tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32175045270234726902024-03-13T04:30:12.538-04:00College EssaysAs a citizens of the world, we do a lot of messed up things. This blog is here to recognize the problems, and offer a better way of doing things.Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217504527023472690.post-60427433933349667112012-12-30T17:30:00.000-05:002013-01-05T00:33:51.076-05:00Why Do We Keep Burning Our Food When People Are Starving?<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">There is no
question that we need to get off of oil. It is a dirty fuel, responsible for a
great deal of our air pollution and global warming. It’s expensive and getting
worse all of the time which puts added strain on our already fragile economic
system. And, oil is a limited resource, once it’s gone, it’s gone. It has even
been speculated that oil has been the basis for a few of our wars. Other
countries have called us war mongers, claiming that Americans are eager to go
to war with any country that produces a significant amount of oil.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ethanol has
made its way into the global markets and has been adopted my automobile makers.
Being ethanol has the advantage of having a partial acceptance by consumers and
the auto industry it does make sense to continue to develop that technology.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The biggest
issue with ethanol in America is the source used to make it. As far as the
amount of gallons per acre that can be produced by a plant, corn is very
inefficient. This directly causes farm land prices to go up. Other plants like
hemp, switch grass, and sugar cane are far more efficient than corn. In
addition, corn requires a lot more fertilizers to grow which can pollute out
lakes, streams, and ground waters. Plus, using corn, which is a primary food
source for people, raises food costs and lowers humanitarian aid. Mother Jones
has an interesting flow chart that shows the effect of using corn as a fuel
source.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAuaNLPZ1uI0A0j_CKTfzRBtbYd5Ki7_O-HBzlmUfhYtImaijRL7fF0MbtKoxUqS9oaFrEPdihWR3idd1CwIp2hEGBQKjkLyTDkpjj22el2cwU_WwSLnWnMkQ92cNEr0ZQrPuYxqM1TNc/s1600/the-ethanol-effect-470Diminish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAuaNLPZ1uI0A0j_CKTfzRBtbYd5Ki7_O-HBzlmUfhYtImaijRL7fF0MbtKoxUqS9oaFrEPdihWR3idd1CwIp2hEGBQKjkLyTDkpjj22el2cwU_WwSLnWnMkQ92cNEr0ZQrPuYxqM1TNc/s1600/the-ethanol-effect-470Diminish.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"></span> </div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Why do we,
as a country, use corn for ethanol production when there are so many better
sources out there? Sugar ethanol burns over twice as clean as corn ethanol, and
cellulosic ethanol from sources like switch grass, hemp, and forestry waste, burns
over 4 ½ times cleaner. Right now, we could import ethanol made from sugar cane
directly from Brazil for much cheaper than we could produce ethanol from corn.
Our government, however, chooses to tax those ethanol imports so much that they
no longer make good economic sense. Some scholarly discussions have implied
that this taxation is being done to keep the prices of corn in America
artificially high.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I came across
another blog article by Ali Sakhtur, entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brazilian ethanol is the best hope for replacing oil, says BP’s Bob
Dudley</i>. In this article Sakhtur says that “<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ethanol derived from
Brazilian sugar-cane offers the best hope of replacing oil as the world’s main
source of fuel when it runs out, according to Bob Dudley, BP’s chief executive.
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[…] </span>The alcohol extracted from sugar cane is cheaper, less polluting and more
efficient than that from corn, for example, produced in the US. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[…] </span>Brazil also
has a huge advantage in relation to its competitors. The climate and soil are
ideal and the sugarcane crop does not have to compete for areas with food crops,
as happens in the case of America. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[…] </span>BP is channelling its research into
renewable fuels accordingly, with 40pc of its $1bn (£625m) annual spend in this
area targeted at Brazilian ethanol, Mr Dudley told the weekly Brazilian news
magazine Veja.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.6pt; margin: 0in 0in 15.6pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Below is a chart that the EPA put out. It shows the difference
of greenhouse gases that are emitted when creating an equivalent amount of
energy, compared to gasoline.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiic3D9Zn91FsVlB9AgmrgVmQ6DqpLVNEVtBPBqfv5J20mFGVvEgvpmh8lDc18I6037jjpgwGXsEL4Stw_PUeQPkBjGS4SWKdMCXyK8sSDLeEhyphenhyphenKVHWT7UDWJkm1MnMSzMEQQ2VR1uOUQw/s1600/epaChart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiic3D9Zn91FsVlB9AgmrgVmQ6DqpLVNEVtBPBqfv5J20mFGVvEgvpmh8lDc18I6037jjpgwGXsEL4Stw_PUeQPkBjGS4SWKdMCXyK8sSDLeEhyphenhyphenKVHWT7UDWJkm1MnMSzMEQQ2VR1uOUQw/s1600/epaChart.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As you can
see in the chart, switching to an ethanol made from corn does create 21.8% less
greenhouse gases which is great. Ethanol made from sugar reduces the amount of
greenhouse gases by more than twice that of corn, at a rate of 56% reduction. However,
using ethanol that was made from a cellulosic plant source (such as hemp, switch
grass and forestry waste) has the biggest effect and reduces the amount of
greenhouse gases emitted by 90.9%. </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Switch grass
is another excellent cellulosic source for making ethanol, much like hemp is.
