Callueng, Jomhel B.

BSChE-4

Question 1:

Write your own definition of sustainable development as it applies to your engineering

profession. Explain its appropriateness and applicability in 2-3 sentences.

Sustainable development in chemical engineering entails the improvement of old

and innovation of new techniques aiming for optimum and sustainable environment
without compromising the general welfare of the people and the environment itself.
Keeping these in concern, a chemical engineer must put all his knowledge in designing
economical design of materials, making sure that chemical processes are performed
correctly, eliminating the possible hazards and especially giving back the favour from
the sources and taking care of the environment.

Question 2:

a. Presume you were born into a developing country. Your community’s health and
prosperity are threatened by climate changes by anthropogenic CO2 emissions
generated primarily by developed countries. This situation is so extreme that people in
your community do not name their children until they live past 5 years old, since many
die before that age. If you had a chance to talk to an engineer in a developed country,
what would you do?

Given the chance to talk to an engineer of a developed country, I would first explain the
current situation of my country taking all into considerations the extreme effects of all
the CO2 emissions from their country and the possible countermeasures that needs to
be implemented to preserve the population and safety of my country. After explaining
my country’s situation, I would offer ways to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions
without compromising their country’s interest. The following are the list of possible ways
to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions:
 1. Efficiency and Conservation

There are many energy efficiency and conservation practices that reduce the
consumption of carbon-based fuels (e.g., natural gas, oil, coal, or gasoline),
decreasing carbon dioxide emissions.

2. Carbon-Free and Reduced-Carbon Energy Sources

Another way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is to use carbon-free or reduced-

carbon sources of energy. Carbon-free sources of energy have their own associated
impacts, but in general, these technologies generate energy without producing and
emitting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Carbon-free energy sources
include solar power, wind power, geothermal energy, low-head hydropower,
hydrokinetics, and nuclear power.

3. Carbon Capture and Sequestration

A third option for reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is carbon sequestration.
Carbon sequestration involves the capture and storage of carbon dioxide that would
otherwise be present in the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect.
Carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere and retained within plants and
soil supporting the plants. Alternatively, carbon dioxide can be captured (either
before or after fossil fuel is burned) and then be stored within the earth.

b. Research two examples of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and write a short
paragraph that describe each chemical, its most common uses and applications, and
its known or suspected impacts on health and the environment. What are some
economic, societal and environmental issues associated with your chemicals.

1. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is probably the most infamous POP. It

was widely used as insecticide during WWII to protect against malaria and typhus. After
the war, DDT was used as an agricultural insecticide. In 1962, the American
biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, describing the impact of DDT spraying
on the US environment and human health. DDT’s persistence in the soil for up to 10–15
years after application has resulted in widespread and persistent DDT residues
throughout the world including the arctic, even though it has been banned or severely
restricted in most of the world. DDT is toxic to many organisms including birds where it
is detrimental to reproduction due to eggshell thinning. DDT can be detected in foods
from all over the world and food-borne DDT remains the greatest source of human
exposure. Short-term acute effects of DDT on humans are limited; however long-term
exposure has been associated with chronic health effects including increased risk of
cancer and diabetes, reduced reproductive success, and neurological disease.

2. Dioxins are unintentional by-products of high-temperature processes, such as

incomplete combustion and pesticide production. Dioxins are typically emitted from the
burning of hospital waste, municipal waste, and hazardous waste, along with
automobile emissions, peat, coal, and wood. Dioxins have been associated with several
adverse effects in humans, including immune and enzyme disorders, chloracne, and are
classified as a possible human carcinogen. In laboratory studies of dioxin effects an
increase in birth defects and stillbirths, and lethal exposure have been associated with
the substances. Food, particularly from animals, is the principal source of human
exposure to dioxins.

Question 3:

a. Relate the “Tragedy of the commons” to a local environmental issue. Be specific

on what you mean in terms of the “commons” for this particular example, and carefully
explain how these “commons” are being adversely imparted for current and future
generations.

The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory of a situation within a shared-

resource system where individual users acting independently according to their own
self-interest behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling
that resource through their collective action. Commons is taken to mean any shared and
unregulated resource such as atmosphere, oceans, rivers, fish stocks, or even an office
refrigerator. A local environmental issue in relation to the tragedy of the commons is
overfishing. Overfishing is a form of overexploitation where fish stocks are reduced to
below acceptable levels. Overfishing can occur in water bodies of any sizes, such as
ponds, rivers, lakes or oceans, and can result in resource depletion, reduced biological
growth rates and low biomass levels. Sustained overfishing can lead to critical
depensation, where the fish population is no longer able to sustain itself. One type of
overfishing, which I will be taking as my focus, is growth overfishing. Growth overfishing
occurs when fish are harvested at an average size that is smaller than the size that
would produce the maximum yield per recruit. A recruit is an individual that makes it to
maturity, or into the limits specified by a fishery, which are usually size or age. This
makes the total yield less than it would be if the fish were allowed to grow to an
appropriate size. This decreases the possible food source of humans and will cause a
shift in the food web underwater. In the future, a scarcity of fish can possibly happen
and people would fight over for food causing them to build animosity toward each other.

Question 4:

Which three of these shifts do you think are the most important? Why?

In my opinion, the three most important shifts are (a) environmental degradation; (b)
increasing resource use; and (c) depleting and degrading natural capital because these
three focuses on providing a balance between the consumers and the natural sources.
With our population growing, there is an imbalance with our sources because of the
degradation and depletion of our natural capital. A shift from these current emphasis will
benefit the current and future generation solving the possible scarcity of natural
resources in the future.

Question 5:

For each of the following actions, state one or more of the four scientific principles of
sustainability that are involved: (a) recycling soda cans; (b) using rake instead of leaf
blower; (c) choosing to have no more one child; (d) walking into class instead of driving;
(e) taking your own reusable bags to the grocery store to carry things home in; (f)
volunteering to help restore a prairie; and (g) lobbying elected officials to require that
20% of your country’s electricity produced by renewable wind power by 2020.

a. Nutrient Cycling
b. Reliance on Solar Energy
c. Population Control
d. Reliance on Solar Energy
e. Nutrient Cycling and Biodiversity
f. Nutrient Cycling and Biodiversity
g. Reliance on Solar Energy

Question 6:

When you had your recent meal, were you an herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore?

The most recent meal I had was pork sinigang so I am considered as an omnivore.

Question 7:

Explain the relationship between chemical cycling in ecosystems and in the biosphere
and the law of conservation of matter.

Chemical cycling describes the systems repeated circulation of chemicals between

other compounds, states and materials, and back to their original state, that occurs in
the ecosystem. An ecosystem survives by combination of energy flow from the sun to
the biosphere and matter cycling. The law of conservation of matter states that the
mass of an object or a collection of objects never changes over time, no matter how the
constituent parts rearrange themselves. This speaks about the biogeochemical cycles in
the environment so it is important that these cycles must be completed without
disruption to prevent possible harmful byproducts.

Question 8:

What happens to the flow of energy trough tropical rain forest ecosystems when such
forests are degraded?
 First, it will reduce the earth’s vital biodiversity by destroying or degrading the
habitats of many of their unique plant and animal species, thereby causing their
premature extinction. Second, it will help to accelerate climate change due to
global warming by eliminating large areas of trees faster than they can grow back,
thereby reducing the trees’ overall uptake of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Third, it will change regional weather patterns in ways that will prevent the return
of diverse tropical rain forests in cleared or degraded areas. Once the tipping
point is reached, tropical rain forest in such areas will become less tropical
grassland.