AP Environmental Science

This year, the 79th Annual Academy Awards decided to “Go Green.” The Academy went as far to a dual-speech from Leo DiCaprio and former vice-president Al Gore (both Climate Crisis activists), to posting a list of what we can do to help, to showing exacltly what the Academy itself did as a whole. Here are some of the things that the stars, producers, and crew members of the Oscars did to help the climate crisis:

Results included:

• Energy audit of Kodak Theatre; efficiency plan and recommendations.
• Renewable energy credits were purchased from Bonneville Environmental Foundation to offset carbon emissions from pre-show, red-carpet event, Oscar telecast, and Governor’s Ball.
• Use of ecologically superior paper for telecast and non-telecast event materials such as nomination ballots, envelopes, press materials, programs, invitations, and certificates.
• Hybrid vehicle transportation provided for presenters and staff.
• Comprehensive recycling system instituted for event waste.
• Crew meals and craft services included reusable service materials and accessories, post-consumer tissue products, and biodegradable dishware.
• Governors’ Ball menu featured organic and environmentally-friendly food, including seafood, dairy, produce, and even the large chocolate Oscar.
• Left-over Governor’s Ball food donated to Angel Harvest

I remember reading a blog about how Leo was driving hybrid cars, thus making them more appealing to the common U.S. citizen, and of course we all know how active Al Gore is with the global warming issue. I think that this was a perfect opportunity to further promote global warming. With an estimated 40 million viewers, I could think of no better time to bring up this issue. This decision was made by the Oscar telecast producer, Laura Ziskin, along with many other board members to make people more aware of this issue. I think that Gore and DiCaprio’s speech was a good way to unite people of the entire world, because we are all sharing it. The fact that “An Inconvenient Truth” won for best documentary, and it’s song “I Need to Wake Up,” written and sung by Melissa Etheridge won for best song, probably doesn’t hurt either.

Image Credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Oscar4.jpg
Here is a list that they announced was posted on the Oscar website for ways in which we can help to stop global warming:

Save Energy on the Road

• Look for more fuel-efficient, less polluting cars. A car that gets 20 miles to the gallon will emit about 50 tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Double the gas mileage and you cut the emissions by half. Investigate the many new ultra-clean alternative fuel vehicles available. Reconsider extra features such as automatic transmission and 4-wheel drive — they are often unnecessary and eat into gas mileage.
• Keep your car in good condition. Get your engine tuned up regularly, change the oil, and keep your tires inflated properly — proper maintenance can increase your car’s fuel efficiency by 10 percent and reduce emissions.
• Cut driving miles. Each gallon of gas your car burns releases about 22 pounds of atmospheric-warming carbon dioxide. Cutting your driving by just five miles each day would contribute to keeping tons of carbon dioxide from entering the air.
• Carpool. If every car carried just one more passenger on its daily commute, 32 million gallons of gasoline (and the pollution produced by it) would be saved each day.
• Leave the car at home. Get in the habit of riding buses or trains as often as you can (just think of all the new people you’ll meet!). For short distances, ride a bike or walk whenever possible.
• Encourage community leaders to build bike lanes and sidewalks, as well as cycling and pedestrian-only streets

