Leo Tabalon
Artist Statement
My essential question falls under the lines of “how do your daily actions really effect the environment” and “if going green really does have a significant impact on the environment?” Our video is supposed to be humorous satire with an artistic video design embedded into the project. The “green guy” is a symbol for all the going green posers who really have no clue of what their actions effect the environment. Its one thing to care about the environment and it’s another thing to be aware and to take action and steps for a better environment.
The fact of the matter is every single thing we do has an impact on the environment and this main character in our video has no clue of what he is really doing, he is falling under the trend of going green. The little things he does in the movie like drinking a lot of water bottles and leaving the sink on while he’s brushing his teeth all have an impact on the environment. Like when he throws away the papers it’s like he doesn’t even know a thing and he’s totally thinking he’s helping the environment. The funny thing is that people don’t actually realize those kinds of things, they don’t realize that by a ton of paper is equivalent to 17 trees and by just recycling they can save and reuse a significant of that thus having a good impact on the environment.
Another thing is that water bottles are being consumed in the United States at an alarming rate. To be exact every second 1,500 plastic water bottles are being consumed and about 80% of that total is not being recycled. What are we really doing with all those water bottles? Like the guy in the video almost every day he drinks a water bottle and that will add up to be a huge number.
I hope that by watching this video you think more about what you are really doing every single day of your life and that just little things such as recycling or driving less, even just turning off the sink when possible all can have a good effect on the environment.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Annotated Sources
http://www.conservatree.com/paperlisteningstudy/LSForests.pdf
The reason why I really like this article is because it states various different arguments and topics in every chapter. For instance are old growth forests being cut down for paper use, what content standards are necessary for paper to be labeled as made from sustainable fibers, etc.? They also all provide citations and quotes from other sources but it’s a really long article. They provide information from credible sources like
"Conservatree." Conservatree - Recycled and Environmental Paper Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
This website is really helpful with the little facts we can use in our video. The site isn’t from Google scholar but it is really helpful with our senior project because it provides the facts about printer paper production and how much trees it takes. (17 trees= 1 ton of paper). I really like this website because it also provides a link to myths in recycling paper and they exploit the truth in those myths and they provide the real facts. http://www.conservatree.org/paper/PaperTypes/RecyMyths.shtml
http://www.valemount.org/water/WaterDocs/PouringDown.pdf
Here it provides lots of numbers and certain facts about global water bottle consumption. It provides good information but it was published in 2006 so the past 3 years I still need to find research on that, but it’s still a good article but it’s really brief and short. They also talk about money spent on bottled water and other various topics.
When water flow in rivers lowers due to:
- Warmer climate and
- Less precipitation
- Human water usage
Lower water levels cause:
-Less water to use for human consumption
-losses of fish in rivers
-Estimated by the year 2100 anywhere from 1-75% of fish habitat will become extinct.
Many people are developing different approaches to conserve the water and habitat in the freshwater rivers.
-Setting Regional Environmental Flow Standard
Effects of climate change and water shortage on freshwater biodiversity (2007): 1-1. Effects of climate change and water shortage on freshwater biodiversity. Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, 4 June 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. <http://nabs.confex.com/nabs/2007/techprogram/P1113.HTM >.
-27 million users in 7 states and 2 countries
-27 million people in the southwest
-Irrigates over 3 million acres of farmland
Water shortages continue to decrease due to rapid increase of populations in these regions. Due to this as well as climate change it will reduce water flow by 10-30%.
Due to climate change:
-Reduce runoff by 10-30%
If climate change reduces by 10% then scheduled water deliveries will be reduced by about 58% by year 2050.
If reduced by 20% the then scheduled deliveries will be reduced by about 88%
Sustainable water deliveries from the
Temperature in
-Studies predict that
-Greater increases in northern regions, about 5 degrees C.
-Northern
Precipitation:
-Expected to increase 5-10% over the 20th century, predicted to increase overall.
-15% increase in winter precipitation for northwest regions
-General increase for central and eastern regions.
Many predictions for precipitation increase, however there are net decreases from water availability die to offset increases in evaporation.
-20% decrease for summer precipitation. Especially in southwest regions.
Effects of climate change on water resources (2008): 12-14. Choices. Richard M. Adams and Dannele E. Peck. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. <http://www.choicesmagazine.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Final Draft
Shed Organization and Tool Maintenance Research Paper
Much like Michael Pollan states in his editorial Farmer in Chief, “the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.” Most people don’t realize the issues and complications being caused by our food production. The inequality of international trade poses a big problem towards the farmers’ community and also has an impact on the environment.
Because the green revolution has occurred, industrial farming and food production are being used all around the world, due to the fast rate of production as well as the huge numbers that can be produced in a minimum amount of time and the prices to produce those foods. These methods of farming pose a serious threat to the population of organic farmers or the people who do all the labor because of the fact that they get a low amount of pay which don’t necessarily meet living standards. It also includes health problems due to the harsh working conditions. Pesticides, chemicals, and harsh working conditions all play a part in the life of whoever is doing the dirty work and they don’t even get paid much for them. In the article The Global Food Crisis by the National Geographic Magazine, it stated that “the high cost of fertilizers and pesticides has plunged many Punjabi farmers into debt” a number of those famers committed suicide due to that reason. The article also mentions how some of the areas in where chemically enhanced farming takes place, the population around that are harmed from the harmful bacteria in the air and water that come from the chemicals and pesticides.
