When I took the ecological footprint test, I required about 4 earths to accommodate everyone if they were to live the same way that I'm currently living. I thought that this was a huge number considering how I live. Our family recycles what ever we can, we try not to have many meals that are processed or things in that manner. We always try to turn off lights when we leave the room. I thought to myself it still take this many for everyone to live like me. I then began to hear what a few other peoples results and was hearing results in the five and sixes. It make me really begin to think how much we actually waste as a society and it is pretty sad that we have to waste so much, and when we can conserve our resources we hardly put an effort in to do so. In my opinion one of our biggest problems as a society is that we do not utilize our resources to their greatest potential.
There are many easy ways that we can conserve and utilize the resources that we have.
Things like
- Preparing more meals instead of using a microwave to cook every thing. Using things that are not processed and full of unhealthy things anyways.
-When we use transportation we have to stop driving around in a vehicle with no passengers when possible. Don't make trips that are really unnecessary
-Recycle anything that is recyclable
-Compost all excess food products
-Don't leave the water running when you brush your teeth four example
-Walk, Bike or use public transit if possible
-Turn off lights after leaving a room
-Turn Your Air Conditioner down a couple of degrees
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Carbon Tax: Good or Bad
In recent news there has been a lot of talk about carbon tax for Canadians. This tax would bee added onto things that produce carbon into our atmosphere and cause global warming. In my opinion this tax is good and bad. There are many benefits and disadvantages to the carbon tax. First off this would give incentives to engineers to produce and engineer products that don’t require or require very little energy to build some products that require a lot of energy to build. Most of this energy come from fuel sources or energy sources that produce carbon. Another big area of concern is the energy source itself. It will cause an increase demand for fuels that are bio fuels. These are fuels that are produce from things like corn, beans and other very crop that can produce these bio fuels. Also it will make a demand for super fuel efficient vehicles.
However with all these great things that come out of he carbon tax comes the other side of it which seems like it out ways all the incentives of the carbon tax. First of this carbon tax is just another tax that Canadians citizens have to pay, which it is very evident that people are not a fan of taxes in the first place. I is very evident to see what you would be paying the taxes on, things like vehicles, fuels, and you would be able to think of a few other things that produce carbon. When you really think hard about things that produce carbon, it is pretty much possible to say that almost every thing uses things that produce carbon to make them. From the raw materials, that use equipment to extract them produce carbon. To many machining and manufacturing techniques that not only release carbon but many other greenhouse gases.
With a carbon tax you can’t really just isolate carbon, even though it is the released into the atmosphere in the highest amounts. You have to consider other green house gases because trying to reduce one could increase others. You can also not eliminate the problem by just reducing one of the main green house gas, because some of the other can have a very damaging effect on the atmosphere towards global warming.
Therefor in my opinion the idea of the carbon tax is a great one, however the disadvantages of the carbon tax out weigh the advantages to the Canadian citizen because you would be basically paying extra at the pumps, and for most products that are sold in stores. I think that the carbon tax effects to much of society to have a good effect. For examples two people by a truck that doesn’t get that great of a gas millage rating. One person lives in the city, he other in the country on a farm. Why should the farmer pay the carbon tax when that person would be using the vehicle with a much greater purpose. Then you look at the person in the city and they are using the vehicle just for commuting and it is in the city so it get even worse millage, why then should these two people pay the carbon tax for the same product when one uses it what it is meant for and the other uses it just for commuting. I see the carbon tax as unfair because if you use the carbon tax you would have to apply the same rules to every one, but then the people that use some of these products use it with different purposes. And why should some one therefor be charge the same carbon tax if one uses something for work and the other is using it for recreation.
