Monthly Archives: April 2022

The Sustainability of Electric Cars

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Emissions from cars and transportation are undoubtedly some of the largest producers of CO2 emissions that we can see today.  However not all hope is lost as companies such as Tesla have attempted to become more sustainable and limit CO2 emissions.  These are seen with electric cars that have become very widespread today.  Tesla was founded with long term sustainability efforts in mind as opposed to the current trend of trying to lessen environmental pollution but not get at the source of the problem.  Electric cars charged on a power grid emit 4,000 lbs of CO2 as opposed to gasoline vehicles which emit 11,000 lbs of CO2.  Better yet, electric cars that are charged on renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar emit 0 lbs of CO2.  Despite the fact that batteries for electric vehicles create more pollution during construction than combustion-engine vehicles, because of the lower emissions over the entire life of the electric vehicle, the pollution is less overall than combustion-engine vehicles.  With the average commute to work being 28 minutes, driving an electric vehicle as opposed to a gasoline powered vehicle is the more sustainable choice.  Tesla also states in its website that end-of-life products such as electronics with a size of up to 25cm can be returned to be recycled at Tesla locations at no cost.  To return other products an appointment can be scheduled for the take-back.  Electric cars seem to be a very important step towards a more sustainable future.

Works Cited:

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/resources/earth-day-ff.pdf

https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air/electric-vehicles#:~:text=Much%20like%20with%20greenhouse%20gases,operating%20and%20during%20power%20generation.

https://www.tesla.com/en_IE/support/sustainability-recycling

https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/tesla-becomes-a-model-for-sustainable-leadership-david-and-goliath-revisited/

Sustainable Fishing

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There are many issues attached to the fishing industry: overfishing, bycatch, pollution, fish farming, and economics. This is why it is so vital to protect the fish and other marine life populations in the ocean. If the IPCC can determine and enforce sustainable fishing quotas the ocean will be well protected. But since the ocean is a global commons and there is no full authority over it regulations are difficult to make. Additionally, since the ocean covers the majority of our planet there is no way to actually enforce these regulations and ensure people/fishing companies are following them. There is one company called Seashepard that acts like a vigilante group which boards boats that are engaging in suspicious activity. Since the ocean is so vast it is also difficult to determine quotas since it is hard to figure out exact population numbers. Scientists often are estimating the population sizes of species and even then fishing companies still push for higher quotas. Even with bycatch and fish farming quotas have to be set. Bycatch because it is the unnecessary catching and killing of marine life while fishing. Fish farming because often fish caught from the ocean are used as feed for the farm bred fish. Additonally, the usage of sustainable fishing methods in terms of techniques used like long lines, and trollers. So in terms of mathematics there is a lot of estimating involved with fishing to establish effective quota levels that protect populations and encourage sustainable economic activity. There is an interesting documentary on Netflix called Seaspiracy that explains all the dynamics of the fishing industry. When buying fish look to see if it was locally sourced or fished sustainably and consumption is the driving force for the fishing industry so it’s important to support environmentally conscious brands.

Sustainable Farming Techniques and increasing agricultural efficiencies in less environmentally endowed countries

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One aspect of sustainability that is not as significant as perhaps it should be in the modern conversation about climate change as recycling, or solar and wind energy is the idea of agricultural efficiency. Data from 1991 to 2017 compared the output per worker in agricultural industries by country and found that sub-Saharan Africa is in comparison to European nations, and Asian nations less efficient at producing food. In constant 2010 dollars, the Congo put out $947 dollars and Tanzania put out $675 of agricultural output in the year 2017 and in comparison to Denmark and the UK each put out around $50 to $60000. That means that for every hectare of land in the UK approximately 7 tons of cereal(wheat, rice, barley etc.) was produced in comparison to sub-saharan Africa which produced about 1.6 tons of cereal per hectare of land. In Europe, since 1980 according to Our World in Data, the continent has been able to increase crop yields while maintaining on approximately 132 million hectares of land increasing their yields from that year to 2019 by 132% whereas in comparison Africa has increased their land use from 48 to 112 million hectares while their yield has increased .4 ton basis points from 1980-2019. While this data may not be surprising, it is an alarming statistic since Africa’s (across the entire continent) population is the fastest-growing population in the world with the least amount of educational attainment opportunities internally and the least productive population perhaps in a global comparative manner of analysis. Internally, some African nations like South Africa and Nigeria have been able to triple their agricultural GDP in this same time period. From these statistics, it’s clear that Africa is in an early period of classical growth so when thinking about how wealthier countries should consider their impact on less-developed nations, they should continue to work to improve to share technology and work to benefit not only the endogenous growth of their people but so too improve perhaps the environmental capabilities of certain regions as a byproduct of the positive externalities discovered by some nations.

Sources utilized:

https://ourworldindata.org/africa-yields-problem

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agriculture-value-added-per-worker-wdi?tab=chart&time=1991..latest&country=ZAF~NGA

https://www.privacyshield.gov/article?id=Republic-of-Congo-Agricultural-Sector#:~:text=The%20Republic%20of%20Congo’s%20agricultural,gross%20domestic%20product%20(GDP).

https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/continents-by-population.php#:~:text=Middle%20Africa%20has%20highest%20rate,growing%20continent%20Oceania%20(1.27%25).

