My Carbon Footprint

How much carbon do you release into the atmosphere? What is your impact on the earth?  In honor of Earth day, April 22 2011, use the link below to calculate your carbon footprint to see your impact on the earth.

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator1.html

You will need to do this at home, because you will need to talk with your parents in order to best determine your household energy usage.  You will need the following information to calculate your carbon footprint.  If you cannot get ahold of all of this information, talk to your parents and take your best guess.

1)      Utility bills

2)      Amount of propane used each month

3)      Flights you have taken in the past year

4)      Car-Make, model, year and distance travelled in the car the past year (use the odometer to help determine this)

5)      Use of public transportation

Once you have calculated your carbon footprint, create a “carbon footprint” blog page.  Make sure you post the following things on your page:

1)      What is your carbon footprint?

7.03 metric tons per year

2)      How far above, or below, the Sri Lankan average are you? The world average? The average for industrialized nations? The world target?

The average footprint for people in Sri Lanka is 0.61 metric tons

The average for the industrial nations is about 11 metric tons

The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 metric tons

The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 metric tons

3)      In which category did you use the most metric tons of CO₂?

House	0.25 metric tons of CO2
Flights	0.73 metric tons of CO2
Car	2.12 metric tons of CO2
Motorbike	0.00 metric tons of CO2
Bus & Rail	0.00 metric tons of CO2
Secondary	3.93 metric tons of CO2

4)      What surprised you the most about your carbon footprint calculation?

How high it is! This can’t be right! I think that this should be what the average person uses. The average footprint in Sri Lanka is low because….

a)      22% of the population is below the poverty line

b)      A lot of households do not own a fan

c)      About 90% do not own a computer

These are just a few examples why the average footprint in Sri Lanka is low, which also explains why the CO2 that Sri Lanka emits is below the world average and required average.

5)      If everyone had this level of a carbon footprint, how would that affect the earth?

If everyone had my level of a carbon footprint, then that would mean that no one is below the poverty line. Yay we eliminated poverty, but this would also mean that we are harming earth and its ozone layer even more leading to much more natural disasters (as explained in the first post).

6)      What is one thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint?  Name a specific, achievable solution. (You might want to talk with your parents about this to make a family plan.)

It’s so hard to come up with something because we have already taken action but our footprint is still high, which is hard to believe as this should be what the typical household consumes.

The only thing we can think of is to buy fewer coke bottles.

When you are finished, share this information with your parents.  Have a discussion about the impact of your family’s habits on the environment.  Then, add to your blog the summary of your conversation with your parents. 

            My parents are reluctant to take any actions to reduce our carbon footprint as we believe our emissions are very low at the moment and that the calculator is very inaccurate and false. A 12.5 kg gas cylinder for cooking (propane) is used in our household for a whole nine months which is an incredibly long period of time. The flight that was taken counted for work. We absolutely need a computer as my education and my parent’s work rely on one. We buy locally grown goods and from local vendors, and buy goods with minimal packaging. We do not use public transportation and our new car uses less petrol than our previously owned one. The questionnaire did not include our model of car, as it is the latest of Maruti Suzuki WagonR, and it is a small car. We do not use the air conditioning. And we have a lot of power-cuts at home!


            The only thing we can think of is to buy fewer coke bottles.

             This questionnaire is only for European and American households. Therefore we think that it is not accurate for the place we live.

Baraka - A truly inspirational and eye-opening film

In what ways does this film show our interconnectedness? Use specific examples.

There’s so much to say! So, I will just point it all down….

1.      The monkey in Japan in the beginning was my favourite scene. It had such human emotions, movements and even features. It was so peaceful, as if it was enjoying the cool air and the warm water. Serenity.

2.      The focus on the expressions and faces of people are similar; similar emotions, similar struggles, similar lives.

3.      There was a lot of focus on religion, showing that we all believe in something or someone or in a way of life. It was interesting to see similarities between the religious attire of the Jewish priests and it transitioning to the attire of the Catholic priests. There was a certain element of peace in all the religions practiced shown.

4.      Tribes around the world make their own music by simply opening their mouth, or even clapping and stomping. All members of the tribe seem to know what to do, what to dance, etc.

5.      The tribes shown wore bright colours, even though they do not known of each other and are located in different parts of the world. Unity is depicted by the fact that they dance in sync with each other.

6.      Creatures like salamanders and chameleons blended with the earth and their surroundings.

7.      The film focused on historical monuments like the statues of pharaohs in Egypt and the statues in Cambodia.

8.      There was someone sawing down a tree, and then it was focused on what seemed like ants, many of them, that live in trees.

9.      Countries are overpopulated. For example India and China.

10. People everywhere are always on the move – a focus on the United States and Japan.

11. People everywhere are leading monotonous lives.

12. The emotion in the faces of the people and the living conditions between a concentration camp in Awshwat and the Cambodia killing fields.

13. We continue to fight, we always have. There’s a focus on Tiananmen square and also of these statues of warriors that arguably one of the greatest Emperor’s of China, has his tomb guarded by them.

14. In India people wash, bathe and row in the river, even sacred rivers and lead a simple life, like the tribes that are seen.

How do cultural perspectives relate to a culture’s relationship with nature?

1.      The tribes that were shown all wore these bright colours as if to lend with nature in some way. They respect earth and nature and some tribes even pray to it and certain symbols, which can also be seen in some past civilizations. They find a way to build their lives around their environment, instead of bending the environment to suit what they want. They are very respectful to their surroundings.

