An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth was such an interesting movie in which Al Gore explains our (humans') impacts on Global warming and the effects of it. We are thickening green house gasses and that results in more and more heat trapped in atmosphere and higher and higher temperature. Unfortunately we all think world is huge enough that driving our old and polluting car cannot harm anything but lets put it that way, billions and billions of people around the world think the same way and we all are sharing a planet so me and you even if we are in different continents can affect one another's lives.
Global Warming is a real and worldwide issue  and requires EVERYBODY's help! Sometimes I think maybe Global Warming would be a good excuse and reason for countries and governments to unite and little by little save our Earth. Global Warming might seem like an emotional issue but if anybody listens to the reasons and datas Al Gore explains in his slide shows in the movie, they would believe that this is a SERIOUS issue that needs serious attention!

We do not lend the earth to our children,but we have borrowed it from our future generations! so lets take a good care of it.

Energy, Pros and Cons of Grand Coulee Dam

Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation.Grand Coulee is the largest dam in the Columbia River Basin and one of the largest in the world. Everything about the dam is large: it is 550 feet (167.6 meters) tall, measured from its foundation in solid granite, or approximately 350 feet (106.7 meters) from the downstream river surface to the top of the dam. It is 5,223 feet (1,592 meters) long, or 57 feet short of a mile.
Grand Coulee Dam is the largest concrete structure ever built. Several other dams in the world are larger, but they include earthen berms (when completed 2009, the Three Gorges Dam in China will be roughly three times the size of Grand Coulee). Grand Coulee is 450-500 feet thick at its base and 30 feet thick at the top, and it contains 11,975,521 cubic yards (9,155,944 cubic meters) of concrete, three times as much as Hoover Dam.

Pros:
Irrigation:
 Water is pumped via the Pump-Generating Plant's 12-foot (3.7 m) diameter pipes 280 ft (85 m) from Lake Roosevelt to a 1.6 mi (2.6 km) feeder canal. From the feeder canal, the water is transferred to Banks Lake which has an active storage of 715,000 acre ft (882,000,000 m³). The plant's twelve 65,000–70,000 horsepower pumps can transfer up to 1,605 cu ft/s (45 m³/s) to the lake. Currently, the Columbia Basin Project irrigates 670,000 acres (2,700 km²) with a potential for 1.1 million.Over 60 different crops are grown within the project and distributed throughout the United States.
^Power:
The dam has four power plants. The two original power plants, the first of which began producing power in 1941, are called the Left Power Plant and the Right Power Plant. The two power plants, each of which houses nine large generators, are split by the spillway, which is 1,300 feet wide and covers an area of 13.26 acres. According to the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam, the Left Powerhouse has three generators with a total capacity of 3 megawatts to provide power at the dam site, plus nine generators rated at 125 megawatts each. The Right Powerhouse has nine generators rated at 125 megawatts apiece. The original 18 generators began operating between 1941 and 1950. The Third Power Plant contains three generators rated at 600 megawatts apiece and three rated at 805 megawatts. These first of these six generators began operating in 1975, and the sixth in 1980. The Pump-Generator Plant, which is located on the west bank of the river, contains 12 pumps that lift water up the hillside to a canal that flows into Banks Lake, the 27-mile-long reservoir for the Columbia basin project. Six of the pumps can be reserved to generate about 50 megawatts each.

Cons
The dam had severe negative consequences for the local Native American tribes whose traditional way of life revolved around salmon and the original shrub steppe habitat of the area. Because it lacks a fish ladder, Grand Coulee Dam permanently blocks fish migration, removing over 1,100 mi (1,770 km) of natural spawning habitat.^[ By largely eliminating anadromous fish above the Okanogan River, the Grand Coulee Dam also set the stage for the subsequent decision not to provide for fish passage at Chief Joseph Dam (built in 1953). Chinook, Steelhead, Sockeye and Coho salmon (as well as other important species including Lamprey) are now unable to spawn in the reaches of the Upper Columbia Basin. The extinction of the spawning grounds upstream from the dam has prevented the Spokane and other tribes from holding the first salmon ceremony.
Grand Coulee Dam flooded over 21,000 acres (85 km²) of prime bottom land where Native Americans had been living and hunting for thousands of years, forcing the relocation of settlements and graveyards. Kettle Falls, once a primary Native American fishing grounds, was inundated. The average catch of over 600,000 salmon per year was eliminated. In one study, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated the annual loss was over 1 million fish. In June 1941, Native Americans throughout the Northwest met at the Falls for a Ceremony of Tears, marking the end of fishing there. One month later, the falls were inundated. The town of Kettle Falls, Washington was relocated. The Columbia Basin Project has affected habitat ranges for species such as whitetail and mule deer, pygmy rabbits and burrowing owls, resulting in decreased populations. However, it has created new habitats such as wetlands, and riparian corridors. The environmental impact of the dam effectively ended the traditional way of life of the native inhabitants. The government eventually compensated the Colville Indians in the 1990s with a lump settlement of approximately $53 million, plus annual payments of approximately $15 million.

