Matt and I have noticed that in the last six months we have significantly reduced the amount of trash we throw away. Part of it I think is that we recycle everything we possibly can because our bins are more easily accessible now. The other part though, I think, is that we've made efforts to buy less stuff.
This current observation combined with a friend's comment on my last blog (on myspace) regarding having an eternal perspective rather than focusing on preservation, my current textbook chapter on waste management and the blog of another friend of mine, Greg, has led me to some thoughts on the matter of "affluenza."
There have been some significant strides made in regards to waste management in our country but we've got a long way to go. I mentioned in my response to Merilee that we (Americans) use a much larger share of resources than do people in developing nations. In fact, our country leads the world in per capita waste production and energy consumption. (according to my textbook) A big part of the problem is the fact that we buy too much stuff.
Here's an entertaining (yet relevant) questionaire from my textbook... Take a look and see if you have been struck by the "affluenza" bug:
1) I'm willing to pay more for a t-shirt if it has a cool corporate logo on it.
2) I'm willing to work at a job I hate so I can buy lots of stuff.
3) I usually just make the minimum payment on my credit cards.
4) When I'm feeling blue, I like to go shopping and treat myself.
5) I spend much more time shopping each month than I do being involved in my community.
6) I'd rather be shopping right now.
7) I'm running out of room to store myself.
Now give yourself two points for every true and one point for every false. If you scored 10 or more, you may need to find a cure for "affluenza." Luckily I only scored a 7! :-) (Quiz found in Environmental Science by Richard T. Wright.)
Look, this issue is a broad one. I already mentioned the waste management issues. We throw it away and forget about it but we don't realize the increasing costs involved in disposal and the amount of fossil fuels being wasted in transportation and disposal of wastes not to mention the making of more and more stuff to feed our consumerism. Plus the polluting of our ground water supplies when landfills are not properly maintained.
But for Christians the issue goes deeper. Maintaining an eternal perspective is, as I mentioned below my last blog, keep focusing on who Jesus is and how he would live in our world so that we are living as He does when He returns for us. However, it is also an issue of not building up treasures for ourselves here on earth because this place is not our home. When our focus is working more to buy more, we lose God's perspective on life and that is that it should be spent loving people and living in a way that brings others closer to God, not shopping.
We need to broaden our horizons and understand that the lifestyles we live have a greater impact than we can understand on our world and the other people living in it.
Environmentalism and Christianity do not need to be in competition with one another. You can be both. You can focus on caring for our world and still maintain your commitment to Christ. You don't have to buy into political lies that separate these issues into conservative and liberal camps, leaving you fearful that if you care about the environment you might be supporting God-hating heathens.
It is an easy to answer to say you think God is coming back soon so we shouldn't worry about the environment but God's timing is not our timing. From biblical times until now, every generation has believed they were living in the end times. However, a 1000 years to us may be like a day to God so really, who knows when God is coming back. It is not our job to focus on end-times theology. It is our job to live as Christ would live while we are here on this earth and that involves loving those who live with us now and those who will come after us, if it so happens that Jesus does not return in our lifetime.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
Global Warming
Global Warming is a complicated and often debated term. There was a quick clip of someone speaking in, “An Inconvenient Truth,” that said something like, “It could be the greatest hoax every played on the American public.” I thought it was interesting when Al Gore mentioned that a study was done by reading something like 900 different articles on global warming written by scientists and absolutely every article in the group agreed that global warming was an issue and it was an issue caused by human actions. However, a study done of information passed out by the media was full of mixed messages regarding whether or not global warming was real. Like Gore said, it’s no wonder people are confused.
Understanding all of the things that impact climate is rather overwhelming to me. Between atmospheric structure and ocean currents, there are a lot of factors that pull together to create our climate. Essentially, the earth works similar to a greenhouse. “On a global scale, water vapor, CO2, and other gases in the atmosphere play a role analogous to that of the glass in a greenhouse.” ( Wright 546-547) These gases are referred to as greenhouse gases. Light energy coming from the sun enters the atmosphere and is then absorbed by the earth where it becomes heat energy. The heat energy is then radiated back into the atmosphere and then into space. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop some of the heat energy from going into space and reflect it back to earth. (546-547) If the levels of these gases in the atmosphere change, there will be an impact on our climate. If the levels of GHGs increase, more heat energy is radiated back to earth, causing the climate to warm. If the levels decrease, less heat energy is radiated back, causing it to cool. There are also many other things that act as positive and negative forcing agents, working together to keep a balance between warming and cooling.