2.      In India, the River Ganges is a sacred river and is worshipped as the Goddess Ganga in Hinduism. Thousands, even millions of Indians depend of the river to carry their daily life. They bathe, wash and go rowing in it. The river is so sacred to Hindus that when a person is sick, they would drink form the river to be cured. A vial of water from the Ganges in kept in many houses so that when someone is ill, they may drink it. This river is of huge significance to Hindus. The ashes of loved ones even scattered in the river. 

How does your culture relate to nature?

(Relating to my Sri Lankan culture)

1.      The Bo Tree is significant to Buddhism because it is where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment.

2.      When you start school, it is customary to give your teacher beetle leaves.

3.      There are these huge tanks that were built during th time of the Kings and they are very sophisticated in terms of the technology, and the irrigation system of the time and is still very impressive today.

4.      Avurudu (Sinhala and Tamil New Year) is celebrated because it is the harvest period and is when the “koha” bird flies from India to Sri Lanka. It is the time when the sun is directly above Sri Lanka, which would explain why a symbol that can be seen during Avurudu, is a sun drawn in a very traditional manner.

5.      There are many “kaviyas”, like rhyming poems, that are of the environment, nature, animals, etc. The kaviya tells a story.

6.      There are numerous folktales that take place in the jungle and/or are about certain animals. One example is “Nari Bana” with is about a fox. Another well known one by all is “Sinhabahu” which is between a King and a Veddha (Veddhas are the indigenous people of Sri Lanka that still exist).

7.      There are so many world heritage sites/ historical sites and monuments that have been carved or built from nature. Like Sigiriya, where the rock itself is not only a part of nature, but it was also carved to be a lion. And “Avukana”, a 43 feet high Buddha statue that was carved by one man out of one rock. 

8.      Sri Lanka is the only country in the world to depict an animal, the lion, so big on its flag.

What is our ecological responsibility?

                

               Wasn’t Mother Earth kind to breathe life and through a slow process that took millions of years, establish human civilization? Isn’t it clever that she made everything in the world fit; everything have a balance. But now, some query upon why she is unleashing all these natural disasters that within 2010 and 2011 alone, have been a monstrosity. Natural disasters can all be related, though indirectly, to humans. For example the heavy rains that stormed Pakistan or the heavy snowfall that Europe faced last year, or the extreme weather conditions that is hitting the United States. Think about the amount of gas and pollution that goes into the air from factories, the ever increasing number of vehicles, and such; the amount of carbon dioxide. This affects out ozone layer which is getting thinner and there’s even a hole in it! This is allowing ultra violet rays to enter our planet, and its getting hotter, simply said. The heat is melting the ice in the arctic circle and there are even satellite images that compare the land area a few years ago to the present day, and it’s as if it’s shrinking. With the ice melting, this will affect the living conditions/ habitat of several animals in our ecosystem. Additionally, melting ice means that we are getting a “larger pool of water” and this means more water is being evaporated and forming these big, heavy clouds that are sponged full of water. And thus, this is why there has been heavy rains in many countries and regions.

                A very basic example as to why it’s our ecological responsibility to protect our earth and all civilization. If we don’t take action to minimize or eliminate waste, carbon dioxide levels, use of water, and so on, we will not be able to survive ourselves! Just because locals have been breaking off pieces of coral and tourists have been crushing the coral when diving in the coral reefs, 90% of our world’s coral reefs are gone. We have not protected it. Now, the coral reefs are facing extinction by 2050 and it is said that without coral reefs being a part of our ecosystem, nothing would exist.

How do our actions affect others?

                

                Let’s take the recent incident in Japan. Because of the leak in the nuclear power plant, they have to “cool down the system” and so you use water. However then, the water used to cool the system has to be sent somewhere, and so what is being done is that it is being sent to the ocean! Now the seas and oceans near Japan are radioactive and is an extremely dangerous level of radiation in the air and water.

                Water is used to grow crops obviously. What would happen if I watered my crops with water which has a high amount of radiation?

                Well! Now I can’t eat my vegetables, fruits, wheat, anything! So maybe I should take up finishing. I can’t do that either! The fish are being poisoned and the population of fish is decreasing.

                I can’t really do anything  so I think I’m just going to pack up and migrate from Japan to Hawaii. What happened when I got there? I had the same problem and I couldn’t grow safe crops because we forget that we are all interconnected. If you put something into the ocean, it’s going to affect the islands and countries that have coastal borders that belong to that ocean.

                This is just a recent example that I have simply explained.

Which of the five “footprints” do you feel is the most important to fix? Explain.

  Carbon, Energy & Climate 
(energy use, impact of forest loss, and the need for a new global policy on climate change)

  Farming 
(food, fibre, grazing, aquaculture, and biofuels)

  Fishing
(over-fishing, illegal & unregulated fishing, and bycatch)

  Forestry 
(timber, paper, pulp, and fuel wood)

  Water
(dams, irrigation, and drinking supplies)

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/

               

I think that all of them are equally important. I would like to briefly highlight “Forestry” however. Photoautotroph, mainly plants, take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. What I am curious to know is that, if there becomes an imbalance where there are suddenly very few trees left and the high population of people, how much oxygen will they release? How much carbon dioxide will still be in the air?

             We don’t even need to cut down trees for paper but we choose it. We can just use elephant dung! How ingenuous is that? You not only have something to use the excretion of an animal for, but you get this really interesting yet pretty textured paper. Hooray for recycling! In Sri Lanka, there’s a lot of focus on this. Not only notebooks are made out of elephant dung, but also photo frames and accessories, to name a few.
                 The “Carbon, Energy and Climate” footprint needs to be fixed, but I mean this is terms of the goals we need to achieve. The United Nations have already come up with new frameworks, action plans and policies, so what’s the need for another one? We need to shorten our time to complete a goal, so that it will be done closer to the present and not in the future. We need to put ourselves under pressure.