America's Future 'Green Light' from Nuclear Japan

In a meeting in which Steven Chu, Nobel prize winning physicist and energy secretary, was supposed to help promote currently 'not so socially' thriving nuclear energy to a House panel, the secretary ended up defending nuclear power in light of the recent disasters in Japan. Politico posts:

The panel did not allow him to support Obama's pro-nuclear views and instead forced him to speak of the recent Japanese disasters, possibly forcing him to promote anti-nuclear panic instead. Chu, well spoken and well informed seamed to quell the panels disturbed and distorted views of nuclear energy but possibly not enough to persuade the panel to be in favor of supporting nuclear energy. In only another among countless events of scientific misinformation and bias, it looks like America will remain anti-nuclear for several years to come.

The World Steps Back From Nuclear

While disaster after disaster crashes upon Japan, the world, which among developed nations was decidedly pro nuclear, now takes a step back to re-evaluate. The National Geographic reports:

The disaster in Japan, which threatens to worsen as the country’s officials struggle to contain what is being called the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl meltdown 25 years ago, is having repercussions on nuclear policy worldwide.

On Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a three-month moratorium on extending the operation periods for its nuclear power plants. Under the moratorium, seven plants that began operating before 1980 will be shut down.

Switzerland also suspended its nuclear plans pending a safety review, and the European Union called for an emergency meeting of energy ministers Tuesday to assess, among other points, the idea of running stress tests on the EU’s 143 nuclear plants.

Many already nuclear European countries have scheduled immediate check-ups for their plants. America faces a slightly different problem. Obama had high hopes for nuclear energy and this disaster is putting his efforts to a screeching halt. Although this disaster can in the end, sadly, be deemed a learning experience to the rest, it has placed many not only cautiously but violently against nuclear energy.

Sports Going Green

 With much of the world turning to green forms of energy, it is no wonder that sports would soon follow suit in going green. The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be held in Qatar, largely due to the fact that they've pledged to build as green a stadium as possible. The beautiful plans for this stadium have inspired numerous other countries to follow closely in green sports, America being a large contender of building green stadiums. The National Geographic  reports:

The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar—the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas—won its bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in December with its bold commitment to make the event carbon-neutral for the first time, an effort in which stunning stadium design will play a vital role.

Qatar plans to renovate three existing stadiums and construct nine new ones, incorporating solar energy, sun-shading, and an elaborate public transportation plan.

The issue of the World Cup's greenhouse gas emissions came under scrutiny last year, when a report commissioned by the South African and Norwegian governments concluded that carbon footprint of the 2010 tournament in South Africa was eight times higher than that of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The increased burden stemmed primarily from South Africa's heavy reliance on coal for electricity, and a lack of intercity rail or local public transit that required fans to travel by air and bus.

Although the African FIFA was a large help in improving impoverished countries, much of it was done in non-environmentally friendly ways. Qatar, and possibly Russia in 2018, will help pave the way for awe inspiring and environmentally friendly sports around the world.

Japan's 50 Unnamed Nuclear Heroes

 As the rest of the world watches through the gaps of shaking hands, fifty heroic Japanese workers stay behind to tend to the highly dangerous and exploding nuclear power plants. Facing full knowledge of their possible instant death due to fires and explosions, or their long term health defects due to overexposure to radiation, they've  nevertheless opted to stay behind and protect their families, their country, and the world from massive amounts of nuclear radiation. The New York Times  reports;

A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday — and perhaps Japan’s last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.

They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.
They struggled on Tuesday and Wednesday to keep hundreds of gallons of seawater a minute flowing through temporary fire pumps into the three stricken reactors, Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Among the many problems they faced was what appeared to be yet another fire at the plant.
The workers are being asked to make escalating — and perhaps existential — sacrifices that so far are being only implicitly acknowledged: Japan’s Health Ministry said Tuesday it was raising the legal limit on the amount of radiation to which each worker could be exposed, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, five times the maximum exposure permitted for American nuclear plant workers.

The reactor operators face extraordinary risks. Tokyo Electric evacuated 750 emergency staff members from the stricken plant on Tuesday, leaving only about 50, when radiation levels soared. By comparison, standard staffing levels at the three active General Electric reactors on the site would be 10 to 12 people apiece including supervisors — an indication that the small crew left behind is barely larger than the contingent on duty on a quiet day.

With extremely low chances of survival, these workers, if they survive, face a lifetime of various health defects from the overexposure. Most likely, many of them knew they were signing on to this mission to die, either short or long term. the immense pressure from the world's eyes is building upon them, as is the pressure from within the power plants themselves. More than the best of luck to these human heroes.

Kites Are The New Prius

 Are we solving the energy crisis sooner than we predicted? While many have been looking into solar energy, others have been looking at a renewable resource here one Earth: wind. Windmills are no new idea, but kites are a whole other story. MSNBC shares;

“The jet streams are like a river of free, clean, and concentrated energy flowing above us, waiting to be tapped into,” says Cristina Archer, a California State University, Chico, assistant professor of environmental sciences who has written research papers on the topic.

That promise has inspired a throng of entrepreneurs and inventors who are now trying to transform what was once stuff of science fiction into real energy businesses. The goal is the same: build mega-watt systems that can wean the world off fossil fuels and grab a slice of the $63 billion global wind energy market. The U.S. Department of Energy expects that wind will provide 20 percent of the nation’s energy by 2030 – up from just 1.8 percent today.

This is possibly THE solution to what Thomas Friedman referred to as 'Code Green' in his Hot, Flat, and Crowded. This would create revenue, jobs and international market in terms of U.S. participation beyond our dreams. The fact that this could arrive in just a few years sweetens the deal. The U.S. must jump at this chance before other countries catch up.

Toyota Bites the Dust Again

 Toyota- the world's leading symbol of car safety features and automotive environmental conservation. Not anymore. In what seemed to be Toyota's slow but steady rise back to its seat of power, the currently scrutinized company is taking another one on the chin and hard. After last years accelerator mayhem, the Japanese company swore to the world that it would prove itself once again despite the 'hiccup', but now, their rise back is becoming unrealistic.
 Since the beginning of this year, they have quietly been experiencing mistakes time and time again until now; they are recalling 1.5 million vehicles from around the globe. MSNBC shares;

Toyota's seemingly endless series of recalls began in October 2009, when it announced it would take steps to resolve a problem with so-called sudden acceleration in its vehicles. 

That recall, blamed on loose floor mats that could jam the throttle on a variety of Toyota products, was followed by another, in January 2010, resulting from a potentially sticky accelerator assembly. 

But Toyota has also had to recall millions of other vehicles ranging from the 2010 Prius (which has had issues with potentially defective brakes) to some of the carmaker’s pickup and minivan models, which have experienced excessive corrosion severe enough to cause spare tires and other parts to fall off while driving. 

Joe Phillippi, chief analyst with AutoTrends Consulting, and others caution it will be difficult, if not impossible, for Toyota to ever fully regain its once-lofty perch as a bastion of automobile safety. And other makers are clearly taking advantage of that challenge.

 While ordinarily the ups and downs of a vehicle company would affect nothing much beyond itself, the problem is much more serious in this case. Toyota is still the world's leading mass producer of environmentally friendly cars. A cultural dislike towards Toyota and its leading green product, the Prius, could lead to major back tracking in huge environmental steps. The world cannot afford for a 'motor-driven' country like America to regress to the days of Humvees.

Oh No, Clean Energy?

