Month: February 2016

Your carbon footprint

On By Melissa Nieto CassabIn Carbon Footprint5 Comments

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What is your carbon footprint? It’s the effect that you (or your family, organization or business) have on the climate in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases you produce (usually measured in units of carbon dioxide).

It´s very important to know what your carbon footprint is because if you want to help with the global warming crisis you have to know how your lifestyle is contributing to the acceleration of climate change. Once you know this information, you could say that your number one step to helping our planet is complete.

There are many ways in which you leave carbon emission on a daily basis mostly when using energy that comes from non-renewable resources such as coal, oil and natural gas. You regularly generate carbon emissions when heating or cooling your home and office, when you turn on lights, when you use any electrical appliances, when you drive, among others. You also generate carbon emissions indirectly when purchasing food, clothing, cosmetics and household products. Carbon dioxide is generated with the production of most manufactured goods but it becomes greater when the product is transported long distances. Deforestation is an important factor contributing to the increase of levels of carbon dioxide because trees help to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. It is important to know which foods and paper products contribute in a negative way to climate change in our planet.

In EcoFanatics we want you to know the impact that you and your family cause to the environment and the easiest way to do this is by using online calculators. We recommend the following:

By calculating your carbon emission footprint it will give you a good approximate total of the impact you’re causing so once you´ve completed this step you can be proud of yourself because you have accomplished the first step of helping our environment.

Personally this helped me create conscience about the environment when I did my carbon emission test, I found out I was actually causing a lot of damage to our planet by not recycling paper products and plastic. Form now on I tend to use sheets of paper on both sides when writing and printing.

“Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites”. ~William Ruckelshaus.

 

 

 

 

 

Gases responsible for the Greenhouse Effect

On By anapaolaamayaIn Global Warming1 Comment

1.- Carbon dioxide ( CO2)

a) Combustion of fossil fuels ( solid, gaseous liquids ) for energy purposes.

2.- Methane ( CH4)

a) Anachronistic fermentation on landfills.

b ) Aerobic treatment of wastewater.

c ) Animal poop.

3.- Nitrous oxide ( N2O )

a) Raw material in production of chemical industry.

b ) Digestion of animal poop.

4.- Hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs)

a) Production of HCFC -22.

b ) Leakage of insulating material.

5.-Perfluocarbono (PFCs )

a) Using fluid materials in cleaning process.

b)Using etching agent in production.

6.- Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6 )

a) Used as cover gas for magnesium casting process.

b) Used as an insulating gas for electricity.

c) Using etchant in production of semi conductors .

How to get a sustainable development?

On By anapaolaamayaIn TIPSLeave a comment

1.- Revitalize growth, keep it active. Increase the growth in countries in development.

2.- Change the quality of our development to a better distribution of incomes and to reduce the vulnerability to an economic crisis.

3.-Satisfy the essential human needs. They must hace a job, energy (wood), Home, water, medical attention, structure, etc.

4.-Insurance for a certain population for future growth.

 

IMG_00585.- Keep and increase the resources we have by making political changes to the current consumption levels in various countries in different stages of development.

6.- New orientation for technology and the risk control to find a connection between the human kind and nature. Innovation and new technologies in developed countries as well.

7.- Take economy and the environment as one in every decision its taken with the intention of a change in the attitude and objectives if institutions in various levels; taking into consideration the economic and ecologic order in the making of decisions.

 

 

A Sustainable future

On By anapaolaamayaIn Global Warming1 Comment

The future of our planet is currently on a sustainable development. But what is a sustainable development? A sustainable development, satisfies our needs in the present without meaning a commitment to future generations and their capacity to satisfy theirs.

DSCN4216Anything that’s sustainable has its own conscious, it takes into consideration developed countries and countries in development. It understands that anything that happen in any place around the world affects the rest and that there are real consequences.

The sustainable development is the proposal of a progressive transformation of economy and society as it takes into consideration the effects this could have in politics and different businesses because of the restriction of resources. Its main target is to satisfy human needs and ideas leading to a physic sustainability that is worried about social equality among generations.

For obvious reasons, countries that are still in development have a bigger change of fronting an ecological crisis. The sustainable growing happens at the same time of the economic growing, a larger number of people, more resources are needed and we have to take into consideration that the technology we have today also has a repercussion besides helping. The economic growth and development also have an impact in ecosystems.

For the effects of sustainability to be noticeable and not only the overuse of resources, it’s necessary to plan strategies, work in team, crear laws and make a fair distribution of the resources that are not being overused, because when any system approaches ecologic limits, differences have bigger impacts in people with a lack of resources.

 

 

What is Global Warming?

On By Melissa Nieto CassabIn Global WarmingLeave a comment

 

 

The definition of Global Warming is the increase of the average temperature of the surface of the earth. The increase of the temperature is what attributes to the “Greenhouse Effect” in simple words; this means that the heat of the sun gets caught in our atmosphere.

Scientific evidence relates a variety of human activities of the Industrial Era to the rapid acceleration of the Greenhouse Effect in our atmosphere. Since 1980 there has been a constant decrease of 4% per decade of the Ozone layer, this layer is very important to any type of life on earth because it protects us from the UV radiation of the sun, which is incredibly bad for any of us. The deterioration of the Ozone layer is directly linked to the augmentation of skin cancer, cataracts, failure in the immune system, crop damage and the probable extinction of plankton. In 1973 scientists found that the problem with the destruction of the Ozone layer came from the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which where utilized on aerosol sprays and as a cooling system in air conditioners and refrigerators.

The previous paragraphs may seem as overwhelming information that you may consider as non-important or maybe even boring but it is tremendously essential to understand where this problem is coming from in order to start helping. Global Warming is not a chronic disease that our planet is going through, this disease has a cure and it starts with you.

“I’m not an environmentalist. I’m an Earth warrior.” ~Darryl Cherney.