The impact of CA’s trees on the environment: Environmental Sciences OneWorld Essay

Is there a problem? 

Since the late 20^th century, awareness of global warming and the environment had started spread.  This awareness resulted in a number of ‘green’ items; items that are environmentally friendly. ‘Green’ cars, ‘green’ paper, ‘green’ power and ‘green’ clothes are just a start to the ever-growing list of ‘green’ items. ‘Green construction’, construction environmentally friendly and sustainable buildings, has also been growing in popularity. The 1315 Peachtree Street building is a great example of ‘green construction’.

Pictured here, the 1315 Peachtree Street building is located in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States of America.
Picture from: http://sidewalkradio.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/1315-exterior1.jpg

The ELAC, Early Learning and Activities Center, an extension of Canadian Academy’s, an international school in Japan, campus, inaugurated in the 2007/2008 school year, is also a ‘green’ building.

With the spread of the ‘green’ movement also comes the spread of initiatives reviving and further proliferation of the plants and trees on the Earth. Deforestation has caused many forests and rainforests to be logged and ruined. This greenery is an important source of oxygen production and carbon dioxide usage in our environment—our atmosphere was developed by ancient cyanobacteria that created oxygen and used up carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, a process that not only cyanobacteria, but also the plants and trees of today perform.

Cyanobacteria: “Architects of the earth’s atmosphere” (Introduction to the Cyanobateria, n.d.)
Picture from: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/nostoc.gif

Therefore, plants and trees do play a big role in the environment; they are one of the best sources of recycling carbon dioxide in our environment and creating oxygen. Thus, while a ‘green’ revolution is going on in the technology side of society, many people have decided to tackle global warming by planting more trees and plants, with the hope that the photosynthesis will help use up carbon dioxide and create oxygen.

Treeeeees!
Picture from: http://www.psychologies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Trees.jpg

Canadian Academy has a total of about 237, ±5, trees campus.  According to Environment Canada, Canada’s national environmental agency, “on average, one tree produces nearly 260 pounds of oxygen each year” (Helmenstine, n.d.). Given the average production of oxygen per year at 260 pounds, or about 118 kilograms, Canadian Academy’s trees produce a gross total of about 27,966 kilograms of oxygen per year. Similarly, “A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 lbs./year” (Helmenstine, n.d.). Given this average rate, Canadian Academy’s trees absorb 11,376 lbs., or about 5,160 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year.

Here’s a picture made by me that shows where the CA campus lies and where the trees are on the CA campus along with how many there are. The green parts are where there are trees and the area inside the gridlines is where the CA campus lies.

But is this enough? Do we have enough trees on campus?

How big is the problem?

A single mature tree can make enough oxygen in the atmosphere to “support 2 human beings” (Helmenstine, n.d.). CA has a total of about 783 human beings on campus—including students, teachers and faculty. Given that each tree supports two human beings per year, CA’s trees only have the capacity to support about 474 students.

Also, not to mention, CO2 emissions by the population of CA also is high. In Japan, 9.46 metric tons of CO2 is emitted per capita (World development indicators, n.d.). That is 9460 kg of CO2 per year! Per year, a tree absorbs 5,160 kilograms. Therefore, basically, per person we need two trees to equalize the 9.46 tons of CO2 emissions.

9.46 tons per person!
Picture from: http://www.topnews.in/files/CO2_Global.jpg

Considering this 2/person amount of trees we need, CA has only enough trees for approximately 118 people! CA has a population, of as I said before, approximately 738 people. According to that, we need about 1500 trees on campus!

Therefore, there IS quite a problem. According to the average, each human needs about 2 trees to him/herself to equalize the CO2 emissions made by him/her. CA’s trees only equalize the CO2 emissions of 118 out of the 738 people that are in CA, or about 15.9% of the population. It would be feasible to say that CA should at least equalize the emissions of 50% of its population, as trees outside of CA can equalize the other 50%’s emissions.

50% of CA’s population is about 369 people. With the current amount of trees, 118 people’s CO2 emissions are equalized, therefore CA needs plant enough trees to equalize the emissions of 251 people, aka plant another 502 trees. This is quite a big problem—where can we plant these trees?

Is there a solution?

Yes, there is a solution. The solution is to plant trees. And plant a lot of them. 502 of them, to be exact.

But where can we find place to put such trees? Sans the photo of CA, here is an outline of CA’s campus. The grey areas are buildings while the white areas are places open for trees. The green areas are places where trees are already up while blue areas are potential sites for more trees.

Blue= Potential tree growing areas, Green= Where there already are trees, Grey= Buildings, White= Ground

There are several problems that come along with this solution, though. The first being the costs.

There are many costs involved in maintaining trees. These costs involve the primary cost of buying the trees themselves, then planting them, and then the maintaining costs of watering and trimming the trees every few months.

Then, we also have space. The campus will look clogged up. Very clogged up. To fit 502 trees in the potential tree areas the trees will be need to be planted in high density. This could affect the aesthetics of Canadian Academy a lot.

Another solution involves buying a plot of land and only planting trees on them. This, while it could be an interesting and great for environment and aesthetics of CA addition to the campus—the CA forest, you could call it—would be very expensive addition to the campus.

Hmmm.. Maybe something like this?
Picture from: http://www.ci.st-joseph.mo.us/parks/UrbanTrailImages/nwpkwyimage4.gif

But, as I stated before, this solution is expensive and it would also take a lot of time to develop and implement into the campus, so we have to disregard it. The best solution is to plant more trees on the current campus. While it would be a negative addition to CA’s aesthetics, it would be a big positive for CA’s environmental impact.

