Friday 13 August 2021
Friday 11 June 2021
How can I reduce my water usage.
In our lives to save water we would need to eat way less meat. The animal agriculture industry is the biggest water user in the world. By eating no or less meat we would save trillions and trillions of water each week and each year. Also by doing little things like taking shorter showers or turning off the taps when brushing your teeth.
Friday 16 April 2021
Friday 19 March 2021
Friday 12 March 2021
What's in the news (Best work)
What's In the News
This research is based on the topic of farming meat and its effect in the environment. I became interested in this because I have grown up with both my parents being vegetarian or vegan and all of my friends eating meat. I am now at an age that I am wanting to learn more and decide whether I am going to become vegan and whether it will help the environment. In particular, the purpose of my research is to find out, is eating less or no meat better for the environment? To help focus my inquiries around this, I formulated the following key questions:
What are the benefits and risks to the environment of eating plant based proteins?
What are the benefits and risks to the environment of eating meat based proteins?
Is all meat equal in terms of its impact on the environment?
My hypothesis is that eating plant based proteins will be better for the environment than eating meat based proteins.
What are the benefits and risks to the environment of eating meat based proteins?
To help me gain an understanding of whether eating less or no meat is better for the environment, I asked what are the benefits and risks to the environment of eating meat based proteins?
One source I used to answer this question was the Cowspiracy Documentary by Kip Anderson (2014). From this Source, I discovered that the meat industry uses around 128 trillion liters of water per year in the US alone, whereas the production of natural gas and oil uses 378 billion liters of water per year in the US alone. This shows how bad meat is for the environment compared to fossil fuels which is what everyone is advertising is killing our planet. Raising livestock for humans to eat contributes to 30% of all the world's water usage, occupies 45% of earth's land, leading cause of ocean dead zones, leading cause of habitat destruction. Causes 91% of amazon destruction and is the leading cause of species extinction (Andersen, 2014).
One person interviewed in Cowspiracy was Oppenlander, he is an environmental researcher. According to him 10 thousand years ago on the earth, animals made up 99% of the earth's biomass, and humans only 1%. Now humans and the animals owned by humans make up 98% of the earth's biomass and wild free living animals only 2%. Research has shown that the loss of animal species is primarily due to the overgrazing and raising of livestock and over fishing in the oceans.
Will Turtle was also featured in the documentary, he is an environmental author. He explained that “We are in the middle of the world's largest mass extinction of species in over 65 million years”. The world's rainforests are our planet's lungs, they breathe in CO2 and exhale oxygen. Every second 1 acre of rainforest is cleared, this is due to humans needing land to graze livestock and grow crops needed to feed livestock, 1 acre is roughly the size of a football field. When the rainforest is cut down it is estimated that every day we lose almost 100 plants, animals and insect species. Livestock is so very damaging to our planet, one of the reasons is the amount of waste they produce, which is 130 times more waste than every human on this planet and cows waste does not have a waste treatment like ours so it is all going into the soil and polluting it.
In the documentary cowspiracy The sustainable Institute at Molloy college(2014) was an expert saying that ⅓ of the planet's land has become desert and this is due to the grazing and raising of livestock. The human population drinks 19.6 million liters of water every day and eats 9 billion kg of food everyday. Just the world's cows alone drink 170 billion liters every day and eat 61 billion kgs of food. From this I have come to the conclusion that eating meat is killing our planet.
I was confident with this source of information, as it had many primary sources of information, from scientists, but this documentary was made in 2014 so it could have been more recent. The facts would have been even more concerning if it was more recent.
Another source of information that helped me answer this question was the article “Meat is hurting our Planet” published by The Humane League (2021). This helped me understand that the risks of humans eating meat based proteins are massive. Eating meat based proteins causes air pollution, this air pollution is caused by keeping tens of thousands of animals in a small confined area all of their maune is put into “lagoons''. All of this animal waste produces and releases harmful gases such as nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia into the atmosphere. This also makes the nearby areas uninhabitable by humans. Growing the wheat and grains that are fed to cows uses around 20% of the world's global freshwater; this is just for the food that they are eating. Not including the water needed for them to raise them and then slaughter them. Compared to our water use, showering, washing cars, watering lawns, drinking water etc. consumes just a small amount of this. The meat industry uses around one third of the earth land mass most of this land was once the rainforest and has now been cleared into pasture land for cattle and livestock.
