EPA says "fracking" could be contaminating groundwater!

Friday December 16th

Read more here: http://www.earthday.org/blog/2011/12/09/epa-says-fracking-could-be-contaminating-groundwater

Picture: This is what clean water looks like. Could you imagine it being dark colors, unhealthy, and possibly be able to be lit on fire? Well that is what fracking is doing to people's homes, and EPA is not just realizing.

Summary: It was said that EPA announced that fracking or hydraulic fracturing may be causing the groundwater to be contaminated in Wyoming. Of course we know fracking is the process where natural gas is pumped out from the earth, and used in this process are chemicals, sand, etc, to help make this process a bit faster. All the landowners near these fracking systems have been complaining forever of how their water isn't clean, and even environmentalists have been saying this water isn't clean, but the company would not admit it. The people in Wyoming have been complaining for years and how their water isn't even safe to drink or cook with. This natural gas industry employs many people, about 19,000, so when EPA announces about the water some people won't like the news. Then again, it's not fair to the people that they have unhealthy water and can't control where these industries are going to be located. John Fenton said “We’re paying the price for them to make a profit” and he doesn’t know if he poisoning his family or not. This fracking is for sure causing problems and it needs to be fixed soon.

Opinion/Reflection: I really think EPA needs to admit that what they are doing is causing many problems and hurting many people. It's not fair that this fracking is making many people suffer just so the industries can get payed a lot of money. This is something that needs to be stopped soon, or lessened, so people can get healthy and clean water to drink finally. Some families can't even drink or use their water! EPA just needs to fix this and tell people that what they are doing is wrong and they will somehow fix it.

Questions:

1. What do you think of fracking? Good or Bad?

2. Do you think EPA is going to do something about it to fix this?

3. Should the people do something to try and make this problem be a step closer to getting them clean water? Why or why not?

4. How could EPA fix this problem? What could they do?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/02/3d-express-coach-pictures_n_667452.html#s122514

Picture: China may have found an environmentally friendly way to save money while easing traffic - "3D Express Coach"

Summary: The "3D Express Coach" or the "Straddling bus" looks like a subway...But hollow? This bus has 2 levels. The level on top holds passengers and the bottom level allows cars less than 2 meters to travel underneath. This bus is powered by electricity and Solar energy and can speed up to 60 km/h! While carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time. One thing that makes this bus unique, you will never get stuck behind it, you can just go through! This bus is said to reduce traffic jams by 20-30%. Unfortunately this bus costs about 500 million yuan to build which is about 78,478,000 dollars. The expense comes to more than that after building the miles of track that the bus will run through.

Opinion/Reflection: I think this bus is a really cool idea waiting to happen! Not only does it use solar energy, it frees up traffic and the tickets that people buy provide more money for the government! This will be extremely expensive but I think it will benefit in the long run. Like in 20 years! I think the coolest part of this invention would be the fact that the cars can pass through underneath.

To see more pictures, click on this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/02/3d-express-coach-pictures_n_667452.html#s122514

Question 1: Do you think that this invention would benefit society?

Question 2: Could this possibly increase accidents on the road? How?

Question 3: Would you ride this bus? Why or why not?

Question 4: Do you think we should have 3D Express Coaches in America?

E.P.A. Implicates Fracking in Pollution

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/12/08/business/AP-US-Fracking-Groundwater-Pollution.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Picture: This picture shows what an ordinary fracking station looks like. This method of retrieving natural gas and oil is so harmful to the environment. Many people have opposite view points on this.

Summary: The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection) announced that they believe that fracking for oil and natural gas may be a cause for pollution to groundwater. In more detail, this process that wants to be regulated more is called hydraulic fracturing or fracking. What this means is that they pump pressurized water, sand, and chemicals to create fissures that allow oil and natural gas to flow more to the surface. In places like Wyoming residents say that the water reeks and that racking chemicals have been found in the groundwater. The EPA even went to the extreme of telling people not to drink the water. Unusually, the fracking process in this area is not normal to the proper way to do it, which may have contributed to this. To be more specific, what they did was drill under an aquifer and too close to wells. Even after all this, only states like Texas and Colorado are considering stopping and disclosing fracking chemicals.

