Carbon Dioxide Footprint?

For my fuel class, we had to find out how many tons of carbon we put in the air and put all the info in a plan. We found this out by using a carbon dioxide footprint calculator, after that we had to then find out what actions we could take and how many tons of carbon they offset. The purpose of this was to see how much carbon dioxide we put in the air annually and to see how different actions could help. The challenge was finding out how many metrics tons it would be, compared to how many tons. One fun thing was to actually see how many tons of carbon dioxide I put in the atmosphere.

 

 

                                                  NVA "CO2 Solutions." 2-19-14. Chicago: GCE

 

Pollution is chemicals or toxins that are released into the air that can cause many different outputs to the environment. These toxins can be released into the air in many different ways, from breathing to burning fossil fuels, and from volcanoes erupting to livestock giving off methane gas.. These ways are mainly due to man, and the only way to lower these outcomes is to change the way we live today.

One of the biggest pollutants is carbon dioxide, which can be transferred to the atmosphere through any of the ways I listed above. People release many tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually. I release about 33.3 tons or 30.2 metric tons of carbon each year;11% from goods, 33% from services, 21% from food, 25% from shelter, and 10% from mobility. It would take 6.1 Planets Earths exactly to provide enough resources, if everyone produced that much carbon dioxide. To offset these carbon emissions, I would have to plant 775 trees to sequester the carbon dioxide I produce. This information is called a “carbon footprint”. It is how much carbon we create and put in the atmosphere.

Annually, my lifestyle produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as 6.3 passenger vehicles, while my carbon dioxide emissions are equivalent to 3,387 gallons of gasoline consumed. This is a lot for just one person, especially because I don’t drive myself.

There are three actions I could take that would help reduce my carbon footprint and could be helpful for others to do. Below are the actions and how they can help reduce carbon emissions:

Reduce the amount of animal products you currently eat by half:

- I eat mainly beef and chicken, and both are big animals that release methane into the air. By taking this action, and eating half of what I eat now, I can go from 6.1 Planets Earths to 6 planets taking away 0.1 planets. Following this action, will reduce my carbon dioxide emissions from 33.3 to 32.6 tons, 0.7 tons less than before.

Use solar panels to provide most of the electricity in your house:

-If I took this action, it would help the offset the carbon dioxide emissions, because it would reduce the amount of coal or natural gases that get into the air when burned to create the electricity. The number of Planets Earths required to support lifestyle would be reduced by 0.9, which is 6.1 to 5.2. From this action, my carbon dioxide emissions would be reduce by 6.8 tons, the difference between 33.3 and 26.5 tons of carbon dioxide.

Make all your appliances more energy efficient:

-My household appliances are energy efficient, but by making them more efficient it would help reduce the amount of energy needed to make the appliance work. The number of planets would be reduced by 0.3 planets, which would be 6.1 to 5.9. By switching to energy efficient appliances, I will reduce my carbon dioxide emissions by 2 tons, the difference between  33.3 and 31.3 tons of carbon dioxide.

These actions would help get rid of some of my carbon dioxide emissions, but they won’t get rid of all it. More people should invest money/time for an emissions reduction project, because these projects can help keep the greenhouse gases contained and remove them from them the atmosphere. One way that people could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is by planting trees. As I said before, I would need to plant 775 trees to sequester my emissions.  Scientists have found that 1 urban tree will sequester (or remove) 0.039 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere. I can use the formula 1 tree/0.039 metric tons. The formula means that with every 1 tree planted, 0.039 metric tons of carbon are removed from the air due to photosynthesis. 30.2 metric tons (1 tree/0.039 metric tons) = 30.2/0.039 = 774.35, which would round up to 775 trees.

 

Even without investing, I could just follow the actions. All of these actions put together would reduce the number of planets needed by 1.1, which is 6.1 to 5 planets. This would reduce my carbon dioxide emissions from 33.3 to 25.7 tons or 30.2 to 23.3 metric tons. In other words, I would have reduced my carbon output by 7.6 tons. Then, to offset these emissions, I would only have to plant 598 trees, which is 177 LESS TREES needed to take care of the carbon I’m giving off. We need to be at 350 ppm of carbon in the air, and because we put so much carbon in the air we are at 400 ppm and rising. We need to start taking actions now and get that number down!

REFERENCES:

"Clean Energy: Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

"Footprint Calculator." Global Footprint Network. Sept. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

"How Emissions Reduction Projects Work." TerraPass. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

"Carbon Dioxide." World of Earth Science. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. Web 21 Feb. 2014    

"What is a Carbon Footprint." Time For Change. Web 21 Feb. 2014           

The Dream Catcher's Purpose

In my Who Am I class, everyone had to make a dream catcher that would symbolize the positive and negative elements that are filtered out by a dream catcher. The purpose of this is to see what messages the unconscious sends us and to see how we can symbolize our bliss. The challenge was picking the the items that would symbolize the different elements. The fun thing about this was getting to chose how I wanted the dream catcher to be made and I didn't have to follow instructions.

                                                       NVA, "Dream Catcher" 2-20-14. Chicago

The dream I based my dream catcher  off of was a dream that I had when I was younger. I was in my house and this man with a mask banged on my window and I ran to my room, while he was breaking the door open. Then he opened up the closet where I was hiding in my room and I pushed him, then ran. It went dark and I showed up at a friend's house and the man had them all tied up. Then I woke up. From that dreamed I learned that I need to face my fear of men that are stronger than me and stand up for myself more. If I would have stood up for myself before the dream, then I would not have had those dreams. The middle of a dream catcher symbolizes someone's bliss or what means the most to them. My bliss is that I want to have adventures and travel the world. To symbolize this I used yellow beads to symbolize this bliss and I made it my "creator" for this dream catcher, I made the beads in a circle so that they can pass by easily. I want my good dreams to head for the white string so that it knows where to go. The beads that are hanging are used to filter out the bad dreams, I used green string to attract them and turn them in good dreams. The green string will symbolize good and wash away the evil. The three blue lines on the outside symbolize the people that were tied up in the dream. The skulls on the catcher means "death" to the bad dreams. Under the skulls are the feathers, which are peacock feathers. I used them because it looks like they have eyes. I want those eyes to look over me while I'm sleeping. I want my real bliss to come to me and not let the ego get through. I know that every dream has a message from the unconscious, I want my unconscious to help me reach my bliss. If I use this dream catcher, then I may be able to reach my bliss and do something meaningful in my life.

