UK drivers lower their carbon footprint

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17740356

As sales of fuel-efficient cars rapidly rise in the UK, carbon emissions from motor vehicles have decreased by 23% since 2000.  This increase in sales is the result of high gas prices and technological advances that can produce more of these cars.  The article goes on to discuss how this change in consumer behavior is linked to rising fuel prices, along with high tax and insurance costs that come along with less efficient vehicles.  Analysts believe that the way to see this trend continue is further technological investment by the government as well as more consumer incentives to buy fuel efficient cars.

The UK still has a long way to go to meet the EU emissions goals by 2020, but this change in consumer behavior has produced tangible results.  Gas prices in the U.S. are significantly cheaper by comparison, so it's not as strong of an incentive for Americans to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.  This positive effect in reducing carbon wasn't exactly planned, but more of a reaction to a change in conditions.  If institutions in the UK can find ways to keep gas expensive and insurance rates high this trend is more likely to continue.

This example is very specific to one type of carbon emitting source, which is why it was able to be reduced effectively.  Most environmentalists, ecologists. scientists, etc. realize that targeting individual sources of greenhouse gas production is the best way to lower emissions.  I believe this type of reduction can be replicated in many other countries around the world, provided that the conditions are the same.  Fuel prices must be VERY high, enough to motivate buyers to move towards smaller/fuel-efficient vehicles, and insurance costs must also be expensive for larger cars.  Considering that a large portion of greenhouse gas production comes from cars on the road, this gives me a lot of hope that some portion of emissions can be reduced.

The Future of Your Urine

Three of the inventors with their invention.

Maker Faire Africa is an anual pan-African convening of inventors aiming to foster creativity and African independence.  This year, one proposal in particular is garnering a lot of attention.  Four young women  (between the ages of fourteen and fifteen) have constructed an apparatus that uses urine to power a generator.

The invention uses some energy to initiate the process wherein urea is separated into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen.  From there the hydrogen is purified and pushed into the gas cylinder and then is pushed into the generator.  Through this process, 1 liter of urine will provide 6 hours of electricity.

One liter of urine = 6 hours of electricity

While critics on the internet have doubted the effectiveness of the invention and have criticized the fact that the process still requires some energy to begin creating energy, it is important to acknowledge the success of this idea.  These young women have gotten together and created a system that uses bodily waste and turns it into something more productive.  This is important for both gender equality internationally and to shift away from the predominance of Western countries stepping into the Global South and continuing Western imperialism through aid agencies.  Simultaneously, it is moving away from the use of fossil fuels and natural resources for the creation of electricity.  Furthermore, this invention can be further developed into an even more successful product that can be mass produced and distributed across the world.  Perhaps we can even start using it in the United States to decrease our dependence on natural resources.

As an invention, this generator gives me hope for the future because it proves that eco-friendly inventions are being developed across the world and not just in the Global North.  It also gives me hope because it is brilliant in its ingenuity.  These four young women have created this as teenagers, which means they have their whole lives to continue developing it and other ideas.  Perhaps the fate of the world resides in the hands of these young girls who have obviously been working hard over the past few years and have something to show for it.

Elemental Avengers: Introducing Thorium

Thorium is an element on the periodic table of elements named - you guessed it - after the God of Thunder, Thor. 

Joking aside, you'll notice Thorium is one away on the Periodic Table from "U" Uranium, which is the main element used to generate nuclear power - among other things.  A certain type of enriched uranium allowed for creation of nuclear weapons. Thorium, like Uranium, can be used to generate nuclear power.  However, Uranium "is only slightly radioactive...it's abundant...doesn't require costly processing, [and] it is extraordinarily efficient as a nuclear fuel" as Richard Martin writes in a December 2009 Wired.com article.  Thorium's benefits don't stop there.  Martin goes on to write that Thorium:

 Leaves behind minuscule amounts of waste... that needs to be stored for only a few hundred years, not a few hundred thousand like other nuclear byproducts. Because it’s so plentiful in nature, it’s virtually inexhaustible. It’s also one of only a few substances that acts as a thermal breeder, in theory creating enough new fuel as it breaks down to sustain a high-temperature chain reaction indefinitely. And it would be virtually impossible for the byproducts of a thorium reactor to be used by terrorists or anyone else to make nuclear weapons (Martin, Richard; Wired.com).  

