Unit 1 Environmental Science

Per recommended practice, please make your initial post by Sunday of the learning
week. Your posts should cover the questions below in full, and be at least 300 words long.
Then reply to and peer-review at least three other posts by next Wednesday 11:59PM
UoPeople Time, and rate the posts and replies.

One: If you live in the USA, then go to the EPA website at this following link, and at the
bottom you will see a box titled Your Community... put in your zip code, and learn about
land and environmental impacts in your local neighborhood. Then answer the questions
below.

Environmental Protection Agency

Two: If you live in a country other than the USA, then research one local environmental or
land use (agricultural or otherwise) concern or problem in your local area and country of
residence. Then answer the questions below.

Some links to help you:

UNEP Africa

UNEP Asia

UNEP Europe

European Environment Agency

UNEP Latin America

Three: For all students choosing this DQ, also go to this link, and find your country on the
list, then look at the Environmental Snapshot file for it.

UN Statistics Division

Questions to Answer:

1. What environmental concerns in your local area did you learn about?

2. Did they surprise you? Why or why not?

3. What do you think can be done to improve this (these) situation(s), hazard(s),
problem(s), or concern(s)?

4. Give two interesting facts that you learned about your country from the Environmental
Snapshots page at the UN Statistics Division link.

5. What other thoughts would you contribute to the topic?

Any materials cited should be referenced using the style guidelines established by the
American Psychological Association (APA).

Renewable energy is in a serious shortage in Vietnam. In fact, the country only

started the industrialization after the war in 1975. This drove the high need for
electricity and an increase in energy consumption at an average annual rate of
5.7 per cent between 1990 and 2012, and of electricity use at 14 per cent
annually during the same period.
Renewable energy is relatively new in Vietnam. The country has depended on oil
and coal to power-up the whole country. Household-wise, I realized that fact as I
hung out in the richest neighborhood of District 7, Hochiminh city. Here are the
richest households that still cannot pay for clean energy technologies d espite the
long-term, low-carbon and low-maintenance energy benefits.
According to a study (2012)1, key hindering factors of clean energy development
are: the lack of a clear legal framework on renewable energy projects, the low
price of renewable electricity, high transaction costs relating to lengthy
procedures required to establish renewable projects, and a lack of trust in
government guarantees.
I would propose a solution to increase a lack of trust in government guarantees
(Not that the Vietnamese government ever had any trust from the people to
begin with, but let us begin). Total transparency is the key. The project will update
all relevant information to the public, via a website, including: project budget,
implementation duration, status, beneficial areas. This benefits both ways. The
people need to know how their tax money will be spent on clean energy
development project. On the other hand, a donation/contribution feature can be
implemented on the website, making it a crowd-funding project that make a lot of
sense for Vietnamese.

The Environmental Snapshots at the UN Statistics Division provided two

interesting facts about Vietnam2 that can surprise many.
One, here is a population with over 90,000,000 people. Think about your own
countrys population for a moment. Then look on google map to check the size of
your country compared to Vietnam. *Gasp. Its population density is thick. Too
many mouths to feed. Yet it still keeps growing with a steady rate at 1%.
Why this phenomenon? My brother will celebrate his 2 nd child this year. Drawing
from his experience of raising the first, he estimates that raising two children will
cost him 1,500USD monthly. His monthly salary is 300USD, his wife has not
worked since the first born. Yet he, and many other low-medium income families,
believe in a time-honored quote: The heaven bears both an elephant and grass.
1 Investments Incentives in Vietnam, 2012. Retrieved from
http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2013/investments_incentives_viet_nam.pdf

2 UNSD, Country Snapshots of Vietnam, 2013. Retrieved from:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/envpdf/Country_Snapshots_Aug
%202013/Viet%20Nam.pdf
Meaning, they will somehow make it, although the number says how
unsustainability it is otherwise.
Two, higher population means higher energy consumption. The current renewable
energy production is about 36%. As stated above, renewable energy is a major
challenge in Vietnams long way to sustainability.
1. Write a brief introduction of yourself in the Learning Journal.

2. Explain why you took this course and what you hope to learn from it.

3. Please describe, in detail, some of the major environmental issues in your local
village/community/town/region/nation. What are they? Why are they an issue? Do you know
of any current actions to deal with it?

4. If you were to implement one, small, simple project in your local area or family in support
of the environment, what would it be? Why?

5. One or two sentences of your own personal reflection on something you learned this week.

My name is Nhat from Vietnam, a Third World country according to The United
States government categorization during the Cold War. And we still are.
Coming from a poor country, I witness the majority of my people lack
environmental awareness. Pollution is everywhere. Deforestation is increasing
gradually. And just in 2016, there was a severe sea pollution spanning over the
middle ocean of Vietnam that will take decades to recover.
The pollution was caused by a Taiwan-investor steel factory -Formosa, with a
proven-track record of industrial pollution 3. Government water-sample testing
took 6 months to come up with the result. During such national-biohazard event,
more than 100,000 Vietnamese fishermen were driven out of livelihood. What to
catch when all the fishes were dying? Tourists travelling to the middle region
dropped instantly. What to do when the sea was too poisonous to swim? Citizen
had to change their diet almost completely, especially when the Vietnamese
meal consists of fish and fish product. What to eat when the food chain was
disrupted?
The ripple effect to the nation was more than any Vietnamese can envision.
The local government took little actions to solve the issue. The local press tried to
cover it up, since Formosa apparently bribed massively to the government. No
message was communicated to the people to warn against not swimming. No
plan was undertaken to support the fishermens livelihood. And when the people
in major cities protested against the governments weak support? The police
were out to shut them down, with violence.
The smallest steps I can take for now, is not swimming, not eating fish, not
throwing garbage into the ocean, and keep spreading the news on social media.
Currently I am an assistant to a scientist-watersport enthusiast that had tried to
set up sailing as an alternative livelihood for fishermen on Con Dao as part of
marine conservation efforts, which is something I contribute it to. 4

3 NYTimes, Outrage Over Fish Kill in Vietnam Simmers 6 Months Later, OCT. 3,
2016. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/world/asia/formosa-
vietnam-fish.html?_r=0
The book I read this was full of interesting concepts and facts about
environmental knowledge. I have learned a great deal, but most of all, I have
learned to demystify the buzzword of green, sustainability, ethic. I will not be
fooled by the media and marketer trying to take advantage of these words
anymore.

4 Julia Shaw, First sailing school holds party, 2016. Retrieved from
https://www.vietnambreakingnews.com/2016/10/first-sailing-school-holds-party/