Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the United States in Steele City, Nebraska; Wood River and Patoka, Illinois; and the Gulf Coast of Texas. Three phases of the project are in operation, and the fourth is awaiting U.S. government approval. The Keystone Pipeline Proposal, towards the environmentalists has been looked down upon and many have stated their upon that the proposal; is a horrible idea and should not be furthered continued because of the possible damage that it can cause to our environment. The ownership of the project came from “TransCanada” and “ConocoPhillips”, and after a change TransCanada became the owner of the pipeline. While after taking “ConocoPhillips” interest from the pipeline.

The Keystone Pipeline would carrie about 850,000 barrels of crude oil, the pipeline would come from Canada and would pass Nebraska. To keep the flow of the crude oil in a steady flow, chemicals are diluted so that the oil can keep the pace it needs for a steady flow. The the process of diluting the chemicals and keeping a steady flow, the process takes up 2/3 of the energy that it takes the crude oil to process. While there are different ways of transporting crude oil from one side to the other, “Rail Cars” are another source of transporting crude oil that does not requiere the use of chemical. Rail Cars process an economic threat, because it provides and process that doesn’t need to dilute chemicals and provides and “eco” -friendly process of transporting oil. Also, the Rail Cars move at a quicker rate then the process of oil and also it does not need federal approval, so it can expand as large as it wants.

There are also many of benefits the the Keystone Pipeline can provide for the United States as a whole and the states that the pipeline goes threw. One of the benefits that the pipeline provides for the United States, it creates jobs and rises the economic growth rate of the United States. For example, being next to the “third” largest oil reserve it create huge potentials; which it would provide strong economic growth, provide modern and safe efficient energy infrastructure, while provide jobs, and energy security. The tax revenue that the United States would collect from TransCanada, would build a revenue that would help with the debt of the United States. The TransCanada contributes about $900 million to the the United States pipeline integrity and maintenance programs. For example, this takes away a burden from tax payers money because it takes away the risk of increasing taxes. The taxes would provide countries with improvements of bridges, roads, and schools. Having an abundant supply of crude oil form Canada, it would let the United States reduce the dependence on distant supplies by tankers; which mostly come from regions that have less stability. Which provides a less dependency from the Gulf Coast countries, mainly “Venezuela” do the history between the two countries. This provides an alternative route that the United States can take with it’s neighboring country and not rely so much on the Gulf and other countries. Finally the pipeline provides a possibility the every country wants to be, which is to be energy sufficient. The United States is the largest oil producer until now and projected to be until 2035. If the pipeline were to pass by 2035 the oil coming from Canada, which is about 3.9 million barrels per day until 2020; would provide the United States to becoming an exporter of oil by 2035. Creating economic links with Canada, it would boom United States production and create growing supply of Canada oil; while decreasing the dependency from countries that are not as friendly to the United States. The process the pipeline would provide, would be a better alternative because it would be more environmentally friendly; instead of having it processed from a country that the standards of processing causes a stronger environmental threat.

In recent news, on April 18, 2014 the United States departments gave more time to federal agencies to review the Keystone Pipeline, before and permits are issued for further construction. The state department is the key judge in judging either the pipeline will be approved or not, because it crosses international boarders. The crude oil would come from Alberta, Canada leading towards Nebraska and finishing would be transported to the existing pipes in Texas. Texas is the southern section of the project which was finished in 2013. Environmentalist state, that the pipeline would cause further damage to the atmosphere and contribute to the increasing rate of greenhouse gases. Republics provide a different perspective, they believe that the pipeline will provide economic growth,jobs, and reduce dependency from other countries. Many believe the delay came to be, because of the up-coming elections in 2016. The State Department never provided detailed information when the revision of the pipeline was going to be over. Thus pointing it out to be for election purposes.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27083042

http://keystone-xl.com/?gclid=CMK7ooqj-r0CFckWMgodozMAdg

Recently, I had a chance to visit Museum of Science(MOS) with my class fellows. The Museum of Science (MoS) is a Boston, Massachusetts landmark, located in Science Park.  The Museum is also an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and is home to over 100 animals, many of which have been rescued and rehabilitated from various dangerous situations.

After that, we studied  and learnt there about wind and solar energy. We gathered a wide range of information about sustainable energy resources. As we know, wind power is the fastest-growing source of electricity in the United States. Therefore, we also learnt about how a wind turbine works, how some of the trade-offs surrounding wind energy, and how scientists are engineering new. We also learnt in the MOS about the most efficient ways to generate, store, and transport electricity from the wind.

