Jun
03
2010
Plate tectonics can cause so more problems that you may know about. Some people during this project have done some studies on Volcanoes. Well, with the plates moving it can causes the formation of volcanoes. Which means a higher emission of CO
2 going to be released into the air. Also, the shifting of the plates can change the altitude of the land. This can change the temperature the land for hot to cold, for example. Not to mention, it can change the entire global atmospheric circulation.
The plates move around due to them being on the water. You can tell that these plates are moving due to the fact that we have earthquakes. Earthquakes, are caused by the shifting of the tectonic plates. When ever two or more tectonic plates slide on each other that causes the
earthquake. Another thing the shifting of the plates can cause the ocean currents to change. This can cause an ocean current that sends warm water up to the northern hemisphere and turns into a current that sends cold water to the southern hemisphere. As you can see these plates are just some little thing that we shouldn’t take lightly.
Jun
03
2010
In my last post I was talking about capturing carbon. As I was researching that topic, I came across something related that I think is pretty interesting. Re-using carbon! I didn’t know that this was really possible, at all! Carbon can be converted into hydrocarbon, and this can be stored and used as fuel, or be used to make plastic. However, this is not considered a
greenhouse gas remediation but it’s still useful! There are already electric powered cars used as a renewable energy for carbon neutral driving. However, there is no option like this for planes, so this is where this comes in handy. Scrubbing the carbon dioxide from the air would help the aviation maintain a
low carbon economy.
When I came across this, I thought that it was really amazing. But then you have to think about where carbon is
already used. This includes the fizz/bubbles in soft drinks, dry ice, compressed gases, the tire air for bicycles, in greenhouses, some fire extinguishers, removing caffeine from coffee, and in oil wells to enhance oil recovery.
Jun
03
2010
How is it possible to capture carbon? I know plants do it, but they use it for photosynthesis. So, we remove the carbon from the air by getting it from large sources, like fossil fuel power plants. We can also catch it in the regular air, but that’s trickier because of the other gases in the air, as in oxygen, so you’d have to scrub the carbon out. Now, after bagging the carbon, you have to transport it. The cheapest and most used way would be through a pipeline. Storing is the next step, but that’s the trickiest because how can you contain a gas for a long period of time? There are a couple options and those are geological, ocean, and mineral storage. These are, of course, not fail-proof and leaks occur. These leaks are dangerous and have killed animals and even people!
Capturing carbon is a great idea and great option to have, but there are also dangers involved. We haven’t quite perfected the storage part, and that’s the crucial part. However, I believe that they will improve upon their methods and the leaks will become less common.
Jun
02
2010
Due to global warming, the arctic will lose 2/3rds of the entire polar bear population over the next 50 years. Polar Bear’s deaths, due to global warming are increasing and becoming a serious concern. Studies show that polar bears may face a possible extinction if the number of deaths continue to increase. Polar bears are having a difficult time finding food. The food shortage will soon lead to food starvation which will be another issue that polar bears will have to face. If nothing is done to try and reverse the danger global warming, the polar bears will lose the arctic weather that they depend on and soon become extincted. Just think of this as if it were happening to humans: if we were all were poor and had no food or shelter. Don’t you think that we would die off too?
One thing that we can do to stop the effect of global warming on polar bears is to cut back on the carbon dioxide use, because it will stop the terrible wastes and help save our planet. Climate change is not only effecting polar bears. It’s effecting all living organisms. But polar bears it’s effecting the most because of there cold icy habitat. Since these animals habitats are decreasing there are fewer shelters. Fewer shelters means that there is a decrease in cub survival. Polar bears were pretty much made for what they live in. They have two layers of fur that can keep them comfortable even at temperatures 50degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
Jun
01
2010
There is one factor to climate change that we have not considered. This factor may be the drift of the tectonic plates. Each year the tectonic plates move 3 cm. So, even if you live for 100 years, you still won’t be able to tell that the continents have moved. Originally all the continents used to be connected, this was called Pangaea. Back then, when Antarctica was part of Pangaea, Antarctica used to have trees and not any types of glaciers. So, how did Antarctica get this way, if it had plants and vegetation all over the continent?
The reason why this happened, is because of Antarctica’s
total separation from the other continents (and yes the
Arctic does have some land close to it). At first, South America and Antarctica where moving together. They where the one of the last parts of the super-continent(Pangaea). Even though South America and Antarctica where connect, there was a narrow seaway between them. But, as time went on this seaway started to open up, and deepen. Then at one point, a major shift in the plates caused Antarctica and South America to separate. This caused the narrow passage to fill up with more water, ensuring that the to plates stayed separated.
May
28
2010
The one type of animal that we don’t tend to worry about are
lizards. We don’t worry about lizards because they are cold-blooded. A creature that is cold-blooded has a body temperature that changes according to the temperature it lives in. So, we all think that if the temperature increases, the temperature in the lizards would get to the same degree. Well, lizards need to bathe in the sun sometimes, but if it gets to hot, they need to go into the shade until the temperature has gone down. While they wait for the temperature to decrease they are unable to hunt for food. Finally, lizards are starting to become extinct because the climate change is affecting their reproduction.
