Look out any window…


Carbon Offsets: Solution or Scam?

So, last year the APES text (published 2008) had a section on carbon offsets-first time I’ve seen it in a school textbook. There are many companies out there now marketing carbon offsets to reduce your “carbon footprint.” Terrapass is a popular one. You can offset one year’s worth of air travel (an estimated 8,000 pounds [...]

Evidence and Consequences (Of the Earth’s Warming)

In class on Tuesday we spent most of the period discussing the evidence (the things we see happening) that shows the earth is warming. The first piece of evidence we have are record global temperatures.  NASA concluded 2009 to be the second warmest hear on record.  With average global temperatures continuing to increase each year, [...]

Solutions to the Earth’s Warming Problem

Today we discussed potential solutions to the problem of the enhanced greennhouse effect, also known as global warming. The only way to truly solve this problem is to attack the problem at its source: Greenhouse Gases. We need to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases, especially Carbon Dioxide, in the atmosphere by either reducing the [...]

Global Climate Change

At the end of class on Friday Mr Willard left us with 5 questions regarding global climate change. These questions were as follows: 1. Is the Earth warming? 2. If so, is this warming unnatural? 3. If it is unnatural, is it anthropogenic (human-caused)? 4. What might happen as a result of this climate change? [...]

Intro to Global Climate Change

Last Friday, we discussed the origins of global warming. However, climate change is a more accurate term since some regions are cooling, not warming. First off, it must be established that not all greenhouse gases, like water vapor, CO2, CH4 and N2O are “bad.” In fact, without the natural greenhouse effect earth would be very [...]

Waiting on Cleaner Coal…

Last year, a student send me a 12-minute bit from 60 minutes on coal power. The piece is centered on an interview with Jim Rogers of Charlotte’s own Duke Energy. Watch this, then read on: *IF the embedded video will not play, try this link: Powered by Coal (60 minutes) So…what do we do in [...]