Author Archives: Yan Bo

Gender and Climate Change

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Environmental racism taught us that climate change affect poorer countries in an unequal level than countries with resources; it turns out that climate change has varying effect on individuals of different gender. In the following graph down below, it shows that men are more vulnerable towards climate change and women are more resilient towards climate change. The only reason for it being that women are oftentimes the marginalised and oppressed individual in a country, and they are more adaptable to a changes given the challenges that they face inherently as females. although women led household only contribute to around 20 percent of the types of household (graph 2), they are the most resilient group out of all the groups presented in the graph 1. This challenges our expectation about climate change, we think that the most vulnerable individuals are those that occupy more vulnerable position in society, aka, women and those who live in poverty. But it turns out that those who are rich are less resilient towards changes. This leads to the conclusion that we must include women in the discussion for climate change because they understand what it means to live in a world of challenges as females. Together, we need to work to protect the vulnerable.

men

 

 

Source:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00657?seq=5

 

Solar power and its feasibility

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To begin with, the pursuit of sustainable energy is something that not many countries are able to afford. Developing countries have a much harder time becoming more sustainable due to cost of these renewable energy. But to tailor this more specifically to the solar power, it is a relatively expensive renewable energy. According to U.S. DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) ¨it’s the most expensive form of electricity among current technologies for new electricity generation, about $396 per megawatthour for PV.¨ It is roughly twice the amount of other energy such as wind. Therefore, commercial-level application is probably very difficult. On campus, the only housing that had the solar power is the Garnett, and it is not even enough to sustain the energy that runs in the building. However, it should be a goal to strive towards, especially for the US as a developed nation!

Source:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/101105-cost-of-solar-energ

 

Per capita plastic waste generation in US, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Egypt, China in 2016

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The graph that I have chosen to use is the data I found from Statista about plastic consumption in 2016. The data set included countries from over 20 countries, but I decided to pick 6 of the countries, ranging from levels of GDP, environmental awareness, and natural resources, etc. Unsurprisingly, the US ranked number one, which is 5 times of what china has. In today’s climate, the US made the public seem like other countries are doing way more harm to the environment than us ourselves, and this chart is really telling in terms of our contribution to environmental degradation.

On the other hand, I realised that GDP doesn’t necessarily reflect the consumption for plastic. according to Voanews, china accumulated 15.92 GDP vs the United States 23 GDP, however, the US uses 5 times more plastics than China. Therefore, environmental awareness is necessary regardless of level of GDP.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1228043/plastic-waste-generation-per-capita-in-select-countries/

https://www.voanews.com/a/chinas-economy-could-overtake-us-economy-by-2030/6380892.html

Veganism in the UK

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In the following charts I will be discussing the recent trends for veganismo before, during, and post-covid. Covid 19, like any other global events, has heightened our awareness on issues surrounding our world and our environment. More people are concern about the health of their loved ones and the health of the planet. when food and toilet paper was sacred, we saw that people were willing to try out alternative options to milk and meat, or whatever they could find in the supermarket.

From the second chart, we can observe that although the number of vegetarian decreased by 0.5 percent from 2019 to 2022, the amount of vegan increased by 2.7 percent. (67 million x 2.7% = one million eight hundred nine thousand) This number is very hopeful in the sense that more people are willing to consume less meat for the sake of the environment. Being a vegan is not easy (I certainly struggle with giving up dairy products), but if a million people can do it, more people will be encouraged to in the future and we can help our environment by a lot. In the first chart we see that 3.3 million of brits live a non-meat lifestyle and I think the US would potentially follow that trend in the future!

Source: https://www.finder.com/uk/uk-diet-trends

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!!

Environmental racism

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Environmental racism refers to the idea that environmental destruction has a varying impact on individuals with regards to race. According to a research done by the U.S. Congress’s General Accounting Office, in eight distinctive states, ¨75% of the hazardous waste landfill sites were in low-income communities of color.¨(1) This is caused by the fact that communities of higher income tends to live away from environmentally dangerous areas of the city, and those who live in poverty tend to live in places that are more exposed to different kinds of pollutions, including but not limited to air, land, water pollution etc.

Due to this fact, I decided to look at the income of communities of colour and to compare how they might be disproportionately impacted by the environmental racism. ¨In 2019, median household income for Black households was $45,438 compared to $56,113 for Hispanic households, $76,057 for non-Hispanic White households, and $98,174 for Asian households.¨ Black households are 19% more likely to live in places with hazardous waste landfill (56,113 – 45,438)/56113 = 19% than hispanic households. (formula for percentage change)Environmental racism explains to us the urgency to take care of our environment as a means to fight against racism.

Bibliography:

(1) https://www.sustained.kitchen/latest/2020/6/6/fast-facts-on-environmental-racism

(2) https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html

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

Veganism and Carbon Dioxide

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When it comes to reducing carbon footprint and greenhouse effect, most people think of recycling or saving shower time to reduce water usage. However, one of the major ways that contributes to carbon footprint that we less often discuss is the cultivation and the consumption of meat. Surely, we hear about ¨green mondays¨ and we are encouraged to eat plant-based meals once in a while. However, the preaching of vegetarianism or veganism is still a radical idea for many. In this short article, I would like to compare the impact that veganism would have on reducing carbon footprint vs other methods. According to PETA UK, the amount of meat that a meat-eater consumes on a daily basis requires 15,000 liters of water to produce. In fact, one single steak itself requires water equivalent to 50 bathtubs to produce. According to a search done by Loma Linda University in California, vegans have the smallest carbon footprint, contributing 41.7 percent less volume of greenhouse gas than meat eaters. 

My point is not to say that saving water in the shower is not useful at carbon footprint, rather, I believe it is an important conversation how useful some of these methods are in comparison to others. Plant-based meals are a wildly available option to many in our country, however, it is not a popular method to combat climate change in comparison to others such as ¨turning off the lights¨ or ¨recycling¨. I believe that it’d be useful if we are educated on the impact that each of these methods have on the environment so that we have a better understanding of the consequences of our actions. 

Citation:

Fight the Climate Crisis

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/fight-the-climate-crisis/

Fluckiger, 10 Shocking Stats About Water and Meat-Eating, 2021

https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/10-shocking-stats-about-water-and-meat-eating/ 

Athena Bo

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Hi everyone, my name is Athena Bo and I am currently a senior at Union College. I grew up in Hong Kong but I have also lived in Spain, Costa Rica, United States and London. I took IB environmental science in my high school and one topic that fascinated me the most was climate justice. Climate justice is a movement that ¨acknowledges climate change can have differing social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts on underprivileged populations¨ (Yale Climate Connections) The weight on environmental protection should not weight equally on all countries, rather, the countries that have had reap the benefits of the industrial development (mainly the west) should take the lead in this movement. When I was in Costa Rica, I also got the chance to go to many national parks where I saw the diverse kinds of animals. Costa Rica occupies only 0.03 percent of earth’s land but accounts for 6 percent of the biodiversity of the world. Its environmental effort and its biodiversity is something that more countries should adhere to do. Due to the above reasons, I am really excited to be taking this class.