In this day and age, it is no surprise that humans try and take the easiest, most available route when it comes to pretty much everything in their everyday lives. People tend to want the fastest, most convenient things, and this is one reason why bottled water has become one of the most popular drinks. Despite being free is almost every person’s home, people still tend to spend their money on large bottled waters in an attempt to get their suggested daily water intake, rather than investing in a reusable water bottle.

Although people may think that buying one water bottle isn’t the end of the world, some may argue that this is what is leading to our planet getting into such bad shape. In an article written about the harm that water bottles have on our environment, entitled, “Why You Should Give Up Bottled Water for Good”, the author states, “Did you know that, every year, the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil are used to produce plastic water and soda bottles in the U.S.—not including transportation? Or that bottling water produces more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year?” This just goes to show what our country is willing to do for convenience.

I would estimate, on average, that each Union College student drinks between 1 or 2 bottles of water a day, since I have noticed reusable water bottles have become more trendy. With around 2,200 students at Union, I would argue then that there is around 4,400 bottles of water being used every day. For such a small campus, that number is truly terrifying.

I never understood the point of a front lawn. Its honestly just a green square that no one plays on, grills on, reads on, celebrates on, spends time on etc.. It’s just like a backyard with none of the purpose. All that  strip of grass says is that the people who own that grass could afford to pay their water bill that month. According to an article published by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the origin of modern lawns originated in the English gardens of the British nobility through the 17th and 18th centuries. Although, the lawn that we know andsee today was made widespread in North America by the production of the lawnmower in the 19th century. This Western phenomena has resulted in 30-40 millions acres of land used solely on lawns which has contributed to not only 5% of the nation’s air pollution through lawn maintenance (due to lawnmowers); more than 17 million gallons of fuel spill, excessive amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, but are responsible for consuming 30-60% of our urban fresh water. This water is used irresponsibly due to the poor application and timing of sprinkler systems.

One solution proposed by this article is xeriscaping, which is a kind of landscaping and gardening that “reduces or eliminates the need for supplemental water from irrigation” (dictionary.com). This kind of gardening is promoted in regions that do not have easy access to a reliable fresh water source. Other solutions proposed by the EPA are not overwatering your grass by only watering it when the grass does not bounce back under foot; an investment in an irrigation contractor that can reassure that your system is working efficiently; a wether-based irrigation system; and landscaping with only plants that are native to the local climate.

Water Sense, sponsored by the EPA has reported that that the “The average American family of four uses 400 gallons of water per day, and about 30% of that s devoted to outdoor uses. More than half of that outdoor water is used for watering lawns and gardens.” Although, they also reported that if a household were to implement a weather-based irrigation schedule a household can reduce their outdoor water use by 15%, and ultimately saving up to 37 gallons of water everyday. That means that, according to these statistics, 7.5732 billion gallons of water is produced by the 126.22 million households in America (according to the U.S. census) are devoted to lawns and gardening. Although, once this weather-based irrigation system is applied this reduction of 15% of urban fresh-water use would save us 1.13598 billion gallons of water everyday.

Reusable water bottles are a brilliant idea that are at everyone’s disposal but are an amenity that most people have not yet utilized or don’t utilize enough. Plastic water bottles are still bought and consumed consistently by everyone, especially here at Union College. The book store is easily accessible for drinks, bottled water I imagine being one of the most frequent purchases considering the amount of times that I have seen the massive Saratoga water bottles busting out of student’s backpacks. While its easy and quick to buy bottled water, it’s truly an unnecessary purchase and frankly a waste of money.

According to a Huffington Post article about the detrimental affects of plastic water bottles, 1500 water bottles are consumed per second tallying up to 50 billion water bottles every year world wide. From those 50 billion, the United States consumes 30 meaning that we are largely at fault for most of the plastic pollutants that end up floating around in large bodies of water (every square mile of ocean has more than 46,000 pieces of plastic), littered bottles sitting on the side of the road and for the landfills dumped with plastic that should have been recycled. All plastic bottles are made of polyethylene and terephthalate which do not biodegrade but rather photodegrade meaning they disintegrate in small little fragments over the course of a very long time. It takes centuries for water bottles to get to those tiny fragments and when they do they release toxins. What’s more is that while recycling is an encouraged option, 80% of plastic bottles go into landfills meaning that rather than making use of the plastic by recycling it, the bottles sit for centuries in a hole polluting the environment. Our health is at risk too from drinking out of the plastic which in fact can cause reproductive issues and can lead to cancer considering that after only 10 weeks of shelf life, the chemicals from the bottles have leaked into the water. It is imperative to reuse water bottles, recycle and drink from the tap to preserve our future earth.

Check out the cleanliness of your tap water in your area on this website to assure yourself that it is clean!

It does not come as a major surprise that the  worlds largest culprit per ca-pita for carbon emission is China. They do after all have the most citizens, creating the largest need for sources of power. Unfortunately through history, humans have identified coal power as the cheapest and most powerful source that can be used to power the needs and resources for humans. At the same time for being the cheapest power source which is very attractive to most countries and investors, it comes with major draw backs. Interesting about coal is that it is not even just the burning of the fossil fuel but also the mining of the material. When mining for the material massive pockets of methane are releases into the atmosphere adding to the overall process of carbon footprint into the atmosphere. Making it not only the burning but also the process of gathering that damages our environment.

