Tony's Creation

Years before human kind was established the earth was a less harmful environment to live in. As earth ages, it endures natural disasters by itself, but as humans living on this planet we are held responsible to maintain a healthy ecosystem. If we fail to cooperate, we will only contribute in harming our home. Major concepts such as green house gas emissions, air pollution and resource management are something we should take into consideration. We believe going green is the best solution to do so because it involves making a few simple changes in life that will help benefit our environment. In today’s world, it makes more sense to go green much than ever. Some people might go green because they want to be easier on the environment. Others might want to go green to save money. While a few others might go green to help cure many of the problems of today’s world such as global warming and pollution. Eventually, as people begin making more and more changes, they will notice that they will actually consume and waste less, not only by saving our planet, but money also. The future is not somewhere we are going. It is something we are creating. Every day we do things that make some futures more probable and others less likely.

Going about our daily lives it is necessary for us to clean up our act as individuals to help save our planet earth, but it is also necessary for society as a whole to do the same. For as long as humans have been around, the average temperature has not changed very much. Sure, it changes from day to day and season to season, but the global average temperature has only risen about 5°C since the peak of the last ice age about 20,000 years ago. In the past 100 years, it has already risen about 1°C.  There is concern that anthropogenic (human activities) global climate change is rapidly increasing.

Americans make up 4% of the world’s population and yet we produce about 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide pollution. These percentages are superior to China, Japan and India combined. The U.S. uses about $1 million dollars every minute worth of energy.     Carbon dioxide is the most important gas. Burning natural gas, coal and oil raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Burning coal is the most polluting method to generate energy. As the coal burn, the oxygen molecules stick to the carbon molecules, as it is separating and form carbon dioxide. From mining, to generation, to transportation, coal causes severe environmental problems than other energy resources do. Coal is full of hazardous substances that, when burned, contaminate the air, the land and water. In an average year, a coal plant generates 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide. That is as much carbon dioxide as cutting down 161 million trees. Deforestation is the process of clearing trees from a large area. Well we do need wood to produce paper, build houses, and make furnishings, and the vacant forest areas make room for fields to grow crops. However, it is critical to constraint the number of trees we cut down and to replant them to keep the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere under control. As of right now in our society, we have agreed to plant 5 trees for every 1 tree we cut down.
Global Warming is a fact, but there are still many skeptics about it. In Al Gore’s video “Inconvenient Truth,” many things are over-exaggerated. In the video, it Gore doesn’t show much of the real numbers that are actually it. Instead he makes a graph that just rises up. In his defense, the video does show how the polar bears are not having any ice to go on. Polar bear extinction is used as a defense for the supporting groups of people who believe that we should work on lowering global warming. The SITKA Global Warming Group is a supporter of the going green movement. They plan to have all boats change motors that use very little fuel and mostly electricity. Not only this particular group is trying to do something. The nation has started to make more fuel efficient cars, and build more tracks, so that there are fewer cars roaming around. A concern of the opposing side is that the supporters are using the polar bear extinction excuse as a road block for oil drilling in the arctic. The opposing side consist of many scientist that are skeptical about what actually is the cause of global warming.  They believe that Co2 is not the cause of it, but do not exactly know what the cause is. The potential consequences  is that it will be more expensive for undeveloped countries to help lower Co2 emissions.
The Global Warming Solution Act of 2006 was passed in California by Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 27,2006 on a 4-2 vote. The bill brings us in the Kyoto Protocol, which is a protocol aimed at fighting global warming.  The bill requires that by 2020 greenhouse gas emission be lowered to what it was during the 1990s. The Clean Air Act was first passed at 1963, and it was revised multiple times. The last time it was revised was 1990 and that when it started going downhill.
I would propose a plan that would get my whole community involved by having everyone get solar panels and wind turbines. It may be costly at first, but overtime PG&E bill will go down dramatically. Also, I would try to spread this around the world through the internet. I would make a video of showing how the solar panel and wind turbine works, and how happy people would have. With doing so, little by little greenhouse gas emissions would go down. If it does become a trend, then it would emissions would change nationally.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l16YH6xCN4c&playnext_from=TL&videos=XCMDkJuoZVA&feature=featured

