(Un)Do Something

On this blog, we showed you why is so important to do something about the environment today. We hope you have learned something useful.

Never forget to do something to undo what we have been doing.
Join us in this journey.

Thank you!

Reforestation

One last word: Reforestation is essential to reduce the global warming and grenhouse effects, because plants absorve CO2 and emite O2. If we avoid deflorestation, we could breed more healthy air, and consequently, avoid more ambient disasters. We can recycle paper, reuse paper, etc... to reduce these phenom. It is easy and depens of each of us.

Veganism & Environment

Veganism is an alternative and healthy lifestyle .
This lifestyle excludes the use of animals for clothing, food, or any other use.
The environemental veganism is based on the fact that the animal production by intensive agriculture is environmentally unsustainable.
Resources such as fossil fuels, water, and land and pollution are the primary environmental concerns with animal products.

The livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to deforestation, air and water pollution, land degradation, loss of topsoil, climate change, the excessive use of resources including as oil and water, and loss of biodiversity.

People who adopt veganism for environmental reasons do so on the basis that veganism consumes far smaller amount of resources and causes less environmental damage than an animal-based diet.














sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism#Resources_and_the_environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_vegetarianism

The Liquid of Life

On previous posts, we presented some clean ways to obtain energy and some suggestions for consuming it profitably. However, saving energy isn’t enough.

Besides that, we must save the most precious liquid on Earth. No, it isn’t petroleum. It is water, fresh water. You may ask: “Isn’t it a renewable resource? Why should we save something unlimited?”

Well, water has been considered as a renewable resource. Actually, it covers 3/4 of Earth’s surface. But is fresh water renewable? If we realized that less than 1% of water is accessible and drinkable and that a 1/3 of Humankind doesn’t have enough fresh water for its basic needs, we may ask “no” to that question.

Besides, in some parts of the world, water is being consumed faster than nature can produce it, which is in opposition to the definition of a renewable resource.

Not only does mankind consume too much water, but it also pollute it. As we saw before, water pollution has serious consequences for the environment and for human beings.

So, we must do something now to reverse this situation, otherwise we will face an unprecedented shortage of fresh water. In other to save water, there are several little actions you can do, which will reduce not only the waste of water but also your water account. You can find great suggestions through this link: http://www.savewater.com.au/

Reduce Your Energy Waste

As we saw with the post of the 3R's it is not enough seeking renewable energy resources we must also consume energy profitably.
Whenever you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants.

Home improvements:

Consider some of these energy-saving investments. They save money in the long run, and their CO2 savings can often be measured in tons per year.

-Use whenever possible sources of renewable energy for energy supplies.

-Insulate your walls and ceilings. This can save 20 to 30 percent of home heating bills and reduce CO2 emissions by 140 to 2100 pounds per year.

-Limit the use of equipment requiring high energy consumption, such as ovens, microwave, coffee machines, drying machines, heating oil, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners and hair dryers.

-Buy equipment with more efficient energy consumption, such as refrigerators and freezers.

-Use outdoor equipment for heating water, for example: solar systems

-Use natural light and lamps with lower power consumption (fluorescent).

-Keep in mind that many household appliances consume energy when not off, that is, when they are in "stand-by."




http://www.powerscorecard.org/reduce_energy.cfm
http://www.atlantiscorp.com.au/__data/assets/image/0013/418/Ecological_House.jpg

The 3R's

The policy of the 3 R's is made from the collection of urban garbage.
3R's means Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
All together, we can:
- Reduce the amount of waste produced in each housing through small gestures, such as buying products for weight, reducing the amount of packaging that goes into the container.
- Reuse, that is, re-use the same product even for a different outcome. We can take as an example the use of sheets of paper on both sides, the use of rechargeable batteries, etc..
- Recycle, or turn waste materials into new materials. This will be the last resort, when you can not reduce or reuse.


Jack Johnson - The 3R's

Source:
http://www.notapositiva.com/trab_estudantes/trab_estudantes/cienciasnaturais/ciencias_trab/3rs.htm

It is not flat...

Wave power is the transport of energy by ocean surface waves. The energy provided is most often used in desalination plants, power plants and water pumps.

The problem is that it's not easy to harness this energy and convert it into electricity in large amounts. Thus, wave power stations are rare.

But there are already countries which are beginning to invest in this type of energy.

Portugal could create an industrial cluster around the energy of sea waves which will create between 30 to 40 thousand jobs.

The Portuguese coast will have the first machine to generate energy from waves of sea worldwide. The world's first park use of wave energy was opened off the coast Póvoa de Varzim in northern Portugal. It is a great investment for our country.

