Environment in the News. Combustible Ice

It seems like China has developed a new source of energy. It goes by the name of “Combustible ice," or natural gas hydrate, which is mainly found in deep sea. According to the article, one cubic meter of "combustible ice" equals 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas. This resource has also shown a very low emission of gases to the environment and according to the article the Qinghai Province, home to one-quarter of China's total reserve on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The head of the Chinese cabinet Wen Jiabao said, “In his government work report on Friday that China would work hard to develop low-carbon technologies, as well as new and renewable energy resources to actively respond to concerns about climate change.” In my opinion it’s a great alternative energy source for this part of the word do to their lack of resources and massive population issues. It also offered the opportunity to create a healthier environment for this country. It also shows the good will of this country to help the environment and develop cleaner energy sources when they still have time to fail and can rely on their currently implemented ones. This represents the first step to solve the issue of highly polluting energy sources we have around the world, which grows every minute and we haven’t adapted or found a solution to. Doing more research and learning the advantages and disadvantages to this resource is the key to producing technology to utilize the use of it. Even though it’s a fairly new discovery it has a high prospective for this country.

You can find the original article at:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-03/06/c_13200033.htm

The ocean

The ocean is one of the largest living systems in nature. At the same time is the one that we are harming the most. Carbon monoxide trap in the center of the earth has accumulating in the ocean over centuries, but it’s not staying there. It’s being released to the environment due to the rising temperatures in the water. Over fishing takes away from the natural habitat and creates instability of itself. We take away life from the ocean and all we put back is waste and devastation in to this wonderful and amazing system. We need to take action and be more responsible of our waste. Water is one of the most abundant resources in earth, but it won’t be long before the damage that we have done to it is irreversible. Swimming in the ocean has become a health issue in some parts of the world. We have forgotten water is one of the primary needs to live, without water life is not possible. We are destroying one of the most wonderful sources of live. I think is time to put in to action our brains and think outside the box. Be realistic and take a stand. I want to see my grand kids and their kids grow in a healthy environment and at the same time enjoy the great refreshing filling of visiting the ocean and swimming in it. I don’t want it to be just a memory of resource we are using as a waste field. Corporations and industries bring pollution in to the water and seem not to care much about it. I bet all they care about is how much money they are going to make in the stock market this quarter. What ever happened to ethical decisions and caring about our surroundings?

Calculating your Ecological Footprint

Before I took the test I was very confident that my consumption and life style wasn’t normal. After taking the text I realize that there are drastic measures to take to make my life style healthier for the environment. My score was 17 and it would take 4.3 Planet Earth to sustain my life style through time. This is bad for me and my family, for the simple reason that as time passes it would take more resources to sustain me and future generations of my family tree. I have already started making some changes which include:

· I make sure the garbage is distributed correctly by separating the recyclable materials from the garbage.

· I bring my own bags to when I go glossary sopping.

· Only use my car if is really needed or I carpool with other people.

· I also try to use electricity as little as possible.

· Wash my car only if is necessary.

· I change all the light bulb in my house to energy efficient ones.

· Reduce the time I send in the shower.

I have evaluated myself and I know I need to change and I’m willing to change my life style to promote a sustainable planet. I know there is a need to change, for the fact this is an issue that has no solution, all we can do is learn how to manage our self better to adapt to live with it. We have forgotten we only have one earth and we need to take care of it. I’m also trying to change the way I approach usual activates that require the use of natural resource. I also have taking the responsibility to educate my family and friend of these issues and make them aware that we need to change to preserve the earth for our future grandchildren and their kids.

Food Intake/ Packaging

a.	Food	Drink/Quantity	Quantity	Preparation	Total Calories	Item/Source
Breakfast	Cup of Coffee 2 Slices Bread With Whip Cream	Milk/8 OZ	Recommended Serving Size		410 Calories	Bread/Thomasville, GA Milk/Seattle, WA Whip Cream/Northfield, IL Coffee/Colombia
Snack	1 Banana	None	One		172	Imported From Ecuador
Lunch	Turkey Breast On 2 Slices Of Bread	Water/16.0OZ	Recommended Serving Size		245 Calories	Turkey/Northfield, IL Bread/Thomasville, GA
Snack	Protein shake	Milk/12.5 OZ			220 Calories	Protein Supplement/Denmark
Dinner	2 Cans Of Water Base Tuna Lettuces Salt and Pepper	Water/16.9OZ	Recommended Serving Size		145 Calories TOTAL=1192	Tuna/San Diego, Ca Bread/Thomasville, GA Lettuce/Charleston, SC

Reflecting on my daily diet I have notice that a lot of the product I purchase and use come from very far away. It makes me think how much gas the truck that transported them had to use, and also the gases that emitted to the environment. My food choices are sustainable at this point in time for the fact we have the means and the ways to transport them, but in the future this may change. The need for greener distribution chains that do not affect our environment; if this was the case I would have to change my diets and become a vegetarian I can always learn how to grow my own food.

b.

