Earlier this week I was feeling bold and decided to write emails to South Carolina’s legislature concerning the debate on whether or not SC should allow off-shore drilling in the near future. After conducting research into voting trends of our state senators, I noticed that Senator Lindsey Graham was beginning to vote more in-favor of environmentally friendly bills… this was a very small trend, but a trend nonetheless. I wrote to Mr. Graham telling him how I appreciated his new found concern for the environment and I hope he would continue to consider the impacts that his votes have on the planet. I concluded stating that the off-shore drilling plan could detrimentally affect the state’s $2M tourism industry if something were to go wrong. This was his response:

Dear Ms. Barto:

Thank you for contacting me regarding offshore drilling.  I firmly believe the United States must break its dependence on energy from unstable areas of the world–particularly the Middle East–but that we must also be good stewards of South Carolina’s natural environment. Safe and environmentally conscious offshore drilling can create jobs and decrease our dependence on foreign oil and gas.  I believe the question of whether to permit drilling off the coast of South Carolina should be closely evaluated, and ultimately the people of South Carolina should make the decision.  As the Senate considers this issue, I will continue to seek a balance between energy independence and the protection of South Carolina’s coast. As your United States Senator, my primary job is to understand and represent the interests of all South Carolinians.  The opportunity to hear from you about the issues confronting our nation is not only essential to representative democracy, but allows me to better serve the people of South Carolina.  We will not see eye-to-eye on every issue; however, I promise to always give your concerns the consideration they deserve. I encourage you to visit my website — http://lgraham.senate.gov — as it will have information on the most recent activities before the U.S. Senate.  You can also sign up for our e-mail newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages which will provide the latest information and updates on the major issues facing our state and our nation. Thank you again for contacting me. I truly appreciate the opportunity to hear from you and am honored to have the opportunity to represent your interests in the U.S. Senate.

Oh well, I guess you can’t win all of them. If off-shore drilling creates jobs, then who cares about what an oil spill would do to our beautiful marshlands, coasts, and marine life? Not to mention, fishing jobs – jobs related to tourism – and overall quality of life in our waters? Graham takes an L for this one, for some reason I am not sure that he would actually take my concerns seriously when it came down to making more $$$. But that doesn’t mean we should give up!!

This is an ad campaign from the World Wild Fund for Nature. Their goal is to show the human impact on animals. The animals have graffiti on them and in today’s society that is viewed as vandalism. By showing this on the animals it is telling the audience that we are vandalizing the animals by taking their homes and messing up their environments. In society we see graffiti as something that immature, disrespectful people do.  As humans we are not treating the animals with the respect that we should be and as a result of that they are dying off. Their goal is to make humans see the negative impact that we are having on these animals and become conscious of it and hopefully inspire them to make a change in order to save and protect these animals. Also, showing the effect of humans on the actual animals appeals to the emotional side of humans. Most of the time these campaigns show the impact that we have on the environment for example instead of showing a whale with writing on it, there would usually be a picture of trash in the ocean. Most people would see the trash and not really care since its just water and something that doesn’t have life. But looking at the actual creature it promotes the compassionate side of humans. I think everyone would see this picture in the same way since it is geared towards all people. Seeing this makes me sad and makes me realize how much we do not respect these amazing creatures because as humans we only worry about ourselves. We only have one Earth and we are not the only living beings on it. There is enough space for humans and animals to live together and thrive in life. The only thing we have to do is be their voice and be more aware of the impact we’re having on other animals environments. Becoming aware of our effect is the most important step and this is what this ad is showing us. There shouldn’t be graffitti on and animal, so there shouldn’t be human impact on these animals. Another thing about this picture is that this is showing more than one environment. For example is shows the ocean, arctic and the sahara. This is a way of showing that our reach is affecting all kinds if environments and all types of animals are being affected. Even if we do not see it first hand, it is still happening all over the world and in every kind of environment. This picture does do its purpose in showing us the negative effect we have on all animals and it compels us to be compassionate towards these animals and hopefully promote the awareness of this. In the end, the ads purpose is to drive you to donate to the World Wild Fund for Nature in order to make a difference in these animals lives. In the end I think the ad is well made and is an effective ad that appeals to everyone.

