CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE SCIENCE STUDENTS ... · CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE...

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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

Transcript of CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE SCIENCE STUDENTS ... · CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINE...

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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

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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 (CO2) 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).

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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

December 2011 January 2012 February 2012

Kilowatt hour (kWh) of conventional energy

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: How Many:

Total Kilometers: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012

Small

Medium

Large

Diesel Car: How Many:

Total Kilometers: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012

Small

Large

LPG Car: How Many:

Total Kilometers: December 2011 January 2012 February 2012

Any size

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?

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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.*

Personal CO2 Emissions Subtotals

(in kg of CO2)

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 0.206

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

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

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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 http://www.chooseclimate.org/ to calculate

emissions for each flight and record total

GRAND TOTAL (kg CO2) FROM HOUSE AND TRANSPORT

(N.B. If required, divide

grand total by 1000 to get

total in tonnes of CO2 and

then by 3.67 to get total in

tonnes of Carbon)

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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 2012. 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

Scholarship

Category

Year Level

of Student

Respondent

CO2 Emission(kg)

Electri-

city

(kg)

Private

Transpo-

rtation

(kg)

Public

Transpo-

rtation

(kg)

Airplane

Services

(kg)

Total

Emission

(kg)

Grand

Total

(kg)

Full

Average for

1st Year

120 0 30.38 0 150.38

138.504

Average for

2nd Year 90 0 30.38 0 120.38

Average for

3rd

Year 125 0 30.38 0 155.38

Average for

4th

Year 73.5 0 54.376 0 127.876

Partial

Average for

1st Year

145 47.6 19.6 0 212.2

230.1995

Average for

2nd

Year 91 95.2 2.73 0 188.93

Average for

3rd

Year 235.5 0 54.376 0 289.876

Average for

4th

Year 54.5 167.9 7.392 0 229.792

Special

Average for

1st Year

650 624 0 1316.718 2590.718

2615.5523

Average for

2nd

Year 447 2295.72 0 1316.718 4059.438

Average for

3rd

Year 256 0 30.38 1316.718 1603.098

Average for

4th

Year 347 540 5.237 1316.718 2208.955

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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 CO2 contributed to the

atmosphere by the individuals interviewed was calculated using the CO2 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 138.504 kg, 230.1995 kg for

the partial scholars and the special scholars released 2,615.5523 kg as presented in Table 3. A difference

of 2,477.0483 kg was computed between the carbon footprint of full and special scholars while a

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Full Partial Special

C

a

r

b

o

n

E

m

i

s

s

i

o

n

s

Type of Scholarship

CO2 Emission of different scholarship categories

Electricity Private Transportation Public Transportation

Airplane Services Grand total

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difference of 2,385.3528 kg was computed between the emissions of the special and partial scholars and

91.6955 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.

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CONCLUSION

Based on the findings in this experiment, special scholars released the largest carbon

footprint with a total of 2615.5523 kg; partial scholars yield the second largest carbon footprint

with a total of 230.1995 kg while the full scholars yield the least carbon footprint among the

three with a total of 138.504 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.

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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.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Book sources:

Bishop, A. (2008). How to reduce your carbon footprint. USA:Crabtree Publishing

Company. pp. 22-25.

May, E. (2009). Global warming for dummies. USA: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

pp. 334-341.

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. 356.

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

http://www.carbonfootprint.com

David. (2007). CRAGs carbon footprinting worksheet. Retrieved on January 10,

2012, from http://www.carbonrationing.org.uk/file/files/crags-carbon-

footprinting-worksheet?

Pisaybicol. (2012). Admission. Retrieved on March 19, 2012, from

http://sites.google.com/site/pisaybicol/admission

Journals:

Pertsova, C. (2007). Research trends. Ecological economics.p. 93.

Sugar, L. (2011). Cities and greenhouse gas emissions: moving forward. Environment

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and Urbanization, vol.23 no.1.pp. 207-217.

Weidema, B. (2008). Carbon footprint. Industrial ecology, vol. 12, issue 1.pp. 12-16.