I’ve scoured the internet and cannot find any good reason why we are not using
switch grass for making ethanol. It seems to have been dismissed as a crop all
together. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">According to
Biello, “[switchgrass] ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to
produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by
corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[…] </span>Vogel and his
team report this week in <em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences USA</span></em> that switchgrass will store enough carbon
in its relatively permanent root system to offset 94 percent of the greenhouse
gases emitted both to cultivate it and from the derived ethanol burned by
vehicles. Of course, this estimate also relies on using the leftover parts of
the grass itself as fuel for the biorefinery”.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Switchgrass
doesn’t need prime farm land to grow either, so it doesn’t compete with food
crops for land. Biello states that we could use the “[more] than 35 million
acres (14.2 million hectares) of marginal land that farmers are currently paid
not to plant under the terms of USDA's Conservation Reserve Program”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hemp would
be a great option for cellulosic ethanol production because it grows really
fast, it burns much cleaner than corn, and it produces a lot more gallons per
acre than corn. Unfortunately though, industrial hemp is classified as an
illegal drug by the Drug Enforcement Agency, despite its very low THC levels.
You couldn’t get high off of industrial hemp if you tried. This forces us to
import hemp, in which case it gets taxed at a much higher rate than it would if
it was grown right here in the U.S.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
I agree that we need to move off of fossil fuels and onto renewable fuel sources. Ethanol is a great start to this and has a lot of potential. I just don't agree with using our food sources for fuels. We could start importing ethanol derived from sugar right now, and then start moving to a cellulosic ethanol source like switch grass or industrial hemp.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><u>Works Cited:</u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>Mad Money: The Best Trade on Ethanol</u>. CNBC.
28 Jul 2010. Edit. Tom Brennan, Perf. Jim Cramer. 9 Apr. 2011. < http://www.cnbc.com/id/38448335/The_Best_Trade_on_Ethanol_Growth
></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Shakhtur,
Ali. “Brazilian ethanol is the best hope for replacing oil, says BP’s Bob
Dudley”. 16 Feb 2011. 9 Apr. 2011. < http://alishakhtur.com/2011/02/16/brazilian-ethanol-is-the-best-hope-for-replacing-oil-says-bps-bob-dudley/
><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.85pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Biello, David. “</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn Does”. 8 Jan 2008. Scientific
American. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">9 Apr. 2011. </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">< http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn
></span><b><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Expanded Renewable and
Alternative Fuels Use”. Apr 2007. Environmental Protection Agency.<strong> </strong>9 Apr. 2011. < http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/pdfs/greenhouse_gas_impacts.pdf<strong> </strong>><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Jones, Mother. “The Corn Ethanol Effect”. <u>Diminishing Marginal Utility</u>.
6 Nov. 2007.<b> </b></span>9 Apr. 2011. <strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">< </span></strong><span style="mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">http://www.diminishingmarginalutility.com/blog/hydrocarbon_issues/<strong><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> ></span></strong></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.85pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217504527023472690.post-20370409143988429482012-07-14T22:02:00.002-04:002013-07-24T21:03:57.855-04:00Grid Computing Can Solve The Problem!<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
Did you know
you can download a screensaver for your computer that will search for a cure
for cancer, aids, malaria and a bunch of other deadly diseases whenever it’s
running? You can!</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
Most college students have a computer
these days, and a good portion your computers life is wasted on idle processes.
