From the Sustinability 2.1 Exponential Models Notes, I decided to work out an example. I thought it was pretty interesting because it discusses the population of Japan.

Example 2.32: Not all countries are growing in population. Some are actually shrinking. One such countryis Japan. Its population is roughly 127 million. In the last year, the country had roughly 1.03 million births,1.19 million deaths, and a net migration into the country of 0. Estimate the population of Japan after one year.

What I did for this example is as follows…

1.03 million births / 127 millions * 100 = birth rate = .81%

1.19 million deaths / 127 millions * 100 = death rate = -.94%

94%-81%% = 13% (Negative, because it’s the death rate that is greater)

127 million * 13%= the decrease in population = 16.51 million less than current population

127 million – 16.51 million = what we can expect in one year =110 million people

What will the population be in 10 years? Thats a good blog post for someone else to try out!

I got to thinking about my own carbon footprint. I have always been against e-readers because I like holding a book in my hands. I never thought that it was that selfish, specifically because I didn’t want to see written work become obsolete. Then I started wondering if it was better to buy a kindle or just buy a book.

That depends on how much you read. Kindles can be hazardous waste if you’re the kind of person that upgrades when every new model comes out. A biproduct of producing books is carbon dioxide emissions. If you’re an avid reader, and you keep your device for a few years, its better for the environment to read on a kindle. The environmental impact of one book is less than one kindle, in the long run, but when you start adding issues on the kindle instead of brand new books, the kindle becomes the better choice.

What I was thinking about though, is that everyone reads at least several books in their lifetime  so it really just makes sense to get a kindle as soon as you can and rely on that instead of buying one book, even if you might not read one for another 6 months. Just take care of your e-reader and it’ll be the smarter thing to do.

Here’s the link that I referred to for creating the blogpost:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_green_lantern/2010/08/should_you_ditch_your_books_for_an_ereader.html

Today’s case study got me thinking about the water that goes into other products that we use. This chart is pretty blurry but I got it from http://factsaboutbeef.com/2013/04/11/the-reality-of-water-management-raising-cattle/ It shows the comparison of how much water goes into a pound of boneless beef (our figures are higher than these, but this website is designed to show progress in farming techniques in order to conserve water.)

According to the chart, the water that goes into the production of ONE cotton t-shirt is 713 gallons and the water that goes into the production of ONE pound of boneless beef is 441. That got me thinking about how large of a difference we make by consumption. Curbing meat intake whenever it’s possible makes a difference. Cutting back on buying new clothing also makes an extremely large impact. Our class roster says that we have 40 students. Say that our class makes a decision to cut back on meat and cut back on buying new clothing. If each student refrained from buying 2 pounds of beef and 2 new shirts a month, this is what the results of our classroom “boycott” would look like:

1 Student: SUBTRACT 2lbs BEEF        SUBTRACT 2 T-SHIRTS

441Gal X 2 lbs =882 Gallons of Water Saved       713 Gal X 2 lbs = 1426 Gallons of Water Saved

1 Student Saves (882 Gal + 1426 Gal =) 2,308 Gal of Water each month through curbing their consumption.

2,308 Gal of Water X 40 Students = 92,320 Gal of Water

If the class of 40 students of curbed their consumption through cutting back by 2 lbs of meat each month and 2 new t-shirts a month, AS A CLASS, we would save about 90,000 gallons of water.

My name is Olivia Burgess and I’m from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I’m a sophomore majoring in English. I love reading, shopping, thrifting, baking, traveling, and binge watching friends on netflix.

I took this course to fulfill my GQ requirement but also because the course title sounded like it had something to do with an article in National Geographic that really sparked my interest awhile back and I actually stopped eating meat for 8 months because of it. The article had a lot to do with expanding the food supply through different farming techniques to feed the population of the world, as the population grows. To me, sustainability is the power to make the most of the resources that we have left in order to keep our way of life the same as timegoes on. Resilience is the power to be beaten down but to come back again. Overall I’m looking forward to learning about sustainability in this course and how I will be able to apply it in the future.

Here’s the national geographic article:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/