Use Your Words

Retracing Your Journey

• What quest did you like the most? The quest I liked the most was See the World, because it let me do whatever I wanted. It allowed me to explore Earth in a way that made complete sense to me.
• What quest challenged you the most? Jurassic Park, because it was very hard to find something that had died in every mass extinction.
• What new idea had the greatest impact on you? That six little tiny degrees could ruin the world.
• What have been the results of your sustainability challenge? I did really well until I moved into a bigger bedroom, and it became much harder to plug everything into power strips and to remember to turn it off.
• What can you do as a result of this class?  In other words, build a course mini-resume that focuses on skills (e.g. chart a river on Google Maps).  You may need to look back at your previous quest journal entries to remember. As a result of this class, I can now identify different biomes, I better understand how earthquakes work, I know the different types of volcanoes and how they form, I can identify where I am on the planet without GPS, and I have realized how small the Earth is relative to the vastness of the universe.

Energy of the Future

This screenshot is from a game called Energy City (link below). This game allows you to control the energy sources for a digital city.

While playing this game, I learned the individual impacts of certain energy technologies, and the best combination of these that would keep the world from falling apart. We face many challenges today, such as climate change, and harmful pollution, but this game showed me how we could realistically overcome these issues.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/11UX9RFGqT2q51eIzGCm0q_WVz43-tWeQMkiU_Ig-SZg/edit?usp=sharing
http://content3.jason.org/resource_content/content/digitallab/8250/misc_content/public/popup.html

The Energy Crisis

The energy crisis is the concern that our current use of energy resources will someday run dry. This stems largely from our over consumption of energy providing resources. We only have a limited amount of certain resources, such as coal and oil, and we use quite a lot of those two. Natural gas is limited too, and we use quite a bit of that as well. Although energy consumption in developed areas, such as the U.S. and Europe, is falling, energy consumption in developing areas is steadily rising, causing the annual global energy consumption to rise as well.

In this study by BP, they found that, although renewables are undoubtedly growing, the use of oil is fairly steady over the years, and is our main source of energy. Europe is the biggest user of renewables, and South and Central America uses the most hydro electricity, whereas North America uses mostly oil and natural gas.

The global energy consumption is rising because of multiple factors, including but not limited to rising population, increased use of technology in developing countries, and new technology that uses more energy. Drops in prices have also caused an increased use of energy, especially in the form of gasoline for cars. This happens because price drops allow people to afford more and more gasoline, and energy for their homes, etc.

As I mentioned above, two major driving forces in the energy crisis are overpopulation, and overconsumption. Another big factor, is the hiding of information. Politics is huge in this one. People try to tell you certain things, and “prove” them by backing them with science, and then the other side tells you that their science is faulty, and it goes on and on. Regardless of this though, the public is grossly under educated about many environmental issues, this being one of them. All they may hear of it may come from public radio, politics, and news reports. Many of these people have never seem hard scientific proof that this crisis is occurring, and are therefore far less concerned about it than they should be.

Another problem is people who only care about their time on Earth, and are unconcerned about future generations. They will use all the energy they want, and do not care who else it will affect, as long as it doesn’t affect them. This, although probably not as big as the previous two issues, can also affect energy consumption.

Enough about the issues, what is especially important is how we can fix the problem we have created. One way to fix this, is to turn to renewable sources,, such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. This would provide us with endless amounts of energy, and though it may cost more, it affects the Earth far less than other methods of obtaining this energy. We could also use electric or hybrid cars, which would at least reduce gasoline consumption. We could also put a greater focus on creating more energy efficient appliances, which would at least slow down the energy crisis.

In conclusion, while there is plenty of resources left in the Earth, we are slowly but surely draining these resources away, far faster than they could be replaced. And I wrote this whole paper, without once mentioning climate change, which is a whole different issue, but that this definitely has something to do with. I hope that someday we will be able to reduce our energy consumptio, and I hope that day will be soon.

