We Can All Help!

Regardless of where you live, what you do for a living, what your beliefs are or even what your hobbies are, everyone has an impact on the environment everday. Environmental issues are common to the entire world. Since these problems are so widespread and affect so many people, unfortunately it makes us, as individuals, feel less responsible. Since the problem is so pervasive it is difficult to think that your own individual actions can make a difference. This is exactly the problem, and this is where the public is wrong.

We tend to blame other countries or the government for all the environmental problems not being solved when in reality, it would be impossible for the government to make any significant change without the public doing anything. The government can only make so much headway on these issues without any public action. If we truly want the environment to be sustained and able to support future generations as it has our own, we can’t rely completely on the government while ignoring any role we could possibly play. We have just as much of a responsibility to the environment as any government does. If we expect the government to fight for environmental protection, we must be willing to fight as well.

Environmental issues surround us; we hear about them in the news, or see ads about them at the grocery store or on commuter buses. In fact, most of us have probably been exposed to them so often that we have become desensitized to the issues. We must start taking these ads to heart and finding ways that we can help solve the problems. Even if each of us picks two or three environmental issues that we feel strongly about and just work on those, we have still made a difference. We need to realize that every bit really does count in the long run.

Let’s not go overboard though. I’m not saying that we all need to stop driving or give up electricity; there are many small sacrifices that each person can make. These small contributions to the problems that matter most will quickly add up if the public works together. Just as the environmental problems surround us, the solutions are not difficult to find either.

To start, each person needs to identify problems that they think need to be solved. If you are unsure of how to go about finding relevant topics, I would highly recommend that you visit the EPA’s my environment site. This website offers plenty of environmental information for any zip code and is by far my favorite tool for learning about the issues closest to me.
Once you have identified an issue that you care about, it is time to see how you can help. Information in simple solutions can be found everywhere, even a simple google search can provide you with plenty of ways to help. Some of my favorite resources or guides on how each person can help are the website for Sustainable Environment for Quality of Life (SEQL), Wire and Twine’s “50 Ways to Help the Planet,” and, for global warming in particular, the CNN Time article titled “The Global Warming Survival Guide.” SEQL offers simple solutions by topic and gives plenty of options that can fit with any lifestyle. Wire and Twines site is similar to SEQL but offers a more basic layout. Finally the CNN Time article offers varied solutions to global warming depending on how commited you plan to be.

Getting involved with environmental issues isn’t difficult and it is becoming exceedingly important if we wish for future generations to have it as good as we do.


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Sources

1.
Globalization and the Environment
This site offers a very diverse and comprehensive aplication of globalization’s effect on the environment. It covers diverse topics including CO2 and other gases, pesticides/herbicides, global distillation of toxic chemical applications, pressure on natural resources, vulnerable to epidemics due to travel, and invasive species. However, it remains realistic in that no solution will be applicable everywhere; both environment and human cultures are very diverse.

The site calls everyone to action. It states that every family should instill environmental knowledge to the youth. This knowledge was once a practice or tradition in many societies due to its importance to farming and should be brought back. To aid families in doing this, the site offers guidelines on what should be taught about the environment and our responsibilities to protect it.

2.
“After the Ice: Life, Death, and Geopolitics in the New Arctic” by Alun Anderson.
This book offers a very in-depth view on the Arctic and the endless debates that surround it. The minute and largely unknown details about what has been going on in the Arctic that this book offered were very intriguing. I found the section that covers the ownership of the artic to be particularly interesting after watching the movie that dealt with water ownership.

3.
Environment and Globalization: Five Propositions
This is a paper written for environmental leaders meeting in Kenya at the Global Ministerial Environmental Forum. It discusses how not only is environment impacted by globalization but globalization also is impacted by the environment. This two-way linkage is discussed in great detail through the “five propositions.” These propositions are exploitation of limited natural resources, globalization’s impact on the most vulnerable (often in third world countries) ecosystems and societies, too rapid of expansion with limited ecological space, consumption, finally, global environment and global market will become dependent on each other.

4.
San Diego Zoo and Polar Bears International
This video provided great supplemental information to researching the Arctic. This video gave an overview of polar bears in the Arctic and describes the struggle that they are facing. It also gives information on what organizations are trying to help them and how the public can get involved. I personally was interested in the statement that “if polar bears aren’t doing so well, it’s a good indication that the rest of the Arctic isn’t doing so well.” This canary in a coal mine remark really brought to life the struggle that the Arctic as a whole is going through.

5.
BBC World News America: Arctic Meltdown
After reading Anderson’s book, I thought this video provided a fairly accurate summary of the major motives in the Arctic ownership debate. This video offered a great general overview of the fossil fuel incentives that countries have for claiming ownership over the Arctic. As well as providing a summary of the incentives behind claiming land, this video did a great job in explaining the ice melting rates and mechanisms. Also included in the ice-melt information, they did a great job of explaining possible implications of it.


6.
Consumer trends in organic foods
This was another supplementary website. Although it doesn’t relate directly to environmental globalization, I felt there were definite parallels. Therefore, I felt that this website was a brief overview of the organic food industry. This is a governmental website and, thus, very reliable. Also, being a governmental website, it is written in a way that is understandable to all audiences.

7.
Globalization and Environment
This is a working paper written at Harvard University. I thought this paper put a very interesting new twist on some previous beliefs I held about how globalization and environment are and should be related. This article argued that the closer environment is related to global trade policies, the better off it would be. This stands in stark contrast to proposition #5 of the paper entitled “Environment and Globalization: Five Propositions”

8.
Globalization and Environmental Protection: a Global Governance Perspective
This article offers a differing perspective from most of the other articles listed. This article explores the logic behind the global action. It argues that in some cases, global action isn't the key. Rather, local action needs to be put as a priority. This can be linked to another article listed on here that explains that since every environment is different and every culture is different, there is no single univesal solution to any global environmental issue.