Opinion/Reflection: I very recently learned about this in class. I have seen in some places that you can light tap water on fire. That is completely unacceptable. I was just wondering how this even was allowed to reach their homes. Imagine if someone, and I am sure they did, drink this water. Besides that those chemicals should never have entered the water. There really should more regulations so that this never happens again and to this extent. I know that this really helps when trying to get natural gas and oil and hopefully they can make this process more safe to the environment.

Question 1: Do you think this should be encouraged or be completely illegal?

Question 2: What could people do if this happens again?

Question 3: What should happen to the industry as a consequence?

Autonomous Flying Robotic Bees Build Tower in France

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/autonomous-flying-robotic-bees-build-tower-france.html

Picture: This picture shows little tiny robotic bees building a building all by themselves by interacting and cooperating with eachother.

If you want to see these robot bees in action click on the link above, and scroll down until you see the video.

Summary: No more construction sites. No more pickup trucks. No more annoying noise. Is this the new way of building? Mini robotic bees working together to build buildings! A group of archetects in France built these robots to build anything they want. They used these robots in a test drive to build a scale model of a tower and it worked perfectly. The robots pick up green eco-friendly bricks which don't require much energy to build, fly them over to the tower, and place the brick in the appropriate position. The robots are innovative and with these robots it requires less time to build buildings. They are only three problems present with these robots. One, the building of all of these robots will probably cost a lot of money and two, the public might not like millions of little robotic bees flying over their heads every time something needs to be built. Lastly, construction workers will be out of a job because the "bees" will be taking their place.

Opinion/Reflection: I personally love the idea, but hate what could result from it. I see how the bees would increase productivity rates, but it would hurt so many people's lives. The bees would be fantastic, moving at a fast pace, making buildings in half the time it would take construction workers. The main thing I wouldn't like is thhe bees always flying over my head. I had a bad experience with a bee when I was very young and I am still somewhat afraid of bees today. I'm not really afraid, but I wouldn't mess with a bee. This problem would be evident to anyone who dislikes bees. Also, they would just be a nuesance. However, a way to solve the jobless problem would be to open up thousands of jobs to make the robot bees :)

Questions:

1.) Do you like the idea of the robot bees being our new working "construction site?"

2.) Do you think the "bees" would create problems?

3.) Do you think the U.S. should wait to get these robot bees until our economy is doing better?

Learning Too Late of the Perils in Gas Well Leases

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/us/drilling-down-fighting-over-oil-and-gas-well-leases.html?_r=1&ref=reservesnaturalresources

Published: December 1st, 2011

Authors: Ian Urbina and Jo Craven McGinty

Picture: In this picture is a natural gas well. These wells are used to drill gas out of the Earth. This particular well is located in an area away from many people, but in the above link to an article you will see that a well is located at a man's home in Pennsylvania.

Summary: When a boy named Scott and his family allowed for a lease of a gas well on their land, they expected better results. They thought that nothing bad would happen and that the property would be left as it was before the drilling took place. Instead of that, many years later, the well was just covered over and instead of taking the waste away, they left it there. His family wasn't notified of this policy and some of the contaminates were leaking into the ground through the pond liner. As a result, their water started to getting filthy. It says in the article that some home have to buy water tanks and drink only bottled water because the covering up of the gas waste started contaminating their water, leaving it unable to drink. Once this started happening, many law suits started occuring because the land owners were not notified stuff like this would happen. After these law suits, more families are being protected and companies are giving out more information about the drilling. There are many recommended things to do before you should consider accepting a lease now a days. By signing a lease you are accepting what these companies are going to do to your land. You have to take into consideration what may occur in future do to these drillings.

Opinion/Reflection: I think that people should listen to the companies and check out some drilling sites before signing into a lease with a company. If you do this, you can see how peoples lives are effected and the consequences that they recieve for leasing out their property. Some of the consequences like I mentioned above are not have clean water. I don't think I would be able to live without my tap water!! Also I would get very distracted and bothered by the amount of noise. Since they would have to build a well, there would be alot of construction. This construction would tare up my land and I would get very angry as an adult. I don't think leasing is a good idea and thats my opinion. I would only lease my land if I got paid a TON of money!!!!!

Questions:

1-Should gas well drilling even be going on in the U.S.??

2-Who and what could this drilling effect in the long run?

3-Is suing the drilling companies a good idea?

4- Is it fair that the companies didn't have to pay for families water tub refils at all?

Removing Arsenic from Water with...Plastic Bottles and Nutrition Supplements?

By: Jaymi Heimbuch

Publication: Treehugger

Date: September 1, 2011

http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/removing-arsenic-from-water-withplastic-bottles-and-nutrition-supplements.html?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Photo: This photo shows a water bottle sitting in an area with arsenic filled water. It's not trash laying in the water, it's actually helping get rid of the arsenic in this water.

Summary: Water bottles are usually thought of as a problem when we talk about drinking water, but not in this case. These bottles are helping 100 million people. Water bottles and a nutrient that is in dietary supplement can help water with arsenic in it, clean enough for people to drink! Arsenic is a big problem around the world, mostly in Bangladesh and Southeast Asia. Something that hasn't been helped very much, but that could change. The American Chemical Society says, "this new technology could help as a simple, inexpensive, and very easy solution." All you do is take a water bottle, or any other plastic bottle and coat it in cysteine, which is the dietary supplement. Then you swirl it around in the water contaminated with arsenic, the arsenic builds up on the cysteine, and when you remove the bottle it is clean to drink! This could help so many villages, and it would be easy and a cheap price!

Opinion/Reflection: I think this is a great idea! Arsenic-contaminated water is a big problem around the world that I didn't think anyone was trying to help. Now there is this simple way that it can be helped little by little. With water bottles! Water bottles can be collected easily and cysteine is a non-technical process, so it's a cheap and simple way! People need clean water so bad. Who knew there would be a way this simple. I hope they can find an even bigger way that more arsenic can be cleaned at one time, but you need somewhere to start, and this is a great spot. I remember looking at the site in class and I felt horrible for those people living in Nepal with arsenic contaminated water. Now maybe there is a way to fix it!

Question:

1: Do you think this idea is going to work for a long time? Why?

2: Do you like this idea of using water bottles? Why or why not?

3: Do you have any other ideas on how arsenic-contaminated water can be cleaned?

4: How do you think the people that have arsenic-contaminated water are feeling?

Dryer Balls: America's latest invention.

http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/2011/10/makedryer-balls/

Picture: Dryer Balls save you energy and they are fun to make and play with!

Author: John Tarantino

Publication: The Environmental Blog.org

Date: Saturday 29, 2011

Summary: Dryer balls are new energy saving "toys that are used instead of softener sheets. They soften the fabric by jumping around the dryer with your clothes. They also prevent clothes from getting clumped which can shorten your drying time which therefore saves you electricity. Unfortunately the result is likely to vary depending on the dyer type, fabric type, load size and heat level setting. Many people who use this fun effective toy claim that they do notice a shorter drying time. These dryer balls cut down on drying time, save you money through electricity and prevent carbon emissions and fuels. Other people say that these dryer balls reduce static from ironing and keep fabrics fluffy and soft for longer periods of time.

Opinion/Reflection: I think these dryer balls are a great strategy to earn money as well as save energy! It also softens clothes at the same time. You can make these dryer balls at home instead of wasting money on them at Amazon. com! I remember in CTY Johns Hopkins University camp that I went to over the summer for 3 weeks I had to sit there and wait for my laundry to be done and it took about an hour to dry, if only I had some dryer balls I could toss in!

Question 1: Do you think Dryer Balls would save families money in the long run?

Question 2: What is the main chemical ingredient in these dryer balls? Explain what it does. ( Hint: click on the link below the picture.)

Question 3: What is another way we can decrease energy used and time spent washing/drying our clothes?

Question 4: Would you invest in dryer balls? Do you think they work?