Food, Water, And Energy
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Food
Why are organic gardens better for you and the environment? It's because using organic fertilizers or compost can help you with the bugs and yucky things that come around your plants.(1) Your fruits and vegetables will be of better quality and better for your health.(1) Do you know what organic gardening is? Well, organic gardeners do not use the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides that non-organic farmers/gardeners do.(2) They use compost instead.(2)(4)(5) Compost can make your garden more healthy and beautiful because of the natural ingredients like grass cuttings, dead leaves, fruits and vegetable peelings, etc.(2)(4)(5)
Sources say that organic foods are more delicious, good for you, and safer than the non-organic foods.(3) They also say that growing organically is better for the environment and gives animals kinder living conditions.(3) The U.S. Department Agriculture requires gardeners with organic gardens to make due with these regulations: must be grown without chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, without synthetic fertilizers, sewage, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation.(3) "USDA organic" foods must contain at least 95% of organic ingredients.(3) The chances of getting pesticide remains are much less than getting foods that are not organic.(3)
The students at the school of the future deserve the best quality food and that is why we have chosen to grow our own organic garden. We need the children to be safe of the harmful substances in food products. They also need to have the daily recommended food groups and we will provide those for them.
Sources:
(1)http://www.plantea.com/organic-fertilizer.htm
(2)http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/1,7518,s1-2-7-8,00.html
(3)http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/organic-food-better
(4)http://www.cdcg.org/compost.html
(5)http://eap.mcgill.ca/publications/eap56.htm
Water
Did you know if a toilet lis leaking it can lose about 200 gallons of H2O a day?(1) There has recently been made a new law for toilets to only use 1.6 gallons of water per flush or less.(3) You spend about 3 years of your life total on the potty!(2) Also, you go to the bathroom about 2,500 times a year, which is 6-8 times a day!(2) In a day you can use up to about 60 sheets of toilet paper a day and flush one toilet 8 times.(2)
Low flow toilets can also save 60%-80% of water that is used by regular toilets!(5) These are some ways to conserve water: check your toilet to see if it has any leaks, don't use your toilet for an ashtray for your cigarettes or a trash can, take shorter showers, and install some low flow shower heads.(4)
Low flow toilets save a lot of water!(5) They are low costing too!(5) A family containing 7 people can save about 49 gallons of water a day with a low flow toilet!(5) Adding that up to a year, it's about 18,000 gallons of water, which is a large swimming pool!(5)
Sources:
(1)http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00222/problems.htm
(2)http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4390000/newsid_4394200/4394226.stm
(3)http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/inftoi/inf_truth_about_toilets.html
(4)http://www.eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm
(5)http://www.dualflushkit.com/
Energy: HYDROELECTRIC
Hydropower is the most used renewable energy source.(1)(3) It was 6% of the total electricity generation in 2007 and 71% of generation from renewable energy.(1)(2) This is one of the oldest sources of energy in the world.(1)(2)(3) Until 1882 coal was the only source used to make electricity.(1)(2) The source of Hydropower is water.(1) The nation's largest Hydropower facility is the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state.(1) Hydropower is generated mostly in the states of Washington, Oregon. California, New York, and Montana.(1) There are no pollutants or waste products made that go into the air or water.(1)(3)
Water flowing through spinning turbine blades in the dams are connected to generators and power is produced.(2) The advantages of Wind Energy are: no pollution is made because no fuel is burned, the water to run the wind plants is provided free by nature, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions, lowers the costs of operating the plant and maintenance, reliable technology, and it is renewable energy.(2)(3) The energy is produced by the effect of falling water.(2)(3)
Sources:
(10)http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/water.html
(11)http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuhy.html
(12)http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/59.html
Energy: WIND
What is a wind machine and how does it work? Wind machines have blades that are used to gather the Kinetic Energy from the wind, just like old windmills.(1)(3) The blades slow how fast the wind is going.(1) When the wind is blowing over the blades it causes "lift".(1) In result the blades turn round and round.(1) The blades of the wind machine are connected to a machine called the "drive shaft" that spins a generator to make electricity.(1) There's only one problem- when wind isn't blowing, energy is not being produced.(1)(3)
