Monthly Archives: April 2022

Moving to Solar

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When pondering solutions to be more sustainable, switching to solar energy pops up as a solution. Solar seems like an excellent addition to one’s home; however, there are a lot of apprehensions. This stems from the cost. Solar has been known for being an expensive investment that turns people away. However, since 1998 the price of a solar array has decreased by 70% for an average home (Solar Nation). In other words, the price of solar has a decay factor of 0.30. When considering the cost, some factors change depending on the area, such as your electricity grid and how much your household consumes. Although, it is clear that the initial cost of solar is decreasing every year while the savings are consistent. This being said, solar is an excellent switch to a more sustainable and renewable lifestyle.

 

https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/homeowners-guide-going-solar

https://www.solar-nation.org/can-switching-to-solar-panels-save-me-money

Estimation of water usage

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Less than 2% of the Earth’s water is fresh water, and only 1% of it is drinkable water. The resources are limited. However, based off the class activities we did last week about the estimation of water usage in our daily life. We are barely aware of how much water is being used each day, directly or indirectly by us. As I wrote in my last post, most of the water that is indirected used by us is the water dedicated to the agriculture of animals — which is the food consumed by us. Knowing your stat is incredibly important, aiming to save water through flushing less is simply not an effective or informed way to water reservation. It takes 1847 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef vs 39 gallons of water for vegetables. Imagine how much water you could save if you participate in green-monday once a week? you could never save that amount of water through flushing. Therefore, I believe that the most important aspect of our education in environmental protection is to know our stats, and be informed about the most effective ways to save water.

Bibliography:

Think H20, https://www.thinkh2onow.com/water_conservation_facts.php

https://www.denverwater.org/tap/whats-beef-water

How Much Water Do We Waste Daily?

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Only about 0.3% of Earth’s water is safe/accessible to drink, and still we waste so much of it with simple, everyday tasks (NGWA). Turning the faucet off when brushing your teeth has become common practice among the general population, but what else could be wasting water? In his article, Adam Hadhazy seeks out the least wasteful option when it comes to household chores. For example, he writes that hand-washing dishes (while it may seem like the more sustainable choice) can use anywhere between 20 – 40 gallons of water, while most dishwashers only use about 10 gallons per load. He also explains that going to a professional car wash wastes less water than washing it yourself, with car wash garages using up to 45 gallons of water per car and doing it yourself using between 80 and 140 gallons (more than triple going to a garage) (Hadhazy). Additionally, car wash garages are more sustainable and environmentally friendly, as they recycle water and are under a U.S. mandate to direct wastewater to treatment plants to avoid polluting nearby water sources. Spreading more knowledge about how much water we actually use in our day to day lives could make such a difference in when it comes to changing the general populations’ attitude regarding climate change. When you understand just how much water you’re wasting while washing the dishes or doing laundry, the problem becomes real and more relevant.

 

Hadhazy, A. 2008. Top 10 Water Wasters: From Washing Dishes to Watering the Desert. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-water-wasters/

 

Mullen, K. 2021. Information on Earth’s Water. National Groundwater Association. https://www.ngwa.org/what-is-groundwater/About-groundwater/information-on-earths-water

Water Waste in Agriculture

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The agriculture industry utilizes the largest portion of the water supply within that supply water is lost between poor irrigation, contamination, and poor management. Farmers and large agricultural plants have to establish water efficiency levels in order to reduce waste. Reduce, but not eliminate. Farms make up about 70% of all the water consumed globally and within that 70%, 30% is actually used and the other 40% is lost in waste. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the agriculutre industry (surplus) the usage of fertilizers, pesticides, and other pest replent techniques that are used on crops water becomes highly contaminated. This water can’t be reused without treatment and that is costly. The untreated waste water is then transported elsewhere but can still impose a threat to said environment. On the brighter side of things there are many ways in which farmers in the agriculture industry can reduce waste water. Such as efficient irrigation, capturing and storing water, crop rotations, and composting mulch.

got milk?

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In the past few years, non-dairy milk products have seen a rise in popularity and sales. This move away from dairy milk was at first attributed to diet concerns and a trend in cutting out dairy, but lately the current climate conditions have been factoring in to the general populations milk-buying decisions. Non-dairy milks range from pea milk to walnut milk to soy milk, and they’ve been marketed as healthy alternatives to cow milk. Another draw to non-dairy milks has been concern for animal welfare, which could also explain the rise in veganism/vegetarianism (Gustin). However, concern for the changing climate has started to creep its way to the top of people’s list for choosing alternative milk products. Since non-dairy milks make up 10% of the milk market, competition runs high, and many alternative milk companies are funding research to find out exactly how big each alternative milks’ carbon footprint is. One study found that a liter of pea milk results in 387g of carbon dioxide, a liter of almond milk results in 396g of carbon dioxide, a liter of soy milk results in 397g of carbon dioxide, and a liter of cow milk results in 1,467g of carbon dioxide (Gustin). With these numbers, it’s easy to market non-dairy milks as the more sustainable choice. Representatives of non-dairy milk companies make the argument that even nut milks which require a lot of water and other resources to produce are more sustainable than cow milk, therefore competition within the non-dairy market should cease, and companies should instead work together to help as much as they can to affect climate change.