This element isn't new, either.  It was discovered in the 1950s, but at that time, Ken Silverstein writes that the "federal government made the fundamental decision to place its research and development funds into 'uraniaum' which could be also used to make nuclear bombs" in a April, 2012 energybiz article.  Remember that in this Cold War context, the government probably saw investing in Uranium as killing too birds with one stone; develop power for a growing nation, and weapons to fight the Soviet Union, with one element.  

However now, in the aftermath of Japan's Fukoshima meltdown, ever increasing energy requirements, the problems with the dumping of nuclear waste, and in the midst of the proliferation of nuclear weapons, it might be time for a change.  Thorium, combined with a new type of reactor called a LFTR - Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor - that uses molten liquid fluoride salts to self-regulate and cool the reactor - would apparently virtually eliminate the possibility of meltdowns like Fukoshima (Martin, Richard; Wired.com).  

This chat below (also from the Wired.com article) shows the differences between standard Uranium reactors we have today, a potential Uranium and Thorium reactor, and the LFTR Thorium only reactor.

As you can see, Thorium is the clear winner in cost, cooling, proliferation potential and footprint.  

China and India have already begun to look into Thorium reactors to manage their own growing energy needs.  Thorium hasn't yet gained much momentum inside the United States, however, because of very real obstacles.  The US would effectively need to build new an entire new fleet of nuclear reactors in order to fully embrace Thorium, engineers would have to be retrained, and energy companies inside the US would need to be on board with this infrastructure change, or they would mostly likely suffer.  The startup costs would be huge, in a time where the American public doesn't want to see government spending.  

Despite the obstacles, Thorium gives me hope.  Cleaner, safer, more efficient nuclear power, combined with increased efforts in wind and solar technologies would give us a way to wean ourselves off of oil and coal, hopefully starting - at last - to curb the waste we currently flood our skies, seas, and earth with on an daily basis.  Thorium will not magically solve all of our problems.  But it is a step in the right direction, I think, and it is a possibility.  Even more encouraging is the China and India are moving to implement LFTRs.  If China and India succeed in their endeavors, more developing countries might start up with more efficient technologies in the first place.  

http://grist.org/food/with-real-food-calculator-students-take-prop-37-into-their-own-hands/

http://www.realfoodchallenge.org/calculator

The Real Food Calculator is a tool developed by the Real food Challenge that allows college students to evaluate the food purchased by their universities or colleges. The tool calculates how “real” the food is using a holistic scale which includes how sustainability it was produced, how fair the labor conditions it was produced under are,   and how it had to travel to reach the university. Students who use the calculator audit their school cafeteria and other eating establishment and then use the information they gather to make recommendations about how to make food purchasing more sustainable and “real.” The goal is to get universities to eventually sign onto a Real Food Campus commitment whereby they pledge to purchases at least 20% “real” food by 2020.

The real food calculator is exciting because it provided students with an opportunity to address global food issues on a community scale. The industrial food system as it exists today is detrimental to both the environment and human life. Monoculture crops and the exorbitant usage of pesticides and fertilizers have led to massive runoff and created massive dead zones in the oceans. The overproduction of corn and soy, particularly GMO corn has led to the creation multitudes of unhealthy over processed food-like substance. Further, labor practices in both the food service and farming/processing industries are some of the worst out of all US industry. Students can address these food and sustainability issues on their own campus and make positive, if incremental changes by altering how their university buys food.

The calculator is also exciting because its accounts for two of the major criticisms of the food movement: 1) that it is too focused on the individual and 2) that it ignores workers.  The food movement of Michael Pollan and other thinkers has tended to focus on what individuals should do to improve the health of themselves and their families. They can shop at farmers markets, avoid processed food, or start their own farm or garden. While these actions are beneficial they fall into what Maniates calls the individualization of responsibility whereby people try to address systemic problems by focusing on individual choice instead of larger systemic solutions.  By focusing on changing the purchasing of larger institutions and getting them to make “real” food as part of their governing policies students can have a much larger impact. Further, the food movement has often ignored the people who grow or cook food. The real food calculator takes labor practices to be fundamental part of its definition of “real.”

