ENVR 1301 – Ashley Ibarra

  Air Pollution Basics Sulfur Pollutants  Nitrogen Pollutants  Hydrocarbon and Volatile Organic Compound Pollutants In this weeks module we are learning about air pollution. It is important for the air quality to be good, because breathing is an essential part of living. As times have become more industrialized the air quality has gotten more polluted, so its important to know some of those toxic chemicals that are in our air. Now some common air pollutants are sulfur, nitrogen, hydrocarbon, and volatile organic compound pollutants. Volcanoes are natural sources of emissions of sulfur gasses, and extracting metal is also another natural source. Coal and petroleum also contain mineral compounds of sulfur as well as vehicles or equipment that burns fuel with high sulfur content. Nitrogen pollutants are also similar to sulfur, its a colorless gas, but Nitrogen dioxide forms when fossil fuels such as coal, oil, methane gas, or diesel are burned at high temperatures. Lastly, h...

  1. Exploratory The article/video talk about Georgia, and the power plant project implemented in the state. It is called Silicon Ranch Hazlehurst 2 project on Georgia Farm. Being the largest solar panel assembly plant in the Western hemisphere, being a 150 million investment. 2. Diagnostic This occurred, since there are a lot of powerful market forces at work. In Georgia there is a company thats providing Facebooks access to solar is Walton EMC, an electric cooperative based outside Monroe, GA. The reason these solar panels were basically built is for the Facebook solar market. 3. Cause and Effect What this project has caused is for other states t see the positive effects of solar panels. In other words they are cheap and because Georgia has a lot of sun its easier to get more energy from it. Also renewable energy makes up a tiny project, but with more solar projects coming into the mix renewable energy will jump. 4. Priority I feel like the most important issue to look at when I ...

a. Define alternative energy . Alternative energy is various sources that a person can receive energy from, whether it is from the sun, wind, water, etc. Basically the main source of energy used for industrialized countries is conventional energy. Now conventional energy sources are fossil fuels, oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, etc. which are non-renewable sources. b. Describe arguments for alternative energy in general. The main argument for alternative energy is that they are not used as main sources or energy, however, they are used as an alternative. The reason for this is, because most of the alternatives, like solar energy has its pros and cons. Some alternative energy sources are renewable, meaning it can be healthy for the environment, since it is not harming it like a non-renewable energy source.  c. Assess wind energy and explain its advantages and disadvantages. Include its limitations. The alternative energy that stood out the me the most is wind energy. Now wi...

 In this week's discussion I learned more information about coal, and what "clean coal" is. Apparently clean coal is a term used to refer to various technologies, and approaches aimed at reducing the environmental impact of coal-based energy production. After reading the New York Times article about “clean coal” in 2017, and doing some research of my own, I do think there is a possibility of “clean”coal. Although there are various terms/meanings for this reference, sometimes politics just use this word to confuse people into thinking it is a good thing. Now I am not trying to say that “clean coal” is a bad thing. However, after I really thought about this term, I came to realize that the reason this term is said, is due to the amount of carbon dioxide in our air that is polluting the environment, and causing climate change. Meaning that “While experts say that carbon capture could prove useful for tackling climate change emissions” quoted from the article ( New York Time...

Resources Concept Map^^ In this module, I learned about where resources come from, and why their important to life. To begin resources are things used on a daily, whether it's a phone, computer, or the food we eat. Resources are important in many aspects of our lives whether it's economic, social, ecological, etc. The first source of energy I learned more in depth is non-renewable energy some examples I provided in my concept map are coal, oil, gas, nuclear energy, etc. This type of energy is very important because it can not be easily replaced and will take many years for it to be available again. This is definitely an issue being faced in our current generation, an example is fossil fuels which are used for energy, and although they are important they are damaging our climate at the same time. Now the next energy is renewable energy which is a resource that we don't have to worry about being used up or depleted. Some main examples are the sun, and wind. Renewable energy i...