Presentation(Affiliated high school of Chung Hsing University) 1b

Environment   Sep 12, 2016 by AHSofChungHsingTW-40

1. Ecological Footprint Calculator

In the ecological footprint calculator, the part which surprised us the most is that we would need sixty-four Taiwans tosupport our present way of living.

In our data, the most serious problem is food, and the next is traffic and thermal power generation. 

The food issue is the most urgent problem and the easiest to solve. What most people need is vegetable rather than meat. Reducing the consumption of meat products is the goal we could achieve easily. In contrast, changing the type of energy we use now is a more difficult task for our country because our renewable energy is not well-developed.

2. Climate Challenge 

There are various kinds of strategy cards in the game, and each of them represents different meanings which the president of different nations can choose for their policies. In our simulation, we used energy efficiency, building regulations, privatized electricity, fuel tax and recycling as our policies. We are able to reduce a great deal of carbon dioxide emission after a few years and the energy used will be more efficient. If we add the strategy card that says “Install solar panels on every roof”, the amount of carbon dioxide will increase by 10 percent. 

We think that it is better to lead by example with green economies. We should encourage development of green economies. That way, other countries can follow suit. Before long, we will definitely have a green economic world.

3.Water Footprint

According to the Water footprint calculator (designed by our country Taiwan),

the large consumption of meat plays the biggest part in our water footprint, which surprised us the most. We discovered that the raising of a cow would consume thirty one billion liters of water in total.

Likewise, the other kinds of meat that we eat in our everyday meal, also contribute much to water footprint. 

Everyone's average water footprint varies a lot. For example, the world daily footprint is 3444 liters. But the maximum of ours is 5128 liters, the minimum is 2222 liters. These differences are formed by everyone's habit. If we get to reduce water footprint, we need to change our habits.

It is possible to reduce water footprint by reducing your shower time, eating less meat and recycling reclaimed water. For instance, we can reclaim the water used in rising the mop and use this reclaimed water to flush the toilet. As for drinking water, it cannot be reduced since it is a necessity in life.

Task:

Neither the ecological footprint nor water footprint calculator includes the country of “Taiwan,” so we were not able to use the game to calculate data we need; we could only get information from our government and related organizations.

According to the data collected from the ecological footprint, we realize that we discharge lots of carbon dioxide, which affect the natural environment and the quality of our life seriously. By playing the simulation game, in formulating policies and taking surveys, we can reduce the amount of carbon emission by pinpointing the most serious problem and tackling it direct on. 

One other finding is that we thought installing solar panels could decrease the carbon emissions. However, installingsolar panels would actually increase carbon emissions.As for water footprint, we found that the problems of household water is that it is often wasted and we found ways to improve this. Experts in ecological footprint and water footprint claim that eating less meat can help mitigate the climate challenge because in the course of raising livestock much water is used. Therefore, with less meat consumption, carbon emissions can be reduced greatly.

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