As the demand for goods increases, the need to produce these goods also increases. This is the “moon shot” challenge to design and construction professionals. These gases absorb thermal radiation from the sun thereby increasing the general temperature of the earth, leading to global warming. But according to a new study, if you want to know what’s really driving the impact on the planet, you need to look past the obvious primary factors taking a toll on the environment – like industry and agriculture – and instead realise whose needs those things are servicing. The effects of the way things are produced and consumed today have impacts all around the world. When you buy something, like foodstuff or clothes, the shopkeeper will normally pack them for you in a shopper bag. CrossRef; ... consumers’ attitude toward the regulation and some consumers’ socioeconomic characteristics also affected bag consumption. Food production contributes, for example, to climate change, eutrophication and acid rain, as well as the depletion of biodiversity. All forms of electricity generation have an environmental impact on our air, water and land, but it varies. The consumption of different types of meat and meat products has substantial effects on people’s health… Rich nations eat more meat, dairy produce, and processed food, which have a huge impact on land and water resources. By contrast, China’s per capita carbon footprint is just 1.8 tonnes CO2, and the global average is 3.4 tonnes. We are at present in a situation where the planet’s ecology is not coping with all the pollution because of a huge, continuously increasing, consumer demand. We know from over 30 years of research and development since the last oil crisis in the early 1970s, that we can reduce the energy consumption in buildings by 50-70% through intelligent conservation and the application of passive solar heating, natural ventilation and careful daylighting. From that perspective, researchers say household consumers are by far the biggest drain on the planet, which makes for a very different picture to purely nation-focused analyses of environmental impact. Thus, if all the transportation fuel for cars and trucks (as big a number at that is) were converted to biofuels, it would still only address 16% of the problem. Essay on Effects of Population Growth on Environment 2386 Words | 10 Pages. And we know the time for action is now.”. In this study, effects of energy resources on environment are considered in detail. Use of energy greatly modifies the state of the environment and the effects can be of a local, regional and global nature. Global systems of production and consumption generate a complex mixture of environmental, social and economic costs and benefits — supporting livelihoods across the value chain, but also accounting for much of humanity's burden on the environment. Consumption of products and services impacts the environment in many different ways. By 2050 meat consumption could increase by 160% and this demand for meat is not sustainable for our planet. New technological breakthroughs in biogas generation use a two-stage anaerobic process to convert as much as 80% of the potential energy in the biomass into biogas — methane and hydrogen. 26 Sep. 2001. Food is of particular importance here. Food, energy and water: this is what the United Nations refers to as the ‘nexus’ of sustainable development. While the construction of such a neighborhood is the exception in the U.S., 10-15 of these kinds of neighborhoods are completed every day in China. Construction activity can have a toll on the local environment. As Ed Mazria has pointed out in his “2030 Challenge” to design and construction professionals, if you add up the residential and commercial sectors with the portion of the industrial sector consumed by buildings, it totals 48% of the total energy consumption! There has been a particularly marked increase in the global consumption of chicken and pork. When the next generation of efficiency achieved in the lab (20%-40%) is brought to market in 3-5 years, the integration of PV into building assemblies should become a matter of course for designers. Industries release into the atmosphere a variety of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Today’s consumption is a major cause of environmental degradation. This energy source can be put to many uses, for example: providing gas for cooking, compressed gas for gas-powered vehicles, or powering gas-electric turbines for the base or back-up electric loads. A Publication of the College of Environmental Design, Any number of events can be cited as triggering this step change in consciousness. Take food, for example. There are a lot of things not to like about coal. "If you look at China’s per capita consumption-based (environmental) footprint, it is small," said researcher Diana Ivanova from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Learning how does wind power affect the environment will help many people weight the positive and negative effects of renewable energy. The main one being that it isn’t as eco-friendly as people claim. Do not overspend and overconsume on resources. Food consumption and production have a considerable impact on the environment. Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, numerous cover articles by our leading weekly magazines, a continuous stream of newspaper articles, scientific reports from prestigious committees, appeals to the President by business leaders, politicians, and scientists, etc., have outlined the risks and challenges to the planet in compelling detail. Carbon dioxide emissions in the oceans leading to the acidification of water resources by the large con… T his will start to decrease, slowly but surely, as more of us continue to choose to stop eating meat. In fact, it has such a devastating effect on all aspects of our environment that the Union of Concerned Scientists lists meat-eating as one of the biggest environmental hazards facing the Earth. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, "We all like to put the blame on someone else, the government, or businesses," said Ivanova. 2, p. 95. Most fossil fuel consumption comes from developed countries. 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