Modestcat20

On this project I aim to conduct an investigation on what the environment footprint of producing a supplement product was. Over the winter break, I was able to obtain an internship opportunity at a company that produces healthcare supplements. As I finished my internship, I was able to gain permission to do a day of investigation for my project. Before I start, I have a few questions for myself during the visit so I can solve them during the next day of investigation. 1. What is the estimated amount of plastic, cardboard, and paper waste during the production of a common supplement such as Vitamin C? 2. How does the production of supplements affect the environment, how big is the carbon footprint? 3. Where are the existing raw materials supplied from, and what is the environmental impact extraction? 4. What are some ways we could reduce these plastic waste when manufacturing but also ensuring the identical quality and efficiency? 5. How much energy is consumed during the process of production, and what sources of energy are used? 6. Are there any chemical or byproducts of producing this supplement that might harm the environment during the process? 7. How are the raw materials and finished products transported, what is the associated carbon footprint? 8. Are there any methods to help us reduce the carbon footprint in the transportation stage? 9. As there are usually leftover ingredients, what happens to these products? At the same time, I also made a hypothesis from my prior knowledge and I will be assessing the accuracy of my words after the investigation. By the end of the investigation, I will reassess my hypothesis from the beginning and check the accuracy. Hypothesis (1): The production of supplements such as Vitamin C requires materials that generate a significant amount of plastic cardboard and paper waste primarily from packaging materials and ingredients containers by implementing reusable or biodegradable packaging. This solution will help substantially reduce waste while maintaining product quality. Hypothesis (2): The manufacturing process of supplements including vitamin C has a huge environmental impact because of its energy consumption and transportation related carbon emissions. If transitioning to renewable energy sources and optimizing supply chain Logistics we can effectively reduce the overall carbon footprint of production. Hypothesis (3): The extraction and sourcing of raw materials for supplement production such as Vitamin C has a considerable environmental impact due to the land degradation and emissions from transportation and farming. The process of sourcing from local or sustainably suppliers can minimize these effects. Investigation: I started the investigation by looking through the process of one of their production lines. When I was in the factory, they were producing something relatively easy to make in their field, Vitamin C. As they walked me through the process, I was able to track the estimated number of plastic usage in the entire production. At the same time, there are many more areas where greenhouse gas emissions could be created. Although cardboard is made out of paper, the production of this material still requires refining tree material to create paper, which will create greenhouse gas in the production process. After counting the total amount of plastic and other non-reusable waste, I will conduct short interviews with the staff members of the factory to analyze my hypothesis from the beginning and seek the possibility of implementing some strategies that were discussed. Step 1 at 9:30 A.M. - Unloading the supplies and packaging: The starting process of manufacturing something like supplements usually starts when a truck comes into the storage room and unloads several packages of supplies. These packages include supplies the workers need from making and producing these goods. This is because in the supplements industry, every company has different roles in the business. For example, some companies would supply these factories with the necessary supplies and pay them a certain amount to help them package, then receiving them to distribute to the sales associates they have. In the case of this company, they would order materials from Canadian companies and make what their partner company in China sells. For example, when the partner company in China sells 50, 000 capsules of Vitamin D in China, the order would be sent to the office workers in Canada and they would order materials for the factory workers to produce. To simplify this process, here is a diagram to show how this business cycle works: Back to the company, after unloading these materials from the packaging, where the plastic and cardboard covers first come into my sight. In this process, the workers had to remove the plastic wrappings around materials such as the capsules to contain the supplements and also the covers. When the factory first received these materials, each of the capsules contained a high quality plastic wrapping. Since this order was for 10, 000 bottles of Vitamin D, the office workers had to order more from their suppliers because during the production process there would always be usage of more capsules because some would not be in the best shape for selling and a whole list of problems around the products. Therefore, the office workers would always order 10-15% more than what is needed in order to make sure they do not run out of supplies during the production process. When I inquired with the office workers about that specific order, they claimed that they ordered 10% more for bottles and 15% more for caps because they tend to consume more from previous productions. Here is a formula I came to conclusion with: 10, 000 (bottles) * (1+10%) +10,000 (caps) * (1+15%) = 22500 (plastic wrapping) Therefore as of right now, there have already been 22500 plastic wrappers used. Usually all of this will go into the garbage as served their purpose. Meanwhile, despite the plastic usage, only around 40 cardboard boxes have been used as they were much larger and could carry around 500 caps and bottles. Although most of these plastic bottles and caps would be used in the manufacturing process. It is certain that a small portion of them are not used or wasted. Which is what I will be counting in the next few steps. Current Tracker: -22500 plastic wrappers - 40 card boxes (0.7m * 0.7m *0.7m) After removing the plastic wrappers from the packages and unloading the bottles and caps. The manufacturing machine would also need the Vitamin C capsules in order to finish the production. However, these did not come in whole packages as they needed to be reconstructed into solid capsules from the mix they came in. When the ingredients of the capsule are ordered, they usually arrive in the form of a mix, which will be turned into