FMHS APES First Spring 2019

What's the first consequence of global warming that comes to mind? You don't need to be an environmentalist to know that an increase in temperatures will cause the melting of arctic ice. However, did you know that the melting of arctic ice could potentially cause a drastic increase in sea levels, loss of habitat for arctic life, and more intense natural disasters? Since the earth is an intricately connected system, the melting of arctic ice could cause issues for all walks of life: not just a few polar bears. A recent 2018 study  has found that glaciers from the Arctic are the world's leading contributes to rising sea levels. According to this study, ice from the arctic alone is adding over a millimeter of water to the ocean every year. While this may not appear significant, this also means that the total Arctic loss at present is 447 billion tons of ice per year, or about 14,000 tons of water being dumped into the ocean per second: that's a lot of water! Additio...

In recent years, there has been a rise in the use of “clean” energy sources. Unlike fossil fuels and natural gas, renewable energy does not have to be burnt and has little to no greenhouse gas emissions. One of the most popular sources of renewable energy comes from space.  Solar power is on the cusp of explosion. As they continue to become more affordable and more efficient, homeowners are beginning to invest in solar panels as a clean energy source for their homes. (It also doesn’t hurt that the government provides a large tax cut for citizens who install solar panels on their houses.) With virtually zero emissions, a high energy output, a permanent source of solar radiation, and a 30-year lifespan, solar power seems like the perfect replacement for coal-burning power plants. Unfortunately, there are a few detrimental downsides, not to the energy itself, but to the solar panels that harness the sunlight. Solar panels are constructed from hazardous materials suc...

Chernobyl: The World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster by Aarthi Srinivasan Global warming. Rising seas. Ocean acidification. Ozone depletion. Acid deposition. Whether it's the release of CO 2 , NO x , or SO 2 , it is clear that the combustion of fossil fuels and other non-renewable forms of energy is having serious impacts on the environment. A cheaper, more environmentally sustainable solution to the world’s impending energy crisis may be something as simple as utilizing a fundamental piece of matter: the atom. However, nuclear energy has long been the subject of controversy, generating conversation about its potential human health and environmental impacts. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Pripyat, Ukrainian USSR, serves as a testament to the catastrophic consequences of a nuclear power plant disaster. The explosion and subsequent meltdown of the Chernobyl 4 reactor resulted in radioactive material being thrown into the air. Following the explosion, fires continued for eight days...

       We all know the effects that automobiles have on the environment. It seems like every two seconds we are hearing about how bad fossil fuel powered machines are for the environment, how they produce immense amounts of greenhouse gases, and how electric cars are the future. While all of this may be true, sometimes we forget that there is a subsection of automobiles that, while not unregulated in the slightest, has not exactly been eco-friendly in the past: motor racing.        Motor racing is not exactly a clean sport, ecologically. It is completely centered around making extremely inefficient machines become more efficient, all for the purpose of going faster and burning even more fuel in the process. Your average car may get 20-30 MPG on the highway, but what about these machines? Formula 1 cars are usually recorded at getting around 2-4 MPG! These engines are very inefficient (they need to be to go this fast) but they are used to i...

Genetic engineering, a practice commonly utilized on food, is the manipulation of an organism's gene makeup through the use of biotechnology. In 1994, the first genetically modified food, the Flavr Savr Tomato, was approved for release. In the 25 years since then, the prevalence of GMO's has increased each year. GMO's are useful from an economic standpoint, as crop yields are greatly increased from the new genetics. However, genetic engineering can have negative effects, such as, a lack of biodiversity, ecological risks, and human health risks. One example of a negative consequence of GMO production is the lack of biodiversity. Genetically modified different species of plants can cause some of these species to become invasive. Because much of the genetic engineering field is an unknown quantity, many of the results can't be predicted with 100% accuracy. For example, a plant may pass a lab inspection and be deemed safe to be planted or grown in an actual environment (...

In class, we have been learning about the topic of climate change. I can safely guess that at least ninety percent of you have not been sleeping under a rock the past few months, so you probably have heard the environmental debates intensifying in the political landscape. Notably, there have been talks of a “Green New Deal,” a massive plan to implement numerous massive changes in the US, from making energy completely renewable to investing in a national high-speed rail system, all within the next 10 years. Of course, it failed in the end, but that is a topic for somewhere else. Given the magnitude of such changes, why only 10 years? Many of you likely already know the answer. The United Nations IPCC- the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change- released a report last year that humanity can regulate the extent of global warmth to 1.5°C if we cut global carbon dioxide emissions by 45% before 2030- that is, within the next 12 years. Some believe that if we fail to meet this ...

When at the beach, you need three things: some friends, a ball, and sunscreen. Sunscreen protects us from the sun’s harmful UV radiation. Despite our parents telling us to lather up on sunscreen before hitting the beach, sunscreen causes more damage than good. Sunscreen is a harmful pollutant to the ocean environment. When we think of marine pollution, we imaging visible plastic garbage, fertilizer runoff, or sewage. Sadly, the extent of this pollution is far worse than the material people can see. Marine pollution goes down to the microscopic elements that affect sea life. According to the National Park Service, more than 6000 tons of sunscreen enter reef areas each year. Sunscreen is made up of wither oxybenzone, avobenzone, titanium dioxide, or iron dioxide which could wash of into our water. Sunscreen enters oceans and aquatic environments one of two ways: washing of from recreational activities such as swimming, or indirectly from wastewater treatment plants after it has be...