Alternative to Plastic Water Bottles

Alternative to Plastic Water Bottles

Without plastic water bottles in our life we would be a lot better off.  Health-wise and environmentally we would be more successful without the use and production of them.  Right now we know that stopping the making of plastic bottles is impossible so the next thing we can do is educate everyone about the changes in which we can make in our lives. Every year 1.5 million barrels of oil are used just in the production of making plastic water bottles.  There are even more if you count the transporting of them.  90% of plastic water bottles are not recycled, so they wind up in landfills where they take thousands of years to decompose.  Stainless steel and glasses were brought up as alternatives for plastics but there is not a final decision.  Glass does not leach toxins or affect the taste of water so it would be a good solution.  I think the solution for this does not lie with the production but with us humans and how we reuse, reduce, and recycle.  People need to recycle more often and if it is made mandatory like in some cities in the world the environment will be much more suited.  Another solution is for us to buy reusable sports bottles.  We can refill them all of the time and not have to use up and buy the useless plastics.  Instead of buying the energy drinks you can just buy the powder and mix it in with water.  Barriers of the solution are the people that don’t recycle and listen.  We need to spread the word and get people to take the small amount of time to reuse and recycle.  My opinion is that if we can work together and follow these simple ideas that the production and use of plastics will no longer be a major environmental issue. 

http://www.squidoo.com/ideasforgoinggreen#module11130360

 

 

Green Walls Create New Urban Jungles

Green Walls Create New Urban Jungles

Vertical green gardens are popping up and are becoming more popular all over cities these days.  The chances that you’ll see one while walking though the city were rare but this year you might see them on a daily basis.  These large green transforming urban jungles have found their way in many parts of London and are now on numerous sites including buildings, officers, hotels, parking garages, restaurants, houses, parking lots, and schools.  Mark Laurence says that these vertical gardens can deliver multiple benefits as he talks about people being able to grow their vegetables right behind their house.  He says that the market is shifting and moving toward how it can provide as many eco-systems and green structures for urban areas. One system he mentioned is the modular hydroponic system, where plants sit in a soil-free set up with nutrients delivered through irrigation channels.  This set up can be created on almost any desirable wall and is the most popular and common right now.  An underground station in London has some of the best air quality in the city because it contains one of London’s greenest creations, and largest green wall structure.  Scientist say that green walls are even more effective than trees in parts of the city where the walls of buildings are taller than the widths of the roads.  I think our cities can become much more ecofriendly with the spreading and creating of many new green walls.  If people build them in highly public areas pedestrians will see them and then they will consider making them too.  Barriers to the solution of creating green walls are just the fact of spreading the word and teaching everyone the creation methods of these structures.  The produce grown from the green walls can be solutions to school lunches and can be sent to schools for their students to eat.  My opinion is that green walls need to become not just a rare occurrence, but a popular and eco trendy thing shared by people in urban communities.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/30/world/europe/green-wall-clean-air/index.html

BMW, Hedging Bets on Electric, Stresses Fuel Efficiency

BMW, Hedging Bets on Electric, Stresses Fuel Efficiency 

Next week the Paris motor show will occur and all of the big auto manufacturers will gather showing off their new models and features for this upcoming year.  Gasoline and diesel cars and trucks seem to be fully in style with little talk about the electric cars which are clearly the innovation of the future.  The European car industry is in a crisis with sales of battery powered vehicles becoming disappointing.  Automakers are spending less time talking about futuristic visions and ideas. They are instead pushing their ability in cutting emissions and raising mileage.  This is how the auto companies have been thinking and working for years and it is time for a major change. They need to change their focus just like the innovator BMW has in recent years including this year with the release of the i3 electric car. BMW has been one of the biggest innovators in the making of electric vehicles and has been re-emphasizing its more conventional technology. They say the new i3 will save the planet with new features like the eco three cylinder engine, carbon fiber body and chassis, and computer technology to help reduce the energy used. Reporters and testers said even though the car is electric, it still has the sleek and fast capability as well as the interior and exterior luxury in which BMW is known for. I think that BMW is making the right choice and doing the right thing by creating electric cars and pushing them into the market.  This is one of the many large solutions to stop global warming and keep emissions from entering our atmosphere.  Barriers to the solution are the reaction from people who don’t really see that many electric cars on the road and that don’t feel like they need them or that one makes a difference. My opinion is that all modern auto manufactures need to work on producing electric and ecofriendly vehicles.  They need to spread them into the market and convince people about their significance. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/business/global/with-electric-cars-slow-to-gain-ground-bmw-focuses-on-efficiency.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

 

