Chewonki Interview

For my interview I talked to one of the employees I know who works at the Chewonki Foundation. I asked a total of fifteen questions, some of which resulted from the answers given.
-Question 1. What has Chewonki done to help the environment?
Chewonki has many programs that are used to help the environment. There are a few programs that I thought were more significant than others. The most significant was Chewonki’s renewable energy program. Chewonki uses a composite of all sorts of different types of energy and conservation.
-Question 2. How does Chewonki use solar power?
The roofs of the buildings at Chewonki are riddled with both solar panels and solar ray tubes. These two devices take the energy from the sun’s rays and harness them to heat water and power the buildings. Chewonki’s solar program is expansive and classes are taught regularly on the details of how the solar facilities work to reduce greenhouse emissions.
-Question 3. How does Chewonki use Bio Diesel?
Chewonki received a grant in 2001 to create their bio diesel program. Bio diesel is currently one of Chewonki’s biggest efforts to aid the environment. Bio diesel cut out about 78 percent of the bad emissions of regular fuel. The produce enough fuel to power two 15-passenger diesel vans, three Volkswagen diesel cars, a Volvo station wagon, a tractor, and several staff vehicles, and provide extra heating fuel for the buildings.
-Question 4. Where do you get the materials for your bio diesel program?
Chewonki gets the materials for the bio diesel program from multiple places. The program was created with state grant money, but the vegetable oil used to actually make the fuel and power the cars comes used from local fast food restaurants.
-Question 5. Does Chewonki use wind power?
Not currently.
-Question 6. How does Chewonki use building plans to reduce emissions?
Chewonki has one building in particular that was planned to take full advantage of the sun’s power. It is built with giant window facing the direction the sun is most often shining from. This helps to keep the building quite warm and reduce heating costs and emissions.
-Question 7. What are the Renewable Energy and Clean Water posters?
The renewable energy and clean water posters are both created for high school classrooms to help with the education and study of the two subjects. They are colorfully illustrated and have both helpful hints and good information about improving the environment.
-Question 8. What is renewable hydrogen?
Renewable hydrogen is an efficient method of storing energy. Chewonki’s renewable hydrogen program can run a certain amount of necessary facilities for up to four days during a power outage. The buildings are kept from freezing and the non-releasable Outreach wildlife center is kept warm. One of the coolest things about the renewable hydrogen program is that the only byproducts are heat and the same amount of pure water as started with.
-Question 9. How does Chewonki use food?
Chewonki’s farm grows a lot of the food that is used in the kitchens and the farm is home to many animals.
-Question 10. What does the farm include?
The farm has two dairy cows, two beef cows, two horses, twenty-four sheep, four swine, and almost a hundred poultry birds.
-Question 11. What are Chewonki’s short-term goals?
Chewonki hopes to reduce their employee air travel, purchase double-sided printers to reduce the paper used, and increase the size of the farm.
-Question 12. What are Chewonki’s medium-term goals?
Chewonki hopes to install more renewable energy sources. They also would like to increase their already expansive solar program, specifically in regards to water heating.
-Question 13. What are some of Chewonki’s long-term goals?
Chewonki would like to convert their water-heating program to completely solar. Another goal is to help the local schools and homes go green in the same way Chewonki has done.
-Question 14. How else does Chewonki help the environment?
Chewonki also has a great wildlife rehab program and a very successful education program. The rehab program has creatures ranging from an alligator, to a golden eagle, to a tarantula.
-Question 15. How does Chewonki’s education program work?
Chewonki teaches classes on all sorts of environmental studies both at the actual site and at schools around the state. They also have a program called Maine Coast Semester where Juniors and Seniors in high school can spend a semester there and study the environment. One of Chewonki’s main focuses is the education of Maine youth.

Response

Wow, this article was exactly what I was looking for. I had hoped to find something that was about the plant life and this article was perfect for that subject. There is a lot of great information and interesting ideas. For example, the way the forest is taking in less CO2 due to its shrinking size, which means that the weather is warmer, causing there to be more drought and the rain forest to suffer. Its a cycle that I expect will be very difficult to reverse. Its hard for me to imagine something as immense as the rain forest to be so easily and drastically affected. I hope that these changes are reversible and that it can happen quickly, it would be terrible if the negative impacts of this grew any farther.

