US and China go GREEN

Elaine Kurtenbach reports in the Times Magazine that the Shanghai and the US are trying to cooperate and create a greenhouse gas emission limitation agreement. While both sides had their fair share of accusing the other side of emitting more carbon dioxide, these two countries have finally set aside their differences in order to help Earth. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has to say:

We regulate greenhouse gases in the U.S. We monitor and require emissions to be reported in the U.S. We have rules that are phasing in, slowly, regulations for reducing emissions from stationary sources

Now that China has put into progress their 5 year plan starting 2011, a foundation has been laid as an example of progressive movement into reducing greenhouse gases being emitted into air. China, the world's most productive country at the moment is willing to give up their factories that spew out carbon dioxide and change for a better cause, the survival of Earth. Now it is up to other countries to decide, will they progress alongside the US and China, or will they be left behind and in the near future be at the mercy to these progressing countries.

Fuel from Carbon Dioxide??

What if there was a way to use our environmental output hazards, carbon dioxide, and reuse it in a cycle that utilizes it to make fuel?

This is a very interesting concept and one that may give the solution to the reduction if not elimination of fossil fuels for energy. By using alternatives such as water and wind powered generators, this energy can be used to fuel the reaction to make the carbon dioxide fuse with hydrogen to produce usable gasoline for everyday life. However, the most promising elements that can be an important ingredient to fuel these reactions is solar power. The sun is always present and is constantly being supplied unlike limited conditions to generators such as windmills. Arun Majumdar presents his view:

Turning CO2 into fuels is exactly what photosynthetic organisms have been doing for billions of years, although their fuels tend to be foods, like sugars. Now humans are trying to store the energy in sunlight by making a liquid fuel from CO2 and hydrogen—a prospect that could recycle CO2 emissions and slow down the rapid buildup of such greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

With these possibly viable sources of "new technologies get commercialized, those jobs always end up in the U.S." as Alan Weimer theorizes.

 

 

Banks "Mine" for Money

Since the well-known recession of 2008, banks have looked at fossil fuel mining companies. Starting the trend, Wells Fargo have used round about ways in funding mining companies that use "mountain top" mining techniques to reach  coal.

"Blasting off mountaintops to reach coal in Appalachia or churning out millions of tons of carbon dioxide to extract oil from sand in Alberta are among environmentalists’ biggest industrial irritants. But they are also legal and lucrative."  -Tom Zeller Jr., The New York Times

 The minings companies lack money as well so funding from wealthy banks was always welcome. But that was 2008. Today, which many new Global Warming awareness campaigns and programs, this might lead to a very big conflict very soon. Not only are the banks reaping in money, they are doing so while trying to dodge risky questions about their contributions in increasing the carbon dioxide levels through these mining companies that can supply more coal, not to mention the malpractice of "blasting off mountaintops."