I believe this source to be reliable because it was written this year and it quotes world known sources such as the United Nations. The Humane league was nominated the top charity for 2020, they are a non profit organization that helps to end the abuse of animals raised for food.
Another source of information that helped me answer what are the benefits and risks to the environment of eating meat based proteins? How to avoid a climate disaster book by Bill Gates (2021).
This helped me understand that eating meat is very bad for our environment. The risks of eating meat are that the methane that is produced by cow farts and burps causes 28 times more warming in our atmosphere per molecule than carbon dioxide. Cows need 6 calories of feed for each calorie of meat we are able to get off them when they are slaughtered, meaning that we would be able to feed 6 times more people on earth with the feed given to 1 cow. Most of the destruction of the amazon rainforest in the past 10 decades has been to clear pasture for cattle and their food.
I believe this source to be reliable because it was written by Bill Gates.He was able to create a team of scientists to conduct research into the effects of meat on the environment. Also Bill Gates was a carnivore meaning he ate meat, he was able to conduct an experiment and seeing the results he has now become mainly vegetarian.
Another source of information that helped me answer, what are the benefits and risks to the environment of eating meat based proteins? was the Sustainable livestock article by British Meat.(N.D) This was the only source I could find which argued against meat being harmful to the environment. I could not find any which outlined the environmental benefits of eating meat.
Cows produce greenhouse gases such as Carbon dioxide and methane. The Farmers say that methane breaks down over about 10 years so isn't really a threat to our environment.
I believe this source to be unreliable because it didn't have any information from a scientist; it also did not have that much information there at all. They were very brief when it came to the impact of meat on the environment. They would not have told the information that was in favor of their business.
Question Two: What are the benefits and risks of eating plant based proteins in the environment?
To help me gain a better understanding of whether eating less or no meat is better for the environment. I asked What are the benefits and risks of eating plant based proteins in the environment? One Source I used to help me answer this question was How a plant based diet can impact our environment. Article by Refill my bottle (2019). From this I discovered that by eating a vegan diet, we would be able to stop our waterways from being polluted. At the moment nearly half of all water in the United states goes to being used for livestock to drink this is not including how much water is needed to grow the crops they eat and also slaughter them. This is making me think about how much water we could save. Livestock farming is the main cause of acid rain, acid rain leaches the aluminum from the soil. Trees and animals need this aluminum in the soil to survive, trees can not grow without it as it removes all of the nutrients.
I was confident with this source of information because it was put out a couple of years ago and it matches well with all the other information I have found.
Another source of information that helped me answer this question was the Cowspiracy Documentary by Kip Anderson. This helped me understand how much grain is needed to feed the cattle we eat and how many resources and people we could save.
Will Turtle was featured in the documentary, and is an environmental author. He explained that“we have around 1 billion people starving each day”. Worldwide 50% of the grain and legumes that we are growing are being fed to animals so they're eating huge amounts of grain and legumes. In the United States more like 70% 80% depending on which grain it is. About 90% of all the soybeans in the US are given to animals. If we were to eat the grains and legumes there would be no one going hungry. Dr Richard oppenlander says “82% of the world's starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals in the livestock systems that are then killed and eaten by more well off individuals in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, United States of America, and in Europe. Howard Lyman was also featured in the documentary and says “the fact of it is that we could feed every human being on the planet today with an adequate diet if we did no more than take the feed that we were feeding to animals and actually turn it into food for humans. You can produce on average 15 times more protein from plant based sources than from meat on any given area of the land whether it's a very fertile area in one area of the world or it's an area that is depleted.
