GEA1_OCE_NAU

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Hillsborough Community College *

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2001

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English

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Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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Christina Nau Professor Arellano OCE-2001-650 31 October 2023 GEA1: SL1-4 – Exploration, Action, and Outcome (50 Points) SL1A – Calculate Your Carbon Footprint (1 Point) SL1B – Carbon Footprint Discussion (9 Points) 1) Part 1 1. After I did the carbon footprint activity, I found out that my total carbon footprint for a household of four is 51 tons of CO 2 per year. 2. My total carbon footprint was fairly similar when compared to another household like mine. My total carbon footprint ended up being 23% better than average, meaning it was
a little better than other households. I would be willing to make changes to my daily life to reduce my carbon footprint, I would just need to find better ways to conserve the power and water I use daily, as that is where my household contributes the most to CO 2 emissions. 3. Out of the categories calculated for my carbon footprint, my travel, goods, and services were better than average, food was average, and my home category was worse than average. I think my travel was lower because we do not use any form of public transportation, and we only drive our cars to and from work and the grocery store, which averages about 10,000 miles yearly. We also use air travel, but it’s only once a year, when we travel back home, and the total mileage is a little over 2,000 miles each roundtrip. I believe my home category was a little high because of my electricity and water bills, as my household uses an excessive amount each month, which we need to work on. My food was average because we portion our food, and do not buy excessive amounts. Our goods and services were really low because we do not spend the extra money we have, nor do we have services as we do most things we need by ourselves. 4. After doing this carbon footprint assignment, I have learned that my household carbon emission is not the greatest, but I knew this mainly because my electricity and water bills are high each month. I knew that households were a big factor in carbon emissions in our world, so this assignment definitely opened my eyes a little bit more and allowed me to see that I need to make a change to better our world overall. I learned that CO 2 emissions are a lot more common than we think and we fuel them daily just by living our normal life, from traveling to our jobs or the grocery store, as well as when we eat, as the
processes in which our is food made emits CO 2 . This activity shows you how important this topic is and how vital it is that we all change our ways for the better very soon. 5. In short, greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere of planet Earth, with the most common being carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, ozone, and fluorinated gases to name a few (“Overview of Greenhouse Gases”). Since these gases are trapped in the atmosphere, Earth doesn’t cool properly once the sun goes down, and the warmth is therefore trapped, leading to the warmth of the Earth’s surface. Greenhouse gases tie into the Carbon Footprint activity this week since CO 2 is one of the most abundant greenhouse gases that our planet Earth has, which is why we need to control the amount of CO 2 we emit in our daily lives. “Overview of Greenhouse Gases.” EPA , Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases. Accessed 29 Aug. 2023 . 2) Part 2 a. Response 1 1. Hi Gianna! I also have a 4-person household, but my carbon footprint was 51 tons per year, roughly 18 tons less than yours. I noticed that both of our footprints had a downward trend through the categories from left to right. Both of our home categories were above the normal amount for the size of our household, and both of our goods, services, and travel categories were below the normal amount for the size of our household. My household travels more than you, but your household buys more goods and services than mine.
2. I believe my household has a lower carbon footprint than yours because my family consumes less food, goods, and services than your household. While my family does travel more, your food, goods, and services categories top mine, leading to a higher carbon footprint overall. It appears that the goods, food, and service categories have a big impact on your carbon footprint since those seem to be what are making your footprint really high. I believe a good way to bring your carbon footprint down would be to try and meal plan to lessen the food category and try and budget as much as you guys can on goods and services. b. Response 2 1. Hey Sarim! My household averaged about 51 tons of carbon per year, which is about 6 tons more than your household. By looking at your categories, I can tell that your household is better with almost everything - travel, home, food, and services, but is a lot worse with goods. My family has a really high house category and yours is below the average amount which is kind of surprising. You also have a lower-than-average food category but you did say your household consumes less red meat and dairy, so that makes sense. Your goods category appears to be extremely high, unlike my household as we budget our spending. Your services category is also higher than mine, but I think this is due to my family trying to do things themselves. 2. I believe that my carbon footprint is higher than yours in travel, home, and food because my family tends to drive far for work, travel to and from PA and FL, and because our bills are very expensive. I believe my carbon footprint is better than yours in goods and services because my family tries to do everything ourselves and we budget our money to ensure we do not spend it on anything we do not need. I believe our home category is
higher than yours because my family uses a lot of electricity such as tons of electronics, lights and pumps for our turtle pond, and a portable air conditioner that is used daily, as well as lights since not a lot of people know how to turn them off. The only thing I would suggest your family tries to do is cut down on the amount of goods you resort to as that is what is making your carbon footprint so high, since all the other categories look amazing. SL2 – Explore Methods for CO2 Emissions Reductions (10 Points) 1) Carbon Reduction Challenge (6 Points) 1. Five ways students doing the Carbon Reduction Challenge have averted CO2 are by reducing red meat consumption, shifting HVAC systems by 1 degree depending on the season, changing CPU sleep settings in computer labs and classrooms, reducing the temperature of the water used in washing machines, and by planting more trees (Cobb). 2. After looking through the posters for the 2012, 2013, and 2015 Carbon Reduction Challenge, I believe that the levels of CO2 averted showed success. Between all 3 years, each group averted anywhere from a couple hundred pounds of CO2 to over one hundred thousand pounds of CO2. One of the more successful teams, the “CarbnoKnights” expected about 52,630 pounds of CO2 averted in 3 methods: shifting HVAC systems down 1-degree depending on the season, changing the lighting schedule for day-cleaning, and reducing red-meat consumption on an individual basis (Cobb). Now, while I do think some of the numbers were a little off,
they all averted an amount of CO2 and that’s all that matters. My reasoning for stating that the numbers seemed off was because in the Carbon Footprint activity from last week, my yearly total for my household was roughly 51 tons (~102,000 pounds), yet “Team Green Greeks” said planting trees alone could reduce anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 pounds of CO2, which kind of seemed like an exaggeration (Cobb). 3. In the 2012 Carbon Reduction Challenge, the group “Project Earth” averted CO2 by turning a private medical practice paperless, which was expected to save 7,320 sheets of paper and a total of 1,841 pounds of CO2 (Cobb). I found this very interesting and would want to try this not only for the upcoming project but also at my job. I work at a privately owned veterinary clinic and all the anesthesia logs, drop-off papers, estimates, etc. are filled out on paper. Ironically, we have these documents online and print them out for staff and pet owners to fill out, we just do not have an iPad or electronic device to fill them out digitally. I am going to bring the idea up to my practice manager and owner so we can save not only a ton of paper but reduce our CO2 emissions by a lot as well. 4. 4. I learned about CO2 emissions in high school, so I was aware that recycling, using cold water, switching/turning off light bulbs, shifting HVAC temperatures, not using paper towels, and planting trees reduced levels of CO2 emissions. Yet, I never thought about the usage of window tints on HVAC systems, like the 2015 “Team Carl” did, or the changing of CPU sleep time settings in computer labs and classrooms by the 2012 team “The Carbon Slumber Party” (Cobb). Both methods make a lot of sense now looking at it, but I would have never thought of those ideas myself, props to them!
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