AIDS is one of the main killers in Africa right now. Africa has 88% of people living with HIV, and 92% of deaths from HIV were in Africa in 2007. The U.S has been trying to help Africa for a long time now. We have been trying to provide condoms, ARVs, and other medical treatments for aids for them. I recently watched a video called the Lazarus Effect, and it showed the effects of how the ARVs helped people with HIV. The ARVs makes the virus go to sleep, like in a dormant state. They have to take it about every 12 hours or so. The time at which they take the medicine is really important because if the virus wakes up, it will cause damage to the body again. If the pill is taken too early, then its kind of a waste for the pill. Forty cents is all that is needed a day for a person to take these pills. Forty cents can buy us small things like 5 pieces of gum, or a little rubber ball. Are those little petty items worth a life of a human being? The bodies of the people with the virus was very skinny like. They had no fat on them whatsoever because of the virus taking up all the nutrients that they get. The video was showing the effects after 3 months, and it was like they were a completely new person. For most of the people, you could not see bone sticking out so far into their back as before. They had more meat on them which made them look a lot better, not that looks matter or anything. It’s just the fact that the bones were very disturbing and all.

Many people argue that Africa isn’t the only place with AIDS, but that isn’t the reason why we try to help the people in Africa so much. It is due to the fact that their government does not provide them with any much health care, and they are impoverished. During Bush’s administration, Bush had built many schools in Africa to help with their education. He was known more outside of the U.S for helping others then actually helping his own country.

There were commercials made for the “The Lazarus Effect” and it showed the a bunch of celebrities showing what they can get for 40 cents. They are trying to show how little those things that we don’t need, and how much 40 cents can save a person a day.

On April 20, 2010, there was a big explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. It was from an underwater oil drilling site. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others. The one responsible for this is British Petroleum. They said that about 40,000 gallons of oil spilling out from the hole every day. That was far from what they estimated. It is spilling out about  2 million gallons each day. British Petroleum will be in deep stuff for a long time and most likely be out of business. The oil spill will affect the whole coast line and the habitants of the area. The first of their solutions was to burn all the oil and scoop oil from the surface of the water. Burning will cause pollution, but overtime the oil will cause much more damage. Their second solution was to make a 4 story building and try to plug the hole to slow it down. It was slightly successful, but it wasn’t slowing down as much as they thought it would. This is costing them millions and millions of dollars each day. They have to account for the clean up of the beaches, animals, and everything else the oil touches. What’s worse is that they can’t get down to the spilling point for 3 months. They are building a submarine that will take 3 months. So about 2million gallons of oil each day pouring in the ocean for 3 months is ridiculous.

I saw a youtube video of a hair salon owner gathering fake hair and stuffing it down in stockings, and using that as a sponge for the oil. I can’t remember her name nor could i find the video, but she had people from all of the United States sending her hair to be stuffed. Having the nation as a whole to help with the state of emergency  make it good to know. I hope that Obama will ban all offshore drilling for quite a while and get this mess cleaned up.

How lightly is the death penalty treated nowadays? As we are a Democratic nation, we do not use the death penalty as it should. People who has killed others are being let go with years of punishment. Does those years behind bar atone for the life that they took that could have lived for more years? Just last week, I was polling people about death penalty for my government class. The question was ” Do you believe in the death penalty.”  I asked 21 people and 17 answered yes and the other 4 answered no. The majority of people asked were my fellow students in my grade.  The question was very unbiased and were just subjected to their very own opinion. I believe in the death penalty because those who kill, rape, break laws should be locked up behind bars for the rest of their lives. The death penalty is not used much at all. The judges would sentence them to 20-25 years for murder, but most of the time the criminals are let out early for good behavior on parole.  It seems to me like the judges are giving them a second chance to get it straight, but I’d have to say, “what really are the chances of that?” Those who do I’m glad to hear that, but those who don’t just do the same crime again.