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-solutions-to-the-global-energy-crisis.php

http://www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/IEDIndex3.cfm?tid=44&pid=44&aid=2

http://www.global-economic-symposium.org/knowledgebase/the-global-environment/the-energy-crisis-and-climate-change/proposals/the-energy-crisis-and-climate-change

http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy/primary-energy.html

Natures Bounty

Some natural resources can be replaced over time, and some can't. I chose to research rock, or stone. Stone is a nonrenewable resource, that we use in construction, and decoration. It has many other small roles, but those are the main two. It is harvested from mines referred to as quarrys, and is cut into blocks and the processed. We are using it pretty sustainably, and there is no immediate risk of running out, but it does destroy habitats, which contain many other natural resources.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17BwoSytjk4Flwd-3rNcziAYLuHFDQTHjsiqjtVukimg

What goes down when the lights go on?

• How much money does it cost to charge your phone each day?  (According to this article, the average cost is $0.10 per kWh) Around $0.80 to get it from 0% to 100%, so about $1.60 a day.
• How much does it cost to power your home each day? $3.62
• Does it cost more to power your home during the weekends or on a weekday?  Why? Weekends because we are often not at home on the weekdays because of school and work so we use less power. 
• During which month is your power bill usually the highest?  Why?  (Ask your parents if you aren't sure!) August because the air conditioning uses a lot of power.
• If 60% of all energy that is produced is wasted before it reaches your home, how much energy (in kWh) is required to power your home for one day? Around 70kWh.
• How could you reduce the amount of energy you use without severely impacting your lifestyle? Unplugging things while we aren't at home.

Archivist: Cleaner energy sources for cars?

There are many new technologies emerging today, one of them being cleaner energy sources for cars. While there are a lot of new energy sources, the two I am going to focus on are hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, perhaps the more impressive of the two, and electric vehicles, which are more widely known.


Hydrogen fuel cells are a relatively new technology, and even newer is the ability to use them to power cars. They use hydrogen and oxygen to power the car, and as a by product, produce only water. Although this seems great, the methods used to obtain the hydrogen needed are not as clean. There are more ways to obtain the hydrogen, other than methane, which is what we use today, but they are much more costly. Getting hydrogen from methane is about 80% efficient, as well as producing carbon monoxide (CO) as a byproduct. Getting the oxygen is much easier, as our atmosphere has naturally occurring oxygen.

Fuel cells are also extremely expensive to manufacture. The cost around $47/kW, assuming they are being mass produced, which equates to about $3,760 per car.

Many people also have nowhere to get the hydrogen from, or refuel. There are around 23 publicly accessible hydrogen refueling stations, the majority of which are in California. It would cost around 20 million dollars by some estimates, to get enough refueling stations in the U.S. for it to be practical to own a hydrogen fuel cell powered car.

Hydrogen technology has also had the support of multiple presidents, and other countries are pushing it as well.

On the other hand, electric cars are already widely used. The first practical electric car was produced in the 1880’s, and have been mass produced off and on ever since. They use a battery, which can be recharged, to power the car. There are currently over 30 all electric passenger cars that are legal to drive on the highway.

The main problem with electric cars is their relatively short range, and high cost. The lithium ion batteries used in the car's can get quite pricey, and their range is not the greatest. But as more and more people are buying the cars, and newer technology is being introduced, the cost will keep on coming down.

One possible solution to the above problem is hybrid electric cars. Although they are not zero emission cars, they are still better than gasoline powered cars. They also tend to have a longer range, and their prices are comparable to that of traditional gasoline cars.

Maintenance of electric vehicles is not too bad, but if the battery is defective, then it has to be replaced, which can be costly. It also costs much less to charge an electric car (per year) than to refuel a traditional gasoline car (per year). One study did find, though, that the lower cost of refueling did not offset the car's higher purchase price.

Another big problem with electric cars, is that dealers are reluctant to sell them. They do not have as high of margins as traditional cars, and they take longer to sell, reducing the commissions that salespeople make. They also require less maintenance, and many dealerships rely on their service departments for profit.