Tap Water vs. Bottled Water

The human body is composed primarily of water, somewhere between 55% to 78%. It is vital to life, and, although people can live for several weeks on water alone, they cannot survive for more than a few days without water.

Pros	Cons
Monitored and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).	Some water is carried in lead pipes from utility companies to homes, which means lead can leach from pipes into the water.
Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA) of 1996 have made drinking water safer.	The EPA allows tap water to have 10 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic in it, although scientists now know there is no safe level of arsenic.
Numerous tests are conducted to ensure safety of tap water and there are drinking water standards for regulated contaminants.	Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products as Pollutants (PPCPs) get introduced into the water supplies by individuals or agribusiness either through sewer lines, regular use of the products, or improper disposal.
Most community water supplies have the added benefit of fluoridation and that promotes strong teeth and prevents tooth decay.	According to neurosurgeon, Russell L. Blaylock, in his book Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life,fluoride does not reduce cavities, and it is neurotoxic at .5 parts per million. Furthermore, he claims fluoride causes dental and skeletal fluorosis, damages DNA repair enzymes, and increases your risk for cancer, hypothyroidism, genetic damage, and osteoporosis.
Water system operators have to be certified.	Higher lead levels are allowed in tap water than bottled water because lead pipes usually carry water from utility companies to homes. Tap water lead levels are set at 15 ppb and bottled water is set at 5 ppb.
To make water safe, bacteria and other organisms are killed when chlorine or another disinfectant is added.	Potential health affectsfrom microorganisms, disinfectants and their byproducts, inorganic and organic chemicals, and radionuclides include everything from eye/nose irritations to kidney and liver diseases.
The EPA gives you access to your annual local water quality report.	Giardia and Cryptosporidium are resistant to chlorine and can make their way into tap water if there are sanitation breakdowns.
No recycling issues as is the case for bottled water.	There are 170,000 different water suppliers, which means the quality of water in one area can be worse or better than the quality of water in another area.

Pros	Cons
Monitored and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).	Some water is carried in lead pipes from utility companies to homes, which means lead can leach from pipes into the water.
Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA) of 1996 have made drinking water safer.	The EPA allows tap water to have 10 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic in it, although scientists now know there is no safe level of arsenic.
Numerous tests are conducted to ensure safety of tap water and there are drinking water standards for regulated contaminants.	Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products as Pollutants (PPCPs) get introduced into the water supplies by individuals or agribusiness either through sewer lines, regular use of the products, or improper disposal.
Most community water supplies have the added benefit of fluoridation and that promotes strong teeth and prevents tooth decay.	According to neurosurgeon, Russell L. Blaylock, in his book Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life, fluoride does not reduce cavities, and it is neurotoxic at .5 parts per million. Furthermore, he claims fluoride causes dental and skeletal fluorosis, damages DNA repair enzymes, and increases your risk for cancer, hypothyroidism, genetic damage, and osteoporosis.
Water system operators have to be certified.	Higher lead levels are allowed in tap water than bottled water because lead pipes usually carry water from utility companies to homes. Tap water lead levels are set at 15 ppb and bottled water is set at 5 ppb.
To make water safe, bacteria and other organisms are killed when chlorine or another disinfectant is added.	Potential health affectsfrom microorganisms, disinfectants and their byproducts, inorganic and organic chemicals, and radionuclides include everything from eye/nose irritations to kidney and liver diseases.
The EPA gives you access to your annual local water quality report.	Giardia and Cryptosporidium are resistant to chlorine and can make their way into tap water if there are sanitation breakdowns.
No recycling issues as is the case for bottled water.	There are 170,000 different water suppliers, which means the quality of water in one area can be worse or better than the quality of water in another area.

