Prettyinpinks' Blog

Everyone always says that the war in Iraq can't really be understood unless someone you care about is over there.  I guess you can look at the politics, the economic side of things, but from an emotional standpoint those don't even come close.

I just found out today that someone I care about is getting deployed.  And I can't believe it.  And many of my friends are turning 18, and the boys are enlisting.  The war, finally, after . . . how many years has it been?  5?  6?  It's just now hitting home from me.  That people I admire, people I respect, and in some of the boys' cases people that I've grown up with could just be whisked away to the other side of the world to risk their lives . . .

I can't understand it.   

I'll keep the ranting to a minimum.  Stuff still hasn't slowed down.  Ugh.

There are times where I just feel like "What the heck am I doing?  I don't know what I'm doing.  Financial aid, scholarships, teacher reccomendations, applications, college guides, meetings, HELP!!!!"

So all that on top of three APs and two "normal" classes and friend stuff and volleyball . . . whooo!  Highschool rocks! 

But what's keeping me going are these random thoughts of what I'm going to do in college . . . I had two conversations yesterday involving the ecosystem--global warming and food production and landfills and all that--and one of them was a tangent we got off on in class.  One girl says "I don't want to talk about this any more, can we move on?"  I was like, "this is what I want to major in!"

I'm tired of people sticking their heads in the sand!  I mean, even if you believe that global warming is a big Al-Gore-sore-presidential-loser conspiracy, there are still a ton of things that need fixing.  So why not fix them?

I want to do something about it, I'm tired of talking about it.  I'm doing it for three reasons:

1) God.  It's his planet and we've pretty well messed it up.

2) My future kids, their future kids.  It's their planet and we're pretty well messed it up.

3) Animals.  It's their planet a.  . . .

anyway.

I'm not going to wait for the world to change, I'm going to do it myself. : ) : ) : )

"What's the environmental impact of the 2 million pounds of bacon consumed in the U.S every year? What’s the eco-footprint of your daily dose of cured pork and is there a way to reduce it? What exactly is Fair Trade coffee, how many miles did it have to travel to get into your cup, and what is the best country to buy it from? And what's wrong with orange juice from frozen concentrate anyway?"

(^ From http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/bill-nye-stuff
-happens-breakfast-episode-august-26.php )

I caught this show the other day on TV, I thought it was amazing!

Anyone remember Bill Nye?  You know, the Science Guy?  Kind of makes me want to start singing the theme song that was on PBS oh . . . what, 10 years ago?

Anyway, he hosts a new show called "Stuff Happens."  He explains the environmental impact of products that we buy and use, and what we can do to help eliminate some of the problems.

The one I saw was about breakfast (hence the excerpt).  Here are some things I learned from it:

Bacon.

  It causes a big impact on penguins.  Huh?  Exactly.  Farmers find that pigs grow extremely quickly eating fish.  Anchovies, herring, etc.  They fatten up quicker and, therefore, are quicker to the slaughterhouse.  Problem is, all the fishing (most of which, for these fish, takes place in the Pacific) is severely depleating the fish population, which in turn is threatening species of penguins and seabirds.  So, good ole Bill recommends that you buy bacon from an organic company.  This means that the pigs were raised on a more natural diet of grains and/or grass.  Better for the pigs, better for the penguins!

Coffee

Coffee is grown in the rainforest.  Yay!  The most natural way to do it is to grow it in the understory of the trees--it provides shade for the coffee trees.  Unfortunately some companies find it easier and more efficient to plant coffee trees out in the open sun . . . but still on rainforest land.  So they're bulldozing trees to make room for these coffee farms, which will suck the nutrients out of the soil in a matter of years anyway.  Buying coffee that says "Shade Grown" means that it was grown in the rainforest, not at the expense of it.

Eggs

I had an idea for what was coming for this one.  The USHS (United States Humane Society) has done several reports on the chicken egg industry.  What I found out from the show that both astounded and disgusted me was that not only are eggs from chicken mills from sick, chemically-pumped chickens whose lifespan is only 18 months, but that they're dyed to get that white color!  Eww!  Buying from an organic farm means brown eggs, but hey, they're from healthy chickens.  And not dyed.

So that's the general gist of the show.  There's a lot more info about a lot of different topics.  It's on Planet Green on Discovery Channel.  Check it out!

Thank you for airing the follow-up story to the crash in April that killed a mom and her daughters Courtney and Sophia.  I was one of the people who simply moved on.  Yes, it's sad that a 3-time offender killed three innocent people, but I felt that if I grieved for every death I heard about on the news, I'd be in mourning for a long time.

I actually cried after the newscast was done.  The only time I've ever done that was following "Heroin in the Suburbs" when I saw a girl my age lying in a coffin with her baby doll by her head.

What made it for me was the baby feet . . . I still tear up when I think about them.  Doctors reportedly made imprints of Sophia's feet following the crash--Sophia was the unborn baby--and the dad had three of them tatooed on his arm; one for each of the lives lost.

It's so easy to forget and move on.  It's so easy to whine and complain about our seemingly nonexistent bills and restrictions on drunk driving.

I just wish there was something we could do about it . . . what can be an hour of sadness for us can be a lifetime of grief for someone else.  I usually end my posts on a positive note but it's hard to find anything good about this situation: destroyed families, a saddened community, and bills and resolutions that seem doomed to idle in Congress for . . . months, years, decades.  Something has to change and it has to change soon . . . pray to God it doesn't take many (if any) more deaths before a change for the better occurs.

I know, I know, I know.  Gas is ridiculously high.  It's bogus.  It's sad, disrupting people's lives.  It's bringing up the prices of everything else--food, air travel, etc.

But maybe long term this is what's best.

Not the suffering or the problems caused by the prices themselves, but the fact that people just aren't driving as much.  People are biking more and using more public transportation:

(The following was found on http://www.apta.com/media/releases/080602_ridership_
report.cfm)

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced today that Americans took more than 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first three months of 2008.  This is almost 88 million more trips than last year for the same time period.    

“There’s no doubt that the high gas prices are motivating people to change their travel behavior,” said APTA president William W. Millar.  “More and more people have decided that taking public transportation is the quickest way to beat the high gas prices.”

(End quote)

Aside from ways to beat the high prices, there's been an increase in alternative fuel development research.  How great is that?!  With the bigger push, soon (hopefully) gas prices won't even matter, as our cars could run on water and our houses on solar energy.

Of course, not everything is positive.  Obama's pushing to drill in Alaska for more oil.  That only seems like it's going to postpone the bigger problem and create new ones in its wake--namely destroyed land, more oil spills in the ocean, and increased global warming.  Charming.

But for now I think high gas prices are good.  I don't smile when I see the $4.12 on gas signs but I think it's a twist in events that could mean a change for the better.  The environment is going to be our only lasting impact.  Not the big screen hi-def TVs or our vacation houses up north or how many cars we drove.  In 200 years when we are all long gone the only thing most of us will leave on this earth is our carbon footprint.  The high gas prices might make that footprint smaller.