Thursday, May 27, 2010

F Is For The Future

Every time I see that telus commercial It tells me that the future is friendly, but i think to my self that that is wrong. In my mind the future is going to be a dark grubby place with gray smog covering the sky. No air to breath and defiantly no wild life. By that time the trees will be gone, the grass will be brown and the animals will be extinct. Well what now telus, what now!

Personally I don't believe in the whole 2012 theory, but i do believe that the world will not be the same. Can you imagine the type of cars we will be driving in about 10 or 20 years. Or even the television. We think having the new mac book pro is cool and very high-tech but by the time my kids get laptops there going to be as small and thin as a credit card, faster that you could even imagine and be 3-D. Well all of that stuff is going to be great but before all that new technology comes out we are going to have to go through some tough times. A little some thing called global worming.

The Arctic warming up, glaciers melting, and intense heat waves covering the globe. That is global warming. Im sure that you have heard of global warming because it all over the news but if we don't react fast enough the world could be a hole other place. In my mind we can use the new technology to our advantage. Like maby we can have a machine that sucks up all the air and cleans it, or maby we can make cars that run off water. there is thousands of possible ways to help our earth but we just are not taking action. It all comes back to Gandhi famous quote- "Be the change you want to see in the world.'' I think that is the best quote because it is telling you that if you do a certain action to change the world maybe your action will grow and actually change the world forever. Well i guess telus is wrong, the future is defiantly not friendly. Thank you.

By Alex Craig

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Environmentally Friendly Healthcare

In 1922 Canadian Scientist, Sir Frederic Grant Banting, was the first person to isolate insulin. Insulin is used in the body to allow your cells to use the sugar you consume for energy. Insulin is made in the body in an organ called the Pancreas. Those people whose body has killed the pancreas have diabetes, and they must get artificial insulin from injections.

Banting found a way to isolate insulin. He could also produce it in small amounts for clinical trials. Up to 1980 all insulin was taken from pigs and cattle. This had an effect on the environment. We all know that cows and pigs produce a lot of methane that enters into our atmosphere and then contributes to global warming. To get the insulin from theses animals they would also have to provide everything for them including water, food, and shelter. Another way to produce insulin is to make human insulin. Scientists can transfer human DNA into things such as bacteria or yeast. This process uses a lot of chemicals, and is also harmful to the environment.

Since them science has come a long way, and is now even more environmentally friendly. In Calgary it was found that you could produce insulin from the safflower. Canadian scientist genetically engineered the human gene for insulin into the common safflower plant. This is the most cost effective way of producing insulin, and it is also good for the environment because as we know plants take CO2 in and put out oxygen. Only 25 square miles would be all we need to produce enough insulin for the diabetic population of the world. The production of insulin has just gotten a whole lot greener.

Monday, May 17, 2010

5 great ways to help our enviroment!

As many people know, Global worming is damaging our Earth and environment. So I think it would be really great if people could take in these idea's and use them in daily life!


1) Change your kitchen habits- You should always use reusable containers for food storage, or in lunch bags, instead of plastic rap or tin foil! You can also use up old rags to clean your mess instead of paper towels.

2) Shopping bags- We all know that plastic bags are not biodegradable, well they at least don't decompose probaly. So we should all be using the Eco friendly bags for when we go shopping! If every one switches and starts using these bags, it will help our environmental issues by a lot.

3) Stop junk mail- The junk mail that Americans receive in just one day is an incredible amount! It could produce enough energy to heat up a quarter of a million homes! Which is terrible! There are some people who you can write to, that can make junk mail reduce by 75%.

4)Clothes- You can all ways make new clothes by the ones you already have. If you are about to throw them out, you should stop and think about what else is a possibility. Maybe you could hand them down, maybe to a younger sibling o friend!

5) Tires- Every two weeks, Americans wear out nearly 50 millin pounds of rubber off there tires. To stop this you can inflate your tires more.

-Georgia

Sunday, May 16, 2010

E-Waste

E-waste

Do you have any old pieces of technology lying around at home? If you do bring it to the E-waste department near you.

