Starting Monday, San Francisco joins several other cities in California to ban plastic bags in retail stores, and charging 10 cents for each paper bags.

Any stores found violating this law could be fined up to $500 for each violation.

San Francisco becomes another city in California to implement the policy of banning plastic bags, which is intended to make people think about the wastefulness of single-use products, and to protect the bay from plastic wastes.

Nothing is done without meeting challenges; many plastic bag companies as well as some retail stores opposed the ban and the bag charge.

The plastic bag companies argue that plastic bags can sometimes be better than reusable bags, like handling hot food from restaurants. Reusable bags can harbor bacteria if not washed frequently. And some high end retailers argue that it is silly to ask their customers to pay 10 cents more for a bag when they’ve just spent thousands of dollars at their stores.

No matter what the opposition argues, the law is in effect starting October 1st, so shoppers should prepare containers to carry their groceries or make a one-time investment in some reusable bags if they don’t want to pay extra for bags.

A certain degree of plastic bag banning is happening across the world, whenever it is banning the plastic bags all together or charging customers money for a bag, it is great to see governments stepping up to reduce waste and protect the planet. But whatever the law dictates, it is more important for all the people to understand the purpose of it and follow it willingly.

So where will the ban happen next? Will New York be next in line for it?

You can read more about the ban on the New York Times published on September 28, and the article on Huffington Post on September 13.

And you can help by signing one of the two petitions to ban plastic bag in New York City.

Two people in Louisiana died last year from a fatal infection from brain-eating amoeba called N. fowleri. The infection was contracted by using neti pots filled with tap water to clean their sinuses. This amoeba travels up the nasal cavity and into the brain, and the symptoms include headache, fever, stiff neck, loss of appetite, vomiting, confusion, seizures, coma and death. With a fatality rate of 99%, this is seriously a horrific infection.

But don’t just shut off your faucets and stopped showering or drinking water, even though the N. fowleri is scary, it is only found to enter the through the nose. Boiling, filtering, distilling and consuming the water would kill the amoeba. And general things like drinking water, bathing and showering would not contract the infection.

Could global warming be a factor in the spread of the N. fowleri? Since it is a warm-water amoeba found primarily in Southern states, the spread of it to some Northern states suggested that the water is getting warmer.

For the full article published on Fox News on August 23^rd, click here.

Or search “brain-eating amoeba” on the internet.

According to a recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, around 40% of food in the United States is never eaten, amounting to $165 billion a year in waste.

Since food is cheap and in such abundance in the United States, food being wasted is not a concern for most people. Buying in bulk, which tends to be cheaper, or serving food in larger portions than people can eat, such as in buffets, will lead to food being wasted.

Retailers would overstock displays or shelves, making products at the bottom to rot and being thrown out. Ready-to-eat food is also being trashed due to excess supply.

Not only does waste occur at the end of the supply chain, but also in the beginning. Farmers would plant more than demanded, creating excess they can’t sell, which would go to waste. Food production accounts for 80% of the fresh water consumption in the United States, and since 40% of food is wasted, so does 25% of our fresh water supply.

So where do all those wasted food go? They end up in landfills, which will decompose and release methane gas. Methane gas is a greenhouse gas that is 20% more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. So we should stop blaming cows for the methane gas emissions and get to the root of the real problem, our waste of food.

So what can we do to help? First of all, try not to waste food. Consider reducing portion size to reduce waste, and waist. Secondly, it is economically sound to buy in bulk to save money, but consider this, if you cannot finish that 6 pound box of cereal before its expiration date or before you get bored of eating it, try buying a smaller box instead. If you are going to throw it out after eating ¼ of it, you are actually saving money and the environment by buying a smaller size that you can finish. And lastly, try reading the expiration dates carefully, don’t throw out fresh food products simply because you misinterpret a “sell by” date with a “use by” date.

Stop the waste of food not only benefit the environment, but also people who are hungry simply because they can’t afford food. According to the report, “reducing losses by 15% could feed more than 25 million Americans every year.”

So the real cost of that hamburger you just thrown out is not just the price you paid for it, it has to account for the cost of the damage done to the environment as well as the future, and that’s not cheap.

For the complete article posted on the CNN website on August 22^nd, click here.