Ozone Depletion

Last week I did some research on an important topic, Ozone Hole. What brought me to this topic was looking at current news about finding blisters on three different species of whales caused by sun. When I looked into the reason of ozone hole I realized the main reason is CFCs which are used in sprays,refrigerators,Air conditionors and etc. Ozone is made of three Oxygen molecules (O3), when UV light hits ozone it breaks it to two oxygen and an oxygen (O2 and O) and that single oxygen molecule would react with another O2 and make O3 and the cycle repeats. But once CFC enters the ozone the UV light breaks CFC3 to two CFCS and one chlorine(Cl), then chlorine reacts with oxygen (O) and makes Chlorine monoxide (ClO) therefore instead of O3 we end up having O2 and ClO in the stratosphere. That is when Ozone hole happens, UV light goes through the stratosphere layer but there are not enough ozone left in that layer to filter harmful rays of sun light out. Ozone depletion could bring severe damages for humans and animals both. There are few countries in the world that have banned using CFC in any product but even if one country does not apply regulations on use of CFC ozone depletion could happen and hurt all of us!

How much carbon I make?!

I've adopted a 60 ft pine tree. My tree has circumference of 26in. After all the calculation that I did to find the volume of my tree I figured out my tree has stored 136250.2451 Kg of Carbon inside it.
I have a hyundai accent which has a great gas milage but still after calculating my trips to school and work and amount of gasoline that I use for these trips I figured that I use 53 "my  trees" to store the carbon that I, only I, make per year.
And at last look at my footprint: 44.09 metric tons of CO2!!!! Yeah and that is only for one person, think about the entire city or even country and we're cutting more and more trees everyday!!!! :(

Since I love potato chips I chose Lays potato chips:

It all starts in the rich soil of an American farm, like Black Gold Potato, in North Dakota. Frito-Lay's standards for the quality of the corn and potatoes are among the highest in the food industry, so farmers make sure that our ingredients are planted, grown and harvested with the utmost attention to detail and quality. After potatoes arrive at a nearby Frito-Lay plant, they're washed, peeled, cut into slices and rinsed to clear off any excess starch. Next, they're cooked in all-natural oils like sunflower oil and corn oil, then sprinkled with salt or seasoning to become America’s favorite potato chips. It doesn't take much to make a simple snack taste great.

Their Steps to a Healthier Planet

They have been taking steps to reduce their impact on the earth by taking some steps like the ones mentioned below:

  Solar power is used at one of their plants in Modesto, CA to help make Sun Chips snacks. (2008)

   All Frito-Lay plants are currently working toward “zero landfill” with the goal of diverting at least 99% of waste from landfills. (2009)

  Introduced 1,000 new Sprinter trucks that get 50% more miles per gallon than the trucks they replaced. (2009)

   At our Casa Grande, AZ plant they are working to cut their electricity and water by 90%. According to their website by early 2011, they’ll complete the retrofit to enable our Casa Grande plant to run almost entirely on renewable energy and recycled water while reducing waste going to the landfill to less than 1%.

http://www.fritolay.com/our-planet/steps-to-a-healthier-planet.html

Chapter 3 Summary

·   The biodiversity is found in the earth’s genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes is vital to sustaining the life on earth.

·   Scientific theory of evolution through natural selection says: Populations evolve when genes mutate and give some individuals genetic traits that enhance their abilities to survive and to produce offspring with these traits.

·   Fossils: Mineralized or petrified replicas of skeletons, bones, teeth, shells, leaves, and seeds or impressions of such items found in rocks.

·   Mutations: random changes in the structure of number of DNA molecules in a cell that can be inherited by offspring. Most mutations result from random changes that occur in coded genetic instructions passed along in reproduction.

·   Differential reproduction: enables individuals with the traits to leave more offspring than other members of the population leave.

·   Adaptation or Adaptive trait: is any heritable trait that enables organisms to survive and reproduce better under prevailing environmental conditions.

·   As environmental conditions change, the balance between formation of new species and extinction of existing species determines the earth’s biodiversity.

·   Geographic Isolation: occurs when different groups of the same population of a species become physically isolated from one another for long periods.

·   Reproductive Isolation: mutation and change by natural selection operate independently in the gene pools of geographically isolated populations.

·   Differences in average annual precipitation and temperature lead to the formation of tropical, temperate, and cold deserts, grasslands, and forests and largely determine their locations.

·   In many areas, human activities are impairing ecological and economic services provided by the earth’s deserts, grasslands, forests, and mountains.

·   Saltwater and freshwater aquatic life zones cover almost three- fourths of the earth’s surface with oceans dominating the planet.

·   The key factors determining biodiversity in aquatic systems are temperature, dissolved oxygen content, availability of food, and availability of light and nutrients necessary for photosynthesis.

·   Human activities threaten aquatic biodiversity and disrupt ecological and economic services provided by saltwater and freshwater systems.