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Conventional Energy

As fossil fuels still provide most of the world’s energy, about 80% of energy consumption, we also rely on coals and open-pit coal mining to supply those fuels. Our reliance on fossil fuels create serious political and economic problems “ranging from oceanic oil spills, such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 (see section 19.3), to mountaintop removal for coal extraction, water pollution from extracting tar sands, or air pollution and global climate change from burning all those fuels” (Cunningham p.428). We are also sitting on thin ice as we have more coal, oil, and natural gas than we can safely use.  Analysts also say that we should adapt non-carbon based energy as quickly as possible.

How are we burning coals and fuels

The second largest consumer of energy is still the mining, milling, smelting, and forging metals industry. “These processes consume about 25% of the world’s industrial energy share”. Furthermore, “U.S. households and commercial customers use roughly 20% of the primary energy consumed in the United States from space heating and cooling, lighting, and water heating” (Cunningham 9.429). If we adopted alternative energy sources just for heating, cooling, and lighting we can save a lot of energy.

According to the EPA there are three sources for alternative energy for commercial and residential uses that would eliminate the need for fossil fuels; “solar, geothermal, and biomass technologies; both flat plate and evacuated tube solar collectors are common technologies used for space heating, ground source pumps supply cold and hot for geothermal temperature control, and  biomass uses organic matter as fuel” (epa.gov).

As we have talked about in other posts, the conventional way of getting energy by mining for coals, burning fossil fuels, and even storing these mediums are very costly to the environment. They cause global warming, increase pollution, and decrease air quality.  

Below is an excerpt from Forbes.com noting how China’s air quality has improved since many manufacturing companies are not operating due to the outbreak of COVID-19

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“ESA mission manager Claus Zehner estimates NO2 dropped about 40 percent during the lockdown. NO2 reacts with other chemicals in the air to form particulate matter, and ESA also documented a drop in particulate matter over China:

“By combining satellite observations with detailed computer models of the atmosphere, their studies indicated a reduction of around 20-30 percent in surface particulate matter over large parts of China,” the agency reported Friday.

Both NO2 and particulate matter have been linked to heart and lung disease. Both the EPA and the World Health Organization have identified fine particulate matter, PM2.5, as the leading cause of death from air pollution.

Air pollution causes an estimated 1.1 million deaths per year in China and costs the Chinese economy $38 billion. Earlier this month Stanford Earth Sciences Professor Marshall Burke projected that two months of coronavirus lockdown had saved the lives of 77,000 Chinese children and elderly from air pollution alone.

Worldwide, air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people annually, including about 100,000 Americans. 

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2020/03/22/video-watch-from-space-as-air-pollution-vanishes-over-china-during-coronavirus-lockdown-then-returns/#6f7754c035f0)

References

Cunningham, W. Environmental Science. [Chegg]. Retrieved from   https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781259911606/

McMahon, J. (2020, March 22). New Satellite Video Shows China Pollution   Vanishing During COVID-19 Lockdown-Then Coming Back. Retrieved from   https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2020/03/22/video-watch-from-   space-as-air-pollution-vanishes-over-china-during-coronavirus-lockdown-   then-  returns/#6f7754c035f0

Renewable Space Heating. (2016, December 19). Retrieved from   https://www.epa.gov/rhc/renewable-space-heating

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Biodiversity and Landscapes

As we all know, the world’s forests provide a natural habitat for diversity of species.  The forests also provide humans with valuable resources. “Forrests and woodlands take up roughly 29% of the worlds land surface which aids in regulating climate, controlling water runoff, providing habitat for wildlife, and even purifying water (Cunningham p.251).

Wood is considered the most important forest product. Think about all of the industries that use paper, cardboard, or some sort of wood product for their packaging or product. Just about every industry uses some sort of wood in their daily operations.

“Paper pulp is the fastest growing type of tree and account for nearly 1/5 of all wood components. Furthermore, most of the world’s paper is used in North America, Asia, and Europe” (Cunningham p.252). With technology making it easier to communicate and send information, why are we still relying on paper in these countries?