Sources:

http://home.clara.net/darvill/altenerg/wave.htm
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/hydro/wave-power/
http://povoa2010.blogspot.com/2008/09/o-primeiro-parque-mundial-da-energia.html

Hydropower

Of the renewable energy sources that generate electricity, hydropower is the most often used.
The energy from the movement of fresh water. When it rains in the hills and mountains , the water concentrates on rivers, streams and currents moving into the sea. The energy is produced through the use of hydraulic potential existing in rivers, using natural gaps, such as falls of water, or artificial, produced by the sheer original of the river.
Prior to the widespread availability of commercial electric power, hydropower was used for irrigation, and operation of various machines, such as watermills, textile machines, sawmills, dock cranes, and domestic lifts.
The production of this type of energy is mainly conducted through hydroelectric of greater or smaller (the largest are often called hydroelectric dams and smaller ones are generally called small scale hydro power), producing electricity that is then distributed through the electricity grid. It is one of the oldest sources of energy and was used thousands of years ago to turn a paddle wheel for purposes such as grinding grain.
The Alqueva Dam is the largest Portuguese dam, located in the Guadiana River.The installed capacity of electric power is 240 MW. The lake reaches, the maximum quota, and is the largest artificial lake in Europe
This type of energy gives low noise and vibration and can have very low environmental impact. It’s considered the most efficient processes and the less polluting, at least in the case of small hydropower plants, where the inconvenience caused to the environment is almost summarize the construction phase.

http://www.niwa.cri.nz/__data/assets/image/0015/50532/hydropower2_large.jpg
http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/water.html
http://agueda_criativa_agueda.blogs.sapo.pt/2510.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydropower

Biomass

From the point of view of energy generation, the term biomass is derived from recently living organisms or used as fuel to produce them. From the point of view of ecology, biomass is the total amount of living matter in an ecosystem or a plant or animal population. The two concepts are linked. Although, they are different.

In the definition of biomass for the power generation are excluded the traditional fossil fuels, although these are also derived from plant life (coal) or animal (oil and natural gas) but are the result of several changes that require millions of years to happen. Biomass can be considered a renewable natural resource, while fossil fuels are not renew the short term.

THe biomass is used in the production of energy from processes such as the burning of organic material produced and accumulated on an ecosystem, but not all the primary production begins to increase the plant biomass of the ecosystem. Part of the stored energy is used by the ecosystem for their own maintenance. The advantages are the low cost, is renewable, allows the reuse of waste and is less polluting than other forms of energy such as that produced from fossil fuels.

The burning of biomass causes the release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but as this compound had previously been absorbed by plants that led to fuel, the balance of CO2 emissions is zero.



source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass

Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy is energy obtained from the heat of the Earth, more precisely, inside of Earth.

Nowadays the major part of electrical power comes from the burning of fossil fuels, which is very polluting. Because we need to obtain electricity in a cleaner way, scientists developed a way to take the heat and generate it into electricity.

Geothermal energy is used by the energy of the Earth's heat but we must first understand how our planet is made. The Earth is composed of a large plate that keeps us isolated from the interior, which contains magma and also consists of melted down rocks.

In some areas, the water that is in contact with both ways of heating rocks can turn into steam. Steam is used to produce electricity through the tubes that the steam goes through to the geothermal center. As a normal power station, the steam runs through the turbine blade as a fan. The mechanical energy is transformed into turbine power by a generator. After passing through the turbine, the steam is led to a tank where it will be cooled down. The white smoke that is found in the chimneys of these stations is steam that is about to become again in water. The water is once again channeled into the reservoir where it will be naturally heated by hot rocks. The main difference between both of these power stations is that there is no need to burn fuel in order to produce electricity.

So, geothermal energy, like others energies we saw before, is clean and should be used instead of fossil fuels.

Wind power

Combining energy efficiency with renewable energy resources constitutes a key strategy for a sustainable future.

Many countries, especially Europeans, have invested significantly in this type of energy because it is clean, does not cause air pollution, does not produce or use radioactive material and is inexhaustible. Portugal is one of those countries. At the end of 2007, it was the tenth world producer of wind energy.

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines.

At present, wind energy is used to move aerogenerators - large turbines placed in windy zones. These turbines have the form of a windmill. This movement, through a generator, produces electricity.

They need to be grouped in wind farms, concentrations of aerogenerators, necessary for the production of energy becomes profitable. But it can be used alone to feed and remote locations away from transmission network.

When it comes to size, bigger is better – the bigger the wind turbine, the more wind it reaches and the more electricity it produces.

Wind power is a very good option in which countries must rely more and more. It is an excellent alternative to fossil fuels as well as other energy that we will talk.


