Environmental Scavenger Hunt!

Amid all the jazz-hand hype about going green, this unit begs the questions:

•  What are the reasons that feminists care about the environment?
• How is oppression connected to issues connected to the environment?
• Why does how we value the environment, define safety and health connect to the liberation of women and people in general?

To answer some of these questions, we are going to do some research.

This course assignment asks you to scavenge and hunt for the answers to some basic and important questions. In order to complete this assignment you will need to research the answers to ONE of the questions below.

Then, in a comment to my blog post you will respond with your answer/research to the question you choose to look up, including your thoughts on the answer(s) you found, and a response to one of the BIG questions posed at the top. Your answer should be roughly 300 words and should site data from the websites used to generate them, along with any course texts you use.

Here is the catch; this is a scavenger hunt, and we want answers. So, you must answer a question that has not yet been answered by your classmates. There are enough research areas that everyone can research at least one question. I encourage you to look up several and to read the responses of your classmates.  In particular, I suggest you all do #4, as most people use some form of cosmetic daily (deodorant, shampoo, body wash, toothpaste, make-up, hair products, shaving cream, etc.).

This activity will be graded by credit/no credit using the following rubric:

	Credit	No-Credit
MLA and Technical Writing	Sources are cited properly and integrated smoothly. Minor errors.	Major errors and/or there is superficial textual inclusion and/or missing MLA
Posting	Student posted to the appropriate place on the blog, met the deadline, and followed posting guidelines	Student did not post to the appropriate place on the blog and/or missed the deadline and/or did not follow posting guidelines
Content	Student answered the question thoroughly by synthesizing research and its implications for women/environment	Student provided a superficial or undeveloped answer to the question and/or did not adequately address the implications for women/environment

1.  What is fair trade? Go to http://www.globalexchange.org/about/ and read about it. Then, investigate fair trade in our neighborhood by looking at Ten Thousand Villages, Winter Park FL: http://orlando.tenthousandvillages.com/php/stores.festivals/store.homepage.php 
2. How far away do you live from the farms that produce the food you eat?  http://www.foodroutes.org/  (Check out the "Farm to College" materials under "Take Action." Research and determine do we have a program like that here at UCF?)
3. Research community gardens (http://www.communitygarden.org/learn/). Then, go to www.localharvest.org and think about how might you buy locally grown food? Finally, check out the UCF Arboretum, where you can work in the organic garden and then take home food organic produce:  http://www.arboretum.ucf.edu/
4.   How safe are the ingredients in your cosmetics?  Go to Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Project at www.ewg.org (under “more tools and resources” on the right and scroll down). Then, go here and research responsible shopping: http://www.greenamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/  and here: http://www.vegancosmetics.org/ 
5. What is your "ecological footprint," or, how many earth's are you using?  Go to:  http://www.footprintnetwork.org/index.php or http://www.myfootprint.org/. 
6.  Research more about the issues included in the Story of Stuff by going to the resource page: http://www.storyofstuff.org/category/resources/ 
7. What sources of pollution, environmental waste, or other toxins exist in central Florida?  Go to www.scorecard.org to learn about toxic producers in the Orlando area.  (We are in Orange County.) Then, go here http://scorecard.goodguide.com/community/ej-index.tcl to see our environmental racism scorecard.
8. What impact does the military have on the environment?  Go to www.globalgreen.org and research and explore the military impact.  
9. How might you cut down your own consumption of the earth's resources?   In what ways could you better distinguish between "want" vs. "need"? Go to www.worldwatch.org and research what you can do to curb consumption in a planet that is populated by 7 billion people.What is the simplicity movement about? You can read about one aspect, finical integrity, here:  http://www.financialintegrity.org/index.php?title=About_the_Program
10.  Research Recycle centers in your area: http://earth911.com/ and then look at the ones that do not ship their waste to developing nations here: http://e-stewards.org/ 
11. What is the Green Belt Movement? Read about it here: http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=61 
12. Research nuclear waste and environmental racism here: http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/pfsejfactsheet.htm.  
13. Research what the EPA says about cleaning products http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/cleaning.htm and then read here: http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/green-guide/ about how to clean without the chemicals.
14.  Read about what students do to combat these issues: http://www.seac.org/ 
15. Who works with the food you eat? Research Fair Food at: http://www.ciw-online.org/101.html and then read about organizing for farm workers http://nfwm.org/. Finally see how in our area toxic dumping impacted farm workers in Apopka: http://apopkaquiltproject.blogspot.com/ 
16. Research some of the top environmental current events: http://www.enn.com/.
17. Look at issues of biodiversity at: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/about-biodiversity_133.html.  
18. Explore the concepts of ecofeminism and read about a feminist response to environmental problems: http://eve.enviroweb.org/ and here: http://www.wloe.org/what-is-ecofeminism.76.0.html 
19. How is health connected to he environment, explore this issue http://chge.med.harvard.edu/ and here: http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/home.action 
20. What is the role between businesses and chemical safety? Read about current issues by exploring here: http://www.chemsafety.gov/ 
21. What are the environmental stats for an area? Look these up here: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/index.html and report on our Central Florida region.
22. What is the state of women’s global health worldwide? Read about these environmental and health issues here: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/climate_change/downloads/Women_and_Climate_Change_Factsheet.pdf or http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Resources/resources_-_statistics.html and listen to a podcast on women’s health.
23. What about our water? Look into issues of water by going here: http://www.wef.org/ and http://www.ejcw.org/. Then look at our local area here: http://www.sjrwmd.com/.
24. What happened after the hurricane? Read about women’s response to Katrina: http://www.womenofthestorm.net/about.php and then read about Florida coast protection: http://flcoastalandocean.org/.
25. How is Florida dealing with the impact of the oil spill? http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/ and here: http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/04/20/black-tide-women-and-the-gulf-oil-spill-one-year-later/.
26. As we have reached 7 billion people on the planet, what about the environment, population, and reproduction: http://www.unfpa.org/pds/sustainability.htm and read here: http://www.cwpe.org/
27.  Look up one of the Women’s Environmental Institute campaigns: http://www.w-e-i.org/policy.
28. What does the government say about the connection between the environment and women’s health: http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/environment-womens-health.cfm 
29. How harmful is that job, look up the scorecard of some gendered careers (like dressing hair): http://hazmap.nlm.nih.gov/hazmapadv.html
30.  Tampons are bad for my healthy? Oh-My! http://www.seac.org/history/past-campaigns/ and http://www.mum.org/ and http://www.thegreenmama.com/