Overall, even though both of these types of vehicles have their shortcomings, they are both considered to be zero emission vehicles. They could help us significantly reduce air pollution, and carbon dioxide emissions. But in the end, it is up to the buyer to decide if it is worth the price.

Hydrogen Vehicle." - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_vehicle#Automobiles>.

"Alternative Fueling Station Counts by State." Alternative Fuels Data Center:. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/stations_counts.html>.

"SignOnSanDiego.com News Science -- Is 'hydrogen Highway' the Answer?" SignOnSanDiego.com News Science -- Is 'hydrogen Highway' the Answer? N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://legacy.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/20041122-9999-1n22hydrogen.html>.

"Hydrogen Production." - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_production>.

"Electric Car." - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car>.

Book Club: The Maze Runner Series

A lot of people really like this series, myself being one of them. But there is a lot of interesting new technology to be found in this book. The first thing I find really interesting, is that The Creators, te people who built the maze, have extremely advanced technology, yet they make the gladers, the people in the maze, fend for themselves, and mostly live off the land. The second thing I find interesting are the Grievers. They seem to be made of random machine parts, yet they are extremely coordinated, and accurate. There is also a disease ravaging the world. It has caused tons of people to die, or go crazy. The world is also a pretty barren place in this series, extremely hot, and there are deserts everywhere. This could be a result of global warming. There are also random solar flares, which have definitely contributed the the Earth's scorched surfac in this book.

Epidemics

We all know epidemics have happened.", and we all know they can be devastating, but what conditions are needed for a disease to become an epidemic?

While playing the pandemic game, I found that a disease spreads best if it:
- has a long incubation period
- it is heat/cold resistant
- it kills slowly
- and it can spread through air and water
- and vectors such as rats and mosquitos can carry it

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10BEZwp69qrt94lsMK9gSev96BcNxScteu-Cjqh12OtI

Droughts

Most of us have heard of the dust bowl, but how did it happen? And could it happen again?

First of all, the dust bowl was caused by multiple factors. First, the midwest receives the lowest annual rainfall of any reigon in the U.S. Second, farmers used to grow one crop there: wheat. In order to grow this wheat, they had to remove all of the native grasses. What they didn't know, was that it was those grasses that were holding the soil where it was. You see, this reigon also happens to be very windy, and without the grasses to hold the soil in place, it was simply carried away.

So now on to the second question. The midwest is still the driest part of the U.S., this means that if there is another drought, the soild could be carried away. In fact, some scientists even predict, that if the world gets much warmer, the midwest could turn into a desert. As far as farming practices go, we have started to change the way we farm. Farmers can plow their fields int the direction of the wind, providing less resistance, as well as planting things called windbreaks, or rows of trees that help to scatter the wind. Alternating rows of crops and grasses gpcan also help.

So I say yes, another dust bowl is possible, but if we get our act together and stop global warming, then it is not likely to happen anytime soon.

Notes
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i9ON6fLLTeED_gmY-DJsrJlRFmTpSFRF46v5VYSt3ec

https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/average-annual-state-precipitation.php
National Geographic: Six degrees could change the world
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=bmNlbnZpcm90aG9uLm9yZ3xub3J0aC1jYXJvbGluYS1lbnZpcm90aG9uLXByb2dyYW18Z3g6NmNlOGMzODg1Y2I1ZGZjNA

Book Club: The Illuminae Files

The book is set on a planet called Kerenza. There is a mine there, that is technically illegal. The competeing company finds out about this mine, and instead of reporting it, they start bombing it. The first big point I took away from this is that they had used up so much of their home planet's resources that they had to go somewhere else to get them. After awile, a black cloud starts oozing down from their atmosphere. It turns out to contain a pathogen. The company had turned to biological warfare. As i mentioned in a previous post, biological warfare is quite deadly, and this was no different. They began to quarantine people, and didn't allow them to have contact with one another. The disease mutates extremely quickly, faster than they can come up with a cure. The third big point I took away from this was the amazing technology in this book. They have artificial intelligence, that basically runs the colony, as well as huge passanger ships, and warships. They have made so many advances from where we are today, such as being able to travel a lot of light years in a lifetime. Also if you were wondering it is set in the year 2575.

