Earth Day!

To contribute to the Earth Day event, my group and I made a poster about malnutrition. Our goal was to explain the issue of malnutrition in Western countries and compare it with the malnutrition in under-developed countries. We emphasized the differences between such countries. In Western countries, people are eating too much bad and unhealthy food; whereas in contrast, in Africa for example, every three seconds a child dies because he's not eating enough. The people who read our poster showed similar and consistent reactions; they were shocked. Everybody already knows these two facts, but actually comparing them creates a great deal of concern among most people. It upset them to make link that one country and its population is abusing its abundant supply food, causing death; all the while, people in less privileged countries die not because of food choices, but because they do not have any food to choose from.

I think that the college activities were a good way to inform students about the various issues concerning our planet and its sustainability. We often hear about earth issues, but not enough people really take the time to reflect on the issues, or take the time to try to solve the issues. This event provided a great opportunity to become aware of earth issue cause. People were about to read up on earth facts and sign petitions to show support.

The project that I found the most compelling was the one on carpooling. It affects me because carpooling is a really good solution to help the environment. I think it needs to be promoted. The activity about carpooling was interesting because the person made a car out of cardboard, and people were able to ''travel around'' in it. It was an interactive and useful way to represent the situation. Other people should be conscious about carpooling because so many people are drive and carpooling is an easy way in preventing global warming. It is also a way to divide the money spent on gas.



Here are some links about malnutrition:

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/worldmap/cida/poverty.asp?language=FR

http://www.worldfoodprize.org/assets/YouthInstitute/05proceedings/PostvilleHighSchool.pdf

Here is an interesting book about malnutrition in Western countries:

Food Matters, A Guide to Conscious Eating from Mark Bittman