China's Energy QQC

After reading about China's energy sources, I was struck by the section on biomass. I had no idea that the idea of biomass had been around for thousands of years, and that China had been utilizing it. I would like to learn more about how the crop residue can be turned into energy, aside from the traditional rural ways of just burning it.

How have they been using biomass, and how has it changed over the years? Can they bring the idea of rural cooking energy to the modern world?

An Interesting Inconvient Conversation

An inconvenient conversation, the global warming talk. Today I sat down with my parents and we talked about global warming, questions about the ideas behind global warming, energy, and the solar panels we recently installed on our house.

We talked about what forms of energy are available, and the answers were: mainly fuel, solar, electric, nuclear, coal, wind, hydro, oil, gasses (natural, propane, etc.), hydro thermal, bio-diesel, and ocean waves.

Speaking about solar panels, my dad spoke about how much he loved them, and how he enjoys watching their intake online. When the solar panels were installed, we were told it would it would take 9 years to pay them off through savings, but at the rate theyre producing, it will take half the time. My dad thinks that more people should get solar panels, especially in southern California.

Next I asked what they thought about our solar panels effect on global warming. Here is what was said: We are just one little fish in the ocean, if everyone in the US did it would it have an effect of global warming. We are on the front end, you gotta start somewhere. Drop in the bucket, but there are benefits. I really like watching meter go backwards. Today, even with the dryer on- still goes backwards, meaning we are actually selling our electricity while using some of it. We get good readings even when its cloudy.

Later in the discussion, we talked about the positives and negatives of various energy sources. This got my dad fired up about nuclear power. Solar is not very efficient, but they’re working on it. Production of solar panels-all kinds of resources, and how great is the impact of production? Does it outweigh the act of using solar energy?

Nuclear is problematic, look at Japan- all of the environmental groups think they need to shut down all nuclear power plants. What do you do with the spent fuel rods? You can make it as safe as you want, and the plants have a decent history, but what happens to those things? They’re dirty for 10,000 years. More than man kind has been on the earth, effects all future generations. Yes, there is damage doing all kinds of things, fossil fuels, CO2, etc., but will it be 10000 years worth?? Is it cheap to do all of this? Where does this make sense?

All of the environmental groups are conflicting-nuclear vs oil, which is better?


How can we provide the energy we need while maintaining ecological balance?
My parents answered, Do whatever you can do, but it needs to be on a national level, you can just do it house or state, it needs to be in US. To do this, we first need to acknowledge that global warming exists and that IS a problem.

Is it bad the glaciers are receding? Polar bears need them,
who’s to say that the glaciers are needed? These are the questions that we have to evaluate.


6. Why is there a disconnect between what science is telling us and what the public and politicians are doing about climate change?
Because we are only told what they want us to know, its about scale, everyone is living in the idea what is good for me right now. You focus on right here, right now. The scientists look at the broad scale and try to explain these anomalies. The public cant comprehend this scale, 1 degree means nothing.

We wiped out the American west, it was thought as progress, but what does it mean now? Chopping down trees is bad, but it is what we did years ago to expand our nation. There have been benefits from progress, but there are also consequences. Maybe there wont be polar bears the oceans will rise, this is just a little sliver of time in the earths history. Look at the evolution.

Back to 1983

For my “Back to 1983 For A Day”, I chose to do it while I was on my one world week trip to Italy. I was limited on my technology use to begin with, and of course there were so many other great things to do in Italy instead of using technology. I didnt find the challenge too hard to complete, because every summer, I spend weeks at a time on a mountain at summer camp. Last summer, I spent five weeks as a counselor, with no electronics besides a radio, and occasional phone call. During my challenge day, the conditions were similar. We had no phones, computers, TV’s, gaming or anything modern.

Throughout the entire trip, my friends and I would get up early, and go explore various cities in Italy, instead of sleeping in and using technology, like we might on a weekend at home. The experience was somewhat liberating, and made me stop and look around at the world we live in, without technology. On my chosen day, we were in Rome. Holly, Libby, Dani, and I woke up and explored the area near our hotel, and we also did some gift shopping. Christian and I later went on a walk to find kebab, a delicious Turkish sandwich. We came across a famers market, and explored all of the Italian fruits and meats.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with our entire group. Everyone had been doing their own thing, but we all communicated by setting up meeting times and places, and always ensuring we were on time, there was never any technology involved. From there, we trekked to the Vatican City. Instead of listening to Ipods, everyone talked and admired all of sights. I took pictures with my film camera, as my digital had broken the day before. (I also happen to know that my brand of film camera was established in the 1980's!) So I still managed to capture memories, while not using any modern camera technology! Once we made it to the Vatican, we all began to walk through the grounds. Everyone began to get separated, and at one point, we lost Libby! There wasnt a way for us to call and meet up with her, but as we walked towards the Sistine Chapel, we found a group of our friends taking a break, and Libby was there. Even though we couldnt instantly meet up with her using technology, we all still found each other.

