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

Sustainable Ways

For some reason the audio on my video is not working. Nevertheless, this video shows all the ways that my roommates and I are attempting to be more sustainable in our apartment. The first clip shows that we try to take shorter showers and turn off the water as we brush our teach. The next clips exhibits that we keep doors and windows open opposed to using electricity for a fan or air conditioner. The third clip displays all of our reusable cups that we use opposed to using one-use plastic water bottles. The last clip shows our washer machine that we use using cold water opposed to hot water because it’s better for the environment.

RPReplay_Final1653318294

The Power of Hydro Electricity

For this blog post, I chose to present information on Hydroelectric Power. It’s one of the oldest forms of renewable energy, which began use in 1950.

Hydroelectric power’s source of power is water and plants are usually located on or near a water source. The volume of the water flow and the change or fall in elevation is often referred to as head. The head from one point to another determines the amount of available energy in moving water. The greater the water flow and the higher the head, the more electricity a hydropower plant can produce.

There are about 1,450 conventional and 40 pumped-storage hydropower plants operating in the United States. The average lifespan of a hydropower facility is 100 years.

In 2021, hydroelectricity accounted for about 6.3% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation and 31.5% of total utility-scale renewable electricity generation.

Hydroelectric energy is sustainable because it relies on and uses the environment, benefits society, and can benefit the economy. It’s an affordable form of renewable energy that is more affordable than other renewable energy sources. Another reason why it’s sustainable is it’s been used for a long time.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydropower/https://

www.energy.gov/eere/water/hydropower-basicshttps://

www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/34916.pdf

 

LEDS to save Electricity!

Something I have never really taken into consideration before was how often I personally don’t think about light usage.  My dorm room has almost all LED lights, but I personally bought them for convenience in college, I didn’t really think about it in environmentally friendly terms.  With doing some research I found that about 5% of LED light’s energy is converted into heat while 95% is converted into light.  They also use a LOT less power than a typical fluorescent light, using a 36 watt vs a fluorescent’s 84 watt light.  By replacing fluorescent lights in your house, that brings down the emission of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere as well as reduces the demand of power plants.  Since it is unlikely that everyone will transition to LED lights within the next 5 years, a smaller goal when it comes to energy consumption is to turn off the lights when exiting a room or not having them on at all when it is not needed, for instance in the broad daylight.  A lot of the time fluorescent lights will also have toxic substances within the light bulb such as mercury.  When it comes to LED lights, they contain no toxic substances, have fewer lights needed to achieve the same level of brightness as fluorescent and incandescent lights, and have a longer lifespan, which leads to less carbon emissions (and the less likely you’ll have to replace the lights, so you’ll spend less money.  As someone who likes to decorate, and have those twinkly lights in my dorm room that many other college students my age have, it’s a lot more cost efficient and better for the environment to have compared to other options when it comes to light.  Go out and buy yourself a strip of those color changing LED lights to “spice up” your room!

resources:

https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/study-environmental-benefits-leds-greater-cfls

https://www.sepco-solarlighting.com/blog/the-advantages-of-led-lights-for-the-environment

 

Composting is Convenient!

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

Construction’s Relation to Sustainability

More often than ever, as a nation, we are witnessing forests and woodlands being torn down. The most common reason for tearing down all of these trees is to start up a new construction cites. Although there are a surplus of different reasons that these trees and animals habitats are being torn down, it eventually all comes down to greed. Most of the buildings that are being constructed are money-making entities. Consider some of the following examples; apartment buildings, storage facilities, casinos, etc. In fact, the amount of trees that are being planted opposed to torn down is an incredibly interesting ratio.

Annually, 15 billion trees are cut down. On the other hand, only 1.9 billion trees are planted a year. That means that the ratio of trees that are cut down to planted is 15 to 1.9. Meaning, for every 1.9 trees that are planted, 15 trees are torn down. To help better understand this idea, “For the 15 billion trees that are chopped down each year, every person on the planet could have 3,000 rolls of toilet paper” (Kilgore, 2022). According to Jonah Bader, “President Joe Biden has announced an ambitious goal of net-zero emissions by 2050… The idea of “net-zero emissions” is that any remaining emissions can be fully offset by so-called “negative emissions” — methods of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. Planting trees is the most straightforward way to do that. Trees absorb CO2 for photosynthesis and store it as cellulose and lignin, the main components of wood” (Bader, 2021). Furthermore, “Planting trees may also be the most popular climate policy. Even former President Donald Trump loved the idea. He championed an international initiative to plant 1 trillion trees, which would be enough to soak up at least a decade of global emissions” (Bader, 2021). The possibilities are endless when it comes to further studying the ways that construction cites interfere with sustainability.

Works Cited:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/10/opinions/climate-plant-and-cut-trees-down-bader/index.html

https://www.gotreequotes.com/how-many-trees-are-planted-each-year-month-day-minute-second/

How Many Trees Cut Down Each Year or in 2022? The Deforestation Crisis Explained

Fast Fashion’s Effect on Environment

Since the Pandemic, shopping online has increased tremendously.  With that being said, it’s not uncommon that many people try to find the cheapest “dupes” of high quality clothes.  The fashion industry itself consumes one tenth of the water used industrially to clean products and run factories.  Thinking about the total amount of water used to produce one cotton shirt that would be about 3,000 liters of water used.  Not only is the water usage a big problem but fast fashion is responsible for higher carbon emissions than both international flights and maritime shipping combined.  Within the next decade, an increase of 50% of carbon emissions is expected if we continue this trend.