Plastic Bag Ban in Mount Pleasant, SC

Mount Pleasant is considering placing a ban on plastic bags and foam containers!! Why one may ask? The single use plastic bags (used for grocery shopping, ect.) are polluting our oceans, the harbor, and our creeks. It not only affects our wildlife and ecosystems but it affects us as well. Everyone loves to eat locally and everyone loves seafood. You know the saying “you are what you eat” well that is literally true. Our local sea critters are eating this plastic and foam that are getting tossed or some how land in our waterways. When we eat our seafood locally we are not only getting a good source of protein, we are also, more likely than not, ingesting micro plastics. YUCK! The Charleston Water keeper, named Andrew Wunderley, believes that action needs to be taken and it needs to be taken NOW. He says that plastic grocery bags, polystyrene, and all plastic made food containers are all huge problems here in Charleston. In South Carolina, a few beach towns have ALREADY put a ban on single use grocery bags. Isle of Palms started this trend and Folly Beach followed them. The tri-county area is not the only place who has noticed this problem, Hilton Head Island AND Surfside Beach have already approved bans on plastic shopping bags in January. The Mount Pleasant city council has a meeting next week to talk about this ban we so badly need to place. There is talk about giving out fines starting at $250 if a business does not follow the ban. Awesome! A few exemptions would be made, I believe for health code reasons, and that includes “foam and plastic bags used for: meat trays, produce and bulk items, flowers or unwrapped bakery goods, dry cleaning, newspapers, fish and frozen foods”. Also, exempt would be life savers and life vests, obviously, we need those for safety purposes This ban was considered last year but state lawmakers shot it down after long consideration. Rumor has it that the house of representatives are going to take a vote soon to decide whether or not to allow this ban, glad they reconsidered! Councilman Owens has already taken into consideration a list of pros that has come out of this ban for barrier islands that have already adopted the ban. Mount Pleasant is the 4^th biggest city in the state, so I think that it is very important that we take care of our water and our 85,000 citizens. Councilman Bustos is not so sure about this ban, but I guess we will have to wait until February 13^th for the city to reveal the final outcome. Will they follow through with this ban or will they 86 the entire idea for the second time? Twenty sea turtles taken in for treatment at the local aquarium have been treated for consuming plastic products. Although we do not eat turtles, it is cruel and unfair to these helpless animals. Our single use plastic bags are hurting out sea creatures, edible and non-edible, and also hurting us! Keep an eye out for the results of this purposed ban as it will be announced soon!!

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kLtRi-w7AUE/maxresdefault.jpg

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/mount-pleasant-to-consider-banning-most-plastic-bags-and-foam/article_51c81ba2-0aca-11e8-896a-e3d6f29c9e65.html

For my first blog post I wanted to do a documentary review. Environmental science and nature in general has always been a true passion of mine throughout my whole life. The natural world never ceases to amaze me every day. BBC network has created a beautiful art piece called Planet Earth that I’m sure many of you have also seen. It takes them years to make these films due to the unpredictable actors in their films, which consist of animals and plants around the world. Their first documentary series was released in 2006 and took four years to create, traveling to over 64 different countries.

The most current series though, is the main topic for my blog entry. Planet Earth 2 was released in 2017 and took 2,089 days of shooting, about 5.7 years to make. They traveled to over 40 countries to capture the most epic and meaningful clips of the natural world that all eyes should see. Throughout the most recent series David Attenborough, the creator shined a light on how much the earth has been changing in the current years. This was different to the first series. It became apparent to the filmmakers that things have truly changed in the environments although they had seen them no longer than ten years ago. The documentary is split up into episodes due to its length. They categorize the episodes based on the ecosystems. For instance there are different episodes for forest, oceans, desserts, etc.  This is the same between both Planet Earth 1 and 2, but an additional ecosystem was added to this most current ecosystems. This was Cities. They show how certain animals have adapted to our man made ecosystems and how their environment was destroyed but monkeys for example, have been able to learn how to survive in a concrete jungle.