Pros	Cons
Monitored and regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).	The Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) claims plastic bottles contain phthalates, which can leach into bottled drinking water.
Versatile and easy to take places.	According to NRDC, there are no strict limitations as to the number of contaminants that can be found in bottled water, such as E coli, arsenic, or pthalates.
According to Competitive Enterprize Institute (CEI), special treatments to remove impurities—such as distillation or ozonation—are performed on top of municipal filtrations by certain bottled water manufacturers, such as Aquafina and Dasani.	Seventeen million barrels of oil are used to make and deliver bottled water. According to the website, Ask Pablo, that amounts to 22 cents for every imported bottle of water.
According to CEI, bottled water offers consistent quality control, as each bottle is of the same quality as the previous one.	Bottled water processes often remove fluoridation benefits.
Lead levels for tap water are lower for bottled water than tap. According to Mama’s Health, tap water is set at 15 parts per billion (ppb) and bottled water is set at 5 ppb.	According to the NRDC, bottled water manufacturer’s do not have to list the water’s source, so bottled water could conceivably come from one of the 170,000 municipal water suppliers.
Bottled water comes in alot of varieties, from fizzy to flavored to vitamin enhanced.	According to the NRDC, bottled water manufacturer’s do not have to list how the water has been treated. Moreover, bottled water undergoes less testing than tap water.
According to Mama’s Health, EPA  and FDA water standards are nearly identical because the FDA usually adopts the EPA’s standards for bottled water.	According to a 2005 MSNBC report, 40 million bottled a day are going into the trash and only 12% of plastic bottled are recycled, which is hard on the environment.
Bottled mineral water offers health benefits.	According to Search Warp, bottled water is only regulated across states lines, so if a company sells their water in the same state as they bottle it, FDA regulations don’t apply.

Now which one is better? Tap water or Bottled water?!
I believe the best thing to do is to check your local drinking water quality and if your are concerned about the amount of fluoride or lead in your drinking water purchase a home water filter and save money as well as saving environment! here is a link that you can find where your drinking water comes from and how it's treated: http://water.epa.gov/drink/local/index.cfm
So I would choose tap water over bottled water, how about you?!

Pros	Cons
Monitored and regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).	Some water is carried in lead pipes from utility companies to homes, which means lead can leach from pipes into the water.
Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SWDA) of 1996 have made drinking water safer.	The EPA allows tap water to have 10 parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic in it, although scientists now know there is no safe level of arsenic.
Numerous tests are conducted to ensure safety of tap water and there are drinking water standards for regulated contaminants.	Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products as Pollutants (PPCPs) get introduced into the water supplies by individuals or agribusiness either through sewer lines, regular use of the products, or improper disposal.
Most community water supplies have the added benefit of fluoridation and that promotes strong teeth and prevents tooth decay.	According to neurosurgeon, Russell L. Blaylock, in his book Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life,fluoride does not reduce cavities, and it is neurotoxic at .5 parts per million. Furthermore, he claims fluoride causes dental and skeletal fluorosis, damages DNA repair enzymes, and increases your risk for cancer, hypothyroidism, genetic damage, and osteoporosis.
Water system operators have to be certified.	Higher lead levels are allowed in tap water than bottled water because lead pipes usually carry water from utility companies to homes. Tap water lead levels are set at 15 ppb and bottled water is set at 5 ppb.
To make water safe, bacteria and other organisms are killed when chlorine or another disinfectant is added.	Potential health affectsfrom microorganisms, disinfectants and their byproducts, inorganic and organic chemicals, and radionuclides include everything from eye/nose irritations to kidney and liver diseases.
The EPA gives you access to your annual local water quality report.	Giardia and Cryptosporidium are resistant to chlorine and can make their way into tap water if there are sanitation breakdowns.
No recycling issues as is the case for bottled water.	There are 170,000 different water suppliers, which means the quality of water in one area can be worse or better than the quality of water in another area.