We also came to know that the Museum has developed a to-scale community solar system model that spans as far as the Riverside MBTA station. We also done a little experiment there whose outcomes proved that in order for a panel to collect the highest amount of solar energy, the photovoltaic panel must be place in coordination to the incoming angle of the Sun.

This was a great experience, because one was able to obtain knowledge throw hands on activities about science. It gave me a great understanding about science and was able to retain the information a lot better, because of how science is approach in the museum.

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Earlier this month, President Obama introduced his national budget for next year which involved a chunk of it aiming towards addressing climate issues. Obama’s $3.9 trillion document assigns an estimated $1 trillion for unrestricted spending across both defense and non-defense, with the remaining going to required programs like Medicare and Social Security. Included in that $1 trillion, Obama has carved out diverse programs to advance towards his climate action plan he declared last year. Granted by briefing documents released by the White House, the President stated that he would spend $1 billion to gain a sharpened understanding of the calculated effects of climate change, to stimulate local action to diminish future hazards, and to reserve technology and infrastructure that will be more flexible with climate change.

In 2012, U.S. carbon emissions fell to the lowest level in two decades even as the economy continued to grow. To build on this momentum, the Obama Administration will take new and comprehensive action to encourage cleaner forms of American-made energy, modernize the transportation sector, and cut energy waste in our homes and businesses.President Obama has also directed the Federal Government  the largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from direct sources such as building energy use and fuel consumption by 28 percent by 2020.  He also directed Federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources, such as those from employee commuting, by 13 percent by 2020. By meeting these goals, Federal agencies can save up to $11 billion dollars in energy costs and eliminate the equivalent of cumulative 235 million barrels of oil over the next decade. In 2011, the Administration released the first-ever comprehensive Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory for the U.S. Government, allowing agencies to leverage data to gauge the effectiveness of their renewable energy investments and their energy and fuel efficiency efforts.

Overall, the United States is heading towards a better future on tackling climate change. The United States is contributing less greenhouse gases then it has ever done,which is having less effects out atmosphere and green house gases. The United States, is becoming a leader in the international stage and how a country should put policies that have less effect on our environment and global society.

Our second experiment in class, we used the “Lego Mindstorm” motor to lift weights with a pulley to detect certain measurements. The measurements we were able to determine were the acceleration, battery discharge, the mass, the power (energy=time), and the time of acceleration. Using the VI program again to pick different Power Levels to measure the acceleration of the weights when we would run the pulley. We were able to read the battery level of the connected NXT and measure the outputs of the power level in millivolts. In addition to that, we used excel to calculate the results.

The chart displays, the “Battery Discharge” we got in result of putting the Power Level at 60%. We set the motor at different speeds (RPM), such as at 63.36245 (with a battery discharge of 55 and a mass of 0.245kg), 66.19594 (with a battery charge of 42 and a mass of 0.19kg), and 69.79716 (with a battery discharge of 14 and a mass of 0.15kg).

The chart below displays that when we set the Power Level to 40%, acceleration of 11.32843 RPM/s set the Power Level to 80%, we got an acceleration of 60.38247 RPM/s.

This next chart shows:
– when we made the Power Level 60%, it resulted in a Power (energy/time) of 0.021131
– when we made the Power Level 40%, it resulted in a Power (energy/time) of 0.011942
– when we made the Power Level 80% it resulted in a Power (energy/time) of 0.027614

The chart below displays the results in acceleration from different measurements of the mass in kilograms. The results we detected was an acceleration of 24.06474 RPM/s with a mass of 0.245kg, an acceleration of 29.21268 RPM/s with a mass of 0.19 kg, and an acceleration of 33.44377 RPM/s with a mass of 0.15 kg.

By looking at these graphs, one determine that the less mass, the bigger the acceleration. This makes sense because, Newton’s 2nd law says force=mass * acceleration. The law states “that if an equal force is applied to a larger mass it will accelerate proportionally more slowly”. Meaning, that if you push on two objects with identical force, the object with the smaller mass will have a greater acceleration. Mass is directly related to acceleration, meaning that if one goes up, then the other has to go down. These graphs show the acceleration for a function of mass as a constant parallel. With a larger mass, acceleration should go down as a function of force for a fixed mass.

