Author Archives: Jazeel Mendes

Global Awareness

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Global awareness is the most important aspect of sustainability as the world is filled with different countries practicing different cultures. The concept of sustainability for the human race as awhile would have to depend on the teachings and understanding that these people have of their environments. Native Americans believed in the idea of being in sync with nature as they understood, they were part of nature as well. The harms to the planet have been continually through the human contribution of our consumption and energy usage. The production of plastic goods have not decreased in high numbers, oil drilling is still a common acutance, and deformation is still a major problem in different parts of the world. From 1980 to 2017, gross domestic product increased 165 percent, vehicle miles traveled increased 110 percent, energy consumption increased 25 percent, and U.S. population grew by 44 percent. The growth of societies can as have negative effects as technologies are often not understood properly and its effects on the planet. The understudying of the damages to the planet through human change comes with time and realization which often may be too long to allow the situation to be reversible.

Water Waste

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The use of plastic water bottles can be harmful to the environment specially when not recycled properly. A proposal that I have in mind to eliminate the consumption of plastic water bottles, is to install a water fountain in every house. This may seem like a difficult challenge or expensive but in the long run of our community, it would benefit everyone greatly. The new water fountains would help students spend less money on water, while eliminate the use of plastics water bottles. The water fountains would also provide students with the access to clean drinkable water within their own house, without having to struggle.

The Brazilian Amazon

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Brazil is now a large industrial nation that leads the world in production of oil and automobile industry that still heavily rely on the consumption of wood. Through the technological development, the nation is thriving in the economic field when exporting goods to other nations. The economic aspect of the world the country is thriving but through the natives of the and they are being destroyed. The Brazilian wilderness is enormous with thousands of different species of creatures and native tribes that are being destroyed to gather wood for economic profit, regardless of the effects on nature. The development of the country has come at the cost of destroying the environment. The removal of natural resources from the environment often creates bad environments for locals to attempt to make a living as they have lived on the land for hundreds of years. Many countries in Latin America are suffering from the exploitation by corporations and natural resources. In order to have a fair policy the natives should be involved in the government decision about their land. There is no clear path for communication for the natives and the modern and forever changing government. The lack of respect and connection to the natives’ culture creates environmental issues that impact the poor communities.

Arctic

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The arctic has been a section of the world with the clearest negative impact of the effects of climate change. The ice caps are slowly melting, while there are different species of life being threatened through the diminishing food source in this densely populated area. The melting of the ice effects the environment in so many negative ways like releasing trapped bacteria in the ice, eliminating food source that can’t adapt, and creating an unstable life cycle. There are different species of assemblages that have adapted to the living conditions of both above and under the ice, representing 20% of the main algae source of food in the Arctic. The melting caps are causing these limited resource available to the birds, fish, and marine mammals causing many of these animals population to diminish because of the lack of algae. The polar bear is one of the most effected as they really on the smaller food source around that really on algae. The interruption to the life cycle in the Arctic was caused by humans and these animals are suffering without having any major cause in the event. The table shows the decline sea ice in the Arctic Ocean measured annually starting from the 80s to the 10. This correlates to the global warming of the planet, causing global change and the arctic is being impacted in rapid rate. 

Drugs and People

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Drugs are a valuable commodity and have a positive or negative  effect in the lives of individuals, based on their use and perception about drugs. We live in a world were drugs are addicts living homeless and are placed in lower social standings because of their drug problems, while patients use drugs in the same breath but in a controlled environment. In courts drugs related cases are treated differently based on the population in consumption of the particular drug. People of lower economic social status use crack in higher numbers because it is cheaper and easier access, compared drugs people of middle and upper class use like cocaine. But are given less time imprison because of the effects of the social constructions surrounding these two drugs. The social construction that places people of color down are multifaceted, for it is on education, economy, medicine, and the judicial system. This not only creates data that is biased, it creates false imagery of a group of people that internalize those ideologies believing it’s how they are meant to behave.

The sentencing of people in courts are biased based on the completion of their skin not even based in race with is also a social construct. Scientist proved that we are all 99.99% identical disregarding our origins, the concept of race was created to place people in social groups of different standings because of the human obsession of categorization and control. This system always places people of color lower on the spectrum often with support from science and political powers that impact people on a daily basis that people fail to recognize. There were more than 1.5 million drug arrests in the U.S. in 2016. The vast majority – more than 80% – were for possession only. People of color experience discrimination at every stage of the judicial system and are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, harshly sentenced. Research shows that prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence for black people as for white people charged with the same offense. Among people who received a mandatory minimum sentence in 2011, 38% were Latino and 31% were black, while they are the minorities in the population as a whole.

