Blog

Opt4green on facebook

Wed, 06 May 2009 19:30:00 -0400

We had a facebook page set up, but now it is not working, so we have a new one! If you would like to learn more about our movement and interact with other members of the conservation board request to be friends with the "Green Squad". Right now the page is a bit barren, but hopefully we can get something good going and find more members.

Thank you for your continued support!

-Austin Evans

Walk away the trash!

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:58:00 -0400

Well, I thought I would try to do something that I have not done with the blog as of yet, start a service project that everyone can get involved in.

Spring is rolling around, and everyone is ready to get out side and have some fun. Together with that rush of people comes lots and lots of litter. It is a dissapointing thing for people to go from dreary days spent inside in the winter to days outside in what is supposed to be a perfect spring environment--only to find trash in their favorite park or beach.

I propose that every family in the United States should take a walk to their favorite park/pond/recreation area, and take a trash bag along with them. Along the way pick up all the trash that you can. You will be suprised to see how quickly your bag fills up, and what things will be in it.

Really it should not take to long, at most an hour. We were able to fill a normal sized trash bag on the walk up to our local park in about 10 minutes--it ended up that by the time we got up there we had to empty our bags in order to have enough room to pick up trash at the park!

Thanks!

-Austin Evans

Longest Post Ever...

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:12:00 -0500

I thought that this report I did might be of interest for some/(the few) readers of this blog.

Today’s world is organized in such a way that any fluctuations in population, production of goods, demand for goods, and environmental stability can cause major strife in our economy. Today this is especially prevalent. In this essay I will be comparing the current economic situation with that of the Roman Empire when it fell. The reason I do this is because if we look back upon this, one of the most major fluxes in history that left the world in a dark age for almost 1500 years, we can see that there are a lot of similarities between then and now. A wise man once said, “without history we are doomed to repeat the past.” Right now we ARE repeating the past, and we need to stop this violent cycle before it is too late.

The first well-documented example of economic collapse that we can view is that of Rome. Following the domination of almost all of Europe for hundreds of years there were a couple events that caused a sudden, and incurable fall from power. Rome had a powerful leader, the most powerful armies in the area, the most powerful navy, and vast recourses of crops and minerals available to them; yet the Roman empire fell to the hands of its own people. (Western Civilization, Spielvogel pg.126) First of all, there was a split of political parties—early in the Roman Empire there was one supreme ruler, but it became so that there were several people that held the reigns of power—the two major political parties were the “populares”, and the “optimates.” Both parties fought for control in the senate, and it led to a decline and fall in political power and prestige; United we Stand, Divided we fall. “But when our country had grown great through toil and the practice of justice, when great kings had been vanquished in war, savage tribes and mighty people subdued by force of arms, when Carthage, the rival of Rome’s sway, had perished root and branch, and all seas and lands were open, then Fortune began to grow cruel and to bring confusion into all our affairs” (Sallast, “the War with Catiline”, Western Civilization, page 126). Right now it is pretty obvious that there is confusion in our own Senate. The Democrats and Republicans constantly bicker and fight about who, and what, is right, and what Bills and Laws will lift the country from its current state. Yet, they still fail.

Another one of the major downfalls of the Roman Empire was Tax Evasion by the rich. By stashing away their money, and investing much of it before it was taxed they were able to keep their money from the government, money that was depended upon to keep the Empire running (pp. 2-41, T.R Reid, the making of an Empire). This is another one of those things that we see in excess in the United States, people attempting to use government money for themselves rather than for the good of the country. It is not so much in our country that people are evading taxes, but rather that our lawmakers are clueless when it comes to the things that they are spending their money on. In 2003 the United States “LOST” $23 billion dollars; it was not stolen, it was spent, but lawmakers just don’t know where it went--that’s right, they just don’t know. To put this in perspective, 25 billion is enough money to fund the entire department of Justice (Brian Riedl, how your government wastes your money). Pork Barrel Spending is another one of the things that we have to look closely at. It is estimated the Law Makers sunk about 6.6 billion dollars in Pork Barrel Spending in 2007, which is still 23 billion less than the record amount set in 2005 (Pork-Barrel Spending: Republicans Win Transparency, Brian Riedl). Pork Barrel Spending is just lawmakers using government money for things that directly help them, in other words, using government money for their own goals. Sometimes the money can be put to good use, but usually it is not beneficial to our country.

