Bright Source Energy, A Possible Future?

Bright Source Energy is a company that focuses on designing and building large scale solar power plants.  These plants create low cost solar energy.  Instead of using fossil fuels, steam and electricity are the main sources.  This is great for the environment because it will hopefully lower our countries dependency on fossil fuels.  If we will lower our dependency on fossil fuels, then we will stop wasting fuels which we are going to need for later in life.  The main reason why this company is so intriguing is that we can be promised clean air.  This is a time where energy can be produced, but there is an effect of this energy, a dirty source of energy.  Bright Source Energy’s corporate headquarters  is located in Oakland California.  There is another smaller company of Bright Source located in Jerusalem, Israel.  This is named Luz II.  The founder and chairman of Bright Source is Arnold Goldman.  The source of all the Bright Source energy is California is located in the Mojave Desert.  There are 9 Solar Electricity Generating Stations.

Bright Source Energy Plant in the Mojave Desert.

The founder of Bright Source Energy, Arnold Goldman.

Sources

http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/about.htm

http://apimages.ap.org

Whaling? NOT COOL!!

Iceland has decided to make a larger number a whales to be hunted.  The US ate department is in complete opposition to this.  The Us is thinking of the long term effects of this.  The US feels that in later years, obviously the amount whales will decrease.  Countries such as Japan, enjoy killing whales.  They do not follow the IWC (International Whaling Commission) moratorium from 1986.  The Japanese found somewhat of a loop hole by saying that they were going to do research on the meats.  Instead, they just send the whale meat to Japanese restaurants and supermarkets.  Norway and Iceland both have similar viewpoints as Japan.  They are for the increase in Whaling.

Iceland has increased the quota for whaling.

Sources

http://www.grist.org/news/2009/02/27/whaling/index.html?source=rss

http://apimages.ap.org

EPA wants Carbon Dioxide Regulation

In this article, I found some very important things that I feel we should know.  I really don’t pay attention to the news and stuff, so a lot of these topics are all new to me.  In the article in “US News,” it talks about Baraq Obama’s plan to lower Carbon Dioxide emissions.  In this article, they mention the Clean Air Act which regulates the amounts of greenhouse gas emission in refineries, chemical plants, coal fired power plants, etc.  There are many people who feel that this regulation is going to be too hard to accomplish.  The White House has some very high expectations.  The White House wants to cut down greenhouse gases by 80% from 1990 to 2050.  One way to limit this from happening would be to get rid of all 600 of the coal-fired power plants in the United States.  Realistically, this would never happen.

Large amounts of Carbon Dioxide are released from coal-fired power plants.

Also another topic that interested me in this article was that a person named Tom Williams believes that we should not follow the Clean Air Act, but rather follow through congressional legislation.  I think that this is completely wrong because the Clean Air Act only helps us regulate our carbon dioxide emissions.

President Bush was the president who signed the Clean Air Act.

Sources

http://www.envirolink.org

http://apimages.ap.org

Red fish, blue fish, one fish, two fish, NO FISH!!!???

After watching the documentary we watched in class, I found out that there is a major problem in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. Along with Yellowstone in the US and Lake Guri in Venezuela, there is a problem pertaining to the many deaths of predators in these ecosystems. What is going to happen when these predators all die off? Who will become the new predators? Will there be new predators? These are many questions I am pretty sure many people are asking themselves. I am going to discuss what will actually happen over a period of time when these predators die off.

