BBE Unit 1 Blog
“Consumption, Resources, and the Environment: What you need to know”
RESOURCES:
When I hear the words “biorenewable resources,” I think of nothing but good things for the planet and it can make our world cleaner than it is now. That is definitely true, but there are other factors that go into it, like is one thing better than another. The mining industry has been an eh topic for a long time on the fact that is it really good for the environment or is there another way to get the things that we need from the ground. One thing to think about for mining is location and of course not every mineral you need will be in an area that you mine, but there are places that are more environmentally friendly than others to get those precious minerals. For example, there is the Polymet mine up in Minnesota by Lake Superior but it is way too close to a national forest and a Great Lake for my comfort. Mining anything can contaminate water and destroy a landscape that will take a long time to fix or possibly never fix. But, on the other hand you could mine for the same minerals as in the Polymet mine in an Arizona mine, which is out in the desert, not by any forest or lake that could be destroyed.
CONSUMPTION:
Consumption in the U.S is what I feel is one of its biggest problems that can essentially be easily fixed. A lot of people just want more and more even if there is no more of an item. That could lead them to trying to get that item from another country, costing the earth more strain of its resources. We as a country have spent more on importing goods than we have gotten back in exporting our own. Fossil fuels, for example, are a top want for most people, not just in the U.S, but around the world. Oil is one thing that we use every single day that is not very good for the environment. To elaborate on that, when it is burned, say through driving a car, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and breaks down our ozone layer, which without it will let more harmful rays down to us.
RESOURCE IMPACTS:
Another major part of the biorenewable resource chain is the impacts of using or extracting the resources we need. Protecting the environment is not just about the animals or land but also how it will affect humans as well. Both of those things are taken into consideration when thinking about what will happen if we do something to our environment, like extracting minerals. Everything we do as humans on this planet has some effect on the environment and everything in it, whether that be good or bad. In order to keep the planet from being destroyed by ourselves, we need to take a better look at the way we live to help save our future.
Other things to note are the way the carbon cycle works and how it makes up our everyday lives. It happens when you are not even thinking about it and is really from the beginning, extraction, to the end, disposal, of all things that we have on Earth. A good visual of this process is shown below:
Climate change is a big part of our lives today, and surprisingly not everyone believes it’s happening! It can also be called Global Warming, which tells you a little more about what it is. The Earth is always changing temperatures, from the Ice Ages to now shows how the planet was once covered in ice and snow but today the temperature can get over 100°F in some areas.
The life cycle assessment (LCA) is one thing that can help us track and improve our environmental impacts. It will help us understand what is happening and what we need to do to get ourselves back to an environment that is not slowing deteriorating.
Works Cited
Alaskans. (n.d.). Environmental impacts of Mining. WMAN. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from
BBC. (2021). Comparing Energy Resources - energy resources - AQA synergy - GCSE combined science
revision - AQA synergy - BBC bitesize. BBC News. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8k9v9q/revision/2.
Lesson 1 Introduction to Resources, BBE 1002, UMN
Various sources. (n.d.). United States Trade. WITS. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from
https://wits.worldbank.org/countrysnapshot/en/USA/textview.
Wikipedia. (2021, August 29). Carbon cycle. Wikipedia. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle.
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