In our course, we gathered into small groups to build robotic cars out of legos and used Mindstorm system to figure out an understanding on how to measure distance and velocity. We were able to move the cars with the computer programs Labview and NXT. The goal was for the car to turn and set up a program, so only one of the wheels would move or we would have both wheels set to move but one wheel was set to accelerate at a lower speed. We set the program up the car, so it would make a perfect circle by only covering a space of 12 inches (we used a ruler to make sure it went exactly 1 foot). Understanding the fundamentals of the car and measuring the diameters and circumferences of the wheels, we were able to messed around with more complicating programs. Was able to program how long and far we wanted the car to move and when we wanted it to stop. We plugged the car into the computer and used the VI program to measure the circumference of the wheel and the degrees in which the wheels rotated. In order to determine the wheel diameter, we had to measure the diameter (which was 6 cm.) and multiply it by pie. We calculated the percentage error at low, average and high speeds. When we set Powers 1 & 2 to 50, we distance the car moved was 12 centimeters, the number of times the wheel turned was 0.79722 centimeters, and the velocity was 0.1435 centimeters. We were able to determine the number of wheel turns by dividing the number of rotations (which was 287) by 360. In addition to that, we measured the % error by adding the distance the car moved (.12 centimeters) to the velocity (.14 centimeters) and then divided the results (.26) by 2 which give us an estimated calculation of a 13% error. Also, we were able to calculate the velocity by multiplying the number of wheel turns by the circumference.

This experiment is useful for students that are studying energy and sustainability, because many individuals have been figuring out ways that we are able to drive cars in a matter that doesn’t take up so much energy. Using gases and others sources of energy clearly is impacting or atmosphere which contributes to global warming, if we don’t figure out a way to solve this problem our future generations might surfer from our problems. As time go by and science and innovation increases, i’m sure we’ll get to a point that we will be able to solve this problem.

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. Organisms that have been genetically modified include micro-organisms such as bacteria and yeast, insects, plants, fish, and mammals. GMOs are the source of genetically modified foods, and are also widely used in scientific research and to produce goods other than food.

Pros: The government and agribusiness tout the benefits of GMO’s to the public. They say that they are doing this to increase the food supply, help underfed nations, and assist farmers. Some of the benefits they claim are better food quality and taste, and making crops disease resistant so we have higher yields and more efficient production. GMO’s allow farmer to skip steps in the production process, like spraying herbicides and pesticides, because the crops are already resistant. In some crops they claim the foods are modified to contain additional vitamins and minerals. These are supposed to be beneficial to people in countries that do not have an adequate supply of these nutrients. They claim that since fewer pesticides are used, it is good for the environment. Their most important claim is that GMO’s are safe for human consumption.

Cons: Environmental damage:By growing plants or raising livestock in environmental conditions that normally wouldn’t support them, there is the potential of irrevocably damaging that environment. This is often seen through GMO crossbreading – weeds, for example, that can be crossed with GMO plants can often become resistant to herbicides, creating the need for more GMO efforts.There is no economic vale: GMO foods take just as long to mature and take just as much effort to grow, meaning that there is no real economic value to growing GMO foods when compared to non-GMO foods. A growth in allergic reactions in the general population: Time and time again, studies have shown that the consumption of GMO foods increases the risks of food-based allergies in people. If someone develops an allergy to soy because of GMO efforts, then if livestock eats that GMO soy as well, that person would have a high probability of an allergic reaction from eating the animal meat.

In 1996, U.S. farmers planted the first commercial genetically modified GM seeds. Some were engineered to resist herbicides so farmers could apply weed-killing herbicides without destroying their crops.oday, about 92 percent of all soy and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S. is GM. These crops feed the animals that feed us, and they provide the bulk of our sweeteners and cooking oil. In fact, more than 70 percent of processed foods sold in the United States have ingredients from GM crops.Yet GM crops remain controversial. France, Italy, Japan and several other countries have banned them because of health concerns and worries that GM crops may spread their engineered traits to other plants. Although company-funded studies and the FDA have labeled these foods as safe, a few preliminary studies suggest they are responsible for allergies, decreased fertility and super-weeds. Overall, there are many points of view that point out that GMO’s, are bad for our society and post a threat to “us” and our environment. We must conduct further studies on GMO’s to further understand exactly, what harsh that pose to our society and the future generations to come. How Europe and others countries have taken the band on GMO’s, the United States should follow in the same foot steps.

Pandora’s Promise documentary about the history and future of nuclear power. The film explores how and why mankind’s most feared and controversial technological discovery is now passionately embraced by many of those who once led the charge against it. Operating as history, cultural meditation and contemporary exploration, “PANDORA’S PROMISE” aims to inspire a serious and realistic debate over what is without question the most important question of our time: how do we continue to power modern civilization without destroying it?

