Holy Cow! Manure-to-Biogas Could Generate 3 Percent of US Electric Demand!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/cow-manure-biogas-could-generate-three-percent-us-electicity.php
By Matthew McDermott

It has recently been discovered that cow manure can serve as a source of energy in the form of biogas. The University of Texas, in Austin, claims that when cow manure is left out to decompose, it can emit harmful amounts of carbon dioxide into the environment. This contributes to the greenhouse gas effect. Clearly, something needs to be done about cow manure, and what better than use it to make electricity? Cow manure includes high amounts of methane, which, believe it or not, is perfect for burning to create biogas. It does not give off harmful byproducts and is absolutely free! The University of Texas .has calculated that cow manure could provide the U.S. with 3% of its electricity each year Of course, they concede that this idea would be hard to implant in residential areas far from farms, but rural areas could use cow manure as a source of power easily.

This article was really interesting to me. It seemed a bit gross at first that excrement could be used for power (there were similar articles about how human excrement is being used for electricity in some areas of the world!), but I realized that this byproduct of the cows will always be made, so cow manure for biogas is a renewable resource until its supply rises exponentially. It is an amazing idea to use cow manure, because it releases harmful gases into the atmosphere if let to decompose but is useful if not.

1) How likely do you think it is for people to use excrement (from animals or humans) for power in residential areas?

2) Do you think the areas where the cow manure is being converted into biogas would smell bad?

3) Are there any other similar ways that we can use natural byproducts of life to create electricity?

Chevron Says It’s Full Steam Ahead for Geothermal Expansion in Indonesia

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/chevron-says-its-full-steam-ahead-for-geothermal-expansion-in-indonesia/411695om/business/chevron-says-its-full-steam-ahead-for-geothermal-expansion-in-indonesia/411695

In Indonesia Chevron expects and wants to start using geothermal power more. The CPI's president announces that the goal is to increase the power supply in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Chevron exclaims about Indonesia's huge potential in using geothermal energy as a major power source. CPI was awarded a permit to build and develop a geothermal field. They have already gotten to work at completing this. They have not been willing to comment on how much this field will cost, or the harmful gases and minerals that may be exposed. These can cause serious health issues. Hamid states that there will be plenty of opportunity to create electricity because of such huge growth.

Opinion:I am surprised to here this news, believe it or not. When I was doing a little research on geothermal energy for my presentation, I found that it is extremely difficult to have a geothermal field, because there are few places where the rock is permeable enough to be drilled deep enough. Here in Indonesia, they say they found a huge plot of land that can be used to make a geothermal field. I think it's great that they found this land, and it's not already owned by a company that wants to use the land for something else less useful.

Questions:

Do you think this could become there major source of energy there?

Do you think that geothermal energy is a reliable resource of energy? Could we use it as our major source of energy?

How much longer do you think we have before we have to decide on what our source of energy will be?

"Kissmas" Tree to light up Covent Garden By: Tony Cross
http://www.cntraveller.com/news/2010/october/covent-garden-kissing-christmas-tree-london

In this article a unique Christmas tree is powered by, well, KISSES! Hopefully, kids our age don't know this feeling too well, but when you kiss your significant other, a jolt of energy will go through you. Paul Cocksedge put this energy to good use when he invented the kissmas tree. It is designed to capture the electricity from your kiss and transfer it into energy used to power over 50,000 lights! When two people stand under the giant mistletoe, they each grab a leaf. When they kiss, their energy is harnessed in through the giant mistletoe leaves and is therefore used to power the kissmas tree. Finally, every kiss made underneath the mistletoe, there is a donation made to The Prince's Trust youth charity. So, not only does this invention power a Christmas tree with something that, quite frankly, would have been done anyway, but it also donates to a great, cause!

In my opinion, this is a really neat contraption! I mean, who knows how much electricity would have been wasted without all those smooches! I mean, 50,000+ lights sounds incredibly excessive especially since that most likely have been fossil fuels before. So, I think that this will be an incredible money saver for England (where this tree just so happens to be) and i think that the people will really enjoy it and have fun with it, considering how common PDA is these days...

Questions!!!!!:

1) Why is this such a big money saver??
2) Do you think that this concept of kissing=energy could ever be something more, perhaps something year-round that could be used to provide energy for homes and whatnot? essentially, could this concept be something bigger??
3) Do you think that there will be a large showing at the unvailing of this tree??

Posting problem

Hey...according to my blog sheet, Maddy was supposed to blog on friday, so we can't comment until she does...Is this accurate?

Researchers Use Phytonutrients in Spinach to Create Highly Cost-effective Solar panels

 http://www.naturalnews.com/013286_spinach_phytonutrients.html

As strange as it may sound, scientists are using phytonutrients found in spinach plants to create a new green technology. The idea seems logical, spinach plants already turned sunlight into electricity using photosynthesis, why not just use the plant to make a modern day solar panel? Science is just asking nature to reveal its secrets, which is just what scientists did to come up with this new solar panel. They saw what nature was doing right and used that to create their own version. Modern scientists are too often trying to be better than nature than just learning from what nature has been doing right for so long.

This shows the process of photosynthesis

I think this is very interesting. It's nice to see scientists actually using what nature has to offer instead of trying to dominate over nature. There was a quote in the article that said, "All we have to do is be humble enough to ask the right questions, and quiet enough to hear the answers." That was talking about nature and I completely agree with that. Nature has all the answers we need and scientists don't look to nature to ask any of the questions. I think that once scientists start to ask those questions and look to nature for the answers we will have a lot of new discoveries.

Here are some questions I had:
1. Is spinach the only plant that you could use to make these solar panels?
2. Will technology like this advance in the future, why or why not?
3.Why didn't scientists think of using this kind of technology before? Are there more things in nature that scientists could learn from?

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hey guys which article are we commenting on...the latest one I think

A warmer ocean is a less green one

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/07/28/a-warmer-ocean-is-a-less-green-one/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverMag+%28Discover+Magazine%29

By: no author given

Scientists have now noticed that rising temperatures in oceans mean that warmer oceans will be very different places. This could rearrange the global distribution of life in the oceans. It will mess up their food webs at the very root making many, many organisms lose what they feed off of. Warmer waters were more likely to be hotspots of diversity for marine species but even with a census that big, Tittensor (scientist) has only glimpsed at the full ocean life through a key hole. The results of all of the tests and surveys they have done, say the results suggest changes in ocean temperatures could have a big impact on the spread of oceanic species. Tittensor found that places where there is the most human activity, pollution, habitat destruction and over harvesting, are the areas that are richest in life. The warmer waters have already taken a toll on the phytoplankton which are on the bottom of the food chain. If the future of our marine life is to be preserved then we must act soon. Also, the current way of getting energy for us is making this worse everyday. So that is a reason why we need to find a way to change the way we get energy so that the ocean temperatures will drop again.

Opinion: I think this is a real shame! Warmer waters mean many animals could die off! We need to figure out a way to fix this, and fast. Oceans are a big part of everyone's life and we need to save what's in it. If organisms in them start to become extinct then we are also going to start losing food sources. If something happens to the oceans then it is going to effect me and everyone else in the world. The faster we find a way to fix this, the better off we will be. I think we need to find a new way of getting energy so it will be one less thing harming the ocean.

Questions:

1. What is a way we could fix this problem?

2. What else could happen if we don't fix this soon?

3. Do you think that there is a way the organisms could just adapt to warmer waters?