Environmental challenge: water crisis

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/05/the-coming-global-water-crisis/256896/

Alexis C. Madrigal. “The Coming Global Water Crisis ”The Atlantic International Channel (blog). May 9, 2012. Retrieved September 25, 2012

The Coming Global Water Crisis is a blog talks about different issues that lead to global water crisis. There arefurther problems that generated because of lacking fresh water resources. It also make projections for the future of the globe, which is that regions that have water-stressed problems right now, while maintaining the rapid growth of population that increased the demand for water; as well as the rapid meltingrate of the glaciers and snow pack on top of mountains. The water shortages will be much more severe in the future than itis right now. According to the Global Water Security report from U.S. Intelligence Community, the “annual global water requirement” will be 40 percent larger than the sustainable fresh water supply. The U.S. national security might threatenby the absence of proper interventions that regulated by policies related with water shortages. Social and political instabilities and even the failure of states may cause by intensive water shortages.

​There are several causes that linked to the water crisisthat are related with ecohydrology theories in this blog. He mentioned that the declining of the fresh water supply is the main dispatches of the Planet Earth. Rapid depletion of underground aquifers greatly damages the entire water cycle. Since there are enormous amount of water pulled out from theaquifers without proper evaluation about whether the groundwater can get enough recharge; especially in arid regions, people tend to dig deep wells to pull out more water, all of these reckless actions worsen the water shortage situations. This including the water that preserved in the aquifer for long time, which means that there are possibilities that the aquifer may never have the peticular source or any source to recharge of itself. Unregulated exploitation of groundwater greatly changes the ecosystems that depend upon groundwater. Trees that used to get water from their capillary system that is 20 feet below the ground, but now because of there are great amount of water depleted; the water table dropped a lot, trees’ roots cannot suck enough water to support them now.

Another important aspect we need to pay attention to is that the disappearance of the glacier and the snow packs,because majority of the snow pack on top of the mountains are the only source of water supply during dry seasons. Example would be Andes, where huge amounts of glacier disappear in past decades, the water supply severely impacted because of the disappearance of snow pack. The decreasing of water supply in dry season would affect the entire ecosystem as well as human who lived near by regions. With the onlywater supply gone, trees are not able to find water because they cannot move around. Some animals could survive by immigrating to further areas to find available water supply but same problem will happen with those supplies too in the future. Some animals couldn’t make it through and died on their water-hunting journey.

Besides the facts of the water supply decreasing, demand increase is another cause that leads to water crisis. The changing of our dietary preferences is a huge factor that used a lot of our limited fresh water. The middle class will be the major consumer by 2030, which is about 4.9 billionworldwide and most of them will arise from developing countries. People will have more money and they want to live a wealthier life. We will see a dramatic increase of demand for meat products than now, that requires more energy and water to raise livestock. In order to produce meat products, we need to keep animals by feeding them water and grain. The growth of grain requires water as well. We are now using double or even more water to get that slice of ham to consumers. Today, as much as 93% of water supply goes to agriculture sector that coming from varieties of sourcesincluding river, lake and groundwater. There will be great pressure coming from food production that on the water supply, which has already happen in some regions.

Alexis’ way of solving the water crisis is by signing more agreements. “Today, water basin agreements often do not exist or are inadequate.” From my point of view, I do not think that, signing agreements with countries sharing water basins would work in terms of solving global water crisis. Agreements may work with some countries that have violent conflicts by using diplomatic weapon. The reality is that non-state actors, terrorists and extremists may not be bind by agreements. Signing agreements may have some help to save water but it does not have the ability to constraint countries by law or military forces. It depends on conscientious of who signed the agreement. The effects of saving water are verylimited.

In order to save the world from water crisis, we need to develop water efficiency technologies and much more important is that, the spreading of these technologies globally. Education will help people realize the importance of water. By education, we can teach more people know about how to save water during the daily life. This will enhance the acknowledgement of water scarcity of much larger scale. Even though some Americans know about it’s important to save water, but very few of them actually put an effort to do that. Lacking support from the government and it’s too expensive to install new infrastructures that have high waterefficiency may be the obstacles that we encounter right now. From my point, I think proper governmental subsidy will also help to save more water from the national level. We need something bigger steps and actions, rather than minorindividual changes on the margins. We are adults and we know the price that needs to pay by starting with serious actions. When we facing with water crisis, it’s not a simple issue by as simple as taking shorter shower or use toilets that use much less water. Fundamental changes need to be done to save us from future water crisis.

