Electricity Used Within 24 Hours



Save Electricity



          Within 24 hours I used many things that required electricity. I never just paid attention to how many objects a person uses throughout the day that requires electricity. Honestly, I do not feel like I could go a day without it. I am just going to tell what I did within a 24 hour period:

Took a steaming hot shower

Washed and dried my laundry

Talked on my cell phone

Watched television

Used my lap top to do homework assignments

Vacuumed my carpet

Used air conditioning in the house

Cooked on the stove

Drunk a cold beverage from the refrigerator

Ironed my clothes

Played the Xbox 360 connect

            After I took the foot print quiz a couple of weeks ago I started trying to use less electricity. When I walk out of a room, I started cutting the light off even if I was coming right back. I try to unplug anything that I am not using. For example, if my cell phone is not charging, I would take the plug out of the wall. I normally fall asleep and leave the television on. Doing that is electricity wasted for no reason. I cannot watch anything if I am asleep. Whenever you have something plugged in a circuit, you are using electricity, even if there is nothing connected to it. Whenever I take a shower it is at least 20 minutes. I did not realize I was using electricity just to take a shower. You have to have electricity in order for the water to be hot.  A lot of times a person does not even realize when he or she is using unnecessary electricity. At this day and age almost everything a person enjoys doing is some way or another related to electricity. Thank God for Thomas Edison! (304)

Japan Struggles to Contain Radiation as New Fire Rages at Damaged Nuclear Plant

         

There is a struggle to contain radiation in Japan. There was a raging fire at a nuclear plant in Fukushima Daiichi, which is located in Northeastern Japan. The cause of the fire was unknown. Officials of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were considering alternatives to uranium fuel rods that are in what The Times described as “a boiling rooftop storage pool.” The article stated that the first idea is to use helicopters to spray cold water on the rods from above; the second is to inject cold water from below. The rooftop pools are still radioactive and if they allowed to overheat it could be dangerous. It is critical that the rods remain submerged in cool water.

            None of the reactors were in commission when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck. It damaged the cooling and containment systems throughout the nuclear complex. As if that were not enough a tsunami hit right after that. The Tuesday morning after an explosion damaged the inner containment building at the reactor at least 750 workers were evacuated. According to the article, it released a rush of radiation 800 times more powerful than the “safe” hourly exposure limit set by the Japanese government. Scientists have detected cesium-137 and iodine-131, two highly radioactive isotopes outside the plant, a clear signal that two or more of the reactor cores are seriously damaged and at least partially melted down, according to U.S. nuclear experts.

            If the engineers fail, and the cores overheat and melt through the structure that is meant to contain them, the consequences may include an untold number of cancer deaths, billions of dollars in cleanup costs, and an environmental disaster that leaves the region around the nuclear plant uninhabitable for decades (300).

Fort Myers Beach Historic Cottage and Matanzas Preserve

            I have been to Fort Myers Beach a million times and never knew we had a historic cottage there or the Matanzas Preserve. I thought the trip was amazing. The island itself is seven miles long. Mrs. Joe Hughes was the volunteer that told us all about the island. When she moved on the Beach there were only 23 families living there. In 1955, the 1^st library was started on the island. Ladies went around and borrowed books from people in the area and put them in a little cottage, and that is what they called their library. When Mrs. Hughes was a little girl the predominant occupation on Fort Myers Beach was shrimpers and fisherman. The local fisherman discovered that that shrimp were in Southwest Florida waters because a lazy fisherman left his net in the water. She gave us an insight on what was going on back then and how far along the island has come. Mrs. Hughes let us taste some sea grape jelly that she had made herself on a cracker. It was the best jelly I have ever tasted in my life. It tasted like heaven on a cracker.      

   To begin with, the Calusa Indians were the first ones to live on this estuary island. Then the Spanish came after them, and tried to take over. That is when the fighting began. We get the name Matanzas from them. Matanzas means massacre in Spanish. The native people had a chief named Carlos. San Carlos Park was named after him. The famous explorer took a fatal arrow during the massacre that caused his death.

            In addition, we took a tour on this trail and the boardwalk was made out of milk cartons. I guess you could say that is recycling at its best. The mangrove is the most common plant on the island. Fort Myers Beach is a barrier island. It is the nursery for many fish. The water is full of nutrients. It is a nursery for wildlife. Mangroves are the life for all living things around them. It protects the land. (356)

Carbon Footprints

            Until I took the carbon footprint, I never knew how much I was damaging the earth. The consuming lifestyle that I am living comes with a really big price tag for the rest of the world. On the carbon footprint it showed the bars as the total number of global acres that represent the amount of biologically productive space on Earth. The planet has 26.7 billion global acres of land and ocean. That is about 4.5 acres per person. My lifestyle showed over that amount, meaning my score will equal more than one Earth, and we know that can never happen.

        What I have learned is that living more moderately in just a few areas of my life can have a huge impact. This idyllic world that we live in now could change quickly and radically depending on how a person answers to the questions in each lifestyle category. The food and drinks a person can consume is connected to more than just the land. Even shopping habits do not just end at the store. They have a ripple effect also. Where and how you live makes a big impact on the world as well. After I took the carbon footprint the 1^st time I tried recycling and buying less. When I took it the second time I could see that it made a difference. It was very surprising how something so simple and small can have a big impact overall. When taking the carbon footprint quiz it is very important that you understand your score. The score received at the end of the quiz shows the consequences of your consumption. It tells you the number of earths it would take to sustain all the people on the planet if everyone lived like you. By changing a few things in my lifestyle I not only received a better score, I also gained a new way of living that really was not that different from how I lived before. (331)