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Many may not believe it, but dry cleaning is one of the worst things you could do for the environment and yourself. The solvent used to clean the clothes, perchloroethylene, can have a terrible effect on the Earth and people. For people, it is a depressant, can lead to respiratory problems, and could be considered a carcinogen. For the environment, it seeps into the air, breaks into chemicals, can seep into our ground and drinking water, and depletes the ozone layer. Who would have thought a way of cleaning your delicate clothes could be so all around terrible. Since dry cleaning is something so common to people, it is exposed to people on a high level. Wearing the clothes can lead to harming outcomes, and for people that live in close contact to a dry cleaners it is extremely dangerous. It is so easy to come into contact with these chemicals because so many are unaware of it.
The good news is many dry cleaners are switching over to “green” and “eco-friendly” solvents in their cleaning process. This is a much safer process, but is not used by many businesses because it is more expensive, and there are more regulations that come with using this alternative way. It is much more difficult, and the process is longer, and more tedious than the common dry cleaning way.
Not only does dry cleaning affect the environment and the health of people, but it can also affect the economy. The harsh chemicals that are used in dry cleaning are often emptied into the ground or surrounding environment. If someone wishes to build a house, or sell their house that is near a previous or current area of a dry cleaners, it has much more trouble being sold because it is in the ground of the house. In many cases, people selling or buying a home must have a land survey done to test the surrounding grounds and environment. If there was a dry cleaners or is one nearby and the chemicals have seeped into the ground, it shows in test results. This makes it much harder and more expensive for a person to buy or sell their home. Dry cleaning methods not only affect the environment, Earth, atmosphere, health of people, but the economy as well.
The best thing to do about this situation is find out which process dry cleaners near you use to clean the clothes. There are many other ways to go green with your dry cleaning then where, and how it is done. Instead of using the plastic bags your garments are given in, bring your own garment bag and hangers. Who would have thought something so many people rely on could be so harmful to our world and people. Looks like people will not be following the “dry clean only” label on their clothing anymore!
There are millions of options people are discovering and offering as a way to help improve the environment. Currently our environment is in a very unhealthy state, and many are trying everything to work away from the negatives. Large cities, where public transportation is used by many people, are investing in eco-friendly vehicles. Cities are stocking up on hybrid electric buses to help improve their environment. Although many of these transit systems are more expensive then the other buses, they are not only better for the environment, but are also quieter, cleaner, better on gas, more comfortable, and emit less pollution into the atmosphere. Once cities started experimenting with these “greener” buses, the pollution emissions dropped approximately 58 percent. It is also saving the cities a large chunk of money. Since these buses are powered by less gas than usual, buses are not fueling up as frequently as before. Newer electric lithium batteries are also being installed into the buses, which store much more power than the average battery, and they do not need to be replaced as often.
Hybrid-Electric buses are not the only “greener” buses being introduced. Cities are testing out turbine- driven hybrid buses as an alternative as well. There is no oil, transmission, generator, antifreeze or radiator within these buses. The buses require much less maintenance than diesel run buses. The oil and filters do not have to be changed, which makes the lives of repair crews much easier.
This also leads to the idea that not only city buses could be eco friendly, but all kinds of public transportation, since they are used so frequently. In New York City, cabs are used more by people than regular vehicles. If the vehicles used the most were converted to eco-friendly energy, we could make a big difference in this issue. Also, converting school buses to be eco-friendly since they are used in such a large amount by school districts to take children to and from school. Imagine how many trips a city cab and school buses make a day. If we could make that large number of trips healthier to the enbironment it would contribute to a healthier atmosphere, environment, and Earth. Global climate change and the state of our environment can take all the help that it needs.
These new alternative fuel buses are being tested all over the world, and many cities are turning towards a complete crossover to these more eco-friendly sources of public transportation. If larger studies continue to invest more towards this new idea, many smaller cities and towns may follow close behind. This can lead to more places across the world making our environment a cleaner place.
