With gas prices in some areas reaching a whopping $5.00, and the national average at $4.02, it’s a sign from the man upstairs that we seriously need to do something about our emissions and the U.S. carbon footprint.
As Americans cut back on gas, they are also finding different ways to get to work, and around their town, that don’t include the easy “buy a fuel efficient car” mentality that most Americans have nowadays. Some of these ways include taking the bus; getting a group of people at work, or that work in a relatively close area, and take turns picking everyone up and driving them to work and back; riding their bikes to work, and many different and creative ways.
I also found a great channel for those of you with Digital Cable (Satellite users…I don’t know if the companies offer this channel), it’s called Planet Green. This channel offers shows, and covers topics, on every aspect of a person’s life…from home to work, and from the classroom to recreation. A great website that compliments this channel really well is, and don’t be mistaken by the name…it truly is a great site, Treehugger.Com. This site not only educates people on what global warming is and the effects of the greenhouse gases, but it informs people on 1) how to go green; 2) Gives links on buying green items; 3) Gives links for “green gifts”; and 4) Gives areas (forums, blogs, etc.) on where people can discuss what’s going on in today’s world, different ways people have gone green, etc.
Sorry that I have not posted in a few weeks, but school ended, I graduated, and I have been figuring out what I want to do now with my life. But as I was watching C-SPAN yesterday, I saw Congressman Rohrabacher give a speech on global warming…I saw it yesterday but it was from May 14, 2008 in the House of Representatives.
In his speech he says that “The debate is over. Al Gore has his Nobel Prize, and the film, “An Inconvenient Truth”, its Academy Award. So shut up and get your mind in lockstep with the politically correct prevailing wisdom, or at least what the media tells us is the prevailing wisdom. And no questions please, the case is closed.” About a third of the way through his speech to congress, Rohrabacher says that it was because of the Clinton Administration, along with Al Gore, that this idea of a “man-made warming crisis” was first brought to light. What I have noticed with Congressman Rohrabacher’s comments and the productivity of our government to combat global warming is that we as citizens have to start taking the initiative to change things. We have to change our daily habits, tell our friends of the benefits of changing, and make sure they get the same…if not better…results as we did. The federal government is not going to change anything, even if bills are passed in one branch of legislation. We have seen this time and time again where it passes in the House but then is turned down in the Senate, or visa versa. Our government is all talk with no or very minimal action. This can be seen in Bush’s “turning of his back” on the Kyoto Protocol in 2005. If our government really and truly wanted to make change a reality, then they would have realized a long time ago that no new regulations or bills need to be passed to create change. All they would have to do is actually abide by the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and many other acts that state businesses and individuals may not do certain things if they harm, this case, the air, water, and endangered species.
But why listen to me, I’m only and average person, right?
Here is the file to my PowerPoint. I was unable to make upload my video, and then I was also unable to send it to my instructor although I tried multiple times!!!globalwarming1
On April 14th, Bush was said by many to be close to proposing a Global Warming initiative that would put the debate to rest, and move congress in the direction of implementing solutions. But with this, Republicans say he’s making a mistake while Democrats think he could be “igniting runaway legislation”. What politicans don’t understand is that new laws and/or regulations do not need to be thought up. Like the article says, enviornmentalists say that strict enforcement can be made under the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, or even the National Environmental Policy Act…which by the way, the environmentalists have persuded in lawsuits against failing corporations.
An article in today’s New York Times stated “now, with recent data showing an unexpected rise in global emissions and a decline in energy efficiency, a growing chorus of economists, scientists and students of energy policy are saying that whatever benefits the cap approach yields, it will be too little and come too late”. In the past few years the focus on debates about global warming has been on emissions policy rather then technology policy. As India and China, and other developing nations, grow at a tremendous rate to try and play catch-up with the Western World, developed nations need to change their strategy on how to tackle this increasing threat. In this article, many economists and politicians agree that emission caps must be enforced, but a new wave of information that shows rising emissions and a cutback in technology research funding says differently. A larger emphasis should be in place to get low-carbon emitting technologies out on the market as soon as possible, in some hopes to help developing nations not lose an economic ground (which is the fear if funding for research is put into place rather then getting the technology out to “the people”).
For more information, you can read the article at…http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/weekinreview/06revkin.html?ref=environment
On Wednesday, March 26th, an article was posted on redorbit.com stating that Lake Tahoe could be in danger due to global warming. Specifically, the bottom water layers of the lake could be depleted of all oxygen, and the lake could see an increase of invasive fish species like carp, bluegill, and large-mouth bass.
Lake Tahoe is a diamond in the ruff when considering lakes because it has a circulation system of the water that allows nutrient-rich water to spread throughout the lake and, while doing so, allows for oxygen to reach all depths of the lake. Once this process ends so does the unique aquatic-ecosystem that the lake supports. Not only that, but tourism to the Reno-Tahoe area will thus decline. This would have the same effect as if Las Vegas were to run out of water…eventually, the people would leave and build another gambling metropolis.