Hope is what these nuclear power activists are looking for. The film also showcases and questions anti-nuclear activists at the beginning of the film. The Film aims to change the minds of viewers into rethinking their overall view about nuclear energy. The film is also considered controversial but yet was still picked to be showcased at the popular Sundance Festival in 2013.

To me the film does an amazing job on giving an in-site in how the need for increasing our energy reproduction in the years to come. Telling the views also, that the new energy must be clean and non-CO2 emitting, which is the biggest debate issue in our time. The risk of triggering a devastating global climate phenomenon is inevitable. The problem have left the mainstream environmental movement, which has lead to the creation of the film.

The automobile industry has been in our everyday lives for years now, and has been evolving day by day. The 21^st century brought a plethora of changes, positive and negative. One negative change that has occurred is the economic downfall that brought along with it, the rise of gas prices and job loss in the United States. The rising gas prices and job depression gave the automobile industry a hard hit economically, which has inevitably made the automobile industry make changes, from making hybrid cars to try to increase gas mileage.

“Four years ago, the American auto industry was so opposed to higher fuel economy standards that executives of Detroit camped out in Washington in an unsuccessful bid to undercut them”(Vlasic, Carmakers Back Strict New Rules for Gas Mileage).  The times are changing now; the American auto industry is not as opposed to higher fuel economy standards because of the changing times and changing economic statuses. “ On Friday, when President Obama announced even stricter standards- In fact, the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970’s. While the American carmakers, as well as their Asian rivals, once argued against even minimal increases in government fuel rules, they are acquiescing without protest to an increase to 54.4 miles per gallon by 2025, from the current 27 miles per gallon(2011)”(Vlasic, Carmakers Back Strict New Rules for Gas Mileage).  It is important for the automobile industry to take in to consideration the economy and the earth when making these standards for gas mileage. It seems crazy to me to think that cars could eventually have 54.4 miles per gallon by 2025… that could be amazing! “ The new standards are seen by the Obama administration as critical to reducing oil consumption and cutting consumer expenses at the pump, and the Whit House made it clear to Detroit executives that the changes were coming and they needed to cooperate”(Vlasic, Carmakers Back Strict New Rules for Gas Mileage).  Not only is Obama and the country hoping for better gas mileage but they are also improving the hybrid cars which are also a very important factor in this transition to better gas mileage.

The United States is not the only country imposing these new standards but China is finding importance in this issue as well. “Worried about heavy reliance on imported oil, Chinese officials have drafted automotive fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than those outlined by President Obama”(Bradsher, China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules). It is important for China to realize the problem so that the problems of low gas mileage can try to be stopped/fixed. “The new plan would require automakers in China to improve fuel economy by an additional 18% by 2015, said An Feng, a leading architect of China’s existing fuel economy regulations who is now the president of the innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a nonprofit group in Beijing”(Bradsher, China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules).  China has a high population, making the amount of cars on the street a lot more. “ The average fuel economy of family vehicles in China is already higher than in the United States, mainly because cars in China tend to be considerably smaller than those in the United States- and are getting even smaller because of recent tax changes. Cars with small fuel-sipping engines are now subject to a 1% sales tax, while sports cars and sport utility vehicles with the largest engines are subject to a 40% sales tax. Stricter fuel economy standards have won support from four interest groups within the Chinese government”(Bradsher, China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules).  Eventually this tax decrease for more efficient cars is going to increase over China and even in the United States, and is a great incentive for these countries to pick a more fuel efficient car like a hybrid over lets say a Hummer.

The Federal Trade Commission comes out with consumer reports on how to save money at the pump, and this report is on tips to stretch the gas dollar at the pump. Some of the tricks are pretty interesting, and ones that anyone on any day can do to save money. “ While on the road, start driving as soon as the engine is started. Modern engines don’t need much time to warm up. The engine actually warms up more quickly once the car is operating, and will stay warm after stopping. Avoid unnecessary idling. It wastes fuel, costs yu money, and pollutes the air. Turn off the engine if you anticipate a wait.  Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 miles per hour. According to Fueleconomy.gov, each 5mph you drive over 60mph is like paying an additional 24 cents per gallon of gas”(Federal Trade Commission, 2011).  Like these three ways to save gas mileage there are many more alternatives to try while congress is finalizing the ways to increase gas mileage.

Work Cited:

Vlasic, Bill. “Carmakers Back Strict New Rules for Gas Mileage.”          New York Times. 28 July 2011. Web. 6 Mar. 2012.          <Carmakers Back Strict New Rules for Gas Mileage>.

Bradsher, Keith. “China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules –          NYTimes.com.”The New York Times – Breaking News,          World News & Multimedia. 27 May 2009. Web. 06 Feb.                   2012.          <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/business/energy-         environment/28fuel.html >.

