Go Green! Beach Clean Up

If you decide to be lazy and litter at one of Texas beautiful beaches you can be fined up to $2,000. That is a lot of cash out of ones pocket just because you decide to be lazy and not dispose of trash the proper way. Rather there are many ways you can be proactive about being environmentally friendly at our beach at South Padre Island, or any beach.

One way to be proactive is to not bring any garbage or waste to the beach, especially glass or things that can be harmful to the animals in that region. Every beach has community clean ups where community members can volunteer and help clean up.

According to spionline.com the next Adopt-A-Beach will be in February and one following in March after spring break. For more information, or if you think you would be interested you can contact, Monica Vela at 956-761-5494 or Clemente Valdez at 956-761-3704.

A dirty beach is an ugly beach

Help clean with beach clean ups



You litter you pay the price fines up to $2,000



Keep SPI beautiful

A clean beach is a beautiful beach

The Purest Ingredient: Water!

We find water everywhere, it is the most complex source to life on planet earth, without water earth would not be able to sustain our life. All life depends on water. Earth has natural water cycles for when it rains, which eventually turn into our source for drinking water.

The earth has natural cycles that are very important and vital for its well being. The water cycle is one of them, it fills our oceans and rivers and creeks, it evaporates into rain and goes back into the earth. If this natural cycle was in danger or trouble, so would we be, we rely on our water from this cycle.

It is very important that we keep our water on earth clean so that when this natural water process happens again, it will be safe to consume our water. Some tips from nrdc.org to keep water clean is:

1. Correctly dispose of hazardous household products

2. Use nontoxic household products whenever possible

3. Recycle and dispose of all trash properly.

4. Conserve water

5. Use natural fertilizers.

It can be really easy to help keep earth's water safe and clean. Remember to reuse. reduce and, recycle.

Diagram of the water cycle

Diagram two of water cycle

Be friendly, don't waste

Why You Should Change Your Cleaning Products

We usually don't think of our cleaning products doing anything other than keeping our surroundings clean but we must be aware that they can have harsh effects on our bigger surrounding, our planet earth. They may be doing much more than just cleaning.

 Many of our cleaning products have bad chemicals that effect our planet, we always need to keep in mind that what we use and do effects the planet and other people as a whole.

Here is a good video to keep in mind when shopping for environmentally friendlier products.

Fruit Peels for Rich Soil

Before you decided to throw away your orange peels, banana peels, or any other fruit peels, if you cut them and store them in a pot with dirt and then place them to create rich soil, they will help your garden of flowers, or fruit or even if you are just planting a tree to grow.

Since fruit peels are organic, they decompose turn into something that helps plants and other organic things grow. They are very beneficial to help you start growing a garden. Bugs and worms can help the process go by faster by working the fruit peels and quickly turning them into rich soil nutrients.

There are many alternatives rather than just throwing things in the trash bin, you can think twice and reuse them to help start and grow a beautiful garden which is also giving back to help make a earth friendly environment.

Fruit and veggie compost

Rich soil made of fruit and veggie peels

Cut pieces of banana to make it easier to decompose

A Threat to Life?

How well can humans, plants and animals adapt to the earths ever changing vicious climate cycles. Can we adapt fast enough to survive? A recent article in newscientist.com states that "a warmer, wetter Earth with higher CO₂ levels could support more life - if there were time to adapt to it."

Our planet generally has stable weather and a stable climate it has been so for thousands of years. So what happens to all known life on earth when the climate starts heating up. According to newscientist.com, "the world is warming very rapidly and could become hotter than it has been for millions of years, and the climate is going to be anything but stable for the foreseeable future."

So what can humans do to survive? Put on sunglasses? wear more UV protection? Is there anything we can do to prevent this problem? Well the website livescience.com goes on to state that "41 percent of Americans believe the burning of fossil fuels causes global warming. But in a meeting this week in Paris, officials from 113 nations have agreed that a highly anticipated international report will state that global warming was "very likely'' caused by human activity."

Livescience.com suggests that, "human-caused global warming—also called “anthropogenic” global warming, is the latest example of life altering Earth, but it is not the most dramatic." There are other things taht alter the earths global warming such as the methane cows release when they have gas. Howstuffworks.com states that agriculture, or cows more specifically contribute to 14 percent of the earth's green house gases.

What can we do to help? The website environment.about.com says some ways to help reduce global warming would be, to:
1. Reuse, Reduce, Recycle
2. Use less heat and air conditioning
3. Switch your bulbs to fluorescent light blubs
4. Drive less, Drive smart
5. Buy energy-efficient products
6. Use less hot water
7. Use the "off" switch
8. Plant a tree
9. Get a report card from your utility company
10. encourage others to conserve.

Are there any other things you can do to help your campus or community to go green? If you do send your ideas to: thegreenscholarutb@yahoo.com and your idea will come out on this blog!

Help with global warming, save a life

See the proof firsthand

Our home a fiery furnace?

Vegetarianism and the Environment

Is it possible that your choice of diet can effect the environment? Having a vegetarian diet can actually have good effects on the environment, but also following the vegetarian lifestyle. Besides having a good effect on your health, finances, and ethics being a vegetarian also helps the environment.

Being a vegetarian you are conserving fossil fuels, according to britishmeat.com, it takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of beef protein, 35 calories for one calorie of pork, 22 calories for one calorie of poultry as appose to one calorie of fossil fuel for one calorie of soybeans, the difference is great.

Another reason according to britishmeat.com is that "in Brazil and other tropic regions are destroyed daily, in part, to create more acreage to raise livestock" since vegetarians don't eat meat they don't have a demand for livestock.

Pets are friends not food.

Eat your veggies.

Who are you really eating?

Water Rules! Why Shorten your shower

Shower is just a part of our daily hygiene, to keep clean and healthy we must always shower, but we should be efficient about it, and learn how to shorten our shower and save water, money, and energy.

There are some parts of the world were water is very scarce and hard to get to, here in America we should never take for granted our water supply. We should learn to be efficient and shorten our shower to no more than 6 minutes. According to squidoo.com every minute you shorten from your shower saves five gallons of water! The shorter your shower the less you will harm the environment.

You can be just as efficient in showering in less time, just be quick and think of the energy and water and even money you will be saving.

Go Green shorten y our shower time,