Going, Going, Gone

Welcome Dr. Donald Perovich

Don Perovich is a research geophysicis specializing in the arctic sea ice. Though Don is a brilliant man who has done incredible things in his field he came to class with a neutral ton towards the facts he told us and we unwilling to tell us his opinion. As an educator this technique is very good. Though as a whole we wanted to learn more about what was being done about the melting sea ice, as most of us have the knowledge he told us already. 

"The Arctic is an indicator and amplifier of climate change"- Don Perovich

The arctic sea ice is only a few meters thick with snow cover 9 to 10 months of the year. How the measure the ices thickness and location is through ship records, traditional people, and most importantly currently are satellites. that can measure large areas of ice. 

When looking at sea ice cover there has been a downward trend, topping at a low in 2007 with a 9% decrease in cover. 

Many people argue that the size of the ice cover is changing all the time so that there is actually no decrease in size, it is just a change in the seasons. It is true that the seasons do change the size of the ice sheet but there has been a decrease in the average size. 

Ice-Albedo Feedback 

sunlight (times) ocean area (times) ocean albedo (.07) the amount of light the ocean absorbs = sunlight absorbed into the ocean 

As the ice melts there is less ice to reflect the sunlight so more of the heat is being absorbed by the ocean, warming it. This is a cycle that once started would or is extremely hard to reverse.

The Future Holds......

"When will the ice retreat until it affects the ecosystem and us.......?

 NOW!!"

Not only is the melting sea ice affecting the polar bears which everyone knows about. There are now also resources to be exploited. And which country wons what is the big question. 

Though the melting ice wont change the sea level it will change the lives of the indigenous peoples traditions and way of life drastically.

Even though i knew most of this information already from taking sue climate science class it was still interesting to hear it from someone who has dedicated his life to this science. Don was interesting i just wish he would have gone more into detail about what is being done to counteract the melting. 

Hopefully polar bears wont have to resort to this simply because as humans we cant change our ways. 

                                                    

Burn Baby Burn

Wheelabrator Technologies Incinerator

Concord, NH

1/14/11 

Guide: Mr. Rob- supervising Manager 

Even before we were let into the Wheelabrator Technologie's trash incinerator, we were strictly told "no pictures or video to be taken of any kind!" An omanis sign to begin with. But once we were in we were given our hard hats and ear plugs and made our way to the first room. We were met by a man named Rob. Wearing a white hard hat and yellow ear plugs. Thats all to say about him.

The Trash is dumped here

                                                                                                                                                                      

And ends up here 

The Boiler House is where the view of the furnace is. All the trash that is coming to the facilities is being burned here for energy. That means everything....plastic, small pieces of metal, and any toxins that are being released. The heat from the fire is used to produce steam to make energy. But the toxin in the smoke have to be taken care of. The smoke runs through a series of first the spray driers and fabric filters. These remove sulfure, sulfure dioxide, heavy metals- arsenic and dioxin, and many others. Once they are removed, we were told by Rob, that they were neutralized so they could be put into a landfill and not considered toxic waste......But hey who knows....they could be just dumping toxin waste into our grounds with any regulation because technically they arent "toxic."

Wheelabrators landfill is in Franklin, NH where the plant dumps 200 tons of ash every year. This is a privet landfill. There is an estimated of 200 tons of ash for every 500 tons of garbage. But the percent of this trash that is recyclable is unknown. On our drive out of the plant waiting in line to dump their load was a "Franklin Recycles" truck. Yeah right Franklin recycles.....more like "lets tell our people that they are doing good for the environment but than lets just dump their recyclable, which they worked hard to separate, right into the incinerator. I guess it just too much work to follow through on what you told the public you will do sometimes....But clearly the incinerator is ok with helping continue this practice by purchasing those recyclables.  Whatever brings in the cash, Right?

This system as you see above being used today. But by 2017 this building will be decommissioned and a new plant will be built. Hopefully it will be a bit better than the current one. Actually by 2017 hopefully we will have a better system of disposing of our waste than burning it and we will be recycling much more. The possibility of this is extremely likely we are on a green trend.