Author Archives: Judith Guzman

Global awareness

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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/

History of Biofuels

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Biofuel is a fuel derived directly from living matter. Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, originally designed it to run on vegetable oil. In fact, one of his early demonstrations, at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1897, had a diesel engine running on peanut oil. Biofuels are used as a remedy to use products we grow with the goal to create our net impact on the environment negligible if not zero. For instance, power generation demonstrates that a  large quantity of energy goes into producing electricity. In 2008, the world produced about 20,261 TWh of electricity. This is problematic because a large majority of their energy is made from fossil fuels such as coal, a natural gas which contributes to the co2 emissions and the global warming. Biofuel is a great alternative because “the net impact is lower than if the waste were allowed to decompose on its own. This is because natural decomposition in oxygen-rich environments produces nitrogen dioxide, with is over 300 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, as well as methane, which is over 20 times more potent. “ Nonetheless, there are many kinds of biofuels, like ethanol and methanol among others. Ethanol is made by fermenting the sugars from plants such as corn or sugarcane, ethanol contains oxygen that helps a car’s engine burn fuel more efficiently, reducing air pollution. Methanol is used as an alternative biofuel for internal combustion and other engines, either in combination with gasoline or independently. With that being said, currently, biofuels aren’t able to meet our all needs because crop growth isn’t able to meet our demands for energy consumption. Currently there is research around spreading up the production of crops specifically for their energy needs. We are searching for more plans that offer a greater net impact and produce less waste.

Gasoline prices and population in New York City Boroughs

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Gasoline prices per borough

This graph displays the gas prices in 3 boroughs in New York city per gallon.  All three boroughs have a similar range but the trend shows that Bronx has the highest price in gas despite having the lowest population. The effect of having to pay more for gasoline despite being the lowest populated. support the idea that both boroughs nearby spend less money on gas therefore may be marginally richer to spend on other things.

References:https://www.numbeo.com/gas-prices/in/Bronx

 

 

 

 

The impact of food insecurities

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Social justice is fairness as it manifests in society. That includes fairness in healthcare, employment, housing, and more. Whilst some societies focus on maximizing social justice one of the major areas that they are lacking is the availability of food. “Food insecurities” as it is defined refers to a lack of available financial resources for food at the household level. This article, Feeding America states that   “Hunger + Health explores the impact of food insecurity as a social determinant of health and its effect on individual and population health outcomes” This demonstrates that the availability of food impacts individuals in an unfair way, all of which include race, socioeconomic positions, along with the area that you live in. These factors contribute to the issue of how a lack of food can negatively impact a person’s life. Another article by Feeding America elaborates on the effects of hunger. Food insecurities can have a devastating effect on a child’s development. These effects include chronic illnesses such as  asthma,  anemia, and other behavioral problems. These  Behavioral problems include hyperactivity, anxiety, and aggression in school-age children. This is detrimental to both their mental and physical state and it is exemplary of the consequence of facing food insecurities,  economic challenges, and hunger.  This may contribute to secondary effects such as academic achievement and future economic prosperity. The Gw Hatchet publication has put out an article investigating the proportionality of food insecurities between white and non-white students on a college campus. With that being said, the data below demonstrates the correlation between race and food insecurities. “About half or more of nonwhite individuals face food insecurities while only 31 percent of white individuals face food insecirities. “ This evidence brings emphasis to racial and socioeconomic disparities that globally occur and create a disproportional availability of resources in low class communities compared to middle and high class communities.

References:

Dilemma on sustainability and poor communities

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Sustainability development is a building block of four pillars. Those four pillars are social, economic, human, and environmental. Although they are all crucial to maintaining our earth and what’s in it, the economic pillar is imperative to reduce the cost of living. With that being said, different classes will receive greater economic benefits than others. The role of renewables in tackling poverty by Sarah Dawood brings an emphasis on the development of clean energy in third world countries. However, there will be contribution issues within impoverished communities due to them already lacking access to food and water which created economic inequality,“ Stanford University found that climate change has increased economic inequality between developed and developing countries by 25 percent since 1960.” This creates a dilemma between implementing green energy and forcing poor communities to abide by those standards. If these places already lack the means of creating sustainable power sources at a low cost just like many of the first world countries, how can we expect them to make meaningful contributions to growing clean energy? While green energy seems like the best alternative to fossil fuels we have to be careful about how we go about implementing these newer rules and regulations. Otherwise, we run the risk of economically draining these poor communities with the disconnect between wealthy communities who try to communicate and enforce ways of living as if those resources are accessible among every community of people.

Source link, https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/energy/2021/11/renewable-energy-tackling-poverty-developing-countries

Europes goal climate neutrality

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When I think of sustainability the first that comes to mind is carbon neutrality. “Carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.”(European parliament).  I am addressing a company named European Green Deal by the European Commission which aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050 by enforcing laws by the EU Legislations(European parliament). Data shows that the decay factor is 9.5-11 gt while the growth factor is 38 Gt. The percentage change is decreasing by  -.75(9.5-38/38) and -27/28(11-38/38). This decrease is due to the natural carbon sink because no unnatural carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere at a significant scale to fight global warming the co2 emission will increase. Nonetheless, the rate of change demonstrates the amount of co2 released in the atmosphere is 27 and 28.5 annually (27-28.5). 