Sinkholes

Sinkholes are scary, but they require certain circumstances to form. So where are they most likely to form, and what conditions lead to them forming?

Sinkholes are most likely to form over soluble bedrock, which is also referred to as karst terrain. When the rock erodes, it leaves a large cavern, with a thin layer of soil above it. When that soil is disturbed it caves in, forming a hole in the ground. These holes can also arise if the watertable in an aquifer drops suddenly, weakening the ground. Eroding water pipes and such can also collapse and bring the ground above with them. According to a map I found from USGS, the area where I live is not very prone to sinkholes. The bedrock is not extremely water soluble, so I don't think a hole will open up under my city anytime soon.

Choking on Air Pollution

I chose to research asbestos, because you hear so much about it on HGTV. So what is asbestos, what does it do to you, and how can you prevent it?

Asbestos is a fiber, that occurs naturally in rocks and soils. Asbestos is mostly found in construction materials, but can be found in some things such as heat resistant cloth. Exposure generally occurs only when the fibers are disturbed. It can cause lung cancers as well as a disease of the lungs called asbestosis. There are already some regulations in place to keep asbestos from being used, because it is classified as a human carcinogen, and you can be tested to see if you are regularly breathing in asbestos.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1amfRKKZ1G75qxh6nT7s05McWp1fcShKnEFSyvdk0aIg/edit?usp=sharing

The War for Water

The War Over Water refers to a series of conflicts between Israel, Jordan, and Syria, over access to water from the jordan river. The fights occurred between 1964 and 1967. A first, Israel started a project to put a water intake pipe in the Sea of Galilee. This resulted in Syrians opening fire on the construction zone, and the Israelis moving their pipes. Israel completed it's project in 1964. The Arab states did not like this, and they proceeded to try and divert the Jordan River. It was a barely feasible project, that was extremely expensive. Israel decided this infringed upon it's rights. This resulted in the series of attacks making up the War Over Water. I think a scenario like this could very well repeat itself, as I think it is likely that a war over water would start with minor clashes, that scaled into a full on war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_over_Water_(Jordan_river)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11L_t80818hE0Ln0TUF1nIZybcK0v0hCr3-6k0KW5G1s/edit?usp=sharing

Don't Drink the Water

I built a typical filter out of sand and gravel from my creek, activated charcoal from and old water filter, a coffee filter, and some paper towels and tissue paper. I layered the in a bottle, and then I filtered water from my creek.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GxdbNLX92RMz16yy86q4KjGx-7-_bAL69ypx3DtOQAM/edit?usp=sharing
http://padlet.com/schouweilerd/p5loafwwmrqp

Landslides

I chose to analyze the risk of a landslide on Mount Mitchell. I have decided that the risk is very high, because the mountain is the tallest mountain in the appalachian mountain range, and a large amount of its trees have been killed off by acid rain, invasive species, and pollution. Also, by looking at a map of where landslide risk is the highest, the appalachian mountains were rated as having a very high risk.
Some ways to tell if a landslide might occur in your area are:
a sudden increase in water levels
new cracks or unusual bulges in the ground
structures tilting
a rumbling sound
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZPmD6tPTXZfTlvm3Xos1v6Wf7LlV9RInI0mz6jQYzcQ/edit?usp=sharing

Our Breathable Eggshell

Ever wonder what goes on in Earth's atmosphere? For this quest we had to look at just that. Below is a link that will take you to a thinglink of Earth's Atmosphere.
https://www.thinglink.com/scene/776159729276682242

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kp6dD8nL4Z4lyKJYxl5DYxOag2KbrM2iZBHD7KwAn9w/edit?usp=sharing

