacle is not a huge hurdle; it is something that has not been given enough energy to in order to overcome. Some would argue that the program has already failed once therefore it would be foolish to try it again; however there is no proof of this, and someone making that argument would be committing themselves to an argument by using a logical fallacy.
Overall the idea of a glass recycling program in Fairbanks, Alaska, would benefit the community and the environment greatly. There is no reason why the people of this community cannot find a solution to the one hurdle that stands in the way of being able to recycle all the glass that is filling up the local landfills and littering the land. It is time to act; it is time for each person to take responsibility for the land that they call home.
“Benefits of Glass Recycling,” (n.d.). Earth911. Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://earth911.org/recycling/glass-recycling/benefits-of-glass-recycling/
Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://asuaf.org/about
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Paraphrasing and Plagiarism (Week #6)
Plagiarism is more or less the borrowing of ideas or words from someone without giving them credit or properly annotating any direct quotations. This has been something that the author of this blog has strived to avoid since first learning about plagiarism sometime around middle school. However, the idea of paraphrasing is relatively new; it is something that has always been known but not well explained to the author, therefore avoided in order to prevent himself from committing the act of plagiarism. On the other hand, the informational articles about plagiarism and paraphrasing have shined some new light on the idea of paraphrasing; therefore the author may be compelled to try out this way of relaying someone’s ideas this semester in one of his papers.
A Unique and Imaginative Work of Art (Post Secret Reading Assignment Week #6)
There is a website on the internet called Post Secret; the basic idea of it is for people to send in postcards to an address and these postcards are used in a multitude of mediums as a community art project. The site itself describes it as, “…an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard” (Post Secret, 2008). This is a unique and interesting concept which has a lot of depth and scope to it; the fact of whether all of the “secrets” that are posted on the site are in fact secrets or not is kind of arbitrary to the concept of art and expression that the project itself represents. The site responds to the question of, “Are all 180,000 secrets real?” (Post Secret, 2008) by saying, “…think of each postcard as a work of art. And as art, secrets can have different layers of truth. Some can be both true and false, others can become true over time depending on our choices…Sometimes a secret we keep from ourselves only becomes true after we read it on a strangers postcard” (Post Secret, 2008).
The site itself serves an important function; it creates an avenue for individuals to express themselves in ways that in some instances would otherwise be more or less impossible. It seems that this sort of expression has the capacity in some situations to help people in a variety of ways; for instance sometimes people hold something inside that they believe is so dark or wrong, or whatever, that they do not feel as though they can share it with anyone for fear of being rejected or judged for their thoughts or actions. It is in this type of instance that being able to anonymously tell someone, or in this case many people, of that secret may in fact help to heal that person and to possibly help relieve the pressure of holding that secret inside. There is an example of this on the website which is a card sent in by an anonymous student in reference to the feeling of fear after dealing with the Virginia Tech school shootings. It is postcards like this that serve as avenues for people to express their feelings and secrets that would possibly never be shared without such a unique idea as, Post Secret. Personally the author believes that this is a vital and important avenue of expression; after living through the horrors and life-changing experience of walking the streets of Iraq for sixteen months, dealing with the fear, the death, the loss, and the unknown, it is apparent that this site could personally provide a way to express some of the feelings that present themselves after having such an experience. The website Post Secret provides a way for people to express thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be buried within them for perhaps an eternity.
The site itself serves an important function; it creates an avenue for individuals to express themselves in ways that in some instances would otherwise be more or less impossible. It seems that this sort of expression has the capacity in some situations to help people in a variety of ways; for instance sometimes people hold something inside that they believe is so dark or wrong, or whatever, that they do not feel as though they can share it with anyone for fear of being rejected or judged for their thoughts or actions. It is in this type of instance that being able to anonymously tell someone, or in this case many people, of that secret may in fact help to heal that person and to possibly help relieve the pressure of holding that secret inside. There is an example of this on the website which is a card sent in by an anonymous student in reference to the feeling of fear after dealing with the Virginia Tech school shootings. It is postcards like this that serve as avenues for people to express their feelings and secrets that would possibly never be shared without such a unique idea as, Post Secret. Personally the author believes that this is a vital and important avenue of expression; after living through the horrors and life-changing experience of walking the streets of Iraq for sixteen months, dealing with the fear, the death, the loss, and the unknown, it is apparent that this site could personally provide a way to express some of the feelings that present themselves after having such an experience. The website Post Secret provides a way for people to express thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be buried within them for perhaps an eternity.
Post Secret, (2008, March). Retrieved March 2, 2008, from http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
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