Item	Package
Cell phone	Cardboard Box, plastic Inserts, Wrapped In plastic
I Touch	Plastic case, Seal With Tape, Plastic and Paper Inset
Lunch	Reusable Plastic Container
Mail	Paper Envelopes, Plastic, Double Sided Tape
Groceries	Plastic, Paper, Reusable Ziploc Bags, (I take them home in Reusable bags)

I’m sure that the ecological impact of making some of the item I sue in a daily bases have taken a lot of water and energy to produce. But I have become more concern about the environment and I’m trying to reduce my ecological foot print by reusing some of the bag and paper I received in the mail. I being trying to be more environmentally friendly for example, I take my own grocery bags to the super market. I have also notice that many stores and super Market are using paper and eco friendly bags, which makes it more convenient for the consumer and healthier for the environment.

Water Rights and Water Usage Reflection

The idea of rerouting water resources to create an electricity source is a great approach to cut down on the use of fossil fuels and dependency from foreign oil, but water is a resource that should be free no matter the occasion. It’s one of the most abundant resources on earth, yet the one that takes a greater abuse from society. Also he is looking at his project as a business adventure instead of an environmental solution to a problem we have brought upon our selves. No one should have the right to control water or decide the price of such. They want to reroute water to create electricity, you should have some benefit over this. If water runs under your property I believe you have some kind of owner ship over it. As a property owner you have a saying on the decision, benefits, and outcomes of this innovation. This project not only impacts the resident, but also can impact the wildlife. Taking water from ancient aquifers beneath Texas and rerouting it can create shortages of water in their natural environment. It may be that some of these animals are use to a certain water supply in the field and we decided to take it away or decrease it. Where would this animal take care of their thirsts and refresh them selves in a hot day. The article states that he is guarantying that no one is going to be left without water, but that the water shortages in other cities would be much less thanks to this. I completely disagree that one man has the power to decide what to do with such a precious resource. We already allow large corporations to control the oil and its price. I hope our society is not going to commit the same mistake twice. On the other hand I don’t really believe we would have a situation like this arise in Florida, for the fact that we are a very conservative state, surrounded on three sides by water sources. We don’t support or like change. Therefore the chances of something like this being developed in Florida are very small. Over all it’s a great approach to a better environment, but there is a lot of ethical dilemmas to work out in this project.

b) List your daily Water Usage:

Consumption of Water on Saturday

Dishwasher: 1 wash

Toilet: 1 Flush =1/2 bucket

Washer: 1 wash =20 gallons = buckets

Washing the car: 28-30 Buckets

Washing the stairs: 12-15 Buckets

Shower: 8-15 buckets

I’ll be honest I never noticed I use and waste so much water on a daily bases. For example I never realized that to wash my car would take so many buckets of water, I usually let the water run while I was soaping the car. Thank to this experiment or observation I realize I was wasting a precious resource that we don’t have great amounts of. I have decided to cut down on the amount of times I wash my car in a month. At the same time I have to create a better schedule to wash my clothes. I wasn’t aware of the amount of water being wasted when I don’t fully use the washer to capacity.

Future of Food

My favorite snack is Oreo Cookies

The ingredients are: Sugar, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}Folic Acid)High Oleic Canola Oil and/or Palm Oil and/or Canola Oil, Cocoa (Processed with Alkali)High Fructose Corn Syrup, Baking Soda, Cornstarch, Salt, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier)Vanillin - an Artificial Flavor, Chocolate.

The ingredients come from:

According to Kraft Foods North America, while the main ingredient the cocoa comes from South America and Africa. Oreos are manufactured in New York City, where they have their home base. Some of their ingredients are grown in houses (artificially made). Kraft refused to disclose the precedence of most of the ingredients used to make these wonderful cookies.

My favorite snack travels from New York to get to me, during this process I’m sure the transportation company used up about 80 gallons of gas. I was not able to get an exact number, for the fact that when I called the company they refused to provide this information to the public. They state that they are working on a more environmentally friendly distribution chain.I also feel that not only Kraft Foods uses fossil fuels to produce and distribute their product and service. Every manufacturer needs to be more concerned to the harm being done to the environment and take action.

As they stated in the movie “Future of Food” we have focused our selves to produce and push as much products as we can. We have become a society focused on accumulating and tying up resource.

In my opinion I think consumers have to be informed and always exposed to the different ingredients of their food. We don’t always make the healthiest choices, but it’s only fair to be conscious of what we are putting in our bodies and where it comes from. This activity made me realize the harm that we do to the environment by not growing our own food. As the film “Future of Food” said we have lost our farming skills and replaced them with chemical fertilizers, and it’s very true we have turned to artificial and processed flavored foods. Food these days comes from a chemistry lab saturated with chemical components that gives our foods taste and size.

The “Future of Food” film gave a better understanding of how we have lost the true meaning of growing and sustaining ourselves with the products from earth. We take more resources from the earth than what we put back. We have done irreparable damage to our land and we still haven’t taken any action to make a permanent change towards a sustainable way of producing our food.