Pulling Carbon Dioxide From the Air

Prototype being built.

Summary: A Canadian Company believes that they have created a technology that will be able to trap carbon dioxide from the air. They call it their "cleansing" technology, and they believe that they can take carbon dioxide from the air itself and resell it for industrial use. Bill Gates donated part of the $3.5 billion dollars that they have used to start constructing a prototype that should be finished sometime in 2014. They don't know yet how much it will cost or if the cost will be worth it. As of now, they are waiting until the prototype is built to see whether it actually works like they think it will, whether its cost efficient, and how much it actually remove from the air.

Opinion/Reflection: If this actually works and is efficient i think this will be a huge step for humans on a global scale. There are questions as to how much it will cost and whether it will actually work but that would be so useful if it ends up working.

Questions:

1. Do you think it would be worth the cost if it actually worked?

2. What could people use the carbon dioxide for if it were to be sold?

3. Where do you think would be the most efficient place to put the actual technology if it did work? (to remove the most CO2)

China Lets Media Report on Air Pollution Crisis
by: Edward Wong
Published January 14th, 2013
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/world/asia/china-allows-media-to-report-alarming-air-pollution-crisis.html?_r=0

This picture shows just how terrible it is to even try to see what is going on around you.

Summary:
China has had bad air pollution and people are starting to complain. Their air quality has been rated hazardous or worse. Since 2008 when China held the Olympics, China's air quality had been getting worse and worse. Beijing officials required cars to get off the road in order to help with this issue, however it is hard to deal with since it is caused by an inversion that is trapping dirty particles. Many people have already been hospitalized for respiratory problems and people are starting to get worried.

Opinion:
I think that this smog and air pollution is a very bad thing to have happen because of safety issues, however it is fairly expected. China is one of the most heavily populated countries in the world and so no wonder there is a lot of pollution. Even though this type of pollution is not coming from the people, it still can be a major contributor to the overall problem. I think that the officials of Beijing need to realize what is going on so that they can almost predict what will happen on a given day in China.

Questions:
1. How can China avoid having such terrible air quality?
2. Do you think that we could start seeing this type of air quality in other parts of the world?
3. What can we do about this problem?

Children's health and smog

Research finds smog could deal a blow to children's health

CNN correspondent Greg Lamotte

http://articles.cnn.com/2000-10-20/health/smog.children_1_lung-function-pollution-smog?_s=PM:HEALTH

Picture: This picture is of a kid who has to wear a mask to protect himself from smog. 

Summary: This article is about a study done in California about the correlation of the amount of smog in the air and children's respiratory systems' health. The studies show that the more a child is in the presence of smog their lung capacity decreases by three to five percent. This can cause more respiratory issues in their life. About twenty- nine million children are living in the United States where there dangerously high smog levels.

Opinion: I think that it is crazy how we are hurting ourselves by using cars, factories, and other things that put pollution into our air and are harming our children's health. I think that we should start using new resources so that way we can be sustainable but not harming our children by putting pollution into the air. We should start making industries oblige by a rule limiting the amount of pollution they put into the air. 

Questions: 

1. How can we stop causing smog?

2. Is there anyway to help the generation of children that are in the presence of smog?

3. What can people do to stop breathing in smog? 

Air Pollution Linked to Chronic Heart Disease

Air Pollution Linked to Chronic Heart Disease
June 5, 2012
No Author Stated
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120605121700.htm

Picture:

       This picture is able to show that people who suffered hearts attacks can still be affected if they live near an area where pollution is high and that pollution can increase the rate of another heart attack.

 

Summary:

         Air Pollution is something that affects our enviroment dearly. Now it is starting to effect humansas well. People who have suffered a heart attack can possible have another all thanks to pollution. It is said that these patients are at risk 40 percent more when air pollution is near when other are not at risk since they have little pollution. This pollution affects the inflammatory system just like cigarettes and cigarettes are not healthy for people and can end up with long term damage. This is the same with pollution in the air. Dr. Yariv Gerber of TAU's School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine did a study with air pollution and people who already had a heart attack in 1992 and 1993 and followed the patients for 19 years to see the long term affects of air pollution on these people. It was said that people living near pollution would have a 43 percent greater risk of getting a heart attack and a 35 percent chance of dieing over the next 20 year period.

 

Opinion/Reflection:

           Its different thinking that pollution has such a great risk on people. Pollution has affected us in so many ways since it started during the Industrial Revolution with the making of automoblies and factories producing toxins into the air. This kind of reminds me of the Smog incident. It was said that these people can horrible conditions because of pollution and this happened so close to where I live and pollution can affect everyone around the globe.

