APES Current Events

Summary: In this article by The Guardian it talks about an idea Bill Gates and some of his colleagues have been trying to put into action. This idea being to decarbonise the global economy by extracting global-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, using groups of giant fans and patented chemicals; and then using the gas to make clean, carbon-neutral synthetic diesel and petrol to fuel the world's different modes of transportation. However, this idea they have isn't easy to conjure up ideas for, which they are fully aware of. Therefore, over the years, they have been trying to incite interest in inventors and engineers to contribute their skills to this cause and come together to create a solution. And although Bill Gates and his colleagues have indeed been able to get designs to help the situation and plans to back them up, it is with concern that they are unable to implement these inventions into society today, as they come at too high of a cost and are not being encourag...

The particles of pollution have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers that you cannot see traveling past your body's usual defenses getting stuck in your lungs and going into your bloodstream that leads to respiratory problems and diseases. This pollution is caused by coal and natural gas plants, cars, agriculture, unpaved roads and construction sites leading to the pollution coming in forms of dust, dirt, soot, and smoke. Over 200 cases of hospitalization have been proven to be linked to pollution and some diseases while 107,000 premature deaths costed the country $866 billion dollars due to certain particles in the air. The President Donald Trump said in 2017 that he would promote clean air and water, but his administration wants to reverse the dozens of rules that were created to reduce Americans' exposure to air pollution. If Trump's administration keeps on doing this 1,400 additional premature deaths will occur every year by 2030 if they replace Obama's Clean Air...

The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase and nothing is slowing it down. Researchers are trying to create new technologies to help capture these gases in the atmosphere. These pieces of technology will be able to trap carbon and convert it, if they work well. However, there are some companies that argue this could cause more pollution. If this technology is able to help reduce emissions that would be great, but for now the emissions will continue to grow. The easiest and safest solution is to switch to forms of renewable energy like wind and solar. It is very important for everyone in the world to come together to be less dependent on fossil fuels and to use other forms of energy, so that the world stops warming up. If emissions continue to grow, we will not be living for much longer. link

 125,00 years ago during Earth's latest warm period, sea levels had begun to rise and have risen 10 meters since.  The melting ice from Antarctica is the main reason for the levels rising.  Because of Earth's glacier like periods, warm periods are more frequent when there are large portions of Earth covered in ice which causes the levels to rise.  Rising levels are on of the most difficult changes that affect our population.  It has caused us to relocate and other animals to become extinct.  If we do not learn to adapt to these changes or put a end to them, the sea levels will continue to rise more rapidly than they have been.  link

Tiny patches in the coastal deserts of Peru are surprisingly teeming with plant life. Scientists say that this could be due a species known as the burrowing owl. When the burrowing owl shovels sand for its nest, its gives a home for seedlings and a variety of exclusive plants under the sand and the seedlings don't have to deal with the harsh conditions above land while germinating. Also, this digging that the birds have been doing has been making the soil more fertile.  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/burrowing-birds-owls-plant-life-desert-landscape Its really interesting to see how an area that is known to have very little amounts of pant life have some spots which are rich in plant life because of a singular symbiotic relationship. Hopefully in time, these positive effects will spread throughout the deserts. 

With the growing concern for the environment, fast food chains are doing their part by changing what they put in their kids' meals. In northern England, Burger King has begun collecting the hundreds and thousands of the toys and melting them. Burger King has encouraged customers to put the old toys in the collection bins which will be melted and turned into playground equipment and reusable tray tables. Fast food chains like McDonald's have also began the process of removing toys from the kids meals, but not completely as they are offering the choice of a toy or a bag of fruit. Click  Here  for more The removal of the toys from the kid's meals is just the beginning. Much of the problem still lies in the type of packaging these fast food chains use, such as their use of foam cups in most of their restaurants. There is also the fact that children love these toys, it being the experience.

Summary:  J . W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, Florida has been the first school to use synthetic frogs for dissecting. The company that makes the frogs say they are the first school in the world to use this sort of technology. The frog is made to be exactly like the real frog you see in biology, right now it resembles the female frog. Which the synthetic frog has a skeleton, muscles, skin organs, and a reproduction system with eggs. The synthetic tissue is made out of water, fibers, and salt and is also physically safer to dissect than a preserved one because the synthetic frog does not contain the chemical formalin .The frogs also are used for surgical simulation, education, and medical device testing. The frogs can be reused over and over again rather than a once and done thing. The synthetic frog also help the moral issue some students face, since the dead frogs were once alive and millions of frogs are killed each year for dissecting. The synthetic frog was n...