Nuclear power

There has been a lot of debate about Australia changing to nuclear power in the media lately. The main reason to change to nuclear energy is to fight Global Warming. Well this statement may be true, but I know that many people are still against nuclear power, including me. Why? Because nuclear power is dirty and has its own dangers and risks.

So if nuclear power is so dangerous, why does our current federal government want to use it? Our government sees it as a way of reducing carbon emissions, therefore helping to stop global warming. The current energy source that we’re mainly using (oil and coal) is the major reason for Global Warming because they release carbon dioxide into the air. This is why nuclear power is being considered- because unlike oil and coal, it does not create carbon dioxide…

Or does it???

Lets look further into this area. The question is, “Does nuclear power emit carbon dioxide?” It is claimed that nuclear power does not emit any carbon dioxide at all into the air. However, this is only partly true. Yes, the nuclear reaction itself does not release any carbon dioxide into the air, but the process of converting uranium ore into nuclear fuel (eg. mining, refining and concentrating) is a highly polluting process. A huge amount of energy is also needed for the construction of a nuclear power station. And we go straight back to what we’re using now (coal and oil) for this energy. Therefore, if the making of nuclear power and its requirements are taken into account, nuclear power is in fact responsible for a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

Nuclear power really doesn’t have many more advantages other than its reaction doesn’t emit carbon dioxide. Actually, many of its other factors are quite worrying. There’s the threat of terrorism/making of nuclear weapons, the fact that the waste is dangerous and must be handled very carefully and I’m not even going to mention the overwhelming cost of it all.

My main worry for changing to nuclear power is how dangerous it is. The disposal of nuclear waste is a dangerous process, and the waste will last for thousands of years. Because the waste will be radioactive, it will need to be handled very carefully. Have you ever tried burying a plastic bag to see what will happen to it? As you may already know, plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to decompose, so most likely that plastic bag will remain in the ground much longer than you will remain on earth. It’s like this with nuclear power. The waste that is created from nuclear power will not simply “disappear” or “decompose”, but it will remain there for thousands or years. And on top of that, it is also very dangerous, so we will have to dump this dangerous waste somewhere where it cannot escape. And we all know how much power we use right now in Australia (I’m sure we’re all guilty of spending many hours a day watching TV or using the computer for MSN etc.). So therefore, Australia is going to have a lot of nuclear waste to deal with if our government decides to switch our main energy source to nuclear.

So because the waste is such an issue, the question is, what will we do with it? Well there have been some bizarre ideas on how to get rid of this waste such as burying it under the ocean floor and shooting it into space. The most likely one, however, is burying the waste under the ground. However, another issue arises from this as to where underground should the waste be buried. If we, Australia, were to go nuclear, we must be careful not to store the waste in an area where there is ground water flowing through. Ground water could erode the containment sealers and carry the waste into the environment if it flows through a waste storage area. Another factor to be careful of when choosing a containment area is to pick an area well away from a fault line/an area where geological activity occurs. We don’t want an earthquake to occur 1000 years into the future, because this will release the reactive nuclear waste into the environment as well.

When I was researching this nuclear topic, I came across a sentence that really shocked me. Quote: “Low level waste can be buried near the surface of the earth. It will have lost most of its radioactivity in a couple hundred years.” A couple of hundred years?! I thought. This was the lowest level of waste, and even this level will take hundreds of years to loose its radioactivity. And even when it finally loses its radioactivity, it doesn’t mean it’s completely gone. It will still remain there for most likely another couple of hundred of years, or maybe even more. But what scared me was that if this is how long it takes ‘low level nuclear waste’ to stop being radioactive, how long will it take ‘high level nuclear waste’ to stop being radioactive?! The site said that high-level waste is harder to get rid of and takes thousands of years to become stable. This waste must be contained for a very long time. If it is not contained, it could come in contact with human population centers and wildlife, putting their health at great risk. Therefore, the waste must be sealed up tightly.

I am worried about the risk of a nuclear disaster happening in Australia that could affect our health. One of the most well known nuclear disasters happened in 1979 at Three Mile Island in the USA. The disaster was caused by a meltdown. Luckily, no one was killed, but apparently the disaster affected the drinking water, which may have impacted on people’s health. The cleanup process was also very slow and costly.

