Grass Root Organizations

            Grass Root Organizations play an extremely important role in shaping the community, while also making sure that they are doing everything in their power to improve the overall quality of the environment around them. Members of the Grass Root Organizations often support local causes and efforts to improve many aspects about the community by raising awareness and getting people involved within the community itself. Their main goal is to continue to help communities grow and flourish for people to enjoy generation after generation.

            Grass Root Organizations are more meaningful and sometimes more effective than the average political campaign promise. The members of the organization are actually a part of the community or neighborhood who are willing to put in their own effort and time to achieve a common goal or idea. Grass Root Organizations are gaining in popularity because they handle matters on a more personal level that directly impacts the lives of hundred of people almost immediately. Actions of the Grass Root Organizations can bring communities together because they aim to protect the betterment of the entire community instead of putting money towards projects that are less meaningful and impacting to the community. It is a way for people to be represented and heard without feeling like they are the "Little man" when advocating for a cause. If the issue or cause gets enough support locally, then it could spread even further to be supported by the state governments, and then passed onto the national levels.

           Grass Root Organizations support those who are driven to make an actual and prominent difference in the community. The key to change and improvement starts with a lot of hard work and dedication on a local level. With the right leadership and effort provided, grass root organizations can accomplish more than any government regulated movement. For example, the Ocmulgee River Initiative is a grass roots organization that aims to preserve the overall water quality all along the Ocmulgee River. The organization started locally right here in Macon, GA and now is regulated on a much larger scale. Because the local community members were genuinely concerned with the water quality of the river water around Middle Georgia, the Ocmulgee River Initiative was created to design a program to constantly keep the river as clean as possible. This allows for the river to be more sustainable for future generations while also bringing the community together by raising awareness and making an effort to keep their river as clean as possible for everyone to enjoy for generations to come.
 

Waste Production

         Everyone produces waste in one form or another. You may be the person who can go through 50 napkins in one sitting, or you may be the person who doesn't drink or eat anything unless it is out a prepackaged bottle or container. On April 17, 2014 we were assigned to record and observe just how much waste we go through in one day, and I was actually surprised to see what I discovered.  

In one day I managed to go through the following:

10 bottles of water 
1 bottle of apple juice
2 paper plates
4 plastic utensils
1 granola bar wrapper
~20 sheets of paper
~20 napkins 

          I go through a lot of bottled waters and juices on a daily basis. While on campus, I only like drinking water out of a bottle because I don't particularly like the taste of tap water. With that being said, I typically go through about 8-10 bottles of water a day and recycle all of them at the end of the week.Throughout the years I have discovered that I learn best by rewriting notes or homework problems. This explains why I go through so many sheets of paper on a daily basis. In the past I have retyped my notes that I take in class, but classes like Organic Chemistry are definitely difficult to rewrite on the computer. 

          Based on the waste produced in a single day, here are the amounts of waste I could potentially produce in a full year. 

3,650 bottles of water
365 bottles of juice
730 paper plates
1,460 plastic utensils 
365 granola bar wrappers
~7300 sheets of paper
~7300 napkins

          Using about 3,650 water bottles a year sounds a bit extreme and wasteful even if I am already recycling all the bottles. An easy solution would be to purchase a reusable water bottle that can save me more money and plastic bottles from possibly entering the landfills. I could also purchase some durable and washable plates and silverware instead of having to throw away so many disposable plates and plastic utensils. As for studying, I could still practice my same study habits with the use of a dry erase board. I wouldn't have to go through so many sheets of paper while cutting the cost of purchasing new packs of paper. I believe that with these few simple changes I could learn to be less wasteful and even save a lot of money in the process.

Life Cycle Analysis Fact Sheet for Levi's Jeans

The Value of Money

       The overall idea and purpose of money is to make trading goods and services easier and more efficient for everybody. People always have things or services that they want to sell and buy, but the idea of money carries a worth that is understood universally.  

       For example, let's say that you want to sell your car, but you also need to have your house painted. I want to buy your car, but I am a physician, not a painter. I can't paint your house like a professional, but I can provide someone with healthcare and they can pay me with money. Then, I can exchange you the money for your car and you can give the money to a professional painter to paint your house. In the end, everybody gets what they want or need based on bartering and understanding the set and told worth of the amount on the bill. 

        Many people cannot put an exact value on some items or services, that is when we have to figure out if its worth to the individual. While some people may be impressed by a particular piece of art, others may just see it as an ordinary canvas with water colors on it. There would not be a clear understanding of the worth of the piece of artwork. Money, however, has the same set worth to everyone and nobody can change the worth of a dollar bill once it has been printed.

