Archive for Discussion Blogs
March 13, 2010 · Filed under Waste, Consumption, and Personal Choice · Tagged Food, gardening, Permaculture
The purpose of permaculture gardening is to produce the most growth and product for the least amount of effort. That’s what I was told at least at the permaculture gardening club gardening party by a student that was leading the group in pursuit of a certificate that psu gives to students that fulfill its requirements in permaculture gardening. Permaculture garden has many attractive and creative designs that you may have seen. There is a student run garden in-between Neuberger hall and The Smith Center. Some of the designs there include the keyhole garden a horse shoe shaped garden that allows you to access everything planted in it from the center, as well as a herb spiral an impressive rock and dirt spiral structure that had herbs and strawberries planted in it and they also have 3 raised bed gardens wood boxes that allow you to build soil up off the level ground about 6 inches. We spent our time pruning lemon balm in the herb spiral, aerating and adding compost to the soil in the raised beds and planting several things in them, including spring greens, lettuce, radishes, carrots and beets. It was very fun and I would recommend the club to anyone who likes to garden. Here I am pruning lemon balm
Logan Taylor
March 13, 2010 · Filed under Civic Engagement and Solutions · Tagged compostable, recycle, sun chips, sustainable
So, right now I’m eating currently eating a new bag of french onion Sun Chips, and they’re delicious! The bag is made of some sort of film, and suppose to be compostable now, which means you can bury it and it’ll degrade in the soil. But then I started thinking. Is it safe? Because i remember a time when everyone had a nalgene bottle, but now they said the bottle could give you cancer. So, even though this bag is 100% compostable, maybe it could have some kind of chemical that could harm the soil, or harm the plants around it. But i see this as a good start. Hopefully all the other chip companies will follow in the footsteps of Sun Chips, and make recyclable bags.
~Anthony Tran
March 12, 2010 · Filed under Civic Engagement and Solutions, Uncategorized · Tagged energy, map, solar
Here is a cool map that uses satellite imagery to show which houses and businesses in the Portland area have decided to use solar panels. This is a good resource for finding out who to turn to if you have any questions about the costs and benefits of solar energy, and it also might serve as a little incentive for new solar customers who want to be recognized as “eco-conscious”. Another interesting feature is that you can enter in your address, and it will tell you your estimated solar potential as well as how much it would cost to install solar panels. Check it out.
-Matt Z
March 12, 2010 · Filed under Waste, Consumption, and Personal Choice · Tagged Sustainability, sustainable trees
we are losing 137 plant, insects species every day according to experts. Why? Most rain forests are disappearing because of bulldozers, chainsaws and fires for its timber value. Is it really worth killing off species to make a dollar? There has to be a better way for our society to create the items that come from destroying the rain forests. This article has a lot of really interesting facts about the rainforests and how destroying it is affecting all of us.
~Cody Males
March 11, 2010 · Filed under Art and Culture · Tagged ecoblock, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy.
So i was at the eco-block get together like David, and Matt. I was apart of the energy portion of the meeting. They were talking about putting stationary bikes next to the business administration building. A station to generate electricity to power the lights around there, or to charge a electronic device you had. I think this would be kind of weird. Its a good idea, but I don’t think in front of the max is the place for it. Maybe somewhere that doesn’t have so many people around.
The energy group also talked about putting in water power generators underneath the bridge. That way the rain water streams off, and pushes the generator to generate electricity. It wouldn’t be a lot of power, but it would be something. I thought this was a good idea. All this would happen on Montgomery St. in that empty lot.
Anthony Tran.
March 9, 2010 · Filed under Civic Engagement and Solutions
I wrote a term paper on this article for my economics class and thought it would be interesting to share with you, as we are college students. As you know, California’s economy is in pretty bad shape (a $21 billion dollar budget deficit as of November 2009). The President has a proposed a solution: federal loan forgiveness if you graduation and work in public service. You can read the full, official(?) proposal here. But here’s the catch: what if you had plans on become on entrepreneur? Or something else that has nothing to do with public service? Yes, many careers can be tied into public service, but if that’s not what you were planning on spending thousands of dollars on education to do, then what happens? It is clear that many students will not be returning to college in the fall due to this enormous tuition hike. Where do you think they should increase taxes? Is it unfair to ask these young college students to dish out even more money, when their education is our future? On a personal note, luxury taxes would be the most appropriate place to hike up percentages. Think of how many people in the Los Angeles area live their lives in excess. Not to mention the entire film industry in LA: so much of the state’s revenue is generated there. Are they experiencing a 33% tax increase? I think the wrong people are being asked to dish out more money.
– roxy
March 9, 2010 · Filed under Art and Culture · Tagged greener, men, women
Who is greener in your household, women or men? I found this interesting article that said women are greener than men! One of reason is because women” respond more positively to environmentally friendly advertising”. Another reason is that women “get involved in co-operative and social initiatives on a personal level. However, there are more males in our sustainability class than females. So I was wondering what is you opinion would be?! Or what do u think of this?!`
Needa L
