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I inform the world about the hazards plastic creates, and developed a project in my school to help start reducing plastic consumption.

2. Was I better today than I was yesterday? (Am I better today than I was in August?)

I am definitely better than I was yesterday. I have gained some much knowledge from all the research I made. I know how to distinguish different pages on the Internet that maybe not is a good resource for me to use. At the beginning of the year I had no idea what information to look for. Now I know how to approach different projects. I know that first I need to plan out something in order to achieve something else. Also I learned how to cite my sources so that people would believe my facts. One of the biggest things I learned is that blogging really helps you connect with people, and helps you transmit that message you want everyone to hear. Blogging has helped me deliver my ideas into places I though I would never could. I have friends from other countries that have taken looks at it and eventually tell their friends to watch it. I also have gotten in the habit of taking a lot of notes when reading papers online. I usually used to just read sources and then summarize them, but taking notes really helps my research. It makes my sources more credible which helps me convince people on why plastic is so bad. Also now I am able to hold a conversation with my teachers about my project and explain to them what the problem is and what my solution is. I now have a more concrete idea of what I want to get accomplished for the end of the year. Also I have learned to make a realistic project. At the beginning I thought all these things could get achieved, but now I am able to make realistic goals for my projects.

Bad effects of plastic on your health

Many humans do not know that plastic can have many negative effects on human health. For example there is a chemical called BPA which stands for Bis-phenol A. Bis-phenol A is a chemical that is needed in order to make plastic. This chemical is mainly found in plastic bottles, and plastic containers. The only problem with this chemical is that when a plastic gets hot then BPA dissolves into the the liquid in the container. People then drink the water or the liquid without knowing what the bad effects of it are. Some bad effects that result from BPA that "tests have shown that the chemical can promote human breast cancer cell growth as well as decrease sperm count in rats, among other effects." This indicates that by using plastic we are not only harming the environment, but we are also harming our health. The harm of plastic bottles is usually not notice because people have no idea that plastic has this kind of negative effect. In fact last week I asked some people if they knew anything about BPA and most of them gave me a blank stare. This is why I decided to create a page in which I am to inform them what Bis-phenol A stands for and why it is harmful.

A big step

As I looked for solutions to help stop plastic consumption, I was able to find something that could work. There is is plastic that is necessary for humans, and that can not be destroyed beacuse we need it. The plastic I am targeting is is mainly plastic bags and bottles. Plastic bags have had a huge impact on our world. If you visit http://www.buzzle.com/articles/environmental-pollution-the-harmful-effects-of-plastic-bags.html. One way we can reduce plastic bag consumption is by trying to pursue our government to place small taxes on bags. I know this would work because when I went to Washington DC, I had to pay for every plastic bag that I got. This made me think twice whether I needed the bag. Also this made bags seem more valuable and I wanted to reuse them. This could be the first step to reuse. Then people will realize that they really do not need to spend money on extra bags. There are countries that have already taken the initiative and are already taxing. For example a tax on plastic shopping bags in the Republic of Ireland has cut their use by more than 90% and raised millions of euros in revenue, the government says. This is the change we need if it worked in Ireland then why not try it in the US. The worse thing we can now right now is to keep giving bags out for free that are just going to be tossed away.