Water...bottled or tap!? (Week 8)

When I was a little kid we would drink water wherever we came in contact with it.  Whether it was from the garden hose or sprinkler system, we could care less where it came from as long as we were thirsty.  As we grew older we came to the realization that you were to only drink water that was "filtered".  This meant we had a decision to make.  Would our preference be bottled or tap water?  I decided to dig a little deeper into the actual differences between the two types of water.


The congress passed a law called the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974 to protect the public's health by protecting sources of drinking water.  I live in Bothell, WA and the city of Bothell's website states that

"The City of Bothell  purchases 100% of finished water from the Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) and manages it by the scheduling of pump cycles, maintaining reservoir levels and water main flushing. SPU provides all existing treatment including disinfection, fluoride addition and corrosion control." 

When it comes to the standards of drinking or tap water, the Environmental Protection Agency sets standards that, when combined with protecting ground water and surface water, are critical to ensuring safe drinking water. EPA helps to protect public health through implementing the Safe Drinking Water Act.  The EPA sets certain limits on how many contaminants can be present in the drinking water so that it is safe for both human consumption and that can be easily achieved by technology.  The FDA regulated bottled water, and from doing a little further research, they have a lot of misleading elements to their standards.  The FDA says that water standards are exempt from those who bottle the water and sell them in the same states.  Other types of water such as carbonated water and seltzer are also exempt from these standards.  Also, bottled water is extremely misleading by their overpriced plastic bottled advertisements and names.  All in all, it seems as though the standards on the tap water is a lot more strict than those of the bottled water. 

The creation of plastic bottles for the use of water bottles has severely drained limited fossil fuels.  The producers suggested that plastic bottles be used numerous times to conserve the amount of bottles being used, however the plastic isn't able to with stand numerous uses and "reusing plastic bottles further compromises the quality of the water, due to the fact that more and more phthalate leaches its way into the water as the bottle gets older". 

Overall, it looks as though filtered water that you can drink from the tap seems to be a lot more health conscious and financially conscious versus the bottled drinking water.  Although bottled water can be a lot more easily accessible since it can be bought just about anywhere, in the long run the tap water is going to be a lot better for the environment as well as for human consumption.

To read more about the different water options see the following websites.

All about water
Bottle Vs. Tap
Bothell Water Services
EPA

Coffee- my not so guilty pleasure! (Week 7)

"Coffee's greatest effects are exerted upon the brain and mind, for coffee is the great, bold awakener." -FoxNews.com

From my last blog, most of you probably are aware that I love coffee.  Not only do I love coffee, but it has become somewhat of an addiction!  As a busy 20 year old college student, I am constantly on the go.  I have early morning classes which cause me to have early morning wake-up calls.  Not only are my classes early, but I have to leave my house an hour before class starts to ensure that I get there in time with all of the insane 405 traffic I endure on a daily basis.  Functioning that early, takes a good, large cup of coffee to make me alert at such odd hours.  I usually have to go straight to work after class, so the coffee helps pep me up for my customer service job at a gym.  Not only does the coffee enhance my alertness and motivation, but it has also become part of my ritual as I drive to school.  Everyone needs a little "me" time, and it is relaxing to drive, sip some coffee, and listen to music as I start my day. 

Now lets get to the facts.  In moderation, about 300 milligrams (two large cups of coffee) a day, increases happiness as well as a generally positive mood overall.  Coffee is sometimes referred to as a "pleasure drug", it is easy to prepare, legal, and somewhat cheap if you are able to make it yourself.  Of course big industries have made an extreme profit out of selling consumers fancy drinks, such as Starbucks who charges about 5 bucks for a grande mocha.  I have to admit, I am a sucker for a nice non-fat no-whip white chocolate mocha, but I have learned to make my own coffee versus a 5 dollar-a-day beverage which completely broke the bank!!  Scientists have proven that coffee actually reduces the risk of Parkinson's Disease by about 3 to 6 times as compared to non-coffee drinkers.   Coffee is also an potent antioxidant potion.  Antioxidants inhibit the rusting of cells in our bodies which help us from harmful aspects of aging and degeneration.  Some people have questioned if coffee is bad for the cardiovascular system due to the caffeine, but in actuality the coffee's antioxidants actually help to prevent heart attacks when consumed in moderation.  Contrary to popular belief, there has been no ties between coffee decreasing fertility and increasing the risk of any type of cancer.  Another interesting fact, is that some studies have proven that coffee before a workout can actually help the body utilize body fat for exercise, increasing the body's ability to workout before fatigue, while enhancing both performance and endurance.