The Green Revolution

Guerilla gardening is a gardening technique that is useful for urban environments. They plant food crops in places such as abandoned lots, medians, and curbs. I feel this could help low income people choose healthier foods.



https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bxuaHyFZGW24YdWNg-TBCRth4kCFSYbHsDBUkQv4thQ/edit?usp=sharing

Envirothon

Envirothon is an environmental science competition. You go and learn about topics such as soils, aquatics, forestry, wildlife, and current environmental issues, and then you compete with other teams to see who knows the most. The topic I studied was soils. There are thousands of different classifications of soils. Some are better for certain uses than others. My section also focused on how growing crops can affect the soil.
Soils naturally have many minerals and microbes in them. When you grow one plant to often, you deplete the soil of some of those nutrients. Fertilizer then becomes necessary, which in turn causes water pollution. It also talked a lot about different types of deposits. For example there are alluvial deposits, which are put there by streams, colluvial deposits, which are moved by gravity, eolian deposits which are moved by wind, and lacustrine deposits which are left behind by lakes. This is only a small part of the 88 page document that I had to study for this. I had no idea that soils were so complex, but apparently they are.

Semester Project

So I am doing a project on environmentally friendly cleaners the link is diycleaners.blogspot.com. I encourage you to make some of these and use them. Not only are they often cheaper, you will be helping the environment.

Enviogamer: Simcity

Simcity is a game by EA. You basically focus on building a city, instead of the people in the city, as in sims. It is necessary to have an uncontaminated water supply, power plants, factories, as well as the houses and other such things. You have choices of what type of power plants to build. You can use coal, nuclear, natural gas, wind, and solar. If you have to many factories and power plants, people start moving away, and dying. They can contaminate the air and the water, causing people to leave. The goal of the game is to get as many people as possible to live in your town, so them leaving is not good.

Promised Land

Promised Land is a movie where the issue of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is highly debated. So how bad is it really? And is it worth all of the problems it causes?

In order to get much of the natural gas out of the ground, once more reachable sources had been depleted, you have to go deep under the ground, and use a mix of water and chemicals to break apart the rock. Then you use a huge drill to remove the natural gas from the ground. These chemicals may seep into the drinking water, and can be extremely hard to remove. Then, we end up drinking the water, and end up with all kinds of health problems. It also consumes a lot of energy in extracting the gas, and some methane is released into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming.

Others may say that fracking is great, because it gives us access to a whole lot of natural gas and even oil that we couldn't reach before.

Personally, I would rather not use fracking, because it could end up killing people. So just think about that next time you overuse electricity. Your actions may be indirectly killing someone.


This is a great animated walkthrough of the dangers of fracking:
 http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

And here is a website that shows both benefits and dangers of fracking:
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/benefits-and-dangers-of-fracking.php

Evirogamer: Survivalcraft

In survivalcraft, as well as minecraft, there are a variety of different biomes. Certain animals and plants can be found in certain biomes. Oak and birch trees tend to be found in deciduous forests, grasses tend to be found in savannahs, pine trees and reindeer tend to be found in tundras, and jungle trees tend to be found in jungles. There are more biomes than this between the two games, they are just a lot rarer or only found in minecraft.

Taiga

Tundra^
Dessert

Deciduous Forest^

Floods

In the area I live, there is not an extremely high risk of flooding. I do live very near a fiver, but according to the map if it floods it will most likely not reach my home.

Three viable flood control methods for an area like Manhattan are a self closing flood barrier, tidal gates, and groynes.

Self closing flood are pretty self explanatory. They are flood gates that you can install around an area that rise when they detect approaching flood water. They do not require someone to raise them. So even though they are really best for areas with few humans, I think they could be useful in an area like Manhattan. That way they would not block ports or ocean access, until the flood actually got there. It would also look a lot better than a permanent wall.

