In the article on Noozhawk "Santa Barbara County Eyes $50 Million Trash-to-Energy Project for Tajiguas Landfill" Joshua Molina explains a trash to energy project that would double the life of Tajiguas Landfill and redefine waste management. The project would sort organic and recyclable waste and use the organic waste to power onsite generators and the city grid with methane gas power. First District county supervisor Salud Carbajal called it a "regional solution to our solid waste problem." A large amount of waste disposed of in Santa Barbara is recyclable or organic. This project will be most helpful in removing what can be recycled and using organic material to create energy. The remaining waste will be buried, but it will be greatly reduced. At it's current rate, the landfill would be filled by 2026, but this new project may extend its life until 2038. The county diverts about 70% of trash from the landfill to be recycled or composted, but still buries 200,000 a year. This number could be reduced to 100,000 with the new project. 

I agree with this new plan for the landfill. It would extend the life of the landfill and avoidance of starting a new landfill, while simultaneously creating power for the city. The county should approve this project to help the environment and people of Santa Barbara and the Gaviota Coast.

Zac Pfeifer

The article describes the situation in the African country of Nigeria where many people, who don't have access to nearby or affordable disposal centers, are piling up their trash and then burning it on their property. The writer describes the many harmful effects this practice has on the environment and the health of those nearby. Some of these problems include releasing cancerous gases into the air and contributing to global warming. The cancerous gases, if they don't end up in human lungs, will eventually get stuck to plants and then will eventually be consumed by humans in one way or another. The author suggests that a way to combat this problem is to ban the practice and enforce strict rules about burning garbage. He also suggests that if they need to burn trash then they should do it in waste-to-energy incinerators like Sweden does, that way they can at least get something out of burning the trash in a safer way. But, he says, the best way to reduce the problem is to apply the 4 R's: refuse. reduce, reuse. recycle. He say Nigeria should do this because they committed to a UN climate agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20%.

I agree with the author that this is a serious problem but I think his proposed solutions are too simplistic and unrealistic. Nigeria isn't comparable to Sweden, the country is very, very poor and underdeveloped and faces a myriad of other serious problems (like ISIS owning half the country) so they aren't developed enough or have enough resources to institute the kind of policies and regulations he's suggesting. A better, more long-term, solution would be for Nigeria to focus on sustainable development so it can one day get the infrastructure to begin to make these kinds of changes.

Ian Baucke

This article discusses what Supreme Court judge, Antonin Scalia's death means for the future of Obama's Clean Power Plan. Last Thursday the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to postpone the implementation of the Clean Power Plan, a rule that cuts carbon-dioxide emissions from the electricity sector. The 5 conservative judges, including Scalia struck it down. The Clean Power Plan will now go back to the DC Circuit Court, which will review it, and most likely pass it. This decision will most likely be made by fall. The case will then be looked at by the Supreme Court, who will almost surely accept it. They will be in a very different position as last time. It is likely that Obama will find a liberal replacement for Scalia before he is out of office. This judge will want the Clean Power Plan rule to be upheld and so probably will the 4 other liberal judges. It will be interesting to see if this all plays out before a new president is elected. 

I found this article very interesting, because it is such a new situation that we could not have seen coming. I personally am very much in favor of the Clean Power Plan. It could be very helpful for air-pollution prevention and also raise awareness to how big a problem our air cleanliness is. 

Nina Schaeffer

This article discusses the issue of global warming and how it's effects may not be very visible now but they will only increase with time and will not cease for thousands of generations.  The main argument of this article was that sea levels will rise and disrupt many people's living arrangement all over the world.  For example, a rise of just one meter, with an estimated 400-500 thousand kilometers of coast results in a huge amount of lost land.  In addition this article brings to mind the fact that global warming's effects will only get worse with time.  In the last 50 years humans have changed the future of this planet for thousands of years to come and if we don't change direction it will become even more changed, perhaps reaching a tipping point of a near unlivable planet.  

I think you can't really disagree with the fact that global warming is real and that we need to change our carbon emissions or face consequences for thousands of years to come.  On that note, I find it really interesting to read about how fragile the global ecosystem is and how such a small change like 1 degree in average global temperature can cause a huge difference.  I think governments need to mandate more restrictions to get on the zero/negative carbon emission track.  Changes must happen globally but global change must start at a local level or it will not succeed.

