Enviornmental Science, The Final Post

Hey everyone, unfortunately it has come down to the final post for this semester's environmental science class. For this weeks post I am to discuss what is/are the most important environmental issue today. After I determine in my opinion which is the most important, I am to back this up with some cold hard facts, as well as what we can do to make a change. After this I am to discuss in my opinion one of the most interesting things that I learned this semester (which should be fun because I learned a lot of cool things). This will be my last blog post for the semester so I am going to try and have some fun with this one, so here it goes.



In my opinion I feel that one of the most important topics that we discussed this semester in the Environmental Science class would have to be Global Warming. Global Warming is in my opinion one of the most controversial topics discussed today. When I did my blog post on Global Warming, I noted that it has a strong effect on our daily lives. The rise in climate can affect our food production, fresh water resources, as well as animal habitats. The thing that makes this topic so controversial are there are so many skeptics out there that think it is a government publicity stunt. The truth is, the climate is rising, and more toxic gasses are being pumped into the atmosphere daily.

What we as a society can do to reduce the cause of Global Warming is, cut back on our energy use, carbon emissions, and pollution in general. Switching over to solar power energy rather than using electricity is a good way to cut back, as well as having vehicles that produce less carbon emissions (electric cars). If society as a whole can cut back on the things that we use in excess we can reduce the amount of animal habitats being destroyed, the amount of glaciers that are melting due to a rise in temperatures and lowering the overall average temperature.

Next we will discuss what I as an individual can do to reduce the cause of Global Warming. One major thing I can think of is to drive my car less. I drive everywhere, if I have to go to the store, to work or school I take my car. When I was growing up, I would walk everywhere, it didn't matter if it was 1 mile or 10 miles, I would walk. Now days I have the ease and convenience of driving my car everywhere I need to go which adds to the Carbon dioxide in the air. Another thing I can do to help prevent Global Warming is to turn off and unplug all of my electronics when they are not in use. I am notorious for leaving my TV on while I sleep and keeping my computer/Laptop on while I am gone. If I can manage to reduce the amount of driving, and electronics use I feel that could be a positive way to reduce my effect of Global Warming.



For the last part of my post I get to discuss what I thought was the most interesting thing that I learned about this semester. The most interesting thing that I learned this semester is how much food we as a country throw out annually. We watched a movie in class called "Dive" it was about a group of people who dumpster dive at grocery stores to find their food. Some grocery stores thrown out perfectly good food because it is passed their best if used by date. The date on the label is not the actual expiration date but a suggested date for the food to be consumed by for the best quality. These people that dove for their food had more than enough to last them a few months. Just imagine, we have people around the world starving and dying of hunger and we throw out millions of pounds of food each year. The people in this film went to a local grocery store to get their excess holiday turkeys that were being thrown out, so they can take them to the local food shelter, but rather than being given the turkeys, they ended up in the dumpster with a lock on it. It is sad that we do so little to help those in need just to satisfy personal gain, but in this situation does anyone really win? This concludes my final blog post.

Trash Reduction!

Hey everyone, for this weeks blog, I am here to talk about trash/waste, and the reduction of it. So for the assignment this week we were told to either weigh the amount of trash, or go off of the amount of pieces myself or my house hold produces within a three day period. Next, I am to do some research and find some ways to reduce the amount of trash and for the next three days implement those waste reduction techniques to see how much waste we reduced within that short period of time. So here it goes, for the first three days I decided to measure out how much trash my household accumulated, but before I get to that let me tell you about my household size. I currently have at my home, my mother, Step-father, brother and myself. So for the household size of four people over a three day span, the amount of trash in weight was approximately 12 lbs. This weight was taking in account of my brother moving home, so there was a lot of packing material that was tossed out, but other than that the rest was due to day to day waste (wrapping from food, grocery bags, open containers, plastic cups etc). This amount of trash was including recyclable items like aluminum cans, boxes, newspapers and bottles.


