Month: May 2019
Sustainability Individual Report
The ideology of sustainability focuses satisfying present needs without sabotaging the future generations’ ability to satisfy their needs. The concept of sustainability consists of three essential factors: economic, environmental and social. In order to achieve sustainability, we must take into consideration the impact of all three factors.
Your ecological footprint is the amount of impact you had on the environment through your lifestyle, and your consumption of goods. For example, a t shirt uses at least 150 litres of water during its production, that means when you purchase it, you have imposed a burden of 150 litres of water consumption upon the environment. The water used can not be used for drinking or production in other industries thus being not renewable. With a global population of almost 7 billion, it is important that we recognise our individual, and total environment impact so that our consumption does not exceed the amount of resources that be produced sustainability. Else the Earth’s resources will dry up in the near future, and children may have to live in harsh conditions unfit for human survival.
Above is my personal ecological footprint, and my largest output is carbon output, which takes up about 55% of the total footprint. Two biggest contributors to my carbon footprint are my foods ,and services consumption. However, through reflecting upon my lifestyle, I reckon that the second biggest output would be my electricity usage as I turn on air-conditioning as soon as I get home, and I use a large variety of electricity consuming products.As for my food consumption, I eat a large variety of food that consists of different kinds of meat and spices which contributes quitely heavily to the footprint.
Before doing in depth research for this project, I had not realised how much impact the production of foods make on the environment. Beef and dairy related products creates many greenhouse emission. These products come from cows, and cows feed on grasslands. These farm animals require huge amounts of space, and in need of grasslands, many farmers choose to cut down forests for the nutritious soil in the land. Deforestation causes the soil to become less firm, and speeds up erosion. Carbon dioxide is also process and converted into oxygen at a slower rate as a result of this. Losing forests can also lead to loss of habitats for many animals. Farm animals like pig and cows respire, then breathe out large amounts of carbon dioxide as well as farting methane gas, both of which are greenhouse gases that encourage global warming. A lot of water is also consumed when raising the animals, imposing a heavy burden upon the Earth’s already scarce water resource.
Electricity can be generated through many methods likes burning coal, nuclear fission, and harnessing wind energy. However, it is still primarily generated through unsustainable combustion of non-renewable resources and nuclear fission. Burning of coal and oil produces greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Nuclear fission is very dangerous, and waste disposal has potential to be hazardous to both humans and the environment. Storage of radioactive materials require much maintenance, yet still being damaging to the soil and water bodies surrounding it.
I would start working on eating less meat, or buying food that is unpackaged and locally sourced. Through eating less meat, I am reducing deforestation and carbon output by a small portion. Buying unpackaged food helps reduce plastic use, and buying food produced in nearby regions reduce fuel use during transport. I should also starting turning air-conditioning on less frequently, and turn off electric appliances when I am not using them. I should take shorter showers, and hopefully cold showers so that there is less water usage, and less burning of non-renewable fuel for heating. I should start adding my food waste to composts so we can use them to plant more greenery that would produce oxygen while absorbing carbon dioxide.
If I were to choose one of these changes, I would choose to eat a lot less beef and dairy products. The impact of deforestation is so severe, and almost irreversible at the rate we are doing it. The environmental cost of raising cattles are heavy in many aspects like greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, destruction of biomes, etc. By eating less beef related products, I am able to make change on many front, maximising my impact.
Works Cited
“Sustainable Development | Path to Sustainable Development | Venn Diagram Examples for Problem Solving. Environmental Social Science. Human Sustainability Confluence | Sustainable Development Diagram.” Https://Www.conceptdraw.com, www.conceptdraw.com/examples/sustainable-development-diagram.
2st Personal Reflection
The best part of the project was when we interviewed Ms.Toms about her perspective on sustainability, and she gave some incredibly insightful ideas about our life designs that we should all reflect upon. She talked about how buildings are designed in a fashion that forces us to turn the lights on even during the day, and use air-conditioning when we could have just used natural wind. During this project I have learned about how to reduce my personal carbon footprint, and how to make a proper screencast. The most challenging thing for me was identifying chances of improvement within Ms.Toms’ already sustainable lifestyle. I had to be creative when screen recording couldn’t record my voice, so I had to do a separate voice over. In my team I was the most organised since I completed all tasks required of me before the deadline whilst reminding my group to complete theirs, and add on to the website in time so we can reorganise the information before it is presented.
1st Personal Reflection
At the start of this project, my group and I agreed on what questions to prioritise asking, and using our own life experience, we decided questions about food, transport, clothing, and electricity consumption are the most important ones. These factors contribute heavily to one’s ecological footprint. We will focus on the sourcing of these goods, then hopefully reduce transport costs, and production wastes.
Our client said that they frequently fly, and we acquired details about their transport routine. We learned about their take on sustainability and what they have already done to reduce their ecological footprint. I think we should recommend them to use electricity generated by sustainable power, which is still quite cost efficient. This can reduce their carbon footprint since electricity generated by coal contribute heavily towards urban carbon output. I researched about companies that provide reliable sustainably energy to the city grid. The next step is organising out information, and create lists of recommendations.