What is E- waste some people ask? Well E-waste is types of technology that can be recycled. For example if you have a phone that still works at home but you don’t use it, you can take it into an E-waste department. They will fix the phone, order new parts if needed, erase the memory on the phone and then ship it back to the store so it can be reused again. If it doesn’t work, then they will recycle the phone for you. They will also recycle TV, computers, printers, printer cartridges and any other technology you have.

E-waste impacts the environment by releasing harmful toxins into the soil by sitting in the dump. Also the chemicals can affect the food in wildlife. According EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) more than 4.6 million tons of E-waste goes to landfills each year. There are several health issues which arise from E-waste and the toxins given off by technology. Studies say that computer monitors contain 6.3% lead. That can release into the atmosphere and the soil and surfaces can absorb the lead. When the lead enter the human body it can damage your brain and nerve system.

Next time you need to throw out your computers think twice, and go to the E-waste department near you.



This was posted by Hayley

10 Teriffc Environmental Facts

As many people know, our environment is in a lot of danger because of the amount of polution we are putting into the air. Here are ten interesting facts about our environment.

1 Over 40% of all tropical forests have been destroyed and another acre is lost each second.

2 As many as 70,000 people nationwide may die prematurely from heart and lung disease aggravated by particulate air pollution.

3 Raw sewage, poison runoff and other pollution have caused 8,000 beach closures or advisories over the past five years.

4 More than 100 million Americans live in urban areas where the air is officially classified by the EPA as unsafe to breathe.

5 The annual catch in 13 of the world's 15 major fishing zones has declined and in four of those - three in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific oceans - the catch has shrunk by a startling 30%.

6 In many urban areas, children are steadily exposed to high levels of pollutants, increasing the risk of chronic lung disease, cell damage and respiratory illness.

7 The United States is responsible for almost 25% of the world's total energy consumption. We use one million gallons of oil every two minutes.

8 As of 1994, 1.7 million American children, ages one to five, suffered from lead poisoning.

9 As of 1994, 1.7 million American children, ages one to five, suffered from lead poisoning.

10 Mining companies are allowed to buy our public lands for less than five dollars an acre - any they pay no royalties on the gold and other minerals they extract. This taxpayer giveaway, combined with the cost of massive environmental damage and cleanup, amounts to a billion dollars every year.

I hope you enjoyed these interesting environmental facts.

Source: http://www.lightparty.com/Economic/EnvironmentalFacts.html

By: Tommy L

Electricity Wasted

If you're user of appliances and gadgets, you always turn them off when you're not using them. But many electronics don't actually go all the way off, they're still on but using "standby power." Some examples of features that require standby power are:
internal clocks and sensors
external clock displays and panel display LEDs
remote control sensors;
battery recharger's and power-conversion packs
communications between a base unit and a portable unit (as in a portable phone).

Up to 10% f household electricity is wasted in homes around the world. Even when electrical equipment is not being used, they still draw away power, causing electricity bills to rise and contributing to 1 % of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, just from those electrical appliances supposedly being "off".

Each watt used costs an average of $1 US per year for any one of the 28 countries that is a member of the International Energy Agency (IEA). Although this may not seem like a lot, when you take into consideration the numerous appliances (usually 40 or more) scattered around a household, the cost can be enormous.

Posted by: Damon Crumplen

Saturday, May 15, 2010

What my family does to help the environment

In twenty years from now, I shudder to think what the world will look like at this rate. Flying cars will cause permanent fogginess, robot waiters will cause less plants. Less plants will cause less animals. Less animals will cause no food. No food will cause us to starve. If we starve, we will have to make more factories so we can make artificial food. What would happen to our health if we reach that point?

My family is trying really hard to help the environment. I am going to share some of the things that we do and how it can help.

