CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE SCIENCE STUDENTS ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME AND CARBON FOOTPRINT. Proponents: Amoncio, Hannah Joyce. Batulan, Trenah Dyne

Transcription

1 CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE SCIENCE STUDENTS ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME AND CARBON FOOTPRINT Proponents: Amoncio, Hannah Joyce Batulan, Trenah Dyne Josol, Geremy Fe A. Langahid, Kathy Claire Ong, Dorothy Ann S. Pique, Kenny Taula, Japhet Yu, Marian Isabel D. Adviser: Michael A. Casas Philippine Science High School- Southern Mindanao Campus Davao City, Philippines

2 INTRODUCTION Climate change is one of the world s greatest problems today. It is primarily caused by greenhouse gases that are trapped in the atmosphere. The most common greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) that may be released artificially through the burning of fossil fuels, solid wastes and many others or naturally through the carbon cycle (Mogil, 2006). On the other hand, carbon emissions are increasing at an accelerated rate in these recent years because of human activities and industrialization. Carbon Footprint is the representation of the effect of an entity or organization on the Earth's climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases produced expressed in units of carbon dioxide (WWF, 2012). This study aims to identify the activities that contribute greatly to the release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in order to identify solutions on how to reduce carbon emissions in the city. The purpose of this project is to determine the carbon footprint of PSHS students belonging to different scholarship categories and family income through by asking participants to answer a developed survey form. This provides a small scale, yet representative picture of how families belonging to different economic status vary in their carbon footprints. The different scholarship categories of students in PSHS-SMC are full, partial, and special. The classification of a student into any of the scholarship categories is dependent upon his/her socioeconomic bracket as determined from his/her parents' income tax returns and other indicators (e.g. family size, assets, liabilities, etc.) (Pisaybicol,2012).

3 METHODOLOGY: Four students belonging to each of the three scholarship categories from first year to fourth year high school were asked to answer the survey form. After which, the proponents collated the data, tabulated the results and converted the answers of the students to kilograms carbon dioxide using CRAG s Carbon Footprinting Worksheet. The survey form that the participants filled out is shown below. Name: Year and Section: Scholarship Category: FROM DECEMBER 2011 TO FEBRUARY 2012 ELECTRICITY Kilowatt hour (kwh) of conventional energy December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 CAR ( If any ) Enter the total you consumed for the past months December 2011` January 2012 February 2012 Litres petrol Gallons petrol Litres diesel Gallons diesel OR Petrol Car: Small Medium Large Diesel Car: Small Large LPG Car: Any size How Many: How Many: How Many: Total Kilometers: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 Total Kilometers: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 Total Kilometers: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 Public Transport Specify mode/s of transport: From to : How many times a day? Jeepney Bus Taxi Have you travelled by plane during December 2011 to February 2012? If so, from what location and to where?

4 Table 2: CRAG s Carbon Footprinting Worksheet CALCULATE YOUR CO2 EMISSIONS Enter in this column amount of fuel used or distance travelled. Then multiply it by the number in this column to find how many kg of CO2 that makes and enter that in the next column.* HEATING GAS Enter a figure for just one of the following! New style units (Cubic metres) of mains gas 2.2 Old style units (100's cubic feet) of mains gas 6.2 Kilowatt hours (kwh) equivalent COAL One sack of coal usually weighs 50kg Kilogrammes of Domestic coal 2.5 HEATING OIL Enter a figure for just one of the following! Litres of heating oil 3 Gallons of heating oil 13.6 WOOD PELLETS Per tonne 132 Personal CO2 Emissions Subtotals (in kg of CO2) ELECTRICITY Kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity (including all green tariffs) 0.55 * Remember to divide by number of people in household for heating and electricity. CAREnter a figure for the relevant fuel(s) in litres or gallons! Litres petrol 2.3 Gallons petrol 10.4 Litres diesel 2.7 Gallons diesel 12.2 Litres LPG 1.5 Gallons LPG 6.7 OR enter your miles or kilometers according to your car type Small petrol car up to 1.4 litre engine Kilometers 0.18 Miles 0.29 Medium petrol car 1.4 to 2.0 litre engine Kilometers 0.21 Miles 0.34 Large petrol car Over 2.0 litre Kilometers 0.30 Miles 0.48 Small diesel car up to 1.7 litre engine Kilometers 0.15 Miles 0.24 Mediul diesel car 1.7 to 2.0 litre engine Kilometres 0.19

5 Miles 0.30 Large diesel car over 2.0 litre engine Kilometers 0.26 Miles 0.42 LPG or CNG car Kilometres 0.22 Miles 0.36 Medium Petrol Hydrid Kilometres 0.13 Miles 0.20 Large Petrol Hybrid Kilometres 0.22 PLANE enter the flight distance in kilometers or miles Kilometers 0.51 Miles 0.82 OR use to calculate emissions for each flight and record total (N.B. If required, divide grand total by 1000 to get GRAND TOTAL (kg CO2) FROM HOUSE AND TRANSPORT total in tonnes of CO2 and then by 3.67 to get total in tonnes of Carbon)

