Wednesday, September 11, 2013

In South Florida, a Polluted Bubble Ready to Burst


Alvarez, Lizette. "In South Florida, a Polluted Bubble Ready to Burst." The New York Times. The New York Times, 8 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/09/us/lake-okeechobee-in-florida-a-polluted-bubble-ready-to-burst.html?pagewanted=1>.

In South Florida, a Polluted Bubble Ready to Burst

Lake Okeechobee, a lake in South Florida, was hit with huge downpours earlier this year. The waters were at their limit, and there were two choices. One was to place a catastrophe on the agricultural areas and small communities near the lake if the dike breached, or to move the polluted waters to estuaries on the east and the west. The Army Corps of Engineers chose to put the water into the estuaries, which are extremely delicate and are breeding grounds for marine life. When the waters became polluted, large numbers of oysters died, and manatees, shellfish, sea grasses, and reefs were badly affected. “These estuaries,” said Mark D. Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, “are so important to us, our environment, and our economies.”
           
I was upset reading this article. Although both options with what to do with the polluted, overflowing water would have ended badly, it is extremely disappointing to see the pollution being moved to such important areas of life. Also, as Perry said, these estuaries are a big part of the nearby economy. The pollution interferes with jobs and businesses. Also, it is a horrible thing to do to the marine life. After all, life is life, and destroying it means destroying part of the natural environment that is supposed to be there. I don’t quite understand why people are knowingly polluting the environment when there are so many environmental problems already.

I enjoyed reading this article because it gave me a lot of insight on what is going on in the environment in my country and how people are handling it. It really showed me a lot about the choices we are making as a country and what our priorities are when it comes to the environment. This article provided me with a lot of interesting knowledge that I would not have known otherwise.

7 comments:

  1. Mia wrote this article impeccably and presented her review in a clear, easy to read way. Mia did a great job of presenting a clear and concise summary of the articles contents. Not only did Mia summarize the article she included her own opinion and provided facts and examples to back her claim. While this review was very good there are a couple things that could have been done better to improve the overall quality of this review. Mia could have presented some more of the reasoning towards the decision to move the polluted water to the estuary. Mia also could have provided a bit more background information, I feel this could make the review a bit easier to understand. I was impressed by the review Mia made but I was concerned about the content of the article. I understand it was a difficult choice to decide that the polluted water should be moved to the nature rich estuary and I hope the Army Core of Engineers put a lot of thought into making the decision to put so many unique animals and plants at risk.

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  2. Mia’s article on South Florida’s issue with its polluted water issue was very interesting. Mia, first of all, wrote this paragraph very well and made it very interesting for the reader. Secondly, She had supporting details for her opinions on how Florida delt with the polluted water. Mia gave us her thoughts on the article overall and the knowledge she gained from reading this article. Although this article was quite good there could be some editing done to it. One thing Mia could have added was more background info with why the chose one plan over the other. Mia could have added what would have happened if they did the other plan as well. One thing that I learned from Mia’s article is that by putting the polluted water on estuaries on the east and west that we are killing the natural environment. Mia article was overall well written and was quite appealing.

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  3. Mia wrote this review with an incredible understanding of what was happening. In her first paragraph she explained all the information from the article but didn't only restate it but seemed to really understand what it was saying. She also wrote about her feelings and how she was upset when she read this article. Mia understood that either place the Army Corps of Engineers life would die but she still felt angry that the marine life in the estuaries had to die. Another good thing she did was explain what she learned. She talked about how she learned more about the choices we are forced to make in our country and there are priorities in the environment that include making tough choices. However in her first paragraph she used words that a lot of people don't know so it made reading it very challenging, she could've used more common words. Also when she mentioned choices our country has to make I think she could've given a few more examples to emphasize this statement. I really enjoyed Mia's review and it really made me open my eyes to all the problems that are happening and even though we hear about the big problems in our country there all small things that could magnify.