 

Gustin, G. 2018. Cows vs. Nuts: Who Gets to be Called Milk, and Are They Climate Friendly? Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24012018/almond-soy-milk-non-dairy-climate-change-impact/

Water is Life

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Water. Water is an essential part of human life on Earth. We as humans are made of water, use water everyday, and need water to survive. It helps regulate all of our functioning parts of our complex bodies and ensures benefits of living a healthy life. Just as humans are extremely dependent on water, so are many other species such as the group of livestock. One animal in particular is cows, which are heavily connected to greenhouse gasses and Co2 emissions. Depending on the temperature that a cow is living in, the weight of the cow, and whether it is producing milk or not, correlates to the amount of water it needs daily. It has been estimated that for cows, “Daily water intake may vary from 3 to 30 gallons per day depending on age, body size (weight), stage of production, and the environment (mainly air temperature).” With an increase in temperature or lactating cows, this requires more clean water for them. But to put the stat of 3 to 30 gallons in perspective, every human is advised to drink 8 cups of water per day, which is half a gallon of water. So although cows are much larger than humans, their daily water intake is extremely large and crucial for them.

Water is an essential to everyday life but there is a ton of water being wasted annually in the United States. An article published by the Washington Post states, “The incredibly stupid way that Americans waste 1 trillion gallons of water each year.” 1 Trillion gallons of water is another worldly large number and the ways depicted that Americans waste water are water leakage, hoses, and irrigation systems: all are not needed waste methods of water. One way to prevent the wasting of water would be to be more aware of how you are potentially wasting water. This can be from fixing leaks immediately, shutting off your sprinkler system when not needed, and using less water related activities such as dishwashing and laundry. If there was to be less water wasted, the number conducted through the Washington Post of 1 trillion gallons, could be minimized by millions and millions. Not to mention saving water waste, but this can save thousands of dollars spent by homes and businesses.

One method of intaking water that is very popular is through bottled water. It is so popular because it is pre bottled, convenient, and can be disposed of. Although it is not economically and environmentally friendly, Americans live a fast paced life and want the fastest way to intake water. To put water bottle usage in perspective on Union College’s campus, let’s first say there are 2,200 undergraduate students. I’d say about half of the students here use plastic water bottles daily, so 1,100. If every student is drinking about 3 bottles a day, that’s 3,300 approximately, plastic water bottles. To calculate the amount of oil used to produce and ship the water to Union, I estimated around 15,000 gallons of fuel to get the water from Western states all the way to Union College.

 

References:

https://beef.unl.edu/amountwatercowsdrink

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/17/the-incredibly-stupid-way-that-america-wastes-1-trillion-gallons-of-water-each-year/

Holy Cow that’s a lot of water

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For this blog I decided to pick a cow as my live stock of focus because my home in Western Massachusetts resides in an area where dairy farms are incredibly prominent. When thinking about livestock such as cows and cattle, one may often think about how much they can provide for us but not often do we think about what farmers need to provide for them, ie, water. A healthy, non milking cow drinks somewhere between 9-12 gallons a day, while a healthy lactating cow drinks roughly triple that in 30-40 gallons a day. Holy cow that is a lot of water. The average human with access to clean water drinks about 3.7 liters a day which is about just under one gallon.

When thinking about water waste, my mind tends to travel to some very simple yet day to day things. Such as long showers or leaving the water running while brushing your teeth but something that strikes me is what I found in regards to food waste. Water is needed to produce basically everything that we eat and drink, therefore if we waste less as humanity, we save more water by having to produce less. In the United Kingdom, roughly 7 million tonnes of food and drink are thrown away each year with nearly 3.5 million tonnes of that still being edible. That is almost 50% less production that would need to occur saving billions of gallons of water.

The main reason that bottled water is so popular is due to its convenience. You can take it wherever you go and it is sold often in large packages. People also tend to have a discomfort with tap water being good to drink more-so than they do with bottled water. If you say there are 2,000 students at Union College, I would estimate that there is somewhere around 250 water bottles used each day. I imagine roughly 12.5% of the community drinks and recycles  (hopefully) at least one bottle a day. This is based off of nearly 20% of Americans using a plastic bottle each day and Union students are far more environmentally cautious than the average American.

 

https://friendsoftheearth.uk/sustainable-living/13-best-ways-save-water

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/2017/07/the-worlds-population-consumes-1-million-plastic-bottles-every-minute/

 

 

Choosing the right Pathwave.

