Green Girl's Blog

Hey guys, whats up!?! I haven’t been on here for soooo long its not funny, but I’m gonna try and get back into it. so why don’t I talk about some of the books or movies I recently seen and read? okay well I’ve been reading some of Matthew Reilly’s books and wow, they’re really good! If you like action please, please read these books it’s action all the way through, never a dull moment. I really recommend them. Read Ice station first though because it’s the first book. So far I’ve read Ice station, Area 7 (fantastic) Contest and Hell Island.

Okay so I’ve also read Twilight like ages ago, bit slow at the start but the end of the books are really good, if you like romance books I recommend the Twilight series. Oh I read the inheritance series (well all except the last book which hasn’t been written yet lol) you know the Eragon books by Christopher Whateverhislastnameis, yeah they are really good too I really got into those the second book is a bit slow to begin with but most second books in the series are because they have to explain everything, yeah but it does get better and there’s a really big twist so stick with it. The His dark materials is a good series too, the movie The Golden Compass is based on the first book; the Northern lights, pretty good series not recommended for  younger people, bit dark and very confusing. I recommend the ages from around 13 up maybe older. Yeah so I gotta go but I try to keep you up to date.

G.G

Well we’re learning about space in class, well we were, and I thought some of you bloggers out there might be interested in this sought of stuff so I thought that maybe I should put some of it on my blog so underneath I’ve got some info about stuff you might see in space (or not see, you’ll get the point after you’ve read the info) but I’ve also got a whole page on Aliens and stuff that you might want to read as well, so yeah, happy reading!

From G.G

Black holes

A black hole is a star that can no longer fight against its own gravitational pull and therefore collapses in on it self forming a black hole. Nothing in the Universe can escape the pull of a black hole, not even light, you must be traveling faster then the speed of light to escape its pull once you’re past it’s horizon. The horizon of a black hole is the outer most part of it, the boundary, and the center of a black hole is called the ‘singularity’. If you were to fall into a black hole at first you wouldn’t feel anything because everything is being pulled the same way and it would just like being on Earth or any other planet, but then slowly the Tidal forces would kick in and you would start to feel a bit stretched. The further you go into a black hole the stronger the forces are and you will get more and more stretched until eventually you will be ripped apart. If somebody were to be watching you fall into a black hole no matter how long they waited they would never see you reach the center, as the closer you get the slower you seem to go until you seem to move no longer, for this reason black holes used to be called frozen stars.

As long as you stay outside the horizon of a black hole you are safe, so if the sun were to become a black hole, which it really can’t, we wouldn’t actually get sucked into it we would just keep orbiting in the same way we are now, which is good, it would just get a lot colder and darker around as there would be no sun. The reason we would not get sucked into the black hole is because it’s horizon would only be really small, about 3km’s, and would not have anymore gravitational pull the any other object its size.

You can’t actually see a black hole because light gets sucked into it, so we have to rely on indirect evidence to know that they’re there. (as I said, you may not actually see them)

Have you ever wondered ‘is there any life out there?’ as you looked up at the sky. Have you ever read a magazine story about aliens and thought that could be true or thats not possible. I mean you have to wonder right, we can’t possible be the only other life forms out there, there has to be life somewhere. I mean we’ve already found places that could have hosted life long ago and we’ve found fosiles of life forms too on one of Jupiter’s moons. So whats to say there isn’t life out there right now totally aware or unaware of our presence. If there is other life out there which I’d have to say there probably is, I don’t think they’d come down here to kill everybody and take over the planet, I mean we all asume that the life out there is highly advanced, but what if it’s not, they could be just like us, still learning their way around space, still exploring, or they could be less advanced. I mean we can’t asume that all life forms are much more highly advanced then us, they could possibly be but you have to take into consideration all the options, plus I don’t think that all the extraterrestrials out there are all thirsty for human blood and want to kill everybody and take over the planet, as many people seem to think, I think that theory is just based on human fear for what they can’t or don’t understand.

