Senior Project- Research

http://www.123helpme.com/assets/10771.html

“Cars release 30 percent of the carbon dioxide in the earth's air. Carbon dioxide is released from the tailpipe of a car and can do much damage to the human respiratory system. Every time an automobile burns a gallon of gasoline it releases 22 pounds of carbon dioxide.”

“Cars account for 76 percent of the carbon monoxide in the earth's air”

“Carbon monoxide affects the bloods total capacity for carrying oxygen by to the heart, brain, and other important organs.”

http://bicycling.suite101.com/article.cfm/cycling_and_the_environment

“Between 70 and 100 bicycles can be built with the resources required to build one car.”

http://www.sfbike.org/?environment

“Californians avoid producing seven tons of smog-forming gases per day by getting on bikes.”

Senior Project

What will your environmental science research entail (require)?

Who- The sounds of people and the surroundings (cars, sirens, people talking, horns honking, etc…)

What- Pollution produces by cars, sound pollution and how it affects people and the environment and the difference between driving and biking to work, carpooling or public transportation.

When- Still has yet to be decided.

Where- Urban areas and wilderness.

How- We will record around town, mostly on our free time and will do editing of sound at school.

Why is your project worth doing? Who cares?
This project is worth doing because it will portray the importance of not driving to work and how much you destroy the environment when you drive yourself to work every day.

It is mostly aiming at promoting awareness to people and giving them something to think about.

What questions do you need to answer to get the background necessary to know what you are talking about?

How does sound pollution affect the environment and people in their daily lives?

If ___ amount of cars were taken off the road, pollution would go down by ___ amount.

What form will you use to display your research?...Will it be displayed in your Media piece, or will you use something to show your research in order to maintain your creative integrity?

It will be a sound clip. But there will also be a poster board with information and our research.

What are your next steps?(required)
We need to go out and record. Also, we need to do research for our poster board.

Environmental Science: First Draft

Environmental Science: First Draft

Jeremy Sheahan

Not so long ago, there was a place where man and earth lived in harmony. Families, animals and crops lived in close community. But then populations of humans started to grow exponentially suddenly, the demand for food went up drastically and these little farms could not keep up. Then in an effort to increase the amount of food they produced and increase money they made, the farms started to take the animals off the farms and put them in “factory farms”.

While this decision makes total sense in terms of money and productivity, the environmental side of it does not make sense at all. It is not very environmental friendly. The animals in these “factory farms” produce a lot of waste. “A mega-dairy CAFO with 15,000 cows generates as much animal waste as a city of 315,000 people.” [1]For example, a dairy cow produces almost 21 times the waste than a human.[2] This is not good at all, all that urine and excrement used to be used on farms as manure and would make the soil rich and healthy, but now it is just polluting rivers, ponds and the air.

This pollution does not just affect the environment around us, it affects us to. There was one case where the workers of an animal factory farm in Iowa started to complain about sinusitis, chronic bronchitis, inflamed mucous membranes of the nose, irritation of the nose and throat, headaches and muscle aches and pains. Also, asthma and acute (cross-shift) have been documented.[3] This is product of airborne bacteria in the air that would otherwise be in the ground fertilizing a field.

In other cases, the waste seeps through the dirt and gets into underground fresh water or gets into a stream and pollutes drinking water. When it soaks into underground ducts, people with wells drink the polluted water and start to get sick. There have been reports of “blue baby syndrome”- “A condition that can be caused by ingestion of high amounts of nitrate resulting in the blood losing its ability to effectively carry oxygen. It is most common in young infants and certain elderly people”.[4] Sometimes this “blue baby syndrome” can fatal.

If we were to switch to having animals on farms again it would greatly decrease the amount of “waste”, the reason is that this “waste” would not be waste at all; it would be valuable organic fertilizer. This is the better choice, even thought it could mean less production of beef and other meats. Another problem is that the farms that took the animals off the farms have started to use fertilizers and pesticides that are unnatural and harmful for the environment on their plants.

Organic fertilizer is better because it puts organic material that is necessary for microorganisms instead of putting unnatural chemicals that make plants grow just enough for them to get by. It also does not force the plants to grow faster than they would usually grow, not only that but it also gives the plants more “balanced” nutrition. [5] And because it is just plain better for the environment, and instead of being waste, it is used in a way that heals the planet.

Fair Trade

What is fair trade? According to http://www.transfairusa.org, “Fair Trade Certification empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace”[6]

Basically what they do is allowing poor farmers (mostly in poorer countries) who are working the soil and harvesting their organic, all natural crops get paid what they deserve instead of a very minimal wage.

The reason that these poor farmers do not get the money that they deserve is because they are usually sending their crops overseas or out-of-town locations and there are many costs going into the handling, moving and legal fees. By the time these farmers get their crops to their locations, they hardly have any money.

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[1] “Environmental Damage." Factory Farm. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. <http://www.factoryfarm.org/air-pollution/>.

