Daily Archives: May 29, 2022

iPhones are not necessarily green

Posted on by
41

For this project, my group members and I were studying ways in which iPhones may not be exactly the most environmentally friendly option when it comes to technology.  In fact, according to Apple itself about 79% of the carbon emissions from the iPhone are emitted during the production phase, which should not come to a surprise since the manufacturing of products in factories is already polluting the air whether or not its Apple.  Now a days, apple tries very often to persuade consumers to buy new phones, even when their current one is completely usable, refusing basic repair documentation for users. 45% of iPhone users have claimed that they would rather buy a new iPhone instead of fixing their current one, so the fact that over half of the consumers want to fix their current iPhones and are frequently denied the opportunity says a lot about the company prioritizing the environment. The recycling industry has even mentioned on numerous occasions the amount of times perfectly reusable phones have been recycled.  The graph above shows the amount of carbon emission is released when it comes to transportation, mining raw materials, as well other causes.

Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity

Posted on by
60

 A way to use mathematics to explore sustainability is through calculations of the Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity.  Ecological Footprint is defined as the demand humanity has on Earth’s resources while Biocapacity is defined as the supply of Earth’s resources available for consumption.  To calculate the Ecological Footprint, one must examine how many resources it takes to provide for the demands of humanity while Biocapacity is found by calculating the amount of biologically available resources for humanity.  Through a comparison of the two, we are able to see that the earth is in a state of “overshoot.” This is because Earth’s Biocapacity is less than the Ecological Footprint, meaning that we are consuming resources faster than they can be resupplied.  Through calculations and comparisons like these, we are able to quantify the environmental issues of our planet, which can then be utilized towards making a solution.  Our overconsumption of resources, such as fossil fuels, is why we are in such a state of overshoot, so we must understand the effects of our actions and move towards use of renewable resources to get out of this state.

 

https://www.footprintnetwork.org/

Global awareness

Posted on by
18

Global Awareness is a capacity that incorporates the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for a person to competently and perceptively navigate the challenges and opportunities of a globalized world in a way that promotes the greater good. When thinking of global awareness there are 5 themes that may contribute to a better outcome. That includes perspective consciousness, state-of-the-planet awareness, cross-cultural awareness, knowledge of global dynamics, and awareness of human choices. The one that: out to me the most was cross-cultural awareness because I believe that It is hoped that learning about sustainability from the perspectives of people in different countries in an experiential setting may help people gain a broader understanding of the challenges facing the world. Nonetheless, global awareness is very important considering that people like ourselves are that are affecting our planet. With that being said if we are not cognizant of our actions that may or may not affect our environment then It will become nearly impossible for us to reflect and aim for a better goal.  With that at being said global awareness must be the first act to create change. The main idea of this course is a way to reach sustainability and decrease the use of carbon emissions. We have incorporated data based on ecological footprints and bad habits that create an impact on the environment. As a population, we are very dependent on fossil fuels. “The United States gets 81% of its total energy from oil, coal, and natural gas, all of which are fossil fuels.” This knowledge is relevant and considering how damaging fossil fuels are to the environment we decrease that number substantially before is too late.

source:http://needtoknow.nas.edu/energy/energy-sources/fossil-fuels/

Global Awareness and Ending World Hunger

Posted on by
14

Global awareness is the first step in understanding the problem of world hunger and how to combat it. According to the World Health Organization(WHO), “An estimated 820 million people did not have enough to eat in 2018, up from 811 million in the previous year, which is the third year of increase in a row. This underscores the immense challenge of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030…” That is out of a population of 7.592 billion people in 2018, meaning that roughly 10.8% of the world’s population was suffering from hunger that year, and the numbers keep increasing. In 2018, the EPA also estimates that 63.1 million tons of food waste was estimated in the United States alone. These two statistics together paint a very grim picture, roughly 11% of the world’s population was starving while a single country threw out 63.1 million tons of food. It is very easy to see one area of attack in combating world hunger: eliminating food waste.

The Global Perspective to Climate Change

Posted on by
13

A large part of the climate issue is addressing the social justice aspect of it. Many people are not aware of the disparities in how climate change affects different groups of people. Unfortunately, the places that produce the least amount of CO2 emissions are many of the countries that are suffering the most from the effects of climate change. Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia are extremely vulnerable to climate change, but use the least energy per capita out of the entire world. These populations are highly vulnerable to floods, droughts, hurricanes, and countless other negative effects of climate change. In some parts of these regions, the changes in climate are actually forcing large populations of people to migrate to different regions. When we look at some people who live in areas that are reaching a wet-bulb temperature so high that the human body cannot physically survive in these temperatures. Accordingly, “Even heat-adapted people cannot carry out normal outdoor activities past a wet-bulb temperature of 32 °C (90 °F), equivalent to a heat index of 55 °C (130 °F)” (Wiki). These mass migrations that we are going to see in the future are going to cause huge social problems, and lead to economic strains and conflicts in other parts of the world. In order to address this issue, we need to educate people on the issues that are going to affect them. One of the problems with addressing this issue is that many people think that climate change is not going to affect them or their children. This is false, climate change is a global issue, and we are not going to be able to address the issue until everybody realizes that this issue will affect them.

 

Works Cited:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature#:~:text=The%20wet%2Dbulb%20temperature%20is%20the%20lowest%20temperature%20that%20can,C%20(130%20%C2%B0F).