This author of this article writes about how an airport in Canada is being awarded for being green and motivating the Green Movement. This airport has a water system that collects rainwater and the system cleans the water to be usable. It also used recycled and reusable materials in the making of the building and has other energy sources they use to get their building power up. The award the leaders were given is named Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. As said before, they were awarded this certification due to them being green when building and using the airport. Canada has achieved an achievement that most countries should be doing. Buildings that are able to function like a traditional building and function to promote the Green movement are the examples that the world can decrease global warming and climate change and be efficient with the environment. I do question how much they spent on the building and how their energy systems work? Another question I had is whether the airport owner gets paid well and the workers as well? Even though the building is an example of increasing the Green Movement, it should also show that they are doing fine in the economy. Also, the third question I had is if the airport building is green than are the owners providing recycled materials? This airport seems like a great setup and it seems like it is functioning properly, however, how long will it be functional? If it keeps being functional, then Canada should spread their strategy on making a green functional building to other countries in order to spread the Green Movement. However, if the building does not make money and goes into debt, then the owners need to think about a different way to be green and economically beneficial. Overall this building is an accomplishment in the Green Movement because it is using renewable sources to power their energy. Buildings like this one in Canada should be replicated or have improvements in innovating green buildings.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Environmental Innovations in Architecture
In this article the author talks about the ten different buildings that are environmentally friendly in the United States. When the author lists the buildings, he shows a picture of the architecture and then he gives a small description about it. In the description he writes what the building is and what it is used for and he mentions why they are green. The reasons why these buildings are green is usually because they use renewable sources like solar energy and wind energy. The author also gives a statement as to what awards these buildings have received due to being green. When reading this article, I did not know that libraries and the most common places a person goes to were being transformed from a traditional building to an environmentally friendly building. One of the buildings listed in the article was H-E-B at Austin and I was shocked to see that they used solar arrays to transform solar energy into useful energy they need. They also were the first North American supermarket to use propane refrigeration system. An observation that I made when looking at the list is that most of the buildings that are environmentally innovated are located in California. If California is the most popular place to have eco-friendly buildings, how are they able to invest so much in creating these buildings? I really do think about what their strategies are because if they are able to do it then other places have a chance to do it. Also buildings in California seem to use the sun as their main source because I noticed that each of the buildings listed on the article show that they use solar panels or solar arrays or anything that has to do with the sun. A reason for this observation could be due to the fact that California gets a lot of sun because of their geographical location. Overall it is great that California is taking advantage of this fact and other places are doing the same. I think a big portion for which these types of buildings were made the way they were was because the architectures observed what renewable resource was available and used that knowledge to build a building.
Global Climate Change, Weather Conditions, and Ozone Loss
This article talks
about global warming and severe climate changes that are just getting worse
over the years. Throughout the article the author is involving the entire world
and putting examples from different parts of the world to show that global
warming is not getting anywhere near better. On the contrary it is getting
worse and the United Nations want to do something before it is way past the
point of return. At the end of the article the author put a list of the year of
2015 showing a lot of historical records that proves that global warming and
climate change is worsening. If the world knows that global warming is
worsening and the climate change is going crazy then why are people not doing
something or the government? Is it really hard to tell people the truth and let
them know that if nothing changes for the better then we will be in a really
bad situation? The past year of 2015 shows a lot of events in showing that
climate is acting weird. An example that is listed is the tropical cyclone
Patricia in Mexico where the wind speeds were 346 km/h. This cyclone was
recorded because it had the strongest winds compared to any other ones before
it. Also the United Nations need to advertise as much as possible that people
need to make a change in their lifestyle to decrease global warming. A problem
that can arise from this is that there are people who do not believe in global
warming and this can cause less participation in ending or decreasing the
problem. However I feel like these kind of people can have a change in mind by
people showing them the facts of what is going on. Global warming is a serious
situation and if not controlled the world will slowly start to decay because if
one thing is unbalanced in nature everything will be unbalanced. This can cause
our destruction. A question I have is if we do not do anything and keep our
lifestyle the same, when will global warming come to the point where there is
no return?
Water – Use, Loss, Allocation, and Conservation
In this article the
author is talking about a place in the Erie county where the residents are
using a lot more of water than what should be used because they are in the
middle of a drought. The author states that the total water usage of all of the
residents in August this year has doubled from August of two years ago.
Although the people are using a lot of water during a drought, the county states
that the demand of water is not over exceeding the supply despite the drought.
