Water_Resource_Plan

Final Project SCI 275 Tracey C. Mariner August 19, 2011 University of Phoenix Energy conservation is very important in to not only the community but also the world. By conserving energy, you will not only be helping your local community, but also by doing so you will be reducing you energy bills, and helping the world’s environment. The average savings that you can expect to see will be up to forty percent will be achieved though a properly implemented energy conservation plan. There are many activities that people can do to conserve energy as well as help not only themselves, but also the environment and everyone around them. Conserving energy is important for the most obvious reason, which is the environment, but another important fact is that our current energy sources are not renewable. When using renewable resources such as biomass, water, geothermal, wind, and solar there will be fewer pollutants in the air. Nonrenewable resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gases, and nuclear power take millions of years to reform again and eventually will become extremely costly to harvest then humans would have to other sources for energy. Nonrenewable resources are all used up them it is harder to redeem them again which may cause more of an issue and make whatever current progress made retract and possibly go back to the original issue. Depletion of resources is threatening sustainable development of humanity. An increased greenhouse gas is changing the climate and this is one of the most serious issues in analyzing energy system. Reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions will help to conserve energy. There are many contributing factors that can help to affect the environment around us, there are some living factors that help contribute or are affected by energy consumption are herbivores (animals that only eat plants), carnivores (Animals that feed on other animals or material of animal origin), and omnivores (Animals that feed on material of both plant and animal origin). When the plants are affected by energy consumption that means that, there are less of them for the herbivores to eat and stay alive. If these herbivores don’t have food to eat and stay healthy they will die and the carnivores which feed off of them may get sick and pass on themselves. Omnivores are affected because they may also get sick from eating plants and other animals, which are unhealthy due to lack of energy. The plan of recycling, turning off what is not needed and using alternate transportation has many benefits. Turning off what is not needed helps to conserve energy because keeping lights on and things plugged in when they are not in use takes up more energy than anything is. If a room is not being occupied lights should not be on, if an electronic device is not being used it should be unplugged. Lastly, using alternate modes of transportation such as carpooling, taking the bus/light rail, walking or riding a bike may make the trip longer, but it is better for the environment and less congestion on the roads. Recycling will help there be less debris in landfills to be burned and cause pollution. Also by recycling, it helps to reuse things that most people would not consider a reusable source. One of the many challenges of this plan is largely rest on the fact of getting everyone to participate. Getting recycling drop off locations in apartment complexes and offices will be the first bump in the road to being successful. Many people are unable to recycle because they are not in an area where recycling bins are provided and emptied every couple of weeks. Turning off or unplugging electronics which are not needed will be difficult because it’s hard to get everyone in one household to unplug electronics when they are not in use and turning the lights off when leaving a room. Some people do it as a security thing and it is hard to break habits and take on new ones, but this cannot be done without the proper education understanding the importance of making this great change. I believe I read that the lack of knowledge causes people to perish. We will need much help when trying to implement this plan, and the greatest of the support will have to come from our state and local government. One thing that will be provide through government support would be to get more bus/light rail routes to have that as an option, as an alternate mode of transportation for everyone in any area to assist in the road to a more energy efficient world. Also government support would be required when trying to get recycling bins and locations set up and where they can be and who would clean them out. Assistance from the government is not needed for turning lights off and unplugging electronics. That is only something that each individual can do to assist in conserving energy. If we can use alternate modes of transportation will be difficult because of the amount of people in the U.S. and being able to provide enough bus/light rail routes for everyone to have that option, producing affordable bikes for people who live close enough to their job to bike or walk may be a challenge and getting people to carpool is even harder because a lot of times its not carpooling with people who already know each other, but with people who just happen to have the same shift in the same area. Required societal support is will be to have communities come together to want to help conserve energy. To make people want to participate they need to be informed. Once they are informed of the plans and the benefits for everyone once the plan is put into place and successful then everyone will need to pull together to participate. Everyone in every state, county, city, and neighborhood will need to start to utilize the recycling locations. Once that is started everyone will also need to start saving energy in each and every household by implementing new rules to only have lights, Televisions, radios, computers, and any other electronics on when they are in use and someone is in the room. If the room is empty there should not be any electronic devices on or plugged in, with exceptions. Charges and such should only be plugged in when in use, everything else needs to be off and put away when not in use to help save the energy used on a regular basis. Now that the smaller goals are started the biggest way to conserve energy will be to use alternate modes of transportation. Once there is more bus/light rail routes more people will be open to using this method. Making people understand why these alternate methods are better for the environment, healthy and energy consumption people will be more apt to be open to other routes or carpooling. Global support needed will be for everyone all over the world to participate in all of the steps to make a successful plan. The global support is essentially the same as the government and societal support. With everyone everywhere pulling together to make things happen and make energy conservation something that will be a huge success and will allow everyone to benefit from the help and conservation. In the plan of recycling/reusing, using alternate modes of transportation and the proper use of electronics can add to the success of conservation as well as the education of everyone means for the environment and us as human beings. As health conscious as people are in today’s society there should be no reason for anyone to not want to participate in something that is going to help. Educating everyone, getting everyone involved and making this successful also makes us stronger as a nation. The challenges of the plan are getting everyone to participate and convincing them to use renewable resources as well as different forms of transportation. Some may feel that renewable resources will be costly to switch to, but in the long run would actually be less costly. Using alternate modes of transportation will be difficult because of the amount of people in the U.S. and being able to provide enough bus/light rail routes for everyone to have that option, producing affordable bikes for people who live close enough to their job to bike or walking may be a challenge and convincing people to carpool would be difficult because there may not be others who they work with agree to the idea. Required government support would be to get more bus/light rail routes to have that as an option, as an alternate mode of transportation for everyone in any area to assist in the road to a more energy efficient world. The government should also allow consumers to store renewable equipment on government land. If the government supports in fixing this issue, others will follow. An example of positive human impact for energy conservation would be what the undergraduate students at the University of Guelph have done. They have committed 4.3 million dollars to improve energy efficiency on campus. The students were asked to contribute $10 a month for 12 months to go to energy conservation for the school. The school itself will match what the students raise. Adam Scott a U of G student tell the U of G staff (2007) “This really shows that students care about the environment and are willing to take action, even if that action means a few extra dollars out of their pockets.” Staff and faculty will also have an opportunity to contribute to the ongoing energy conservation efforts. They will have the option to pledge a portion of their salary each pay period; this money will also be matched by the University. In conclusion, depending on what types of resources which are used to conserve energy it may cause a negative impact. Using Renewable resources which are replaced rapidly wouldn’t be too negative because no matter what is used it can be replaced easily. However if nonrenewable resources are all used up them it is harder to redeem them again which may cause more of an issue and make whatever current progress made retract and possibly go back to the original issue. Depletion of resources is threatening sustainable development of mankind. An increased greenhouse gas is changing the climate and this is one of the most serious issues in system. Reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions will help to conserve energy. Works Cited Berg, L. R., & Hager, M. C. (2007). Visualizing environmental science. Hoboken, NJ:John Wiley & Sons. (n.d.) Definitions of energy conservation on the Web. Retrieved February 23, 2008 http://www.google.com/search'hl=en&defl=en&q=define:energy+conservation&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title (2007) Students Commit $4.3 Million to Energy Conservation. Retrieved February 24, 2008, from http://www.uoguelph.ca/news/2007/04/post_42.html September 20th, 2007.From.http://64.233.167.104/search'q=cache:VvTxeY22D City of Centerville. (2006). Your Elected Officials. Retrieved September 21st, 2007.