My opinion on Genetically Modified Organism

A genetically modified organism, according to dictionary.com, “is a an organism whose genome has been altered by the techniques of genetic engineering so that its DNA contains one or more genes not normally found there. Note: A high percentage of food crops, such as corn and soybeans.” This includes many different thing, and is a very popular topic of arguments between scientist, big corporations, and the consumers.

If you look back approximately 50,000 years ago when humans began shifting over to agriculture you can see where this all started just at a more basic way. Over the past 50,000 years people have been selecting the plants with the biggest fruits or the ones that look the best. This selection has lead to all of the major cash crops around the world. If you just for example look at the modern day corn plant or maize it look nothing like the wild ancestor it use to be. The teosinte is a small about 2 feet tall plant that produces seeds that resemble modern corn, but from selection over the past 50,000 years we get the approximately 5 foot tall corn plant that produces huge seeds. I use this example to just explain that we have been genetically modifying organisms since we became modern day humans. Today we just expedite that process. Scientist select genes that code for large fruits and instead of waiting multiple generation for the change to happen they can infuse these genes for the first generation expresses it. This cuts back the hard work of selecting and breeding plants, which takes a very long time. We also selected for the animals we have today in farms and in our homes.

There is a negative side to this though. The Genetically Modified Organism business is very serious, with people patent the genes that they use, which I completely agree with due to it being a 47.5 billion dollar market (World of Corn 2018). The problem lies when companies start infusing our food with preservatives that haven’t fully been proven not to have any negative side effect. This has the government to blame due to us not using the Precautionary Principle. Sometimes these preservative have negative side effects and the people who consumed them have no way of knowing what they have just eaten. I believe we should test thing immensely before allowing its use but the big companies lobby against it for obvious reasons.

I believe the only change we need is to label Genetically Modified Organism and to educate the people the possible side effects. I also believe we should follow most of Europe’s Precautionary principle in order to keep our citizens safe, but besides that I believe it is very useful to Genetically Modify Organisms to skip the hard manual labor and time to create the same organism through natural selection.

Works Cited

“World of Corn.” World of Corn 2018, www.worldofcorn.com/#us-corn-at-a-glance.

The coyote “problem”

Due to the rising population of humans all across the world, species are starting to get pushed out. When species attempt to live within the human society they are always targeted. They usually are targeted in ways that are truly unsustainable and unethical. One species that has seen this since the beginning of human expansion is the coyote. The coyote has recently gotten a lot of attention in the United States, this has lead to many extreme actions to take place. When you think about what a coyote can actually do that causes all this negative publicity nothing really comes to your head, but in 1990 183 pet were killed in the United States, and those were just the documented ones (Connolly 1995). But those numbers are nothing compared to the money that they cost farmers. In 1990 9.9 million dollars of damages were done to just livestock alone in the US. 52,000 lamb were killed by coyotes in that year as well (Connolly 1995). But what are people doing to stop this? They trap and poison them or in places like South Carolina they create a bounty program.

The bounty program is the main point that I want to focus on. In South Carolina they tagged 16 coyotes and if you kill one you get $1000 dollars and a hunting license. Sounds like a good idea right…. No. This has been proven not to work in may places throughout The United States. The best example is Michigan. Michigan once had a bounty, which lead to the population to increase. This really doesn’t make sense to common people but when you look at it biologically of curse the population increased. With lower competition the more successful the breeding pairs were. So why is South Carolina trying the same thing? I have no clue. I believe the whole this is just a major waste of money. Michigan had to reintroduce the grey wolf to lower the coyote population. So why don’t we introduce our once native Red Wolf, because they are now on the brink of extension.

It is very interesting to see that the South Carolina DNR don’t truly understand ecosystems or even systems in general. The one thing you have to know about systems are that they are all interconnected. This just shows because due to people forcing out the panthers, and the red wolves we suffer from the problem that we do today. Instead of adapting to the problem we need to mitigate it. We need to go back to where the problem started and that is when the human population rapidly increased.

Works Cited

Connolly, Guy E. “THE EFFECTS OF CONTROL ON COYOTE POPULATIONS:      ANOTHER LOOK.” Digional Commonsdigitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewconte       ntcgi?referer=  &httpsredir=1 &article=1035&context=coyotesw.

