PART 1
“What every day habits can we change at home to help with climate change?”
• Dispose of household chemicals properly
Irresponsibly throwing away dangerous and harmful chemicals where they shouldn’t be could potentially give a negative effect on habitats, animals, and even us. Flushing chemicals like bleach down the toilet, sink, or in your backyard could result in water pollution, damaging animals’ health, or declining water quality (such as drinking water). It is recommended to either finish the entire product, or dilute it before disposing of it. Some examples include diluting antifreeze with water before putting it down the drain, and never mixing bleach with acidic products; for it causes deadly toxic fumes. If you are unsure about how to deal with the chemical, ask a trusted adult (and there is always the internet).
• Reduce electricity usage at home
The generation of electricity is one of the biggest factors of carbon dioxide emissions, and coal burning to create electricity produces more carbon dioxide than burning oil or natural gas. The reason why we’re trying to release as less carbon dioxide as possible is because it is a greenhouse gas which has as huge impact on our climate. It keeps our planet warm enough to live on; but now we have too much in our atmosphere, capturing more heat from the sun that would normally be bounced into space (causing global warming in the process). In general; solar, wind, and hydro – created electricity emits less or even no carbon dioxide. These alternatives for electricity production are more environmentally friendly and energy efficient. If you can get any solar panel, that’s great; but you don’t need go to the extreme and buy a windmill to help with climate change; you can simply turn off the lights and unplug power cables when you’re not at home, get fluorescent bulbs, and use cold water to wash your clothes (and if you really want to go crazy; dry your clothes outside the old-fashioned way).
• Manage food & waste
Composting is one of the main and easiest ways to help with climate change. When you put compost into the garbage and eventually into the landfill, it is forced to decompose without oxygen, in which releases methane into the air. The methane and carbon dioxide in the air creates a blanket around earth, warming it up. When you compost, the carbon dioxide released into the air was reused, adding no extra carbon dioxide into the air; and the compost also creates soil! You can also put plastics and garbage in their appropriate bins (recycling, garbage, etc.), reduce, reuse, and recycle; and recycle bottles (glass, plastic, tetra, etc.) at bottle depots. You don’t need to change your diet or any of your eating habits, but consider buying local foods since it takes less fuel or energy to transport them there.
PART 2
• What questions did you need to research in order to research your topic?
I obviously had to research my main question and find out which habits could be most easily or how important it was to change to create my three solutions: disposing of household chemicals properly, reducing electricity usage, and managing food & waste.
Then I researched specifically to each solution:
Solution 1: How to dispose of chemicals properly, the danger of improper chemical disposal, the possible affects of chemical dumping, the importance, .
Solution 2: How using electricity contributed to climate change, why using minimal amounts of electricity mattered, how it helped with climate change, examples of how to conserve energy, some energy efficient products, alternatives to coal burning electricity.
Solution 3: the importance of composting, the negative effects of carbon dioxide and methane, how the greenhouse gases worked, the purpose of bottle depots, the difference between landfills and compost, how local food could have benefitted to burning less fossil fuels.
• What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?
I used Google, Safari, Bing, Youtube, Destiny, Citation Machine, and Easybib with this assignment. Using Safar, Bing, Youtube, Citation Machine, and Destiny for this project was new to me, but I enjoyed using all these multiple resources to get so much more information.
• What was the process you used to investigate the topic?
I researched my main question and found my 3 solutions (disposing of household chemicals properly, reducing electricity usage, and managing food & waste). Then I researched specifically on each solution. I used multiple resources such as search engines, and magazines. I used 2 citing sources (Easybib and Citation Machine) and manual citing for the YouTube videos to cite all my information.
• How did you verify and cite the information you found?
I used Easybib to cite and verify my sources (websites) and my common sense before I took information from it to be as accurate as possible on this assignment. If the article was biased, incorrectly spelled, included no information about the author or publisher, or didn’t make sense, I simply ignored it.
• How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?
This assignment was fairly easy to finish, especially with the information fluency method. Using the method insured that I was using all the accurate information from the internet, I was thinking critically, and I was asking deep; thoughtful questions. If I would do this assignment again and make improvements from the last one, I would definitely use more books from the Destiny library. I only skimmed over the website, for this was my first time using it; and I was very hesitant to use it. I also would have researched a little bit more about the importance or more of the positive impact of going to bottle depots and recycling bottles so I could have better explained my third solution and given more information and details about it.
• http://powerscorecard.org/issue_detail.cfm?issue_id=1
• Website Title: Electricity and Climate change
• Article Title: Air Quality Issues of Electricity Production: Climate Change
• Publisher: Pace Energy and Climate Center
• Electronically Published: September 15, 2000
• Date Accessed: October 18, 2017
• Authors: Pace University
• http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_g/G312.pdf
• Website Title: Safe Use and Disposal of Household Chemicals
• Article Title: Safe Use and Disposal of Household Chemicals
• Publisher: New Mexico State University
• Electronically Published: June 2003
• Date Accessed: October 17, 2017
• Author: Susan Wright
• https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/climate-change-what-you-can-do
• Website Title: Better Health Channel
• Article Title: Climate change – what you can do
• Publisher: Department of Health & Human Services
• Electronically Published: August 31, 2011
• Date Accessed: October 17, 2017
• Author: Department of Health & Human Services
• http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/reduce-your-carbon-footprint/
• Website Title: Reduce your carbon footprint | What you can do | David Suzuki
• Article Title: reduce your carbon footprint
• Publisher: David Susuki Foundation
• Electronically Published: 2014
• Date Accessed: October 17, 2017
• Author: Erika Rathje
Climate Change: What Can We Do?
• Website Title: Climate Change: What Can We Do?
• Article Title: Climate Change: What Can We Do?
• Publisher: Sky News
• Electronically Published: December 4, 2015
• Date Accessed: October 17, 2017
• Author: Sky News
Steps To Stop Climate Change
• Website Title: Steps To Stop Climate Change
• Article Title: Steps To Stop Climate Change
• Publisher: Ana Ruiz
• Electronically Published: March 17, 2016
• Date Accessed: October 17, 2017
• Author: Ana Ruiz
Why Compost?
• Website Title: Why Compost?
• Article Title: Why Compost?
• Publisher: Metro Vancouver
• Electronically Published: March 1, 2013
• Date Accessed: October 17, 2017
• Author: Metro Vancouver
