Operation Cat Drop

Background Information

It’s provided by World Health Organization  for the remote village in Sarawak, Borneo which was dying from malaria.The cats were delivered in crates, dropped by parachute, as part of a broader program of supplying cats to combat a plague of rats due to the cat population in Borneo had decreased by spraying DDT for malaria control.

How is systems thinking essential and important in researches and decision-making processes?

WHO aka World Health Organization failed considering one aspect of the system rather than the entire system. They thought the mosquito was the cause of malaria so they decided to get rid of it by DDT without any hesitation of the effect of DDT can harm the other organisms.

Plastics Creative

Energy resources

Range of energy resources

• Renewable resources are sustainable because there is no depletion of natural capital

  • solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, and tidal schemes.

• Non-renewable resources cannot be replenished resulting in depletion of the stock.
  • fossil fuels, new clear power.

• Energy consumption is much higher in MEDCs than LEDCs.

• No one aware of the effect of fossil fuels since the past until it created pollution and climate change.
• Renewable resources costs a lot of money but in the future, there is going to be other way around.

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Advantages and disadvantages of energy sources

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Advantages and disadvantages of fossil fuels

• Cheap and plentiful
• A lot of technologies have been develop to serve the using of fossil fuels.
  • Disadvantage is their contribution to climate change in the Earth because they produce most Co2 in the atmosphere.
  • They are unsustainable.

Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power

• It does not emit Co2 so it won’t cause the climate change.
• Technology is available.
• One single plant can produce large amount of energy.
  • Disadvantages is the wastes from nuclear power plant is extremely dangerous and it will remain for thousands of years.
  • Very risky to build the nuclear power plant because there is always an possibility of failure.
  • The main sources of the power comes from uranium which is non-renewable resources.

Advantages and disadvantages of renewable resources.

• They do not release pollutants no pollution and acid rain
• They are renewable; they will not run out
• It has a smaller ecological footprint.

Hydroelectric power

Advantages

• it is a reliable form of energy.
• it is relatively cheap.
• Dams can block the flow of water and form a artificial lakes which can be used for irrigation.

Disadvantages

• There may be a flood.
• It may increase the erosion rate.

Tidal power

• Tidal power produces energy by using the ebbing or flooding tide to turn turbines
• The majorlimitations of this:
  • Good tidal range is required to generate sufficient energy, and the right shape of coastline to channel water through the turbines
  • Such installations may interfere with navigation and can have impact on wildlife.
  • They are expensive to set up

 

Solar energy

• At present, it is very expensive to turn solar energy into high-quality energy needed for manufacturing
• However, passive solar energy is much cheaper for heating homes than fossil fuels
• Solar energy has the disadvantage that its usefulness is limited in northern countries during winter

 

Wind power

• Wind power is produced by wind turbines driven by available wind energy
• The generator generates electricity by using electromagnetism
• Disadvantage if there is no wind, no energy is generated.
• Location of the turbines is critical : they need to be in areas of consistent high wind.

Biofuel Biofuel

• It is produced by burning plant material to produce heat
• The disadvantages are that they produce emissions and require large amounts of land to grow the biofuel crop
• Biofuel crops may take up land once used for growing food crops and affecting local people who cannot get enough food to live
• Biofuel crops are often planted at the expense of natural ecosystems, where new land clearance to create space for the biofuel crop has destroyed the natural ecosystem

 

Wastes

• Energy can be obtained from wastes
• Organic waste decomposes and gives off methane gas which can be burned.
• Waste can also be burned directly to generate energy, for example burning straw.
• Advantages are that the resource used is readily available and its use does not deplete natural capital.
• At the same time, a useful purpose is being served by waste that would otherwise have to be disposed of in some other way.
• Disadvantages are that the burning adds to global warming gases in the atmosphere

Geothermal energy 

• Energy can be obtained from residual heat in the ground.
• Water is pumped into pipes beneath the ground and the geothermal heat from the ground heats the water which can then be used to heat buildings.
• The pipes do not have to be buried at great depth to be effective, although deeper burial allows greater heat capture.
• This method of heat transfer is low impact and does not release any form of pollution. The pipes can be arranged in various formations

Factors which affect the choice of energy generation

• Choice of energy sources is in different countries.
• Large oil, coal and gas reserves in certain countries.
• Energy generation may also depend on economic, cultural, environmental and technological factors.

Research Ideas

1. Doing laundry and micro plastic fiber.

2 Amount of money spending on plastic between men and women.

3 The amount of plastic bottle being used between person who plays sport and who does not play.

Nepal Earthquake

What?

Earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.8 happened in Nepal.

When?

25th April.

Lost?

At least 3,218 have died.

Efforts?

• US: Disaster response team and an initial $1m (£0.7m), according to aid agency USAid
• China: Rescue team reported to have arrived in Nepal
• India: Several aircraft, carrying medical supplies and a mobile hospital, and a 40-strong disaster response team, including rescuers with dogs
• UK: Eight-strong humanitarian team, £5m in aid
• Pakistan: Four C-130 aircraft carrying a 30-bed field hospital, and army doctors and specialists; urban search-and-rescue teams equipped with radars and sniffer dogs; food items, including 2,000 meals, 200 tents and 600 blankets
• Norway: $3.9m (£2.5m) in humanitarian assistance

Ideas?

Donation

Sports like basketball or dodgeball

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32475030

10-Day-Single-Use-Plastics-Collection

Tragedy of the Commons

We are sharing earth resources together. Tragedy of the Commons occurs when one individual thinks of Commons as his own property and only use it for himself and eventually causes harm to the society.

Earth day

What is it?

Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which day events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection

When is it?

April 22nd 2015

Purpose?

• to make all participants of this day Earth trustees and eliminate the problems of pollution, war, poverty, injustice, and conflicts.
• to unite people of many different cultures for a single purpose care for the earth.

Single-use plastics

Compass “single-use plastics”

Nature

• Plastic is non-renewable resources.
• It takes many hundred of years or even thousand for plastic to decompose.
• Most marine debris is included of plastic material and it also kills some marine animal or bird that misunderstand plastic debris as their foods.
• Affect the animal’s habitat.
• for nature, we shouldn’t use plastics.

Economy

• Plastic bag is cheap and more affordable.
• Supermarket will offer the plastic bag to the customers because it costs less than anything else.
• When we buy water, we always buy water bottle which will help company that produce it.
• For the economy, Yes, we still need single-use plastics.

Well-being

• Single-use plastic is convenient to use.
• Water bottle of water contains some chemical, we do know it but we still drink it rather than tap water.
• For the well-being, we still need single-use plastics.

Society

• There will be more trash because plastic is non-renewable.
• People will be more comfortable not to bring paper bag or another kind of bag with when they go to supermarket. So they will use plastic bag that is given for free. However, this can be changed by telling them the plastic issue.
• For society, we can survive without single-use plastics.

Overall= Yes

Continue using it? Yes, Why?

In my opinion, I don’t think I can’t stop using single-use plastic but I will try to reduce the amount of plastic I use these day even though for me it would be pretty hard. I cannot live without drinking water bottle each day, I cannot live without buying food which is contained in plastic box from the shop and I cannot live without buying a snack that is also contained in plastic bag. The solution I think I can do is I’m trying to make a food from my house and bring it to school and maybe bring my own bottle to get a water from a tap instead.

Citation

http://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/pollution-environment/plastics-environmental-health-literature-review

http://www.endangeredspeciesinternational.org/plastickills.html

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/dangers-of-plastic

Natural Capital

Intrinsic value of the environment

Economic value – determined from market price of the goods and services.

Ecological values – no formal market price. (soil erosion control, nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis)

Aesthetic values – no market price. (appreciation of a landscape for its visual attraction)

Intrinsic value – value in their own right, not economic value.

Direct use values – they are the ecosystem goods and services that are directly used by humans.

• Consumptive use – includes harvesting food products, timber for fuels, or housing, medicinal products and hunting animals for food and clothing.
• Non-consumptive use – includes recreational and cultural activities that do not require harvesting of products.

Indirect use values – from ecosystem services that benefits outside the ecosystem itself. (ex. natural water filtration which may benefit people downstream).

Optional values – from potential future use of ecosystem goods and services. either by yourself (option value or your future generations (bequest value).

Non-use values- It includes aesthetic and intrinsic values, sometimes called existence values.

Recreational value – For natural resources to attract the tourist that can provide an alternative income that is sustainable and does not deplete the source of natural capital.

Sustainability

Sustainability means using global resources at a rate that allows natural regeneration and minimizes damage to the environment.

Humans goes beyond sustainable limits through…

1. Over population
2. Financial motives
3. Ignorance

Unsustainable to soil:

1. Overgrazing (loss vegetation and exposure of the underlying soil)
2. Over-cultivation (loss of soil fertility and structure leave the soil on top vulnerable to erosion by wind and water)

Local or global?

Ecosystems are affected by global processes, so sustainability needs to be understood as a global issue.