Given the recent push for renewable energy courses, restricting emissions through a cap-and-trade policy, and just good sense conserving energy in general, does anyone include energy conservation issues in their curriculum? I mentioned in another thread how a friend of mine working for a multinational company decided to join a start-up venture in the field of renewable energy. About 15 years ago, young entrepreneurs and ambitious managers in America flocked to the wireless telephone industry because it was where the action was. We can all see how that industry flourished. Now I'm seeing talented people move into the renewable energy market, so this is going to become a hot topic in the next decade. Is there anything we can do to prepare our children for this and help them become leaders in this field? Personally, I can think of several things that could be folded into lessons: 1) Math. If everyone gets one more mpg from their car, how many barrels of oil would be saved in one year? If your family switches to a hybrid car, how much money would it cost to buy the car, and how much money would you save every year in gas? If you run one trip to two stores instead of making two trips (one to each store), how much gas would you save? 2) Physics. In what ways could you save energy in the home and which would have the most impact? (i) Use curtains in winter to keep in the heat (I calculated this one years ago and it's actually more cost-effective than double-glazing). (ii) Use fluorescent bulbs instead of regular bulbs in every room. (iii) Turn off the lights when you leave a room. (iv) Increase the SEER rating on the air conditioner. (v) Having a light gray roof instead of a black roof. Why does each of these strategies work? 3) Environment. What causes smog in the world's major cities? Which are the world's most polluted and most healthy cities? Why is the temperature higher in cities and cooler in the countryside? What can be done to make the air more breathable? Would it help to plant more trees? 4) Chemistry. What does it take to make one of the plastic bags we're given at the supermarket checkout? What chemicals are required and what waste is produced? What would be the impact of everyone you know using a traditional cloth shopping bag instead of asking for plastic bags? 5) Biology. What chemicals are used to kill bugs and weeds in your back yard? What natural remedies are there that could achieve the same result? What other creatures are affected by your actions? How pure is the water that comes through your faucet (if you're like us, the county sends an annual report about it)? How different is the water in your local river from the water you drink at home? Is this good or bad for creatures living in the river?
LOL...yeah, I call it Fox News and Glenn Beck. :lol: Seriously though, I am an Environmental Protection Speicalist and I teach college Environmental Science online - so I know enough about what's going on to not want to gonna expose my kids to the crap they call "environmentalism" these days. It is all politics and power (and not "power" as in P= VI). When I go do my inspections all I see are wind blades being trucked all over Colorado and if I have to go to another "green jobs" meeting I'm gonna puke. Meanwhile the Governor has people come in to talk to us about how great it is that "we are all Socialists" and wouldn't it be cool to pay 70-80% in taxes so we could be like Sweden? (That was a REAL meeting and those words WERE said - if I hadn't been teleconferencing for that one, I'm not sure I could have hid my shock and digust). I can't wait to vote my "boss" out of a job...I love the Earth as much as anyone and I want our planet to be clean, but I'll be da**ed if I will make a bunch of politicians rich in the process.
The Earth and its future is very important to my family so I am glad to see this posted here. I plan to continue what I have been doing which is finding a way to work conservation & environmentalism into every subject we cover which is in addition to the 2 weeks we spend every Spring concentrating only on the Earth & environment.
I'm sensing a teesy bit of political bias, Steve. What would be the impact of everyone you know using a traditional cloth shopping bag instead of asking for plastic bags? Oh, I know that one! More children in China stitching them together with their teeth because their hands melted in solvents Wait... I don't know them. Shoot, I guess they don't count
My kids learned alot about energy last year when I taught Physics. We LOVED it! I am not into the whole Go Green thing...however, renewable energy is just plain smart..not only is it better for us it could free us from foreign dependence. At any rate, we had a great time with it. I haven't decided what science to teach for next year yet..lol and time is getting close. HOwever, conservation is not a main focus...it just happened to fit in...so I am not actively teaching it.