Basically, your computer is sitting there and doing nothing. That idle CPU time
could be doing something productive to benefit humanity.<br />
<br />
I’ve been a computer geek for many
years, and even I was surprised at what can be done with grid computing.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b><br />
<br />
Grid computing projects are a great way
to donate your computer’s idle CPU time to finding solutions to huge problems.<br />
<br />
I’m going to<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>tell you a little about what grid computing is, what you can do
with it, and what has already been accomplished with past grid computing
projects.
<br />
<br />
Grid computing, otherwise known as distributed
computing, is where a bunch of independent users just like you can join their
computers to giant network where they work together towards a common goal. These
computers form a virtual super computer with a monstrous amount of resources. Each
computer checks out a work packet like we would check out a book from a
library. That computer does it’s analysis of that work packet during the
computer’s idle time, then uploads the results and downloads a new work packet
and it starts all over again. This concept of using your processor when your
computer is idle has been termed “CPU scavenging”.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">According
to Wikipedia,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>Grid computing was
developed in the early 90’s by Ian Foster of the University of Chicago and Carl
Kesselman of the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences
Institute. Volunteer computing and CPU scavenging started to become popular in
the late 90’s.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now that you know a little about what
grid computing is, let me tell you about what you can do with it.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">There are all kinds of projects that you can participate
in with grid computing. You can donate your CPU time to projects that are
searching for cures to today’s deadly diseases. There are projects to search
the skies for extra-terrestrials, finding better ways to produce clean energy,
and even reverse engineering the human brain for the development of artificial
intelligence.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The truth is, there a hundreds of projects out there
that you can participate in if you want. The biggest list of projects I’ve
found so far is on distributedcomputing.info. If you Google “grid computing
projects”, it returns over 2 million results. So, if you want to help a cause,
chances are there is a grid computing project out there that you can
participate in.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The work you can do with it is great,
but I want to show you some things that have already been accomplished with
grid computing.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
It’s very difficult to find out exactly how much time
has been volunteered to grid computing projects because there are so many
independent projects out there. The grid computing network that I use the most
is </span><a href="http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">World Community Grid</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. I’ve been working their projects since 2006. According
to their site, they have close to 600,000 members who have loaded their client
on over 2 million devices. These devices have contributed almost 600,000 years
of run time to their projects.<o:p></o:p><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Past projects have solved some of life’s big mysteries
including identifying possible drugs to fight anthrax. They solved a bunch of
complex math problems, evolved robotics technologies, marked and classified
craters on Mars for NASA, and improved chess playing programs. The lists go on
and on.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As I’ve just shown you, grid
computing projects are a great way to donate your computer’s idle CPU time to finding
answers to today’s big questions. I<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">
</b>have talked about what grid computing is, what you can do with it, and what
has already been accomplished.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">I hope everyone learned something new today
about grid computing, and maybe some of you will even consider donating some of
your computer’s resources to a cause that you believe in. Thanks</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><hr />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">UPDATE:
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now you can use your </span><a href="http://nerdsknowbest.blogspot.com/2013/07/fight-aids-w-your-android-phone.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Android Phone</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> too!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">References:</span></u></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Braverman, A. (April, 2004).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Father of the Grid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">University of Chicago Magazine</i>, 96.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>April 1, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0404/features/index.shtml"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0404/features/index.shtml</span></a><o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Global Statistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">World Community Grid</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>April 1, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewGlobal.do"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/stat/viewGlobal.do</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
Grid Computing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wikipedia</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>April 1, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing</span></a><o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
<br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Pearson, K. (April 2, 2012). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Active Distributed Computing Projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">DistributedComputing.info</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>April 1, 2012.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.distributedcomputing.info/projects.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.distributedcomputing.info/projects.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217504527023472690.post-14336929308691404052012-07-14T21:56:00.003-04:002013-01-05T00:39:15.542-05:00We Need to Save the Bees! <span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The world’s bee population is
disappearing at such an alarming rate, that the world’s food supply potentially
could collapse entirely.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">We
all eat some sort of fruits and vegetables, but what we are eating might not be
as good for us, or the environment, as we believe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I
never really gave much thought to the fruits and vegetables I ate until I saw
the documentary “The Vanishing Bees”. And then, a few months later I took a Nutrition
class that took the subject to yet another level.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">Pesticides are literally destroying
the world, but there are some things we can do to avoid this dark fate.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I’m
going to tell you about the cause of these problems, it’s effects, and what we
can do differently to avoid the problem.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">First, I’m going to tell you about what
is causing all of this to happen<em>.</em> Broad-spectrum
pesticides damage all living cells, not just the pests that they are being used
to control.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Systemic pesticides are
put on the seeds of plants, or used to treat the soil before planting. This
causes the pesticide to become part of the plant for its entire life. You
cannot wash it off. France, Italy, Germany and Slovenia have already banned the
use of these.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Topical pesticides build
up in soil over time and are susceptible to runoff which poisons surrounding soils
and waterways.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now that I’ve told you a little about
the cause of the problem, I’m going to tell you a little about the effects<em>.</em> Bees all around the world are disappearing
by the millions due to colony collapse disorder, otherwise known as “mad bee
disease” according to the documentary “Vanishing of the Bees”. When this
happens, only the queen and some young bees are left in the hive. All of the
other bees simply disappear. This phenomenon was later found to be caused by
pesticides. If this continues the costs of foods would increase exponentially until
there just isn’t anything left to sell.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In
addition, pesticide and fertilizer runoff makes its way into our waterways.
