John+Cr

Week 4:

__Creating Oil From Renewable Sources__

Finnish researchers have developed a promising new technology to produce a renewable hydrocarbon. Headed by researchers associated with the Lappeenranta University of Technology and the state research agency VTT, the project, Soletair, has generated global interest. Hydrocarbons are vital since they are used in plastic production and refined into fuels for cars, aircrafts, and ships. The project plant requires a great deal of electricity, however, the facility uses an on-site solar power plant to generate its power. Ultimately, the final product that can be produced from the hydrocarbons that are synthesized is a renewable carbon-neutral oil whose usage does not increase global warming. VTT lead researcher Pasi Vainikka stated, “We can produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene and the raw material for plastics. In practice the product can replace the fossil fuel-based crude oil that is now used in refineries.” This group has found a way to use existing technology and knowledge and twisted it to produce these hydrocarbons. It turns out that they capture hydrogen from water using electrolysis, carbon dioxide using a mechanism similar to an air scrubber, and combine the two with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis method, which has been known for many years. Since the Soletair facility is an experimental facility, it will only produce about 200L of fuels and chemicals to be researched during the summer. However, the important fact is that they proved that there is a way to synthesize a renewable oil product, which does not accelerate global warming, using renewable sources. The product would currently be more expensive than oil, but due to the fact that the price of using solar energy is dropping, the price would eventually fall below that of oil if mass production took place. This relates back to class, since we were learning about solar energy and other alternative sources for energy. In all, I think further researched should be done as this breakthrough has serious potential to improve the sustainability of our planet.

Read more at: [|__https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finnish_researchers_use_air_solar_power_to_create_renewable_hydrocarbon/9661164__]

Week 3:

What Else Could Possibly be Wrong With Factory Farming?

A few weeks ago, a group of about 200 experts in various disciplines from nutrition to animal welfare wrote a letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) imploring that they further investigate the negative impacts inflicted upon human health and the climate as a result of industrial livestock production. In the letter, the experts asked that the new director-general of the WHO endeavor to decrease the number and size of factory farming operations. Since meat consumption is increasing, CAFOs and factory farming operations are increasing as well, especially in developing nations. With this comes many issues. First, factory farming contributes directly to greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that livestock production “accounts for about 14.5 percent of all human-caused emissions, or about 7.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide or its warming equivalent.” This is a fairly significant amount and actions must be taken in order to deal with this issue. Additionally, CAFOs and animal production play a role in the growing issue of microbial resistance, which the group deemed in their letter “a major threat to global health.” To keep the animals from getting sick, they are given antibiotics that are medically important in humans. The WHO predicts that between 2010 and 2030, the use of antibiotics in animal production is projected to increase by 70 percent. Therefore, if meat consumption and factory farming does not slow down, this could lead to significant antimicrobial resistance in humans, rendering antibiotics ineffective even against relatively minor illnesses, leading to many deaths. On top of that, the WHO has found evidence that consumption of red, or processed meat may be carcinogenic. Overall, the article showed me more reasons why CAFOs and factory farming must be regulated or discontinued. During class this past week, we learned how awfully the animals are treated in CAFOs and how factory farming leads to water pollution as a result of animal waste seeping into water sources. Now, it is clear that there are even more drawbacks to the use of factory farming. I think the world should seriously consider ideas similar to “weekday vege” as proposed by Graham Hill in the TED video. Perhaps governments should make it illegal to sell meat on certain days of the week on order to reduce meat consumption, the need for CAFOs, and all of the negative impacts that come with them.

Read more at: []

Week 2:

What Does Global Greening Mean For Global Warming? Recent studies conducted by researchers with the Directorate for Sustainable Resources in Italy and Ghent University have found that specific regions of the world are becoming warmer while others are becoming cooler as a result of localized greening. The research team published in the journal, Science, that the greening is caused by an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. This makes sense because increased atmospheric carbon dioxide means that there is more carbon dioxide available that can be used for photosynthesis. Also, the researchers reported that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is causing regions that are already green to become greener. However, there are other factors that are increasing greening such as nitrogen used in fertilizers seeping into ecosystems and other human activities. Overall, the researchers suggest that the greening is causing some areas to become warmer and others to be cooler. This is because in generally warm areas, increased vegetation can cause an increase in transpiration, resulting in more condensed water in the air, ultimately leading to localized cooling. Conversely, in areas that are generally cold such as northern regions, greening can cause localized temperatures to rise slightly as a result of minimal sunlight reflecting off of the Earth’s surface. The team of researchers was able to reach these conclusions by studying satellite data that was collected from 1982 to 2011. With the data, they were able to assign a leaf area index (LAI) to several regions on the planet. The researchers were able to conclude that “for approximately 60 percent of all plant areas, an increase in greening has mitigated global warming by approximately 14 percent,” and that in colder areas, “ greening has led to a rise in air temperatures of approximately 10 percent.” Extreme weather conditions can cause a more dramatic effect especially during warm, dry periods and cold, wet periods. All in all, it is clear that vegetation has an effect on climate. Making sure to increase the vegetation in generally warm areas could help mitigate the effects of global warming. Also, regulating the vegetation in cooler areas could also have a beneficial impact on climate change. It is very important that the world understands the potential that can come out of this study. This could help counter the effects from the increasing carbon dioxide emissions as a result of human activities and help prevent the thinning of the ozone layer, ultimately preserving the sustainability of our planet Earth.

Read more at: [|https://phys.org/news/2017-05-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-global-greening.html#jCp]

Week 1:

Sustainability is the ability for Earth to maintain and support life. This means that Earth has the necessary baseline resources that will enable life to survive.

The new settlers need to basically restart their society in this situation. They should be sure to create farms in several different areas so they do not end up drying out the soil that already lacks water. They do not have any help with the farming meaning they would have to do all of the work themselves. If they could build robots to help them with the work, that could potentially open things up.