[2] “Environmental Damage." Factory Farm. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. <http://www.factoryfarm.org/air-pollution/>.

[3] http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/ehsrc/CAFOstudy/CAFO_1.pdf

[4] "USGS CIRC 1158 subpage: Glossary." USGS Publications Warehouse. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1158/circ1158.10.html>.
4 "A Summary Comparison of organic vs non organic fertilizer." Lawn Care For Everyone. How To Grow Grass And Get Rid Of Problems. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. <http://www.garden-counselor-lawn-care.com/organic-vs-non-organic-fertilizer.html>.

[6] "TransFair USA | Fair Trade Overview." TransFair USA | Home. Web. 13 Oct. 2009. <http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/overview.php>.

Waste- Research

"EPA - Stormwater Discharges From Industrial Facilities." U.S. EPA ColdFusion Server. 9 Oct. 2009

“As runoff from rain or snowmelt comes into contact with these activities, it can pick up pollutants and transport them to a nearby storm sewer system or directly to a river, lake, or coastal water.”

What little pollution we create makes a big impact on the environment. Should it be aluminum or glass.

"The Food Issue - An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief - Michael Pollan - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 9 Oct. 2009

“But if taking the animals off farms made a certain kind of economic sense, it made no ecological sense whatever: their waste, formerly regarded as a precious source of fertility on the farm, became a pollutant — factory farms are now one of America’s biggest sources of pollution.”

It seems that the things we love most can cause the most harm.

"Factory Farm » Environmental Damage." Factory Farm. 9 Oct. 2009

“The fundamental problem: too much poop. Every animal needs to eat, drink, and eventually eliminate its waste (manure and urine). When thousands of animals are confined in one small area on a factory farm, the waste accumulates very quickly.”

· According to the 1998 National Water Quality Inventory, agricultural sources were responsible for 60% of the pollution in surveyed rivers and streams and 45% of the pollution in surveyed lakes.⁶³

· The EPA warns that “bacteria and viruses such as E. Coli, salmonella and Giardia found in dairy waste can contaminate drinking water and cause acute gastroenteritis and fever, kidney failure, and even death.”⁶⁴

· E. coli and other bacteria can survive in manure for several months.⁶⁵

· The EPA reports that the waste generated by hogs, chicken, and cattle has polluted over 35,000 miles of river and has contaminated groundwater in 17 states.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad347.pdf

“During the last 2 decades the prevalence of obesity and overweight has increased in the United States (1–3). This is in part due to a shift in the distribution of BMI (BMI, weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) of the entire population (4). This report presents the changes in mean body weight, height, and BMI for the entire U.S. population from 1960 to 2002.”

http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/feedlots/envimpct.pdf

“According to EPA’s 1996 National Water Quality Inventory, agricultural operations, including animal feeding operations (AFOs), are a significant source of water pollution in the U.S. States estimate that agriculture contributes to the impairment of at least 173,629 river miles, 3,183,159 lake acres, and 2,971 estuary square miles. Twenty-two states reported on the impacts of specific types of agriculture on rivers and streams, attributing 20 percent of the agricultural impairment to intensive animal operations.”

“AFO pollutants can impact surface water, groundwater, air, and soil.”

http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/ehsrc/CAFOstudy/CAFO_1.pdf

“Progressive declines in lung function over years are documented among CAFO workers.”

“Published, controlled studies of odor experienced by community residents living in proximity to CAFOs are limited to two studies in North Carolina and one in Iowa. The first North Carolina study reported more negative mood states (tension, depression, anger, reduced vigor, fatigue and confusion) among those exposed to CAFO odor compared with control subjects. The second North Carolina study reported increased symptoms of headache, runny nose, sore throat, excessive coughing, diarrhea, burning eyes and reduced quality of life measures among community residents living in proximity to a swine CAFO compared with rural residents not living in proximity to livestock operations.”

“The Iowa study found increases in several symptom clusters, mainly eye and upper respiratory symptoms, among those living within two miles of a swine CAFO compared with rural residents living near minimal livestock production.”

Farmer In Chief- Reflection

The discussion was awesome. There were so many good points that people made.

The main prompt was “what is the best ‘first step’ to get the Green revolution going?”

Some people said that education was the first step, the point was made that if we educate out little ones it would be more of a possibility that they go on to be farmers and make the world a better place.

I made the argument that we should switch to non- fertilized crops and return to the old ways, but have poor high school and college kids do the hard labor, because they are desperate for money anyway. If they like it, they could make a career out of it.

In the article, it made it sound like such a “no brainer” to switch to the old ways of healthy farming, but I just don’t understand why we haven’t done it if it’s so easy. You would think that we would have done it long ago, and especially with our technology. But it seems like it all revolves around money. What makes money for the “big dogs”.

If we can convince the people on top to start changing things, then we have hope to ACTUALLY change things. Either that, or we need to find a way to make more money than oil so that people will actually get on board with this.