Smoke free campus

Many people are bringing up issues with the tobacco free campus USI offers. As for me I do not see a problem with this restriction because I do not smoke or use tobacco. However I could see where this could be a disappointment for many. Overall I feel as if USI took a positive step with this decision and I hope to see this continue. When going out in public, most restaurants are smoke free or have smoke free sections which are a good thing. For me nothing is more annoying than inhaling second hand smoke. It causes me to lose my appetite and begin to cough. When I learned USI was a tobacco free campus, I didn’t think much of it at first, but now I realize how thankful I am for that. Not only is the second hand smoke harmful to everyone, smoking pollutes the air. Another positive outcome from banning smoking on campus is littering. Almost anywhere you walk in public you can find cigarette butts. If people had a recyclable storage unit to put these butts in after use then it wouldn’t be a big deal. However most people choose to stomp them out and let them lay. Another form of tobacco that is banned from the campus could be chewing tobacco. This comes in a dip form or a pouch. Many people try to argue and say this doesn’t have those same effects as smoking in harming the environment or people. In most ways that is true. However if people were to spit the pouches out those do not disintegrate. Therefore, the pouches are left to lie along with the cigarette butts. I feel as if having tobacco free campus is a good thing because the majority of USI students do not use tobacco. I also feel as if people can smoke in their cars before class, or after they get out. It is not necessity during classes.

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My mother and I butt heads more than we should. One of the main issues is because I like to shop. I have a part time job at a tanning salon; I make around 140 dollars a week plus commission. With this money I have to buy groceries every two to three weeks and put gas in my car every week. I am good at always putting money into my checking account, however when I see something I want, I get it. To my mom, this is a problem. She says I need to save more money for when I have to pay for my books for college or if I need it for an emergency. I agree with her sometimes, but then again I disagree. I’m not that high maintenance to where I have to go out and buy Coach purses and UGG boots and other designer brands all the time. In fact most of the time when I shop I have some kind of coupon or discount. I hardly ever buy anything full price. Thanks to my mom, I’ve learned that you can save a lot of money by doing that. To my mom, I feel as if she thinks I’m shopping all the time, but this is not true. I might go shopping here and there or about once a month. Even then, I don’t spend a whole paycheck. My mom has a good point that I need to save up, because I am paying for my own college. However from my point of view I’m only young once, so I’m going to treat myself here and there every now and then.

The Siren Song of Energy Efficiency

In this article David Owen talks about energy efficiency. What most of us do not realize, this is a wakeup call for everyone around the world. We rely too much on the earth’s resources and I do believe at one point or another, whether I’m here to witness it or not, the world will run out of resources. The cheaper we continue to get the resources, the faster we are using them. The majority of these resources are using so much more energy than before. I feel as if most people know what’s going on, they just don’t care. If we don’t start recycling, reducing, and reusing our resources we are not going to have any to survive off of. In today’s society we have the media that is related to this issue, one being the book series the Hunger Games. This series of books is about our future and how we have to compete to live because the resources for the world are limited. Is this a little far-fetched? Maybe, in some ways it is. However I think we need more education on this. Today, we are coming out with better and newer technology. The technology world is taking over and this uses more energy. We all have to start with saving electricity. Some ways we could start reducing energy are turning off TV’s, computers, and other electronic devices when they’re not being used, unplug cords from outlets when the devices aren’t being used, turn off the lights when no one is in that particular room. Sure everyone hears about it, everyone knows that we should start saving, but does anyone ever listen or do it? Another rising issue is fuel prices going up. As students, parents, employees, etc. we need fuel to get to places. In our economy, the demand for gas is high. In other words, if the prices at the pump are going up people are going to pay because they have to get from place to place. This is going to start taking money away from people spending. This will cause our economy to decline and unemployment to incline. We cannot have something that we need to cause our country to fail. We need alternatives, people who live in the city need to start walking or riding their bikes more. Another way to save fuel is by carpooling. I do this every day with my boyfriend. We take turns driving every other day and it really does save us money. I also feel as if the government needs to research into drilling on our own U.S. grounds for oil. We have it we are just not taking full advantage on it. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m 100 percent “green” every day, but every chance I get to help out my environment I do it. I think everyone should too.