Energy QQC

Nuclear Power Risking a Comeback:

Quote: "Meanwhile, the U.S. tiptoes ahead. In the nation that gave it birth, nuclear power may get its second wind in a mowed field outside the quiet town of Port Gibson, Mississippi."

Question: Mississippi, from what I have seen, has a lot of farm land as well as a lot of agriculture. Wouldn't nuclear power and such ruin that?

Comment: I don't support the use of nuclear power because it seems to ruin people's health, even if it doesn't give off much emissions. For example, Nuclear bombs have a lot of radiation, and that never goes away--it just continues to spread. I even have friends who claim their family members who were in the war have health issues due to all of that radiation. I'm sure there's another way.

Clean Coal?:

Quote: "In the meantime the world's appetite for coal-fired electricity is expected to grow."

Question: Why? How?

Comment: How is there a larger demand of coal when there are so many new technologies that have been put on the market to reduce the demand? There's solar power, there's Hybrid-- even if these are only small fractions, every bit should count and reduce the demand for coal. Not only that, but there are still cars and such that are being developed that will be even more coal efficient. I personally believe that the demand for coal is going to decrease significantly as time goes on because the awareness of this issue is spreading substantially, and the wider the awareness, more action will be taken.

Weekend Work

Kickin’ It Old School (My Day in '83)

What did you do instead?

Instead of my usual, electronic-filled routine, I spent most of my time reading, and thinking about different things. It was pretty lonely at first, since I couldn’t really talk to anyone, and sometimes I’d hear my phone go off, but I couldn’t do anything about it. So eventually, I turned it off, and found other ways to spend my time.

I did a lot of walking, and staring, and my brother showed me the various clay figurines he made throughout the day: an elephant, a hippo, a dog, and a snake, I think it was. Turns out, he’s a pretty good artist.

One thing I didn’t get to do was listen to music, which made time pass by a lot slower. I only had CD’s, which I’m pretty sure didn’t come until the90’s or late 80’s. I would have looked it up, had I been able to use a computer…or the internet in general. I didn’t even have any tapes to listen to.

The day reminded me of when I was a kid, back when I loved my little books, and listened to goofy tapes to pass the time, and write on my etch-a-sketch. Those little gizmos would have came in handy today. I wished I knew where my old box of toys were, because I was pretty sure they would prove to be entertaining. Yes, this could have been my excuse for immaturity.

How did you communicate?

I talked using our house phone, and talked in person. There wasn’t much communication, and I’ve got to say, it’s pretty hard to persuade your parents to let you go out on your own without a way to stay in contact. I guess we’ve been spoiled by cell phones, a little. My mom told me that they used to have to use payphones sometimes, but they were supposed to be back before the street lights came on so their parents wouldn’t worry about them. That method has proven to be less effective now.

How did you get your news?

There was nothing really going on, so there wasn’t really any news to receive. I spent most of my time with my family members, and it was Sunday, so there wasn’t much going on. The closest thing I got to receiving news was when I heard my parents yelling about the football game upstairs, which I wasn’t interested in.

How did you entertain yourself?

I played the retro arcade Ms. Pacman game that we have in our living room/basement, read a book, wrote in my notebook, and rode my bike. I had fun doing all of this, because it was something I didn’t do often, anymore.

What was the most difficult gadget you had to give up and why? What about the least difficult sacrifice.

The most difficult gadget to give up was my cell phone, because it always came in handy when needed, and was my main way of talking to the people I knew. I noticed before that if I don’t have my cell phone with me, I feel pretty naked. There’s that constant feeling that something is missing, but it’s weird because I already knew what was missing, so it wasn’t as if I were confused. All in all, it felt a little awkward without having my phone in my pocket.

The easiest thing to give up was the TV, because I don’t really watch it anyway, since there doesn’t seem to be any interesting shows on to me. However, it would have been nice to watch on of the old 80’s movies I have.

