What's happening in IGSS

Field Trip to The Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago in Northbrook.We will meet in the driver's ed parking lot at the beginning of 5th period on Thurs Sept 2nd. We will learn about Islam, the The Holy Qur'an , and the Prophet Muhammad.

Reading from Time Magazine: "Does America Have a Muslim Problem?"
Does the US have a problem with Islam?
Is the US a Christian nation?

Should there be a mosque built 2 blocks from ground zero in New York City?

Banning the sale of bottled water for students at New Trier: a 2010 IGSS initiative.  Jeremy and Jesse made this proposal last year and now our IGSS students will be promoting the sale of re-usable water containers though the school bookstore.  To promote this, students are making posters including some of the facts provided by IGSS students as they were researching this topic last year.

Bottled Water costs up to 1,900 times more than tap water and uses up to 2,000 times more energy to produce and deliver

·         Blind taste tests have consistently shown that people prefer the taste of tap water over bottled water.

·         Tap water is consistently found to be cleaner than bottled water due to its strict regulations by the government.

·         Bottled Water didn’t even exist until the 1980’s, they survived without it, and you can too.

·         Why spend money on something that is free? (There are water dispensing machines in the back of the cafeteria)

·         According to the Pacific Institute, approximately ½ lb of CO2 is released in the production of 1 plastic water bottle (This statistic doesn’t include transportation). This means that in one year, New Trier’s Bottled Water consumption is responsible for the release of 52,600 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere.

·         We live right next to one of the biggest freshwater reservoirs in the world, because of this; the Chicagoland area has some of the cleanest tap water in the world. Why not take advantage of that?

·         In the North Pacific Ocean, there is an area known as “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. It is roughly 3 times the size of Texas and is made up of mostly plastic garbage. This patch is not just polluting the Ocean, but much of the waste ends up in the stomachs of birds and fish that we eventually eat because of this, we are literally poisoning ourselves.

·         Around 40% of bottled water is in reality just bottled tap water

·         Only around 1 in 5 bottles is ever recycled. The other 4 contribute to the 3 billion pounds of waste from plastic water bottles. While recycling is nice, not using it in the first place is even better

·         17 Million barrels of oil are used in the production of bottled water every year

·         In recent tests, 22% of bottled water brands contained chemical contaminants at levels above strict state health limits.