May 7, 2013

ETH IC A L
N e w s l e t t e r
Is it Too Late? Everyone can tell that the environment isnt healthy anymore, but can we still help? Page 1 Promising Results? Zarafsha has worked on an yearlong project in an attempt to help the environment. Page 2 So Close, But Not Yet Although the family worked hard, there is still a lot to work on. Page 2 300 kWh Is Enough Find out how long it will take the Ahmed family to only live off 300 kWh! Page 3

LEND A HAND BEFORE ITS TOO LATE

Global Warming, Climate Change, Pollution, sound familiar? It should, because as the human impact on this planet increases so do these appalling effects.
A vital and immense part of daily human life consists of electricity. Humans today depend on electricity vastly, life feels so much easier and just better with electronic products. The world today is conned with all kinds of electrical products. From the trafc light to your eBooks, almost all of things are connected with electricity. Life has gotten better, and more advanced, but the effects on Earth of all the Green House Gas remains unnoticed by many. Practically all of these electrical goods come from non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuel. Extra carbon dioxide builds up in the atmosphere from creating electricity and also using electricity. The additional carbon dioxide produced in the atmosphere generates the damaging effects to the planet. Earth is warming up rapidly, so the polar caps are melting, extensive droughts, and drastic weather changes are occurring around the world. There is still some time left to prevent further damage, but it is only possible if everyone participates. One of the major dilemma's we are faced with is the constant need to use a phone, laptop or other electrical device. Instead of taking a walk or reading, people are starting to use massive amounts unnecessary electricity. Not only is it affecting the human body, but the usage of these devices produce even more additional carbon dioxide. If people become more aware of how much they are using, and cut down to using only essentials, we will see a positive impact. Nonetheless, proting from our renewable resources such as the sun, water, wind and ect. is the best solution so far. Its very obvious that we cannot just cease to using electricity, but it is extremely important we try.

Temptations Today
An iPhone, among other smart phones are one of the afuent products in todays market. These will be seen in hands of just about anyone these days. The multiple apps this can hold entertains anyone of any age and any background. Its useful, sufcient and easy to use, but do you really need to have one of them? Is there a more greener, alternative choice for everything thats in the energy consumer?

Dont blow it - good planets are hard to nd -Unknown

Ethical Newsletter grade 8 deck amapang, iskl 123.456.7890

May 7, 2013

ETH IC A L
The Promising Results
A New Leaf
Zarafsha, an eight grader at ISKL, has dedicated this year to be the start of a new, green life style at home. After a month of observing the electricity habits of her family, she saw to it to make some changes around the household to reduce their footprint.

Every Hand Counts

The Old Leaf

During the month of August, Zarafsha noticed that compared to many of the other families at her school, her families monthly electrical consumption wasnt that faulty. Looking around her house, she also began to see that her family did many things that were environmental friendly without even realizing it. The cause for the precautions taken by her family was probably the electricity bill that comes every month. The expenses for electricity has grown over the past few years. The Ahmed family were already using minimal lighting during the night, preferring to use small table over large wall lights. They used to only use 1 air conditioner at night, because the father did not live in Malaysia during that time period. Overall the family did have the basics, but there was still room for improvement.

Every small thing that you can contribute to helping the environment. That is the most important skill that the students in Zarafshas 2013 class had learned. No change is small, everything and anything can help on the larger scale. Simple things like turning off your lights, or just not using the laptop for too long can some how help the planet. Because you never know, there might be a million other people around the world doing the exact same thing, and that would create a large positive impact. But its important to remember, every hand counts.

Vines of A New Leaf

Zarafsha carefully crafted a detailed plan to help the environment by reducing her electricity usage. During her month of observation, she looked into many tiny details of her house to nd ways of decreasing her consumption, but still be able to live normally in the modern age. Then for the next few months she kept track of her monthly consumption. Things she changed: While she was looking around, Zarafsha noticed that almost all the plugs in her house was constantly on. And there were a lot of plugs in her house, so she decided upon turning off all the plugs points that werent being used at the very moment, also reminding her parents that if need be they were allowed to turn on the plug but only if they could also turn it off when they were done. These sockets, she had seen sucked out a lot of energy invisibly, without anyone being aware of it. Another she had changed around the house, was the amount of time laptops and T.Vs were on. Gradually, using unnecessary technology decreased. Things she planned to, but did not: Zarafsha had planned on putting a timer on air conditioners, but failed to do so, because she found out that it was difcult for me to sleep with the air conditioner on, as the air grew warmer very quickly after it turned off.

