An attempt at something a little betterBy Vincent Cameron

First and Foremost:

Previous to this class, I had absolutely no intention of being eco-friendly. I did things my way and didn’t care about the impact I had on the environment.After completing two semesters in this Biology class I’ve realized how a little changeSuch as spending a few less minutes in the shower can save much more than I Previously thought possible.

The changes I’ve made have been small and simple, but they are impacting enoughTo help off-set my carbon-footprint and maybe pick up a little bit of slack in my area.My changes have been small, but productive.

Heres an interesting shower..

Doesn’t look anything like mine But It’ll have to work for this.

Because I have an older showerThat is slightly more unrestrictedIt wastes a lot more water per Minute. It operates at about 50psiAnd drains four gallons a minute.Previous to my little attempts atChange, I would take 20-22 minShowers, after realizing how Much water could be saved by Cutting that time down I started Taking 10-13 minute showers.

At Four Gallons per minute, A twenty five minute Shower Is using up to a hundred Gallonsof water.

By reducing that timeDown to about halfI can save roughlyFifty to sixty gallons ofWater that is just beingFlushed down the drain.

Continued*

I would showerTwice a day, once in The morning and onceAgain at night time.This involved me usingDouble the amount ofWater in one day, notTo mention my Showers used to run On longer than they doNow. I used to take Two twenty minute Showers a day, simplyBecause I sweat a lot.

40 minutes/ 2-showers4GPM (Gallons/minute)Totaling 160 gallons a day.

PREVIOUSLY NOW

I still shower twice a day, butOn a much less impacting scaleI take one full shower in the Morning, which consists of 10 to12 minutes of actual running waterAnd one shower when I get homeFrom school. Due to the fact thatI take P.E. at school, and it’s Physically demanding, I sweat andNeed a shower to stay clean whenI get home, though this showerIs generally very short. 2-5 mins.

20 minutes / 2 showers4GPM (Gallons/Minute) Totaling 80 Gallons/dayBoth of these don’t include the use

Of showers by others in the house.Roommate/Father/Brother etc.

So lets talk cars here for a second. For the past ten years my family has owned the original H1 Alpha Hummer, As far as an all-terrain utility vehicle goes, this thing is a beast, but when attacking the rugged terrain of Los Angeles, its worthless.

So where does this factor in? Well The H1 barely gets about 14 MPGAfter owning it for so long the severeWear and tear has dampened that #Even more, and it only effectively guzzlesGas nowadays. That’s where this sexyPicture to the right comes in..

Neither of these cars are electric or hydrogen Based, but one is more effective at saving fuels Than the other. I’m sure you can figure that out.

Hummer Alpha H1 : 14MPGCamaro 2010 RS : 29MPG

So even though the MPG is a roughEstimate, by getting my father to Dispose of his Hummer and transferOver to a Camaro, I’m potentially Saving 15MPG every time we drive.(*Continued)

So to the Camaro, In the past six months my family has made the change from the a bigHummer, over to this much smaller and focused-power vehicle, a Camaro 2010 RS.The switch is kind of a big deal for my family because with my brotherMy father and I all sharing the Hummer there was always a lot of room to go around forSeating and storage. Condensing all of that into a sportscar is a little more taxing on theSpacial environment you get to sit in, but the change is also effectively helping us reduceOur carbon footprint that’s out there. (It’s not perfect, but it’s a step!)

Also, I live all the way out in Calabasas. (818!) so I make a lengthy drive every morning From my house to school. I drive over thirty miles every morning to get from there to hereHey, I even did that this morning to present this to you all. And I have to drive thirty miles Back home once I’m done with my portfolios. That’s roughly two gallons of gas a day inThe Camaro, which would be at least double (up to four gallons of gas a day) driving in theHummer. (Not to mention the drive is much more comfortable in the Camaro anyways.)

So again, What does it all mean? At two gallons of gas per day, I’m effectively creatingUp to 28 pounds of carbon dioxide just driving to and from school in the Camaro.28 pounds of Carbon Dioxide compared to the roughly 56 pounds that would be beingCreated by the Hummer! There are many more steps I could take to impact my carbonFootprint, such as taking a bus to school every day and/or using other means of publicTransportation. Sadly for me it would be such a hassle to figure this all out because ILive so far away, I’ve decided not to. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try!

One of the more important thingsWe can all do to help impact our environmentIs spread the word. You might feel lame, but a few words can go a long way. The most indirectThing I’ve done to help impact our environment is probably to talk. Spreading the knowledge And information I’ve learned in our Biology class, I’ve been able to teach a few ‘wiser’ peopleA few cool tricks. And I’m sure you can too.

Electricity.Another thing we all use as human beings is electricity. So where does this come inTo my presentation? Well, following my last slide I was explaining word of mouth andPassing on information and knowledge. My Grandfather worked as an electrical Engineer for Kimberley Clark for roughly thirty years, and you would be surprised atHow much he didn’t know about new lightbulbs that I did!

In the past two weeks I helped him replace over twenty bulbs in his house.(My grandparents have over-head can-lights. So there are up to six in each room.

In his living room alone we replaced six 72 Watt light bulbs. With these running together they were using up to 432 watts an hour.We replaced them with these Mini-twist 75-watt CFL Light Bulbs These CFL bulbs only use 18watts an

Hour instead of 72. Which means theyCan effectively reduce 432 watts down to182/hour. Saving 250 watts per hour inOnly one room!