Were there any surprises for you?
Nope, I’ve been doing this kind of thing throughout elementary and middle school days, so I’m used to it. However, I did find it interesting how dependent I had become on my cell phone. I’m a little curious about what might happen if I didn’t use technology past the early 80’s for an entire week or year. May someday along my little journey, I’ll experiment with that, and see what happens. It’d probably be good for me.

Let’s Talk About the Environment (My Conversation With My Mom)

For this assignment, I talked to my mom about the various types of energy, and how it’s effecting our environment.

To be honest, the conversation between my mother and I started off a little awkward, since it was simply an assigned topic, rather than a conversation we simply stumbled into like we usually do. So at first, we just started going through the list of questions, and answered what we thought on the matter, then attempt a conversation. After a couple of minutes, we got the basic gist of it, and got more into what we were both saying.

I think I had a bit of an advantage here after doing all that research on electricity and how it affects our environment, but I had already talked to my mother about this during the project, so I didn’t have very much new information to provide.

There were a couple questions we didn’t even understand, such as “how do we study global climate.” We both simply shrugged that off with the answer of meteorology. We got more interested once we hit question number six: “Why is there a disconnect between what science is telling us, and what the public and politicians are doing about our climate change?” We both recalled the recent proposition that had just been voted on that was to decide if we were to ignore our environmental restrictions until unemployment reached below five percent. We pointed out how ‘below five percent’ wasn’t an exact number, so they could drag on the whole ‘no environmental restrictions’ as long as they wanted to really. Not only that, but getting rid of environmental restrictions wouldn’t exactly change much when it came to employment. What jobs would they even offer? More tree-cutters, or something? Either way, I didn’t agree with the proposition, since I didn’t think it would be effective, and it doesn’t seem like we have been very concerned with the environment until recently. Were we really trying to turn back? But I’m glad the proposition didn’t pass.

When we started talking about morality and ethics, we thought about animals and Pocahontas. Cheesy, maybe, but it got the point across. We are both people who enjoy forests and such in moderation, and I personally have always felt a need to keep it clean and healthy. I can’t bring myself to litter. I’ve tried before, but I just couldn’t do it because it was just too annoying and inconsiderate, and make things look less pretty than they were. I guess nature just comforts me sometimes, and if it’s not taken care of, it’s harder to relax. However, I won’t lie, I am not a complete environmentalist. If I see a piece of garbage nearby, I don’t always pick it up.

Basically, we went through the questions, and the answers I described were of out longest conversations that stayed on one subject.

Quiz Questions

What are some good ways to conserve water?

A.) Don't leave the water running while brushing your teeth and washing dishes, use a broom to clean your driveway rather than a hose, shorten your shower by a minute or take a bath instead.

B.) Plant in the fall when there's more rain to use, collect the water you use to clean your vegetables and reuse it to water your plants, avoid watering your lawn on windy days.

C.) Be aware of your water use, use sprinklers only at night and in the morning to avoid evaporation turn off the water while you wash your hair.

D.) All of the above.

D is the best answer because doing all of those things listed above are good ways an individual can conserve hundreds of gallons each month. There are also many other ways you can conserve water just by changing your habits.

How can food distribution problems lead to famine?

A.) If one place gets more food than most, then there won't be enough material to supply the rest.

B.) If food is too widely distributed, then no one will get enough food.

C.) There isn't much of a food distribution problem. We've got it down to a science.

A is the best answer, because it is a problem the world is currently facing now. Some countries are getting much more food than they actually need, while others are getting close to nothing. If we didn't give so much extra food to certain countries there would be enough to feed millions of other people in other places.

What are some of the negative effects on human health caused by noise pollution?

A.) Cancer, nausea, and hearing loss.

B.) Headaches, hearing loss, and hearing deficiency.

C.) Insanity and rabies.

B is the best answer because all of the examples given are true. You cannot get cancer or rabies from noise pollution, thankfully.

Outdoor Classroom Goals (11/2/10)

Group: Outdoor Classroom

Personal Goals for the Week: Research the construction process for making the glass walls of the desk, design the desk, make up plan and script to gather materials for the desk, find out what pieces of furniture I can bring in from the upholstery store (since they have free stuff), brainstorm more ways to upholster the furniture with recycled materials.

