Life Cycle Assestment Essay Example for Free

Life Cycle Assestment Essay The automotive industry is major component of the American economy, but also is a very devastating one, which consumes in large quantities natural resources and generates a lot of waste. This industry contributes pollution with toxic substances and fossil fuels. By knowing the Life cycle implication of a specific design materials are the key point for managing and being able to have decision making strategy .The results of the Life cycle analysis of cars provide information on n environmental impact issues. The evaluation of automobiles fueled, new technologies such as electricity and gas units can prove the benefits and decrease the environmental impact. Although none of these alternatives is a clear winner, lowering emissions and improving sustainability is a priority of this industry. Companies such as the Ford Motor Company need future regulation, government priorities and technological developments in order to achieve sustainability. For understanding the end-of-life on a Ford Motor Company vehicle we must define the life cycle concept. By material life cycle I refer to Consecutive and interlinked stages of a product or service system, from the extraction of natural resources to the final disposal.   , as written in the International Organization of Standards (ISO) norm 14040.2. With the knowledge of the life cycle path we can define the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?which is also stated under the same above ISO regulation as This concept he ?Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is A systematic set of procedures for compiling and examining the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and the associated environmental impacts directly attributable to the functioning of a product or service system throughout its life cycle. 1. Life Cycle Assessment is a process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or activity by identifying the quantity of energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment; and being able to assume the damage it causes to the environmental issues. Ford might make use of this tool for making a compression and to better understand their environmental, social and economical impact. Ford is actively developing and applying life cycle assessment methodologies that can be applied in the vehicle industry supporting Fords Design for Environment approaches LCA is a powerful decision making tool, which identifies the factor that will be used in his process to accomplish a great  decision. This is used as an aid from the industry. The criteria may depend on who is making the decision. This tool is used for tracking system performance for a diversity of criteria like: emissions, energy use, and financial costs, among others. This tool can also ev aluate environmental impacts from the process or the production of a product; it also helps to compare options between competition and consumers. The aluminum, plastic and steel industries are developing new ideas and technologies with automakers in order to study the environmental impact of vehicles. By using the ?life cycle inventory (LCI) (The first step of the LCA the one that uses methods to estimate the environmental performance of a product or process over its entire life cycle) . have studied the energy flows and its uses in extraction of the raw material from the original source , emissions, amount of fuel consumed and the end-of-live of the waste disposal . The average of aluminum has increased in the past decade, as an example is the ?increase from 64 kilograms to 113 per vehicle in 1999. ?The aluminum, steel, plastics and auto industries are cooperating in developing a credible, authoritative database of information that the auto companies can use to meet their customers requirements and enhance the environmental performance of their vehicles, said David Parker, president of the Aluminum Association. 2 As an example of the above explained issue I can make an explanation trough the aluminum use in vehicle assembly. Aluminum saves an equivalent of 20 kilograms of carbon dioxide emission over its lifetime. Due to the reduction of the weight, its recycling properties ( ?In North America, 96 percent of automobiles enter the recycling process,? said Andrew Sharkey, the American Iron and Steel Institutes chief executive officer and president. 2) and energy sources. The energy consumption for aluminum productions are non pollutant and it is very easy material to recycle. No additional scrap exists in aluminum recycling process. Aluminum reduce 10 % of the weight and with it, there is a fuel economy improvement between 6-8 %. Ford itself has reported a 4% improvement in fuel reduction from the 10% weight reduction. Ford produces 24 million cars and truck per year imagines how much they can save not only in an economical area but also  the environmental benefit for not exhausting the natural sources and preserving the planet. In 1999, Ford used about 88 million pounds of recycled non-metallic materials in its products and has set a goal to use more than 132 million pounds of recycled non-metallic material by 2002. A solution for this problem that nowadays it has been a little bit more taken in consideration is the use of alternative fuels and electric vehicles. Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFVs) use internal combustion engines but run on fuels like compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, ethanol and many others. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) use electric motors for propulsion. The motors run on electricity stored on board the vehicles in batteries.? With projects like Hybrid vehicles Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) combine conventional internal combustion and battery electric powertrains to take advantage of the capabilities of each and the synergies between them and lightweigthing steels material the industry will make a huge contribution to reach sustainability. Full cost accounting is a tool that tries to assign values to all of the society costs, but it is very difficult to apply it properly. Issues like Health management might be useful to understand better this tool. In a free-market society such as the American decisions are not done by a central planning organizations that optimizes the social costs or criteria for society issues , but on the basis of market prices of alternative products and technologies . Ultimately, comparisons between new technologies should be done based on lifecycle assessments for achieving sustainability or at lest an improvement on it.

