Composting is Convenient!

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Composting has been a method of disposing food waste that many people use in more rural parts of the county for years; however, as we have seen, cities are beginning and have already implemented composting programs. One can see from the EPA’s data that composting has increased from 23.4 million tons a year to 24.9  million tons between 2015 and 2018 (EPA). If a family wants to compost, there are strict rules for what one can put in their compost pile. No animal products can go into compost. This is because of the high amount of fat that does not decompose well (Pela, 1). Meat can also attract pests which is a concern depending on where one lives. Another factor is that raw animal products may have bacteria such as E. coli which thrive in warm, humid environments like a compost pile (Pela, 1).  Now you may be wondering why Union allows us to compost any and all food scraps? This is because Union supposedly sends the waste to a high heat composting facility. They introduce heat in a controlled environment to break down all food scraps without the fear of introducing bacteria to the soil. Many people decide not to compost due to concerns about pests and a misunderstanding of its time commitment. However, in reality, if you rake your leaves into a pile on the edge of your property, you are already composting. It is just a matter of being consistent and having a container in your kitchen to quickly dispose of scraps daily before emptying them into your compost pile.

 

https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials

https://pela.earth/blogs/news/can-you-compost-meat

Vegetable Oil as a Fuel Source for Cars

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Believe it or not, there are ways to run a car on energy sources that are not diesel or petroleum. As fossil fuel emissions have become the object of concern in the past few decades due to due climate change, people have been eager to find energy sources that are more sustainable than basic petroleum. They have recently discovered that it is possible to power a car on vegetable oil, which is a much more sustainable energy source than petroleum. Burning vegetable oil is known to be less toxic, and it “produces up to 75% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and particulates” (Choosesq.com). While vegetable oil is not a perfect solution to climate change, it makes you wonder what other renewable energy sources are possible. This is why we need to invest more money into innovation and invention, so that the brightest minds in the world can figure out ways to save the planet.

 

Works Cited:

https://choosesq.com/blog/how-to-run-a-car-on-vegetable-oil/#:~:text=It%20is%20possible%20to%20run,SeQuential%20for%20your%20biodiesel%20needs.

 

Earth Day Origins

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The holiday of Earth Day was inspired by a 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. In that catastrophic and well-known oil spill, between 3.5 and 4.2 million gallons of crude oil were spilled into the Santa Barbara Channel. The very next year, the first Earth Day was hosted to raise awareness for this event, as well as spark more support and visibility for the growing environmentalism movement.

Since that initial oil spill, between 1969 and 2017 there have been 44 more oil spills in North America, every single one of them over more than 420,000 gallons, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. That means that since the initial 3.5-4.2 million gallon oil spill that caused Earth Day, at the very least 18.48 million gallons of oil have been spilled, and that’s a low estimate that excludes the past 5 years, which have seen a large uptick in oil spills.

Hopefully, we can muster up a renewed interest in taking down oil companies within the environmentalism movement, and ensure a healthy future for the ocean for us and the generations that come after us.

Sources:

The History of Earth Day

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/california-spill-52-years-historic-oil-disaster-80400250

https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/largest-oil-spills-affecting-us-waters-1969.html

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

The Sustainability of Electric Cars

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Emissions from cars and transportation are undoubtedly some of the largest producers of CO2 emissions that we can see today.  However not all hope is lost as companies such as Tesla have attempted to become more sustainable and limit CO2 emissions.  These are seen with electric cars that have become very widespread today.  Tesla was founded with long term sustainability efforts in mind as opposed to the current trend of trying to lessen environmental pollution but not get at the source of the problem.  Electric cars charged on a power grid emit 4,000 lbs of CO2 as opposed to gasoline vehicles which emit 11,000 lbs of CO2.  Better yet, electric cars that are charged on renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar emit 0 lbs of CO2.  Despite the fact that batteries for electric vehicles create more pollution during construction than combustion-engine vehicles, because of the lower emissions over the entire life of the electric vehicle, the pollution is less overall than combustion-engine vehicles.  With the average commute to work being 28 minutes, driving an electric vehicle as opposed to a gasoline powered vehicle is the more sustainable choice.  Tesla also states in its website that end-of-life products such as electronics with a size of up to 25cm can be returned to be recycled at Tesla locations at no cost.  To return other products an appointment can be scheduled for the take-back.  Electric cars seem to be a very important step towards a more sustainable future.