The county states that they have it under control and that the people do not
need to worry about cutting their usage. I feel like the county is pushing the
limit between pleasing their residents and understanding that more water usage
will lead to the Lake Erie going dry, which is their main water supply. The
county needs to understand that if they are in a drought they need to regulate
the water usage of their residents and need to make limitations to how much a
person can use water in a single day. Because they feel so calmly about their
water supply, they do not care about the amount of water a person uses. Instead
of thinking about the present they should be thinking about the future or the
long-term of not limiting the water usage. If they keep doing this system, soon
the Lake Erie will dry up and they will not have a water supply. I felt like
calling the county office or anyone in charge of the water usage and trying to
make them understand that their usage system is not helping anything. They
should limit the usage so that way they save water and in case of an emergency
when there is a tough drought they use the saved water. I questioned what was
going on in their mind to think that it was okay to use so much water than what
is actually necessary. Overall this article just made me really think about
their decisions because a drought means that less water should be used because
there is less supply.
Land Use, Urbanization, and Urban Sprawl
A major cause for which the Zika virus is spreading is due to urbanization. In this article, the author talks about how in the past years the world has been growing in population leading to a growth in urbanization and globalization. All these factors contribute to the Zika virus in different ways. Because urbanization is increasing, this means that more slums or neighborhoods that are less economically advanced have poor health systems and their water system is unclean. Also, mosquitoes love to be near and lay their eggs around a place where there are many people. So because of their preference in living, urbanization is a perfect reason for the increase in mosquitoes which leads to an increase in the Zika virus. The slums seem to have the most effect from the virus because of their poorly maintained neighborhoods. I feel like the government should increase regulations to keep all neighborhoods clean and have a clean water system because mosquitoes like to be around water. With the help of the government and the residents to make sure that the areas are clean, the mosquito population will decrease leading to a decrease in Zika virus and people with the virus. Because urbanization is not able to be stopped by anyone due to the population growing each year, this plan seems to be a great plan to execute to lead to a decrease of the virus spread. When reading this article, I had a few questions concerning the water supply people in the slums have. If the government knows that the slums or poorer parts of the city do not have adequate water supply, then why are they not trying to help them? Is it really no one of their concerns? An example of slums with this issue is in Brazil and the people here have to collect their water in jars, which is another preferable home for mosquitoes, and this will result in an increase in the Zika virus. Although some slums are dangerous like the ones in Brazil, it still does not mean that their health is of no concern. Also if one person in the population gets infected, the infection can spread to other so it is convenient for the government to help. Urbanization is good for the economy because it means more jobs, more production due to more demand, and more money, however, in the case of the Zika virus, urbanization is not good.
Land / Air / Water / Noise Pollution
The article talks about a river that is being polluted and hurting not only the farmers but also the environment. This river is located in the district of Haryana’s Yamunanagar in the country of India. This district has a river that has been being polluted by the citizens as well as the low maintenance the government is enforcing. This ,in turn, is hurting the environment by the fish and animals in the river dying or suffering from the pollution and the plants will not be getting clean water. The people are complaining that the river needs to be cleaned and monitored by the government, however, the government has been trying and is telling the citizens that it is also up to them to help with the cleanup. The government plans to make three damns in order to ensure the river does not overflow and flood the villages which can lead to more damage to the environment. They also want to create this so that they can monitor better the garbage and pollution of the river. I feel like the government is trying all the same methods to prevent the river from further pollution but it does not work. I do hope that the creation of dams help a little because if the pollution still occurs it will keep hurting the environment as well as the farmers and their businesses. A little side note of the article is that the author was not specific in what he was trying to discuss. The author seemed like he was writing without any plot. Because of this, I was a little lost as to what the article was talking about. Other than that I feel like I got the main points, which was that a river was being polluted and needed to be cleaned in order for the environment and citizens go on with a clean water system. Overall this district needs to have a set plan that is more than able to create and maintain a system that keeps the river clean. This plan should also include the citizen’s participation so that way everyone ends up a positive result: a clean water system.
Energy (Consumption, Efficiency, Conservation, and Alternatives)
In this article, the author writes about NASA creating an electric motor airplane that will be able to go 175 miles per hour. The author writes that NASA plans to make an airplane that will be using batteries instead of gasoline. This plan would be executed by first getting the “Italian-designed Tecnam P2006T twin-engine four-seat aircraft.” After they get this aircraft, NASA plans to take out the engine and put in an electric motor. Then they plan to put a different design of wings and in total it will take about five years. NASA plans to make this airplane and have people use it rather than a gasoline fuel plane. This plan to switch energy sources is a great and environmentally friendly plan. The problem that I think will come up is that there are not enough seats for people to sit in. The article said that the four-seated aircraft from Italy will turn into one-seat after inputting all the engines. Another problem with this is that the airplane will not be able to fly a far distance like regular planes. The article states that the plane will not be able to do cross-country traveling and that it will only be able to stay running for about an hour. With this little time and distance being used, I highly doubt anyone would want to purchase this aircraft. I feel like after being able to make an all-electric airplane they should immediately focus on trying to figure out how to better enhance the distance and time travel. Then once these two problems are resolved people will be willing to purchase this new environmentally friendly technology. A question that I have for this plan is that why is the time limit an hour? Another question is that why would NASA want to execute this plan if they know that it will not be able to last so far in the air?
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