I love that Attenborough added these small changes in his filmmaking to make a huge impact and open the eyes to people who might not be able to see the actual effects of the human impact and climate change due to the anthropocene. I feel our society separates themselves from the natural world and every other creature that shares the planet with us. This makes it easy for humans to not care if their ecosystems are deteriorating because it won’t affect them directly. This is a very close-minded way of living life and this documentary has the ability to educate people of what isn’t right outside their front doors. Many people live in very urban communities with little nature or recourses to be able to immerse themselves in nature. This documentary is available on Netflix, which in this day and age, the mass of people have, this means they now have an opportunity to learn about all of the environments and ecosystems and all of the species within them. It may not be as rewarding as being in these areas, but the quality of this film is unbelievable and actually demonstrates certain thing that one would not be able to experience even if they were right in the forest. For example, one technique these filmmakers use is time-lapse film. This is where they leave a camera recording a plant or mushroom or what have you for a long period of time, months even, and then speed up the film. By doing this one can view the whole lifecycle of an organism in as little as thirty seconds. The creators of this film have an obvious and true passion for what they are doing and are sharing a true gift by letting the public experience this art piece of a documentary.

This documentary like previously mentioned is available on Netflix.com or for more information you can visit http://www.bbcearth.com/planetearth2/

http://www.bbcearth.com/planetearth2/gallery

My media analysis is on an advertisement that focuses on the sustainability and the impacts we, as a population, have on the earth. There is text throughout the duration of the video that explains what has been done to earth and what change can be put into place to fix these negative impacts. The video has no spoken words, so the information conveyed is completely dependent on the text given on each slide of the advertisement. This seemed to be a good strategy because I had to pay close attention while watching the video in order to understand what was being explained. This tactic also was successful in keeping my attention because of the images that was presented behind the text. Some of the images were very detailed and allowed me to see the devastation clearly. This ad was created by the company called Bioengineering Group in thought of Earth Day. The main goal of this ad is to convey to the public viewing the issues that are surrounding global sustainability. The goal is to give a visual of what these impacts look like in different areas in nature such as land and aquatic life. The main value represented in this ad are to know the issues and not to ignore them, not to sit around and watch it happen. This is based on a lifestyle of taking charge. When you see something wrong, you do what is in your power to fix it. In this case we see disaster and the video is showing we can not ignore it. The point of view is from a negative view point. I do not see much of a positive message as to what we as humans are doing to help this issue that has turned into a large problem. People might see this and feel somewhat offended due to the drive of the message that we are causing these issues. No one likes to have the blame on them even if it is true. Aside from the feelings may have, I think this video is more from an educational standpoint and just meant to inform. The video starts of with the pictures of pollution that is being caused worldwide. It then goes on to explain how short of a time we have been on this earth when compared on a large scale. This was the same thing we learned from the video in class. it also informs the viewer that we have changed earth’s surface faster than nature has. This fact surprised me. Next, the video defines sustainability which I found very helpful because some may not know what that definition is. The video then ends with motivation to change our ways to promote sustainability. This video was very easy to understand, and the message was clear. The ad did its job of educating and informing the problems just by pictures and a few words. I felt motivated by the end of watching it to go out and make a change!