1) Turning all the lights off when we leave the room or the house. If we leave the lights on, the energy stops burning. A bright incandescent bulb burns 100 watts. If we turn the lights on and off and on and off, we keep wasting 100 watts. If we just turned the light off when we don't need it, there's no wasting watts. If it were to burn five minutes worth of extra electricity each time it is switched on, it would burn one hundred watts, times five minutes, times sixty seconds. Basically we are using thirty thousand watts in the one second it was turned on.

2) Our family (having four girls) uses way too much water for our showers, especially considering we have a pool. So we decided to put timers in each bathroom to limit our shower time. Five minutes is the maximum time aloud. Since the world is starting to run short on water, it's bad to waste it on hot water, while we can easily use cold, medium, or 3 minute showers.

3) Buy organic/natural foods. We know how bad it is when we eat food with chemicals in it. Not only does it ruin the plants or vegetables, but it kills animals that eat the veggies. What does it hurt to use a scare-crow for once? It works exactly the same.

4) Use the computer for word documents that don't need to be printed. Yes, it hurts the environment to use the computer, but if you do it quickly, it uses less energy. That way, we don't need to use paper for a little list or plan for the day. For grocery lists, you can also use your phone.

These are just barely a start to help the environment, and doesn't make a HUGE impact because it's just our family, but if the whole world, or at least the country did all of that, imagine how much that would help. Spread the word, help the environment.

Posted by Emilie R.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Enviromantally friendly phones!

Are you looking to get that spacial phone, that you've always wanted? well instead of getting a normal phone, why don't you get an Eco-friendly phone. this blog will be about an Eco-friendly phone that runs on Coke! Yes you read right the phone runs on Coke. But lets get to that later. Did you know that more than 5 million phones are disposed of each year?5 million! Well there is only a small amount of that number of phones are recycled. That's bad, considering most of us can't wait to get a new or first phone. if you want to help, you could give your used phone to Greentec, Home Depo., and Staples can recycle your used phones properly. If you want to help even more than you could buy an Eco-friendly phone. You can even buy them at famous phone stores like rogers, and koodo.


There is a new phone in China that runs on Coke! That's right, Coke. Daizi Zheng was the creator of this "Coke machine." What this phone does is that it runs on sugar Drinks, Zheng proposes that the phone could run on a battery that uses enzymes to generate electricity from carbohydrates. This is what Daizi Zheng said "This is a client project for designing an Eco friendly phone for Nokia. Through out my research, I found that phone battery as a power source, it is expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment." The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecological friendly energy that generates electricity from carbohydrates. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugar drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out. Bio battery has the strength to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional batteries and it can be fully biodegradable. Meanwhile it brings a whole new perception to batteries and afternoon tea.


This Blog was by Blayne
When I went to Beijing two years ago, all I could see in the air was grey, humid, stinky smog. do we as Canadians want this to happen to us? Of course not! Then why is our future pointing straight for it? The answer is because we don't care enough. Sure there are people writing blogs about doing stuff, but are they themselves actually going to do it? Is everybody really going to turn off their light all the time? Well, some people will. Most people won't.

The main problem is that people don't want to give up their little habits of having the lights on all the time and turning the temperature on so high that you can wear your shorts and make it feel like summer when it's actually winter. Things like that are the little differences that make the global temperature rise.

So what is it that we have to do? We have to give up these stupid habits. Now. Not tomorrow because tomorrow will become today and nobody wants to do anything today. Now. Now or never.

There are also a lot of extra things you can do to make sure that we, and generations after us will be able to live on this planet. You could for example plant an organic garden. This is probably the most useful thing you could do at a time like this. With the economy sinking lower and lower it would cost less if you grew your own lettuce and tomatoes for your sandwiches and salads. A garden also promotes healthy eating by seeing all the delicious things growing from the ground. It also gives you a sense of pride. To know that you yourself are eating something that you have grown and knowing that you are saving all that energy of driving your car to the grocery store which has its own gigantic carbon footprint. That is why you must have a garden.