Below is a picture of the Three Mile Island nuclear power station which I believe is still running today. Have a look at the colour of the water around it.

3_mile_island_fullsize.jpg

In the past, there have also been fatal nuclear disasters. This includes the Chernobyl nuclear disaster which was considered the worst nuclear power disaster in history.

Besides all the dangers, nuclear power shouldn’t even be considered now, simply because it cannot reduce carbon dioxide emissions quickly enough to prevent dangerous climate change. Nuclear power is not the answer.

Many environmentalists have spoken out against nuclear power.

“Nuclear power is too expensive and too dangerous. Wasting billions on more nuclear reactors would distract from the real task of developing renewables and reducing energy demand. Nuclear power is the ultimate unsustainable form of energy – for a little energy now, we would be condemning 10,000 generations to deal with the radioactive waste we would produce.” Andrew Lee, Director of Campaigns for WWF

“Nuclear power is a dangerous distraction from the real solutions to tackling climate change and it rightly deserves to be so unpopular,” commented Robin Oakley from Greenpeace. “It’s a hideously expensive and ridiculously antiquated way to generate electricity.”

I’m sure our prime minister wouldn’t like a nuclear reactor in his own backyard (just in case something was to happen!), but by changing to nuclear power, he’s putting nuclear reactors in his own country’s backyard!

My advice would be to leave the uranium right where it is in the ground. Clearly it was never meant to be touched by humans. Considering how costly nuclear power is, the money should be put towards renewable energy sources instead.

Blackle

Hello everyone!

Lately I have been keeping the time spent on my computer to a minimum, so I haven’t posted anything for months. However, today I thought that I should log on to give readers a quick update about the environment.

Google. When I say this, what comes to your mind? I’m sure you all imagine this search engine- the image of its bright, colourful heading on a clean, white page. Google is probably the most famous search engine I know, and it was the first search engine I ever used. Well did you know that Google has been re-created so that there is a search engine? You’re probably wondering what the point is in doing this. Like I mean, one search engine’s enough. All search engines do the same thing- type in what you’re looking for and click search. About a week ago I was informed this new search engine, and gee was I impressed! Why? Because this one was especially made to save energy and help the environment!

The name’s Blackle. Unlike ‘Google’, it’s heading is dark, and instead of having a bright white background, the background of Blackle is black, of course! All right, even I admit that I preferred the nice, colourful theme of Google. However, Blackle serves a much more important purpose than looks. As I’m sure many of you know, the environment is in a lot of strife, so we should all try and do a bit to help. Blackle is the perfect way to do this when we have to look something up on the internet. As Heap Media (the creator of Blackle) explains, taking small steps in our everyday lives to save energy is important. You may think that this isn’t going to make much of a difference, but if everyone took these small steps, there would definitely be a huge difference! Blackle is an example of taking small steps. It’s as easy to use as Google and has the same results. The only thing that I have noticed that it’s missing is the image search option. Sometimes I use this option, so whenever I need to use it I go onto the normal Google website, but for the rest of the time, I do all my searches on Blackle.

So what is the concept of having a black screen? How does it help the environment? Apparently, black screens don’t use as much power as white screens. I’m guessing that this is because they are much darker. So therefore, every time someone uses Blackle instead of Google, they are saving energy. As I write this, it says that 136,525.445 Watt hours have been saved. Of course, this number will continue to go up. This just proves that by simply changing your search engine to Blackle, you, among with everyone else that has been using Blackle, are making a real difference.

I’d also like to add to this post a bit of info about the origin of this fantastic idea. The idea of having a black screen to save energy was actually discovered by a man called Mark. He posted his discovery on his blog in January 2007, which attracted quite a bit of interest. If you’re interested, you can check out the very blog post that started this by clicking here.

Heap Media created Blackle because believe that there is great value in the concept. They say that even if the energy savings are small, they all add up.

As I end my blog post, I encourage you to visit Blackle (www.blackle.com) to see this site for yourself. I also encourage you to use Blackle as your search engine from now on because it’s not a hard way to help contribute towards helping the environment. If you were a frequent user of Google, it may take some time to get used to typing in “Blackle” instead of “Google” (trust me, I know from experience), but eventually you will get into a habit of automatically using Blackle instead. You may even like to set it as your home page as well.