-Ayanna Starks

Last year I moved to Charleston from Myrtle Beach. I had to get used to the changes that I needed to adapt to, and it wasn’t a quick transition. I am still working on living on my own, having roommates, and living in an area that is condensed. By being “condensed”, I mean that I am not used to everything I need in walking distance. This has been very convenient, but I am also used to driving everywhere I need to go- whenever I please. I live off of Coming Street, which is very busy and it’s hard to find parking. So, whenever I do make the leap to get in my car and go, I struggle to find a parking spot when I return back home. There are many struggles that come with parking and driving here. Therefore, I have been trying to refrain from it. In the beginning of my move, I would drive to get food on King Street, or order delivery because that area is over a mile from my house. Sometimes I did not feel like walking or riding my bike, so I just took the “easy” way (or what I thought). When I realized that it was not only difficult to drive around here, but more trouble than it’s worth, I began to walk to class, the store, and anywhere else I needed to go. Not only was this good for my health and my wallet, but also for the environment. I learned this, after I found out what my ecological footprint was, and looked in the details. Transportation was the 2^nd highest thing that was impacting my footprint, which justified my change that I had made recently. Driving is not good for the environment because it run on fossil fuels, which in exchange, release greenhouse gases. We talked about global warming in class, and I knew that this was a huge part of why the Earths environment is not in the best shape. Knowing that I can change something about my everyday life that I thought was so hard at the beginning, has now become easy and enjoyable. I have been driving a lot less than I was last semester, and it feels good to know that I am doing something that can help the environment. Despite when I don’t feel as active as I need to be, it hasn’t been that hard with driving everywhere. The only time I do drive is when I go to the gym, because that is in West Ashley. If you live downtown and ever have that morning that you feel like you just don’t want to walk to class or the store, think about the exercise, fresh air, and the environment. It might not seem like a huge impact, but when you get into a routine, you will notice how much you really used to drive. There are multiple benefits to walking, and being a Public Health major, I feel like it is something I should advocate for more. I have been driving when necessary, not convenient- and I intend on keeping my car parked more often.

https://iusustain.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/sustainable-advertising-2/

 Alexis Waters-Peterson

I did a blog post on media analysis because I find it very interesting when information is presented in an enjoyable way. This allows the audience to use their imagination to create an explanation of what is being displayed. I choose to further review this advertisement image that depicts sustainability largely. This certain advertisement does not include text or a subtext, I feel its main purpose is to allow the audience to come up with their own interpretation behind what is being shown. This image has a logo of a panda with WWF written under it. This is the company who produced this ad and a conservation organization. WWF stands for World Wildlife Fund, which is an organization that promotes nature and wildlife sustainability. Their mission is to not only to save natural habitats and promote actions to stop global warming, but also to save animals in these habitats that have been affected already. Showing the nature and wildlife devastation that is occurring is what one of the goals of this ad. Another goal is to show nature as the thing that provides life being slowly killed off. The trees are shaped as a pair of lungs, which lungs are known to provide air and sustain life. The deteriorating part of the lungs represent the nature being killed off. Humans need their lungs to provide air to the rest of the body to keep the body’s functions working. The air in the lungs keep the brain working. This is a perfect example of how nature works just like the picture represents. If one part of nature starts being negatively affected the rest of nature’s “body” will start having negative effects. These effects are but not limited to extinction of animals and climate change. The value, I feel, that is represented is keeping up the source of life alive and healthy before it is too late. This relates to a lifestyle that is silently suggested which is maintaining a healthy atmosphere limiting global warming effects. The point of review represented is devastation will eventually take over if we do not find a way to sustain our natural habitat. The questions I had about this image is what exactly has happened to the part of the trees that has been destroyed, and where is the location supposed to be. I want to know, has fires or just global warming caused the trees to die. I found doing a media analysis very interesting due to the room for abstract thought from observing. I really enjoyed being able to come up with my own story as to what is trying to be shared through the image. This media analysis reminded me of the in-class activity we did where we walked around the room observing and writing down what we thought of the multiple pictures around the room. When analysis this image I used some of the methods from class. I wrote down what I noticed in the picture and what it meant to me.

Introduction: 

In this blog post I will be discussing my presentation on Sea Level’s Rising, specifically in Delaware, and how this is effecting our Earth through climate change, ice caps melting, and our use of emission. As we all know, global warming is not a myth, but something happening right in front of our own eyes, and global warming has many different effects that could change the way we see the Earth in 20-30 years, and will most likely affect our next generation. An article that I would like to mention is by Penn State, and this article gives a great understanding to what global warming is, how it is specifically affecting Delaware, and how we can prevent some of the aftermath that will come of our sea level’s rising (I will link the article below!). There is also a news article I will link that talks about how Delaware specifically is being affected by the sea level’s rising, including a video on what our Earth could look like if all of the ice melted. Although it is very unlikely that all of our ice caps will melt, it is still interesting to watch the video, and see how some of our beloved cities (including Charleston), would be underwater or have land compensated for because of the sea level increase.

