It's Our Society, Our Lives, Our Decisions.

Our in class discussion on "Peak Oil" was certainly an eye opener for me. We made it clear that Peak Oil is a real and evident. Changes must be made to our society and the way we all live. We cannot continue to live the way we live and continue to use fossil fuels the way we do today. It is all going to come to an end. I almost see the coming of this problem to be a solution in itself. Once the crisis of sharp increases and oil prices really hits because of high demand and lack of supplies people will begin to realize that lifestyles and how we use energy will need to change. I like the idea that people will begin to change their ways before this problem to avoid the real crisis. The reality is that not everyone takes this seriously because they are not lucky enough to be educated on how the problem will impact their lives in the future. Instinctively people live to survive in the near future. We don't necessarily think about how what we are doing today will impact us years down the rode. Our society needs to be educated that this problem of peak oil and how it is going to impact the economy on the global level. Ultimately we as the people have the responsibility to tell our government that this issue is real. We must put money into investigating new sources of renewable energy now. Many state governments are implementing quotas that a certain percentage of energy must come from renewable sources by a year such as 2020, 2025. This although good intentioned is not enough. The problem of peak oil will hit us before that. We need to contact our local and federal governments and let them know that new energy sources must be explored and implemented sooner than later. It's up to Us and Our decisions to make something happen.

What's the big deal?

“Empty Oceans, Empty Nets”, a film we saw in class on Monday, about Why our oceans are getting empty and what’s the big deal if they are.Overfishing and fishing faster than the fishes can grow and reproduce is a biggest threat to our oceanic biodiversity. Today, more than a half of our planet’s major oceanic fishing areas are now fished at or further than its capacity.This problem has grown to such extent that the populations of some fished species, such as haddock, and blue fin tuna, are destroyed. For human populations, fishing has long been a way of life, a source of food and income. It is a way of living for some 200 million people worldwide. Just about 20 percent of the animals protein consumed by humans comes from the fish. Since living oceanic resources continue to be over exploited by an industry too large for the resources available, many fisheries are collapsing. This means species are declining, a major world food source is being put at risk, jobs are being lost, and ecosystems are unalterably changing.

How could we stop this? There is only one way to change this is by stopping overfishing and by giving time to the fishes to populate the ocean again.

What's so hard about making an effort?

In our last class discussion many of my classmates brought up some very good points.  Two points stood out in particular.  One was the idea of big companies using the technique of greenwash or green marketing.  And when another classmate who in fact works with trucking companies, brought about knowledge of how the trucking and delivering aspects really works.  About how much gas is being used and how little change they are making to help the environment.  I personally that many companies are using the green marketing technique to keep the customers from complaining and still using their products, with little effort of actually trying to please the customer.  I find it hard to believe that if all these companies were actually making a change to help their environment that we have made hardly any progress or change.  With as much money that these companies make off of us and as much as they claim to be making a change we should have had some kind of solution by now.  I would like to talk about the trucking companies and how their delivery process is being made.  I know these large tractors are driven for miles upon miles sometimes across the country.  And then once delivered it has been made aware to me that upon their destination they are there for hours upon hours with the engine running until they are finally processed.  There is various problems with this scenario, which includes the fumes polluting the air and all this gas that is being used.  And this is only within one delivery so just imagine all the damage being done with thousands of deliveries done every hour.  One solution is to change they delivery process, we often find in supermarkets where its labeled grown locally.  If we incorporate this idea with most of the supplies and resources we use that can cut the usage of gas.  Also if we plan the delivering process more effiicient, as to where the deliveries are spaced out and there is enough manpower to quickly move the products off the truck.  Also i believe there should also be a violation and a limitation on how much gas each company can use or emit on a weekly basis, with consequences of fines if they go over what is permitted.  And if trucking companies could invest in the development of hybrid trucks.  Though it can be costly if they slowly replace their trucks it is possible.  What's so hard about making some kind of effort? 