Thankyou to everyone who takes the time to read my blog. I hope I have taught you a fact or two by writing this post. Have a great day!

Visy Box World

Today, while shopping in the mall, I noticed the most peculiar thing. As I approached it, I observed the different buildings, traffic lights and roads. Buildings ranged from small shops to tall skyscrapers with lines of windows covering all four sides. It was such an amazing city! Before you ask, “How can a city fit inside a mall?”, I will have to confirm to you that it was a moblie model city. But this wasn’t just any old model city. This city was made entirely from recycled materials such as cardboard, milk cartons and bottles! It was such an amazing piece of work that I decided to post about it here on my blog. I have done some more research on it as well which I have added below.

Name: Visy Box World (rightly named Box Town as well which represents a small city with buildings, cars, people and a Visy building)

Creator: Warren Thomas

After seeing the Legoland display when it toured Australia, Warren Thomas decided to build Box World. He chose to build his own world completely out of recycled materials, and the project took him over 12 years to complete. The finished product is over 200 square metres!

I am so thrilled that I got the chance to see part of Warren Thomas’ impressive city. I closely examined some of the shops and found that they even had an inside to them! There was a Chinese takeaway shop and a bread shop with a window that revealed rows of bread. Every shop had a lot of detail put into it and looked just like a real shop but miniature. I also read on another website that apparently there were over 900 individual buildings representing things you would expect to find in a typical Australian city. The site said that there was even a ferris wheel made from a BMX bike wheel, a circus made from a striped carry bag and part of a cathedral was made from a tomato sauce bottle! Although I didn’t notice these in the part of Box World I saw today, I’m sure they would have been included somewhere on the complete model city. Talking about websites, have a look at the Visy website: www.visyrecycling.com.au

Besides the buildings and structure of the city, there were also many facts about Visy around the structure. One of them that I can remember went somewhat like, “Each year, all of the bottles Visy recycles can circle Australia 6 times”!

As this part of the model city goes on tour, it will probably move to another location at sometime. However, where ever the recycled city goes, it will always be an inspiration to start recycling to anyone who sees the fantastic work! Visy Box World really inspired me to be creative with what and how I recycle, and I hope it inspires others to do the same.

Plastic bags

I can remember the other day when I was out shopping with my younger brother. He’d spotted a small toy that he wanted to buy, so he picked it up, and brought it over to counter. As I stood with him, I watched as he paid for the item. He was then asked whether he wanted a plastic bag for it. I know that this is a typical question that is asked at the shops, which I’m sure you’re all very familiar with as well. Anyway, my brother nodded his head, and I watched the shop assistant pull out a plastic bag to put this small, packaged toy in. At this point, I couldn’t help but interrupt. I told my brother that he didn’t need a plastic bag, and if he didn’t want to carry the toy, then I would carry it for him in my handbag. That was just one bag that I may have saved from damaging the environment.

Before you ask, “How can one plastic bag be so harmful,” I would like to list all the effects plastic bags have on the environment. I remember my brother asking me this very question after we stepped out of the shop, and I know that many others are still unaware of the impacts these bags have on the environment. I can remember when I was younger, I would always say “yes” to plastic bags when offered them at shops. Although these bags may seem like innocent things to carry shopping in, I have now learnt that they really are quite a harmful thing to the environment that people should be more aware of. My aim for today is to teach people who don’t know the harms of plastic bags what they’re really capable of, and I hope to alter people’s answer to the question “Would you like a plastic bag” to “No thanks”.

Earlier today I started researching why plastic bags are so bad for the environment. Before this, I knew that it was better to “Say ‘no’ to plastic bags”, but like many people, I didn’t know why they were this bad. After searching for answers, I came across many websites that discussed the alternatives to plastic bags, listed some astonishing facts about these bags, and described the damaging effects these bags have on the environment. After reading all this, I would like to pass on what I’ve learnt to others. I will begin this by listing these dangers to the environment and some amazing facts, which should answer the question, “What is so bad about plastic bags?”:

1. Once let loose into the environment, plastic bags are categorised as rubbish. We all know that rubbish makes our environment look untidy, and by littering plastic bags, they’re just another piece of rubbish which helps make the environment look dirty and unwelcoming. Next time you’re outside, have a look around you, and you’ll be amazed by the number of plastic bags littering our streets and waterways. These bags can also get blown away to trees and other areas full of nature, which leads me on to point two. 

