Energy Articles Homework

Article 1

Nuclear Power: Risking a Comeback

Quote

"Burning coal releases greenhouse gases that have been linked to global warming. But researchers are finding ways to convert coal into a zero-emissions source of electricity. "

Question

What is 'emissions' means? How can you capture the rate of CO2? Is it possible?

Comment

I think that this article was really straight forward, unlike the other one. The information is really interesting because it talk about

Article 2

Nuclear Power: Risking a Comeback

Quote

"Still, for nearly a decade, with no new plants, nukes' 20 percent share of U.S. electricity production has held steady, keeping pace as overall electricity output has risen 15 percent. In the 1970s and '80s unscheduled shutdowns for repairs or other problems limited U.S. plants to less than 65 percent of their potential output."

Questions

What does "They're cash cows" means? Is like they make all there money out of cows?

Comment

This article was really long (4 pages) and sometimes really confusing. Goal gastification is gas the convert into electricity better for the environment, because it primarily consists of hydrogen. For the Gas Washing it talked about their goal to capture and store 10 percent of their total dioxide.

An Inconvenient Truth

I sat down with my mom have the conservation. She’s not really that inform in all of this so I tried to mostly stay in the morally aspect of this.

The first thing I asked her was what did she know about the climate changes, what behind all off this, etc…

What she said that she knew very little, only that really stood out was the climate changes and extreme weather. Extreme weather was something I feared the most too. It think this is something scary cause all this extreme weather can cause a lot of uncontroling deaths. It’s something that takes us by surprise

Back to 1983 for a day

"1983? Really? I can do this. Its okay, I'm just going to be without my baby for one day. One day. That's it. " I thought to myself in class when I heard the project description. A day without cell phone, T.V, PSP, when was the last time I have ever lived without those things? Can I live without them? It would be could interesting to try I guess. But I had to smart about planning the day. Of course NOT in Thanksgiving or after, either Monday or Tuesday I thought. Tuesday cause there’s really anything good on TV. Sunday pass I was dreading Tuesday, and when Tuesday arrived it wasn’t so bad.

I personally was surprised how much of a relieved it was to just leave my phone. I didn’t have to worry about missing any calls or text, but the TV was a different story (at first). In the morning I woke and was like “What the Heck am I doing today?” I usually wake up and try to see some re-runs of my one of favorite show (Charmed) but today I was going to have to miss it. I think I sat there for like an hour just laying down. So I read the closet thing me. I think most of the day that’s what I did. I had the now and then bathrooms break and a little snack, I almost finish my book that Tuesday too. I think it wasn’t was hard to leave my baby, because the before when working on my senior project it started making some weird screeching sounds so I was even afraid of touching it for that matter, yet alone turning it on.

The people I usually communicate with on a daily basis are my mom, sister, and a occasional friend or two. But Tuesday my sister stayed home and my mom went to work. When my needs to communicate with us when she’s at work she usually calls me because she knows I’m the one that almost all the time have my cell phone next to me, but Tuesday she knew that I wasn’t going to be answering one so she called my sister instead. Maybe this was considered cheating so nothing really change in that area. I DIDN’T feel the need to communicate with anyone, only when it was really necessary.

What surprised me the most about the experience is how much I missed reading. I really do. I had to re-read my Twilight series so it wasn’t as excited as I would’ve liked, but is still was enough to spark my reading interest.

I think what I learned most from this experience was that I can survive without my phone, and it was just a nice break form all of that. Since that day I don’t watch that much T.V. I read more often, and probably still use much my phone. My baby though, I can’t tell the difference because the only time I really use it is when I’m using it for homework even before this experienced.

Food Inc. Articles

Reflection

Article 1 The Financial Crisis and world Hunger
I thought that this article brought up a very interesting topic about the financial crisis and how it connects to food crisis. With the story in the beginning it really set the mood of the rest of the ARTICLE. I really enjoy how the story went from a small bank "an institution that provides microcredit" to a world-wide buisness.

Article 2 Cheap Food

I think the Cheap Foods article were my favorite cause it really kept my wanting to read more. The information on immigration policies that "guarantee cheap labor" was really interesting because in the article it admitted that slavery still exist on farms and theres been numerous cases investigated but theres still more cases out there that have been undectected

Article 3 Fileds of Poison

This article talks about the pesticides that goes into growing our crops. In the third page it has a list of pesticides and and if it part of the Bad Actor. Info about the pesticides and which fields it's being use is hard to find because it's not fund as much. Info like this very important to inform consumers about how and what it takes to produce our crops.