 

http://www.drugpolicy.org/resource/drug-war-mass-incarceration-and-race-englishspanish

 

Plant-Based Foods vs Animal-Based Foods

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The production of animal based foods is an issue we have been discussing in class for the past few weeks and this chart helps break down consumption of meats and vegetables. The chart shows the required land, water consumption, and GHG Emissions for produces like wheat, rice, eggs, pork, and beef. The charts are higher when it comes to the consumption of meat as it takes more resource to cultivate. Producing animal-based foods is responsible for more than three-quarters  agricultural land use around the world. The amount of land it takes to raise cattle is neisse compared to the land needed for agriculture. The resources that would be used on agriculture would not only be cheaper but have more benefit for everyone. Agriculture’s production-related greenhouse gas emissions is less compared to that of meat related consumption because of waste in resources. Because many animal-based foods rely on crops for feed, increased demand for animal-based foods widens the food gap relative to increased demand for plant-based foods.

Society/Water/Waste

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Give an example of water consumption by one type of livestock or one type of crop. Water waste: Give an example of water waste (in U.S. or other countries). Make suggestions for reducing water waste and quantify the amount of water that could be saved.

The consumption of meat has a been a human practice since the beginning of times, as it holds many benefits but its also damaging to the water waste rate. The upkeep of livestock is not the issue of water waste but the rising numbers in meat consumption raises a question of finding alternative methods of ranching. The U.S. has a high rate of chicken consumption as the umbers have been steadily since the 1960s, having five times greater production as beef. In the article  American Diet is Shifting, by Richard Waite, the emphasis on meat consumption is enforced as the consumption of poultry is rising in steady numbers. The global average water footprint of chicken meat is about 4330 litre/kg. comparing to the meat of beef cattle (15400 litre/kg), sheep (10400 litre/kg), pig (6000 litre/kg) or goat (5500 litre/kg). Chicken meat’s footprint is smaller compared to the other meats helping cutdown the waste. The high consumption of poultry is having a deeper impact as people are consuming in higher numbers.

The clear solution to the water waste produced from all meats would be everyone switching to a vegetarian diet or limit the consumption of meat. In order for any of these actions to take place to would require the reprograming of a society that has lived in the consumption of meat for thousands of years. Healthy living is also an expensive form a life which a majority of the world would not be able to afford without grave changes. The production of a salad which includes tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers  is 322 litre/kg. In the comparison of poultry and vegetables there is a difference of 4002 litre/kg, showing the high number of consumption that could be removed with this change.

 

Progress & Natural Resources

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Today we live in large industrial world that depends heavily on the extraction of natural resources and its mass consumption. Through technological development, nations can thrive in the economic field when exporting natural resources but there are negative factors that hurt the atmosphere. In the U.S. 60% of americas live in high polluted areas, with rising high levels of natural resource consumptions. The levels of pollution in the world is rising and the U.S. is in the middle of the development.

In the reading by the Union of Concerned  Scientists, concluded that every 10,000 U.S. homes powered with with natural gas instead of coal avoids the annual emissions of 1,900 tons of NOx, 3,900 tons of SO2, and 5,200 tons of particulates. There are renewable energy that is present and can be used by governments and private industries, but the business aspects of natural resources creates a challenge switching energy consumptions methods.

The removal of natural resources from the environment often creates bad living conditions for locals to to make a living. Many countries in Latin America are suffering from the exploitation from corporations that remove the natural resources without concern for the negative effects. Latin America is responsible for 974.6 million metric tons of CO2 emissions from fuel combustion, with high rates in the manufacturing, and transporting sectors. They are responsible for a large factor of the rise in pollution because of the exploitation of the natural resources.

Countries like Brazil that are abundant in nature resources tends to have high rates of air pollution due to its industrialization. The cost of air pollution to the health sector is estimated to be more than $670 million and causes more than 4,000 premature deaths each year. The negative effects of pollution are continually increasing but the solution is alternative energies, which are slowly being implemented into society.

Post #1

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The concept of sustainability seems like an simple idea but in theory a very difficult task to bring into fruition. Sustainability is the balance between the abundant resources produced by nature and the rate of consumption by humans. Growing up in Cape Verde the idea of sustainability was important for resources where limited and the teachings of resource consumption was common. The environment is something really important to me because I grew up surrounded by the ocean with beautiful beaches and spent most of my time exploring nature. I have spent a few summers working with a non profit organization called Save the Harbor Save the Bay, where we educated children on that dangers of pollution and how improper disposal of natural resources could negatively damage the ocean. The planet is heading in a negative direction when it comes to the conservation of natural resources, for money is an important factor that dictates the decisions about climate change in the future. The population continues to grow and the resources being used are only amounting to higher numbers, but there are other alternative resource of energies that can be used. Creating a healthy world where energy can be used without the harming of the planet would be amazing for the future generations will have the opportunity to experience joy the wonders of nature.