-Jerry Swider

The article, "El Nino Linked Drought is Ethiopia's Worst in 50 Years" discusses how Ethiopia is currently in the middle of the worst drought in 50 years and its all because of El Nino. El NIno is the warming phase of a phenomenon caused by a band of warm water that develops in the Pacific and affects the area around it. What causes the change in water temperature is still being studied. The change in water temperature affects the temperature around it through the water cycle and causes a lack of precipitation. This is very bad because Ethiopia is suffering from very harsh consequences and many crops and people are dying.

I completely agree that this  was caused by El Nino and it is a matter that should be addressed. I found that learning about El Nino was very interesting because I have heard of it before but never knew exactly what it was. The people and government should work together to send aid to the people of Ethiopia as they are already doing. This is very important to address as many people are at risk of being affected.

By Zach Winner

I believe the AAAS should begin  regulating the amount of pollution releasded into the atmosphere by creating more strict laws and consequences to the countries that are killing our biosphere. Government should also begin restricting certain products and goods if they violate the regulations, because in the end we only have one earth and we can always have many other products made daily. we cant renew our earth just like we renew or throw away our purchased items.

by Alania Salazar

I agree with the author because of his seemingly urgent tone within his article. The imbalance of our carbon emissions are far beyond what is sustainable and we must recognize that but it is also important to be aware of natural disturbances.  This is an incredibly important matter in society today and the governments of the world need to make a vast improvement in their involvement in limiting carbon emissions. I found this article to be incredibly interesting because of the fresh perspective that it brought to the subject. I also though it was intriguing that there is a great deal of carbon dioxide released from cement in old oil wells bringing to light the matter of how we dispose of unused structures. The most alarming thing I learned from this article was that it can also lead to the contamination and acidification of our groundwater because this possibility has the most significant affect upon us as humans. Overall I thought the research done in this article was necessary in gaining a better understanding of the affect that we have on our environment and the carbon cycle.

By Daniel Solomon

I think that California Gas Company should've run more test on their capped oil wells to make sure that they would not burst. I wonder what effect the leak had on the atmosphere around the area, because there was such a concentrated, steady flow of methane and other gasses being released.  

By Owen Thames

I agree with them on saying that they should turn the Puente Hills Landfill into a park afterward because you aren't wasting space and because even after all the trash that has been put there, something beautiful like a park can come out of it. I think it is interesting that they are actually closing the largest landfill, where is the Los Angeles county going to put all of their trash now? People after given this information might want to stop making as much wast because they see that the largest landfill has been filled up and they hopefully think that making less waste will cause landfills to have a longer lifetime.

By Zack Werner

Researchers from USC and a small energy company in Canada have found a way to extract CO2 from the air and turn it into usable fuel. The USC scientists convert CO2 (which is plentiful abound in the LA area) into methanol by filtering CO2 through concentrated nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen. This process isn't new, but they've found a way to conduct the process at a much lower temperature, which opens up the possibility of industrialization. Meanwhile in Canada, Carbon Engineering is extracting CO2 from the air and converting it into burnable (but very low-emission) C02 gas by filtering it through potassium hydroxide. If industrialized, this process could remove 1,000,000 tons of C02 each year from the air, which would greatly benefit the environment, and balance out the carbon cycle.

While limited in its usefulness thus far, these innovations could prove extremely beneficial to our environment, and further push the world towards sustainable energy sources. It would also help control our problem of overproduction of C02. While this is not the solution to all of our problems, I am interested to see what scientists do with this new technology in the years to come.

Stone Roshell

I agree with Nichols points on how we can revive a species without creating them in a lab. I found it was very interesting on how the Quagga was genetically identical to the zebra, after they tested a piece of skin from the original extinct species. This revival of the Quagga shows others that it is possible for other species to come back from extinction. 

Jared McMullen

This article is talking about how Earth's climate is going through many changes due to natural variability, including solar variability, and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols.

These changes are supposedly affecting the water cycle by changing water vapor concentrations, clouds, precipitation patterns, and runoff and stream flow patterns. This can be seen when the temperatures in the lower atmosphere increase, so does the evaporation rate , which means that there are higher water vapor concentrates . This causes much more rainfall. Another problem coming from this is since it causes more rainfalls early , when the seasons that need more water such as summer and spring , there is not much rainfall available. This tells us that these drastic climate changes could cause flooding and droughts at different times and different places.

I agree that climate change negatively affects our water cycle and that we need to closely watch what we are putting out in our atmosphere that is harming the ozone layer that is protecting us from these types of problems. I think it's really interesting that these climate changes are what causes our floods and droughts to be at random. The government should find and label what products affect the ozone layer and let the public know what is going on and that we should stop buying those products because of the potential risks. I also think they should take count on the amount of greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere and try to come up with a system to better help this problem. This is relevant to our unit because it talks about the water cycle and gases affecting it.

