Tag: environment

A look at our plastic usage

A few years ago, it seems a strong shift was made from plastic water bottles to aluminum. The big scare, whether or not justified, was that there may be cancer-causing agents in some plastics. It’s not hard to think of other interactions people have in daily life with plastic items, and not all bad. Author Susan Freinkel wrote Plastic: A Toxic Love Story after evaluating her own dependencies on plastics, and researched the history, production, risks, and benefits. Freinkel’s discoveries are eye-opening. Even if one disagrees with some of her findings, the history behind the rapid growth in synthetic material use is enough to make anyone look at the world a little differently.

Use the library to understand the sustainability push on campus

 

We get a lot of books to support the campus’s sustainability push. Pros, cons, debates, and more fill the pages of many of our new items, like today’s book: Powering the Future: The Problems & Possibilities of Green Energy. Learn the differences between alternative and renewable resources, explore the debates about certain fuels that might not pay off in the long run, and the impact these have on developing nations.

All of that and more issues are summed up in this great introductory text to the big issues inside sustainability. Remember, we’ve got plenty more like this one. Just ask a librarian!

Sociology, the Environment, and How They Get Along

The lines of society and environment cross many times, but it is unique to have a book like this handy: the implications of sociological behaviors and attitudes and their impact on the environment as seen from varying professions collected for study. Nature, Society and Environmental Crisis (edited by Bob Carl and Nickie Charles) is a fantastic collection of articles and essays about what we can do in the way we live to address the impact we’re having on the environment.  Having experts in both ecology and sociology allows for a wide range of opinions, priorities, and perceived results and impacts.  This book is great for people interested in sociology, environmentalism, ecology, and anyone with a passing concern in things like pollution, globalization, global warming, or other similar issues.

H-2-Oh Snap

Water : the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization by Steven Solomon is all about how settlements and their relationship to water have helped shape society. And this isn’t a “They built it by a river!” lame account of what should be obvious to anyone who has ever been thirsty. This actually goes into detail about dynasties collapsing based on unrest related water, how the Nile’s flood patterns effected their political relations, and how modern civilization is yet to tap into some of these strategic advantages of their water supplies.

And, since I mainly seem to feature books that scare the crap out of me, it is worth noting that it also concludes with a heavy-handed warning that we’ll run out of water and everyone will die.  That’s an over-simplification of the message, but the author does emphasize that something must be done as water supplies grow more scarce.  That being said, he seems to focus on strategies to make one’s nation superior during times of scarce water as opposed to “How to make more water”, but it doesn’t make it any less interesting.

The End of an Era?

It is hard to imagine the era of the modified muscle car being dead.  Perhaps it is easier for some, but I have friends that built Camaros piece by piece.  The fascination with big, powerful cars is, today, almost an insult to the environmental concerns of many.  We’re even watching the American auto industry capsize due to its seeming inability to keep up with foreign hybrids and fuel-efficient alternatives.  Now, we’re within a year of the promised date for the Chevrolet Bolt, and we’re wondering if Chevrolet will make it that long as a company.

Regardless of the long-term effects, it is still easy for some to look at the era of the muscle car and marvel at the creation.  Today’s book, Business of Speed : The Hot Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990, recollects this period of time when power was achieved by any means necessary.  But it does go beyond that:  Hot-rodding, or modifying cars for enhanced performance, isn’t just about being wasteful, and author David Lucsko addresses this. It will be interesting to see where emphasis takes this in the future: for fuel efficiency, for alternative means of achieving power… Nonetheless, this historical perspective of what once was is unique peak into a culture that will have to change with the times.

Plug In Your Car for the Book of the Day

Long ago, I lived next to a high school shop teacher.  The only cool thing about that was that he loved to tinker, and did so with electric vehicles.  His first was an uncomfortable folding chair welded to a flat platform on 4 wheels.  Under the chair sat a car battery, and buttons rested under the natural spot to rest your feet, one button on each side.  When you pressed both buttons, you went straight.  Just the right, you’d turn right, and left turned you left.  It was a pretty neat toy for his son, and he didn’t have to buy a Power Wheels.

Build Your Own Electric Vehicle by Seth Leitman is a big more complicated than welding a chair down.  This book goes through the steps of creating your own electric engine, converting a gas-powered vehicle to support an electric engine, and also weighs pros and cons (such as safety vs. vehicle weight and speed) in trying to get your vehicle greener.  Of course, I don’t know if my shop-teacher neighbor was really concerned about going green (the guy had two trucks and an SUV), but were I into mechanics, it would probably be fun to convert a vehicle just to say I did.

Out of the Office, Please Turn Your Monitors Off

This is the last Book of the Day for the week, as we’re off until Monday.

And to make things harder on me, there are only two new books to update from yesterday.  One of them, however, is Green Jobs: Working for People and the Environment.  If the President Elect follows through with one of his campaign promises, a lot of new jobs being created will be created as “Green Jobs”, a lot of which are in the energy insdustry, and all of which will bring an environmental approach to every day tasks and needs while simultaneously minimizing the environmental impact if not actively trying to better it.

This is a big deal.  As these jobs become real, it is important to keep an understanding on what the jobs actually are, and what they will actually do.  So if you’re looking for a change in the job market or just now looking to enter it, it might be worth your time to flip through the book and see the greener future of employment and productivity.

Book of the Day

A lot of things go wrong in the tech world.  Web pages crash.  Microsoft ads are created on Apple computers. You know how things can be.  One thing that might confuse you are the 4 entries for what appears to be the same book coming into the RSS Feed of new items.  Think again!  Actually, that’s a multi-volume set, The Encyclopedia of Global Warming & Climate Change, and it is here to ROCK YOU.  Or at least sway you to a greener life.

I actually think this book is perfect.  Somewhere between policitcal gobbledygook and activist buzzwords, you may be lost on what the issues are, the arguments mean, and the definitions of the terms thrown around.  No matter how you feel on the issue, it can’t hurt to keep up on what people are fighting about.

Book of the Day

America’s Nuclear Wastelands! I have nuclear paranoia to the point where you would think I remembered most of the Cold War.  Given that, this book title scare the ever-livin’ out of me.  The book actually does talk about Cold-War era weapons production and how we have to get rid of them. Here’s a quote from the back of the book:

In 2000, it was estimated that $212 billion and 70 years would be required to clean up the nuclear contamination and waste at 113 complexes while closing 4,000 unneeded facilities.

Does that not scare you?!  I suppose different generations have their different fears, but this is certainly an interesting book about environmental issues in the United States.  Here’s a picture to relax you after all of that.