Works Cited:

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/resources/earth-day-ff.pdf

https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air/electric-vehicles#:~:text=Much%20like%20with%20greenhouse%20gases,operating%20and%20during%20power%20generation.

https://www.tesla.com/en_IE/support/sustainability-recycling

https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/tesla-becomes-a-model-for-sustainable-leadership-david-and-goliath-revisited/

Sustainable Fishing

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There are many issues attached to the fishing industry: overfishing, bycatch, pollution, fish farming, and economics. This is why it is so vital to protect the fish and other marine life populations in the ocean. If the IPCC can determine and enforce sustainable fishing quotas the ocean will be well protected. But since the ocean is a global commons and there is no full authority over it regulations are difficult to make. Additionally, since the ocean covers the majority of our planet there is no way to actually enforce these regulations and ensure people/fishing companies are following them. There is one company called Seashepard that acts like a vigilante group which boards boats that are engaging in suspicious activity. Since the ocean is so vast it is also difficult to determine quotas since it is hard to figure out exact population numbers. Scientists often are estimating the population sizes of species and even then fishing companies still push for higher quotas. Even with bycatch and fish farming quotas have to be set. Bycatch because it is the unnecessary catching and killing of marine life while fishing. Fish farming because often fish caught from the ocean are used as feed for the farm bred fish. Additonally, the usage of sustainable fishing methods in terms of techniques used like long lines, and trollers. So in terms of mathematics there is a lot of estimating involved with fishing to establish effective quota levels that protect populations and encourage sustainable economic activity. There is an interesting documentary on Netflix called Seaspiracy that explains all the dynamics of the fishing industry. When buying fish look to see if it was locally sourced or fished sustainably and consumption is the driving force for the fishing industry so it’s important to support environmentally conscious brands.

Sustainable Farming Techniques and increasing agricultural efficiencies in less environmentally endowed countries

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One aspect of sustainability that is not as significant as perhaps it should be in the modern conversation about climate change as recycling, or solar and wind energy is the idea of agricultural efficiency. Data from 1991 to 2017 compared the output per worker in agricultural industries by country and found that sub-Saharan Africa is in comparison to European nations, and Asian nations less efficient at producing food. In constant 2010 dollars, the Congo put out $947 dollars and Tanzania put out $675 of agricultural output in the year 2017 and in comparison to Denmark and the UK each put out around $50 to $60000. That means that for every hectare of land in the UK approximately 7 tons of cereal(wheat, rice, barley etc.) was produced in comparison to sub-saharan Africa which produced about 1.6 tons of cereal per hectare of land. In Europe, since 1980 according to Our World in Data, the continent has been able to increase crop yields while maintaining on approximately 132 million hectares of land increasing their yields from that year to 2019 by 132% whereas in comparison Africa has increased their land use from 48 to 112 million hectares while their yield has increased .4 ton basis points from 1980-2019. While this data may not be surprising, it is an alarming statistic since Africa’s (across the entire continent) population is the fastest-growing population in the world with the least amount of educational attainment opportunities internally and the least productive population perhaps in a global comparative manner of analysis. Internally, some African nations like South Africa and Nigeria have been able to triple their agricultural GDP in this same time period. From these statistics, it’s clear that Africa is in an early period of classical growth so when thinking about how wealthier countries should consider their impact on less-developed nations, they should continue to work to improve to share technology and work to benefit not only the endogenous growth of their people but so too improve perhaps the environmental capabilities of certain regions as a byproduct of the positive externalities discovered by some nations.

Sources utilized:

https://ourworldindata.org/africa-yields-problem

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agriculture-value-added-per-worker-wdi?tab=chart&time=1991..latest&country=ZAF~NGA

https://www.privacyshield.gov/article?id=Republic-of-Congo-Agricultural-Sector#:~:text=The%20Republic%20of%20Congo’s%20agricultural,gross%20domestic%20product%20(GDP).

https://statisticstimes.com/demographics/continents-by-population.php#:~:text=Middle%20Africa%20has%20highest%20rate,growing%20continent%20Oceania%20(1.27%25).

