Science Club

2007 – 2008

School Year

Our Vision

To be recognized and respected

as leaders in the “green movement”

through research, experience, and education of the general public.

Our Mission

• Our goal is to research and promote alternative sources for energy and fuel in an effort to save our fragile planet.

• We want to encourage the ideas, practices, and system changing solutions that will lead to a more sustainable future.

• We are committed to making others aware the current climate changes, alternative energy sources that can replace fossil fuels, tips on how to be energy efficient, conservation, and recycling.

Our Mission

• We all share this planet and we all need to take responsibility and action.

• We must address the current issues facing our planet and work together to make a positive change.

• Bloom Science Club will read books, talk to experts, experiment with biodiesel fuel, research alternative energy sources, and sponsor a recycling program.

• We pledge to advocate using alternative energy, energy efficiency, sustainable living, conservation, and recycling while discouraging and reducing our current dependence on fossil fuels.

Veggie Bus Project

• This project is designed to promote and research alternative energy and fuels in Bloom High School.

• Science Club members will learn about alternative energy forms

• Our goal is to educate and inspire others to save our planet by becoming part of the solution.

• We will promote use of alternative energies, sustainable living, and conservation.

• We will encourage others to reduce current use of fossil fuels and recycle.

Biodiesel Bus

• Bloom students will travel in an old diesel school bus that runs on biodiesel fuel made from used vegetable oil.

• The students will paint the bus with our school logo and advertise all the donor’s and/or grant company names/web addresses.

• Students will learn about alternative energy and focus on biodiesel.

• They will collect vegetable oil from local restaurants, take it back to the classroom, process it, and convert it into biodiesel fuel.

Biodiesel Bus

• This fuel will be used to power our bus. • Students will document their work with video

clips, digital camera pictures, and journals. • When the Bloom Veggie Bus is up and running,

students will share their story by going on the road and presenting their information.

• They will be required to speak publicly to school children kindergarten through college, as well as organizations that request a presentation.

Fossil Fuels

• Coal, petroleum (oil), natural gas

• Took the Earth millions of years to make

• Made from algae and plants trapped in earth, that were heated and pressed

• Limited quantities

• Once they are gone, they are gone forever

Coal

Petroleum

Petroleum

• Gasoline

• Starts out as thick black gunk “black gold”

Extract

• Process taking oil from the Earth

Distillation

• After oil is extracted it must be distilled

• Heating the oil until it boils in a distillation tower

• Different grades of oil separate in the tower

• Heavy and thick portions settle on the bottom (asphalt)

• Light and gassy rise to the top (gasoline)

1859Titusville, Pennsylvania

• First commercial oil well in US

• We have been using fossil fuels since this date

Problem 1Fossil Fuel is running out

• Becoming unaffordable to buy gasoline or diesel fuel

• Oil shock: a sudden and sharp price increase in oil followed by a decrease in availability

OPEC

• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

• Mostly Middle Eastern countries

• Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

• Control the price of oil barrels

OPEC Flag

1970US Oil Crisis

• OPEC increased the world price of oil from $10/barrel to $56/barrel

• Chaos and panic

• Long lines at gas stations

• Rationing of gas

• Gas stations abandoned during the fuel crisis in the winter of 1973-74 were sometimes used for other purposes.

• This station at Potlatch, Washington, west of Olympia was turned into a religious meeting hall.

US response in 1970

• Drilling for oil in Alaska and other locations

• US was competing with OPEC

• The price of oil dropped again

• Oil fields in the US are close to depletion

• No more cheap oil left

Peak Oil

• Peak oil

• The point when we have consumed more than half of the available, affordable oil in existence

• Once we reach the peak, we can only go down

• Less oil can be extracted, raises the value/price

How much oil is left?

• Worldwide rate of oil consumption = • 24 billion barrels/year• At this rate, the oil will be extracted by 2040• But, we have to remember, populations increase

so• This rate increases by 2% each year• At some point, between 2010 and 2025, fossil

fuel will be available but too expensive for the average person

Natural Gas

• CNG or compressed natural gas• Not renewable and will be depleted in 2040• World wide rate is 70 trillion cubic feet/year• Increases by 3.5% each year• Power companies in the US are using CNG to

produce electricity• Some people think this is the answer to the oil

crisis but it’s supply is also limited

Renewable Natural Gas

• Natural gas burns clean

• Can be produced from landfills and sewage waste

• Methane is produced from waste, this is NG

• This NG can be recycled to produce electricity on the grid

2010Oil Shock

• US Department of Energy estimates that 62% of US oil will be imported

• That means we will be dependent on the Middle East for oil

• Unless we change our energy use, we will have to pay a high price in both human life and in dollars

Problem 2Fossil fuels shrink our economy

• US land is depleted of fossil fuels, to get them….