Now on to ways to reduce trash reduction. According to http://www.johnsrefuse.com/blog/bid/135627/What-Are-Some-Waste-Reduction-Strategies-at-Home they suggest: Re-using food containers, Purchase more re-usable items, buying in bulk and using non toxic cleaning substances. These are some great ways of reducing waste, but one way that I have found helps reduce waste so much more is, only using what you need when you need it. Grocery bags are a prime example, after going to the grocery store and receiving your plastic bags, rather than tossing them out right away, keep them for the little things, they are the perfect bag for a small trashcan. Small reductions like this can go a long way. Purchasing in bulk is a great way to reduce waste because when you buy bulk items, they typically come with less packaging materials than individually wrapped items. Using no toxic chemicals is also a great way for waste reduction because toxic chemicals do not break down substances nearly as easily as non toxic chemicals.



So after three three days of implementing some waste reduction techniques not only myself but my household in general cut back on about four pounds of waste for a three day period. For the last three days we have cut back on the amount of trash that we have been producing by, using less in general. For meals, we cut out foods that had lots of packaging, utilized our own grocery bags at the store, we used more re-usable food containers. When going to the store, we had only purchased food items that we planned on making for the next few days and nothing that required multiple ingredients. Not only did we cut back on food waste and trash, the amount of recyclables that we were putting into the bin was cut down as well, that's not to say we stopped buying recyclable items, but the less we purchased, the less we threw out. The recyclable weight was cut down by about a pound whereas normal day to day trash was cut back about three pounds. One of the good things about cutting back on the waste was it also helped us to eat better, we were purchasing more vegetables that required little to no waste,  we purchased more fruits because they don't require much packaging, we cut back to having more soup to reduce the amount of waste from multiple ingredient packages. All in all, I believe that one waste reduction method I will stick to is purchasing in bulk, not only does it save money, but as I stated previously, there is less packaging materials that come with it. I also like the idea of only purchasing what you need rather than what sounds good. The saying, "Don't go to the store hungry" is completely true, when you are hungry and at the store, most people tend to impulse purchase more often.

Climate change. Fact or Fiction?

Hey Everyone,
 For this weeks blog assignment we are discussing the on going topic of climate, and how it can our society and world. We have been given a few sources to answer a few questions. Some of the questions we have been asked are as follows:

According to evidence, is climate changing right now?
What does evidence role say about humans role in the changing climate?
How is climate change likely to affect our society and world?

One of the sources I used to research these questions is, http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html.
This website, gave me so much more insight to global warming and changing climate than I though really existed. Most of the population believes global warming is just a myth and something that some environmentalist's have come up with to scare us into a "better way of living" but the truth is, the Earth is warming up year by year and science can prove it. I will now answer the questions provided above based off of the information from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html.

According to evidence, is climate changing right now?

The answer to this question is YES! The World's climate has been steadily rising since the dawn of the industrial revolution. In 1750, we were introduced to the industrial revolution, which was great for us, the economy, and the world, but who knew the negative affects that it could potentially have for us in the future. With the industrial revolution brought on heat trapping greenhouse gasses that would later prove to be disastrous to today's current and future economies. These greenhouse gases have affected, temperature, precipitation, sea level and storms.


 What does evidence role say about humans role in the changing climate?

According to http://climate.nasa.gov/causes/ , some of the gasses causing climate change, and global warming are: Water vapor, Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide and Chlorofluorocarbons. Carbon dioxide or CO2 is a leading greenhouse gas causing global warming, CO2 is released through human activities like, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels when we drive our cars. Since the 1750's the amount of CO2 has gone up about a third. Methane is another leading greenhouse gas causing climate change. Methane is release through human activities such as the decomposition of trash and waste in landfills, machine use for growing agriculture.



How is climate change likely to affect our society and world?

