Thursday, April 8, 2010

"Where I LIved, and What I Lived For" by Henry David Thoreau


"Where I Lived, and What Lived For" by H.D. Thoreau is a philosophical composition about our life and world. A writer affirms that people live in a hurry. They aimlessly live fast and they don't get the good things from their life. H.D Thoreau asks people "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry"(Henry David Thoreau, 1849). He tells that all our businesses are unnecessary thing, and we should not spend time for it. I disagree with H.D. Thoreau. Of course, we live in a hurry now; but 21 century is now. High technology, the computers, job are around us. It is our life. We should work and study to live, to succeed. Our life is too short and we should live in hurry. Perhaps, this life spoils us, but we don't have other choice. I think nobody wants to live in the wood; in the wood our life will be slow, but we will not live happily. We need this life, because we don't have another one. I read about people who went to the wood and lived there, but they were not happy. Their life has not become better. Therefore, we should not reject our life; If one day we wish to live in piece and quietness, we may leave this busy life for the forest. Though, there is no point in staying there forever.

Henry David Thoreau, (1849), "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,"50 essays, p.424-430

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Nuclear Power Generation in California, 1965 through 2005, Million Kilowatt Hours


California is really amazing “energy” state. I was surprised when I recognized about many generators in this state. In the my first post I told about California offshore wind generators and I was interested by it; and now I have chosen this chart to show statistics of nuclear energy generation of California plants from 1965 to 2005 years. You can see the union statistics of these plants in California. From 1965 to 1985 only some pants were in California, therefore the level of energy was minimal. When more plants was built, electricity generation increased. Every year the changing of generation happen, because it is difficult to maintain stability of nuclear energy; but nowadays, thanks to high technology, generation energy has the highest level.
The nuclear plants are very useful for economy of the USA and for people, but also these plants are one of the most environmentally unfriendly ways of getting energy; and we should handle with care with this power.
link: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/states/statesca.html

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Energy Calculator


My energy use is approximately 14434 kWh per year. I spent about 6 kWh/yr for light and appliances and about 8 kWn/yr for. I guess this is good electric energy consumption. I live with my friend and we try to save energy. This is good for us and our environment. As for carbon, my carbon footprint is approximately 15 tonnes per year. The USA average footprint is 23.6 tonnes per year. I think my result is good. Now I don't have a car and therefore flow of CO2 is minimal. The environmental conservation is very important thing and our life, and we should contribute to save environmental. Energy savings and increasing of gas level is good beginning.

Classmates Energy Respone

http://aaliyahsmama.blogspot.com/

The Dangers Of Energy Drinks
When I was young I liked energy drinks very much. I drank it very often, and I even didn't know about harm of these drinks. I watched advertising and thought it is cool and tasty drink. It was mistake. Sometimes, after drinking of energy drink, I felt shaky. I couldn't guess that it was energy drink. After that I began to read the articles about energy drink. I was surprised by beverage composition. A lot of toxic ingredients were in this drink. It is really bad for our organism. After reading this post, I remembered my bad experience with energy drink; and now I newer use it. This is good blog to show people how you can spoil your health because of energy drink. You can read about all dangers for your health and you will not drink it if you want to be healthy.

"The Use of Energy" by Wendell Berry


"The Use of Energy" is an unusual essay which makes us to remember about past times, when people, not having high technology, could have agriculture and housekeep. In this essay we can see good comparison between past time and present time. People begin to forget about time when people lived without the computers, cars, electricity, and other equipment; the author involves us to this topic and makes to think about it. For instance, Wendell Berry tells about agriculture in that time; people didn’t have special vehicles to farm, but it wasn’t impediment for people. Now agriculture is more easier occupation; we have all equipments. According to Wendell Berry, to use a team of horse or mules or oxen is more difficult than to use a tractor, and it is more difficult to learn to manage an animal (Wendell Berry,(1986), p. 92, 93). This is really veracious statement. An animal is like a person, and we should care about animal. As for machines, they don’t need it. Today we don’t get use to live without technologies, it is impossible for us. But not all people use technologies. Amish are people who disown high technology. Perhaps, it is one people who don’t use it, and it deserves a respect. Not every person can do it. Technology is our life. We can not live without it even one day, and, unfortunately, we begin to forget our past and life without technologies.
I can but agree with Wendell Berry. Of course, a growth of technology is important for our life, but we shouldn’t merge fully to it. I think, sometimes we should reject computers or cars and remember how perfectly to live without technologies.

Wendell Berry, (1986), The Use of Energy(chapter six).

