Response+3

WEEK 3 XCLINIC, BOTTLED WATER, HOW STUFF IS MADE


 * 1. Review the web site, the XClinic at http://www.environmentalhealthclinic.net/ What is the goal of the XClinic for impatients? **

The XClinic asks for impatients to talk about their environmental health concerns in their local area. Instead of a prescription, the impatient receives local data collection as well as referrals to local environmental organizations, local government and, artists and designers who are concerned and able to re-design your local environment. With these resources, the impatient can address the environmental concern and cure his/her “external health” while also calling for other participants for collaboration. An example of a XClinic project is “Farmacy” that aims to re-purpose urban space to create locally grown food to promote biodiversity, improvement of environmental health and produce edibles.


 * 2. According to the TedX video about Natalie Jeremijenko, “The Art of the Eco Mindshift” at [] describe her philosophy as a ‘design activist’. Write two full paragraphs on her position as an activist and scientist in relation to her design methodology. **

As an activist, Natalie Jeremijenko is interested in the promotion of the XClinic experiments that enable social change. By calling out for collaborations and participants, she brings local areas of environmental concern to the people themselves and allows them to come up with solutions and strategies. Responses and reactions from the public that come from her unique experiments are an introduction to her causes and projects that they can later be involved in.

As a scientist, her background assists in her data collection and allows for research based methods to support her creative health solutions for the environment. Her penchant for experimental design using various technologies allows for her solution to her causes to not only be playful and interactive but to also become a point for research and exploration. As a design activist, Jeremijenko uses her experiments to also double as interactive art installations. These installations combine her activism and science background by informing others of local environmental concerns as well as being an opportunity for direct investigation of these concerns.


 * 4. Review How Stuff is Made at [] **
 *  and the online FAQs it has for the student submissions at [] **
 *  of objects. Do you think that you would be able to participate in this project by having access to manufacturers? Do you foresee any problems with a visual essay? Please let me know by email through wiki of your response to this question. **

I think I would be able to participate in this project. If I am planning to research local foods, perhaps I can even visit the farm from which the product is produced. For example, buying local meat at a local butcher’s might enable me to visit a farm where that animal was raised. With a visual essay, I might be concerned with not getting enough visual information (photographs) at each part of its manufacturing process.


 * 5. From Annie Leonard’s ‘The Story of Bottled Water’ [] **
 *  list five reasons that bottled water is detrimental to our environment. **

1. Each year in the US, extraction and production of water bottles uses as much oil and energy to fuel a million cars.

2. 80% of water bottles end up in landfills (where they will sit for thousands of years) or incinerators (where they are burned and releases toxic pollution).

3. 20% of the recycling bins are recycled. Some are shipped to India where the water bottles are put into mountains of plastic bottles.

4. These plastic bottles are downcycled and turned into lower quality products where they are disposed of as trash, instead of turning them back into bottles.

5. Pollution of public water due to industry of manufacturing, which makes consumers rely on buying more bottled water.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 12px;">6. In one paragraph, define the real cost of ‘bottled water’ economically. **

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 12px;">Bottled water is 2000 times more expensive than tap water while being exactly the same thing. Bottle production and manufacturing will need the acquisition of million of tons of p <span style="color: #444444; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">olyethylene terephthalate (PET). PET will also need energy to form the bottle itself. The cost of transportation of the water to be put into these plastic bottles, then shipped out to be distributed must also be considered. The bottle manufacturing company will also need funds to produce a marketing campaign to tell the public that their water is specialized and to manufacture demand. After their disposal, plastic bottles that are recycled will have a chance to be downcycled, which means it will lose its value as it becomes a product of lesser quality. These economic costs of bottled water can easily be prevented if people stopped buying them and choose tap water instead.