In America we use Wind Turbines to produce our wind energy.(1) There are two kinds of Turbines: Horizontal Axis and Vertical Axis.(1)(3) The U.S. uses mostly the Horizontal Axis Turbines.(1) Horizontal Axis Turbines have airplane-like blades and can be as tall as a 20 story building.(1) There are three blades, they are 200 feet across (each).(1) They are tall to capture more wind.(1) Vertical Axis Turbines have blades that go from top to bottom.(1) They are 100 feet tall and 50 feet wide.(1)
This energy does not pollute the air like fossil fuels do.(2) The energy is made in the U.S. so it is abundant.(2) Wind is a type of energy that cannot be used up, and is actually a form of solar energy that is made by heating of the earth by the sun.(2)(3) It's one of the lowest priced energies- 4 to 6 cents per KiloWatt Hour.(2) These are built on farms and ranches(2)(3) and made of steel and the blades are made of fiberglass.(3)
Sources:
(7)http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/wind.html
(8)http://www1.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/wind_ad.html
(9)http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_basics.html
Energy: GEOTHERMAL
What is Geothermal Energy? The word "Geothermal" comes from two words in the greek language.(1) "Geo" meaning Earth and "Therme" meaning heat.(1) These words interpret into the definition: Heat from inside the earth.(1) This can heat and also be made into electricity.(1)
This source of energy is renewable because water is continuously in the earth because of rain and the heat is ongoing and being made in the earth's core, which is about 4,000 miles from the crust of Earth.(1) There is decaying (slowly) of radio active particles in rocks and the temperature gets hotter the further down you go.(1)
Geothermal Energy can be found in Geysers, Volcanoes, and Hot Springs.(1) The Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean is a great place to recieve Geothermal energy.(1) This energy can also be found underground in hot water, steam, and hot dry rocks.(2) These can be found in shallow ground (Earth's Crust) at 3-5 miles down into the Earth.(3) We can even go down into magma rock to get geothermal energy!(3)
You can use Geothermal energy for: heating homes and offices, we can use it in green houses to grow plants, it can dry our fruits and vegetables, heat water, and can be used for things like pasteurizing milk.(3)
Most of the Western States (such as Alaska and Hawaii) have plenty of Geothermal resources.(3) Wells can be drilled down into the earth to obtain electricity from steam, water or rocks. Most who use Geothermal Energy build "Geothermal Heat Pump Systems".(3) In these systems, there are pipes buried underground near the building the people want to heat or cool.(3) In the winter the pump brings heat from underground and pumps it into the buildings.(3) In the summer the heat from inside is pumped back into the system.(3)
Sources:
(4)http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/geothermal.html
(5)http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/geothermal/geothermal.html
(6)http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/geothermal
Energy: SOLAR
Schools of the future are going to be able to have their own renewable energy by harvesting it themselves! The various types of energy would include: Solar, Geothermal, Wind, and Hydroelectric Energy.
Do you know what Solar energy is? Solar energy is basically "solar radiation" which is the sun's energy or the rays of the sun that touch down to the earth.(1)(2) Did you know there are two kinds of solar energy? They are: Thermal and Electric.(2) Thermal energy is the actual heat of the sun mad into energy, electrical energy is when the energy from the sun is used to make electricity through the solar cells.(2)
The Solar energy can be made into thermal energy(heat energy) and be used to heat water, dry clothes, heat homes and work places, cook food, produce lighting, and makes enough energy to power our calculators and some cars!(1)(3)
Solar energy is FREE and we will never run out of it.(1) Solar energy has also been proven to be better for the earth than other non-renewable sources of energy.(3) It will produce no water or even air pollutions!(1) All though little wastes can be produced by turning sunlight into energy, the panels take in silicon and the byproducts of it can harm the desert environments in which Solar Farms are managed.(1)
Overall, renewable energy is far better than non-renewable sources such as oil/gasoline.(1) Hardly any wastes are made and if everyone switched to solar panels instead of regular electricity we would be on the way to saving our environment.(1)
Sources:
(1)http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/solar.html
(2)http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/what-is-solar-energy.html
(3)http://www.facts-about-solar-energy.com/facts-about-solar-energy.html