Cleaner Environment and Natural Resources
by. Morgan Clark
There are many ways to protect Earth. One of them is by knowing about one's carbon footprint, and how it affects the environment. This affects the way of recycling to save materials from the earth, air and water pollution as well as understand human's relationship with animals, their needs, life cycles and creating a ‘green' technologies to fight back carbon footprint. Each of the way carbon footprints does have a lot of different cause and effects on the planet. I believe that everyone must understand how important the planet is by working together for all life on Earth to have a cleaner environment as well as have lots of natural resources.
"The carbon footprint" describes different types of energy release from technology which cause pollution. Carbon footprint is the measure of greenhouse gasses. One of the ways humans produce a carbon footprint is by the use of electrical appliances, cars, and factories which cause greenhouse gasses. When someone starts a technology like an air conditioner which uses a lot of electricity, that person is responsible for causing and spreading the greenhouse gasses. The carbon footprint can vary depending on the choice of energy. The greenhouse gasses come from small electrical appliances cause fewer gasses than gasoline from vehicles, power plants, and factories. The most of all the technology that produces greenhouse gasses are cars. Cars used up so many gasoline, oil and fossil fuel. If there was a big traffic jam on the freeway, the greenhouse gasses will tighten up the heat waves from the sun that will increase the temperature which will heat up the atmosphere.
An example image will explain from this passage.
Relate to CF that effects the environment
Recycling and
Life cycle of animals
Other resources on Earth are the humans and animals. Animals adapt to their environment, whereas humans want to change their environment to suit their needs. These species have been on Earth for more than thousands of years. Some animals have more offspring than humans, and therefore have a better ability for hunting and surviving. Bees pollinate flowers and plants, helping to make honey. By learning how to understand each animal's life cycle every life even human's life cycle can continue.
There is another way to help the environment, to fight back carbon footprint, and that is technology. There are lots of different kinds of technology that protect the environment. A very common technology is solar panels. Solar panels are used by absorbing the radiant light and heat from the sun and converting it into electricity. Solar panels can be used to generate hot water for one's house, and can be constructed using recycled materials while lowering pollution from carbon footprint. Affording solar panels can be expensive, depending on their quality. Solar panels can range from around $100 dollars operate for small sizes, while some cost more than $2,000 dollars.
The effects of Carbon footprint.
Animals are great and beautiful. Pet and wild animals inspire humans. Their beauty makes all humans want to keep them safe, protected, and healthy. Humans and animals are different, but understanding how they are interrelated will help Earth. If we cut down pollution from carbon footprint, we can save marine life from the toxicity or recycling material in the water, birds and bees would not die from the haze in the air, and stopping poachers from killing elephants for their tusks for ivory and money and save them from extinction.
Today, the human race manages to overwhelm animals and their population. Humans tear down trees which forces animals to relocate. Cities continue to grow and overtake the animals' territory, causing their populations to decline. This creates more interaction between humans and animals in the rural environment that is a bit related to our carbon footprint that is affecting the environment. There has been some illegal hunting which is called poaching, where greedy people hunt animals for their horns, fur, and other body parts. The most-poached animals are African elephants because of their tusks. What humans are doing to animals' decreases their populations and are causing them to go extinct. If there are too few animals or plants that bees cannot produce pollen from, it will be hard for humans to find something to eat.
The planet has a lot of natural resources for humanity to take advantage of. The resources are discovered and develop by humans. Those resources have been on Earth for a very long time, which are used for metal, paper, glass and plastic. The processes of manufacturing materials from these resources take a lot out of the earth. If there are not enough natural resources, then it will be hard to have something to carry and eat food. Materials that are not recycled are causing a lot pollution in the air and water which are harming animals and causing toxicity to the environment which is related to the carbon footprint. Factories that makes the recycling materials are causing air pollution. Wasted materials are found in water that is polluting the water. Pollution in the air and water have their different way of effecting the environment.
Reduce your Carbon Footprint
To shrink one’s carbon footprint. From what Billitteri wrote,
“To reduce their individual (carbon footprints), many are cutting gasoline and home-heating consumption, choosing locally grown food and recycling. While such actions are important in curbing global warming, the extent to which consumers can reduce or reverse broad-scale environmental damage is open to debate. Moreover, well-intentioned personal actions can have unintended consequences that cancel out positive effects. To have the greatest impact, corporate and government policy must lead the way, many environmental advocates say.” (Billitteri)
By keeping track of what kinds of electrical appliances one uses, greenhouse gasses will slowly decrease by each passing hour. Other ways are having a car with good gas mileage, or an electric/hybrid car, riding the bus with hybrid fuel or riding a bike for the day, and using food that is grown locally.
