Parents are always saying, “Stop looking at that phone all the time, it's hurting your eyesight.” But is this really the case? Yes, yes it is. Everyone gets eye strain from looking at their screen for too long but a lot people don't think you will get lasting damage. The blue light in our screens is damaging to our retinas and can cause macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in the United States.
Scientists at the University of Toledo tested the blue light on different cells and found that blue light damages all cells. However, they didn't test is on actual eyes. The blue light in phones, while there, may not have the same toxicity as what they used. The blue light is there though, and people should be careful. So what do you think? Will you stop using your phone as much or keep using it the same amount? Is it worth it to invest in new technology that somehow doesn't use the harmful light? Will you tell your parents they were right all along?
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Aside from being cute and delivering us with delicious honey, bees are first and foremost pollinators. In fact, wild honey bees account for 80% of pollinators worldwide. Without them, many plant species would find it very difficult to survive and probably go extinct. Next time you eat a vegetable or fruit, thank the bees for it. Typically, a beehive or colony will decline by 5-10 percent over the winter and replace those lost bees in the spring. In a bad year, a bee colony might lose 15-20 percent of its bees. In the US those rates are up to 30-50 percent. Scientists have found that there are many contributing factors to the crash in colonies which include but are not limited to pesticides, pollution, and deforestation. These three factors are things that as a society, we can stand against.
Are the bees worth saving? The jar of honey and fruits and vegetables in my fridge tell me yes. What are some small steps that we could take to help the colonies? Imagine waking up in the morning and walking into the kitchen, your eyes filled with sleep and your head foggy. You reach for your coffee, and suddenly you realize something tragic: you’ve run out of coffee. We’ve all experienced the moment of dread when we miss our morning coffee and have to face the day without it, but how would we react if that coffee disappeared altogether? Today, the risk of our world’s most popular coffee species going extinct is very real. With a combination of deforestation, droughts, plant diseases and climate change, almost 60% of coffee species in the wild could be gone soon. Aaron P. Davis stated in an interview with CNN “...coffee requires a forest habitat for its survival, with so much deforestation going on around the world, wild coffee species are being impacted at an alarming rate."
Coffee along with other popular plants like chocolate are acclimated to extremely specific habitats in the wild, so the change in climate, increase of rainfall, and rising temperatures make it nearly impossible for these species of coffee to grow where they once flourished. Unless governments and coffee producers increase the protection on these plants and save away more of the seeds, some of our favorite blends could be extinct anywhere between twenty to sixty years. Scientists have come up with a few solutions to this issue, like creating new controlled habitats for these crops, but it will not produce the same amount or quality of crops. With these new habitats, the prices of coffee could inflate and your cup o’joe might even taste worse. Coffee is not the only plant affected by humans. Rapid deforestation could mean the end of numerous plant and animal species. However, deforestation is not necessarily a bad thing. It offers job opportunities, removed the dead or infected plants, and allows for more agricultural land. Contrarily, deforestation harms wildlife and their environment, causes floods and fires, and contributes to the issue of climate change. In your opinion, is deforestation good, bad, or somewhere in between? How can we resolve this issue with so many plants becoming endangered? Is the solution of creating fixed environments better than attempting to preserve the wild habitats? How would your life change without coffee? |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2019
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