Forests and the Planet

Forests and the Planet are huge concerns on many minds now days. The writer of this article explains how we are not doing enough to help the world. “An estimated 30 million acres of rain forest disappear every year, destroying biodiversity and pouring billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.” Global warming is becoming more and more dangerous as we do less and less to take care of the world. The writer also explains how we are generating all this gas and pollution from our cars and trucks, and it is too much for our Earth to handle. The bill for global warming is $60 billion every year. We need to take the extra effort and take responsibility for our actions.

On the contrary, I believe in some parts of the world, people are taking initiative to make the world a better place. I recently visited Puerto Rico and there I found my counter example. We went to a rain forest and our tour guide told us that next year, they will be building a parking lot before entering the rain forest. The reason for that is because many plants are dying due to cars and their gas. If a parking lot is built before entering the rain forest, many plants are able to be healthy and live longer. But I do agree with the author of the article. We cannot just have one part of the world doing all the work. We all are the reason the Earth is struggling to survive, and we need to help it.

Jon and Kate's Mistake

An opinion- editorial writer for The New York Times Gail Collins focuses on the downfalls of fertility treatments and reality shows about day-to-day lives of any family in her article. She uses the Gosselin family-most well known for their show “Jon & Kate plus Eight”- as a prime example of the effects of fertility treatments and reality shows. She explains that the viewers of these shows are drawn in to see how something will workout-in the Gosselins’ case: having sextuplets and twins. I am in full agreement with Collins when she states that these families who put themselves out there like that are not allowed to complain about the downside.

Collins uses examples of previous cases that did not work out as a sign to others the negative side of reality. She expands on Jon and Kate’s situation with the media to back up her argument of reality shows and fertility treatments being two of the new millennium’s 10 worst ideas. Collins uses a “you got what you were asking for” view when writing this article instead of choosing a side or trying to stick up for the family. At the end of the article Collins reassures the Gosselins that they will keep a place in history by having a spot in list of Ten Worst Multiple-Birth-Reality-Show-Meltdowns-of-the-Millennium.

Hey CLASS!

is this thing on???

Opinion-Editorial Response

The New York Times opinion-editorial columnist Ross Douthat claims that in the past three decades the average female happiness rate has dropped dramatically. Douthat bases his ideas off of a paper that was written by two economists, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, and titled “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness”. Stevenson and Wolfers’ paper explores the role of the modern woman and how women’s relatively new position in society is negatively affecting the state of female happiness. Douthat quotes from “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” throughout his column in order to enforce his argument that changes in the American society within the past thirty years have placed more responsibility upon women and forced them to suffer.


Douthat states that during their study, Wolfer and Stevenson measured current female happiness and compared it to the happiness of the past generation of women. However, he does not find it important to inform the reader on how the economists gathered the information. How were Wolfer and Stevenson able to measure current happiness? There is no scale for calculating how happy mankind is! Their data most likely consisted of a series of questions, but how do they know that participants answered truthfully? How do the researches know that they did not interview women who were simply having a bad day? In addition, the studies of current happiness levels and those of thirty years ago were not conducted by the same researchers or even with the same method. The measurement of the modern woman’s happiness has a monstrous margin for error, making it unwise for Douthat to hold Wolfer and Stevenson’s study in high regard.

Just so everyone knows, I asked Cecily to make that last post to see if the blog was working, and I made her write those things to inflate my ego.

-Mr. Glenn

HERE I AM! im so so excited to be taught by Mr. Glenn:)

So what am I looking for?

An idea for format: in the first paragraph, respond to the argument of the writer. In the second, you may choose to comment on style - both how the writer puts words together and how she supports her arguments. This may get repetitive if you write on the same author for several weeks, so you may use the second paragraph to present counterarguments, challenges, or simply to deepen your engagement with the argument.