Time Magazine says that “[they work their way into the] <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of
Mexico, where they will help kill fish for miles and miles around”. These
pesticides aren’t just bad for the environment. They are really bad for us too.
Time Magazine goes on to say “Food is increasingly bad for us, even dangerous”.
Frances Sizer and Ellie Whitney say “High doses cause birth defects, sterility,
tumors, organ damage, and central nervous system [impairment]. Children and the
elderly have lower tolerances.” in their text book “Nutrition: Concepts and
Controversies”</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><em>Now that you know the
problem, and the effects, I’m going to tell you about a couple solutions. </em>What can we do
differently?<strong> </strong>It’s
actually pretty easy. Eat Organic<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">. </b>Nutrition:
Concepts and Controversies says that organic foods are fertilized with
composted animal manure or vegetable matter instead of synthetic fertilizers.
Crop rotation, predatory insects, natural bacterial peptide toxin is used for
pest management.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The
British Columbian Ministry of Agriculture offers another solution called Integrated
Pest Control (IPC). In this method, you only use chemicals when there is no
other option and sufficient damages are unavoidable without it. They should
only be used if the costs of the pesticides are more than offset by the amount
of damages you avoid. Instead they say you should use cultural methods like
crop rotation, use resistant plant strains, practice good sanitation, and use mechanical
controls to fight pests.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">The
fact is that p</span><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">esticides
are very destructive, and there are safer ways of growing our food.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";">I have told you<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>about
the pesticides causing these problems, the effects they have on us and the
environment, and that we can choose to eat organic or use Integrated Pest
Control to minimize the problem.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;">I
hope you will take this information into consideration when you are buying
groceries or working in your garden. Thank you for your time.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">References:</span></u></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Environmental
Fate of Pesticides. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">British Columbia’s
Ministry of Agriculture.</i> Retrieved April 18<sup>th</sup>, 2012, from </span><a href="http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/c_2.htm"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/pesticides/c_2.htm</span></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Langworthy,
G., Henein, M. (Producers) Langworthy, G. (Director). (2009). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vanishing of the Bees</i> [Motion Picture].
UK: True Mind Studios.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Sizer, F.S.,
& Whitney, E.N. (2011). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nutrition:
Concepts & Controversies.</i> Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif";"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Walsh, B.
(Aug. 21, 2009). Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Time Magazine</i>. Retrieved April 15, 2012,
from </span><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1917726,00.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1917726,00.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">
</span>Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217504527023472690.post-42491774289859271442012-07-14T21:40:00.005-04:002013-01-05T00:47:42.132-05:00Is it harmful for children to be in day-care centers all day? D<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">aycares are often depicted as these horrible
places where children are neglected all day in a Petri dish of disease
infestation. There are always advantages and disadvantages to everything, but
people need to weigh their options objectively when making these important
decisions. <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><span style="background-color: white;">I think the
advantages to a child’s future should be the deciding factor when choosing
whether or not to put a child in daycare.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">BabyCenter.com says, “</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Staff members at good centers are usually trained in early childhood
education so they know what to expect from your child developmentally and are
able to nurture his growing skills accordingly” (BabyCenter.com). They go on to
say, “Good daycare centers include a nice mix of activities during the day to
teach different skills, such as singing, dancing, and storytelling”. Children
that attend quality daycare centers typically have and academic edge over other
children as well as advanced social skills for their age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It’s true that
daycare babies get sick more than other kids, but that isn’t the whole story.
