Global Warming

Global warming may be one of the most hotly (forgive the pun) disputed topics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The topic has even made its way into the American political debate- with conservatives typically arguing against its existence and liberals fighting for its recognition as a serious, impending threat to our global society. The scandal surrounding Anglia University and their researchers' manipulation of global climate data, and Al Gore's obvious political stunt in "An Inconvenient Truth" have helped to deepen the divide between people's opinions on the topic of climate change; far-left liberals often praise their efforts to further the cause, and far-right conservatives point to both groups' manipulation of data to disregard the debate as a legitimate one.

Even liberals have poked fun at Al Gore's role in "An Inconvenient Truth" as a ploy to get attention for himself.

But because of my lack of knowledge on the real data behind climate change, I do not feel as if I can make a substantial conclusion as to its existence or not. I can say, though, that solar flare activity seems like an unlikely explanation behind this century's or the past century's increases in temperature (http://www.lunarplanner.com/SolarCycles.html). Research on the Medieval Warming Period, too, is inconclusive as to whether it was a localized or global event (http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/courses/geog101_sen/broecker.html). What I can say, though, is that the consequences of fossil fuel pollution and production are obvious; increased rates of asthma, pipeline explosions, environmental degradation, strip-mining, large cities becoming "heat islands," decreased air quality, acid rain, etc. And those are enough reasons, I believe, for why we should all support efforts to move toward sustainable energy.

"Up the Yangtze"

Last week our class watched a documentary called "Up the Yangtze," which chronicled a peasant family as they struggled to make a daily living in modern-day China. By the end of the movie, their small patch of land and their hut were completely submerged in the rising waters as the result of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Obviously, poor peasant families living along the banks of the Yangtze River have suffered the most from the dam's construction, usually losing their homes and being forced to move to an urban area. As seen in the movie, it is difficult for older individuals moving from the country to cities to acclimate themselves to a completely new way of life, especially when they are so used to being self-sufficient and growing their own food. However, many people in China do benefit from the dam; the electricity that it produces is enough to keep fueling the country's rapid urbanization and industrialization. However, the dam, plus rapid urbanization and industrialization, all have severe environmental consequences that will ultimately force China to develop more sustainably in the future and use more fuel-efficient technology.

Life Cycle Analysis: Organic Tobacco

Natural American Spirit, owned by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, is a brand name of organically and naturally grown cigarettes. The company is different from other cigarette producers in that it does not use any of the 690+ chemicals to cure their tobacco, and in that it also has a line of cigarettes made with USDA certified-organic tobacco. Since Natural American Spirit tobacco is "100% Additive-Free," and since the Maroon and Gold brands are made with organic tobacco grown without the aid of pesticides, this cigarette brand makes for a much easier Life Cycle Analysis than all other brands would.

As said before, the Maroon and Gold brands are made with USDA-certified organic tobacco and are 100% additive-free. To trace exactly where this tobacco comes from, however, would be almost impossible; though all of Natural American Spirit's tobacco is grown in the U.S., their product comes from all independent farmers. The Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company is committed to sustainable growing practices (or at least the extent to which tobacco farming can be sustainable) and reducing the tobacco industry's carbon footprint as a whole; this includes seeking out contracts with USDA-certified organic, independent U.S. farmers.

So, for this one component (material production: tobacco) of my LCA on Natural American Spirit cigarettes, I would say that the practices used to grow these materials are relatively sustainable and have a relatively low impact on the earth; as for the practices used to harvest and transport the materials, though, I cannot say. I am assuming, though, that the transportation emissions associated with this product are lower than what they would be if the tobacco was grown outside of the U.S.

Fact Sheet Assignment

Over the past few weeks for ENP 250, we have been making our own individual fact sheets on a variety of global environmental issues. We chose our own topics, but they all still had to be related to the consequences associated with fossil fuel consumption. A fact sheet must be targeted to a specific audience, so our language and image content had to reflect the tastes and intellect of a certain group of people (a certain age group, for example). The layout of the fact sheet had to be visually appealing to grab the audience's attention; we had to consider carefully the formatting style, the placement of pictures and other graphics, borders, shading, font size and type, etc to make it look worthy of reading. The actual information within the fact sheet had to reflect what type of audience we were catering to (ex: college students), but the information also had to be concise enough to get a point across in a short amount of time. To ensure that all of our goals were met- visual appeal, conciseness, effectiveness of information, etc- we took the time in class to hold multiple peer review sessions. These sessions were very helpful for the editing process, as other students were able to correct others' careless mistakes or help suggest better ways of conveying our information.

To view the fact sheet that I made, please click here.

Problems in Sustainability: Atlanta

The poster child for unsustainable urban growth in recent decades has been none other than Atlanta, Georgia, my home city. You either love living in Atlanta or absolutely loathe it based on these simple facts: 1.) whether you live inside or outside of the perimeter (I-285), 2.) whether you have access to MARTA, Atlanta's sorry excuse for a public transportation system (but nevertheless a transportation system; never mind if you live in Cobb County) and 3.) whether or not you actually have some extra income to spend on the fine amenities that Atlanta has to offer. If not, still be prepared to spend any extra cash on gas.

Since 1959, Atlanta's population in the metropolitan area has rose from about 1 million to a whopping 5.36 million, although the inner city itself only has about 432,000 inhabitants. That means about 4.9 million people reside within Atlanta's over-stretched suburban areas, ranging from Pickens county up at the north to Lamar county in the south, which is closer to Macon than to my house in Cobb.

(Image of Metro Atlanta)

So, with so many inhabitants spread out among a conglomeration of counties, with a large portion of them driving to downtown Atlanta every day for work, with only a few main interstate roads connecting the main areas, Atlanta has indeed created a disastrous traffic problem. In fact, people in Atlanta spend more time commuting in cars than in any other city (even L.A. or New York City!). At least New York City has developed a sophisticated public transit system and has made the city perfect for walking. It's almost as if suburban Atlanta was designed to prevent people from walking from one area to another; roads are incredibly wide, and sidewalks can end suddenly without warning and are so scarce in general that almost all of us are forced to drive everywhere, even if the location is only half a mile away.

And with heavy traffic and long commutes comes severe environmental concerns: air pollution, storm runoff polluting rivers, psychological stress, acid rain, increased incidence of asthma and asthmatic attacks, etc. There have been some mediocre attempts to lessen Atlanta's traffic problem; one example is the HOV lanes on I-75. Most cars in Atlanta, however, only have one occupant anyway, and cannot use the HOV lanes. Suburbs are especially guilty of promoting the trend of single-occupancy driving; as parents are often at work (working at different locations, so they need their own cars), and teenagers desire their own independence, families who have more than one child may end up with five different cars in the driveway. This puts an unnecessary amount of cars on the road, which then leads to more traffic. I don't know if Atlanta still continues their radio campaign for carpooling (played during hours of heavy traffic), but I doubt it was very successful. 

To sum things up, Atlanta has handled its population explosion in the worst possible way. Its negligence to proactively invest in public infrastructure, including efficient transit systems, during its previous years of rapid growth have complicated any attempts to install them now. Years of unchecked urban growth have led to the sprawl and over-extention of cookie-cutter neighborhoods that are built further and further away from the inner city every year, even though downtown Atlanta or other large edge-cities (ex: Marietta) still remain central business hubs. All of this has cumulated into a traffic nightmare from which Atlanta seems to be unable to wake up.

A Haiku

Left, right, red, blue; stop.

Just realize there's a problem

With the way we live