Greenpeace fighting for what is right

Greenpeace is an association that is fighting to help the environment, the want to change people’s behavior to protect and conserve the environment and promote peace. These people sometimes risk their lives to defend for what they believe is right. They have done so many things, they save trees, animals, use only renewable resources they are completely eco-friendly. One of the latest things that they have done is try to stop a ship that was carrying nuclear waste from France to Russia, the people in the boat were throwing water at them and even took some of them into the boat, and tried everything to stop them. Another thing they did was that they climbed up a chimney of a big industry that was producing a lot of smoke, since that was something illegal they had to climb through the outside of the building, risking their live to try and fix it so it wouldn’t contaminate.

Sadly many people working in Greenpeace and volunteers end up in jail because they are defending their beliefs about saving the environment. There was an article of a man who was sent to jail because he wanted to preserve 2.1 million acres of trees in the Amazon. When I read this I could hardly believe it, how is it possible that they arrest a man that is trying to help the environment and contribute to global warming recession. Governments should think like Greenpeace, they should be in favor of protecting the environment not against it and do ecologic things like recycling, but really do it, putting it practice.

3D Glasses

Everyone loves 3D movies because it makes you feel as if your actually in the movie and to be able to do so we need special glasses, 3D glasses. Not long ago he had those glasses made out of cardboard with red and blue transparent paper, now we have fancy black plastic glasses. These glasses are handed to you before the movie and after the movie there are cans in which you place the glasses so they can be washed and reused, but there are many people that take their glasses home and do they take them back to the movies to use them again? Most probably not, so how do we expect this to work if we are not doing it as we should.

The upside to this is that they have created a new pair of glasses that is biodegradable; they are blue and will be in theaters by this summer, they disintegrate in 180 DAYS! And are none toxic to the environment. It is amazing how much technology has revolutionized our world and now we can used it to help conserve our environment.

Nothing but Our Choice

Written by Al Gore, the United States ex vice president, “Our Choice” is a book that contains a lot of information that most of us have already heard or that we have read in some other places but, what makes this book so different? Some might say that it is only a brain wash, but for me it is a book that contains valuable and relevant information. It contains the keys to change the course of the world. The economic crisis is not the only crisis that we have; we are also going through the climate crisis.

Al Gore joined the best scientists’ proposals and he created a plan for everybody to follow in order to decrease the global warming. He says that nature provides us with many sources of energy that we can transform to electricity. An extremely powerful one is solar energy, which can very useful in those areas in which the sun is always shining, like in the equator. Another type of renewable energy is the wind, which is now one of the most effective sources. In Spain, for example, windmills are everywhere. They are being used as their main source of energy to be transformed into electricity in order to satisfy the people’s needs. He also mentions others sources like geothermal energy, nuclear energy, and biomass.

The author says that “we need to go far, quickly” and I agree because we have limited time, but we also have all the tools to make it possible. What we really need, and most of us don’t have it, is will to change and to desire a better place for all of us now and for the future generations. This is linked with sustainable development in which the ITESM CSN is really interested in; not only the institution but a lot of students, as well.

I agree with Al Gore, I do think that we can go far and quickly as long as we define our goal and we delimitate what we want to achieve. We need to start acting, not only worrying about the climate crisis. It’s nothing but our choice.

“The future you see is the future you get” Robert G. Allen

Preservation of Ecological Reserves

The preservation of the ecological reserves that still exist is extremely important for us as human beings. Last week I visited a very important ecological reserve in Mexico, Tamaulipas. This reserve is known as “El Cielo,” you can imagine why… I was there for two nights, and I experienced sensations that I would never experience again. Being in that huge, green, beautiful place was awesome! You should try it...

I repeat: the preservation of the ecological reserves that still exist is extremely important for us as human beings. All those trees, all those nature help us maintain ourselves alive. Since we were in primary school, teachers told us that we could not exist if trees do not exist. We need from trees, and trees need from us. We coexist together. We are also tired of listening to grownups talking about global warming and those kinds of problems. But… what about it? Instead of just talking about the problem, they should start taking considerations and making roles that everyone should follow in order to decrease the damages that the human race provoke to the natural environments. Adults should think more about the future generations. Do they deserve a shortage in natural resources and severe environmental problems? Are they the culprits of our present failures? Adults, teenagers, as well as children who are living this present time should do something to help our planet Earth become more fertile and strong. These ecological reserves are an example of the civilization’s concern about these problems. We should come up with new and innovative ideas of preserving our environment including all of the animal species. People… take conscience about the world where you are living. If this world ends, we end with it, so.. think about it and participate in campaigns for the preservation of ecosystems as well as in recycling ones.