the capsules at the factory. As a result, the initial packaging is removed after receiving. Comparing it to the packaging of the bottles and caps, the environmental impact of these packaging are much less as they use a huge plastic wrapper in each box instead of individual packaging. Step 2 at 11 A.M. - Getting prepared to assemble everything together After collecting all of the necessary products to manufacture Vitamin C supplements. The final procedure is to put everything in its corresponding position in a machine that could put a fixed amount of capsules in the bottle each time and sealing it with the caps. As this step does not require unwrapping or packaging anything, there would be no plastic consumption in the process. However, because the machine is not powered by people. It will consume electricity, which could create an environmental footprint on the environment. Although I do not know the electricity consumption the machine uses, we can use the formula below to find the electricity consumption if it was used for 3.5 hours Energy (kWh) = Power (kW) * Time (hours) / Efficiency We know that it was open for 3.5 hours and what is left is the power (kW) and efficiency. First, a typical machine used in manufacturing has an efficiency of 70%, which is One of the fixed variables in this equation. In my visit to this factory, I was unable to see the voltage or any power source requirements for that machine. In this case, we must assume a reasonable number to make this equation work out. usually for a machine of that size, the power in kilo wants used is around 500. Adding this to the equation we can get this formula: Energy (kWh) = 20 * 3.5 / 80% Energy (kWh) = 87.5 (kWh) However, since we assumed a for the power source of this machine this would become one of the limitations or assumptions we made during the calculation. making the reader understand these assumptions are extremely important as they could carry a much different meaning in the field of science. Therefore we can conclude that the energy consumption of producing at the step would be around 87.5 kWh which stands for kilowatt per hour. Although this is the biggest source of power consumption in the entire production process, there are also some other electricity consumption such as the opening of lights in the entire process, which are much harder to calculate. Step 3 at 3 P.M. - Packaging of the products for the consumers to receive When the Vitamin C is sealed and complete, the last step of production would be to assemble them for shipping in The next few days. In this process workers put a few dozen roads of finished supplement bottles into a cardboard box. After the completion of this step, they are sealed with tape and transported into a cargo box which will be shipped to the customers. In this step many cardboard boxes and rolls of tape are consumed. Meanwhile another big consumption in this procedure would be the cleaning of bottles and packed cardboard boxes. This is because Health Canada has big regulations on produced Medical Goods which actually includes Healthcare products and they are more related to Medicine as compared with food the streak regulation in this industry makes many procedures necessary to follow these regulations. In the end of each production bottles must be sanitized with alcohol wipes to ensure the safety of consumption. After the packaging of these products into cardboard boxes to ship for retail. The production of this supplement is complete but there are still some steps to follow such as cleaning the machines and used tools. Unfortunately, these steps were not recorded in my investigation as I ran out of time at the end of the day. The World Consumers: The growth in the supplements market has seen a significant growth since the early 21th century as the world's standard of living has increased. More people have shifted their focus from monetary wealth to their body's wellbeing. This shift in ideology created many business opportunities for the healthcare market. As a result of this, the consumers for Canadian health products have been spread around the world to almost every single continent and country. However, the effects of such globalization comes at the cost of great transportation costs. Many products that are produced in Canada and shipped to the rest of the world through either ships or planes, which creates CO2 during the operation. In the example of this company, most of the products produced are shipped to China, which is around 9 400 kilometers. Meanwhile, the only shipping method for this exchange would be from air because sea shipping cannot maintain the quality of supplements in the near 2 month journey. At the same time, air transportation is also one of the methods that create the most carbon dioxide emissions. In 2023, the International Energy Agency found that aviation accounted for 2.5% of global emissions. Comparing this data to cars in general, which is accounted for over 25%. However, we must understand that there are far more people traveling by air compared to ones by car. In this graph, we can see that there is a significantly more distance traveled by car in comparison with planes. It is also seen in this graph that there is a significant decrease of transportation during the covid years and slowly recovering after 2020. In recent years there is an increase in travel by air which may lead to future emissions. As a result of transporting supplements to another continent, the production of healthcare products in Canada releases emissions usually during transportation of these goods. Although there are some amounts of plastic generated in the production process, it is very likely that transportation in this industry is responsible for more carbon dioxide or Greenhouse emissions in the long run. This is because all of the materials need to be transported to the factory before it can be produced and then transported again after it is finished. Result of Investigation: Reviewing my first few questions, the estimated amount of plastic used in the production of Vitamin C this week should use around 22300 plastic wrappings, majority of which comes from the initial step of production. At the same time, there are also around 70 cardboard boxes used in the process, which does not contribute to the total carbon emissions of producing this product compared to plastic wrappings which are not biodegradable. In a different perspective, the result of this investigation gave me a comprehensive understanding of how the healthcare supplement industry works. The business model of this firm as well as the entire function of production is a valuable lesson to those who want to create their own startup in the future. During the short interviews with the staff, I understood some of the problems that occurred during production and the importance