Map Locations

The following are the locations that will be plotted out on the global GIS map for the final project.  These locations are affected by OWU on a global scale and it is not in a positive way.

Coffee:

Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Kenya, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and New Guinea.  The color on the map is represented in purple.

Flight:

Alaska, Ohio, Costa Rica, Ireland, England, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ghana, and Iceland.  The color is represented in red.

Bananas:

Del Monte Produce Incorporated…Costa Rica, Guatemala, Brazil, Cameroon, Philippines, Ecuador, and Colombia.  The color on the map is represented in black.

Sweat Shops:

Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and Mexico.  The color is represented in yellow.

Final Report

Final Report.pdf

                                                                  OWU Global Foot Print

Geography Information Systems (GEOG355)

Chris Demecs, Neil Michaels, & Nick Striler

 

QUESTION: How do my actions and experiences at Ohio Wesleyan University effect the environment on a Global Scale?

PURPOSE: Although OWU does not have the vast student body as other large universities do, does not mean that the actions of those in the OWU community will have a less detrimental effect on the environment. Most students and faculty at OWU do not realize that many of their everyday actions have an impact not just on the local environment, but on a global scale as well.  Our goal is to display the environmental effects that our actions, here at OWU, contribute to.  There are four topics we are going to concentrate on.  We will focus on the consumption of coffee and bananas here and how the process of getting these goods to OWU has impacted the environment.  We will also look at the clothing sold in the OWU Bookstore. We want to see where these clothes come from, the process used to make them, what is used to make them.  We also will look at how the process of transporting these clothes has an impact  Finally, we are going to take a look at the flight travel that people use to get to and from OWU and how and where the CO2 emissions from these planes effect the environment.

We want to display, on a map, the regions and countries that are impacted by these four categories.  Each topic will be differentiated when they are displayed. This will show where each one of these topics has an impact on the world.

OBTAINING DATA: collection, sources, classes, audience

Collection of data- as a group we divided the categories up between ourselves. We collected our data from first hand sources as well as second hand sources.  We contacted those in charge of Chartwell’s, the bookstore, and information on school funded student plane travels.  We also read many articles and studies that were on governmental as well as nongovernmental websites.   We were able to find the sources of all the consumed goods.

Classes– Coffee, Bananas, clothes, E-waste, Flight travels.

Coffee- The coffee that is consumed in the United States is grown in other parts of the world. The coffee here, at Ohio Wesleyan, is provided by Seattle’s Best which is a subsidiary of the other provider, Starbucks. The countries of origin of the coffee are Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Kenya, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. This production is done on large plantations where workers are paid minimal amounts.

Bananas- the Banana plant is also a large import into the United States. The Banana plantations are linked to deforestation of the Amazon, lack of bio diversity can take out large amount of nutrients from the soil.  The chemicals that are also used when growing bananas in the rain forest are said to be harmful to people as well.  The bananas provided by Chartwells are Del Monte brand.  Del Monte has been under scrutiny lately for their newly instituted CRT, or controlled ripening technology.  The environmental impacts of the CRT have not been calculated yet, but there are some pros and cons associated with it.

Clothes- Ohio Wesleyan book store has clothes for purchase. Where are these clothes produced and what cost, is OWU indirectly involved in child labor, are the workers receiving livable wages? The clothes in the OWU book store come from three main brands which are Nike, Jansport and Champion. These companies outsource there production in third world countries like china, Mexico, and Indonesia.  They do this because labor law in these counties barley exists and the companies can produce their product for cheep.

E-Waste- every year electronics are incorrectly recycled. How does Ohio Wesleyan University recycle their used electronics? Do they do it in the United State or does it get shipped to a different country where the processes can be done at a cheaper cost?  E-Waste is the fastest growing recycling problem currently in the world.  Ohio Wesleyan does do some recycling with electronics, but where it is shipped to nobody knows.  This map will show countries that are being hit the hardest with this problem.

Some Facts:

• E-Waste is the fastest growing component of municipal waste worldwide.

• E-Waste contains harmful components such as lead, mercury, and plastic polymers.

• 130,000 computers are thrown away EVERY DAY in the US.

• 100 Million Cell phones are thrown away annually in the US.

• 7 out of 10 children in Hong Kong have too much lead in their blood stream as a result of poor recycling methods.