Denise Mann says “</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Babies who attend large-group child-care centers before they are 2
1/2 years of age do get more respiratory and ear infections than those cared
for at home, but they are less likely to come down with these ailments once
they start elementary [school]” (Health.com). They continue to say “There may exist
a window of opportunity for toddlers to build up their immunity early. Those
who attended large day-care centers after age 2 1/2 did not receive the same
protection against illness during their elementary school years as their
counterparts who started group day care at younger [ages]” (Health.com). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Daycares can be very advantageous to
a child’s future and should be considered a great opportunity when raising a
child. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In my opinion, people need to put the minor disadvantages
aside, and act in the interest of their child.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><u>Work Cited<o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Baby Center</span></u><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> < </span><a href="http://www.babycenter.com/0_daycare-centers-advantages-and-disadvantages_6050.bc"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">http://www.babycenter.com/0_daycare-centers-advantages-and-disadvantages_6050.bc</span></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> > 26 Feb. 2011<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Mann, Denise. “Day-Care
Babies Have More Infections Now, Fewer Later”. 10 Dec. 2011. <u>Health.com</u>.
26 Feb. 2011 < </span><a href="http://news.health.com/2010/12/10/day-care-babies-infections/"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">http://news.health.com/2010/12/10/day-care-babies-infections/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> ><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217504527023472690.post-16626484463634022062012-07-14T21:35:00.001-04:002013-01-05T00:41:53.170-05:00Should prison inmates be allowed to take college courses?<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some people might think it is a bad idea, or even a waste of
money, to educate prisoners. Really, in order to truly rehabilitate a prisoner
and give them a real opportunity to succeed once they are released we should consider it. Or else, they will
be more likely to continue down the same path. I, personally, think it would be
a better option to educate our prisoners than to pay for them to sit in our
prisons. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you look at the general population of state prisons in
the United States, only 12.7% of them have any college education at all,
according to The Bureau of Justice Statistics. In the population of free people
in America, 48% of those have at least some college education. It is very
apparent that the people that are filling our prisons are under-educated. If
they had some education, their chances of building a productive life and
staying out of the prison systems would be significantly higher.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What’s worse? If you look at the education levels of the
prison population that was on death row in 2005, only 9.2% of them had any
college what so ever. Of the same population, 65% of them had prior felony
convictions. This means that 65% of them have gone through America’s criminal
rehabilitation system and it didn’t work for them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That 65% was released, and later ended up back
in prison and on death row. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I understand that people sacrifice a lot of time and money
for their education. But in the end, it would be cheaper to educate these
people than to keep throwing them back in prison. According to
LairdCarlson.com, “<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">On average state invest as much as ($24,000) supporting their
students’ public school earned baccalaureates as they spend annually ($25,000)
incarcerating their prisoners”. Also, if they are incarcerated multiple times that price of incarceration multiplies exponentially. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">To me, </span>it would be a much better option to educate our
prisoners than to pay for them to occupy our prisons<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">. Save the state money by educating
prisoners. In turn, they might not kill you and end up on death row for doing
so.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><u>Works Cited:<o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Bureau of Justice Statistics. </span><a href="http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1/19/2011</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Taylor, Jon Marc. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pell
Grants for Prisoners.</i> </span><a href="http://www.lairdcarlson.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.lairdcarlson.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">
