Selendra

Blogging! Yays! Funtime! =D

Or rather, possibly disturbing time. Because, see, after thinking for a long while about what I could write about, I figured I should actually do something constructive. And hey, informing people of current issues is constructive. Because the more people know, the more they can help. Or not, if they so choose. xD

I'll probably focus on environmental issues more than anything, since that's what interests me the most, but you might see something political or social pop up here and there. And of course, I'll most likely degenerate into randomspazz sometimes, so this shouldn't be COMPLETELYSRSGUYZ.

But let's get started, shall we? Food Prep is turning out to be an awesome class. It's brought a couple of good things to my attention. The first being...

The Plastic Plague.

A short National Geographic piece. For those of you "tl;dr" people, I'll simplify.

First. The North Pacific Gyre is an area about twice the size of Texas in the *gasp* North Pacific. It's basically an area ringed by the ocean currents, so anything caught in those currents gets pushed to the center. So when those currents pick up the tons of trash dumped into the ocean every day, they move them into this giant garbage patch. Most stuff biodegrades or disintegrates.

Plastic doesn't. It just breaks apart until it's small enough to be eaten by fish/other organisms and turns the place into a plastic soup.

For further info, you can go to Wikipedia. Ah, how we love that site. xD

Second issue. Bisphenol A is a gender-bending chemical, causing many odd birth, hormonal, and reproductive defects in animals that ingest it. It has been found to be released from hard plastics when they come into contact with water. Hard plastics like those baby bottles are made of. And when those plastics are heated, they can release up to 10x more of the chemical. Dishwashers, anyone?

The second lovely issue I wanted to bring up was landfills. Those lovely holes that we dump trash in to decompose.

Except it doesn't, you know. Because we have a need for space, so we pack those landfills in like there's no tomorrow, then seal them. And with no way for anything to circulate or get in or out, how can anything break down? It's mummified.

Well, that's not completely true. Stuff gets out. Like all those oils and chemicals and gatorades? They all leak out the sides of the landfill, contaminating the soil and, if you're unlucky, the underground water supplies for miles around.

And landfills release methane. A lot of it. And what is methane? CH4. Flammable. A greenhouse gas. A half-life of seven years in the atmosphere.

There, you've learned something today. =d Feel free to leave comments or tell me I'm completely wrong and that none of these things have anything to do with what's wrong with the world today. Debates are fun. <3

But even if you don't comment, if you've read it, I've spread knowledge, and my job is complete. My thanks for that. =d