OH OH OH!

We wish you a Merry Green Christmas!

Veganism

Veganism is a diet and an alternative lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. Vegans try hard to not to use or consume animal products of any kind.

The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are an ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns. Two particular concerns are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources required for animal farming.

Vegan diets, which sometimes are called strict or pure vegetarian diets, are a subset of vegetarian diets, which are credited with lowering the risk of colon cancer, heart attack, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, prostate cancer and stroke. Properly planned vegan diets are healthful and have been found to satisfy nutritional needs.

However, poorly planned vegan diets can be low in levels of calcium, iodine, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Vegans are therefore encouraged to plan their diet and take dietary supplements that are appropriated.

Inês Estrelinha

Alternative lifestyles- Vegetarianism

This is a video about being vegetarian...

Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes meat, fish and poultry. There are several variants of the diet. Most vegetarians consume dairy products and many eat eggs.

Being vegetarian is not only a way of eating. It's also a way of life, a way of thinking.



Diana Chagas

Cloning

Cloning is the process of duplicating animals. Through this method we can create copies of DNA fragments, cells or organisms.

Cloning can be useful for people who need an organ transplant, for people who have damaged cells and need their rejuvenation (in case of cancer, for example) or for sterile couples because they will be able to have children through cloning procedure. Parents who risk passing a defect to their child can be helped by cloning, too. This procedure can be useful for endangered species. Duo to cloning we have the possibility to progress, to improve the quality of science and life.

But cloning has disadvantages, too. If it was allowed, people would wish to duplicate themselves and it would reduce genetic variety. We must remember that the existent technology isn´t really developed and so cloning method has a low fertility rate. It can create genetic defects, too. If a person was cloned she would lose her individuality and there would have the risk of her clone be treated as a second-class citizen. These facts could have psychological effects on society.

Some species like mice, sheep, monkeys, cows, cats, mules and horses were already cloned. The fertility rate of human species is 0%.

This issue divides people´s opinion because although it brings benefits in medical and animal science, it can be used in an unethical way and it can change life as we know it.

Dolly

Diana Chagas

Genetic Manipulation

Genetic Manipulation is a process that consists in direct manipulation of an organism’s genes. It uses the techniques of molecular cloning and transformation to alter the structure and characteristics of genes directly.

Genetic Manipulation has some advantages. It will help medical sciences because new medical drugs can be developed via genetic research and genetic manipulation with animals. In this way, it is useful to improve the production of these drugs or to improve the quality of the drugs. With Genetic Manipulation’s approval and evolution food production will be better and more efficient. Genetic Manipulation is good for the economy because it will stimulate the demand for jobs and unemployment will decrease, for example. Besides this, preventing diseases is possible through genetic manipulation. It will be possible by removing genes that cause hereditary diseases from the parent’s reproduction cells. Finally, Genetic manipulation is good for science because if experiment with it is allowed, it will become possible to start all kinds of research of things related do DNA and humanity will learn a lot more about life.

However, Genetic Manipulation has also some disadvantages. Knowing too much about our future could be a disadvantage for us, because if we discover that we will be seriously ill in 5 years time, we will be worried and sad everyday and we will experience great difficulty in finding a job. Besides this, it is dangerous to start changes in nature through artificial processes because it could cause unpredictable and irreversible changes to the ecosystem. Furthermore, animals mustn’t be used freely by scientists because they have the same rights of humans. Moreover, farmers won’t be free to choose what to grow on their own land. Finally, the effects of genetic manipulation in the long run are unknown.

Concluding, Genetic Manipulation divides people. Some people think that it should only partly be allowed, but other people think that it should be allowed more generally. It happens because it has consequences on different aspects like on health, environment, economy, social and international relations, which can be positive or negative consequences.

Inês Estrelinha

"With My Own Two Hands" - Ben Harper

"I can change the world

With my own two hands

Make a better place

With my own two hands

Make a kinder place

With my own two hands

With my own

With my own two hands

I can make peace on earth

With my own two hands

I can clean up the earth

With my own two hands

I can reach out to you

With my own two hands

With my own

With my own two hands

I'm gonna make it a brighter place

I'm gonna make it a safer place

I'm gonna help the human race

With my own

With my own two hands

I can hold you

With my own two hands

I can comfort you

With my own two hands

But you got to use

Use your own two hands

Use your own

Use your own two hands

With our own

With our own two hands

With my own

With my own two hands"

Inês Estrelinha

Please!

STOP GLOBAL WARMING !!

Diana Chagas

Global Warming Film

Marco Franco

Do you know that...?

• The rise of the temperature in 2.5 degrees will makes 50 million people suffer from hunger.

• Scientists think that global temperature will grow almost 4 degrees until the end of this century.

• If temperature increases 3 degrees, 40% of the Amazonia trees will disappear.

• Malaria will spread to the North and it will affect 210 million people.

• Many animals and plants won´t survive to the climate change. A research says that climate changes will kill a third of Earth biodiversity until 2050.

• The rise of temperatures will leave 3 thousand million people without fresh water.

• If the ice sheet of Greenland melts, the sea level will rise 7 metres.

