This week we talked about sustainable housing. Sustainability is the act of maintaining how
the world is. We depend so much on our natural environment, whether it be
directly or indirectly. The most important factor of sustainability is to make
sure we have and will continue to have all the natural resources that the world
has always provided for us. Suitability affects everything around us including
social, economic and environmental factors.
This creates a harmony between humans and wild life.
A guest speaker came to our class and further discussed
sustainability. He went into more detail about how to build sustainable houses,
Energy Star Home and other green building ratings. One this that seemed very
interesting was that in Germany, they are capable of getting and most likely
have the same amount of cars as we do in the United States. However, more
people in Germany ride their bikes as a mean of transportation than drive their
cars. As a result, they are more fuel-efficient.
There are little changes everyone can do to help us sustain
our environment. They are cost efficient as well and in the long run, saves you
a lot of money. For instance, you can do something as little as changing the
type of light bulbs you use. If you want
to make a greater impact, since we’re so dependent on cars for transportation,
purchasing hybrid cars would help prevent pollution and climate changes. Small
changes can sooner lead to a big difference.
This is an article talking about how these climate changes
such as global warming have a huge negative effect on our well being. These climate
changes cause a huge risk for natural disasters. You may think you’re enjoying
the warm weather now, but in reality, it is not normal nor is it good for our
environment.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-change-poses-disaster-risk-for-most-planet
i agree that we can all be for sustainable and efficient to make sufficient changes towards our environment. But only by making those changes such as riding more bikes and walking won't contribute a lot to the CO2 emissions from the cars because the main reason that Germany and European countries have less CO2 emissions even though they produce more cars is because they use environmentally friendly resources such as diesel fuel which produces significantly less amount of CO2 to the atmosphere. Our country uses about 1.7% diesel fuel while Europe uses it 49%. This is some things our country should consider when attempting to live sustainably. Although it would definitely help if a large amount of people in the US did start walking and taking bikes to their destinations.
ReplyDelete-GROUP 22 SeongHo David Choi
I agree that global warming is a huge problem. Something that I do not understand is why global warming has become a political argument. Politicians know absolutely nothing compared to all of the environmental scientists who have actual quantitative data that proofs that Earth's average global temperature has been steadily increasing in the past 50 years, proofing that global warming is a real threat that we need to solve soon before it is too late.
ReplyDelete-Andrew Berkowitz
Great point! And I couldn't agree with you more Berkowitz. I feel as if we're too caught up in living in our capitalist kingdom that we don't see the difference between what we 'should' be doing compared to what we 'want' to do that benefits our personal interests.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting to think that sustainability isn't just using fluorescent light bulbs or reusable grocery bags, but its about making a shift in society towards a smarter, more sustainable culture. I admire cultures (such as germany) where riding a bike is deeply ingrained in the culture.
ReplyDeleteNatalie Brayley- Group 11
I agree that Global Warming is a huge problem to both people and environment. To get sustainability of a city, it is essential to keep the harmonious between human beings and environment. However, due to human activities, the environment has been changed a lot. To solve this problem, the government should issue some laws to limits the ways of harming the environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree that small changes make big changes in the future. To make people do so, however, we have to raise the awareness of the need of conserving resources. A lot of people understand the fact that they need to conserve resources, but in most cases individuals don't think one person's wrongdoing would harm the whole.
ReplyDelete-Hae Jin Kye