Pia Babi

Explore other transportation solutions
Humans mode of transport now is: bus, train, plane, car, bicycle and boats, which is responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions and yet society is demanding more and more. They mode of transportations are less expensive, because they burn liquid hydrocarbons, such as: diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. It harms human health on land and in water when spilled, therefore there are solutions, such as: shifting to alternatives, enhancing efficiency and electrifying vehicles. To shift alternative, we can reduce demand of fossil-fuel or even replace it and instead promote public transportation as well as make it walking distance, cycling distance or  staying put. To enhance efficiency, we can keep combustion engines, but mechanically improve to make it lightweight, artful. To electrify vehicles, replace petroleum and use renewable electricity generators. Finally, many need to take into consideration of building a pedestrian portion in their city, like New York has.  

Buy bamboo
Last week on Friday, Vanier was giving away free merch. When I went to pick up what they were giving away, I realized that there were bamboo straws on the table, which made me want to buy, because I do not like using paper straws and metal straws are just as bad as plastic straws. Therefore, the next day I went to IKEA and bought for me, my family and my friends bamboo straws.   

Calculate the carbon footprint of my household
In the carbon footprint calculator there were many questions, such as: where we are from (because the area you live in affects your emission), how many people live in the household, what type of electricity we use (reusable or none reusable), my mode of transportation, how many times I have travelled in a year (long and short trips) and my family's meal plan. I don't usually travel, except in 2018 I had a short trip and a long trip, so I chose to calculate my carbon footprint 2 times and compare my overall answer. In both cases, my household carbon footprint has come out as carbon neutral. However, if my lifestyle was constantly the same as in 2018 my carbon footprint will be 40.06 tons of CO2 per year, when it actually is 37.38 tons of CO2 per year. In conclusion, I believe this calculator is very basic, because there are many other factors to take into count when calculating your household carbon footprint, for example, how big your house is, how many times do you use the mode of transport in a week, if you recycle and/or use your compost bin, etc. 

Learn about the need for family planning
Family planning helps to empower women and reduce poverty, but most importantly it looks at gender equality. Family planning is a human right that is safe and voluntary. It helps women avoid pregnancies, because either they are not using safety or they do not have a family planning methods; such as lack of informational services or lack of support in the community or by their partner. UNFPA is an organization to support family planning by ensuring the supply of contraceptives and strengthening national healthcare. Education plays a huge role in family planning. it is a must and beneficial for girls to be educated, because the more educated they are, the more chances that their child will grow healthy and that they will have a healthier reproductive system. Nowadays, 62 million girls around the world are restricted from education, due to the economics, culture and/or safety barriers. To eliminate these preventers, the government must make school more affordable, make schools more friendly towards girls, reduce time and distance to get to school and help girls overcome health barriers. Family planning is not only affective for low income countries, but for rich countries too. For example, 45% of the pregnancies in the U.S. is unplanned. by family planning, it does not only better the well being of humans, but also it helps to slow the climate change. 

Learn the truth about expiration dates
Both low and high income countries waste food. In low income counties, food rots on farm or becomes spoiled while distribution; as for high income countries, food is selected by perfection/beauty, it should not have bruises or bumps and at times it is over bought than the needed amount. this leads to food waste being 8% of global emissions. On many products/food there are dates that determine when it will expire. However, there are date labelling phrases, such as: "best if used by/before", "sell-by", "use-by" and "freeze-by". "Best if used by/before", means when a product will be at its best quality. "Sell-by" means when the product should be displayed for sale. "Use-by" means the last date before the product spoils. As for "freeze-by", it means to maintain the product in the freezer to keep its quality. After the date passes some foods are still good to eat, just be sure that there are no odor, flavor or texture changes. The only food that is unacceptable to feed after the expiry date is an infant formula. In some countries like Britain, the top chefs have started a movement to cook expired foods, to decrease food waste. I personally never knew that "best if used by/before" meant that the product was at its best, I would throw out the product because I thought it meant that it was the last day of it being edible. Now I know better. 