The way solar panels work is by collecting energy from the sun, ‘photovoltaic cells.' An example from what Brian wrote,
“Photovoltaic (PV) solar collectors, usually consisting of silicon-based materials, transform the rays of the sun into the direct electric current. For example, Photovoltaic cells are a collection of positive energy cells that the sun releases into the atmosphere. The solar panels help absorbed the photovoltaic cell’s energy, convert them into electricity to be used. When the photovoltaic cells have been used, the cells are released from the solar panels. The cells wait to be used again when it absorbs some positive energy from the sun’s light and heat.” (Brian)
Using solar panels can help and protect the environment from greenhouse gasses, pollution, or any other chemicals that are used to generate power through traditional methods like carbon dioxide. Maybe high school students should be required to take a class on basic solar panel design and construction for our future. Cities could also require new buildings/homes must have solar panels as well so the owner would not need to use power from power plants. This kind of technology is easy and sometimes affordable if someone thinks about purchasing one to have for the environment, and can see the long-term benefits of their actions so that one day they would not to relied on carbon dioxide or any other fossil fuels for electricity.
This problem with air pollution can cause global warming and bad chemicals in the air to breathe. The haze of the air pollution can also change weather patterns to affect the climates on earth. Without recycling, more trees will be cut down to be used for paper in factories that will produce chemicals causing pollutions to be released in our atmosphere impacting oxygen levels that are increasing carbon footprint. The air pollution, animals can die from the toxicity easily than humans. If the materials float away in the ocean a marine animal may think it is food and it can kill the animal or poison it while lowering their population. If a beer or soda can ring gets caught in a dolphin's mouth it will be hard for it to remove the ring and it will starve to death. Wasted chemicals in the water from factories will make eating fresh and healthy fish difficult if the water is infected with chemicals. Taking too much raw material would damage the laws and balance of Earth's structures that keep our planet stable.
Water Pollution
Water sources that are used to take industrial wastes away from manufacturing facilities often carry the wastes into streams and other waterways. The movement of these waters then spreads the pollutants over a wider area. Pollutants discharged into the nation's waterways include mercury, lead, sulfur, asbestos, phosphates, nitrates, and various petrochemicals.
Air Pollution
Air pollution comes from burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal which release carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, and other harmful substances into the atmosphere. They also produce massive amounts of tiny particles of ash, soot, and other toxic substances that come from factories. Agricultural activities contribute to air pollution as well by introducing insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers into the atmosphere.
Images for a green utopia
Question: What is the greenest city in America in 2015 and in the world from Green Uptown.com?
A. Vancouver, Canada and Dallas, Texas
B. Toronto, Canada and Bristol, South West England
C. Portland, Oregon and Reykjavik, Iceland
D. San Francisco, California and Copenhagen, Denmark
Portland, Oregon
On the number three spot as the world’s top greenest cities is another US city, Portland in Oregon. This city does not need too much introduction as – time and again – it has continuously beaten all the other US cities. Being Green has been achieved in Portland, now the city is focusing more on embracing nature. Local residents are now making it a popular practice to eat locally produced products, to carpool, to recycle and to make the buildings LEED-certified.
As Oregon’s largest city, Portland has efficiently utilized renewable energy resources for up to 20 percent more than what is being implemented nationally. Just like San Francisco, Portland was also one of the first US cities to ban the use of plastic bags. It also has about 250 miles bike lanes, trails and paths. As a matter of fact, Portland is named as the United State’s most bikeable city.
If everyone recycles and commits to, it will save resources and energy, reduce the air and water pollution, and conserve landfills and money. It will save a lot of trees, so they will not be cut down and be used to make more paper in factories that would not make more pollution. Earth's materials would not be used up to make more metal. There will be time to save more land for homes, so it will not be used as a landfill for garbage and un-recycled materials. It will also save more lands for the wildlife. Recycling can be hard, but it is something that everyone on Earth should do for a healthy and green planet to lower carbon footprint.
Protecting the environment is a very hard to do, but knowing about the different carbon footprints that cause greenhouse gasses, saving the resources of the earth by recycling to prevent pollution in the air and water, keeping a balance between the lives of humans and animals, and using technology that protects the environment, can help protect it. Taking care of the environment is not something to ignore or give up on because it is something that all of the use humans must do while understanding about how important the planet is to our survival. It will take time and money to achieve a perfect environment, as well as be working together. If people implement these methods, it will help to conserve natural resources and result in a cleaner environment for a utopian future.
Reykjavik, Iceland
On top of the list as the number one greenest city in the world is Reykjavik in Iceland. Iceland, in itself is a truly unique and magical country. It has a culture all its own. Its people are unique in their own ways. It is no mystery then that one of its cities will make it into the list, and getting the top spot is surely something to be truly proud of.
Reykjavik runs virtually totally on renewable energy. This island state is rich with geothermal activity being effectively converted into renewable clean energy. The city also utilizes only 0.1 percent fossil fuels in providing power for electricity. Now, that is a number that has not been achieved by any other city.
Presently, Reykjavik gathers its energy for electricity, hot water and heat from geothermal resources and hydro power. By 2050, it is estimated that the city will be highly independent from using fossil fuel.
For those who are not familiar with Reykjavik or Iceland it elf, it is worth knowing that being the greenest city in the world, also makes this city one of the most coveted destinations today and for years to come.
Let's aim for a better future!