The final straw in the Fall of Glory for the Roman Empire was that it extended its boundaries so far, and was involved in so many wars that it could not properly protect its people. One of the best examples of this is that of Pontius Pilate. Pilate was assigned to be the “procurator” (governor) of Judea. While he was in control he attempted to erect silver statues of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius (Bible Dictionary, page 751). “There was present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices” (Holy Bible, Luke 13:1). This spilling of blood referred to a revolt at a feast caused by anger at the actions of the Romans. Roman soldiers killed what are assumed to be Galilean protestors (Bible Dictionary, Page 751). But, we don’t even need to just look at this minor incident—indeed we can look at the example of a certain Jewish prophet that Pilate was forced to kill.

One of the most well known stories in the entire world is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus was accused of “perverting the nation” and refusing to give tribute to Caesar. Pilate listened to the pleas of the people, and in an effort to placate them, asked Christ if he was the king of the Jews; Jesus’s reply was, “Thou sayest it.” Pilate then went on to say that he found no fault with him because he did not claim to be a king (Holy Bible, Luke 25). This entire conversation was in an effort to calm the people, and avoid the possible conflict that would be caused from killing a man loved by hundreds of thousands of people. When Pilate was forced, still, to convict Jesus, he further attempted to avoid conflict by sending him to Herod (a man who was placed at the “throne” in order to keep up the appearance that the Romans did not have complete power over Israel; in reality Herod had very little power in critical matters, but still enough to convict a “common criminal”). Herod refused to hear the case and convict Jesus, so he was sent back to Pilate. Later on Pilate still insisted that he found no fault with Christ, so as was tradition at a yearly feast, he offered to release him; instead the Jews called for a criminal, Barabbas to be released (Holy Bible, Luke 25). After that Pilate was forced to follow through on the crucifixion. Following this incident which Pilate tried so hard to avoid, there was so much controversy, revolt, and general malcontent that Emperor Tiberius removed Pilate from the seat of power in Judea (Bible Dictionary, Page 751)—It was shortly after this that Rome became a second-rate power.

Similar controversy is found at the heart of the current war on Terror. The United States has placed itself in a position to attempt to change a people that calls our country “The Great Satan” (Ayotollah Sayyid Ruholla Musavi Khomeini), and is failing miserably because:
a) they don’t want our help…and
b) the extremists have unlimited resources available from countries hostile to the United States, mainly Iran. (WINES McMANUS,Iran supplying…)

As the years went on Rome gradually lost its power and prestige. The Christians were soon being systematically killed by Emperors Decius, and Diocletian—but this was not enough to solve the problem and stop the bleeding of the Roman Empire (Wester Civilization, Spielvogel pg.164).

The United States is heading down the same path of the Roman Empire. We have already had a “Great Depression” and we are closing in on another one if we are not careful. It is time that Politicians looked to the past to see what they are doing wrong. If they can practice bipartisanship, spend frugally and not spread our power over too much territory we can pull out of this crises.

-Austin Evans

Good Luck Robotics Team!!!!

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:10:00 -0500

http://www.newsok.com/multimedia/video/14315361001

The Ada Robotics team is competing, and our own Lashun Oakley was featured in a video for the news! Good Luck!!!