Do you think there is life out there? (check out my ‘UFOs and Aliens’ page for more info)

from G.G

Hey, this week in school we are learning about 6 word stories, yes they do excist. And I have decided to challenge all you bloggers out there to write one of your own. One of my favourites was written by Ernest Hemingway when he was challenged to write a story in just 6 words, it was; For Sale: Baby shoes never worn.

So after thinking very long and hard about this I decided to write a story of my own (in 6 words) so here it is; Pens scribble, paper rustles, worlds unlock. By Green Girl

The other day I was thinking and I thought about my name, green girl, and I thought well I haven’t really been that green have I, I mean I’ve talked about whaling but thats really all, and I thought maybe I should be a bit more greener and thats when the idea really hit me…7 tips in 7 days! I could write about 7 ways you can become more greener in a week. So this week I’m going all green! And here are my tips;

Day 1- Taking shorter showers. If you can take only a 5 min shower or have a longer shower but only have one every second day. While your waiting for the water to heat up you could catch the excess stuff in a bucket and use that for your garden. Saving water and money!

Day 2- Turn off the T.V. Don’t just sit like a couch potato in front of the T.V all day watching any old stuff, pick out the programs you want to watch and cut out the other stuff. If you are thinking about buying a new T.V don’t get a flat screen they’re not very green and cause a lot of nuclear waste to make, plus they burn out quickly.

Day 3- Recycle. Heaps of things these days can be recycled, paper, glass, plastic bottles anything with the recycling symbol on it can be recycled. The more we recycle the less we have to make which means less waste and less resources used, so less holes in the ground. Never put rubbish in a recycling bin it can contaminate a whole batch of recycling materials even a whole truck if your unlucky.

Day 4- Limit your electricity. You don’t need every light on in the house at the same time, switch off the lights you don’t need on. Don’t leave the computer on for hours without using it, switch it off. Don’t leave music on when your not listening to it and don’t leave the T.V on when no ones watching. Switch them off, if your not using it then you may as well turn it off. You don’t need it so don’t put the environment at risk for your laziness. Turn it off.

Day 5- Plant native plants in your garden. Every tree, every bush, every plant helps to get rid of a little pollution every day so plant more of these plants in your garden but not just any plants native ones. Plants that are native to your area are the best plants to have in your garden because their suited to that environment. They’re more hardy then those other more tropical plants, they attract native animals and they’re more drought hardy, saving you water. Plant Native.

Day 6- Put an effort into clean up days and throw all your rubbish in the bin. If you cart it there you can cart it back! As I said before never throw rubbish in a recycling bin.

And finally Day 7- Walk to school or work whenever you can, even just one day a week can make a difference and not just to the environment either to your wallet as well. If you can’t do this try to catch public transport or car pull with someone it really can make a difference.

So that’s my 7 tips for 7 days I hope they were helpful, stick to these tips and hopefully you can become more green too!

( P.S If you’ve got any ideas or things you think I should have in my blog just leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do)

G.G

Hey I’ve just put on a new page onto my blog called About Stuff. Basically it’s just a page with random stuff on it like jokes and poems etc. but hopefully you’ll find something on it that you like if you don’t like my other stuff. The address is http://greengirl8g.globalstudent.org.au/about/ you might need to use this link till I can find a way to link it to my blog properly as I’m still learning my way around.

write back soon

G.G

Last week I also went to the school spectacular as my sister was in the mass choir. It was really good, the theme was Made in Australia and they had a lot of Australian songs to go with the theme. I was really amazed with the singers as they were all kids but they had amazing voices.  The orchestra was really good as well they didn’t make any mistakes and it sounded fantastic, the solo trumpet was excellent he was probably the best, I think maybe when I get older I’ll try out for the orchestra. The lighting and everything was really good as well, they had cars come out onto the stage and people dressed up as animals, they had this really amazing act when this lizard came out on stage and it was made out of just heaps of people stacked together but you couldn’t really tell, they all moved so well together it made it look real! Some of the rock bands weren’t that good, a few had really bad singers or you couldn’t understand what they were saying and one was turned up so loud you had to cover your ears.