How to know what to recycle

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A part of sustainability that is known of universally  is recycling. However, understanding what can be recycled as opposed to what cannot is crucial in living a sustainable life. 19.91% of plastic waste has not been recycled and by 2050 the ocean will have a higher percentage of plastic waste than fish. Something interesting I came across was the amount of waste coming from Mardi Gras beads. Most college students probably own plastic bead necklaces for various parties or events. The question then becomes what to do with these beads when the event is over. Usually these beads are lost or forgotten about which makes them even more wasteful. Additionally, these beads are oftentimes made from a plastic that cannot be recycled in the same way as other plastic can be and it does not decompose in a proper way. Examples of non recyclable plastic is plastic coated wrapping paper, bioplastics, and polycarbonate. It is estimated that 25 million pounds of beads are thrown off of Mardi Gras floats each year creating pollution and waste. However, to combat this, in Mardi Gras parades usually beads are collected by a following float that will clean and reuse the beads for the year later. This is a very good way to reuse and reduce waste. The Greater Arc of New Orleans set up containers across the parade route to collect beads. These efforts are very commendable, but do raise concern of where these beads go when not used at a large, somewhat regulated event like a Mardi Gras parade. Additionally, it brings up the important issue of knowing how to dispose of things properly and what is recyclable as opposed to what is not.

Works Cited:

https://www.yummymath.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MardiGras2022.pdf

https://comfyliving.net/recycling-statistics/#united-states-recycling-statistics

https://www.slrecyclingltd.co.uk/what-plastics-can-and-cannot-be-recycled/

The Arctic is Melting!

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Usually, when individuals think of Antartica, some of the first words that come to mind include “cold, ice, frozen, or freezing.” These words have described the state of Antartica for the majority of its history. However, it is very possible that these words may no longer be applicable to Antartica’s given the issue of climate change. Umair Irfan explains, “Ice loss has accelerated in Antarctica in recent years. Every 40 hours, Antarctica loses a billion metric tons of ice, according to a 2018 study, and at least half that loss comes from ice shelves” (Irfan, 2022). An adverse affect to climate change is the rising sea level. As the climate is getting warmer, the ice in the Arctic is melting, hence causing the sea level to rise. According to Florence Colleoni, “Since 1880, the global mean sea level (GMSL) has increased by 20 centimeters” (Colleoni, 2022). As we have learned, 20 centimeters can be converted to 0.2 meters or 7.87 inches. Although this may not seem like a large quantity, when you think of sea level rise, it is quite a lot. Some may think, what damage could a rise of sea level by a few centimeters due to our environment? Well, “The United Nations estimates that the potential costs of damage to harbors and ports alone from this flooding could be as high as $111.6 billion by 2050 and $367.2 billion by the end of the century” (Colleoni, 2018).

If the emission of greenhouse gases is not quickly reduced, climate change will continue on, sea level rise will continue on, and our Earth will literally and figuratively have to pay the price. Colleoni continues on, “An estimated 800 million people are likely to experience impacts of high-tide flooding by the end of the 21st century” (Colleoni, 2022). Knowing that there are 7.7 billion people in the world, this means that around 10% of the Earth’s population will face the effects of high-tide flooding, resulting in the possible damage of homes, property or lives. The concerning part about this whole issue is that, “There’s a lot scientists still don’t know — including some of the mechanisms behind it, where tipping points may lie, and its ripple effects over the whole planet” (Irfan, 2022). The unknown is what scares the scientists and non-scientists, alike.

Works Cited:

https://www.vox.com/22939545/antarctica-greenland-ice-sheet-shelf-glacier-melt-climate-sea-level-rise

The Uncertain Future of Antarctica’s Melting Ice

Never Pay for Gas Again

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One engine for carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere has to be the driving of cars to various locations. With millions of people needing to drive to work or other activities this leaves the atmosphere and our planet earth taking the hit. It is determined that every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 8,887 grams of carbon dioxide. Now think about how many cars are on the road and how many people go through gallons of gasoline everyday, week, month, and year. The typical car releases 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and this is an extreme amount. If we can reduce the amount of vehicles on the road this problem can be solved. One way to solve this is to turn to electric vehicles. Many high end brands such as Tesla and Audi have developed electric cars but those certainly are not affordable for millions of people in America. Recently cheaper, more affordable car companies are producing electric cars such as Toyota and Nissan. If Americans can become aware of the environment and the emissions of Carbon Dioxide they could be interested in investing in an electric car. Not to mention the extremely expensive gas prices all throughout the U.S., whereas electric cars require no gas. For those that do not have interest in electric cars, there are several other options to protect this earth such as carpooling, trains, and biking. Not every single American will listen to these suggestions, but little at a time I hope America can transform into an electric car dominated country.