Climate change is a big part of our society and can affect our everyday lives if global warming becomes more of a problem than it already is. Climate plays a bigger role in our daily lives more than people think. Rising climates can affect food production, as the heat increases it makes it more difficult for certain crops to produce. Fresh water is becoming more scarce due to droughts and less snow packs because of the rising climate. As the climate increases fire becomes a bigger occurrence, and a fire that runs through places that have a higher drought rate will burn harder and longer. Here is a website I found useful or more information on the hazards the growing climate has on us. http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/global-warming-affect-daily-life-2680.html



Going back to the beginning of this post, I stated that there are many people that are skeptical about global warming. According to http://heartland.org/ideas/global-warming-not-crisis ( a website dedicated to proving global warming is not a crisis) states that ,": Probably two-thirds of the warming in the 1990s was due to natural causes; the warming trend already has stopped and forecasts of future warming are unreliable; and the benefits of a moderate warming are likely to outweigh the costs." These skeptics believe that global warming is due more in part to natural causes rather than human interaction. Their main argument is that there is not enough scientific proven data to show that global warming is being brought on by human interaction. I think this skepticism still exists because of conspiracy theorist that has been s. Again, as I stated earlier, I believe that most people think global warming is a myth that some environmentalists came up with to try and get us to "go green" and live a better life in their eyes.

From everything that I have read about, I personally believe that global warming is an issue and something that should be addressed more often. I recently saw a movie that really brought the issue of global warming to light for me, this movie was called, "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore. In this documentary Al Gore, shows a graph of the amount of CO2, Methane and Carbon dioxide that has been admitted into the atmosphere in the last thousand plus years. I personally feel that if we continue living the way that we have been living, producing the same toxic chemicals that are causing climate change, there could be a possibility of a full enviornmental collapse in the next 50 years. If we don't do something about the way we live, we could soon deplete the earth of it's natural resources which we so desperately need.

Tap Water Vs. Bottled Water

For this weeks blog my Enviornmental Science class an I are to learn the pro's nd con's of bottled water. For this blog I will determine where the tap ater from my home faucet comes from, who regulates the tap water, and some of the concerns and drawbacks from bottled water. There has been some controversy over which is better for you, bottled water or tap water. What most people dont know is that bottled water is tap water, and is less regulated than our city tap water. I personally am a fan of bottled water over tap water specifically because of the taste. Most people would call me crazy because "water is water" but I believe bottled water has a more "clean" taste than tap water does.




The tap water for the city of Riverside come from underground auqafiers, filtered through a percolation which is a naturally occuring water purrification process. This aquafier grows from the runoff from snow and rain that runs from the hillsides down to the aquafier each time there is a storm. According to http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/wqar/2011/Water_Collateral_WEB.pdf  Riverside, Ca's water has been rated one of the purest waters in the nation.  A lot of people think that by drinking tap water they will get sick or develope some sort of illness because the water is not as "clean" as bottled water is. According to an Aritcle in the LA Times, Dr. Sarah Janssen did some reaserch into this matter and came to the conclusion that tap water was actually more healthy and beneficial than bottled water, because tap water is more highly regulated. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/13/health/he-nutrition13.

From what I have learned about the water in California, Riverside especially is that all water requirements are met and exceeded. Over 17,000 lab tests are done each year to the water in the aquafiers,all test's after completion are then reported to the Department of Public Health. The water in Riverside is not only regulated by state officials but by federal officials as well. According to the City of Riverside website, the water in Riverside is at such a high standard that you can drink the water from the tap without using a purifier because of the exact amount of chlorine used in the water to kill bacteria. http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/wqar/2011/Water_Collateral_WEB.pdf.

In the United States, society is more quick to purchase bottled water because of it's convenience rather than for health benefits. Bottled water can be taken anywhere, if you are on the go and need to quench your thirst there is usually someone selling or offering a bottle of water. The cost of bottled water is astronomicl considering the cost of tp water. Bottled water can cost anywhere from $.80 - $4.00 per gallon whereas tap water costs only pennies a day according to http://www.csgnetwork.com/tapwaterbottledwatercostcalc.html.