of teamwork in a factory job. Review The healthcare production industry has seen a significant increase in global orders in recent years as people transitioned to valuing monetary wealth to personal health. This increase in demand created many job opportunities as well as business potentials for people looking to pursue their career in this industry. As a result of all of this many brands and factories have opened with the following of this trend. Canada has a strong reputation in global markets for its safety and health, making supplements production in Canada has increased by over 500% over the last 5 years. Along with this increase in production, Health Canada increased its regulations on firms that produce these supplements to ensure the brand reputation and local reputation of goods and services maintained. All these increased procedures contributed more emissions are created as a result because the steps often include using single-use plastic and transporting multiple times around different locations. Unfortunately, companies have realized their emissions in the process of producing supplements but fail to implement strategies to reduce waste because of its trade-offs with the company's interest. At the same time, governments have been trying to promote more environmentally friendly policies such as the carbon tax, which disincentivize companies to use plastic and other harmful chemicals. This trend in policies can be seen globally as countries like Canada try to reach Net Zero by 2030. Similarly to the trade-off between industrialization and economic development, companies usually face a similar decision when implementing new technologies in their systems. In the future, as more renewable technology is developed it is likely that these companies producing goods and services will switch to greener energy to produce in order to reduce their carbon footprint. Although the process of manufacturing goods and services does not require an indigenous perspective. There are many traditional First Nations practices that could be implemented and discussed to help reduce the carbon emissions. In their long history, Indigenous people of Canada have long practiced sustainable harvesting of natural resources. In traditional Indigenous medicine, natural products like herbal remedies, plant extract, and minerals are often harvested in ways that will preserve biodiversity and maintain that environmental balance. Compared to the modern industrial extraction methods that could bring huge damages to the local environment including deforestation and deplete natural resources. Indigenous communities follow practices such as harvesting only what is needed to prevent resource depletion, rotating harvest locations, and honoring the land. Oftentimes Indigenous communities are much smaller than urban cities which require less resources for a sustainable life, creating better natural environment practices. In the current world, industries often face high demand which could lead to the ignorance of environmental harm. At the same time, Indigenous communities value a circular economy, which means that everything should be reused. This practice can significantly reduce the amount of waste generated. For example in modern supplement, manufacturing generates large amounts of single-use plastic and cardboard waste through packaging and multiple production procedures. Unlike the modern world's approach to healthcare, Indigenous peoples approach health and well-being in a more diversified view. Modern supplements industries primarily focus on bringing isolated nutrient products to consumers. However the First Peoples of Canada also incorporates mental, emotional and spiritual well-being other than physical health, which are also extremely important. For example, many indigenous communities in Canada have traditional medicine that uses natural resources such as Cedar tea which comes from tree needles, wild berries and Spruce tips. All of these ingredients could be found in the wall without much industrial processes while still offering a significant amount of crucial nutrients needed by the human body. The incorporation of Indigenous perspectives into supplement production and the entire industry can lead to more sustainable practices and waste reduction as well as an improvement from just consuming isolated nutritions. There are several important limitations to my visit, some of which makes it not a proper scientific study. For example, I have only spent the day during the investigation which might lack diversification in my perspective. Another example of limitation would be the different products companies produce and the environmental effects of a simple product such as Vitamin C could not be used as a standard for all healthcare supplements. All of these factors should be taken into account because it will make the reader understand that there may be some inaccuracies in parts of this final investigation report.Therefore, I have created a list of limitations and how the results could be adjusted for a more scientific perspective. a) The lack of time spend during the investigation: When I started to conduct the investigation, I was only given a day to complete this project, I had to make notes of what happened during that day and complete my work in the following weeks. As a result of my limited visit, much of the reflection as well as the written procedure was done after the day of the investigation. I believe this is a limitation to my research because there may be some errors I ignored or forgot to add into this final report. At the same time, my interviews were also abbreviated because I wanted to maximize the amount of time spent understanding how the factory runs and understanding the business model. With many intentions in my visits I was not able to complete some of them because of the limited time, therefore it limited my understanding of how this company works as well as my investigation report. b) The product produced during my visit when I visited this Healthcare Factory during winter break, they were producing the vitamin D supplement which is one of the simpler products they have in production as a result of vitamin C simplicity, they're actually many other steps in other products production that requires the usage of plastic as well as other emissions in fact vitamin C should be one of the supplements with the least amount of carbon emissions and plastic uses because of how simple the order was in a typical order done by this factory, the workers would usually have to blend their own powder and make them into consumable tablets which is a very time consuming role is not used in the production of vitamin C. therefore the emissions in the process of producing this product is very little compared to others making it the minimum amount of emissions