Speedy scientific advances in the 1800s allowed humans to delegate unpleasant tasks to fossil fuels, and we began to innocently extract these resources from the earth in many different forms. There is a twist to this happy fairytale though. Human greed, lethargy and corruption drove us deeper and deeper into a spiral of addiction. We pillaged and plundered the very earth that provided for us. We grew fat, as individuals and as a race, creating unhealthy lifestyles and living conditions for ourselves. We have crippled the Earth, making it less and less supportive of life as we know it by spewing toxic chemicals into the air, destroying habitats and unbalancing ecosystems. The most impressive part? We have utterly redefined what it means to be a living creature by demanding that the Earth provide every little amenity for us at the lowest personal cost - all in the last 200 years.

To me, it makes perfect sense that the group we need to focus on educating first and foremost is children. This generation of kids will be among those facing the most drastic human-caused changes in our world that we have seen yet. It seems natural that these people should know the intricacies of sustainable living by heart. It should be their first instinct. Despite this, environmental education is still lacking severely in public school systems in high schools, let alone in middle schools and elementary schools. The EPA has given out more than 3,500 grants for environmental education programs since 1992, a nod in the right direction, but one organization giving out grant money can not turn the tide of a massive country like the United States. What we need is a revising of our priorities. Environmental education programs should not be optional individual programs, they should be mandated and integrated into schools of all economic or racial statuses. As of 2007, only 12 states require integration of environmental education and environmental literacy programs in K-12 schools. This cannot be accepted. Its time to spread successful environmental education to every corner of the United States, before its too late.

An ongoing bibliography

• Nuclear missiles, Rockets
• Food shortages
• Being cut off from the world
• People being unaware of who was leading them

Hunger according to the Oxford English Dictionary 1971 is the want or scarcity of food by someone or some where.  People may associate the main cause of hunger with the shortage of food supplies, but the leading cause today of hunger is poverty. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), 3 billion people, almost half the world lives on less than $2.50 a day, and nearly 8 million people die each year because they can’t afford to stay alive. The largest poverty stricken regions of the world are Asia and the Pacific, then the Sub-Saharan Africa, next Latin America and the Caribbean, the near East and North Africa, and last other developing countries.

Homelessness is the state of not having a constant and adequate home or nighttime residence. Homeless people may take refuge on the streets, in shelters, cars, abandoned buildings, or with friends or family. According to the National Alliance to End Hunger, roughly over 640,000 to 2.5 million people experience homelessness in the U.S., let alone 100 million and counting are homeless in the world. And of the U.S. of the homeless population, 40% are families with children, 1.37 million of the population are under the age of 18, 41% are single males, and 14% are single females. Shockingly, of the homeless population, veterans make up 40% it. The greatest cause of homelessness yet again is poverty. The other leading causes are lack of affordable housing, unemployment, substance abuse, and mental illness. In America, Alaska and California have the highest rates of homelessness. But in the world, India, Nigeria, and China have the largest homeless populations. 

There are many organizations out there to help put end to the homeless epidemic, such as the National Alliance to End Homelessness. This organization is one of the leading alliances to committed to preventing and ending homelessness. Other organizations such as Project H.O.M.E., is a Philadelphia based organization that empowers communities to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty. The Just Life is another organization that aides the homeless. It is a Christian organization that is committed to being agents of social change by living out righteousness and justice in the world.

An organization the have been founded to aid the hungry is the World Food Programme or the WFP, which was founded by the U.N. is the second largest humanitarian organization is the world that adresses world-wide hunger. The Hunger Project is also a charitable organization that is dedicated to an end in world hunger. And Bread For the World is a Christian organization that urges our nation’s decision makers to end hunger. 

Homelessness and hunger are urgent issues that should be tackled. So make your voice known. Petition the Congress to pass legislation to aid the hunger and homeless, volunteer at local homeless shelters and food banks, donate to these causes, listen to the cries of the victims impacted by these issues, just do something to make a difference. They need your help.

            The importance of eating well is an issue that resonates with me and is of importance to a big part of the world.  Whether it is because of how food tastes or because of the healthfulness of what we eat, but all of us take seriously what we eat and it concerns us that not everyone in America is able to do so.  This is why for my You and the World project I will focus on the problem of the lack of access to healthy foods experienced by different segments of our society based on socio-economic standing.  These areas of low access to healthy foods are called “food deserts.”  The US government defines food deserts as “a census tract that contains concentrations of low income people in which at least a third of the population lives more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.” (Bornstein) Some people blame this lack of availability of good food for the obesity crisis in America especially in poorer urban neighborhoods, while others assert that this lack of accessibility is overstated. I will attempt to make sense of these arguments.

