Most people don’t know or understand how bad it really is. It will take a lot of awareness and laws to make a national change. Most of our timeworn computers and devices end up in landfills, burners or are shipped to foreign continents. Kingsolver often emphasizes the limitations on natural resources and not recycling electronic waste continues to put restrictions to our resources. Because the electronics we use contain toxic chemicals and other dangerous heavy metals, when the e-waste is dumped into landfills, these toxic chemicals can seep in the soil and pollute our water supplies. This process is not only life threatening to the ecosystem and wildlife, but it’s also dangerous for people living in nearby communities (McGinnis, “Benefits of Recycling”). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has statistics approximating that more than 2,000,000 tons of old electronic appliances are not being properly disposed of each year. Between 2000 and 2007 about 500 million personal computers became outdated and were thrown out (McGinnis, “Benefits of Recycling”). When these toxic chemicals enter the troposphere, people and the environment are at risk. Different ideas have been mentioned regarding what to do with all this e-waste. Crazy ideas such as sending it up into space are mentioned, but an easy option is to send it to an e-waste recycle plant. This must be enforced by laws for people to consider this…
In the article “High Tech Trash” by Chris Caroll, Caroll explains the effects of e-waste (electronic trash). The article mentioned how most electronics that are thrown out, donated to charity, or even recycled still end up in developing countries. “While some recyclers process the material with an eye toward minimizing pollution and health risk, many more sell it to brokers who ship it to the developing world, where environmental enforcement is weak” (Caroll 81). This causes our e-waste to affect other families around the world who worked who most likely worked in sweatshops to produce the products that are being sent back to them. When this should not be the case other countries should not have to pay with their wealth to take care of our…
While putting off the farming, this cost and lose a great deal of money to the economy. However, there is another way of getting the water and it is from underground, this is where farmers use the method of digging deep under the soil to get the water. Here is another problem, when this method is used, it can be caused major destruction to the environment and leads to another issue. It is like a never-ending domino effect of one dilemma after another. In one of the Core reading assignment, farmers from the Valley discussed the usage of with the groundwater system. The article is called, “Farmers say, ‘No apologies,’ as well drilling hits record levels in San Joaquin Valley”, it explained some problems with property rights, the cost, and workers with the regulation of how the water should be in the agriculture with government. It first stated, “As farmers ramp up drilling and install larger, more powerful pumps, aquifers that had quietly flourished beneath the soil for thousands of years are dropping at dangerous rates” (Sabalow, Kasler, Reese, 2). The cost of pumping is low and there will is no loss of evaporation but the supply form groundwater is pollutants have a long residence time. The groundwater is renewable only if it has a…
being madly in love with a girl named Rosaline just a few days earlier. Upon first seeing Juliet,…
Susan Signe Morrison’s essay titled “Waste Aesthetics: Form as Restitution” is an example filled article that argues that literature plays a huge impact on the way in which we see waste. Morrison begins with explaining that in society, waste is seen as the “Other” therefore suggesting that waste has become something that humans don’t associate with, creating the idea that there is no connection. But, Morrison introduces the concept that no matter how hard we try, there will always be a connection between “us” and the Other. She determines that literature will help us in seeing this connection; “Literature enables culture to acknowledge what it has to deny” (Morrison, 464), through both a material sense and a metaphorical sense. The materiality…
The French Diet, French Women Don’t Get Fat, and Mastering the Art of French Eating are all titles found in American bookstores. It seems our society has an obsession with the French and the way they eat. It is also how author Mary Maxfield begins her article “Food as a Thought”.…
Waste and Land Pollution: Toxic waste, such as the placement of electronics into landfills on a wide scale basis, is a major issue but all areas of waste are of concern. All waste ends up leading to the other types of pollution and causing problems for the environment in addition to taking up much-needed land space.…
Technology has produced e-waste at rapid rates that is just piling up because it is deemed outdated and useless. Our soil is now rich with plastic. Our oceans are the dumping grounds for all things waste including nuclear waste, human waste, and trash. The ice is melting, oceans are rising, weather is chaotic, forests destroyed, life is becoming extinct. Why is this the norm?…