Poster Contest

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:25:00 -0500

Thank you for all the great entries we have gotten into the poster competition! In the coming weeks we will announce winners, so stay tuned. There are about 23 entries and counting. We will still accept entries until the 31st, but after that date there will be no more. Choosing a winner is going to be very difficult, but everyone who took the time to make an entry should be proud. I want to make a special thank you to all of you from Moberly Missouri who sent in your flyers, it was a wonderful suprise to see that we are reaching people in states other than Oklahoma and Utah. I would also like to post part of an email that we recieved this week:

"I am so excited that I found this information on the great things you all are doing. Personally, I had started a recycling project at our home, and my office just this year. I almost felt alone at first because people are not very responsive. However, the more that I have made myself availalbe to take their things to recycle along with mine and they see my children participating as well they are slowly making a much better effort. I am so very proud that there is such a great group of young adults in our area. Please keep up the great work! You have already made a HUGE difference which will make the end result such a sweet reward."

After reading this email I was able to confirm a couple of things. First off, if you have a goal in mind like getting your company to recycle, or making your home a recycling free area there are a lot of problems that you will face.

In the past recycling was not a major issue that people really thought about, but now that we see what has happend to our environment when we don't, and now that we see that certain things become cheaper if we recycle, the process is becoming more widespread. That is not to say, however, that everyone is open to it. But we can make people change their ways just by making things easier and making the service availible.

One thing that I see a lot of in schools is that students will not recycle their papers because the recycling bin is farther away from their desk than the trash bin. Recycling for them is not "convienent", but in the classes where the teachers express that all paper must be recycled there is a lot more participation in the service.

The person that I recieved the email from faced the same problem as the teachers, but by expressing her opinion, and going out of her way to make it easy to recycle she was able to get other people into the habit of recycling at work as well as at her home.

We can all make a difference in this way by consistantly letting people know of our opinions and values. Peer pressure is a powerful tool if used correctly. It may take a while to get people around to your side of things but once you do they are not likely to turn back. I want to encourage all of you to keep telling people about your stance on environmental issues so that we can change the mentality of America, as well as making environmentally healthy services more wide spread. I wish you all luck on the path to success.

-Austin Evans

Share the Love

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:38:00 -0500

When does something become wrong? Where is the line that says “you should not do this”? Does it start when you hurt someone physically, or can it go deeper, hurting them mentally or spiritually? Do animals feel when you hurt them? All of these are questions that no one can answer perfectly, and I am not even going to pretend to be able to do so, but I think that I can explain the mentality of what causes people to “do wrong”.

First of all in today’s world convenience is what boosts you to the pinnacle of society. If you are super-rich you can afford cooks to get you food, a plane to fly you around the world without having to share the seat next to you, you can buy a car that gets 8mpg and no one will bat an eye. Now days even in lower and middle class society we all beg for convenience. People get loans to buy their houses, then they get loans against the house they have a loan on to buy vehicles, toys (water skis), etc.

Somehow we have even managed to simulate playing games, and meeting with friends (I count myself as an offender in this category; I love my Wii and facebook). So now that we have all this convenience, now that we have reached the point where cooking is popping a bag into the microwave, vacuuming can be done by robots (same with lawn mowing and mopping) and we don’t even have to wash our own dishes; what is next? What can possibly change? Have we made progress, or are we now at the point where we are regressing as a civilization?

Much of it depends on how you look at certain things. With computer technology I can reach an audience and attempt to inform them about what is going on in our world, but you can also turn that around and say that with computer technology things like terrorism and war have become even more deadly than we could have ever imagined.

Another big thing is electricity. Now that we have it industry has boomed in the past 100 years, and along with that population. It sounds like complete success, with new technologies the world can support more people, with more people we can become more advanced and make better technologies—the chain just continues on and on. But electricity has also brought upon us some of the worst crises in history. If there were no electricity Pollution would not be as much of a problem, we would not have as much industry that releases air and water contaminants, we would not have to power people’s homes, and there would be no weapons of mass destruction that destroy us and the other beings that we share this planet with.