Supporters of the death penalty says that the government has the right to kill the criminal based on their crime committed. Also, it would show other criminals of what they would do to them if crimes bad enough are committed. Those who are against the death penalty believe that it’s wrong for the governments to kill people. There is a possibility that an innocent person will be killed. Also, poor people and minorities may be put on death penalty more then whites.  Anthony was put on the death sentence, and he waited behind 16 years behind bars for his death. Sixteen years later, He was found innocent. The death penalty is not full proof nor is it the best option,but the court system is to be blamed for that. The judges should give longer time for people to get their evidence and get things together. You people know the saying, “Life isn’t fair.”

Legalizing marijuana was one of the proprosition made in California. Would you eb for it or against it? Personally, I dont not care whether if it is legal or not. If it were to be legal, there would be just more abuse over this drug. Medical marijuana has be ionstated here, and it has so many holes. I’ve heard from people, who has the card, got it so easily. Just a simple lie like a back pain, or a bad appetite can easily get the card. Also, those who sell marijuana will have a harder time selling it. Competition with prices will just make it go down. Another downside to legalizing it is that this will be used as an excuse to legalize other drugs. People will come up with the most ridiculous reasons to get the drug.

Not legalizing Marijuana would not change anything from what it is now. There will be illegal trades and use of it. There will still be the plantations, and the users who provide them. Also, don’t forget that the government is spending millions every year trying to find the plantations. They are honestly just fighting a losing battle.

There was an incident on May 5, which was on a Mexican-American holiday called Cinco De Mayo. On this day there were a couple boys who were decked out in American Flag colors. There were people who got offended by this act. The school principle got involved and decided to send them home if they did not take off their shirt. The school board and parents of the boys were against this decision. One of the boys were half hispanic, so why would there be a problem?

First of all, I believe that the principle was biased towards this decision because he was hispanic. This holiday is a Mexican-AMERICAN holiday, so i don’t get why that is so offensive. It was created in America, not Mexico. Wearing the colors on this day may seem like it had a message, but they did not go up to people and try to start confrontation. There were people who were wearing the Mexican flag colors that day, and no one seem to be offended by that. Instead they had a problem people wearing American flag colors.

On the other side, there were comments from the school officials saying that they were trying to protect the safety of the students in school. I understand what they are trying to do. It’s almost similar to be wearing a nazi sign on your shirt. It’s different from this comparison though because wearing those colors is being patriotic right? What do you think of it? Were they trying to start confrontation or were they just wearing to be patriotic.

On April 26, 2010 Arizona passed a law that would grant the police the authority to stop anyone that they think that they may be be  illegal to the country. I’m against all these immigration laws.  Immigrates come here to start a new life. It was fine back then, but why not now. Why do they come here to start a new life? Is their country in that much of a poverty? Who was the cause of the poverty? The U.S was at fault for these impoverish country. For example, Mexico was one of the major factor. The U.S went into their government and planted a president with a leader that from the U.S. The president does not give anything to the country, and more likely does things to support America better yet than Mexico. Another would be panama. Panama was pretty much screwed over by Teddy Roosevelt by first trying to negotiate on building the panama canal. Negotiation failed so Roosevelt went and placed the Navy right at the border of Panama. Panama was in a crisis at that point fighting with Colombia. Panama gave up and had Roosevelt aid them with their fight against Colombia for the panama canal. Well, when it comes to, the fact remains that the immigrants are taking jobs to help better their life. People say that they are taking jobs from us, the legal citizens, but they don’t complain about what job they get but we do. We,the citizens, should not be complaining and should do something about it. From stories I’ve heard from my friends, there were a bunch of Hispanic at home depot trying to find jobs, whereas a Caucasian homeless were begging for money around the corner. This is a great example of how the immigrants are trying to do something for their life instead of begging and waiting around for someone to save them. I have relatives that are like this, but they are legal immigrates. They come over work and study to make money for their family. I have respect for these people because they ARE doing something about it.