• China banned the import of e-waste in 2000. However, the labor-intensive nature of electronics recycling has perpetuated a black market in the trade, taking advantage of China’s abundant, cheap, and skilled labor force.

• In cities like Guiyu, China, E-Waste recycling has taken a huge toll on the people managing the effort because of the metal extraction of circuit boards and open dumping of waste and ash residue into open water. It’s made the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable, and has to be trucked in from other villages. The lead poisoning level in children is 69%

Flight Travel- Ohio Wesleyan spends a huge amount of money sending students and faculty around the world for a wide variety of reasons.  Whether it is for recruiting or for a class trip to Costa Rica, the flight has an impact globally on the earth.  In this section there will be a map showing all of the points where an OWU represented has flown to in a month’s time period.  With this information we will be able to use a carbon calculator to see how much of the greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere.  The map will show the negative effects on the environment and how Ohio Wesleyan has contributed to this.  The OWU sustainability task force will also be able to help us out during this process.  We found that carbon trading was a great way for the airlines to offset their carbon emissions.  This happens by them purchasing carbon credits which go to the reconstruction of forests and to build thousands of new trees.

 

Audience- Any students or faculty that is interested in OWU’s relationships to global environments.

PRESENTING THE DATA: map formant, method

– We have created a hard copy, 11 x 17 pamphlets.  On the inside, there is a global map displaying the impact points for each class. There is also a small blurb for each class surrounding the map.  On the back, are located more detailed descriptions about each class and their global effects.  Map formant- Our final map will consist of a world map showing points of interest that are connected to the OWU campus. Brief explanations will also be added to why this matters to the OWU community.  We did not include the e-waist information on the map because it would have been too much.  We did decide to keep in the report though.  The information is good for a global map and may be used later in the future.

Sources- We used a variety of sources.  We talked to a variety of sources. We determined the source of Chartwells’ bananas as well as OWU’s coffee. We also found the sources of the clothes in the bookstore as well as the countries traveled to and from via flight by OWU students and faculty.

Proposal

Ohio Wesleyan University

OWU Global Foot Print

Geography Information Systems (GEOG355)

Chris Demecs, Neil Michaels, & Nick Striler

 

PDF of Proposal

QUESTION: How do my actions and experiences at Ohio Wesleyan University effect the environment on a Global Scale?

PURPOSE: Although OWU does not have the vast student body as other large universities do, does not mean that the actions of those in the OWU community will have a less detrimental effect on the environment. Most students and faculty at OWU do not realize that many of their everyday actions have an impact not just on the local environment, but on a global scale as well.  Our goal is to display the environmental effects that our actions, here at OWU, contribute to.  There are five topics we are going to concentrate on.  We will focus on the consumption of coffee and bananas here and how the process of getting these goods to OWU has impacted the environment.  We will also look at the clothing sold in the OWU Bookstore. We want to see where these clothes come from, the process used to make them, what is used to make them.  We also will look at how the process of transporting these clothes has an impact.  Another topic we are looking at is how the OWU community disposes of its electronic waste.  Much electronic waste from this country is sent to foreign countries to be disposed of.  Many of these countries do not take the correct steps to properly dispose of the electronic waste and it commonly has a negative effect on the environment.  Finally, we are going to take a look at the flight travel that people use to get to and from OWU and how and where the CO2 emissions from these planes effect the environment.

We want to display, on a map, the regions and countries that are impacted by these five categories.  Each topic will be differentiated when they are displayed. This will show where each one of these topics has an impact on the world.

OBTAINING DATA: collection, sources, classes, audience

Collection of data- as a group we will need data to map, this is data that we are going to have to go find. We will need to ask a variety of sources from people, websites, governmental data bases and print. Each class is going to need different sources.

Classes– Coffee, Bananas, clothes, E-waste, Flight travels.

Coffee- The coffee that is consumed in the United States is grown in other parts of the world, including Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. This production is done on large plantations where workers are paid minimal amounts. How Is the Coffee consumed in at OWU tied to this large import?

Bananas- the Banana plant is also a large import into the United States. The Banana plantations are linked to deforestation of the Amazon, lack of bio diversity can take out large amount of nutrients from the soil.  The chemicals that are also used when growing bananas in the rain forest are said to be harmful to people as well.  How are the Bananas consumed at OWU tied to deforestation in the tropics?