Article 4 The Scope of the World Food Crisis

In this article they stated the reality of this crisis, which is the rise of cost of food, with a statics about the rise of malnourished people had dramatically gone up. In this article it talked about the reason behind this disaster, which are droughts that happening all over the world, population growth, " misguided international and national policies", etc... One solution for this problem is for countries to have independence from imports. What I read this article it made me very concerned about my future and my children's future, it seems it is very unstable. I just imagine how much more expensive its gonna be in ten or twenty yeaars (if we make it past 2012)

2.

My favorite article is the Cheap Food one. This is my favorite one because it kept wanting more and there was just so many information that I didn't know. I think it's importnt that people know where and how much it cost us to make our crops, to know how much unfairness goes in the policies that the government makes.

Study Guide

Water Study Guide

14. How is fresh water extracted from salt water during desalinization? What are the benefits and costs of this process?


A.)
B.)
C.)


Air and Land Use Guide

14. Describe the major ways in which humans use lands

A.) Raise the animals AND fatten them up so later we can butcher them.
B.) Landfills. US HAS 3,091 active landfills
C.) All of the above


Food and Agriculture Study Guide

1. Distinguish between traditional and modern agriculture techniques.


A.)modern agriculture= Better Technology, so like irrigation and planting is easier because we have advanced technology.
B.) Traditional= machinery

C.) Modern techniques= more efficient and healthier ways to produce crops

Biome HW: Part 2

Write 1 QQC(Quote. Question. Comment) for 3 packets:

1. Ice Paradise (Tundra)

Quote

"To the Human , the terrain is stark, austere, unforgiving. More than half the landmass is encased in glacial ice. Less than 10 percent offers enough light and soil to support vegetation... I counted only seven different plant species in five hours"

Question

How do animals survive? Do they only fed of other animals? If theres no plants then is the tundras all white with little spots of plants here and there? Could humans survive in this conditions? Feeding on each other?

Comment

I really liked how they describe the tundra in this couple of sentences. They included how much light and what you see. Also they get to include how much vegetation and ice is there. A lot of information in a couple of sentences.

2. Ultra Marine (Marine)

Quote

"What it's been robbed of: Sharks. they've been slaughter by outside commercial fishermen supplying the shark-fin soup market. Commercial fishing remains a threat, as does logging and nickel mining."

Question

What has there been done about this? Is there someone protecting this marine life? Why do we always look for ways to make profit when we know we are endangering a vital parts of the ecosystem?

Comment

What I notice is the different kind of people that deal with conservation. In the first articles it said that they stop all wildlife killings and turned it "into one of its most protected sanctuaries." And in this articles they still have problems, the other article handle it better compare to the second one. It's sad how in the world there is still this kind of actions.

3. The Power of Patagonia (Tundra/Rain Forest)

Quote

"No place on the planet is fully at rest. Only time- unimaginable stretches of time that conceal from human eyes the dynamic natural forces shaping Earth- creates the illusion of stasis. But sometimes, if youre lucky, you come upon a place where time seems compressed"

Question

Why is this sentences here in this article about Tundra and Rain Forest? How are they related? Is there something I miss? Is it trying to relate how beautiful it is?

Comment

I really liked how this articles grabs your attention, it makes you want to read more about this curious situation. But I think in the middle of the second paragraph it starts getting confuse. I dont really get the rest of the article, maybe that's why I dont get the quote that I really liked because its just a beautiful worded sentence. Looks like it has a deep meaning, I just don't get it.

Biome HW: Part 1

Freshwater:

What is the difference of lake and pond, besides the size?

Ponds are seasonal, lasting just a couple of months, and lakes are long-lasting. Ponds are man-made unlike lakes that are created by nature.

Marine

Why are intertidal zone, where the tides reach highest, has a more diverse array of algae and small animals?

Desert

Why are there not a lot of big animals in the desert?

Because there's not a lot animals that have the capability to hold a lot of water since water is scarce in the Desert.

Forest

What's the difference between tropical and other kinds of forest?

Tropical forests has the greatest diversity of species and is located near the equator making in very hot compare to to other rainforests. Has poor quality soil but the decomposition rate is fast.

Grassland

What is a trait of the Savanna that we see here in California?

Two important components of Savanna are temperature, it needs a constant 6 to 8 months of rain and the rest hot temp. Another component is fire, it "plays a vital role in the Savanna's biodiversity." When I did my Chaparral report I found out that fire also plays a vital part of that community. Some chaparral shrubs need fire to sprout and some of the most beautiful flowers only bloom after a wildfire.