Delhi PM Levels

Public/Informal Environmental Education Solution - PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels posted on a street-side sign in Delhi, India (Mehra, 2016)

Introduction

The problem with a class like this is that we have presented a lot of environmental problems and few solutions. If we just stopped at all of the previous modules you all might go away depressed and hopeless. When people feel hopelessness or overwhelmed one reaction might be to just give up and not do anything, the problems are just too large. “Bigger than me, what can I do?”

Well, there are really a lot of things you can do as an individual. Often the solution to an environmental problem does not have to be a really BIG solution. It can be just a few small ones.

Below I have created a list of solutions with some examples. This is not an all-encompassing list by any means. If fact, you will add to it for this assignment.

Solution Category	Solution Description
Public/Informal Environmental Education	Broadly inform people about environmental problems or situations.
Formal Environmental Education	K-12 education courses; university and college education courses.
Personal Consumption	Individuals reducing their use of natural resources.
Conservation	Reducing the use of a natural resource.
Restoration	Restoring natural resources. Ex. planting trees.
Preservation	Stopping the use of natural resources. Ex. Setting aside nature preserves, such as those through the Nature Conservancy.
Political	Developing federal/state laws or city ordinances.
Regulation	Enforcing laws and/or ordinances.
Economic	Creating financial incentives, either positive (saving money) or negative (costing money). Ex. circular economy, eco-chain.
Perception	Creating an image by doing the “right,” environmentally sound thing.
Spiritual	Following a religious or innate spiritual teaching/feeling to protect the environment.
Collaboration	Creating synergy among industry, business, government, citizens, etc. to come together to form solutions. Can be local, regional, state, federal, and/or international.
Technology/Scientific
Engineering	Building, inventing some solution. May be large scale or small and innovative. Ex. (Large scale) San Antonio now uses salty underground water for drinking water by cleaning it through industrial reverse-osmosis desalination. (Small scale) The lights in my home office and the computer I am writing this on are powered by one solar panel and a battery.
Biological	Using biological science to create solutions. Ex. Using petrochemical eating microbes to help clean up oil spills.
Chemical	Using chemistry to solve problems. Ex. Finding the source of pesticides in soil or water using chromatogram chemical fingerprinting.
Science Fiction/Unrealistic	Using far-fetched ideas to solve environmental problems. Ex. Space curtains to reduce incoming solar radiation from the Sun.

Eco-Chain Example

An eco-chain is when industries cooperate such that one industry’s waste is another one’s source. For example, in China dairy and beef cattle concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) started using waste sugarcane leaves from local sugarcane fields. A biochemical plant creates amino acid-based products from the waste from the beef industry meatpacking house. A mushroom farm uses the waste from the dairy and beef cattle CAFOs. Additional CAFO waste is used to produce bio-gas to generate electricity. Leftover mushroom base is used on the sugarcane fields as a natural fertilizer (Nemerow & Agardy, 2005).

An eco-chain is different than a circular economy solution because an eco-chain is just that, a chain of products-to-byproducts-to-product-to-byproduct. It is circular, but it is not the same product. In a circular economy a single product changes hands or goes to the consumer then back to the producer/manufacturer.

Combined Solutions

If I were to ask you to review someone’s environmental solution, you would probably find their solution is really a combination of solutions. In the above table I deconstructed solutions (took them apart and listed them individually) and you can reconstruct them as needed for this assignment. That is, you can use your critical thinking skills to identify combined solutions (or just separate ones).

For example, we might look at Patagonia’s (the clothing retailer) Worn Wear program as solution to people throwing clothing away. Or, to people continually buying new clothing (uses water, electricity to manufacture; petrochemicals to distribute). With the Worn Wear program you can sell your used Patagonia garments back to Patagonia, or buy used clothing (sort of like buying used books on Amazon). https://wornwear.patagonia.com/

If we use my table of solutions above, we might find characteristics of several categories:

Economic - saves you money. Makes Patagonia money. (Circular economy)
Perception – makes Patagonia look good. Sustainability is part of Patagonia’s marketing image and of their values too.
Conservation – reduces the use of raw materials.

Intention

In this activity you will be assessing environmental solutions for their category. You will find that many are combined solutions. However, if you can isolate the intention of the solution, often that will dictate into which solution category it will best fit.

For example, back in Activity 2.2.1, I noted that I only use 44 gallons of water per day based on my utility bill average. You may think that is because I teach environmental science and I am a tree-hugging environmentalist. Well, that may be the case, but I am also a tightwad and don’t want to spend any more money than I have to, which is a direct result of being a college professor (we don’t get paid all that much). So, my conservation solution is, in reality, an economic solution.

Artist rendering of a new 20' seawall to be built on Staten Island to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels (Whiteman, 2019).