An hour without energy will not save the planet

I know that making that movement of turning off the lights at certain hour, was a big help to make people realize how important is to care about electricity. But we have to be aware that this kind of events will not save our planet.

If we really want to stop global warming, we have to make this kind of things more often, to use the less possible electricity and start using new sources of energy such as solar panels, geothermal, windmills, among others.

I am tired of watching cars throwing out smog out, to see how people abuse of electricity, and how kids and adults waste water.

We are reading a book for our ethic class by Al Gore, the book's name is "Our Choice: a plan to solve the climate crisis". This book has taught me a lot, has gave a lot of ideas to help my planet to be a better place, and deliver it to our child and grandchild in a good way, not with 50% of smog in the air, not with a couple of trees remaining in our planet.

The action that was taken by several countries is great from my point of view, but I consider it useless also if they do it once in a long time, let's be realistic, we need more effort to solve our planet ecological crisis.

The New Group "Greenology"

“We are making the Change”

Greenology is a New Society in Tec de Monterrey. It is a society born in 2010 in Hermosillo, Sonora with the objective to make an ecological school and then world. To start I’ll like to tell you what type of roles does this society has. For instance, for president we have Lillián Coronado and like 6 other people in the major table. All this people as well as the president is in charge of start creating new alternatives and also new techniques for the ecological aspect in school.

I talked to them last week because I’m part of the major table; and we have many different proposals but we can’t make them from one day to another. As first alternative we were going to make new trashcans, one of plastics, then for inorganic and organic. But even though we made them people doesn’t have that type of culture yet. For instance we don’t even know if the recycling paper is really being recollected by recyclers and also exchange that trash to create a positive result.

Start thinking about bigger problems at the beginning of all this process is that we have to create new publicity and new expectatives of the group. This is the only ecological society in Tec, so we have to consider the next aspects that we gave to complement in this society.

For instance:

1) A) We need a plan to create a new perspective of ecology and try to change people’s mind so they can start working with all the wastes that they delivered.

2) B) Greenology has to invite new people to practice in this movement and in this campaign that constantly we are having.

3) c) At the beginning Greenology had planned to make the “The Papeleton” and the creation of new trashcans so people can start reading and making a culture. ( So when we grow up, we can see that the world is different and that we need the help of all the society).

Alternative Power Sources

Wind Power

There are many possible energy alternatives that we can use instead of the constant burning of fossil fuels. A clear example is the wind power, which is the conversion of wind into a useful form of energy. For this kind of conversion, some machinery such as generators to make electricity are required, wind-mills for mechanical power, wind-pumps for pumping water or drainage, or sails to propel ships.

Wind energy is a very good option as an alternative to fossil fuels, as a power source is attractive, this alternative has very good qualities such as it is plentiful, renewable, it can be widely distributed, it is clean, and produces no greenhouse gases. However, not all the countries use this kind of energy because of the visual impact that the windmills cause or sometimes they affect the environment.

It is of great importance to use the possible alternative energies, because the base of our technology now at days is the energy produced by the burning of fossil fuels, and in a determined time they will be over. We must use alternatives like the wind power to have more energy and in a way in which our environment wouldn’t be affected. Some countries such as United States, Germany, Spain, China, UK, Portugal, Italy, etc, are already using this kind of energy.

Google WORLD!!!

What do you think about when you hear GOOGLE?, well before my last class of Plan de Vida y Carrera I could only think of it as a very famous Searcher(buscador). In fact, I had never thought before of Google as a very successful company.

In class we saw a couple of videos that show us how Googl

e works and I have to admit that I was really surprised and absolutely amazed with what I learned. It turns out that Google gets all its money from selling space and time for advertisements. I couldn’t believe how much money they got. The company is very careful with its publicity, they don’t want their pages so look overloaded or full of ads, that’s why when you go their pages you don’t find tons of publicity that over crowds your main page and distracts you cause after all that’s from where they get all the money.

