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Blog Post #5 Below is a brainstorm of a specific topic for our documentary. I have included a bunch of links we can use to follow up if we decide to go forward with this specific topic. Brainstorm:              We would like to focus on how abandoned coal mines in Kentucky have impacted the environment and what solutions we can put into place to help reverse the environmental effects of coal mining. We are specifically looking at rural communities in Kentucky such as Pikeville and Eastern Kentucky. Mining today disturbs 3 times as much land as it did in the 1980s according to https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article215487870.html . There are about 50,000 abandoned coal mines in the United States and 12,408 of those are classified as ‘Priority 3’ ( https://skytruth.org/2015/10/mapping-abandoned-coal-mines/ ) Priority 3 mines pose a threat to the safety and health of the surrounding people and environment. The Aban...

Blog Post #4 The peer review workshop we did in class on Thursday was the most effective peer review I have ever taken part in. Kendall and Savannah gave me great notes as to how I can improve my writing. Some of the criticism they gave was that my writing was scattered: my analysis of rhetorical techniques was good, but the essay lacked a central theme. They helped me come up with a good thesis to help give my writing a guide and narrow down the purpose of the rhetorical strategies my stakeholder used. They also suggested I reintroduce the theme in each of my body paragraphs: showing how each artifact contributes to that theme. Another note they both agreed on is that I use the word help too much in my writing. This is an easy fix, but I was not aware of the issue until they pointed it out. Moving forward, I plan to re-organize my rhetorical analysis. I want to create more of a hook at the beginning by writing a story introducing the issue and the local people it is effecting. T...

Blog Post #3 5 Ways Climate Change Affects People Living In Poverty The Great Green Wall The Sahara is Growing, Thanks in Part to Climate Change Why the Great Green Wall? H20 for All Large-Scale Impoverishment of Amazon forests by logging and fire Climate Change will hurt the Impoverished the most Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty Climate Change Could Drive More Than 100 Million Into Poverty by 2030 Climate change makes poor countries poorer, widening global inequality See What Climate Change Means Preventing Climate Change while Enhancing Economic Growth Stakeholders: United States Government Leonardo DiCaprio Relief Organizations Bernie Sanders American Geophysical Union World Bank:  https://www.firstcarbonsolutions.com/resources/newsletters/april-2014-climate-change-is-a-stakeholders-business/climate-change-is-a-stakeholders-business/ United Nations Environment Program Small communities living in poverty Coastal Communities

'Even though humans can be seen as the problem, we can also be the solution.' This quote is from Sean’s blog post. Reading Sean's blog post, I realized his view on the environment is the same as mine. Impacts that humans make on their environment stretches over the whole planet. Population growth is threatening the integrity of water sources around the world, degrading the air quality, and negatively impacting the lives of millions of living organisms.  Researching further, I learned about the long-term impacts of natural resource extraction. Mountain-top removal and fracking are two direct examples of long term impacts extracting natural resources can have on the environment. The article linked in this post talks about primary and secondary impacts from using natural resources. Primary impacts are effects that occur immediately after/at an extraction site. Secondary impacts are usually longer lasting. In mountain top-removal and fracking, many animals are forced to a...

World’s Biggest Producer of Plastic to Curtail Its Use In high school I ran on the cross-country team. Every run I would notice all of the trash lying on the ground and it made me realize how easy it is to prevent trash from ending up in our environment. Ever since then I try to live my life in a more conscious way. I became the recycling coordinator for the track and cross-country teams and made sure people were aware of what kinds of things they were throwing away. I found this article in a sub-reddit and it caught my eye. I really like this article because China is setting an example for countries around the world. Getting rid of single-Use plastics such as plastic silverware, bags, and water bottles is a great way to start helping the environment. Countries all around the world are noticing this issue: France, Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand, and even some states it the US have begun to ban single-use plastics. The picture I pulled from this page (shown below) shows the amoun...