Nestle vs. Oregon: Battle Heats Up Over Columbia River Gorge by Rachel Cernansky, October 28, 2011, http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/nestle-vs-oregon-battle-heats-up-over-columbia-river-gorge.html?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

This graphic relates to the article because this is what citizens of Oregon are afraid of what will happen to the Columbia River Gorge after the Nestle company is done taking water from them. 

Nestle owns the bottled water brands Poland Spring, Perrier, Pure Life, and Arrowhead. It is a very successful water company that has been taking water from different places around the U.S. freely. They are trying to tap over 100 million gallons of water from Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. Citizens of Oregon are angry and trying to stop this from happening. There have been more than 4,300 comments and letters pertaining to this situation from citizens of Oregon against Nestle tapping the river. Julia DeGraw, Northwest Organizer for Food & Water Watch said, "Oregon's water belongs to all of us and is too precious to sell off to a multinational bottling company with a track record of leaving some of the communities it enters in worse economic and environmental shape than it found them." Oregon citizens are afraid of what will happen to their drinking water after Nestle has left the river. 

Nestle is the world's top-selling water bottle company, but I don't think they earned this fairly. This article relates to the video we saw in class about Nestle and how they were taking water in Maine, but I didn't know they were taking water in Oregon too. The article says that Nestle has tapped over 100 million gallons of water from Oregon's Columbia River Gorge, and that Oregon citizens aren't happy. I would not be happy about this either and do everything I could to try and save the river. 

Should Nestle not be allowed to take water freely?

Do you think saving the river would be worth the lower profit of the Nestle company(having to lay off workers)?

How many people do you think are affected by this situation?

Home Wreckers by Lindsey Blomberg, August 26, 2011 http://www.emagazine.com/magazine/home-wreckers?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=

http://thecollegedriver.com/posts/984-Car-Exhaust-Turned-Into-Free-Energy

Summary

There are many toxins affecting us that we don't know about. When we brush our teeth, drive our cars, or take a shower. Food coloring, pesticides, cigarette smoke, and car exhaust. These are all things that affect us that we dont even know about. They can cause many forms of cancer and behavioral disorders. Most of these toxins are invisible or go unnoticed which make them even more deadly. We all need to put forth the effort to keep these toxins out of the air and our bodies.

Opinion

I can't believe these chemicals could cause such immense damage to our bodies. A problem like this should be reported or at least to try and cut down on these toxins. The fact that we are usually surrounded by these chemicals makes it even worse. Car exhaust and foo coloring is something we encounter everyday. We should all make an effort to cut down on these harmful toxins.

Why do you think no one has reported this problem?

How long do you think this problem has been going on?

Do you think the companies that produce these chemicals know or even care about what there products do to people?

Plastic Building up in the Pactific

Plastic Seas, Lindsey Blomberg, August 26, 2011

http://www.emagazine.com/magazine/plastic-seas?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EMagazineIssueFeed+%28E+Magazine+Print+Issue+Feed%29

Garbage is building up in the Pacific Ocean to be bigger than the size of Texas. This huge landfill is located between Hawaii and California, a thousand miles from the land. It is hurting all of the wildlife that is in that area of the Pacific Ocean. Garbage from everywhere is being brought in and is being added to this huge clump. It is said to be the largest landfill in the world. The worst part is, is that this could easily have been prevented. Most of this garbage is plastic, meaning it could have been recycled. There are many people who are trying to see if the massive patch is going to effect the land. 

I personally think this is ridiculous. This clump wouldn't nearly be as big as it is if more people just recycled! I cannot believe how big this clump is, and I don't see what is so hard about recycling. Now all of those people are risking the lives of sea creatures just because they couldn't recycle a bottle. Not only are the animals lives in danger, but the mass could come onto the shore and ruin the beaches! 

1. Why are people not recycling?

2. Can we do anything to try and minimize this mountain of garbage?

3. Is the clump going to effect the land?

I can't believe rainforests are still being chopped down to farm cattle. If we weren't so wasteful we may not have to chop down rainforests to make factories and cattle farms. With all the warnings about chopping down rainforests you would think people would at least slow down the process, but instead the rainforests are being destroyed as quickly as ever. I think people are still cutting them down because they believe we need more cattle or more products coming from the farms and factories that replaced the forests when we have more than plenty here at home.

Why do you think people are still ignoring the warnings about cutting down the forests?

Why are the Rainforests Disappearing?

Summary:

Rainforests all over the world are disappearing due to deforestation. These rainforests are filled with priceless natural resources such as 70% of the plant-based ingredients for cancer medicine. This also includes a vast variety of plants and animals that are very important to the ecosystem. The primary source of deforestation is cattle farming. The farmers cut down large areas of the rainforest to farm, the soil dries up within a few years, and then the farmers chop down more rainforest. This cycle is continuous going on in the world's rainforests. The secondary source of deforestation is logging. The lumber companies will chop down large areas of the rainforest, just to find a small amount of rare woods. This, along with other factors, are causing severe damage to the rainforests, and the WWF predicts that within twenty years, if there is no drastic change in the situation, then two-thirds of the world's rainforests may be extremely damaged or completely destroyed.

Opinion/Reflection:

I was shocked at how fast and destructive deforestation has been for our rainforests. I've known about deforestation for a long time now, but I never expected it to be this bad. Though other things are also much worse than they seem (like the actual amount of money that the oil companies recieve from the government, even though the oil companies are the main contributors to the pollution which throws off the carbon cycle). The fact that the rainforests are being depleted so quickly, only proves that if this rate continues, then we should be expecting some more weird weather over the next couple years.

Questions:

1-Why do you think people would chop down rainforests when its apparently a major cause of global warming?

2-Why would anybody keep cutting down huge amounts of a rainforest to farm cattle, when its obvious that you'll eventually run of soil?

3-Why do you think the United Nations didn't make a strict policy to maintain and rebuild the rainforests that has every able country/large multinational company involved?

I agree with all of you; I think that this should have been put on the news, but I also think that the situation is being handled correctly. Us Americans rely on gasoline for our cars and we would pretty much do anything to make sure that we have it, clean or not! To answer Kathy's question, "How is it that some people don't know what goes on in their own state", all of us did not know that this was happening because it hasn't been in the news. Other than that, the only other way for us to know would be people telling other people and the word would spread.

Opinion/Reflection

I thought this article was very interesting and I'm surprised that I had not heard this before. I don't see why this wouldn't be on the news. It could be a serious potential health risk and people have the right to know. On top of that I never knew flooding could cause problems with gasoline. If I had not heard about this article I may have never found out. I think this is an opportunity to show that we need to rely on other sources of information other than the news to find out what goes on where we live.

Why do you think the news found it unecessary to report this problem?