Reflection Question: What impacts are associated with large-scale beef production?

Industrial beef farming is responsible for about 15% of greenhouse gas emissions and is extremely inefficient in terms of resource use. It takes about 1500 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of beef, and the land used for raising cattle could be more efficiently used in the farming of other products. Additionally, the growing demand for beef worldwide has resulted in thousands of acres of rainforests being cut down and replaced with cattle farms. This, in turn, reduces the earth's natural ability to sequester carbon and destroys many animal's habitats resulting in decreased biodiversity. 

My one-time challenge went extremely well and taught me a lot about how much energy is wasted in heating and cooling our homes. For this challenge, I researched the advantages of better insulating and weatherproofing one's home and how to effectively do it. I found it surprising that we emit so much carbon and waste so much energy heating and cooling our home when insulating and weatherizing is clearly a much easier and less wasteful solution. It seems like it's so easy to seal the cracks which air escapes through and install additional insulation, yet most people just don't do it. I live in an older building and I can clearly see where a lot of this air is escaping and how to fix the problem, instead of just running the air conditioning or heating systems more.

My Eco-challenge is going great! I'm very happy that I have participated in it so far because it gives me a reason to take action on things I have been wanting to do for years but haven't yet. Today is my last day of not eating beef and I could not be more satisfied with how my eco-challenge went.

The ecochallenege is going very well! it was hard at first to stop eating beef but once I made it a habit it hasn't really been a problem whatsoever. This challenge has shown me that it's not really hard to change your habits once you set your mind to it.

My challenge is going well, but it is a little more challenging than I anticipated. I didn't realize just how much beef I ate until trying to go without it, and I often catch myself almost slipping up.

In our architecture school cement and concrete are described as default material due to their common use in our built environment. The commonly used material of cement has some drawbacks sadly.  The production of cement accounts for 5-6 percent of the world's emissions annually. This is because the most common type of cement relies on limestone and aluminosilicate clay mixed at high temperature to change them atomic makeup and releasing carbon dioxide in the process. The Limestone in the formula releases sixty percent of the carbon dioxide. Project drawdown defines cement alternatives as “the partial replacement of clinker with alternative materials.” The carbon emission can also be reduced by replacing old cement kilns with newer more efficient ones. Project drawdown made two model scenarios within the context of the international cement standards and calculated the results. Scenario 1’s model sets the clinker to cement ratio to 0.61 and assumes 39% of the market uses cement alternatives. Scenario 2’s model sets the clinker to cement ratio to 0.46 and assumes 54% of the market uses cement alternatives. Scenario 1 predicts “8 gigatons of carbon dioxide abated by 2050.” Scenario 2 predicts “16 gigatons of carbon dioxide abated by 2050.” 

Project Drawdown https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/alternative-cement
Project Drawdown https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/alternative-cement/technical-summary

For my one time challenge, I successfully donated $25 to the Native American Rights Fund (https://www.narf.org/about-us/). Since I forgot to take a screenshot of when I made my donation on their website, I sent proof of my donation through Canvas. I chose this particular one-time challenge because last semester, I took a class that showed a documentary on DAPL. I was still in high school when the DAPL riots started and wasn't really aware of what was going on. But ever since I watched it, it's resonated with me and I believe NARF plays a huge role in fighting against unfair treatment shown towards indigenous peoples.