To start off, I would just like to state what is actually going on in Discovery Bay. The problem all starts with the corral. During the 1980’s, deposits of algae were found on the corral reefs. The algae is the cause of death for the corral reefs. There are no little fish to feed on the algae. Since the little fish have nothing to feed on, they start to die off. The ripple effect then begins to take place. The bigger fishes such as surgeon and parrot fish start to die off because they can’t feed on the smaller fish and corral. Finally, the predators such as the sharks, snappers, and jacks are not able to survive. Without predators, the food web is completely screwed up. When the food web is screwed up, bad things happen. The scientists believed that the fishermen were the cause of this. They fished for the smaller fishes. Without little fishes big fishes can not feed on them. Without little fishes, the layers of algae formed on the corral reefs. After a period of time, these usual big fishes that were being caught by the fishermen were becoming small fishes because the big fish didn’t have any small fishes to feed on. Due to the fishermen constantly fishing, empty spots of the ocean are spreading. That is why they set aside Marine Reserves. Marine Reserves are the equivalent of National Parks. Marine Reserves are closed off areas for fishing which has been very beneficial for the fishermen and environment.

WE should care about these ecosystem changes for many reasons. Obviously, the people of Discovery Bay rely heavily on fishing as their income. If they can’t catch fish, the fishermen will not be able to survive because they will have no money. Corral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse communities in the world. If we get rid of these communities, we will be hurting because we will find out we lost something special to our world. Finally, there are benefits about these ecosystem changes. These benefits will not only help the fish of Discovery Bay, but also the humans who dwell there. Even though this may not affect me, i feel that we should still act on what needs to be changed.

Some fishermen have nothing after they go fishing.  AP Images/Andres Leighton

www.apimages.org

CAFE

ISSUE 2

a.) There has been a resistance because right now, car companies are going to make money no matter what they do. The only problem is that car companies are going to have to spend more money to make electric or fuel efficient cars. If people are going to by cars no matter what, why spend more money than companies actually have to spend? Sure, it would lessen carbon dioxide emissions, but not many people actually care about it. People won’t care until something actually happens.

b.) California has played a huge role in setting fuel efficiency standards. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made many attempts to increase fuel efficiency throughout the state of California. He has removed cars that are considered “gas guzzlers” and set the mpg at 42.5 mpg.

c.)

Hybrids, are they worth it? NO!!!!

When I originally brought up the topic of hybrid cars, I was actually looking to possibly buy one for myself. Right now, I am driving a 2001 Chevy Tahoe which gets about 8 mpg in the city and 19 mpg on the highway. Those are horrible numbers which means that my price of gas per year is skyrocketed. In order for me to limit these prices, I will have to buy either a hybrid car or a fuel efficient car.

A hybrid, such as the Toyota Prius, receives 45 mpg on the highway and costs 21,500 dollars. A fuel efficient car, such as the Chevy Aveo, receives 34 mpg on the highway and costs 11,460 dollars. The difference in price between these two cars is 10,040 dollars ( Toyota Prius costing more). The amount of space in the Prius is 96 cu ft. In the Aveo, it is 90 cu ft. The difference is 6 cu ft (Toyota Prius having 6 more ft). When we take a look at these numbers, we can clearly see that a hybrid is not worth 10,040 dollars more than a fuel efficient car.  When you think about it, 6 cu ft is not much more space. At least in my family, after ten years of having a car, we usually buy another one. If this were to happen in our case with the hybrid car we would have spent a total of 24,166.70 dollars. If this were to happen with the fuel efficient car we would have spent a total 14,989.41 dollars. Still, the price difference is about 10,000 dollars. 10,000 dollars can cover the cost for many things in a time where our economy is financially unstable. Also, on average, a hybrid battery will only last 8 years or 80,000 miles. The cost of a new battery is 3000 dollars. (http://money.cnn.com). So now the total price of the Toyota Prius is 27,166.70 dollars. Now it is about 13,000 dollars more than the Chevy Aveo. So, it is simple to see that the choice is clear. The Aveo would be the better of the two to buy.

The Chevy Aveo, THE CHAMPION

AP Images/Tony Ding

http://apimages.ap.org

http://money.cnn.com

Hybrids, are they worth it?

When looking at our nation and the cars we all own, we see a wide variety. Cars can range from gas guzzlers to electric cars to even hybrid cars. Are hybrid cars really worth it? After research on hybrid cars, I feel that hybrid cars are not worth it.

