unit 8 project: human impact on the environment

7/30/2019 Unit 8 Project: Human Impact on the Environment

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M a y 7 , 2 0 1 3

E t h i c a l N e w s l e t t e r g r a d e 8 d e c k a m a p a n g , i s k l 1 2 3 . 4 5 6 . 7 8 9 0

Temptations TodayAn iPhone, among other

smart phones are one of

the affluent products in

todays market. These will

be seen in hands of justabout anyone these days.

The multiple apps this can

hold entertains anyone of

any age and any

background. Its useful,

sufficient and easy to use,

but do you really need to

have one of them? Is there

a more greener, alternative

choice for everything thats

in the energy consumer?

ETHICALN e w s l e t t e rIs it Too Late?Everyone can tell that the

environment isnt healthy

anymore, but can we still help?

Page 1

Promising Results?

Zarafsha has worked on an

yearlong project in an attempt

to help the environment.

Page 2

So Close, But Not Yet

Although the family worked

hard, there is still a lot to work

on.

Page 2

300 kWh Is Enough

Find out how long it will take

the Ahmed family to only live

off 300 kWh!

Page 3

LEND A HAND BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

Global Warming, Climate Change, Pollution, sound

familiar? It should, because as the human impact on this

planet increases so do these appalling effects.A vital and immense part of daily human life consists of electricity. Humans today depend

on electricity vastly, life feels so much easier and just better with electronic products. The worldtoday is confined with all kinds of electrical products. From the traffic light to your eBooks,

almost all of things are connected with electricity. Life has gotten better, and more advanced,

but the effects on Earth of all the Green House Gas remains unnoticed by many. Practically all

of these electrical goods come from non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuel. Extra carbon

dioxide builds up in the atmosphere from creating electricity and also using electricity. The

additional carbon dioxide produced in the atmosphere generates the damaging effects to the

planet. Earth is warming up rapidly, so the polar caps are melting, extensive droughts, and

drastic weather changes are occurring around the world. There is still some time left to prevent

further damage, but it is only possible if everyone participates. One of the major dilemma's we

are faced with is the constant need to use a phone, laptop or other electrical

device. Instead of taking a walk or reading, people are starting to use

massive amounts unnecessary electricity. Not only is it affecting the

human body, but the usage of these devices produce even more

additional carbon dioxide. If people become more aware of

how much they are using, and cut down to using only essentials,

we will see a positive impact. Nonetheless, profiting from our

renewable resources such as the sun, water, wind and ect. is the

best solution so far. Its very obvious that we cannot just cease to

using electricity, but it is extremely important we try.

Dont blow it - good planets are hard to find -Unknown


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Every Hand Counts

Every small thing that you can contribute to helping the

environment. That is the most important skill that the students

in Zarafshas 2013 class had learned. No change is small,

everything and anything can help on the larger scale. Simple

things like turning off your lights, or just not using the laptop

for too long can some how help the planet.

Because you never know, there might be a

million other people around the world doing

the exact same thing, and that would

create a large positive impact. But its

important to remember, every hand counts.

We are forgetting to take care of

the only home we truly have.

The Promising Results

A New LeafZarafsha, an eight grader at ISKL, has dedicated this year

to be the start of a new, green life style at home. After a month

of observing the electricity habits of her family, she saw to it to

make some changes around the household to reduce their

footprint.

The Old LeafDuring the month of August, Zarafsha noticed that

compared to many of the other families at her school, her

families monthly electrical consumption wasnt that faulty.

Looking around her house, she also began to see that herfamily did many things that were environmental friendly

without even realizing it. The cause for the precautions taken

by her family was probably the electricity bill that comes every

month. The expenses for electricity has grown over the past

few years. The Ahmed family were already using minimal

lighting during the night, preferring to use small table over

large wall lights. They used to only use 1 air conditioner at

night, because the father did not live in Malaysia during that

time period. Overall the family did have the basics, but there

was still room for improvement.

Vines of A New LeafZarafsha carefully crafted a detailed plan to help the environment by reducing her

electricity usage. During her month of observation, she looked into many tiny details of

her house to find ways of decreasing her consumption, but still be able to live normally

in the modern age. Then for the next few months she kept track of her monthly

consumption.