• We are sending our money overseas to buy fuel

• We also send military troops, jobs, and infrastructure overseas

Locations where oil still exits

Getting the fuel

• Fill tanker ships with diesel fuel and send them to the Persian Gulf

• When ships dock, they need to be guarded and defended by military troops paid for by US taxes

• Tankers fuel up and load up barrels of oil

• Sail back to US

US Economy

• Undermined

• We are sending money and resources away to other economies and not receiving the value of that money in goods and/or services

• Our government uses your tax dollars to pay for most of the oil, so you don’t have to pay for it at the pump

                                                                     

Subsidies to the Fossil Fuel Industry from U.S. Government, courtesy of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Tax dollars$5 billion/year

• Why use taxes?• It keeps the price of fuel deceivingly low• Allows oil companies to work from a huge base

of government funding and support, rather than have to rely on the average consumer

• Evenly distributes the fuel costs to taxpayers• Everybody pays an equal amount, no matter

how much fuel an individual uses

True Cost

• global warming

• habitat destruction

• political conflicts over oil supplies.

Petroleum Economy

• Extends its often hidden reach into many other aspects of life on our planet.

• Petroleum, used for transportation, industry, and mechanized agriculture, is the backbone of globalization. Institutions of global trade, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), work hand in hand with oil companies, while militaries provide the armed backup to protect these interests.

Defending Fossil FuelsWAR

• Deplete resources from our own economy to ensure we have a healthy flow of energy from overseas

• Persian Gulf War cost $70 billion US tax dollars & 100,000 Iraqi and US lives

• US military forces are still there

• Costs $50, 000 billion to maintain a military presence

How much did the Gulf War cost the US??

• The US Department of Defense estimated the incremental cost at $61 billion.

Report: Iraq war costs could top $2 trillion

• A new study by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, and Bilmes concludes that the total costs Harvard lecturer Linda of the Iraq war could top the $2 trillion mark.

• Reuters reports this total, which is far above the US administration's prewar projections, takes into account the long term healthcare costs for the 16,000 US soldiers injured in Iraq so far.

National Debt

• Debt is increasing (like a credit card)

• We have secured our oil supplies

• But, other areas now suffer; education, health car, social services

• Is fossil fuel more important than human life?

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 20 Sep 2007 at 05:03:16 PM GMT

• The estimated population of the United States is 303,037,628so each citizen's share of this debt is $29,740.67.

• The National Debt has continued to increase an average of$1.42 billion per day since September 29, 2006!

Problem 3Global Warming

• The average worldwide temperature is increasing

• Due to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

• Burning fossil fuels for energy releases carbon dioxide into the air

Ice Caps Melting

Carbon Cycle

• Anything that is alive or was once alive is made of carbon and hydrogen

• These elements are balanced by moving from the atmosphere, to the ground, then to water (oceans or lakes)

• In the atmosphere, carbon is attached to some oxygen in a gas called carbon dioxide.

• Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make their own food and grow.

• The carbon becomes part of the plant. Plants that die and are buried may turn into fossil fuels made of carbon like coal and oil over millions of years.

• When humans burn fossil fuels, most of the carbon quickly enters the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

• Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere.

• Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world.

Carbon Dioxide

• Plants breathe in carbon dioxide (we breathe in oxygen)

• Plants breathe out oxygen (we breathe our carbon dioxide)

• Carbon from the dinosaur age was stored in plants under the ground and is now coal and petroleum

• Carbons stored millions of years ago is released by internal combustion engines

Hydrocarbons

• Oil and coal

• Made of hydrogen and carbon

• Form chains

• Measured by the number of carbons on a chain

Greenhouse Effect

• Ability of the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere to keep the planet warm

• We have amplified the green house effect by emitting billions of tons of carbon dioxide

• Green house gases let heat in, but do not let heat out

Facts

• For every gallon of gasoline that a car burn, 22 lbs of carbon dioxide is emitted

• Carbon dioxide levels are increasing, while oxygen is decreasing

• It is getting hotter on planet Earth

• The hottest years in history were between 1980 – 1999

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Greenhouse_Gas_by_Sector.png

Summary

• Burning fossil fuels contributes to higher levels of carbon dioxide and other gases in the Earth’s atmosphere

• To stop the increase of these gases,, we must first stop burning fossil fuels

                                                                                                         

Cars also contribute to CO2 in the atmosphere.www.abcnews.com/sections/us/global106/index.html