Energy Education Initiatives Stalled

Here's the opening from a NYT "Dot Earth" blog post--click on the title above to read the whole post at "Dot Earth":

"While the political fight over the now-vivid  environmental threat attending offshore oil drilling plays out, it remains clear that the country’s lawmakers are not remotely engaged in the  multi-pronged energy quest that would be required to move the world toward a non-polluting, yet prosperous future.
One vital prong is education. So far, Congress — even with Democrats in control — has refused to support President Obama’s repeated call for a modest investment in education initiatives that could help produce the skilled workforce required to undertake a sustained push on advancing and disseminating promising energy technologies. Last year, Congress largely rebuffed Obama’s request for $115 million for the program, called  Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge. He’s trying again, this time seeking $74 million in the 2011 budget."

Elizabeth Kolbert

Thanks to all for an excellent discussion this morning.  We ran out of time to discuss the "Afterword" for the (late) 2009 paperback edition, so if you have some further thoughts--or thoughts you just didn't get a chance to express this morning--please add them here.  And perhaps you've been thinking about our overall discussion, and realize you have some things you'd like to add.  Here's the opportunity!

Click on Kolbert's name to see an interesting interview with her from 2006.

Rachel Carson

I'd like to hear your initial reactions to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.  You may choose to respond with any thoughts you had about your parents'/grandparents' lives during the time the documentary covers (say, immediately post WWII to 1963).  You may also post on any specific things from the documentary that provoked a response in you.  Let's stay focused on Carson/her book for now.

PS: If you're curious about children's books on Rachel Carson, try this Amazon.com link; it goes to one specific book, but then also shows other related books.

Heifer International Building

I went on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage over spring break and one of our stops was the Heifer International Building, one of the most sustainable buildings I've ever seen in my life. I've been meaning to upload these pictures for a little while. Basically they built the building extremely narrow so that natural light could be use to light the majority of the building. Similarly, the LED lights used to light the areas of the building that do not receive enough natural light sense how much light is in the room and become correspondingly more or less dim to save energy. They also collect rainwater to use in toilets, etc. where they don't need actual city water to save water resources. They have their heating vents in the floor to allow for more efficient heating and cooling. The carpeting is recycled and made in squares so that if any needs to be replaced it can be replaced one square at a time to save money and resources. These are just a few of the things I remember from the building and I actually submitted a few for the new Davies Center, but I thought some of it was really cool and you guys might be interested.

Nuclear option?

While I realize this maybe a sensitive topic to some, I was recently introduced to a new and inovative method using nuclear power on a small scale, like for a community or in our case, a university. The company is called Hyperion Power Generation.........

"Founded in 2007, Hyperion Power Generation Inc. is a privately held company that was formed to commercialize a small modular nuclear reactor designed by Los Alamos National Laboratory (“LANL”) scientists leveraging forty years of technological advancement. The reactor, known as the Hyperion Power Module (“HPM”), was designed to fill a previously unmet need for a transportable power source that is safe, clean, sustainable, and cost-efficient."

I believe we often tend to immediately dismiss nuclear power as too costly and unsafe but I would like you all to consider the idea, even if briefly. Check out their website I linked and particularly the tabs "Why Nuclear?" and "Quick Facts Sheet".

Just for some balence, I also suggest you visit Nature.com and read "Nuclear Energy: Assessing the Emissions" where Kurt Kleiner reports on whether nuclear power deserves its reputation as a low-carbon energy source.

This could be an alternative to our coal fired heating plant and would most likely, vastly reduce our UW-Eau Claire carbon footprint.

I am very interested in your thoughts.

Of Cardboard and Cow Farts

Hey, everyone!

I was just bopping around on the internet and found this article on a green design contest. The link is in the title. The article itself is about a year old, but I had never heard of the winning designs. It's short, interesting, and applicable to our class. I hope you enjoy it!

For Robyn and Isaac especially!

We were wondering exactly how you calculated the offset for the Waste-to-Energy program. It says "To calculate the offset of Veolia Environmental services Waste-to-Energy program, figures for the campus' tons of garbage were collected and were first input into the CACPCCC as if the waste were disposed of into a landfill instead of through the program...This value was then again put into the CACPCCC to generate carbon emissions generated within the Waste-to-Energy program." As far as inputing these goes, can you perform a calculation in solely one area of the calculator without having any other data in there? Thanks!