Clean Air A 'Luxury' In Beijing's Pollution Zone

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143214875/clean-air-a-luxury-in-beijings-pollution-zone?ft=1&f=1025

Picture: The air in Beijing now (top), compared to the way clean air should look (bottom).

Article: On the way to school, my kids and I play a guessing game: How polluted is the air today? We use an app linked to the air pollution monitor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and we try to guess the day's exact level on the Air Quality Index, and whether the air is dangerous.

These days, chances are that it could well be. For more than half of the past 60 days, the air pollution has hit levels hazardous to human health. Experts estimate long-term exposure to such pollution could reduce life expectancy by as much as five years. But I don't tell the kids that.

Living inside the pollution zone, those daily measurements determine how my family spends its days. Whenever the levels hit "very unhealthy," we keep the kids indoors and refuse to let them take part in outdoor activities, no matter how much whining might ensue. When to wear a pollution mask, when to stay indoors, it's all become crucial knowledge, even for our 4-year-old.

Reflection: I find this article to be very shocking because I never realized just how polluted Beijing was. And just the fact that the article talks about their 4 year old child worrying about these issues is startling. I couldn't even imagine how horrible it would be to deal with terror everyday that you might get sick from the very air your breathing. Beijing needs to slow industry and technology production before everyone in Beijing becomes ill.

Questions:

1. After reading this article, do you think you would ever visit Beijing?

2. If you could give Beijing any advice what would it be?

3. Would you ever let your family be exposed to such poor air quality?

4. If you could do anything to help Beijing, would you?

5. What would your life be like if we had air quality issues like in Beijing, in Horsham?

Colorado and Texas to Require Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals

http://www.treehugger.com/fossil-fuels/colorado-and-texas-require-disclosure-fracking-chemicals.html

Picture: A fracking location in Wyoming

Colorado and Texas passed laws forcing companies to inform the public on the chemicals used in their fracking procedures. Colorado forces all chemicals and the amount used to be disclosed. Texas will put information online at a special website to inform the public. The EPA recently said fracking has caused pollution in Wyoming aquifers. John Hickenlooper, the Governor of Colorado, thinks that other states may use the same laws.

I think that these laws are a great thing and a great start. As we've seen in Gas Land, fracking has caused tons of damage to many areas of the country. More people may care to do something if they know all of the terrible chemicals in their water. I hope that more states do adopt these laws. The public deserves to know what chemicals are being put into their aquifers. These chemicals could all wind up in people's tap water, and they deserve to know about it.

1. Do you think that these laws will help the problem?

2. What are your thoughts on fracking?

3. If you lived in an area where fracking occurred would you want to know the chemicals used?

4. Do you think that people will be more active knowing what is in used in fracking?

5. Do you think other states will adopt these laws?

SEPTA Receives $1.2 Million EPA Grant to Improve Air Quality

The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, recently donated 1.2 million dollars to SEPTA, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA is making the switch from locomotive to cleaner diesel fuel engines to power trains. The switch will improve air quality for surrounding areas. The GenSet locomotives can reduce carbon dioxide by 25 percent and nitrous oxide and particulate matter by up to 80 percent. The donation was made by the EPA's Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Program. The donation will encourage other companies to make the switch. SEPTA has made many switches in past years like when they won EPA's Energy Star Building label last year when they improved energy efficiency by greater then 85 percent at the 1234 Market Headquarters. They are also switching many buses over to cleaner disel-electric engines.

Reflection: SEPTA is really making an effort to improve their environmental effect and the EPA is doing the smart thing and funding these plans. If others see that the switch to these things are better for the surrounding areas, save money and are sometimes payed for by the EPA, I can't see why they won't want to switch. After the SEPTA strike it was important for SEPTA to show that they care about Pennsylvanians, and what better way to show it by then creating less pollution for the people. SEPTA really is a fine company.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/0D1134081728AD4285257960006D6A13

http://blog.cunysustainablecities.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/10_SEPTA-reg-rail-car_Septa.jpg

Questions:

1) How much will the cleaner engines help?

2) Do you see any downside to the switch?

3) How do you think Pennsylvanians feel about SEPTA?

4) Do you think SEPTA is doing it for the recognition, people or environment?

Storms spark debate over Conn. trees

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/04/9205727-storms-spark-debate-over-conn-trees

Written by: The Associated Press

The state of Connecticut has a high density of trees, with as much as 58% of the statebeing forested. After Hurricane Irene many tree limbs and leaves were brought down onto houses and electric lines were down, which blocked streets and slowed repair trucks. Two months later many more were brought down by a harsh winter snow. Investigators are trying to come up with ways to prevent these problems that leave such large impacts such as the one in October that affected 800,000 utility customers for a week or longer. One of their solutions is to burry the power lines underground to avoid having to cut down so many trees, but United Illuminating claims "It isn't prudent and customers don't appear to be in the mood to pay those costs". Another solution is to trim the trees down a little, but the Greenwich Tree Conservancy says that "takes the heart out of the trees and they die".

Reflection: I think that this is a very hard decision to make, but needs to be done quickly before the winter comes and snow breaks even more branches, breaking more electrical lines. I think ultimately my decision would be to burry the electrical lines because when people think of Connecticut they make connections to images of large trees and at the rate that trees are being cut down for land to build buildings on now a days, I don't think we should be cutting more down if there are other options. Even though burying the lines is very costly, the cost of damage repair due to trees taking down power cables over the years will out weigh the cost of burying them.

Questions:

1) Which do you think is the better option, burying the electrical cables or trimming/cutting down trees?

2) Do you think actually living in Connecticut would change your decision as to which method you think is best?

3) Can you think of any other methods that may help solve this problem?