Ozone Depletion

Last week I did some research on an important topic, Ozone Hole. What brought me to this topic was looking at current news about finding blisters on three different species of whales caused by sun. When I looked into the reason of ozone hole I realized the main reason is CFCs which are used in sprays,refrigerators,Air conditionors and etc. Ozone is made of three Oxygen molecules (O3), when UV light hits ozone it breaks it to two oxygen and an oxygen (O2 and O) and that single oxygen molecule would react with another O2 and make O3 and the cycle repeats. But once CFC enters the ozone the UV light breaks CFC3 to two CFCS and one chlorine(Cl), then chlorine reacts with oxygen (O) and makes Chlorine monoxide (ClO) therefore instead of O3 we end up having O2 and ClO in the stratosphere. That is when Ozone hole happens, UV light goes through the stratosphere layer but there are not enough ozone left in that layer to filter harmful rays of sun light out. Ozone depletion could bring severe damages for humans and animals both. There are few countries in the world that have banned using CFC in any product but even if one country does not apply regulations on use of CFC ozone depletion could happen and hurt all of us!

How much carbon I make?!

I've adopted a 60 ft pine tree. My tree has circumference of 26in. After all the calculation that I did to find the volume of my tree I figured out my tree has stored 136250.2451 Kg of Carbon inside it.
I have a hyundai accent which has a great gas milage but still after calculating my trips to school and work and amount of gasoline that I use for these trips I figured that I use 53 "my  trees" to store the carbon that I, only I, make per year.
And at last look at my footprint: 44.09 metric tons of CO2!!!! Yeah and that is only for one person, think about the entire city or even country and we're cutting more and more trees everyday!!!! :(

Since I love potato chips I chose Lays potato chips:

It all starts in the rich soil of an American farm, like Black Gold Potato, in North Dakota. Frito-Lay's standards for the quality of the corn and potatoes are among the highest in the food industry, so farmers make sure that our ingredients are planted, grown and harvested with the utmost attention to detail and quality. After potatoes arrive at a nearby Frito-Lay plant, they're washed, peeled, cut into slices and rinsed to clear off any excess starch. Next, they're cooked in all-natural oils like sunflower oil and corn oil, then sprinkled with salt or seasoning to become America’s favorite potato chips. It doesn't take much to make a simple snack taste great.

Their Steps to a Healthier Planet

They have been taking steps to reduce their impact on the earth by taking some steps like the ones mentioned below:

  Solar power is used at one of their plants in Modesto, CA to help make Sun Chips snacks. (2008)

   All Frito-Lay plants are currently working toward “zero landfill” with the goal of diverting at least 99% of waste from landfills. (2009)

  Introduced 1,000 new Sprinter trucks that get 50% more miles per gallon than the trucks they replaced. (2009)

   At our Casa Grande, AZ plant they are working to cut their electricity and water by 90%. According to their website by early 2011, they’ll complete the retrofit to enable our Casa Grande plant to run almost entirely on renewable energy and recycled water while reducing waste going to the landfill to less than 1%.

http://www.fritolay.com/our-planet/steps-to-a-healthier-planet.html

Chapter 3 Summary

·   The biodiversity is found in the earth’s genes, species, ecosystems, and ecosystem processes is vital to sustaining the life on earth.

·   Scientific theory of evolution through natural selection says: Populations evolve when genes mutate and give some individuals genetic traits that enhance their abilities to survive and to produce offspring with these traits.

·   Fossils: Mineralized or petrified replicas of skeletons, bones, teeth, shells, leaves, and seeds or impressions of such items found in rocks.

·   Mutations: random changes in the structure of number of DNA molecules in a cell that can be inherited by offspring. Most mutations result from random changes that occur in coded genetic instructions passed along in reproduction.

·   Differential reproduction: enables individuals with the traits to leave more offspring than other members of the population leave.

·   Adaptation or Adaptive trait: is any heritable trait that enables organisms to survive and reproduce better under prevailing environmental conditions.

·   As environmental conditions change, the balance between formation of new species and extinction of existing species determines the earth’s biodiversity.

·   Geographic Isolation: occurs when different groups of the same population of a species become physically isolated from one another for long periods.

·   Reproductive Isolation: mutation and change by natural selection operate independently in the gene pools of geographically isolated populations.