We are forgetting to take care of the only home we truly have.

Ethical Newsletter grade 8 deck amapang, iskl 123.456.7890

May 7, 2013

ETH IC A L
So Close, But Not Yet There

MONTH LY ELEC TRIC ITY US A GE

Months August (0) September (1) October (2) November (3) December (4) January (5) February (6) March (7) April (8) Electricity (kWh) 787 819 1035 1023 748 935 1032 995 987

Analyzing the graph, it is evident to Zarafsha and her family that maybe they have not tried hard enough. Although in the graph, the tted line has a negative slope, its not very steep. Also the Ahmed familys general usage had increased by a lot since August. This might be due to them moving to a larger house during the middle of the year. It was during that time period that the family experienced a high leap in their consumption. Though they slowly came down to a lower energy consumption, in the end the consumption was still more than it was in August. At the beginning of the project, in August, the familys monthly consumption was 787 kWh, but in November is rose to 1035 kWh, which was a 248 kWh increase. Fortunately though,

the family slowly came down to a monthly consumption of 987 kWh by April. The Ahmed family doesnt seem to have a consistence change pattern, as some months they would consume more than the previous, but then they would also consume less on other months. But overall, the family decreased their usage more often than they increased, which shows that there is still hope in changing, just not very fast. During these months, the Ahmeds had began to wake up from reality and grasp just how bad the situation was getting. The saw how difcult it was too let of some things like too much T.V, but they also became aware of larger and worse impact all these electricity was creating. Time is vital here, because the way things are going, it wont be long before theres no going back, there wont be anything to reduce when there is nothing.

Ethical Newsletter grade 8 deck amapang, iskl 123.456.7890

May 7, 2013

ETH IC A L
A Goal is Set
We thought that being able to use only 300 kWh as a monthly was a good goal for families like the Ahmeds. To nd the exact time it will take the Ahmeds to get there, we are going to have to nd the equation for the graph. All we have right now it the tted line, which we are going to use. The equation we are using is; y = mx + b 900 = 6(-25) + b First you simplify; 900 = -150 + b Then you add 150 from both sides, because that is the opposite function 900 +150 = -150 + b +150 And that is b 1050 = b Which mean, 1050 is my vertical intercept (y-intercept) To check to see if the equation makes sense, we will put in all the numbers we found out into one equation like this; 300 = -25(30) + 1050 Multiply rst, 300 = -750 + 1050 Then add, 300 = 300 So my answer makes sense because my equation equals to the number that I wanted, which is 300. So this means that it will be taking the Ahmed family 30 (wow..) months to reach about 300 kWh as their monthly consumption, that is if they continue their monthly electrical consumption as the trend in the above graph.

The Slope
First, we are going to nd the slope, which we are going to get using two points on the line. To make things easy, we will pick whole numbers from the x-axis; (6, 900) and (8, 850) Using the rise over run method, we nd the difference of the rise and the run (separately); 900-850 = 50 = -25 6-8 -2 Now we have a part of the equation, which looks like this now; y = -25x + b To be able to solve the problem, we still have to nd out b.

At 300 kWh
The equation we gured out is; y = -25x + 1050 Now we can plug in the 300 by replacing y with it, because if you look at the graph, the the kWh are on the y-axis. 300 = -25x + 1050 And we solved backwards again, but this time look for x. 300 = -25x + 1050 We subtract 1050 from both sides rst, 300 -1050 = -25x + 1050 -1050 Then, we do the opposite of multiplication and divide 25 from both sides, -750 = -25x -25 -25 And then I have my answer, 30 = x

Vertical Intercept
This is the part where we use substitution, because the two coordinates we used earlier are a part of the line and will have the same equation if the equation is correct. We will use the coordinate (6, 900) and substitute them for y and x in the equation; y = -25x + b Which would turn out like this; 900 = 6(-25) + b Now we just solve the equation backwards.

-Zarafsha Ahmed

Ethical Newsletter grade 8 deck amapang, iskl 123.456.7890