How Eco-friendly My Way of Living

Carbon footprint is also known as one's carbon profile that measures the overall amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a certain product, both referring to goods and services, along with how it is being supplied, being used, being recovered after its end-of-life period and being disposed. Causes of these emissions are, for example, electricity usage, water usage for shower (including the use of heater), transport operations, type of food intake, type of electronics used inside the house and other industrial processes.

Since on our generation, we are experiencing climate change due to excessive emissions of these greenhouse gases, the challenge for sustainability is the greatest test on how we will change for the good of our planet . Sustainability, defined as the capacity to endure, have a very wide scope. Relating carbon footprint to sustainability engulf the issue of climate change and the question what can we do. Carbon footprint is an assessment analyzing how much we contribute to climate change in our daily ways of living. By this, we can assess if we are doing good or not for our planet by knowing quantitative figures of how much greenhouse gases we emit based on how we live and do our daily activities. From these figures/numbers, we can figure out what alternatives modes must be changed from our day-to-day activities that will create a significant impact on sustaining the balance of our planet.

From the computations of my carbon footprint, the estimated greenhouse gas emissions based on my inputs on every questions are 16 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent per year, which is below the U.S. national average (27 tons of CO₂) by 178.65 percent. This assessment gives me the idea that people living in America emits more GHG than I did but still it is 290.91 percent higher than the world's average emission. This value only shows that I should change how I lived my life daily, from the food that I consume to how I utilize energy in my dormitory. By this, I can help save our planet from the danger of unsustainable future.

I know the reasons why my carbon footprint reached this mark. One is because for the past 6 months, I had been travelling through an airplane. To count, I had 1 long major flight of going here in America and 7 short flights in my country. Another reason is the food that I ate. Everyday, I eat meat whether it is pork, beef, turkey or chicken from either Perch or Sovie. So for this week, I will try to eliminate eating any meat (hopefully I can stop the temptation until Friday) to check whether it will lower my carbon footprint by a significant value.

Research Tutorial

Part 1: Summary and Reflection

     The tutorial we did on Skunk Ape was very productive and educational especially for students who conducted a research already. The tutorial was one way of knowing whether a researcher followed the standard format of presenting a research paper or not. Some points that I want to highlight for the beneficiality of this tutorial are:

1. The tutorial made me realize that I miss some important details of conducting a research like finding a scholarly journal and how to utilize scholarly magazines. When I did my research, I had been dependent on books and articles related to my subject of study only but good thing that I learned that there are other credible sources for a research aside from what I mentioned.

2. Citation is very important. This is to recognize the work of the author of the reference material that enrich your research. But we still keep on committing accidental plagiarism.

3. Databases is very amazing. In my country we don't have online databases. You have to find your sources manually. What I mean with manually is going to different libraries to find books and scholarly journals and using card catalogs.


     For this tutorial, every part is vital in conducting a research. So for me, we need to utilize whatever skills we have in doing our research because if we don't, we might commit errors that will result to plagiarism. Skills like knowledge on the correct mechanics of English language, on how to present your topic of study to avoid duplication on an existing research, audience consideration, clearly defined purpose of doing the research, credible sources inclusion and citing sources are all important. We have some websites that can do the basic parts like citations but bear in mind that some of these websites are prone to errors so it is best that we know how to do it by ourselves.


     I guess I still have a lot of things to learn in conducting a research. Learning is evolving so I cannot say that I know a lot about research already. What I am sure now is that it is very important that we know how to do the different sections of a basic research because this will be our foundation in conducting our case study before we earn our degree. Not only that, research is also very useful in our daily lives. Let us put it this way, in a news, in our jobs someday and even in a normal conversation, basic research on information about certain things from credible sources can avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding between two opposing parties and this could avoid further conflicts.


Part 2: New versus Old


     Here are the top three things I did not know before I started the tutorial:
1. Utilization of online databases
2. Information about scholarly journal
3. Citation of sources using an online pre-modified program


     Here are the top three things that I already knew before the tutorial
1. Different forms of informations
2. Citation of sources manually
3. Locating informations by books using card catalogs.

Library, a Silent Place of Beauty

          Yesterday I was sitting in front of the library, studying when suddenly I remember the task that we had in Comp 1. I then looked in any angle from where I am sitting. A big-wide field is in front of me, green surrounding, noisy because a lot of people are passing from any direction; there are bikers; and skateboarders; and it is a sunny day. But I noticed that the temperature now is different than the temperature before I arrived here in Fort Myers. Last month, the temperature here during daytime is the same as in my country. I guess winter is fast approaching and that's explain why the wind breeze is cold as it passes by in my skin. That's on my front view but on my right side view you will see a lake. For me it's a mysterious lake since all I can see is a fountain and a bunch of plants growing on the surface. There are alligators underwater for sure but I was just wondering if there are also big alligators habiting the area and if so, how big is it. Also, you can see chairs and tables which are exposed under the heat of the sun and there are people also who loved to stay under the sun and doing their stuff of reading their books and doing their assignments and papers.


          As I blazed my vision to the surrounding for a couple of minutes I notice a small centipede walking, crossing the trail from where all the people are passing. As a typical description of a centipede, it is an animal that is covered in a black shell type skin with about a hundred of feet connected to its body. I stared at the animal and it seems that it doesn't care if people look at them and crosses their path. They will just stop a few seconds and then continue to walk afterwards. I can see the beauty of the movements of his feet although I could not count them but it is the same as a piece of nylon thread joined together and then operated on a very high torque machine. But I can't explain why there are curves on the movements of its feet. As it completely crossed the trail I then turned away and started to write down any observation I had on that moment.