            People have been talking about the problem of “food deserts” in low-income, inner city neighborhoods for over a decade now. They are considered to be the byproduct of the abandonment of these neighborhoods by the major supermarket food stores in the later twentieth century and their replacement in these areas by the proliferation of fast food chains. For many people in these areas, it is simply too much of a burden to have to travel over a mile to the nearest grocery store to by fresh fruits and vegetables.  It is even more difficult considering that most of these people don’t own cars to transport their goods in, or are elderly, or have small children to look after. Instead of eating fruits and vegetables and in general eating well, people living in these “food deserts” are living off of processed foods high is sugar and fat and washing this stuff down with a soft drinks that are mostly sugar.  The problem is that junk food is extremely cheap and readily available, while healthy food is expensive and hard to find.  An additional factor complicating this issue is that while sweet and salty foods clearly taste good, they equally as clearly are destroying the health of people living in these areas.

            A major question, however, is how real is this concept that equates the relative poor health and high rate of obesity in poorer neighborhood due to the lack of accessibility?  Until recently it was accepted by most people that the presence of food deserts was the major contributing factor to the relative poorer health of inner city inhabitants, but recent studies have raised doubts about this correlation. (Bornstein)  Other issues, such as income, education, or culture may be even more important factors, but no study can deny the obvious importance that the scarcity of well-stocked supermarkets and other groceries has on the lack of healthy foods.

Graph of citizens affected by food deserts in Chicago here

That is why efforts to offer more food possibilities to these neighborhoods are so worthwhile.  Something has to be done to offer more choices other that expensive, hard to get healthy food and cheap deadly junk food.  One of the suggestions for reducing this problem was having “Mobile pantries”, which is when they open up a stand of boxes of different types of food. These foods are donated for this purpose and they are given out for free to everyone who is there with no proof of need being required.  Mobile pantries, however, have many faults. Since it is expensive to provide free food for so many people it takes a while to gather the amount of required donations, which leads to food distribution being less frequent than people need it to be. There are so many people in need at these mobile pantries that the line is tediously long leaving some wondering if it is even worth the wait.  

The perfect solution to this vexing problem of the limited availability of healthy food in poor neighborhoods is still waiting to be tried.  It will most likely take a combination of both public and private efforts, but what we need right now is the conviction that food deserts are a serious problem needing an immediate solution. 

Many of us as teens have heard the stereotype that all we care about is what we look like who we talk to and what is going to happen next for us. Essentially the adults in the world put us in one big box labeled teenagers and let us fight for ourselves through the 3 years of middle school and the 4 years of high school. These seven years in our lives are the ones that shape and mold us. We are transitioning in our lives from children to adults. We also are experiencing many new things that stick with us for the rest of our lives. Whether it is good or bad it stays with you and affects you in some way. Sometimes it affects you in the short term and you make some decisions that aren't the best for you or the people around you. Those decisions are made based on many things that happen in these seven years or even earlier. The decision may also be based on depression and teen depression is a little special compared to other depressions.

The things that influence our decisions in life can be from something so small like someone telling you that they think you should do this or that to something as a person who is very close to you dying. The decisions make us the way we are and when you are depressed your mind isn't in the correct mindset for you to be making big decisions. If you are depressed and you are a teen it can make your decisions a little more rash than one of an adult. The Facts say that self harm is most common in Girls From ages 15 to 24. Thats is what makes it interesting though because if you just search Anything with self harm in teens the search automatically goes to teen depression in girls and those are all the suggestions too. One statistic on teen suicide, I found that is very interesting is that boys are 4x more likely to die from suicide than girls. However, the girls are more likely to attempt suicide. So the boys are more likely to complete a “successful” suicide than girls but the girls attempt more times than the guys.

All freshmen students in Ms. Dunn’s English class have a new engaging and fascinating project called “You and the World”. For my “You and the World” topic, I chose immigration laws and reform. Why, you ask? I have been interested in immigration for a very long time. Firstly, my whole entire family immigrated to the United States from Russia before I was born. Including all of my siblings and cousins. That had me curious about the process of moving to a new country.

I went to a Jewish middle and elementary school. At school we learned a lot about the Holocaust and that sparked questions about where Jews and other groups of people went when they were persecuted in their hometowns. Surely they would not stay, but they also could not legally immigrate to most surrounding countries because Hitler had such a powerful influence. I started wondering about immigration and restrictions for those two reasons. Now onto to modern day USA immigration laws! Hoorah!

