29
Sep 16

Climate changes and air pollution

For a very long time now, the discussion about the climate changes and the quality of the air on our Ecosystem has caused a lot of commotion. The United States congress has discussed the climate change matter for decades, claiming that the air pollution with natural or harmful gasses is definitely concerning to the public welfare and safety (U.S. government, 2012). Recently, also in 2012 at the Nobel prize the former vice president Al Gore brought into his speech many concerning factors about the damage in our atmosphere and the soon future problems we all have face due to natural disasters (Al Gore, 2012, video). Because of all the environmental problems caused by the super-population in the earth, social scientists study and research in a regular basis for solutions that would be effective for all of us (WC, Psych 484, lesson 4).

First, it is important that all of us understand and embrace causes related to our natural resources dilemmas. The environment that sustain humanity and the generation of life is not endless and for most of the time we are unable to understand this fact, in result, ignore our reality may end up causing our own extinction (WC, Psych 484, lesson 4). Environmental psychologists and most of scientific fields that study our air are consistent with the affirmations that we need to change our habits and help the climate if we want to provide humanity a longer existence. This social dilemma is real and need our urgent attention because our fueling system generate very high levels of pollution into the atmosphere, and very soon we will not be able to control those damages anymore (Al Gore, 2012, video). The El Niño and many other natural disasters are already happening for years, but it is taking us way too long to take action and imply a serious intervention to relief the problems caused by climate changes and air pollution. Last year in December the United Stated had the warmest Christmas registered by the weather center in the past 30 years. This phenomenon is not casual or surprising giving the fact that the congress is trying to take a political act about the matter since 1955 (U.S. government, 2012).

In a social dilemma like this, we all face the choice of contribution to the society (Schneider, Grumman, & Coutts, 2012, p. 299) by changing our behavior towards pollution and getting educated about the matter. In an effective intervention design, we all need to be part of the program and make sure the rules are followed by all members of society. This natural resources dilemma is responsible for all life on the planet (Schneider, et al. 2012, p. 301), so we need to take that in consideration and work in developing environmental conscious individuals who are capable of contribute to the program. The climate problem seems to be getting just worst because our fueling system that put danger gases in the air causing pollution is higher than our efforts to generate natural ways of fuel. We need to work faster on solutions because the number of population in the earth is growing fast and  so is the air pollution (WC, Psych 484, lesson 4).

To develop an intervention that would be useful for this social dilemma we may need to focus in consequence strategies, where rewards that follows behavior always encourage the behavior to happen (Schneider, et al. 2012, p. 307). Not only the climate change is concerning for us right now, there is also many other social problems such the use of energy, recycle of trash and other material, water waste and pollution, fishing, and smart use of food (Schneider, et al., 2012). The list of problems grows daily and we are running out of time to provide efficient solutions. A social design intervention may be useful in those cases, because it involves working with the people involved in the matter. If appropriately developed, this intervention may change the behavior of a whole group and cause a major change in the environment (Schneider, et al., 2012, p. 312). Like Banduras (1986) idealized, if our behavior (behavior) towards natural resources changes we will promote human longevity (environment) by changing our beliefs and actions (personal factors) (WC, Psych 484, lesson 4).

References:

Al Gore (Nobel Prize). (2012, May 17). Al Gore acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. Oslo, Norway. YouTube video retrieved from https://youtu.be/ahN50abNc4s

Penn State University, World Campus (Fall, 2016). Psych 424: Lesson 3. Retrieved from:   https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802487/assignments/8707029?module_item_id=21233935

Schneider, F.W., Grumman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012) Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

United States Congress (84th, 1st session, & United States. (2012). Air pollution control act. Bethesda. MD: ProQuest. Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/galbo/Downloads/11823H.rp.968.pdf

 


28
Sep 16

The Jigsaw Classroom

One of the greatest advancements in teaching and most successful examples of applied social psychology originated in the 1970s with Elliot Aronson’s jigsaw classroom. Aronson’s intervention applied Gordon Allport’s (1954/1979) contact hypothesis, which posited that placing groups in a situation in which they must work together toward a common goal given a supportive environment and equivalent status and power, to the classroom. Yet all great ideas must start somewhere, and for Aronson, his began with a phone call.

By 1971, Aronson had become head of the University of Texas’ social psychology department, and a former student of his reached out to discuss something the professor had taught him years ago (Aronson, 2001). The student, who himself was now an assistant superintendent in the Austin school district, was encountering fights and riots between the black, white, and Hispanic students after desegregation (Aronson, 2001; Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2013). In response, Aronson (2001), with the help of some of his graduate students, developed an intervention inspired by Allport’s (1954/1979) contact hypothesis and Muzafer Sherif and colleague’s (1961) Robbers Cave Experiment (Aronson & Bridgeman, 1979; as cited in Kwantes, Bergeron, & Kaushal, 2012). This intervention would come to be known as the jigsaw classroom.

Jigsaw Classroom

(Jigsaw Classroom, 2016)

Students in a jigsaw classroom may not seem to be all that different on the surface. Like many classrooms, jigsaw students learn together in small groups of four to seven students (Blaney et al., 1977), although six is now a common figure (Aronson et al., 2013). Members are assigned to the group to represent a diverse mix of backgrounds, but what is truly different is that instead of learning from a teacher, jigsaw students learn from each other:  Each member is assigned the responsibility of learning one particular part of the lesson and teaching this part to the others (Blaney et al., 1977; Aronson & Bridgeman, 1979; Aronson et al., 2013). The students, then, are interdependent on each other to reach a common goal, and since each would not know the same information as the others did, their status was made equivalent, just like Allport’s (1954/1979) contact hypothesis would necessitate. In as little as one hour a day (Aronson, 2001), the jigsaw intervention can have wide-reaching implications within and outside the classroom.

These implications have been found and replicated many times over the years since Aronson’s first intervention. Within the group, students actually start to listen to, respect, and like one another (Blaney et al., 1977; Aronson et al., 2013). But the effects of the jigsaw classroom go far beyond intragroup relations. In addition to liking and respect their fellow group members more, students in jigsaw classrooms also show a remarkable decrease in prejudice and stereotyping, perform better on standardized tests, say they like school more, and have higher self-esteem than students in comparison to students in traditional classrooms (Blaney et al., 1977; Aronson et al., 2013). Minority students, in particular, tend to flourish after the jigsaw intervention (Blaney et al., 1977). This may be related to the negative stereotypes with which students from racial and ethnic minorities are often publicly regarded.

Given the remarkable effects of the jigsaw intervention, it is no surprise it is widely implemented. Aronson (2001) estimates that 15 to 18 percent of all schools in America have used his jigsaw classroom intervention, but it might be safe to say he may feel this remarkable number is still insufficient. To Aronson (2001), the “cliquish atmosphere of rejection and humiliation” found in schools makes “30 percent to 40 percent” of students “very, very unhappy,” creating a climate that potentially leads to conflicts ranging from teasing and bullying to suicide and acts of violence. His jigsaw classroom, however, may be one solution to all of these problems. Aronson (2001) thinks his intervention can be used to break down cliques of every kind, from nerds to jocks and from social class to popularity, and “There’s no bigger, stronger clique than race. And we overcame that.” Bold as these claims may be, there is some evidence to back them up.

Remarkable as the aforementioned short-term effects of the jigsaw classroom intervention are, their long-term results may suggest real and lasting behavioral and attitudinal change. Six weeks after a jigsaw classroom intervention, students playing at recess were far more racially mixed than were students at schools without the intervention (Aronson, 2001). Even five or ten years later, Aronson (2001) still receives letters from students and teachers describing lasting effects on empathy and self-esteem. In fact, one notable letter came from one of the students in Aronson’s first jigsaw class.

While a junior at the University of Texas–the same school at which Aronson developed the jigsaw classroom intervention–a man recognized himself, referred to by the pseudonym “Carlos,” in Aronson’s book The Social Animal and wrote to him about the difference the jigsaw experience made in his life. Under that pseudonym, Carlos (1982) wrote that when Aronson came into his 5th grade classroom, “I hated school” and felt “I was so stupid and didn’t know anything,” but “when we started to do work in jigsaw groups, I began to realize that I wan’t really that stupid.” The children he felt were bullies became his friends, “the teacher acted friendly and nice to me and I actually began to love school” so much that, at the time of his letter, he was about to go on to Harvard Law School. To Carlos (1982), Aronson and his jigsaw classroom saved his life. Who knows how many of the thousands of other children exposed to jigsaw interventions might feel the same?

 

References

Allport, G.W. (1979). The nature of prejudice (Rev. ed.). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA:  Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Original work published (1954).

Aronson, E. (2001, March 27). A conversation with Elliot Aronson / Interviewer:  Susan Gilbert [Published interview]. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/27/health/a-conversation-with-elliot-aronson-no-one-left-to-hate-averting-columbines.html

Aronson, E., & Bridgeman, D. (1979). Jigsaw groups and the desegregated classroom:  In pursuit of common goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 5(4), 438-446. doi:10.1177/014616727900500405

Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D., & Akert, R.M. (2013). Social Psychology (8th Ed.) Boston, MA:  Pearson.