In addition to paper, cardboard, and wood products, charcoal and wood for heating accounts for half of all global wood use as one-third of the world’s population still rely’s on wood for their heating and cooking needs.

Threats to tropical forests

in the last 100 years, nearly half of our tropical forests have been cleared or degraded due to wood harvesting.  Every day, logging and burning destroy about 30,000 acres of tropical forests and farming, grazing, or plantation conversion degrades about the same as well. “It also represents a serious reduction of nature’s capacity to store carbon we release by other means” (Cunningham p.254). If we continue to degrade at this rate, we will be out of primary forests by the end of this century.

Reducing the number of trees in our forests not only have an impact on the animal inhabitants of the forests, but it further degrades our living environment. It is common knowledge that vegetation help reduce the stored carbon in our atmosphere, and without this capability of carbon transfer, we wont have a habitable place to survive as humans.

Ecosystem management

In the 90′s the U.S. began to shift their focus more on ecosystem management and less on timber production. This is an attempt to create sustainable goals using a unified approach.  The three R’s, reduce, reuse, and recycle are a way to recycle paper products from once was trash, may be used again instead of manufacturing from new trees. Public education is paramount in lowering our forest impact as a country. Knowing where our manufactured wood comes from, how it is harvested, and the conditions of the workers harvesting the wood should be on the forefront of our minds for wood consumers. Being mindful is the only way we can reverse the demand for wood harvested from protected areas (see Table 1.1).

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Table 1.1

What Can You Do? (Cunningham p.259) Lowering Your Forest Impacts

For most urban residents, forests—especially tropical forests—seem far away and disconnected from everyday life. There are things that each of us can do, however, to protect forests.

Reuse and recycle paper. Make double-sided copies. Save office paper, and use the back for scratch paper.

Use e-mail. Store information in digital form, rather than making hard copies of everything.

If you build, conserve wood. Use wafer board, particle board, laminated beams, or other composites, rather than plywood and timbers made from old-growth trees.

Buy products made from “good wood” or other certified sustainably harvested wood.

Don’t buy products made from tropical hardwoods, such as ebony, mahogany, rosewood, or teak, unless the manufacturer can guarantee that the hardwoods were harvested from agroforestry plantations or sustainable-harvest programs.

Don’t patronize fast-food restaurants that purchase beef from cattle grazing on deforested rainforest land. Don’t buy coffee, bananas, pineapples, or other cash crops if their production contributes to forest destruction.

Do buy Brazil nuts, cashews, mushrooms, rattan furniture, and other nontimber forest products harvested sustainably by local people from intact forests. Remember that tropical rainforest is not the only biome under attack. Contact the Forest Stewardship Council to learn about sustainable forestry at https://us.fsc.org/.

If you hike or camp in forested areas, practice minimum-impact camping. Stay on existing trails, and don’t build more or bigger fires than you absolutely need. Use only downed wood for fires. Don’t carve on trees or drive nails into them.

Write to your congressional representatives and ask them to support forest protection and environmentally responsible government policies. Contact the U.S. Forest Service, and voice your support for recreational and nontimber forest values.

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This week i am going to talk about biodiversity, specifically pests that endanger our biodiversity.  Biodiversity includes genetic, species, and ecology variety. The Asian Long-Horned Beetle comes from China and negatively influences our biodiversity in some areas of the U.S..  Thought to have traveled on hardwood shipments, their larvae attack fully-grown hardwood trees including “boxelder, Norway, red, silver, and sugar maples. Other preferred hosts are birches, Ohio buckeye, elms, horsechestnut, and willows” (United States Department of Agriculture). Currently, there is no cure to eliminate these invasive pests.  

How does this affect our biodiversity? As i have stated, the Asian Long-Horned Beetle is an invasive species and attacks most adult hardwoods. There is no known predator to the Asian Long-Horned Beetle and the only known remedy is to “cut down and burn any infected split woods or trees” (United States Department of Agriculture). This doesn’t affect only hardwoods, but what about people?  Foreign diseases can spread in other countries as well.  “Consider the example of avian malaria. This disease and the mosquitoes that spread it were accidentally introduced to the Hawaiian Islands sometime in the early 1900s. The disease has killed about one-half of the islands’ native birds, many of which were already rare and endangered” (Cunningham p.236). This beetle is mostly contained to “NY, MA, and Ohio” (Asian) but invasive species not only affect our resources such as trees, but our health, and they can displace native wildlife.