How to know what to recycle

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A part of sustainability that is known of universally  is recycling. However, understanding what can be recycled as opposed to what cannot is crucial in living a sustainable life. 19.91% of plastic waste has not been recycled and by 2050 the ocean will have a higher percentage of plastic waste than fish. Something interesting I came across was the amount of waste coming from Mardi Gras beads. Most college students probably own plastic bead necklaces for various parties or events. The question then becomes what to do with these beads when the event is over. Usually these beads are lost or forgotten about which makes them even more wasteful. Additionally, these beads are oftentimes made from a plastic that cannot be recycled in the same way as other plastic can be and it does not decompose in a proper way. Examples of non recyclable plastic is plastic coated wrapping paper, bioplastics, and polycarbonate. It is estimated that 25 million pounds of beads are thrown off of Mardi Gras floats each year creating pollution and waste. However, to combat this, in Mardi Gras parades usually beads are collected by a following float that will clean and reuse the beads for the year later. This is a very good way to reuse and reduce waste. The Greater Arc of New Orleans set up containers across the parade route to collect beads. These efforts are very commendable, but do raise concern of where these beads go when not used at a large, somewhat regulated event like a Mardi Gras parade. Additionally, it brings up the important issue of knowing how to dispose of things properly and what is recyclable as opposed to what is not.

Works Cited:

https://www.yummymath.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MardiGras2022.pdf

https://comfyliving.net/recycling-statistics/#united-states-recycling-statistics

https://www.slrecyclingltd.co.uk/what-plastics-can-and-cannot-be-recycled/

The Arctic is Melting!

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Usually, when individuals think of Antartica, some of the first words that come to mind include “cold, ice, frozen, or freezing.” These words have described the state of Antartica for the majority of its history. However, it is very possible that these words may no longer be applicable to Antartica’s given the issue of climate change. Umair Irfan explains, “Ice loss has accelerated in Antarctica in recent years. Every 40 hours, Antarctica loses a billion metric tons of ice, according to a 2018 study, and at least half that loss comes from ice shelves” (Irfan, 2022). An adverse affect to climate change is the rising sea level. As the climate is getting warmer, the ice in the Arctic is melting, hence causing the sea level to rise. According to Florence Colleoni, “Since 1880, the global mean sea level (GMSL) has increased by 20 centimeters” (Colleoni, 2022). As we have learned, 20 centimeters can be converted to 0.2 meters or 7.87 inches. Although this may not seem like a large quantity, when you think of sea level rise, it is quite a lot. Some may think, what damage could a rise of sea level by a few centimeters due to our environment? Well, “The United Nations estimates that the potential costs of damage to harbors and ports alone from this flooding could be as high as $111.6 billion by 2050 and $367.2 billion by the end of the century” (Colleoni, 2018).

If the emission of greenhouse gases is not quickly reduced, climate change will continue on, sea level rise will continue on, and our Earth will literally and figuratively have to pay the price. Colleoni continues on, “An estimated 800 million people are likely to experience impacts of high-tide flooding by the end of the 21st century” (Colleoni, 2022). Knowing that there are 7.7 billion people in the world, this means that around 10% of the Earth’s population will face the effects of high-tide flooding, resulting in the possible damage of homes, property or lives. The concerning part about this whole issue is that, “There’s a lot scientists still don’t know — including some of the mechanisms behind it, where tipping points may lie, and its ripple effects over the whole planet” (Irfan, 2022). The unknown is what scares the scientists and non-scientists, alike.

Works Cited:

https://www.vox.com/22939545/antarctica-greenland-ice-sheet-shelf-glacier-melt-climate-sea-level-rise

The Uncertain Future of Antarctica’s Melting Ice

Never Pay for Gas Again

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One engine for carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere has to be the driving of cars to various locations. With millions of people needing to drive to work or other activities this leaves the atmosphere and our planet earth taking the hit. It is determined that every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 8,887 grams of carbon dioxide. Now think about how many cars are on the road and how many people go through gallons of gasoline everyday, week, month, and year. The typical car releases 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and this is an extreme amount. If we can reduce the amount of vehicles on the road this problem can be solved. One way to solve this is to turn to electric vehicles. Many high end brands such as Tesla and Audi have developed electric cars but those certainly are not affordable for millions of people in America. Recently cheaper, more affordable car companies are producing electric cars such as Toyota and Nissan. If Americans can become aware of the environment and the emissions of Carbon Dioxide they could be interested in investing in an electric car. Not to mention the extremely expensive gas prices all throughout the U.S., whereas electric cars require no gas. For those that do not have interest in electric cars, there are several other options to protect this earth such as carpooling, trains, and biking. Not every single American will listen to these suggestions, but little at a time I hope America can transform into an electric car dominated country.

 

References:

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle