PDS AP Environmental Science 8th Period 2010-11

Yes, I had to do it. I try to teach environmental science without preaching, but this one topic is hardest for me to avoid. There are probably hundreds of other posts out there on the topic, but I still feel the need to let this out (sorry as it is a bit long with the [...]

Some scientists have estimated that there is 315 billion pounds of plastic floating in the oceans. There is not an island of plastic, as some rumors say, but more of a soup of smaller particles of plastic and ocean. Out of all the plastic in the ocean, only about 20% originated from ships at sea; the [...]

Ironic, to me, that in the age of plastic that plastic bags are dying AND in the digital age printer paper is booming. Check these stories out: Cities/countries banning plastic bags- China http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080110-AP-bags.html San Francisco http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89135360 HP CEO discusses why printing on paper NOT declining- http://www.fastcompany.com/1725332/innovation-agents-vyomesh-joshi-evp-of-imaging-and-printing-group-at-hp

If you missed today, we discussed the “next” industrial revolution. Did you know it was underway? The last industrial revolution gave us the linear material flow economy we diagrammed this week. While recycling programs do reduce some waste disposal and some extraction, they focus on the “downstream” end of that flow. Today, we learned of [...]

So, today we tried to debate the pros/cons of recycling.  If you found it interesting, here are some more resources: 1.  Here is a follow up to the 1996 John Tierney article.  How have things changed in the last 15 years? Is recycling NOW worth it? 2. If you have 30 minutes: Laugh out loud [...]

I’m still on scribe post duty until next week. So, I’ll try to scan and post a top-quality version of the material-flow economy diagram in “the box” soon. I must admit I borrowed a good bit of my concept for the diagram from The Story of Stuff project. You can see the 20 minute video [...]

Here is the slide deck from today’s (2/1/11) lesson: Examining MSWView more presentations from Derrick Willard. And, since we touched on modern sanitary landfills and recycling, here are two great resources: 1. Visit HowStuffWorks.com to see a modern sanitary landfill being built. Gotta know the basic design for the AP Exam. 2. Since we can’t [...]