Author Archives: Hallie Katzman

The importance of global awareness

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One aspect of global learning that I think is important to focus on is global awareness. Global awareness is important because it is the human understanding of the natural systems of the earth and human societies and how they impact each other. If we can make more people aware of their global impact, then they might take more action to make a sustainable world. For example, the Earth can only produce so many natural resources that are renewable and I feel like everyone does not know that. If humans are using too much of these non-renewable resources then the planet will run out these resources much more quickly. An example of a nonrenewable energy source is oil or petroleum. This is a resource that countries produce and constantly use (i.e. at the gas station) and we are using more than what the earth can continuously supply. In 2020 we were averaging oil production of 88.4 million barrels of oil per day. At this extremely high consumption rate, the earth will run out of oil in about 47 years. This is concerning because we use oil as a nonrenewable energy source for just about everything. Hopefully technology can advance to the point where renewable energy is much more commonly used. I feel like this could be possible with the increase of electric cars instead of ones powered by petroleum. If more people knew about their impact then they may increase their level of global awareness and want to change their daily actions. Every little bit of change can help try to decrease the negative impact that non sustainable actions have on the health and future of the planet. 

source : https://www.statista.com/statistics/265203/global-oil-production-since-in-barrels-per-day/#:~:text=Global%20oil%20production%20amounted%20to,at%20around%2095%20million%20barrels

Solar Energy Increases

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One source of non fossil-fuel based energy that has been increasing in popularity is solar energy. We can use this type of energy to power homes and the electricity in buildings through the use of solar panels. This is a renewable type of energy source that is not harmful to the environment and is sustainable because it can be regenerated on a daily basis. Solar panels have been increasing in popularity due to the decrease in cost. This makes this type of energy more accessible to access in many populations and socioeconomic groups. There are 92.7 billion solar panels globally and 1.47 million solar panels across the United States. The feasibility of using solar energy is increasing more as time goes on and the cost for solar panels decreases. Hopefully the usage of solar energy only continues to increase because it is an easy, renewable source of energy to use that does not put fossil fuels or other harmful substances into the atmosphere.

sources: https://blog.solstice.us/solstice-blog/solar-energy-statistics/#:~:text=There%20are%20over%201.47%20million,planting%20almost%201.2%20billion%20trees.

https://sunbadger.com/solar-energy-statistics/#:~:text=At%20least92.7%20billion%20solar,average%20U.S.%20residential%20solar%20installation.

 

Single Use Plastic Bottles per Week

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Single use plastic water bottles are very bad for the environment, typically because they are not recycled and are often thrown out. The plastic takes centuries to full decay and as plastic decays it leaks dangerous chemicals into the groundwater and soil. Even if plastic is recycled, it might not be recycled properly and would still need to decay on the earth. The total carbon footprint of one plastic water bottle is about 828 grams of carbon dioxide. Lots of college students use single use plastic bottles for water, coffee or any other drink. These cups are typically thrown away, adding to the amount of plastic waste in the world. This chart shows that the average number of single use plastic bottles per week is 3.9 amongst the sample size that I gathered data from. The lowest number per week was 0, due to my friend’s constant usage of a reusable water bottle and the highest number was 9. That means per week a college aged student similar to my friends would use 3.9 single use bottles adding up to a 3229.2 grams of carbon dioxide per week released due to this plastic waste.

sources: https://www.greenamerica.org/blog/truth-about-bottled-water

 

Recognizing the Gender Wage Gap

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The gender wage gap is something that lawmakers have tried to address through legislation, such as the Equal Pay Act, however it is still a very prevalent problem in America. Today, a woman earns about 79 cents for every dollar that a man earns. This is clearly unfair and shows that gender discrimination is still impacting individuals despite the progress and the attempts to close this wage gap. Women of color specifically earn the least when compared to the wages of men and white women. This may be due to the intersectionality of the identities of women of color (including gender and race), further proving that race and gender are factors that unfairly impact earnings. For example, Hispanic women earn only 55% of the earnings of men. This large gender wage gap is a clear example of unequal treatment based on gender in today’s society. It has been predicted that the gender wage gap will hopefully be closed by 2059. While this is great, the current wage gap (as shown in the following bar charts) is something that is actively impacting every woman and marginalized identity group right now without a quick fix to refocus professional earnings on talent rather than gender.

citations: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/these-5-charts-show-how-big-the-pay-gap-is-between-men-and-women/

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

The Importance of Solar Panels

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Solar panels are an extremely effective way to help combat greenhouse gas emissions by taking natural energy from the sun and converting that into electricity. Using solar panels decreases our dependance on fossil fuels, which as we have previously learned in important to reduce for sustainability purposes and the health of the earth. There are at least 92.7 billion solar panels in use throughout the world today. One year of solar power saves 12,500 pounds of carbon emissions, which is very important in the subject of sustainability. With less carbon emissions and using natural energy, there are less fossil fuels and therefore a more healthy planet.