For several years now, the United States has had many disagreeing opinions about immigrants coming into the States; mostly feuds about Mexican immigrants crossing over the borders and living here illegally. There seem to be three major sides to the arguments about immigrants.

            The first being typically one of more conservative working-class citizens. These people believe that we need to act harshly and immediately take action towards removing illegal immigrants that are here already as well as enforcing very strict border protection. These people are mostly worried that there will not be enough job opportunities because these immigrants are taking all of the jobs.

            The next opinion is one of the most liberal kinds of people. They believe that it is cruel and inhumane to deport people from a country. This include not letting people in or out as well. They support the arguments that people have certain rights that they are always entitled to and to kick one out of a country would violate those intrinsic rights.

            Finally, there is a medium opinion. This side of the argument actually has Obama on their side as well! These people think we ought to apply the existing laws to all of the illegal immigrants that are here today, yet secure our borders as well. They want to keep the 12 million Mexican immigrants here, but not let any more in illegally. 

This image shows a sign that is by the Mexican/North American border. It is really unpleasant and cold. Though I am not particularly fond of it, I think it is quite necessary. 

In his first term president Barack Obama did not make many changes towards immigration reform. Yet this was not completely his fault. President Obama had tried to pass new laws yet congress would not pass them. However, this term President Obama really tried his best to appeal to Mexican and Hispanic voters. We still do not know whether he will stay true to his word, yet we all hope he will.

            In the past, Mexico and North America did not have such a great relationship. They could not communicate well and there were many disputes and they sparked much unpleasant publicity. However, the new president in Mexico is willing to take a different approach to compromising and the future seems bright.

            In my blogs to come, I will inform all of you about how immigrants will be affected and have been affected by immigration reform. I also hope to educate you about ways you can make a change. We will go through this process together, and I hope you enjoy learning about this crucial topic with me. 

The definition of “world” is The earth, together with all of its countries, peoples, and natural features. Animals are part of this world, fitting into the category “natural features” and yet some shelters are not exactly fair when it comes to a subject that happens to everyone eventually. The sad part is, some animal’s fate comes too soon. Animals are euthanized every single day as a result of overpopulation or careless mistakes.

Can you possibly believe that 56% of all dogs accepted into shelters are killed? It was estimated that approximately 3.7 million animals in total are euthanized every year. Look at it this way: There are roughly 315,000,000 people in the United States alone. If 56% of humans were euthanized every year, we would be killing 16,800,000 people. That’s a lot of people with individual lives and personalities and experiences. Dogs are alike in that way. Each dog has a special life worth saving. Each dog has a personality that you can come to love. Each dog has a different experience in their life that shapes who they are as an animal.

I’m not trying to convince you that dogs and humans are identical. I’m trying to convince you that dogs are animals, just like humans, and there are too many similarities to be euthanizing them at alarming rates. The following is a photo of the conditions at a shelter with a high kill-rate.

This is a photo of a high kill-rate shelter. The conditions are cramped, and there are many animals in one place. It's not very sanitary, either. Credit goes to the website for this photograph. Click here for the website.

Many animals in shelters are fortunate enough to be adopted into a loving home and receive affection and care. Unfortunately, accidents happen. Pets are lost, and families become devastated. There was a reported story that a man needed to leave home for business and asked his friend to watch his litter of puppies for him. To his surprise, when he came back, the friend had accidentally let the puppies escape and they had been brought to their local shelter. They called the shelter many times without getting an appropriate response. The puppies were euthanized, and the shelter’s spokesperson gave misleading information to the press regaurding the situation. The owner was so devastated that he was admitted to the hospital for symptoms of a heart attack.

Events that are easily preventable should be avoided, because the lives of so many innocent animals are lost every year. It’s up to the people at this point. Should we be helping? Of course! Animals need help from humans. After all, using the words of the ASPCA, “We are their voice.” Only humans can speak for the animals that deserve homes and shelter non-permanently until they are able to find an adoring and devoted family that the animals deserve. The PSPCA helps with animals from Pennsylvania.

There are three types of shelters for animals: Municipal animal control agencies, which are run by more local sources. Private non-profit, which have a board of directors and do not keep any of the profit. Private non-profit agencies, which have a permit from the government to supply animal control services. Through the help and association from these three types, animals can at least get a temporary home to shield them from the cold and provide them with food and water.

For a copy of my bibliography, please click here.