The Native attitude

When I was in high school, I took a trip with my youth group to Ontario, Canada with a parish on an indigenous Canadian reservation.  For five days we stayed on the Six Nations reservation in Brantford, Ontario, the largest native Canadian reservations in the country.  We also spent several days in Toronto and stayed at Council Fire, a native Canadian cultural center in the city.  On the reservation, I had the chance to speak to many members of the Six Nations community and what really struck me was how their everyday lives are so closely integrated with nature.  The leaders and community members we encountered taught us about their culture and how it revolves around a deep reverence for the natural world.  At the church service I attended all of the prayers and the liturgy had references to the earth and our responsibility towards it.  So when our group did all sorts of outdoorsy things, such as kayaking the Grand River and biking around the Canadian countryside, I experienced it from a fresh perspective which made it that much more amazing.

I believe everyone has different motivations as to why we should "save nature".  For some it's economical and for others, like the Six Nations peoples, it's for religious/spiritual reasons.  My personal reason for wanting to preserve and protect nature is that I really enjoy experiencing it whether I'm hiking, biking or kayaking.  The outdoors are a place I can retreat to when I need to get away from city life, and I just feel rejuvenated whenever I've spent quality time there.  Despite this being my primary reason for wanting to "save nature" I've found that the majority of other people's arguments for it are also valid.  It's hard to make a case for why we don't need a healthy environment to live in, which is why we should be protecting it.

Saving Nature

            The Redwoods. Tall mighty old growths. The ground lush with spongey soil. As I walk through the forest my eyes are locked to the sky. I am in Northern California and the sky is a dull grey but I cant even tell for above my head is a vast network of branches and leaves and life. A lush humidity touches my skin as I breath in wonder…..

            The discourse surrounding the question of whether or not we should save nature is troubling in that it is based on two flawed assumptions. The first one is that we are separate from nature. In the tradition western view, humans, because they are rational beings are thought of as being able to transcend nature and the environment. Through technology and reason, humans were to be able to tame the environment and change it for their own conveniences. While people now tend to see the need for environmental protection, nature is seen as something “out there,” that we can visit but are not part of. This brings us to the second assumption: that nature can be secluded from human influence.  Environmental protection usually comes in the form of creating national parks or forest preserves. While these places are important sources of peace and well-being for people it is a fallacy to think that they are untouched by human activities. Thus I don’t think we should be asking the question “should we save nature.” Instead we should be asking ourselves how can we be better members of the ecosystem? Or how can we best help maintain biodiversity or natural beauty? 

Restoring Balance

... The slight breeze chills in the crisp morning air as she trudges up the steep incline of the grassy hill, toes of her hard soled leather riding boots sinking into the grass - damp from morning dew - as she digs in to keep from slipping.  She pauses a moment at the top to look over the wooden fence at the pasture beyond.  The horses stand idly in the morning, tails flicking the occasional fly, heads pointed to the ground either lipping at foliage or muzzle deep in a hay bale.  It is a lazy morning.  

The girl removes a halter from a wooden post of the fence, and moves to unlock the gate and enter the gelding's pasture.  She closes the door behind her, halter on one shoulder, wandering towards a bay thoroughbred gelding with a dark mane and tail.  She whistles softly, and his perk up as he lifts his head to look at her, attentive.  One hoof stamps at the ground. A smile plays its way into the soft lines of her face as she walked within arms reach of him and pats him on the neck as she slips the halter over his head and secures it.  He stamps again and tosses his head as she finished attaching the lead rope to his halter - food awaits in the stable, and he is eager to eat.  This is the routine. 

At the slightest pressure on the lead the bay gelding follows the girl.  She leads him through the pasture, past the run-in that shelters the horses when it rains, around the large half-eaten hay bales.  As she rounds the corner with the bay gelding at her shoulder, the ground trembles and heaves as a thunderous mass of deep brown muscle surges past, a hands breath from colliding with her.  The girl's heart leaps into her throat as she looks up at the darker horse, another thoroughbred.  He is the epitome of equine, nostrils flared in the cool air, sides expanding from his morning jaunt - ears upright and alert as his minute twitches and shifts of weight ripple through his muscular body, from shoulders to hindquarters.  He is beauty, he is power, he is speed.  His attention drifts away for an infinitesimal instant, and he rolls forward with sound and fury, rearing up before roaring into a gallop - again mere breaths from the girl's chest - vanishing into the back of the pasture as the clamor of his hooves echoes into the still morning. ...