Air Pollution In China

Air Pollution In China
China's environmental protection ministry published a report in November 2010 which showed that about a third of 113 cities surveyed failed to meet national air standards last year. According to the World Bank 16 of the world’s 20 cities with the worst air are in China. According to Chinese government sources, about a fifth of urban Chinese breath heavily polluted air. Many places smell like high-sulfur coal and leaded gasoline. Only a third of the 340 Chinese cities that are monitored meet China’s own pollution standards.China’s smog-filled cities are ringed with heavy industry, metal smelters, and coal-fired power plants, all critical to keeping the fast-growing economy going even as they spew tons of carbon, metals, gases, and soot into the air. The air pollution and smog in Beijing and Shanghai are sometimes so bad that the airports are shut down because of poor visibility. The air quality of Beijing is 16 times worse than New York City. Sometimes you can't even see buildings a few blocks away and blue sky is a rare sight. In Shanghai sometimes you can't see the street from the 5th floor window. Fresh air tours to the countryside are very popular. The reason that china has such bad air quality is the amount of industry and products that the chinese make and ship out of the country. If china wasnt so dependent on thir idustrys then the sir quality wouldnt be so bad because there wouldnt be as many pollutints being emmited into the air. The bad air quality isnt only bad for the chinese that are in the citys but also the atmosphere becaus ethey are putting alot of C02 into the atmosphere.

Fish poop cleans the environment

“Millions of tiny fish pooping out even tinier turds may have a big impact on climate change.”

Small fish, like anchovies, eat algae that live on the ocean surface. When they excrete, the carbon in the algae is ‘packaged away’ and dropped to the bottom of the ocean floor.

 

In a study, scientist measured the amount of carbon each pellet can contain, and how quickly it is deposited to the ocean floor. They discovered that fish dung produced at the ocean’s surface could travel to the ocean floor 1,600 feet below, in less than 1 day. On average, each pellet of poo contains 22 micrograms of carbon. This number might seem small, but when multiplied by the trillions and billions of small fish, it makes a big impact on our environment. The scientist’s findings show that fish fecal matter can transfer momentous amounts of carbon quickly. These just shows how even small, seemingly insignificant, things can have a major impact on the environment.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anchovy_closeup.jpg

http://news.discovery.com/earth/fish-feces-fights-climate-change-121012.html

Carbon Releases

http://www.macroevolution.net/carbon-releases.html

According to Yale researchers in Nature Geoscience, rivers and streams in the United States are releasing enough carbon into the atmosphere to fuel 3.4 million car trips to the moon. Their findings could change the way scientists model the movement of carbon between land, water and the atmosphere. David Butman (a doctoral student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies) stated, "These rivers are a source of CO₂, just like we breathe CO₂ and like smokestacks emit CO₂, and this has never been systematically estimated from a region as large as the United States." They analyzed samples taken by the United States Geological Survey from over 4,000 rivers and streams throughout the United States, and incorporated highly detailed geospatial data to model the flux of carbon dioxide from water. This release of carbon, said Butman, is the same as a car burning 40 billion gallons of gasoline (noted from the article). The researchers note in the paper that currently it is impossible to determine exactly how to include this flux in regional carbon budgets, because the influence of human activity on the release of CO₂ into streams and rivers is still unknown.

Sewage vs Caffeine

http://www.macroevolution.net/sewage-and-caffeine.html 

Researchers from the University of Montreal's Department of Chemistry have discovered that traces of caffeine are a useful indicator of sewage contamination.  "E. coli bacteria is commonly used to evaluate and regulate the levels of fecal pollution of our water from storm water discharge, but because storm sewer systems collect surface runoff, non-human sources can contribute significantly to the levels that are observed," Sauvé explained. Sébastien Sauvé is the head researcher at the University of Montreal’s Department of Chemistry.  The study proves that there is a strong correlation between the levels of caffeine in water and the level of bacteria. Samples were taken from streams, brooks, and storm sewer outfall pipes in Montreal. These samples were then analyzed for caffeine, fecal coliforms (a facultatively-anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium), and carbamazepine (anti-seizure drug). All the samples contained these contaminants, which would suggest that contamination is widespread in urban environments. Sauvé suggested, "A caffeine sampling program would be relatively easy to implement and might provide a useful tool to identify sanitary contamination sources and help reduce surface water contamination within an urban watershed."  The barrier to this solution would be that it would not be able to fix the problem 100%.  It can just help reduce the contamination.  On the positive side, the program is relatively easy to implement and by reducing this pollution, it will help more than anything. I would want this problem fixed because I drink caffeine, and I do not want to be drinking pollution or contamination with it.

