There may be murmurs about that girl who only fixes herself a salad with only vinegar at dining services or suspicious glances at someone who spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention.
There is this girl that I grew up and graduated with. I talked to her almost everyday at school, but we were never that close. I never saw much of her over the summer except when she was out running after a two to three hour softball practice. At my younger sister’s volleyball game about a month or two ago, I saw this girl. She was so thin it was almost disgusting. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, and I could see her ribs through her shirt. She went from looking healthy and physically fit to looking sick and fragile. This is why I chose this topic. People need to pay more attention to this disease. Anorexics are literally dying to be thin.
Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don’t anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low “ideal” weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one day and how much exercise is required after eating certain amounts of food. With anorexia, there is a strong almost overwhelming fear of putting on weight and they are preoccupied with the way that their bodies look. Anorexia sometimes involves use of laxatives, diet pills, or self-induced vomiting to lose or to keep weight off (http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/anorexianervosa.htm). Anorexics may show symptoms such as extreme weight loss for no medical reason. Also, many deny their hunger, chew excessively, choosing low calorie foods and exercising excessively (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health).
Anorexics do all of those things to become thin, when in reality, it makes your body better at storing fat rather than burning it. Starving yourself to lose weight is not beautiful in any way. Starved bodies ache all of the time.
Increasing the Gas Tax Would Cause an Improvement in the Environment
Increasing the Gas Tax Would Cause an Improvement in the Environment
Many people all over the world are concerned about pollution. Gasoline use in automobiles is one of the major causes of pollution. When gasoline is used it releases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen oxide. These are gasses that contribute to the Greenhouse Effect. The Greenhouse Effect refers to the trapping of the sun’s radiation and is also used synonymously with Global Warming (greenfuels.org). Governments are trying to come up with alternatives to gasoline to improve or at least not hurt our environment as much as gasoline does.
There are things we can do to help out the environment. One suggestion is better public transportation systems. For example, Des Moines has a public bus system, but not very many people use it and the busses do not reach all parts of the city. As a result, many people drive themselves to work instead of taking the bus and saving gasoline. Another way to cut emissions of vehicles is a type of vehicle that uses an electric motor or a vehicle that uses both an electric and gasoline motor which cuts gasoline use. Also there are alternatives to gasoline that do not release as many harmful agents into the environment. Ethanol and hydrogen are two examples that are more environmentally friendly than gasoline. So, if the federal government were to increase the gas tax by one dollar per gallon, the public would have more incentive to buy the alternatives that are better for our environment than gasoline because of the much higher price. Also, with the increase in the gas tax the money would give funds toward the environment.
With the increased gas tax, there will be extra money that will enable the government to do things fo…
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…ne, most of which are much better for the environment than the gasoline that we are currently using. Even if people did not look for alternatives, there would be money to help out environmental issues. Different vehicles, hydrogen, and ethanol are things that have already been proven to be safer for the environment than gasoline. Just think, if we don’t give up on looking for other alternatives what we may think of and we could save our environment in the process.
Sources Cited
Ford Motor Company: HEV. 11 October 2001. http://www.escapehev.com/index.aps
Canadian Renewable Fuels Association: Home of Canada’s greenfuels. 10 January 2001. Canadian Renewable Fuels Association 11 October 2001 http://greenfuels.org
Alternative Fuel Systems Inc.: Innovative Environmental Technologies. Alternative Fuel Systems Inc. 11 October 2001 http://altfuelsys.com/