People aren't very concerned

I'm pleasantly surprised by how interesting this class turned out to be. It it making me more aware of the energy I'm using. However, I'm finding that not everyone is as concerned with the energy crisis. When I bring it up to people everyones response seems to be some variation of either it will work itself out or someone else will fix it. Most people seem to think that the government will come up with something by the time oil has run out. That seems kind of silly since the government doesn't have the best track record right now. I think people need to stop ignoring this issue and do whatever little things they can to help. I'm not saying people should live in darkness and not drive their cars but every little bit can help is everyone contributes. This way at least there will be more time to try and come up with a solution before the oil runs out. I find it very interesting that everyone thought we would just keep advancing in the future but if the oil runs out and there is no alternative in sight we will be doing just the opposite. We will instead be regressing back to a simpler life where food and shelter are everyday concerns.

What people can do to help

What we all need to do is get together and help the world out. Not just us as a class but people in the rest of North America and the rest of the world. Things that we could do as individuals since we are not the government to save oil and make it last longer include:
1. Getting a less pressurized shower head, that way we won't waste as much water. Every household or individual should get one.
2. Do not run the dishwasher as much
3. Do not run water when brushing your teeth
4. Hang clothes up to dry instead of using the dryer
5. Cook at home, this way you won't have to waste money on eating out
6. Grow things at home, construct a mini green house, this way you won't have as much waste in the garbage and plastic.
7. Windmills
8. Solar power all the way....may be expensive but will help us in the long run.
9. Try not to use so much electric. Unplug things when you are not using them.
10. and lastly because I am running out of ideas...carpool. Ride your bike, walk, or take the local bus route.

Where have all the fish gone?

In the film, "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets," made me realize that the demand for seafood is at a sky high. I don't eat a lot of fish. My father on the other hand does, but he fishes in nearby lakes and ponds. Then he brings it home and cooks it. Every now and again we will buy fish at the local supermarket. Unlike the USA other countries rely on fish in mass quantities. The video educated me on this topic. I learned things that I was not very aware of or what has been going on out in the oceans. I think that in order for the fish population to keep up with the demand for fishermen to catch them is to not fish for awhile. Maybe a year without fishing to see if the ecosystem can grow. Then they can go back to fishing again. How else are we going to supply such fish for so many people? Fishermen maybe should go and find an alternative root to feed and support their families. It's the only way.

Issues on Oil Depletion

Last week I was talking about oil depletion to a variety of people. I discussed with them what I learned in class. Some people didn't believe me about how one day we aren't going to have enough oil to thrive off of and others said, "well we will just have to find another way to make oil or to supply it." The people that I spoke to made it seem so hopeful and possible that it is so easy to do such a thing. People don't realize how much energy and cost goes into refining oil and drilling it out of the ground. I think that we should combine ways to seek other mechanisms besides just cheap oil. In the book, The Party's Over, by Richard Heinburg he mentions ways or alternatives to survive. "We have enormous amount of existing technical knowledge. It's just a matter of putting it all together." Another quote, "If society were to develop solar-energy technologies, reduce it's population and its demands in resources, and develop a steady-state economy to replace the present one based on unending growth, our species' future could be rosy indeed." I believe that we can do this, like in class people are afraid to take risks. They don't want to take the risk and step out of the nutshell to change environmental issues in Society. Most people care about short term effects instead of long term. Class discussion made me think about all of this and now my family thinks this class is making me a tree hugger. On the other hand I think it is educating me about the environment that I live in and how humans are exclusively damaging the biosphere.