Biome HW 2

(Other articles to be added soon)

Article: The Cruelest Place on Earth

Quote: "For an Afar woman, putting on her jewelry is like wearing her bank account. In a strictly male-dominated culture, it is one of the few things a woman owns. Jewelry serves as emergency insurance during severe droughts, says anthropologist Laura Hammond. "When lots of jewelry shows up for sale at markets, that can mean the people are facing a famine."

Question: How well are these women treated?

Comment: The quote "diamonds are a girl's best friend," comes to mind here. The quote above was only a single caption on the article about a specific tribe in a deadly desert, and even thought the rest of the article is extremely interesting, I'm very interested in learning more about the women.

According to this article, years ago, men had to kill an enemy tribesman before they could marry a woman. I'm not sure if that's something that says 'woman are something you must be able to protect,' or if it's simply a way of proving one's manhood. A coming of age sort of deal, perhaps? Either way, if one of the few things that the women in this tribe owns is her jewelry, I'm wondering how much respect women get over there, and if the revolution of 'feminism' has even been fathomed. All in all, I find other cultures such as this to be extremely thought provoking, which makes me curious to dig deeper and see these things for myself someday.

Aritcle: A Sea of Dunes/Indonesia Undersea

Quote: "The shark that walks: A two-foot-long (61 centimeters) epaulette shark propels itself on muscular fins near Fakfak. One of two new species of epaulettes discovered here, it swims if alarmed, but normally strolls, hunting crustaceans, snails, and small fish in coral crevices."

Question: Where is this wonderland? How deep is it under the Indonesian waters? How does this shark hunt?

Comment: This article just made me want to become a journalist all the more. The animals and reefs of this article wee gorgeous to say the least, not to mention really interesting since there were so many creatures that I didn't even know about. I quoted the walking shark caption because that creature in particular sounded fascinating to me. I'm very interested in how and where this shark hunts. Is it something like a bottom feeder? Why does it walk most of the time, rather than swim, if it's a hunter? Surely it must get most of it's pray from the surfaces it walks on.

Article: Life in The Desert

Quote: "In a rush of wings whipping the night air, as many as 500 bats a minute exit a shallow cave in the Pinacate and Grand Altar Desert Biosphere Reserve, a protected area within the Sonoran Desert just south of the Arizona border. Some 200,000 female members of this species-the lesser long-nosed bat-gather at this cave each April before giving birth to their pups in May. At night the mothers-to-be venture out to feed on the nectar and pollen of cactus flowers, including organ pipe, cardon, and saguaro. Come winter, these bats will migrate to central Mexico, where they will pollinate the flowers of agave plants, which are used to produce tequila and mescal."

Question: Bats pollinate flowers?

Comment: I had no idea. I knew butterflies and bees pollinated flowers, but not bats. Not only that, but I had no idea that tequila was made with pollen of flowers. Then again, I've never actually looked into where tequila came from. Nonetheless, it's kind of funny hearing about these two subjects. I just thought that bats eat bugs. Maybe they eat bugs that also pollinate the flowers? Well, however it works, it seems like that would be quite an interesting sight.

Honors:

Article: Coral Reefs: Canaries of the Sea By: Mindy Pennybacker

Quote: "An estimated 10 to 27 percent of coral has perished worldwide, and 40 percent may be gone by 2010, according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. "

Question: How are the reefs now? Has the estimated amount of coral perished, since it is now 2010? What can we do to protect these beautiful structures?

Comment: I never knew that coral helps protect low-lying islands from storm waves until I read this article. I always just thought that they were homes for fish as well as beautiful things to look at. So hearing that they are getting unhealthy, and losing their color makes me feel pretty sad, but ready to help as well. I would like to hear an update on this article, but I couldn't find one.