We should not condemn invasive species however, some ecologists suggest that we should determine their ecological roles first. Some invasive species prove to be beneficial to biodiversity. The honeybee was first introduced by European settlers in America. Honeybees provide very important benefits to biodiversity, even though they are an introduced invasive species. 

“They provide necessary pollination for flowers and aid in production of nuts and seeds for various wildlife. They also provide us food. In winter months, honeybees store their honey in reserves that we harvest for consumption as well. Lastly, with their elaborate hives, honeybees help build homes for other neighboring insects” (5 ways).

As you can see, biodiversity can be harmed by invasive species but can also benefit.  It is our job to know how to control  thee invasive species, such as the Asian Long-Horned Beetle, which negatively impacts our biodiversity, and how to protect species like the honeybee, that aids in biodiversity and habitat growth.

References

5 Ways Bees are Important to the Environment. (n.d.). Retrieved from   http://www.pthomeandgarden.com/5-ways-bees-are-important-to-the-   environment/

Asian Longhorned Beetle. (n.d.). Retrieved from   https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/pests-diseases/hungry-   pests/the-  threat/asian-longhorned-beetle/asian-longhorned-beetle

Cunningham, W. Environmental Science. [Chegg]. Retrieved from   https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781259911606/

United States Department of Agriculture, F. S. (n.d.). Asian Long-Horned   Beetle. Pest   Alert. Retrieved from     https://www.fs.usda.gov/naspf/sites/default/files/alb_pa.pdf

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Deforestation, increased pollution and damage to ecosystems are a constant reminder that our cities are increasing in population. The use of these resources exponentially increase with population.  Limited resources like land, water, and food are already scarce in many areas of cities like slums or shantytowns just in the outskirts.  Cities create a great outlet for collaboration of resources such as education, food, land, political issues, and necessities.  This creates a pull to cities as these conveniences are appealing to the masses. 

These pulls to the cities makes housing everyone an issue, traffic jams a problem, and increase vehicle accidents.  Furthermore, increase resource use means increased production and pollution.  Vehicle idle time in traffic accounts for 20% of vehicle pollution. Also, it is estimated that in Bangkok the average motorist spends 44 hours in traffic, cumulatively, throughout the year. According to a December 2018 article from The University of Sydney (Australia), “This creates more homogeneous traffic flow in which sudden braking by drivers is significantly reduced. Further, reduced speed limits also reduce speed differences between lanes such that drivers have less incentive to change lanes, which again increases traffic flow stability.”

What can we do about our human impact on the ecology? Governments have already stepped up.  States such as California passed an ordinance that all new buildings less than 10 stories tall must have solar PV panels or solar water heaters on their roofs (Cunningham p.512). German cities now require that roofs of most new buildings must have “green roofs”—growing grass or other vegetation. These are great-adaptation of nature into cities to benefit habitat, the environment, and an efficient and zero waste way to insulate buildings. “11-million tons of asphalt shingle waste is generated in the U.S. each year which is equivalent to 11-millions barrels of oil” (Recycle). If we all adapt restoration in every city, what positive impacts will we have on the environment?