Electronic waste makes up to 70% of toxic waste. When Alex Lin heard this he wanted to reduce the amount of E-waste in the world. In takepart.com Alex states, “I don’t see anything uncommon of it, My friends and I have been doing this since fifth grade. It’s become part of our life style.” This quote proves Alex Lin is a teen activist because he is doing what he thinks is right and will not stop until he fixes the E-waste problem. Alex Lin held a Metech International to hold an E-waste recycling drive that collected over 21,000 pounds of electronics to have the daily E-waste and recycle it properly. However, once Lin and his team discovered that reusing computers was much more efficient than recycling, they decided to create a computer-refurbishing program. “To make this sustainable,” says Lin in takepart.com, “we worked with the Westerly School System to incorporate A+ Certified Computer Repair class’s curriculum.” He has used refurbished computers to create media centers in developing countries like Cameroon and Sri Lanka to foster computer literacy. E-waste, or electronics garbage, is the fastest growing section of the U.S. trash stream. In 2007, Americans discarded more than 112,000 computers daily, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Alex and his team tried to pass a bill to stop E-waste but The bill didn't pass. “We are disappointed; we had put in all this time and they didn’t listen to us.” says Brodie in takepart.com. Though there's no federal law banning E-waste, although 20 states have passed legislation mandating statewide E-waste recycling. The state of Rhode Island, were Alex lives, has passed a law of dumping electronics thanks to Alex Lin. This shows Alex Lin has made a difference because without him nobody would have tried to cause a federal law stopping E-waste in many states and countries. Since…
Waste Land is a documentary about finding beauty in things that people discard. Directed by Lucy Walker, the film follows Brazilian artist Vik Muniz who travels back to his home country from New York City to create artistic photographs shaped by using garbage that depicts the lives of the pickers who live in the largest landfill in the world. Located in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Gramacho is a landfill that holds 3,000 garbage pickers, also knowns as catadores, who pick out recyclable wastes from the dump. These workers are encountered by Muniz who takes them on his project and create the artistic ideas in his mind. However, what responsibilities does art and the artist have to the community that makes that art possible?…
Criminal psychology is the study of criminals, intentions, reactions, behavior and most importantly their patterns. Criminal psychologists have many roles and responsibilities; but the major role is to study why people commit crime. Along with studying why people commit crime a criminal psychologists may also be called upon to assess a criminal to determine what their risk is for recidivism and to determine their competency to stand trial. Another major role that a criminal psychologist has is assisting law enforcement in solving crimes and providing expert testimony. Criminal psychologists must also be responsible for familiarizing themselves with laws that concern mental health and criminal behavior.…
There was a time when you bought something, and when it broke, you get it fixed. Nowadays that is no longer the case when things break people throw it away and get a new one. One example is today, digital devices such as cameras and cell phones have added to a wasteful society. As electronics become cheaper and better, Americans feel the need to dispose of the old and purchase the new, adding to the unnecessary waste.…
Recycling is a method that appeared as a solution for the problems that environmentalists were having with landfill’s capacity and contamination of garbage around 1980’s. According to Christopher Douglass (2003), dramatic predictions of landfill closings created a crisis mentality in America. He also informs that the in 1988 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported to Congress that “one-third of all landfills in the United States would close by 1994 and that by 2008 nearly 80 percent of landfills would be shut down” (Douglass, 2003). The situation that the EPA presented to the Congress in 1988 seemed to be disastrous; but fortunately those predictions were all wrong. The problem with these predictions was that the government and environmentalists turned on red lights in order to solve this issue in a positive way that could help the planet’s environment. As a result, state and local…
Do you just throw your recyclable items in the trash or do you actually put them in your recycling bin where it should be? Did you know that your water bottle or milk jug could actually be useful for something other than holding a liquid? Well recyclable items can be made into art too! Art is much more than Leonardo Da Vinci and Romero Brito. Art can be made from water bottles, milk jugs, toilet paper rolls, and even tissue boxes! A couple styles of art from the earth are street art or “rubbish” kind of art, earth art and making art from unconventional materials. Many different specific pieces could be sorted into these three categories. Anyway, Earth without art would be just eh!…
The Article “Our E-Waste Problem Is Ridiculous and Gadget Makers Aren’t Helping” by Christina Bonnington explains that we use electronics constantly nowadays and devices designs are always changing but we really don’t think about where all these gadgets are exactly going or if they are even being properly disposed of. We always want new devices that are thinner and more portable but we don’t really know where these devices are going once they are being disposed of. Some companies are making efforts to make products greener so they can be properly disposed of but others don’t care too at all. In the beginning this was never an issue because computers and cell-phones were simpler designs and easier to disassemble. The problem is though Apple…