Blaney, N.T., Stephan, C., Rosenfield, D., Aronson, E., & Sikes, ,J. (1977). Interdependence in the classroom:  A field study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 69(2), 121-128. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.69.2.121

Carlos. (1982). A letter from Carlos. Rpt. by Jigsaw Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.jigsaw.org/history/carlos.html

Jigsaw Classroom. (2016). Logo [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.jigsaw.org/

Kwantes, C.T., Bergeron, S., & Kaushal, R. (2012). Chapter 14:  Applying social psychology to diversity. In F.W. Schneider, J.A. Gruman, & L.M. Coutts (Eds.) Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing
social and practical problems (2nd ed.) (323-347). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

 


27
Sep 16

New POTUS job requirement: “A presidential look”

What, exactly, comprises the “presidential look” that according to Republican candidate Donald Trump, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton lacks? Although he demurs when asked for specifics, stating “I’m just talking about general,” (Parker, 2016), it can be concluded based on his former comments about women in general and former female political opponent Carly Fiorina in particular that there are gender politics at play in his remarks (Estepa, 2015). Unfortunately, Trump is not alone in his doubts about whether someone who looks like Clinton (i.e. female) would be able to project the aura of authority the office of the Presidency requires. The uncomfortable truth is that hidden sexism operates in our society, and many of us are uneasy with seeing women in a powerful role.

Penn State psychology professor Terri Vescio explains the gender bias that operates in the political sphere as a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation, in which “the more female politicians are seen as striving for power, the less they’re trusted and the more moral outrage gets directed at them…[because] if you’re perceived as competent, you’re not perceived as warm. But if you’re liked and trusted, you’re not seen as competent” (Bush, 2016). This catch-22 for women in politics (and in business) undermines their support among both men and women, and because much of it is implicit bias, it is often unrecognized. For example, even within the Obama administration female staffers often had to struggle to make their voices heard until they struck upon a strategy of “amplification” whereby they mutually drew attention to each other’s significant contributions in order ensure that the proper party received credit for the idea (Eilperin, 2016). I point this out in order to be clear that sexism is an issue that transcends political party affiliation, and therefore we all stand to lose out if valuable contributions from women are silenced by oppression either blatant or subtle.

Hostile sexism is easier to recognize for what it is, but there is another side to sexism that is more insidious: benevolent sexism. For example, I would describe myself as a feminist, but when I took the “Are You Sexist” quiz offered by PBS.org, my results indicated that I hold a fair degree of subtle gender prejudice:

screen-shot-2016-09-26-at-4-06-57-pmI encourage you to click the link above and see your own results – you might be surprised at what you learn about yourself. Anyone familiar with the Harvard implicit bias tests will recall that we don’t have to hold explicitly negative beliefs about others to be influenced by bias. Our implicit beliefs can lead us to behave in a manner which is discriminatory while we simultaneously think of ourselves as fair and considerate.

When you combine elements of hostile and benevolent sexism you get ambivalent sexism. We can see the interplay of these elements in Donald Trump’s statements about women, both positive and negative. Recently, professor Peter Glick, who along with Susan Fiske proposed the tripartite understanding of sexism stated, “Trump’s views are consistent with conventional ideologies that view women as wonderful…but with a catch” (Glick, 2016).

“Heterosexual men’s intimate interdependence on women (as objects of desire, wives, and mothers), fosters a ‘benevolent’ side to sexism. Benevolent sexism encompasses genuine warmth toward women, but only when they support rather than challenge men’s status, power, and privileges” (Glick, 2016).

Regardless of which candidate we choose to vote for in the upcoming election, I hope that we will all pay closer attention to our own assumptions about gender and competence. Often we hold women to different standards than men without realizing that we are doing so. In light of what I’ve learned in in this course (particularly Swim and Hyer’s (1991) research regarding women’s responses to sexist comments), I will not only strive to resist social pressure to silence myself, but will also do more to support other women as they work to make their voices heard. If enough men and women do the same, perhaps we can arrive at a point sometime in the future when saying that a female political candidate doesn’t look “presidential” will fail to cause some of us to nod in agreement.

Resources:

Allen, J. (2016, July 21). Anti-Hillary Clinton rhetoric has become dangerous and violent. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from American, http://www.rushhourdaily.com/anti-hillary-clinton-rhetoric-become-dangerous-violent/

Bush, D. The hidden sexism that could sway the election. Retrieved September 26, 2016, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/hidden-sexism/

Eilperin, J. (2016, September 13). White house women want to be in the room where it happens. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/09/13/white-house-women-are-now-in-the-room-where-it-happens/

Estepa, J. (2015, September 10). Donald Trump on Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face!” . Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/10/trump-fiorina-look-face/71992454/

Glick, P. (2016). Benevolent sexism and the art of the deal. Retrieved September 27, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-enquiry/201609/benevolent-sexism-and-the-art-the-deal

Parker, A. (2016, September 7). Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton Doesn’t have “a presidential look.” Politics. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/us/politics/donald-trump-says-hillary-clinton-doesnt-have-a-presidential-look.html

Santhanam, L. (2016, August 10). Are you sexist? Take this quiz. . Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/are-you-sexist-take-this-quiz/

 


25
Sep 16

No more fresh water for you

For this week blog I will be discussing an article from nytimes.com titled, “In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes melted in 25 years” by Justin Gillis. The article is about the world’s largest tropical ice sheet; the Quelccaya ice cap of Peru and the rate in which ice is melting, in addition to what is being revealed. Lonnie G Thompson, the Ohio State University glaciologist, along with her team has been studying the Quelccaya ice caps for more than 10 years.

Plants that were trapped under ice for thousands of years are now being exposed due to the rapid melting of the Quelccaya cap. These plants were dated by a radioactive form of carbon in plant tissue that decays at a known rate; giving scientist a new precise method of determining the history of the ice sheet’s margins. Several years ago, Dr. Thompson and her team found plants that were about 4700 years old. Now with an additional thousand feet of melting, Dr. Thompson and her team are now finding plants that are 6300 years old.  If we subtract the age of the new plants from the age of the older found plants we see a difference of 1600 years.

Although finding plant species that were thought to be long gone is very exciting, the rate at which the caps are melting is very concerning. Mathias Vuille, a climate scientist at the State University at Albany in New York said, “the ice may not go quick because it is so much ice, but we may have already locked ourselves into a situation where we are committed to losing that ice”

After reading this article I cannot help but wonder what this means for the people of this region. According to the article 50% of the water supply to the people of Lima will be gone if the Quelccaya caps completely melt. I cannot help but wonder why don’t we have technology that would stop the ice from melting?

 

 

“In Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes melted in 25 years” by Justin Gillis. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/americas/1600-years-of-ice-in-perus-andes-melted-in-25-years-scientists-say.html


25
Sep 16

Passing Gas is No Laughing Matter

If you’re planning on travelling to the southeastern states within the next two months, not only will you not indulge in the moment of economic hallelujah from the gasoline promise land of the east coast, Virginia; you might want to pack your own fuel. Have you ever wondered why Virginians were paying $1.16/gallon, while you were paying $2.30/gallon of gas? One of those reasons is the Colonial Pipeline, an underground gas channel, that stretches from Texas to New York. Being one of the greatest suppliers of gasoline in the southern states, as of Monday, a 250,000-gallon leak in the pipeline has a number of states in a gas shortage emergency (Cusick, 2016). While waiting in line for 45 minutes at my Fayetteville, NC gas station, as the pumps drained empty, I became curious of how this underground disaster was effecting the environment, resource supply, and economics.

In 2010, we all witnessed the devastation that was caused by the infamous BP oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico—in fact, Deepwater Horizon, a film depicting the oil spill, has just been released to theaters. Coined as one of the worst environmental disasters of US history, the Deepwater Horizon spill was a mass extermination of marine species along the Gulf Coast. As the most recent worldwide precedent of petroleum-linked disaster, it was highly doubtful that the Colonial Pipeline Leak of 2016 would yield a comparable amount of damage to Deepwater Horizon. Nonetheless, many residents of the Colonial spill site in Alabama, were apprehensive over how the leak would impact the ecosystem of the Cahaba river, which is home to freshwater marine species and various forms of wildlife.  Member of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kevin Eichlinger, claims that the detrimental effects of the spill are minimal, and bearing in mind the size of the spill (the Colonial Pipeline’s largest in 20 years), stakeholders of the pipeline should consider themselves lucky (Philips, 2016). The gas, which escaped from the pipe, flowed over 500 feet of land, before being absorbed by two emergency containments ponds, leaving behind only a small amount of plant and animal damage before EPA cleanup crews were on the scene (Philips, 2016).