References

Cunningham, W. Environmental Science. [Chegg]. Retrieved from   https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781259911606/

Does slower driving make us go faster? (n.d.). Retrieved     from https://www.sydney.edu.au/business/news-and-   events/news/2018/12/21/does-slower-driving-make-us-go-faster-.html

RecycleNation. (2012, December 18). The Staggering Impact of Roofing   Waste (and a Recycling Solution). Retrieved from   https://recyclenation.com/2012/12/staggering-impact-roofing-waste-   recycling-solution/

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Population growth is both good and bad.  As you can see in the chart above, that the growth and sustainability of a population depends on the education and resources a population has.  The more a population grows without education, the more poverty that population faces.  When a country is in poverty multiple things happen.  People do not have the education or technology to efficiently use their resources. Technology help increase the use of renewable resources such as water.  Having clean water on demand are ways that developed countries prosper over underdeveloped countries. Education and technology go hand in hand.  If the people are educated, they are going to create or invent technology that will minimize effects of resource use. In regards to water, technology gives us clean water, efficiently, and filters or disposes of dirty and used water. When we have population increases, technology maintains water quality for the increase in population, as well as keep sanitation and health problems at bay.

Countries that aren’t well educated will not have a prospering population. As populations increase in underdeveloped countries, people are ridden with disease, resource depletion, and demands for necessities like water and food are too high to supply to everyone.  Education increases the ability to thrive through modern medicine, or even through conventional sanitary and health practices like toilets, sanitary sewers, water treatment, and trash disposal. These practices we take for granted in the modern world because they are so common.  We do not realize that these simple practices are technologies that are built through education that keep the population healthy and safe. We need to educate the world if we want to  be able to contend with our world’s population increase, or we will continue to see countries not thrive, and their average life expectancies in the 40′s,  rather than in the late 70′s as it is in the U.S.

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Environmental Economics

Economics doesn’t only deal with making good monetary investment decisions and selling products, ecological economics also play a major role in the growth, prosperity, and sustainability of a nation.  Ecological economics deal with how we are using our renewable and non-renewable resources while increasing growth, production, and sustainability of an economy.

One example of over use of renewable resources is deforestation. Deforestation is a concern since we are using lumber faster than it can renew. in 2018 lumber prices rose more than 30% to all-time highs as forest fires in U.S. logging camps and trade disagreements between U.S and Canada created shortages. 

Companies like Red Emmerson capitalizes on fire salvage logging as 58% of all federally sourced lumber is through post fire salvage efforts (Forbes.com). This rather inexpensive way to salvage lumber also creates its own issues.  A Sierra Pacific employee was arrested and convicted of 5 forest fire arsons.  As opportunity rises, people make bad decisions.  Logging and harvesting rules are regulated by the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act regulated by the EPA.

Green Efforts

Alternatively to environmental concerns and supply and demand disasters, is the green effort.  Going green has positively impacted non-renewable and renewable resources by planning the use of that resource from harvesting through recycling or disposal. Companies like GAP inc. has started going green with green buildings.  Allowing in more natural sunlight, using high ceilings, energy efficient fixtures, using natural wood surfaces, and native grasses as a roof covering, GAP estimates that in 4-8 years they will break even on energy and operational efficiency. Green designing from start to finish is a very environmentally conscious way to use renewable and non-renewable resources to their maximum efficiency (Cunningham p.521).  That is the main goal here, not to completely exclude resources use, that is impossible. However, if we can use technology and ingenuity to use our resources more efficiently we can get to a point to where we have a surplus or even equilibrium on renewable resource use.

References

A Billion-Dollar Fortune From Timber and Fire. (n.d.). Retrieved from     https://www.forbes.com/feature/archie-emmerson-timber-forest-fires-   logging/#19ada04364f9

Cunningham, W. Environmental Science. [Chegg]. Retrieved from   https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781259911606/

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Solid, Toxic, and Hazardous Waste

Throughout time, there has always been waste.  According to the National Park Service Native American tribes such as the Souix, would use every part of the animal they killed. “Wether it was to use bones to make tools, or hair to make rope”(Bison). They tried to live a “zero waste” lifestyle.  Also, in Pima, AZ, local tribes, even today have zero waste initiative. This initiative included a local ban on styrofoam. Since zero waste inception, the local tribe is now at 80% compliance since 2009 (epa.gov).

The average American discards 4.51 pounds of waste per day.  “While 51 percent go into landfills, only 35% is recycled compared to 50% in Japan” (Cunningham p.480) This leaves the remainder 20% to end up incinerated or composted.  That goes for hazardous, toxic, and improperly disposed of waste too!

