Current Event 5/30/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/on-climate-change-its-money-vs-mouth/ This article is about how many big companies like ExxonMobil, General Electric, Caterpillar and Boeing all claim to support climate change science, but in reality go behind consumers backs and greatly contribute to politicians and research groups that deny threat of global warming. These companies put out in image to the world that they believe in as well as want to stop climate change. The Union of Concerned Scientists researched and found out that in actuality, these companies are donating large amounts of money to support groups and funds that try to play down global warming and its causes.

Current Event 5/16/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/a-new-tactic-for-climate-skeptics/ I chose this blog because just the other day we discussed and learned about the unabomber. The company, Heartland, used Ted Kaczynski on their billboard to stop global warming. The billboard read, “I still believe in global warming. Do you?” with a picture of his face right next to this saying. Within hours of the billboard being posted, it was taken down due to the shocked reactions of people passing by. The company has been known to use dramatic images and people to get their message across such as Charles Manson, Fidel Castro, Osama bin Laden and James J. Lee. The Heartland Institute does not apologize for the dramatic billboard and they "will continue to experiment with ways to communicate the ‘realist’ message on the climate.”

Current Event 5/9/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/07/sipping-from-the-garden-hose-think-again/ The Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental organization, released a study talking about potentially hazardous chemicals in gardening tools. They tested around 200 gardening products, including hoses, gloves, kneeling pads and tools for lead, cadmium, bromine, chlorine, phthalates and bisphenol A. They found that two-thirds of the products tested had contained levels of one or more chemicals in the allowable amount for consumers. 30 percent of products tested contained lead exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission‘s standard of 100 parts per million for children’s products. To show how chemicals can move from garden hoses to water, the researchers left a section of garden hose filled with water out in the sun over multiple days. When the water was tested after being out in the sun, it was found to exceed federal standards for safe drinking water for several chemicals, including four times the standard considered safe for phthalates, 18 times that for lead and 20 times that for BPA. THe link above includes the video discussing the study and results.

Current Event 4/25/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/on-our-radar-floating-wind-turbines/ This week, my blog is about the upcoming invention of floating turbines. Scientists are looking to design wind turbines that float in the ocean. Out in deep waters, winds are much stronger, creating a lot more energy than the standard turbines. Mexico’s Senate agrees with a change bill that calls for cutting the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. These turbines, are supposed to be the answer.

Current Event 4/11/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/on-facebook-some-friendly-energy-rivalry/

This week, my article is about how a company, Opower, created an app allowing people to post their energy usage bills online. This allows people to see how much other people are paying, even their neighbor right next door. This actually gives people the desire to lower their energy usage due to competition. When people see that their neighbor is paying hundreds of dollars less, it gives them the desire to improve due to competition, rather than knowing the basic fact that it is bad for the environment. People as well as the plant end up benefiting from this healthy competition.

Current Event 4/4/12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcWpkWBX04E

I think this video has a lot of interesting facts. I didn't realize how bad air pollution really was. I can't believe that in some places, like China, just breathing the air outside is equivalent to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day. I also didn't know that car pollution is up to 90 percent of the total air pollution. This makes me think that we definitely need a new way of transportation, because the pollution is already too much. If anything, I think we should make a better effort of carpooling and walking when possible to places.

Current Event 3/27/12

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/us/politics/new-rules-planned-on-school-vending-machines.html?_r=1&ref=nutrition

Since childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 30 years, people are looking in every direction to eliminate the bad food choices for children. Vending machines are a huge target, because studies show that kids eat about 50 percent of their daily food intake in school. With vending machines filled with candy, chips, cookies, and sugary drinks, there are many bad possibilities to intake. Some school districts question whether students would actually buy the healthy foods found in the school vending machines and school stores. Frequently, vending machines found with healthy snack alternatives are ignored, and kids bring snacks from home or buy them at local stores.

Current Event 3/21/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/on-our-radar-environmental-protest-in-moscow/

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/19/147506525/startup-converts-plastic-to-oil-and-finds-a-niche

A company in Niagra Falls has created a machine that turns plastics into efficient oil. Milk jugs, plastic bottles and grocery bags put into a machine to get vaporized and melted together. 90 Percent of plastics come out as oil, making the process highly efficient. The process works by rearranging the plastics hydrocarbon chains. Each barrel of oil costs about $10 to produce. JBI can sell it for around $100 through a national distributor.

Current Event 3/14/12

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30218-really-big-things-americas-landfills-video.htm

I found this video very interesting. I think it is really strange for people to spend money to line the ground like a pool, all to dump garbage in it. It looks really weird to prepare a 200 feet deep lined pool for trash to be dumped in, and then buried, and dumped on again. I never thought about how strange that really is. ALso, I don't understand how that is the most efficient way. Yes there is nothing going into the atmosphere..but we are burying garbage in a pool on the side of the road. I can't think of anything else, but I know that there has to be another better way to get rid of all of our garbage.

Current Event 3/7/12

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?pagewanted=all

My article this week is titled, "Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process" written by IAN URBINA. As the need for natural gas increased, so did the need for water because drilling for gas involves pumping millions of gallons of water into the ground, producing contaminated water rising to the surface. So, instead of finding a way to get rid of the water, drilling companies are starting to realize that they can reuse and recycle the wastewater. Although this sounds great, some methods can leave behind salt and/or radioactive material which can be dangerous if they flow into waterways. Other people are selling their wastewater. Because of the high salt content, people are buying it off of companies in order to melt snow on roadways.