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Energy is Air pollution


At times, people inventing new types of energy don't think about pollution; but it is a really big problem in our days. Global warming, contamination of water, and air pollution harm our environment. In this post, I would like to tell about the problem of air pollution. Nuclear power plants are not only a good source of energy, but also a source of pollution, mostly air pollution. Air pollution brings big discomfort for people: a lot of diseases, acid rain, and destruction of nature. For example, In Gong Kong, pollution level is the highest in the world, and a lot of people suffer because of it. A lot of hazardous substances are dropped into atmosphere. One of them is CO2(carbon dioxide), which is a cause of global warming. Eventually, in The USA about 4.6 millions people have problems with health because of air pollution. The government tries to do something to improve this situation: construction of new ecological plants, or exploring of new technologies. The scientists predicted that in future air pollution can achieve a critical point, and acid rain can destroy everything. Therefore we should struggle with this problem now to avoid bad consequences in future.

Newspaper: Science daily, 2009, p. 23
links: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/air_pollution.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/science/earth/23hong.html

Marine Energy UK

The UK is a great-developed country. It uses the newest generators of getting energy. The marine power generators, which were invented most recently, play important role in the economy of the UK. A lot of marine power companies are placed in this country, and the government invests much money in this technology. Thanks to great energy production, these generators are fixed near shore, on the depth of 10 meters. (The picture below show system of these generators.) The big screws are put in motion by the waves. Thanks to twist of screws, the generators produce energy. The cost of one chain of generators is 225 millions dollars but this warrants.
Nowadays, the UK scientists develop new carbon technologies for marine power generators. This can help to increase the productivity of these "farms of energy."















David Appleyard, ( 4 august 2009), magazine: Renewable Energy World International
link: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/08/marine-energy-uk

Nuclear plants can stimulate the US economy.


"Nuclear plants are the most capital-intensive investments made in the utility sector, and they produce millions of times more power in terms of energy flux density than any other power source. "(Marsha Freeman, 2009, p. 42)
Nuclear energy is the good way to overcome the crisis. Nowadays 104 nuclear plants are inside the US, including 28 new plants. Nuclear energy is a very important resource for the USA, but furthermore, it is very dangerous. One nuclear plant can produce 600 millions megawatt energy hourly, but misoperation of nuclear system can destroy everything, how it was in Chernobyl. Here there was Chernobyl Atomic Power Station where in April of 1986 the reactor blew up. It was dreadful accident.
The nuclear energy is used by people in the future projects, for instance, fuel for a space vehicle. After a thirty-year break, the US government resumed the construction of nuclear plants to stabilize the economy and get more energy. It is obvious that the government don't forget about the protection of nature, because nuclear plants are one of the most environmentally unfriendly thing. Millions of dollars are spent on the developing of new ecological reactors for plants.
If the scientists develop nuclear technology, The USA will not have lack of energy.

Marsha Freeman, Spring 2009, Magazine "21st Century Science & Technology", p.42-49

link: http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2009/Stimulate_Nucl_sp09.pdf

Friday, April 2, 2010

Solar Power will make a difference.


Humanity tries to develop new types of energy, for example, wind, solar, or hydrogen energy. In this post I would like to tell about developing of solar energy. A lot of energy resources are limited. As for solar energy, Earth can get limitless solar power from the sun and people use this opportunity. We use solar power to "produce electricity without releasing any
greenhouse gases."(Cass, Stephen,Sep/Oct2009, p93) Europeans have already installed a solar roof to get electricity from the sun; but this way of getting electricity is not cheap. The scientists explore new and cheap ways to get solar power: silicon based photovoltaics. We will use these technologies only in future. Besides, in future humanity will be able to use solar cells out of organic polymers and harnessing solar energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen will appear. It will be nano-technologies which change our world. If the USA explore these technologies, Americans can forget about the electricity problems.

Cass, Stephen,Technology Review(Sep/Oct2009); Vol. 112 Issue 5, p93-94, 2p, 1 Color Photograph, 1 Graph
link: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.consortiumlibrary.org/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=9&sid=fa0aa06d-3def-4736-a58f-0530a9ac3f30%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=43820717#db=aph&AN=43820717

Thursday, April 1, 2010

My opinion. What kind of energy is the best?


There are a lot of kinds of energy in the world: solar, electrical, mechanical, and wind. It is very hard to understand what type of energy is the best. I think, wind energy is the best one. This type of energy is the safest one; it is also ecologically clean. It has a lot of advantages,for example,it is a great source of energy generation. But it has some disadvantages: problems when there is zero wind, and high price of generator. Such countries as China, the USA, European countries, Japan, Russia, and some countries of South America use wind energy. I think that scientists will develop this type of energy and in the future we will be able to see more developed wind generators.
This is good video about wind energy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQxp6QTjgJg