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20190926STO62270/what-is-carbon-neutrality-and-how-can-it-be-achieved-by-2050

 

Can the use of water be problematic?

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Almonds are rich in valuable nutrients for your body. It provides the body with magnesium, vitamin E, dietary fibers, calcium and phosphorus. A single serving of almonds makes for a nutritious and filling snack yet is extremely water reliant. One singular almond takes 1.1 gallons of water(Guertin, 1)Nonetheless, water serves no caloric or organic nutrients yet it plays an essential purpose in life.  A common human activity that causes a large quantity of water waste is showers. Having a limit on the time taken in the shower, controlling water pressure and how quickly the water shoots out the showerhead are suggestions to not overuse water. 

Bottled water is so popular because it is considered more “pure”, convenient, and it is relatively cheap. The cons to bottled water and climate change are the plastic use and how it is literally a liter. Nonetheless, bottled water takes 450 years to decompose. I would estimate that the water bottle consumption at the Union College campus is about 2000 bottles per day because there is a range of 2000 students.

citation:

On numbers, units and measurement related to carbon dioxide/ human society/economics

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Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a gas and is an important greenhouse gas because it absorbs a lot of infrared wavelengths. Carbon dioxide is a gas at standard temperature and pressure, which exist in the Earth’s atmosphere. Co2 is important for our atmosphere because animals exhale CO2 while plants use it in photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is a standard unit of measurement for CO2 that is usually defined by each application. for example, “climate change and ocean acidification scientists use micro atmospheres as a standard unit of measure, unlike the aquaculture industry, which typically uses milligrams per liter”. Generally, Carbon dioxide is measured with gas sensors specifically made to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. Sensors like Electrochemical sensors, Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) Sensors, and Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Sensors.  Another exemplary sensor measurement application is aquaculture,” it is common to see units of dissolved CO2, including mg/L (also referred to as ppm, parts per million by mass)”.

Carbon dioxide and climate change have a large relation to human society.  People of color living in undeveloped communities are more vulnerable to the increase in pollution and the rapid changes occurring to the environment as a result of climate change. These results consist of an increase in health effects, the occurrence of unpredicted natural disasters, and the limitation of food supplies. It is relevant to acknowledge that the poor and people of color are facing a deficit of resources due to social standards and political regulations. It is noted that  “80,000 deaths worldwide each year resulted from natural disasters, and about 95 percent are in poor countries” (The Center for Progressive Reform, CPR Perspective: International Environmental Justice and Climate Change 2019). In these underdeveloped countries,  uncontrollable weather conditions that can occur are heavy toxic rain, floods, and hurricanes. These unpredicted natural disasters can result in more unrepaired damages in these underdeveloped communities that can eventually lead to an increase in mortality rates. Moreover, polluting the environment has generated weather changes that are problematic to the dismantling of crops, homes, and infrastructure. These types of prolonged effects in underdeveloped communities that heavily depend on natural resources as a way of life can be detrimental to people of color, who have been marginalized by the privileged because of their socioeconomic status.

citation:

Farber, Daniel. “PIPELINES, EMISSIONS, AND FERC.” Center for Progressive Reform, http://progressivereform.org/our-work/energy-environment/tags/environmental-justice/.

Technical Note 1.1: Dissolved CO2 and Units of Measurement, https://immediac.blob.core.windows.net/prooceanus/pdf/PSI%20Technical%20Note%201.1%20-%20Dissolved%20CO2%20and%20Units%20of%20Measurement%202019.pdf.

Judith Guzman

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Hi, My name is Judith Guzman. I am a 19-year-old freshman majoring in Spanish and psychology. I love fashion, journaling, and love the aspect of gaining perspective. I live in Boston Massachusetts and my parents come from the Dominican Republic. When I think of sustainability I think of managing and supporting to sustain something. Sustainability has three branches; environmental, economic, and social. I went abroad my sophomore year of high school to Eleuthera, Bahamas. On that trip abroad I learned a lot about sustainability. One of the common themes was trying to enforce sustainable fishing practices. I learned the importance of all three branches. For example, when trying to create sustainability in Bahamian fisheries fishermen economically rely on the fish they catch for a living. socially and culturally, aquatic organisms like conch and grouper are incorporated into many food dishes. Environmentally, the overfishing of the ocean commons has caused a decrease in population, and organisms need to be given time to recover. Nonetheless, another factor that influenced sustainable fisheries is climate change. I remember researching with my peers at the Island School conch. We were studying how ocean acidification affects the populations of conch and the development of conch shells. This ocean acidification was caused by anthropogenic climate change, with humans releasing CO2 into the atmosphere and the ocean absorbing this CO2 and becoming more acidic. This makes fisheries less sustainable because there are fewer conch to be collected and can lead to population decline and endangerment.