The United States and other European countries, like Spain and Italy, and China are the driving forces in increasing the amount of solar panels used. These countries receive a lot of sunlight making this initiative to use solar panels very effective. It is predicted that the growth rate of solar panels will be 7.8% from 2022 to 2030.  The power generated from solar panels has grown by 23% since 2019, making this energy source account for 3.1% of global electricity. In America specifically, the amount of solar panels installed grew 485% from 2010 to 2013. The amount of solar panels that the U.S. had installed by 2014 was enough energy to power about 2.4 million U.S. households. According to the growth rate, solar panels are increasing around the world and saving this initiative from countries is helping to save energy globally.

 

citations: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/solar-panels-market#:~:text=The%20global%20solar%20PV%20panels%20market%20is%20expected%20to%20grow,USD%20286.64%20billion%20by%202030.

https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/solar-power-rise

https://sunbadger.com/solar-energy-statistics/#:~:text=At%20least92.7%20billion%20solar,average%20U.S.%20residential%20solar%20installation.

Wasting water and resources is much easier than you may think…

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Humans and animals drink a lot of water daily. It is critical to our survival, but the way that we choose to drink water has a huge impact on sustainability. An example of animal consumption of water is a cow. A cow can consume up to 100 gallons of water per day. One huge form of water waste is the production of clothing. It takes about 2700 liters of water to make the average t-shirt, which is clearly a huge amount of water waste to make one t-shirt. One pair of jeans takes about 7600 liters of water to produce, which means that it takes 10,300 liters of water to make a simple outfit. This also means that thrifting even just one outfit will save about 10,300 liters of water! It would be even better if people kept thrifting to decrease the amount of clothing production that has to occur around the world, therefore decreasing the waste of water. We can all wear clothes that are already in the world instead of buying new ones as a more sustainable option. 

Additionally, I think that bottled water is so popular because it is convenient. I know that my family members who use plastic water bottles just think that they make life easier because they can throw them out when they are done and they do not need to take care or keep track of a reusable water bottle. The average person drinks about four water bottles per day and because there are about 2,700 people (about 2,100 students and 600 faculty and staff members) on Union College’s campus, there are about 10,800 bottles of water consumed on the campus. Water bottles are about one liter of liquid, meaning that I estimate that 10,800 liters of water are consumed on Union’s campus. It takes 1 liter of oil to create four water bottles. I estimate that the amount of oil needed to produce the 10,800 bottles of water would be 2,700 liters of oil, which means that a lot of fossil fuels need to be burned for this production. Transporting the water also uses a huge amount of oil. It depends where the water comes from, but a ten hour plane ride uses 150,000 liters of oil which would clearly add to the fossil fuel emissions used to produce water bottles by a large amount. 

 

Citations: https://www.peta.org/features/california-drought-stats/

https://greenactioncentre.ca/tip-of-the-week/14-ways-to-reduce-water-waste/

https://blog.arcadia.com/how-many-water-bottles-does-one-reusable-bottle-save/

Climate Change Due to Increase of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

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Carbon dioxide (measured in parts per million or ppm) is a greenhouse gas that impacts the heat regulation of the Earth, impacting the climate change that we see today. The increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide is specifically responsible for about two thirds of the Earth’s rising temperatures and energy imbalance, contributing to the change in global climate patterns also known as climate change. Certain human activities like driving a car emit carbon dioxide. Additionally the usage of fossil fuels emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air which traps heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic decreasing people’s activity (especially during the heights of the pandemic where many people were not traveling by plane or car) and the economic slowdown, the global level of carbon dioxide hit a new record high in 2020 of 412.5 parts per million (ppm). Another concerning point is that humans are adding a lot more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than is naturally produced and can be accommodated for. The global growth rate or atmospheric carbon dioxide is now 2.3 ppm per year and is about 100 times faster than previous historical natural increases in carbon dioxide. According to these measurements, the human impact on the plant and the excessive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions are impacting climate change and the overall temperature and well being of Earth. There are ways for us to decrease carbon dioxide emissions such as carpooling, decreasing leisure flight usage and doing simple things such as turning off the lights. 13% of the greenhouse gas production (including carbon dioxide emissions) in the Unites States are from the production and transportation of food. So it is also important to eat local and organic food to help decrease the excessive carbon dioxide production. According to these articles, the production of carbon dioxide is rapidly increasing, but there are simple ways that we can all help decrease our carbon footprint (the total amount of greenhouse gases we produce from our actions) and help global climate change.

 

Citations:

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

https://cotap.org/reduce-carbon-emissions/

Hallie Katzman

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Hi! My name is Hallie Katzman. I am a Junior psychology and sociology major. I play on the women’s tennis team at Union and went to South Carolina with my team to compete over spring break! In my free time I love hiking and spending time with my family and friends. I am much more familiar with the environmental and social aspects of sustainability than the economic side. I feel like I often associate the subject of sustainability with prevalent issues like climate change. To me, sustainability means doing everything we can (even small actions like recycling or composting) to maintain the state of the planet for future generations. I am looking forward to expand on my previous knowledge about sustainability and learn a lot more about all of the pillars in this class!