Kamari Grace
Bio
small town girl in a big world
Stories (10/0)
Veganism Could Save Our Planet
You’ve heard time and time again that, in order to save the environment, you should use less water, ride your bike more often, and recycle in order to conserve water, resources, and energy. What you may not know is that even if everyone stopped driving completely, took every measure to conserve water, and composted everything they are able to compost, the carbon dioxide levels still surpass what is considered a “safe” level, and way too much water is being used each day. You can thank the agriculture industry for these issues, which the government is trying to blame on simple tasks performed by people everyday. Most organizations that are made to support the prevention of deforestation, greenhouse gas build up, or overfishing do not even mention the effects of the agriculture industry on their websites; they fear that it will deter people from donating to their cause, and draw too much government attention. In many interviews done in the documentary Cowspiracy, their representatives admitted that the agriculture industry is producing the most problems to the environment, but do not list them on their site as significant of a problem as it actually is (Andersen). The agriculture industry is responsible for fifty-one percent of the greenhouse gas emissions at 32 billion (32,000,000,000) tons of carbon dioxide per year. Methods of transportation (cars, trains, airplanes, etc.) are what is most often blamed for the mass amounts of carbon dioxide, but they only produce thirteen percent of greenhouse gas emissions (Andersen, Cowspiracy). “Agriculture, food, and related industries contributed $992 billion to US gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, a 5.5-percent share” (Ag and Food Sectors and the Economy). The government does not want us to realize how much damage the agriculture industry actually has on the world, because of how much money they are making off of animal products each year. The agriculture industry is destroying our ecosystem, and the people in it by creating a detrimental impact on our ecosystem, mass deforestation, and it's causing serious health problems that can lead to life threatening diseases.
By Kamari Grace5 years ago in The Swamp
Please Start Helping the Bees
In the past 15 years, the bee population has declined eighty-seven percent. Habitat loss rates are at an all-time low, mainly because of deforestation and excessive use of pesticides. Bees pollinate eighty percent of the flowers and seventy percent of food-producing plants in the United States. They keep our ecosystem running and plants growing, if we do not start creating an environment that bees will be able to thrive in now before we know it, there will be no bees left in the United States to pollinate our plants. Bees do not typically fly to new continents especially one surrounded almost completely by water, so we would need to have another country send us bees or go to another country and bring bees back, which is not very good for their health and would limit their ability to pollinate and reproduce when they actually arrive in America. If we would have to transport bees here it would still take a very long time to get them back to the population amount they were at before. We can start this journey to bring back a substantial amount of bees by planting insectary gardens, using smaller amounts of pesticides, and understanding what could happen to agriculture in the future if we do not help this cause right now.
By Kamari Grace5 years ago in Futurism
Is Plastic-Free Living Possible?
In the past week, I have been thinking a lot about the environment. I mean I have been very concerned for a long time, but now that it is summer and has been getting warmer, I've been outside a lot. I have been walking my dog every evening and I noticed how much litter there is on the sides of the road, the majority being plastic. It has been making me really sad. It is already bad enough that there are tons and tons of plastic being thrown in landfills every day, but to see it on the sides of the road is even worse. I live in a very small town, so we should not have this much litter. I have started to take a trash bag on my walks to collect the trash that I find and try to recycle all that I can, although I recently learned that it takes a lot (!!) of energy to recycle plastic. We are starting to progress in finding new, more efficient ways to recycle plastic, but we are nowhere near where we should be.
By Kamari Grace5 years ago in Futurism
Millennials and the Sharing Economy
Sharing your life with strangers is an important part of building the economy. The sharing economy involves freelance work often facilitated by a larger company that can choose who works for them, and sometimes supervises transactions between customers and workers. Companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, which encourage the social economy, have become very popular recently. With the rise of the internet, and advancements in app development, the ability to do freelance work is at an all-time high. The sharing economy comes more naturally to younger generations, because of the fact that they have grown up always having the internet. It is also a point in time for generations, typically Millennials, and the earlier members of Generation Z, that they may not be completely settled into the job they ideally want, and they probably do not have complete financial stability, so being able to easily make money while working another job, or studying in college is appealing to them. When thinking about anything, you should always consider both the benefits, and the detriments, especially when it comes to the economy. The most prominent argument people have against the sharing economy is that it is taking us away from more traditional businesses, however, there is always going to be a demand for both. I strongly believe that the sharing economy is improving the economy as a whole.
By Kamari Grace5 years ago in Journal