Workin together

After discussing about peak oil i thought as much as people like to place blame on others I feel we fail to put blame on ourselves. As an individual we can make just as much as a difference if we all help in lowering the use of oil. Simple steps as carpooling or taking a bus can help on the use of gas. And in other areas such as heating in the winter. If we all left the heat on 65 that would save the use of million barrels a year. I believe we take over advantage on the things we have and this is gonna help to the decline of all these things we treasure. In the movie Death to Smoochy he uses a saying: We cant change the world but we can at least make a dent! And if we all dent we all win!

one persons gain is another's loss

I was sitting in my economics class today and we were discussing market pricing and how we have a price floor and a price ceiling. Price floor is when government sets a minimum price on a good or a service and price ceiling is when the government sets a maximum price on a good or a service. So while discussing this, it came across my mind that we were discussing health insurance and how it'll be a benifit to some and not to tohers. If we do pass the bill for universal health insurance then the people that don't have insurance now will be at benifit and the people that are paying high prices for their insurance are the ones that will be loosing.

Yesterdays discussion brought up many interesting points about the United States and its use of oil, as well as its failure to put more resources into other energy sources. The prosperity that cheap oil brought to the industrialized world has been viewed in a positive light. It allowed the United States to erect massive cities which in turn created large suburbs and an entirely new lifestyle. The role that oil plays in our lifestyles has become so important to our everyday life that Americans are blind to it.
A topic was brought up which discussed reasons for not putting more effort into renewable sustainable energy. Taking the risk of developing new energy and failing and not pursuing the rest of the worlds oil supplies was one reason given. I believe that this point is only partially true. The way our government operates today I think they want to find new energy but they are dictated by large corporations goals. America is no longer a democracy but a corporatocracy. Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton, a massive oil company given no bid contracts by the U.S government for its service in Iraq. Halliburton continues to reap massive profits off the Iraq war. Large corporations like Halliburton use a strategy known as green washing to fool the public of their ultimate goals. By claiming they are working hard to create cleaner, efficient, and sustainable energy they are really continuing to do what they’ve done for years. Check out Halliburton’s homepage, its titled “Solutions to Today’s Energy Challenges”.
The only way to start the shift toward a sustainable lifestyle is to take power out of the hands of corporations and put it back in the hands of the government and people. This is an extremely difficult task considering that money means power and influence, and too much of it lies in the hands of these companies.

Podcars- Energy and air solutions??

Here is the latest form of possible future mass transit- the podcar. Basically it is a combination of the taxi with regular city mass transit. instead of wasting energy and gas with individual cars, we use a massive podcar system to travel around a city. You may even be able to use such a system to connect suburbs that are built closely (speculation). you don't use fuel, all podcars are electrically powered like an electric train- power is provided by a power plant (thats' a whole discussion on its own). The podcars themselves don't pollute, and all the energy is focused in the one giant system instead of being dispersed as in a whole lot of individual cars. Every house can be potentially connected to the main track line, which will run like roads.

So the question is, would people want to invest billions of tax dollars on this system???

references:

Can PRT replace the automobile?
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/can-prt-replace-cars.php

A class you actually learn in

My best friend, who has already graduated college, came back from his cousins wedding in Atlanta, where there is the world's largest aquarium. On the tour the guide was talking about over fishing the oceans and how some fish are a renewable source and others are not. As he recounted this story to me we were able to have a really cool conversation about the effects it is having on the environment or could if we continue. All I would have been able to do is listen and not contribute had we not seen the video Empty Oceans, Empty Nets on Monday. My friend had some questions about the reason why some fish were renewable and why some were not, and I was able to answer his question which made me feel like I was learning valuable information in a class, which as I'm sure fellow students are aware is almost unheard of. It was an exciting feeling to be able to have an intelligent conversation with someone about the problems the environment has and possible ways to fix it.

how to end air pollution

when i was reading the book,i was curious if there is any ways to end the air pollution and i found this website which is quite interesting.http://www.willyoujoinus.com/energy.issues/energychallengesandopportunities/energyandtheenvironment/air/?gclid=CPOF2dSuhp0CFU1M5QodtBaVcA.It says that Technology, regulation, and consumer choices can all play a role in reducing the impact of energy use on the air we breathe. Like many other environmental issues related to energy, air pollution can be reduced through energy efficiency and conservation improvements, both at the consumer and industry level. but i disagree with the statemant because i feel like the more technology we use,the more we polluting the air. I am sure countries are trying to come up with solutions to reduce air pollution but i dont think it is good enough. Breathing air is a significant factor for people who has asthma or otehr lung diseases.