6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 3 below presents the electric consumption, private and public transportation, and airplane services availed by the students families during the months of December 2011 to February Graph 1 is also a presentation of the carbon emissions presented in a bar graph. Table 3: Differences in carbon footprint of students based on their electrical consumption, private and public transportation, and airplane services of full, partial, and special scholars CO2 Emission(kg) Year Level Private Public Scholarship Electricity Services Emission Total Airplane Total Grand of Student Transportatiortation Transpo- Category Respondent (kg) (kg) (kg) (kg) (kg) (kg) 1 st Year Full 2nd Year rd Year th Year st Year Partial 2 nd Year rd Year th Year st Year Special 2 nd Year rd Year th Year

7 C a r b o n E m i s s i o n s CO 2 Emission of different scholarship categories Full Partial Special Type of Scholarship Electricity Private Transportation Public Transportation Airplane Services Grand total Graph 1: Differences in carbon footprints of students from different scholarship categories The classification of a student into any of the scholarship categories is dependent upon his/her socio-economic bracket as determined by the Scholarship Categorization Committee based on economic indicators (Pisaybicol, 2012). The amount of CO 2 contributed to the atmosphere by the individuals interviewed was calculated using the CO 2 conversion spreadsheet by Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAG) as seen in Table 2. The data was retrieved from the survey conducted to 48 students with four students from each year level per scholarship category. The grand total of the carbon emission of full scholars was kg, kg for the partial scholars and the special scholars released 2, kg as presented in Table 3. A difference of 2, kg was computed between the carbon footprint of full and special scholars while a

8 difference of 2, kg was computed between the emissions of the special and partial scholars and kg between partial and full scholars. Based on the data, full scholars yield the least carbon footprint, partial scholars have the intermediate carbon footprint and the special scholars contributed the greatest carbon footprint. The data also reveals that special scholars consume the highest amount of electricity while full scholars consume the least amount. On the other hand, full scholars often take public transport or commute to school while special scholars less frequently take it because they opt to use private cars. It was observed that only the special scholars used the airplane services thus making their carbon footprint greater. Overall, it was observed that the carbon footprint is highest for the special scholars followed by the partial scholars then the full scholars. Special scholars have a larger overall income as compared to the students belonging to the other two scholarship other categories; there is a possibility that those scholars own more gadgets and appliances that emit more carbon dioxide (e.g. air conditioners, refrigerators). According to May (2009), people with more urbanized lifestyle have higher carbon footprint because of more advancements in technology and because of more resource consumption. A high emission of carbon dioxide results to a rise in the atmospheric temperature, thereby resulting to global warming (Philander, 2008). According to Carbon Footprint Ltd. (2012), some evidences gathered proved that climate change has been primarily caused by human activities such as burning of fossil fuels and kaingin (slash and burn). Meaning, human activities have caused the alteration of the chemical composition of the atmosphere by causing the build-up of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

9 CONCLUSION Based on the findings in this experiment, special scholars released the largest carbon footprint with a total of kg; partial scholars yield the second largest carbon footprint with a total of kg while the full scholars yield the least carbon footprint among the three with a total of kg. The special scholars contribute more to climate change than the other two scholarship categories because they have the largest overall income that s why it is possible for them to own gadgets and appliances that emit more carbon dioxide.

10 RECOMMENDATIONS Based from the research, it is recommended that a partnership with the local government be done in to provide a concrete avenue in enacting a comprehensive Climate Change Agenda to ensure that greater awareness among people and sustainable practices be adopted by the local residents. Moreover, educational campaigns will be very helpful in the second phase of this research to promote alternative lifestyle among the residents. This means that a lifestyle which is of low carbon footprint should be embraced by people and that, other luxurious activities and the use of some gadgets should be avoided as much as possible especially when not that necessary. Finally, the proponents would recommend that the project be extended to the city, national or even international level to extend the results of this research. This will create a clearer picture on the level of carbon footprint contributed by various sectors, communities and nations.

11 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Book sources: Bishop, A. (2008). How to reduce your carbon footprint. USA:Crabtree Publishing Company. pp May, E. (2009). Global warming for dummies. USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. pp Mogil, H. (2006). The New Book Of Knowledge, vol.3. USA: Scholastic Library Publishing, Inc. p.364 Philander, G. (2008). Encyclopedia of global warming, vol.1. USA: Sage Publishing,Inc. p West, K. (2008). Carbon chemistry. USA: Infobase Publishing. p. 84. Schiffman, H. (2011). Green issues and debates. USA: Sage Publishing, Inc. p 98. Internet sources: Carbon Footprint Ltd. (2012). Climate change. Retrieved on January 29, 2012, from David. (2007). CRAGs carbon footprinting worksheet. Retrieved on January 10, 2012, from Pisaybicol. (2012). Admission. Retrieved on March 19, 2012, from Journals: Pertsova, C. (2007). Research trends. Ecological economics.p. 93. Sugar, L. (2011). Cities and greenhouse gas emissions: moving forward. Environment

12 and Urbanization, vol.23 no.1.pp Weidema, B. (2008). Carbon footprint. Industrial ecology, vol. 12, issue 1.pp