Spring 2014
An area of extraordinarily high temperature stretching more than half way around the globe helped propel this past March into the record books as the fourth warmest since historical record-keeping began in 1880, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The global average temperature for March was warmer only in 2002, 2010 and 1990.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/imageo/2014/04/14/massive-sea-of-warmth/#.U01TJfldXZJ
This article in the NY Times paints a rather scary picture of the beginnings of fracking in rural China.
This article is about the future of off-the-grid living, and how we may be at a turning point due to the availability of cheap batteries from Tesla Motor’s new factories. I think these batteries would make sustainable energy sources much more viable, such as when used with solar panels (see my last post).
This article espouses the benefits of solar power once it becomes competitive with and eventually cheaper than fossil fuel power. The main point is that this will help lower wealth inequality since everyone will have access to their own cheap power. However, I don’t believe this makes complete sense because many places in the world do not have enough sunny days for solar power to completely replace fossil fuels. This does not mean that solar power won’t have a large part in the future of energy, but just that energy storage needs to improve at the same rate that solar panel costs go down.
At the University of Texas at Austin, the manager of the oil and gas drilling logs collection has looked into and researched the option of “drilling” for water to solve the current drought in Texas. Researchers are using records to map brackish groundwater to eventually go to a desalination plant. It was determined that an aquifer in West Texas holds 4.9 trillion gallons of fresh water and 27.7 trillion gallons of brackish water. However, this all depends on the support from legislature to make it happen.
This article discusses how at the University of Illinois researchers are developing a computer model to help plant scientists breed better crops. They use soybean as an example and predict a 8.5% jump in productivity with a 13% drop in water loss and a 34% increases in radiation deflection. Technology advances like these will continue to advance the sustainability of agriculture and much more.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403132355.htm
The article below discusses how for all of the power and wealth that the United States has we are ranked 16th in the Social Progress Index. Our impressive military and economic strengths do not translate well for our health, ecosystem sustainability, basic education, personal safety and much more.
This is kind of random but I came across this video and I thought it was pretty interesting. It relates to food sustainability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUtnas5ScSE
Poplar trees, especially genetically modified poplars, have been in the news for their ability to decontaminate the ground of chemicals, specifically oil. In the link, the specific contaminant is TCE…an industrial solvent. The poplar trees absorb the water with the chemical over a period of about three years, the tree is cut down, and then put into a landfill.
This process seems unsustainable at first, but removing the contaminated ground takes more work and money. Also, poplar trees are fast-growing and short-living, so they’re the perfect candidate for the task.
What are some ways to test the efficacy of the poplar trees? How is it impacting landfills? Can we do anything else with the “used-up” trees?
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earthand subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Genesis 1:26-28
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; Psalm 24:1
Last weekend I was looking into some hiking gear when I came across the Biolite CampStove. This little gadget is a pretty revolutionary outdoor cooking accessory. Not only does the Biolite contain a wood-burning cooking fire, but also features a small fan, which accelerates the energy release from the fuel. Reliance on wood is a key feature that promotes sustainability. Most long distance hikers on tend to use portable, gas stoves to do their cooking because they are reliable. However with availability of a stove that efficiently turns firewood into energy, consumer tastes will compensate a little.
In a addition to relying on a more sustainable source of energy than traditional gas stoves, the Biolite CampStove has the ability to transfer heat into electric power. It uses a Thermoelectric Generator to power its external fan, as well as provide 2W of power output at 5V through a USB port. Although this technology is preferable to gas heat which tends to have a greater environmental impact, it still has more of an environmental impact than portable sources of solar electricity.
What do you think? In a hypothetical situation where you had to hike a great distance like the Appalachian trial, would you consider carrying this item? How could the Biolite corporation implement this thermoelectric technology to benefit people in developing nations?
http://www.biolitestove.com
While reading more about the fracking in our state’s Macellus Shale I came across two articles that highlight fracking’s penchant for creating societal friction.
Here is a an excerpt from a Lancaster Online article, where a panel of Pennsylvania Quakers shared their perspective of fracking and its toll on their community.
“First they frack the community, then then they frack the land,” she said, at one point tearfully. “If you’re familiar with the tragedy of the commons, that is what happened to us. We could not hold together as a community.
“They set neighbor against neighbor. Families break up, family farms break up, fights happen. The greed and outrage machines begin on both sides. Bullying arrives.”