created during a production of a product. c) Different business model In the factory that I visited, they focus on the Chinese market which is usually not the business model many other firms use in Canada. the difference in these business models in an environmental perspective would be the amount of Transportation used to make their customers receive this product for example a Canadian firm focusing on the Canadian market will only need to transport their goods within the country Which is far more environmentally friendly compared to transporting it to another country on the other side of the world. As a result of this difference, this firm cannot defy the entire Industries emissions because it is on the higher side of Transportation because of his business model and customer location. In some further investigation, I found that most of the supplies given to these factories to produce non-finished complex goods are usually shipped from countries in Europe or Asia. This Intercontinental Transportation before the production of the supplements will create an even more carbon footprint which is a significant limitation to my research because it does not define the entire healthcare industry with high carbon emissions. d) Limitations on the sources of information During my interview, I have only taken the perspective of employees in this company which could result in biases. However because this investigation is focused on the single firm, biases among these workers are unavoidable. Making it one of the most important limitations of this project. Many perspectives were discussed in this investigation. During my interview most of my evidence in this investigation or from the perspective of people working in this industry. Supplement producers often prioritized cost efficiency and regulatory compliance when designing production processes. In interviews with staff at the supplement factory they mention that there are higher costs in sustainable materials, Health Canada regulations and logistics that prioritize affordability over sustainability. In a business's perspective it is important to minimize cost to not make the company go bankrupt, as a result of this many companies choose to use the cheapest materials they could find which are often not biodegradable or environmentally sustainable. At the same time I have also considered a scientific perspective which was the attempt to use more sustainable practices and reduce the carbon footprint of supplement production. Research in the environmental science in food production highlights that transportation of production of dietary supplements contributes significantly to global carbon emissions in a life cycle assessment of food. It was discovered that manufacturing unpackaging accounts for around 20 to 30% of the products carbon footprint, while transportation contributes to another 15%. However there have also been other studies suggesting that modernized supplement packaging minimizes contamination and extends the shelf life of these products. By reducing the risk of contamination research from Health Canada in 2023 suggests that single-use plastic containers prevent bacteria growth, ensuring supplements to remain effective throughout the distribution to worldwide customers. Making a trade-off between balancing sustainability and ensuring product safety. There has been significant change to the healthcare production industry throughout the last 50 years. Historically, people relied on natural sources of vitamins and minerals rather than supplements to ensure their health. For example First People's traditional medicine played a critical role in early supplement use, they had a long history of using berries, cedar and spruce as natural sources of vitamin C. Another ancient civilization such as the Egyptian and Chinese use herbs to treat deficiencies and promote health. Then the rise of industrialized supplement production started in the early 20th century as scientific discoveries successfully identified that vitamins and other minerals are essential to human health. In 1912 the term vitamin was discovered after finding compounds essential for preventing diseases like scurvy and rickets. The start of World War II also accelerated supplemented nutrition for long and intense fighting missions. Later the FDA and Health Canada was established to create regulations and standardize supplement production to improve safety and efficiency. In the last 50 years supplements has transitioned to a multi-billion dollar global business with many brands and creating more effective products. The establishment of mass production facilities also started a reduction in cost but increase in plastic waste and energy consumption. During this time other technologies such as encapsulation also improved the supplement stability, which enhanced the consumer experience with supplements. Globalization also allowed ingredients from all over the world to be sourced and increased the carbon footprint of transportation. In the last decade the rise of e-commerce made supplements more accessible for consumers around the world. The careers associated with this investigation is very clear as the companies in this industry are constantly hiring qualified individuals who have done research in a post-secondary education in a related field. In Canada, hiring workers is a constant job because of the lack of working individuals in the country. many careers in this field include quality assurance and assistance, production supervisor, and office workers to look for orders around the world all of these jobs require leadership and knowledge in this industry, which is crucial for a successful business at the same time due to the growth in this market many firms in this market pays a higher than other industry salary to maintain their workers. Outside of the healthcare industry, there are also work-related to help with renewable energy implementations. Which could be used in this industry to reduce carbon emissions. For many individuals with a post-secondary or a college degree, they could explore potential careers in being an engineer focusing on the development or maintenance of renewable energy implementations in different firms which could be in a healthcare factory for example. Although a post-secondary college degree would be useful for many highly skilled jobs, you can be involved in helping the environment with no background or prior experience. As renewable energy is a growing industry similar to healthcare production, many firms lack individuals therefore they are usually willing to help develop a skilled individual in their field as a personal investment to their workers. When I was investigating the environmental footprint of the supplement production, there was some bias involved that could influence the accuracy and outcome of