Although lucky, at best, the Colonial Pipeline leak could have created a much greater environmental impact and should draw attention to the dangers of underground storage tanks (UST’s). There are a number of reasons why UST’s begin to leak, such as poor installation or future corrosion of the pipeline. Of the 1.4 million UST’s filled with gasoline nationwide, it is estimated that 10-35% of them are currently leaking and would fail environmental safety tests (Page, 1988). Composed of dangerous aromatic chemicals and metallic substances, seepage of gasoline into the soil contaminates ground water, a source 50% of Americans, including 100% of rural areas, rely upon for drinking (Sierra, n.d.). In fact, a 1998 survey revealed that leaking pipelines have contaminated over 800 personal groundwater wells with gasoline additives (Schneiderman, 2016). 1 gallon of gasoline has the potential to contaminate 1 million gallons of water. This suggests that the 250,000-gallon Colonial Pipeline leak could have contaminated 250 trillion gallons of water (Sierra, n.d.). When it comes to wasted gasoline or water, we wish we could say, “There’s more where that came from,” but, that would be untrue. Gasoline and fresh water are nonrenewable resources; an endangered species. Humans, and the choices they make, are dangerous predators.

screen-shot-2016-09-23-at-11-45-44-am­­Figure 1. A chart provided by (Sierra, n.d.), listing potential gasoline composed toxins and their impacts on health, permitted composition of drinking water, origins and mobility in soil.

When forced to make a choice between self-interest and the welfare of the environment, a resource dilemma, humans are much more likely to drive their cars or run their air conditioners, among other resource depleting decisions. Though individual consumption of resources feels too small to make a difference, all of the energy consumption, by individuals with similar mindsets, adds up to world-population sized environmental footprint (Schneider, 2012). While consumption and spilled gasoline exhaust one nonrenewable resource, gasoline-linked contamination of fresh water destroys another—both of which drain our wallets.

With respect to the Colonial Pipeline leak, the financial backlash has already been huge. The notoriously inexpensive gas prices of Virginia and North Carolina are no more. Since Monday, the day which states of emergency were declared, gas prices have increased over $0.50 in most southeastern states. Receiving their inventory from trucks, gas stations have a limited supply of gasoline to offer customers, and are running out daily. Higher gas prices equate to higher expenses needed for delivery trucks to make their way to grocery stores, yielding an inflation of food prices. Gas analyst, Patrick DeHaan, says to expect this financial impact to expand throughout most of the nation for at least two weeks, and potentially up to two months (Philips, 2016). Meanwhile, the obvious question is: how to we protect our environment and our pocketbooks in the future?

One solution is to stop the leakage of UST’s. This could include: educating the public on the commonality of groundwater contamination; development of equipment that monitors for gasoline spills or more inspections of UST and pipeline structures. Revisiting resource dilemmas, we can make a conscious effort to choose the environment over personal desires. Travelling a short distance? Take your bike. Limit your showers to 5 minutes. Just like individual consumption of resources adds up to environmental devastation, why not use the same principle for environmental protection (Schneider, 2012).

References:

Cusick, D. (2016 September 20). What you need to know about the North Carolina gas shortage. ABC: Eyewitness News. Retrieved from URL: http://abc11.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-nc-gas-shortage/1518000/

Page, N. P. (1998). Gasoline leaking from underground storage tanks: Impact on drinking water quality.  U.S. Department of Energy: Office of Science and Technological Information. Retrieved from URL: http://www.osti.gov/scitech/biblio/5966974

Philips, R. (2016 September 19). 5 things to know about the colonial pipeline leak impacting the southeast. The Weather Channel. Retrieved from URL: https://weather.com/news/news/colonial-pipeline-spill-impacts-alabama-gas-shortage

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A. & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical projects. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. (pp. 298, 299)

Schneiderman, E T., Attorney General. (2016). The dangers of leaking underground storage tanks. New York State Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved from URL: http://www.ag.ny.gov/environmental/oil-spill/dangers-leaking-underground-storage-tanks

Sierra Club. Leaking underground storage tanks: A threat to public health and environment. Retrieved from URL:http://www.csu.edu/cerc/documents/LUSTThreattoPublicHealth.pdf

U.S. Energy Information. (2016). Gasoline explained: gasoline and the environment. Retrieved from URL: http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=gasoline_environment

 


25
Sep 16

Obesity and the American Lifestyle

Two out of every three adults in America are obese (National Institute on Health). The CDC predicts that this will continue to climb each year. The graph presented below shows the steady increase in obesity rates over the past few decades.

graph

Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=obesity+rates+in+america+line+graph&biw=1280&bih=878&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjC7tq3uKPPAhWG24MKHUgsAuMQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=dAQcP-kjJmemfM%3A

There are many factors that contribute to this epidemic in America. In looking at the reasons from the perspective of an applied psychology studying health psychology, one must start by examining the psychological influences of obesity (Schneider et. al.). In my opinion, the best model to use when investigating this issue is the biopsychosocial model (Schneider et. al.). The obesity epidemic in this country can be attributed to biological factors such as genetics, psychological factors such as addiction and self-esteem, and social factors such as societal pressure and stress (Schneider et. al.).

According to the NIH, obesity is a result of an imbalance in energy within the body. The caloric energy being eaten is more than the caloric energy being expended. The American lifestyle is fast-paced, busy, and typically has many time restraints. In today’s culture, convenience is more often preferred than a focus on health. Short term goals tend to be focused on more often than long term consequences. The average American would rather pick up fast food three nights per week because it is the quickest and easiest way to feed a family on the go, while the long term results of all of that fast food is an after-thought. At the same time, the average busy American finds little or no time to exercise due to the constant responsibilities of having a family with two working parents.

Two of reasons for the increase in obesity over the last few decades presented by Public Health I found the most interesting are as follows: increase in portion sizes and diet controversy. Over the years, portion sizes have increased all over the country. Super-size portions became available at fast food restaurants. There are money saving deals if you buy more than one sandwich or more than one meal. Some fast food chains offer small, medium, and large meals. Even an increase in cup size contributes to an increase in calories being consumed.

Dieting has become a household term in American. A diet in the dictionary refers to the habitual nourishment an individual provides the body (merriam-webster). Most people in today’s culture however, think of diet as a method of losing body weight. I wonder how a child would define the word diet if asked. The largest problem, in my opinion, is this misconception of the word diet. There are so many weight loss technique’s available to the consumer, it can be overwhelming. Instead of referring to ones efforts to lose weight as “dieting”, perhaps saying that “I am focusing on a healthy lifestyle” will help reform the misconception of diets. All of these fad diets that are advertised to entice quick results do more harm than good when it comes to the obesity problem in America. Most people that are successful on these methods end up gaining weight back. Weight is not necessarily the issue. Instead, it is health. Focus on proper nutrition should be the primary focus when trying to get Americans back on a healthy track. The only way to correct this epidemic is for Americans to make a conscious effort to make better choices toward a healthier lifestyle.

Sources

Merriam-Webster 2016. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diet

Obesity in America: Why are Americans Obese. Public Health. http://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/obesity/

Overweight and Obesity Statistics. NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/Pages/overweight-obesity-statistics.aspx

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012) Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.


25
Sep 16

Unknown Benefits of Observing

I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. Starting from first grade until the end of high school, I have attended the same international school in Istanbul. Therefore, my classmates and I have a twelve year of shared history together. We grew up together and our families have built very strong friendship bonds. When we all graduated high school and scattered all over the world for college, some of our friends started to change and develop new and different habits. Some of them started drinking and some of them started smoking, while a fewer number of our friends started partying a little “harder”.

When we graduated college and moved back to Istanbul as adults, all but one of my friends were able to quit their newly developed bad habits, one way or another. One of my best friends, Dennis, could have easily been labeled as an addict when he moved back home. He was jobless, made new friends we have never met before, stopped working out and eating healthy completely. He slept all throughout the day while we were at work, and stayed up all night doing drugs. Sometimes he would not sleep for 2 or 3 days straight because of binge drug taking.

As we are a very close group of friends, we have tried many things to help him cope with his problem. We tried many interventions.We tried talking to his cousin. A group of 5 friends even went to a rehabilitation center with him for a week to understand him better. Nothing truly worked! As soon as he was left alone, he was craving drugs, saying he doesn’t like it when the reality sets in. Failing after a couple of tries, we have decided to try something new and more effective.

We rented apartments in the same complex, making sure at least one person was always present with Dennis. We helped him look for jobs and get ready for interviews, which resulted in him getting a job in a field he really wanted to work; sports entertainment. One of our friends was a chef, so she cooked us meals every night and breakfast on weekends, implicitly making Dennis start eating healthy. We played basketball games two nights a week, making sure we were keeping him active and that he was spending energy. After a couple of weeks, he started acting like one of us. He told me that he enjoys how I eat breakfast every morning before work, so we started eating together. He told one of our other friends that he likes how he dresses up for work, so they went shopping together. One day at a time, after being able to observe how his peers do ‘normal’, Dennis started to act like us and slowly quit his habit. Even today, after 5 years, he says that observing the same ritual over and over again made it easier to act upon.