“Saving Money at the Pump: Tips to Stretch Your Gas Dollars.”          Federal Trade Commission. May 2011. Web. 07 Feb. 2012.     <http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt064.sht         m>.

Hydrofracking is a way to obtain natural gas from under layers of shale rock..This process makes mining for natural gas in dense shale more economically possible, where before it was not. “Slick water”, hydrofracking uses  more water than conventional drilling, as well as a slick water, mixture that is pumped into the shale to fracture the rock and release the gas. Second, there is an increased potential for toxicity and its long-term impacts. Finally, there is the environmental impacts of the drilling: surface and subterranean damage including forestland loss, multiple well sites, groundwater and surface water contamination, habitat and species disturbance, and likely an increased number of access roads to the well sites.

Natural gas is a fossil fuel, but is said to be a cleaner burning fossil fuel. It is more eco-friendly to burn natural gas, which is primarily methane, than it is to burn coal or oil. Natural gas can serve as an alternative to coal and oil in fueling our lives. Since it is a cleaner burning fuel, people think we should make a switch to it as soon as possible. In addition to it being a cleaner burning fuel, we can obtain natural gas domestically, rather than internationally, which would reduce dependence on foreign oil. Also, obtaining fuel locally will likely boost our economy.

The main concern with this is the fact that the drills can hit water sources and contaminate our water. 60-80% of the toxic water and fluids both used for and resulting from hydrofracking remains underground. Also gas companies claim the natural gas that is found from hydrofracking is a clean source of energy. This is only partially correct because while natural gas does burn more cleanly, the extraction process of hydrofracking releases a lot of methane (CH₄) into the atmosphere and Methane is known to be amongst the leaders in greenhouse gasses. Between hitting water sources and releasing greenhouse gasses, the process of hydraulic fracturing can be and often is harmful to both our environment and health.

Hurricane Sandy

• Question: Did Global Warming cause Hurricane Sandy?
• First: Warm water is a major source of fuel for hurricanes; this is the direct cause of the power of the storm. As the Sandy continued to move north instead of weakening it became stronger, due to rise in temperature in the ocean (due to global warming) making the waters in the north hotter then usual, by 5 degrees. Giving Sandy all the energy it needs to power up.
• Second: Sandy took a dramatic left turn when it came to the north, which swept into the whole east coast of the United States. This was very unusual weather patterns for the North Atlantic, it was due to (-NAO) negative North Atlantic oscillation: Models suggest that it resulted from the ice melting from Greenland. This is still less then certain factor but it still can be a confident data collected to determine so. Due to the melting ice, it is slowly starting to change the flow of the ocean; which is not a good thing because once the flow of the ocean is disturbed everything that is stable in nature will go out the window. Giving the ability for the Sandy to make a left turn and fuse with the snowstorm.
• Third: The unusual form of the Hybrid Storm. A winter type storm crossed the Pacific and started heading eastwards across the United States, while Sandy was forming just off the coast of Jamaica in October. Jamaica’s area is typical breading ground for Hurricanes, because in this area the water is particularly warm giving the energy for a hurricane to build up. As the hurricane headed north past Jamaica, the hurricane should’ve shifted northeast out into the ocean but did not.  The block in the Atlantic Ocean was preventing weather from moving generally east to west across the ocean, as it would usually do. Thus preventing Sandy to move east and keeping it stalled, giving the storm the opportunity to move towards the west and mix with the winter storm. This created a storm that had never been seen before, and would it be something that we would be seeing in the near future; to then raise the question: (Did Climate change/Global Warming to be completely blamed for Hurricane Sandy?)
• Personal Opinion : I believe after researching, that Global Warming/ Climate Change had been a big player in causing the hybrid storm sandy to surge to the northeast and create the damage it caused in the United States. But I also believe that, Climate Change/ Global Warming is not to be %100 blamed for the cause of Sandy. It also can be do to the fact that nature is slowly changing and it just part of the process that nature goes throw. It also can be a combination of the both. The combination of Global Warming/Climate Change and the natural course the earth takes can highlight the unusual rise of water and warming up and Hybrid Storm. Overall, we cannot point fingers to what fully caused the storm to create itself but only analyze the factors that caused the storm. There is not enough data to tell whether it was complete caused by Global warming/ Climate change. But it does rise the question: (How frequent will these types of “Hybrid Storms” will be in the future?) The only way is to analyze the storm and what were it’s causing factors and obtain as much data as possible on the ongoing changes of the weather. Continue reading →