Blog 02

          This week, the main topics were based on energy use, energy choices, and the results of these choices that we make. The United States has been using large quantities of energy, roughly 20% of the world's energy consumption is done by the United States. But as we move forward, many countries countries such as China and India are developing and have and increased demand for energy in their developing nations. This seems like it will tip the balance of energy use towards those nations; not that the United States is predicted to consume much less energy in the foreseeable future, but these other nations have such large populations that will require energy. It also most likely that the energy will be, in these developing nations, obtained by methods that are harmful to the environment, as was the case in the United States during our development. With this, there doesn't seem to be anything slowing down the world's increasing use of energy.
          Our energy choices affect the environment around us in many ways; our methods of obtaining energy can change the surrounding ecosystems, affect our air quality, and emit greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and presumably raise the temperature of our planet. But this has been a highly debated topic due to the uncertainties that lie within it. Most people agree that greenhouse gases could raise the temperature of our planet, but it is hard to tell how much. This is because the planer shift in the Earth's orbit causing Milankovitch cycles that we have always gone though. These cycles are what causes the ice ages and the warm periods between ices ages. We are still in the warming cycle, so the world's temperature will increase naturally(slowly) without any human involvement. So this makes it impossible to predict how much the temperature is increasing from greenhouse gases, and how much of the temperature change is part of our natural climate shift.

Blog 01

In the first week, we had a lot of class discussion relating the reading and Guy Meadow's presentation on the Great Lakes water; especially on the possible uses of the Great Lakes water. What I noticed is that most of our class conversations were focused on the general question of, are the uses of the water ethical? Is it ethical on an environmental level and on a humanitarian level. And what I noticed with our discussion is that, there is no one perfect solution to these issues. Pumping water to the southwestern portion of our country will provide water to people with a high need for water, but at a potentiality devastating environmental cost. But not pumping water to them could lead to major water shortages in those regions. But what is interesting is if you look at city like Phoenix from overhead, you will see green yards covering the entire city, water in those regions is primarily used cosmetic purposes. So as Great Lakes residence we would think "why would we give them our water if most of it is just going to a wasted use like watering their lawns in the desert. They would be sustainable with their current water source if they just used water for drinking, bathing, cleaning needs, and not for changing the landscapes in their city." And this seems to be a fair argument. But in those areas real estate and residential construction is the largest industry, so it is crucial to their economy to have lush green lards. As you can see, these issues have many ethical issues that aren't clear cut