Drought threatens Amazon, speeds global warming: study

Drought is killing off trees in Brazil's fragile Amazon rain forest according to a recent study. The Amazon's lush vegetation in a typical year absorbs nearly two billion tons of carbon dioxide. The Amazon tree canopy which absorbs massive amounts of greenhouse gases often succumbs to the effects of dryness, thereby accelerating global warming by not absorbing CO2. Researchers said the total impact of the drought was an additional five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The research from more than 40 institutions around the world was gathered during a bad drought in 2005, which had a severe impact on the plants of the Amazon. The drought that year dramatically reversed decades of carbon absorption, the researchers said.
"For years, the Amazon forest has been helping to slow down climate change. But relying on this subsidy from nature is extremely dangerous," said Professor Oliver Phillips of Britain's University of Leeds, the lead author of the study.
Phillips said, "Because the region is so vast, even small ecological effects can scale-up to a large impact on the planet's carbon cycle."
Scientists say the Amazon covers an area 25 times the size of the United Kingdom and accounts for more than half of the world's rainforest. The study involving 68 scientists found that various species of tropical trees are very vulnerable to drought. These findings are especially bad because scientists predict the creation of a potentially devastating cycle in which the Amazon's hotter and more intense future dry seasons in turn lead to more greenhouse gas emissions and even more drought.

Final Focus: further reseach needed

When I wrote my blog analysis essay, I discovered that it would be helpful for me to do some research on what an average person could do to help the global warming crisis get better. I think it would be interesting for people to see what they could do. This will be the subject of one of my last two research posts. Another will be on more of how the wildlife, specifically the plants, are affected by global warming. These subjects came from what I find most interesting and what would most enhance my blog. The final focus of my research will be my interview/observation at the Chewonki facilities. I intend to ask one of the people I know who works there, what exactly they do to combat global warming. I hope to gain quite a bit of information from this interview since Chewonki has some really advanced facilities for fighting climate change. For farther research for my final oral presentation, I still need to complete my interview and my last two articles. I also would like to do some more research on the aspects of my topic that I enjoy. I also need to figure out a display to use as a background for my presentation.

Response

The skiing and snowboarding industry is obviously in danger. The idea that there could possibly be such a dramatic increase in temperatures so as to hurt the industry so badly so soon is amazing. Plus there's the idea that temperatures which were killing people in 2003 could seem cool by 2080. When it gets that hot people are going to be paying just as much for cooling their houses as they pay in the winter for heating. This could be very bad for families struggling financially.

Skiing is 'doomed' ... so enjoy it while it lasts

Experts have said that despite Scotland being "Blanketed in snow" this week, the skiing industry is doomed. The chief government advisor to the Met Office said that due to climate change, we would see winters become too warm for regular snowfall. This would destroy the future of skiing. Members of the ski industry replied that despite the impact of climate change, the industry could survive. It is predicted that by 2080 the winter night time temperatures will have jumped four degrees from the average of -2C to 2C. Mr. Hill said that the snowy conditions across the UK didn't mean that the climate isn't warming. "There is a difference between weather and climate," he said. "Climate change doesn't mean there won't be snowfall. It just means it won't happen as often or with as much of it." Global warming will cause larger amounts of precipitation, and until it gets too warm, this precipitation will continue to be snow. We will also see a 5-10 degree rise in summer temperatures. Mr. Hill said devastating summers similar to that of 2003, when a heatwave killed thousands of people, would be normal by the 2040s and would seem cool by the 2060s. He also remarked on the potential emergence of some diseases previously only seen in the tropics.

Response

I thought that this article would be a lot more interesting when I first saw it. It had a lot of good information but it was quite dry. There were a lot of names and boring facts, I approve of everything that Obama has done in regards to appointments, I just don't find it that interesting. It is difficult to write about any sort of an interesting reaction when I really didn't have any reactions. I hope that the new environmental team does well and helps to clean up America.

