Gallons of Water Wasted Per Day

For this week’s bog topic, I thought it’d be interesting to reach out to my friends and see how many gallons of water that they believe that they waste a day. Water waste is a huge issue when it comes to sustainability across the globe. Water can be wasted in many different ways and I feel that is often over looked. For example, keeping the water running when you brush your teeth, taking too long of showers, pouring out drinking water, etc. After reaching out to 10 of my friends, I put the data into a bar graph, which is pasted below;

The range of answers is quite obvious as one of my friend’s stated that she doesn’t waste any water, meanwhile, another one of my friend’s claimed that she wastes 20 gallons of water a day. By asking my friends this question, it was intended to make them think of all of the ways that they waste water and in return think of the ways that they can reduce water waste. Making these small changes can have a big impact on our globe.

Food Insecurity- Issue of Equity

As a Sociology major, looking at the ways in which different social justice issues affect individuals isn’t new to me. However, what is new to me is looking at these issues through a mathematical lens. The issue of food insecurity and hunger is not just an issue surrounding food, but an issue surrounding equity. Consider the following chart;

The information on this chart shows that the rate of White college students facing food insecurity is 36%, which is quite high. However, other demographics have even higher percentages. Hispanic college students food insecurity rate is 47%, Black is college students rate is 54% and Indigenous college students rate is 60%. This data shows that food insecurity is an issue of racial equality and equity.

One of the main contributing factors to the difference of food insecurity among demographics is the difference in pay wages. Consider another chart below;

This chart displays that no matter the level of education, White employees will be paid more than Black and Hispanic workers. When an individual is paid more, they have more access to purchase food and avoid food insecurity. Hence, White workers being paid more definitely contributes to White individuals having the lowest rate of food insecurity among college students, compared to Black, Indigenous and Hispanic college students.

Lastly, as we have previously discussed, healthier food options are more expensive than unhealthy food options, such as fast food chains (McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, etc). With this in mind, families of lower income are going to be more likely to eat at fast food restaurants given the low prices. Consider this last data set;

This data shows that the rate of obesity among White students is only 29.3% while it is 35.9% among Black children and 38.2% among Hispanic children. This makes sense given everything that has been discussed thus far in this blog. Eating cheap fast food more often will result in higher obesity rates. The way that poverty can have an affect on so many other factors such as physical and mental health displays how capitalistic our society truly is.

Climate Change Due to Increase of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

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

25+ Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Emissions

How Keeling Contributed to the Worlds Hottest Topic

Charles David Keeling began taking daily measurements of the Carbon Dioxide concentration in the atmosphere at the top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii in 1958 (Monroe). This program is still around; however, there are more locations around the world where data is collected (Monroe). He began this work while doing his doctoral studies in California. He noticed that there was more CO2 at night in Big Sur, and in the afternoons, there was almost always 310ppm (Monroe). He took measurements of atmospheric CO2 in multiple locations, and all found a concentration of 310 ppm until he went to Mauna Loa and found a concentration of 313 ppm (Monroe). The concentration continued to rise until May, when there began to be a decrease in atmospheric CO2 and then an increase back in October (Monroe). Keeling began to realize that the concentration of atmospheric CO2 was reliant on “seasonal changes of growth and decay” (Kennedy, 1). The data collected is now known as the Keeling Curve and is heavily used to monitor our atmospheric CO2.

 

 

 

Kennedy, Caitlyn. “Carbon Dioxide: Earth’s Hottest Topic Is Just Warming Up”. NOAA Climate, 2009, https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/carbon-dioxide-earths-hottest-topic-just-warming.

Monroe, Rob. “The History Of The Keeling Curve”. The Keeling Curve, 2022, https://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/2013/04/03/the-history-of-the-keeling-curve/.