Oxygen Deficiency in the Baltic Sea

http://www.macroevolution.net/oxygen-deficiency.html

Oxygen deficiency in the Baltic Sea is at its highest due to an increase of nutrients and fertilizers.  Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have analyzed this ocean's climate since the 16th century.  85 million people live in the drainage basin of the Baltic and human population has a great impact on the marine environment.  Oxygen deficiency is essentially due to human activity. By combining new methods to reconstruct the historical climate and modern computer models, Hansson (a researcher from the Department of Earth Sciences) has been able to study in detail changes in water temperature, ice extent, river runoff, salinity and oxygen concentrations in the Baltic Sea over 500 years. The studies show clearly that the oxygen condition today cannot be compared with any other period since the 16th century, and that the present-day raised water temperature and limited ice extent are similar to situations that have occurred only twice previously. This thesis provides a positive possibility of change in the future. The only barrier would be a glitch or default in modern computers that could throw off the data and observations. I think this problem has an easy fix and can most likely be reversed 

for the better.  The solution was thought out thoroughly by Hansson and other researchers,  which gives it a higher chance to work.

The Legacy Of Pesticides

Farmers have been using pesticides less but the emergence of newly resistant insects now threaten to reverse the trend. Farmers spray the herbicide glyphosate, onto plats that are genetically engineered to tolerate the chemical. This gene was supposed to reduce the need to till fields and apply harsher chemicals, so weed control would be simple and cheap. Overall pesticide use last year on plants with a genetically engineered crop was about 20 percent higher than on plants without genetically engineered crops. “Farmers basically said, ‘I’m not going to apply it a fourth time — it’s just not worth it,’”. The pesticide cycle is starting to cause a resistance. To counteract the resistance they are saying that farmers should rotate herbicides or mix glyphosate with other chemicals. If farmers continue to use the same chemical/pesticide more and more, then the more chemicals we will need to counteract the plants that will be grown genetically to resist that chemical. Regardless of how many people want farmers to stop the use of pesticides, they won’t. Without the pesticides then insects will kill the crops and then we won’t have anything. The only way to help this is to use less pesticides and different kinds more often. Personally I think these solutions are good because without pesticides the insects would eat all of the crops. But if farmers use less of it and different kinds then the plants won’t become resistant to it and there won’t be so much as to kill the people who then eat the crops.

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/the-legacy-of-pesticides-superweeds-and-superpests/ 



Global Dimming

“We are all seeing rather less of the Sun, according to scientists who have been looking at five decades of sunlight measurements.” The amount of sunlight reaching earth’s surface is gradually falling, strangely meaning that global warming is a bigger threat to earth than believed before. English scientist Gerry Stanhill, working in Israel, first spotted this effect.

Between 1950 to the present, sunlight has dropped 22% in Israel, 10% in America, 30% in the Soviet Union, and 16% drop in the British Isles. On average, sunlight has decreased 2% every decade. This data was backed by Australian scientists. “Dimming appears to be caused by air pollution.” Visible air pollution can be caused by burning wood, coal, and oil. These visible air pollutants reflect sunlight back to space, which keeps it from reaching the surface. It also changes clouds because the burned partials start the formation of water droplets, making polluted clouds bigger than unpolluted. Likewise, Polluted clouds are more reflective. The clouds keep the oceans from getting full influence from the sun, disrupting the world’s rainfall. This can affect monsoon season in Asia, killing thousands. “But it now appears the warming from greenhouse gases has been offset by a strong cooling effect from dimming - in effect two of our pollutants have been cancelling each other out.” This means that “scientists have underestimated the true power of the green house effect.”

http://funcram.com/pictures/holding-the-sun-illusion.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4171591.stm

Saving Pines with Pheromones?

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-pheromone-save-pine-forests-oblivion

     In a recent discovery within America's Yellowstone National Park and ski runs of Aspen, Colorado, swarms of Bark Beetles  have been noted, and found once again, as one of the most loathed forms of devastation among the forests of pine trees that engulf the northwestern landscape. Their population has been tracked for centuries, until very recently when studies have shown that the Bark Beetle population is teeming on a much larger scale then ever before. Just as the situation seems to become increasingly bleak, scientists have developed a pheromone called "Verbenone", a potent offensive agent that manipulates the beetle's sense of smell on a molecular level. Verbenone will be applied in the forested regions of the United States and Canada where pines and evergreens dominate the landscape the most; an interesting yet objective question remains, however: Is the pheromone as environmentally potent as it is potent? Only time will tell if we will recreate the next DDT scare of the 1950's.  