my findings. Although the healthcare supplement industry has become, many supplement manufacturers do not publicly disclose their exact financials and environmental consumption. The lack of information in this industry becomes a problem when discovering an industry average. At the same time some companies may under report their environmental impact to maintain a positive brand image to their customers. Many of my investigations rely on estimates of the industry standard which could be inaccurate if some firms choose to under report over report their uses. The lack of transparency in this industry means that there may be some level of assumptions in my investigation. At the same time, much scientific research are funded by corporations which could have an influence on them. Some industry-funded reports usually under-report the environmental impact of some industries such as supplement production to maintain their profit. Other companies may promote greenwashing practices by marketing their products as sustainable without actually making a change to their production. For example a company may claim that its product uses biodegradable packaging that is eco-friendly but it may be a small portion of the product making the advertisement almost inaccurate. However we must understand there's an economic trade off with the environment because switching to biodegradable packaging is often environmentally beneficial but increases production costs. This was a common bias in my interviews for one of the reasons for not implementing biodegradable wrappings and other single use materials. My investigation into the environmental impacts of supplement production must consider potential biases from data limitations, the common method of industrial greenwashing, and the economic vs environmental trade-offs. It is important to critically evaluate the multiple sources of information and acknowledge that there may be potential biases in them through these methods. In the investigation, a strong global connection is showcased as this is an international firm doing business with consumers and business partners all around the world. Before developing their appearance in the Chinese market, this firm focused on producing healthcare supplements for children in Africa, which was actually something I knew after the interview when I did additional research. As the world becomes more globalized, many firms will do business internationally and make global connections. For example in the production of this supplement. Vitamin C production often uses materials such as corn derived acid which are usually produced in India, China and the United States of America, which must be exported to Canada before production. At the same time the supplement industry contributes to global trade and economic development. As consumers and businesses become more globalized the supplement industry will shift towards a higher global connection in productions. During my short investigation I asked my question of whether reducing the waste and carbon emissions during the production is an important factor to this company. The answer I received was that environmental concerns are put in the very last priority during production, since this is something for humans to consume corporations often value the safety measures that could be used to prevent any safety issues for consumers. As a result of this, it usually comes at the cost of additional plastic uses and multiple procedures. However, we should take a multi-step strategy forward to reducing plastic waste in supplement packaging. As plastic waste from supplement packaging is a major environmental concern, companies still struggle to find cost-effective alternatives. Some strategies that should be considered are new technologies such as biodegradable packaging alternatives using lower technology such as corn starch based or mushroom-based materials. At the same time a policy could be implemented that supplement bottles could be refilled to make consumers return their emptied bottles for reuse instead of throwing them away. Germany has a similar policy for bottle return which actually turned the country into a much greener area. Meanwhile air transportation also remains to be a big footprint of the supplement industry as many materials are shipped from worldwide suppliers. Switching from air transportation to sea transportation will lower emissions but slower delivery. Companies could also establish regional production facilities to reduce the need for international shipping. Another main environmental footprint I discovered in the investigation is the use of energy from both machines and lighting. Some strategies that could be considered for this problem would be implementing renewable energy such as installing solar panels or wind turbines to power the factory or switching to more energy efficient manufacturing machines. Although these investments might seem like a loss at the early stages, it might yield more return in the long run because it reduces the need of finding a power supplier. The application of these strategies in all parts of production, could reduce the environmental footprint significantly if it is possible for these firms to implement the strategies in production of healthcare supplements.

A World of Questions The village of Arrowhead Bay lay between the busy canal of Vancouver and the historical forest of the Indigenous people in Canada. Civilization has been here fore more than 2000 years and the village maintained a rural style of living under the wet climate of the Vancouver Island. Arrowhead Bay is a village in a peninsula surrounded with a lagoon on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. People here revolved around the cycle of nature, the spring rain nourished the crops, the dry summers promoted the growth of nature, autumn leaves feeding the soil, and the winter snow covered the hills in a white blanket with silence. With a small village population, the people were living in joy and the peaceful life that is thought to be continued. 