The main reason that I disagree with the carbon tax is that even though people will be paying a tax on carbon it is not going to fix the problem. This can be easily seen with gas prices, it has increase exponentially and people may complain, but they still pay the high prices because they really have no other means of transportation. Therefor if they have to pay another tax on gas they are going to still pay the high prices because it is there only means of transportation. Even thou it may cause some to reduce the way the commute. Most of the people will still pay the high prices . When this happens people are still buying fuel and in the end we will most likely not get a reduction in the amount carbon that is worth our while, we just get another tax and another reason to dislike out government system
However with all these great things that come out of he carbon tax comes the other side of it which seems like it out ways all the incentives of the carbon tax. First of this carbon tax is just another tax that Canadians citizens have to pay, which it is very evident that people are not a fan of taxes in the first place. I is very evident to see what you would be paying the taxes on, things like vehicles, fuels, and you would be able to think of a few other things that produce carbon. When you really think hard about things that produce carbon, it is pretty much possible to say that almost every thing uses things that produce carbon to make them. From the raw materials, that use equipment to extract them produce carbon. To many machining and manufacturing techniques that not only release carbon but many other greenhouse gases.
With a carbon tax you can’t really just isolate carbon, even though it is the released into the atmosphere in the highest amounts. You have to consider other green house gases because trying to reduce one could increase others. You can also not eliminate the problem by just reducing one of the main green house gas, because some of the other can have a very damaging effect on the atmosphere towards global warming.
Therefor in my opinion the idea of the carbon tax is a great one, however the disadvantages of the carbon tax out weigh the advantages to the Canadian citizen because you would be basically paying extra at the pumps, and for most products that are sold in stores. I think that the carbon tax effects to much of society to have a good effect. For examples two people by a truck that doesn’t get that great of a gas millage rating. One person lives in the city, he other in the country on a farm. Why should the farmer pay the carbon tax when that person would be using the vehicle with a much greater purpose. Then you look at the person in the city and they are using the vehicle just for commuting and it is in the city so it get even worse millage, why then should these two people pay the carbon tax for the same product when one uses it what it is meant for and the other uses it just for commuting. I see the carbon tax as unfair because if you use the carbon tax you would have to apply the same rules to every one, but then the people that use some of these products use it with different purposes. And why should some one therefor be charge the same carbon tax if one uses something for work and the other is using it for recreation.
The main reason that I disagree with the carbon tax is that even though people will be paying a tax on carbon it is not going to fix the problem. This can be easily seen with gas prices, it has increase exponentially and people may complain, but they still pay the high prices because they really have no other means of transportation. Therefor if they have to pay another tax on gas they are going to still pay the high prices because it is there only means of transportation. Even thou it may cause some to reduce the way the commute. Most of the people will still pay the high prices . When this happens people are still buying fuel and in the end we will most likely not get a reduction in the amount carbon that is worth our while, we just get another tax and another reason to dislike out government system
Friday, May 4, 2007
January Weather Phenomaly
It would appear that the warmer temperatures in December and the average overall warmer average temperatures around the world would suggest that global warming is the culprit in the temperature anomalies. The main question of global warming is to determine weather it is human caused or a natural phenomena. In my opinion you can’t conclude that the global warming is caused by humans there just is not enough evidence. Even though ice cores from Green land show an all time high in the past 400 000 years and that the temperature are in relation to these higher co2 level a greenhouse gas levels. Although it shows the higher levels of co2 and in relation the higher temperature. This basically means that it could be higher temperatures that cause the increase in the amount of co2 that is accumulated in the atmosphere or if it is actually the increase of co2 that causes the increase in temperature. Other causes for the increase average temperatures have been suggested to be linked to an increase in solar radiation this graph shows the variation in the solar out put over the past thirties years and how it fluctuate up and down, it has even been suggested that it may possibly be long term shift in ocean patterns that are causing the changes in weather patterns.
Although the temperatures of the earth are going up higher and higher year to year. It is actually impossible to predict what is actually going to happen in the future, because these events have not happened yet. So it could therefor be beyond our control and the cycle of excess GHG’s will eventually go back down to levels that they were once at and every thing will be back to normal.
We obviously do have some effect to the changing temperatures on the earth but in my opinion I don't think that it is all human caused, because the amount of ghg's that human cause compared to the amount that is outputted by the natural cycles
Although the temperatures of the earth are going up higher and higher year to year. It is actually impossible to predict what is actually going to happen in the future, because these events have not happened yet. So it could therefor be beyond our control and the cycle of excess GHG’s will eventually go back down to levels that they were once at and every thing will be back to normal.
We obviously do have some effect to the changing temperatures on the earth but in my opinion I don't think that it is all human caused, because the amount of ghg's that human cause compared to the amount that is outputted by the natural cycles
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