Things she changed:

While she was looking around, Zarafsha noticed that almost all the plugs in her house

was constantly on. And there were a lot of plugs in her house, so she decided upon

turning off all the plugs points that werent being used at the very moment, also

reminding her parents that if need be they were allowed to turn on the plug but only if

they could also turn it off when they were done. These sockets, she had seen sucked out a

lot of energy invisibly, without anyone being aware of it. Another she had changed

around the house, was the amount of time laptops and T.Vs were on. Gradually, using

unnecessary technology decreased.

Things she planned to, but did not:

Zarafsha had planned on putting a timer on air conditioners, but failed to do so,because she found out that it was difficult for me to sleep with the air conditioner on, as

the air grew warmer very quickly after it turned off.

ETHICAL


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ETHICAL

So Close, But Not Yet ThereAnalyzing the graph, it is evident to

Zarafsha and her family that maybe they

have not tried hard enough. Although inthe graph, the fitted line has a negative

slope, its not very steep. Also the Ahmed

familys general usage

had increased by a lot

since August. This

might be due to them

moving to a larger

house during the

middle of the year. It

was during that time

period that the family

experienced a high

leap in their

consumption. Though

they slowly came down

to a lower energy consumption, in the end

the consumption was still more than it was

in August. At the beginning of the project,

in August, the familys monthly

consumption was 787 kWh, but in

November is rose to 1035 kWh, which wasa 248 kWh increase. Fortunately though,

the family slowly came down to a monthly

consumption of 987 kWh by April. The

Ahmed family doesnt seem to have a

consistence change pattern, as some

months they would consume more than

the previous, but then they would also

consume less on other

months. But overall, the

family decreased their usage

more often than they

increased, which shows that

there is still hope in changing,

just not very fast. During

these months, the Ahmeds

had began to wake up fromreality and grasp just how bad

the situation was getting. The

saw how difficult it was too let

of some things like too much

T.V, but they also became aware of larger

and worse impact all these electricity was

creating. Time is vital here, because the

way things are going, it wont be long

before theres no going back, there wont

be anything to reduce when there is

nothing.

MON

ELECT

US

HLY

ICITY

GE

Months Electricity (kWh)

August (0) 787

September (1) 819

October (2) 1035

November (3) 1023

December (4) 748

January (5) 935

February (6) 1032

March (7) 995

April (8) 987


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ETHICAL

A Goal is SetWe thought that being able to use only

300 kWh as a monthly was a good goal for

families like the Ahmeds. To find the exact

time it will take the Ahmeds to get there, we

are going to have to find the equation for

the graph. All we have right now it the fitted

line, which we are going to use.

The equation we are using is;

y = mx + b

The SlopeFirst, we are going to find the slope,

which we are going to get using two pointson the line. To make things easy, we will

pick whole numbers from the x-axis;

(6, 900) and (8, 850)

Using the rise over run method, we find

the difference of the rise and the run

(separately);

900-850 = 50 = -25

6-8 -2

Now we have a part of the equation,

which looks like this now;

y = -25x + b

To be able to solve the problem, we still

have to find out b.

Vertical InterceptThis is the part where we use

substitution, because the two coordinates we

used earlier are a part of the line and will

have the same equation if the equation is

correct.We will use the coordinate

(6, 900)

and substitute them fory and x in the

equation;y = -25x + b

Which would turn out like this;

900 = 6(-25) + b

Now we just solve the equation

backwards.

900 = 6(-25) + b

First you simplify;

900 = -150 + b

Then you add 150 from both sides,

because that is the opposite function

900 +150 = -150 + b

+150

And that is b1050 = b

Which mean, 1050 is my vertical

intercept (y-intercept)

At 300 kWhThe equation we figured out is;

y = -25x + 1050

Now we can plug in the 300 by

replacingy with it, because if you look at

the graph, the the kWh are on the y-axis.

300 = -25x + 1050

And we solved backwards again, but

this time look for x.

300 = -25x + 1050

We subtract 1050 from both sides first,

300 -1050 = -25x + 1050

-1050

Then, we do the opposite of

multiplication and divide 25 from both

sides,

-750 = -25x

-25 -25

And then I have my answer,

30 = x

To check to see if the equation makes

sense, we will put in all the numbers we

found out into one equation like this;

300 = -25(30) + 1050

Multiply first,

300 = -750 + 1050

Then add,

300 = 300

So my answer makes sense because my

equation equals to the number that I

wanted, which is 300.

So this means that it will be taking the

Ahmed family 30 (wow..) months to reach

about 300 kWh as their monthly

consumption, that is if they continue their

monthly electrical consumption as the trend

in the above graph.

-Zarafsha Ahmed

unit 8 project: human impact on the environment

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