Carbon Sequestration

     

     Carbon Sequestration is the removal and storage of carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks (such as oceans, forests or soils) through physical or biological processes, such as photosynthesis. It can be performed in many ways, some of which include: Mineral sequestration; traps carbon by placing it in its thermodynamics ground state where it will be nonreactive. Injecting into deep saline aquifers, Saline aquifers are underground formations containing brine or salt water that is not suitable for agricultural purposes or for drinking. Ocean Fertilization: Ocean phytoplanktons take up carbon dioxide to grow, and that this growth can be stimulated in certain ocean basins. They are also simpler ways to capture carbon for example Tree planting, grass planting, organic matter. PH reduction, reduces climate change, carbonate dissolution are its environmental impacts. It is expensive and different programs have different costs. We produce a lot of CO2 today in many forms through the process we use to produce our daily needs. In order to reduce green house gases we can use the new advanced CCS method, which is known to capture and store CO2. The largest sources of carbon are fossil fuel power plants and factories.

The CCS has been significant in that it has so far been successful and it can reduce global warming thus reducing climate change in the environment. CCS will strengthen our economy and will reduce our environmental foot print .Although it may be expensive, it can be seen as a reduction of poverty because of the financial subsidies provided by the central government. It is now our time to take over and do as we please considering what carbon does for us and what we do for it. All we need is to agree and to take action to our path to the future.

The "Week"

Whoever said physics was easy was wrong. That person was wrong because the first three chapters are extremely hard and therefore there is a lower chance of the next chapters being easy. I know that keeping a positive mind is necessary and important in order to do it, but as of now the negative mind takes over. My biggest question is why is physics so complicated? I believe a physician would think am crazy, but it turns out that it goes from easy to hard in no time. For example: we were doing right triangles last week and everything seemed easy, but then there came angles which made right triangles hard. My most confusing moment is when I read a question and then am supposed to use two to three formulas to find one answer. It kills me when there is only one piece of information and you need 6 pieces. This week in physics was short and not fun because I did not learn all the problems we did although I learned a few, not enough. In preparation for the upcoming test, I went through all the home work for chapter 4 and I still don’t know how to figure out what information is missing and how much of it is needed to answer the question being asked. Now I still have hope that I will at least learn how to tell what kind of info I need by the end of the week.

The more positive side of this week in physics class was that I learned how to solve for x and y using cosine, sin and tangent. I also can now plug numbers and pieces of information into the formula to solve a problem in that class. I did not participate in the nerf gun fight because I had a lot of work to catch up on and I did not think I would like it. Although I did not participate, my classmates had a good time doing it.  

Cloning Humans

The non political science hot topic going on now is cloning humans. I think we should not clone human beings. There are advantages ad disadvantages, the advantages include: the creation of identical humans to prove organs for transplants. On the negative side, we may lose important aspects that apply to us as humans. For example: we may compromise our individualities and lose genetic variation. If we clone humans, people will not want to give birth; instead they will want organs to be donated so that they may clone themselves. As a result, a black market for fetuses will be created and that will be abusing human dignity (everyone deserves respect no matter who they are). Human dignity is lost because humans lose the right of uniqueness because after a while of cloning them, we will all be living for the same purpose and will die at the same age. We should not look at clones like strange creatures, we should respect them because they provide us with organs that save our lives when we no longer have hope that we can live any longer. They also cure many various diseases including Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, heart attack. They do so because doctors can replace tissues and organs damaged by disease or injury to restore our health. We need to be fair and generous to them because we benefit from them in many different ways. Studies show that most the American population is unhappy, ant not willing to clone humans. They feel uncomfortable being surrounded by clones. These people thought about it and decided to come to a conclusion that if we clone humans, we should also clone fruits and other foods we eat.  That suggestion was not taken well because no one wants to eat cloned food or fruits; therefore no one wants to live with cloned people.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology

                                          
Over the years, our technology has improved in many various ways. Although technology can be helpful, it is however sometimes not great as it seems. We use it for communication; we use a lot of hi-tech gadgets everyday to communicate with people from all over the world. Now days we have the privilege to use computers and the internet which has a wide variety of easy communication offers. There is also a bad side to this and that is that too many people can communicate with us at the same time, and that can create scams and viruses. Young people are using too much technology because it is so advanced and that is not good because it takes away too much valuable time. Our lives will never be the same, because we have so many medicines and other discoveries that enable us to live long if we wish to. Lengthening our lives is very easy these days; technology can easily do that for us.
                                               
Man has developed knowledge of how to create machines and he has used that knowledge well. Today we have more than a billion machines that do our work and chores for us. Now, that is a good thing because we get to relax and do no hard work, but it all turns around when you count just how many people have lost their jobs due to man's knowledge (machines). The production of goods has also increased since the invention of machines. They can produce lots of products in a short time, thus making man demand more of their power. For example: farmers who use fertilizers do so because the fertilizers enable their plants to grow faster. The more plants one has, the more money he/ she gets. But those farmers do not understand that the fertilizers they use kill the environment and cause health problems for the consumers. E.g. A poor person is not going to buy organic food because it is expensive, but he/she will buy genetically modified foods because they are cheaper. But today we all know that organic food is healthier for us more than genetically modified foods.

Saving Energy

It takes one step at a time to change the world. One light bulb can be the beginning of a world changing process. The more people who take the step the more energy we save. Here are a few easy steps we can take to save energy: Don't leave lights on when they are not in use, turn off the TV when no one is watching it and turn off the radio if its not in use. During warm weather set the thermostat at 78 degrees and in cold weather set the thermostat at 68 degrees or lower during the day and evening if health allows. Most people may not realize their impact on the environment but in truth we all affect our environment in both positive and negative ways. If you take a step to saving energy, you will be one of the many fair citizens who strive everyday to save our beloved environment. Encouraging your friends to recycle and save energy will add 4 years to your life time so that you may have a longer life. If we save energy, we will gain a few prizes these include: lower energy bills, we will not run out of limited sources such as petroleum or natural gas. You can also reduce your CO2 emissions (the biggest contributor to human-induced global warming. You can reduce your smog emissions (nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide) for any energy you use that was produced using fossil fuels - especially energy that comes from coal.
Being a good citizen of your environment requires you to be faithful to it because we need to live it just the way we found it for the generations that will come after us. We are called to serve one another; saving the environment will be our tribute to someone else’s life.