Growing Sustainably

For the last blog post, I wanted to think about improving our world to combat climate change and a growing population. One of the biggest threats to humans in the next decade is global climate change. It can be seen that if we continue to follow the highest emission path of releasing CO2 into the atmosphere many parts of the world will become unlivable.

With the threats of the rising temperatures and natural disasters we as a society need to be able to counter this. One of the methods to do this is through building sustainable cities. Goal 11 “Sustainable cities” with the growing population the ability to accommodate this along with creating a sustainable development that will last. The goal states, “we need to build modern, sustainable cities. For all of us to survive and prosper, we need new, intelligent urban planning that creates safe, affordable and resilient cities with green and culturally inspiring living conditions” (Global Goals, n.d). 

This goal can be seen more locally within New York State. There is a push by the state to grow in a sustainable way. There is a state program called Climate Smart Communities (CSC) created by the NYSEC which provides a framework for local governments to guide their climate action plan. This program has been successful with 2,706 sustainable actions being completed across the state (New York State 2021). An off branch of this program of CSC was created by the Under the NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) called Clean Energy communities. This program created a commission that focuses on the mitigation of climate change and energy use on a more local level. Schenectady has completed 7 actions adding up to 2100 points. Including implementing clean fleets, being a part of Climate Smart Communities, LED Street Lights, PACE financing, Unified Solar (NYSERDA n.d.). 

All these programs created by the state of New York work towards the goal of sustainable  cities. These programs combine state action, local municipalities, and the individual to work towards creating a greener and more sustainable place to live globally. 

Within the goal set up by the UN, it includes the target to  “affordable and sustainable transportation” which New York is doing by setting up grants that encourage individuals to buy electric cars but also encourage governments to implement electric fleets. Another target is “inclusive and sustainable urbanization” and “reduce environmental impact of cities”, these targets are something the ClimateSmart incentive is tacking step by step through their incentives program that it is getting more and more towns to implicate green incentives that will better the local community, the nation and in turn the world. 

Making the world a better place, is such a broad ask for anyone, if it’s a country of a single person. By breaking the statement down into parts and focusing on making small improvements, you are in turn helping everyone. By New York State and then Schenectady working to create a more sustainable place and developing or green initiatives it is, in turn, reducing the amount of fossil fuel emissions being released which is helping EVERYONE in the future. 

 

Human Impacts

It is the human interactions with the earth’s natural systems that are causing the negative change. Of course, to maintain a healthy environment we must use some of the earth’s resources; although, it is the overuse that is cursing the problems. The global issues we are facing are a direct cause of the style choices we humans are making to live a comfortable, consumerist life.  We are currently in a state of overshoot, meaning we are using more resources than the earth can produce in a year. In 2018, the ecological footprint was 2.4 times greater than the biocapacity. Essentially, in 2018, we were using 2.4 times the amount of resources the environment could produce in a year. Calculations can be figured out by dividing the footprint by biocapacity.

It is time to make small changes to our lifestyles to drastically slow the rate of the earth’s change and maintain the Earth for future generations. Some simple changes are rooted in expanding our knowledge, such as learning what can be recycled and composted. Many individuals think that plastic and paper can be thrown in the now common, zero sort recycling. This belief is not true; only particular types of plastics can be recycled if they are clean. Composting will also reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfills and will promote healthy soil and crops. Along with these changes, individuals can limit laundry and wash in cool water to cut down on electricity usage. The changes mentioned above are minor; but if every person began to practice them, we could seriously reduce negative change. In a consumerist society, it seems hard and maybe impossible to reduce our intake of products, yet it is very possible.

 

The importance of global awareness

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

Global Awareness; An Around the World View

For the last blog of the year, I wanted to focus on something very broad that covers much of the worlds views and understanding of climate change. This is no easy task to quantify. Obviously, the worlds more advanced and industrialized countries will have a higher understanding of the dangers of climate change while the populations of third world countries are proven to likely be more concerned with locating the day to day necessities of life rather than showing concern for what their grandchildren’s future may look like.

This chart here shows a list of surveyed countries and where they rank on how large of a threat they see climate change to be. After viewing this, it is pretty embarrassing that roughly 40% of the Americans don’t see climate change as a serious threat but that they are more concerned with ISIS and cyber attacks – this is a serious lack of intellect. However, over a 5 year span from 2013-2018, every country on this list had an increasing concern in regards to climate change, which I guess is a good sign when it comes to awareness. A quick political digression, but in the US, in 2018, 27% of republicans viewed climate change as a real threat while 83% of democrats viewed it as a threat. This is in direct result of former President Trump and makes Americans look dumb compared to the other world powers.

