pollution and personal environmental impact

/in /by

POLLUTION

The next series of questions are going to look at the impact of littering: specifically, cigarettes. One cigarette filters (butt) has a mass of about 0.17 grams and is 0.5 milliliters in volume (http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbutthowmany.htm). There are estimated to be 1 billion (1,000,000,000) smokers on Earth. Let’s assume each smoker has 1 cigarette each day and throws the filter on the ground when they are done.

  • [3 points] What is the mass of cigarette filters on the ground after 1 day in kilograms (kg)? (Show work)
  • [3 points] What is the volume of cigarette filters on the ground after 1 day in liters (L)? (Show work)
  • [3 points] What is the mass of cigarette filters on the ground after 1 year in kilograms (kg)? (Show work)
  • [3 points] What is the volume of cigarette filters on the ground after 1 year in liters (L)? (Show work)
  • [8 points] Reflect on this information. (Is this a lot? How much? Why is this bad? What can we do?)

PERSONAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

  • [6 points] Calculate your carbon footprint at the Berkeley CoolClimate website (https://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator) and use the “Advanced” setting for Travel and Shopping. Include a screenshot of your completed results.
  • [10 points] What is one thing you do that lowers your carbon footprint the most? What is one thing you do that increases your carbon footprint the most? Explain both.
  • [6 points] Take the “How Green Are You?” quiz provided on Canvas and state what rank you received.
  • [8 points] What is one thing you could do to increase your green score from the quiz from question 9? Explain why it would help.