Q: A current trend in the housing industry is to build 'green homes.' These homes utilize energy efficient appliances, attempt to take advantage of alternative energy sources, and are built out of green materials. Explain a few things: (a) what makes an appliance energy efficient; (b) what is an 'alternative energy source' and what is it an alternative to; and (c) what determines whether something gets the label 'green.


A: A) the appliance must use less energy the standard appliances,operating costs must lowered gratly(saving up to 300$ dollers anually) and they must pass new test that have been made to test these quality. B) Solar pannles can be instaled, also biomass is a new energy that is being looked at.we could use these insted of electicity wich calls for burring of fossil fules. C) somthing is labled green when it passes all the test that prove it utilzes energy and dose not hurt the enviromen.

Today in class we watched a movie called "Tapped" it focused on bottled water. As you watch you see just how wrong the whole process is flaud and corrupt. This movie had a big impact on me. The tows that they are getting the water from are suffering greatly. They are taking waaaaaay to much from one town. the people have no power over how much or what happens to the waste after. we use so much plastic for somthing we could be getting out of the sink. the annimal are suffering to! we have so little drinkable water that it saddens me the we are so willing to polute it just because we want a quick fix. most of our bottles end up in the ocean and in fish home. there is a hole part of the ocean where bottles replace the fish. People are getting sick because of all the toxins in the platic and caused while making the bottles. we need to cut this out NOW before its siply to late. most of the time they are just usinig the same tap water you can get in your home! now that this has been brought to my attention i feel compeled to tell my family to stop buy them and to just use the sink.

water, we use it everyday. we bathe in it, we drink it, and we  clean with it. its become such a normal part of my life that its to think of it as something that will always be there and something that everybody has access to. The fact is that many DONT and it may NOT always be here. i think it is important to  reserve all the water we can because water is so essential to life on earth. If the water ever runs out we and the planet will surly fall after it. we NEED it, plants NEED it, and animals NEED it. the only thing that even comes close in comparison when talking about  necessities is the sun. I know we can help ensure that water is here for our kids by making simple changes in our daily lives. We have to educate the public and show them what changes they can make. one way I know my family can help is cutting down the time it takes to shower. I take like 10 minutes max, my dad- 5 but my sister and dads girlfriend  take like 20-30 minutes. I know that we have leaky toilets and shower heads. We could fix theses to reduce our water bill and the amount of water we waste.

 

 

FOOD VS. FUEL

 

 

 

                        

 

            Appose to many people who say that Biofuel will dismantle the food industry, I think that it is a viable and growing solution. We need to support this field of work because as far as I can see it is the most promising solution to our global warming problem. Biofuels are an alternative fuel sorce made to try and decrease CO2 emitions. This post is in response to the food vs. fuel dilema. The food vs. fuel dilema refers to how people think Biofuels will impact the food industries in a negative way. I'm going to difuse the concerns that so many of my classmates have about Biofuels.



 

The first thing I want to bring up is Switchgrass. One of the most important things about switchgrass is that it can be grown in unusable soil. In an article about the first annual Biomass conference a man named Tilman said the test plots were "on land that is incredibly unproductive with very infertile soils. We did not water. We put out high diversity native prairie and let them grow." The energy production from the harvest was incredibly high. Tilman was also quoted saying that there was a large amount of carbon being stored in the soils. This is very important because according to this we will not need to use farm land to grow Biofuels. We will not take any land away from food productions.

 

Switchgrass is impressive in more than one way. For example, switchgrass ethanol can yeild 540% more energy than is required to produce it. This information was found in a National Geographic article entitled ""Grass Gas"" Shows Promise as Superefficeint, clean fuel". It also says switchgrass ethanol releases 94% less green house gas than burning gasoline does. Daniel karman was quoted saying "The result is very important-namely that yeilds can be higher and inputs lower than had previously been expected."

 

Another big problem that people tend to have about Biofuels is carbon debt. Carbon debt is the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted when land is cleared for crops and the time it takes to get rid of it. Most Biofuels build a carbon debt that would last for decades and even centuries. This is a big problem because global warming needs to be fixed as soon as possible, but switchgrass gets rid of its carbon debt in only 17years.

 

Lastly, I would like to point out that our work with Biofuel is still fairly new but shows extreme promise. Vogle said it is too early to know what percent of the U.S. energy mix could come from switchgrass but the potential is significant and would benefit the environment and economy. It also says switchgrass breeds will continue to improve as will techniques for converting the grass into fuel.

 

I believe that Biofuels are a huge step forward but more progress is to be made to judge it now would be unwise but it shows great potential and is continuing to grow. I believe we need to invest in this field of work so that more answers can be found. If in 17years we could be moving steadily forward toward diminishing global warming.

p.s mes.gardner, I got off work at 10 and got home at 11. also iwoked today at 10 and got off at 3 so i got this done as quocly as i could. forgive me!!

Pesticides: Double Edged Sword Indeed

As long as there has been farming there has been sets of obsticles for farmers to face and and eventually overcome. One of the biggest obstacles was insects or pests. from the potato to the locust the insects would devour entire crops of food with out stopping for a breath. many believed for a long time that pests were a punishment from god, that how bad it would get. they reproduce fast and eat even faster before the 1930s they were a death sentence for any crop they came across and as the crops fell, the business would soon follow. hgc

finally in the 1930s a chemist in Switzerland created a compound that would drastically change the lives of farmers every were. it was spray that you use on your crops that would kill the pests that were foolish enough to lay there. This saved many crops from complete collaps and was called a wonder tool.

Sadly this victory was short lived, soon after inventing the pesticide a horrible side affect was discovered. I guess no one stopped and thought ( if they did they didn't speak loud enough) "hey wouldn't this contaminate the food were about to ship off to states all around the US." because soon people were falling ill due to the chemicals on the food.  

POROSITY,PERMEABILITY,POROSITY, WHATS THE CONNECTION?

porosity is the volume of water that fits between the particles in sediment.

permeability is the rate of flow of water through soil

retention is how much water is traped by soil.

these are all related. if porosity is high then permeability is also high the same if one is low. these to qualities are directly related. This was most clear to me when , in the lab me and angle tested the "gravel". we could see the large spaces in between the large pieces and when we poured water in, it went quickly.

retention has a conflicting relationship with porosity and permeability. When the other 2 are hight then retention is low. This was most prominet when when testing the "clay" sentiment. the retention was so high that it took over an for ANY THING TO HAPPEN.  

The book im reading is called "trash land". i was recommended this book by miss Gardner (I hope thats how you spell it), but thats not to say I wouldnt have found it intresting if she hadn't. In our class we are learning about the environment. and in this book im learning how we're messing it all up, that alone is enough to get me hooked on any reading.Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City. Did you know that? That fact blew me away. sadly Iv only gotten through the fist couple pages so thats all for now, but I promise this blog will get better with time. (unlike our planet it seems haha)