Clothes- Ohio Wesleyan book store has clothes for purchase. Where are these clothes produced and what cost, is OWU indirectly involved in child labor, are the workers receiving livable wages?

E-Waste- every year electronics are incorrectly recycled. How does Ohio Wesleyan University recycle their used electronics? Do they do it in the United State or does it get shipped to a different country where the processes can be done at a cheaper cost?  E-Waste is the fastest growing recycling problem currently in the world.  Ohio Wesleyan does do some recycling with electronics, but where it is shipped to nobody knows.  This map will show countries that are being hit the hardest with this problem.

Some Facts:

• E-Waste is the fastest growing component of municipal waste worldwide.

• E-Waste contains harmful components such as lead, mercury, and plastic polymers.

• 130,000 computers are thrown away EVERY DAY in the US.

• 100 Million Cell phones are thrown away annually in the US.

• 7 out of 10 children in Hong Kong have too much lead in their blood stream as a result of poor recycling methods.

• China banned the import of e-waste in 2000. However, the labor-intensive nature of electronics recycling has perpetuated a black market in the trade, taking advantage of China’s abundant, cheap, and skilled labor force.

• In cities like Guiyu, China, E-Waste recycling has taken a huge toll on the people managing the effort because of the metal extraction of circuit boards and open dumping of waste and ash residue into open water. It’s made the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable, and has to be trucked in from other villages. The lead poisoning level in children is 69%

Flight Travel- Ohio Wesleyan spends a huge amount of money sending students and faculty around the world for a wide variety of reasons.  Whether it be for recruiting or for a class trip to Costa Rica, the flight has an impact globally on the earth.  In this section there will be a map showing all of the points where an OWU represented has flown to in a month’s time period.  With this information we will be able to use a carbon calculator to see how much of the greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere.  The map will show the negative effects on the environment and how Ohio Wesleyan has contributed to this.  The OWU sustainability task force will also be able to help us out during this process.

Audience- Any students or faculty that is interested in OWU’s relationships to global environments.

PRESENTING THE DATA: map formant, method

– Do we want this to be a on the internet or do we want this to be a hard copy that students and faculty can pick up? This goes back to your audience and how much exposure this map is going to have.

Map formant- Our final map will consist of a world map showing arrows of how these classes are connected to the OWU campus. Brief explanations will also be added to why this matters to the OWU community. The back side may show a small more detailed map of OWU campus showing where to get these goods which we have highlighted. Also may include some data tables that can portray the data on the map in a different way to better show the effects of OWU’s global footprint.

Sources- a variety of sources will be need. Food services that supply OWU’s cafeterias with food. The clothes brands that are found in the bookstore. More will be added when we find the sources.

TIMELINE:

Feb 21/23: Compiling info on where each of the topics come from or are sent to in the world.

Mar 1/3: Continue to work to find details about how the items are transported in and out of the country

Mar 14/16: Begin collecting data on certain regions of the affected countries that are impacted the most.

Mar 21/23: Finish data collection, construct map

Mar 28/30: Work on map, layout

April 4/6: Work on map, layout

April 11/13: Finish

Categories

Coffee

Bananas

Six key factors in rainforest function:

• High biodiversity (problem: low density of each species).  There are many different species that currently live in the rain forest.  The problem is most of these species are dwindling in numbers.
• Sex pollination
• Herbivores (problem: clumped plants become easy target; too rare starve herbivores).  Defense: structural, chemical , mutualistic
• Seed dispersal = protect offspring
• Death (disturbance events) = opening in canopy allows things to happen.     Turnover rate increased = shade-tolerant slow-growing plants (harder wood – sequester nutrients slowly)  outcompete-d by  pioneer and sun-loving plants (softer wood – invest in height not density or width).  Forests are not untouched – high capacity to restore themselves, as long as the damage is not extensive (e.g. shifting cultivation compared to commercial agriculture)

• Soil = rapid nutrient cycle (problem: infertile).  Low biomass (rapid decomposition), Acid soils (low nutrient release), Weak negatively charged clay particles – low nutrient retention

 

 

• http://www.islandnet.com/~vipirg/publications/pubs/student_papers/02_ecofootprint_bananas.pdf

“The banana industry produces a significant amount of waste that can have a detrimental effect on the environment.  The waste products associated with plantations in Ecuador were not found, but information from Costa Rica is representative of the industry as a whole.”