After we walked back from the Vatican, Holly, Libby, Dani and I spent our time before dinner by going on an adventure. We traveled across the city with only a paper map, some x’s to mark the spot, and word of mouth about a piercing shop. After searching around, we managed to find the small shop without the help of google maps, or a GPS; a must when I am unsure of where I am at home. I was proud that we could still find our way around a foreign country without technology.

It wasnt hard for me to give up technology, especially in such a beautiful setting. The hardest thing for me to give up was my Ipod, because that was really the only thing I used on the trip to help me fall asleep. By the end of that packed day, I didn’t even need it. It was also hard for me to give up my digital camera, but I was left with no choice, and I was excited to experiment more with the film camera I brought along. The least difficult piece of technology was TV, there just wasnt a need for it. If it came down to seeing the season finale of Jersey Shore, or spending my day in Rome, the choice would be easy.

During my day back to 1983, I adventured through Rome, saw a famous chapel, found a piercing shop, and managed to stay connected with the group without phones. Entertaining ourselves was never a problem, because Italy has so much to offer, on and off the beaten path. I spent my time outside, walking, and enjoying the city, and before I knew it, my day without technology was done. My only surprise was although we were in a big city, similar to San Diego, we didn’t need gadgets to keep us occupied. I was also surprised/proud that without a GPS, or the internet, my friends and I managed to come across a piercing shop. It was a great trip, and an enlightening day without any technology.

Intro

Thesis: Food prices from the farmers market to the grocery store are on the rise; both globally and in San Diego. (will insert reasons to be covered in the paper, to the thesis after further research)

There are more than six billion people in the world, and we all need food. Around the world, food shortages have been increasing, and more people are struggling to pay for food. The main reasons for global price increases have been bad weather, political unrest, and the raise in the price of oil. In the United States, increases have been the highest in corn and meat products. Food prices from the farmers market to the grocery store are on the rise; both globally and in San Diego.

Blue Gold Review

Watching a documentary about the nearly unknown water crisis is eye opening, and causes the viewer to think about something that most of us taken for granted. Blue Gold was an informative documentary that caused the viewers to reflect upon water and the global situation. We live in a world where day by day we careless use the resources around us, without thinking about the impacts.

Although the movie was a standard environmental documentary, it was very enlightening into the corruption and problems with a resource that should be accessible to all. The documentary was less about how we waste water in our daily lives, but more about where the water actually comes from and issues globally. I was most shocked to learn about publicly and privately owned water sources. Getting water from the tap costs a fraction of a penny, but the same water run through a filter costs more than a dollar. It isnt practical, and yet corporations are making money from selling something that we already had.

After watching Blue Gold, I wasn't able to go back to my ignorant ways of not thinking about water and where it comes from. When I thought of water accessibility on a global scale, it never occurred to me that the only clean water may be owned by a private company and sold to the public, like in Africa. Or that the water that supplies large cities, can come from hundreds of miles away. Los Angles, for example, successfully bought and drained an entire water supply, and now depends on water pumped in from around the country. Blue Gold didnt try to turn the viewer against any one source, but instead kept the audience captivated with the cold hard facts.

Hungry Planet QQC

"Everyone who has visited a foreign country has experienced it. Walking down a street, you are unexpectedly assaulted by the sights and smells of cooking food-food unlike anything youve seen or tasted before in roadside stalls."

Although the article wasn't about foreign cuisine, that first intro made me remember the first time I ate new foods abroad. Not only street food, but other kinds of food or places to sell food that are unique to a region. When I went to Brazil, they had juice bars on every block that had all kinds of exotic fruits and drinks for sale. Reading this article also made me question why street food has phased out from many major cities. I still saw plenty of street food in NYC, but there isnt much here aside from fair food.

For topic ideas; foreign food, different food cultures around the world, how people eat (i.e. street food, make it themselves), or a similar article about street food and the consistent culture around the world.

WSDE ESSAY ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wessel, David. "The Art and Science of Inflation Expectations - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. .

This source was an expert article on the prices of everything going up. The article mentioned food prices going up and why that may or may not effect the American market. Although this article focused mainly on the economics, it did give me ideas of further food related topics to look into. The article mainly focused on inflation and the economics behind how and when inflation, wages, and cost of living rises.

"Food Prices: Food Costs Will Increase 4% in 2011, USDA Says in Raising Its Projection - Latimes.com." Los Angeles Times - California, National and World News - Latimes.com. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. .

This article was about the major jump in food prices announced today. The projections for prices has risen to 4%, in almost all food areas. The article covered food inflation and how it is going to pass the last raise in prices. It also briefly mentioned corn and the supply and demand and the effect on all food prices. The article gave some great statistics which may be useful later on in the project.

"Media Examine Effects, Outlook Of Food Price Increases Worldwide - Kaiser Global Health." Kaiser Global Health. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

This article was about global food prices, and how things may not be totally grim for the world. This source went into different reasons why food prices may or may not go up. The article covered weather factors and conflict in the middle east. The article also cited recent happenings that have effected food prices like Russia's ban on wheat exportation.