I've come around to that conclusion. As a scientist, I don't believe global warming is man-made - because it's been happening on Venus, Mars, the moons of Saturn, and elsewhere. In other words, it seems our Sun is the cause. So, I don't buy all the scare-mongering and nonsense about polar bears. On the other hand, it's either cap-and-trade or "cap in hand" to some of the world's worst dictators. What really caught my attention was that friend quitting a very well-paid job to join a start-up company in this field. That pointed out to me the importance of this topic for job seekers in a few years' time. Anyway, thinking about the impact to the environment of what we do is plain good stewardship.
I agree. I don't think being a bit green will put grass stains on your white robe given to you from the Lord. lol. I think we need to be smart. Be a good steward without worshipping mother nature. After all, Adam was to care for the earth, right? Of course this speaks more to Christians who find conflich with the environmentalism and science more than anything else. We just can't fall for lies and always know the world is God's and it will end when He decides it ends. However, in the meantime we need to be a good steward of what He has blessed us with. Yet again I am speaking from a Christain point of view...sorry I have no other one..lol. Have you ever seen the brand Seventh Generation? The inspiration came from an native american saying about thinking of how what you do will effect up to the next 7 generations. I think that's wise advice in so many areas of life. Okay..I am so off topic again..sorry!
Isn't this what they are doing in public schools? I am of two minds on this. I am all for protecting the environment, but at the same time I think while many Americans on patting themselves on the back because we are now green minded, they are turning blind eye to the fact that much of what we are doing is just tucking away our "polluting" in other countries that don't care as long as they make money from our high-minded idealism on keeping pollution out of our own little corner of the world. We are still importing goods made in countries without any enforced pollution restrictions and people working in appalling conditions. Most of what we are doing is just promoting--yes, I said promoting--pollution somewhere else rather than our own backyard. It is kind of like the drilling for oil issue. We are fine with someone else drilling in their country and then buying it from them, taking higher risks of oil spills from ships, and so on, but not drilling on our own soil. Sadly, I find much of this going green thing to be full of hypocrisy. I wish it were not so. I really do.
Actually, try that one from a biology standpoint: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/...grocery-bags-may-pose-public-health-risk.aspx
There are some very selfish reasons for being "green" -We recycle metal at our house because we can get cash for it. -We drive my husband's 1991 ford ranger because it gets better mpg (average 30) then my 2005 chevy aveo (average 19) to save money. -We use reusable shopping bags so I don't have to figure out what to do with those darn plastic ones they keep trying to give me. Those things are everywhere and we are still finding them in the house...lol. -We buy things and support second hand things because I see what people throw away we are proffessional trash pickers in our house and when you go into a rich neighborhood they will throw something away because it doesn't fit the decor. example we picked up a 52 inch flat screen tv, they threw it away because it wasn't hd ready. When they saw us pick it up I asked them if it worked they said "yeah it works just isn't hd ready." so I said jokingly, "it would have been easier to get a converter box." the guy said "don't need one we have cable." So we ended up with a 52in tv in our living room and all we had to get was a $7 remote for it. It is wasteful, but it always manages to put green in our pocket....lol. Most of what we do isn't to save the enviroment it is to make ends meet. Scrapping metal puts food on the table (however not as much since the price of metal went down), better mpgs keeps green in our wallets. Turning off and switching light bulbs saved a bit on the electric bill. So it is benefitial. Our bill dropped about $10 now that we don't have the TV on nonstop plus there is less noise in the house. If you really want a kid to see why things like recycling are good then take them on a tour of a trash dump. That right there will bring it home. When my parents lived right outside of columbus ohio in grove city in the mid 90's they passed something that allowed them to turn beautiful farm land into a city dump. It was supposed to last 30-50 years, it was going to be great. It was filled to the top last year. Took only about 12-15 years to do so. So now a company has come in and started recycing the trash in the dump to make more room. Doesn't matter wheather you believe in global warming or not. Recycling means less trash and less trash is always a good thing.