Trash, wether burned, buried, or otherwise disposed of, can cause a variety of health hazards.  Trash dumps, or pits, just endlessly collect garbage. Bacteria, insects, and rodents are attracted to these heaps of trash and create diseases that can spread to humans. “The flies that visit the garbage are also the same flies that roam around your lunch buffet and drop their offsprings on your plate. By doing so, they increase the risk of you contracting with salmonella, which causes typhoid fever, food poisoning, enteric fever, gastroenteritis, and other major illnesses” (Overflowing).

The greatest challenge is electronic waste, or e-waste.  e-waste is waste from consumer electronics. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) “Toxic materials like lead, zinc, nickel, flame retardants, barium and chromium, found in computers and most electronics, if released into the environment, can cause damage to human blood, kidneys as well as central and peripheral nervous system”(Electronic). The United States normally ships e-waste to other countries like China to be distributed “as copper and gold has become a source of income mostly in the informal sector of developing or emerging industrialized countries” (epa.gov). E-waste-connected health risks may result from direct contact with harmful materials such as lead, cadmium, chromium, brominated flame retardants through burning of coating around precious metals. 

What can we do about the waste we use every day? What will you do about the 4.5 pounds of trash the average American discards daily? 

References

Bison Bellows: Indigenous Hunting Practices (U.S. National Park Service).       (n.d.).   Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/articles/bison-bellows-3-31-     16.htm

Cunningham, W. Environmental Science. [Chegg]. Retrieved from     https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781259911606/

Electronic waste. (2019, October 18). Retrieved from   https://www.who.int/ceh/risks/ewaste/en/

Epa.gov, Presentation, 4/12/2017, Retrieved       from https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/

Overflowing garbage bins: 5 impacts on health and environment, and how     to  prevent. (2018, August 7). Retrieved from   https://www.ecubelabs.com/overflowing-garbage-bins-5-impacts-on-   health-  and-environment-and-how-to-prevent/

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Most have heard of the Paris Agreement in recent political conversations, but how does this hurt or help our environmental policies and global economy?

What is the Paris Agreement

In our reading this past week, we learned about the Clean Air Act passed in 1963 that gave each state the power to create laws and regulations concerning air pollution.  Well this created a loop-hole for businesses and they would just move to a different state with lenient policies. In 1970, the Clean Air Act was federally passed to regulate air pollutants for six major toxins.  So, no more moving to get out of controlling our business decisions.

The Paris Agreement is basically a Clean Air Act for the world.  Their central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

The Paris Agreement requires the country to put forward their best efforts through “nationally determined contributions” and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all countries a part of the agreement report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts and a major inspection every 5 years.

In addition to world-wide regulations, the Paris agreement requires “robust transparency, climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation, and public awareness” (Change, U.N.C.).

U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

U.S. emissions of criteria air pollutants that impact human health and the environment declined by “74% between 1970 and 2018″ (Pompeo, M.R.).  U.S. net greenhouse gas emissions also dropped 13% from 2005-2017, even as our economy grew over 19 percent. I believe the reason we withdrew from the Paris Agreement was not because the U.S. does not care about pollution, we do. At the time we withdrew, 2017, we were also trying to make deals with China so we can figure out how to get our U.S. economy back on track.  China has outproduced us the past decade and our countries debt shows we are falling behind.  “ China’s economy is still growing at almost three times the rate of the US – around 7% over the last couple of years, compared to less than 2.5%” (Willige, A.). How can we gain the lead on China if we limit our production due to regulations laid out in the Paris Agreement? Our self-regulation of fossil fuels and air pollution is not enough, however it is my opinion that we need to strengthen our economy against our top competitor (China) while preventing the increase of air pollution.