U.S. Increases Estimate for the Soybean Crop

Despite all the talk about a drought the American government have been shocked with the outcome of soybean growth. Since soybeans have grown animals now have something that they can eat and if we have more animals then prices at our neighborhood grocery stores will be lower (for meat and grain). Before finding out the drought wasn't as big this year they raised prices on grain and meat. Estimates on soybean growth have risen since the products we have received  "Farmers have harvested nearly 60 percent of the soybean crop, according to the weekly crop progress report from the department." It's obvious that the weather climate happens to be a huge barrier on growth for all sorts of plants and there isn't many solutions to controling the weather so we just need to figure out a way to decrease global warming and maybe then we can have a better production of grains. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/12/business/agriculture-dept-revises-estimates-for-soybean-production-higher.html?ref=earth&_r=0

Species Extinction

A problem faced in the world today is species extinction. Some species near extinction are certain types of fish, monkeys and rhinoceros'. If any species go extinct, the whole way of life is thrown off. This is because other species rely on the extinct ones. The result of this would be more extinction which would obviously not be good for the environment at all. Possible solutions are minimizing use of pesticides, slower driving, and reporting any abusive illegal behavior towards animals. Barriers to these are the fact that we need pesticides to kill insects to grow food to survive. Also, people aren't going to change their driving habits just to save an animal's life. Last, some people won't report all the illegal behaviors. In my opinion, species extinction is a big deal. Our whole life pretty much relies on the circle of life and if one species is removed, we're all in trouble.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1888702_1863782,00.html

For Some Drivers, an Electric Motorcycle Could Be the Best of Both Worlds.

This article talks about how changing motorcycles around to help the enviroment just by making it be an electric one. Motorcylist could love this idea because they would be saving money on gas and still doing the thing they love which is riding bikes, it's a win, win situation. The only problem about these electric motorcycles is the price range that it would fall under. If we could find ways to make these machines cheaper then it would be bought more and we'd have a better alternative on the roads. If we have a success on our hands with the motorcyles then cars will start to become electric ones and we'll have an option that makes many people happy. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/technology/start-ups/for-some-drivers-electric-motorcycle-could-be-the-best-of-both-worlds.html?_r=1&ref=earth

Shortage of Water

In today's world, water is underestimated. No one thinks to turn the water off while they're brushing their teeth or letting their shower water run too long. In reality, this is causing huge problems with our water supply. According to statistics, only 1% of our water is drinkable. One in five humans do not have access to safe water. Some solutions to this are desalinization which is expensive but will work, decreasing pollution and atmospheric water generators that gather water from the air. The barrier to these solutions is money. The country/ world is already in a recession so this issue isn't so big compared to creating more jobs or finding a way to make more money. I believe that this is a big deal and we need to do everything we can to fix this.

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/08/18/most-important-environmental-issues-of-today/

Climate Change and Global Warming

The Earth's temperature is beginning to rise at an alarming rate. The cause? Humans. The problems with this issue are that ecosystems can't adapt anymore. Without ecosystems adapting, the whole world is thrown off. Plants don't grow as expected, animals don't get nourished as needed and humans don't have the essentials to survive. It's all one big chain effect. Some solutions to this are decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, build more energy- efficient buildings, be more efficient, and possibly move closer to work so you don't admit as much fuel. Barriers to these solutions are that not everyone will be on board for changing their way of life. Also, more energy- efficient buildings will probably end up being more expensive. Because not everyone likes living in cities, some people may not move closer to work because of the environment difference from country to city. In my opinion, we don;t have to drastically change our ways, just slowly start being more conscientious of what we do on a daily basis that effects our world.


http://www.globalissues.org/issue/168/environmental-issues

How Fungi May Create the Amazon's Clouds

This article talks about how the fungi in the amazon forest could potentially create the clouds. The research was done in Germany. In every forest area carbon clumping takes place and most scientist can see it happen through microscopes. But for some reason in the amazon the carbon clumps form from out of no where. So, in effort to figure out the cause of the unknown clumping two researches went to the amazon and took samples of the air to know how the particles are made. Turns out that it is a lot of carbon particles and potassium. Potassium is the element that causes these particles to appear out of the blue and the potassium comes plants and fungi under the climate that the amazon provides.So far there isn't any harm being done so why try and stop it? This could lead to different possible ways to find better solutions. http://discovermagazine.com/2012/sep/04-mushroom-cloud