All the people that works in Google are super smart, but being smart isn’t enough for Google, their employees should also have several interest like hobbies and be super creative; All this is because they are in a constant change.

For Google creativity is a huge dea

l, therefore the company does everything at its reach to keep its employees happy, relaxed, and comfortable. If you work for Google you have the best installations you could wish for while you work. There’s like 3 restaurants that offer different types all food, from veggie to Chinese; near your office there are several refrigerators filled with tons of products.

In the relaxation part they have basketball courts, gym, yoga, pilates and dance classes. There are huge green areas were you can have a walk, ride a bicycle or take scooters.

The best part is that all these services are completely FREE!!!.

Google workers don’t have specific schedules, they have super flexible schedules. They also do not use uniforms nor have a dress code. That way you feel comfortable with what you go to work and you are able to give a 120% of your dedication to complete your tasks with excellence.

In my opinion this is a complete company cause they focus in technology, the human resources and the efficiency. Google also thinks green and does everything at its reach to reduce contamination.

Eco-Intelligence

To have ecologic intelligence is to be able to distinguish what is good for you, your body and the impact that is has in the environment. Although many people are not ecologically intelligent a few others are, and we should all follow their example. Because by being ecologically intelligent you are becoming aware of the things you are consuming, the effect that they are going to produce in the environment once you do not need the product anymore, if it is going to be in the garbage for 100 years or 20, if it is a recycle product or not, if this product can be recycled or not. This way we are helping the environment and at the same time we are helping our selves.

We help ourselves because we become aware of the products that we are going to consume and see if the ingredients that the product has are good for us or not. If we start doing this know after a couple of days we will get used to do this and later on we will do it without even knowing, we will choose products and foods that will benefit our health and not damage the environment we live in. Let be Eco-intelligent!:)

Hydrogen Home Fuel Station

A new technology has amazed scientists and people, Hydrogen fuel at home. It is a machine that separates hydrogen from oxygen in water, and puts hydrogen into small cartridges in low pressure that makes it safe because we all know that hydrogen in high pressures is very dangerous as you can see the hydrogen bombs. This machine gets electricity connecting it to a solar panel, so it is a very ecological way to have a new resource and a new fuel. Experts are testing a car that uses Hydrogen instead of gasoline, what makes this an economic and ecological resource.

Solar Energy

It is important for us to look for different ways in which we can obtain electricity, besides oil; because how we all know, oil is not meant to last forever and it is coming to an end. One way in which we can obtain electricity is from solar panels. Solar panels are made up of photovoltaic cells which rely on the suns light and heat to produce energy.

There are many advantages to the use of solar panels or solar cells, they can be put anywhere, on top of houses and on different types of buildings. In fact there are several big stores that are currently using solar panels to produce their electricity, like wal-mart and Sam’s Club. I think that they are putting a great example by starting to use this kind of machinery to produce energy. Beside creating energy, it can also be used to create heat in houses, plus it is very economical and if the energy produced is more than the one used it can be sold back.

I think solar panels would be a great idea to have here in Hermosillo and in all Mexico, because we get a lot of sun. They could be anywhere in the world, because even if there isn’t much light the solar panels have a thermal storage where the elements are preserved so they can be used also at night time.

Solar panels more than other energy sources are eco-friendly, because it just used the suns light to produce all kinds of energy and it also produced a huge amount of it.

Could It Replace the Fossil Fuels?

The humanity has been dependent on the fossil fuels for several decades, almost every vehicle or machine works thanks to a derivative of them, but what are we going to do when we run out of fossil fuels?. This is a question that many countries are trying to answer. Well I think that a possible answer for this question is the use of Biodiesel.

The Biodiesel is a fuel that is derived from 100% renewable resources; many people in the world believe that Biodiesel is the fuel of the future. Biodiesel does not contain petroleum; it is made through a process called transesterfication, in which glycerine is removed from vegetable oils or fats. Biodiesel is free from substances like sulfur and aromatics which are found in traditional fuels. The use of this fuel is great in many ways, for example, it is biodegradable and non-toxic, and surprisingly it is so safe that it is even safer than the commonly used table salt. In a way it would even benefit our planet because the levels of pollution could decrease in a considerable way.