Over all it was really good to go and see though and I reckon it was worth it.

G.G

Hey guys, back again, this time to write about the Phillip island camp I just went on last week. It was pretty cool we went to the chocolate factory, penguin parade, pelican feeding, lots of bush walking and hiking (well sort of hiking) Koala reserve, this cool as farm place and a couple of other places. It was really good, we got heaps of time just to chill out and relax with our friends, I even learned a few new card games! It was a bit of a long drive to get there but that just means you have more time to chat with your friends! If your in need of a holiday or some where to go on school camp I recommend Phillip Island its a pretty cool place for a holiday. write back soon.

Green girl.

Whaling

Should Japan be allowed to hunt Whales?

Hi I’m Green girl and I did my speech on Whaling, mainly Japan and their whaling for research scheme. As you can see behind me these are some of the horrific scenes that take place almost every day out in our oceans.

The hunting of whales has been going on since the 9^th century and was quite popular back then as it was a good source of cheap food. Spain was one of the first countries to invest in whaling back then but by the 19^th century many other countries were also doing a lot of whaling. It wasn’t until 1986 that the IWC (international Whaling Commission) put a world wide ban on whaling, but this didn’t stop everybody there were a few Rebel countries, mainly Iceland and Norway, that rebelled against the anti whaling laws and still continued to whale and still even do it today. Japan didn’t start whaling till around the end of the major whaling period, they started mainly after the Europeans (who dominated the whaling industry) stopped, that’s when Japan really hit off.

Every year Japan hunts around 2500 whales for “research” but what actually is this “research” they talk of, according to Catalyst (a show on t.v, sort of like the news) of the 6800 whales Japan hunted in the 18 year period the JARPA program (Japan’s whale hunting program) has only printed less then 55 papers on their research. Of those 55 papers only 14 discussed the issues JARPA set out to find out about and out of that, only 4 required lethal sampling. So what happened to all those other whales that lost their life to the so called “research”, well if you were over in Japan you’d probably find them on your plate. Some times you can even find whale products in pet food, fertilizer and even cheap perfumes.

Japan says they are mainly trying to find out the health status of minke whales, which they found was healthy, and they were also trying to see if there were any changes in the eco system of the Antarctic Ocean. They claim that Minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean have very low levels of contaminates in them. So why do they still need to kill more whales? It just doesn’t make sense.

Japan’s whale consumption was at its highest in 1962 at around 226000 tons after this it declined dramatically down to around 15 000 tons in 1985 one year before the ban, but that’s still a lot of whale meat.

In 2006/2007 season Japan took around 866 whales these included:

• 3 Southern Hemisphere fin whales,
• 508 Southern Hemisphere minke whales,
• 197 North Pacific minke whales,
• 51 North Pacific Brydes whales,
• 101 North Pacific sei whales,
• 6 North Pacific sperm whales.

This was one of the first times Japan had taken fin whales, an endangered species, but after this it announced in the next season it would take a further 50 fin whales and 50 humpbacks for “scientific Research”.

Since 1986 Japan has killed 8,201 minke whales but it’s not the only one Iceland and Norway also kill whales, Iceland stuck to the ban for a while only hunting for “scientific” reasons but then decided it was also going to hunt commercially as well. Norway has also hunted a lot of whales commercially as it is under objection to the ban. Norway has taken 6879 minke whales since the ban, even hunting commercially they still haven’t taken as many whales as Japan has for “scientific research”.