A common thread I have re read on here is personal change. I decided I wanted to freestyle write about community change, specifically changes that can be made on the College of Charleston campus. Granted some of these thoughts and ideas may be incredibly costly but I wanted lay them out in a place to discuss. Maybe some of you have had the same ideas? Let me know I’m curious.

• As its finals week and we’ve all struggled to find tables with outlets I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have solar panel tables. Especially outside Starbucks where the weather has been so beautiful recently.
• Why doesn’t the College of Charleston Campus have a community garden? Surely there are students struggling to pay for food. Beyond this its provides aesthetic experiences and opportunities to learn about what it takes to grow food. Come on Sustainability Office! I’m sure there is some space around the Sottile House to have a garden
• CofC should build Greenhouses on campus that supply food and other plants that could be useful for studying in the natural science classes
• As part of campus combatting heat that is produced from urban environments the Campus should go white. Paint roof tops or any surfaces that can help cool (God knows Charleston could be cooler especially during the summer)
• College of Charleston should help organize Ride shares coming from Mt. Pleasant and James Island that way to reduce commuters footprint and also combat the issue of limited parking downtown
• I loved the sustain fest on George St! Even though we have the farmers market in Marion Square having the Low Country Grocery Bus visit campus 1-2 times a week would be great for students to access local produce that they may not have time to get during a busy week at school
• Because we are such a large presence in the downtown area we should switch our energy to Solar. I feel as if this was to happen we would have such a big impact on the city and hopefully inspire others to make the switch

These are just some thoughts I’ve had of changes we could make to our campus other than clear ideas about recycling and composting beyond what is normally mentioned. Let me know what you all thinkJ

The advertisement I watched was for Coca Cola. Coca Cola is known for its cans that are many times seen as litter on the side of the road.  This is what this advertisement is about. Coke is trying to create sustainable efforts to limit these littering problems. The advertisement starts off with the vice-president of environment and sustainability for coke speaking on the efforts that are being put in place to encourage recycling. He talks about how packaging is very important and it can actually lead to the package becoming waste or not. He states that when people see the package, which could be coke or not, people relate the litter issue to the company. This causes a bad image for the company. He says that their company sees that packaging can be a positive thing. They feel this way because they are using the packages to promote recycling. You have probably seen the green leaf on water and other coke products. This is in hopes of promoting sustainable tactics to get rid of litter, which in return will create a better name for coke. Coke has partnered with the company Keep America Beautiful. Their role is to place bens in public places for recycling use. There is two main funding companies that help get these bens on peoples properties. They are also using bio-plastic bottles which are better for the environment. Their hopes is to create sustainable packaging. There is not that much text and subtext within this ad, it is more informative speech. The creator of this ad is coke industry, mainly the people who work with coke environment and sustainability. “Packaging plays an essential role for our business by meeting consumer needs for convenience and portability, as well as protecting and preserving our products throughout the supply chain. Coca-Cola has a goal to prevent waste over the life of our packaging, which means we are working to support initiatives that enable our used packaging to be recovered and reused.” Their goal is to inform people of their efforts and the change that is being brought forth. The values of this article to create a positive effects and efforts shown by a very powerful company. The brings forth a lifestyle of keeping our land beautiful with whatever techniques we can use. I do not see any points of views omitted. I see the point of view of getting everyone involved in sustainable acts, from the company to the consumer. It’s both parties responsibility to be sustainable. I think everyone will take this ad positively because its helping our world out. I do not see anyone taking this ad negatively. I really like the idea behind this ad and what the message is. I feel it is important that not only should the consumers be responsible for litter and waste, but the company putting in efforts as well. This is a very good image for the coke company. I think these efforts will really make a change we can see.