Savana Mata

I think that we have a responsibility to our future generations to keep this planet healthy and sustainable. Although "carbon cutting" would have a huge impact on the economy of states who produce coal energy, it is important that they realize what impacts carbon emissions have on our earth, and the impact it has on our climate. I am interested to see whether or not the supreme court will pass this rule in the future, because in order for our world to become sustainable we have to start somewhere. 

By Ryan McMullen 

In the article it states that obesity and pollution are "somehow" linked. The study was conducted using rats and highly polluted air from Beijing, China. The study showed that the newborn rats exposed to the polluted air were a lot heavier than those of the clean air. The researchers claim that longterm  exposure to polluted air can be a factor in childhood obesity as well as later in life. The researchers found that the toxins in the air limit the body's ability to burn energy which makes it harder to burn calories and easier to store them as fat. The researchers concluded that pollution isn't the only factor of the obesity epidemic but it does add a factor and concern.  

By Rene Zarate 

In this LA Times article, Jenny Jarvie discusses the environmental impact the buildings that make up our society have on the atmosphere. She explains that while many people believe that burning fossil fuels is the reason for rising global temperatures, about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. We need to reduce the amount of energy buildings are consuming to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. Many countries are proposing laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by buildings. Even if we are able to control the air pollution caused by existing buildings, there’s still the issue of the massive construction growth predicted in the near future. Populations are growing exponentially, requiring more structures, and producing more carbon dioxide. Experts say that we must install  regulations and incentives in order to drastically reduce our emissions and prevent global warming from escalating to an even more massive problem than it already is. 

I do agree with the article, I think that air pollution from buildings is a largely underestimated problem and governments must take action right away. I found it interesting that buildings are responsible for such a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, yet I’ve personally never been informed on the severity of the issue. I feel like the government could easily inform people that even small changes, like turning the lights off when they leave a room, really makes a difference. I know there are laws are in the process of being passed that should reduce energy use, but I think in the meantime, if governments could reach people on a deeper level they would see results as well

Maddie Fedor

Andre Guadagno 

This article states that cattle and farming have huge environmental implications and can no longer be ignored. There are 1.5 billion cows and other ruminants (animals which regurgitates food and re-chews it) in the world and they are responsible for 180 billion kg of methane release or 396832104000 pounds of it annually. 198416052 Tonnes of methane! That's not even taking into account all the deforestation that comes along with cattle. 70 % of forests in south america have been cut down and turned into grazing land. Almost 30 % of the worlds land is now being used for livestock. This number is climbing! it's projected that meat and dairy consumption are going to double in the next year. The more demand the public has for these products the more land has to be converted to supply it.  A Japaneses study concluded that for every kg of beef enough methane is produced to equal the amount of CO2 needed to drive a car 250 kilometers, and enough energy is burned to light an 100 watt light bulb for 30 days. That's not to mention all the sulfur and phosphorus use through fertilizers. In conclusion the article states that the most effective way to reduce our personal carbon footprint is the eat less meat and dairy products. 

I think this a definite problem.  This is an all too potent example of how we have monopolized live stock and the world to fit our linear system. At the end of the article they included a quote from Albert Einstein "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.", and it really effected me personal because I do eat a lot of meat and dairy products. I personally need to reduce my consumption of these products so this article really hit home with me. I don't think the government would every be able to shut down the production of beef and dairy, but I think the amount sold in stores could be limited and we as a people can limit ourselves.

I think that if the US ratifies the Basel Convention, therefore banning them from sending their waste to other countries without their permission, we will significantly cut down our waste production, because citizens will complain about their children's birth defects and pass a law to decrease their exposure to e-waste. I find it interesting that 4 out of 5 of the children in Guiyu are born with respiratory ailments but their government doesn't try to stop other countries from sending them the waste. I think the US should ratify the Basel Convention and decrease the production of e-waste. The manufacturers of the electronics should find a way to eliminate the use of dangerous toxins used to make electronics.

Yuka Perera

http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2013/e-waste.aspx

I believe we should do something about this because they are destroying many animals habitats and decrease the economies of many communities that rely on the animals.The government should come in and regulate the amount of carbon dioxide humans are creating to increase the coral reef growth. I don't really find this interesting because it doesn't impact me.

DAVID  QUINTERO PERIOD 1
2/24/2016
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160224145558.htm