Now we are even seeing the effects of overpopulation. There is not enough fresh water to sustain the growth of population that earth is seeing, and there are not enough habitats for endemic animals where population centers are most likely to be located. A prime example of this is the Nile Valley; once a lush, forested area full of wildlife, it is now a major population hub holding well over 64 million people, about 4% of the world’s population in 4,250 square miles of land (about the size of Connecticut). So we do not have enough land or water to sustain the amount of people that could theoretically be on the globe, as a matter of fact there are places where human life is already majorly affected by water shortages. Not only that, but much of the water that is available is not fit to drink. This is a fact that surprised me, and it will likely surprise you as well; undrinkable water is the number one cause of death in the world. Every year over 5 million people die from water born diseases. To me that is a shocking number, it is like wiping Chicago off the face of the earth, then Houston, then in two years LA, then in three more New York, then Cleveland, then Dallas, then Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, San Antonio, and Denver. That is a lot of people, too many.

The point I am trying to make is this: technology can only take us so far, when there is a problem we say, “let the scientists deal with it”, when something annoys us some entrepreneur comes out with that fancy contraption that does it for you—but when is the point that we are relying on those things too much? We litter, and expect it to be cleaned, industry spews toxic fumes , and expects to “offset” it with trees. To a point those things work, but there is a time when we are past that point. People die every day because of pollution, they die every day because they cannot get water, they die because there is no place for them to go. All of this is so we can sit in our high-chairs and say “look at me, I can do this!” No, my Facebook has not directly killed someone, and no, having cable or a PS3 does not make you evil, but it is time that people think about what they are doing and the affect it will have on others. IF we pollute we kill animals, IF we take habitat of endemic species they go extinct, IF we pour toxic waste into the ocean we kill out neighbors across the sea. Am I over reacting? Maybe, but if we all just try and do our part, even if it is just little things like turning off the lights when we leave the house, then we can make the world a better place, then we can survive, then we can advanced and not all become vegetables who sit in hover chairs and play virtual golf without even looking around us and experiencing the truly good things in life (if you do not get this part go watch Wall-e).

My plug is done, I hope that it inspires somebody. It would be wonderful if everyone who reads this blog can tell us one “little” thing they do to help the world. I will start it off, I pick up my trash…..and now I am ready to listen and see what ideas you have about the subject.

-Austin Evans

Toilette of the world

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:08:58 -0500

You know how when you were in grade school sitting through science class when your teacher would begin to talk about the environment? I don?t know about you, but my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. TreEagle, used to always talk about how if we did not stop littering we would produce enough trash that at some point in the future the ocean would be covered with garbage. In fact, there was even a documentary on PBS that addressed this very subject. It had the same prediction as my fourth grade teacher, and it even showed simulations of what the world?s oceans would look like?to say the least pop cans as far as you can see is a bit of an eye opener. Well, now there is a place that is the embodiment of that prediction, an actual spot in the Ocean completely filled with trash.

The Pacific Gyre located in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean is often referred to as ?The toilette?. It sounds like a rather odd name until you fully understand what is going on there. Every year millions of pounds of garbage are dumped into the ocean?waste from beaches, boats, illegal dumping, landfills, etc.

In the past trash dumped into the ocean broke down quickly and easily due to the bacteria and chemicals in the ocean, but now there is something that we have created that none of these things can destroy?plastics.

Plastics are a different breed of animal compared to natural waste; plastic is engineered specifically to be light and durable, resistant to bacteria and last long--therein lies the problem. Bacteria are the garbage men of the ocean?left over meals from other fish, waste materials, all of it is cleaned by the bacteria. Plastics are specifically engineered to resist the techniques used by the bacteria (?garbage men of the ocean?) to clean waste. Plastic can last years upon years in the ocean without breaking down.

So no, it?s not those popcans?in fact the cans rust and brake down so they are not a major problem (but don?t throw them in the ocean), but the plastics that were put in there in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s?it?s all still there and will be there for a long time.