I believe it is wrong to connect observational learning with just negative behaviors. It can also be used to influence positive behaviors. An important chunk of learning depends on us observing and modelling others; this observation and modelling starts when we are just infants. “Indeed, the research and scholarly work conducted by Bandura and colleagues set the occasion for the social cognitive perspective of learning (Bandura, 1986), which seemed to challenge the possibility that all behavior could be accounted for by respondent and operant processes alone (Fryling et al, 2011).” It is just astonishing how social psychology could be applied into our everyday lives so easily.

References

Fryling, M. J., Johnston, C., & Hayes, L. J. (2011). Understanding Observational Learning: An Interbehavioral Approach. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 27(1), 191–203.

 


24
Sep 16

(Clinical/Counseling) Hopelessness Theory of Depression . . . and me!

Who doesn’t need a mental health tune-up from time to time? I know I sure do!

There is a history of depression in my family, so any time I start to feel a little “blue,” I have a counselor that I book a few appointments with. I have been doing this off and on for years with someone whom I trust and have an excellent rapport with. Two days ago, I walked into his office and before he could ask how I was doing, I blurted out, “Hopelessness Theory of Depression (HTD).” Of course, after a very quizzical look, I explained to him that I was studying Applied Social Psychology and this week’s lesson included HTD, so of course, I am now somewhat of an expert (insert sarcastic smile).

I had to reassure him that I was not suffering from any sort of syndrome where I randomly blurt out words, such as Tourette Syndrome, where symptoms include vocal tic(s) (Robertson, 2000). Once he was reassured, he humored my claim of academic knowledge in terms of HTD and we discussed how it applied to me.

Before I give my true to life story, I have a MAJOR spoiler alert: this is a pretty boring, and drama free therapy session. I’m a rather private person, so I will keep my exciting and drama filled sessions off of the public forum!

We decided to see if, with what I have learned this week, if I was at risk for HTD and started with the first element, “a vulnerable person (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).” To label me as a vulnerable person, I would have to have a consistently negative outlook on events that have occurred in my life and their causes (sometimes called the pessimistic explanatory style or the depressogenic attribution style) (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Well, let’s look at what we discovered, shall we? What is my style? Is it stable, meaning do I think the cause of the negative things in my life will be forever unchanging (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012)? Of course, I had to decide what was the biggest stressor in my life at the moment and I came up with one rather quickly: being EXHAUSTED from raising my toddler and going to school full-time. An argument could be made that this condition is stable. The old, unshrunk (my own made up word for “before therapy”) me probably would have perceived it as a stable condition. “Unshrunk me” probably would have felt like there was no end in sight and that these two stressors would always be a constant (and hence stable) part of my life. Years of therapy and countless dollars (actually, the dollar amount I have spent can be counted, but that would require too much time and I have many other things that I should be doing) spent have helped me change my perspective on situations like this. I have learned to view these, not as stable conditions, but as stressors that will some day end, and when it comes to the years raising my son, will end all too soon (sometimes stressors can be an incredibly beautiful thing that you cannot imagine your life without).

We also needed to contemplate whether or not my perception of my level of exhaustion had global attributions, in other words, did this greatly influence a lot of the aspects of the rest of my life (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012)? My therapist and I made the case that my level of exhaustion was considered global; if anyone has been genuinely exhausted, they know that fatigue affects everything in your life. We decided that we had indeed made the case for global attribution.

The second key to HTD is “negative environmental circumstances (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).” This is where everything fell apart. I really had to scrape to come up with what was the most negative thing in my life at the moment, and my goodness, I hate to even attach the word “negative” with the thought of raising my incredibly handsome (seriously, it’s scientifically proven, my child is probably the most adorable child that has ever lived; the “scientists” that made this claim are myself, his father, and his grandparents) son. Please don’t get me wrong, I have had incredibly traumatic experiences in my life and I’m sure I will have more in the future, no one gets off this planet unscathed.

With one eyebrow raised, my therapist asked me if, according to HTD, if I was at risk for hopelessness depression. The answer? No. No I am not. At other times and other circumstances, I may have been, but again, a lot of time and money has been spent in my pursuit to acquire the tools to live a (somewhat) mentally healthy life. I am incredibly thankful for that. I prepared to leave his office with the statement, “Life is what it is, but for me, it is not hopeless.” Of course, his reply?

week-five-blog-picture“It makes me feel just fine!”

References

Robertson, M. M. (2000). Tourette syndrome, associated conditions and the complexities of treatment. Brain: A Journal of Neurology , 123, 425-462.

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd Edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, California, United States of America: SAGE Publications, Inc.


23
Sep 16

Where There’s Smoke

For a moment, I’d like to step back in time.

It’s the fall of 2003. I’m 18 years old and living in Maple Hall, one of two freshman dormitories on Penn State Altoona’s campus. The building is segregated: Males live in the north wing of the building, females in the south, but we mingle in the lobby and on the benches out front. On this particular day, as I’m approaching the building, I see a girl I recognize from one of my classes. She spots me, too, and says hi. She’s good looking, which I’ve noticed before—and I’m a single, male teenager—so I try and strike up a conversation. We talk about our class and the projects we have coming up. At some point, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a pack of cigarettes. “Want one?” she asks. Normally, I would hesitate, but I’ve already formed a hypothesis: that by accepting the cigarette I will extend our conversation, which I’m not ready to conclude. “Sure,” I say, and she lights one up for me.

I fell in love that day—not with the girl, whose name I’ve long forgotten, but with the skinny stick of tobacco she offered me. I never expected to love cigarettes. My dad smokes, and as a kid I hated it—whenever they gave anti-smoking lectures at school, I feared for his health, and spent the rest of the day wracked by anxiety. I’d puffed on one here and there in high school—usually around a bunch of other guys, often while drinking underage—but had managed to avoid the all-important inhale until that day in front of Maple Hall. The first time I really smoked a cigarette, I saw in an instant why people ignore the Surgeon General’s warnings and spend thousands of dollars a year on this habit that only hurts you and makes your clothes smell bad: Smoking feels damn good.

 

smoking_web

Was there ever a chance of stopping my smoking habit before it started? As mentioned, I had been exposed to the standard scare-tactics in school, and I thought they had worked. They certainly taught me, in detail, why smoking is bad for your health. But apparently, this was not enough. Once I tried a cigarette and discovered how much I enjoyed it, that all seemed irrelevant. Importantly, once I started buying my own packs and smoking regularly, I found myself initiated into a whole social world of smokers. In front of the dorms, outside of classrooms, on the porch at parties. Cigarettes forged friendships and conversation and a strange sort of solidarity. Some of the most important friendships I made during those years—many of which last to this day—began with a smoke.

Research seems to indicate that all the health-education programs I was exposed to as a kid may have been for naught. Wakefield, et al. (2006) found that exposure to anti-tobacco television ads has no effect on teenagers’ likelihood to smoke. In fact, the results of that study indicated that kids might be marginally more likely to smoke after they have been repeatedly advised not to, at least when those ads are produced by the tobacco industry itself (which, understandably, raises suspicion) (Henriksen, et al., 2006). Some have suggested that, at least one problem with these ads is that they try to be “hip,” and because they fail utterly in this regard, smoking comes out looking like the cool option, when compared to tone-deaf and “dorky” ads (Stoner, 2002). And for college students in particular, the whole point of smoking may be that it is dangerous. As Neyfakh (2013) notes, “when a behavior is appealing precisely because it is transgressive, telling them they shouldn’t do it… would seem to carry the risk of making it that much more alluring.”

Many adult smokers pick up their habit in college.  According to Schneider, et al. (2012), if I had only waited a few more years (three more, in fact), I may have been able to avoid addiction. Schneider, et al. note that if an adolescent makes it to 21 without picking up the habit, it’s “extremely unlikely” that they’ll become smokers. This means that, as an 18 year-old, I was still vulnerable. All college students are still vulnerable, if Schneider’s claim is true. And yet, when I began college back in 2003, there was little effort by university administration to prevent students from picking up the habit, even as they devoted significant resources to fighting underage and binge drinking (no doubt serious problems on their own). We could not smoke inside, of course, but the rest of the sprawling, wooded campus was ours to light up in.