Air pollution: inside our homes

We think of air pollution we think cars and factories, but an article that I found online "Indoor Air Pollution" on http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTPROGRAMS/EXTIE/0,,contentMDK:21311106~menuPK:4228103~pagePK:64168182~piPK:64168060~theSitePK:475520,00.html, website, and I thought it was interesting. It basically enlightens us about the hardship that families in developing nations are going through. One million children die every year in these developing countries due to the smoke that is created from the burning of wood and other bio fuels to cook. This is happening inside their homes, that is the scary part.

Creatures of destruction

So far in class we have been discussing an important topic, Energy.  How much is being produced versus how much we are consuming.  In the films they discussed the fact that we have reached our peak of the most energy that we will be able to produce and now we have reached a slow decline but yet our consumption continues to increase.  In this day and age when technology and electronics rule our lives where will we end once nature has ran dry.  We continuously depend on cars and electronics and ruin our natural resources not realizing the importance they serve and without nature there will be no such thing as technology.  With a decline in energy leaves a decline in gas which without gas or fuel our cars wont be able to run.  Without energy how will we live.  What scares me is we are continuously warned about what can happen if we don’t try to make a change, if we don’t  preserve our resources but yet no one is making a change.  What will it take before we as humans realize how we are killing our habitat and slowly killing ourselves.  Because we are not immediately  affect by these changes yet, it’s hard for us to realize the consequences.  Many panicked when the gas prices continuously began to rise but once they went down we forgot all about our fear and continued to buy these SUV’s that eats up gas and leaves a huge carbon footprint,  We tend to forget that history repeats itself especially when we continue our actions without change. Many people forgot when there was such a little supply of gas that you could only get gas on certain days based on your license plate number, but because we walk around with the black sheet over our eyes and because we believe technology can and will save the world we continue to walk around blindfolded.  Now that we produce manmade energy we believe that yet again man has outsmarted nature and we can solve everything.  But guess what man doesn’t have enough power to make us all survive forever.

story of stuff

The video story of stuff shows how industries evolved and groth of technologies. It showed that US uses 30% of world's air. US used to be the major devoloper of technologies and now they are moving it to different countries. That means we are using their resources and polluting the air. It doesnt mean US is not polluting the air.

Nitrogen as a Greenhouse Gas

During our discussion in class today (Sept. 16), professor Hirsch mentioned that the nitrogen we are consuming in the form of artificial fertilizers is giving off NO2 which is, as we learned today, 200x more powerful as a greenhouse gas than CO2. This boggled my mind because I always hear about CO2 emissions being a major concern to focus groups, but this is the first I've heard of NO being an issue.

Amazing Human Nature

I've been going over some of these posts and here's my commentary.
1st, I disagree with first post. Agriculture did not simply "rear its ugly head". Humans are a constantly evolving species, without evolution we would still be stuck in the trees (chimps). It is evolution that enabled us to develop agriculture in the first place, allowing our population to grow to numbers unimaginable for a hunter-gatherer society. This increased population density allowed specialization to develop (as mentioned in class), and we continued on the path of evolution through specialization. I doubt we would have steam engines, nuclear power, internet, NASA without specialization. We did not stress the earth's resources back then, things were in relative balance (time of early agriculture). Yes, there were inequalities that came out of agriculture, but honestly I'd rather have that than us stuck in the stone age.

And in an attempt to correct this inequality, many individuals labored in the past century to produce a classless society. After a great economic cost and millions of lives thrown away, I think we can say the experiment was a failure.

The most interesting thing: in the 21st century we will need to adapt techniques that go contrary to human nature. It is the only way to reverse the above described processes. Fattening food, cheap food? People will buy these things automatically. Do people think twice? hardly. Of course i'm not trying to shift blame away from the corporations and the government that subsidizes them, this is also their fault. But what i'm trying to say is, they capitalize on the fact that most people really don't want to think to much for themselves. (There's actually a lot of evidence to support this).

