Last post??

This is the last post in my class. I do not have to post anymore...

I have learned a lot of things from ENVS1100. It was first time for me to explore the beautiful nature of Michigan, and spend a night with Americans. Actually, it was hard time because my English skill was not so well, but I loved it. I cannot see such a beautiful scenery in Tokyo, so I will never forget it.

I think it was especially hard for me to read many books, and write reports. We sometimes had to read and write a report in two days, and I did not sleep at that time. However, books gave me a lot of knowledge, and thanks for them, I became accustomed to reading books in English.

Making a poster and a blog was very interesting for me. It was totally different from the reading, and it gave me chances to tell my ideas to others. It was also a good time to know how people in America think about the environment, and how different the ideas are between countries.

The class will end, but my blog will not end.
I would like to transmit my ideas to everyone in the future, and I am looking forward to seeing you guys!!!

Be green from cloths

"Long ago, everything on earth was organic, and the word 'organic' doesn't exist. In this mass-production society it is rather hard to find items that are purely organic and produced in sustainable way. Fortunately, we are in a generation that is aware of these mistakes and we are starting to change our ways." (Mika Machida)

Do you know "Mika Organic"? Mika Organic is one of the cloths companies in the world. Mika Machida, the designer, always draw endangered species on her cloths. By drawing such animals, she wants us to realize the impact which we give to the environment. She only uses organic fibers, for instance, organic wool, organic cotton, hemp, and the like. Even if a recycle material, it uses chemicals in the process manufacture, so she never uses that.

Hoever, it is almost impossible to print pictures on cloths in organic ways, so she uses water-based ink, which has the least damage to the environment, instead.

The price is a little bit higher than usual cloths, around $200, but it can be a first step to be green person!!!

Web site: http://www.mikaorganic.com/main/#/
Shopping site: http://shopmikaorganic.com/index.html

Birds tell mercury pollution

According to BBC, albatross feathers have allowed scientists to construct a record of mercury pollution dating back more than 100 years. The study is published in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. The team analysed feathers from 54 birds kept in museums at Harvard University and the University of Washington in Seattle. There was no trend in overall mercury concentrations over time, but the level of methylmercury showed a rise!!

The chemical is easy to be absorbed by marine life-form such as fish, and predator can get the chemical from them. If much of the chemical are found in the predator, it indicates the fish around the area are polluted by the chemical.

About half of the mercury going into the atmosphere comes from natural sources such as volcanoes. Of the other half, the biggest sources is coal-burning, with mercury occurring as a trace element in many deposits.

Scientists do not have any direct evidence that levels of mercury were impacting their reproductive success. Therefore, it is expected that this study will answer such a question.

(Resource: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13121088)

For zero emission

As I mentioned a little bit about the carbon offset in the last blog, there are various ways for carbon offset. I will introduce you one example to execute the carbon offset.

Before start introducing the carbon offset, I want to explain the carbon offset itself. According to Carbon Footprint Ltd., it is defined that Carbon Offsets can be used to compensate for the emissions produced by funding an equivalent carbon dioxide saving elsewhere. So, we can say we do not emit any CO2 by executing the carbon offset.



When you use an airplane, you emit a lot of CO2 to the atmosphere because the airplane use much fossil fuel. For example, if you travel from Chicago O'Hare to Kenneddy International in NY, you emit approximately 0.3 metric tons carbon dioxide. To offset the CO2, it will cost $4.29 for reforestation, and $9.04 for U.S. renewable energy.
(http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,53032,00.html)

It's not a big deal, right???

If you pay only $4 more, your travel will become carbon neutral!! I know there are many discussions about the carbon offset, but I think it would be a good chance to start thinking about the environment. What do you think??

To be a green person

What is "Carbon Foot Print"?
According to Carbon Footprint Ltd, "Carbon Footprint" is defined as a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc. The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent.
(http://www.carbonfootprint.com/carbonfootprint.html)

Greenhouse gases(GHG) are gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation. GHG includes Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), HFC,PFC, SF6, and the like.

To know individual carbon footprint, there are many web sites which can calculate it. This time, I used the web site, called "safeclimate.net". Some web site introduce you how much it cost to offset your carbon footprint, so it will be helpful for you if you are interested in carbon offset.

I calculated carbon footprints of three people; my family living in Japan, a friend living in Kalamazoo, and a professor living in Kalamazoo. To calculate the carbon footprint, I gathered four information; driving distance, fuel consumption, electric usage, and gas usage.

