Global Warming

     The big environmental topic nowadays is the discussion of global warming. There is a debate if global warming is real, or are we just going through a cycle that occurs naturally, and not due to human activity.
      Scientists say that global warming is caused by the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs). Fossil fuels are emitted mostly from automobile emissions and from factories, and from producing electricity. The main gas is carbon dioxide(CO2), and nitrous oxide and methane are also contributors. These gases keep heat from escaping the atmosphere, which are causing the overall temperature of the Earth to increase, this is called the "greenhouse effect". Sunlight is allowed in, but heat stays. The polar regions of the world are melting, which is effecting the animals living in these regions. In the future, the melting of the ice caps can increase the amount of water in the oceans, causing flooding.



Global warming according to National Geographic:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview

Up The Yangtze

The Three Gorges Dam is on the Yangtze River and is the largest source of hydroelectric power in the world. Building the dam caused many problems for the people of China. The creation of the dam caused over one million poor Chinese people to be displaced. These people depended on the river to survive. What was most shocking to me in the movie was the discrepancy between the Chinese rich and the Chinese poor. What we usually hear about China in the news portrays a country that is up and coming and is taking over as one of the top, if not the top, world superpower. I do not think of a world "superpower" as a place with what we as Americans would consider extreme poverty. Even our poor have running water and most of the time electricity. I think the movie was able to portray the part of China that the government there is trying to not show.

Life Cycle Analysis

I am researching the life cycle of a water bottle. The main component of a water bottle is plastic, which is derived from petroleum. The most common plastic used in the manufacturing of water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate, or simply PET. PET is a form of polyester that is made by combining ethylene glycol and purified terephthalic acid.

To form a water bottle, new PET flakes are combined with recycled PET flakes. Since the recycled PET does not retain all of the same properties as the new PET, the maximum amount of recycled flakes that are allowed in the mixture is ten percent.

Overpopulation

Overpopulation

Article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1346357/World-faces-overpopulation-disaster-number-people-set-rise-75-million-EACH-YEAR.html


New Delhi, India is the most populated city in India, with a population of about 23 million. India has a current population of 1.2 billion, and this number is expected to increase to 1.8 billion by about 2050. Overpopulation is a huge problem because Earth lacks enough resources to maintain the number of people that the planet will eventually have. A major problem will be the lack of an essential resource- water. With a huge population, people will have to find new livable parts of the Earth, and find new ways to fulfill their basic needs.

Haiku Poem

The purpose of this assignment was to write a haiku poem that describes a picture about an environmental topic. I chose to describe a picture of smoke stacks and pollution.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/node/4889

Burning and dirty
the skies are getting filthy,
pollution is gross.