reserving natural resources: the ticket to the future

The environmental issue of depleting natural resources cannot be ignored. The depletion of natural resources can be solved by a renewable chemical industry. These new chemicals called Super Microobes will allow new research to come about about the way cells work and designing and constructing new functions and systems that aren’t even found in nature. This will help solve world environmental issues because to achieve a sustainable world is a scientists dream. Professor Sang Yup Lee said: "Bio-based production of chemicals and materials will play an increasingly important role in establishing a sustainable world. The problem with depleting resources is that overfishing, overgrazing, or just wasting the worlds renewable and non-renewable resources isn’t helping out with the future. With the depletion of the land and resources along with our growing population is contributing to the fact that the earth might not be able to support its whole population and this could cause not just a couple deaths but a lot of deaths. Another problem is that these resources keep our economy going. If these resources just keep getting depleted we wont have enough money to balance our economy. If we make these chemicals to do more functions then we can sustain the Earth, if theres a way to may more resources then we should do it, because if we don’t, the Earth wont be able to support us, and life as we know it would come to a complete end.

 http://phys.org/news/2012-10-super-microbes-world-environmental-problems.html

The air around us!

 

Protecting the air around us is a bit more of a challenge than most realize. In the month of August America was reminded of this challenge when the Federal Appeals Court ruled that the environmental protection agency had overstepped its authority when they denied Texas’s plans for curbing emissions. Then on August 21^st another appeals court ruled against the Environmental Protections Agency’s cross-state air pollution rule. The air-pollution rule was a plan devised to protect states from pollutants emitted by coal- and natural-gas-fired power plants in neighbours upwind of them. The solution to this problem would be to allow the EPA to enforce their clean air act. The barrier to this solution would be the fact that the federal governments already have promised Americans a clean neighbor plea that restricts as much emissions from other countries into the air as it can. The federal government holds more power than the EPA and they can overturn their decisions. Americans took a survey and they claimed that clean air is very and extremely important. The federal government stands in the way of the EPA and we need clean air, because polluted air isnt good for your lungs and can cause astmtha, it can pollute the water which means the population has less fresh drinking water, certain harmful greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and climate change which is a big threat, and it could cause many more  health issues on the plants and animals as well as the humans of this earth. I think the government should be more concerned with the environment than money, because without a place to live, money wouldn’t matter.

http://www.economist.com/node/21562248?zid=313&ah=fe2aac0b11adef572d67aed9273b6e55

Letting Polychlorinated biphenyls(PCB) spread could be a dangerous threat to our environment

Inside of the Raisin River, near the Port of Monroe, traces of a banned insulating chemical know as PCB’s,or Polychlorinated biphenyls. The Monroe evening news said in a test all the back to 2007 a process called dredging, which is part of the river cleaning process, high levels of PCB’s were found, and the current dredgings have been known to have up to 10,000 parts per billion. These traces of PCB are dangerous to the health and are linked to be known as a chemical that causes cancer, liver dysfunction, digestive disorders, chloracne, headaches, nausea and fatigue This work is an effort by the Environmental Protection Agency to clear pollution from waterways which is one solution they are trying out to this problem. A barrier to this solution would be the fact that these protections of the river aren’t cheap and it could cost around 13.7 million dollars.   The State Department of Environmental conservation has agreed to 3 million cubic yards of the most contaminated substances in the waterways. If the spread of PCB’s continues then there could be the fear of humans consuming contaminated fish that live in the area. The dredging and clean-up of this area would permanently restrict the future travel of PCB’s throughout the river, causing less of the water and the population of those who live in the water to be contaminated. This would reduce risk to our health and help restore the environment. The problem to this is if PCB sediment isn’t captured quick enough is can disperse into the bottom of the river which would make it impossible to recapture. And if a flood comes then the PCP sediment will be washed into the lower river and contaminate it as well. The spreading of PCP is more dangerous than most realize and all we need is money and political will to stop it, in my eyes it needs to be stopped before its contaminating all the fish of one area that contaminate the humans and that in turn causes a global problem when it could have been cleaned up by the Environmental protection agency.


http://www.rpi.edu/dept/environ/orgs/Clearwater/dredging.html

Half of Great Barrier Reef has vanished, studys find

The Great Barrier Reef has declined in size over the last 27 years. Researchers have stated that it doesn’t have the same color and diversity it use to have. The reefs decline has been done by cyclones and crown-of-thorn starfish. These cyclones have damaged the reef by smashing into it. The starfish eat coral and they are eating too much of it. Another problem is coral bleaching. Coral bleaching occurs due to rising temperatures. This ties in to the global climate change.