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When thinking of livestock, is water the first thing that pops into your head?  I know for me it isn’t.  I think of cows, chicken, and sheep providing milk, meat, and fleece to provide for a sustainable life.  However, when it comes to livestock, the amount of water consumptions cows intake may be harming the environment more than we think.  Now when looking at the water footprint when it comes to beef, producing a kilogram of beef uses around 15,415 liters around alone.  When looking at the statistics, 92% of the world’s global footprint goes towards agriculture.  Why does this matter you may ask? If agriculture uses about 70% of the world’s fresh water, which is 3 times as much as it was 50 years ago.  This is not including the amount of water we use on the daily for other activities such as showering, washing clothes, and doing the dishes.  With the life expectancy of a cow being used before slaughter, a cow would typically drink 24,000 liters of water within their life.  When comparing these numbers its very hard to think of a solution for usage of less water.  Another factor that harms water usage, is the way farmers fertilize their crops with pesticides, contaminating the ground water with nitrogen and phosphorus, that will eventually hurt plant and animal life within the sea.

When it comes to bottled water, students at Union College should definitely think about buying a reusable water bottle rather than buying bottled water at the bookstore everyday.  I specifically think the carbon footprint is extremely high when thinking about FIJI water.  The distance from Fiji to Schenectady New York is around 12,780 km, and yet it’s still a popular drink that many Union students continue to get.  Reusable water bottles also typically hold more water, with an average of 32 oz to a plastic water bottles 16 oz, so not only are you helping the environment, but you’re saving money as well.  This is very important since out of 50 billion plastic water bottles bought by Americans each year, only 23% are being recycled.  I think Union is doing a good job in already placing many filters around campus to encourage the usage of reusable water bottles, but I feel that Union should definitely stop marketing Fiji water in particular even if it “supposedly” tastes better.  If you haven’t already, this is your sign to buy a reusable water bottle!  It will save your pockets (and the environment) in the long run.

 

resources:

https://case.edu/sustainability/news/making-switch-reusable-bottles

https://eu.boell.org/en/2021/09/07/water-thirsty-animals-thirsty-crops

 

Water waste and solutions

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Water waste is a hugely important issue that is often overlooked. In many places, certainly more wealthy countries like the US, water is commonly taken for granted. For example, a leaky faucet may seem like no big deal, however in the long run it can be extremely wasteful. “One faucet leaking one drip per minute adds up to 34 gallons of water per year” (Washington Post). This is just for one leaky faucet; imagine how many gallons of water would be wasted with multiple leaky faucets across the United States and even in the world. Household leaks, including toilets and irrigation systems, can waste about 900 billion gallons of water annually which is a significant statistic. On average, each United States citizen wastes about 10 gallons of water a day due to leaks, most often without realizing it.

Some solutions to prevent this kind of water waste would be to make sure there is a proper irrigation system in place. If a system is installed correctly and managed properly, water waste can be reduced by 15%, or 7,600 gallons of water a year. This would make a major difference. However, there are some socioeconomic issues that come into play with the ability to reduce water waste. Some individuals that are less wealthy may not be able to afford proper irrigation system installment and certainly may not be able to keep up with management of the system if installed. There are things that can still be done regardless of socioeconomic status, such as taking shorter showers, only running full loads of laundry or dishes, and by turning off the faucet all the way after use. Also, all individuals are capable of looking for leaks in their pipes and even in their toilets to be aware if there is a problem and then take the necessary steps to reduce the leak or to fully fix it.

 

Works Cited

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/17/the-incredibly-stupid-way-that-america-wastes-1-trillion-gallons-of-water-each-year/

https://www.epa.gov/watersense/statistics-and-facts#:~:text=Water%20Stats,gallons%20of%20water%20annually%20nationwide.

8 Ways to Reduce Your Water Waste

Water Usage and Utilization

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Water is a necessity for us humans along with planet Earth. Humans can go much longer without food as they can without water. It is interesting to think that a lot of the food that we consume could not possibly be produced without water. For example, think of crops that need water into order to grow. Or, all of the water that livestock drinks that we eventually consume such as pigs. This idea alone shows how important water is in its comparison to food consumption.

Consider the following, “There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed” (epa.gov). Furthermore, “Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all of humanity’s needs — all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs” (epa.gov). This idea is really hard for me to wrap my head around. I think about how much water I myself personally use on the daily. Then, I think about how many humans are on this Earth and how much water is used for humanity’s needs by the whole planet. This alone proves how much water is on this Earth. I find this fact so interesting seeing how human production as well as global warming has affected our water usage. In my opinion, bottled water is so popular because of the convenience of it. Consider, reusable water bottles have to be constantly washed and sometimes they are a bit pricey. Bottled water is convenient as once you finish the water, you can just throw away or recycle the bottle. If I had to estimate the bottle water consumption on Union College’s campus, I would estimate that around 50% of Union’s students drink bottled water opposed to water from the tap. Furthermore, I would average that of the 50% of bottled water drinkers, they drink at least 2 bottles of water a day. Based on Union College’s enrollment being around 2,300 students, 65% of that is 1150, multiplying that by 2, my estimate is that Union College consumes around 2,300 bottles of water per day.

 

Work Cited: https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html