Environmental Science assignment week 3 - Essay Example

Part The television broadcast that I chose to watch was an episode from the Discovery Channel series “Building the Future.” In this episode the focus was placed on the search for alternate forms of energy in the UK and Australia. This episode of the series first aired on August 13th of 2007, but I was able to catch a repeat showing of it on January 14th 2010. On the documentary the main discussions focused on the proposed Enviromission Solor Tower in Australia and the Joint European Torus in the UK.

Outline: 1 Introduction to the issues of global warming a Fuel manufacturing pollution b Greenhouse gasses How greenhouse gasses are effecting global warming 2 The state of the UK and Australia’s fuel needs a The amount demanded by consumers and the estimated future demands of the growing populations b Analysis of the current oil manufacturing techniques and their detrimental effects on the environment. 3 Solar Tower a Introduction of the solar tower and how it will work Generate enough power for 200,000 homes No fumes, only sun heated air b How the solar tower is constructed and works Creates natural updraft from sun-heated air Atmospheric vortex engine How the prototype in Manzanares worked 4 Joint European Torus (JET) a Introduction to JET and how it will work Magnetic confinement of plasma physics Nuclear fusion reactors: ITER DEMO DT Fuel and how it is the proposed fuel for the first generation of fusion power plants b How the JET is constructed and works Constructed between 178 and 183 with experiments beginning in 1983 Flywheel generators needed due to high power needed for the tokamak Achieved a world record peak in 1997 for the highest peak in fusion power at 16 MW Each episode in the series “Building the Future” focuses on a different man made alternate power source.

The focus is on the environment and how tradition crude oil refinery relates to global warming and the overall pollution of the planet. This particular episode focuses on two alternate means of power, the Solar Tower and JET. IT discusses why these power producers were made, how they work, and how they will benefit the planet. Both of these power producers were very experimental at the time they were built and the series urges the future experimentation and development of alternate power sources to ensure a safe and profitable future for the world.

The content of the documentary pertained to the entire purpose of the textbook. Preserving the environment and preventing pollution damage is the focus of the textbook as well as this documentary. They both were created to promote awareness and to educate others of the current state of our environment and how we can improve and maintain a healthy planet. I would definitely recommend this series to classmates. I didn’t know such alternate forms of generating power existed and I think that this would be eye opening for my peers as well.

I think that most people know little to nothing about alternate ways of generating power, and therefore there is little push from consumers for alternate power sources. I think that series like this one serve a great purpose in promoting awareness and education about our environment and alternate power sources. Reference “The Search for Ultimate Energy.” Building the Future. Prod. Discovery Channel Films, 2007. DVD. Discovery Channel Video, 2007. Part 2 I found the documentary on global diming to be extremely frightening.

I think that most citizens feel that they can rest easy because there has been an understanding that if we stop polluting now, we can stop any further global warming and be left with only a slight change in temperature, but this documentary proved that these originally beliefs are completely wrong. The fact that global warming and global diming are two competing effects has hidden the truth of how hot the earth actually is. This makes all original estimates of global warming invalid. I couldnt believe that scientists now believe that without global diming to protect the earth, the temperatures of the world could rise ten percent over the next century alone.

This documentary places a cloud of guilt over anyone who watches it, because it proves that we are stuck between eliminating global diming and releasing the true heat of the worlds atmosphere, or continuing to pollute in order to keep global diming to protect us, only causing more dangerous pollutants to inhale and cause erratic climate changes. I was angry to learn that the first attempts to alert the world of global diming were at first ignored. It just shows how much people truly do only live for the moment and care nothing about the future of the world or what will happen to new generations.

It is almost as if people chose not to accept the truth because they dont want to face the destruction that they have caused. This eye opening documentary forces the truth into anyone who watches it and proves that the damage to our environment has already been done. Not only that, but the damage is much worse than anyone expected. A ten percent decrease in sunlight in the last thirty years and a future almost certain to be one of extreme chaos due to a sharp change in temperature should be enough for anyone to stop polluting and do everything possible to find alternate methods of generating fuel.

Unfortunately this is not the case, and further proves that most people do little to make a change, choosing to live their lives in oblivious selfishness to future generations.