Odds are if you're visiting this blog, you know about recycling (and should be active in the act, and if not, shame on you) and how you can redeem your little tin soda/drink-filled cans for five cents at various locations. Well, the bottle bill in good ol' Massachusetts allows redemption on a limited amount of glass, tin and plastic containers.
If you were to put in a nestea container in one of the machines that crush the cans, the machine would spit it back out at you. Or if you were to put a Powerade container in one of the plastic redemption machines, it'd do the same thing. Water bottles, sports drinks, tea, all are not redeemable in the state of Massachusetts. As such, there's about $37 million dollars in recyclable goods are going unrenewed because there isn't an incentive to recycle them.
That's a ridiculous amount of recyclables going uncollected on. There needs to be an updating of the bottle bill, as with all that money extra the state could garner from the recyclables, the state could help encourage even more environmentally friendly options for recycling instead of tossing everything into an incinerator. Plus, it'd reduce roadside and litter in general. Why throw away that can on the beach when you can turn it in for money, after all?
Original Article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/09/28/expand_the_bottle_bill/
- Kevin Almeida
Natural Gas: It Isn't Winning.
So I was perusing my Facebook and I happened to see a news article about natural gas. You see, when I'm not playing Farmville (which is genius, by the way) or updating my status with lyrics from Black Flag, I check out the news articles that NPR posts. NPR is awesome, and if you don't agree, you are a fool. But I digress...
This article was the last in a three part series about natural gas and why it isn't catching on. What with this whole debate over Global Warming and environmentalism that has been raging, especially in the past few years, the lobbyist for natural gas have been working their asses off, but to no avail! But why not? After all, if we compare it to other fossil fuels, it's a lot better. Half the emissions of coal, more abundant (especially in this country) than oil, blah blah blah. What the lobbyist for natural gas are, or were, trying to do was convince Congress that natural gas would be ideal for the transition between other fossil fuels and zero waste technology (and ideal for their profit margins, no doubt).
They've tried, tried, tried to get this to pass, but to no avail. The biggest reason is politics. They targetted the Republicans. Republicans like them. But Republicans are not in power in this country right now (although, judging from what they're doing to the Healthcare bill, it can sure seem like it!). The Democrats have favoured more "radical" (read: smart) steps to dealing the emissions. Namely through wind and solar power (oh, and I forgot not-so-clean coal... not very smart). Another problem is that the natural gas industry lead by a number of vocal Global Warming deniers! Now, how silly is that? And last, but not least, these companies aren't very large and cannot compete, lobby-wise, with the sheer size of Big Oil, nor with the political favouritism that the clean energy lobby.
I'm not too saddened that nautral gas isn't catching on. To be fair, I like it better than not-so-clean coal, which is being pushed heavily. But the real solution is a nice blend of hyrdoelectric, wind, and solar power. As our technology gets better -- and it is every day -- the costs of these is reduced more and more. The payback will eventually be cheap, clean, environmentally fiendly, and efficient energy. Hooray! Well, that's where MASSPIRG comes in, and it's up to student involvement that we push our government towards these simple solutions for very real problems.
To Read The Full Article, Go Here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113138252&sc=fb&cc=fp
- Cam Mancini
Ramblings
You go down the street watching the cars dive by occasionally wondering why people are so obsessed with their cars, why we have such a bad addiction to driving, and possibly why we hate public transportation. It could possibly be that there is always that creepy guy or the screaming kid that cant sit still and his mother yelling on the phone because she didnt get the child support. You eventually come up with reasons for all this, but never think about changing them or at least having enough motivation to go and do it.
All our lives we've been told that one person can't change the world. But all it takes is that one person to start. Eventually other people will see you changing small things and then you will have a group of people doing slightly larger changes. Other groups will see this and for whatever reason of personal delight will help you attain your goals.
In reality the people that told us that one cant make changes were wrong. We can accomplish many great and terrible outcomes for what we do. There are always people that will tell you that you're wrong or that it will never work. With enough motivation, you can accomplish anything. Whether its changing parts of your community for the better, or bringing down a major corporation polluting the world and ruining peoples lives.
Anyone can do anything. Also there are sacrifices you have to take or bridges you have to burn. but always remember that your friends will stand behind you 100%. And I'm talking about real friends. Not the kind that will bail you out of jail but the friends that will be sitting there in the cell with you. They will always, no matter the cost, help you when you fall. Never forget that even a pebble in a pond can make very large ripples that stretch for miles.
~Kevin Jerome
All our lives we've been told that one person can't change the world. But all it takes is that one person to start. Eventually other people will see you changing small things and then you will have a group of people doing slightly larger changes. Other groups will see this and for whatever reason of personal delight will help you attain your goals.
In reality the people that told us that one cant make changes were wrong. We can accomplish many great and terrible outcomes for what we do. There are always people that will tell you that you're wrong or that it will never work. With enough motivation, you can accomplish anything. Whether its changing parts of your community for the better, or bringing down a major corporation polluting the world and ruining peoples lives.