Another thing we should do is stop throwing things in the Great Lakes. Raw sewage is being dumped carelessly into Lake Ontario like they'll never see it again. Well, when we finally dump so much stuff in, you'll see it alright, and smell it too. That is when people will stop. Only when they can see it with their naked eye. That is right about when we will have to resort to desperate measures because we ignored the chance we have now and completely ruined any chance of ever being able to live on this Earth again and we'll all have to live on the moon. Which doesnt seem like a great idea to me.

So what will we end up as? Who knows the answer? Not me thats for certain.


Posted by Darcy

10 Manageable Ways To Save Energy In Your Daily Life

1.Only turn on your washing machine or drier when it is full.
2.Turn off all electronics and lights when not in area.
3.walk or ride a bike to work or school if possible.
4.Hang your clothes outside to dry.
5.Turn down your thermostat when not needed.
6.Buy energy efficient and environmentally friendly products.
7.Use fluorescent light bulbs i

10 Manageable Ways To Save Energy In Your Daily Life

1.Only turn on your washing machine or drier when it is full.
2.Turn off all electronics and lights when not in area.
3.walk or ride a bike to work or school if possible.
4.Hang your clothes outside to dry.
5.Turn down your thermostat when not needed.
6.Buy energy efficient and environmentally friendly products.
7.Use fluorescent light bulbs instead of normal ones.
8.If hot out open windows to make heat don't use your thermostat.
9.Don't idle.
10.Use public transit instead of your own car.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen.
1.Only turn on your washing machine or drier when it is full.
2.Turn off all electronics and lights when not in area.
3.walk or ride a bike to work or school if possible.
4.Hang your clothes outside to dry.
5.Turn down your thermostat when not needed.
6.Buy energy efficient and environmentally friendly products.
7.Use fluorescent light bulbs instead of normal ones.
8.If hot out open windows to make heat don't use your thermostat.
9.Don't idle.
10.Use public transit instead of your own car.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen. By Robert Andersonof n
1.Only turn on your washing machine or drier when it is full.
2.Turn off all electronics and lights when not in area.
3.walk or ride a bike to work or school if possible.
4.Hang your clothes outside to dry.
5.Turn down your thermostat when not needed.
6.Buy energy efficient and environmentally friendly products.
7.Use fluorescent light bulbs instead of normal ones.
8.If hot out open windows to make heat don't use your thermostat.
9.Don't idle.
10.Use public transit instead of your own car.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen.
al ones.
8.If hot out open windows to make heat don't use your thermostat.
9.Don't idle.
10.Use public transit instead of your own car.

As you can see there is a lot of simple things that you can do to save the environment. So try these things and then see what will happen.

E is for Endangered Species

Endangered species. I know, I know. Everyone is always talking about this but nothing seems to be happening. But today, I am going to tell you a little about endangered species, then what I would like to do about it.

There are many endangered species in the world. A few examples are, Amur leopards, snow leopards, elephants, over 1 third of bug and amphibian species and more. All of our animals are going extinct because of us. Humans. Our pollution, and habitat misuse are all reasons animals are going extinct. Even global warming is our doing. The reason that polar bears are going extinct? Yeah, I know. This is the same stuff everyone else says but no one does anything anyway. Now though I will tell you about what I want to do. (Not that it is guaranteed to happen!!)

I would like to start a campaign to raise money to help endangered species. The money would be given to an organization like the WWF. (World Wildlife Foundation.) The money raised would be used to fund research to prevent animals from becoming endanger and going extinct. Another idea that I had was to "adopt" an animal. So every month or so, I would send some money to "my" animal. That money would be used to help feed and care for it. The animal that would be my first choice to sponsor would probable be the Amur leopard. Did you know that there are approximately 40 wild Amur leopards left?! (The picture is of an Amur Leopard.)
Amur Leopards have also been reported to leap more than 19 feet horizontally and 9 feet vertically!!! WOW!!!
For more information on the Amur leopard and other endangered species, go to http://www.worldwildlife.org/species

P.S.
Right now, as you read this, a species is going extinct and dying. Do something about it. Don't just continue life as if nothing is dying because of us. Do something and help nature out.

This post was by:
Chloe