Currently our human impact on these natural cycles is being seen as the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide are increasing. The potential impacts of global warming are devastating and it is the already vulnerable members of our world who will suffer the consequences the most. Already struggling with issues of “water availability, food security, health and disease, life in low-lying regions” the poor will feel the first impacts of global warming. The movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” mentioned several negative impacts of global warming. For example, more evaporation due to higher temperatures, leads to more precipitation and thus flooding. And completely opposite to that, higher temperatures, sucking more water out of the soil will lead to droughts. The movie mentioned several specific examples of people around the world who’ve already been suffering from unusual droughts or flooding or even extremely high temperatures. One example was in Mumbai, India where it rained 37 inches in just 24 hours. Temperature and weather changes are things that we might all think about already in relation to global warming, but I was especially interested in problem mentioned by the changing of seasons. Gore mentioned that in nature’s perfect design, caterpillars and baby birds come out around the same time but due to changes in seasons, somehow the caterpillars came out to early and when the baby birds were born, there wasn’t enough food for them. It would be impossible to consider all of the ecological niches that would be affected by climate change.
Whether or not you are willing to fully buy in to the warnings of scientists regarding the issue of global warming, it seems to me that even the threat of such problems should lead us to make changes. I liked the example in the movie of insurance. It’s not inevitable that your house will burn down, but you still take out home insurance when you buy a house. If there is even a slight chance that future generations will face the devastating affects of our lifestyles, wouldn’t it be the most life-honoring thing to take positive steps towards change? I have friends who only vote on the lines of one issue, the issue they call: the sanctity of life. My question to them is relation to the environment is, “What about the lives of all those to come after us? Isn’t the environment a sanctity of life issue as well?”
Works Cited
Wright, Richard T. Environmental Science Toward a Sustainable Future. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2005.
An Inconvenient Truth
Understanding all of the things that impact climate is rather overwhelming to me. Between atmospheric structure and ocean currents, there are a lot of factors that pull together to create our climate. Essentially, the earth works similar to a greenhouse. “On a global scale, water vapor, CO2, and other gases in the atmosphere play a role analogous to that of the glass in a greenhouse.” ( Wright 546-547) These gases are referred to as greenhouse gases. Light energy coming from the sun enters the atmosphere and is then absorbed by the earth where it becomes heat energy. The heat energy is then radiated back into the atmosphere and then into space. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop some of the heat energy from going into space and reflect it back to earth. (546-547) If the levels of these gases in the atmosphere change, there will be an impact on our climate. If the levels of GHGs increase, more heat energy is radiated back to earth, causing the climate to warm. If the levels decrease, less heat energy is radiated back, causing it to cool. There are also many other things that act as positive and negative forcing agents, working together to keep a balance between warming and cooling.
Currently our human impact on these natural cycles is being seen as the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide are increasing. The potential impacts of global warming are devastating and it is the already vulnerable members of our world who will suffer the consequences the most. Already struggling with issues of “water availability, food security, health and disease, life in low-lying regions” the poor will feel the first impacts of global warming. The movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” mentioned several negative impacts of global warming. For example, more evaporation due to higher temperatures, leads to more precipitation and thus flooding. And completely opposite to that, higher temperatures, sucking more water out of the soil will lead to droughts. The movie mentioned several specific examples of people around the world who’ve already been suffering from unusual droughts or flooding or even extremely high temperatures. One example was in Mumbai, India where it rained 37 inches in just 24 hours. Temperature and weather changes are things that we might all think about already in relation to global warming, but I was especially interested in problem mentioned by the changing of seasons. Gore mentioned that in nature’s perfect design, caterpillars and baby birds come out around the same time but due to changes in seasons, somehow the caterpillars came out to early and when the baby birds were born, there wasn’t enough food for them. It would be impossible to consider all of the ecological niches that would be affected by climate change.
Whether or not you are willing to fully buy in to the warnings of scientists regarding the issue of global warming, it seems to me that even the threat of such problems should lead us to make changes. I liked the example in the movie of insurance. It’s not inevitable that your house will burn down, but you still take out home insurance when you buy a house. If there is even a slight chance that future generations will face the devastating affects of our lifestyles, wouldn’t it be the most life-honoring thing to take positive steps towards change? I have friends who only vote on the lines of one issue, the issue they call: the sanctity of life. My question to them is relation to the environment is, “What about the lives of all those to come after us? Isn’t the environment a sanctity of life issue as well?”
Works Cited
Wright, Richard T. Environmental Science Toward a Sustainable Future. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2005.
An Inconvenient Truth
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Renewable Energy Sources
There are benefits and downsides to all possible sources of energy. The important thing for us to understand is how each source works and what the benefits and downsides are so that we can properly way them against each other in order to make wise energy choices for our future. It seems to me that it will most likely be a balance of several types of energy that will help us in the long run to at least slow down our rapid loss of fossil fuels.