This dynamic has changed. Administrations and student groups have become more serious about stopping smoking on campus in the intervening years. The college I work for just instituted an on-campus smoking ban last month, which has driven myself and all the other smokers across the street. There is already evidence to suggest that these initiatives are useful, not only in preserving the air quality on campus, but also in preventing students from becoming smokers. Students often begin smoking because it is a “normative” behavior on campus (it’s viewed as normal, and it helps them fit it and make friends, as it did for me), and by banning tobacco use on campus, universities can break up this dynamic; they can “de-normalize” the behavior by “marginalizing smoking (as a behavior) and smokers (as people), socially and spatially” (Procter-Scherdtel & Collins, 2012-2013). As bans become more draconian—often incrementally, to lessen the blow—smoking also becomes an increasingly unpopular pastime, which makes it even easier to extend the bans (Procter-Scherdtel & Collins, 2012-2013).

smoke-free-campus1

There are other interventions being staged that target college and high school-aged students. One method is to use “peer educators” to persuade adolescents from smoking. Anti-tobacco messages are much more well-received from a student’s friends than they are from teachers, parents, or other adults, and this method has shown some success at reducing the incidence of students picking up smoking (Campbell, et al., 2008). These programs have actually been shown to have an unintentional cognitive-dissonance element: Although peer-educators do have some effect on their friends, the educators themselves show the greatest resistance to smoking in the future—once they’ve tried to convince their buddies not to smoke, peer educators cannot allow themselves to become hypocrites by lighting up (Campbell, et al., 2008).

Research has also indicated that college students overestimate the proportion of smokers in the general student population—a “normative misperception”—and that the more a student believes that many of their peers are smoking, the more likely they are to do it themselves (Pischke, et al, 2015). Campaigns designed to correct this misperception can go a long way to reducing smoking. Some have also noted that, when college students are presented with data indicating that most smokers are comparatively uneducated and low-income , they may start to believe that smoking is for—let’s be blunt—dumb and poor people, and few college students want to think of themselves as, or lump themselves in with, the dumb and poor (Procter-Scherdtel & Collins, 2012-2013).

Unfortunately for me, I was born a little too early, and began college before these programs began to be implemented en masse. In 2003, as a freshman on campus, smoking still was normative and came associated with a measure of cool. It still was a great way to make friends, and even the non-smokers didn’t seem to mind—there were no dirty looks or campaigns to move us off-campus back then—but I may have been better off if they had. The power of social psychology had yet to be wielded against this problem–but these days, a kid like I was may stand a fighting chance.

 

 

Campbell, R., Starkey, F., Holliday, J., Audrey, S., Bloor, M., Parry-Langdon, N., . . . Moore, L. (2008). An informal school-based peer-led intervention for smoking prevention in adolescence (ASSIST): A cluster randomised trial. The Lancet, 371(9624), 1595-602. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/198999085?accountid=13158

Henriksen, L., Dauphinee, A. L., Wang, Y., & Fortmann, S. P. (2006). Industry sponsored anti-smoking ads and adolescent reactance: Test of a boomerang effect. Tobacco Control, 15(1), 13-18. doi:10.1136/tc.2003.006361

Pischke, C. R., Helmer, S. M., McAlaney, J., Bewick, B. M., Vriesacker, B., Van Hal, G., . . . Zeeb, H. (2015). Normative misperceptions of tobacco use among university students in seven european countries: Baseline findings of the ‘social norms intervention for the prevention of polydrug usE’ study. Addictive Behaviors, 51, 158-164. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.07.012

Procter-Scherdtel, A., & Collins, D. (2013;2012;). Social norms and smoking bans on campus: Interactions in the canadian university context. Health Education Research, 28(1), 101. doi:10.1093/her/cys075

Stoner, Karen. (2002). A burning question ; smoking-prevention ads try to be hip, but do they work? Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from: http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/419690601?accountid=13158

Wakefield, M., Terry-McElrath, Y., Emery, S., Saffer, H., Chaloupka, F. J., Szczypka, G., . . . Johnston, L. D. (2006). Effect of televised, tobacco company-funded smoking prevention advertising on youth smoking-related beliefs, intentions, and behavior. American Journal of Public Health, 96(12), 2154-2160. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.083352


19
Sep 16

Be mindful at your day spa

I just recently spent the day at a spa in California with my best friend and my sister-in-law. It was one of the most amazing and relaxing I had all summer. When you enter this particular spa your whole mood changes. There are water fountains, water walls, and water towers that are constantly flowing as you walk by. Once you check in and get settled into your luxurious white robe, you are gently guided to a large hot pool surrounded by tropical plants. When you need a break from the heat, you have the option to take a quick splash in the cold pool or cool your face with an ice water cucumber washcloth.

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The American spa industry utilizes millions of gallons of water per year. The elevated usage of water in day spas around the country is extremely high due to constant growth in the spa industry. There are a total of 20,180 spa locations in North America as of 2013, according to the website experienceispa.com. I stated in the paragraph above all of the exposures I had with water, just imagine how much water is used per spa visit each per year.

screen-shot-2016-09-18-at-12-55-52-pm

Water utilization in spas is high due to the usage of pools, steam rooms, rain showers, soaks, scrubs, and services. In addition to constant water use in the spa setting, there should also be a consideration of the usage of towels, robes, and washcloths within the spa. An easy ways for spas to conserve water is to properly install water saving faucets with sensors, low flow shower heads to decrease water usage. Most companies also suggest to follow a regular maintenance schedule to fix any leaks they may have occurred or even so that the pools and hot tubs maintain the proper ph balance in order to not have them to be emptied and then refilled again.

Ultimately, when day spas implement day-to-day green practices, it is most effective for our water conservation. Demonstrating eco-friendly and mindful water practices displays the day spa’s overall mindful water practices.

http://www.sustainablebeautynetwork.com/energy-efficienc

Click to access Beauty_salons_fs2.pdf


19
Sep 16

The Environmental Cost of Perfection

Most people are infatuated with the idea of achieving a socially shaped idea of perception and will therefore go to great lengths to feel they have attained it. For example, Californians continue to water their perfectly cut, green lawns while in reality the state’s drought is progressively worsening. Women continue to alter their appearance with make up, cosmetic surgery, and unhealthy eating habits to obtain greater beauty at the cost of risking their own health. And men take supplements with detrimental side effects, such as steroids, in the hopes of gaining a desired body image. In the same way that each other these scenarios scarifies a vital necessity for the desired external illusion, America’s food technologies department is guilty of the same. The development genetically modified food can be seen as their attempt to create a perfectly self-sustaining world that releases humans from the responsibility to be the earth’s caretakers. However, GMOs, like most modifications in life, may not be exactly as they appear; in fact in the long run they may take a greater toll on the environment than anything they will have ever benefited.

What Are GMOs?

GMO is generally known as a genetically modified organism, plant, animal, microorganism or other organism that’s genetic makeup has been modified through genetic manipulation. Through the process of trangensis scientists have been able to take genetic material from unrelated species and combined them to modify a DNA code. The key steps involved include identifying a trait of interest, isolating that trait, inserting it into another desired organism, and then finally propagating the organism. We see these organisms today circulating in our environment in various shapes and forms. A few examples are soy, cotton, canola, sugar beets, corn, rice and aspartame; but the list doesn’t stop there. As research and technologies continues to progress, lab will continue to release more and more of these man-made species; therefore we must become informed about what their potential pros and cons are.

Why Are They Being Produced

There has been much controversy over the existence of these crops in our ecosystem. Supporters argue that this new technology is beneficial for agricultural productivity, improving human health and creating a more sustainable environment. In terms of productivity, they claim that GMOs can create more advantageous farm animals and plants such as cattle that produce higher qualities of milk and plants that are resistance to pest outbreak. In terms of human health, they say genetic engineering has helped to develop vaccines and medications that help fight off diseases as well as identify allergenic genes that may cause harm to humans. Lastly, and most controversially, GMOs in regard to the environment claim to allow for more food to be produced from less land. This could lead to potentially reducing the negative effects the food production industry has on the environment. GMOs also have a longer shelf than organic produce, which can increase trade while minimizing the amount of wastage that occurs during transportation. Additionally, they believe they can create plants that are able to yield crops on non-crop producing soil allowing for more food to be produced and supplied. Ultimately all of this is to say that scientists believe GMO foods will help provide more accessible food for the growing population, essentially solving world hunger. However, despite how excellent that all sounds, there is limited reliable evidence to support their claim.

The Potential Damage on Environment

Due to lack of proof, many are not convinced that these claims are exactly as they seem. Although it will take years to adequately prove the detrimental effects GMOs have on the environment, there has already been many theories developed. Those who oppose these organisms suspect they can destroy our ecosystem beyond repair with the problems they pose such as the issue of “super weeds”, contamination, and a smaller crop yield.

GMO plants are created to withstand powerful weed killers that would normally kill any other plant. As the plants are continually sprayed over time, there are always the few weeds that survive and therefore are the only ones left to reproduce. As time goes on, the favored herbicide-resistant weeds become dominant, leading to an over usage of herbicides. In 2012, an estimated “61.2 million acres of US farmland resistant to Roundup… the world’s best-selling weed killer for more than 30 years.” Leading to A greater use of more toxic herbicides that both damage human health and the environment through releasing detrimental toxins into the air.