But that isn?t even half of the problem that we face when plastics enter the ocean. Something unique about plastics is that they photodegrade, that is they fragment when the sun hits them and after 50 years or so they break into tiny pieces. But the plastic isn?t entirely gone, bacteria still cannot destroy its individual molecules. So what happens to the molecules? They form a soupy concoction with the water that is TOXIC.

So now there is a double whammy, toxic water and trash floating around in the ocean.

I am sure that by now everyone has seen some show that shows the plight of a bird or turtle with popcan rings stuck on its neck, or birds with oil on their feathers (By the way, plastic is made from petrol). It should come to no surprise to you that there are several harmful effects of plastics in the ocean.

Just a quick question, what does your stomach break down food with? The answer is bacteria (and to some extent acid, but ignore that I said that).�

Fish are dumb. Turtles are dumb. Clams are dumb. Many animals are dumb. Many animals eat stuff even when they don?t know what it is, things like plastic. If you don?t believe me try feeding your fish paper?they will try to eat it. After animals eat plastic it gets stuck in their digestive tracts and the animals die. Stupid, stupid fish.

So now we are going to go for the quadruple whammy. Not only does plastic kill the fish, it kills the things that the fish eat. When that soupy water from broken down plastic comes it blocks light from the sun, and plants at the sea floor, as well as algae in the lower water column cannot photosynthesis. This not only means that the animals have no food, but also that those levels of the water column can no longer sustain life. That?s right, without the photosynthesizers to create oxygen there is no life, because there is nothing for the animals to breath.�

The Pacific Gyre is a prime example of what is to come if we keep littering. We will first make the water look gross, then will kill the fish, then we will kill the things the fish eat, then we will destroy entire habitats by getting rid of their oxygen. Lastly this cycle will find its way to us?what goes around comes around. When it gets to that point there will be hunger, famine and war; it will not just be the creatures of the sea that suffer. In order to ensure this does not happen we must reuse our waste, switch from petroleum based plastic to a biodegradable material like plastic derived from a starch base (ethonal, corn, sugar cane, potatoes, garbage water), and we must take responsibility for our actions and be ready to clean up our act. It all starts with us. Right now there are over 3 million tons of plastic in the Pacific Gyre, more garbage than the entire Los Angeles area produces in a year. It is our wakeup call, because next time this comes to our attention, the ocean might very well be covered in pop bottles.

To learn more about the Gyre look here: http://junkraft.com/blog/?p=86 and here: http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/1103/1103_feature.html

As always, feel free to leave a comment and discuss this, or any other topic.

-Austin Evans

End of the Presidential Race

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:36:04 -0500

To be honest I thought I was not going to post anything else about the Presidential race--in part because I am tired of hearing about politics, and the other part is that....well, I don't know the other part, but I don't have to because it is late and I am distracted. This was actually a homework assignment in English, so I decided to make it so that it fit the blog format--or I made it fit English format and wrote it to be long enough so I could say it's a blog post. As long as it works....Right?

Well, anyway, what we were supposed to do is read the acceptance and recession speeches by McCain and Obama, find some key quotes, and then write what we thought. Hope you enjoy, especially since this could possibly be the last post about politics.....ever......maybe not....nevermind.

McCain key phrases:

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.

I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Obama Key Phrases:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

What do I think of the results?

I think that after this long election in which neither candidate appeared to have the upper hand until the very end it is hard to say whether one was much better than the other. In my opinion McCain would be the better president, but Biden would be the better VP. Why is that so important? Well, because there is a likelihood that one of the candidates would die in office. As grim as it sounds in the case that it happens you have to consider how Biden and Palin would do as President, and it is very clear that Biden has the experience necessary to run the country, while it is still questionable in Palin?s case. If I voted however, I would have still voted for McCain for several reasons.

