Category Archives: Human Society

Water is Life

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Water is an essential part of the human experience. We are made of water. We use water to drink. We use water to clean. We use water to cook. We use water to bathe. In fact, the origins of life on earth stem from the water itself. Water is essential for life on earth, however, it is being jeopardized by the huge amounts of pollution that humans are creating. Companies and industries are particularly bad for producing waste that ends up in our water. This is a serious threat to human health. Unbelievably “Unsafe water kills more people each year than war and all other forms of violence combined” (Denchak). While citizens of developed countries may not think twice about the water that they drink, and how they get it, citizens of developing countries are still at risk of being poisoned by unhealthy water. Many people believe that water is a basic human right. In my opinion, the fact that Americans use 5 times more than the global average is pretty sad. Access to water is a human rights issue as well. Another huge problem is that the vast majority of water on earth is not drinkable. Most of the water on earth is saltwater that cannot be used as a drinking source for humans and  “Less than 1 percent of the earth’s fresh water is actually accessible to us”. This means that the amount of freshwater that we have as a resource for the almost 8 billion people here on earth is very limited. While the human population continues to grow, eventually it will get to the point where there simply is not enough water for everyone on earth. This is a very depressing thought to me. I believe that developed counties have a responsibility to help provide developing countries with access to water. If the United States wants to be a great country, it must act like one.

 

Works Cited:

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

 

Fossil Fuels and Human Health

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We talk a lot about fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, and how the impacts they have on the environment. Something that is not often talked about, however, is the impact of fossil fuels on human health. According to an article published by the NYU School of Law, the burning of fossil fuels and the inhalation of the subsequently polluted air contribute to several health conditions, including, but not limited to: asthma, cardiovascular disease, and preterm birth. What’s more, the article states that “if fossil fuels were completely eliminated, the global average life expectancy would increase by 1.1 years”. The article then goes on to describe the effects of burning fossil fuels, and different variations of pollutants. The thing that interested me most about this article was the mention of a study done in Southern California, where diminished levels of particulate matter (mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets) and nitrogen dioxide over a 21 year period lead to 20% fewer cases of childhood diagnoses of asthma. This is just one of many examples of how fossil fuels and greenhouse gases effect both the environment, the world around us, and humanity as a species.

Sources Cited:

https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/state-impact/projects-reports/projects/climate-and-health/health-effects-of-burning-fossil-fuels

The pandemic’s affect on Carbon Dioxide Emission

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The pandemic brought forth by Covid-19 caused much change and hardship.  However, not every change that the world underwent in regards to the pandemic was bad.  Due to the decreased levels of travel that occurred from the pandemic, CO2 emissions fell by 5.4% in 2020.  In the United States alone, the 4.58 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide produced in 2020 was an 11% decrease from the previous year.  The decrease in the US was also due largely to the decrease in transportation seen both in the US and throughout the world.  Since the transportation sector is the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions in the US since 2016, this 11% decrease is a welcome change.   The drastically decreased amount of man-made pollution in the air appears as a positive from the outside.  However, despite the sudden 5.4% drop in CO2 emissions, the growth in atmospheric concentrations remained within the year to year variation caused by natural processes according to NASA.  This is due largely to the fact that absorb as much CO2 as it had in previous years.

The dip seen in reported levels of CO2 emissions was however temporary and the CO2 emission levels have bounced back up.  The 5.4% decrease reported during the early stages of the pandemic was still short of the necessary 7.6% yearly reduction estimated by the United Nations Environment Programme.  Even with the world at a standstill during the early months of the pandemic, the required decrease of CO2 emissions estimated to be necessary were still not met.  These decreased levels of CO2 have now rebounded due to the reopening of many sectors and the world is back on the same trajectory it had been on prior to the pandemic.

 

Works cited

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/emission-reductions-from-pandemic-had-unexpected-effects-on-atmosphere

https://www.statista.com/statistics/183943/us-carbon-dioxide-emissions-from-1999/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00090-3

Carbon emissions: Cap or trade

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As mentioned in other posts, carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas measured in ppm has been shown by NASA and other media outlets to have increased steadily measured since the beginning of the industrial revolution in 19th century. NASA’s data (AIRS 2002-2016 times series) displays that in 2005 CO2 emissions were at a level of approximately 375 ppm, and comparing that to the last measure in that set in 2016 CO2 emissions dramatically rose to 425 ppm in mid-tropospheric calculations. Most recently NASA’s GEOS team during the 2020 COVID pandemic tracked a significant decrease in overall CO2 emissions especially during February through about April (13% decrease) and then an uptick in CO2 emissions restarting in the summer months (3% decrease) when people again became mobile. Although changes like these produce positive externalities for the environment, their short term effects shouldn’t be overstated since according to Jessica Merzdorf Evans at NASA’s Goddard space flight center, CO2 can last “for up to a century after it is released.” Luckily, technology for recording disturbances to the CO2 cycles (positive and negative in the economic senses of the word) is becoming more sensitive to every CO2 change from detecting the  effects of ‘isolated’ wild fires in California to a global shutdown to carbon emitting cars, not only that but models like AIRS and OCO-2 are putting these seemingly isolated incidents in conversation with one another both in the macro, micro and mini senses of time and space.
While in the short term, it may be humanly impractical to pause the entire global economy one solution that may help reduce carbon emissions is by playing a balancing game with carbon credits. These credits represent one ton of carbon emissions to be ‘removed’ from the atmosphere. Economically, an oversimplified example might look like the following: gardener Riley plants enough plants to take in 2 tons of carbon dioxide per year, which means a factory owner producing 3 tons of carbon per year can purchase Riley’s positive externality of 2 less tons of carbon per year leaving the factory owner responsible for 1 ton of carbon per year in the atmosphere rather than the original 3 tons. Additionally, because Riley now has saved 2 more tons of carbon emissions yearly they might be able to use those credits to plow their land with a tractor emitting 1 ton a year at no additional cost to Riley the gardener. While this innovation is not perfect since carbon credits only work to offset a more significant negative externality, it would seem as if more green projects which work to localize green production would go a long way in the short term to increase the positive externalities to the environment and in the long term for ourselves.

links utilized:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna3228
scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/carbon-dioxide

jpl.nasa.gov/news/emission-reductions-from-pandemic-had-unexpected-effects-on-atmosphere

climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/

scitechdaily.com/nasa-makes-first-of-it’s-kind-detection-of-reduced-human-CO2-emissions/

 

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.