- “Prepare the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change: Even as we take new steps to reduce carbon pollution, we must also prepare for the impacts of a changing climate that are already being felt across the country. Moving forward, the Obama Administration will help state and local governments strengthen our roads, bridges, and shorelines so we can better protect people’s homes, businesses and way of life from severe weather.” I believe that with the damage that we have done to the climate to this day in age this should be our number one priority. We can’t take back what we have already put into our atmosphere so we need to be prepared for the repercussions that we will face. The most important aspect of this plan that I would focus on would be building taller barriers around the coast to protect our shore line states from floods. The last thing america needs to deal with right now is another situation similar to Hurricane Catrina. The way a hurricane works is that water vapor is the “fuel” for the hurricanes because it releases the “latent heat of condensation” when it condenses to form clouds and rain, warming the surrounding air. This hot air then heats up the temperature of the waters surface. With climate temperatures rising, I believe that this is a foreshadow to more hurricane strikes all around the world. This is why I believe that preparation for these natural disaster strikes should be our main priority as we look to move towards running a greener planet.
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“Cutting Carbon Pollution from Power Plants: Power plants are the largest concentrated source of emissions in the United States, together accounting for roughly one-third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions. We have already set limits for arsenic, mercury, and lead, but there is no federal rule to prevent power plants from releasing as much carbon pollution as they want. Many states, local governments, and companies have taken steps to move to cleaner electricity sources. More than 35 states have renewable energy targets in place, and more than 25 have set energy efficiency targets.” Cutting carbon out of the equation is deffinetly the second step that we need to take during the transition process. Scientists have discovered multiple different ways to avoid using fossil fuels to power the country. For example, most people will see big wind turbines around the areas they live. This is a great alternative energy source and it is a baby step towards mass echo friendly energy. The way a turbine works is quite simple. A wind turbine works on a simple principle. This animation shows how energy in the wind turns two or three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The rotor is connected to the main shaft, which spins a generator to create electricity. Wind turbines are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. There is only one down side to relying on wind energy, which is the fact that the wind is not always blowing every day. Scientist are experiment with what could be the biggest jump to becoming echo friendly which is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy plants put out no pollution. However we have not found ways to dispose of nuclear waste and who to perfect the process. Without perfect to the process we see incidents such as what happened in Chernobyl in 1986, when the nuclear power plant exploded. The explosion put toxins in the air that are cancerous and it spread over the country with the wind blowing it around. There were also casualties and many life threatening and ruining injuries in the process. The smallest mistake can lead to the most powerful repercussions. However, we strive to perfect the process for the future to be greener.
- “Expanding and Modernizing the Electric Grid: Upgrading the country’s electric grid is critical to our efforts to make electricity more reliable, save consumers money on their energy bills, and promote clean energy sources. To advance these important goals, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum this month that directs federal agencies to streamline the siting, permitting and review process for transmission projects across federal, state, and tribal governments.” Expanding the Electric Grid would be another important task to follow up with steps one and two that I already mentioned. Running on green energy depending on which source we are talking about, can become very expensive to run even though fossil fuels are already expensive as it is due to the high demand for the product and its fluctuation in the market. For example to dispose of nuclear energy in a “clean” way is highly expensive and we must dispose of it this way due to the fact that nuclear waste is dangerous for humans to be around let alone ingest, and it can destroy ecosystems in the surrounding areas. By extending the grid, the power being generated would not have to travel from distances as far as they do now. The only problem with expanding the grid is that even that would be expensive. In the long run though you would most likely see a decrease in electricity prices. It would be worth putting the american tax dollars to use in order to make the price of electricity cheaper in the long run. It would certainly beat paying a gas bill during the winter months in the united states when we are constantly trying to heat our homes in order to fight off the freezing temperatures. Especially when you are talking about the New England area, one day its 70 degrees and three days later you can expect a snow storm.
After reading President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, I was able to see some real positivity out of it and put it into my blog. I believe that these three points I have highlighted should be our starting point in order to continue on our journey to powering the earth in an echo friendly way. We need to protect ourselves from the natural disasters we will face due to our history with pollution, find a new energy source to allow us to grow further and further apart from the reliance on fossil fuels, and extend the energy grid to allow power to travel shorter distances and save on costs of electricity throughout the entire nation. With these three steps being the ones we focus our attention on for now, I see the United States and President Obama achieving his and our goal for a green nation and eventually a green plant. As the President said, we must lead the charge in this fight against global warming.
Month: April 2016
Pandora’s Promise
In the documentary, “Pandoras Promise” expresses to the viewer how the public lives in fear of using the dangerous amounts of powers that lye in the process of harnessing nuclear energy. Scientists that are pro nuclear energy fight for the process due to the little to no polution that it gives off, and the greater amounts of power that we can harness in comparison to the amount given off by fossil fuels. In that aspect, nuclear energy seems like the obvious choice to power the earth. However, when there is the slightest imperfection to the process, the surrounding environment and the people around it are punished by the magnitude of horror that comes to follow.
Putting their careers on the line, the scientists in the film put their jobs on the line to truly figure out whether or not nuclear energy is simply an energy we must live in fear of due to the failures we have witnessed; or if this is truly the technology that could save our planet. Stone (director of the film) tells the personal stories of environmentalists and energy experts who have undergone a radical conversion from being fiercely anti to strongly pro-nuclear energy, risking their careers and reputations in the process. Stone exposes this controversy within the environmental movement head-on with stories of defection by heavy weights including Stewart Brand, Richard Rhodes, Gwyneth Cravens, Mark Lynas and Michael Shellenberger.
In the movie you are truly able to tell that the scientists do understand the benefits of using nuclear energy. Although nuclear energy is the better option when looking at how it does not negatively effect our climate and amount of energy is produces in comparison to fossil fuels; it has a powerful backlash on the environment when the process isn’t completed precisely. For instance the movie at one point focusses in on the worst nuclear disaster recorded in the world; which took place in the city of Chernobyl. This is considered the worst of all nuclear disasters due to the cost and the amount of casualties in effect of what happened. In 1986 the power plant in the Ukraine caught fire and exploded; in result of the disaster, there were large quantities of nuclear radiation spread all over the country from miles away.
Kenneth Benedict from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists states, “Nuclear power may indeed end up being part of the energy mix that leads to both a more stable climate and adequate livelihoods around the world. But the challenges posed by nuclear power like the risk of weapons proliferation and reactor accidents, and the need to securely store radioactive used fuel for many generations are not adequately addressed in the film.”(Wikipedia).
After watching the film I truly gained a new perspective on the use of nuclear energy. Previous to watching the film I was one hundred percent on board with hopping right into using nuclear energy. It advertises itself very well to the public eye. But once looking into the individual cases and seeing the powerful damage that it can do to both the earth and humans when miss used made me take a step back. I wouldn’t say that I am now apposed to using nuclear energy. I still believe that it is a great alternative that we will end up using in the future to prevent climate change and to make the earth a greener more echo friendly place. But before we move into using nuclear power more frequently, I believe that we should learn more about it and how to properly dispose of the nuclear waste post use, learn how to transport the energy into to the plants at a cheaper and more safe way, and to become more cautious with using such a powerful energy source. This technology is definitely the future for the human race. At the moment however, I believe that we are not ready to take the load off of fossil fuels and call nuclear energy our new primary source of energy.
I truly enjoyed the way director Stone put this movie together. He truly makes the viewer feel both the positives of nuclear energy, but also the cost of using energy when used improperly. To conclude this post I want to make it clear that I don’t believe that Stones goal with the film was to scare viewers away from standing with nuclear energy. The point of the film was to build awareness to those who back nuclear energy, but sincerely don’t understand the consiquences of the energy when misused. We are not ready at the moment to start mass producing this energy. But in time we will be ready and nuclear energy will make great change to the way we power our earth.