Ban Plastic Microbeads! (Story of Stuff Extra Credit Summary and Reflection)

The Story of Stuff video I watched was about banning plastic microbeads that take forever to decompose and are virtually impossible to clean up. Basically, companies put these microscopic pieces of plastic into cosmetics and toiletries because consumers find their texture satisfying. And because the microbeads are so small, they can’t be filtered out of the water at treatment plants. This results in the plastic ending up in the ocean, where fish and other animals mistakenly eat it, thinking that the beads are plankton. The beads also act “as a sponge for toxins” and concentrate poisonous substances that are harmful to living things. As the microbeads travel up the trophic pyramid and reach us, biomagnification occurs causing fish that we eat to have high levels of plastics and toxins.

Again, due to their small size, cleaning up is virtually impossible so prevention is the only solution. In numerous states including California, legislators are currently in the midst of passing laws that would ban the sale of products with microbeads. This doesn’t mean we won’t be able to use shampoo anymore, it just means that companies will be forced to switch to more environmentally friendly exfoliants if they want to continue selling to the 40 million people who live here.

I really liked this video because it explained what microbeads are, what their effect is, and what the solutions are, in an organized and interesting manner. They used really nice animations and were successful at portraying the large corporations as what they are: people who only care about money. However, it would have been nice if they went more into depth about topics like biomagnification and what brand lines to avoid.

I already check labels of shampoo and soap for things like parabens, pthalates, SLS and other possible carcinogens. Now I know to also look for things that are obviously plastic like polyethylene, polypropylene, and polymethyl methacrylate. By doing this, I will be voting with my dollar for environmentally friendly products. I will also feel more safe because who knows what kind of havoc plastic will wreak when it enters your body.

Watch the video here

Take action here

Watch another video about microplastics here

Unit 7 Reflection

This unit was about ecological principles and how humans affect the environment. We learned about population ecology and how all the species in an ecosystem are dependent on one another. We also focused on how energy moves through trophic levels and explored ideas like the 10% rule and how the collapse of one level can topple the rest of the pyramid. There were many videos that were shown, such as "Bag It!", relating to how we can help save the environment and reduce human created issues like plastic in oceans.

I want to learn more about how the government interacts with the environment and how passing laws could help reduce climate change. I also want to learn about how we can increase social awareness of environmental issues and galvanize the masses into making change.

I think the Conservation Biology Project was really fun and I hope we will have similar projects in the future. It took us quite a while to decide on our topic and I was a bit aggressive in convincing my partners to go with my idea. However, we were able to assign work well and get all the notes organized into one document. We then wrote the script using ideas from the notes, but I feel like we didn't divide up the script work that well so I ended up typing most of the document. After filming a Bill-Nye style video during class, we had a number of surprises after school. Chloe discovered that some of the clips were missing, so I needed to record voice-overs and create a couple images to show while I was talking. Also, when we checked the instructions on Canvas, I noticed that we were completely missing some information. To fix this, I wrote a new portion of the script and filmed myself speaking it. Chloe then finished off the editing while Kaitlyn and I did the image citations. Overall, this project was great and because I work well under stress and late at night, I ended up finding the last-minute work quite enjoyable.

Our Conservation Biologist Project was about invasive comb jellies (Mnemiopsis Leidyi pictured above)

The survey showed that my dominant conflict style is assertive, but aggressive comes in as a close second. Although I'm already really assertive, I think I need to be less aggressive when debating with others. To combat this, I can be more conscious of what I'm saying and ensure that what I'm saying really is contributing to the conversation rather than just making the other person feel bad. I should also be more receptive to other's ideas. I actually have made the conscious effort in the past few weeks to accept other people's ideas as valid as mine. I will need to continue this behavior and put more effort into thinking about my words if I want to reduce my aggressiveness in conversation.