2. Plastic bags are killers, and claim the lives of many animals each year. These bags end up in water, which can be mistaken for jellyfish by wildlife. This is the reason why plastic bag pollution is particularly dangerous in marine environments, because animals such as birds, turtles, whales and seals swallow the bags and then die from intestinal blockages. It is claimed that plastic bags are the most common man-made item seen by sailors at sea, which isn’t nice to hear. Below is a picture of an operation to remove plastic from inside a green turtle:

Operating on a turtle
 

Next is a picture showing the contents of the turtle’s stomach. This includes a blue plastic bag and a red balloon. 

Plastic bag found in turtle

The turtle was then released back into the ocean. How long will it survive? 

Setting a turtle free

3. One of the biggest problems with plastic bags is that they don’t easily break down in the environment. It is estimated that the decomposing time ranges from 20 years (at least) to 1000 years! This means that a plastic bag that was let loose in the environment before I was born (about 14 years ago) is still trying to decompose in the environment today, and it will be a long time to come before it’s done so. This is just one plastic bag, and each time you put a plastic bag into the bin, it will take somewhere between 20 years to 1000 years to break down. And during this time, the bag separates into smaller and smaller toxic particals that contaminates the soil and the water surrounding it.

4. Plastic bags can basically be described as “serial killers”, because believe it or not, just one plastic bag can claim more than one animal’s life. Once an animal that has swallowed a plastic bag dies, it decays at a much faster rate than the plastic bag (which, like I said above, takes somewhere between 20-1000 years to decompose). You can probably already tell what’s going to happen next. Once the animal has decomposed, once again, the bag is released back into the environment, ready to be eaten by another misguided creature.

5. Plastic bags can also cause the clogging of drains, threatening not only natural environments, but urban ones as well. Here’s an astonishing fact; Plastic bags in drains was said to be a major contribute to the severe flooding in Bangladesh in 1988 and 1998! This resulted in a ban on plastic bags being used there in 2002.

Plastic bags go down the drain

6. Besides the harsh environmental costs, general use of plastic bags is quite costly in terms of money. There is the cost of bags themselves, which is four to six cents each, and the production of them, but apart from this, there is a lot of money that goes into collecting and cleaning up the bags once they have been discarded.

7. Plastic bags are made from a gas called ethylene, which is produced as a by-product of oil, gas and coal. The production of plastic bags consume millions of gallons of oil that could be used for fuel, heating or some other energy.

Other facts:

* Plastic bags are one of the most commonly used application of plastics technology. Australians use around 6 billion plastic bags per year, and 3.3 billion of those are supermarket plastic bags. According to Clean Up Australia, if tied together, these bags would form a chain that is long enough to circle the world 37 times!

* On Clean Up Australia Day in 2002, nearly half a million plastic bags were collected.

I would like to give credit to http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/bags/default.htm. This site was where I learnt all this information from, and where I found the pictures.

Plastic bags. Every minute, people are being given plastic bags to hold their shopping in. How many of these are polluting out environment? Well, there were nearly half a million plastic bags collected from the environment by on Clean Up Australia Day, 2002. Who knows how many more were still out there, and are out there right now. Just a few days ago I took a moment to observe the surroundings while on the way to a friend’s house, and I was shocked by how many plastic bags there were. Wrapped around trees, blown to the side of fences… my list could go on and on. And many of these plastic bags could have been saved from ending up in the environment as well. So many plastic bags are given to people without any need as well. I have read many texts that support this point, and have been in many situations (like when shopping with my younger brother) where there was no need for a plastic bag, but the server would have given us one if I hadn’t said no.

Now, I would like to suggest some of the alternatives to plastic bags. I know that some retailers offer paper bags instead of plastic bags, but just today I read that paper bags carry their own set of environmental problems. The text that I read said that according to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999, the U.S alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, which consumed 14 million trees!