A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature had stated 35% of all micro plastics in the ocean come from synthetic clothing like polyester.  Since Fast Fashion is in high demand of products in a short period of time, the amount of waste emitted into the air is heavily weighed upon fashion, with 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon being emitted due to the fashion industry.  This is why it’s so important to stop shopping at stores such as Shein and forever 21 producing an exuberant amount of cotton and polyester, which not only puts the workers and farmers at harm when using toxic pesticides to grow the products, but many workers get injured due to the poor working conditions these fast fashion companies put their employees in.   Thrifting old garments is an excellent way of decreasing the amount of carbon emission as well as lowering the water usage for production.

resources:

https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment

Fast Fashion: Its Detrimental Effect on the Environment

Fast Fashion’s Environmental Impact: The True Price Of Trendiness

Water is Life

Water. Water is an essential part of human life on Earth. We as humans are made of water, use water everyday, and need water to survive. It helps regulate all of our functioning parts of our complex bodies and ensures benefits of living a healthy life. Just as humans are extremely dependent on water, so are many other species such as the group of livestock. One animal in particular is cows, which are heavily connected to greenhouse gasses and Co2 emissions. Depending on the temperature that a cow is living in, the weight of the cow, and whether it is producing milk or not, correlates to the amount of water it needs daily. It has been estimated that for cows, “Daily water intake may vary from 3 to 30 gallons per day depending on age, body size (weight), stage of production, and the environment (mainly air temperature).” With an increase in temperature or lactating cows, this requires more clean water for them. But to put the stat of 3 to 30 gallons in perspective, every human is advised to drink 8 cups of water per day, which is half a gallon of water. So although cows are much larger than humans, their daily water intake is extremely large and crucial for them.

Water is an essential to everyday life but there is a ton of water being wasted annually in the United States. An article published by the Washington Post states, “The incredibly stupid way that Americans waste 1 trillion gallons of water each year.” 1 Trillion gallons of water is another worldly large number and the ways depicted that Americans waste water are water leakage, hoses, and irrigation systems: all are not needed waste methods of water. One way to prevent the wasting of water would be to be more aware of how you are potentially wasting water. This can be from fixing leaks immediately, shutting off your sprinkler system when not needed, and using less water related activities such as dishwashing and laundry. If there was to be less water wasted, the number conducted through the Washington Post of 1 trillion gallons, could be minimized by millions and millions. Not to mention saving water waste, but this can save thousands of dollars spent by homes and businesses.

One method of intaking water that is very popular is through bottled water. It is so popular because it is pre bottled, convenient, and can be disposed of. Although it is not economically and environmentally friendly, Americans live a fast paced life and want the fastest way to intake water. To put water bottle usage in perspective on Union College’s campus, let’s first say there are 2,200 undergraduate students. I’d say about half of the students here use plastic water bottles daily, so 1,100. If every student is drinking about 3 bottles a day, that’s 3,300 approximately, plastic water bottles. To calculate the amount of oil used to produce and ship the water to Union, I estimated around 15,000 gallons of fuel to get the water from Western states all the way to Union College.

 

References:

https://beef.unl.edu/amountwatercowsdrink

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/17/the-incredibly-stupid-way-that-america-wastes-1-trillion-gallons-of-water-each-year/

Water Usage and Utilization

Water is a necessity for us humans along with planet Earth. Humans can go much longer without food as they can without water. It is interesting to think that a lot of the food that we consume could not possibly be produced without water. For example, think of crops that need water into order to grow. Or, all of the water that livestock drinks that we eventually consume such as pigs. This idea alone shows how important water is in its comparison to food consumption.

Consider the following, “There is the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed” (epa.gov). Furthermore, “Nearly 97% of the world’s water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just 1% for all of humanity’s needs — all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community, and personal needs” (epa.gov). This idea is really hard for me to wrap my head around. I think about how much water I myself personally use on the daily. Then, I think about how many humans are on this Earth and how much water is used for humanity’s needs by the whole planet. This alone proves how much water is on this Earth. I find this fact so interesting seeing how human production as well as global warming has affected our water usage. In my opinion, bottled water is so popular because of the convenience of it. Consider, reusable water bottles have to be constantly washed and sometimes they are a bit pricey. Bottled water is convenient as once you finish the water, you can just throw away or recycle the bottle. If I had to estimate the bottle water consumption on Union College’s campus, I would estimate that around 50% of Union’s students drink bottled water opposed to water from the tap. Furthermore, I would average that of the 50% of bottled water drinkers, they drink at least 2 bottles of water a day. Based on Union College’s enrollment being around 2,300 students, 65% of that is 1150, multiplying that by 2, my estimate is that Union College consumes around 2,300 bottles of water per day.

 

Work Cited: https://www3.epa.gov/safewater/kids/waterfactsoflife.html