Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.5 review

Do any of you own an acne wash or cleanser with those tiny colorful beads inside? Because I do, and I was never really sure what they were. I knew what they did to my face, but I did not know what it does to our earth. Humes branches out to the issue of how garbage is affecting our ocean in this chapter. The ocean is in a way a lot like our trash cans. Once trash goes inside them, the trash seems to "magically" disappear (as we like to say in class). But the reality is that it doesn't disappear; in fact it will reappear somewhere else. Like in the shores of our beaches. Have you been to Santa Monica beach lately? There's trash all over the shore there. From chip bags to baby dippers, I have seen it all in Santa Monica beach.
 Humes discussed how plastic is one of the main objects that pollute our oceans. like the little tiny beads in our face wash. I was unaware that what I scrub my face with was indeed plastic beads. I always thought that those beads were made of an acne medicine or something, and that they would eventually dissolve. But in fact, these tiny beads are what pollute or oceans the most. You see we use these beads to melt them down into new plastic products like toothbrushes or Barbie dolls. And we have these beads shipped all over the place to make our products, so of course millions of those beads are surly to fall into our oceans for marine life to consume by mistake.
What shocked me the most was how those plastic beads contain plastic particles that can be toxic. So when fish eat these particles, we eat the fish, then we contain the plastic particles. This reminds me of Justine Parkin's video about garbage and how women's breast milk contains the most toxins. And after reading this chapter, it's no wonder why. we have to reduce our use of plastic, it's a must. We can come up with better ways to make our products.

Responce to Garbage video and article

 So maybe we really need to stop shopping so much. I was so focused on the garbage overflow situation that I completely forgot about issues that are caused by creating the things we buy that later contributes to garbage. What I related to a lot in the Video, is how factors make things to last for a little while. I have gone threw so many IPods and cells phones because they just stopped working and didn't last so I would go buy a new one. Society needs to step up and do something about all the damage we are doing to our world. We need to stop listening to "the Golden arrow" we follow so much. the arrow that brain washes us to spend on things we don't need to simply fit in. Because the reality is that if we stop spending so much, we can stop destroying our forest and oceans. In order to create all our goods we have to destroy our land to make it. And we only have one world, we cant afford to kill it. We have to work together to put an end to our world wide epidemics.

Garbology by Edward Humes ch. 4 review

 Finally after reading chapter 4 of Garbology, Humes discuses at least one solution for the garbage crisis. He begins by bringing up David Steiner "CEO of the world's largest trash company"(83). And this man is all about the money, but what was interesting to me is how he said that land fills are the solution. Then I thought "how can they be the solution? don't we want to put an end to them?" however Humes mentioned how long ago in the 70's they wanted to solve the crisis using landfills as well. By using the trash from the landfills to make new materials thus making money as well. But they didn't end up going threw with the idea because they didn't know how it would play out. "landfilling was comparatively cheap and easy, while switching to the close-the-loop system the EPA recommended so long ago would be risky and difficult, and involve unkown conversion costs"(86). Of course we would use the easy way than make a difference. Now this whole idea really got me thinking how its not to late for our world, because in reality not many of us can agree that a solution would be to buy less. America is addicted to shopping. So the next solution can be (as Humes mentions) To use the trash as fuel for cars, or energy to power cities, and yes even renewing old materials. We have the technology and scientist today to figure this out.

University crisis

The third week of a new school is finally over. And I still find myself adjusting to the University. It's been a little tough, but I have already made up my mind that I will be a Cal State University Northridge graduate. I declare my commitment to the work assigned to be, and I declare to face whatever obsticals come my way that keep me from crossing that stage. Even that math 93 test that I scored a 7% out of 100%. I will not ignore my struggles, I will face them before they shatter my goal of majoring in film. The very thought of letting my disadvantages getting the best of not only me, but my life, sickens me. I know I often tell my self "why am I taking math? I want to be an actor" or "this class is a waste of my time, I thought college was about studying what I want a career in"? But now I know that in order to get to that point, I must pass all the general education classes. Its not going to be easy, but I paying for this education and I'm going to make the best of it. I control my future; Besides, pain is only temporary.

Interview with Humes

   After reading the Terry Gross interview with Edward Humes I felt that a lot of my questions about the novel have been answered. For example, I never truly grasp the whole Methane gas concept that I would read over and over again in the novel. And after reading this interview I understood that the gas is created by the trash in the landfills as it decompose.What I also liked about this interview is that the interviewer in a sense was us the audience as he asked a variety of questions I found myself asking as I was reading threw the novel.
    Humes didn't just talk about his novel in this interview as if it was just a book. The way he explained himself to Terry Gross and to the listeners was more meaningful and insightful than if he were to explain a book about vampires for example. His reason for writing this book was to educate us and to make us think about the choices we make in our life. This is a nonfiction book after all, therefore the issues mentioned in the novel are very real and are in need of action. As you read on in the interview you can almost hear the passion and dedication to make a difference in the world that Humes has and hopes to spark into us.

Garbology by Edward Humes Ch.3 Review

      In Chapter 3 of Garbology, Humes illustrates to us the source of the issue that is overflow of trash in the world. And once again he brings to attention as to what are needs and what are wants and how this contributes to the overflow of garbage. Its no secrete that T.V is the main contribution that programs us to spend more on "needs" thus adding more trash to landfills. So why do we continue to spend on stuff that is not a necessity? Because we are persuaded to believe that all this stuff is a necessity, from the latest phone to the latest fashions. They are believed to be part of the "American Dream". "Persuading people to throw away perfectly good things in order to buy replacements promoted as bigger, bolder, and better"(64). People want more and more, and learning how to control our wants is a start to fix the trash situation. Furthermore, Humes gives us a little history lesson again, something I like to call Trash 101. He writes about how plastic invaded landfills and how the plastic found in landfills in the 60's was lower than today. What shocked  me was the fact that around the 50's and 60's there was people (scavengers) that would clean out peoples trash and use whatever they found in there to survive. However there was no need for these scavengers soon after because Garbage trucks would soon be invented, thus the growth of the land fill.