Science individual essay

Through the project, I learned that sustainability is the ability to protect the environment, ecological footprint can show the natural resources that people spend in their daily life.Sustainability is inseparable from the ecological footprint, cause one aspect of sustainability can be seen from the ecological footprint, thus people can improve what they are doing in lives, base on that, they might try to find the way to think out the way to change something in their life style to help protect the environment.So everyone can achieve the protection of the earth to protect the environment and save natural resources.

Above is my footprint result, as you can see, I am not a very sustainable person.In the result, I realise two of the habits that contribute the most are travel and services.I do this footprint calculator based on my life in China, for the services, I think it relates to the waste in my daily life.Normally there are 3 or even 5 people living in one house, because of the number of people, so our rubbish is more than our neighbours, and most of the trash are about food waste, clothes that can’t be worn anymore, and some plastic water bottles without water inside and can not be recycled.I have learned that most of the garbage is destroyed by incineration, and the incineration itself causes damage to nature. If plastic is burned, the plastic will produce toxic gases such as hydride, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide when it burns. A large amount of garbage is burned, the generated gas will pollute the air and harms the human body. This toxic gas damages people’s lungs, trachea, skin, and respiratory system.During the garbage burning process, the ash produced will fly into the air and pollute the environment.Not all the trash is going to be burned, rest of them is going to be in the ocean, although this is the only way to deal with garbage at present, the damage to the natural environment is very serious.

For the travelling, I need to spend a lot of time on the plane cause I study in Singapore, from China to Singapore once it costs more than 5 hours, at the same time, our school have plenty of vacations, and when it’s time, I have to go back to China cause I am boarder in school and the rule is if we are not scholarship we can not spend our whole holiday in boarding house.All in all, I believe air travel is the biggest problem for me and the services(trash)is the second problem.I search for air travel and the website says:”Unfortunately, air travel is one of the more environmentally damaging activities we can undertake. Globally, the aviation industry is responsible for roughly 2% of carbon dioxide emissions, but that is rising quickly as more people fly more often.”During the flying, it costs lots of energy so plane will release a lot of carbon dioxide in the air, and burning releases greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.

Take it more serious, if everyone is doing the same thing that can causes the pollution, so the seawater is polluted, the air is polluted, so the ozone layer is destroyed, causing global temperatures to rise, icebergs to melt, animals to die, and human life is threatened.

Dealing with the garbage, me and my family will use less plastic water bottles, if we have to use or buy it we can have the type that can be recycled.I think there are many ways that can let us recycle the plastic bottle, for example, I can turn it into watering tool or flower pot.We can use the clothes that we can’t wear anymore to make ‘eco bag’, or donate it to somewhere that the children don’t have enough money to buy clothes.For food, do not over-serve and store food correctly in the fridge to keep food fresh.

Dealing with the air travel, although the air travel is the only way I can arrive Singapore, I can choose direct flights as direct as possible, and compare some different airline and choose a more sustainable one.During the vacation, fly as less as possible, try to avoid flying as much as possible. If I can take the train or bus to travel, I can save up to 90% in CO2 emissions.

If I only have one choice from waste and air travel, I will choose control the waste cause it’s easier to deal with and I can start doing that from some small things in my life.

 

 

 

One thought on “Science individual essay

  1. Sustainability – you have outlined what sustainability is and linked to the ecological footprint. It would be interesting to know what you mean by the ability to protect the environment.

    My Ecological Footprint – you have chosen two relevant issues within your ecological footprint and provided good detail on these aspects of your lifestyle. You could expand further on the specific scientific effects of these issues, i.e. the greenhouse effect.

    Making changes – the changes you have suggested are appropriate given your ecological footprint. It would be interested to know a bit more about what you think the impact would be of these changes.

    Communication – You have communicated your ideas clearly and like the personal insight you have given

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