Additionally, although GMOs claim to produce higher quantities of food, many studies have shown this is not actually true. The seed sold by corporations such as Monsanto has proven unable to reproduce. Therefore, taxing the farmers, as they must annually buy their crop seeds over and over again. More problematic is the fact that they are overtaking the natural plant life that has been sustained throughout all of history. GMOs pose the risk of cross-pollination, transferring its genes into another naturally cultivated crop or plant, further contamination natural habitats. If GMOs infect natural species they will take over and alter the entirely of our ecosystem as we know it. Once contamination being, it cannot be taken back therefore GMOs would eventually extinguish all biodiversity.

Conclusion

This all boils down to one question. How far are we willing to go to obtain a feeble perception of perfection? The world has continued to operate and function sustainable since its beginning, why we want to change is genetic make up is something that really needs to be evaluated before action is taken.. As research continues to develop more evidence seems to solidify the idea that damage that could result from releasing GMOs is greater than any potential gain. Therefore, rather than wasting ourselves on quick, irresponsible fixes, its time we focus our efforts on implementing effective preventative interventions to keep the environment viable for the human species. The key is not obtaining perfection, its learning how to manageably live with life’s flaws.

 

“Arguments for and against GMOs – Debating Europe.” Debating Europe. Debating Europe, 01 Feb. 2016. Web. 18 Sept. 2016. <http://www.debatingeurope.eu/focus/arguments-gmos/>.

By U.S. Organic Farmers Worried About Seed Contamination.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 June 2013. Web.Duke, S.O., & Powles, S.B. (2009).

“Glyphosate-resistant Crops and Weeds: Now and in the Future.” AgBioForum, 12. “GMO Facts.” The NonGMO Project. The NonGMO Project, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2016.

Maurer, Anna. “How to Make a GMO – Science in the News.” Science in the News. World Press, 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.


18
Sep 16

NO STRAW

I have always been interested in protecting the environment. I started an internship a few months ago at an aquarium which really narrowed my vision to ocean conservation. One day my supervisor and I went and got some lunch together. It’s always nice getting some face time with the boss, so you can show them what you have learned so far and what you can do next. We sat down, I ordered my drink, and then my boss yells out, “BUT NO STRAW!” Ok….. But why?

It takes plastic 450 years to decompose (O’Connor, 2011). This is way beyond our life time, our child’s life time, and our grandchild’s life time, but here I wanted to use this tiny piece of plastic for 20 minutes. We don’t even need straws! We can drink straight from the cup! And if you feel as if you need a straw that badly, a nice alternative would be a tough paper or glass straw (The Last Plastic Straw, 2014).

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Now think about your daily routine and how many times you come into contact with plastic. It’s a lot! Milk for cereal or some nice OJ in the morning? Plastic jug. Yogurt for a mid-morning pick me up? Plastic cup. Time for lunch, nice health pre-made salad? Plastic container.

We can all agree that recycling is great way to keep these plastic items in check, but what if we could cut them out completely? I live in Los Angeles, and the city will not accept your recycling is every last drop of food/drink is out of the container. Some foods are extremely difficult to get off the container, and it is much easier to throw it straight in the trash (guilty).

Now I live my life in complete awareness of how much plastic I use and the amount of time I use it for. So I ask you this, is 20 minutes with a straw worth several lifetimes in the ocean?

References:

O’Connor, K. (2011). How Long Does It Take For A Plastic Bottle To Biodegrade? Retrieved from http://www.postconsumers.com/education/how-long-does-it-take-a-plastic-bottle-to-biodegrade/

The Last Plastic Straw. (2014). Swap Your Straw Resources. Retrieved from http://thelastplasticstraw.org/resources/


18
Sep 16

Save the Environment: Pee in Shower

Protecting our environment has been a priority to some groups and individuals for a long time. For others, like me, it is something that I recently became more aware of. As a kid I didn’t worry about shutting off lights to save on energy, I worried about shutting off lights so I didn’t get into trouble. The only thing that I learned in school about saving the environment was from my ninth grade science teacher who told us that we should “turn the water off while brushing our teeth.” Growing up I didn’t think much about peeing in the shower, in fact I thought it was normal. I remember my friends bringing the topic up and making fun of someone because they would pee in the shower. Of course my response was, “you don’t pee in the shower?”

I learned that day that peeing in the shower was not socially acceptable. In fact, when I told my husband about the topic I was going to be discussing for this blog, he looked at me shocked and said, “Did your teacher give you this topic to write about?” Proudly, I said “No, I picked it myself!” Recently one of my childhood friends sent me a link on Facebook. Attached to the link she wrote, “I guess all these years you have been saving the environment.” We joked and I laugh now because back then I was embarrassed but after you have kids these things don’t matter anymore.

I couldn’t find the actual article but I did find a similar one. In Berenson (2014) article it discusses how two students from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Debs Torr and Chris Dobson, started the Go with the Flow campaign to inspire others to take their first pee of the day during their morning shower instead of using the toilet. The idea behind this campaign is that by peeing in the shower, we are potentially saving millions of gallons of water every year.

2-2-2-water-use-pie-chart

According to the EPA (2016), the average American family of four uses roughly 400 gallons of water per day, of that 26.7 percent is used by toilets. The standard toilet uses 1.6 gallons per flush. That’s a lot of water! And if you have an older toilet that can mean you’re using a lot more. If you look at the percentage of water on the pie chart above you will see that the shower only uses about 16.8% of the daily usage. Now, let’s say you shower once every day, so you would pee during that shower saving 1.6 gallons of water from not flushing the toilet. So to do the math there are 365 days in a year, times that by 1.6 gallons of water saved, for a total of 584 gallons of water. That’s 584 gallons of water that “YOU” could potentially be saving by peeing in the shower. That’s amazing!!!

I need to remember this next time I use my toilet for bug/spider disposal.

 

Reference

Berenson, T. (2014, Oct 10). TIME. Retrieved from College Students Asked to Urinate in Showers to Save Water: http://time.com/3490337/shower-pee-environment-water/

EPA. (2016, Sep 02). EPA. Retrieved from Water Sense: Indoor Water Use in the United States : https://www3.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html


18
Sep 16

Environment Blog: Water Shortages!!

Before I begin, I would like to ask you a question. What do you know about water? We all at least once learn about water shortages at school. For me, water shortages didn’t really appeal to me because it was not hard to find water whenever I need it. As we all know, water is the driving force of all nature. Unfortunately, for Earth, resources are running dry now, and water is not an exception. The world’s population continues to rise in numbers, however, that has not been matched by an accompanying increase in supplies of fresh water. How can we imagine the world without water? For us, water is probably more important than any other environmental problem such as oil. Many countries have experienced water problems. But the water shortage is nothing new. Fresh water shortages will cause the next great global crisis over the world.

Since water covers 70% of our planet, some may think that it will always be plentiful. However, freshwater that we drink, take a shower, irrigate farm areas is incredibly rare. Only 3% of the world’s water is fresh water, and others are unavailable for our use according to World Wildlife.

Yes, clean and safe drinking water is scarce. Today nearly 1 billion people in the developing countries don’t have access to it according to the Water Project Organization. This is not a story of far far countries. Yet, we take it for granted, we waste water. As Schneider, Gruman, and Coutts (2012) concluded that most of realise that we are aware of wasting less, “but we are temped to lead lives that use many natural resources” (p. 299). Water is critical to future growth. But it can also be the major problem to economic growth.

Today, many regions of the world are already water stressed due to population and economic growth. According to Growing Blue, 2.5 billion people, which is 36% of the world population, live in risky, water scarce areas. Most water systems that keep ecosystem thriving and feed human population have become stressed. Water shortages will definitely bring huge negative impacts on our world. Rivers and lakes are drying up and becoming too polluted to use. Agriculture industries will be no longer available because they consume more water than any other source. At the current human water consumption, this situation will get much worse and worse. By 2025, more two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages, and ecosystems around the world will suffer even more according to World Wildlife.

We all should be afraid that water shortages will touch every part of the globe, and using the water the way we do in the past will bring devastating affects to us in the near future. Learning about water shortages may be pointless at this moment, rather we must recognize where we are and what we can do. To conclude, I will ask you once again. What do you know about water?

 

References

Growing Blue. (2016). In Water in 2050. Retrieved from http://growingblue.com/water-in-2050/

Schneider, W. F., Gruman, A. J., & Coutts, M. L. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. California, CA: Sage.

The Water Project. (2016). Water Scarcity & The Importance of Water. In Learn. Retrieved from https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/

World Wildlife. (2016). Water Scarcity. In Overview. Retrieved from http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity


15
Sep 16

[Environment Blog]: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

It’s big, perhaps the size of a country or even a continent. It’s garbage, composed of all the detritus humans discard without a second thought. And it’s a myth. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not, as popularly portrayed, a solid mass of floating waste somewhere in the middle of the ocean. If it were, developers might well be selling beachfront homes, promoting it as an exciting opportunity to live on a brand-new, man-made island. Rather, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is more like a swirling vortex of garbage, some of it floating and some of it submerged, that may be thick enough to create dead zones or thin enough to be little more than a nuisance. After all, people have dumped more garbage in oceans than in landfills, and it all has to go somewhere. While the Great Pacific Garbage Patch might not be the next new continent, that popular image has been used to create interventions that have brought about real change.

