Ashley+K

Week Three __Trump's Wall: Solar Panels? __

President Trump’s plan to build a border wall between the U.S.A and Mexico has been and is extremely controversial. However, there is a possibility for the wall to have a silver lining to those against it. During a June 6th meeting with Trump pitched the idea of covering the wall in solar panels to Republican congressional leaders. Since this meeting companies have begun to speculate numbers regarding the panels as well as how the panels will be constructed on the wall. An oregon based company, Elemental Energy, has speculated that the could generate 7.28 gigawatt-hours of electricity daily. In this hypothetical, the panels are not moving to follow the sun meaning they are less expensive. Environmental Energy also planned for panels that would be 72 cells and 78 inches high. Given the 1,000 unobstructed miles the wall would cover this would account for 812,308 columns of panels. Elemental also calculated for a much shorter wall than president Trump has said he plans to build. Elemental Energy’s co-owner John Grieser believes that the wall would be able to power 220,000 average sized homes yearly. The energy it would create is worth over $106 million dollars yearly. Other analysts of different solar companies vary in their speculations. President Trump has said that he believes the solar panels with help the wall essentially pay for itself. It is important in my opinion that politicians look for ways to become more environmentally friendly help increase sustainability. This relates to the reusable energy we have been discussing in class because it is the implementation of renewable solar energy on a great scale.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-solar-wall-energy-2017-6

Week Two **__ Africa Feels the Brunt of Climate Change __**

As we all know, President Donald Trump pulled the United States from the Paris climate agreement on Thursday, weakening the international effort to decrease fossil-fuel emissions and combat climate change. This deal was critical for Africa who is significantly impacted by the effects of climate change despite the fact they do not contribute much to global gas emissions. In fact, Africa accounts for only 3.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 23 percent contributed by China, 19 percent by the United States, and 13 percent by the European Union. The effects of climate change on African cities are evident through rising sea levels, rising temperatures, and shifts in rainfall patterns, which result in floods and droughts alike. Natural disasters and extreme weather events in Africa have also been on the rise since 1970. In addition to this, seven of the ten countries that are considered “most threatened by climate change globally” are located in Africa. This article described how several African cities are impacted by global warming. For example, flooding is a serious issue in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, as the city is located off the Atlantic coast. Experts warn that the city could be flooded in a few decades due to the rising sea levels. Two other coastal cities that are significantly affected are Cape Town and Durban in South Africa. These cities are plagued by rising sea levels, movement of sand along the coast, drought, and other effects of climate change. Back in March, officials declared Cape Town a disaster area after noting “the city had barely 100 days of water left to a biting drought.” The residents of the cities of Lagos and Dar es Salaam are also vulnerable to flooding. Finally, researchers have determined that global warming could make North African areas “so warm as to be uninhabitable in the future.” Specifically, temperatures in Sudan are expected to increase between 1.5 o C and 3 o C by the year 2060. In all, it is incredibly unfortunate that Africa experiences such dreadful effects from an issue that is largely not their fault. Since the United States contributes almost a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, it is even more detrimental that President Trump pulled out of the Paris Accord. It is unlikely that President Trump will come up with other ways to mitigate climate change in the near future, meaning that the United States will continue being a top contributor to the issue, and the problems in Africa will worsen. https://qz.com/997384/lagos-abidjan-durban-dar-es-salaam-among-coastal-african-cities-most-vulnerable-to-climate-change/

Week One __**Can Bitcoin Help the Environment ? **__ Bitcoin is a digital payment system in which transactions occur without an intermediary. It mostly used in somewhat illegal, or “dirty” transactions. However, according to ecologist Guillaume Chapron the system by which bitcoin is utilized could also help the environment and sustainability. Bitcoin records contain a chain of time-stamped records that is shared between the devices. Chapron has proposed that environmental problems can be solved by this system because many environmental problems arise as a result of a lack of trust. He offers the analogy of buying a fish at the supermarket, saying that the supermarket may not even know where the fish came from. If records were to be kept in a bitcoin-blockchain fashion then fish would come with QR code that the customer could scan to learn where the fish came from. In doing this the customer could tell whether or not the fish was acquired in an environmentally friendly way or not as well as the quality of the business who obtained the fish. A time-stamped record like this would discourage corruption and negligence of environmental factors as this would then decrease sales. Chapron also goes on to discuss other things this bitcoin-like system could help improve that are all closely related to the UN’s sustainability goals. He discusses how it can assist in land claims and policy making in poorer countries. In addition to this, Chapron explains how this type of system would change incentives for businesses. It would mean they would have to get rid of corruption and operate fairly in order to have customers. This can relate to the lack of freshwater we discussed in class. By decreasing corruption and increasing fair deals, this bitcoin system could help those countries who are still without drinking water.

[]



Introduction __**Wall-E **__ =WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY? = Sustainability is the ability of a species to live in harmony with their resources and their environment in a way that maintains balance between the species and the environment.

=WHAT NEXT FOR THE SETTLERS? =  The first thing the new settlers will have to do is make sure they regularly participate in physical activity in order to become fit again. After becoming fit they will be able to take on the tasks ahead of them. During this adjustment period they should also set up leadership and occupations as well as a code to live by. These occupations would revolve around making the Earth livable again. They would have to make shelters for themselves, likely using the trash cubes that Wall-E had created. They will likely still have to use the ship for food since there is not enough plant production on Earth. However, using the ship they should be teaching themselves about planting and growing crops and preparing food. They should be sending people out regularly to search for more plants and or seeds and once they do to set up farming systems. They should also be looking for useful tools and supplies that will assist them in their daily life. Importantly, they should be using the ship’s computers to learn about what happened to Earth and why they had to leave. After this they must set up guidelines in order to avoid this same fate. They will have to set up a society that protects and cares for the Earth.