If the starfish population were to die down, then in 20-30 years the reef could be back to normal. Nutrient rich runoff from farmers is going into the coral reef areas and is not good for the reefs. Farmers need to limit that amount going into the sea. The cyclones and bleaching aren’t as big of factors as the starfish and runoff. I think it is very important for humans to preserve the reefs the best they can in a healthy state. Keeping the reef at its natural-healthy state can benefit the marine life around it.

brown tree snake

The brown tree snake is an environmental issue because of the harm it is causing in Guam. The brown tree snake used to be only in Australia. It has now found its way to Guam, and is causing harm to the people and animals there. They cause power outages all over the island by climbing up the pylons. They also have decimated a lot of the bird and reptile populations. The solution is to take the snakes back to Australia or to just exterminate them somehow. The barrier is that there’s no way of knowing if we catch all the snakes because one could easily hide. My opinion is that these snakes are harmful to the fragile ecosystem of Guam and a lot of species could go extinct thanks to them.

Sumatran Tiger

The problem of the Sumatran Tiger is that, like other tiger species, they are being poached for their fur and teeth. Over 50 tigers have been poached each year between 1998 and 2004, and there is high value in their canine teeth, claws, and fur. The Sumatran Tiger isn’t the only tiger going extinct, all tiger species are on their way if not already extinct. Even without poaching, their habitats are shrinking due to illegal logging. Despite tough fines for poaching or harming the tiger, people still risk the danger because of the high value of them. The only way to solve this problem is increased enforcement of the laws, and more people out their enforcing them. The only thing stopping us from saving the tiger species is the number of people willing to risk punishment for poaching them. My opinion is that we need to make an example of some poachers to show that the laws will be enforced. That way people will be more reluctant when they see what will happen to them.

Billions of People Face Food Shortages Due to Global Warming

Half the world faces food shortages due to shorter growing seasons. Obviously this Is bad because we need food to live. It’s also expected that the human population will double, so food demand will double, but it can’t double if global warming makes it grow less.  We need to either start growing more food, or stop leaving such a large carbon footprint. But no ones actually willing to change the way they live, so its blocking us from doing that. I think if we just tried to recycle or reduce our footprints by a fraction then it would help.

Glaciers Cracking in the Presence of Carbon Dioxide

(Oct. 10, 2012)

Scientists are showing that the strength in ice is decreasing drastically due to the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide. This makes ice capes and glaciers more vulnerable to cracking and splitting into pieces. Ice capes and glaciers cover 7 percent of the Earth, which is more than Europe and North America combined. Cracking and splitting was seen recently when a huge crack in the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica created a glacier the size of Berlin. Ice capes and glaciers are responsible for reflecting 80-90 percent of the Earth’s sun light rays hat enter our atmosphere and maintain the temperature. My solution is that we find a different source of fuel for or transportation so we can release less CO2 in the atmosphere. The only problem would be to find a resource that is abundant yet affordable at the same time. I believe this is a really big issue, seeing as the objects that control the temperature and the livelihood of our Earth are being destroyed.

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010191749.htm

 

Brown Tree Snake: Good for spiders, bad for birds

 (Sept.24, 2012)

Researchers have found that the total number of spiders in Guam has increased 40 times after the brown tree snake wiped out the native bird of the island. Even though the snake was accidentally introduced to the island in 1940, it decimated the island’s native bird. By the 1980 10 out of 12 birds had been wiped out. The loss of birds lead to an increase of the spider population since many of the birds consumed the spiders, competed with the spiders for insect prey, and also utilized the spider webs in their nests. Since Guam is a U.S. territory, the U.S. spends $1 million a year searching planes and cargo to prevent brown tree snakes from spreading to other islands. My solution for the loss of birds would be to get rid of most of the brown tree snakes to try to restore the bird populations that are left and to lower the spider population. The problem with this solution is the brown tree snakes are very hard to find because they blend in so well. Even the snake hunters have a very difficult time locating them. Also, since the bird population was so devastated, it would be hard to restore the number of birds that once existed.     

http://www.macroevolution.net/brown-tree-snake.html

What Might Have Caused Recent Increase of Coral Diseases in the Caribbean?

(Oct. 9, 2012)       

Coral populations all over the world are being killed by marine diseases. Millions of people depend on these coral reefs for food and protection from storms. Normally diseases that cluster are contagious, but this disease in the coral reef is not. Environmental stress is to blame. These Coral diseases located in the Caribean are most likely caused by stress from the warming seas, which is the result of climate change. Scientists have suspected that as the water temperature increase, the corals’ immune system decreases making it more susceptible to disease. As the ocean continues to warm, the likelihood of coral diseases will increase. Global warming is to blame for the cause of these coral infections. My solution would be to make an even bigger and better effort of decreasing global warming. Our planet has been trying for years to stop global warming but obviously our efforts are still not working. Transportation like trucks, cars, scooters, and trains are a big source of carbon dioxide that is being released into the atmosphere. If all of our means of transportation in the world were electric or ran on a resource that wouldn’t produce pollution, global warming and its effects would maybe stop in the near future. The only problem with that solution would be it would be very difficult to find an affordable and convenient resource that could replace gasoline. Also, we wouldn’t know how long it would possibly take for the majority of the world to have access to this resource and actually see a positive change in the environment. I feel that we as humans should take the time to actually come up with a possible solution to global warming, which is causing too many disturbances on our mother earth.