 

References:

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle

The Dangers of Commuting to Work

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Commuting to work is something that many Americans dread. Depending on the person’s location or job, their commute can be very long or it can be full of rush hour traffic to and from the office. Commuting is not just frustrating, it is also very detrimental to our environment. The average one way commute to work in the United States in 2019 was 28 minutes one way, making a round trip to work a 56 minute hour total commute. This is almost an hour of commuting daily. Almost 3% of Americans walked to work in 2019 and less than 1% rode bikes to work in 2019.  This means that the majority of Americans use vehicles to get to work. Cars release emissions that put fossil fuels into the atmosphere, which is harmful to the planet. Cars and trucks account for nearly one fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide (and other harmful greenhouse gases) per gallon of gas. There are easy ways to decrease our carbon footprint and negative impact on the environment including carpooling, walking to work or biking to work. Additionally, electronic cars are an excellent way to still commute far distances but at much less of an environmentally damaging cost. Electric cars are an excellent, safe alternative to cars that use gas. There are so many easy ways to reduce our carbon footprint and we can start with altering how we commute daily.

citations: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/car-emissions-global-warming#:~:text=Our%20personal%20vehicles%20are%20a,for%20every%20gallon%20of%20gas.

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/resources/earth-day-ff.pdf

A future for our children

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Don’t get me wrong, we are already experiencing a lot of extreme climate these days to know that climate change will impact every single of us on the planet. These extreme climate includes wild fire, ice melts, global sea level rise, high precipitation, high heat, etc. If we don’t save the environment now, it will come back to haunt us without a doubt. people in charged used to say ¨the next generation will figure it out.¨ well, we are the generation they are talking about. We are in our early 20s. We are the generation that will suffer the consequences that our older generation left us. We don’t have the privilege or the entitlement to say, let’s leave it to the next generation.

In addition to that, we also have to move away from the egoistic point of view and think about the next generation to come. The next generation of people deserve a world of better economic equality, development opportunity, and a good quality of life. Depriving them of these resources for a dignified life is irresponsible. Environmental justice can not only be about the people whoa re currently living on this earth, but the people that will inhibit earth. We need to think about them

Join Earth day 2022 on union college and take part in this movement for greater equality!!

Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture

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As the population of the world continues to grow, this increases the demand for food. For every person that is born, it’s another mouth to feed and eventually another family to feed. Also, it’s important that the food being served to the public is safe to eat and good for health.

The main goals of food security and sustainable agriculture are to improve the global supply chain, decrease food losses and waste, and ensure that all who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition have access to nutritious food.

In 2012 world leaders met at the Conference on Sustainable Development and agreed that everyone has the right to have access to safe nutritious food, adequate food, and to be free from hunger. At the conference, the UN Secretary-General created and launched a Zero Hunger Challenge which called on governments, civil society, faith communities, the private sector, and research institutions to work together to end hunger and eliminate the worst forms of malnutrition.

The goals of the Zero Hunger Challenge are: to make sure there are zero stunted children under the age of two, 100% of people have access to adequate food all year round, make sure that all food systems are sustainable, there is a 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income, and that there is zero loss or waste of food.

These are big goals that can be accomplished over time. Some important math that is important for accomplishing these goals is the use of the rate of change. This is important to calculate how fast the population of the world is increasing or decreasing. To calculate the rate of change two important pieces of information is needed. The first is the amount of change that occurred and how long in terms of the time it took for that change to happen. The formula is the average amount of change divided by the amount of time required for the change to happen. This is a good way to calculate how much the population of the earth changed in one day, week, month, or year. Once these numbers are determined they will give a good idea of how much food needs to be produced and distributed.

https://sdgs.un.org/topics/food-security-and-nutrition-and-sustainable-agriculture

Wasting Food and Its Impact

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Composting is a practice employed by gardeners and farmers in which they replenish and enrich the soil with leftover yard/food waste. In addition to enrich the soil and helping plants grow, composting reduces the emissions of methane. This is due to the fact when left in landfills, organic waste generates methane. By separating out organic waste into compost, a significant amount of methane emissions are reduced. Composting also promotes soil’s water retention, which in turn means there is less water waste.

In 2018, an estimated 2.6 million tons of food was composted, which is the equivalent of one person composting .42 pounds of food per day. However, since composting isn’t part of peoples’ daily routine (everyone has a garbage can, but how many people have a composting bin?), we waste about 1.4 billion tons of food. Americans waste the most food annually at a whopping 80 billion pounds. Our food waste could be significantly reduced if we began implementing a steady routine of composting. Normalizing and standardizing composting would reduce the size of landfills as well as improve the agricultural climate.

Before the COVID pandemic, 35 million Americans had food insecurity. Today,  50 million Americans have food insecurity. With over 80% of food waste coming from households and restaurants, there is such a real difference we could be making to reallocate food waste either to those in need and with food insecurity, or to compost facilities to add to long term improvement.

 

https://www.rts.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RTS_Food_Waste_Guide_2021.pdf

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/reducing-impact-wasted-food-feeding-soil-and-composting