Month: February 2017

This article from Climate Change News highlights how social media is hurting the climate change debate… while this article from Huff Post discusses the potential for social media to save the planet. There are obviously two sides to the debate, but there is no doubt that social media has kept the conversation about climate change in general alive.

Continuing to explore the environmental issue topic of pollution, a study from Ohio State University made the connection between air pollution and social media. The researchers looked at how social media activists affect the issue in general and how corporations benefit from online activism. The study was focused on China and it made me wonder what the results of the same research would look like in America.

 

My research project topic of climate change and how it relates to food consumption is also related to the idea of everyone’s carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is basically the amount of greenhouse gases produced to support human activities. Everybody’s footprint is different based on their daily activities and lifestyle choices. Carbon footprints affect climate change because they produce greenhouse gases, a.k.a the gases that keep heat in the earth’s atmosphere and produce changes in the climate. I find that differences in carbon footprints when it comes to different diets can be best understood through visual aids. The following charts and graphs compare the carbon footprint/greenhouse gas emissions among different types of eaters. Clicking each photo will lead to the source with more information.

Additional sources on carbon footprints:

http://timeforchange.org/what-is-a-carbon-footprint-definition

http://www.gaiam.com/discover/305/article/carbon-footprint-impact-climate-change/

For this week, I decided to explore the global environmental issue of pollution. When people hear the word “pollution”, they tend to think of air pollution. However, water pollution is a global issue as well. This video shows the effects of water pollution in an educational way while providing ways to help with the issue as well.