With regards to China however, an interesting article written on July 2nd in Bloomberg highlights the amazing steps that they have taken to reduce their carbon emissions and footprint. The article sites that China may have peaked in regards to its carbon emission and that it has made enormous strides since 2016 to reduce its emissions. Their focus to stop it has been on “super emitting” industries to combat and stop the problem. Over these years they have risen as the main leader in “climate-change mitigation.” Overall, when looking at carbon dioxide and the major issues as well as solutions, China should be the major example investigated.

China’s Carbon Emissions May Have Peaked: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-02/china-s-carbon-emissions-may-have-peaked-as-climate-policy-bites

Upon reading a study conducted by Phillip Hunter of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, it became more clear that excess Carbon Dioxide represents an interesting paradox that will have to be dealt with by humanity eventually. On one hand, CO2 represents an integral process that is paramount for the future development of trees and most non-marine plants. On the other, it can be attributed too the extreme degradation of Coral life, as well as, the stemming and expulsion of grass. Correlating excess Carbon Dioxide to the loss of Coral life is possible because of CO2’s effect at changing, ” the pH of their environment, which will challenge their biochemistry—particularly organisms such as corals, coccolithophores (single-celled algae), crustaceans and molluscs, all of which use calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) to produce external skeletons or shell coverings.” This is important to understand because these creatures have evolved to accommodate minimal light and nutrients on the sea floor. Combining the presence of large amounts of CO2 can irreparably change their fragile environment. And while their is an estimated 406.99 PPM (according to www.co2.earth), an estimated 75% of the Carbon Dioxide is sucked into the ocean. As humanity increases it’s CO2 output, the destruction of habitats for these creatures has the potential to become imminent.

While understanding CO2’s harmful effects on aquatic life, it can be considered a miracle grow for relatively all plants found on land. Accounting for approximately 96% of the mass of a plant during photosynthesis, the organic molecule of CO2 is the primary conductor that spreads the growth of plants. So much so that, “across a range of FACE experiments, with a variety of plant species, growth of plants at elevated CO₂ concentrations of 475–600 ppm increases leaf photosynthetic rates by an average of 40% (Ainsworth & Rogers 2007). Carbon dioxide concentrations are also important in regulating the openness of stomata, pores through which plants exchange gasses.” How can this been seen as useful for humans? In gauging third world countries such as those find in Africa or Asia, the increased levels of CO2 in their atmosphere could act as the best possible fertilizer for most agriculture being grown. In addition, this increased output of plants represents an integral part of the many African and Asian towns and villages all over the world. This could be seen as a way out of poverty, with the increased promise of wealth coming from the stronger agricultural yield. So while, CO2 can be seen as having detrimental effects on one aspect of life, it can be viewed as an extremely prosperous and lucrative measure for many countries and people around the world.

Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2267242/

https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/effects-of-rising-atmospheric-concentrations-of-carbon-13254108

https://www.co2.earth/

An article published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discussed the effect greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide, have had on radiative forcing on Earth. Energy from the sun is absorbed by Earth, and what is not absorbed radiates back into space, known as radiative forcing. Radiative forcing is responsible for rising temperatures on Earth, and rising temperatures are due to emissions of greenhouse gases that humans use for everyday activities. Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas that is primarily responsible for rising temperatures.

In the year 1990, the annual Greenhouse Gas Index ranked at a 1.0. In 2015, the Greenhouse Gas Index had increased by 37%, ranking at a 1.37. But what does this number, 37%, really mean for our planet, and how did this happen? First, in the United States, electricity generation, which occurs at power plants, accounts for 31% of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, followed by transportation, which accounts for 26% of greenhouse gas emissions. Our economy accounts for a large percent of the greenhouse gases that are emitted each year. In the year 2010 alone, almost 46 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases were emitted in Earth’s atmosphere.

But what is 46 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas? According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, about 24 pounds of carbon dioxide are admitted for every gallon of gas used driving a car. 2,204 lbs is equal to 1 metric ton, so 46 billion metrics tons is equal to 101,413 billion pounds. 101,413 billion pounds is equal to 4,225.54 trillion gallons of gas. In other words, the emission of 46 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases can be explained in terms of the gas used to fuel cars each year, 4,225.54 trillion gallons of gas.

Until recently, I never really thought about the concept of sustainability. While some people have careers that revolve around ecological matters, others are busy students or stressed adults/parents working a 9-5 hour office job and probably rarely think about sustainability. It wasn’t until I recently tossed my plastic bottle into the regular trash can that my mother commented “well, it is your generation’s future.” That comment impacted me and resonated with me because while it is easy to quickly flash forward to what ones ideal future looks like, that picture perfect life probably doesn’t include the logistics and effort it takes to get there. How can either of us even fathom a future living in a world with our children and our children’s children if considerable collective effort isn’t met to upkeep a sustainable earth? Everything that my generation chooses to do now in terms of strengthening or weakening the economic and ecological aspects of life will impact how we all live life later on. After that comment that my mom made, I really make an effort now to complete those small but meaningful tasks that my parents have always nagged me about like turning off the lights when I’m not in the room, unplugging the outlets when I don’t need to use them, recycle the recyclables and filling up my reusable bottles. It is our world and we decide if its future is going to flourish or decline into inevitable destruction.

Sustainability is something that is taken very seriously by my family. I grew up with a garden and livestock at my house. I fully understood the concept of composting and turning waste into a producer of sustenance. However, I always had an intellectual curiousity on how one could quanitify sustainability.   I am an active believer in climate change and I want to see what effects humans are having and hopefully help stop the problem and contribute to the solution. I am a history major. However, climate change is not really written about in the history books I have read. It is a ongoing study and I am both curious and excited to see what this class can teach me in order to help save the world from man made issues.