        http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121009112131.htm

Methane Levels Increasing Since Roman Empire

“Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere can be traced back thousands of years in the Greenland ice sheet. Using special analytical methods, researchers … have determined how much methane originates from natural sources and how much is due to human activity. The results go all the way back to Roman times and up to the present, where more than half of the emissions are now human-made.” Researchers can tell how the atmosphere was by measuring trapped air bubbles in the ice. This graph shows that Romans increased levels of methane by burning wood to make weapons and heating, and that in the year 1800, the industrial revolution, methane in the atmosphere has increased exponentially. Solutions to this problem is less rice patties and a smaller meat industry.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121003132322.htm

Dead whale more than 50 feet long found in Boston Harbor

A dead whale was found in the Boston Harbor this week. It was over 50 feet in length. On average three or four whales are spotted in the Boston Harbor each year. But it is rare to find one dead. One man stated that whales are normally found dead at sea. Examining the body, authorities have been trying to figure out how it died. When the whale was discovered they found blood all around in the water with marks all over the whale.

It looks as if the whale had been in some situation where it was injured greatly. Being found in the Boston harbor, it could’ve possibly been a problem with humans. Humans need to be careful with the surrounding marine life. The death of whales this close to land is a serious issue. If the whales continue to be found dead then we will have a serious problem on our hands. I think it is disturbing to find a 50 foot whale dead in the Boston harbor. These deaths can ruin the balance in Ecosystems if too many are killed. Humans need to be careful if they are the responsible ones for the death. Possible barriers to protecting whales are oil spills and littering of the ocean. With those problems, more than just whales will die.

Hotels Improve their Conservation Efforts

Many hotels promote conservation efforts by encouraging guests to use less water than needed, and to reuse towels if they are not dirty, but does this really help? A recent report show that an average 150 room hotel can save 72,000 gallons of water and 480 gallons of laundry soap just by leaving cards telling the guest to reuse towels or use less water. Cheap appliances such as the toilet tank fill diverter can save ¾ of a gallon of water on each flush of a toilet.  The World Travel and Tourism Council now works to reduce America’s hotels carbon footprints by working with hotel chains such as Hilton, Marriot and Hyatt. The Four Seasons Hotel chain is also trying to become greener by planting 10 million trees across 34 countries to help reforest the world. With all these major hotel chains working together to reduce their impact on the environment, the carbon footprint we make will be lessened immensely.http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=greening-up-the-hotel-industry 

Should the World Increase its Reliance on Nuclear Energy?

After the nuclear disaster in Japan last year people around the world are going against nuclear power. The problems with the nuclear program in Iran aren’t helping either. Some say that nuclear power is the best way for electricity without creating greenhouse gases. Others think the increases in nuclear plants around the world are dangerous and that there are less expensive ways for electricity. In the article, Mark Lynas argues that there is no problem with nuclear energy and that the increasing populations around the earth make nuclear plants a necessity for creating electricity. He also states that radiation isn’t an extreme threat. But many people are terrified all of this. New sources of producing electricity need to be found to relieve people’s fright.  Wind and solar energy is a possibility to take the place of nuclear energy. Today wind and solar are two percent of the worlds electricity production. To fix this, decrease nuclear power and increase wind and solar power. It is cheaper. I believe we need to decrease use of nuclear energy around the world a lot. Nations like Iran and North Korea are using nuclear energy for wrong. It is getting out of hand. There are many ways to create electricity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443995604578001973671148176.html

Glaciers Cracking in the Presence of Carbon Dioxide

Excessive levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere is causing global temperatures to rise and glaciers and ice caps to melt.CO2 molecules may be having a more direct impact on the ice that covers our planet. The material strength and fracture toughness of ice are decreased significantly under increasing concentrations of CO2 molecules, making ice caps and glaciers more vulnerable to cracking and splitting into pieces. If ice caps and glaciers were to continue to crack and break into pieces, their surface area that is exposed to air would be significantly increased, which could lead to accelerated melting and much reduced coverage area on the Earth. CO2 exposure causes ice to break more easily. The decreased ice strength is not really caused by material defects induced by CO2 bubbles, but rather by the fact that the strength of hydrogen bonds is decreased under increasing concentrations of CO2. This is because the added CO2 competes with the water molecules connected in the ice crystal. CO2 molecules first adhere to the crack boundary of ice by forming a bond with the hydrogen atoms and then migrate through the ice in a flipping motion along the crack boundary towards the crack tip. The CO2 molecules accumulate at the crack tip and constantly attack the water molecules by trying to bond to them. This leaves broken bonds behind and increases the brittleness of the ice on a macroscopic scale. A solution could be control carbon dioxide. A barrier to the solution is how do we control the carbon dioxide. My opinioin to the problem is that we could try to control carbon dioxide. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010191749.htm