Artist rendering of a new 20' seawall to be built on Staten Island to mitigate the effects of rising sea levels (Whiteman, 2019)

Band-Aids Not Solutions

In many cases what appears to be a solution is really a band-aid, or quick fix, to a larger problem. It is like a doctor treating the symptoms rather than the underlying cause of a disease. We can refer to this as mitigation, the reduction of loss, property, or natural resources.

An example of environmental mitigation is Staten Island’s seawall. This is a $615 million, 20-foot tall seawall to protect Staten Island from storm surge flooding and rising sea levels (Whiteman, 2019). A 20-foot tall sea wall does not solve global climate change or rising sea levels, it only mitigates the damage from the next large storm.

You will see mitigation strategies portrayed as environmental solutions. Differentiate between them.

This activity is a self-graded, blog post activity.

Media

Attenborough, D. (2019). How to save our planet [video]. WWF International. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Puv0Pss33M
Clay, J. (2010). How big brands can help save biodiversity [video]. TEDGlobal. https://www.ted.com/talks/jason_clay_how_big_brands_can_save_biodiversity

Note: This is not an anti-cat video.

Doiron, R. (2011). My subversive (garden) plot [video]. TEDxDirigo. https://www.ted.com/talks/roger_doiron_my_subversive_garden_plot
Fee, N. (2017). Why plastic pollution is personal [video]. TEDxBristol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJiQt9ASSNg
Goodall, J. (2017). Mother Earth [video]. The Inspiration Journey. https://vimeo.com/214288898
June, L. (2018). Time traveler [video]. Emergence Magazine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulK_GE9XjO8; Lyrics online at: https://emergencemagazine.org/story/time-traveler/
Mazahreh, L. (2017). 3 thoughtful ways to conserve water [video]. TED@BCG. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/lana_mazahreh_3_thoughtful_ways_to_conserve_water/up-next

Note: Mazahreh refers to 100 liters. 100 liters = 26.4 gallons/per day

Sharma, S. (2016). How to grow a forest in your backyard. TED@BCG. https://www.ted.com/talks/shubhendu_sharma_how_to_grow_a_forest_in_your_backyard?language=en#t-192350

Module Objectives Achieved

You will be able to…

MO 5.1. Use the vocabulary of env sci. in written communication (7. #vocab Course; 2. #commskills Core)

MO 5.2. Apply critical thinking skills. (7. #think Course; 1 #critthink Core)

Task

1. Watch any three of the supplied videos.

2. While watching, take notes and categorize the environmental solutions provided in each video. Develop a brief summary of what each solution is.

Example:

One of the videos tells you to use less water by installing low-flow shower heads. You would write something like this:

Conservation Solution

Install low-flow shower heads and faucet filters on all indoor faucets (Walker, 2019).

- - Write a list like this in some coherent, organized format to create your own listicle to post to a new blog page.
  - Write out as many as you view in the three videos you watch. (Some videos have one solution, some have several.)
  - Cite and reference each video. Here's the reference format at the SNHU Library (no excuses for not doing this).
  - You are welcome to develop your own environmental solution category if none of mine seem to fit. In fact, I encourage this (it demonstrates critical thinking and your knowledge being applied).

3. Post your listicle to your blog to demonstrate your new knowledge being applied.

4. Turn in the URL for your blog page.

Criteria

Your declaration page will read:

Blog Page Title: I titled my blog page, Activity 5.1 – XX things to do to Save the Planet (where XX is however many solutions you came up with from the videos). Example: Activity 5.1 – Twelve Things to do to Save the Planet.
Blog Page Content: I posted environmental solutions I extracted from at least three videos I watched and wrote a description for each. My self-score for the content is based on the depth of my category descriptions. My category descriptions just meet the expectation (C), I claim to earn 45 points. My descriptions were above the student average (B), I claim to earn 51 points. My descriptions where outstanding and by far the most excellent ever (A), I clam to earn 60 points.
Organization: I wrote a list that is well organized and coherent.
Citations and References: I used in-text citations and complete, matching references.
Professionalism: I read my work twice before posting and once after posting. I corrected any errors or mistakes. I wrote at a college level. I have no errors in writing, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, or tone.
Blog URL: My URL for this blog posting is:

References

Mehra, A. (2016, April 29). Delhi odd-even policy: Key air pollutant, surface-level ozone lower than last April. Indian Express. Retrieved from https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-odd-even-policy-key-air-pollutant-surface-level-ozone-lower-than-last-april-2776680/

Nemerow, N. L., & Agardy, F. J. (2005). Environmental solutions: Environmental problems and the all-inclusive global, scientific, political, legal, economic, medical, and engineering bases to solve them. Amsterdam: Academic Press.

Whiteman, H. (2019, July 14). America is building another big wall. This one will protect New York. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/style/article/staten-island-seawall-climate-crisis-design/index.html