References

Change, U. N. C. (n.d.). The Paris Agreement. Retrieved from         https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/what-is-the-   paris-agreement

Pompeo, M. R. (n.d.). On the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement -   United States Department of State. Retrieved from https://www.state.gov/on-   the-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/

Willige, A. (n.d.). The world's top economy: the US vs China in five charts.   Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/the-world-s-top-  economy-the-us-vs-china-in-five-charts/

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Easy ways to save water

“On average, each person uses about 50,000 liters of clean drinkable water just flushing toilets” (Cunningham p.389), while clean water scarcity is still on the rise due to water diversion, and water pollution habits. “More than two-thirds of the world’s households have to fetch water from outside the home”. We are fortunate that most or all of us in the U.S. have running water to their dwelling. Using less water not only conserves water, but the water we use, normally gets polluted.  There are many ways to lower water usage and i will cover one that many can adapt to utilize.

Through this weeks lab exercise, i realized that by limiting my toilet flushes by 2 per day, i can save 14 gallons of water per week, and 728 gallons of water per year. Not only limiting the amount of flushes, but another thought would be to change my toilet, even though it is new. 

Not a good idea

The method pictured above is a common example of how some homeowners would divert less water per flush.  This common practice does work but according to a DIY article from Jessica De Jesus she implies it is unhealthy and unsanitary

“The "bottle in the tank" method is NOT a good idea. The physics of a toilet's pipework makes it so the water in the bowl acts as a seal against the sewage system it connects to. By lowering the water level of a toilet too far, there's a potential for losing that barrier and filling the bathroom with an extremely unpleasant odor”

What can you do?

Since we all flush toilets, what can we do that is safe to limit our water consumption through toilets?

Well, according to the same article, older toilets use approximately 3-4 gallons per flush, and “since 1992, new regulation has been passed, limiting toilets to 1.6 gallons per flush” (De Jesus).

If you own an older home, with an older toilet or even a newer toilet, department stores such as Lowes sell toilets with rates as low as 1 gallon per flush. Changing a toilet may be a daunting task, but when every gallon makes a difference, it should be well worth the adjustment.

References

Cunningham, W. Environmental Science. [Chegg]. Retrieved from https://ereader.chegg.com/#/books/9781259911606/

De Jesus, J. (2019, August 1). Do It Yourself: Use a Bottle to Reduce the Water Your Toilet Wastes #30DaysofGOOD. Retrieved from https://www.good.is/articles/do-it-yourself-use-a-bottle-to-reduce-the-water-your-toilet-wastes-30daysofgood

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How we act on our sustainability will decide what our future generations will or won’t have.  Americans live in a society of consumerism.  Most do not know what effect they are having on our (humans) sustainability for the future.  We portray our environment as always “in the now” just as a car we may own.  What happens if we don’t do our regular maintenance, such as changing the oil, the vehicle breaks, and the engine is most likely un-repairable.  The same goes for our planet.  We, as humans, need to prevent unnecessary wear and perform regular maintenance of our planet. We should act to clean our oceans as countries, not just small organizations.

How we use technology can benefit our sustainability as well. The above picture (a screen capture from youtube) displays how some of our countries brightest minds are working to increase human health and wellbeing through technology.  Bill gates saw an issue with clean water in underdeveloped countries and wanted to invent a device that would turn “unsanitary water” into clean potable water. Through ingenuity and invention this product is saving hundreds of thousands of lives just by providing a means of clean water with zero emissions and fully self-sustainable.

This weeks reading really got me thinking about our global health and well-being.  What we put into our atmosphere effects not only our immediate environment but others environments as well. What if someone came into where you live and made the air un-safe? I know i would be a bit more than upset. Thats what we are doing when we collectively increase air pollution. We aren’t only polluting our air, but others too.

We can act individually on this to make a global change.  A great way to be an advocate is when you see something wrong or out of place, point it out! The internet is here at our disposal with answers in our faces within milliseconds. We can email environmental agencies or groups on social media if we see local concerns. Im sure they will be able to give you an answer or point you in the right direction. The only way we can make a change is to act, and not sit idly by while events unfold. The evolution of our government’s policy’s start with addressing a concern, and it can’t be addressed if unknown or kept hidden.

Education will help create an internal moral and ethical code that can be followed when it comes to environmentally cleaning up after ourselves.  You can’t know what you don’t know.

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Growth-and-Opportunity/Water-Sanitation-and-Hygiene