Citizens Who Care

Deforestation What is deforestation? Deforestation is a loss of trees due to fires, pollution, and land conversion. 46% of the world's trees have disappeared since the dawn of humanity. What efforts are being taken? Many organizations, such as the nature conservancy, buy land in critical places to protect it from being cleared. Lots of legislation is also being passed worldwide in order to prevent trees from being cut down. One thing many people don't know is that there is info available online to educate the public on how much land is being cleared. How is it affecting us? Trees and other plants convert carbon dioxide into oxygen a necessary effect to produce oxygen for us to live. Without trees, we wouldn't be able to survive. I find that I need a green space to calm down, without plants, there would be none of this, and I'd be angry all the time. So, there's also a social aspect to deforestation. How is it affecting animals? Land ...

Ocean Acidification (Link To Next Post In Series & Series Plan Post) Written By: TGU - Blogger  First Of All, what is Ocean Acidification? Ocean Acidification is when the water absorbs the CO 2 that is released into the air. The water absorbs the  CO 2  in the air because of hydrogen ions in the water. When the  CO 2  gets absorbed into the water the water becomes more acidic, which makes it difficult for coral reefs and sea shells to build.  The ocean will probably be dead if we don't do anything about it now. Here are a couple of stories relate to Ocean Acidification.  Stanford researchers released a VR software in October, which 'teleports' the user to the future, and you are able to fully explore the ocean, seeing how the ocean will (possibly) become with what's currently happening. The software allowed the player to also see the Carbon emissions coming from the car, and it allows the user to fo...

Beware Biodiversity Loss Carolyn Fu Previous Post --Next Post Now I bet you’re wondering, what in the world is biodiversity loss? So, biodiversity loss is basically loss of the animals on the earth, so loss of life’s diversity. Now, losing wildlife is a big problem, especially to animals on the earth. First, what causes this problem? Read on and you’ll find out. Surprise! We humans create biodiversity loss. We fish, and when we do, we change the ecosystem and the food chains of the river. We also move animals from one place to another. For example, when a fishing boat drags their nets across the ocean floor, it picks up small critters like hermit crabs, and deposits them miles away from it’s home. Then, in it’s old home, animals eat hermit crabs, so those animals will affect other animals too. Then a bad food chain is there. Also, global warming will cause habitats and ecosystems go bad. Pollution will destroy habitats and animals. Losing habitats will lead to loss of biodiv...

Next Post -- Previous Post Living in the 21st century, our world has to deal with the problems of disposing of our waste. And we are faced with that problem if disposing of our waste. According to the United States EPA, we threw out 570 billion pounds of waste in 2007, where should we put all that waste? The Truth I know this is old data, but I have to admit something. The United States accounts for only 4 percent of the world's population, but guess what? The waste from people in our country accounts for just about 30% of the world's waste. We are headed into the inevitable, we need to reduce our waste. The Great Pacific Trash Heap(s) The Great Pacific Trash Heaps are two floating islands of trash which are stationary because of the currents. You'd think it would be really easy to clean up, but it isn't. You see, there are more than 100 million tons of it there. And it gets harder and harder to clean up. Most of the trash there is plastic, which d...

By: Samuel Desai Next Post - Previous Post The population on earth is growing, at about 7.5 billion and still growing , we need more natural resources every day. And we can't take these resources forever.There are many different resources we need to save. Oil Oil is one of those resources which we will lose very soon. If we continued to consume it at our current rate, our oil supply would run dry in 45 years , but our consumption rates of oil should continue to increase, lasting us about 25 more years. Consequences: Possible transition to renewable energy :) Shrinks economies like Russia's (built on oil) less transport to places Water Water is one of the most fought over resources in the modern  world. Climate Change is causing severe worldwide droughts. Only 2.5% of the worlds water is fresh. Of that 2.5%, 70% of it is locked up in glaciers. Of that amount (.75%), 10% is used for drinking. THAT ONLY LEAVES .075% of the worlds water to drink, w...

Climate Change Previous Post                                                                                                              Next Post By: Samuel Desai The world is getting worse, I can't deny it. Humans are polluting the air, water, night sky, and our ears. It will only get worse. As humans pollute the air with more and more carbon dioxide, greenhouse gasses force the solar radiation in, heating up the earth more, and more. The Greenhouse Effect The greenhouse effect is a pretty simple effect which helps keep our planet warm. I once read somewhere that without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature on Earth would be about 0 degrees (the average temperature is about 61 degr...

Previous Post     Next Post Noise Pollution - 4-8 Written By: TGU-Blogger  What Is Noise pollution? Just by listening to Noise pollution it sounds as if Noise is  contributing to Climate Change, which is completely wrong. Noise pollution happens when there are sounds that either: disrupting sleep patterns, disrupting 'important' conversations, and just disrupting the way of life overall. Noise pollution doesn't just mean a bunch of loud noises, it means, "unwanted, or disturbing sounds".   Noise pollution is dangerous to health. It can lead to illness, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep deprivation, and lost productivity. If you want to protect yourself from the noise you can use head gear (earmuffs, earbuds, etc.).  One of the biggest causes of noise pollution is cars. Cars create a lot of noise, simply from driving an old (loud) car, or from hearing the honki...

Air Pollution Next post in series Samuel Desai Many environmental activists, unlike me, like to say that pollution is an important issue. I prefer to categorize them into three different topics. Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Noise Pollution, and Light Pollution. The other types of pollution are for another week but don't worry, you will hear about them soon. You may believe that Carbon Dioxide (CO2) it the only pollutant, but it isn't. There are others. One type is methane gas, emitted by livestock and swamps. Another CFC's or chlorofluorocarbons which were used in refrigerators, hairspray, and many other things. But they were banned internationally in 2010 because of its deteriorating effect on the ozone layer. Personally, I think that the pollutant which harms us the most is sulfur dioxide. Sulfur Dioxide is a component in smog, but also reflects sunlight out into space, causing a global cooling. This may seem good, but sulfur dioxide is directly link...

 Driverless Cars, they're closer than you might think they are. If you look at big News companies (New York Times, TIME, Washington Post, etc.) around a year or two ago, you'd find something known as 'Project Titan' somewhere in the headlines. Project Titan was basically the iCar, and that basically sums it up. Except, the 'iCar' was meant to be not a regular car, but a driverless car. Recently, there is a bunch of news articles about driverless cars, as they are coming closer to reality, but Project Titan has died out. (On Fool.com) there is a news article claiming,  "Goodbye, Project Titan: Apple's Car Ambitions Fade..."    In the beginning of the news article it says that with the release of the iPhone 6, it disturbed time for possible research on the iCar. Then it says that the Apple executives 'seem' to 'give up' on Project Titan for now. One of the reasons that Apple decided to postpone Project Titan was because, " It ...

 In the United States there are three area vulnerable to rising waters: North Carolina, South Florida, and Norfolk, Virginia. In North Carolina there is a scientist that is trying to save the Inner Banks, the end of a costal plain. The state of North Carolina is only looking 3 years ahead, instead of 9 years ahead. Scientists think that North Carolina should be looking 9 years, but the state isn't responding. So, a scientist named Stan Riggs is planning to save the Inner Banks, he has created a school program to get children engaged in this issue, and plans to make a documentary for those schools. He also created a charity called  North Carolina Land of Water. Frank Gorham, the leader of the Coastal Commission says that Riggs did not understand the problem that North Carolina has. He says that he is possibly the best environmentalist that there ever is.  Hurricane Matthew doesn't help this issue, killing about 29 people and caus...

Recently in India, Diwali has been going on. Diwali is the festival of lights in India which celebrates Ram and Sita defeating the reason Ravana. People usually celebrate with fireworks and lighting a "candle." These celebrations have taken a toll on India's air quality. Before Diwali, the air pollution was bad: But after, was a whole other story: These celebrations for Diwali put pollution levels 42 times above recommended pollution rates. And with now wind to blow the pollution away in the next months, it is only supposed to get worse. You see, India has two primary seasons, a season of drought, and a season on monsoons. In the dry season, there is little wind. It occurs at this time of year until the spring.  It is not like I am against these celebrations, I just wish to seek an alternative. Maybe environmental friendly fireworks display all over, instead of having one major one which everyone goes to. Good luck India! Hard time of cancer are ahead for the ne...

Mercedes Generation EQ SUV Recently, Mercedes-Benz unveiled their first electric car and announced their dedication to this industry. They unveiled the first car in their Generation EQ (Electric Intelligence) at the Paris Auto Show in late September. This car is still in the concept stages, but they have many pictures of the interior and estimated range has also has been unveiled. This Mercedes has a new techno design. As Gordon Wagner, one of the designers at Daimler AG said  “Its fascination lies in a reinterpretation of our design philosophy... ...the aim being to create a... ...contemporary and distinctive electro-look. ” I agree with him, it has a modern look which might be the future of the car.  This Generation EQ has been designed to compete with the Tesla Model X, which I think will be a difficult thing to do because all new Tesla Cars being produced have full autopilot capabilities on them. 1  Regardless, this car good range (500 Kilo's or 310 mi...

Hello there, You may now download our Green Blog, Star Wars Scroll. This will be used for recruitment soon! To download, click here

Recently we created a pun for Star Wars. He had decided to release blog version 7.1 with this vido on it yesterday. However, we  had some production delays (waiting in the queue, which we still are) so we just decided to have a link to one, then add it to our blog later.  Ladies and gentlemen you are experiencing project B8 (name was inspired by BB-8) in full swing. To view a soon-to-be version on you blog, click here !

