Campus Sustainability

For this weeks blog in my environmental science class we had to think about campus sustainability on RCC campus. When assessing campus sustainability it is important to think about many different factors. Thinking about energy would be the first thing I would think to assess. How much electricity are we using per building or per classroom. Another would be how many students go to RCC and how many of those students drive their own car or carpool, or could we have a program to promote carpooling? We could think about water use. How water is used in our cafeteria and how much is used in the bathrooms? We could also think about waste. How much waste are we making and how are we disposing of that waste. Looking into making sure our campus has good plant life would be important as well. Another factor could be where we are getting our food sourced from, are our foods local or not? These are a bunch of factors that RCC could use to assess their sustainability. We also had to look at another campus' assessment and survey it. In Berkeley's assessment, they used energy and climate, water, built environment, waste, purchasing, land use impacts, and transportation to assess their sustainability. The last part of the assignment is to make your own assessment plan. I would want to look into the food at RCC. I would probably interview the kitchen staff, specifically the person in charge of ordering the food. Maybe pay attention to the brands and companies that RCC orders from on a regular basis. This wouldn't have to be a long process because generally a kitchen always orders from the same company. After gathering information about the foods being used and where they come from you would have to do some research on where those brands and companies source their food from. We would want to measure how much of the food used in the kitchen is locally grown and sustainable. I would probably get permission to do this from the head of the kitchen and convince them to let me assess it for business sake. Better quality food can produce more revenue but moreso a happier healthier student. If the student is healthier then they are more likely to succeed in school which is the ultimate goal of the school at whole.

My 20 Minutes in Nature

For my Environmental Science class this week I had to go outside in nature and sit for 20 minutes and observe what I saw. My boyfriend happened to be interested in this outing so he came with me. On the walk to our spot we observed our surroundings and enjoyed the walk there. We sat down on some rocks and started the timer. I first looked for any abiotic, or non-living, things that might be in the area hoping to give those biotic, or living creatures, time to warm up to us. There was a lot of dirt of course and it was early so the ground was still a little wet. There were a few plants near by that caught my attention. There was a fairly tall plant with a green and greyish color and thick leaves with hairs on them; it had little yellow flowers. Mixed in with them was shorter stuby green plant that had lots of little leaves and little purple flowers on it, both of which I had a hard time finding a name for. I noticed a lot of these two plants and then some dead shrubs. Then I looked out further and noticed tumble weeds all over, very big ones, along with a large what appeared to be weeping willow and a large bush with red stem and large hand like dark green leaves; I also couldn't find a name for it. Then I noticed a lot of different chirping noises. I saw quite a few crows and little brown birds flying in the sky. Then two big friendly golden retrievers ran up to us and a small pudgy brown mutt dog. They said hello with some licks and then left. Then we noticed on the yellow plant that there were small grey worms with yellow spots. They were hiding on the plant and were camouflaged perfectly. Then the timer went off and we began to walk still looking out for more little critters. I did see a plant with big green leaves and tall stems with yellow flowers and across a large green leaved plant with a ladybug eating it. We saw an ant trail and two big hives, one hive had a big black ant with red and the other was a red ant hive. I saw a brown beetle that was a little speckled and fat and what appeared to be a black bee or fly with yellow spots on his sides. My favorite was the big black beetle though. There were quite a few walking around. What made me like them was that they seemed pretty smart. My boyfriend was being a brat and was pretending he was going to step on it to make me sad and mess with me. Well the little guy flinched when my boyfriend pretended like he was going to step on him. When he realized he hadn't been stepped on he ran off and hid under a plant. I got really mad at my boyfriend for scaring the poor little guy but honestly it was really cute and cool to see that the bug understood what was going on. I wish I could have found more names for these animals but I couldn't find pictures like them online. I think most of them were weeds. Here are some pictures:

Chemical Hazards

This week in my environmental science class we had an in depth discussion on some hazardous chemicals we come into contact with everyday. We were asked to research two chemicals in products we have at home and to research them and the hazards they may cause to human health. The first chemical I researched was the chemical paraben. Paraben is often in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The product that I found it in was deodorant. I had actually heard about its harmful effects a few years back and didn't think anything of it since I was young and foolish. Parabens are considered a possible threat to human health because they act like estrogen in the body. It high doses of estrogen you can have an increased risk for cancer. What I found interesting when I originally learned about parabens was that they are linked to breast cancer, but that they are only hazardous in high doses. I don't think that it is ironic that we put large amounts of deodorant with parabens on our underarms near our breasts, and that one of the biggest risks parabens cause are breast cancer. Smaller possible risks are allergic reactions but overall this chemical is not considered toxic. The second chemical I researched was sodium fluoride. Sodium fluoride is most commonly known for being in our toothpaste to prevent cavities, though is considered only mildly toxic. Fluoride accumulates in the body quicker than our body can filter it out. It is also linked to reproductive problems such as low testosterone and early puberty. Fluoride is also listed among the top 100 chemicals that are known for having evidence of developmental neurotoxicity, which simply is damage to the brain and may be associated with alzheimers and has made people question fluorides effect on the brain and intelligence. Fluoride was also found to reduce thyroid activity, fluorinated countries have a higher rating of hypothyroid than in non-fluorinated countries. Fluoride is also said to be damaging to bones and possibly lead to arthritis, and also is damaging to stomach and intestines. The second part of our assignment was to choose an item in our home with one of these chemicals and choose an alternative for them. I chose to look into other toothpaste options seeing as I don't like the idea of ingesting more chemicals than necessary. Toothpaste is very easy to make. All you need is baking soda, salt, water, and some flavoring such as peppermint, vanilla, almond, orange, spearmint oils. First mix your 4 teaspoons of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add 1 teaspoon of flavoring and a few drops of water and mix until thick paste forms. Add more dry ingredients if it is runny and store in a container. If you are not so crafty or don't have time like I don't, you can also look into getting yourself a childs toothpaste, which often leaves out fluoride or I found that toms is an option for fluoride free toothpaste. I tried it out and it works great and does not taste as strong. Also when looking into the toothpaste I found that they too have paraben free deodorant. With that remember to take time to make good choices about the products and chemicals you are willing to consume.

Biography for Environmental Science

I am Karmae Zitzner and for my Environmental Science class I get to write blogs pertaining to the material we are learning in class. My first blog however gets to be a biography. I was born in Corpus Christy, Texas in 1991 making me 22 year of age. I have lived in many place including Navado, Tahoe, Sacramento, Wrightwood, Rancho Cucamonga, and Riverside. I currently live on my own, I work full time as a barista at a local hospital. I have a pet Weimaraner named Sophie; I worked with her for 3 months in obedience training and she isn't always the most obedient, but she is the best dog I could ever hope to have. I also have a boyfriend who is super cute and is a creative writing major. I really love spending time hiking with my dog; I trained her to hike off leash and it is very relaxing taking a hike with her. I also really enjoy drinking tea and coffee, sometimes paired with a good book. I am going to school to major in Accounting. I plan on getting my bachelors and then taking my CPA, which stands for certified public accountant, exam. I plan to work in hopefully a corporate setting. I do not know which section of accounting I want to work in seeing as I like a lot of the different sections, but as I study more I know I will find which I like, I am leaning towards payroll accounting. I am taking this environmental science class in all honesty because I need some science units for my associates and this class happened to not have a lab included, which makes things easier on me with work, but I am excited to learn about environmental science anyways and am confident I will come out of the class learning something valuable. For this assignment we also were required to take an assessment on our ecological footprint. An ecological footprint is basically the amount of land it would take to provide resources and assimilate waste for a person or society. My ecological footprint was 4.5 earths to provide for me. The largest parts of my footprint are food and services. According to my assessment, I could cut down on animal food products to cut down on global acres. Using products that use less packaging or are 100% post consumer would also help my lifestyle cut down. Also, I could use solar panels and more energy efficient appliances as well to cut down my footprint.