Short Essay #6 - Grade: A PDF

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Clinton Krysa PHIL 112 4.9.20 Short Essay Prompt #6 The are many things that I feel, not just every campus, but everywhere in the world needs to be doing right now to address climate change. Starting off with getting people to understand science better worldwide. Many of the proposals on the Virginia Tech list of sustainability programs are great ideas. In fact, I do not understand that many of those proposals are just now starting to get implemented. We have known for a while now that LED bulbs use far less energy and last quite a bit longer. I would have thought that these types of items would have been replaced long ago. The water bottle refill stations make perfect sense as well. These should be in every building. Not only are these more sanitary than fountains, they also save on water. Virginia Tech also had a few proposals involving habitats around the campus. Some were for trees, including one for native trees, and another was for pollinator habitats at Hahn Horticulture Garden. This reminds of a little bit of the wetlands at Radford. As a biology student, I have spent a decent amount of time down at the wetlands, and it is pretty neat to go down there and observe all of the different life that is helping to clean the water runoff entering the river. Things like this, not only help the environment, but they also benefit the learning experience for the students. It is much better and easier to learn about nature when you are out in it. Radford University, if it hasn’t decided this already, should be making the changes stated earlier that Virginia Tech is working on. All light bulbs should be changed over to LEDs and

water bottle refill stations should be in every building. This will save the University money in the long run for sure. The University should also make recycling easier. Every single trash can should have a recycling bin or bins next to it, properly labeled. I would also say that along with adding recycling bins, the University should have a mandatory online course for incoming freshman on proper recycling etiquette. I have come to realize not many people know what can and cannot be taken for recycling. I, myself, just learned a couple months ago that the caps to soda bottles are not recyclable and even the small plastic ring needs to be popped off into the trash or they will not even take it for recycling. Educating people in this properly would be a huge difference in the amount of plastics in landfills and our oceans. One of the most important things though that I would like to see many schools take an interest in, but especially Radford, is the benefits of plant-based diets. This is another fairly recent change for me, but I made the change after watching two documentaries on the subject, reading a book, “How Not to Die” by Dr. Michael Greger, and a good amount of my own research into studies that weren’t funded by meat or dairy corporations. The last six months or so have been enlightening on the benefits of switching to a plant-based diet. Not only does eating solely plant-based foods reduce risk for many different diseases, you also receive better nutrition. Needing to eat meat in order to get your protein is a huge myth. In fact, the proteins that you get from eating animal products are much more difficult for your body to digest. Animal-based consumption has been linked to many different diseases such as autoimmune disorders, cataracts, dementia, diabetes, gout neurological diseases, prepuberty, arthritis, heart disease, cancer, and many others. Aside from personal health benefits of plant-based diets there are also environmental benefits. The livestock industry, mainly the large corporate farming industry, is responsible to

somewhere around 15% of all carbon emissions, from the animals themselves. If we were to cut down on the amount of animal farms, a significant portion of the carbon that we release into the air would be gone. On top of the carbon emissions, the animal agriculture industry uses far more water to produce product. What I have seen is that the amount of water used to produce one ton of fruit is less that one-third the amount used to produce one ton of beef or pork. Until we can find a way to desalinate ocean water, we need to do a better job as a species with our wastefulness of water. Though, then we may find ourselves with another problem when we start depleting the amount of water in the oceans. What happens to the ocean habitats? What would we do with all that sea salt? What I think Radford University should do is possibly have some science classes look further into the benefits of a plant-based diet. These classes can study the personal and environmental effects, so that people can be better educated on the subject. If people truly understood how animal products affected their bodies, minds, and the environment around them, maybe just maybe, enough people would make this change. It would save lives and potentially help save our planet....