BAD Climate Change

Climate change is one of the biggest threats to our world and human life on earth.
I think everybody needs to be more aware of how they are contributing towardsclimate change. The main contributors are travel, food and business. So next time you do something stop and think about how you could reduce your carbon footprint and stop climate change!!!!!!!!!!!

{I have written this post for BAD}

Tree People

Hey Guys

I am a part of an online website commited to helping the environment called treepeople.

Tree people is run by genesis energy and on it you can make pledges to help save the world. When you complete your pledges your tree gets taller and you can earn gifts.

Tree people is so cool so have a look at it and hopefully you can become a member too!

Eco. Footprint Week 5

This week:

• At the supermarket we have started using re-usable bags at the checkout
• My family recycles everything recycleble
• I don't rinse my glasses anymore before i drink from them

***Eco-footprint Diary This Weeks Update***

This week:

Rinsing glasses- Not rinsing my glasses is just what I do now I can't imagine living any different - Goal 1 - ACHIEVED

Buying more Eco-friendly stuff- I have been doing well I am trying to get into a habit of saying no to plastic bags.

Recycling more- I now recycle everything that is recyclable!!!

*Class Worm Farm*

Yay we have started our own class run school worm farm!

In our worm farm we are going to start collecting the schools compost and feeding it to the worms so we can make worm juice and make a profit for our school.
In our class we have started recycling paper to go into the worm far so we can have a healthy happy worm farm.

GO ROOM 18!

****UPDATE*****Eco-footprint Diary

So it is my second week of trying to reduce my carbon footprint and I think I did pretty good so here are my results:

Not rinsing glasses- Yay as far as I can remember I have not rinsed a single glass which is cool because soon it will just become 2nd nature not to rinse my glass.

Using more Eco-friendly bags ETC.: Over the last week I think my family has only used about 2-3 plastic bags!

Recycling more: I have improved my recycling habits and now check to see whether things are recyclable before getting them!

UPDATE Eco. Footprint Diary

Earlier on my blog I put on a post about my Eco. footprint. Here is an update of how I am going.

1. I don't think I have been rinsing my glasses because I have been drinking out of plastic bottle that I am reusing!

2. I have convinced my parents that we need to start living sustainably and on their last grocery trip they only used Eco. bags and a cardboard box to carry the groceries in!

Eco. Footprint Diary

Today i will start my eco. footprint diary here are my 2 goals that i am setting and trying to achieve it is going to be hard but here are my goals:

• Not to rinse glasses before drinking from them when they have just been thouroughly washed.
• Irritate my parents into buying eco friendly bags and packaging ETC.

Kris Wilson Sustainable Architect

On Wednesday Kris Wilson the owner of Design House LTD. came and talked to our class about sustainable housing.

He taught us that:

• 50% of waste comes from architecture
• Natural is not always the best product
• Small is good
• Timber used for building houses is grown in NZ
• Concrete traps the suns heat and when the sun is gone puts out the heat
• Look at a building and orientate it towards the sun and make the most of the free heat
• Use local materials
• Steel has a longer life than timber
• Adapt to the environment not vice versa
• 100 brochures leave the same carbon footprint as 1 CD
• Pine is the most widely used for houses.

And heaps heaps more!

Kris's Website

Waikato University SIFE visit

On Tuesday some people from the SIFE project at Waikato uni. came and talked to us about sustainability and worm juice ETC.

They taught us about our earth and that if you cut an apple in to quarters (the a apple being the earth) 3 quarters are water the quarter of the quarter left is mountains and deserts ETC. and 1 32 is all we have left to grow corn and food on.

Here are some notes i took:

• Our NZ recycling is recycled in China
• It is better to buy bulk products and separate into reusable containers
• 60% of our classroom rubbish could have been recycled
• Worms hate citrus fruit and fruit skins
• NZ has 1000 closed landfills and 60 closed landfills
• Paper takes 2.5 months to disintegrate,Milk cartons take 5 years to disintegrate,tin can takes 10 years and a beer can takes 100 years.

- Theres no point having futre leaders if there is no futre to lead!