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Advertisements Car safety is an issue that concerns people across the Nation. Millions of Americans die each year due to fatal car accidents. The demand for safer automobiles is ever increasing. The Saturn Corporation recognizes this demand and has begun focusing its advertisements on America's need to feel safe. Saturn brings together setting, color, and a main focus to create the image of a safe car company. In one particular Saturn ad, a Saturn worker stands in a room surrounded by crash test dummies. The dummies in the background are stacked in a cluttered way. The piles of test dummies in the are meant to symbolize bodies. Saturn knows that the reader won't see inanimate objects, but actual human beings, because that is what the dummies are meant to portray. The rea...

Constitution a Radical Departure from the Articles of Confederation? Essay

In 1787 the Articles of Confederation were discarded and the constitution of the United States was created. The articles of confederation created a very weak national government. It gave limited power to government and more power to states. The main organ of the government was a unicameral legislature, in which each state would have one vote. The weakness of the national government was shown by the fact that it could not levy taxes, regulate commerce, or raise an army. Financial problems occurred after the war. National government had large war debts, and by the terms of the Articles of Confederation the national government could not tax. This led for them to print large amounts of paper money in which caused inflation making the money worthless. Many of these problems led to people wanting a stronger central government. In 1787, delegates from the 13 states went to Philadelphia to amend the Articles of Confederation. Debates quickly turned away from reforming the Article of Confederation to creating a new national government. Most delegates believed that the central government had to be much stronger with the ability to collect taxes, raise an army, and regulate commerce. However they feared that too much power would fall into the hands of a small group, who would take advantage of it. All of this led to the creation of the Constitution of the United States. It established a stronger federal government, a bicameral legislature, three branches of government, and the division of power between states and the federal government. This help the United States be more stable economically by being able to tax. It also help sm all states have a voice against bigger states. It also instated a more practical system of passing federal laws and making amendments by requiring only a two-thirds majority vote.