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  4. I believe that Mia had a great understanding of the situation presented in the article, because she was able to restate it in a way that is easily comprehensible. I thought that the way that Mia presented the situation, by telling of the two different choices that Army Corps could choose from to resolve the situation made it easier to understand so that the reader knows not only which way was chosen, but also the choice that wasn't selected. I also thought Mia presented the outcome of the situation well by not only telling how the estuaries became polluted, but also by explaining how the polluted waters affected different marine life animals such as oysters and manatees. Finally, I liked how Mia took this problem and put it into the bigger picture by connecting to the other choices that the United States is making and its choices regarding the environment. Overall, I thought that Mia’s review was well presented, and clearly described the problem at hand.
    Although Mia wrote the summary very well, there are a few things that I thought could have been done to make it a little better and easier to understand. First when she explained the situation, there were some items that could be clarified to make the reading a little smoother. I think it is important to know what type of pollution and where it is coming from. Another item that could have been more clear is what would happen if they didn’t move the water, and why did the Army Corps choose to move the water to the estuaries. Something else that I would say could have been made better is to add some examples at the end when she said, “It really showed me a lot about the choices we are making as a country and what our priorities are when it comes to the environment.” What choices are we making? What are our priorities? I think that with a little better specification, Mia’s summary would have been a little bit clearer and easier to visualize the problem.
    I found this article that Mia presented very interesting and didn’t know that anything like this was going on. Before reading this article, I was unaware that there were only two ways to solve the problem and that both were destructive. I never knew how risky a situation like this could get; either you destroy and agricultural area and communities or pollute water. I thought that this was a very interesting article, and it provided me with information on a topic that I am unfamiliar with.

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  5. Mia did a good job with the review on the article. She was very clear which made it easier for the reader to understand what was happening in the article. In her first paragraph, she backed all of her statements with examples in the beginning, which gave the reader some understanding, especially if they had not heard about this topic before. Mia also tells us about how she feels upset with all the pollution that is happening, and all the disastrous things that are happening to all of the sea animals. Another good thing Mia did was that she connected this to the real world, and other problems in the world that are related to pollution.
    One thing that I think Mia could have done different is explaining what some of the words mean, or replace them with an easier word, so that some sentences would be more clearer and the reader could understand it a little more. The other thing Mia could have done better is in the end she could have added more examples towards the quote, because I got a little confused when I read it.
    I found this article interesting. I had no idea that this was a big issue, and that many sea animals were dying because of this severe pollution that has been happening. This article really opened my eyes, about what is happening, and how I should start and be careful on wasting things. This article was interesting because this was something that I did not know about, and was very unfamiliar with.

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  6. Mia did a very good job of explaining the article in her own words. It was easy to understand and her review was also easy to follow. Mia also made her review interesting to read by backing up her statements with examples and quotes from outside sources. I really also enjoyed reading how Mia felt the article. She was able to persuade me by showing how this pollution connects to other things. For example, how the pollution in turn, interferes with jobs and even whole businesses.
    I think Mia could have made her article better, and easier to read, by explaining what certain words mean that others might not understand. For example, I did not know what an estuary was before I looked it up. Also, I believe that if Mia had explained what the speaker of a quote meant, then this would also make her review easier to take in.
    Before this article, I had no idea that this type of water pollution was a problem or even existed. I did not know that when certain lakes had become filled with polluted waters, that they had to move the waters into separate places. Although this is not entirely the fault of man, Mia’s review made me want to help this issue in some way shape or form.

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  7. Mia has written a very good “post”, it is very informative and educational but she also gives her on thoughts on the matter. She offered her own opinion on the subject but did not throw it in the readers face. Mia also did a good job of explaining the two options that were presented and how they could affect the surrounding areas, and how they chose the one that took an effect on the wild life not on the humans. Mia had a good argument but I feel like she could have added more examples to support her argument and that would have made it even better. Even though Mia’s “post” was very well put together it could have been better if she had given a little more back story to the article, like history about the area or how many people were involved. I was very impressed by how much Mia knew about this topic, she seemed to know what the article was really about and used that to help herself make a well-worded paragraph

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