Plant trees
I am a part of scouting and my group chose last year to plant trees in return to earn a big scouting badge. Regardless of the cancellation we wanted to continue to promote on our socials to spread the word that we are going to plant trees and we need people to donate for the environmental benefit. And we raised a little sum of money to be able to plant 2 trees. The donation is still open to those who want to contribute: https://indigofundraising.flipgive.com/teams/230069-p-inc-planting-for-change?fundraiser_id=1277139

Smart seafood choices 
I always knew the ocean was becoming more polluted each year and that many would do illegal fishing. However I did not know the ways of fishing could affect not only the number of animals born each year and they existence, but also their habitat.  Even our own consumption habit leads to a decline in wild fish populations; such as: halibut and yellowtail flounder, both of these are from the Atlantic population. Other fish habitats are being destroyed due to the gears the fishers use, those should be modified. Also some gears result to unwanted catches of species, this is known as bycatch. Other actions result into selfish behaviour when it comes to fishing which are, overfishing and illegal fishing. It’s important to stop illegal fishing as well as whenever the season to fish certain species has come back around they must put a catch limit, depending on every species. “Yosemites of the Sea" is the idea to preserve undersea habitat and allow marine wildlife to recover by Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Each day we fish more than half a billion pound of seafood. Fish farming and aquaculture are now established just like hormonal growth farms, the fish are raised there and more than the half of the fish we eat are raised there. It is more efficient but it is not good; chemical waste can pollute nearby habitats and diseases from farm fish can spread to wild fish. One of the places that is environmentally friendly is Monterey Seafood watch program, since the scientists evaluate the environment impact of fishing and farming. I personally don’t eat fish or any seafood other than shrimp and calamari, however my dad is the biggest fan of seafood and we go out to eat once in a while. I looked up some restaurants we go to and turns out our favourite one is sustainable. 

Learn more about wave and tidal energy
Wave and tidal renewable energy is one of many renewable energies that is being developed, but it does fall behind solar and wind due to it’s underdevelopment. It is one of the most expensive renewable energy, yet it is the 29th most helpful solution to reducing carbon footprint according to project Drawdown. This renewable energy takes the oceanic flow and turns it into electricity. Marine technologies are still in early development but have come to realize that there are harsh conditions to take into count and that tidal is more efficient than waves. By taking power from wave and tidal energy it has the ability to provide 25% of the US electrical needs. Also marine life is at stake and marine technologies are thinking of ways to avoid hurting, damaging the marine life. Colorado has built many dams that won’t effect the animals and water flow, Australia has made massive buoys to supply energy for close communities and NASA is working hard to succeed and bring into play tidal and wave renewable energy to use in the future, as well as advance technology. Once this solution is a success it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Research the climate impact of refrigerators
I had never thought that refrigerators were a part of the climate problem. It is not a subject that is talked a lot about, that’s why I chose to inform myself in order to pass the information on to others. All refrigerators as well as air conditioners take in heat to enable chilling. By doing so refrigerators produce CFCs and HCFCs. These two chemicals use up the ozone layer. After the Montreal Protocol in 1987, HFC became the chemical replacement, which has the ability to warm up the atmosphere at a higher rate than carbon dioxide, however it does spare the ozone. Natural refrigerators are the substitute and it is made of ammonium or propane. Some supermarkets have put in place HFC-free refrigerators for example Aldi, Whole Foods, Albertsons, H-E-B, Wakefern, Wegmans and Costco’s distribution centers. Walmart, Costco and Target on the other hand have not yet installed a single HFC-free cooling, as well as many other supermarkets and some who have installed fail to publicly talk about the good environmental change it has brought, as well as the leak rate.

Conduct Virtual Meetings
I’m a member of Scout de Montreal and every single Friday we have a meeting from 7-9 pm at our community school. For many it takes 20-30 minutes to arrive at the destination and most of us drive to our meetings. Last Friday was a special one since there were many scouts who were changing ranks and joining new groups. Every year, on this special Friday many come to watch their friends or family member accomplish a task with the group in order to be accepted into the new group.  Also many adults with the highest ranks and who manage our community as well as scouts come along to watch and give speeches. This results into many families and others pulling up to the celebration with their cars. This year we chose to conduct the meeting virtually.  The future small meetings will be conduct online as well. During our special meeting on Friday the leaders wanted us to take charge of the meeting so we played a small game of Kahoot to refresh our wilderness and scouts knowledge, even our survival skills. Finally we went through the program of the year and what to expect by doing weekly virtual meetings.