Same story for the consumerism- people love buying things. People like having new things and more things. As I said, its in human nature. Maybe human nature is faulty, but it is inherent in our evolution. Whoever had more had the greatest chance of attracting a mate (stone age- whoever had bigger tribe, more food, whatever). This strategy has worked out well so far. Unfortunately, as we enter the 21st century it is working so well that it is literally tearing the planet apart to keep the machine running and people consuming. It ceases to be beneficial when humanity itself becomes endangered. When that happens, its time to change our nature and adapt.

Human nature is adaptable to the environment. That is the whole point of evolution. So, we should evolve in the 21st century and find a new way of continuing the process of evolution without older habits such as excessive consumerism, falling for unhealthy foods, and the like.

The End of Suburbia the film

The End of Suburbia: A documentary. This movie is introducing us to the peak oil. And no matter what we have to deal with the reality of oil peaking not just in America, but everywhere. it is true that natural resources and our way of life in America cannot last long. I was frightened to see this film, that what will happen in the future without oil. Everything is running on this resource.

If we lose it how will we manage. What will happen after the oil peak. When peak is passed, oil production will go down while cost will go up. If we find a way and think driving less could solve the problem it won't. Today every step of modern food production is fossil fuel and petroleum and natural gas chemicals: Pesticides and agro-chemicals are made from oil; Commercial fertilizers are made from ammonia, which is made from natural gas, which is also peaking in the near future. Most farming implements such as tractors and trailers are constructed and powered using oil-derived fuels. Food storage systems such as refrigerators are manufactured in oil-powered plants, distributed using oil-powered transportation networks and usually run on electricity, which most often comes from natural gas or coal. Like oil and natural gas, coal too is peaking in the near future.It's not just transportation and agriculture that are entirely dependent on abundant, cheap oil. Modern medicine, water distribution, and national defense are each entirely powered by oil and petroleum derived chemicals. In addition to transportation, food, water, and modern medicine, mass quantities of oil are required for all plastics, all computers and all high-tech devices. Some of this information i got from our teacher, Professor Hirsch during lecture and some from the students while discussion.

In the information above we can see how important we made oil in our life style. If we do not find a way to stop it or find a way how to deal with it . In future most of us won't survive or be able to adjust to it. The question still is there, What should we do?

Digesting Information

Yesterday in class we digested a lot of information from the readings and documentaries we've read and watched over the first few weeks of the new semester. Information that spanned the pros of hunting and gathering and the cons of agriculture to the squandering of exhaustible resources.
A really good point a fellow student brought up was about human productivity. Our reading reflected on these ideas, for instance when humans were hunter-gathers we worked a lot less to meet individual needs and bands, or groups of people, never exceed 50 or so, so there were less needs to meet. At that point the human race didn't put a lot of pressure on their environment. Until agriculture reared is ugly head and forced people to labor in dirt and mud until little plants popped out, feeding their empty bellies. This dynamic allowed for stronger people to exploit weaker ones, basically developing a class system. Those who are stronger eat better, those that aren't work harder. In some sense this dynamic still exists today, some circumstances are more extreme then others.
Another idea I gave a lot of thought too outside of class was the idea of cycles. The Cartoon Guide to the Environment is just packed with cyclic examples and chapters devoted to the explanation of cycles. Some of the ideas we discussed in class are entirely cyclic, for example the farm subsidiaries for corn leading the the obesity epidemic which strains our health care industry to the point of government interference. I'm now trying to see and understand that a lot of the issues discussed in class are cycles and cycles are hard to break especially if humans are the ones to have to intercede, because humans are creatures of habit. The thing about cycles, when they happen naturally, is there are feedback mechanisms that allow for homeostasis to occur, a kind of give and take balancing act. Humans are uninhibited by this mechanism, in our interactions with the earth, we take and take and take rarely being forced to give back, we consume like there's no tomorrow. There are an uncountable number of cycles that delicately interact with each other on this earth and then there are humans whose consumption sees no end in sight