-My family-
Place: Country side in Japan
Driving distance: 420km/month
Fuel Consumption: 14km/l
Electrical usage: 200kwh/month
Gas usage: 47 m3/month

Carbon footprint: 244kg/month
-A friend-
Place: Kalamazoo
Driving distance: 170mile/week
Fuel Consumption: 24mile/gallon
Electrical usage: 419kwh/month
Gas usage: 12Mcf/month

Carbon footprint: 1291kg/month

-A professor-
Place: Kalamazoo
Driving distance: 0mile/week
Fuel Consumption: 0mile/gallon
Electrical usage: 296kwh/month
Gas usage: 8.4Mcf/month

Carbon footprint: 715kg/month




Then, seeing these results, what can we learn? First of all, compared with a friend and a professor, we can see electrical usage is much important problem to think than car usage. Although the professor did not use any car, the carbon footprint is over half as much as the carbon footprint of the friend. I calculated the difference of carbon footprint between Japan and United States, and I got the result below:
Electric: 1kwh=0.36kg-co2 (Japan) 1kwh=0.61kg-co2 (U.S.)
Gas: 1m3=2.1kg-co2 (Japan) 1m3=2.1kg-co2(U.S.)
Fuel: 1L=2.3kg-co2 (Japan) 1L=2.3kg-co2 (U.S.)

This result shows using electric in U.S. emits twice as much CO2 as in Japan!!!

Second, using electric is much better than using gas. As the result of calculation shows, gas emits approximately four times as much CO2 as electric does in U.S., and six times as much CO2 as electric does in Japan. This means it would be very effective to use electric to decrease the amount of CO2.

Knowing the amount of CO2 which individual emits is very good time to think about the environment. People can imagine how much they affect on the environment, and can have chance to think how to improve their lives. Of course, we have to emit some CO2, I mean, we cannot stop emitting CO2 because we have to use electric, gas, and cars(if people live in city side, they do not have to use them). But, we have to care about the amount of CO2, and continue thinking how to improve our lives. If people want to make the emission zero, they can execute carbon offset to pay money for buying emission credits.

DON'T GIVE UP!! THERE ARE A LOT OF WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LIVES!!!

Do you know what April 22 is???

April 22. Do you know what the day is??

For over 40 years, the day has inspired and mobilized individuals and organizations worldwide to demonstrate their commitment to environmental protection and sustainability.

"Earth Day"- It was found by Gaylord Nelson, who was United State Senator on April 22, 1970. He found this day because he wanted people to have an interest in the environmental problem. The first Earth Day was launched by Denis Hayes, and gathered over 20 million people in U.S. Now Earth Day is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year.



Of course, Earth Day has been celebrated all over Japan. In Tokyo, the capital of Japan, there has been Earth Day event since 2001. Every year, a theme is decided, and many events are held in keeping with the theme. It is a huge event, and over 100,000 people come there. Actually, I was there last year because my company had a booth in the event (I was working at carbon offset company for 6 months), I remember there were so many people.

I think this kind of event is very valuable for people. When we hear the environmental problem, we often feel the problem is too huge to deal with, or feel if many people do not do anything for the environment, it's meaningless to take an action. However, people can notice how easy to start taking actions for the environment, or how many people are caring about the environment by going to such events. People would think I have to do something since so many people are doing something.



Earth Day is held even in developing countries, for example, India. I hope people all over the world start thinking about the environment through this event. In Kalamazoo, there will be Earth Day event at Nature Center on April 16, so if you are interested, let's join the event!! (http://www.naturecenter.org/)



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Eaarth

"Eaarth" is a book about environmental problem. In this book, there are a lot of examples about what was happend, is happening, will be happend in the future. You can see the real all over the world by reading this book.

In the book, I had an interest about the gap between developing countries and developed countries. Developing countries like China do not want to accept the huge reduction of the amount of carbon emission because they want to develop their economies. On the other hand, for developed countries, they want them to reduce the amount of carbon emission, and also they will reduce. In my opinion, I can understand what developed countries state, but I basically support the another side.

Of course I do not want to say, they do not have to reduce the amount of CO2, but they have rights to develop even if they emit CO2 because we, developed countries, did. I have no idea how much each category countries have to reduce, but I think the regulation for CO2 emission should include the intension of developing countries.