1/19/2011<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217504527023472690.post-6376800669952608102012-07-14T20:45:00.002-04:002013-01-05T00:44:38.269-05:00Coral Reefs in Peril<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Coral reefs are in peril around the world. Hard-coral beaching, and coral decline has long term damaging effects on the marine ecosystems. We need to take action now to prevent a complete collapse. I am going to share with you why the reefs are important to all of all, what is endangering the reefs, and what we can do to prevent this disaster, as well as conserve and restore our reefs.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Reefs are very important for marine life to prosper, which provides food for the whole planet. A study was done on the lagging effects of reef destruction and unfortunately it showed that several years later the juvenile fish populations declined dramatically (Graham, N. et al, 2007, p. 6-7).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Now, let’s look at what’s causing these problems. The most commonly acknowledged factor, and probably the biggest threat to the world’s reefs, is global climate change. Kenneth R. N. Anthony et al. (2009) said in his peer reviewed journal article entitled Energetics approach to predicting mortality risk from environmental stress: a case study of coral bleaching that “Over the past decade, most coral reefs around the world have been affected by mass bleaching events.” He goes on to say, “Even under the most conservative climate change scenarios, predictions for the coming decades suggest that coral reefs could eventually undergo bleaching annually” (p. 1).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Solar radiation is another big culprit promoting this coral degradation. Coral exposed to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) “[may] be subject to photooxidative stress due to excessive UVR exposure, resulting in coral bleaching” (Liñán-Cabello, M. A, 2010, p. 1-2). This is the same radiation that gives us sunburns and promotes skin cancer.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Another factor that is not as widely known to cause coral degradation is sunscreen. According to Sunscreens Cause Coral Bleaching by Promoting Viral Infections, 10% of the world’s reefs are threatened by hard-coral bleaching as a direct result of sunscreens containing benzophenones, parabens, cinnamates, and camphor derivatives. This study shows that 4,000 – 6,000 tons of sunscreen are released into reef area waters each year (Danovaro, R. et al, 2008, p. 4-5). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Finally, we need to look as what we can do to protect, conserve, and restore our reefs. Because climate change is the biggest factor in coral degradation, doing whatever we can to slow global warming would definitely help. Choosing to recycle, plant a tree, drive fuel efficient vehicles, or ride a bike instead of driving, are all great places to start. Google “reduce my carbon footprint” for more great ideas.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Along those same lines, protecting our ozone layer helps protect our reefs, and ourselves from ultraviolet radiation. The easiest thing you can do to protect the ozone is to avoid buying anything that is made with or utilizes chlorofluorocarbon (CFC). CFCs are commonly found in aerosols, air conditioners, refrigerators and fire extinguishers.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> We can do other things to protect us from the sun besides the use of sunscreen, like using sun umbrellas at the beach, and wearing hats and clothes that protect you from the sun. When you do need to wear sunscreen, choose one that doesn’t contain benzophenones, parabens, cinnamates, and camphor derivatives (Danovaro, R. et al, 2008, p. 4-5).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> A lot of reef damage has already been done however, and we need to take action to aid in its restoration as well. No-take marine protected areas (MPAs) can help promote reef recovery and provide special resilience after a coral destructing event (Graham, N. et al, 2007, p. 2).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Some other methods of reef restoration include “securing fragments in place stemming from injured colonies, rearing fragmented coral pieces in mid-water nurseries for outplanting on reefs, as ‘rescuing’ colonies from the threatened inshore habitats by outplanting them to offshore sites” (Baums, 2008, p. 3).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Now that I’ve shared with you why the reefs are important, what is endangering them, and what we can do to prevent this disaster, I think we can agree that we need to take action now to prevent the destruction of our coral reefs and the complete collapse of our marine ecosystems.</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">References</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Anthonyl, K. R. N., Hoogenboom, M. O., Maynard, J. A., Grottoli, A. G., Middlebrook, R. (2009). Energetics approach to predicting mortality risk from environmental stress: a case study of coral bleaching. Functional Ecology, 23, 539–550. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2008.01531.x</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Baums, I. B. (2008). A restoration genetics guide for coral reef conservation. Molecular Ecology, 17, 2796–2811. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.03787.x</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Danovaro, R., Bongiorni, L., Corinaldesi, C., Giovannelli, D., Damiani, E., Astolfi, P., Greci, L., Pusceddu, A. (2008). Sunscreens cause coral bleaching by promoting viral infections. Environmental Health Perspectives, 116(4), 441-447. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Graham, N. A. J., Wilson, S. K., Jennings, S., Polunin, N. V. C., Robinson, J., Bijoux, J. P., Daw, T. M. (2007). Lag effects in the impacts of mass coral bleaching on coral reef fish, fisheries, and ecosystems. Conservation Biology, 21(5) , 1291–1300. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00754.x</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Liñán-Cabello, M. A., Flores-Ramírez, L. A., Cobo-Díaz, J. F., Zenteno-Savin, T., Olguín-Monroy, N. O., Olivos-Ortiz, A., Tintos-Gómez, A. (2010). Response to short term ultraviolet stress in the reef-building coral Pocillopora capitata (Anthozoa: Scleractinia). Revista de Biología Tropical, 58(1), 103-118. Retreived from Academic Search Premier database.</span>Greg Kjonohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13427101041549574045noreply@blogger.com0