As I said before, one of the biggest features about biodiesel fuel is that is it environmentally-friendly, which means that it is not as toxic as other fuels. It is made from renewable resources, so it does not cause harmful effects to the environment that will produce positive effects on the future generations. It is also good for the economy of a country, because it comes from the resources which can be produced in any country, and by saying this I mean that a country can become fewer dependent on foreign countries and the money used for buying fossil fuels could be used for other purposes. A lot of countries such as Germany, Canada, The United States, France, Italy, Malaysia and Sweden already use this fuel. This could be a great replacement for the fossil fuels, because it has a lot more advantages than disadvantages, and I really think that we should use this fuel now and try to help the environment in a certain way.

Deforestation

A definition for deforestation is described as the clearance of natural forests by the process of human logging or burning of trees and plants in a forested area. Truly it is more than this; people do not realize that when they destroy all these trees and plants around us they are really slowly destroying themselves.

Many people do not know the importance of trees on earth, they cut them down and cut them down without thinking of the consequences, the only thing they ever think about is how big the buildings are going to be and how much more trees they need to chop down so they can have enough space for their construction. Trees and plants are vital for our survival, the provide oxygen to humans and all living creatures. They are important because they keep a balance in nature, without them we would not be able to survive long, especially in the contaminated world we live in.

Besides giving us such an important thing as oxygen (which we cannot live without), plants provide us many types of foods, sometimes shelter including furniture, different medicines and rains. But with the cutting of so many trees and so little of them being planted, we will soon have no trees to give us all that that has been mentioned.

As I said, plants keep balance in the ecosystem, without them animals would have no were to live, no were to go and nothing to eat. Soon they would start dying and leaving us with fewer animals than what there is now a days, which would eventually affect us in so many ways we cannot even imagine. So, we should start to become a bit more conscientious about our actions and start to take more care of the world we live in.

Global Warming

One of the most important problems to ecologist right now is global warming, but why is it? Because global warming carries many MANY problems. Some of them are: the rise in temperature, the melt of icebergs, an increase in the oceans levels, among many others. The thing is what can we do?
There are many options and ways in which we can collaborate to reduce the impact of human actions in the environment and we've heard them before. For instance: to apply the three R's (reduce, recycle, reuse); to plat at least 4 trees each year; to avoid using products with CFC; and some others that we have already been told to do.
Sometimes it can be hard for us to follow all the directions and advices about this issue. The reality is that it's up to us if we want to make the difference.
My opinion about this global problem is the following: It is not about to stop living comfortably, it is about knowing how to live in harmony with what's around us. It's about learning how to live and letting live.

Nature vs. Human

Why most of the people are going green lately? Isn't too late to start taking action or are we on the right path? I think that global warming involves society, politics, economics, and even more. The human species is playing a game against nature, and we can already deduce who is going to win. Yes, we had made a progress in technology and now being "conscious" of our actions, but we can't control nature's fury can we? An example that comes to my mind with this question is Hurricane Katrina, which with on southern Florida on 2005, that leave destructions everywhere and the costs of them were high up in the sky. My point here is that we can't avoid a natural disaster to happen, just predict it and run away from danger like scared deer.We would have to abandon everything and start a new life elsewhere, which is not an easy thing. Nature provide us all what we need to survive, but we are so selfish that we always want to do it our way. Burning fossil fuels to create plastics, electricity, etc. We have some solutions to get clean energy, recycle plastic bottles, but the action is missing. Apply what is said is the hardes thing. Not only humans will suffer the consequences of the climate change, but also the beings that share this world with us. These beings include animals and plants aswell. Sadly, they will be carried away with our bad actions. The number of individuals of a species is reducing in great number, especially in the North Pole. The melting ice takes away the home for Polar Bears. It's not fair, not at all.

On the political side, this has also become a hot topic. In the recent world meeting "Copenhagen 2009", politics and activists from the main countries were supposed to get on an agreement to reduce their Co2 emissions so that the world temperature doesn't increase more than 2 °C. However, Greenpeace said that the "treaty" made was a weak poltical statement, because the agreement made weren't enough to reduce the emissions, and that the world temperture will increase at lest 3 °C. Climate change in inevitable. Some politics don't take this issues seriously. Time will make them understand, but we will all be affected. The more we help in little details, like recycling, the bigger the difference is. Hopefully, later in the future everyone include "ecology" in their daily actions.