Wind Power

Joanna woke up to a bright windy morning. After breakfast, she headed to her car. Before she starts her journey to work, from afar she saw a boy playing with a wind propeller toy.The propeller was spinning so fast that it cuts the young boy’s finger when his itchy finger touched the spinning propeller.

She thought, if wind power was so powerful, why was it not used to generate electricity for us? That would definitely be useful and ecofriendly.

After returning home from work that night, she surfed the internet on facts regarding wind power and she found some fascinating facts about wind power.

Wind power could actually be used as an alternative to fossil fuels, Besides being plentiful and renewable, it is clean and natural. The good news is, it causes very low, limited amount of pollution to the air as compared with fossil fuels.

pic from http://www.alternative-energy-resources.net/

Wind farms had been built in several countries now, and the wind turbines accommodated only a small plot of land. It was usually built at rural areas, where they were no electricity power grid.

"How nice would it be if I have a mini wind turbine at home to power up some of my electrical appliances. If that were to happen, electricity will be much cheaper as compared to now," Joanna thought.

Although the strength of wind is not constant, but at least it generates a sustainable amount of energy for now and the future. Come back next week for more environmental friendly knowledge.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Joanna had a busy Saturday. First thing she did when she woke up was to catch up with some house work in which she procrastinated since the passed few weekends. She washed her car, vacuumed the floor, changed her bed sheet and bathed her dog, Max.

After a busy morning, at last she got to sit down and rest. She took her latest issue of the Time Magazine and read something worth her time.

The first place for the best invention in year 2008 is the retail DNA test.

"Hmm...nice. Now we can know what our gene tells us instead of what we know about ourselves," Joanna thought for a moment before she read on.

pic from http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/04/mankinds-survival-in-the-hands-of-norway/

From the articles she was reading, what caught her attention most is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault at the Arctic Circle. At the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, almost every nation kept their collections of native seeds so local crops can be replanted in case of an agricultural disaster. The seeds are kept at a low temperature of -18 degree Celsius! If the facility loses power, the climate at the Arctic should be able to keep the seeds viable for thousands of years!

That concept of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault reminds her of the Noah's Ark. It was an act of human to preserve the seeds of plants. But in this case, human played the role of GOD.

pic from http://www.funnycollection.org/

She realized how life had changed over the past few centuries for human civilization. With the advancement in technology from cellphones, to internet, to Wi-Fi, to Human Genome Project and now the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the future of human civilization is really beyond human mind could imagine. But human brain had never failed to amuse Joanna. It was the curiosity of humans that lead us to the point we are now at.

When it comes to saving the environment, Joanna was never worried because there will always be some upcoming projects by some scientist to save the environment.

"I have no special talent, I'm just passionately curious"
-Albert Einstein-

Stay tune next week for more....

Global Warming!

Joanna woke up with a smile on her face. She walked across her room towards the window. As she opened the window, she could smell the fresh air. She could see trees dancing under the assistance of the refreshing morning breeze. Birds were chirpping, singing their favourite tune.

Riiiinggggg!!!!

Joanne woke up staring at the ceiling.

"Haih...Just a dream," sigh Joanna as she sat next to her bed, rubbing her half-opened eyes.

She walked towards her balcony with the slightest hope to breathe some fresh air in the morning. As she pushed open her balcony door, disappointment almost drown her instantly. All she could smell was polluted air. There were no trees but only high rise building, sheilding all possible view. There were birds. But those birds were not interested in singing. They were more interested in a loose bag of rubbish at the middle of the back lane. That bag of rubbish will soon be torn into pieces by the notorius beaks of the black crows. This view welcomed her every morning since she moved to the town. Job's requirement. So there wasn't much grumbling from her.

"How come the weather seems so much hotter nowadays?" Joanne asked herself silently.

Suddenly she felt sick after standing too long at the balcony. The foul smell of the environment is making her puke.

