"Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways" by Emily Kimak

In the article "Cleansing the Air at the Expense of Waterways," discusses the problems and solutions of major air pollution. A coal-fired power plan causes yellow smoke to pour from chimneys in Masontown, PA. It was decided that the plant's air emissions needed to be cleaned up. The technology would spray water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys, trapping more than 150,000 tons of pollutants each year before they escaped into the sky. But, while trying to clean the air, the company has dumped tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater containing chemicals from the scrubbing process into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to 350,000 people and flows into Pittsburgh, 40 miles to the north. So now instead of the air being polluted, the water is polluted. Power plants are the largest producer of toxic waste. “It’s like they decided to spare us having to breathe in these poisons, but now we have to drink them instead,” said Philip Coleman.

This article is important because we need to be informed about the pollution in our world. There are always ways people can help but no one can really control what the power plant is doing. Now that the air is clean, the water is polluted. It is drinking water which is both disgusting and unhealthy. This article can help people realize that littering and using too much gas just contributes to the major pollution like in the Monongahela River. I chose this article because I thought it was interesting how we are helping and hurting our environment at the same time.

This article was well written and interesting. I really liked the quotes and additional details about power plants the article went into. This article would have been better if specific examples of damage from the polluted river were given.

GNP’s glaciers: Going, going . . .

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64674/title/GNP%E2%80%99s_glaciers__Going%2C_going_._._._




This article details the dwindle of glaciers at Glacier Nation Park, Montana. The United States’ tenth national park once had over 150 named glaciers, but due to temperature and climate change that number has dropped to about 25. Additionally, scientists predict that within two decades there will no longer be glaciers at the National park. Scientists blame global warming which has quadrupled the annual number of “extremely hot days” from five days to nearly 20. The summer has also started earlier and ended later in recent years compared to those previous. There are about 20 fewer below freezing days, currently numbering at 170 a year. This means that spring thaws start three weeks earlier than they have in the previous hundred years. Within the past century there has been over a 3 degree increase of annual average temperature, double the warming increase worldwide. The climate change has also lead to flooding, erosion, and longer fires within the park.

This article is important to society because global climate change affects us all and has a plethora of negative impacts. The climate change creates less predictable, more sporadic, and more violent weather, resulting in deadly storms and other natural disasters that burden millions of people. Climate change also means the disappearance of natural landscapes such as the ice fields, or the extinction of those animals living in such environments. Global climate change also affects the populations of certain species, some of which can cause a great deal of harm when left to grow uncontrollably, such as jellyfish in Japan. I chose this article because I am concerned for the well being of the planet and would like to raise awareness to the fact that global climate change is happening, and happening much more quickly than previously anticipated.

The article is well written, clear, and informative. It explains the technical differences in temperatures, comparing current numbers to those of previous years, making points clear. However the article does not elaborate on the science that went into obtaining the figures or what the rate of climate change means for those currently inhabiting the planet, and those who will inhabit the planet for years to come.

BP oil: Gulf sediment at risk, oceanographer claims

            In this article, we learned about the long term effects that the Bp oil spill could have. What I really like about this article is how is presented is how they explain how different researchers from different Universities went to the gulf and did the research first hand. In the article it says, “In her recent month-long cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, University of Georgia oceanographer Samantha Joye identified areas of the seafloor hosting what looks to be substantial amounts of BP oil.” I liked this part of the article because you know that when she went down to the gulf she did her research. Another thing that I found very interesting is how you learn that a lot of the discharge is in the sediments. I found this very interesting because when this happened all you heard about was the oil that floated on the surface. By reading this article it really enhanced my perception of where a lot of the oil went. Finally, I thought it was amazing the new technology they developed. Before this was developed you were able to take about 10-12 measurements a day of the core. Now with this new technology you were able to take thousands of measurements in a day. I found this interesting because it really showed you how new technology helps us out in determining long-term problems.

            This article will affect us in a few ways. One is that the oil will allow for less oxygen to escape. Therefore it will effectively kill all the organisms that are living in the sediments. Another thing is that when storms pass over the areas that contain the oil it will tend to resuspend the oil. This means that every time there are a storm the beaches around the gulf will have oil wash ashore. Also, there could be sediment pollution. The only good thing about this is that the new technology that they developed would be able to map the area of the seafloor and locate these deposits fairly quickly. As a result, they will be able to clean up the floor and get rid of the oil fairly quickly.

I think that there are a couple of ways in which the review could be made better. One of these ways is that they how they came up with the percents. One scientist stated that 50% of the oil in the spill is now in the sediments. What I found disappointing is that they actually don’t tell you how they got this or what they used to get this number. I also didn’t like how they don’t explain how it could harm marine life well. They briefly touch upon that subject and that was about it.

Raloff, Janet. BP oil: Gulf sediment at risk, oceanographer claims. N.p.: n.p., 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2010.

