Author Archives: Matthew Schwartz

Reusing Plastic Water Bottle

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Every Day I drink two 1.5 Liter Saratoga Water Bottles. It took around 15 seconds to fill up 1.5 liters. There was around 5 seconds that the faucet was on where water did not make it into the bottle. 1.5 liters/ 15 secons = .1 liters per second. So in just those 5 seconds I let the faucet run before and after I turned the faucet on I wasted a total of .5 liters of water which is a third of the large bottle. Overall I need to be more aware of how much water I am wasting.

Income Inequality in America

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Income inequities have always been around in the United States. Yet, over the past few decades the gap has grown. As seen in the pie charts you can see that since 1989 the top ten percent of income earners have grown 8% totaling a total 50% of all of the income in the United states. In 2016 the bottom 50% of income earners made between $0-53,000, the middle 50%-90% made between $53,000-$176,000, and the top ten percent make over $176,000 people.  The inequities are clear. What the chart doesn’t show is what percent of the wealth that the 1% have. According to Smart Asset, a personal finance website, the 1% makes nearly $600,000 a year, which shows that there is are huge inequalities among the top 10%.

https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2019/august/wealth-inequality-in-america-facts-figures

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/01/24/how-much-money-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-top-1percent-in-every-us-state.html

Livestock and Sustainability

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As a society, we eat a lot of food but are only beginning to understand the bi-products of producing meat on such a large scale. Emissions related to the livestock industry are carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and ammonia (NH3). Livestock and the food industry are a big contributing factor to climate change and I think that there isn’t enough attention to how the industry is impacting the environment. Due to such a high demand for cattle, researchers believe that the increased cattle rearing will help produce 565 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2030.  The livestock industry is responsible for 68% of enterogenic nitrous oxide emissions,  64% of total ammonia emissions, and 35–40% of methane emissions worldwide. Methane is a 23-1 greater potential to warm the planet compared to carbon dioxide. I want to look into this topic more because I feel like this is a big issue and I am not very familiar with it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6518108/#:~:text=Livestock%20emit%20almost%2064%25%20of,40%25%20of%20methane%20emissions%20worldwide.

Matt Schwartz

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Hello Classmates,

My name is Matt Schwartz. I am a Senior History Major and focused on Caribbean History. I enjoy painting and watching documentaries. My understanding of sustainability is that the world is facing a crisis in regard to pollution, climate change, and depletion of natural resources and sustainability is a solution to combat these issues. Methods of sustainability can be used across industries and governments to help lessen the detrimental effects of human interference and help sustain and preserve the planet. Sustainability is more important than ever.

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