A
herpetologist, at the University of California, goes out every summer to go look at lizards. But, he says that each year they are getting harder and harder to find. The researcher, Barry Sinervo, has found out that, since 1975, Mexico’s lizard population has gone down by 12%. Barry and his colleagues went out to test the theory of the areas where some lizards have gone extinct and where lizards are found. Over the course of four months of recording data, they found that where lizards had gone extinct have had their hunting time reduced to critical levels. But, the lizards in the area where they are found had mild weather, and they had enough time to go hunting without getting to much sun. The device they used was called a
“electronic lizards”, these device measured the temperature using thermal sensors.
May
28
2010
I just remembered a project that I took part in my art class last year. My art teacher decided to collect plastic caps, like from water bottles, soda bottles, juice bottles, etc. She put a basket outside her class and let people drop off all there old caps.
Turns out that when you send the bottles to be recycled, the recycling company doesn’t recycle the caps, so it’s better to just throw them away. This is because the lids are not usually made from the same kind of plastic as the bottles. Therefore, they shouldn’t be mixed because they contaminate each other and reduces their value as a material. Also, these caps could be dangerous in the recycling facility because they could jam the machines. So, Ms. Demaio (my art teacher) decided she didn’t want people to just waste their caps by throwing them away, and said that we should make beautiful art out of them!
So that we did. It took about a month to collect enough for our art projects, but it was worth the wait. We had to sort through the sizes and colors. We
hadsmall caps, medium caps, large caps, orange caps, green caps, purple caps, yellow caps, red caps, blue caps, white caps, silver caps, and so on. We had every color of the rainbow! This was a great project. We got to make dazzling art projects, and helped the environment as well by keeping all those caps out of landfills and recycling facilities. It was our own form of upcycling!
May
27
2010
I recently did a post on a really cool way on how to help the oil spill with hair mats. One of the comments I got, was to see if anything else soaked up oil. At first I wasn’t all that interested in it, but as I looked into it, it seemed very interesting. People are starting websites that are asking what they think we should do about the spill. People have been submitting ideas, and some are realistic, and other not so much.
People think that putting a cork in the place where it is leaking may work, or even freezing the oil. They really think that oilsicles would be a great idea! They think that maybe they can make oilsicles to be picked up and sold. The government officials are getting flooded with ideas of ways to prevent the oil from reaching the beaches. It is a great way to see what local people who are being effected by the spill want do to stop it and help it.
One of the better ideas that keeps coming up is using hay.
Darryl Carpenter, thought of this whole thing. Darryl, vice president of a contracting company was sitting in his office when he thought of this plan. He and some coworkers tested this theory, and it turns out that it really works. So, hair isn’t the only thing that can suck up the oil. All we need is enough hay and hair to combine together and help the spill. Unfortunately, I don’t think that just hair mats and piles of hay is going to stop this spill. As of today, May 27th, the spill has been going on for 38 days. Everybody nationwide is in awe seeing how bad this spill is getting, and nobody knows how we will put an end to it. The day we do, everybody will be mesmerized. If anything ever happens like this again in the future we can learn from our mistakes.
May
27
2010
I am going deeper into the downcycling topic because of some comments I received on my last downcycling post. One of the questions I got was, “How long do things that are downcycled take to break down and decay in a landfill?” I, unfortunately, couldn’t find an answer for this. Every different phrase I used only brought up how only plastic is downcycled because things like glass and aluminum can be recycled and used again as the same product. Plastic can’t do this. Plastic can only be changed into lesser quality products, through downcycling but can’t be recycled. Like after being a water bottle, the plastic couldn’t be used to be a water bottle again.
The other question I was asked was, “If something is downcycled only one or two times can it still be recycled?” So, as I explained in my last paragraph, after something like paper or plastic bottles are used, they cannot be used as the same item again. People say that downcycling is also known as
downstream recycling. So, if you really think about it, downcycling is recycling.
So, I hope this answered your questions about downcycling. If you have anymore, just comment.
May
27
2010
Do you think the climate change will affect the economy? I definitely do. There are many reasons why it will. The first thing is if there really is a link between climate change and natural disasters. There will be a link from natural disasters to the countries economy. Natural disasters happen everywhere and there is no way to stop them. The only thing we can do at the time is predict and find safe shelter. I believe that there will never be a way to stop any natural disaster. But when it hits, it will also hit out economy and growth. and that is a perfect reason why climate change affects the economy. Also when I was researching for my last post I read that the warmer it gets the bigger some disasters will get. If an earthquake happens in the U.S. and takes down multiple buildings, maybe even one building. It will be costly to clean up and repair. As a matter of fact it will be costly to every U.S. citizen. Citizens would get charged in a direct or indirect way.
What do you think happened after Hurricane Katrina hit? We had to rebuild because people were living without homes and others were hurt. That definitely cost a lot of money. I did a little research and found out that our president before Obama, Bush had requested money from the congress, and they gave a total of 16.7 billion dollars in Federal funds under HUD which is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments. This is a program that helps rebuild housing and different infrastructure. The way the climate is changing mean it could be a huge change to the economy. But it also doesn’t mean they have to be bad changes. In many articles it says the sooner we act, the better off we will be.