Tidal gates would be an excellent choice in a coastal area such as New York. They use the change in water level to control water flow. They act kind of like a wall between different waterways, but they allow water and fish and other things to pass through. They utilize a float to close a gate when the water reaches a predetermined level. These would be great for the coast, which could help prevent flooding further inland as well.

Groynes help prevent flooding by keeping beaches from eroding. They can also help limit the flow of water in streams. They could be used to not only protect area in immediate donger of flooding because of  rise in the sea level, but they could also protect areas farther inland. If you put them in the rivers, it would limit the flow of water from the ocean when it rises, protecting the areas along that river.

Of the options I listed above, I think the best method for our area would be self rising flood gates. We aren't really in immediate danger of flooding though, so i do not know if it would be worth the effort. As far as New York goes, I think a combination of groynes and tidal gates could work really well for that area. They would work well together because the groynes would help keep the beaches from eroding, while the tidal gates would keep the rivers from flooding, while still letting things pass through.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11_BcJSdZCzRYDFmTEyvGJuTxjU9EBVBDCxMe9WGnspY/edit?usp=sharing

Planetary Defender

The lead level in lipstick a talcum powder is fairly unregulated. This means that when we use these products, our bloodstream may absorb some of the lead. If it goes uncontrolled, it may get into ecosystems, and not only kill animals there, but if we kill and eat animals that have ingested lead, our bodies will absorb the lead. The lead levels will also build up in larger animals that eat the smaller ones, and kill those animals too. This will not only kill off animals, it will really mess up the food web. So we need to not buy stuff with lead in it, because it could build up and damage an ecosystem.

Where in the World?

• What features in your surroundings would be the most useful in describing your position to the authorities? The features I would point out first would be the features that are not normally found in whatever area you are in. For example, if I was in the forest, but there was a huge clearing with a lake and a very old building, then I would report that.
• How could you know your approximate lattitude and biome using the local biotic (living) and abiotic (nonlivng) features even if you did not know the name of andy of the species around you? You could know the biome because each biome has a distint set of plants and animals that normally live there. So if you are in a very cold area covered in snow, and all of the animals seem to have white fur/feathers, then you would assume you were in a tundra, and if vereything were green and there seemed to be a million different types of animals, and it was very warm, you would assume you were in a rainforest. You could estimate your latitude because different biomes are located at different latitudes. For example, tundras are only found at higher latitudes, which are closer to the poles, and rainforests tend to be at lower latitudes, which are closer to the equator.
• How could you use the stars to determine your exact position on Earth? Polaris, or the north star can be used to determine which way is north, and assuming you are in the northern hemisphere, if you measure the angle Polaris is above the horizon, and that is equal to your latitude.

If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere I would probably first describe any oddities out my surroundings to the authorities. If I could find any thing written, like a street sign, or something inscribed on an old building, then I would most definitely describe that, because the language it was in could give then a good idea of my general location. I would then describe the biome I was in. Lastly, I would describe the sun's position above me if it was daytime, and my relationship to Polaris if it was night. All of that put together would give the authorities a decent idea of where I was.

Save The ______!

For this assignment, we were supposed to pick an endangered animal, and create a video to help make people aware of why it is endangered, and how they can help keep it from going extinct. I chose to do mine on the red wolf.

Storms

In order to create a superstorm you need a perfect mix of conditions. These storms, though rare, cause mass chaos and destruction. But what exactly is needed for one of these storms to form?

In order for a superstorm to occur, there must be a collision between warm and cool air masses. In order for a massive hurricane to form, there must be an adequate supply of water, and air currents to start it spinning. In order for a tornado to form, you just need the two air masses to collide with enough force to set the air spinning. Blizzards are just snowstorms that have very high winds, so they form under the same conditions as a rainstorm, just much colder.

There is a warm air mass, that will collide with a cool air mass from the north west. This will result in a superstorm in the central U.S. sometime in the next two days. The storm should last about two days, and will bring heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, and possibly even tornadoes. Also, the north east U.S. can expect steady rainfall for the next week, as there is a stationary front hanging over the north east U.S.