20 years ago, on a warm morning of July, the village welcome a new member as a fisherman's wife has given birth to a cute boy. His mother named him Harley, and he was embraced with love by the villagers and cared for by everyone in the next few months. The people gave him the best living environment of their ability and treated him well as the villagers believe something they have overheard. It turned out that before the baby was born, a philosopher came to the village and made the statement that one baby in the future would do something extraordinary in the future. Soon after the philosopher left, the ones who believed him had been secreting investigating who the baby was. As time flew by, the people started to notice something strange with this kid. Yet over the past two decades, the rhythm of the town has shifted. Winters in Arrowhead Bay was long and cold, lasting for months with thick layers of snow. In the recent years, sometimes the lagoon would not be frozen, the first time in hundreds since the Medieval warm period. At the same time, the summers were becoming longer and hotter, and the once-reliable river is now between the state of floods and drought. As a result, the crops began to fail and everyone was wondering if this was a punishment from the creator. The elders of the village hosted a meeting later during the dinner and they were arguing why this is happening to them. Although Harley was not effected by these changes, it inspired him to look deeper into this problem. These concerns puzzled him he wanted to discover more about what is happening. That night, Harley could not fall asleep from what he overheard during the day. Although the small village had other food sources such as crops, salmon still made up a large portion of their diet. The delay or extinction of salmon will create starvation for his people. He thought of alternative options, but none of them will seem to work in the climate of their village in British Columbia. The cold and wet climate in their region made it almost impossible for any feeding crops survive in the winter. The inability to help his people had made him reconsider his existence as the "extraordinary baby". It was unclear what triggered him that night, but Harley decided to go for a walk outside. Slowly making his way out of the longhouse, trying to stop make any sounds for his family. Once he step foot on the gravel ground, he looked up, amazed by what is above him. In the dark sky thousands of stars are concentrated together in a ring, creating one of the most beautiful moments Harley has seen in his life. "Wow!" Harley whispered as he starred at the stars for several minutes In just a few minutes of observation, he has viewed the beauty of the skies and made a wish when a shooting star passed by. Trying not to get distracted by the sky, he headed towards somewhere in the hills, knowing there is somewhere to go. Through the steep hills and deep coastal forests, he saw a rock in the distance on the side of a mountain. It was unclear who or what has guided him there, whether it was destiny or just luck. As Harley climbed up the hill, the huge rock went closer and closer to him, until he was on it. On the last step of the climb, he could see what was Vancouver in the distance. A city that he has only heard of from the elders who has went outside of their village. Through stories and poems, Vancouver was described as a city with much more population than the village with people living in a much more difficult and adventurous life. It was not the life Harley wanted at least, so he never decided to see it himself until this day. Looking from the hills, he could see thousands of houses with glooming yellow lights. Not far from the main residential areas, were large factories with smokestacks burning and releasing gases every second. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight…." Harley counted the factories as his eyes reviewed the landscape below him. When he looked back at his village below the other side of the hill with a dozen houses and several lights, the comparison was beyond comprehension for Harley. With no industrialized factories and pollution, the people of his village lived a great life. He asked himself why the people in Vancouver wanted these loud and disruptive building near their living space. At the same time, the stars that was visible from his village vanished here from all the lights and smoke. From the smokestacks, Harley could see continuous clouds of smoke bursting into the skies, creating dark clouds covering the beauty above it. He could not understand why the people in the cities would want anything such as that and whether if these dark clouds were the ones creating the dark winters and hot summers. Harley decided to investigate himself, by one day going to Vancouver and finding out why the people there would want pollution in their area. At the same time, he had answer in his mind. Over the last few decades, the rapid expansion of industrialization in many parts of the world, such as the cities like Vancouver increasing their industrial activity. As a result of this, the use of fossil fuels became more frequent, especially the burning of them to create energy, while the deadly smoke was the byproduct of rapid expansion. Overall leading to the more extreme weathers and warmer climates around the northern hemisphere. However, there was also another idea in his mind. Perhaps industrialization might also be a good thing if everyone seems to support it. It could be that industrialization around the world has bought significant benefit to the people living in urban environments where goods and services produced by the factories are prioritizing them as customers. Meanwhile, the long term effect of industrialization on the environment has bought attention to those who did not benefit from the rapid development, leading to the misconception of people either believing that industrialization is completely unjustified and others thinking it is a beautiful intention brought to human civilization. In Harley mind, he believed that both of these statements could be correct. However, there must be one that is more accurate than the other, he thought. The crisp summer air with the sweat smell of lumber in the woods triggered Harley to sleep on the rock. After several hours, he woke up not remembering what he has done for a few moments. Unknown for how long he has slept. Harley decided to rush back to the village, his heartbeat was racing as he ran down the hill to only see the quiet village with everyone sleeping. Has he got down the hill, it was almost sunrise and he quickly went back to bed and pretended nothing happened to him. Unconsciously, Harley has embedded a deeper question about the climate of the village in his heart. "Harley! Wake up now! Or else you won't be getting breakfast today!" Harley's mom started yelling "Yes, I will very soon mom." Harley woke up frightened as he saw the sun out and almost over his head. On the breakfast table, he came to his parents and asked why the climate was making them stress. Harley's parents could not answer, they have not received enough education in their younger ages. They told Harley that these events were beyond their control and could not be resolved using the power of a single person. Like what the philosopher said many years ago, he wanted to do something extraordinary and create something that would change the village for the better. When he proposed this idea to his mother, he was advised to attend school. So he begged his mother to send him to school in Vancouver. But his mom did not