In light of the declining state Earth has been going through due to us homosapiens, clean energy, specifically in China, the second largest populated country on the planet, should be considered a blessing in all regards. Leave it to America to literally be as "dumb as we want to be" as Thomas L. Friedman puts in his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Even though China has been favoring and illegally subsidizing the clean energy business, this is a God-send for the rest of us and the environment. But apparently not to America. Seemingly due to blatant ignorance and purposeful disregard for any current environmental statistics, the Obama administration is considering going after China for its recent 'wrong doing'. Here is what The New York Times had to say:

HONG KONG- A broad trade case filed on Thursday by an American labor union, accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its clean energy industry, pressed a hot-button jobs issue in the United States during a Congressional election season.

But even if the Obama administration agrees to pursue the case, it could prove hard to resolve, as both countries consider their industries crucial to energy security and future economic growth.

Let's keep fingers crossed that China will get away with this foul deed. Would anyone rather they subsidize 'fuels from hell'? We are soon going to run out of nonrenewable resources and China is willing to face these truths to do what is right for our decaying environment. To those losing their jobs in unsustainable industries, this new industry will soon explode with unlimited job opportunities. Understandably this is easier said than done, but so is saving Mother Earth.

A Greener Facebook? No

According to Thomas Friedman, writer for The New York Times and author of Hot, Flat, and Crowded, the world's playing field is leveling out faster and faster due to the ease of accessibility of the virtual world. In today's culture, a large contributor to this phenomenon is none other than the social networking site Facebook. Considering that Facebook is basically 'pop culture' these days, it would be a logical conclusion that the seemingly friendly site would use its ridiculously inflamed popularity to inspire globally productive movements in today's youth, right? Wrong. In fact, it seems to be quite the opposite. In a recent decision made by Facebook to turn to a 'dirty coal' company for its energy generation, over 500,00 Facebook users joined together to urge the largest networking site to pick a more environmentally friendly resource. Here is what The Huffington Post had to say: 

AMSTERDAM — Greenpeace said about 500,000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest online social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a coal-based energy company for its new data center in the U.S.

Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo sent a letter Wednesday to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warning that the company risked its reputation and financial health if it ignored the environmental impacts of its actions.

Last week, Greenpeace-sponsored groups urging Facebook to use 100 percent renewable energy passed a collective 500,000 members – a small fraction of Facebook's more than 500 million users worldwide.

Naidoo said Facebook "had a choice" as to where to locate the data center and made an "active choice to lean in the direction of dirty coal."

Although Facebook has done a fair share of 'using its power for good' in the past, it appears that this time Facebook will not take a hit for Mother Earth.

The Race for Cars Causes Traffic...Literally

As the world's fastest growing and second largest economy, China's ever expanding population and middle class must only have the right to live like Americans, right? Shouldn't everyone have the opportunity to mobilize? Thomas L. Friedman faces these issues in his book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. It appears that China's growth spurt of a demand for cars is catching up with them as thousands of Chinese citizens sat through a ten day, sixty mile traffic jam last month. This is what The Washington Post reported:

On Sunday, the eighth day of the near-standstill, trucks moved just over a kilometer (less than a mile) on the worst section, said Zhang Minghai, a traffic director in Zhangjiakou, a city about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Beijing. China Central Television reported Tuesday that some vehicles had been stuck for five days.

The car invasion is widely felt; Guo Jifu, head of the Beijing Transportation Research Center, told a symposium Monday that vehicles on Beijing's roads multiplied by 1,900 per day on average in the first half of this year, Xinhua, the official news agency, reported.

If the rate of this global mobilization continues, crowded countries such as China will begin to frequently face these traffic disasters. In fact, since the end of this jam on August 24th, a four day traffic jam consummated around the same area. And if China can mobilize, why not the rest of the world? Statistics show that if the entire human population was to live the American lifestyle, we would need nine Earths to survive. This traffic jam should be a slap in the face for Americans; for too long have we been living luxuriously on the account of others. Now that the rest of the world is catching up, we are eager to yell 'Crisis'. It is long past due that we begin to set an example of greener, more conservative and renewable energy lifestyles.