Peer reviewed annotated sources

Biodiversity

"Climate change, species–area curves and the extinction crisis — Philosophical Transactions B ." The Royal Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

"By 2050, doom 15–37% of the earth's species to extinction".

That's scary, up to 37% of earth's species can be extinct by 2050. This peer reviewed source focuses on an article written in January 2004 that focuses on Earth species becoming extinct, Extinction crisis. It's said that habitat change and modification are what's causing extinction. This source includes information about the SAR (Species–Area Relationship) Method and how it relates to climate change, causes of extinction, and suggestions he has about ecologist. Mostly includes a lot of information about the SAR method and it's application, if it's reliable.

"University of California Press - Error." University of California Press - Error. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

"(1) models that consider species individually, (2) niche-theory models that group species by habitat (more specifically, by environmental conditions under which a species can persist or does persist), (3) general circulation models and coupled ocean–atmosphere–biosphere models, and (4) species–area curve models that consider all species or large aggregates of species."

These four forecasting methods are discussed in the article. In this article they mainly focus on the forecast and how it is affecting different kinds of species. Since the forecast is considered one of the effects of Global Warming. It is said that although we had an ice age very few species actually became extinct, so this article claims to clarify that and give more accurate and reliable forecasting.

A great map that describes where and what kinds of species are being affected.





















Source
"Animals Under Siege - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. ."

Some major environmental issues that are included in this map are, climate change, overpopulation, and deforestation.

"From 1990 to 2005, the world lost 172 million acres of forest"

By participating in deforestation and cutting down thousands of trees effects the species and habitats living around it. So by cutting down trees we are slowly killing species and many habitats.

"The warming of the planet could put as much as 70% of species at a greater risk of extincction-with Artic animals like the polar bear potentially among the first to go".

We wonder what will happen if the polar bear does go extinct? How bad can it possibly be?But all animals have a role in the ecosystem, all are important. I believe it would not have a sudden affect but it would eventually disrupt the food chain, which would eventually lead to greater issues.

Nate Lewis Presentation

After watching the first half hour or son of Nate Lewis' presentation, I felt like there was so much to gain from it. I believe he has a lot to say and prove. You can see that he truly supports his claims and wants what's best for our environment. He says that this problem will not be fixable without the help of new technology. There needs to be some sort of technology break through. Lewis also talks about how he believes climate change is affecting our earth. He says that an increase of rain pour, corals are being bleached, and glaciers are retracting.

What I think makes his presentation so strong is that he has evidence to support everything he says. The evidence is not only in pie charts or bar graphs but before/after photographs. He also includes evidence in each of these categories, past,present, & future. I thought his presentation was fairly easy to understand because he had some sort of visual to add to it.

Energy Consumption

What's the problem?
We are basically emitting way too much CO2 into our atmosphere and energy is one of the top CO2 producers. Energy used in our house is one of the major producers as well as transportation. The more we keep living our lives not taking action about our energy consumption, then we are going to destroy our earth.

Where our energy currently comes from
Energy contributes to global warming by the burning of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels come from remains of prehistoric plankton and algae that has taken very long to settle to the bottom of the ocean. These are then burned up and used to power multiple things through out the world.


(Image taken from, http://www.thehcf.org/emaila5.html)

As you can see in the graph above a majority of our C02 emissions are being emitted from cars and other types of transportation. I think if we find alternative fuel to power our transportation we can significantly reduce the amount of C02 thats being emitted into the air.


Finding Alternatives
Scientist have conducted many test and came up with a list of alternative fuel options. Bio-Diesel, Bio-Alcohol, Hydrogen, Liquid Nitrogen, and the most famous alternative Vegetable oil. Another alternative would be filtering out harmful emissions that come from major power plants.

-Bio-Diesel can also be known as Biofuel. This fuel and comes from 100% renewable source, and consist of vegetable oil and animal fat. The process that the oil goes through is called, transesterfication. During this process glycerin is removed from both the vegetable oil and animal fat. There are then many byproducts left behind like, methyl esters. What makes Bio-Diesel so environmental friendly is that it's free from sulfur and aromatics that can be found in the tradition gasoline.

-Bio-Alcohol. Ethanol, Butanol, Methanol and Propanol are all major alcohol alternatives that can be used as an alternative source. All these alcohols can be created from plant and biological resources. It's said that Butanol is very similar to our traditional gasoline due to the comparable energy density.

-Hydrogen. The hydrogen fuel cell can actually convert the chemical energy found in a hydrogen molecule to electrical energy. Hydrogen and gasoline are very similar like both masses are 2.8. Although this is a great alternative it has not been taken action of very much because the cost of all the technology.

-Liquid Nitrogen. There has been some cars produced to run on liquid nitrogen, those cars contain a nitrogen powered internal combustion engine. Also uses liquid nitrogen as the breaking fluid.

-Vegetable Oil is blended with normal diesel and used in a diesel engine.

Senior Project
After reading about possible alternative sources for replacing fossil fuels, it kind of inspired me to create a project where i can predict what the world would be like if we did take action and change our use of energy. Or i can talk about our current situation and predict how long before it's too late to switch to alternative sources. While doing research I see that a majority of the articles side with finding newer technologies to help solve our problems. I think the big idea with newer technology and producing energy would be finding something that would actually burn cleaner.I plan on doing more research on these newer technology ideas and seeing what I find maybe it can inspire me for a Senior Project.


Sources
"Renewable Energy Standards--Mitigating Global Warming | Union of Concerned Scientists." Homepage | Union of Concerned Scientists. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

( This website talks about the American energy consumption. It talks a lot about weather issues that would uprise due to our extremely large energy consumption. In this article they also include information about certain standards in different states, and how they are required standards through out the community)

SERVATIUS, TARA. "Global Warming: It's About Energy | Environment | AlterNet." Home | AlterNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

(This article claims that global warming is not a, "environmental" issue but a energy issue. It also includes some information about how some political people deny global warming saying that it doesn't exist. If we don't change our energy ways then the fight against global warming wouldn't be possible. One thing i disagree with in this article is buying excess carbon in hollowed-out coalmines and oil wells to store C02, it just doesn't make any sense to me)

"Report 5: How Do We Contribute to Global Warming?." Hinkle Charitable Foundation: Advocating for Environmental and Musical Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

(This is the coolest article it shows really cool detailed graphs on how we, individually, contribute to global warming. It talks a lot about gasoline, and electricity and how its emitted into our atmosphere. This article also talks about What the major sources of our individual emissions are and divides everything up into a pie chart. Household electricity is the first major one and so is transportation. It also talks about how the United States greenhouse emissions are compared to other nations)