Experts: Global Warming Means More Antartic Ice

While the North Pole has been losing sea ice over the years, the water nearest the South Pole has been gaining it. Antarctic sea ice hit a record 7.51 million square miles in September. Shifts in wind patterns and the giant ozone hole over the Antarctic this time of year — both related to human activity — are probably behind the increase in ice. Solutions to stop global warming are don't drive or drive less. Another is use renewable resources, not using fossil fuel electricity, managing forest and agriculture, and ensuring sustainable developement. Global warming is a serious issue we need to aware of and try to prevent it. The best solution can be drive less and use renewable resources. A barrier to the solution is people may not care or just choose not to do anything about it. http://news.yahoo.com/experts-global-warming-means-more-antarctic-ice-194009890.html

Skin Hair Skims Heat Off Elephants

Body hair in mammals is typically thought to have evolved to keep us warm in colder prehistoric times, but a new study suggests that it may do the opposite, at least in elephants. Epidermal hair may have evolved to help the animals keep cool in the hot regions they live in. Elephant skin hair significantly enhances their capacity to keep cool under different scenarios like higher daytime temperatures or less windy days. As skin hair grows sparser, a tipping point is reached where, for animals such as elephants, skin hair begins to help release heat from the body rather than retain it. Elephants have the greatest need for such heat loss to maintain a constant body temperature, since they are large terrestrial mammals that live in hot climates. Their results are the first to suggest that animal hairs could play a role in heat dissipation that could be beneficial to certain animals, like elephants.Sparse hair increases heat dissipation from the skin of elephants and help the largest terrestrial mammal meet its thermoregulation needs. A solution to this is keep the elephants in a location where that doesn't happen to them. Another idea for a solution is the elephants may be able to take some medicine to keep their hair from thinning and hair loss. Barriers to those solutions are the cost and transportation. My personal opinion is the problem can be fixed but what is the cost. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121010172120.htm

In Organic-Hungry Hong Kong, Corn as High as an Elevator’s Climb

               In Hong Kong, a man named Kimbo Chan was tired of chemically grown food that is offered. He decided to grow his own organic food right on the roof top of his home located in the heart of the city. Kimbo states “Chemicals not meant for agricultural uses at all.”  Others in the city are following his lead and buying plots on rooftops to grow their own food. Many are increasing their awareness of their food and what is in it.  All over Hong Kong, there is a rise of all organic food stores and rooftop gardens.  This is one of the most populated cities in the world, with a total count of 7.1 million.  There are so many people in such a small place, there is virtually no agriculture areas anywhere. All of Hong Kong's food comes from the mainland in China. Some gardeners have been declined permission to start their green tops. “There is too much work in dealing with the government and the Housing Authority,” said Mr. Wong, the organic-food expert. I believe rooftop gardening is a very creative and healthy way to live. This way it is better not only for you, but the environment as well. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/world/asia/fearing-tainted-imports-hong-kong-squeezes-in-farms.html?ref=earth&_r=0

Crime and cartels are responsible for much of the Tropical Deforestation

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/01/organized-crime-deforestation-un-report_n_1930063.html?utm_hp_ref=green

The United Nations Environment Program released a statistic that stated, “organized crime is responsible for 50- 90% of illegal logging” in the Amazon, Africa, and South East Asia. Due to lessening in regulation and new concealment techniques used by criminals, many cartels are able to illegally cut down and transport lumber across large distances. Because demand for tropical forest lumber is on the rise, organized crime is making a fortune on the illegal timber trade.  The UNEP states it is up to combined nations to stop this illegal practice. Without international unity in handling this problem, cartels will be able to slip their cargo throughout many different countries. What will happen if these criminals continue their trade unchecked? With the rapid decline of the rainforest as it is, these criminals will increase the rate in which the rainforests are destroyed. In my opinion the best way to combat this problem is for nations to work together like the UNEP said and crack down on inspecting forged permits and inspect travelers entering and leaving rainforest areas.