Canada Declares BPA to Be Toxic

          The government of Canada has officially announced that bisphenol A, a chemical that is found in many plastics and house hold appliance is toxic. Bisphenol A is frequently known as BPA, and it has shown to create problems in the hormone system in animals. As of today Europe and the US are still getting research on the topic but Canada has already seen all they need to and officially announced the substance toxic. For the past two years the chemical companies have been fighting this. Different environmental and health activists groups have banned the substance from use in their individual products for infants and young children but people are now proud to say that it is now illegal for use. George M. Enei, the director of general of science and risk assessment at Environmental Canada said that this is only a first step in a long journey to get rid of this chemical for good. Many people are very pro this ban however there are still a lot of lobbyists working for the chemical companies that are fighting it. When BPA is in bottles for infants it can cause serious hormone disruption and long term brain damage. On a positive note, although many countries have not banned the use of BPA because of all the negative publicity for the compound many companies have banned the use of it in their products. This is saving many lives of infants and even adults who normally use bottles like Nalgenes on a regular basis. It has been said that chemicals like BPA can work as endocrine disrupters, and last year the Endocrine Society group stated that endocrine disrupters can cause serious adverse health effects, including harm to the reproductive system, causing malformations, infertility and cancer. In the US about 6 states have already banned this chemical use in children’s products however the federal government has not taken action.

          This problem has a huge connection to our every day lives. This chemical is in many of the plastic bottles and containers that we use every single day. Also, it is highly concentrated in many infant bottles and formulas. This is a big problem because it can ruin the lives of our children causing birth defects and much more. This is not fair and has to be stopped for the sake of humanity. BPA needs to be banned world wide for the sake of our society.

          I thought this article was good and persuasive. It has some very strong points and it says many times the different harmful effects that are possible. This is a good technique because then as you keep reading the article the terrible effects keep being brought up so the reader will not forget about them. Although, this article has many strong points it also has a few negative points. It could have gone into more detail about what the rest of the world is doing about this big issue. The article really only addressed Canada and the US in detail. Furthermore the article was very affirmative and explains to the reader and society the problem at hand and how we need to fix it and come up with solutions.


Works Cited
"Canada Declares BPA to Be Toxic." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 13 Oct. 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. .

"Possible Green Replacement for Asphalt"

Iowa State University. "Possible Green Replacement for Asphalt Derived from Petroleum to Be Tested on Iowa Bike Trail." ScienceDaily 6 October 2010. 6 October 2010 .

The article is about a professor at Iowa State University, Christopher Williams, a professor of civil construction and environmental engineering, who was doing an experiment to see if adding bio-oil to asphalt would improve the pavement of the roads in either hot or cold conditions. Williams found a green alternative for asphalt in this process, which derived from petroleum. They are going to further test this substance on the Des Moines bicycle trail by paving part of the trail with this substance called Bioasphalt. Asphalt mixtures derived from plants and trees could replace petroleum-based mixes. That could create a new market for Iowa crop residues. It could be a business opportunity for Iowans. And it saves energy and money because Bioasphalt can be mixed and paved at lower temperatures than conventional asphalt. Bio-oil is created by a thermochemical process called fast pyrolysis. Corn stalks, wood wastes or other types of biomass are quickly heated without oxygen. The process produces a liquid bio-oil that can be used to manufacture fuels, chemicals and asphalt plus a solid product called biochar that can be used to enrich soils and remove greenhouses gases from the atmosphere. "This demonstration project is a great opportunity," he said. "We're introducing a green technology into a green environment in Des Moines. And it's a technology that's been developed here in Iowa." Everyone is really excited about this project and if all goes well in the test, there will be more tests with higher and higher amounts of Bioasphalt contained in them.

The article was important to society because as a whole we are all trying to become green one step at a time and this asphalt alternative is a perfect way to continue the path to a greener planet. Also, this alternative would be better economically and would be better in rough conditions such as intense heat or the intense cold. I chose this article because I believe in converting the planet to greener habits in all aspects of life and this article exemplified that conversion that I believe in.

I felt the article could have been more informative about how Williams came upon this alternative source of asphalt because it just briefly mentions his experiment, but no real technical explanation. Also, I felt the article was too brief and could have had much more information about how this could affect roads across the country or across the world, all the author talked about was that it would help out the state of Iowa a lot, when he makes no comment about how it could affect the country.

Aiming to Learn As We Do, A Computer Teaches Itself

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/science/05compute.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print

Computers are better than humans at specific tasks, but most computers are not as effective at jobs that require nuanced thinking. Semantics, understanding the meaning of language, is incredibly difficult for computers, because they not only have to learn the words, but understand them based on context and knowledge. Computers do not have the accumulated database that the human brain does. However, at Carnegie Mellon University, researchers are working on a computer that understands language like a human. The Never Ending Language Learning system, NELL, has scanned millions of Internet web sites, learned about 390,000 facts with a very high accuracy rate (87%) and grouped the facts into one of 280 categories. It has also learned about relations between different categories. Many computers have become faster and are leading to progress, but NELL is different-most learning systems are passive, NELL is automated. NELL is supposed to define words in different contexts, and it corrects itself when it learns more information. NELL occasionally needs help from humans, such as when it assumed that “Internet cookies” were baked goods and thus thought “files” were baked goods as well, but someday it may run completely independently.

This article is extremely relevant. Computers become more and more important every day, and if a computer were to learn independently, it would be a huge step forward for technology. Voice recognition software can help the computer perform different, more ambiguous tasks. This could end up becoming one of the most important technologies available. Computers that understand language could conduct more sophisticated search engines. Computers could become “personal assistants” in many different fields, answering sophisticated questions about medicine, the news, and various other topics.

While I thought this article was extremely interesting, there was a little too much detail as to how NELL relates text phrases to each other. This article took a worthwhile topic and presented it in an understandable way without too much technical language. I enjoyed learning about some of NELL’s different categories that it places subjects in and how an independent computer categorizes things. I would have liked to have learned more about the future of this research and what other applications they envisioned for this type of computer learning. Overall, this was a very important and interesting article, and I hope that we can learn more about NELL’s progress.