Summer Assignment: Sustainability

Sustainability, in terms of environmental science, is the earth's ability to function continually through changes and adaptations. Living sustainably involves making concious efforts to reduce your negative environmental impact. While living in this manner during current times is becoming progressively more difficult due to expense, practicing a sustainable lifestyle untimately benefits our earth as a whole. One of the major environmental issues we face today that affects earth's sustainability is the pollution of water, particularly bodies of water that suppport ecosystems and are utilized as a resource. The pollution of water can be caused by multiple factors, most commonly through the dumping of hazardous wastes and the run off of lawn chemicals or car wash fluids. The protection of water sources links directly to sustainability beacause water is a vital element in the continuation of earth's survival. Efforts like "World Water Monitoring Day" allow people to test the "health" of local bodies of water, thus drawing attention to potentially polluted lakes, streams, rivers, and oceans. Forming habits like turning off dripping faucets, taking quick showers, and limiting unecessary water use can all help in preserving water and living sustainably.

Another major environmental issue jeopardising our sustainability is the cutting down of massive amounts of trees, or deforestation. This is detrimental because trees, like water, are vital to earth's function. They provide oxygen through respiration. Industries continue to harvest trees for lumber and other uses but new sustainable laws and regulations are being set to help over-cutting. Lumber companies in many cases are required to replant harvested lands in hopes of creating new growth.

Living sustainably may be the only answer to protecting our environment and resources in the future

Stuart G.

Sustainability -Thomas W.

Sustainability is the durability of something or how long something last, if you will. Sustainability deals with the economy, society, and the environment. Today, society is searching for more sustainable resources that will last longer and not harm the environment when they are used or thrown away. The problem is not all of society is willing to change their lifestyle or resources. Also, not all solutions to a more sustainable environment are the cheapest, this is where the economy plays a role. The more sustainable resources and solutions the world uses; the less harmful impact humans will leave in their footprints.

Sustainability efforts are not always seen as drastic changes. The little things make a big difference. Many grocery stores have moved to cloth bagging or biodegradable paper bags. A family that uses and reuse sustainable cloth bags for shopping or groceries rather than plastic bags can save up to 150 plastic bags from the landfill a year. Sure, those plastic bags can probably be squished into a good size ball, but imagine 300 million people using cloth too. To force people to stop using plastic, Ireland has placed a $.33 tax on every plastic bag used at checkout. This is the first nation to put a tax on plastic bags, maybe others will follow. Plus if you do have plastic bags from a store do not throw them away when you could recycle them. Recycle by using them again or using them as trash bags in small trashcans in your home. Cloth is a sustainable resource made from cotton and other materials. Cloth bags last a long time and can endure a lot of use.

Another sustainable solution is "greener" building materials for houses and buildings. Instead of using wood many new house especially on the beach are using a more durable manufactured product that looks and feels just like wood siding. This product does not nearly deteriorate as fast as wood and is made from recycled materials. The longer it last, the less rebuilding and destruction will have to be done. Wood is a good renewable resource but for places like the beach or mountain tops that get intense weather could look to this other product without making an exotic change to their house. Europe is actually looking at newer ways to construct their houses so their roofs collect water instead of flooding the streets. Hopefully, the USA will come up with solutions or ideas to conserve resources. The hardest part is change. People do not always want something different especially if it looks different.

However, the newer, greener construction is one of those long term solutions, the small everyday personal decisions help numerously.

Hyperlinks:

http://www.emagazine.com/daily-news/reusable-bags-the-irish-way

http://www.emagazine.com/archive/3527

Sustainability Assignment

Sustainability is the earth’s ability to change and adapt to changing environmental conditions (Miller,LITE). Our planet will continue to adapt and change forever but, it cannot replenish its resources as fast as we can use them.

Deforestation is a huge problem, and while deforestation rates have slowed in the last few years, they have not slowed enough to make a large difference. Every day we cut down trees, destroying thousands of habitats and ecosystems. Did you know that 70% of the earth’s land animals and plants live in forests? Many of these animals cannot survive the deforestation of their homes. Steps are being taken to counteract the removal of forests. The number of tree plantations in the world grows each year. This will balance the cutting of the trees with the growth of new trees. However, these tree plantations only make up for a fraction of the trees that have already been cut down (National Geographic).

Another problem we are currently faced with is the deoxygenation of our oceans. Deoxygenation is the removal or loss of oxygen in an area (dictionary.com). In our oceans this can be caused by several factors including algae blooms, warming waters, and changing currents. The loss of oxygen makes it impossible to sustain life within these areas. The areas with enough oxygen loss to become uninhabitable are still few but scientists are already trying to head off the problem. They are considering the stimulation of plankton growth to lower CO₂ levels. In order to stimulate plankton growth they would need to disperse large amounts of iron throughout the oceans. They are worried about the possibility of further deoxygenation so they are still looking for other options.(ARS Technica).

The World’s environments are being seriously affected by global warming and our uninhibited use of our natural resources. Whether you are concerned about your local park or a rainforest in South America finding a “greener” way to do the simplest task can make a difference.

Deforestation

Deoxygenation

Suatainability

Sustainability is the ability of the earth's natural systems, along with human cultural systems, to survive and adapt to changing environmental conditions (Miller, Living in the Environment). To sum it up, sustainability is earth bearing the weight of all living things. Every living thing has an affect on its ecosystem, and for the past 3.54 billion years most of earth's million species have been able to sustain themselves cleanly and seamlessly.

