Protesting isn’t what it used to be you no longer have to carry a picket sign most of the protesting that is happening now is happening through the web. You can also protest by simply making choice like not to buy products that use unethical practices. One of the most interesting protesting that is happening is Culture Jamming using company’s own ads as a way to undermine them. Banksy known to many as simply a graffiti artist is a man with the mission of making us face our cultural failures. He does this by doing work in the public domain that is often taken over by advertisements instead of real art. “Any ad in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it.” Banksy
After reading the section on using LED lights and fiber optics to create natural sunlight, I started thinking about how much energy we could potentially harvest from the sun. This mass of burning gas releases a massive amount of energy capable of being lighting even the furthest planet from our solar system and can be seen from millions of miles away. Most of its energy, however, penetrates through our atmosphere, in the most basic form, and then shoots out back into the solar system. We loose the energy used to power this entire solar system. I feel that there should be much more funding pushed towards exploring the power of solar energy. Unlike fossil fuels and bio fuels, it is extremely consistent for the next several million years. When done properly, we can absorb a great deal of the power lost from the sun to power just about anything. This should be something done on a public scale where every household and country should compile all of the energy to a center to redistribute. Is sad to see that even the art school only has one solar powered light by the parking lot. I wish we would be making more of an effort.
This section made me feel more hopeful than the other chapters and is particularly applicable considering I’ve grown up and live in the Metro Detroit area. The key point is that “We have to shed our dependence on oil now.” Cars have become an integral part of our lives. We depend on them daily and convincing people to choose an alternative and more green method of transportation (biking or walking) isn’t a very successful or even possible substitute. The good news is there are innovative alternatives; the bad news is they are still a ways off from completely replacing the gas guzzling cars we drive now. This section describes the developing options that will hopefully become increasingly available sooner rather than later. They provide a recipe for making your own biodiesel fuel which can act as a direct replacement for petroleum diesel fuel. And straight vegetable oil works as well, but can be less reliable and requires some modifications to the vehicle. I first saw this method introduced on an episode of 30 Days and did some research to try and convince my mom to convert our engine but there were several complications with the model of our car and also it isn’t efficient if you live in a cold weather climate because it takes a while for the oil to heat up before the engine can run. In concept, Hydrogen cars are the best new alternative. Energy to run the vehicle is derived through the combustion of hydrogen fuel cells that releases hydrogen and oxygen, water, as a byproduct making this method totally clean. Honda is blazing the trail for this method to be implemented in the next several years, potentially but several issues still need to be worked out: storing and transporting the highly volatile hydrogen molecules and establishing stations where people can refuel the cars.
Protest
ReplyDeleteProtesting isn’t what it used to be you no longer have to carry a picket sign most of the protesting that is happening now is happening through the web. You can also protest by simply making choice like not to buy products that use unethical practices. One of the most interesting protesting that is happening is Culture Jamming using company’s own ads as a way to undermine them. Banksy known to many as simply a graffiti artist is a man with the mission of making us face our cultural failures. He does this by doing work in the public domain that is often taken over by advertisements instead of real art. “Any ad in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it.” Banksy
After reading the section on using LED lights and fiber optics to create natural sunlight, I started thinking about how much energy we could potentially harvest from the sun. This mass of burning gas releases a massive amount of energy capable of being lighting even the furthest planet from our solar system and can be seen from millions of miles away. Most of its energy, however, penetrates through our atmosphere, in the most basic form, and then shoots out back into the solar system. We loose the energy used to power this entire solar system. I feel that there should be much more funding pushed towards exploring the power of solar energy. Unlike fossil fuels and bio fuels, it is extremely consistent for the next several million years. When done properly, we can absorb a great deal of the power lost from the sun to power just about anything. This should be something done on a public scale where every household and country should compile all of the energy to a center to redistribute. Is sad to see that even the art school only has one solar powered light by the parking lot. I wish we would be making more of an effort.
ReplyDeleteCars and Fuel
ReplyDeleteThis section made me feel more hopeful than the other chapters and is particularly applicable considering I’ve grown up and live in the Metro Detroit area. The key point is that “We have to shed our dependence on oil now.” Cars have become an integral part of our lives. We depend on them daily and convincing people to choose an alternative and more green method of transportation (biking or walking) isn’t a very successful or even possible substitute. The good news is there are innovative alternatives; the bad news is they are still a ways off from completely replacing the gas guzzling cars we drive now. This section describes the developing options that will hopefully become increasingly available sooner rather than later. They provide a recipe for making your own biodiesel fuel which can act as a direct replacement for petroleum diesel fuel. And straight vegetable oil works as well, but can be less reliable and requires some modifications to the vehicle. I first saw this method introduced on an episode of 30 Days and did some research to try and convince my mom to convert our engine but there were several complications with the model of our car and also it isn’t efficient if you live in a cold weather climate because it takes a while for the oil to heat up before the engine can run. In concept, Hydrogen cars are the best new alternative. Energy to run the vehicle is derived through the combustion of hydrogen fuel cells that releases hydrogen and oxygen, water, as a byproduct making this method totally clean. Honda is blazing the trail for this method to be implemented in the next several years, potentially but several issues still need to be worked out: storing and transporting the highly volatile hydrogen molecules and establishing stations where people can refuel the cars.