After she brushed her teeth and cooked herself a healthy vegetarian breakfast, she sat down and turned the TV on. She was switching channels to find something nice to entertain herself but discovery channel caught her attention. It was showing a documentary about 'Global Warming'.

pic from http://www.lifeofearth.blogspot.com

They were comparing the temperature of the earth. There was a drastic increased in the temperature these days comparing to those days when Joanna was small.All the human activities were the main cause of ozone depletion.

At the end of the documentary, they listed a few simple steps to reduce ozone depletion. People all across the world were advice to use CFC-free products. We are not allowed to use deodorants and hair sprays. Sprays of all kind should be prohibited unless it is stated CFC-free or environmental friendly.

After watching the documentary, Joanna planned to change her fridge and aircon. Her act was just to carry out a small duty to save the environment.

It is our respinsible too. So let's carry out this small little task to contribute in saving the environment. Come back next week for more tips on saving the environment.

Eat Vegetables!

Joanna was very full when she reached home. She just came back from her company's annual dinner. It was a yearly event where all the employees got together for a night of enjoyment and entertainment. This year, they had buffet at a five star hotel.

Joanna and her colleagues fed themselves with beefs, chickens, mutton and pork. At the end of the dinner, there were a lot of vegetables left. As the vegetables were unnoticed the whole night, the workers had to throw them away as it is no longer fresh. Joanna saw them throwing it away. She begun to wonder, why do people enjoyed eating meat rather than vegetables?

After she took a hot shower, she went online to do some research; trying to find out the ratio of people preferred eating meat to vegetables. Instead of getting what she was looking for, she found an inconvenient truth about meat. The shocking fact is, it takes sixteen pounds of grain just to produce one pound of meat or commonly known as protein.

Besides that, it requires more water to rear livestock compare to vegetables. By the decreasing the number of livestock, we are actually saving water. If the number of vegetarian increased, the demand for vegetable will increased. Hence, there will be an increase in the number of vegetable plantation and at the same time decreasing the number of livestock. In short, if we are to eat vegetables more than meat, we are able to save a noticeable amount of water. By saving water, we are indirectly saving the environment.

Joanna read on and found out that rearing livestock actually contribute to the increase in natural pollution as the livestock generates much more waste comparing to plants.

pic from http://commons.wikimedia.org

After reading the article, she decided to be a vegetarian. By doing this, she can help to rescue the environment. Even her contribution is negligible but her effort should be honored. She is not doing this for her own advantages but it is for the generation to come.

Come back next week to find out more from Joanna on ways to save the environment.

Unplugged

It was a bright morning that welcomed Joanna to today. As she opened her window, she found herself in a refreshing morning. Just when she was taking a deep breath, she saw something sticking out from her letter box.

She went over to the letter box to collect her mails. That piece which caught her attention was the electric bill. Her heart almost stopped when she saw the stunning amount she had to pay. It totally downed her mood. She decided not to think about it.

She took a quick breakfast and left for work. When she was in her work place, she heard a lot of complaints from her colleagues about their electric bill as well. So she thought, “I need to do some research on how to reduce power consumption at home.”

That night she went online and started reading articles on how to reduce power consumption. As she was reading, some very simple yet interesting facts caught her attention. Joanna found out that the easiest way to reduce power consumption was by unplugging. The nearest unused plug which is still plugged into the socket is her mobile charger. She quickly pulled her charger out of the socket. As she read further down the article, she realized that mobile chargers consume more energy by staying in the socket compared to the energy required to charge her mobile.

photo from http://yalesustainability.wordpress.com/2007/10/04/hello-world/

After that, Joanna went to unplug her tv set, dvd player and all other electronic devices. She found out from the web that when these devices are put on standby mode, it consumed up to 40% more energy. Can you imagine how much you could save by just unplugging them? Let say your yearly electric bill is $1000, if you unpluged all your unused electrical appliances before you go to sleep, you can saved up to $400 a year!! No harm trying right? Try it for one month and see the difference.

Visit us again next week for more information on how to help the environment.