Page history last edited by Bill Kovarik11 mos ago
The First Paper
Miriam Sahagún Arcila of Universidad Autonomo de Campeche in Mexico spoke to a group of Virginia Tech and Radford students on Sept. 23rd about sustainable tourism in Campeche.
LABEL LEAD -- Start with what she said // Also give us some idea of what the controversy is about withGroupo Mall...
“I don’t believe in environmental activism,” said Arcila. “I believe in environment education.”
Arcila said she did not believe in stopping the construction of Campeche Playa Bahia Resort, but hoped Groupo Mall would take environmental responsibility for the displaced animals and the natural environment for the hawksbill turtle to lay its eggs.
Reader has very little context for this paragraph
“Elementary, secondary and high school students are required to have environmental education,” stated Arcila.
The main concern was with the elders of the area, many of the younger people in the community supported the decision to preserve endangered species.
Reader has very little context for this paragraph
After educating a large part of the community, more people had joined the march and protest to help save the endangered species in the area this resort is being built. The amount of people joining in this protest went from 50 to 8,000 in eight years.
Reader has very little context for this paragrap
“They need [to teach] environmental consciousness to the tourists,” Arcila pointed out.
She wants the tourists of the area to have the same respect for the animals as the residents.Arcila said that the tourists should have to take a class and be prepared to help maintain the natural conditions for this endangered turtle to lay eggs and preserve the species.
The hawksbill turtle is a critically endangered species. Critically endangered means that a species numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations. For more information http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/hawksbill.htm.
The Second Paper (It was written on
12-9-08 and the solution was adopted)
Since 2006, the Town of Blacksburg has been trying to improve on environmental sustainability. Town Council has met commitments of reducing gas emissions and has a resolution waiting to be signed to reduce emissions again.
Lead with what's news
According to the United States Department of Energy, fossil fuels supply 85 percent of the nation's energy. Projects such as pollution-free coal plants, more productive oil and gas fields, and the continuing readiness of federal emergency oil stockpiles has become a priority.
Lead with what's news
In late 2006, the Blacksburg Town Council signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The agreement had a commitment of 7 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012.
Lead with what's news
The Mayor’s Task Force on Climate Protection & Sustainability was formed in January 2007 to implement changes assuring the agreement was fulfilled. The task force consists of 14 members, including university and community representatives.
Lead with what's news
“We have made several changes thus far to reduce gas emissions. The town has purchased hybrid vehicles , used LEED technologies in construction projects and installed energy efficient light in buildings,”
said Kelly Mattingly, Director of Public Works. ”We have also revised zoning and stormwater management regulations for low impact development.”
So actually, the story is that the DPW reported on progress to the board. why not lead with that?
The Town Council meets today to vote on the resolution for a new target for gas emissions. If approved, this will be the most aggressive target set by a government agency in the United States.
Why didnt you just go to the meeting and find out what the vote was?
“It is important that we adopt this resolution,” said Mayor Ron Rordam. “We're being aggressive. And I'll say more aggressive than the state of Virginia. “
The Town Council has drafted a resolution based on the task force’s recommendation. The resolution has a greenhouse gas emission reduction target of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
“We have worked on this target and believe it can be met,” said John Randolph, Professor of Urban Planning and Task Force Member. “If we put forth the same effort in addition to the new policies it is possible.”
According to the resolution, Town of Blacksburg will annually monitor and measure key indicators of community energy use, such as electricity consumption, natural gas consumption, and vehicle miles traveled for gasoline consumption.Also the town will measure energy consumption resulting from town operations and will determine the resultant greenhouse gas emissions.
The Mayor’s Task Force on Climate Protection and Sustainability will provide an annual report to the Council on progress towards meeting the greenhouse gas emission reduction target.
The community involvement is vital to help make these changes. The town will try to provide the help to residents who want to be a part of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The Town Council meeting will begin at 7:30pm and is open to the public.
In a recent study conducted by Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, states that the most promising source of energy is wind and water.
Why not interview Virginia Tech professors?
Jacobson had done the first quantitative scientific evaluation on the energy-related solutions that have been proposed. The research included the potential energy for electricity and cars as well as the impact on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability. Research indicates that the energy solutions getting the most attention are causing 25 to 1,000 times more pollution than other available options.
You cant approach Stanford's hype uncritically. Sorry.
The research Jacobson has done indicates that cellulosic ethanol is worse than corn ethanol based on the amount of air pollution, requiring more land to produce and causes damage to wildlife. Also he says that ethanol based biofuels will cause more harm to human health, wildlife, water supply and land use than current fossil fuels.
And you believe this uncritically? Fossil fuels are BETTER for the environment than ethanol? I am very skepitcal of this. I downloaded the papers and I noted that in his Table S4, the actual results of the model did not seem to correspond with the conclusion. In particular, I worry that the BTX group, which decreases by 80 precent from gasoline to E-85, represents the high end of risk, and by claiming that ethanol is worse, he is aggregating high and low risk factors. It seems to me that we need to ask him about this...
Wind will have more than 99 percent reduction in carbon and air pollution. It will consume less than three square kilometers of land for the turbine to run the U.S vehicle fleet if the fleet was made up battery-electric vehicles. It will save about 15,000 lives from premature air pollution related deaths from vehicle exhaust in relation to corn and cellulosic ethanol. The wind turbine would require about .5 percent of U.S. land to allow space for the blades but is still more than 30 times less that the land required for growing corn or grass for ethanol.
This doesnt make the first bit of sense. You need to check your facts and accurately transmit information, first, and then critically evaluate it. So 3 sq km of land will run our vehicle fleets?
Some people are under the impression that wind and wave power are too variable, but Jacobson’s prior research shows that by coordinating the energy output from wind farms in different locations the variability will can be bypassed and the baseline power can be delivered to users.
Satellites have shown a new region of the magnetosphere. The sixth region of the magnetosphere is a warm plasma cloak surrounding the Earth. This cloak may have been the prediction scientists were waiting for.
This cloak starts on the night side of the planet and wraps around the day side, but disappears on the afternoon side. It only reaches about three quarter of the way around the planet. Low energy particle lifted from the Earth charge this cloak. They are carried behind the Earth in its magnetic tail then pulled 180 degrees by magnetic fields that take the particles back toward the Earth in a region called the plasma sheet.
Charles Chappell and his colleagues used the satellite images to measure the ions in different locations in the magnetosphere. Dominique Delcourt developed a computer program to predict the movement of the ions in the Earth’s magnetic field. Delcourt has revealed a mathematical code to predict where they go as they bounce, drift and spiral.
When this code was applied for the first time the patterns became clear. One of these predictions was the ions moving from the ionosphere to form the plasma cloak they have found surrounding the Earth.
The prior research work has been published online on September 4, 2008 by the Journal of Geophysical Research.
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