China...

Quote: During the first three years of the plan, China's energy intensity-its energy consumption per unit of GDP-fell y just over 10 percent, saving 290 million tons of coal equivalent (tee) and reducing the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 750 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent. This pace of energy conservation has rarely been achieved by the rest of the world.

Question: Why is that?

Comment: So my question is a bit vague but the who regards China naturally, and the why is directed as almost another question entirely. Why is it that China has been able to do this when many other countries which posses in a sense almost a better position in which to cut down coal usuage and have not? China has a huge populating, and is a vast country within itself, which again brings up the simple question that if they can do why can't we? There has been more and more talk of lowering fossil fuel consumption in the US, talk of alternative energy sources to help the transition, but there is still very little talk overall of the United States energy consumption shrinking. Granted some of the states have made some headway in manner of producing laws which regulate smog outputs from cars, but these can only do so much.

An Inconvenient Conversation

I have to be honest, I was not looking forward to having this conversation with my mother. To put it easiest, we do not see eye to eye on many political or sociological happenings. I was also not sure what we would be able to discuss without getting into an argument, we both happen to be very passionate about what we believe. So from the list of prompts we both decided to discuss prompt three. This prompt was “How can we provide the energy we need while maintaining ecological balance?”.

For my view point on this subject, it has been one that has changed little in the last couple of years. Energy sources should try and be as ecologically safe as possible. The reason behind this is that we can always develop new energy sources, but we cannot redevelop what is destroyed by current energy sources due to negligence. My examples a definitely not few and far between, they range from the Alaskan Oil line failure, to just a couple of years ago the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill. My mother believe that on those standpoint our country needs the energy created by deep sea drilling and that although she would like it to be monitored more closely, to avoid spills that it is a good ecological source of energy. I am whole heartily against deep sea drilling until regulations are completely remade to be stricter and more in debt.

My moms view point on this question is that it all revolves around economics, to make the energy source cheaply so that everyone has access to it. I responded with the question that what if energy can be created cheaply but cause an ecological disaster. Her response was that we have to start up the economy first before we can create new sources. Also that the energy needs to be able to be recycled, such as being able to bring water through a hydro dam multiple time, or making a fountain a source of energy. Trying to look at things we use every day, such as plastics, that could be transformed into clean and green energy. I listened to these things and I do agree, but there is still a part of me that holds back. While I agree in what my mother says I do not agree with how she wants to get there. To be able to have the type of economy that would be able to sustain this type of energy research, firstly you would have to continue the energy sources that are already going which are not ecological. This means that more damage will be done to the environment than is being done now.

Day without Technology

I was not sure which day would be best or to put it bluntly easiest for me to go a day without technology I had no clue what day to pick. It wasn’t until we headed up on the train ride for Santa Barbra that Brynn suggested we should do a day on the bike trip. I thought that this idea was brilliant for a number of reasons. So for my day without technology I actually did not notice that much of a change. This was probably due to which day I chose to complete this assignment. The day I chose was the third day of my bike trip. The best part about this was, even though automobiles were around before 1984, I didn’t even use one all day. I was for the most part on a bicycle, or walking on my legs.

Communication led, for the most part ok for the whole day. This was the one day although, that I was not able to contact my parents which was slightly frustrating. Other than contacting my parents communication was not a problem. This had to be the most frustrating part of the day. Not having my phone, which for the most part is my lifeline to the world, was difficult. This little gadget has my link to friends, news, family, entertainment, everything that I could think of is held in my phone. Not being able to use it as a flash light to read my book before bed was the most troubling because I had to then borrow a flashlight.

I was with all of my friends on the trip to begin with and any that were home were either in another country (Thailand) or in school still. Another great thing was that we didn’t have any gaming systems with us, no Play stations, Wii’s, or GameCube’s. In fact, the only ‘gaming’ system, if you would like to call it that, was a deck of cards. So that night we played a couple of different games, BS a classic, psidos which was new to me, and of course go fish! We kept each other entertained with stories about the day and things that have happened before we had all met. This was neat because I learned more about the people I had been biking with for the past three days.

