In December of 2105, the Paris Climate Conference was held; in this conference, fifteen countries from around the world and 195 representatives adopted a legally-binding climate contract/deal. This contract/deal is the first of its kind to ever exist. This agreement was made to help put the world as a whole on track for a better future for our planet. The hope is to attempt to limit global warming to 35 °F, which is 2°C. Although this agreement was reached in 2015, it is not set to become fully enacted until 2020. Before we became such an industrialized world, the average global temperature was well below 35°f (2°c); now that we are so industrialized, that temperature has risen, causing global climate change. This agreement hopes to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases all around the world. As part of the agreement, governments will come together every 5 years to determine/set more goals in order to reach better climate change initiatives. These governments have also set up a transparency and accountability type of program where everyone must tell of the progress, or lack thereof, that they have made; this is to ensure that countries are keeping to the agreements set froth in the contract. Another thing that this contact hopes to do, is provide support to developing countries that may be feeling the affects of climate change more than industrialized ones are. This contract will hopefully better prepare countries to react to emergencies that could be associated with climate change, as well as understanding how to assist other countries in the case of emergencies. A very unfortunate thing is that poorer undeveloped countries have done very little compared to Western ones to assist in the rise of global warming, yet they are the ones who often suffer the most due to it. Many of these poorer countries pushed to have a legally binding part of the agreement that would give them at least $100 billion a year from richer countries to help them deal with the affects of climate change that they face; in the end, that did not happen. This agreement sets forth a change that must come about for all countries; it does not hold any one single country responsible. Many of the world leaders present at this meeting had stated that there would not be a plan B if this agreement was to fall threw; no plan B not because they had not came up with one, but because there literally is not one. The Eiffel Tower was illuminated with “no plan B” that very night. It was also talked about to begin using renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and nuclear more so than coal, natural gas, and oil; the renewable ones would greatly lessen carbon emissions. Secretary of State John Kerry had said that “the world has come together around an agreement that will empower us to chart a new path for our planet.” President Obama had said that “this agreement sends a powerful signal that the world is fully committed to a low-carbon future. We’ve shown that the world has both the will and the ability to take on this challenge.” The world and our planet as a whole are still in a deep hole heavily affected by climate change, but with efforts like this being made, it is safe to say we are trying to head in the right direction, and very well may be. In order for the things set forth in this agreement to continue to push us in the right direction, we will rely heavily on global-peer pressure to make sure countries are sticking to the agreements, and we will need to rely on the actions of future government officials. 

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In the past, most cars that were considered “fuel efficient” were often smaller and considered more dangerous to drive due to that fact; a smaller car has a higher chance of getting damaged in an accident. Nowadays, the auto industry has been working to create more fuel efficient cars in various different styles and sizes, not just small cars. This is mostly due to the fact that federal standards and gas prices have somewhat forced this change to be made. Wade Newton, and spokesperson for the Alliance of Automobile Manufactures that advocates for the auto industry, stated that at the Detroit Auto show, the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Gina McCarthy, gave praised to the organization for advocating for the creation of more fuel efficient cars. The hope/attempt is that the auto industry will begin to produce cars that get 54.5 miles to a gallon of gas by the year 2025, as well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half. In having more fuel efficient cars, the federal government suspects that a driver of one of these cars will be able to save around $8,000 by the year 2025; the EPA also expects oil consumption to be reduced by more than 2 million barrels a day. Members of the auto industry stated that in order to get consumers to buy more fuel efficient cars, they will need to make cars that are more desirable to have; it would be pointless to make fuel efficient cars if consumers did not find them appealing enough to buy. the unpredictability of fuel costs help push more to have fuel efficient cars. Roughly 10% of the cars on the road or on the market today go well beyond the federal requirements for fuel efficiency. The federal rules that are enforcing better fuel economy were considered to be “tough” laws a few years back, but now it can be argued that even though they are tough, almost everyone is benefiting from them. Some members of the Republican party/GOP objected to the “tough” federal rules at first, stating that it was another way to get the government involved in the private sector. Now it is easily arguable that these rules have benefited consumers, manufacturers, and the environment altogether. Car manufacturers have found ways to make cars with smaller engines, yet still have a lot, or almost the same, amount of power they would have with a larger engine. They are also replacing hard metal outsides of cars with lighter aluminum, making the cars a lot less heavy. The cost of cars, however, has risen a bit over the past few years. This is in part due to the fact that people have been buying smaller card with a lot more “accessory” type things, like leather seats, heated seats, and review cameras to assist in backing up. There is a concern up in the air that the cost of cars may rise more in the next few years as automakers are being required to use more expensive materials to make their cars more fuel efficient.

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“Catching the Wind” is an exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science: a main focus of this exhibit is about how wind turbines generate electricity. Wind turbines work by “catching” the wind and turning it into a usable form of energy for human daily use. A wind turbines big blades cut through the air, and wind is captured inside the turbine. Inside the turbine is where this wind gets converted to a form of energy that we can use. In deciding whether or not to install a wind turbine in an area, the wind speed of that location needs to be taken into consideration. Acceptance of the installation of a wind turbine by the community is another thing that needs to be taken in to account; wind turbine installment could also affect wildlife in certain areas, and it needs to be sure that the wind turbine will generate a profit that should outweigh the cost to install it. Wind is a natural thing that occurs in abundance in more areas than others, particularly in areas that do not have large amounts of energy consumption, or areas with more open land. An example of this that shows a good location for wind turbines are the ones that were installed in New Hampshire in the towns of Groton, Lempster, and Granite; most of these turbines are located on mountains. In comparing wind energy to solar energy, solar energy is only available during the day, obviously, and may be available in less amounts during the day due to weather conditions Also, solar energy panels are expensive. Non-renewable sources of energy still pose serious threats to climate change, more than wind turbines. Burning coal has some serious side affects: carbon dioxide and many other harmful greenhouse gases get released in to the air, and can create things like acid rain. People who work as miners in coal mines can suffer from the mines collapsing, which has resulted in many deaths in the past, as well as other serious health risks. Not to mention, the supply of coal is limited. Our use of natural gas as a form of energy also emits a large amount of harmful greenhouse gasses too, and also has a limited supply such as coal does.

My group and I, Steph, Kelly, and Jessica, brainstormed by looking online. We knew we wanted to do something a bit unique, but we were not really sure what was out there. We have all done science experiments in the past, so actually being able to pick our own and sort of design it ourselves was a pretty liberating feeling, but also weird since we have never really done this before.

After looking around online, we narrowed our ides down to 3-4 experiments, which was good, because each person in the group was able to pick one and add it to the list since there are 4 of us. We then narrowed it down to two, which were the possibility of making a “solar oven” using tin foil and some form of a hard surface. The tin foil and the table would be placed outside, where we were going to attempt to make a s’more. We decided against that idea, since we aren’t really sure how warm it will be in the beginning of May or end of April. Hey, we live in New England, so ya never know!

We then decided on an experiment we all wanted to do after we decided against the solar oven. We have decided to make a battery out of various vegetables and fruits. I  believe we want to use a lemon, apple, potato, and possibly a zucchini. We will need zinc a copper screws/plates that will get inserted into the fruits/veggies. The zinc is the negative electrode, and the copper is the positive one. Putting these in the veggies/fruit will create a chemical reaction; the acid in the lemon will break down the atomic structure of the copper and the zinc, causing little electrons to be released that flow from the zinc to the copper. This is a flow of electrons from a reactive metal to a less reactive metal, which creates a current that can power a small light bulb, etc. Our goal is to see which fruit/veggies produces a stronger current/stronger light.