How do we ensure the equality of international trade? The answer is Fair Trade. Fair trade is considered a social movement which aims to provide and help producers in developing countries as well as the approach to implement sustainable alternatives that are safer to the environment. Fair trade helps farmers/producers create more of an economic stability and self sufficiency. According to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, it was estimated that over 7.5 million producers and their families were benefiting from fair trade funded infrastructure, technical assistance and community development projects and according to UK's Fairtrade Foundation, $4.12 billion was the total amount of money in fair trade sales for 2008. In my opinion if we keep this up both producers and consumers will be satisfied with the sales and products thanks to fair trade organizations.
The Fair Trade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) are responsible to certify fair trade in producer groups and other organizations, stated from the Transfair USA here are summary of certification standards:
1. Guaranteed floor price paid directly to the producer group, or income paid to the worker organization.
2. Fair labor conditions for farm workers.
3. Freedom of association for farmers and workers, and democratic decision-making processes.
4. Environmental standards that restrict use of agrochemicals and foster sustainability.
5. Removal of unnecessary middlemen that decrease producer income.
6. Access to pre-harvest lines of credit for cooperatives.
As stated above some other goals of Fair Trade Organizations such as TransFair USA and the Fair Trade Federation are for certified organic farmers receive a certain amount of pay for their product, as well as maintaining and enforcing fair labor conditions for the farmers, community development, and most importantly environmental sustainability. TransFair USA strictly prohibit harmful chemicals and GMOs, instead they promote alternative sustainable farming methods.
Sustainable farming methods should be more of the standards of farming due to the fact of energy used to produce industrial foods. The Farmer in Chief article stated that according to one study “the way we feed ourselves contributes to more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere than anything else we do, as much as 37%,” we need to find alternative ways of producing our food that won’t burn up fossil fuels as well as find more sustainable ways of using energy to reduce our green house gas emissions when we produce our foods. According to the Encyclopedia of Earth worldwide agriculture contributes to almost 14% of total green house gas emissions. Michael Pollan is right, our abundance of producing food “depends on cheap energy which we can no longer count on.” We need to face the facts, oil is becoming more expensive and we are depleting our oil and fossil fuel supply in an alarming rate, and we need to do something about it. The Encyclopedia of Earth states that 82% of greenhouse gasses are from the carbon dioxide from the process of burning fossil fuels and only 2% are from other carbon dioxide emitters.
There are so many sustainable energies that can be implemented in different methods of farming; there are biofuels, geothermal heat pumps, hydroelectric power, passive solar heating, solar hot water systems, and wind energy. I believe that all these alternative energies can be used to significantly decrease the damage that our greenhouse gasses are doing to our atmosphere and environment. The US Department of Energy states that farms and ranches can use anaerobic digesters in their farms. Anaerobic digesters, also known as biodigesters, recover methane from animal manure to produce electricity and heat, and they reduce methane emissions, which is in fact a green house gas. Another alternative energy that can be used in not only farming but in the use of homes, is solar energy, which in my opinion is the most “sustainable” because we will never run out of solar energy for maybe a couple billion years. According to the US Department of Energy, such examples that solar energy can be used are; solar water heating (being used in dairy farms to clean equipment and stimulate and warm cow udders), and photovoltaic systems are being used for lights and water pumping.
The truth is there are so many alternative ways to farm as well as use in your home. They way we produce consume, and transfer food consumes so much energy and does a significant amount of greenhouse emissions and can damage the environment. The population needs to be aware of what some say this “food crisis” is causing. “Food is about to demand your attention” said Michael Pollan, Farmer in Chief Article, I think food has always had our attention, we just didn’t know exactly what to do with it. We solve problems with solutions that bring up other problems. The green revolution is a great example of that. So how do we stop history from repeating itself? No one knows for a fact.
But there are still ways that our food crisis can be contained and monitored, fair trade and sustainable farming, may be a solution to this problem.
Sources:
-Bourne Jr., Joel. "The Global Food Crisis." National Geographic June 2009: 13. 11 Oct. 2009 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic
-"Fair trade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 15 Oct. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
-"Welcome to the Fair Trade Federation." Fair Trade Federation. 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.
-"TransFair USA About Fair Trade." TransFair USA . 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.transfairusa.org/
-Pollan, Michael . "Farmer In Chief." New York Times 9 Oct. 2008. 11 Oct. 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/
-"What Alternative Energy Options are Available for Farms?." National Agricultural Library. 15 Oct. 2009 <http://www.nal.usda.gov/
-Energy Savers, U.S Department of Energy, <http://www.energysavers.gov/
-Walser, Maggie (Lead Author); Stephen C. Nodvin (Topic Editor). 2008. "Carbon footprint." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth April 18, 2008; Last revised August 23, 2008; Retrieved November 1, 2009
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