Save Energy at Home

• Buy energy-efficient products. When buying new appliances or electronics, shop for the highest energy-efficiency rating. Look for a yellow and black Energy Guide label on the product. The most energy-efficient models carry the Energy Star label, which identifies products that use 20-40 percent less energy than standard new products. According to the EPA, the typical American household can save about $400 per year in energy bills with products that carry the Energy Star.
• Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. Change the three bulbs you use most in your house to compact fluorescents. Each compact fluorescent bulb will keep half a ton of carbon dioxide out of the air over its lifetime. And while compact fluorescents are initially a lot more expensive than the incandescent bulbs you’re used to using, they last ten times as long and can save $30 per year in electricity costs.
• Set heating and cooling temperatures correctly. Check thermostats in your home to make sure they are set at a level that doesn’t waste energy. Get an electronic thermostat that will allow your furnace to heat the house to a lower temperature when you’re sleeping and return it to a more comfortable temperature before you wake up. In the winter, set your thermostat at 68° in the daytime and 55° at night. In the summer, keep it at 78°. Remember that water heaters work most efficiently between 120° and 140°. In your refrigerator, set the temperature at about 37°and adjust the freezer to operate at about 3°. Use a thermometer to take readings and set the temperatures correctly.
• Turn off the lights. Turn off lights and other electrical appliances such as televisions and radios when you’re not using them. This is a no-brainer, but it’s surprising how many times we forget. Install automatic timers for lights that people in your house frequently forget to flick off when leaving a room. Use dimmers where you can.
• Use your appliances more efficiently. The way you use an appliance can change the amount of energy it wastes. Make sure your oven gasket is tight, and resist the urge to open the oven door to peek, as each opening can reduce the oven temperature 25°. Preheat only as much as needed, and avoid placing foil on racks — your food won’t cook as quickly. Your second biggest household energy user after the fridge is the clothes dryer. Dryers kept in warm areas work more efficiently. Clear the lint filter after each load, and dry only full loads. And don’t forget that hanging clothing outside in the sun and air to dry is the most energy-efficient method of all.
• Check your utility’s energy-efficiency incentives. Some utility companies have programs that encourage energy efficiency. Check with your utility to find out if it offers free home energy audits, cash rebates for using energy-efficient lighting and appliances, and lower electric rates for households meeting certain energy-efficiency criteria.
• Weatherize your home or apartment. Drafty homes and apartments allow energy dollars to leak away. Seal and caulk around windows and doors. Make sure your home has adequate insulation. Many old homes do not have enough, especially in the attic. You can check the insulation yourself or have it done as part of an energy audit.
• Choose renewable energy. Many consumers can now choose their energy supplier. If you have a choice, choose an electric utility that uses renewable power resources, such as solar, wind, low impact hydroelectric, or geothermal. Residents of California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Texas can get help choosing clean power from the Power Scorecard, developed by NRDC and other groups.
• Let the sun shine in. The cheapest and most energy-efficient light and heat source is often right outside your window. On bright days, open blinds, drapes, and shutters to let the sun light your home for free. Also remember that sunlight entering a room equals passive solar heating. Even on cold winter days, sun streaming into a room can raise the temperature several degrees.

Save Resources at Home

• Recycle materials you use. Recycling saves resources, decreases the use of toxic chemicals, cuts energy use, helps curb global warming, stems the flow of water and air pollution, and reduces the need for landfills and incinerators. If there’s no recycling program where you live, encourage local officials to start one. In the meantime, learn where you can take items such as paper, cardboard, glass, aluminum, plastic, and tires to be recycled, then make an effort to go there.
• Buy recycled products. Look on the label for the products or packaging with the greatest percentage of post-consumer recycled content, which ensures that the materials have been used before. Try to buy paper products that have more than 50 percent post-consumer content.
• Compost. Composting reduces the burden on overcrowded landfills and gives you a great natural fertilizer for plants and gardens. Buy a composting setup at a garden supply or hardware store. Start with yard trimmings, fruit and vegetable food scraps, and coffee grounds. If you don’t know how to compost, check out this handy guide.
• Buy products with less packaging. A large percentage of the paper, cardboard, and plastic we use goes into packaging — much of it wasteful and unnecessary.
• Use durable goods. Bring your own cloth bags to local grocery stores and farmer’s markets. Replace plastic and paper cups with ceramic mugs, disposable razors with reusable ones. Refuse unneeded plastic utensils, napkins, and straws when you buy takeout foods. Use a cloth dishrag instead of paper towels at home, and reusable food containers instead of aluminum foil and plastic wrap.
• Leave grass clippings on the lawn. Grass clippings make good fertilizer when they decompose. Leaving them on your lawn keeps them from occupying the limited space available in the local landfill.