This is a doubled edged sword in my opinion - the public accepts this trend (based on man-made global warming) because let's face it, if you say something often enough it becomes pop culture, and everyone knows pop-culture is true! This leads to governmental policies favoring "green" companies, which leads to large corporations making huge sums of money from "green" contracts. I have no problem with start-up companies, my cousin made millions off the environment in the 90's, so I get it and obviously students are flocking to this area or I would not have a job. But when GE stops making light bulbs and starts making wind turbines because they know cap and trade is coming, and add in the fact that they have been "appointed" by the president to oversee this process, that is collusion.
It really depends on how it's done. Many people are proposing a smart grid in this country from which we can both draw power and sell power. In other words, if we invest in solar panels or small wind turbines on our own land, we could produce energy and sell it to a utility. Compare that with today's approach where we're dependent on just three oil distribution centers across the country and oil coming from unfriendly regimes. I'd say such an entrepreneurial approach to new forms of energy would be fantastic. It's what the American spirit is all about! Just imagine what fun our children could have learning about futuristic approaches to meeting our energy needs. If they understand how much we consume today, how much we could save by doing things differently, and how we can all do something to solve this problem (including generate our own energy), they'll be well-prepared to meet the challenges of the next few decades.
Those hybrid cars are neat but not practical where I live. We are one hour from anywere and in order to get out of our valley we have to travel over very high mtn. passes (1of 3). Practical? No!
I woudl love to have a wind turbine on my property if only to power my well when the power went out but it won't run 5 computers! :lol: Not to mention incubators!
Our brilliant governor made us purchase natural gas cars for the state fleet - meanwhile I have to travel 600+ miles every time I go out and do my inspections and half of the fleet is unavailable for me because there are no naturla gas gas stations on the eastern plaines of Colorado. All I want is a Jeep man, can't they just buy me a Jeep so when I get stuck in a mudhole I can at least get myself out? We have have a few Pruises (not sure how to make Prius plural??) now - but come on - how to you 4by in a Prius! My producers actaully laugh when I brign that thing out to the farms. Though they were pleasantly surprised at the trunk room.... :shock:
I went in to pay our water/sewer bill and saw a new face in the town hall. The lady told me that our town is trying to get a solar farm to light the town hall and other govt. buildings in town and hopefully expand to the citizens. I think that would be great!
Our vehicles that work in our landfills in part of our town run on methane. I think it is great, we actually truck up our methane and send it to CA. I think we should use it here instead of send it across the country. I think that government buildings and other large public buildings should be required to have solar panels on them, it may not power them fully but it would help especially since they are often closed on holidays and summers (schools) they could send that electric back out on the grid for others to use. JMO
But tossing your reusable bags into the laundry with your towels isn't hard to do and will continue to lessen the amount of plastic clogging the landfills. Heck, even a really good spray down with Lysol every time you are going to go shopping will cut down on a lot of the bacteria. Also, using plastic bags only for foods that can cause food born illnesses then using reusable for the rest of your foods will still drastically reduce the number of bags just sitting in the landfills. I also do not believe global warming is a man made problem. Around the turn of the century (1900's) people had made up their minds that the reason the temperature was increasing was due to the methane gas produced by cows and even slaughtered a lot of the herds to try and bring down the temp's. As far as I am concerned, I believe our planets warming could be two different reasons: 1) Our environment may just have ebs and flows - getting hotter then colder and back to hotter; and/or 2) I remember being taught in elementary school, that the Earth and the rest of the planets are constantly being "pulled" closer to the Sun. Not in increments we notice but after a long time, when compared to data we have from the past we notice the change. If this is true (this was taught to me in the early 80's so I think it may be time to do a little research) no matter what we do we will continue to get hotter and hotter, but if evolution is true we should be able to evolve over time to ensure life doesn't die out.
free stuff here: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/education/kids/planetprotectors/ http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/ordermad-ms.htm