1- Energy policy: A while ago I wrote about this in the Opt4green.org blog. McCain and Obama have terrible energy policies, but Obama?s, in my opinion, is suicidal. First of all he wants to empty the federal oil reserve. The reserve could conceivably run the country for about three months if a crises were to come, it would give our president the opportunity to come up with a plan to solve whatever crises caused us to empty it. Obama says that he is going to do it to ?relieve the pain at the pump?, but the truth is that while it will ?relieve? the pain it will not solve the root of the problem?.and after a few months when all of that fuel is gone and nothing has been done to change to some other form of transportation (like natural gas), what will we do?

The second major problem that Obama?s plan has is the fact that he wants to ?renegotiate? all of our contracts for fuel. He says that if the price is not good he won?t accept the contract. There is a problem that he has not mentioned though, what happens when Iran decides it will sell its gas to China (or any other country) instead of us? In Iran the USA is known as ?Big Satan?, we are the enemy?.. This actually is going to bring me to another thought so I can illustrate my point. Imagine that you have a car you are trying to sell. The car is worth $2500. There is a person at work that you just cannot stand, they are always doing stuff to annoy you, there work is shoddy, and somehow they always get the promotions that you want. This person offers to buy your car for market value. Your brother also needs a car. He has been through everything with you, both of you are best friends and understand each other perfectly. He offers to buy the car for $2100. Now my question is who would you sell the car to? America is Iran?s coworker of sorts, and anyone else?in their eyes?is better. So when we go to renegotiate with Iran, or almost any Middle Eastern country for that matter, what do you think that they are going to say?

2- Health plans: Again, I think that both are simply terrible, but at least McCain?s would help some parts of our economy. McCain wants to privatize the health industry, which will have at least one good side effect, more people will be required in order to keep the industry running and it would lower unemployment. There are a lot of bad things about his plan, first and foremost being that with so many people getting money from the government for insurance taxes will have to be raised. The second big problem is that when this goes into effect there would be a lot of people that would get taken advantage of by dishonest insurance salesmen looking to make a profit.

Obama?s plan is another one that is going to cause problems with the economy. He wants to force companies to offer health insurance policies for employees, and the ones that do will have to meet predetermined conditions. At first this sounds great, but in reality it could cause more problems than it solves. First of all the economy is horrid?as we all well know?in order for companies to offer this insurance they are going to have to shell out quite a bit of money?for some it will be enough to cause them to go out of business, as a matter of fact it might cause a lot of them to go out of business. If the economy were not this bad then I would be all for Obama?s plan, but as it is it will hurt the economy, and then people will be on the street without an opportunity for any insurance.

-Austin Evans

Shout out to a special member!

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:44:11 -0500

Ada High School member Maci Huffman planted flowers around her school on Saturday in an effort to beautify the school?s grounds. Yeah Big Mac!!!!

We are so happy to have members that are active in their community and we hope to see some more coming in soon....Great job Maci !!!

�

-Austin Evans

Photosynthesis

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:39:39 -0500

I think that it is a fairly well known fact that plants are a very good thing for the environment. Everyone knows that plants get their energy from the sun, and most people know that they convert Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen. This is a simple description of Photosynthesis. Despite the fact that people know the basics though I still think that there are many who do not really know exactly how much of an impact that plants have on our environment.

Definition:

Photosynthesis: n.

The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates (normally in the form of sugars) are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source. Most forms of photosynthesis release oxygen as a byproduct.

So how does photosynthesis work?

First sunlight that hits the plant is used to move ions of Hydrogen in the Chloroplasts. A chloroplast is a cell in the plant that produces carbohydrates like glucose and sucrose. The ions of Hydrogen moving release energy that is used to make a chemical called ATP. ATP is what powers much of Photosynthesis. This process is called Cyclic Photophosphorylation.