So, it sounds like a coffee a day can keep the doctor away!

Source: Coffee- Just Plain Good for You

Good Morning Coffee (Week 6)

Living in Washington state, especially as a college student, I have learned to adore coffee!  From late night study sessions to early morning classes, from rainy days to snowy nights, the desire for a bit of caffeine has increased immensely throughout the years.  For this weeks class assignment, we were told we had to pick an edible source to research and find out a little more about it.  As you may have guessed, I automatically thought of coffee!  Which is the main factor in my functioning capabilities as of right now :)

I found a very interesting article on some of the myths that have been associated with coffee as well as a lot of great things coffee does for the body including lowering the risk of certain cancers, helping the mind and mood behavior, lowers the risk of disease such as Parkinson's, helps to reduce gallstones, as well as aiding in digestive functions.  To read more about the benefits of coffee click on this linked-article from the Fox-News website: Coffee- Just Plain Good For You.

My brother and his wife recently took a trip to Kona, Hawaii and discovered the Kona Brothers Coffee company in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.  Paul and Joseph Nangle are the founders of the Kona Brothers Coffee company.  They started roasting in 1985 at the old Kona Gardens Farmers Market in Keauhou, on the big island of Hawaii.  They later moved to the Kona International Market, where they can still be found to this day.  They started roasting coffee with an original 1910 AJ Royal number 5 roaster.  The company uses 100% Kona Coffee beans, Hawaiian Coffee, and Roasters Choice.  The staff consists of about 5 to 9 individuals who assist in custom packaging the products. 

The Kona Brothers Coffee is a little on the pricey side.  Since the coffee beans are locally grown and roasted to-order, the costumer is definitely paying for the quality of the product.  Customers are able to order their coffee online or at the local market store.  The products range from about 8 oz to 25 pounds of coffee.  The coffee my brother bought my family is the Kona select which is priced at about 155 dollars for five 1-pound bags.  That comes out to 31 dollars per pound of coffee.  That is pretty pricey for coffee, but in comparison to the risk of a crappy cup of coffee from your local Starbucks barista, I think it is still worth it!!  The priciest coffee bean they sell is the Peaberry coffee bean.  This type of bean is special because it comes from a coffee plant that develops as two halves of a bean within a single cherry.  Only one of the halves becomes fertilized while the other does not.  This remains in a pea-oval shape, and is the primary reason for the name "Peaberry".  The Peaberry is known to roast better than the regular flat beans; therefore, being more potent and flavorful.  For five 1-pound bags of Peaberry coffee, it costs the consumer about 230 dollars, which comes out to 46 dollars per pound.

The best part about the Kona Brothers Coffee company is everything is local and there isn't a lot of large industrial machinery used to process these goods.  I would highly recommend visiting Kona, Hawaii or at least visiting their website: Kona Brothers Coffee.

Carbon Carbon Carbon (cont.)

The tree I used to measure the carbon numbers in the previous blog.

Carbon Carbon Carbon (Week 5)

For class I was assigned a carbon project in where we select a tree and find out more about the carbon stored in the tree etc.  I chose a tree in my backyard.  It is about 365.76 cm tall with a circumfrance of 41.91 cm.  It is a cherry tree and produces the most amazing cherries in the summer time! 

Measurement Approximations:
Radius:  6.675
Volume:  51,197.484 cm3
Mass of wood :  Will calculate at a later date
Mass of carbon: Will calculate at a later date (technical difficulities :) haha )

The next assignment was to figure out how many trees would be needed to take up the CO2 admitted by the gas from my car each year.  I approximated that I drove about 10,000 miles a year.  My car gets about 24 mpg and use about 240,000 gallons of gas a year.  Which emits about 576,000kg of carbon a year!  Each household in the United States is responsible for emitting 3700 Kg each year that means after multiplying that by the 100 million households in the U.S. there are 3,700,000,000 kg of carbon being emitted yearly and that is just by the United States alone.  My carbon footprint ended up being around 16.34, which is less than the U.S. average.  I feel as though the footprint which I leave is a lot more heavily weighted with certain things I do on a daily basis such as working out, watching tv, throwing garbage away etc.  If I were to fill out a vary detailed carbon footprint, I am sure my numbers would be a lot higher, which makes me want to change my habits.  It connects with what I have learned in class because we are constantly talking about ways in which people can reduce their footprint as a whole, but when I actually see the numbers in the impact I am having on the environment, that is when it becomes a reality that there is something that needs to change in order for me to succeed with being more environmentally friendly.