Save Resources at Work

• Buy energy-efficient office equipment. Energy Star-rated equipment is an option at work as well as at home. According to the EPA, Energy Star-labeled equipment can save up to 75 percent of total electricity use.
• Recycle. If your office doesn’t have a recycling program, work with your office manager and custodial staff to set one up. Paper, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles are easy to start with, and additional materials can be added as the staff gets used to recycling. Set up bins in convenient areas to collect each type of material your office recycles, and make sure everyone knows they are there.
• Commit to environmentally friendly purchasing practices. Encourage your company to make a commitment to purchasing paper and plastic materials made with post-consumer recycled content. Companies should avoid paper products made from 100 percent virgin fiber content, and switch to paper that is 30 percent post-consumer content at minimum. Also look for plastic and metal products made with recycled or scrap material.
• Be thrifty with paper. Don’t print out each memo or email you receive. Read and delete the ones you don’t need to save and electronically file others you might refer to later. Make sure your office copier can make two-sided copies, and badger everyone to get into the habit of doing so. If people don’t take the hint, arrange to have your copier’s default set to the two-sided rather than one-sided option. High-speed copiers that are set to automatically make two-sided copies reduce paper costs by an average of $60 per month — and, of course, save paper. Save even more paper by using the blank sides of used sheets of paper for note-taking and printing drafts.
• Use reusable utensils for office parties. If you work in one of those offices where there’s no excuse too small for a mid-afternoon get-together, encourage the office manager to invest in a set of dishes, cups, and utensils that can be used each time, rather than breaking out plastic utensils and paper plates. If you have an event where reusable items are not an option, choose disposable items that are biodegradable and made out of easily renewable resources like corn, potato and wild reed.
• Bring a waste-free lunch. Store your food in reusable containers rather than wrapping it in foil or plastic. Keep a knife, fork, spoon, and cloth napkins at work to avoid the need for plastic utensils and paper napkins. Bring your hot or cold drinks in a thermos, and drink them from a mug you keep at your desk or in your work area. Encourage your employers to incorporate recycled paper products in your printers, copiers and bathrooms. Many office supply chains feature paper and tissue products with recycled paper content, often at comparable prices.
• Turn off your screen saver! Modern computer monitors do not need this function to stay in top form — it’s simply a waste of energy.

Conserve Water

• Install a low-flow showerhead. Showers account for 32 percent of home water use. Low-flow showerheads deliver no more than 2.5 gallons per minute compared to standard showerheads that release 4.5 gallons per minute. A family of four using low-flow showerheads can save about 20,000 gallons of water per year.
• Install an ultra-low-flush toilet or a toilet displacement device. Toilets are water hogs. About 40 percent of the water you use in your home gets flushed down the toilet. That amounts to more than 4 billion gallons of water in the U.S. each day. That’s why federal law now mandates that all new toilets installed for residential use be low-flush toilets. Conventional toilets generally use 3.5 to 5 gallons (sometimes more) of water per flush, while low-flush toilets use 1.6 gallons of water or less. If you’re not building a new home, you can still benefit by installing one of these toilets. You can make an old toilet move efficient by putting a brick or plastic milk jug filled with water or pebbles in the toilet tank. This reduces the amount of water used per flush. You’ll save more than 1 gallon of water per flush!
• Install flow restrictor aerators. Placing these inside faucets saves 3 to 4 gallons per minute when you turn on the tap. Of course, you can also help out by doing simple things such as not running water in the sink while soaping your face or brushing your teeth.
• Repair leaks. Fix those leaking and dripping faucets as soon as possible. A dripping faucet can waste up to 20 gallons of water per day. A leaking toilet can waste up to 200 gallons every day.
• Landscape in tune with the natural environment. If you’re landscaping, use plants that are native to your area. Growing native plants can save more than half the water normally used to care for outdoor plants. Raising thirsty plants in arid areas means having to drown them almost daily in gallons of sprinkler or irrigation water. In dry areas, xeriscape landscaping uses plants that need little water, thereby not only saving water and labor, but also preventing pollution from the use of fertilizers. If you must water your lawn, water early or late in the day or on cooler days to reduce evaporation. Allow your grass to grow a bit taller than you normally do. This will help reduce water loss by providing more ground shade for roots and promoting soil water retention.
• Use water wisely in everyday activities. Water is wasted more quickly than you might think. An open faucet lets about 5 gallons of water flow every 2 minutes. In the kitchen, you can save between 10 and 20 gallons of water a day by running the dishwasher only when it’s full. You can save even more by washing dishes by hand in a sink or water-filled dishpan, rather than running the tap continuously as you scrub. Run the clothes washer only when full as well. Taking a shorter shower will also save a lot of water. Try turning off the showerhead while soaping! Sweep sidewalks and driveways instead of hosing them down — washing a sidewalk or driveway with a hose uses about 50 gallons of water every 5 minutes.