directly answer him, the cost of tuition for a school in Vancouver is far beyond the financial ability of everyone in their village. For a long time, the education system of their people were based on storytelling and verbal education passed down in generations. The richness of oral traditions such as storytelling and practical skills in Indigenous education. Over thousands of years, the people in their village has developed a standard form of verbal teachings. The lack of interconnectedness between the people and the environment was Harley's mother's concern on the westernized Vancouver education system. She did not want him to obtain an education degree but also losing the traditional practices of their people such as fishing, hunting, and handcrafting. "You will receive perfect education here, Harley" his mother claimed "I will never learned the solution to solve what is happening to our climate!" There was long pause, the words from Harley seemed to have ignited something in his mother memories. After several moments of silence, Harley's mother decided that it would be a hard decision for his family to make. She informed him that she will think about it for a couple days. After days of pursuing her, she finally decided to use her life saving and sent Harley to a boarding high school institution in Hastings, Vancouver. Before Harley left, he was told to use this chance wisely as they were essentially bankrupt as most of their saving were used as school tuition. This made Harley believe he must use this opportunity wisely and make the best of this efforts to attend university after middle school. On the first day of this boarding school, Harley was introduced by a strange teacher who introduced him to the dorms and classrooms. In school, he told the mandatory courses of English, math, social sciences, sciences, and arts. However, this determination to seeking for change his village's climate did not change. In his first year of studies, Harley was barely passing the course as he did not have the prerequisites other students had in middle and elementary school. As he came home for summer break, his mother informed him that they could not afford him to fail school and it would be his last year in school if he had not achieved a scholarship. The pressure from family and the academics forced him to go back to Vancouver early. Harley decided to lock himself in the school library and achieve a scholarship by the end of next year. The hot Vancouver summer made the library dry and hot. After a whole day of studying, Harley would go on Hastings Ave and search for coke bottles around the street. By reselling them for the deposit fee, he was able to sustain himself by living on the couch of dorm rooms and going to the Catholic Church down the street every Sunday for a good meal. It became one of the best times of his life. During this period of time, he met with someone who would become his lifelong friend. He was also one of the Indigenous students in the grade, who shared many common interests with him. They shared the desire of finding the root cause to the environmental changes in their community and finding methods to overcome them. School in Vancouver was much less exciting compared to the traditional classrooms in Arrowhead Bay, where students would learn practical skills from the elders. The same day repeated in the boarding school from class to tests then break. It was repetitive and became less interesting for Harley. However, after the first semester of his second year, Harley was able to achieve perfect scores on all of his science courses and achieve a full scholarship for the next 3 years of his life at the boarding school. Immediately after receiving the scholarship, he spent a dollar on the nearby telephone pole to call his mother. A few seconds later, he heard he voice of his mother and told her the exciting news. Harley is now able to continue his education journey without any financial stress. This allowed to him to focus more on is academics to achieve his dream of becoming a scientist to find a solution to climate change. It was another hot summer in the city of Vancouver. Harley had just finished his final exam, anything was going the way he wanted. Later that afternoon, he started to pack up his belonging to leave the boarding school and return to his village until his acceptance into a university. In the past few months, he was able to apply to several local universities with the help of Later at the University of California, he was able to learn about the impacts of climate change on another region of the world. In California, wildfires has increased at a significant rate from year by year, creating vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, creating a hotter temperature. This cycle has continued from 20 years ago, now the temperature in the summer are no longer safe for people to be outside for more than 1 hour. After a lecture class, his professor informed him that California was a beautiful place before all of the industrialization. In the past few decades, energy corporations has start building factories to burn fossil fuels to generate energy and other goods. Although it created employment in the region, the environment was significantly damaged. The pollution from these factories released a toxic chemical called carbon dioxide which is responsible for the higher temperature in the summer. This is because when greenhouse gases, which is a general term to describe gases that absorb heat such as carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, it will trap the Sun's heat on the surface of the Earth and eventually causing an increase in temperature. Harley finally understood why the summers at Arrowhead Bay was getting hotter every year. His analysis on the rock many years ago was proven to be correct. The professor explained that it was not just the factories in Vancouver that created the carbon dioxide emissions and changing his village's climate. There are currently more than 4000 factories operating at the moment, creating emission every single minute. At the same time, the Earth's climate would be actually better off currently if it was only the factories that are creating emissions. There are many others sources of emissions, for example transportation after the adoption of personal vehicles. Growing crops and livestock actually create more emission than all of the transportation because of the time consumption and energy used to generate livestock. By now, Harley has realized that his reasoning to climate change in his village was just a small portion of what was to discover in the future, and there are much more problems to solve. That day he could not sleep, counting the stars from his window. He suddenly heard someone yelling in the distance. It was one of his classmates yelling that the