There are many cons to owning hybrid cars. Hybrid cars are very complex and expensive to make. They may get 40 to 60 miles per gallon, but the start off price for a hybrid car can range from 19,000 dollars to 25,000 dollars. There are gas saver cars that range from 14,000 dollars to 17,000 dollars. If you look at this, a top of the line gas saver car is 8,000 dollars cheaper than a top of the line hybrid car. That is a big difference in money. Another con is that hybrid cars have a better chance of breaking down because the have two types of motors. There is an electric motor and a gas motor in each hybrid car. This means that if these hybrid cars are constantly breaking down, the car shop bill is going to be outrageously high.

There are some pros about hybrid cars though. Hybrid cars reduce emissions by 25% to 35% over many fuel efficient cars. Another pro of hybrid cars is the tax incentive you will receive. The cost of a car can reduce up to 3,400 dollars. Hybrid cars also do have better mileage, which means less money spent on gas.

AP images/Carlos Osorio

http://www.physorg.com

http://www.apimages.org

Who needs to drill?

There are many other types of ways to preserve energy besides drilling. They are :

1.) Riding your bicycle to and from work or school. When it is said and done, all of us could use a little bit more excersise.

2.) If a bicycle is out of reach for you, you could just walk from point A to point B.

3.) While driving our cars, stay at a constant speed rather than accelerating so quickly. This burns less gas.

4.) I am somewhat of a hypocrite, but we could try to stay away from big truck gas guzzlers.

5.) When we are not home, we could disconnect objects in our house that use a lot of electricity.

6.) Instead of taking a twenty minute shower, we should just take a quick 3 minute shower. Get in there, get clean, and dry off.

7.) Another way is not using your dishwasher. When you use your dishwasher, you waste water that you shouldn’t.

8.) When we do not need light, we should turn off our lights in our houses.

9.) We can also stay away from eating meats. If we do this, it will be healthier, cheaper, reduce water consumption, and reduce water pollution.

10.) Finally, if we do end up driving, we could carpool. This limits the amount of gas wasted and pollution let into the air.

To Drill or Not to Drill, That is the Question

After researching the topic of drilling or not drilling in Alaska, I have come to my decision that w should not drill in Alaska. There are pros and cons for each of these topics, but I still feel that drilling in Alaska would be a bad thing for the environment. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or better known as the ANWR, has nineteen million acres of plains in which many different types of animals live. There are many reasons why i think that we should not drill. One of these reasons is that a majority of the big an heavy machinery could be damaging towards the animals of the ANWR.

(AP images/Steve Amstrup)

According to The Sioux City Journal, President Bush’s Own energy department indicated that even if we were to drill, there wouldn’t be significant effects on gas prices for another twenty years. “The U.S. uses 25 percent of the world’s oil supply, but only holds 2.6 percent of the world’s oil reserves. No matter how much we drill, we could never impact the price of gases.” (http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/08/05/news_opinion/letters/5c90c71c6624598d8625749b007c092d.txt

Another reason is that the U.S. consumes a lot of oil a year. The government agency that studies natural resources has estimated that there are 10.4 billion barrels of undeveloped oil. In a year, the U.S. uses about seven billion barrels of oil. So, when all is said and done, we really would only have a enough oil from drilling to last us about a year and five months. Is a year and five months of oil worth a lifetime of difficulty for the native animals to suffer? After a year and five months will we not just have the same exact problem we are having right now? Yes, we will have the EXACT same problem.

If I were to be on the other side of the fence, I could only one reason to drill. The only reason is that the price of gas right now is very high. If we were to drill and find oil, the gas prices would probably lower. Another reason is that there is a possibility of prices on other things lowering.  The economy could become a better one to live in.  It is a risk that some people could be willing to take.

SOURCES:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june05/anwr_3-23.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec05/anwr_11-2.html

http://arctic.fws.gov/

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/08/05/news_opinion/letters/5c90c71c6624598d8625749b007c092d.txt

http://apimages.ap.org/Search.aspx?kw=polar+bears&intv=None&sh=14&st=k&remem=x

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