Sources:
http://www.alliantenergykids.com/stellent2/groups/public/documents/pub/phk_ee_re_001502.hcsp
http://www.treehugger.com/wind-power-reaches-100000-megawatts.jpg

Choose Solar Energy

As we saw on the last post, discussing about human influence on the environment is not what really matters. Instead of it, we should start doing something today. This is why we will present several suggestions to make Earth a better place on the second part of our blog – ‘Do Something’.

One of the most important issues we face is the dependence on petroleum. But aren’t fossil fuels just a small part of Sun’s energy stored in our planet? Yes, and they are almost insignificant compared to Sun’s huge amount of energy. Why don’t we use this energy?

Solar energy is a great choice, having the most important characteristics of an energy resource: it is clean, unlimited, and cheap; it is literally falling from the sky.

This type of energy can be explored in two ways: to produce heat and electricity.

Solar collectors are devices which use sunlight to increase their internal energy. This energy is generally used to heat water. These collectors are getting cheaper and more efficient. Actually, according to Quercus, an investment of 1500€ to 2000€, which is compensated in a few years, is enough to buy a solar collector for home.

Solar photovoltaic modules can produce electricity using solar energy. For example, in sunny countries, public lighting may be completely powered by sunlight.
Although this devices are more expensive that solar collectors, they can be lucrative too because electricity produced by homeowners can be sold to energy companies in a higher cost than they buy it.

As you can see, solar energy is a good way to fight the dependence on petroleum. Because, as we already said, Sun is the source of almost all the energy on the Earth, it is the responsible for all other kinds of renewable energies, as the wind power, which we will discuss next on this blog.


Sources:
http://www.quercustv.org/spip.php?article181
http://www.solargen.biz/uploads/images/solarlights/st_ives_6.jpg
http://www.top100-solar.eu/

Obviously, Yes

Our carelessness (this huge footprint we have been talking about) leaded to serious global consequences.
Firstly, we found coal, then, petroleum. Man only thought about developing: extracting raw materials and energy resources, and dropping in nature any kind of waste.

However, we realized that nature isn’t an unlimited source of resources and that it can’t absorb waste unlimitedly. So, although they had satisfied energy needs and, consequently, allowed a better life quality on developed countries, fossil fuels, among other pollutants, were seriously damaging our planet.
After this discovered, scientists started spreading the concepts of climate changes and global warming.

But if is it all false? Many people, who say that climate changes always occurred naturally on Earth, believe human action hasn’t anything to do with global warming. Consequently, a global warming controversy took place.
And if I told you there is an argument which makes this controversy insignificant? Take a look at the movie below.



Obviously, I choose column A. You must choose it too, even if you don’t believe our carelessness is responsible for global warming.

Fortunately, today is almost consensual that something has to be done. Is it too late?
It is certain that is hard to fight the dependence on petroleum, mainly because of economic interests. However, we believe is possible. And it’s true that much work is being done in that way.

You just have to contribute and spread the word.
Do something to undo what we have been doing. Further on this blog, we will explain you how to do it.

Choose column A.

If you want to see other explanation of this argument, go to this teacher's channel on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/wonderingmind42

A serious threat...

Pollution means dirt, degradation, contamination, illness.
Nowadays, pollution is the biggest problem that threats the Earth! It is the cause of other many environmental problems like the increasing of the greenhouse effect, global warming (that were already mentioned in previous posts).
There are different types of pollution. The most important are soil pollution, air pollution and water pollution.

Soil pollution is caused by rubbish that people throw out their house, their street, their city gardens, from the car windows...

Air pollution results from gas emissions or solid particles in the atmosphere. It can cause the degradation of ecosystems due to the launch of numerous substances and it does not respect borders. This type of pollution can lead to the increasing of the greenhouse effect, to climate change, to the decline in air quality, to health problems in living beings and various respiratory diseases, various types of cancers, among others.

There are different causes for air pollution...

-The smoke that comes from the factories and cars;
-The burning of rubbish;
-The use of pesticides and sprays;
-Oil refining;
- Waste deposition in landfills;
-Etc...

Other type of pollution is water pollution.

Water is the source of life, but when badly exploited, it becomes a source of problems. One of the reasons that the water pollution problem is so severe is that it is not actually illegal to dump pollutants into water bodies. Sewage, sludge, garbage and even toxic pollutants are all dumped into the water. In addition to sewage, chemicals dumped by industries and governments are another major source of water pollution. Oil, such as that spilled by transport ships, has been dumped into the water. This type of pollution causes the destruction of ecosystems and can also be a threat to human health. About half of hospital beds from around the world, stressing it is the least developed countries are occupied by patients with diseases caused by polluted water.