I am currently a senior at Rancho Cotate right now. These so called myths may have some truth to it but most of it is so exaggerated. Also, every school has their own problems. For example, their are kids who don’t care about school, so they just cut and cause the school to have bad rep when that something bad comes up on the news. Every school has those kids that smoke and do drugs thats something a school really can’t prevent unless it’s a private school. Honestly in my very own opinion, school is what you make of it. Their may be issues in that school, but you can always avoid it. Don’t hang around kids that you think are bad, join clubs, play sports, and get involved. From my own experience i may hang around kids that do drugs, but out of my 4 years that I been here I have never done any. Peer pressure is not as bad as it sounds, because it all comes to you in the end. One of the myths that their are gang wars constantly, and that is completely false. The so called gang wars are a bunch of people pretending like they are “gangster” and all I’ve seen while i was here were some fights. They didn’t have any weapons it was like a brawl pretty much. Another myth is that the teachers their really don’t care about the students, and their expectation are low of them. I find them true for some teachers, but its not like that for all the teachers. I’ve had teachers that i truly liked and it was fun to be in that class, but their were teachers that didn’t teach very well and didn’t even try to help. Some teachers i liked had great personalities, but their teaching methods that they taught I just couldn’t learn from them. There was also something about not enough excel programs or advance class, but it’s not the schools fault. There are budgets that school have. There are already many schools that don’t have the sports, club activities, and classes due to budget cuts, so just having them at this point is good enough. There are other ways to get those extra classes, like here, you can go to the Santa Rosa Junior College to take those courses to get extra credits for college. Like i said before, this school and probably every school out there is what you, yourself, makes of it.

Music has many different forms. It comes from nature, instruments, random bangs, etc. Music has become one of the most produce type of entertainment in the world right now. Music has affected my life because it helps me concentrate or get hyped up. Listening to music while doing homework for example helps me get focus because my house is always loud, so why not block it out with something i like. When I’m about to play basketball or football, listening to music gets me pumped up and get in the zone.

Music has led me to do some creative things with it. At one point of my life I spent hours and hours trying to learn how to make music, but I gave up on it because to make music you had to be very creative. I’m not so creative but I’m sure I had a sense for music, like knowing what beat sounds good with the lyrics and what not. I will probably stick to just listening to music until i hit college and be at a studio where I can learn how to actually make it and put it together.

When Haiti had the big 8.0 earthquake, artists from many different genres came together to recreate a song made by Micheal Jackson called We Are The World. They left some of what it already had and their new style of music to it. I thought that this sound was truly inspirational, so i donated 5 dollars. I also told my dad about this and he also donated 5 dollars. This is a big example of how music helps and brings us together.

George W. Bush, president for 8 years, wasn’t a very good leader in my opinion. He created so many problems for our country. He would help other countries before us, which was odd. Shouldn’t he be helping us instead of helping other countries in Africa when we are in trouble also? We may be creating opportunity for people in Africa, but it’s like a double edge sword. When we help Africa, we are losing money in the process when there are people in need in the U.S that are also starving. We are the #1 food producer in the world, yet we still have so many people starving in our country. Helping Africa isn’t bad, but again i believe that our country should be first, so there isn’t a backlash.

His approval rating was so high when he first came into office and 9/11 because he gave hope. He said that he will find the terrorist and bring them to justice. Everyone would want to hear that after that massive terrorist attack. Even i would’ve liked to hear that if i had understood what was really going on back then. His solution was to enter us into a war to make us feel good by saying that they will find something and stop further terrorist acts.  I believe that he just wanted to find something that was not there because his stubbornness and pride made him not able to back down. Well they did find out that they are making trying to make nuclear bombs, but didn’t have too much.

Before he left office his approval rating was 22% which was agreeable to me. I believe that mostly those republican white folks really stuck with him. Like people from Texas from example just because that was his home state, and are alike. Not to be a stereotype, but when you look at people from Texas you picture cowboys and whatnot. It’s kind of true.