Boy, have I been busy. Although I haven't been as devout to this weekly blog as I should be, I can assure you, I'm working on big things!
Today, I added a "Guest Blog" section to this website and updated the "About" page. The "About" Page now more clearly states the reasoning of the website, however, the original essay on that page can be found on the "Essays & Writing" page. Guest Bloggers will likely give me an article once a month, since I have a few lined up. You can expect to start seeing those in mid-March! In other news, I recently started a research paper in one of my classes about the National Budget. Although by the time it is uploaded, it may be outdated, that will be available to you probably sometime in April or May. After doing some surveys among some avid readers of this website, I have found that the Writing tips aren't that popular, so I likely will not be posting as many of those in the future. And, as always, I have continued writing my book, and thinking of great ideas for blog posts to this website. Thanks again to all of you loyal supporters, and please, feel free to leave a comment or contact me via the "Contact" page.
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Well, it just so happens that I've been gone for more than I should be. I generally try to do one blog post a week, but sometimes life takes ahold of me. Over the past week, I've been super busy, and then super not busy, and then super busy again, if that makes any sense. I had a bunch of stuff I had to get done for last Wednesday, before I was off for five days, and then here I am, staying up late again, on the first day back, in order to get another load of stuff done.
In other news, I could use some words of encouragement, as lately I've been lacking on the amount of writing I should be doing. So, if you could, please shoot me an email saying what you love about this site, even if it's just the fact that I use Oxford commas, because I could use some encouragement to write. Thanks again for all of the support! So, I was just watching the news this evening, and realized I needed to do a blog post. If I hadn't seen this excellent idea on the news, I wouldn't be blogging tonight. Thank you Lester Holt!
Anyway, this idea on the news was quite a simple, yet great one: a box set up on a sidewalk, like a mailbox, except it had food in it, donated by people; Anyone who needed food, but didn't have nearly enough money, could go to the "Blessing Box" and take their next meal from it. But it didn't just stop at food. It also contained diapers, toothpaste, soap, and other toiletries and personal care objects. I, living in a large town/small-ish city, haven't seen these on any corners. However, I highly encourage you to find one in your town or on your corner. There isn't one? Build one. It's simple things like this that bring communities together. These small things in your community are more of what America needs right now. I recently read some very interesting statistics from the Economist; by 2040, 5 billion of the projected 9.7 billion people in the world will live in water-stressed areas; farming accounts for 70% of global freshwater use; Israel recycles 86% of its wastewater. These facts caused me to think a lot about the world and how we treat it.
Many, however, not all, of us in the United States are fortunate enough to be able to turn on our faucets and have fresh water pour out. We fail to realize fresh water is a resource that is slowly becoming more and more scarce. Water is cheap in the lower 48, where water is about $1.50 for 1,000 gallons (fcwa.org). In Hawaii, almost all of their fresh water comes from desalination, a fairly expensive process. The cost just to produce freshwater is $4.13 per 1000 gallons (hawaiitribune-herald.com). That's almost 300% more expensive. Now, imagine the world is stressed for freshwater, which it is expected to be in 20 years. Likely, the world will turn to desalination, since it is fairly well-known. The average American family of 4 uses 400 gallons of water per day (epa.gov). If this continues through our dystopian, water-stressed world, that will be $602 a year per household, just to produce, based on Hawaii's current cost to produce freshwater, not to mention the markup and transportation costs to bring desalinized water from the coasts to landlocked regions. Now, remember how I said 70% of world's freshwater use is used in farming? Farms are more common in the Midwest of the United States, where there is little-to-no salt water to be desalinized. Costs of farming will skyrocket, therefore causing food prices to surge. I could go on and on with negative effects of a lack of water, however, I have limited time and I'm assuming you do to. In conclusion, if we as human beings do not cut back on our freshwater use, we will not only be wasting water, but wasting our time and money in the long run. To see your water use, and how you could reduce it, check out this website: http://www.watercalculator.org/ |
AuthorMy Name is Eddie Schweikert. I am an animator, author, artist, and friend. You will hear about many of my latest ventures here. Archives
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