For more information on the study conducted by the University of California – Davis, visit the following websites:
This episode of Scorched Earth talked about the realities of “Green” technology. They talked about the “true costs of Ethanol technology (also known as E-85 fuel)”. The main place in the US that this technology is produced is in “The Kuwait of the US”, also known as Iowa and its corn fields. The nation has 139 stations and produces about 6 billion gallons per year. The weird part is that 17.4 billion tax dollars is also spent on this technology per year. Also, each of the four remaining presidential nomanies have stated that E-85 technology is the first step towards an independent energy source. The speaker of the house is quoted as saying, “Give the Midwest the money, not the Middle East.” Although the technology sounds good, the production of ethanol is not. Most companies use coal in their production, and the pollution into the Mississippi River has created a “dead zone” where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico. A fact, if all the corn were used to produce ethonal it would only be enough for 7% of all E-85 cars. This means that an E-85 vehicle needs to keep stopping by a pumping station because the car needs more ethanol then the tank can handle. A farmer in Iowa whose crops are used to produce ethonal is quoted as saying, “We should rethink the production of ethanol to make it more cost efficient for the consumers.”
Here is a great video that describes the same issues that were brought up in Scorched Earth. The key phrase you should pay attention to is the quote by the Senator from Indiana, “As we produce ethanol in more efficient ways, it will reduce the greenhouse gases.”
Yesterday, Feb. 25th, on the History Channel, was a show called “Modern Marvels: Environmental Tech”. This show discussed many different ”green technologies” that are being developed in the North America to help combat the effects of global warming.
The first technology that they featured was at an oil field in Saskatchewan, Canada. This oil field produces about 515 million barrels of oil in a day. What is interesting about these oil deposits is that they are not stored in just liquid form, but stored in the pores of the surrounding rock material (kind of like a oil in a sponge you could say). The company use to pump water into the ground to help get the surface pores taken care of, but what they soon found out was that their production was decreasing at a steady rate per month. What they decided to adopt was a method of pumping pressurized CO2 (which then acts like a liquid) into the ground, thus the CO2 bonds with the oil making one cohesive liquid that can then be pumped out of the ground. The company, which I didn’t catch the name of while watching the show, gets its CO2 from a coal company in North Dakota. The company burns the coal, captures the CO2, and then pumps it to the Canadian company. Originally, it was thought that the company would only be able to produce oil until 2015, but because of this new method of extraction, it is possible that the company will still be able to produce oil well after the year 2045.
Next, the show featured the Redhawk Generating Plant in Tucson, Arizona. What is great about this company is that it produces cattle feed, bio fuel, and ethanol fuel from natural gas, but does not harm the atmosphere one bit. How is this done? Well, the company pipes in natural gas…thus creating CO2 and water. The company then created storage tanks for the CO2 that contained non other then algae. Yes, you read it correctly…ALGAE!!! The algae actually eat the CO2 and then multiply to eat more CO2; the only bi-product being O2 or oxygen that is then pumped back into the air. The extra contents of algae are then used to create the ethanol, bio fuel, etc.
Following the Redhawk Generating Plant was the piece on green homes and buildings, even skyscrapers. First off was a house in Santa Monica, California. The house uses steel framing; does not use formaldehydes; costs $250 per Sq.ft. but can quickly pay for itself through the years as the owners save on their electricity bills, water bills, etc; first house to use LED lights, lots of windows, which cool the house during the summer (cross ventilation) and heats it during the winter (like it gets that cold in L.A.), and uses water to heat the home…through the floors which can be more energy efficient if done properly. Next up was the Solaire building and the Hearst Tower. The Solaire uses 55% less water then most buildings. This is done through the implementation of a “green-roof”. This green-roof actually captures rainwater, and then turns around to use it for the cooling system of their air conditioning units, for water features, for drinking, restrooms, etc. The wate is filtered through a 4 layers that contain recycled products as well as actual organisms (one the first two layers). The same is done at the Hearst Tower in New York City, but the only difference is the tower does not contain a green-roof. It to captures the rainwater which is then stored in one 14,000 gallon tank. The tower reused materials from the original Hearst building which saved on money and new materials used. One unique feature of the Hearst Tower is the use of its triangular framing. The triangular framing allows for less steel to be used in the whole tower and allows for the most sunlight into the building–>this alone will use about 10% less electricity thean a normal building.
**Some fun facts from the show**
1) If every American would change 1 incondescent light bulb with a flourescent, that would be like removing 800,000 cars from American highways.
2) A landfill in Florida is using plasma blasting technology to burn the garbage at 10,000 degrees fahrenheit. The amount of garbage burned will then be used to power 36,000 homes and businesses.
More information on the Hearst Tower…watch the movie below!!!
Anderson Cooper, this past Thursday on CNN, hosted an episode of his show “AC: 360″ called “Extreme Challenges: The Next Four Years”. This show discussed some of the challenges that the newly elected president, of the United States of course, will have to deal with from day 1. Issues in this episode range from the US economy to Foreign Policy. But the issue that I focused on was global warming. Two of Anderson’s guests stated that recent studies have shown that to effect global warming the globe has to reduce it emissions by 30%, and need to take serious action in cutting the emissions even further within the next 5-10 years. One solution given was that the US needs to come together with China & India (becuase the Kyoto Protycol is up in 2012) (850 new coal producing factories will be built in India & China during this time) to come up with a solution where the US and other nations give subsidies to these to giants.
