BLUE MARSHBY:mark s. patrick c. carl b. mike v.

Human interaction with the environment

According to "Countercurrents.org" people are less concerned about the environment then ever before. People think that CO2 emissions, pollution(air and water) and species becoming extinct are not important topics in their everyday lives. According to a GlobalScan survey 58 % of Americans see water pollution as a serious problem despite the fact that it is considered one of the most serious problems right now. Human and environmental interactions have a very long existence with the species of the planet. During the Industrial Revolution, the environment exploration sky rocked. By the Twentieth Century many people realized their effect on environment and many toke steps to go “green” so they could help and protect the environment from further damage.

Human Interaction with the Environment

An article titled Humans: the real threat to life by Stephen Emmott had some great facts about the topic we are discussing. Our growth rapidly increased as years went on and by 1980 there were a total of 4 billion humans on this planet. Just ten years later there were five billion of us and we already started seeing problems with our environment. The demand for water and not just to drink but to produce food was becoming a real problem. As humans keep producing we are gonna keep running into problems like this. In 2014 we have a total of 7 billion humans on earth. Every year we continue to grow which means we increase our need for food, water, land,transport, and energy. We keep accelerating the rate at which the climate is going to change.

Environmental literacy

Environmental literacy is the idea that you know your actions affect your environment. When someone has a strong sense of environmental literacy they help their environment as an individual and as a community. Environmental literate people would buy green products, help spread awareness about the environment and work with organizations to improve their environment.

Why do a lot of people lack environmental awareness and literacy

Technology had no doubt made our lives easier in so many different types of ways. In many of these activities like production of goods, and services have done a lot of damages to our environment like pollution of land, atmosphere, vegetation, and rivers. In one article that we found they focused on environmental education and simple actions to help the environment that could save us $75 billion annually. Most Americans believe they know more about the environment then they actually do. Just 12% of Americans can pass a basic quiz on energy awareness topics. About 80% of Americans are heavily influenced by incorrect or outdated information about the environment. One of the reasons why people may not know that much about the environment is that the public is unprepared for increasing environmental responsibilities in the coming years. 83% of children get there environmental information from the media than any other source. For many adults, there only source about the environment is the media. The real question is how are we going to bring enough environmental education problems to the the general education.

Blue Marsh

Blue Marsh is located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. It is a reservoir lake which was built in 1979. The lake is a very popular place where people go fishing, swimming, boating, and have nice family barbecues. The primary inflow/outflow is the Tulpehocken creek. Before the lake, Blue Marsh was the name of the village that was there before it. The land was very fertile and was a heavily forested area. They had many farms there and they had 18th to 19th century games. The United States Army Corps of Engineers started to do construction of the lake in March 1974. Its a 6,100 acres and they also have volleyball courts, food concession stands and much more. They have trials which run for 30 miles. You can go biking, running, hiking, and just enjoy a nice walk with some family or friends on a nice day in a great environment.

what were doing to help!

Here are some ways that we can help our environment. Little things like changing the light bulb, turning off the computers at night, Recycle glass, Recycle newspapers, cut down on shower time, and even use cruise control when driving sometimes. We are reducing the environment footprint of our operations. Some very helpful things that helped our environment is reducing the carbon footprint by 45% and our energy use by 20% since 2005. 40% of our electricity comes from our renewable energy source. We are even collaborating with our industry on better ways to measure supplier greenhouse gas emissions. Some new ways that we reduce our waste is by reducing the product of packaging and offering bulk solutions to minimize shipping volume and helps by decreasing the shipping costs. Packaging materials are even stamped with international recognized recycling symbols. In 2010, we collected more than 4,300 tons of electronic equipment waste for recycling. Our recycling programs has become so advanced that people can dispose equipment responsibly.

how we helped blue marsh

When approached to help Blue Marsh in class it hit us that we are not very good when it comes to working with our hands and working with nature. We are communicators, we can all take a concept and help other people understand the topic(s). We choose to take a different approach and made signs for Blue Marsh to put up around their entrance way so people can know that it is National Get Outdoors Day and see the activities and festivities that would happen on that day inside of the park. These signs serve as informational pieces and attraction for people. With eye popping colors and slick designs we hope to draw in a large crowd to help fulfill the grand idea of get outdoors day, a day in which people get outside in a healthy, fun and educational way without the temptation of alcohol or drug or substances that would put them under the influence. Within our journey of designing the posters we had to think both like adults and kids so we can attract crowds of all ages. Combining all of our ideas led to some “head butting” and small arguments however we came out of it with a better understanding of our environment, Blue Marsh and ourselves.