In September of this year, President Obama gave a speech about the global warming. In his words, he said that all the nations had to act united to avoid future possible problems. Obama also said that the United States was already making changes in their system to decrease the emission of GHG (Green House Gases) and invited all other countries to join them.

However, the plan that Obama states isn’t actually new. In the year 2000 during George W. Bush’s campaign for the presidency, he talked about regulating mercury, sulfur, particles and coal.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a new rule for all the states in America, regarding this matter. The main goal of these new rule is to lower the emissions of CO₂. With this objective the industries that run mainly with coal and mining coal will be affected.  As the EPA said, the rule requires that every state have to reach a limit of CO₂ reduction. This reduction varies in all the country due to the different current situations of each state.

The plan of this rule is to be flexible because for the states where coal isn’t that important will be easier to comply than states that depend on it. This will make the rule more possible to follow.

As an example of the rule, the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) agreed to shut down three units of their dirtiest coal plant. With this plan the OPPD expects to reduce the carbon emission up to 49% over the next 20 years.

This new rule might come in a late but good moment. There’s no doubt that the world is not doing enough actions to combat the global warming. To this day, the numbers show that if we keep this pace there are possibly chances for the world to change dramatically.

 

Here’s an image from http://www.whitehouse.gov/ that shows the temperatures changes over the past 22 years.

 

We can clearly see the changes and this might be our last chance to change the path so we should do everything we can.  As Obama quoted “ We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it “.

Here are some links if you’d like to know more about this topic:

 

–       http://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change

–       https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/06/18/2014-13726/carbon-pollution-emission-guidelines-for-existing-stationary-sources-electric-utility-generating#h-8

–       http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/29/obama-clean-power-plant-rule/2/

 

In 2009, President Obama announced an increase in mileage requirements. That increase in mileage was, in fact, the largest since the consumption of gasoline by cars started being regulated, in the year 1970. The government fuel rules were requiring the American carmakers to increase, from the current 27 MPG , to 54,5 MPG (miles per gallon) by 2025.

This was an extremely difficult goal. The automobile industry had not only to develop their car technology faster but also to keep their vehicles in an acceptable price for the consumers.

Surprisingly, the industry is not only doing well on the required reductions, but they are actually progressing really fast and going ahead of schedule. “Nearly one-third of U.S vehicles on sale today already meet the required standard for 2016” says Michael Olechiw, the director of the Light-Duty Vehicle Center.

Some of the actual improvements in the cars are these:

–       Continuously variable transmissions.

–       Automatic transmissions with more gears (up to 9).

–       Direct injections.

 

This increase in mileage requirements also made the auto companies get better building small cars, some of which are gas-electric hybrids. However, the prices of electric motors and high-voltage battery packs will have to come down to be more accessible for customers.

Another great development has been the Fuel Cell Vehicles. FCVs (Fuel Cell Vehicles) use a fuel cell, which converts the chemical energy into electricity, to power the electric motor. Currently there is just one manufacturer, which is in California, that deploys these types of cars. However, it is expected that in 2015 another manufacturers will join.

Here’s an image of how this vehicles work.

 

Benefits of better gas mileage

With better gas mileage vehicles, we’re burning less fuel (Gasoline, diesel), which reduce the release of greenhouse gases such as CO2. This way, we’re helping the environment with the global warming.

Here is a graphic of the advantages of using vehicles with more MPG from the site http://www.fueleconomy.gov/.

 

As a matter of fact, the auto industry is doing such a great job that during the 2014 St. Louis Auto Show the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Gina McCarthy, praised them.

Nevertheless, there are many upcoming challenges that the industry will have to face. For example, the cost of vehicles, many customers may not afford the use of these types of cars. That’s the reason the industry should keep trying to low the general prices of these types of vehicles.

In case you are interested on knowing more about gas mileage and fuel economy, I suggest the forward readings:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/business/energy-environment/obama-reveals-details-of-gas-mileage-rules.html?_r=0

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/guides/feg2014.pdf

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093686_auto-industry-doing-fine-in-meeting-gas-mileage-goals-it-turns-out

 

 

 

The main topic of the article, as my title says, are the genetically modified organisms and what are the possible consequences of consuming them. The GMO’s are not only animals, are also different types of food. Some people claim that when they modified some fruits such as papayas, they’re acting against some viruses that could kill the fruit seeds. On the other hand, some people claim that when people modify the way fruits are they’re not doing the right things. This group of people think that when people consume the genetically modified organisms they are not eating real food and that that food can be harmful for your healths. The base of the argument of this group are all the genetically modified animals that are used as a scientific experiment.

In the article is written an anecdote of a 8 year old who says ” “My mom ate organic food exclusively and did yoga all the time, and she died of a brain aneurysm,”. What this basically tells you is that even when you eat the healthiest food possible there are chances of dying.

In my opinion scientist should do more research about this topic. People have to be more open-minded, it is possible that some GMO’s are bad for your health but it is also possible that there could be some GMO’s that actually helps different health issues ( such as cardiac problems ). Yet I’m not an expert on this topic so this is just an speculation of how could this genetically modified food help us.

 

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