Bottled water is regulated by the FDA whereas tap water is regulated by the EPA. Despite what people think bottled water is in fact less helathy than tap water due to the regulations of each water source. Tap water is subject to a more strict regulation than that of the bottled water. The FDA is under staffed under regulated which causes the the water quality of bottled water to be more full of bacteria than that of tap water. For more information on what regulations the FDA and the EPA offer, you can visit the EPA website. http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/index.cfm.

Hot Cheetos...These Are a Few of My Faaaavorite Things!

            For this assignment, we are required to pick one food that we enjoy eating and find out what types of ingredients are found in the product, as well as where the product comes from and how healthy it is to humans and the environment.  One food (snack, really) that I love to munch on is Hot Cheetos.  Although I do not eat this snack too often, I eat it enough to wonder about its effects on health.  I realized that I did not know what most of the ingredients were in this product or whether these ingredients were harmful to my body.  After some research, I discovered that Hot Cheetos have four main ingredients:
 

·         Enriched Corn Meal (corn meal, ferrous sulfate, niacin, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, and frolic acid)

·         Vegetable Oil (corn, canola, soybean, and/or sunflower oil)

·         Flamin’ Hot Seasoning (Less than 2% of the following: maltodextrin [made from corn], salt, sugar, monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, citric acid, artificial color [red 40 lake, yellow 6 lake, yellow 6, yellow 5], partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, cheddar cheese [milk, cheese cultures, salt enzymes], onion powder, whey, whey protein concentrate, garlic powder, corn syrup solids, natural flavor, buttermilk, sodium diacetate, sodium caseinate, lactic acid, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, and skim milk)

·         Salt

http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/cheetos-flamin-hot.html

 

            Of course, each of these main ingredients, with the exception of salt, are composed of even smaller ingredients.  The Flamin’ Hot Seasoning is a very important part of Hot Cheetos.  As mentioned above, the Flamin’ Hot Seasoning has many components that make up the specific taste of Hot Cheetos.  For instance, artificial color is used in the seasoning.  After careful research on Frito-Lay’s website (www.fritolay.com), the company uses “plant-based or synthetic dyes to enhance the color of some of [its] snacks.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for regulating all color additives used in food manufacturing in the United States.”

            Enzymes are also used in the manufacturing of Hot Cheetos, specifically in the cheese used for making the Flamin’ Hot Seasoning.  Enzymes are added to milk during the cheese-making process to separate the solids from the liquid.  I was very happy to find that Frito-Lay cooks all of its snack chips in healthier oils such as corn, canola, sunflower, and soybean (which make up the vegetable oil used in Hot Cheetos).  These oils are lower in saturated fats and have zero grams of trans fat (www.fritolay.com).

            Hot Cheetos are made in the United States at plants throughout North America.  Frito-Lay’s main plant is located in Plano, Texas.  Frito-Lay actually has contracts with special farmers who plant and grow the potatoes and corn used in its snacks.  After the potatoes and corn are harvested, they are delivered to nearby Frito-Lay factories to be made into various snacks.  The farmers that grow the potatoes and corn that go into the snacks all operate within the United States, in various regions throughout the country (www.fritolay.com).

            A great initiative that Frito-Lay took in packaging its products, like Hot Cheetos, is that its bags are now biodegradable over time.  This means that if the bags do not find their way to trashcans or landfills, they will not hurt the environment.  In addition, Frito-Lay has implemented a partnership with TerraCycle, which is a company that recycles by turning waste into a new product.  Consumers can send in their used packaging, free of charge, to TerraCycle so the company can “upcycle” the used product into a new product, such as a clipboard, tote bag, or trashcan.  Frito-Lay will also donate $0.02 per chip bag sent in, to the school or non-profit organization of the consumer’s choice.  I am very happy that Frito-Lay has a corporate social responsibility in recycling for a greener planet.