The Earth belongs to everyone and we should do something to change these problems. We should try to reduce the quantity of gases that we sent to the atmosphere; we should try recycle, save water and everything else that is good for the environment, those are issues we will talk later on this blog.

Sources:

http://epa.gov/airtrends/2007/graphics/Air_pollution_pathways_textbox.gif http://www.ciari.org/opiniao/ano_internacional_agua_doce.htm

The Global Warming

The global warming is consequence of the increase of the Greenhouse Effect.

Global warming has several important consequences: it causes ice melting, sea level rising and, consequently, floods on coastlands. Ecosystems are affected by climate changes as well. Natural disasters are stronger and more frequent… and so on.

All of these gases emissions contribute to the increasing of the greenhouse effect which affects the balance (talked on the preview topic): the incoming radiation becomes less than the outgoing one and, consequently, global temperature rises up. This is a vicious cycle because as the temperature rises up, more water will evaporate which affects the earth energy balance, consequently.

The Anthropogenic Greenhouse Effect

As we already saw on this blog, greenhouse gases have anthropogenic sources which contribute to the increasing of theirs concentrations on the atmosphere.

Most of greenhouse gases emissions are due to fossil fuels burning.
Mankind started using coal on the Industrial Revolution and now we depend on fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas are used as energy resources to generate electricity and to heat buildings. Petroleum is also used as a raw material to produce plastics, fertilizers, pesticides and, of course, gasoline and other fuels.
These fuels contain carbon that combine with oxygen form carbon dioxide. Besides, they are responsible for others greenhouse gases emissions, like Nitrogen oxide, and others air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals.

Although greenhouse gases have more source, like livestock, which produce methane, fossil fuels are the main cause of Anthropogenic greenhouse emissions.

Deforestation is another cause of the increasing of the greenhouse effect. Burns on forest releases carbon into the air. Also contributing to deforestation are producing fuel, wood and paper products and clearing land for farming, pastures for animals and building infrastructures.
Forests are so important because they retain CO2 and produce O2 by photosynthesis. Actually, it is estimated that deforestation is responsible for one-third of CO2 anthropogenic emissions.

Besides contributing for global warming, deforestation has other serious consequences: drier climates (because with less vegetation, less water is hold), soil erosion, ecosystems lost and extinction of species. These last two topics will be developed later on this blog. As well, we will talk about global warming, whose main cause is the anthropogenic greenhouse effect.

Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon

Sources:
http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse.htm
http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envFacts/facts/deforestation.htm
http://travel.mongabay.com/peru/sections/Deforestation.html

Greenhouse Effect – is it good or bad?

Contrary to most people belief, greenhouse effect is a natural and healthy phenomenon, which allows life on Earth.

To understand it, we have to look at the Earth's energy balance.

Almost all the energy on the Earth comes from solar radiation. However, our planet doesn’t absorb all off this energy, otherwise it will explode. 30% of solar radiation is reflected by the Earth and its atmosphere, going back to Space, and the other 70% is absorbed and reemitted.
Hence, there is a balance between incoming sunlight radiation and outgoing heat radiation, which has been allowing a constant temperature on Earth for millions of years.

According to scientists’ calculations that temperature would be 18 degrees Celsius below zero which wouldn’t allow liquid water or life.

But we know that the average temperature of the Earth’s surface is about 15 degrees. Greenhouse effect is the responsible for that.

From the 70% of absorbed solar radiation, 44% are absorbed by the Earth’s surface. Than, that energy is reemitted as infrared radiation. Some of that passes through the atmosphere, but most is absorbed by greenhouse gases and reemitted in all directions. This process creates a cycle of radiation that warms the Earth’s surface and the lower atmosphere.

If greenhouse effect is natural, what’s the problem?

We are! The problem is the increasing of the greenhouse effect by human action.

Although most of the greenhouse gases are natural and essential to life, they have anthropogenic sources too, which contribute to the increasing of theirs concentrations on the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide, fluorocarbons and water vapor are the most important greenhouse gases.

As we will see further on this blog, fossil fuels burn and deforestation are the main causes of the increasing of the greenhouse effect, which leads to global warming and its serious consequences.

Sources:
RODRIGUES, M. Margarida R. D. e DIAS, Fernão Morão Lopes, Física e Química A – Física – 10º ou 11º (ano 1), Porto Editora, 2007.
http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse.htm

Welcome to (un)Do Something

This blog is a school group project about the environment. Our purpose is to warn you about environmental issues (and, of course, get a good mark in English!).

Because the environment is such a broad theme, we will divide it into two categories. The first one is ‘Mankind’s Footprint’, in which we will discuss about human influence on the environment.

We hope you enjoy our blog and always remember to do something to undo what we have been doing.