Summary: 

So to continue with our current discussion, I think it is important to also mention what global warming is, and what some of the reasons our ice caps are melting. Global warming as said by the google dictionary is, ” a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect cause by increased levels of carbon dioxide, and other pollutions.”. I will be focusing on the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the Earth, because this is one of the main contributions to why the ice caps have began to melt. With our Earth’s temperature increasing, our oceans are also getting warmer, which is what causes the ice to melt. Ice melting is a large contributor to sea level’s rising, because our ice caps are starting to lose density, so water that should be frozen is now being put back into the ocean, which concludes in our water’s rising. A fact from the Penn State article shows that in the years 1993 to 2008, we have increased sea level by more than one and a half times the amount of water increased in just those years. This shows us that our waters are increasing at the fastest rate yet. 

In this image (above) you are able to see the contrast between the Average Global Sea Level Rise since the Industrial Revolution, and a bar graph showing the Climate-related Contributions to Global Sea Level Rise. The first graph (left) shows us that our sea levels have increased about eight inches since 1880 because of the loss of ice on land, and with the water expanding due to the increasing temperatures. In the second graph (right) you see that there are two bars, one showing thermal expansion, and the other showing the melting land ice, both studying from 1972-2008, to 1993-2008. As shown, when the thermal expansion of the water became to rise slightly, the inches of melting land ice went up dramatically, showing us that 52 percent of sea level rise comes from our ice caps, and glacier melting.

To bring this back to the specifics of the article, places like Delaware have become majorly affected by the sea level rise, since they have a low lying topography, making them higher at risk for flooding, and possibly going underwater in total. In the state of Delaware lies a town called Lewes, which has had a 16 inch increase in sea level, making simple rain storms cause flooding, and putting land underwater. With the rising sea level, town Lewes is having to take extra precautions to flooding, including making higher barriers, so the entire town does not stay flooded. Unfortunately, because of the increase there has been predictions that show there could be a five inch increase in sea level, and for areas like this, it could cause evacuation, and major conflicts for living stability.

 Deleware Sinking, http://www.capegazette.com/article/sea-level-rising-delaware-sinking/114930

One of the most asked questions regarding climate change, or rising sea levels, is how we as citizens can stop the progress of damage that is being done to our Earth. One of the best ways we can reduce this is to lower our emission, which includes gas, and radiation. Some simple ways to do this could be through carpooling, lowering gas consumption, recycling, using less hot water, and burning less fossil fuels. All of these things are something we as a society can begin to decrease, and we could possibly see a great change in our earth’s environment, atmosphere, and overall temperature.

Lastly, the ice caps, and glaciers melting is not only harming humans, but our wildlife as well. One of the most popular species that comes to mind when we think about extinction due to polar ice caps would be polar bears. Below are many different pictures showing the unfortunate events that can happen to polar bears when they are not able to find ice to live on, and how they are starting to starve to death, because they are not able to obtain food. This world was theirs before it was ours, and because of that we should take extra care of our wildlife, making sure they are not being compensated due to our human footprint, and the negative impact we are making on the Earth.

 Google Images 

Conclusion: 

To conclude, our sea levels are rising to an extent where we are being forced to take action. Our wildlife, and land are being compensated due to the fact we are losing ice caps, glaciers, and destroying our Earth in ways that are becoming noticeable to society. There are many ways to help reduce this, but all together one of the most important things we can do is recycle, and lower our emission, so that we can begin to cool down the Earth again. If we reduced our emission we could possibly cut between six to twenty inches off of our sea level rise, and lower the overall temperature of the Earth. We must also learn how to adapt to this rise, and start funding more programs in order to solve this problem!

Video links/article links that are very helpful, and talked about throughout this blog post:

Delaware updates sea level rise planning scenarios

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/11/01/can-we-stop-the-seas-from-rising-yes-but-less-than-you-think/?utm_term=.eeed337c26ec

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180124172428.htm

Search, “What the Earth would look like if all the Ice Melted”, on youtube.