In my efforts to become a vegetarian I sometimes find myself craving or wanting to indulge in meat, but when I have these urges I usually try to think about the reasons I decided to turn to this diet. It is always nice when I stumble across an article or some information that helps to support this effort. This past week while I was just surfing the web reading various articles I came across one in the Vegetarian Times that was titled “Why go Veg?” Just as the title suggested it ran off a list of reasons of why people should choose to become vegetarians it noted things such as weight loss, stronger bones, disease prevention, and longevity the usual things you would expect to read on this list. But as I read further and came closer to the end, the article started to shift from being just about the importance for yourself to telling why it is important for everyone describing how it reduces pollution, lowers toxins, and could potentially help offset famine. Essentially just saying how environmentally friendly vegetarianism is.
After reading this article it left me with a lot of questions but mainly just stemming down to one question: how can this be environmentally friendly? I know the article listed the reasons how but still I had to know if the process of meat production, and consumption had any defense so I did some further reading. I found out that meat production does have some effects on the environment, but with further reading I became dismayed to the extent in which these problems go to. According to a report done by the Livestock, Environment, and Development Initiative the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a massive scale to air and pollution, land degradation, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. It seems that a lot of the major issues facing the environment is facing is linked in some form or another to meat production. I am not saying that meat production is responsible for all these issues, but it is definitely contributing significantly.
When it comes to just the general up keep of these animals we see that the animals fed on grain need more water than the actual grain crops. In the meat production of beef we see that these animals let of staggering amounts of Methane into the air with their waste matter. Increase amounts of methane just like CO2 leads to global climate change. There has also been test done that show that the in efficiencies of meat, milk , and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1! This concludes that producing animal based foods is much less efficient than harvesting vegetables, grains, and fruits. Overall it is safe to conclude that the current process of meat production is producing detrimental effects on our environment.
Article source: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/resources/why_go_veg/
research:http://www.vegansa.com/veganism-and-the-environment.php
The direction of the wind current moves from the west to the east, with saying this we know that pollution from Midwestern factories carries to the eastern part of the United States. Not only does leaves and dust travel west ward but pollution does as well. In class we talked about how acid rain is produced in another area rather than where it is actually made. With this said research has said that 15% of the air pollution on the west coast of America comes from Europe and Asia, and 10% of the eastern part of the United States is polluted for the same reason. The air pollution travels across the Pacific Ocean into the United States.
According to NASA China is the most populated country in the world. They have doubled their man-made pollutants to become the world’s largest emitter of aerosol pollutants. These aerosol pollutants travel from eastern Asia across the Pacific in the airstreams to North America. They can detect how much pollution is being brought across the Pacific Ocean through special satellites.
Its not like we can change the air pollution brought to the United States by other countries, but we can calculate how much is brought into the country and subtract that from the total amount to find out how much pollution is strictly from America. This is very significant percentage when America is trying to decrease their emissions.
In the study Hongbin Yu performed, found that during one year almost 40 billion pounds of particles reached the Pacific Ocean and almost 10 billion pounds reached North America from the Eastern part of Asia. These particles can reach the United States in a little less then a week, which is how strong the wind current is. The most pollution brought over seas is during the spring and the least amount is during the summer and fall. But we can’t just blame Eastern Asia because other countries like I said early have an impact on America’s pollution. Then again the mass population growth in China is not only impacting North America but other countries as well. Never in the history of human, has there been industrial growth like there is in China today.
Understanding world wide issues could lead us to a better approach to the problem. I was amazed when I read this article. I mean I knew that there was a airstreams, but I didn’t think about the pollution from other countries like China traveling all the way across the Pacific Ocean into North America. This is important to understand, because transported pollution could be the main factor of Global Climate change or a contributing factor. And is good to know that we aren’t actually producing as much emissions as we thought we were. Knowing what we know, we could reach out to other countries and let them know how their countries pollution doesn’t just affect their country, but all the other countries as well. So, if we all work together we will decrease the amount of emissions in the world and therefore work in the right direction of putting an end to global climate change.
NASA.(2008). Satellite measures pollution from East Asia to North America. Retrieved on November 1, 2009 from http://geology.com/nasa/monitoring-pollution-by-satellite.shtml
Environmental Science 