• Every year, 2 thousand square kilometres of land become to desert duo to rain stress.

• The total of carbon dioxide in atmosphere is 750 billion tons.

• Polar calotte will disappear in 100 years.

• Climate changes can cause environmental refugees and wars.
  

Diana Chagas

What Can We Do?

Little changes can do a big difference. In this text there are some of the ways that can help fighting the climate changes.

->We shouldn’t leave the TV, the computer and the stereo system in the “standby” mode.
->We should use energy efficient bulbs and turn off the lights when we don’t need it.
->We mustn’t let the mobile phone’s porter connected to the socket after we had charged the battery. If we do it, 95% of energy will be wasted.
->We should defrost fridges and freezers regularly to keep them running efficiently.
->We mustn’t open the fridge unnecessarily.
->When we want a tea or a coffee, we should only heat the quantity of water that we need, instead of filling totally the kettle.
->We should save water having a shower instead of having a bath.
->We should use public transports or walk.
->We should only print documents when we really need and use the both sides of a sheet of paper.
->We must learn and we should respect the 3 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

We must reduce our ecological footprint!
We have the world in our own hands!

Inês Estrelinha

Ecological Footprint

Do you want to know the size of your ecological footprint?

Go to: http://www.earthday.net/footprint/flash.html


DON'T WASTE TIME!

Don't Give Up!

IF WE DON'T STOP GLOBAL WARMING, NATURE WILL!

Diana Chagas
Inês Estrelinha

Katrina Pets

It’s horrible to think about all the people who were threatened or caught by Katrina but they weren’t the only ones. Animals also suffered a lot...

A few days before Katrina people were taken by policemen and firemen to shelters. They had to leave their animals at home: the evacuation plan didn’t include pets. Some people were forced to leave their home because they didn’t want to go away without their pets. Imagine how the animals suffered when Katrina passed: all the noise and confusion… They stayed all alone without food and water during weeks.

After the hurricane a great number of teams reunited to find and rescue these animals. They saved around four thousand pets that were, obviously, very weak. Some of them were taken back to their families and others were taken to shelters in New York.

More than one hundred thousand animals disappeared or died in Katrina. It’s a terrible huge number… In consequence of all the pain and death caused by the hurricane Katrina, the suggestion of pets being included in evacuation plans was approved.





"Saving one pet won't save the world...but how the world will change for that one pet" [Katrina Dogs Rescue]


Diana Chagas

Hurricane Katrina

Katrina formed on 23 August, 2005 and dissipated on 31 August, 2005.

The areas affected were: Cuba, Bahamas, South Florida, Louisiana, Mississipi and Alabama.

The hurricane reached category 5.The storm was responsible for 81 billion dollars of demage. The highest winds were 280km/h.

New Orleans (Louisiana) was the area of biggest incidence of this storm, where 80% of the city and 200 million houses were flooded and there were 1.577 deaths.

Mississipi was the second largest area, where 238 people died, 67 went missing and billions of dollars in demage.

In Florida the storm made billions in demage and 14 deaths.

Deaths by State

State	Deaths
Alabama	2
Florida	14
Georgia	2
Kentucky	1
Louisiana	1.577
Mississippi	238
Ohio	2

Hurricanes rank

Rank	Hurricane	Season	Demage
1	Katrina	2005	$81.2 billion
2	Andrew	1992	$40.7 billion
3	Ike	2008	$27 billion
4	Wilma	2005	$27.7 billion
5	Charley	2004	$16.3 billion

Marco Franco

Global Warming: A True Reality

Nowadays, we are witnessing a very serious phenomenon: Global Warming. This phenomenon is characterized by the rise of the medium temperature on the globe surface. A great part of the scientific community believes that global warming is caused by the rise of polluting gases concentration in the atmosphere.

The atmosphere is the most vulnerable part of the Earth’s Ecological System because it’s so thin, but in the last years it is becoming thicker due to pollution and greenhouse gases which keep the heat there. That is what we call greenhouse effect.

Scientists are really worried about our future as a species because it has been threatened by the human pressure on the Earth’s Ecosystems. Actually we can witness some of the consequences of Global Warming like the melting of glaciers, the rise of sea level and stronger storms like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes, so it should not be only a worry for scientists but also for all citizens. If we don’t change our habits in order to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and to protect our environment the consequences of this phenomenon will be even more dangerous and catastrophic: the Earth’s coastlines will be flooded, which will displace millions of people, some animal and vegetal species will disappear, storms will be stronger and will happen more frequently, there will be more droughts and, paradoxically, more floods.

So, it is urgent, important and essential to change our habits to revert this situation and to save our future as a species.

Inês Estrelinha

Our Presentation =D

Hello,

We are a group of Portuguese students who are doing an English work: this blog. Our names are Inês, Diana and Marco.

We are going to post texts about environmental issues, like global warming and its consequences. This theme should interest all of us as good and conscious citizens. It's important to save our future and the future of next generations.

" What gets us into trouble is not what we don´t know. It's what we know for sure that just ain´t so" [Mark Twain]