 

Questions:

1. How can air pollution be diminished since it has effected us for so many years? Will it ever go away?

2. Is air pollution something to worry about now that it is affecting people's hearts?

3. Would it be possible to make more laws about controling pollution in the U.S or even the other countries? 

Greenhouse Emmisions

Greenhouse Emmisions of Nuclear Power Plants
No autor or publication
http://nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/WebHomeGreenhouseEmissionsOfNuclearPower
This picture is on a Nuclear power plant.
Summary:
For the concern on global warming most of it is from CO2 emmisions. We know that Nuclear power plants do not emmit CO2, but some CO2 arises from the building of the plant and the mining for the Uranium. So in fact when the process of the Nuclear plants is that some CO2 emissions are being produced. Which helps with the factor of global warming. Altough it is not very much CO2 being put out, it still can hurt the enviorment h=and help with global warming. So maybe the power plants are as clean as we thought.

Opinion:
I always thought that Nuclear power plants were clean and gave no harm the the enviorment, which they are. But what goes into them, what they need to make energy cand give off some harms. When they mine for Uranium that gives off CO2 which helps woth global warming. I never knew this and i am a little shocked.

Questions:
1) Do you think we chould be worried about this?
2) Do you think that the CO2 given off is enough to hurt the planet?
3) Should we use more or less Nucklear plants if they are hurting the enviorment but give a good amount of energy?

Factory Farming and the Envionment
By No author listed, there is no publication written
http://www.gracelinks.org/265/environment

Picture: Shows how the industral farms do not care about the land or the enviornment.

Summary:
In this article i found it explains what a normal family owned farm is like. It says that they use normal methods to get the desired crop, they then tend and take care of the farm to make sure it is health. But with a factory or industrial farm they do not have a balance with the crops. They dont rotate the crops. they dont even let the soil regrow to become healthier. there are not as many rules as a family farm. The area is not taken care of as well, and with a factory farm they do not care for the land. Also in the article it talks about the animals and how safe it is for them. Each day they get antibiotics to be kept healthy. But this could end up in what we eat for our meals and could possibly hurt us.

Opinion:
After reading i was a little shocked with what happens o the factory farms. I really don tlike they way they treat the land. It is amazing to me what goes on in the farms and i dont like it. Personaly i would not eat food from the factory farms, but we do need them for our food supply. I think they should have to rotate the crops and have to let the land sit to become healthier.

Questions:
1) Do you feel safe eating food from factory farms?
2) Should there be limitations to what the factory farms can do to the land?
3) Should we have more family owned farms that do not pollute as much instead or of the factory farms?
4) Do you agree with what factory farms do to the animals and the crops? 

Selective Breeding

Changing Minds: Has Selective Breeding Restructured Some Dog Brains?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=breeding-dog-brains
August 13, 2010 (Published)



Picture:
          This picture shows that dogs were being affected by selective breeding and the brain could change in smaller dogs.

Summary:
          Over many years, humans have done selective breeding in dogs. They wanted this color of this dog, and that dog needed to have curly fur. We changed what dogs would look like and it is starting to affect thier brain changes to their sense of smell and their behavior. A neuroscientist, Michael Valenzuela, did a study on the position of the skull in a dog because he thinks that all dogs came from Canis Lupus, or gray wolf. Valenzuela and other scientists tried to do tests with MRIs to check the length of the skull  and if the brain has rotating, making the gray wolf's brain the control of the emperiment. They also took the width and the length of  dogs skull and multipthem by 100 to get the cephalic index (CI). This experiement was tested with 11 dogs. They found out that dogs with the dogs with smaller snouts actually had a different brain than the original wolf. So when humans were deciding on the perfect pet, dogs were having a change of brain which mostly affects their smell. With all the tests that were done, Valenzuela still is getting more research. But we know that pug-like dogs are not the best for the work force.

Opinion/Reflection:
             I was shocked knowing that selective breeding can effect dogs so much. You would think that dog breeders were just breeding dogs to get certain traits from each and that it won't affect the dog but maybe we should start looking in another direction. Maybe we need to start thinking about trying to breed more dogs so that way they can use their sense or smell. Or look into how dogs behave and keep using the selective breeding tactic to get dogs with long snouts.

Questions:
1. Is it possible to be able to breed so that dogs with smaller snouts can still use their sense of smell?
2. If you were a scientist, how would you try to solve this problem?
3. Could breeding dogs so they had their normal traits before selective breeding change them back to the way they were?