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The proposed pipeline has been a political hot topic, and both political parties may be stretching the truth. Republicans, along with TransCanada, continue to overstate the amount of jobs we’re talking about with this project. On the other side, Democrats have been citing safety and the environment as reasons this project should not move forward. Americans are caught in the middle, with various media outlets providing various numbers surrounding pros and cons to this project. As we see, the center of this debate gravitates around the potential economic benefits that can be added by the pipeline against its likely adverse effects on the climate.

According to congressman Fred Upton, there’s really no downside to constructing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the Keystone pipeline would create 20,000 American jobs and nearly 120,000 indirect jobs as well as increase revenues for state and local governments along its route. Sure, Keystone will add many construction jobs but most of them will constitute only temporary construction jobs. According to TransCanada, the amount of permanent jobs will lay in the hundreds. This is a huge area of misinformation. With November elections less than a year away, some politicians wants to demonstrate the amount of jobs that they have helped to add into the economy by inflating potential jobs added and advertising it.

Well obviously getting more Canadian oil into the United States helps solve the most important energy security problem in the country, and that is 250 million cars and trucks that need oil every day, and much of that oil is coming in from the Middle East, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Canada is a friendly democracy that has good environmental laws and a very stellar human rights record and based on the specifics of the Keystone, this is no different than any other mining operation.

To alleviate some of the concerns of the activists, all of this land where the oil sand is mined will be re-vegetated after the mining. According to Greenpeace international, the area will completely recover afterwards. Extracting companies will use the process of basically steam cleaning the oil to get the oil off the sand, and then putting the sand back, and then eventually putting vegetation on it. In the case of Keystone, a recent analysis by the State Department said it is unlikely that construction of the pipeline would alter global greenhouse gas emissions.

For many activists, the opposition to Keystone isn’t really about the pipeline; some have admitted that no single project will tip the balance on climate change. It seems that they want Obama to use the Keystone as a symbolic opportunity to move America away from fossil fuels. So the fight over Keystone is largely about ideology, and it makes me wonder if Keystone is to environmentalists what Obamacare is to many conservatives – an unfortunate line in the sand that ignores nuance and overturns a rationale debate over finding solutions to very intricate societal issues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/19/us/politics/what-does-the-proposed-keystone-xl-pipeline-entail.html

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/02/protestors_march_in_kalamazoo.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/state-to-release-keystones-final-environmental-impact-statement-friday/2014/01/31/3a9bb25c-8a83-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/16/the-president-and-the-pipeline?currentPage=all

In last week’s class, my group and I started the process which was to constitute our final project. We were assigned by our teacher to choose an experiment. Initially we thought it’d be easy as breeze but we later found out that it was somewhat challenging to choose in experiment that was interesting and still in conjunction with our material capabilities. Following intense researches by multiple members of our group, we ultimately came into accord with one fascinating experiment. It related to the freezing and melting of water and it’s correlation with energy creation.

This project seemed ideal to us as it was very hands-on and it would also allow us to use our mastery of the NXT; a device we have continually used this semester. To increase efficiency, we formed three pairs and allocated different set of tasks to each group. I along with my partner were to be responsible for the proper organization of the PowerPoint while other group members would conduct mostly technical aspects of the experiment.

Lately we have been performing numerous trials and recording the data to see if the numbers align with our theory. So far, this group experiment has been a success as we have been able to extract 100% from our members through the well repartitioning of tasks.

Earlier this semester we realized an experiment that involved shaking.

Through the experiment, we performed multiple tasks that surrounded the concepts and most notably the relationships between electromagnetic flux and Voltage. To tackle the experiment, we needed several items which consisted of :

Flashlight (Composed of magnet and coil)
NXT
NXT Adaptor
Labview VI
Process:

We started the habitual Labview software, later we attached the metal part of the flashlight’s coil wire to the voltage probe.
Subsequently connected the NXT to the Computer. We were then instructed to vigorously agitate the flashlight in a 30s interim and to note the sum square of the voltages.
Shake object whilst registering number of shakes for accurate data
Calcutta using Microsoft Excel the Sum square of our new data
Repeat activity twice in order to further observe the data and it’s pattern.

Data recorded: 

 

Observations:

Initially, the magnet within the flashlight is at rest so there is no large fluctuations within the data. With the data being concurrently recorded, we observe that as we begin to shake the probe,it emits a superior amount of voltage. Faraday’s law also states that the voltage is directly proportional to the velocity with which the loop (magnet within flashlight) moves between the two regions. Therefore we can induce that the the difference between each recorded observation emanates from the inconsistency of the person agitating the object (human error). The amount of vigor and energy applied to the object directly affects the speed of the magnet which proportionally influences the sum of voltage recorded. Ultimately, we logically deduced that as our number of shakes increased, so did our sum square voltage.

This week, our whole class had the distinction of meeting Tom Vales, Lab coordinator for Suffolk University or in my own description; A zealous man for science.Typical to most presentations, I expected him to bring a powerpoint or the habitual slides which he would use to supply us with incessant information. He indeed informed us on many creations, their origins, creators and how they have evolved over the years but in contrast to other speakers his demonstration was in majority practical. Overall his presentation surrounded the concepts of: Voltage, power and energy.

As an object that is widely used in machines, he later went on to cover the Stirling engine. Invented by Robert Stirling in 1816, the Stirling engine has the potential to be much more efficient than a gasoline or diesel engine. Many factors might have contributed to the absence of this highly efficient motor in mass markets but it’s most contentiously known fault is that it was very unstable and delicate. The problem with steam engines is that they were very susceptible to explosion due to the high rising pressure of water built up within the engine. Also in the epoch it was created, steel materials were less strong as they are contemporarily.

He also introduced us to a fairly new type of object in the Mendocino motor which he brought to class to demonstrate it’s particularities. Unlike it’s peers the Mendocino did not use heat as a mean to operate. It possessed it’s own magnetic field and converted light into electricity and magnetism, which were then converted into the motion of the motor. An amazing bit of technology which in it’s creation were inserted the concepts electromagnetism, electric motors, solar power generation; various topics which we have covered in class.

He later discussed Nikola Tesla; a man whom Tom Vales was evidently fond of. Nikola Tesla was a brilliant serbian american inventor, most notably known for his contributions such as energy and electricity to the field of science. The AC system which was developed by Tesla is still the standard today— but after patents were filed in his name, other scientists came forward to take credit for the invention, claiming that they had laid the groundwork for him. His name was lost in the shuffle, and the public came to associate the invention with Westinghouse himself. Tesla may actually have been more brilliant than Thomas Edison but his name was far less known.

We later arrived to the most fascinatinating part of his presentation. (picture) This cylinder-shaped object was what he called a “wireless transmitter coil“. One of Nicolas Tesla’s many contribution to the field of science was the wireless transmission of energy. It allowed the transmission of electrical power from a power source to a consuming device without using solid wires or conductors. Conventionally this form of technology is not yet widely adopted but here we were in class using it. Tom vales demonstrated Tesla’s work by approaching a glass tube which contains some amount of Xenon Gas to the electricity generator. He later used multiple gadgets in repeatedly performed trials with the coil.

By and large, this was a very informative and original presentation. As a result, I know understand many concepts which were formerly unclear and perplexing, now interesting.

The Obama administration has proposed the most far-reaching climate change adaptation and mitigation measures ever put in place by U.S. President. The plan is to cut down power plant emissions, boosting the amount of wind and solar energy installations on public lands and buildings as the U.S looks to move into the future conscious of the effects of global warming.

Three main policies are included in the plan.The first addresses emissions of greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide (CO2), from new and existing power plants. This version of the Climate Action plan would place limits on greenhouse gas emissions from more than 1,000 existing coal-fired power plants for the first time ever. In addition, natural gas power plants would also be included.

Here is a Graph of the USA CO2 emissions:

 

The White House has mentioned that without additional measures to reduce carbon emissions from the electricity sector, continued emissions decreases are unlikely to occur by market forces alone. Their bill to limit at present power plants could benefit a continued drop in overall U.S. emissions.

The second track is to help the U.S to fight the climate change’s effects that are already taking place now. $8 billion available for fighting those changes and investing in new technology to limit the impact of those.

Lastly, the policy proposals include provisions to work with the international community to address global warming, both from an emissions reduction and climate adaptation standpoint. The climate action plan commits the U.S. to working with international partners to reduce the emissions of not only carbon emissions, but also non-carbon based greenhouse gases such as HFCs. HFCs are used as a refrigerant and is a powerful short-lived climate warming agent. According to Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a phasedown of HFC emissions in the U.S. can deliver a quarter of the administration’s 2020 climate goal. According to a study being published on Wednesday, a global phaseout of HFC use during the early part of this century can avoid a half a degree Celsius in future warming by the end of the century.

Transportation emissions making up about 30% of U.S greenhouse gas emissions, with heavy-duty trucks being 20% of the total. The Obama administration has also looked to increase efficiency in vehicles by enacting the toughest passenger vehicle fuel efficiency standards in U.S. history. The administration has worked to enact post-2018 fuel economy standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses, and vans, by working with the auto industry.

Sources:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf

http://www.usclimatenetwork.org/policy/presidents-climate-action-plan

http://www.c2es.org/federal/obama-climate-plan-resources

http://www.c2es.org/federal/climate-plan-resources-funding

Friday March 11th, along  with my class mate we took a field trip to the Museum of Science to observe exhibits for enriching our knowledge about subjects that we are reviewing in  class. We were required to go by four specific stations of the museum that were named ” Catching the Wind” , “Conserve at Home”, “Energized!” and “Investigate!”.

Catching The Wind:

This section of the museum was all about wind and wind turbines. Wind power have been used for thousand of years for sail, grind graines and most recently to produce electricity.

The picture explains and details the functioning of wind turbines. The functioning was the same as we previously studied in class. As the wind turns the blades, the mechanical energy goes to the electric generator, which generate electricity for us to use. There are five wind turbines on the Museum’s roof, and one of them generates 2,218 kWh and saves 2,706 lbs. CO2 emissions annually.

Energized:

In this section we were shown where energy came from. Unfortunately, as we were promoting renewable energies, only 8% of energy came from them and 83% of our energy use was still account to fossil fuels.  Pros and cons were also debated at this section about different forms of energy.There were also some hand-on activities available to visitors, and on of them was that the visitors should power the city using combination of difference kind of energy without putting too much emission to our environment, to help the visitors to pictured how it works better.

Conserve @ Home:

This station was teaching us about the ways to conserve energy at home and at the same time saving money and protecting the environment by adopting some new routines to our daily life. An example of that was the use of LED light that don’t require too much energy to light up.

Investigate:

And to conclude the visit, I went to the Investigate station. In that station, they were explaining how toilet function and also investigating some myths such as the way water spiral down a drain and brought explanations to the phenomenon, making the so common “spinning of the earth dependent” false.

Conclusion:

After I was done with the 4 stations I took advantage to go all over the museum and discovered that I had an hidden passion for science hidden deep inside me. I will advise everyone to go to the museum a great source of info and fun situated in Boston.

 

Nuclear disaster, as known as nuclear and radiation accident, is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as an event that has led to the significant consequences to human, environment or the facility. The impact of nuclear disasters has been a topic of debate since the first nuclear reactors which were constructed in 1954. Also, it became a key factor in public concern about nuclear facilities. The official number of accident in nuclear power plants is 99 around the world.There were fifty-seven accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and 57% of all nuclear related accidents have occurred in the United States. In my blog i will discuss some famous accidents; Hiroshima and Nagasaki followed by Chernobyl.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

This accident is the result of human’s cruelty  among each other.On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later… another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Here, humans made a bad use of nuclear power with the goal of hurting other humans rather than helping society to foward.

Chernobyl:

This disaster happened in 1986, in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant locates in a town of Pripyat in Ukraine, which was uder the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. The picture above shows the power plant after the nuclear disaster in 1986.

According to World Nuclear Association what caused it was simply a flaw within the reactor design. But this simple flaw is attributed to the “killing [of] 30 operators and firemen within three months and several further deaths later. One person was killed immediately and a second died in hospital soon after as a result of injuries received. Another person is reported to have died at the time from a coronary thrombosisc. Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) was originally diagnosed in 237 people on-site and involved with the clean-up and it was later confirmed in 134 cases. Of these, 28 people died as a result of ARS within a few weeks of the accident” (World Nuclear Association).