Most of the day was spent biking, and considering that I do not listen to music when I bike, technology free. Once we are at camp, we have to lock the bikes, set up tents, and get bags out of the van, again no real technology. We eat dinner late at a restaurant that we biked to, and then biked back to camp. And sadly to say I ended up turning in early almost every night from the amount of biking we had done. So my technology free day was not that difficult to complete and really fun.

Rough Draft

Farmer’s Markets

The sun hangs high above your head, on either side the street stalls line the pavement, and new smells assault your nose around every corner. You see, on any given week, flowers, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, herbs, spices, crafts, old guys, young guys, girls with jewelry, girls pouring crepes, and even more things than you can imagine. If you are wondering where you are, you are in none other than the San Diego Ocean Beach Farmers Market, or the OB Street Fair as it has been happily renamed. Since the first farmers market in July of 1934 in Gilmore Island, farmers markets have become immensely popular. They have grown from just the farmers pulling up their trucks in an empty lot to community oriented meetings to sell not only locally grown produce but also artisan crafts and food. Lately farmers markets in San Diego have been growing like weeds, and have also become some of the most popular markets in Southern California.

Under a full sun, with wooden stalls lining chalk painted slots and a 50 cent per day rent, farmers gathered onto a plot of land known as Gilmore Island. This gathering was the brain child of Roger Dhlhjelm and Fred Beck. These two men wanted to create a place where “artisans would sell handmade goods - pottery, furniture, textiles… farmers would sell their produce to housewives”. This was the first farmers market, and to this day is known by the same name as the day of its creation simply, the Farmers Market. This market, which was started at the corner of Third and Fairfax, still exists and is known as one of the United States most popular farmers markets. It seems though that the tide of favor is shifting. Slowly but surely San Diego farmers markets are starting to rival the original in popularity,

One of the most well known farmers markets in San Diego happens to be the Ocean Beach Farmers Market. This market is held on Wednesdays from 4-7 during the winter months and 4-8 during the summer months. Similarly to the original Farmers Market, location was and is everything. Located down Newport Avenue between Cable and Bacon Street, the Ocean Beach Farmers Markets’ location has become synonymous with freshness and a good time.

(I still need interviews)

Introduction

The sun hangs high above your head, on either side the street stalls line the pavement, and new smells assault your nose around every corner. You see, on any given week, flowers, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, herbs, spices, crafts, old guys, young guys, girls with jewelry, girls pouring crepes, and even more things than you can imagine. If you are wondering where you are, you are in none other than the San Diego Ocean Beach Farmers Market, or the OB Street Fair as it has been happily renamed. Since the first farmers market in July of 1934 in Gilmore Island, farmers markets have become immensely popular. They have grown from just the farmers pulling up their trucks in an empty lot to community oriented meetings to sell not only locally grown produce but also artisan crafts and food. Lately farmers markets in San Diego have been growing like weeds, and have also become some of the most popular markets in Southern California.

Thesis Statement

San Diegian Farmers Markets have been sprouting up like weeds, even becoming some of the most popular markets in Southern California.

Blue Gold

It is not until recently that we, being us the people that live on this planet we call Earth, have even acknowledged that there is a water crisis. Many have kept themselves in their self made bubble of ignorance, never asking the simple question: Where does the water I am drinking come from? Such a simple question, that most would assume has a simple answer which could possibly be the reason that so many of us have never given much thought to this important question. We just assumed that like the question itself the answer must be just as simple but unfortunate this is not so.

If the answer was that simple we would assume that no matter where we lived, regardless of climate, that the water we drank would come from a nearby source. Whether that source be a lake, river, or aquifer. Blue Gold demonstrates that this is how we began. But since this beginning has drained dry any chances at water sources that could keep themselves sustained. Blue Gold plasters hard fact of these areas, with up to date aerial views of lakes drained dry as well as aqueducts that lure away precious water.

While watching this documentary I was continually wondering if this was one sided. And the true answer to that question is that yes, Blue Gold is one sided because there is no other side anymore, we drained it dry. What Blue Gold does that makes it believable, not in the Hollywood sense but in that we really need to deal with this problem sense, is the raw data that is shown. Not data based on opinions of experts but instead in actual footage and facts. So because of this I approve this documentary.