Support Organic & Sustainable Farming

• Ask for organic produce. Often, organic produce costs more and is more difficult to get, but many supermarkets and greengrocers are willing to stock organic food if they know customers will buy it regularly. Talk to your friends and neighbors about their willingness to buy organic and then let your produce manager know that many customers are interested. As organic produce becomes more commonplace, prices will drop.
• Deal directly with organic food growers and suppliers. If you can’t find a local grocer who will stock organic food, contact organic growers and suppliers directly or visit a local farmer’s market.
• Become a Community Supported Agriculture supporter. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) cooperatives bring together local farmers and consumers. As a member of the cooperative, you pledge to cover farm operation costs for the season. In return, you share in the harvest. CSA farms are not all organic, but they all strive to operate sustainably.
• Farmers: cut down on pesticide use. Innovative and successful farmers around the country are switching from conventional pest management practices, which are heavily reliant on pesticides, to profitable alternative agricultural practices that substantially reduce pesticide use.

Sources for article:

oscar.com

nrdc.org

As a result of the destruction of reefs in the world’s oceans, an attempt was made to constuct artificial reefs out of concrete and car tires. As scientists now know, this idea was not thourougly thought out, and now beaches across the world are paying the price. The governor of Florida plans to set aside $2 million dollars just so the tires can be rid of.

Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Car_tires.jpg/600px-Car_tires.jpg 

Scientists and oceanic environmental groups had hoped that these tires would replace the dying and destructed reefs in the ocean by providing a new havenfor marine life. As it turned out, the tires were not properly secured, and eventually broke free from eachother.  Goodyear donated all of the tires, which were secured by nylon. When this was found out to be uneventful, the tires were stacked 10 high and then filled with concrete so that they would not break apart. This however, also failed because it did not leave enough room for marine habitation to prosper.

“We’ve literally dumped millions of tires in our oceans,” said Jack Sobel, an Ocean Conservancy scientist. “I believe that people who were behind the artificial tire reef promotions actually were well-intentioned and thought they were doing the right thing. In hindsight, we now realize that we made a mistake.”

“The really good idea was to provide habitat for marine critters so we could double or triple marine life in the area. It just didn’t work that way,” said Ray McAllister, a professor of ocean engineering at Florida Atlantic University who was instrumental in organizing the project. “I look back now and see it was a bad idea.”

Now, Florida, along with many other states, and countries around the world, will have to put forth the effort to clean up. Members of the army and navy seals will contribute by cleaning up the tires as part of thier training.

Image Credit:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Coral_fiji_moturiki.jpg/120px-Coral_fiji_moturiki.jpgt:

I never knew that this idea was imposed at all, and if someone would have brought the idea to me I would have thought that it wouldn’t work. Obviously, with ocean currents, tides, ocean predators, etc., extreme consideration needed to be made as to how to keep the tires together so they wouldn not get swept away, as they did onto numerous beaches. I think instead more research should have gone into why the reefs need to be replaced aritificially in the first place. Now, millions of dollars and large amounts of volunteer work are needed to clean up the mess. I also don’t think that there is any real substitution for a habitation for marine life that occurs naturally in our oceans, because we cannot replicate, especially with tires, reefs that have been there for many years.

Source for article: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12247 

It’s been announced by Al Gore, former vice-president and current environmental activist, that a series of concerts will take place on July 7th, 2007 that will promote awareness for global warming. Promoters of the concert hope that the concert will be able to reach over 2 billion people, across seven continents. The concert will feature popular artists such as Melissa Etheridge, who also sang “I Need to Wake Up,” the song nominated for best song at the Academy Awards for the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” The concert has even more of an all-star line-up, with performances by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Enrique Iglesias, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, the Black Eyed Peas, Korn, and Duran Duran.

Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Concert_2.jpg/120px-Concert_2.jpg 

The money raised from this event will benefit The Alliance for Climate Protection, a research group comitted to finding a resolution for global warming. This group is led by Al Gore.

Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Al_Gore_February_2006.jpg/72px-Al_Gore_February_2006.jpg 

The concert will take place in such countries as Japan, Brazil, South Africa, the United States, Australia, and England.

I think that having this concert is a very good way to reach everyone about the issues of global warming, especially the world’s youth generation. It’s an idea that will attract young people who may not have seen “An Inconvenient Truth” because they didn’t care to see it or didn’t know what it was about. I must admit, if we hadn’t watched it in APES, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to rent it myself. It’s a good idea to incorporate celebrities that our generation is familiar with, and who have a big influence on us. It’s also a good way to spread this message around the world, because global warming doesn’t just affect people in one specific area. This will give the opportunity for less developed countries, such as some in Africa, to maybe realize that this is a big, and worldwide problem. Also, by having celebrites from all genres of music that appeal to a lot of people, they could end up raised a huge sum of money.

Source for article: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12238 

I saw on the news tonight how the 2008 United States Budget is being released for Congress’ perusal. Fortunately for the EPA and other environmentalist groups, next years budget looks a littler greener. (I also think that it’s ironic that the actual budget is a green book.) This gave me relief, because as I had reported earlier on one of my blogs, “Sub-Par State of the Union,” there was much skepticism about how much concern was expended towards the environment.

The new budget allocates $549.5 million for use of environmental enforcement. This is the largest amount of money ever allocated to any particular agency. (EPA) It is $9.1 million more than was given for the 2007 budget.

Some other concentrations of this money are to improve and preserve some of the United States’ major water sources. The 2008 budget also calls for an additional $687.5 million for clean water grants and $842.2 million for clean drinking water grants.

“With a focus on improving air quality, the president’s budget includes:

• $117.9 million for EPA’s climate change programs to build upon partnership efforts to achieve reductions in US greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the president’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent in 2012;
• $44 million for Energy Star programs for the commercial, residential and industrial sectors to continue voluntary government/industry partnership programs designed to capitalize on the opportunities that consumers, businesses, and organizations have for making sound investments in efficient equipment, policies, and practices;
• $5 million for the Asia Pacific Partnership to support international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and
• $4.4 million for Methane to Markets to promote methane recovery and use at landfills, coal mines and natural gas facilities.”

The budget also includes funds that promote scientific research towards a greener earth, such as:

• “$123.8 million for Clean Air and related research, a $7.5 million increase to improve research related to cyclical review of criteria air pollutants, study near-road air pollution, and support work with NOAA to develop the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system;
• $10.2 million for Nanotechnology Research, an increase of $1.6 million to identify potential uses and study nano-scale materials that are subject to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requirements.”

Source for article:

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/68b5f2d54f3eefd28525701500517fbf/36d36d92be7e68d4852572790066065c!OpenDocument

Companies has announced  that they will be collecting funds and redstributing them to organizations that help to find ways to reduce fossil fuel emissions. These companies provide conversions so that you can calculate how much money you owe based on how much CO2 you have emitted. This method of life that tries to equal out the greenhouse gases is called “carbon neutral,” and it’s getting mixed reviews.

People who are against this plan claim that people will get into the habit of thinking that they don’t need to reduce thier use of CO2, and can just pay it off. It wouldn’t come off as a serious problem if you could just pay for what you used. They also say that these “offsetting” companies involved with carbon neutral are giving off the impression to our people and our government that no futher steps need to be made concerning greenhouse gases. Instead, opponents say that the government should try on working to eliminate fossil fuels altogther. Heh. Fat chance of that.

These offsetting companies provide online calculators to compute how much money you should donate determined by what you just did. For example, a calculation showed that by throwing a wedding with 150 people, you would be suggested to owe $230. Companies are also going to participate, as a British cab company calculated that they would owe $195,000 annually. These companies are becoming popular in Europe, and will hopefully become popular in the United States.

Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Hackney_carriage.jpg

On this issue, I can see where the opponents are coming from. However, I think that if we made sure to educate and promulgate environmental issues better to citizens, they would see why this program was created. Many people would just see this as a way for them to feel less guilty, and would not think of reducing CO2 emissions if they could afford to pay for it. I think that these people need to be educated on methods to reduce CO2 while compensating for the CO2 that they just can’t live without.

Source for article: http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=12145