            Based off of my research, I have concluded that although Hot Cheetos are not the healthiest snack to munch on every day, the chips are actually healthier than I had originally anticipated.  The healthier oils and fresh products used in manufacturing Hot Cheetos make the product a healthy choice if eaten in small quantities.  Of course, a balanced diet is necessary to maintain healthy living.  At least I know I can eat one of my favorite foods with a clear conscious, knowing it is a snack that is okay for me to eat!

Go green or go home!

For this week's blog post, I am to show how sustainable or "green" the Riverside Community College campus is, and show some other College campuses have gone "green" as well. In addition to Riverside Community College's campus I decided to research the campus of the University of Southern California or USC for short. USC's "Going Green" program started back in 2008 and is still thriving today. Throughout this weeks blog, I will be discussing what factors make USC a green campus as well as talking about how Green RCC's campus is and what I can do to either fix or improve the method used. Going green is the communities way of giving back to the Earth, this can be anything from using solar panels to reduce the amount of energy caused to produce electricity, to recycling more to reduce the amount of waste and pollution cause by the SEVEN BILLION humans walking the Earth. The amount of waste and pollution put into the Earth's atmosphere on a daily basis will have a long lasting effect on the future of the Earth and the way people we live. In this blog I plan to give an Idea of what we at RCC and other college campuses can do to be a little more "green". 



Solar panels are an alternate energy source

Some factors that we can use to determine how green the RCC Campus is would be to find out if an how much the RCC Campus recycles. Are there alternative energy sources like solar panels? Do we have a garden or grow our own vegetables? What do we do to reduce the amount of paper used and trashed?

One of the intentions RCC plans to pursue is implementing a going green culture and give seminars on the three R's (Recycling, Reuse, Deduce). This was to take effect as of the 2010 year. Rcc has been in partners with student activities for campus cleanup , making a garden and possibly growing their own organic fruit's and vegetables rather than out sourcing. Rcc has been involved with a few community gardens that not only help make the campus green but helps the community as well. Another thing the RCC administration has implemented is more online classes. With the use of online classes it cuts down for the need and use of reams of paper because most work is submitted online rather than in person.

RCC has a strong recycling plan and has followed this since 2009. A report in August of 2009 shows the amount of recycling RCC has done in past years.

Landfill Disposals:

• Trash dump truck: 131 tons or 10.9 tons per month.
• Greens diversion: 90 tons or 7.5 tons per month.

Trash Compactor:

• Wet & Dry trash: 390 tons or 32 tons per month.

Recycle:

• Cardboard boxes, white paper: 144 tons or 12 tons per month.

Information provided by (http://websites.rcc.edu/greeninitiatives/environmentally-responsible/)

RCC has met the minimal requirements for recycling and plans to improve this by as much as 75% in 2012. A few ways that RCC and the students can make this happen is:

 1. Converting our trash compactor to dry waste only.

 2. Less landfill disposal by implementing reduce, reuse recycling tactic.
 3. Improve campus wide recycling program to include plastic, aluminum and construction waste.
 4. Dedicate small dumpsters for wet waste that is considered contaminated waste from the cafeteria.



In 2008 USC developed the USCEI (USC Energy Institute). This Energy Institute was designed for a Student based function in which the students would come together to take charge on making the campus and possibly other campuses more green. One of the studies the students at the USCEI took focus on was different ways to make carbon-based fuels more efficient for daily use as well as promoting a more renewable energy source. USC has done so much to promote energy preservation the even host DORM ENERGY COMPETITIONS (prizes included for the winners). This dorm energy competition is a one month challenge in which two competing dorms measure how much energy they use, the dorm with the least amount of energy used wins, and everyone in the winning dorm receives a prize. The energy consumption is tracked through this website: http://myactions.org/. Through this website the change in each resident's habits can be tracked to see who uses what energy. Some more factors that show USC is making a difference in going green on their campus is:

 1. Using Organic vegetables in the cafeteria
 2. Building green houses for the plants
 3. Proper waste management and recycling
 4. Offering transportation (buses and trams) powered by natural gas.

