Energy is defined as the ability to do work, which, for biology purposes, can be thought of as the ability to cause some kind of change. Energy is never lost, but it can be converted from one form to another. Energy drinks have become a very popular way to introduce massive amounts of sugar and caffeine into the human body. Any food or drink that provide calories can accurately be said to give energy, and energy drinks that are loaded with sugar provide a quick boost. However, refined sugar is detrimental to your health, and makes it difficult to maintain stable blood sugar, which is more conducive to consistently available energy. Caffeine [and guarana] don’t increase or assist in the production of adenosine triphosphate [ATP] at all. In fact, it simply blocks the binding adenosine. Far from giving you energy, caffeine actually just prevents you from realizing when you are out of energy.
hina’s rapid rate of economic growth has led to a high level of resource use and environmental degradation, therefore experiencing severe environmental problems. The Chinese government has therefore commissioned the OECD to conduct a study of the environment in 2007. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 36 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. This report discovered that by 2020, uncontrolled pollution would cause an approximate 600,000 premature deaths in urban areas, 20 million cases of respiratory illness per year and up to 7% of China’s annual GDP being lost due to pollution. If stronger environmental laws are not implemented, there is also a possibility for this number to rise to 13%. Furthermore, although the high-income OECD countries account for 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2006, China and other developing countries are responsible for an increasing share of the world’s total emissions. Also, China has an ever-rising per capita CO2 emission. This per capital carbon dioxide emission was 3.2 metric tonnes in 2003, compared to 19.9 metric tonnes in the USA, 10.3 metric tonnes in the Russian Federation and 1.2 metric tonnes in India. The World Bank estimated that China’s per capita emissions grew by 6.5% annually between 1970 and 2011 to 6.7 metric tonnes per capita. Moreover, as of 2013, China’s total CO2 emissions were estimated at 10,249.5 million metric tonnes (The World Bank), making it the largest polluting country in the world. However, in China there are also many other environmental problems aside from carbon emissions that are significant. For example, the OECD estimates that up to 300m people are drinking contaminated water on a daily basis, also, there have been a loss of natural grasslands and forests due to the expansion of industry and agriculture, a loss of topsoil, vegetation, lakes (15% since the 1950’s) and wetlands (26% since the 1950’s), shortages of water due to drought and insufficient irrigation systems and inadequate disposal of household and industrial waste (20% of solid waste/year is being properly disposed of). In order to battle these environmental problems, the Chinese government has set targets for reducing pollution levels by committing US$6.6b in 2015 in new spending, including the complete shutdown of coal fired power stations. China also signed the UNFCCC’s Paris Agreement in 2015 and agreed to peak its CO2 emissions in 2030 and launch a national cap and trade emissions programme in 2017.
The Australian government on the other hand, has a range of environmental policies to minimise the impact of government operations on the environment. There are also agency measures and targets for carbon emissions, energy, waste and resource use, as well as set mandatory environmental standards for incorporating sustainability into government procurements. However, like China, they seem to be needing some rethinking or modification. Australia’s emissions from fossil fuels and industry continue to rise, and based on the most recent quarterly inventory, are now 6% above 2005 levels and increasing at around 1% since 2014. Under current policies and taking into account the previous increase in levels of carbon emissions, Australia is headed for an increase of 9% above 2005 levels by 2030, rather than the 15-17% decrease required to meet the Paris Agreement target. Furthermore, as seen in the stimulus, the Australian Government has set a target to ‘reduce emissions by 26-28% below its 2005 levels by 2030 through a credible policy suite that is already reducing emissions, encouraging technological innovation and expanding our clean energy sector.’ Thus, to conclude, Australia ratified the Paris Agreement on 6 November 2016. Its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), includes a target of reducing GHG emissions, including land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF), by 26–28% below 2005 levels by 2030. However, current policies are projected to increase GHG emissions excluding LULUCF by about 9% above 2005 levels by 2030, relating highly to China’s extreme levels of CO2 emissions.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. China’s HDI value is 0.752 (2017), which puts the country in the high human development category at 86 out of 189 countries and territories, shared with Ecuador. Between 1990 an