What kind of impact can we make? 

There are positive and negative impacts of this tree planting idea.

The positives include:

•  A smaller environmental footprint
  • The trees will start absorbing a lot of CO2. 50% of the school’s students’ CO2 emissions will be lowered to 0.
  • Air quality will improve significantly
    • A much higher amount of air will be produced by the trees. On average, one tree is enough to sustain the oxygen needs of two human beings. With a total of 620 trees on campus, there will be enough oxygen to sustain about 1240 humans. On campus, there are 738 people. There will be a lot of extra oxygen in the air and the air will feel fresher and cleaner.
    • The low environmental footprint of the school could be used as a sales pitch
      • The idea that this school is so environmentally conscious could be used as a sales pitch to advertise the school better and attract more students from around the world and from other schools.

Cleeeeaaaaan air 🙂
Picture from: http://www.agentsalliance.com/AA%205-7.jpg

The negatives include:

• The aesthetics of the school being ruined
  • While possibly the school could look better, chances are it will look worse. The school grounds will be clogged up with trees everywhere and that could make the school look very bad.
  • Insects, bugs
    • During summer, the trees could attract many insects and bugs that could irritate and injure the students.
    • Maintenance
      • The maintenance costs of the trees could get substantially high as we would need a lot of water to keep on continuously watering the trees for proper growth and would also need to spend money on trimming the trees

Overall, the impacts will be huge. The air quality will improve significantly and the environmental footprint is going to be reduced vastly.

One World Contexts

Moral/Ethics:

I think that the morals and ethics of the school will rise as these changes are implemented, as we will start taking responsibility for our actions and start giving back to our environment.

Money:

I think that this change will effect money a lot, since there will be a lot of maintenance money put into these trees. There will be a lot of costs primarily for buying and planting all the trees. After that will come the costs of maintaining the trees by watering and trimming. There also may be some costs because we would need to buy fertilizer.

At the same time, though, CA could start earning more money if they use being environmentally friendly as a method of advertising CA to potential students.

Recommendations to the Community

I would recommend CA to go ahead with this tree-planting idea. I think that we wouldn’t need to go to the extent of planting 502 trees to make up for 50% of CA’s students’ emissions, but at least maybe 200-300 trees to start developing air quality and overall making the school a better place to learn would be perfect. It would be beneficial to students’ health and while money would be lost to maintenance of the trees, it would be money well spent. And also, not putting that many trees would preserve the aesthetics and would actually in a way make it even better than now. Green is a pleasant color to look at and when used in moderation, aka not densely packed trees all around campus, it would be a great addition to CA’s campus. I recommend CA to plant more trees on campus.

I recommend to plant trees!
Picture from: http://www.redwoodhikes.com/RNP/TallTrees2.jpg

 

References

[1]
Biello, D. (n.d.). The origin of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere: Scientific American. Scientific American. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=origin-of-oxygen-in-atmosphere
[2]
Introduction to the Cyanobacteria. (n.d.). UCMP – University of California Museum of Paleontology. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cyanointro.html
[3]
Helmenstine, A. M. (n.d.). How much oxygen does one tree produce?. Chemistry – Periodic table, chemistry projects, and chemistry homework help. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://chemistry.about.com/b/2011/04/26/how-much-oxygen-does-one-tree-produce.htm
[4]
World development indicators and global development finance-Google public data explorer. (n.d.). Google. Retrieved May 22, 2012, from http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=en_atm_co2e_pc&idim=country:JPN&dl=en&hl=en&q=japan+co2+emissions+per+capita

Reflection

Criterion A: One World

Level	Level descriptor
0	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.
1–2	The student states how science is applied and how it may be used to address a specific problem or issue in a local or global context. The student states the effectiveness of science and its application in solving the problem or issue.
3–4	The student describes how science is applied and how it may be used to address a specific problem or issue in a local or global context. The student describes the effectiveness of science and its application in solving the problem or issue. The student describes the implications of the use and application of science interacting with at least one of the following factors: moral, ethical, social, economic, political, cultural and environmental.
5–6	The student explains how science is applied and how it may be used to address a specific problem or issue in a local or global context. The student discusses the effectiveness of science and its application in solving the problem or issue. The student discusses and evaluates the implications of the use and application of science interacting with at least two of the following factors: moral, ethical, social, economic, political, cultural and environmental.

Criterion B: Communication in Science        

Level	Level descriptor
0	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.
1–2	The student uses a limited range of scientific language correctly. The student communicates scientific information with limited effectiveness. When appropriate to the task, the student makes little attempt to document sources of information.
3–4	The student uses some scientific language correctly. The student communicates scientific information with some effectiveness. When appropriate to the task, the student partially documents sources of information.
5–6	The student uses sufficient scientific language correctly. The student communicates scientific information effectively. When appropriate to the task, the student fully documents sources of information correctly.

 

Criterion F: Attitudes in Science 

Level	Level descriptor
0	The student does not reach a standard described by any of the descriptors below.
1–2	The student requires some guidance to work safely and some assistance when using material and equipment. The student requires some guidance to work responsibly with regards to the living and non-living environment. When working as part of a group, the student needs frequent reminders to cooperate with others.
3–4	The student requires little guidance to work safely and little assistance when using material and equipment. The student works responsibly with regards to the living and non-living environment. When working as part of a group the student cooperates with others on most occasions.
5–6	The student requires no guidance to work safely and uses material and equipment competently. The student works responsibly with regards to the living and non-living environment. When working as part of a group, the student cooperates with others.