Plastic Ocean

A piece of art made out of trash by Bonnie Monteleone (2011) to illustrate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch first described by Charles Moore.

The story of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch began when Charles Moore was sailing across the ocean and encountered strange objects bobbing in the water. His discovery was less “Land ahoy!” than “There’s a lot of garbage here,” and Moore started to wonder whether his individual journey was indicative of a greater problem (2009a). After his initial encounter in 1997, he started investigating trash in the oceans further, particularly garbage that gets caught up in gyres, or rotating vortices of ocean currents created by wind and the Coriolis effect (Moore, 2009a; Turgeon, 2014). When Moore came forward with his findings, the media dubbed the garbage caught up in the gyre in the Eastern Pacific the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” and the idea caught on a life of its own. A Russian source called it “trash island” (Engber, 2016). Like pollution in general, everyone began using the term, although the reality is a lot more noxious and has a much greater potential to affect everyone than we like to acknowledge.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Garbage from beaches, tributaries, and waste dumped at sea gets trapped in ocean currents and tends to congregate in distinct regions; the detritus in the Eastern Pacific is colloquially referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2012).

As fantastical as an island of garbage might seem, the reality is even more disturbing. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made mostly of tiny bits of trash too small to see from a satellite or even notice while sailing through it, although there are the odd large items like a truck tire or a volleyball to serve as a more intact reminder of mankind (Engber, 2016). These pieces of garbage are normally so small because objects caught in a gyre get churned up along with the ocean’s currents, breaking them down into a sort garbage slurry that creatures like shrimp and fish confuse for food (Turgeon, 2014). “Plastic comes in every size-class and mimics the food for every single trophic level,” Moore tells Earth Island Journal in a 2009 interview. “From the tiniest zooplankton all the way to the largest cetaceans, there is a plastic morsel that looks and acts just like their natural food.” To prove his point, he sampled a series of fish at the bottom of the food chain. He found over a third of the fish had eaten plastic particles, and he found 84 pieces of plastic in the stomach of a 2 1/2-inch fish (Moore, 2009b). The little fish’s confusion may be understandable given how much plastic is now in the oceans. Moore (2009b) found 46 pieces of plastic per plankton in samples of ocean water, about an eightfold increase from the previous decade. Beyond the effects on fish, and on every creature higher on the food chain that might eat said fish, marine pollution is transported around the globe via the ocean’s currents. Just like the trash came into the gyre from somewhere, it may leave the gyre to somewhere else. Beaches across the North Pacific now have plastic sand deposited on their shores from the sea slurry instead of from rocks and shells (Moore, 2009a). While the idea of a confetti-colored beach might seem appealing–imagine the sandcastles!–it hides a far uglier truth:  We are irreparably damaging the environment, and the relics of our refuse will remain far longer than we will.

Plastic Sand and Soup

Anna Cummins (2008), a crewmember of Moore’s, shares pictures of plastic pieces mixed with sand, at the top, and plastic soup from the Pacific, at the bottom.

It might be easier for the media to report and for people to discuss an island of garbage than the uncomfortable truth of environmental damage, particularly since it may pertain to human health as well. From studies involving birds that ate plastic particles, Moore (2009a) concludes that plastic can deliver other pollutants into living tissues, affecting the circulatory, endocrine, and reproductive systems. There is now such a high concentration of plastic particles in the ocean that Moore tells interviewer Thomas Kostigen (2008), “You can now make a new hypothesis that all food in the ocean contains plastic.” Of course, that would be within the food, not just wrapped around it. It seems like the food chain might come right back around to bite the producer of the plastic in the end.

Plastic Ingestion

Photos of some of Moore’s findings were compiled by Hennen (2012).

Whether inspired by the media-mongered myth or the frightening facts, the idea of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has prompted people to take action. Every ocean and major body of water has a garbage patch of its own (Jeftic, Sheavly, & Adler, 2009). With such a global issue, a global solution must emerge. The United Nations has taken the initiative and passed resolutions to study, address, and reduce marine litter, as well as sponsoring regional cleanup efforts to stop pollution at the source and clean up beaches (Jeftic, Sheavly, & Adler, 2009). As an implementation of collaborative feedback, which is used to provide information on how one’s peers are faring on a certain measure, and injunctive norms, which are informal rules set by the community for what constitutes proper behavior and can be informed by collaborative feedback, the United Nations also publishes a comparative contribution of countries to cleanup efforts, and it is also trying to source trash sampled from the oceans back to its origin and share that information as well (Jeftic, Sheavly, & Adler, 2009). Other organizations have subtly implemented social psychology in their interventions as well. LUSH and 5 Gyres Institute held the “Ban the Bead” campaign at the cosmetics company’s stores. The campaign aimed to educate consumers about the dangers of plastic microbeads used in soaps and cosmetics, but LUSH also asked its customers to sign a petition to limit the use of microbeads and just happened to sell a new, limited edition scrub, “Life’s a Beach,” in conjunction with the awareness campaign (LUSH, 2016). While the company did donate the proceeds from this scrub to 5 Gyres and other environmental charities, it is quite possible the product would never have sold if consumers were not made aware of the issue and commit to take action, creating a situation of cognitive dissonance similar to that produced by Dickerson, Thibodeau, Aronson, and Miller in their classic 1992 water conservation experiment. The state of cognitive dissonance describes the discomfort a person experiences when their thoughts are not in line with their actions, and to reduce that discomfort a person must either change their thoughts or their actions. In this case, LUSH simultaneously threatened its customers’ self-image as environmentally-conscientious people, as asking customers to sign a petition to reduce behavior they likely engaged in created a state of dissonance, and provided a solution to that conflict:  Buy our product. It could not have worked out more perfectly for LUSH if an applied social psychologist had designed it; perhaps one did.

Ban the Bead

LUSH’s “Ban the Bead” campaign, with its semi-eponymous hashtag, coincided with a new release of a natural exfoliant product (image from Heather, 2015).

Whether the interventions are local and intended to boost a company’s image and bottom line or international and aimed at stopping plastic pollution at the national level, applied social psychology and environmental psychology have been implemented to address marine pollution due to the myth of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Much like it took a world of people to produce the garbage in that patch, it might take a world of people to eliminate it as well. More than this, the oceans and the debris found in them have, in a strange sense, united humanity. Thomas Kostigen (2008) found remains from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on a Hawaiian beach that represented an array of human cultures:  “I found pill bottles from India and mashed pieces of various products–oil containers, detergent jugs, plastic caps–with Russian, Korean, and Chinese writing on them.” Our trash can affect others halfway around the world, an unintended relic of culture and evidence for the interconnectedness of life on Earth. It is quite remarkable that one such creature has extracted the remains of giant lizards, remains that had been compressed for millions of years, and formed them into bottles, nose hair trimmers, and even toys modeled after those same giant lizards and sent them to be played with and used by others around the world. Is it any more remarkable to consider that these same creatures might find a way to rescue that plastic from the oceans or prevent it from getting there in the first place?

 

References

Cummins, A. (2008, September 1). Sea of garbage. New Internationalist Magazine. Retrieved from https://newint.org/features/2008/09/01/sea-of-garbage/

Dickerson, C.A., Thibodeau, R., Aronson, E., & Miller, D. (1992). Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 841-854. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1992.tb00928.x

Engber, D. (2016, September 12). There is no island of trash in the Pacific. Slate. Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_next_20/2016/09/the_great_pacific_garbage_patch_was_the_myth_we_needed_to_save_our_oceans.html

Heather, N. (2015, July 3). #banthebead with LUSH [Image]. Ivory Avenue. Retrieved from http://ivoryavenue.com/2015/07/banthebead-with-lush/

Hennen, D. (2012, January 18). Marine debris:  One huge problem [Image]. Retrieved from http://normalbiology.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html

Jeftic, L., Sheavly, S., & Adler, E. (2009, April). Marine litter:  A global challenge. United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved from http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/Marine_Litter_A_Global_Challenge.pdf

Kostigen, T.M. (2008, July 10). The world’s largest dump:  The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Discover. Retrieved from http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/10-the-worlds-largest-dump

LUSH. (2016). Ban the bead. Retrieved from http://www.lushusa.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Lush-Site/en_US/Stories-Article?cid=article_ethical-ban-the-bead

Monteleone, B. (2011). Plastic ocean [Image]. Retrieved from http://environmentalhumanities.dukejournals.org/content/7/1/203/F8.expansion.html

Moore, C. (2009). Captain Charles Moore talks trash. Earth Island Journal. Retrieved from http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/charles_moore/

Moore, C. (2009, February). Charles Moore:  Seas of plastic [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic?language=en#t-7570

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2012). Great Pacific Garbage Patch [Image]. Retrieved from https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/movement/great-pacific-garbage-patch

Turgeon, A. (2014, October 4). Ocean gyre. In National Geographic’s online encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/ocean-gyre/

 


15
Sep 16

[Env. Blog] Fun Fact! There’s a day each year when the planet’s officially done with our sh*t.