school ordered an evacuation order. It was because a wildfire has been broken in the near forest, spreading at a growing rate as the wind is pushing it towards the school. During the execution, the school was informed that a hurricane was in the path of the fire which extended the speed of the fire towards the school. Harley had quickly packed his necessities and left the school. It was the last time he was able to come back. On the fleeing trip, Harley and his friends stayed at several hotels with not much money with him. The fire has burned the entire to school down, most of the students ended up to transfer to other schools. However, the root cause of this wildfire remained unknown. Although California's wildfire has been an ongoing threat for many years, there has never been a time when the fire has burned down the entire city. All of a sudden Harley nowhere to go. In the next few months, he arrived home by taking rides around the road north to Vancouver. On a cold September night, Harley received a mail from the university he was previously attending. After careful deliberation, the school decided to give the top 20% of student the opportunity to study in Geneva, Switzerland. Surprisingly, it happened to be the best environmental science in Europe. Harley was immediately given the opportunity to study at the finest university in the world. During his period in Switzerland, he was able to interact with many other scholars around the world studying climate change. Many of which were amazed by Harley's story of hoping to help rebuilt his community on a remote island. As time progressed, his time there came to an end. However, Harley has already developed a deep level of environmental knowledge and investigation skills. He was offered a high paying salary in Europe to help study the climate change effects in the Antarctic for the Swiss Government. He declined the offer to study the climate in his hometown. Many people in the school did not understand his decision, but Harley claimed: "It was my dream to solve the climate problems in my hometown, that is why I came here". He began his research by coming back to Arrowhead Bay, where he found Elder Throne, a respected knowledge keep of the local First Nations. He spoke of seasonal shifts on the weather, recounting how winter once brought deep snow and how salmon migrations now arrived weeks late. These phenomenons must have a reason to it, the elder claimed. "We believe that everything in the world is interconnected to all forms of life. We interpret the changes in the environment as a consequence of disturbing the balance in nature. We often see ourselves holding the responsibility and stewardship of the environment. At the same time, the wise usage of our natural resources will be critical to the overall wellbeing of the Harley understood something that he did not think of before. In the past, he has focused on the scientific perspective of climate change. However, the foundations of this event occurs because of the lack of respect and awareness given to the environment. Many people living in a urban setting enjoys the benefits of industrialization but focuses too little on the fundamental responsibilities of humans on the environment. This interaction with Elder Throne left Harley with an answer in his mind. For the next few weeks, he was been conducting research on water sample near Arrowhead Bay as well as other metrics to support his environmental claims. During his studies, the cause of climate change has been identified as the increasing greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. Since the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution in Europe started which transformed traditional energy usage of burning bioenergy such as trees to generate energy into the use of chemical or fossil fuel. Since the industrialization of Europe, there has been a significant increase in factories, especially in England, where the Industrial Revolution first begin. Although this revolution might be portrayed as a harm to society, it was actually powered by the discovery of many things. In 1776, James Watt discovered the steam engine, which allowed for the transformation from steam to energy. This not only made England the greatest industrial location but also allowed the discovery of North America lead by Columbus in 1653. Then in the next two hundred years, the discovery of oil and industrialization by John D. Rockefeller led to the wide spread use of this simple resource. However, it is not only the burning of fossil fuels that impact the climate. The growth of transportation such as trains, personalized vehicle, and agriculture. In Harley's studies, he discovered that the process of generating energy around the the world is responsible for around 73.2% of the entire global greenhouse gas emissions. Followed by that would actually be agriculture, especially livestock, the meat humans consume is created in an extremely energy inefficient process. As people usually only consume the parts of the meat, the energy used in the growth of bones and other organs are essentially wasted. At the same time, plants is a better alternative because of their feed conversion ratio (FCR), which measures the weight intake by an animal compared to weight grown. At the same time, animals drink almost identical amounts of water compared to a humans, making the efficiency of meat very low. In the recent years, the inventions of new methods of mining chemical fuel has increased the production of energy such as oil. In the past few decades, the United States of America has significantly increased its oil production after the mass adoption of shale oil, which is an unconventional type of oil produced from rock fragments and then using chemical procedures such as thermal dissolution to obtain it. Meanwhile, many of the world has realized the harm of greenhouse gases on the climate. Many new forms of generating energy has been discovered. For example, nuclear power, solar, wind, hydro, and wave power. Although the transformation from traditional energy to renewable energy could take up to several decades, the world is slowly changing into a more climate friendly space. At the same time, more agreements regarding slowing down climate change has been made. For example, the Paris Agreement signed in 2016 marked a significant moment as almost every country in the world signed this agreement to control climate change. Following this agreement is the development of electric vehicles, which is aimed to eliminate the greenhouse gases gas-powered cars create. In the end, Harley's discovery helped the world become a better place for the future generation of humans by finding solutions to solve climate problems around the world and raising awareness for people to understand the importance of this matter. THE END