I count myself lucky to have had many 'thrilling/magical/enchanting engagements with the non-human world' in my life so far.  My all time favorite family vacation (well, until visiting Italy this past spring) was one to Shenandoah National Park.  I still remember looking out from the top of a precipice with my dad, after hiking a long mountain trial through the forest and being absolutely floored by the beauty of the valley below me.  During my study abroad semester in Jordan, I saw breathtakingly desolate expanses of desert with great red monoliths of tableaus rising from them; grand mountain ranges with fear-inspiring drops and canyons, and some of the most verduous plant life I have experience.

None of these suited my purposes, though.  Nature is beautiful - but all of the sites I have seen border the humanist perspective.  What did these great vistas do for me?  They inspired me. I found them thrilling, magical, enchanting.  In most all of the respects immediately above, I was a tourist, traveling to these sites to enjoy them. The first vignette, however, was a powerful - frightening - reminder of my humanity.  I was the girl in the pasture.  The darker gelding - we call him Junior - who galloped past could have trampled me in that moment.  In that instant, he was in control.  It was a powerful reminder of balance.  Humanity prides itself on its intelligence, its creativity, its ingenuity.  We forget that, despite all of that, we are essentially weak.  We are not faster, bigger, or stronger than many species on our planet.

We should concern ourselves with 'saving nature' because we need to be reminded that our world is one of balance.  Human beings are just another mammal - granted, a mammal that has taken control over much of the world, and proliferated it in a way I don't believe any other species has - but we are a part of the cycle, and even up until now there has been little respect for that fact.  'Nature' has existed for millenia before humans appeared on the earth, and will no doubt continue to - in some form - long after we are gone. Why do we, as humans, believe we have any right to interfere with the natural order as it has existed since the creation of our planet?  Sometimes we need to be reminded of our place in order to concentrate on putting the natural world back into balance, if that is even possible with all the irreparable damage that has been done.

Nature and us.

I wanna talk about a recent experience that I had with the non-human world, which is the most magical engagement that I had during college. Due to the fact that I live on campus, it’s not allow to keep pets in dorms. In order to have some “pets” as well as for my research purpose at first place, I purchase some bush beans seeds from whole foods and start to plant them in small pots. I used to keep some plants at home, which that already mature enough to sell on the market. This is my first time of planting from seeds. This feeling is really interesting comparing with just watering some plants that purchase from the market. I planed to use these seeds as my experiment subjects and the purpose is that to examine whether there is a relationship between plants growth rate and carbon dioxide emission.

          

            I started with soaking them in water for one night and then plant them. What is very disappointed is that most of the seeds did not sprout. So I searched online about planting technique, then I finally get about 8 out of 10 seeds sprouted. This process is like taking care of a baby. You can observe the growth of a seed, how it get sprouted, how it grow up quickly and you can observe all the changes that happened with it. I like to play a trick that changes the direction of plants that facing with the sunshine. Within hours, the plants will react with it by changing the directions. This process makes me feel something that I grow and I plant, and see it grow up. It's really exciting to watch the whole process that a rice size seed can grow up as a 10 inch tall plant in 20 days. The only thing that I did is watering the plants regularly and make sure that they get enough sunshine by put them along the window. All of the work was finished by these tiny seeds. The whole process remind me of how precious the foods that we eat are. Vegetations start with seeds and then sprout, flourished and produce foods that we need. We should not waste food especially meat products, because it requires even larger amount of energy and water and nutrients comparing with the production of vegetations.

            I think we should concern about saving nature. As this week’s reading, we put ourselves in the wrong position in nature. Nature should not be something that we want to conquer but we are part of it as well as we are a product of it. Human history is a blink of eye comparing with the history of nature, even though we made tremendous changes of nature; this did not make us anything superior than nature. It’s hard to predict what nature will do to us. Just like how things happen in the hurricane Sandy. People can tell the power of nature from how powerful and how damage it could be. We are so tiny when we facing with the force of nature. We should concern about our future in terms about how we should place ourselves in the nature. We can never beat the nature, we should be respectful to it as well as protecting it. It’s our mother and home. We should not do harmful things to it.