Eye-opener.

Oh hey blogging friends. I back a little earlier than usual but this has just been a week couple of weeks in 280, so I guess all I can say is, go with it. So last week we discussed environmental nonprofits and let me tell you, after doing the readings, listening to lecture and watching a very informative and eye opening video, I could not feel more naïve and honestly oblivious to all that environmental nonprofits are trying to solve. Now I knew some of the things I am going to discuss are happening, but I truly take my life for granted a lot of the time and try not to think about all that is going on and why I continue to have nice things, why I continue to be healthy and fed, why I have a roof over my head, this sector and learning about it made me truly appreciate what I have more than I ever did.

“The Story of Stuff Project” is a documentary/advocating group of videos looking at the hidden side to producing and consuming in today’s society. The statistics that were presented in this piece really blew me away and was sort of the tipping point for me in this discussion; here are some of the statistics and facts that stood out to me the most. First discussed was how the Earth is running out of resources. Now they say this time and time again, conserve, conserve, conserve, but I truly believe that now this is not a joke. The world’s population is going to continue to grow and grow and we as an entire group of people are aware of this, but still really see nothing wrong with using what we have and not considering that by wasting and not conserving we are putting the world in a worse position. I know this is something that I take for granted everyday. I know I am constantly wasting, food, electricity, and basic resources. Essential resources to survive like water, but that is all that I know and that is how I was raised. Not necessarily to waste, but use it because you have it. Not the greatest mentality, but something that these discussions have opened my eyes too. Speaking of water, the documentary, one of the statistics that stood out was forty percent of the waterways in the world are undrinkable. Forty percent. Considering that a very large majority of the Earth is made up of water, forty percent is a lot. Billions of people live on this Earth and one of the things that one must have to survive is water and without we will die, so this stat stood out to me because it can be assumed that, that number will only increase and we will probably eventually run out of water. I can only hope that doesn’t happen in my life time, but thinking about this today, made me take a shorter shower, use less water when washing my dishes, do things that I usually would have had taken for granted a little less, because I considered the affect my choices were making.
Other staggering statistic, which stood out to me, was two thousand trees a minute are being cut down in the Amazon. A minute!! I cannot even wrap my head around that. Now I know the Amazon rainforest is a large forest with thousands upon thousands of trees, but really two thousand a minute?!? How is there any rainforest left? Is this truly the sacrifice I need to make to have a wood roof over my head at night? To have wooden floors, desks, chairs? I cannot completely say that I would choose to make that sacrifice. It just blows my mind and I wish I knew how to honestly express my thoughts on it but it is hard and I’m not sure I entirely can.

Finally, the real standout fact from this documentary that stood was how breast milk, has the highest dose of toxic materials in it. How you may ask? Well when companies manufacture goods, in large plants, or whatever it may be, toxins are released into the air and as a result into our bodies, because of our dependence on oxygen. The toxins usually do not stay with us for long, but with a pregnant woman, the toxins can actually stay with her longer in her breast milk. The part that blew my mind when learning this, was that babies who are breast fed are directly receive the toxins from their mother’s breast mile because of the high dose of toxins in it. So indirectly, the companies and corporations that have released the toxins in the air are not only affecting the people who are surrounded by the toxins, but the newborns and babies that are just doing what they need to survive, drink their mother’s breast milk. This is one of those things that you just would never even consider or think about when thinking about the effects companies have on the environment, but this is such a huge part of the effects they are having. This, just like the other fact stated above, is one that I cannot fully wrap my head around. Essentially poisoning innocent newborns and babies with toxins from manufacturing plants. Wow. That’s all I can really say is wow.

This documentary/advocacy piece was extremely creative and opened my eyes more than I expected it too. I have now chosen to be much more aware of my surrounds and not as much as I can to not take too much for granted. I will live a great life and I want to make sure many generations after me can say the same thing. So until next time….