Continuing As the World Burns (:

Dr. Bozanic told me it was okay to finish As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial as my Christmas Break reading, which I'm excited about! (: What has happened recently in this book is the aliens have begun to invade earth and have asked to see the President of the US. Then a hippie taught a fox about the laws of energy and thermodynamics (which the fox wasn't very happy about, but it was a nice refresher for me and very funny). There were also some fun facts that I learned from the arguing little girls, including: 5% of all carbon emissions that have been put out by humans have been put out by ExxonMobil! (I thought that was kind of repulsive). Happy Holidays (:

Update

I finished Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0.  I really liked it! I also received a link to a video by Ms. Ward that she thinks I might like, so I'm going to watch that over break, as well as read some more from my books from Addlestone and a few of the more fun books I've bought, but haven't read for my "required reading." I'll keep you posted with how those go! Happy Holidays!

Book Update and Rick Bass

I've been reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0. I thought that it was really interesting that the author suggested that the massive expansion of the middle class has caused many of our environmental problems and caused our planet to rapidly destabilize. I thought that was a really interesting cause of some of our current environmental problems, because none of my other books have suggested that! I'll keep you posted though!

I also met Rick Bass last week! He was so nice and a really great writer. I went to a book reading he did at the Recital Hall at Ashley Hall and if you didn't go, you definitely missed out! I'm emailing him to ask him if he thinks any of his books might be useful to me!

The "Nest"

I just read a really interesting article about a greener thermostat developed by former Apple executive Tony Fadell. The thermostat displays a green leaf when you're conserving energy and can adjust the temperature in your home minimally in order to conserve energy. With the Nest a 1 degree change in energy can save up to 5% of the energy used! It also remembers your preferences in order to predict what you would want from your thermostat and adjusts to fit your preferences. It can even tell if when there are people in your home, in order to conserve energy while you're away!
I thought this was really cool, so thought I'd share! (:

November 28

I've continued reading about energy and its hidden costs. I can't believe the amount of different factors that go into energy production that we don't think about! Our society has become so dependent on energy with price ceilings that cause the cost of energy to be realistically low and we never think about the consequences that result from such low prices. The book I'm reading even suggested that several energy producers don't even realize the true cost of their labors on the environment, because of the unrealistically low prices of supplies that go into the production of energy.

I also read a really interesting article in Time about coal production in the US. A lot of people have been pushing for cleaner energy, but many others don't want it, due to the amount of jobs that would be lost, especially in such a bad economy. Funfact: 25% of jobs in West Virginia are from coal production! Wow!

Also, Japan had a few minor earthquakes this week, luckily there was no damage. (:

Hidden Costs of Energy

I've recently been reading Hidden Costs of Energy. The book began by defining some necessary terms and explaining things like externalitities in simpler terms. It's continued by discussing the costs that are not accounted for in the market energy prices. I've found it really interesting how much is unaccounted for in the cost of energy that we pay for, that has been unleashed on the environment. Each year trillions of dollars in damages to the environment due to externalities are released. In 2005 the damages associated with only coal from the pollutants SO2, NOx, PM2.5 and PM10 alone added up to be about $62 billion dollars ($156 million/plant)! I honestly never would have guessed such a large figure! Although, the average damages per kWh is only 1.7 cents, which seems as though that is a fairly easily solved problem!

Two Interesting Articles Regarding Fukushima

I thought these both were really interesting! Enjoy!
A Visit To Fukushima Begins
Japanese Official Drinks Water from Fukushima Reactor Buildings

November 14

This week I finished Green Gone Wrong.  I thought the connections that the author made between agriculture and energy were extremely interesting. I read some articles discussing Japan and it's energy. Apparently radioactive xenon has been found near one of the "deactivated" plants, which could be problematic (xenon has a half-life of less than a week). Japan seems to be veering on a course that leads them back to nuclear power and less-sustainable energy sources, but Germany is making an attempt to phase out nuclear power altogether, which I thought was very interesting! I also met with Dr. Bozanic and gave him my reflection paper and some new titles for this month!

Green Gone Wrong

This week I read the majority of Green Gone Wrong. I found it really interesting. I still have a few pages left, but I should finish those tomorrow. It discussed eco-architecture and some "greener" energy alternatives. I learned about 2 ecologically friendly cities in Europe, which I thought was really cool that entire communities are trying to be that sustainable with the current technology. It also discussed green energy alternatives like biodiesel. It discussed how biodiesel isn't really "green," because the amount of energy that must go into producing biodiesel (intensive farming practices to produce and gather the corn or other plant) and the land that must be converted into farmland to make make up for the lost food production make biodiesel less green than fossil fuels.
This week I'll also be meeting with Dr. Bozanic and writing my reflection paper, which I'll post once finished. I'm also going to be looking at some new titles about energy and environmental engineering!

October 31

This week I continued talking to the intermediate school about presenting an assembly, and that's going well. Hopefully I will have arranged a date for that within the next few weeks. I've got some really fun ideas for them!

I also finished Eaarth. I really enjoyed it. The end of the book continued to talk about how we have transformed the planet. He suggested quite a few things, and remained quite optimistic, despite how dismal he portrayed the subject. He suggested massive scale alternative energy, but recognized that to make a real difference, it would take years. Developing nations, he said, would have to have energy subsidized by more prominent/developed countries. He also suggested a smaller more diverse agricultural system.

I'm going to start Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. I've looked through it, and it looks really interesting. It is about how our economy has caused our society to avoid dealing with environmental problems, because it wouldn't be smart economically.

October 24

This week I read some of Eaarth. It was really interesting. It talks about how through our energy practices we have altered the Earth beyond recognition, to the point where it is no longer the planet we have once lived on. It also talked about the original estimates for carbon capacity, which ended up being unreasonably high.  As the World Burns: 50 Ways to Stay in Denial has remained very entertaining and informative as well, although it is a bit negative (but rightfully so). I've really enjoyed reading it. Currently the author is comparing the human race to robots whose only function is to burn carbon, which isn't exactly a happy thought.

I also read a few articles concerning Japan and what they are currently doing in regard to energy. Margaret also gave me an article about how the Japanese are finding potentially dangerous nuclear residue far from Fukushima, and what they are doing to attempt to mitigate that.

October 17 Update

This week I met with Dr. Bozanic to discuss what  I did throughout September. He gave me some suggestions for further reading that look very promising. Although I ordered my new books about a week ago, only one has arrived. Hopefully the rest arrive soon! Due to my lack of new materials, this week I read some of the Japan-related sections of a book I checked out from Addlestone, The Asian Energy Factor. Although most energy related books discuss energy in relation to America or Europe, this one was specifically about Japan, which has been new and informative.
The book that did arrive was As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial. It's an extremely entertaining satirical book about how the human race's obsession with money has taken priority over our planet's welfare. It dispels several misconceptions about energy conservation, which I found very surprising.
I also continued discussing a possible assembly with the Middle and/or Lower school about energy, which seems to be going well. I have some really fun activities planned for them! Hopefully we can arrange a date to meet in the near future!