Helen Pitts Douglass, Wife of Frederick Douglass

Born Helen Pitts (1838 - 1903), Helen Pitts Douglass was a suffragist and abolitionist in the 19th century. She is best known for marrying politician and abolitionist reformer Frederick Douglass, an interracial marriage considered surprising and scandalous at the time. Fast Facts: Helen Pitts Douglass Full Name:  Helen Pitts DouglassOccupation: Suffragist, reformer, and abolitionistBorn: 1838 in Honeoye, New YorkDied: 1903 in Washington, D.C.Known For: A white woman who married the mixed-race abolition leader Frederick Douglass, Helen Pitts Douglass was an advocate in her own right and pushed for abolition, suffrage, and her husbands legacy.Spouse: Frederick Douglass (m. 1884-1895) Early Life and Work Helen Pitts was born and raised in the small town of Honeoye, New York.  Her parents, Gideon and Jane Pitts, had abolitionist views and participated in anti-slavery work. She was the oldest of five children, and her ancestors included Priscilla Alden and John Alden, who had come to New England on the Mayflower. She was also a distant cousin of President John Adams and of President John Quincy Adams. Helen Pitts attended a female seminary Methodist seminary in nearby Lima, New York.  She then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, founded by Mary Lyon in 1837, and graduated in 1859. A teacher, she taught at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, a school founded after the Civil War for the education of freedmen.  In poor health, and after a conflict in which she accused some local residents of harassing students, she moved back to the family home at Honeoye. In 1880, Helen Pitts moved to Washington, DC, to live with her uncle.  She worked with Caroline Winslow on The Alpha, a women’s rights publication, and began to be more outspoke in the suffrage movement. Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass, the well-known abolitionist and civil rights leader and ex-slave, had attended and spoke at the 1848 Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention. He was an acquaintance of Helen Pitts’ father, whose home had been part of the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad.  In 1872 Douglass had been nominated – without his knowledge or consent – as the vice presidential candidate of the Equal Rights Party, with Victoria Woodhull nominated for president. Less than a month later, his home in Rochester burned down, possibly the result of arson.  Douglass moved his family, including his wife, Anna Murray Washington, from Rochester, NY, to Washington, DC. In 1881, President James A. Garfield appointed Douglass as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Helen Pitts, living next door to Douglass, was hired by Douglass as a clerk in that office. He was often traveling and was also working on his autobiography; Helen Pitts helped him in that work. In August, 1882, Anne Murray Douglass died.  She had been ill for some time.  Douglass fell into a deep depression.  He began to work with Ida B. Wells on anti-lynching activism. Married Life On January 24, 1884, Frederick Douglass and Helen Pitts were married in a small ceremony officiated by the Rev. Francis J. Grimkà ©, at his home. Grimkà ©, a leading black minister of Washington, had also been born into slavery, also with a white father and a black slave mother. His father’s sisters, the famous women’s rights and abolitionist reformers Sarah Grimkà © and Angelina Grimkà ©, had taken in Francis and his brother Archibald when they discovered the existence of these mixed-race nephews, and had seen to their education.  The marriage seems to have taken their friends and families by surprise. The notice in the New York Times (January 25, 1884) highlighted what were likely to be seen as the scandalous details of the marriage: â€Å"Washington, January 24. Frederick Douglass, the colored leader, was married in this city this evening to Miss Helen M. Pitts, a white woman, formerly of Avon, N.Y.  The wedding, which took place at the house of Dr. Grimkà ©, of the Presbyterian church, was private, only two witnesses being present. The first wife of Mr. Douglass, who was a colored woman, died about a year ago. The woman he married to-day is about 35 years of age, and was employed as a copyist in his office. Mr. Douglass himself is about 73 years of age and has daughters as old as his present wife.† Helen’s parents opposed the marriage because of Douglasss mixed-race heritage (he was born to a black mother but a white father), and stopped speaking to her.  Frederick’s children were also opposed, believing it dishonored his marriage to their mother. (Douglass had five children with his first wife; one, Annie, died at age 10 in 1860.) Others, both white and black, expressed opposition and even outrage at the marriage. However, they had support from some corners.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, longtime friend of Douglass though at a key point a political opponent over the priority of women’s rights and black men’s rights, was among the defenders of the marriage.  Douglass responded with some humor, and was quoted as saying â€Å"This proves I am impartial. My first wife was the color of my mother and the second, the color of my father.†Ã‚  He also wrote, â€Å"People who had remained silent over the unlawful relations of white slave masters with their colored slave women loudly condemned me for marrying a wife a few shades lighter than myself. They would have had no objection to my marrying a person much darker in complexion than myself, but to marry one much lighter, and of the complexion of my father rather than of that of my mother, was, in the popular eye, a shocking offense, and one for which I was to be ostracized by white and black alike.† Helen was not the first relationship Douglass had had aside from his first wife. Beginning in 1857, Douglass had carried out an intimate relationship with Ottilie Assing, a writer who was a German Jewish immigrant. Assing apparently thought he would marry her, especially after the Civil War, and believed that his marriage to Anna was no longer meaningful to him. She left for Europe in 1876, and was disappointed that he never joined her there.  The August after he married Helen Pitts, she, apparently suffering from breast cancer, committed suicide in Paris, leaving money in her will to be delivered to him twice a year as long as he lived. Frederick Douglass’ Later Work and Travels From 1886 to 1887, Helen and Frederick Douglass traveled together to Europe and Egypt.  They returned to Washington, then from 1889 to 1891, Frederick Douglass served as the US minister to Haiti, and Helen lived with him there.  He resigned in 1891, and in 1892 to 1894, he traveled extensively, speaking against lynching.   In 1892, he began to work on establishing housing in Baltimore for black renters. The following year, Douglass was the only African American official (as a commissioner for Haiti) at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  Radical to the end, he was asked in 1895 by a young man of color for advice, and he offered this: â€Å"Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!† Douglass returned to Washington from a lecture tour in February 1895 despite declining health. He attended a meeting of the National Council of Women on February 20, and spoke to a standing ovation. On returning home, he had a stroke and heart attack, and died that day. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the eulogy which Susan B. Anthony delivered. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Working to Memorialize Frederick Douglass After Douglass died, his will leaving Cedar Hill to Helen was ruled invalid, because it lacked enough witness signatures.  Douglass’ children wished to sell the estate, but Helen wanted it as a memorial to Frederick Douglass.  She worked to raise funds to establish it as a memorial, with the help of African American women including Hallie Quinn Brown. Helen Pitts Douglass lectured her husbands  history to bring in funds and raise public interest.  She was able to buy the house and adjoining acres, though it was heavily mortgaged. She also worked to have a bill passed that would incorporate the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association. The bill, as originally written, would have had Douglass’ remains moved from Mount Hope Cemetery to Cedar Hill. Douglass’ youngest son, Charles R. Douglass, protested, citing his fathers wish to be buried at Mount Hope - and insulting Helen as a mere companion for Douglasss later years as well. Despite this objection, Helen was able to get the bill passed through Congress to establish the memorial association. As a sign of respect, however, Frederick Douglass’ remains were not moved to Cedar Hill; Helen instead was buried at Mount Hope as well in 1903. Helen completed her memorial volume about Frederick Douglass in 1901. Near the end of her life, Helen Douglass became weakened, and was unable to continue her travels and lectures. She enlisted the Rev. Francis Grimkà © in the cause.  He convinced Helen Douglass to agree that if the mortgage had not been paid at her death, the money raised from the property being sold would go to college scholarships in Frederick Douglass’ name. The National Association of Colored Women was able, after Helen Douglass’ death, to purchase the property, and to keep the estate as a memorial, as Helen Douglass had envisioned.  Since 1962, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home has been under the administration of the National Park Service.  In 1988, it became the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. Sources Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. 1881.Douglass, Helen Pitts. In Memoriam: Frederick Douglass. 1901.Harper, Michael S. â€Å"The love letters of Helen Pitts.† TriQuarterly. 1997.Marriage of Frederick Douglass. The New York Times, 25 Jan. 1884. https://www.nytimes.com/1884/01/25/archives/marriage-of-frederick-douglass.html