OBAMA TEAM SET ON ENVIRONMENT

This article talks about all of the new people that Obama has added to his environmental team. His top environmental advisers will consist of the former head of the EPA and a Nobel Prize winning physicist. They will work on the drastic reduction of emissions and the creation of a more efficient national energy system. The administration will also have to devise a strategy in the coming months for dealing with global talks to address climate change, which are already under way. Obama has made promises to spend liberally to finance infrastructure projects and support green technologies that will create jobs, while at the same time benefiting the environment. It is not clear who in the administration will have what jobs.

Response

Wow, this was probably one of my favorite articles. It fascinates me the effects that just one degree can cause. Plus that fact that the temperature rise can hurt the forests in so many different ways. Like the fact that due to the rising temperatures the trees need more water, however the heat increase has also caused there to be less water for them to have. I really liked reading about the work of Nathan Stephenson, he seems like a very intelligent person jut from his research and the quotes I found. It is interesting to see how global warming and climate change are effecting all different aspects of the world we live in, not just animals but also the plants.

As old-growth trees die at faster rate, scientists blame climate change

Climate change is destroying our forests. Based on recent scientific studies the forests are in very grave danger. One such study of the forests in California suggests that if trends continue then it could result in younger, smaller and less healthy forests, in other words, the forest would become vulnerable to massive die-offs. "Everywhere we looked, we saw mortality rates increasing," said Nathan Stephenson, an environmental scientist, in regards to the trees. While the actual mortality rate has only increased from 1 percent to just under two, that's still almost twice as many trees dying. Just imagine the reaction if all of a sudden twice as many people were dying every year. This study was based on information gathered from 76 research plots across the United States and British Columbia over the last half century. "It's almost like giving the forest a physical," Stephenson said. "We return to individual plots and go up to trees and effectively ask: 'Are you alive or dead? And if you're dead, what killed you?' " There were many different aspects to this study. Specifically the data collected about rising temperatures and lack of water for the trees. As the temperatures rise even as little as 1 degree, there is less water for the trees due to evaporation, longer dry seasons, the trees like humans need to take in more moisture when it's hot, and many other causes. This results in more dead trees and declining forests. "I view this as a canary in the coal mine for potentially larger changes in the future," Stephenson said. "It could be an indication that the forests are stressed and, if warming continues, they might get pushed over a tipping point and suddenly you lose vast swaths of forest to die-off."

Alex Hadik- In Class Response

Well Cole it was going to happen eventually and here I am commenting on your blog. Over all you seem to be doing a pretty good job. Your citations look good other than the fact that all of your articles are written on the same day that you wrote about them. Is this true? It might be but if it’s not, you’re going to want to put the date that they were actually written. As mentioned in some other responses, you might want to keep your responses more centered upon the actual article. We can all realize that the article “really applies to you”. You might want to put a little more analyzation into your articles. But, as I said, a really good blog so far.

Kelsey's Response to 4, 5 &6

Cole, great job! I also really liked the article on endangered species, it had a lot of facts that work well for your topic. It was also sad to hear all of those animals that have become endangered. The article on freezing temperatures was very interesting as well. The only thing I'd suggest is to label your responses more directly in relation to each article. Other than that, keep doing what you're doing.

Alex G's 3rd responce

Cole, I love reading your articles and all the information about them, plus your topic is almost the same as mine, so it is very helpful. I love your article about the animals and how global warming is affecting them. I've been trying to find some on marine animals. It was easy to read them and enjoyable as well, keep up the good work!

Response

This article is probably my favorite so far, it is incredibly detailed and has loads of great information. I really like the list of facts about the endangered species. It helps to paint a more vivid picture of what is actually going on with many of the different species living on this planet. I thought it was good that the article didn't just blame global warming for the harm to these species. I liked that all of the quotes seemed to be from important and intelligent people. There were also pages on some of the other causes of the animal threats. I didn't include these because they didn't have any real relevance to my blog. One of the reasons I chose this article was the all of the recent publicity about the polar bears and the arctic circle. Then there was all sorts of information on tons of other animals that are starting to become endangered. One of the things that surprised me the most was the idea that there are only four or five thousand wild tigers left in their natural environments.

