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.