9.
How long will it last?
A picture is worth a thousand words. Although there is often text accompanying this image, I felt that the image itself would speak louder than any description one could use for it. I really liked this image because it makes a much greater impact than reading one statistic after another. This image really made me realize the reality and the desperate situation that our natural resource supply is in. In addition to giving a visual representation of the amount of time that many commonly used resources have left, it also shows what each of those resources are used for. Just as the polar bear video brought the Arctic’s struggle to life, the visual depiction of many everyday products being gone within a short period of time really brings the exploitation of natural resources to life. Other issues depicted are also alarming, such as how little of our resources are actually recycled and how large our population is. Again, although this has no written explanation accompanying it, it is one of my favorite resources.

10.
World’s Natural Resource Depletion Forecast
Just as above, I purposely chose to not display this resource with any writing. This graph shows the terrible situation that our natural resources are in. This provides a very clear timeline which give the viewers a sense of urgency. This is exactly the type and form of information that can engage the general population and move them to take action which is what this nation and world desperately needs.

11.
Globalization and Environmental Protection: a Global Governance Perspective
This article discusses the two-way linkage between environment and globalization. It explains that while, in some cases, the environment can be helped by globalization via global action and rapid spread of new ideas. However, on the other hand, globalization can often open the doors for exploitation to any part of the world.

12.
Environment & Globalization
This is an article put out by the University of Iowa Center for International Finance and Development. The reason I like this article was because it gave a clear and concise definition of what we all know as the “race to the bottom.” This article explains that if we chose to develop the underdeveloped countries cheaply, the will be forced to under regulate their development to keep up. This will cause standards to be continually set lower and lower, what has been coined as the race to the bottom. In a more environmental perspective, this race to the bottom has serious implications in resource depletion: whoever can utilize the most resources now will have the greatest immediate payoff, regardless of the future.

13.
Cement Industry Is at Center of Climate Change Debate
This article gave a good overview of the why the cement industry has come under close scrutiny. I really liked this article because it simplified the reasoning enough for anyone to understand. It also describes China’s significant role in this industry. Something that really caught my eye in this article is the lack of recycling for cement. Since it is such a commonly-used compound that has many problems in production, I couldn’t figure out why a way of recycling it hasn’t been found yet.

14.
How cement is made
This video is a very in-depth explanation of how cement is made. This provided much insight into how this process could cause concern. After learning what exactly were the sources of problems, this video brought the whole process together.

15.
World cement production
This site gave graphs that clearly showed China’s leading role in global cement production. This site shows not only how much cement China produces compared to the rest of the world, but also how rapidly the industry is expanding in China compared to other nations.


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The Chinese Cement Industry: The Secrets and Lies

Cement is a binding agent used to hold the ingredients of concrete together. Cement allows for economies to grow and expand. For this reason, countries with fast-growing economies are responsible for a vast majority of the world’s cement production. China, in particular is by far the world’s largest producer of cement.








Cement is made in a fairly simple process. Limestone and clay are ground and mixed with sand, iron and bottom ash. This mixture is then ground into a fine powder is heated in a kiln to 1,500 degrees Celsius. The resulting product from heating is called “clinker.” The resultant pellets of clinker are then finely re-ground with added gypsum and limestone. The consistency of the end product is so fine that it can pass through a filter that is able to hold water.


Although the cement production process sounds simple enough, it poses serious environmental concerns. Written out, the chemical reaction of limestone during heating is CaCO3 + heat > CaO + CO2. However, to fully understand the impact that this process has, let’s analyze each of the reaction’s components. First is the limestone. Limestone must be mined from the surrounding environment and shipped to the processing facility. Once at the mill, heat must be added to the limestone. This heat is generated directly from the use of a fossil fuel. The CaO that is produced is ground into a very fine powder. The dust that is released when the ingredients are repeatedly ground can pose human and wildlife health risks. Finally, and most importantly, the resulting gaseous byproducts of the heating process are very rich in CO2. The rapid production rate of cement means that the production of CO2 is also very rapid. In addition to the byproducts resulting directly from the cement ingredients, the cement is transported to the construction site using petrol/oil vehicles. The immense production of CO2 and the use of petrol/oil engines throughout the acquisition, production and distribution processes clearly demonstrates that concrete production equates to a massive contribution to global warming.


More modern kiln types used in cement production are more efficient by emitting far less CO2 and having more effective dust collection techniques. However, most of China’s cement producers cannot afford such upgrades. This means that in addition to China being the world’s leader in cement production, the majority of their cement production facilities are outdated and extremely polluting.




The environment is not the only thing impacted by the mass production of cement in China; the people of China are affected as well. Although the Chinese cement industry, as a whole, has been growing rapidly, the small enterprises are growing at the most rapid rate. The small enterprises are dangerous to not only the stability and sustainability of the industry in China, but they are equally as dangerous to workers who become ensnared in these facilities. The unlike larger enterprises that are often controlled and regulated by governmental agencies, the small enterprises operate under no control and without worker regulations. These smaller operations are often located in rural areas rather than more urban settings like the larger operations. These factors all aid in opening the doors to slave labor within the cement industry. Slave labor is seen in direct employment at the cement factories as well as indirectly at site where the cement is used such as new building construction, road construction/maintenance, dams, etc.

Without adequate action taken to improve Chinese cement facility operation standards, these facilities will continue to worsen economic performance and the sustainability. If these issues are to be resolved, steps must be taken to correct both environmental problems as well as human exploitation.

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