Michael Pollan says ”a plant based diet is the most sustainable”. Dr Michael A . Klaper a physician says Yes certainly all of the nutrients are there in the plant Kingdom to be a healthy vegan. Klaper thinks that no one needs to be eating dairy if you think about it. The purpose of cow's milk is to turn a 65 lb calf into a 400 lb cow as rapidly as possible. Cow's milk is baby calf growth fluid.
Anderson found that to feed a person on an all plant based vegan diet for a year requires just ⅙ of an acre of land . The same person on a vegetarian diet requires 3 times as much land. To feed an average United States citizen's high consumption diet of meat dairy and eggs you need 18 times as much land. This is because you can produce 37000 lbs of veggies on 1 1/2 acres but only 375 lbs of meat on that same plot of land. an American going vegan could save 1100 gallons of water, 45 lbs of grain, 30 square feet of Forest, 10 pounds of CO2 and one animal's life per day.
I believe this source to be reliable because it has lots of important statements from people that have studied in this field of information. I think it could have been more up to date but because of this this information would be a bit different but we are able to gain the information needed.
Question 3: Is all meat equal in terms of its impact on the environment?
To help me gain a better understanding of whether eating less or no meat is better for the environment. I also asked Is all meat equal in terms of its impact on the environment?
One Source I used to help me answer this question was the Sustainable livestock article by British Meat.
From this I discovered that No, not all meat is equal in terms of the impact that has on our environment. In the UK some of the cattle farmers have been working on making sure that their cows are grass fed. Eating a small amount of meat based proteins will also help with the amount of water needed and the amount of food needed to feed the animals.
Another source of information that helped me answer if all is meat equal in terms of its impact on the environment? Was how to avoid a climate disaster book by Bill Gates (2021)
No, not all meat is equal in terms of its impact as we can now grow cultivated meat in a lab from cells, it is now happening and this meat that is grown in a lab has the same muscles and tendons as any animal would have. The difference is that the meat grown in a lab creates little or no greenhouse gases, and it has no impact on the rainforests.
Last friday the 10th of march, Gisborne region experienced a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, this left many of Campion College students and family unsure of what to do when a large earthquake hits and if there will be a tsunami.
Civil defence has told New Zealand's that live on or close to the coast “If an earthquake is long or strong get gone”
We have been told to do the following, if the earthquake is long and strong get gone. Civil defence has said “Do not wait for official warnings For a local source tsunami this could arrive in minutes, there won’t be time for an official warning. It is important to recognise the natural warning signs and act quickly. “ Civil defence have advised residents to either evacuate on foot or bikes as using cars will cause congestion on the roads.
“It’s very uncommon to have three tsunami occurring worldwide within 24 hours in different locations, but to have it being generated in one location is extremely unusual,” De Lange said. “It hasn’t happened in New Zealand and as far as I can tell in our database it hasn’t happened anywhere else in the world.” De Lange said.
Tsunami Evacuation routes and the safe zone in the Tairawhiti Gisborne region.
If you are at Campion college when a large earthquake hits the principal Paul Mc Guninss has told students, teachers and visitors to evacuate over the campion foot bridge and continue to the lytton high school field which is located in a safe zone for a tsunami. If the Campion foot bridge is considered unsafe Campion College students and teachers will be told to evacuate up Gladstone road at pace to Makaraka and then go up Matawai road to Bloomfield road.
Tsunamis are caused by a large displacement of water in the ocean. These displacements are caused by the tectonic plates under the ocean to move when an earthquake accrues. This is what causes a large wave (tsunami) the height of the wave depends on the depth of the water below it so as it moves closer to land the larger it will be but the slower it will be if it is in deep water then it can reach up to 800km per hour. But it slows when it reaches the shore but it grows in size.
- How long they should be (how many words)?
- Should the ordinance of them be everyone?
Friday 5 March 2021
Shake it up with Shakespeare Best work.
Shake it up with Shakespeare:
I have really enjoyed this class and I have learnt so much. When I first started this class I didn't know anything about Shakespeare but now I know a bit out him and his life.
Check out this Shake it up with Shakespeare link
In shakespeare we have been spending a lot for time in the drama room. We have acted out scene 1 act 1 of Macbeth.
