"Study says plastic decomposes at sea"

Many scientists have declared that plastic does not decompose. Recent studies have declared the opposite, it has been declared that plastics do decompose in the sea/ocean. Even though plastic does decompose in the ocean it does not mean its a good thing. In the other hand plastics do decompose but during that process it produces toxic gases to the environment, such as bisphenol A and PS oligomer. These toxic gasses can disrupt functioning hormones in animals. The worst outcome of the article is that whether plastic decomposes or not it damages our environment; letting us know that the production of plastic should stop for the sake of the Earth. Why they are decomposed? Plastics are decomposed because of they are exposed to the rain and the sun. Unfortunately, yes it is rising another issue of global contamination.
IMPORTANT FACT: Between California and Hawaii, in the Pacific Ocean, plastics are being swriled by currents into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, at the location mentioned.

COAL: A Human History (p.103-p.162)

At the beginning of this reading my first rxtn was, argh!! more history, United States/North American history; it opened with the British coming to North America and finding nothing but TREES. Even though this chapter was still full of more COAL, I would like to share some pictures that I encountered in my reading since, in my opinion, this would bring some interest to the history of COAL.


Bone-softening disease: children were prone to this because of the smoke-filled slums (caused by lack of sunlight)









Pittsburgh covered in smoke, due to the coal mines (1913)

There were more images which I could not add, but this are some of the causes that the use of coal in its beginning was so damaging to the health and the surroundings of the people that lived in cities who worked with coals.

One thing that I forgot to mention was how coal was first being transported and as technology advanced it made its changes. At the beginning people transported coal in small boats in which they struggled a whole lot. Usually a great part of the coal being transported was a waste singe barrels of coal fell to the sea. They also struggled when a boat had a whole they had to figure out a quick way to fix it, usually by covering it with some of the clothing they were wearing. As the advancements were being made coal began to be transported by trains, which was better option.

COAL: A Human History (p.43-p.101)

To be honest at this point, I really do not know what to write about this book. The main subject for the past four chapters is just COAL, the author does not do anything else but talk and talk about coal. Off course it involves a whole bunch of history and its been really hard for me to retain most of it (not an expertise in history). But in this blog I will just give you some key points about some of the history and dates that I learned during this chunk of the book.

• After coal had been used for just burning fire, since 1306, finally in the 1700s the the steam engine was created; after 394yrs coal was used for turning fuel into motion!!!
• In the seventeenth century coal mines, has been one of the most dangerous workplaces in history, its hard to imagine any other than the coal mines. The workers were risking their lives every time they entered their job, risking to loose their lives if, for example, the ceiling would collapse or the mine would explode.
• Underground water was very dangerous to the miners and to the citizens. The water in the mines was so dangerous that it almost caused the closing of the mines, but the nation had already becomed so dependent to coal.
• Even though in the nineteenth century Manchester was known for it cotton industry, it was coal what charactirized the city. The city smelled, and had coal all over, it also began to develope factories.
• Coal has covered the air in cities such as London, for one full day.

Its interesting how knowing all the dangers that we face by using coal, we do not take any actions in trying to make a change. By using so much coal, not only are we hurting the Earth but we are ending with a non-renewable resource, that we are dependent on and that if one day we ran out of it our lives would have to change drastically. This would even change our lives in a way that we would have to learn how to live without electricity.

CAN YOU IMAGINE OUR WORLD, HOW WE KNOW IT TODAY, WITHOUT ELECTRICITY?!

COAL: A Human History (p.1-p.42)

This book begins talking about when coal first begann to be burned, and that was the summer of 1306 in England. (Nobles were comparing the smell of burning coal to that of the usual stenches of the medieval, such as: the unsewered waste, animal dung and the rotting waste. Then nobles said that the burning coal smells worst that the medieval stenches.) But at that time the nobles led demonstrations of how bad the new fuel was, therefore King Edward I banned the burning of coal. When I read about this I was thinking how different would our lives be if the ban had not been lifted, in the 1500s. One thing for sure our Earth would not be facing this crisis now, global warming.

The author Barbara Freese mentions she was part of a trial, since she is an environmental attorney in the state of Minnesota. With this she mentions that representatives of the nation's coal industry brought scientists that said "that Minnesota should ignore what the vast majority of their colleagues around the world were saying... that the climate was not changing except in small ways we were all going to enjoy" (p8). This comment was very naive, and could cause dangerous outcomes for the Earth. In this chapter it also mentions that the United States uses lots of coal in order to produce electricity; therefore the U.S. has a large contribution with global warming.

While continuing reading I learned that citizens in Rome used coal as a fashionable item, and they wore it as clothing. I found this fact interesting because who would like to use that object now days that is known to hurt our environment. Another fact that captured my attention at the beginning of the chapter was that some used coal to burn the dead.

I was also very impressed when it began talking about the world before the plate tectonics began to move and the water levels began to change. It impressed me to find out that there were trees that reached up to 35ft high, they were called lepidodendron. Another amazing thing that was mentioned was that during this time the dragonflies had an amazing size, just imagine their wings widespread measured 30in.

During this reading I also learned some facts about the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. This began in Europe when a ship arrived to the Sicilian Harbor in October 1347. Before this ship arrived the Bubonic Plague was already devastating the population in China, India and the Middle East.

At the end of this reading, the acceptance of coal was different from the beginning of the book. In contrast to the beginning of the book, when Londoners did not tolerate coal, by the mid-1600s they were desperate to have it. This was expected, but imagine how different our world would be nowadays if coal would have never been accepted. I know that we might of not had the commodities such as electricity, but would we be facing global warming and the climate change in our world. How different would it be that we would not be putting in danger the life of our earth.

About Me:

Well first things first, my name is Zurizeidi Ocampo; but I would prefer for everyone to call me Zuri. I am 17 yrs old, and a senior at LMSA. I am looking forward into meeting all my peers and learn from them as well.

About my family: I am the oldest daughter, I have a 16yrs old brother and a 2 yr old sister. I am still very attached to my family, even though I may say that I can't stand them and stuff like that, I know that I love them and wouldn't be able to live without them. One thing you should know is that I will always put my family before my friends. I still like spending time with them and having "family time."

About APES: I am really looking forward in spending some time learning about the environment in APES. Last year I took AP Biology in which I had an incredible experience, and that's what encouraged me to join APES. I know that with the help of Ms. Brown, I will be able to succeed. I know the one thing that I might struggle with in this class might be the quizzes. From previous experiences in other AP classes, I have learned that quizzes and tests are what hurt my grade, I am not a very good test taker. Another that I might struggle with are time periods. Overall I am expecting to have fun while learning about our Earth. I am expecting to become aware of most of the things we are doing to damage our world and what actions we can take in order to stop hurting it.

I am excited for this class to begin. Hope all of you have a great time in your summer. Enjoy yourselves and be safe.