Following the accident, an are of 18 miles around the plant was closed and deserted from inhabitant.

sources:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl-accident.aspx

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

 

The excitment of watching a science movie is never really high. When assigned  to watch it I told myself “here we go again for a boring movie”. However by the end of the movie my perception changed completely.

Pandora’s Promise is a hour thirty long documentary film about nuclear power debate.The central argument is that nuclear power, an energy source which still faces historical opposition from environmentalists, is a relatively safe and clean source which can help mitigate the serious problem of anthropogenic global warming. This movie is convictunal movie, indeed in cites people that used to be against nuclear power that changed their minds after watching it. Another proof of the enthousiasm of people toward it, the movie raised $1.2 million in order to be produced.

Safety of nuclear power:

Is nuclear power safe? Yes.The risk of accidents in nuclear power plants is low and declining. Moreover, the radiological effects on people of any radioactive releases can be avoided.The radiations did not affect dangerously to human lives as what we had seen on the news. Because of social media, we created an antipathy to this energy source without understand clearly about how it works and impacts. Also, there has not been a single death from operation of commercial nuclear reactors in the United States.

To conclude:

The movie does a great job to teach the spectators about getting informed about a subject rather than just basing his knowledge on common stereotypes. In this case on nuclear power which is really affraying for some people when it is a better deal than most other forms of electricity production.

Overall the movie will deserve a 4/5 for me for being so informative and attention seeking. however, more tone change in the narration will have made it better.

 

 

Iceland?

Iceland is a Nordic Island country between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. The island is composed of a lot of volcanoes with most of them very active. All those volcanoes and the heat produce can be use as a source of electricity.

Geothermal Energy?

Geothermal energy is the thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. In Iceland they are currently six geothermal power plants in Iceland that are actively used. They produce 26.2% of the nation electricity in 2010. Hellisheiði Power Station is the third largest geothermal power station in the world. This station has a capacity of 303 MW of electricity and 400 MW of hot water. Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station is the second largest geothermal station in Iceland which produced approximately 120 MW of electrical power 1,100 litres of hot water.

Use?

Other than being involved in the production of electricity, geothermal heat is used in varied fields such as in the fishing industry as well as in bathing and recreation.

Conclusion:

According to Geothermal Energy in Iceland, Liquid rock is close to the surface in Island, and that natural system is in which no greenhouse gasses are produced which being geothermal energy. Drilling into a volcano is risky, but the steam is captured into pipes which in turn are transported into turbines thus producing electricity. Geothermal energy will not only work in Iceland considering in Western United States Projects have begun to form. Geothermal source’s can be found almost anywhere, because molten rock is in the core everywhere. Why is Iceland significant? With liquid hydrogen and geothermal energy it concludes that economic growth can be rooted the utilization of environmental technologies and free enterprise. Wildlife is thriving in Iceland, and we tend to over complicate things in which are right below us thus creating an innovative simplistic society with the use of what could have been within our past.

Sources:

 

Background:

Thermoelectric device is made from thermoelectric modules. It produces voltage with the temperature of each side of the device. An example of thermoeletric device is thermoelectric generator. In simple words it converts temperature into electrical power.

Thermoelectric Generators:

The heat source drives electrons from the n-type element toward the cool side, creating a current. Holes in the p-type will flow in the direction to the current. With the utilization of that current, the current itself powers a load. This in turn converts thermal to electrical energy. Charge flows through the n-type element, crosses the metallic interconnect, and passes the p-type element.

Daily Life:

Everyday, a lot of energy is lost in the form of thermal energy produced by cars, factories, nuclear plant and many others.  However, some companies such as BMW are making a good use of it by developing new models of car exploiting thermoeletric devices as cooling system for the cars’ inside. It allows a smaller alternator to reduce the roll friction, leading to an increase in fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.

Conclusion:

Thermoelectric energy is a source of power that hopefully will be developed more in close future to provide a additional source of energy and an alternative to the penury of fossil fuels.