·   Differences in average annual precipitation and temperature lead to the formation of tropical, temperate, and cold deserts, grasslands, and forests and largely determine their locations.

·   In many areas, human activities are impairing ecological and economic services provided by the earth’s deserts, grasslands, forests, and mountains.

·   Saltwater and freshwater aquatic life zones cover almost three- fourths of the earth’s surface with oceans dominating the planet.

·   The key factors determining biodiversity in aquatic systems are temperature, dissolved oxygen content, availability of food, and availability of light and nutrients necessary for photosynthesis.

·   Human activities threaten aquatic biodiversity and disrupt ecological and economic services provided by saltwater and freshwater systems.

Effects of Indoor Air Pollution in Daycares

Children’s lungs are still developing until they reach about 6-8 years of age. During this time, children’s lungs can easily be damaged by pollution or infection. Children breathe 4 times as much air per pound of body weight as adults! This means that children breathe

in more pollutants than adults.

Indoor air quality can be determined by knowing how clean the air is in our buildings. The most common cause of poor indoor air quality is lack of proper ventilation which is entering and exiting air in the building. Without air circulating in the building the pollution stays inside and builds up and create poor indoor quality. The building supplies the were used when the house was built often emut fumes that pollute our inside air.

Even art supplies like crayons, cleaning supplies like glass cleaners and every single chemicals we use daily can contribute to the poor air quality in daycares or our own houses.

The most common problem caused by breathing pollutant air is Ashtma. Since seeing the pollution in the air is not possible with naked eye once any of known signs starts developing in children in your care you should be concerned about checking for molds or mildews, temprature and the cleaning supplies used to clean the building. The signs mentioned above are:

Feeling tired

Wants to be alone

Headache

Eyes look glassy

Dark circle under the eyes
Pale stuffy nose

Lethargic

Irritable

Coughing

Wheezing

Breathing changes
The best way to improve the indoor air quality is to have a good air circulation and pay attention to the chemicals used in the supplies we use around children and read the information on products' labels carefully. Schools and daycares usually have very poor air quality and often cause intense coughing and congestion issues for kids. Hopefully by informing teachers and daycare owners we will have better air quality for children at schools and homes.

Interesting Environment

Although this was a project in my class, I decided not looking at it as an ASSIGNMENT but as an adventure. So lets picture this together: I am coming home from work tired and hungry, everywhere is completely white from snow. I am driving toward the hill that we live on and all the sudden I can't control my car and BAM my car ends up on a curb!! I'm stuck...I was waiting in my car for help when I started wondering why snow is slippery when rain is not? or if rain becomes snow when it's cold then why snow is puffy?!
Questions after questions came to my mind and without recognizing  I was doing what I was supposed to do for my assignment.  Among all the questions that I came up with one of them made me so curious and I think I found few decent answers for them. I'm astronomy lover so no wonder why I worked on this question: Why there are more stars in Arizona or Nevada's skies than Washington or Oregon's skies?! Why there are more stars in some areas more than the other areas? after thinking and remembering some basic sceince from elementry school I came up with answers like:
In places with more pollution is harder to see stars because of the smog in the air so for instance it is harder to see stars in downtown Seattle than Redmond.
Also in places with a lot of lights you cannot see as many stars as you can see in a place out of town with no light
And last but not least we can see more stars in Arizona's sky than Washington's sky because of clouds!!! clouds cover the sky and stars don't have really strong light to go through the clouds that's why in Washington we do not have a lot of stars! :(
Alright now that we discussed my answers, let's see what scientifics or I should say astronauts think about this question:
The best places to stargaze are away from big cities and towns because the light "pollution" from streetlights, advertising, factories, stores and homes makes it harder to see the night sky. The very best places are at higher altitudes and in drier climates, places with less moisture and fewer particles in the air.
It was surprising to find out the biggest obstacle for stargazing is light pollution and of course air pollution has its effects too but it is not as big deal as light pollution!

So if you are interested in stargazing like me, here are top five places for stargazing:
1. Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada
2. Haleakala National Park, Maui
3. Big Bend National Park, Texas
4. Jester Park, Polk City, Iowa

5. Mather Point, Grand Canyon South Rim, Arizona

Have Fun and Thanks for your time!