I know that sometimes, you actually do need to receive a plastic bag though. When this happens to me, I don’t throw the plastic bag out afterwards. Instead, my family has a place in our house where we put the plastic bags we get, so we can use them again for other things such as storing other items in the house in. I have also read that some plastic bags can be recycled by taking them to central recycling collection points, such as supermarkets. As long as the bags do not contain any ink marks, food, or supermarket dockets, the bag should be recycled. I have never actually experienced these recycling collection points before, but I have read about them on the abc link which is further above. Other than that, if you don’t need a plastic bag, say “no”, unless you are going to reuse or recycle it. This is where a saying that I like comes in:

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce

So if both plastic bags and paper bags aren’t the best option for the environment, what is? Well, I have come to the conclusion that the best alternative is reusable cloth bags. These bags are not only stronger, but they are reducing the amount of plastic bags being released into the environment. They can be kept in the car and used again and again, instead of receiving more and more plastic or paper bags. It may take a bit of time to get used to remembering to bring your own bag to the supermarket, but it is quite an easy habit to get into and it’s definitely a relief not to have to pack the groceries away, and then find room to pack the plastic bags as well! These reusable cloth bags can be found at some major supermarket chains such as Coles (the Go Green bags) for a very small price (which is definitely worth it if you’re serious replacing those plastic bags with environmentally friendly bags!) I have copied a paragraph from the Coles website below, which explains a bit about these Go-Green bags:

Go-Green Bags are available at all Coles Supermarkets for only $1.79 each. The very popular non-woven polypropylene Go-Green Bag has a sturdy base and can hold more than a standard plastic bag. The bags are easy to clean and can be recycled through the checkout bag recycling bins. The Go-Green Bags have been designed to operate with standard packaging frames. These bags are available to purchase in all Coles Supermarkets.

I have also noticed a popular teenage clothing shop called “Supre” has started giving out these reusable cloth bags, but with a different design on them. I think this is a good idea, and hopefully it will encourage more teenage girls to start reducing plastic bags. Besides stores, I have seen many other reusable bags from other organisations such as Red Cross.

To finish up with, I believe that children (like my brother) need to be aware of the reasons for refusing a plastic bag. This is one of the reasons I decided to post this issue on my blog, and I hope that I have convinced others that for a small price, it is worth buying re-usable cloth bags. Not only are these bags stronger, but they are helping the environment by reducing the amount of plastic bags being released into it. I hope I have taught everyone reading this about the reasons for refusing a plastic bag, and ways to help reduce the amount of bags contaminating our environment. I’m sure that next time I go shopping, I will refuse plastic bags when I can (or reuse them), and either put the items I buy in my handbag, or carry groceries in environmentally friendly cloth bags.  

Global Warming

READ IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT IS TRUELY, PHYSICALLY HAPPENING TO OUR PLANET!

Yes, today my goal is to make it clear to everyone reading this that it is really happening. It has been happening over the past 100 years, and it’s even happening right now, right this very moment. “What’s happening?” you ask. Global Warming of course! Even thought you may not realise it, Global Warming does exist. The Earth is warming up, and things are not looking good. You may not realise it, but we are the very centre of this problem. Yes, people are the cause of Global Warming, but why? How? Please keep reading, and all your questions will be answered.

Global Warming pretty much starts with the Greenhouse Effect. Have you ever been inside a greenhouse on a sunny day? If you have, then you would know exactly what I mean by “It’s hot, isn’t it.” This is because the glass inside the greenhouse traps the heat from the sun inside. The gas Carbon Dioxie does the exact same thing in the Earth’s atmosphere. The glass in a greenhouse keeps the plants inside warm, and Carbon Dioxide keeps the planet warm. Well, without it we will freeze… but too much of it will mean we’d boil! People are burning way too much fuels that contain Carbon, such as oil, gas and coal, which are used in cars, aeroplanes, power stations, factories and so on. All this Carbon gets dumped into our air, which is mixed with Oxygen that we all breathe, and so this adds to the Greenhouse gas problem. And so the planet warms up some more…

Global Warming, if I put it in simpler terms, is the average increase in the Earth’s temperature. This causes change the climate, which will lead to many other changes. Some of these changes include:

* A rise in sea level– the warmer temperatures are beginning to melt the ice in Antarctica. This is not good for both humans, and the adorable creatures that live in Antarctica like penguins. Less ice will cause less of a home for penguins as they live on ice, and the warmer temperatures will also cause them to get too hot. And, if you’re asking now, “How will it affect us?” I will tell you now. Believe it or not, this is actually worse for us than it is for penguins. All this melted ice will start to fill up the oceans, and cause them to overflow onto our land, not to mention the disease that will also occur if this happens. But it gets even worse. Scientists have found out that as the climate warms up, the weather is going to get more violent and unpredictable. I feel sorry for all those of you who are terrified when there are storms, because I’m afraid to tell you that the hurricanes will become much more powerful, which is a big worry for people living south of the USA, the lovely tropical pacific countries and the Indian Ocean areas such as the Philippines. Rain will also get heavier, so to add to the violent weather, there will also be more floods.

