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Showing posts from November, 2023

Activity 4.2 Environmental Policy Frameworks

  The Ohio Antidegradation Case The Drake Chemical Case The Quincy Library Group Case Gain/Loss Frame Views of Nature Frames Economic Framework Basically in 1972 the Clean Water Act required states to define their water quality standards. The Ohio case was a gain/loss frame, because both groups where fighting in court what they wanted the policy to be, yet due to potential loss/gain from both sides they just stopped, and left the case as it is. This was a chemical production company back in the 1940s and early 1980s. The company would dump chemicals into the lagoon and got told by the Department of Environmental regulation that they had to stop doing that. Since the facility didn't want to accept the environmental policy they filed for bankruptcy, and abandoned the facility by stating that “complying with the new regulations  would be prohibitively costly”. This framework is a view of nature, because these individuals working that facility were not perceiving the effects of human i

Activity 4.1 - US Environmental History and Major Regulations

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  In this week's module I learned about the history of environmental change throughout the US. I think it's important to know our history, especially now that climate change is becoming a more serious issue. I spend a lot of time on social media like Tik Tok, and I see a lot of the things that are going on in the world in terms of news, politics, the environment, etc. When learning about history we as a society should learn what has happened throughout the years to where we are now. I see things on the internet like Antarctica is melting, many wildfires, extreme heat, no potable water, etc. While I was reading the articles for class I learned that back before the internet even existed, people really didn't have to worry about pollution, or waste. The reason due to this, is because back then it wasn't as populated as it is now, and technology didn't exist. In the article it states “When one stand of trees was consumed for housing or fuel, another was nearby; when one

Activity 3.3.3.1 Current Events In Plastic Pollution

  1. Exploratory I wasn't able to find any recent articles about plastic pollution, but the latest article I was able to find is from CNN. The article is titled “More than 170 trillion plastic particles found in the ocean as pollution reaches ‘unprecedented’ levels”. This article mentions how the ocean is deeply polluted, and that it is increasing at a high rate. This is an issue, because plastic contributes to our huge climate problem. In terms of what we have been learning  in class is about the environment, and maintaining it healthy. This can only be done if we as a community help keep the earth clean. The article also mentions how by 2040 there will be a 2.6 rate increase in how plastic gets into the ocean.  2. Diagnostic The way that plastic is getting into the oceans is from land, getting swept by rain, rivers, etc. Thus happens, because people can be careless and just litter their trash. It can also be due to landfills being full, that there is no space other than to dump t

Activity 3.3.3 - My Plastic Use

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 Short Essay:  In this module I learned more in depth what microplastics are, and their effects to the environment. To begin microplastics come from plastic, and we've been using plastic since the 1950s, so around 65 years. Plastic takes 20-500 years to decompose, but over time that plastic will brake down into smaller pieces to what scientists now call “microplastics”. Microplastics, which are plastic particles, or fibers smaller than 5 millimeters in size, are one of the many are one of the many reasons for the widespread use of microplastics in our society. Due to their miniscule size, microplastics are not able to be removed by wastewater treatment plants. Wastewater treatment plants is something I learned in the last module, which was very interesting, because I learned how sewage water gets cleaned to get released back into the environment. However, learning about how microplastics don't just disappear with a wastewater treatment plant made me realize that they are so sma