A Chloroplast is the most important part of a plant. It is what gives them food, makes their energy, and keeps them healthy. It is sort of like a hospital. Inside of the Chloroplast there are several things with different functions. The Chlorophyll is like the pharmacist, they hustle around in the hospital and take orders for medicines?then they take those orders and make dosages useful for the people in the hospital. In the same way the Chlorophyll takes in the energy from sunlight and targets it to a specific part of the ?Photosystem?. A Photosystem is like the nurses that administer the drugs from the pharmacist?it takes the ?medicine? (energy from chlorophyll) and uses it to help ?cure? the patient. The Photosystem is a series of proteins; when the energy from the Chlorophyll is transferred to them, they take it and use it with Hydrogen (derived from water absorbed through the roots of a plant, H20) to release some of the Hydrogen atom?s electrons. This reaction provides the energy necessary for a Chloroplast to produce ATP, a key ingredient in Photosynthesis, as well as NADPH, another key part of Photosynthesis.

When the plant takes hydrogen and uses its electrons to create ATP and NADPH there is a byproduct?Oxygen! How does this happen? Well, when water (H2O) has its two Hydrogen (H) atoms separated from the rest of the molecule there is one atom of oxygen left (0), photosynthesis requires a lot of water so naturally it produces a lot of Oxygen.

The next step in Photosynthesis is what causes all of the discussions about using plants as ?Carbon Offsets?, or a way to reduce Carbon Emissions. The ATP and NADPH from the ?light dependant reaction? (part of photosynthesis that requires light) is used in a reaction with Carbon Dioxide to create the sugars that the plant needs to survive. What happens in this step is the plant absorbs carbon dioxide and a reaction between the ATP, Carbon Dioxide, and NADPH occurs. First the Carbon Dioxide reacts with an enzyme called rubisco (RuBisCO is how it is written in scientific fields). The rubisco splits in half to form two new molecules. These new molecules are a substance known as G3P?a basic carbohydrate that a plant can use later on to make more complex carbohydrates like Glucose (Sugar).

And that my friends is Photosynthesis .

So now that you know all of the steps involved it is time to talk about the environmental impact of plants.

Trees:

An average sized tree can absorb roughly 25 to 50 pounds of CO2, and about 1 ton (2,000 pounds) over its lifetime. It takes about 60 trees to absorb 1 ton of CO2 in a year. The average (city) home has about 4 trees on its property. These four trees will absorb about 150 pounds of CO2 per year.

I want to point out something about carbon dioxide really quick. It is a gas, light as oxygen?and somehow we manage to produce 12 tons of it per house in America! How is that possible?

This means that it takes about 720 trees per household to offset our carbon emissions. There are about 100 million houses in America, so to offset all that carbon it would take 72 billion trees.

What about my lawn?

One of the first things that I thought about when I began to type this was how much of an impact our yards have. The answer I got is a resounding ?not much?. Nation-wide, lawns reduce our carbon footprint by 13.2 million pounds of CO2. That is about 13 pounds of CO2 per lawn in a year that is absorbed.

What can I do?

In order to reduce your carbon foot print there are a few things that you can do:

-Using compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of regular ones will save about .5 tons of CO2.

-Setting your thermostat lower, sealing windows in the winter, and setting your thermostat higher in the summer and lower in the winter can save about 1 ton of CO2 per year.

-Using Energy Star Certified appliances can save 1 ton of CO2 per year.

-Lowering your hot water heater temperature to 120 degrees, properly insulating your hot water heater, and using low-flow shower heads will save about .5 tons of CO2 per year.

-Driving your car 10 miles a day in a year results in 2.7 tons of CO2 per year, checking your air filter regularly can eliminate .5 tons, and checking your tire pressure every month can save about .1 tons.

-Recycling and composting can eliminate about .5 tons of CO2 a year per action.

-Planting trees and using natural fertilizers can reduce our carbon footprint by about a half ton a year (depending on the amount of trees and the size of a lawn).

Plants do a lot of other great things besides acting as a carbon emissions reduction system, they also store water and prevent drought, and their roots can prevent mudslides on steep slopes? especially in rainy areas, plants also produce oxygen, and provide habitats for many animals. Even if in small numbers their impact is not felt much when we all plant trees and flowers we can make a big difference.

If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to leave a comment. If you want to calculate your own carbon footprint go to http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/ .

-Austin Evans