Well now that I’ve told you all of the devastating affects that can happen if we keep up Global Warming, I will defiantly have to tell you how we can fix this problem. Remember, we started it, so we must fix it!

Don’t worry, they’re not big tasks. Just little things you can do which will help. If each of us do our part, then the closer we get to fixing this. However, we must get everyone in this! Everyone has to help and do their bit for us to be able to fix this big problem. Even if you are doing your best, you must also encourage others to do their little bit as well for this to work. We have to have everyone in this, and this is why my goal for today is to get as many people to read this and choose to help. Helping includes doing the tasks below as if they are part of your daily lives. Not only will this help you, but it will help others (including wildlife), and all head towards reducing Global Warming.

1. Save electricity– Whenever we use electricity, we help to put un-seen greenhouse gases into the air. By turning off the lights, the television and the computer when you’ve finished using them can help a lot.
2. Public transport and human power– You can save energy by sometimes catching a bus or train riding a bike or walking to get around.
3. Planting trees– This is fun way to help reduce greenhouse gases. Trees absobe a greenhouse gas called Carbon Dioxide from the air.
4. Recycle– You can recycle some things (which it usually says on the cover whether it can be recycled) and use both sides of a piece of paper. An example of something that can be recycled is paper. When you recycle, you send less rubbish off to the landfills and you help save natural resources like trees, oil and elements such as aluminum.
5. Set up a worm farm or compost bin, where you can put in food scraps such as vegetables, and then use it on the garden.
6. Bring your own reusable bag with you when shopping. Say no to plastic bags!
7. Tell others about Global Warming, and mention the terrible affects it can cause. List some ways that can help them save energy, and feel free to even show them my blog where they can read this very post!

If you have any other great ways to save energy, I’d love it if you could post them under a comment on this post. Also, I’d like to hear from you what you think, so it would be great if you could leave a comment on your throughts about Global Warming and my post.

8Alive is back!

This week has been pretty good because my class have been doing the next part of the 8Alive program. Apart from some activities which I haven’t enjoyed, 8Alive has been much better this week! On Tuesday my class traveled to a park that cared a lot about caring for the environment. From this experience I have learnt a lot more about the environment and how important it is to look after it. During the visit, we each made a piece of recycled paper which I really enjoyed making. From reading the signs around the park, we learnt many fascinating facts mostly about rubbish. Many Australians use up so much water as if it is unlimited, and produce so much rubbish without thinking about what it is doing to the environment. Did you know that by the way everyone’s living today, we need many more Earths than we have. There’s only one Earth, so we have to learn to look after it. You can help by doing simple things such as not taking long showers, using both sides of a piece of paper, bringing a reusable bag with you when shopping instead of using plastic bags, and recycling items that can be reused. Many food items indicate on the box/packaging whether it can be recycled, and most of those that can are made of paper. By recycling, we can save trees, and also our home the Earth. When we use up rubbish, do you ever think about where it goes? It has to be dumped somewhere, so this is what rubbish dumps are made for. However, all this rubbish is bad for the environment. Here are some interesting facts about this topic:

* Believe it or not, Australians dump around 230,000 recyclable plastic bags in landfills every hour, which is 7 billion each year!
* Plastic bags take much longer to break down in the natural environment than we think- up to 1,000 years!
* Plastic bags kill hundreds of thousands of birds and sea creatures every year.

One section of the park was built like an Indian village. Here we got to view some beautiful birds called peacocks, paint in an Indian style and enter some small houses that many Indians live in. We also learnt a lot about the Indian culture and found out how different it is to our daily lives. I really think that this park is doing a great job in helping the environment. Keep up the great work guys!