The Environment and Personal Responsibility

How Much Does Mother Nature Pay for My Existence

Waking up in the morning to a busy day does not give anyone time to bother about the consequences of his or her own actions . But the past days and weeks have been consciousness that comes along with this assignment . It is especially time consuming and troublesome , but at the end of the project , I have gained several insights , which , to be honest , has even more troubled my point of views on living and my role in environment stewardship but has given me a

deeper sense of awareness of the consequences of my actions and the amount of space I occupy in this patch of earth . The assignment was divided into two weeks which I have referred to as Observation Week (February 15 to 22 ) and Trial Week (February 23 to 29 ) and the tables for the tally done during these two weeks are summarized at the end of this report . In addition , I have also constructed some figures based on these data to illustrate how much time and energy a little self-consciousness and self- awareness can save . And no matter how little the overall global effect it can make , the first step always makes a difference - and this is all about that

My LifeOne week of observation is not enough to realize the impact of one person 's existence to the environment . In addition , this will not make any sense if we do not understand that the amount of energy we use requires fuel that is burned and converted mostly to waste CO2 and water . Not to mention the fact that CO2 also causes the atmosphere to heat up as it contributes to global warming . In addition , the processes required to convert our fuel to energy and electricity available for homes also generate heat which adds to thermal pollution (http /www .climatehotmap .org . Surprisingly though , I expected that the television will peak the list of my energy consumption because of the time I usually spend watching , however , the peaks seen in the figure below show the large effect of the energy tag of appliances because it multiplies the energy consumption of a device . Watching television and advertisement surfing certainly adds up to my of nearly 8 but compared to the use of high energy requiring devices such as the microwave or the washing machine , which increases the energy utility bars to as high 25 , TV only ranks third to food-related expenses and lighting usage . Thus , discrete use of these types of equipment was observed during the trial week that ensued . In addition to energy use , a large portion of my water consumption also stems from its indiscriminate use especially during tooth brushing and showering At times , I 've realized that I do leave the faucet on even if I do not use the water . What a waste ! This amount could have been used for other important activities especially by people who need it most . In fact global problems such...