Week 12: My Carbon Footprint

On Wednesday, I found out that I have a humongous carbon footprint. I commute nearly 60 miles a day to school, and that's if I don't have to go anywhere after school. On Mondays and Fridays, I carpool, so that means I drive about 240 miles per school week. Over the 180 days of school, I drive about 8640 miles over the school year. That means I use about 8.5 barrels of oil per year and produce 4.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year. This number is probably much larger if my entire driving year is calculated. There are two main reasons, I think, that these numbers are higher than my peers. One, my car is about 13 years old, which could mean than EPA regulations for the engine are less restrictive than current regulations. Second, I live 28 miles from school, 5 miles from the interstate, and about 15 to 30 miles from all of Hoover, the most popular place to shop or eat, and from all of my friends. There are no quick fix solutions to either of these problems and when I go off to college, my parents will have far less spending on gasoline. My younger brother will only have to drive about 3 miles to his school, and I will only be driving up to see them on weekends from college. Hopefully, this will reduce our family's carbon footprint.

Week 5: Gambling in Alabama

This would be the post my inquiry essay would stem from if that essay was not already complete, but I will do it out of order. I believe that gambling should be allowed in Alabama for many reasons. One, gambling does not directly kills anyone, but alcohol and cigarettes accounts for millions of deaths per year and they are legal to adults. Second, alcohol and cigarettes cost society billions of dollars a year, but gambling could actually contribute to society. Third, gambling addiction affects fewer people than either alcoholism or nicotine addiction.

Next, gambling has many possible benefits to a society. The profits from government controlled lotteries could be used to fund education, like in Georgia where the HOPE Scholarship is funded and so is the entire state's prekindergarten program. Money could also be used to fund local projects, like parks and roads and physical fitness centers. All of these things could be used to improve the living conditions of Alabamians and raise the rankings of the state of Alabama as a whole.