Anyone can do anything. Also there are sacrifices you have to take or bridges you have to burn. but always remember that your friends will stand behind you 100%. And I'm talking about real friends. Not the kind that will bail you out of jail but the friends that will be sitting there in the cell with you. They will always, no matter the cost, help you when you fall. Never forget that even a pebble in a pond can make very large ripples that stretch for miles.
~Kevin Jerome
The Climate Change Summit
Yesterday, over a hundred world leaders met at the UN to discuss the rising issue of global warming. The two most notable figures in the meeting were our very own Mr Obama, and China's president Hu Jintao, who collectively comprise 40% of the world's greenhouse gas accumulation.
It's astounding that we contribute 20% of the world's greenhouse gasses to the environment, that is warming the climate and destroying the ice caps along with many arctic ecosystems as well as endangering our own futures with rising water levels and a destroyed ozone layer.
But, the two leading contributors to the world's largest problem has agreed to begin contributing to the solution, instead of the cause. It was announced that in less than three months, in Copenhagen, new talks will be opened to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, that was originally enacted to help reduce emissions, that George Bush refused to sign in 2005 as it would "hurt the economy"(and his wars didn't?).
America and Mr. Obama's main obstacle in reducing emissions and passing laws to help that cause is convincing legislature to pass the deals that may arise in the near future. Hopefully, with the coming meeting in Copenhagen, the two emissions giants will take more responsibility for the state of the environment.
I myself hope that there will be some definite shows of progress once the meeting in Copenhagen takes place and that this isn't just a show of smoke and mirrors and will be taken seriously by the world leaders who are most responsible.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/cCvZq
It's astounding that we contribute 20% of the world's greenhouse gasses to the environment, that is warming the climate and destroying the ice caps along with many arctic ecosystems as well as endangering our own futures with rising water levels and a destroyed ozone layer.
But, the two leading contributors to the world's largest problem has agreed to begin contributing to the solution, instead of the cause. It was announced that in less than three months, in Copenhagen, new talks will be opened to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, that was originally enacted to help reduce emissions, that George Bush refused to sign in 2005 as it would "hurt the economy"(and his wars didn't?).
America and Mr. Obama's main obstacle in reducing emissions and passing laws to help that cause is convincing legislature to pass the deals that may arise in the near future. Hopefully, with the coming meeting in Copenhagen, the two emissions giants will take more responsibility for the state of the environment.
I myself hope that there will be some definite shows of progress once the meeting in Copenhagen takes place and that this isn't just a show of smoke and mirrors and will be taken seriously by the world leaders who are most responsible.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/cCvZq
How I Became Involved with MassPIRG.
Well. Let me do a bit of introduction, so you all know a little bit about who's the one who's going to be bringing you your MassPIRG-BCC/Environmental relevant news.
My name's Kevin Almeida, a student at BCC. I got involved with MassPIRG in a very... well, plain way. It was not by some interesting circumstance or convoluted twist of fate. I simply ended up seeing a high-school friend at a desk with a handful of others and a clipboard. My friend is roughly double my size, and when I approached him and said hello, his immediate response was; "KEVIN. SIGN THIS." as he thrusted the clipboard towards me. At first, I was confused.
"What's 'this'?" I asked, and he told me it was a sign up sheet for MassPIRG. What was MassPIRG? I was told it was a student run, student funded organization who are environmentally and socially minded and fight to make a difference for students, the environment, and the less able alike. The paper had a range of interests that I could participate in, from internship to global warming, to helping the hungry and homeless and better waste management. They even had student debt plans to help lower book costs.
I was told of a few of their projects, including their most recent one, a Zombie Walk for Hunger. Amusingly, they're going to dress up as Zombies and collect donations around the campus, which piqued my interest.
I checked off a few, and ended up getting a call from some people at the office here at BCC. Despite my inability to participate due to a horribly busy schedule, Tiffany gave me this job; to blog important news about the group's activities and interesting news on the environment.
Nice to meet you all who will hopefully continue to visit this site to keep up on MassPIRG's activities and other important news.
My name's Kevin Almeida, a student at BCC. I got involved with MassPIRG in a very... well, plain way. It was not by some interesting circumstance or convoluted twist of fate. I simply ended up seeing a high-school friend at a desk with a handful of others and a clipboard. My friend is roughly double my size, and when I approached him and said hello, his immediate response was; "KEVIN. SIGN THIS." as he thrusted the clipboard towards me. At first, I was confused.
"What's 'this'?" I asked, and he told me it was a sign up sheet for MassPIRG. What was MassPIRG? I was told it was a student run, student funded organization who are environmentally and socially minded and fight to make a difference for students, the environment, and the less able alike. The paper had a range of interests that I could participate in, from internship to global warming, to helping the hungry and homeless and better waste management. They even had student debt plans to help lower book costs.
I was told of a few of their projects, including their most recent one, a Zombie Walk for Hunger. Amusingly, they're going to dress up as Zombies and collect donations around the campus, which piqued my interest.
I checked off a few, and ended up getting a call from some people at the office here at BCC. Despite my inability to participate due to a horribly busy schedule, Tiffany gave me this job; to blog important news about the group's activities and interesting news on the environment.
Nice to meet you all who will hopefully continue to visit this site to keep up on MassPIRG's activities and other important news.
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