February Break Blog

http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/plumbing/sewer2.htm

In the link above, there is a video of the show, "Dirty Jobs." In it, Mike Rowe takes on the job of a Septic Tank Technician. It shows how much physical labor actually goes into pumping out the Septic Tanks, and how the technicians use a flashlight and mirror to see into the septic tank to check if everything is functioning correctly. I found the next video even more interesting because Rowe goes into an actual sewage plant. Besides it smelling bad and looking gross, there are serious health problems that could occur while in the sewage plant. When the wastewater started rushing in, their hydrogen sulfide detectors when off. Hydrogen Sulfide paralyzes your senses, and then your breathing. Without the detector, they would pass out and drown. When it started to go off, they had to get out as soon as possible before the hydrogen sulfide started to take its effect on the two men. I found this interesting because I never realized that this job wasn't just dirty, but it was dangerous too.

Current Event 2/29/12

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/us/15water.html

My article is titled, "Saving U.S. Water and Sewer Systems Would Be Costly," written by CHarles Duhigg. It talks about how in Washington they were experiencing a problem; they can't deliver water. Because of the rain storms, every day a pipe is breaking causing untreated sewage to flow into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Studies indicate that the sewage systems are too old to function because som were built around the same time as the Civil War. People pay almost nothing for water, when it really holds a lot more value.

Current Event 2/15/12

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hydrogen-house

My article this week is called, "Inside the Solar-Hydrogen House: No More Power Bills--Ever" by David Biello. It is about how a 51 year old man, Mike Strizki, has not paid an electric, oil or gas bill in two full years using the fuel from the system he built in his own garage, consisting of photovoltaic (PV) panels to turn sunlight into electricity that is harnessed in turn to extract hydrogen from tap water. The total cost of the device was $500,000. Although this is more than what oil and water bills would ever add up to, Mike Strizki says that it is priceless as to what it does buy-not ever paying another heating or electric bill again and most importantly helping the environment and non contributing to pollution.

Here is a link to pictures of the house and inside of the garage:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow.cfm?id=hydrogen-house

Current Event 2/8/12

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-nuclear-energy
I was looking for an article about nuclear power and instead of an article I found this list of 11 interesting facts about nuclear energy. I thought that all of the facts were very interesting, especially the 2nd one. For some reason, I always thought that there were way more than 400 nuclear power plants worldwide. With these nuclear plants, over 2,000 tons of radioactive waste is produced. Here the 11 facts:
Nuclear power plants produce about 20 percent of America's power.

There are over 400 nuclear power plants worldwide.

While nuclear energy produces less waste than fossil fuels, its radioactive waste must be stored in special containers and buried beneath the earth's surface, typically in a mountain, until it is no longer hazardous.

Almost 3 million Americans live within 10 miles of an operating nuclear power plant.

Nuclear energy comes from uranium, a nonrenewable resource that must be mined.

In 2009, America produced 798.7 billion kilowatts of nuclear energy, more than twice that of any other country and over 30% of all the nuclear energy generated worldwide that year.

Nuclear power plants use nuclear fission (the process of splitting of an atom in two). Nuclear fusion (the process of combining atoms into one) has the potential to be safer energy because it is produced at a much lower temperature. However, nuclear fusion technology has not yet been developed to operate within a large power plant.

Every 18 to 24 months, a power plant must shut down to remove its spent uranium fuel, which has become radioactive waste.

United States power plants produce 2,000 metric tons of radioactive waste every year.

In 2008, nuclear power replaced an estimated 690 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Nuclear power plants generate nearly three-fourths of America's clean-air energy.

Current Event 2/1/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/less-than-50-years-of-oil-left-hsbc-warns/
My article is called "Less Than 50 Years Of Oil Left, HSBC Warns", by JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF. The title of this article itself is a huge wake up call-there are only 50 years until there is no oil left. Developing countries like CHina are estimated to put about 1 billion more cars on the road by mid-century. Karen Ward believes that this is a tremendous amount of pressure put on oil to power all of these resources. People are taking advantage of the amount of oil there is right now, but soon enough, it will all be gone and no one will be prepared for the outcome.

Current Event 1/18/12

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/business/04hybrid.html

This week my blog was titled "Say ‘Hybrid’ and Many People Will Hear ‘Prius’" by MICHELINE MAYNARD. It basically talks about how when people think of hybrids and eco-friendly cars, the only thing that comes to mind is the toyota Prius. This year, sales of this care have increased about 93.7 percent, selling as many cars in this year(2012) as all of 2006. This is a huge increase. Many people are switching over to the Prius because they like that it says to other people that they care about the environment and they want to make a change. The Prius has taken over hybrid cars.

Current Event 1/11/12

http://www.theonion.com/articles/geologists-we-may-be-slowly-running-out-of-rocks,17341/
My article is about how in about 500,000 years, the earth may run out of rocks. THe last time a significant amount of new rocks were created was about 3.5 billion years ago. It takes one rock millions of years to form, but it can only take a second for one to be gone forever. The article talks about how people used to treasure rocks, painting them and having them as pets. Now, they are thrown into the water and not wanted, and if this continues, they will be gone.

Current Event 1/4/12

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/inevitable-or-in-limbo-a-dam-for-the-mekong/

My article was called, "Inevitable, or in Limbo? A Dam for the Mekong" by RACHEL NUWER. It talks about how Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos are holding off on their plans to build a dam. Each side has a different opinion; scientists say that damming the river would be “reckless and irresponsible” given the many uncertainties about the project’s effects on the ecosystem and local people. Scientists also believe that holding off on the dam preserves the possibility of saving endangered species like the Mekong giant catfish from extinction.