Ever since humans showed up 200,000 years ago, we have been determined to find new, improved, and easier ways to live. These solutions to every day problems, while effective, are not always the most delicate processes. One major problem that humans face today is finding energy sources. We as a species are dependant on devices like cars and cell phones that run on external energy sources like gasoline and other fossil fuels. These nonrenewable resources release harmful and even toxic gasses that destroy our atmosphere and create the greenhouse effect. This is "a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gasses, and is re-radiated in all directions...energy is [then] transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere" resulting in abormally high temperatures (wikipedia.org). In recent years, scientists have discovered and embraced a series of alternative and environmentally friendly energy sources, appropiately called "green" energy. These include wind, hydroelectric, solar, geothermal, and tidal energies. While effective and healthy for the earth, they are not as popular as fossil fules mainly because they are expensive, and difficult to use on a smaller scale. These problems are being addressed as a major concern (hyperlink A).

In 1970, the government created the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. They formally established a national goal to create and maintain conditions in which humans and nauture can live in productive harmony (epa.gov). Over the past 30 years, it has become a point for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to contribute to our earth by means of public education and renewable resources. They focus on pollution prevention rather than pollution control. Advances in renewable energy and solutions to pollution are being made every day, and the best thing the public can do help is to educate themselves (hyperlink B).

Hyperlink A:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_development#Fossil_fuels

Hyperlink B:
http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm

Jennifer J.

Sustainability- Shelly J.

Sustainability is how humans, natural systems, and economies survive on the available amount of natural resources without destroying these resources faster than they can replenish. This is an important part of life because if humans do not conserve resources, then some may start to disappear. People should try to live and keep this idea in mind so future generations have access to the same resources as previous ones.

One of the major problems today deals with rising levels of greenhouse gases. A greenhouse gas is a gas that emits and absorbs radiation. One of the major gases is carbon dioxide, and levels of carbon dioxide have risen since the industrial revolution and the burning of fossil fuels. China and India are major contributers to this problem because of their dependence on coal power. Carbon emissions have grown less than one percent per year since the 1990's. Since 2000, they have a growing rate of 35 percent per year. There has been no decline from 2000 to 2008. These gases have reached a point where they can cause drastic climate changes. These greenhouse gases can cause disasters such as destructive sudden heavy rains, strong tropical storms, and repeated flooding, to increase.

To help this problem, the EPA has enforced a mandatory reporting rule of greenhouse gases. Large companies and supplies have to supply the EPA with data and other information to help with future policies and hopefully help reduce the levels of these harmful gases.

Another problem deals with the problem of too many plastic bags "floating" around the environment. Plastics cannot biodegrade, and stray bags account for one to three percent of the hundreds of billions produced each year. These bags are found everywhere, even in bodies of water. Marine life suffers because the bags are ingested by the animals, and they die of starvation due to a blocked stomach. An example of this would be a sea turtle seeing a plastic bag and mistaking it for a jellyfish. Stray plastic bags can also cause health problems for humans as well. They can clog sewer pipes, which cause standing water. An easy solution to this problem is to start using cloth bags. Cloth bags only cost one dollar at most stores, and they can save the lives of many fish.

Hyperlinks:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgrulemaking.html
http://www.globalstewards.org/issues.htm
http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/reusablebags.htm

Sustainability

The term sustainability, in ecology, is used to describe how ecosystems stay productive as well as diverse over time. There are many problems that can threaten the earth’s sustainability, but one stands above the rest in the long run, overpopulation. Overpopulation by definition is excessive population of an area to the point of overcrowding, depletion of natural resources, or environmental deterioration. There are many reasons for the rapid growth in population within the last 500 years such as better hygiene, mass food production, medicine, and technology in general. If the earth does in fact become overpopulated eventually, then there will be a detrimental series of problems that will plague the earth. One of those problems will be the scarcity of resources, because of the population size nearly all of the arable land on earth will be turned into some form of urban complex thus leaving no room for farmlands. When there is no room for farmlands that means that agricultural production will have dwindled to nearly nothing. Also with a over capacitated Earth will be more health problems across the board, with a large population the inhabitants of earth will be densely populated meaning that contagious disease will spread much quicker, harming more people than ever before. In the past 50 years there have been some major changes in the world in attempt to control the population. In 1970 the United States enacted Title X of the Public Health Service Act, this act provides access to contraceptive services, supplies, and information to those who seek it. Also in 1978 China introduced its One-child policy, this policy highly discourages having more than one child. Chinese officials claim that since the policy's enactment over 250 million births have been prevented. Even though overpopulation is not a global problem at the moment, we need to start thinking of plans for the future.



Parker








http://www.buzzle.com/articles/overpopulation-problems.html

http://overpopulation.org/

Sustainability

Sustainability can be defined as a way to "meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs"(WECD, 1987). The problems with the environment must be solved without endangering the later generation's resources. Overpopulation has become a problem because of the many resources needed by people daily. As technology increases the population increases because it is believed we can handle more. The world population is projected to reach 7 billion by early 2012 and later to exceed 9 billion by 2050. Most of the increase will come in developing countries, which will also develop and start to use more of the environment's resources. We are already quickly depleting our resources and this increase will only accelerate the problem. Industries are also expanding throughout the land, which takes land away from the population of people. This causes more people to live in a small area rather than spread throughout. A solution to this would be education, so that we are able to come together and create alternative sources of energy. If we learn more about these resources, we will be able to slow the problems of overpopulation or explore new energy ideas. The rapid use of our natural resources is relatively recent and could quickly be depleted if actions are not taken to slow the population or create alternative sources. As we learn more of these resources and the challenges we face with overpopulation, a solution will hopefully come to sustain the environment for many more years. With the constant growth of people in the fixed area of Earth, a solution is needed to sustain life for future generations.

Ian

http://www.sevenwords.org/human-overpopulation-causes-effects-and-solutions/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090418075752.htm