Supply and demand/ Economics

Supply and demand

There are at least there are at least two people involved in the supply and demand process.There is the supplier who supplies the goods ,there is the consumer who purchases the products.The relationship between these two people are that the consumer could not purchase the products if the supplier hadn't made them and the supplier couldn't sell the products if the consumer would not buy them.

The consumer is most likely to buy the product if it is A: cheaper or B: won an award ETC. or C: Been endorsed by a celebrity ETC. That is when the producer will increase the price and increase the quantity of goods they are producing. Also the the market effects the quantity sold as well.

Above is a supply and demand graph explaining the supply and demand.

Where the supply and demand lines meet is called the equilibrium point.

Economics is the trade ,production and consumption and of goods and services. So economics is important because without we wouldn't be able to trade and recieve each others goods and services that we must have to live.

Thanks to brainpop for some of this information.

Eco. Friendly Houses

Here are a few good websites for some information on Eco friendly houses.

NZ Eco. House: This is a few aspects of Eco. homes.

Eco. Bob: This showcases some Eco. homes that are for sale but have pictures and aspect lists ETC.

Eco. Home: A story of some people building their own Eco. home.

Eco. Plan: A plan of an Eco. House

Eco. houses usually consist of solar power so power that is powered by the suns rays on a solar panel. You can also make Eco. friendly mud bricks which are made of mud and clay made into a brick shape then left to dry so you can from walls with it. The special thing about mud bricks is that you can carve your name and leave a special mark. You cannot always get Eco. Friendly things but it is best to go with the most Eco. friendly option so even if it is not entirely good for the environment you are still helping the environment.

Limestone

I found this website about limestone and its uses ETC.

It explains about how limestone was found 37 million years ago and the value of limestone as well as where the best place is to mine for limestone and other related topics.

Here is the link.
Hope it helps with some information about limestone!!!

Is Uranium dangerous?

The M.P for the green party Keith Locke urged pacific countries to stop mining uranium as it is dangerous.

Here is his statement from the web page Radio NZ

But Keith Locke says uranium is very dangerous in any form.

“I think we should discourage Niue from allowing this form of exploration because we don’t want Pacific countries involved in uranium mining. And there’s a big controversy in Australia right now about the export of uranium to countries like China, where it might be used to make nuclear weapons.”

Jobs on the Matai Islands

Here is a list of some of the jobs I think we need on the Matai islands:



Police-To keep people safe and to sort out trouble

Lawyers-To defend people on the island

Farmers-To look after the animals on the island and to be responsible for the produce ETC.

Inspectors-To check the housing and make sure the houses are safe enough to be lived in.

Transport officers-To keep track of all the transport

Mayors-To make decisions for the island

Island organisers-To organise happenings on the island

Doctors ETC.-To keep track of health on the island

Gardeners-To look after the gardens and the grass ETC.

Builders and architects-To build and overlook building

Vets-To look after the animals

Bankers-To pay people and to keep track of all the money on the island

Matai Island

The teachers in our syndicate have inherited a few islands of the coast of Raglan. On room 18's island we have two natural resources: Uranium and limestone. We have to design the layout of our island. We also have to research uranium to see how much it is worth and to find out what we can do with our resources.

What,s happening to the environment?

Sustainability: The ability to maintain balance of a certain process (Wikipedia)
We used to use natural resources at a speed that allowed Mother Nature the time to reproduce what we had used, as time has gone bye and mans need for these natural resources has become more demanding we are now caught in a dilemma of our continued quest for so called advancement vs the negative effect we are causing on the environment and our entire planet. . Wouldn't it be nice too live in a world where resources were available forever so your children's children and their children's children still have the chance to experience all that is beautiful and natural in our planet. The birds singing, the smell of freshly cut grass, the wind between the trees all things that we take for granted. We need to start looking to the future and thinking about our use of Mother Natures gifts and how we can make use of our technology and knowledge to increase resource rather than reduce it. We have to start saving today to keep enough for tomorrow.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for some information)

Term 2 Topic

This term in class we are studying sustainability. This is my blog where all my sustainability work will go!