Solar power is one such alternative and renewable energy. “Solar energy originates with thermonuclear fusion in the Sun.” (Wright 377) Solar energy occurs when hydrogen nuclei (which is what the sun and stars are mostly made of) come together to create larger atoms (e.g. helium). (369) While some scientists have attempted to recreate this, it has not yet become effective for a variety of reasons. Therefore our greatest source of power created through the process of fusion is the sun itself.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics tells us that as energy is transferred, some is always lost. This loss is what would allow us to use solar energy without it changing the energy balance of the biosphere. (378) The solar constant is the amount of energy (1370 watts per square meter) that reaches the earth. (377) “About half of this energy actually makes it to Earth’s surface; 30% is reflected, and 20% is absorbed by the atmosphere.” Energy that is absorbed by water or land is eventually converted to heat and lost and even the part that is absorbed by plants is eventually lost as heat energy as the food is broken down by consumers. Also, any energy we would use would eventually become heat energy and be lost as well. (378)
Solar energy can and is being used in a variety of ways to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. Water heating and space heating are two areas of energy use that would significantly lower the amount of fossil fuel we use if a larger majority would use solar energy for those purposes. There are of course some challenges with using solar energy. There is the question of, “What do we do when there is a significant amount of inclement weather.” In the Northwest we know that sunlight is limited for a long winter season and what about in the evening when the sun is down? Places like Alaska that have extremely long periods of darkness in the winter would greatly struggle to use solar energy.
“Solar power can also be used to produce electrical power, thus providing an alternative to coal, and nuclear power.” (382) Solar cells, called photovoltaic cells, are used to collect solar energy and put out electrical current. One cell can produce about 1 watt of power. (382) However, linking several cells together can create various amounts of power. Probably one of the most well known examples of this is the pocket calculator. The cost of these cells are high because of “their sophisticated design and construction.” (382) As the cost of them has been slowly coming down, they are being used more.
In order to make solar energy more widely used, the issues mentioned above and others would have to be answered in cost effective ways. It is difficult to get people to think past the here and now. So, if it is greatly less expensive to use fossil fuels for their energy needs, they will do so without much regard for the future. Just the other day I was speaking with someone about similar matters and that person said to me, “Well, if it’s good for my family and saves us money, I don’t really care about anything else.” Unfortunately I have a feeling that is a more prevalent attitude than we would like to admit. It is why companies like Wal-Mart are able to do the business they do. Perhaps we need to adopt a more “love your neighbor” type attitude that extends beyond our generation.
Wright, Richard T. Environmental Science Toward a Sustainable Future. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2005.
Solar power is one such alternative and renewable energy. “Solar energy originates with thermonuclear fusion in the Sun.” (Wright 377) Solar energy occurs when hydrogen nuclei (which is what the sun and stars are mostly made of) come together to create larger atoms (e.g. helium). (369) While some scientists have attempted to recreate this, it has not yet become effective for a variety of reasons. Therefore our greatest source of power created through the process of fusion is the sun itself.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics tells us that as energy is transferred, some is always lost. This loss is what would allow us to use solar energy without it changing the energy balance of the biosphere. (378) The solar constant is the amount of energy (1370 watts per square meter) that reaches the earth. (377) “About half of this energy actually makes it to Earth’s surface; 30% is reflected, and 20% is absorbed by the atmosphere.” Energy that is absorbed by water or land is eventually converted to heat and lost and even the part that is absorbed by plants is eventually lost as heat energy as the food is broken down by consumers. Also, any energy we would use would eventually become heat energy and be lost as well. (378)
Solar energy can and is being used in a variety of ways to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. Water heating and space heating are two areas of energy use that would significantly lower the amount of fossil fuel we use if a larger majority would use solar energy for those purposes. There are of course some challenges with using solar energy. There is the question of, “What do we do when there is a significant amount of inclement weather.” In the Northwest we know that sunlight is limited for a long winter season and what about in the evening when the sun is down? Places like Alaska that have extremely long periods of darkness in the winter would greatly struggle to use solar energy.
“Solar power can also be used to produce electrical power, thus providing an alternative to coal, and nuclear power.” (382) Solar cells, called photovoltaic cells, are used to collect solar energy and put out electrical current. One cell can produce about 1 watt of power. (382) However, linking several cells together can create various amounts of power. Probably one of the most well known examples of this is the pocket calculator. The cost of these cells are high because of “their sophisticated design and construction.” (382) As the cost of them has been slowly coming down, they are being used more.
In order to make solar energy more widely used, the issues mentioned above and others would have to be answered in cost effective ways. It is difficult to get people to think past the here and now. So, if it is greatly less expensive to use fossil fuels for their energy needs, they will do so without much regard for the future. Just the other day I was speaking with someone about similar matters and that person said to me, “Well, if it’s good for my family and saves us money, I don’t really care about anything else.” Unfortunately I have a feeling that is a more prevalent attitude than we would like to admit. It is why companies like Wal-Mart are able to do the business they do. Perhaps we need to adopt a more “love your neighbor” type attitude that extends beyond our generation.
Wright, Richard T. Environmental Science Toward a Sustainable Future. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2005.
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