Overall we replaced around 22Lightbulbs in the entire house.22x72/hr= 1,584 watts22x18/hr= 396 watts.This saves him and my grandmotherUp to 1,188 watt-usage per hour.He can use these new lights up toFive times the length/usage the Original Lights would be costing him.

After doing this in my grandparents house, and showing the results to my fatherWe both agreed that it would be a great idea if we did the same here, Funny enoughHe had already been buying a few of these CFL bulbs so we had already been saving.Regardless we still intended on replacing the last of our incandescent bulbs with CFL’sWe replaced seven bulbs in the house, saving us another 126watts per hour in certainRooms. I’ve also began paying close attention to when the lights are on, and when theyNeed to be on. I’ve began turning the bathroom lights off in the morning, and using Light from the shower-window to fill the room instead. And I’ve also focused on turningAll my lights off before leaving for school. As most of the other people in my household

Either don’t wake up for another few hours afterI leave, or don’t need to be wasting energy whileThey are out of the house.

Water.We all drink it, and we all waste the bottles it comes in.Sure some of us recycle the plastic but regardlessBy using the plastic you are force-feeding the Companies who profit from making the plasticIn the first place. Recycle or Not it doesn’t help to drink From these plastic waterBottles day in and Day out.

As far as Water actually Goes, I read a few factsOnline that really pushed me away from wanting To drink out of water bottles. “1500 waterbottles Are consumed/used by the US every SECOND.” ; “Over 17Million barrelsOf oil are used in production of water bottles Each year.” ; “Even in its smallest form plasticWill never degrade.” ; “One in Six water bottlesUsed makes it back into the recycle factories.”

Those are just a few quotes that impactedMy following statements about how I’ve changed

My family buys two, 32 pack Arrowhead waterbottles a week.We all drink water from bottles in my house, but recently I’ve been trying to change that. .5L of plastic in everyBottle. With 64 bottles in circulation in my Household alone, we’re using up to 32LOf plastic alone.

Instead of Feeding into the Plastic companies andPurchasing these water bottles, we bought everyOne in my house metal canteens and now fillThose up every morning and through out the dayThis saves us from using sixty-two plastic bottlesA week, and though we still have them around theHouse, they’re only used when traveling or otherSpecific events. We rarely use them now Compared to how we use our water resourcesNow. Also, if a water-bottle alone costs$0.25-$2.00, you can be effectively paying overA hundred times the amount a the same quantityOf water (from your tap) could cost you.

Lets revert back to electricity for a second. If you guys don’t already know, I’mA total nerd/gamer, I’ve been gaming for practically my entire life.

So how does THIS work into my bio portfolio? Well, my gaming rig is a beast and has A 750watt power supply, And with a 22” monitor and other Lit gaming accessories Im sure you could see how this begins to pile up.’ So in attempts to better impact our environment, I’ve began unplugging my machine.See in the past I used to game for six to eight hours a day. Especially over summer. Time with electricity, costs money and energy. Six to eight hours a day seven days a week including weekends totals around 55-65 hours of usage a week.

Practically all computers operate differently. Even with the same specifications, depending on whether orNot you utilize standby and sleep modes, computers can suck up different amounts of energy. After calculatingMy specifications compared to how often my computer is on, I’ve learned a lot about what I can do to save Energy. I have a 750watt power supply, but that doesn’t necessarily mean my computer is using all of that every hour.While in full use at max performance my computer uses around 300-350 watts (monitor included)300watts x 65hrs/week totals about 19,500watts a week. But it gets worse, I don’t use any sleep or hibernation mode on my rig.That means my computer is operating at full performance all the time, and I rarely turn off my monitor aswell.

In the past I used to never turn my rig off, I just let it run all day all week. I realized at 300watts/hr with my monitor on all week ImPotentially using up to 50,400watts a week. 300watts/hr x 24 hours = 7,200/day. 7,200/day x 7 days = 50,400watts. After learningThat, I began turning my rig off everytime I was leaving the house or room for a prolonged period of time. Now my rig is only on When I’m using it, which is still roughly six to eight hours a day, but that’s only 1,800 watts a day. (12,600/week) In comparison12,600 vs 50,400 is a huge difference. Saving almost fourty-thousand watts a week just by turning my rig off when I’m not using it.

An Attempt, at change.

So that basically concludes what I’ve been doing in the past few months to attempt toChange my carbon footprint for the better. Its taken some time and actual attention, butNone-the-less its helping the environment. Just keep in mind, information is only helpfulIf its in the right place at the right time, don’t be afraid to open your mouth and spread Some wisdom, you might spark a larger change than what you’ve done yourself, and allIn all its helping us as humans, helping us as a whole, and helping our environment.

By Vincent Cameron

40 minutes/ 2-showers4GPM (Gallons/minute)Totaling 160 gallons a day.

20 minutes / 2 showers4GPM (Gallons/Minute) Totaling 80 Gallons/day

COMPARISON

Hummer Alpha H1 : 14MPGCamaro 2010 RS : 29MPG

22x72/hr= 1,584 watts22x18/hr= 396 watts.

32L plastic waterbottles0L plastic waterbottles

126,000 CPU Watts– 26,250 CPU Watts

Bibliography

http://wiki.answers.com/

http://www.wolframapha.com

http://greenwashinglamps.wordpress.com/category/energy-statistics/u-s-energy-statistics/

http://earth911.com/recycling/plastic/plastic-bottles/facts-about-plastic-bottles/

http://www.drmediaserver.com/CFLGuide/index.html