Together we can save them.

Hello again,

         In my post today I would like to try and inform you on the importance of conservation efforts for wildlife across the world. Humans are on top of the food chain, but does that give us the right to kill animals for anything other than survival or substance?

In today’s society will kill anything just for the pure thrill of it. Because of this there are several different species that are endangered or borderline extinct, for example: Tigers, Elephants, and many more.

Why do we kill them?

In the case of the Tigers, there are many different beliefs that the bones, teeth, or blood of a tiger can cure all kinds of diseases. Yet, none have ever worked in the hundreds of years the myth has been around. So why continue to kill them?

With the growing human population Tigers across Asia have had to compete keep their habitat. Tigers are predators, and will attack humans out of fear or territorial instincts. Does this give us the right to almost wipe out the whole species?

According to http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger there are only 3,200 left in the wild. Compared to the tens of thousands that were around 15 years ago that is a very low number.

For elephants, poachers are after their tusk. The ivory that makes up the elephant tusk was once considered a royalty item, meaning that only royalty could afford it.

 Now, ivory is used in many different things but not survival or substance.

There are two different species of elephants in the world, the Asian and African elephants. With only two species, you would think that we would want to keep them around, but sadly that is not the case.

Even though Asian elephants are said to be sacred in most parts of Asia, primarily India, they are the species that is actually endangered, with a number as low as 20-25,000 left in the wild. ( http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/asian-elephant )

        

The African elephant, although not categorized as endangered, they are considered very vulnerable, which is the level right before endangered.

There are many different conservation efforts already in the fight to conserve not only these three species, but also all animals around the world. If we do not act now, these amazing animals will be gone forever.

If you would like to know more about conservation efforts for wildlife, you can go to the links below.

http://www.paws.org/

http://www.wcs.org/

http://www.wildlifealliance.org/

http://www.worldanimalprotection.org/

Hello World,

Although I have already posted once, I want to explain as to what this blog will be about and to give you a little bit of information about myself. 

As I have posted in my "About Me" section, my name is Sarah Graham, and I am currently a junior at Troy University working on my Bachelors in Broadcast Journalism and Public Relations. A little background on me and my life as a conservationist, I hired as an African Wildlife Zoo Keeper at The Birmingham Zoo when I was 17, and I worked with several different species of endangered animals. (i.e. Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos, etc.) Although I have always has a love for all animals, this job is where I my love for these majestic animals grew the most.

This blogs main reason is for an assignment in two of my classes, but more than that I want to teach my reader about the importance of recycling, conservation, and protecting this beautiful planet we call home. As a Native American, Mother Nature means a lot to me. Every plant and animal is sacred to me. To see beautiful wildlife consistently disappearing saddens me. So I have made it my mission in life to help raise awareness of the importance of conservation of our planet. My hope is that one day, the rest of the world will see how important it is to protect wildlife, and the environment.

I will post once or twice a week, maybe more if I have more information that I would like to let my readers know about. If there is something that you would like to know more about, please leave a comment below and I will do my best to do some research and inform you as much as I can.

I hope that my blog will inspire you to make a difference in the world. Whether it is through donating money or time towards conservation efforts, or simply just recycling. Help me protect this wonderful planet we call home!

Peace & Love

Sarah~Beth Graham

Recycling 101

Hello Readers,

   Today for my first post I want to talk to you about recycling, and how easy it can be. I know that a lot of people think that recycling is hard, or time consuming, but it really isn’t as hard as you might think. Just to give you an idea as to how important recycling is, here are some facts according to dosomething.org

1.     The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.

2.    Over 75% of waste is recyclable, but we only recycle 30% of it.

3.    Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic bottles every HOUR!

4.    If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we could save 25 MILLION trees each year.

5.    We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.

These just a few examples as to how important recycling can be. Something as easy as recycling your plastic bottles, can make such a huge impact on our WONDERFUL planet. Some might ask, “How do we recycle?” That’s easy! Most cities, like Troy, give out special bags for you to put your recycled materials in. These are the blue bags that the garbage man leaves on your trashcans after they dumped them. Use these bags for you plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and paper products. Then next week when the garbage man comes to pick up your regular trash, they will pick up your recycled material and send it off to be recycled for you.

How much easier can it be?

Now if your like me and you live in an apartment, you can pick up FREE blue bags at City Hall, Public Library, Senior Complex, Troy Rec Center, and other locations as well. Once you have your blue bags, just sort out what you want to recycle and then when you take out your regular trash place your blue bags outside the dumpster and the garbage man will pick it up when they empty the dumpster.

Now for those of you asking, what all can I recycle? The answer is practically everything! You can recycle cardboard boxes, newspapers, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and much more. This link will give you a more in-depth list of everything that you can recycle in Troy. http://www.troyal.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/City-of-Troy-Recycling-flyer.pdf

For those of you who live else where, you can contact your City Hall and ask them about their rules and regulations for recycling, or do what I do, and Google it. J 

I hope that you found this blog about recycling helpful, and hopefully it will inspire and motivate you to start recycling at your house!

This is the only planet we have, lets keep her healthy!

Peace & Love,

Sarah “Hawk Eye” Graham