Apparently, though, humans, pollution, as well as rising temperatures in the ocean are what is affecting coral reefs around the world. It seems as though everything around them is working against them, so how can we help? I know, of course, that there's always becoming more green, but I feel like there should be more than that.

Article: Forest Holocaust

Quote: "More than 80 percent of the Earth’s natural forests already have been destroyed. Up to 90 percent of West Africa’s coastal rain forests have disappeared since 1900."

Question: Why am I not seeing this?

Comment: It always amazes me to hear statistics like this. I read these kind of articles sometimes, and get concerned, and then somewhere along the way, I think that things are getting better, almost as if on their own. But how is that possible? How do I even know if other people are helping or even care? If we only have 20 percent of our forests left, why haven't I noticed? it's not as if our world as become a concrete jungle. It just makes me realize that there's so much to the world that I haven't seen yet.

Article: "Pleistocene Park" emerges from Patagonia's rescued grasslands

Quote: Some biomes--Earth's broad kinds of habitats--have done better than others. None has done worse than temperate grasslands. Of the ten million square kilometers this biome covers worldwide--that's about the size of the U.S. lower 48 states--only 4 percent is protected, and only half of that is well-protected. That's the statistic.

Question: Why aren't grasslands being very protected? Are they under appreciated?

Comment: To be honest, I'm more interested in the other biomes more than grasslands. However, that doesn't mean I don't want them to be preserved. They support so much life, and they hold their own kind of beauty just like the rest of the biomes. It worries me to think that not even 10% of grasslands are being protected. Not even 5%, actually. What will we do when they DO need protecting? Shouldn't we start now?

Blog 4

Post at least 1 question for each biome and try to find an answer for it.

Freshwater

I've never heard that ponds are seasonal. The ponds I've seen seem to always be there...then again, I'm not always by a pond. Why are some ponds seasonal? Does the water dry up and then come back as the rainy seasons return? That would make sense. Or maybe the salt that is settled in the dirt sucks it up after a certain period of time and weather?

Marine

If so much of our rain comes from the ocean, why aren't rain drops salty? My best guess is that this is because only the water evaporates into the air, not the tiny bits of solids that come with it. But then why is some rainwater dirty? Or have I just always thought that rain was dirty, but it turns out that rain is actually pure water? Or does the water catch the pollutants in the air as it falls?

Desert

The text says that deserts are pieces of land that get less than 50 centimeters in a year, but why is it that they only get this much in a year? Weather varies, covering different areas at different times, with no particular patterns. So why don't deserts become non-deserts at any point in the year? I guess it would make sense that many deserts are near the equator, which would probably mean that the clouds would break apart before they could rain, most of the time.

Forest

Since plants were some of the first pieces of life, does that mean some creatures were made from plants? I'm not even sure where to begin with this question.

Grassland

The text for the Savanna grasslands said that it was crucial for the rainfall to be concentrated into six to eight months. This just ties me back to my questions about deserts. Why do the clouds go from place to place to help keep certain ecosystems alive? If these grasslands are watered only by chance, why are there still so many of them? The possibilities of where the rain clouds go seem infinite.

Tundra

Since tundras use mostly dead organic materials as a nutrient pool, so we take a lot of these dead plants to use for commercial compost? Are we ruining these particular biomes somehow?

Getting Organized

A detailed schedule for completing Project 2 for Friday and the weekend. You need to be specific. What will you do in class on Friday? How will you schedule your weekend? Organize your time down to the hour if possible. Many of you will need to stay on track if you are going to complete the project on time.

Friday:

Hour 1 (in class): Finish up the Plant Index

Hour 2 (in class): If not finished with Plant Index, then continue. Otherwise, finish placing all the plants properly in the garden.

After school:

4pm: Finish placement and index

6pm: Create food web

Saturday:

Throughout the day: Finish up everything that needs to be drawn, and make sure everything is at least close to scale.

Sunday:

Throughout the day: Complete final research on all plants and organize index in a comprehensive manner.

Monday:

After school: Put in final touches, and edit through to make sure everything is clear and concise.