the air

These days, wherever you turn, more and more companies and individuals are beginning to pay closer attention to the environment. Former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, has recently won the Nobel Peace Prize as well advocated strongly for the environment. I have read hundreds of articles on the environment and the importance of conservation practices, and I can assure you that your attention to the environment is needed. Moreover, if we do not address this issue today, our future generations will ultimately find a planet incapable of successfully being resilient to the cosmos and humanity.

What is wrong?

The problem with environmentally related issues is not the fact that there is far more carbon monoxide production than there was just twenty years ago. Although government intervention has lead to cleaner production policy adoptions across numerous industries, the effort is not enough. I believe the biggest problem with the environment is the plain ignorance or willingness to deny the existence of global warming. Every year, the polar ice caps are melting not due to natural causes but rather warmer than normal temperatures. So what happens if they melt at an increasing rate? You can expect more adverse weather conditions and sea levels rising and submerging islands and coastal beaches.

Learn, Discuss, and Promote

The easiest way to make a difference is to learn more about the environmental issues plaguing our planet. Be proactive and discuss these issues with your friends, classmates, professors, parents, community, etc. It is prudent to instill in one’s mind that it is impossible to promote environment issues and causes vicariously. One of the easiest steps to working towards a better environment is just recycling. Reducing our usage of landfills will allow communities to live without fear of harmful waste contamination to ground water. Recycling also allows new life for old or unused products giving new meaning to the old adage, “One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.”

Embrace the ideas

I understand the complexities that many people have when it comes to the environment. Some have argued that if governments enforce stricter environment regulations upon industries, prices will go up. In my opinion, that issue is being addressed to impede pro-environment legislation. Too many of us in this world are dependent on resources that are causing damage to the environment and slowly making it far more difficult to lead a healthy life. The problem with many individuals is that they are not willing to innovative ideas that promote the conservation of the environment. Many of these ideas call for drastic changes that have the potential to yield favorable results at a quicker pace. However, too many people are simply scared to change themselves or their lifestyle for a better world.

Challenge yourself

I challenge you to begin leading a far more robust lifestyle that promotes the causes of the environment. I challenge you to find innovative ways to make this world a better place. Are you up for it?

This post has been written as a pro-active measure for Blog Action Day. “One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.”

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Bear with as I am working on a new theme. I know I mentioned that I will buy a new theme, but I have this undying love to alter existing themes to suit my needs. Please check back often to see some of the changes. I will post another note here when I am content with the modifications.

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I think it is a challenge for me to even begin to discuss with you how busy I am this semester due to senior design. My senior design project is with Caterpillar and requires me to mainly evaluate their process flow after painting till the final product is handed over to shipping. Overall, the process is fairly intuitive to understand, but it does require lengthy data mining/analysis to come up with reliable numbers.

What is senior design?

Senior design is a semester long project driven course. In this course, there are no exams or assigned homework. Rather, you are given a project that requires you to work with a company to resolve any of the issues they have. Needless to say, any of the issues you will resolve will be related to your field of study; so they will not make you fetch coffee. Your final grade for this course rests with how well you deliver a mid-term presentation, a final presentation, and a final report. Moreover, your group members will evaluate each other as well as the company providing feedback on your group as a whole. Ultimately, upon the completion of senior design, you are pretty much ready to graduate as it is generally the final course in your field of engineering.

Are there plant visits required?

At NIU, all senior design projects for engineering are sponsored by a company and requires extensive plant visits. That means, you will spend anywhere from eight to twenty hours per week at a plant collecting data. However, this phase is only temporary as most groups will meet on campus once all the data has been collected.

What are the effects of senior design

Let me put this frankly, if you are taking senior design, the hell with all your other courses. You cannot think that senior design is not important because if your professor feels you did not make a worthwhile effort, he/she can simply fail you and prevent you from graduating. The word is that senior design takes first priority over every other academic course. Just last week, I had an exam that I really needed to study for, but I could not find time to study for it nor make time because I needed to finish my data analyzing for senior design. In fact, there may be days where you will not be able to sleep much because of your project. The end result is that you have very little time to do anything enjoyable. Hence, that is the reason why I have almost no time to update this blog. This process will be like this until mid-December when I am complete with this course.

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