The Effects of Consumerism and the Air We Breathe

In the video "The Story Stuff" with Annie Leonard, she states how we're running a linear system on a finite planet and how that system cannot continue forever or all of our resources will run out. She preaches sustainability and turning this cycle into a circular system that can eventually maintain itself on our planet. During production of the all the products we buy there is input of over 100,000 synthetic chemicals, of which we barely know the harmful effects they may have on us. Even more toxic chemicals are released into the air and environment as pollution from production. As Annie Leonard states, even when we move factories overseas we are hurting others and the pollution can still be carried back to us by wind currents. Disposal of all our garbage and burning it seems to be a tremendous problem we face. All those chemicals that we put into our products are burned and released into the air as pollution. This pollution of our air is undoubtedly completely unhealthy for us. Not to mention some of it will fall back down to our earth in the form of rain and form undrinkable waterways. The air we breathe is supposed to be fresh and sacred. How can we constantly be putting synthetic chemicals into the air we breathe without realizing the harmful impacts? Granted people like to take the easy way out, and incinerating our garbage causes less space to be taken up, but doing something about this now would greatly reduce our health risks later. We need to learn to recycle things properly and shut down the incineration of garbage. There's got to be a better, more practical way of going about things that includes our health and a healthy environment for the other species we share our planet with.

People relying on technology and conveince

In the documentary: How to get fat Without Really Trying, is very intriguing. I believe that North America is relying on technology to get to places faster instead of the actual way people used to do it a long time ago. People used to walk to places. Others who live a block away still utilize their car and choose not to bike or walk to work. It's all about convenience to them. If people were a lot less lazy then they would burn more calories than normal. We need to read the nutritional facts and educate people more about nutrition. Another issue is fast food like the above blog. Fast food is fast and indeed better for people who are always on the go. People aren't making meals at home as much anymore or storing them in their refrigerators to have for lunch the next day. We all need to change our life style and be more independent and smart about food choice and how we are going to cook it. Instead of not cooking it ourselves. So basically with farm subsidized food like corn, we need to stay away from soda, processed food, popcorn, and other bad things that are on the market. If we don't buy those products for us or our children then eventually they will go out of business.

The Story of Stuff

"The Story of Stuff" with Annie Leonard was a very compelling documentary about extreme consumerism in the United States. The numbers and statistics were over whelming, especially concerning the number of people that die and suffer for the sake of putting products, like I-Pods and cheap clothing, on the shelves of big corporations, like Wal-Mart. And the amount of waste we, individually, and as a nation put out is endless, unfortunately our resources are.
This video really got me thinking about how much I consume and waste, all the time. Through shopping and readily disposing of items that, I thought, could be easily replaced without consequence. But the consequences are real and extreme. From pregnant women working with chemicals to indigenous people being forced from there environment, to the destruction of our planet. It appears that the single action of purchasing massed produced products, over and over again has resounding impacts on the entire world.
From the perspective of our atmosphere its fair to say that all the toxins dumped into the products being produced in record numbers is really destructive to the air quality. Its extremely hazardous to the people that live in the area of factories that produce dangerous emissions, leaving them vulnerable to the onset of asthma and cancer.
I didn't hear many solutions offered in the video, probably because the problems are so huge and seemingly unsolvable without drastic change, its hard to pinpoint one solution. But the video is quite convincing about there being a really big issue about consumerism in the U.S.

Fast Food

I think someone mentioned this in class, but as I was reading the questions about our last lecture, the one thing that was running through my mind was: the reason we are becoming obese is the super sizing everything. Since it does not the companies that much to make food and corn is basically added to everything, then adding a little more onto a burger and making it just a little more expensive, these companies are contributing deeply to our obesity rate.

Be Brave - Post!

Is there really nothing to say?