Waste Management

Our topic for blog is about waste management. What is waste management? According to Wikipedia waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is very important nowadays because of our environment problems. Many organizations are very strict when it comes in waste management and that is their way to raise the topic of waste management. For my approach in raising the topic of waste management I personally take a three day survey of how many waste that I produce I categorize them as paper, plastic, food waste and miscellaneous. As the graph shows in day one the most waste I produce is plastic then miscellaneous follow by paper and lastly the food waste. For the second day the most waste I produce is paper then plastic followed by food waste and lastly is miscellaneous  Finally the third day I really tried to lessen my daily consumption of waste and it's very effective because as the graph shows comparing them from the last two days the consumption made a very good results. 

My final conclusions about this activity are being very productive in wasting and try to recycle It really works and helps the environment.

The Rock

I have read the rock cycle and all about the plate tectonics. Now I fully understand how things work with rock cycle here is some test results that I got after reading the book about rock cycle.

Lake Manguao

Last August 15, 2013 my professor in Engineering Environmental gave us a lecture about wetlands. At first I only thought that wetlands there are only few kinds of wetland but after explaining to us that wetlands are areas that is saturated by water and have unique soil called "hydric soil". It became clearer that there are many types of wetland. One example of a wetland in the Philippines is lake manguao.

After making research about the lake manguao. I found out that it is a 643 hectare area and has a mean altitude of 25 meters above sea level. Lake manguao is located at Taytay, northern palawan island and nine kilometer ride from the town center. It contains unique environment that is why it is very suitable for freshwater fish and domestic birds. There are three endemic fish that lives in the lake that is why it is protected by the local government thus making it non commercialized and can only be access by arrangements. It is also home for some domestic and international birds that is why lake manguao is popular with bird watchers. Lake manguao is also called as lake danao by the locals but because of several lake in the Philippines that has the same name lake danao is change into lake manguao. Lake manguao is not suitable for swimming because the water is very mossy and deep. 

Map of Lake Manguao.

Photos of Lake Manguao.

Carbon Cycle

Carbon cycle is when all of the carbon in our system rotates in every part of the ecosystem. After hearing that me and my group mates will portray the carbon cycle my first thought is "how do we do it?". Later that day my professor announced that the skit will be a short video so me and my group mates have assembled and plan that we will have the shooting the next day. After the film shooting was done me and my group mates reviewed the footage and that is when I finally realized that it is not that hard to understand how the cycle goes and after doing some research I found out that carbon cycle is very basic because base on my understanding in what the carbon cycle is. All of living things emit carbon dioxide and all of the carbon is combine in the atmosphere and then distributes on plants and sea. Then the plants and sea emits back oxygen that is inhaled by living things then the cycle repeats itself. 

Nobody in this planet cannot live without carbon it is needed in almost all of the inhabitants in this planet. In order to sustain the balance of all living creature. After the video shooting I came up on a conclusion that our bodies cannot operate well if it has no carbon in it might as well the other cycle.

Carbon Cycle Diagram

Footprint Analysis

After doing the ecological footprint that my professor gave to us. I find out that my ecological footprint exceeds at by .3 hectares. Basically a normal household footprint is 1.0 hectare and after reviewing what I have input on the excel file that my professor uploaded. I found out that one factor that affects my ecological footprint is the number of people in the house. My family composes of 5 member me and my two brothers and my dad and mom. after reviewing what my necessities and need on the excel file I found out that because my family composes of four boys and one girl. We tend to consume more food and housing necessities thus making our monthly hours of life energy exceeds than normal.

Then I tried to lessen our consumption and after one week I recompute my ecological footprint and was surprised on the results it made. My family ecological footprint goes down to 1.0 hectare then it came out of my mind that if my family tries to lessen all of their consumption maybe our ecological footprint would go down. And to draw my final conclusion I think that if every family in the country tries to less down their consumption our ecological footprint for the whole country may go down.

11th Hour

Last June 20, 2013 my professor show us a documentary clip. The documentary is entitled "The 11th Hour" and it's plot is all about environment, global warming and what we do on nature. The main character of the documentary is the actor Leonardo Dicaprio and 50 other environmental activist. After watching the documentary film my professor tell us to cite two character in the documentary and make a reflection about what the characters said in the film. At first it is hard to decide who will I pick because all of the scientist are correct. But after watching it again I realize that the documentary was made by groups of environmental activist, politician, businessman and scientist so I focus my attention on the group of businessman because of all the people in the world. Businessman are one of the top contributors why there is global warming and destruction of environment. One of them is Ray Anderson, he is the founder of one of the world's largest manufacturers of modular carpet for commercial applications. He quoted that "Global Warming is real and it's destructive and it's impact are beyond our imagination." the quotation is true because base on my experience I once feel the wrath of mother nature and it is very unpleasant what our doings have lead to. The other person is Matthew Simmons, he is the founder and chairman of Simmons & Company International. He quoted that "We will only stop this if we solve our energy problems." for me he made a huge impact because what he quote is very true. people tend to explore what nature gives us thus giving us the knowledge of energy and for me energy is very essential nowadays for industrializing and modernization but we tend to forget that energy comes to nature and the only way to get it is by destroying nature.

After seeing and hearing all of the comments of environmental activist in the documentary. I made a conclusion that we cannot stop global warming but we can slow it by doing little things. Little things that can contribute big in our dying environment.

Rainy Nights

Last June 17, 2013. I remembered that it was a hot Monday morning and I was already in my way to school. As I was going to school  I recall that I forgot to bring my umbrella but I thought that "Maaraw naman hindi na yan uulan" but I was wrong. It was 4:00 in the afternoon when I saw a big chunk of cloud forming above us but I just ignored it and go on with my scheduled activities. After an hour it started raining heavily and everyone in the class just started to make a fuss about the rain then after our last class our professor said that "Go home early before the streets are flooded" but it was not a good idea for me because I forgot my umbrella and now I'm stuck with my fellow classmate who has no umbrella. After one and a half hour of continuous raining I noticed that many vehicles are piling up the street. Knowing our location I already have a hunch that it is flooded in the streets of kalentong. So rather than walking straight on the flood we just wait in the premises of our school until the water in the streets subside. After more hours of waiting we decided that it is now safe to go home. Thankfully we all got safe home but it was already 2:00 in the morning and we have class at 9:30 am. That is my first time to be stranded in the school and that is when I remembered that we have to make a blog about our environment and after that experience I've decided to make a blog about flooding. So I personally talk to my parents and got this answer from them.

F: "Bakit bumabaha? Dahil yan sa mga basurang tinatapon kung saan saan"

M: "Bumabaha sa lugar ninyo kasi hindi nila inaayos ang drainage system at bumabara lahat ng basura"

 I made a root cause analysis of what is the main problem.

After I've done this root cause analysis table I concluded that the real cause of the problem is "Money". Theoretically and conceptually my assumption of what is the real cause of the flood is money because if there is money all of the rules and regulations about disposal of garbage and broken drainage system can be fixed.