Group Project

In my group there is Dana, Hanna and Emily and me(Fouad)! Cool thing is we get along really well. I worked with Dana and Hanna on labs all semester and Emily was in my class Freshman year in English 101 with Professor Tarpy. We were quick to zing out many different ideas. However knowing that we do not have all the time in the world to create a fusion center we chose to go with using a Peltier device in order to create electricity. We figured that we would have to test the difference in temperature and knowingly we also figured that the greater the change is in temperature the more energy we would have.

Watch this video to see kind of what we are going to do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mFyiYh94YE&feature=related

So as I was researching to know more about what we were doing I kept getting pictures of this weird looking thing. I was getting really upset because this is not what was presented in the video. I starting to get really upset until I started to read more. The peltier device is the mechanism that was coming and all the other components were just add-ons. So after my dumb moment I was like “uhh huh”  now I get.

 

 

 

Sources:

http://www.teamwavelength.com/images/info/tecinside.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

http://www.peltier-info.com/

 

 

Don’t Be Indenial

Most of you reading this, I am guessing do think that global warming is true.  Most of you reading this also know one person who thinks its a myth and that is where this fun argumentative debate starts. Already you think this person must be an “idiot” of some sort just because he/she thinks that global warming is a myth but the real question is how do you reason with a person about a topic as touchy as global warming. I wish I had the answer for you but I do not because some of these people are not the idiots we think they are. They may hold a high office in government, private sector or public sectors.

How ever I will tell you about f of the top 10 most respected skeptics about global warming. Yes I did say “respected” because the offices they hold in society are to be respected undoubtedly.  Will HapperThe first one I will mention is Will Harper who is a highly-respected physicist out of Princeton, he believes that green-house effect is nearly the cause of water vapor and clouds and just a bit effected by CO2. He also states that the atmosphere already has soo much CO2 in it that adding any more will not do anything because the ones in the atmosphere are already blocking most infrared radiation from getting into the earth. What I found funny is when he says that we need global warming in order for the earth to be warm and not cold all the time. The Second one I will mention is Ivar Giaever, He is a Noble Prize winner in physics. He is not a leader within the skeptics but believes that there isn’t enough information compelling global warming worth spending so much time on. Let me just repeat this guy was a Noble prize winner in physics. My third person is Physicist Freeman Dyson who has been recognized for being a giant in his field for decades. However the British-born Princeton professor is also a skeptic to global warming. Like Giaever he also thinks that adequate data is just not there yet. The fourth man is now a celeb because of his views, Alan Carlin is an EPA economist who wrote a paper saying that global warming is all just a “hoax.” He was censored by the EPA for being too heretic.  He welcomed on the Glenn Beck show because of it. Patrick MichaelsLastly, my favorite Patrick Micheals. If you want to call anyone an idiot then this “respectable” man might be your guy. As a CATO scholar and a GMU professor, he believes that we are ina long-term warming trend and that carbon dixiode has nothing to do with it. My next words are not a typo but true words from Mr. Micheals; he believes that each additional greenhouse gas molecule has less and less of an effect.

The question is, are these smart and well repected people “idiots” or are we just fooled by the news and inadequate data to believe in global warming?

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ten-most-important-climate-change-skeptics-2009-7#patrick-michaels-10

http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/11/talk-global-warming-deniers/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming

Natural Gas/fracking

Hydraulic fracturing first started in the 1947 but the first frac job with today’s technique was done in the 1990’s in Barnett Shale in Texas.  Since then hydraulic fracturing has acquired new nick name hydrofracking. Many energy companies attempt this process in order to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas or other substances. The process requires the propagation of fractures in a rock layer caused by the presence of a pressurized fluid.The energy from the injection of highly pressurized fluids creates many channels in the rock which increase the extraction rates and ultimately recovery of the fossil fuels.

This method of obtaining energy might seem convincing until we have to realize how much we really get out of it. It has been known to have many environmental problems. It damages forestland, destroys well sites along with groundwater and surface water contamination.  It also disturbs many access roads to the well sites. This process involves the use of 6-8 million gallons of freshwater per fracking. Along with this abundant amount of water, their is a mixture of chemicals such as diesel, biocides and benzene. The companies never state how much of each chemical they are using, they just say its in “small amounts.” Whats small for me and whats small for you is not the same measurement. Hydrofracking, just is not the answer to the ultimate problem we are trying to solve. In New York many anti-activists protested to have this process stopped because it was seen as a threat to their water supplies.  This is not how I want to help my planet and neither should you.

 

Sources:

https://nccnews.expressions.syr.edu/?p=32868

http://www.peacecouncil.net/NOON/hydrofrac/HdryoFrac2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing