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Calista Dayton                                                                                                   
To make clean water, you shouldn’t pollute hazardous wastes into streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans, such as trash and other damaging chemicals. This can cause its dirt and other particles into our public drinking fountains, spouts, and other public appliances. This can also cause our food to go bad. That’s because when people use water and other liquids and ingredients mixed in to make food, those wastes could go into our body and damage us. Some dirt particles could also get into the water that most people use for washing. They either wash their home dishes and basically themselves, also. That could cause unhealthy skin and hair.
Some people could buy filters to drain out all of those harmful particles out of their drinking water. That is why we need to make sure to dispose our wastes into their original trash bins. So that way they can be then disposed into dumpsters and not into streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans. That leaves us to a healthy and safe environment that we can all enjoy.

Bailey Potter    
   
                                                          Response to Solar Power Satellites

    I think solar power satellites will be a good invention, and will help us a lot. I think it’s a really good way to get energy, also to save energy. It’s a good way to help the environment because it doesn’t use any harmful gasses or chemicals. The one thing I do not like about solar power satellites is that they are very expensive. I loved your report it had a lot of good information on how to make earth more environmentally friendly.


                                   Response to Alternative Energy and Legislation Against Urban Sprawl

   I think alternative energy is a very good way to help our environment. It can replace things that harm our environment. I think that all products that create waste should use alternative energy, so we can keep our environment clean.

   

  Helium 3 Fusion Energy from the Moon

By: Laura Crosby and Alex Klaes   
   

Helium 3 is an irregular form (isotope) of helium that is non-radioactive.  It is used in nuclear fusion testing to create an alternative energy source. Nuclear fusion energy from helium 3 would give the world clean energy with no toxic waste.  Instead, nuclear fission, the current type of nuclear energy, leaves a lot of long-term toxic waste. Helium 3 comes from strong solar winds. There are theories that there is a bigger source of Helium 3 on the moon and in small portions on the solar system’s gas giants, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune. Helium 3 was first discovered by an Australian nuclear scientist in 1934 at Cambridge. We feel that the use of helium 3 is a great idea because of the good ways it could be put to use for the benefit of the earth.
   
A man named Michel Laberge made a machine that, with the use of nuclear fusion, can use the helium three as an energy source.   He and his team are working on using perfecting this machine.



The research has gotten $2 million dollars from the parliament in Canada.    If Michel Laberge succeeds he will almost certainly be a Nobel Prize winner. Michel Laberge says that the research will take up to six years for the machine to work.
 
If helium 3 could be turned into an affordable energy source, it would be one of the best discoveries in the history of mankind for several reasons. For example, a reusable source that could replace oil and gas with the use of helium 3 would be great for the eco-system because that would mean less pollution and a cheaper energy source. Another good thing about helium 3 is that even though it comes from solar winds, it is not radioactive, so helium 3 would be a safe energy source.   
   
 The way helium 3 is turned into power is through using nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion happens when two ions of helium 3collide at such a high speed that an electrostatic repulsion is formed and broken fast enough for the ions to fuse together and form a bigger atom. That atom is so big that it creates a massive amount of heat.     Another wonderful and amazing thing about helium 3 is that the machine made by Michel Laberge’s doesn’t need any additional power. It’s powered by its own magnets in the machine and the heat energy created by the Helium three.

   There are two main reasons why helium 3 is not being used on a large scale already.  One is that nuclear fusion reactors are only in the experimental stage now.  They are not efficient enough yet to replace nuclear fission reactors.  Also, governments and/or private industries need to perfect space travel to start work-sites on the moon in order to retrieve the helium 3 from the moon’s soil.

   In conclusion, helium 3would be a world changing invention if it is able to be used successfully in the near six to eight years. It is free to use, free to manufacture, renewable, won’t run out, and it would cause less pollution in the world. It would be a great investment for the world to choose.
   

Bibliography

Dean, Josh. “ Machine Might Save World.”  http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-12/machine-might-save-world .  2008.

Rayann LeFever                  Solar Power Satellites
Julia Darling
Calista Dayton

   The world is changing in so many ways every single day.  It’s being upgraded with new technology, we’re learning new scientific ways of doing things, and there are many economically friendly things on the horizon.  One future type of technology that could eventually become very economically and ecologically friendly is solar power satellites.  Solar power satellites (better known as SPS’s) do not actually exist as yet, but plans are ready for them to be developed if governments and/or corporations want to make the commitment.  SPS’s could start a new technological way of life.  They don’t need to depend on anything except the sunlight beyond Earth’s atmosphere and the technology to gather and microwave beam the solar energy to collectors on Earth.  SPS’s don’t deplete fossil resources.  They don’t depend on water or fertilizer, either, like growing plants (like corn) for some forms of alternative energy do.  SPS’s are also very different because they don’t use nuclear fission-based power plants which produce toxic waste which is bad for the planet.
Solar power satellites are a new concept for producing energy.  They would be positioned above the Earth’s atmosphere.  Microwaves are the electricity converted from solar power that would be collected by a solar power satellite.  After being changed, microwaves would be sent through the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface.  The Earth’s surface is where the microwaves are taken in by large collectors and turned back into electricity. 
The Earth receives one thousand, four hundred watts of sunlight per square meter.  On Earth, this is cut in half because of the day to night span cycle.  The sun has an oblique angle, which means this is cut in half again just to complement the typical space on Earth.  In addition, the light is then cut down more because of atmospheric dust and clouds.  In the end, sunlight finally reaching the Earth is only about one eighth of the brightness it should be.  This is a waste of the sun’s power.
     During the 1970’s, people became very interested in solar power satellites.  In more recent years, a renewed interest has come up on the subject of solar power satellites.  This interest was mostly due to concerns about global warming, which was a result of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
Solar power satellites could be constructed in space.  About ninety eight percent of the solar power satellites mass could consist of materials from the moon.  For this to occur, there must be a lunar infrastructure. That means that either worksites on the moon or orbital space stations, like the International Space Station, would have to have human workers, along with robotic machinery, would be used.  There are companies already in existence which have planned for this kind of enterprise.  PERMANENT.COM is a website which shows a lot of the technology that would be needed.



(Example of what a solar power satellite would look like)


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301479,00.html

The world needs clean energy.  Gathering energy from the sunlight in space is a wise idea because the lifetime of the sun is about four to five billion years, which means that there is a long-term energy source.  There are many advantages of Solar Power.  One example of an advantage would have to be that unlike oil, ethanol, gas, and coal plants, the solar power from space solar power does not emit things called “green house gases.” (Any atmospheric gas that contributes to the greenhouse affect just by absorbing infrared radiation)  Space solar power does not have to use increasingly scarce fresh water resources, as nuclear power plants and coal do.  This is better for the environment.  Space solar power also does not compete for increasingly valuable farming land or depend on natural-gas-derived fertilizer, unlike bio-ethanol or bio-diesel.  Food can continue to be a very major export instead of a provider for fuel.  Space solar power will not produce hazardous wastes, unlike nuclear fission-based power plants which for hundreds of years will need to have toxic wastes stored and guarded.
   During the entire span of a full day, space solar power would be available, unlike terrestrial solar and wind power plants.   Space solar power does not provide easy targets for terrorists, unlike nuclear power plants and coal.  Bio-ethanol or bio-diesel are also different because space solar power doesn’t compete for the always increasing value of farm land.
          However, solar power satellites are not perfect.  They have quite a few disadvantages.  One disadvantage is the high development costs.  The costs of solar power satellites are extremely large.  It is less expensive than the military budget, or the costs of global warming, and climate change, but it is still very expensive.   
There are many technological devices that would go along with developing SPS’s.  One good thing is that there could be environmentally and economically friendly launch methods instead of rocket launches.  Rockets have very high launch rates and prices.  They may also cause a lot of atmospheric pollution all by themselves.  One interesting possible solution is called a Ribbon Climber, better known as Space Elevator Ribbon, which would raise items slowly through the atmosphere from a line attached to a geosynchronous satellite.  The payload (cargo) would then be switched to a tether, which would launch the cargo to the destination in space.


(Left: Example of how a ribbon climber would work)






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator



(Right: Example of what a space tether might look like)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tether_satellite




In conclusion, many people of Earth have become more and more environmentally friendly each day we’re on Earth. And with new technology like Solar Power Satellites, humans are even closer to more success.  Technology is getting better for the planet and our goods. Less pollution can bring people more happiness by allowing human beings to live in a healthy environment that’s free of pollution.
      

Bibliography

David, Leonard.  “Space Power for an Energy-Hungry Earth?” http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/solar_power_satellite_000421.html  Senior Space writer posted: 07:05 am ET April 21 2000


Potter, Seth. “Solar Power Satellites”
Research Scientist, New York University
http://www.freemars.org/history/sps.html


Potter, Seth. “Image of Traditional SPS: SSI”
http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/


Smith Glenn. “Harvest the Sun-From Space”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/opinion/23smith.html
Published July 23, 2008

   That is sad news that there was a Typhoon Ondoy in the Philippines in 2009.   We don’t have typhoons here in New York.  It’s horrible to hear about that happening.  There were some earthquakes in our hemisphere, like in Haiti.  They had three or four.  There was a lot of damage there.  We sent over groups to help clean up.  My brother was in one of those groups.  Were there any support groups sent to help in the Philippines? 

What are the cause and the consequences of the water pollution in the world ?

   Water pollution is a big issue.  It is not only bad for the various organisms that inhabit water, but for humans too.  We need water to survive, and if it is all polluted what are we to drink?  One cause of water pollution is chemical and oil spills.  Careless workers spill harmful things into lakes and oceans.  The consequences of the spills is, it kills the water life and is essentially bad for us. 
 

Reply to Arthur from Gabrielle

   That is sad that people don’t care enough to take care of the local rivers.   If you live next to or near the river, you should talk to a teacher or someone in charge and get a group of people to go and clean it out.  From the picture, I can see that that part of the river is clean.  Was that awhile ago or a recent picture?   Is the whole river polluted or is it just parts of it? 

        Gabrielle

I agree with you very much Femie.  A lot of things that are happening because of our own neglect and the scientists think it is not our fault but, the truth is it is it’s our complete fault. With what you said that yes it is our fault and it is all of our complete responsibility to change it before it is way too late to change our fate that we created. So yes it’s time to work together as a team and stand up for our world because there is still time to change our fate and save all our lives. If we just get everybody into the motion we can do something.

                                                                     Courtney F

Respond to Guillaume from Crest

   There are multiple causes and consequences of the water pollution in the world. One of the causes of water pollution is littering. Another cause is when people and companies dump garbage and chemicals into lakes and oceans. A last cause of water pollution is oil spills. Some of the consequences of water pollution are that it could kill the marine [life, Ed.] in the water. Water pollution also makes it cut back on the world’s water supply.  

The news of the typhoon striking the Philippines is very tragic.  The typhoon seems like a very nerve racking experience that has done great harm.  I am sorry for the loss of your homes and your cities.  Here in New York we do not experience typhoons or other tropical storms.  I remember back in 2005 a city here in the United States, New Orleans, was hit by hurricane Katrina.  Your typhoon Ondoy reminds me of the hardships the people of New Orleans went through.  Did you have support groups to help with those whose homes were destroyed or were in great need of help?