The United States should take the lead on tackling global warming because we can’t wait for this “We won’t do something unless China and India aren’t on board as well,” to take affect (the main reason why the US didn’t sign the Kyoto treaty). The reason why China and India aren’t on board is because they say “we won’t see the effects for another 20-30 years and by that time we could have increased our nations capital 10-fold.”
The next president needs to realize just how expensive switching to a “Green Economy” will actually be. It is said that this presidency will be the toughest since Franklin Roosevelt took office. The main thing is that governments and corporations, and nations need to come to an understanding that bringing a change to global warming is the most important thing to society, their nation, and their corporation (a lot of experts see billions that could be made in the “Green Market”).
***The following video is a trailer to another show by Anderson Cooper, on CNN, called “A Planet in Peril”…and it goes more indepth on the issue of global warming and its potential effects on society; some that can be seen already. It even goes into the corporation envolvment in this issue.***
On January 27th, on the History Channel, I watched a show called “A Global Warning?” which was on global warming, its effects, and what society can do to reverse the effects.
The first portion of the show talked about the history of global warming and how scientists can prove it just by looking at the past. The scientists interviewed are quoted as saying, “To look into the future, we must look into the past (in this case the past 650 million years).” 650 million years ago there was a period called “Snowball Earth”. During this period, ice covered the entire globe…that’s right, the ENTIRE globe including the equator. CO2 levels at this time dropped significantly, thus causing the temperature to decrease and the formation of ice. One aspect of an object that was discussed is called Albedo, which is the ability for an object to reflect sunlight (i.e. the oceans have a low albedo, while snow has high albedo). The scientists proved this by placing a black square and a white square on the surface of the snow, in the North Pole. They let the two squares sit in the sun for about 5 minutes; when they came back and took the temperature of each, they found that the black square was 99 degrees fahrenheit, while the white square was the same temperature as it was outside (I believe it was around -25 degrees). The scientists then predicted a scenario that could occur once the heat of global warming passed. In this scenario, the snow would cover the surface of Earth and its major cities, and after some time, the snow would then turn to ice causing possible power outages, the taking away of our food resources, etc.
After the commercial, the program comes back to describe how Earth came out of the “Snowball”. Below the crust, the planet began to experience increases in convection, thus an increase in volcanic activity at the surface. Because volcanoes dump tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, Earth began to warm. The lava fields of Siberia poured out magma for 1 million years causing the CO2 levels to increase (about 10 times the amount of current CO2 levels). About 250 million years ago the Earth goes to an extreme, so extreme that the surface became hot, partched deserts. 95% of all Earth’s species went extinct, also known as “The Great Mystery” from a geological standpoint in the rock layers. It was becuase of this increase in the temperature that caused not only the Earth to heat up, but it also choked the animals to death.
Over the next few million years, the planet began to cool. But about 55 million years ago, the temperature again increased but this time it was not because of CO2. In 2004, scientists discovered a water fern in a core sample from the arctic. They found that at the time of the water fern, the arctic was actually tropical, and that volcanic eruptions + oceanic bursts of methane (which is 26 times more potent of a greenhouse gas then CO2) = the increase in temperature. As of right now, about 3,000 times the amount of methane found in the core is actually trapped in its solid form (Methan Hydrate) at the bottom of the ocean, marshes, bogs, etc. That means that if the water was to warm up, significantly, then the Methane is realised into the atmosphere…and if this happens, we could be doomed! Not only is Methane a dangerous greenhouse gas, but it is also flammable. It could spell disaster for the planet on a nuclear scale, as far as the energy realised from the explosion.
So, exactly how fast are the oceans warming? Scientists have found out this by how fast the corals, in the various reefs around the world, are growing. To analyze coral is like analyzing the age of a rock layers, the wider the distance between the bands the older fast it was deposted (in this case, growing). A group of scientists took a sample from a coral in the Florida Keys, and the years from the 1700’s to the 1970’s. They found that the coral bands were thinner in the 1700’s then in the 1970’s (thus, 1970’s = warmer then 1700’s).
About 125,000 years ago, sea levels rose and fell multiple times. James Kroll discovered that because of the gravitational pulls from the planets, moon, and sun…that this causes a “tilt” and change in the orbit around the sun, thus the seasons change or are more extreme/at different times/last a lot longer. When the orbit becomes elliptical, the Earth should be cooling, but the opposite is currently happening. 3 feet of sea rise would impact major coastal cities like Miami, Athens, London, Shanghi, and countries like Bangladesh that are close to sea level. But if the sea rise 20 feet, scientists don’t even want to imagine this possibility. Proof of this can be seen in the effects of Hurrican Katrina, in 2005…and just imagine if the sea levels were just a few feet higher, how much damage would have been caused.