Alexis Waters-Peterson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR50Vb_AWHI

The video clip I found is advertising on the topic of ecological and sustainable living, and why we should make this change now. The text of this clip is informative messages the let the viewer understand why we should start living sustainable and some ecology studies on this life style we must put in place. The clip starts off with two kids with their face painted like the earth with the text “Why Now” on the picture. Then a chart of the average person’s day is displayed with activities and the percentage of time these activities take up. There is activities listed from sleep to television use. This is really eye opening to see the amount of time useless activities take up. There is then a quote that I found very interesting from Albert Einstein. The quote basically says we cant think the same way we have been thinking to solve our problems because that same thinking has caused these problems. The video then goes on to discuss new systems that will bring forth change. It shows the broken world turning into something great with healthy trees. Different pictures of people helping in the community and doing resourceful things then are displayed. This is giving examples of what we can do for this change. The last thing that the video shows is the question “Why Now” again, and then it says “Because We Can.” The creators of this advertisement is One Community. One Community is an organization that promotes sustainable lifestyles. As explained in their bio, they are dedicated to help the community live the healthiest best life. “One Community is creating open source and free-shared resources and solutions for Highest Good food, energy, housing, education, for-profit and non-profit economics design, social architecture, fulfilled living, stewardship practices and more. The resources we are creating can be implemented as individual components or complete teacher/demonstration hubs, intentionally purposed to spin-off additional teacher/demonstration hubs as awareness and knowledge grow.” Just as explained in their bio, the goal behind this advertisement is to promote sustainable living by informing on aspects of our daily lives. The values of this organization and the advertisement hold a high standard of living, that not only is a visual but also an urge for a movement towards a certain lifestyle. The point of view in this article is change. The point of view is from seeing issues and how to go about changing these issues. I do not feel their is a point of view omitted from this advertisement. I feel some people may take this positively and negatively. The people who take it positively will see how change is needed and and can impact of lives for the greater good. The people I feel will take it negatively are those who don’t see a reason to change and believe how we are living now will not negatively impact our future. What I take away from this advertisement is the change we can make is positive and the message is also positive in my opinion.

Alexis Waters-Peterson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9i1ZB4pXCI

The article in the news I found was called Sustainable Travel: It’s Not Just About the Environment. This article focuses on programs on tourism impacts that the community faces. The sustainable efforts looks at social and economic impacts as well. One way a sustainable effort is put into place is making sure the money that tourist bring into the community is kept in that community and used for the funds needed. The article says, “travel is the first or second source of export earnings in 20 of the 48 least developed countries, according to the W.T.O., yet a 2013 report from the organization noted that just $5 of every $100 spent in a developing country stayed in that destination.”  Money in tourism is a very important contributor. In March the Jordan Tourism Board created the Meaningful Travel Map of Jordan. This project helps put in place community projects. These community projects are improvement projects. This is why the money that is spent by tourist needs to stay within the community to keep it up in a sense. An example of these projects can be seen Africa. Education is very resourceful when it comes to sustainability.“There’s a lot of people who think ‘eco-tourism’ when they hear ‘sustainable tourism,’ but that’s a piece of the puzzle,” said Kelley Louise. As mentioned in the article, educating the tourist on spending their money locally, such as buying food at local restaurants or shops. This is causing positive impacts on the economy which is correlated with sustainable acts. “Every time you have a meal, get accommodations or do activities, you can have a positive impact just by traveling,” said Paula Vlamings. Small acts that are listed for sustainable efforts include booking hotels that have a connection with charities. This article discussed hotels that give a percentage of what you pay to charities. This really helps the sustainable economic efforts. This improves the connection between the tourist and the place they choose to visit. Looking out for the community as an outside, from what i’ve read in this article, is one of the best ways to maintain a healthy sustainable economy. Also, helping out in the community can bring forth positive change. “Only when you actually get your hands proverbially dirty by rolling up your sleeves and engaging in these projects and initiatives can you really learn and understand the issues and how we can make an impact, however small,” wrote Joss Kent. There is also a project mentioned in this article that allows native people of certain villages to get a chance for schooling. Each visitor pays for a certain schooling and the program sponsors a village citizen for school. This project is under the name village ways. It focuses on the life of the villagers in this large places people visit and tour. This helps the community and the economy. I feel this article is very interesting and informative. It is good to see efforts being made to watch out for the community where travelers go. The village is very important to maintaining the beautiful places people go to travel. Taking care of the people and the community is very important.

Alexis Waters-Peterson

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/travel/sustainable-travel.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FSustainable%20Living&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=collection