For more information on how USC's campus is going green or for more information on how to participate you can visit their website. http://green.usc.edu/

My daily use of Earths resources.

For this week's blog, my class and I are to make a list of everything we use throughout the day to show the correlation between what we use and and the effect that it has on the earth as well as how the earth has effected the product.

A) Food and Drink.

Water

Orange (3)

Dr.Pepper (2)

Beans

Cheese

Torilla

salsa

B) Housing and other Buildings

My house

My work (Brothers Truck's)

My friend's auto shop (Toolman Smog)

DMV

RCC

C) Transportation and Roads

My Car

91 Freeway

15 Freeway

residentail roads

main streets

D)Clothing

Shirt

Pants

Socks

Shoes

Hoodie

Sunglasses

E) School Supplies

Folder

Pencils

Pens

Paper

Textbooks

Calculator

Ruler

Colored Pencils

F) Personal Care Products

Toothbrush

Toothpaste

Shampoo

Soap (hand/body)

Deoderant

Towel

Toiletries

Mouth Wash

G) Leisure Activities

Talked on the phone

Used my Laptop

Watched TV

Washed my car

          Based off of my list I am to research one of the items on my list and answer some questions about that particular item and provide information that I was able to gather from my research. This information will include what the item is made of, how it is used, how it got to me, what will happen when it is no longer "useful" and more. The item I decided to choose is my favorite soft drink, Dr. Pepper.

Dr.Pepper pictured here:    

Dr.Pepper is comprised of 23 flavors as well as some other ingredients which gives it the delicious flavor many have come to enjoy. The ingredients in a Dr. Pepper are: Carbonated water, High fructose corn syrup, Caramel color, Phosphoric acid, Artificial and Natural flavors, Sodium benzoate (preservative), and Caffeine. In some markets Sugar is used rather than High fructose corn syrup. Dr. Pepper is housed in plastic bottles as well as aluminum cans, which are bottled in Texas at the main facility. Dr. Pepper is used as a thirst quencher, and in my personal opinion the most delicious of soft drinks on the market.

The Aluminum cans that houses this nectar is made from a material found in the earth's crust. This material is called Bauxite which is mined typically overseas and shipped to the United States. The process of making Aluminum is a long and drawn out process which involves electricity "zapping" the refined powder Alumina (remainders of impurities in Bauxite) which separates the Aluminum from the from the oxygen. The constant electricity on the alumina causes the aluminum to separate and become a hot bubbly liquid until forming into large sheets of aluminum. More information about the Aluminum process can be found at this website: http://www.alcoa.com/rigid_packaging/en/about/making_cans.asp

When the product is used and becomes no longer "useful" they will either go to the recycling center or the dump. At the recycling center the aluminum cans are melted down back to liquid form, "purified" and reformed to its original state to be reused by aluminum manufactures. At the dump the cans remain in the land fill until being melted down with the rest of the trash, which no longer be reused. 

Dr. Pepper was invented and sold in 1855 in the state of Texas. Dr. Pepper was the invention of a man named, Charles Alderton, an employee of Morrison's old corner drug store. Charles invented Dr. Pepper by mixing flavor syrups together based off of the smells resonating from the drug store. This product is most definitely a want over a need, because you are not required to consume it to live, but consuming this soft drink brings an explosion of flavor to one's pallet that is extremely enjoyable. For more information on the history of Dr. Pepper you can visit the Dr. Pepper Museum, or its website provided here: http://www.drpeppermuseum.com/About-Us/History-Of-Dr--Pepper.aspx 

What surprised me about this product is the process on how the soda is provided. I had no clue that the aluminum cans were imported from overseas or that depending on the market this soda is sold in the ingredients change. I think what we can do to more conserve Earth's resources is recycle more often. By recycling more we can cut back on using Earth's precious materials for personal use on something that is not 100% necessary.