How Is It Going To End?

For this Who Am I action project, everyone had to come up with a guiding question that related to different parts of the unit. What I came up with was How is it going to end? The purpose of this action project was to see how a guiding question could relate to a persons doubt. What I learned was that when it comes to this questions, different religions say something different. While all scientists mainly agree on that the sun will be are end. The challenge of this action project was finding different religious views.

                                                      Celestia. "Red Giant" 2013. Internet: Wikipedia

My guiding questions is, How is it going to end? I arrived at this question because in The Truman Show he didn’t know what was going to happen to him when he found that he was being watched. Just like Descartes he wanted to know how it was going to end for him. Truman doubted that everyone around him were actually people he could trust, because he knew that it was all an act. Also that he couldn't control his life without being watched. In the end he does regain his control of his life and leaves to start a new life. Descartes wondered how man came to be and how our lives would end. 

I was compelled by the importance of this question because, this question is something that everyone wonders. No one can really tell you or someone what their life is going to turn out to be or how life would actually end. There is always something that can happen to change everything that is planned. I want to pursue this question because, I always want to know how it will actually end because people from different backgrounds have different answers. Philosophers can answer this questions because they think about how we began and how it will end. Then the philosophy would go into two categories, religion and science. Scientists would answer this question by studying space and how everything works outside of earth. Scientists answer this by stating that the sun will expand and kill off everything. While, religion would answer the question by focusing the question on the second coming.

My question is universal and is relevant to all humanity because, everyone wonders at one point in their life, how their lives is going to end up or how their life might end? Also that everyone has different answers, whether it would be religious or scientific. Many religions think it will be when God or evil, comes to the real world. In Christianity they believe that everyone will exist until the second coming, which is when Jesus Christ would come back to the real world. Or in Buddhism, we will be the cause of our own end. Scientists believe that the world will end by the sun becoming a Red Giant and kill everyone and everything.

In the end, there is no real answer to how the world will end. It could be the sun turning into a red giant of it could be the second coming. Anything could happen to the world and we might not have full control of it, but maybe like Truman we can regain our control.

“The Science of the Real End of the World.” Ethan Siegel. Science Blogs. 12-20-12. Retrieved 2-7-14


“Eschatology.” n.p. Wikipedia. 2014. Retrieved 2-7-14

You Must Switch to Wind Turbines!

In my class fuel, students had to pick a partner and those two would pick one of two renewable resources, Wind energy or Solar energy. My partner and I chose to do Wind turbines, because we both didn't know much on how they worked and the money behind one. The purpose of this project was to see if we could make a video that explained how wind turbines work, the money behind one, and to see if we could make a compelling argument. The challenge of this project was creating the video.
  

 

  

 

NVA: Hi my name is Nick, I live in Denver and I use solar panels, but the area I live in is very shady and doesn't get a lot of sun.  Is there another renewable resource that I can use to lower my electricity bill?

 

GS:  One resource that you could try is wind energy, because it is renewable, and there is an endless supply of it.  It is also environmentally friendly, like solar panels, neither of which, create pollution!

 

NVA:  That's great, but how do they work exactly?

 

GS:  Wind turbines transfer motion energy in the wind to electricity.  The way this is accomplished is as follows: The wind spins the propellers.  The generator uses magnets to create electricity, which goes to a substation.  The substation transfers the energy to the grid, which goes to your house.

 

GS: However, there are some negative impacts on wildlife.  Birds and other animals could be hit by the spinning propellers.  Also, some people are bothered by the noise that wind turbines produce.  However, not everyone feels that way.

 

NVA: Thank-you for alerting me to the cons of wind energy.  The biggest obstacle that I am worried about is overcoming the financial aspect.  My electrical bill is about $50 a month.  Would I be paying more for the turbines?

 

GS:  Your energy bill says you use around 386 kWh in any given month, which means you are paying $17.70 per kWh for electricity in a single month.  If you were to purchase a wind turbine, you could certainly reduce this monthly cost. However, initially, you will be spending more than you will in the long run.

 

NVA: Really?  How much would it cost initially?  And when would I break even?

 

GS: To buy the wind turbine, it costs about $10,000.  However, in 7 years, you will break even, and make your money back.

 

NVA: How much would I save in the long run?

 

GS: Over the course of 14 to 15 years, you could save anywhere between $654- $1,248.  I hope I have helped you answer your questions about wind turbines.

 

NVA: You definitely have!  I think wind energy is a great alternative to non-renewable resources like coal and petroleum.

 

 

REFERNECES

"How Does a Wind Turbine Work?" n.p. U.S. Department of Energy. Jan 23, 2013. Retrieved from web 1-31-14

 

"Wind Energy Pros and Cons" n.p. Energy Information, n.d.  Retrieved from web 1-29-14

 

"Solar or Wind Calculator" n.p. Solar-Estimate. n.d. Retrieved from web 1-31-14

 

Wikimedia, "Wind Turbine Holderness" Nov 26, 2013. Countryside. Retrieved 2-3-14

 

U.S. Department of Energy. Energy 101-Wind turbines, 2014. Retrieved 2-4-14