       The actual pieces of paper have no kind of actual, intrinsic value. All of the paper bills are made from the same paper and just stamped with different numbers and presidents on it. We were told by our government that one piece of paper is worth less or more than another bill. As long as we place belief and have an equal understanding of the overall value of the dollar bill, then the system will continue to work as a bartering system.

Mumbai, India

 

        India is soon to be the most populous country in the world within the next decade. Mumbai is India's most populous cities with the densest population count of around 21,000 people per square kilometer. With so many inhabitants, many may wonder what makes Mumbai so special and a place that 14 million people call home. Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, has a rich history of diverse cultures, religions, and influences from many parts of the world.

         Early settlers first might have came to Mumbai for its rich soils and abundant supply of precious spices and gold. Because spices, such as saffron, are unique to India and still are extremely difficult to find in many other parts of the world; explorers from other countries tried to set up colonies to export goods and claim land for their homeland. With the establishment of Portuguese and British colonies, influences of Christianity began to spread throughout small pockets of the country making India a largely diverse country with believers of three major religions; Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. As more and more people began traveling to the ports of Mumbai and other parts of India, roads and railways were created to make traveling and exporting goods an easier task.

         Many of the native Indians of Mumbai might have settled in the fishing colonies along the Arabian Sea for food and basic needs. Mumbai was known to be the major seaport in that particular part of Asia, which ultimately made way for fishermen and other settlers to set up trade posts and export fish to many other parts of India and the Middle East. Many of the fishing colonies were also set up along Mumbai's seven islands that had inhabitants there since the Stone Age.

       Today, there are about 14 million people living in Mumbai. Mumbai is known to have the greatest growth in economic and educational development. With this in mind, many people may choose to move to Mumbai for a better opportunity to improve their lifestyles by getting a better education and finding jobs within the city that can support an overall better life. It is also the center of many religious pathways because its home to many large temples that were built thousands of years ago. The climate is fairly moderate all year long and everything is accessible because of its very urban location.

Rachel Carson

When it comes to the environmental movement, marine biologist and author, Rachel Carson led the way when she expressed her concerns of using synthetic pesticides. Rachel Carson had the opportunity to start her own environmental movement through her book, Silent Spring. When Silent Spring was first published in 1962, many chemical companies began to lash out because of her accusations, but in the end, Carson's concerns were not ignored. She also believed that the advances in technology would cause many consequences that would lead to chain reactions of permanent damage to the environment and human health. For example, the pesticides would not only kill off the insects in the affected areas, but it would also kill of the animals that depended on those insects for food and survival. This would ultimately cause detrimental damage to the ecosystem and cause many different species to die off.

Rachel Carson managed to promote a policy that banned the use of harmful pesticides. She even led the way to help create the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that protects the well being of humans and the environment as a whole in the United States. Her protesting helped the Environmental Protection Agency establish a few laws and policies to help preserve the natural environment from destructive chemicals. Carson also believed that the chemicals would not only damage the ecosystem and environment at that time, but that it would also stop the overall production of new life forms in the near and distant future. With her help and determination, there are now laws and regulations that put the needs of environment first to make the world a more sustainable for future generations.

Capitalism vs. Socialism

In simple terms, capitalism is the economic thought process that focuses on having a free market. The economy would be beneficial for those who naturally rise on their own economic wins if the government did not play an important role in deciding where and how the money should flow. However, there are those who are unlucky in the economic world that often find themselves on the other end of the spectrum with little to no financial help.

Socialism on the other hand focuses more on uniting groups of people together, while also creating more economic equality through social programs such as welfare, free healthcare programs and education for the elderly and children who struggle in poverty. Socialism also implies that in order for such programs and benefits to exist, the government must play an important role in regulating where the money comes from and how it should be distributed throughout the country. The government would have the means to raise taxes among the rich to provide funding for the poor. 

According to Simon Dresner's book, The Principles of Sustainability, methods of capitalism are not as sustainable as the methods of socialism. Capitalism is seen as a more personal way of handling issues where people often believe that "every man is for himself." People would chose to focus more on their own problems, successes, and growth instead of paying special attention to the bigger picture of sustainability. Capitalists such as Thomas Malthus wanted to focus on economic growth by raising the standard of living for individual families. Socialists such as Karl Marx wanted to focus on preserving power and control of not only the economy, but also the environment, to meet the general and basic needs of humans. He explained that growth is very limited and that supplies should only be produced and consumed if it is beneficial for many people or in multiple ways. The idea of socialism is to gather people together and have them see the bigger picture of their world now and where it is headed in the near and distant future. This is why the idea of socialism fosters a better plan for sustainability.