Look out your window. I don’t know about you, but from my downtown window I see more green than grey – more nature than man, by a long shot. Maybe I’m in the minority. Maybe it’s one of the perks of living here in the Evergreen state. Still, watching the creatures and trees grow stronger and sturdier each day, it’s hard to imagine that anything could truly put a dent in nature’s ability to thrive.

That really couldn’t be farther from correct.

Monday, August 8th, was 2016’s Earth Overshoot Day. Don’t let the capitalized ‘Day’ fool you, this isn’t a holiday. It’s the exact day each year in which “humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year,” according to Global Footprint Network. Any resources we use after that, down to a single salmon dinner, is creating a defecit that our planet legitimately cannot recover from.

Pretty scary, right? After all, that’s almost five full months in which we’re overspending our planet’s resources… and the vast majority are doing this entirely in ignorance of any kind of issue. Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Earth Overshoot Day. No, you’re not in trouble – the point is that if you, a decently well-educated and self-aware university student, hadn’t heard of it, that speaks volumes for the awareness of the uneducated masses.

Continue reading →


14
Sep 16

Environment Blog: What’s in Your Latte? Almond milk and resource dilemmas

I’ll never forget how perplexed I was when my now sister-in-law first explained that her family ran an “ah-mond” ranch in Northern California. Silly me, I’d thought they farmed “ahl-monds,” but she insisted that the five generations of her family were ranchers, not farmers, and that the word almond should be pronounced just as salmon— “the ‘l,’” she said, “is silent.” I’ve since learned to avoid calling their rows of carefully cultivated trees an orchard, although I still have visions of cowboys rounding up fleeing packs of wily almonds when I think about her family’s ranch.

In spite of drought conditions in recent years, new large-scale almond groves (I still can’t bring myself to call them ranches) have proliferated in California as the demand for alternatives to dairy milk have grown (Philpott, 2014). Soy milk was once the go-to substitute for milk drinkers concerned about the lactose content or ethical considerations of dairy, but due to health concerns soy milk has declined in popularity (Saner, 2015). Almond milk has now become increasingly popular, not only domestically, but internationally as well, particularly in Asia (Philpott, 2014).

The ecological impact of fulfilling this growing demand has been significant. Almonds require an astonishing amount of water to produce—according to Mother Jones, roughly 1.1 gallons of water are needed in order to produce a single almond (Park and Lurie, 2014).

Image source: Mother Jones

Image source: Mother Jones

Consequently, thousands of new wells have been drilled in California (which produces 80% of the worlds almonds), thereby contributing to draining already taxed aquifers (Philpott, 2014). Almond cultivation alone now accounts for an astounding 10% of California’s total water supply per year (Holthaus, 2014). To illustrate the fragility of these aquifers, consider that US Geological Survey hydrologists have discovered that in California’s San Joaquin valley, ground levels have dropped an average of eleven inches a year due to excessive groundwater removal (Sneed, Brandt, & Solt, 2013).

In short, the drive to capitalize on global demand for almonds comes into conflict with current and future public access to the resource of water. As it stands now, growers are experiencing something “akin to an arms race,” according to one hydrologist, because new, deeper wells tap ground water below the level of existing wells, leaving neighbors to choose between drilling even deeper or running dry (Krieger, 2014). “People don’t know, or don’t care, that they are also pulling water from thousands of feet around them,” [the hydrologist explained], “If their neighbor suffers? Well, it’s a dog-eat-dog world” (Krieger, 2014). Unless measures are taken to fairly manage water consumption, this situation could become a classic case of what William Lloyd referred to as the tragedy of the commons (Schneider, Grubman, & Coutts, 2012).

In addition to placing legislative constrictions on water use, I believe applied social psychology interventions could be implemented to influence consumer demand for water-intensive agricultural products. Taking shorter showers is a nice step to take in order to be more environmentally conscious, but curtailing the purchase of some of our preferred products can, potentially, have a greater ecological impact. For example, while the amount of water used to produce almond milk is startling, it pales in comparison to the amount of water needed to produce animal products such as dairy or beef (Walker, 2015). Regardless of which agricultural product one believes should be vilified, the fact remains that altering our consumer behavior can impact our environment as much as (if not more than) our personal habits.

References:

Holthaus, E. (2014, May 14). 10 percent of California’s water goes to almond farming. That’s nuts. Retrieved September 14, 2016, from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/_10_percent_of_california_s_water_goes_to_almond_farming.html

Krieger, L. M. (2014, March 29). California drought: San Joaquin Valley sinking as farmers race to tap aquifer. Retrieved September 14, 2016, from http://www.mercurynews.com/2014/03/29/california-drought-san-joaquin-valley-sinking-as-farmers-race-to-tap-aquifer/

Park, A., & Lurie, J. (2014, February 24). It takes how much water to grow an almond?! Retrieved September 14, 2016, from http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-californias-water-going

Philpott, T. (2014, July 14). Your almond habit is sucking California dry. Retrieved September 14, 2016, from http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/07/your-almond-habit-sucking-califoirnia-dry

Saner, E. (2015, October 21). Almond milk: Quite good for you – very bad for the planet. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet

Schneider, F. W., Coutts, L. M., & Gruman, J. A. (Eds.). (2011). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Sneed, Michelle, Brandt, Justin, and Solt, Mike, 2013, Land subsidence along the Delta-Mendota Canal in the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, California, 2003–10: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2013–5142, 87 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20135142

Walker, T. (2015, May 5). California drought: Almond growers fight back over reports they are causing chronic water shortages. The Independent – Americas. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/california-drought-almond-growers-fight-back-over-reports-they-are-causing-chronic-water-shortages-10224339.html


14
Sep 16

Environment Blog: Global Warming

The number of resources to human ratio on earth demonstrates we are running on a shortage of natural resources (Dickerson, 1992). This topic has caught the attention of plenty of American citizens and we can see the effects of it because of new developments. Green energy programs have arisen over the last decade, cars are beginning to run on electricity instead of gas, appliances are being made energy efficient and companies are beginning to make their goods with recycled materials. However, it seems that no matter how many decades scientist spend discussing global warming and showing proof that the sea levels will rise due to global warming, Americans just don’t seem to believe it as much as they believe that our resources are running short.

An Article written by Justin Gillis from the New York Times called “Flooding of Coast, Caused by Global Warming, Has Already Begun” discusses how the rise of sea levels as a result of global warming has already begun. The state of Louisiana experienced a major flood this past summer that is a direct result of the rise of the sea levels rising and the aftermath of what happens on the states near the coast (Gillis, 2016). Other states like Florida are also feeling the impacts (Gillis, 2016). The Obama administration has been pushing for reforms that would incorporate a detailed climate plan, states like Virginia have been given grants from the federal government to aide neighbors like that of Chesterfield Heights, VA (Gillis, 2016). The grant was for the amount of $100 million dollars (Gillis, 2016). Unfortunately, this much money will only cover a single neighborhood (Gillis, 2016). Ideally, the states along the coastline would all begin to implement programs to improve flood walls, pumps and roads, however there is not sufficient to support to help with funding the billions of dollars that this would require (Gillis, 2016). Congress does not approve the efforts of climate change programs and therefore, the Obama administration seems to lack support that could have further aided this generation in the fight against global warming.

“Shifts in the Pacific Ocean mean that the West Coast, partly spared over the past two decades, may be hit hard, too. These tidal floods are often just a foot or two deep, but they can stop traffic, swamp basements, damage cars, kill lawns and forests, and poison wells with salt.” (Gillis, 2016). We have to consider the aftermath of these events occurring throughout many states along the coast, what would happen if the states along the west had to suddenly evacuate because their homes were located in areas that were condemned due to high tides? Certainly, this is putting things in an extreme “what if” scenario, but under the slightest chance that this could become real circumstances, I believe that the issue of global warming should be taken more seriously by congress and by Americans. The events that occurred with hurricanes and floods in the south this summer are clear eye openers that as Justin Gillis stated “this is happening now”. If we don’t take action now, I only wonder, what would be of future generations? The cost of funding for programs that would help fight against sea levels rising is high, however, the cost of potentially loosing states to the ocean is higher.

References

Gillis, J. (2016, September 4). Flooding of coast, caused by global warming, has already begun. Science. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/science/flooding-of-coast-caused-by-global-warming-has-already-begun.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action=click&contentCollection=earth&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

Dickerson, C.A., Thibodeau, R., Aronson, E., & Miller, D. (1992). Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22. 841-854.


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