Importance of Global Awareness

Seeing that this is the final blog of the term, I reflect back on everything that I have learned throughout this term regarding sustainability and the associated mathematics. I never thought that something as basic as percentages or ratios would play such a big role in sustainability. Consider, the percentage of contamination of a certain substance. Or, the percentage of a substance that is being wasted due to one’s lack of accountability when it comes to sustainability. Learning about energy flow and all the different many different forms of energy was really interesting. It was not until taking this class that I learned that energy has a unit, the unit being Quad. Another important factor that needs to be considered not only through a sustainable lens, but through many lenses in life is precision. If mathematicians are not precise about their measurements and data sets for sustainability related entities, there could be outcomes that are detrimental to the environment. Learning about how many different variables are at play for climate change are overwhelming. But, learning about them individually and ways that we can play our part has been helpful. One of the most notable things that I take away from this course is how large my carbon footprint has been throughout my life. From here on out, I aim to consider the ways in which I can make my carbon footprint smaller for the benefit of the environment. This course has taught me so many new ways that I can think about sustainability and how easy it is to take sustainable action. If we all play a small part in becoming a sustainable nation, our earth will be more likely to succeed.

Water usage from highly populated Countries in 2017

Water Usage by Country in 2017 per billions

 

When looking at water usage for highly dense countries, this pie graph shows the percentage use of water by each country.  However, I personally thought that water usage was mostly coming from showers, however with laundry, brushing your teeth, washing your hands and doing dishes contributes to how much water we use per day.  Surprisingly China had the highest amount using around 591.8 billion gallons in all of 2017.  I personally thought that the US would have used way more water usage, but when coming to terms with the population of China compared to the population of the United States, its no surprise that they are about 2 times larger when it comes to the US using 444.4 billion.  However, 2017 was about 5 years ago, and scientists have said that water usage has increased.  If there’s a continue increase of water usage in 5 years from now, who knows the results it will have for the irreversible effects of climate change.

resources:

https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-stress

 

Fixing the Gender Gap

For the most part, you could say that in America, equality is equally divided amongst men and women.  However, with doing some more thorough research, there are at least 2.5 billion women living in countries with at least one discriminatory law on the books.  Those laws in specific countries restrict women to make decisions regarding marriage, divorce, and child custody, along with making choices about acquiring a job or starting a business. Not only that but when it comes to abuse, 1 in 5 women have experienced physical or sexual abuse globally.  One of the bigger issues that needs to be talked about is the wage women make compared to men.  For example, even though the gender gap has improved drastically, 25% of women aged 25-34 are more likely to be impoverished compared to men globally.  In comparison to business and the environment, 73% of men hold management positions and 70% are climate negotiators.  I know in my personal experience, the people who are very passionate about the environment and climate change have been women.  I realize that women have a say in this topic, but the possibilities are endless when solving environmental issues if we have even more female voices heard.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/decomposition-of-the-gender-wage-gap-1980

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/hourly-earnings-male-vs-female

resources: https://www.un.org/en/un75/women_girls_closing_gender_gap

 

The Dangers of Commuting to Work

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

Climate change and human health

While we often think about the environmental effects of climate change, we don’t always consider how those environmental changes can affect human health.  Global warming is one of the most prevalent issues associated with climate change and while many people have noticed the effects of this issue, not many know the health issues that come from this increased global temperature. According to the EPA, unusually hot summers with high temperatures and heat waves have become more and more common over the years.  With this increase in hot weather comes an increase in heat related deaths. For instance, the rate of heat related deaths in the United States has increased from 1979-2018.  In 1979, the rate of deaths was 0.240 per million people.  In 2018, that increased to 1.635 per million people, making the total change 1.395 per million people and making the percent change between 1979 and 2018 a 581.25% increase.  With a growth factor of 6.81, you can see the large increase in deaths caused by heat in the last 40 years alone.  Climate change, especially global warming, can have an extreme adverse effect on human health, which we are already starting to see.  If we don’t do something to keep the global temperatures from becoming even more extreme, we can expect to see the rise in heat related deaths become even higher.

 

https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-related-deaths

got milk?

In the past few years, non-dairy milk products have seen a rise in popularity and sales. This move away from dairy milk was at first attributed to diet concerns and a trend in cutting out dairy, but lately the current climate conditions have been factoring in to the general populations milk-buying decisions. Non-dairy milks range from pea milk to walnut milk to soy milk, and they’ve been marketed as healthy alternatives to cow milk. Another draw to non-dairy milks has been concern for animal welfare, which could also explain the rise in veganism/vegetarianism (Gustin). However, concern for the changing climate has started to creep its way to the top of people’s list for choosing alternative milk products. Since non-dairy milks make up 10% of the milk market, competition runs high, and many alternative milk companies are funding research to find out exactly how big each alternative milks’ carbon footprint is. One study found that a liter of pea milk results in 387g of carbon dioxide, a liter of almond milk results in 396g of carbon dioxide, a liter of soy milk results in 397g of carbon dioxide, and a liter of cow milk results in 1,467g of carbon dioxide (Gustin). With these numbers, it’s easy to market non-dairy milks as the more sustainable choice. Representatives of non-dairy milk companies make the argument that even nut milks which require a lot of water and other resources to produce are more sustainable than cow milk, therefore competition within the non-dairy market should cease, and companies should instead work together to help as much as they can to affect climate change.

 

Gustin, G. 2018. Cows vs. Nuts: Who Gets to be Called Milk, and Are They Climate Friendly? Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24012018/almond-soy-milk-non-dairy-climate-change-impact/