Another article from thinkprogress.org is reporting that the, “oil and gas company, Hilcorp, is trying to use a 1961 Pennsylvania law that would allow the company to bundle properties of people who don’t sign drilling leases with their neighbors who do, meaning that even landowners who don’t sign leases will be forced to allow drilling under their land if enough of their neighbors sign leases.”
Vertical Farming has finally been implemented commercially in Singapore.
It also seems to be making money, which is one of the key points of making vertical farming sustainable for the future.
It saves land and water by being around 10 times more efficient than a conventional farm.
To those of you who skipped class, we talked about pros and cons of natural gas, as well as how there can be improvements.
Benefits
Negative consequences
Area of improvement
We also watched some YouTube videos involving fracking, including…
A Killer of Bats Inches Towards Texas
The disease we talked about in class, the White Nose Syndrome, is now moving towards Texas. The extent that cavers are willing to go in order to prevent disease spread is larger than I thought. As the article said, hopefully bats in the US will develop an immunity or non infected bats can take over.
In this article, published in the New York Times, Stephen Castle touches on the issue of the smog that beset London on Wednesday. According to Castle, “Central London had moderate levels of air pollution on Wednesday, with a score of 6 on an index on which 10 ranks “very high.”” Recall that a number of cities in China were beset by the same problems with smog earlier this year. In fact, in this article, published in The Guardian, author Adam Vaughan identifies nine cities that suffered from the same smog issues. Call to memory too that Paris came under clouds of smog earlier this year, initiating a driving ban and offering free mass transit. More on this can be found in this article published in the Los Angeles Times.
In an era where cities around the world are being beset by smog and all of the health-related implications of the pollution causing it, will this become the new norm?
In this article, published in the New York Times, author Coral Davenport blows the whistle on the Environmental Protection Agency, which “failed to consistently disclose health risks, including possible cancer risks, to research study participants who were exposed to dangerous pollutants.” In studies conducted in 2010 and 2011 by the Environmental Protection Agency, participants were “exposed…to soot and diesel exhaust emissions,” potential carcinogens, yet the risks for cancer were notably omitted from “consent forms obtained from the subjects.”
The purpose of sharing this, I think, is to keep in mind that progress is important when attempting to find new solutions, methods or even cures meant to have a greater benefit than the potential detriment caused by a study, yet just as important is utilizing the right methods to go about these discoveries. The means must be just as honorable as the ends.
In this article, published in the New York Times, author Justin Gillis touches on the recent report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a branch of the United Nations “that periodically summarizes climate science.” The main point of the report was that the worst is yet to come. Given that climate change is a present issue, occurring everyday, the effects of it are difficult to slow down without taking the serious steps to cut back on carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.
On the front of human rights, the report “emphasized that the world’s food supply is at considerable risk – a threat that could have serious consequences for the poorest nations” (emphasis mine).
Furthermore, on the sociological and political fronts, the report “cited the risk of death or injury on a wide scale, probable damage to public health, displacement of people and potential mass migrations.”
Finally, on the economic side, “climate-change impacts are projected to slow down economic growth, make poverty reduction more difficult, further erode food security, and prolong existing and create new poverty traps, the latter particularly in urban areas and emerging hot spots of hunger.”
Climate change is not only about the earth and the resources that are exhausted through mass consumption, though these are two ends in and of themselves. Climate change has implications in the realms of economics, politics and even human rights.
In this article, published in the New York Times, author John Schwartz tackles the subject of the federal government’s program supporting the planting of various plants meant to sustain bees and also produce economic benefits through a reduced need for pesticides and greater plant pollination.
According to Schwartz, “researchers are trying to find assortments of bee-friendly plants that local farmers and ranchers can easily grow, whether in unusable corners and borders of their land or on acreage set aside with government support.”
So far, the Midwest has been included in a $3 million government plan to support growth in the bee population, though Schwartz also mentions that, while the variety of plants supporting this growth may be different from place to place, there is great potential. For example, in drought-ridden California, drought-resistant plants can play a major role in the desired bee population growth.
Furthermore, the most important aspect to note from this article, is the principle, according to Laurie Davis Adams, “executive director of Pollinator Partnership,” that “This is not one size fits all. This is one ethic fits all.”
In case you missed it – see NYTimes story
One advantage of converting to renewables would be less of these messes (recall the much larger Deepwater Horizon spill in spring and summer 2010).
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