The methods Japan uses to hunt whales are totally inhumane and unreasonable. The conditions out at sea are much different to those on land, the sea is not made of solid rock, its fluid it moves and this can dramatically affect the aim of the harpoonist, this means that the whale may not be hit with the fatal blow the first time it may take a couple of shots. This brings up another issue, how exactly are the whales killed, well after the harpoon is fired assuming it hits its target it plunges 30cm into the whales flesh causing great pain before exploding and damaging major organs. If this first shot fails to kill the whale the harpoonist may choose to shoot another harpoon or shot the whale with a gun but what really is a bullet going to do to a mighty beast like that, just cause more prolonged pain and suffering that’s all, more pain and suffering.

In 2002 Norwegian whalers only killed 80.7% of their targets instantly which means for the other 19.7% of whales it was a much more slow and painful, prolonged death. In Japan 2002/2003 the whalers only killed 40.2% of their targets instantly, again another slow painful death on the whales part. If whaling is to continue there should be a much more effective method of killing the whales instantly so as to eliminate unnecessary pain and suffering.

As I was gathering notes to write this speech I found a very interesting web page all about Japans view on whaling and I thought I better put some of it in. The question was;

Aren’t all whales endangered?

Japans answer;

“No whales have never been hunted to extinction, nor are they likely to be. Out of all of the 80 species, only a limited number traditionally have been hunted, such as blue whales, fin whales, minke whales, humpback whales, sperm whales and gray whales.
When whales were over-hunted, species such as blue whales and right whales were reduced to very low population levels, but these species now have been fully protected for decades.
Japan strongly believes that they should continue to be protected.
On the other hand, there are species which are abundant enough that marine management is needed, such as the Antarctic and northwestern Pacific minke whales and northwestern Pacific Bryde’s whales”

quoted exactly from http://www.whaling.jp/english/qa.html

The above quote, although highlighting the fact that certain whales have been fully protected for years, fails to mention the recovery rate of these species, and whether or not they are now off the endangered or vulnerable lists. And whilst they argue that the Antarctic and Northwestern Pacific minke whales and northwestern Bryde’s whales are abundant, and in their opinion require culling, they did not provide evidence to show that the whale numbers were having a negative impact on the marine environment. So is such a drastic action really required?

What is the purpose of hunting if the demand for the meat is not high, nor is it necessary for survival and the uses for the by products can all be sourced alternatively? Add to this the inhumane, slow, painful deaths the whales endure, and again I ask you why bother, what is the point? Research, you say. What answers has the research given us? Basically that minke whales are healthy and live in a relatively healthy and stable environment. Do we really need to kill whales to determine this? I don’t think so.

So to conclude, whale hunting for Japan is a pointless exercise, they are getting nothing out of their research, its not one of their main food supplies nor is it a tradition or a cultural thing. They’d probably get more money from whale watching then selling the meat. It is a totally inhumane way of killing the whales, how would you like something to plunge 30cm into you then blow up, not a nice way to go is it. So I ask please lets all try to stop Japan from continuing this cruel, unethical way of killing. If we don’t stop them soon there may not be any whales left and just think how many of those thousands of whales were mothers, how many calves were orphaned, think back to Colin the whale who was on the news a couple weeks ago, could his mother have abandoned him because she was killed for food? Think about it.

Hey at the moment I’ve been looking a lot at Whaling and I have to do a project on it. I was looking at some of the facts about whaling and it HORRIBLE! I mean take for interest how they kill the whales, to catch and “kill” the whales they shoot a razer sharp harpoon 30cm into the whales flesh which then BLOWS UP! “Killing” the whale but if this doesn’t kill the whale then they either shoot another harpoon or shoot it with a gun! A GUN! what really is that going to do, just cause the poor thing more pain.

So now you sort of know my view on whaling but I’d really like to hear yours, so whether your for or against whaling please leave a comment ’cause I’d like to hear your view. p.s When I’m finished my pro I’ll put it on and you can find out all the facts about whaling but until then there is a video you can watch on

http://www.whalewatch.org/

See you soon (hopefully)