• http://members.tripod.com/foro_emaus/BanPlantsCA.htm

“The development of banana plantations requires the complete transformation of the Caribbean lowland environment. Marshes are drained to allow for cultivation of the fruit and construction of the plantation. The diverse tropical forests are completely removed right up to their river banks and replaced with banana trees. Streams are channelized and drainage canals are constructed to prevent flooding of the fields. Agrochemicals are applied to the land to insure high yields. The fertile Caribbean lowland ecosystem is completely removed and transformed into a homogeneous and chemical laden landscape.”

• http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0811.htm

“there are several problems with this type of monoculture (single crop plantations) in the tropics, besides the loss of forest. First, such planting of a single crop makes the crop highly vulnerable to disease and pests, as periodic infestations have shown in Brazil, India, and other places. In natural rainforest, widespread infestations are rare because individuals of a given species are widely dispersed. Second, the planting of monocultures can be economically risky with the price fluctuations so common in international commodities markets”

 

Flight Travel

• Sustainability Task Force
• Waiting on the Information from the university about the flights purchased by the school.

Electronic Waste

• E-Waste is the fastest growing component of municipal waste world wide.

• E-Waste contains harmful components such as lead, mercury, and plastic polymers.

• 130,000 computers are thrown away EVERY DAY in the US.

• 100 Million cell phones are thrown away annually in the US.

• 7 out of 10 children in Hong Kong have too much lead in their blood stream as a result of poor recycling methods.

• China banned the import of e-waste in 2000. However, the labor-intensive nature of electronics recycling has perpetuated a black market in the trade, taking advantage of China’s abundant, cheap, and skilled labor force.

• In cities like Guiyu, China, E-Waste recycling has taken a huge toll on the people managing the effort because of the metal extraction of circuit boards and open dumping of waste and ash residue into open water. It’s made the well water and ground water of Guiyu undrinkable, and has to be trucked in from other villages. The lead poisoning level in children is 69%

CO2

UPDATES

• “The development of banana plantations requires the complete transformation of the Caribbean lowland environment. Marshes are drained to allow for cultivation of the fruit and construction of the plantation. The diverse tropical forests are completely removed right up to their river banks and replaced with banana trees. Streams are channelized and drainage canals are constructed to prevent flooding of the fields. Agrochemicals are applied to the land to insure high yields. The fertile Caribbean lowland ecosystem is completely removed and transformed into a homogenous and chemical laden landscape.”

http://members.tripod.com/foro_emaus/BanPlantsCA.htm

 

• this website gives rates of deforestation due to agriculture http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0811.htm

 

• also coffee is a large import which is brought to the united states from numerous developing counties, where labor is cheap so the final sale can make large profit. this website has coffee import, and sales statistics. http://www.ico.org/trade_statistics.asp

 

• the main supplier of energy in Ohio are coal-burning power plans. This site gives a list of the coal power plants in Ohio. http://www.industcards.com/st-coal-usa-oh.htm

– green electricty in Ohio- http://www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=532

– epa CO2 emissions by state-http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads/CO2FFC_2007.pdf

 

• http://www.islandnet.com/~vipirg/publications/pubs/student_papers/02_ecofootprint_bananas.pdf

“The banana industry produces a significant amount of waste that can have a detrimental effect on the environment.  The waste products associated with plantations in Ecuador were not found, but information from Costa Rica is representative of the industry as a whole.  The following table summarizes the waste produced in Costa Rica in 1993.”

 

OWU’s Connection Globaly

The Food we eat or drink:

• Bananas from the rain forest
• Coffee? comes from a lot of major foreign markets
• Starbucks coffee on campus

Travel for Students outside of the U.S. and outside of the State:

• Foreign Students
• The price of tickets and the amount of travel by plane.
• Survey Faculty and staff about their traveling habits.

The Electricity We use:

• The coal has to come from somewhere.
• Major wind farms

The major products we purchase that are products in foreign markets.

• Oil and gas that we purchase for our vehicles.
• Driving is a major problem on campus
• The vehicles that students drive and where they come from.
• Electronics

The amount of aluminum a campus goes through b/c of drinking alcohol.

• Major foreign alcohol companies.

E-Waist

• Where the electronics go after they are used.
• Most of the time they are dumped on foreign countries

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