Lions, tigers and (polar) bears, oh my!

A time is coming when many animals we are familiar with will start becoming extinct. There are also an incredible of number of less well known animals that are on the brink of extinction. The President of the Buffalo Zoo, Donna Fernandes said, "It’s sad to see in my lifetime the loss of so many species. It’s like watching the end of the world in slow motion.” Global warming is a huge factor in the loss of these animals. It is predicted that the total wild population of all species of tiger has declined to somewhere between 4 and 5 thousand! Here are some more hard facts:
• 16,928 of 44,838 species are threatened with extinction. A threatened species is considered likely to become in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future.
• One in eight birds, one in three amphibians and one in two reptiles are threatened with extinction.
• 99 percent of the threats to these animals are man-made. Those findings are in league with ones published in May by the Living Planet Index, composed of the World Wildlife Fund and other nature organizations. That survey found the populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles have dropped by almost a third in the last 35 years alone.
"You’d have to go back to the extinction of the dinosaurs to see a decline as rapid as this,” said Jonathan Loh, the editor of the annual report on threatened species. The executive director of the U. N. Convention on Biological Diversity, warned in May that the world was losing forest cover at the rate of 36 football fields a minute.
Shrinking ice cover in the Arctic circle is causing the deaths of many Polar Bears due to drowning and starvation. The American Museum of Natural History made a poll which found that seven in 10 biologists believe a mass extinction of living things has begun, and it may pose a major threat to human life.

Response

I chose this article because it really applies to me, despite obviously cold weather there is still the global warming threat. I have also heard this argument against global warming before, "If there's really global warming then whys it so cold?" This article explains exactly why those people are so wrong, you cant judge the effects of global warming based on one cold front or even a cold year. You have to look at the long term to the extreme, many years in the future. I also think that it is stupid of people to try to use a bunch of frozen people to disprove global warming, it just doesn't make sense. I also like that this article shows the other side of the picture, that a heat wave or wildfire doesn't mean that global warming is even worse or even any different from what we know.

Yes, It's Cold. No, That Doesn't Mean Global Warming Is Bogus

Recently in Europe 12 people were killed due to freezing temperatures. This caused a strong reaction from the people who doubt the effects of global warming. So how can the world be getting warmer when there are still people freezing to death? Its simple, no sudden cold front or heat wave is in itself an accurate representation of the effects of global warming. Global warming is the slow steady rise of temperature levels across the world. Cold fronts will still happen, and they will still be dangerously cold, but as the world heats up, they might become rarer or less sever. It is the long term that counts, not the short. As said by Michel Jarraud, "If we look at the trajectory over the last 160 years, it overlays a large natural variability, and that's what causes confusion." On top of that, the U. K. Met Office has predicted that 2009 will be among the five warmest years ever recorded.

5 Paragraph

I chose this topic for many reasons, one of the most important is personal interest. I have always been interested in environmental studies and global warming. I work with animals at an environmental facility called Chewonki, they also are very involved with the causes and prevention of global warming. I have been to a few different activities and seminars on environmental studies. Due to my extended interest in the subject I think it will be easy for me to stay interested in my topic for five to six months.
The idea of any lack of current information on the topic of global warming is funny to me, there is an almost constant stream of information on the Internet about all different aspects of global warming and climate change. There are tons of new aspects of the research and studies in global warming. Scientist come out with new ideas and statistics all the time. There are also all of the different species and plant life that will be affected by these changes.
There is information on my topic available on many different sites. Specifically Google News has an incredible amount of different news sources and articles to site and take ideas from. There are also many other sites that I have checked and have a large amount of information on the subject. Overall, information on climate change and global warming is very easy to find on the internet.
Time will not make a difference in the amount of information on my subject, even if all of the problems were to be solved tomorrow there would still be news for far longer than I will be researching this topic. There is constant research and development on all of the different aspects of my topic.
I think that this topic will be very challenging, i don't think that I will have any trouble finding information. However, understanding all of the information will be much more difficult. There is a lot of confusing science involved. I hope and expect to see and learn tons of new things about global warming and all of the different aspects of it. I look forward to the challenge of understanding all of the information.