The environmentalist Denis Hanes has helped build buildings which are highly environmentally friendly. He also helped coordinate the first Earth Day in 1970. 1    This was a big success. In the first year alone, more than 22 million people celebrated the holiday. Also, he is the chairman of the Builitt foundation which built this building as their headquarters in Seattle. Here are some of the details of this building: All of their windows are triple-panned argon-filled and stretch up to the ceiling. This completely eliminates  the need for lights in the building. If all buildings were light like this in the United States, then we would reduce our energy consumption by about 15%  (or about 52 billion KwH). This building uses about 1/9 of the cost of energy an average Seattle building per square foot. The toilets use 1/2 of a cup of water mixed with biodegradable soap instead of using artificial chemicals and 1.25 gallons  of water. Their toilets cre...

The US By: Samuel Desai According to the EPI, the US is the 26th most green country. Even though we have taken steps to reduce our carbon foot print they are not enough. The EPA The EPA is a Governemental Orginization, founded in 1970, which regulates the environment, collects emmission data, partners internaionally, and helps people be more Green. The Plans The EPA has partenered with many different presidents to create environmental laws, the most famous being Obama's Clean Power Plan . Clean Plan This plan has been hailed as the best environmental action by a president yet. The plan enforces a 32% emission decrease from power plants from the 2005 data. States will have to comply by 2022, but this shouldn't be a problem because there has already been more than a 15% decrease. Obama helping out in the Community Other things... As far as I'm sure, the government has not done much other than this but to raise awareness.  There are many a...

Japan: Helping   the environment Samuel Desai Many countries have taken steps to help the environment. Now, we'll turn to Japan. The 11th most populous country. Has tried to help the environment. Air Pollution Japan, just like China has smog issues. At one time (1973) Japan had on average 328 nationwide smog alerts (per year). But since then, it has decreased to less than 85. Japan has renewed a 25 yen tax on gas. (According to the exchange rates at 6:00 PM on March 16, 25 yen equals 22 cents). The Kyoto Protocol In 1994, the Kyoto Protocol was established. When it took action in 2005, it set specific emission requirements for developed countries. Japan had to reduce emissions by 6% from the 1990 rates in between 2008 and 2012. Japan not only successfully did this, they decreased it by 8% .  Water Pollution In 1995, Minamata bay was declared safe after 23 years of restrictions. Fish were prevented from entering the bay because of the excess methylmer...

By Nathan Shan Over the last decade, India’s strong growth has increased employment opportunities and allowed millions to emerge from poverty. India’s remarkable growth record, however, has been countered by a bad environment and scarcity of natural resources. Environmental risks are driven by both prosperity and poverty. In a recent survey of 178 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranked 155th overall and almost last in air pollution exposure. The survey also concluded that India's environmental quality is far below all other countries that are quickly economizing [China (118), Brazil (77), Russia (73), and South Africa (72)]. Also, according to another recent WHO survey, 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Poverty is a cause and a consequence - the bad environment means less crops are produced, so poor people have to overuse the land and destroy trees. Here's a flaw in their logic: the bad environment causes India to us...

Chinese Environmental Activists  By Sameer Mehta China's swift industrialization has created lots of pollution which has worsened the environment. In fact, 2/3 of the most polluted major cities are in China.  The pollution in the air they breathe is hazardous to their health and the water they drink is contaminated.  400,000 people are dying from sulfur dioxide, a toxic chemical made when sulfur is burned.  China has become the world leader in environmental problems and it needs to respond to these problems.  They just can't let hundreds of thousands of people die due to bad environmental policies.  They should not worry only about economic growth at the expense of people's health.  China's first priority should be to act up and save people's lives and not try to make more factories that create more pollution. Beijing air after rain (left) Beijing day without any rain (right) The Chinese people themselves are actually trying to help the...

Finland If you want to move to an environmentally friendly place, Finland is the right place to move to. In fact, it has the highest EPI (Environmental Performance Index) in the 2016 ratings, according to the World Economic Forum. One of the most interesting things is the northern part of the nation has a lot of tourism. This could hurt the environment (people littering), but I think it inspires people to what they can do in their home country. (see fig. 1)  Finland is one of the most logged countries in Europe. It still as a lot of trees because Finland has planted back more than the number cut down. Finland is outstanding with their logging efforts. 71.6% of Finland is covered in forests. Of this, more than 17,000 square kilometers are protected. The vegetation's of the Lapland are extremely sensitive because of logging efforts and the overgrazing of reindeer. Finland used to have bad water quality. However, more than 80% of the bodies of water in the Finnish Lacustrine...