Annotated Bibliography "Hydroelectricity is Coming to Life"

In Paul Davidson's article, of USA Today, showed that hydroelectric power is coming to life. People know that coal and natural gas are the major sources of electricity, but the government is arguing that it is now becoming expensive. At first, hydroelectricity is just a backup source of energy, but now they are thinking to have the hydro power to become a source of energy also. Experts agreed that hydro power is a great source of energy, "it's domestic, it's affordable, it's reliable," (Davidson, 2008). Government believes that they are getting clean and good from the hydroelectricity. Out of 80,000 dams in United States, only 2,400 dams have hydro plants, (Davidson, 2008). Instead of building dams, which are going to be expensive and will take a lot of time, they have decided to put generators in dams. Experts said that it would be a great time to consume money for the people that are using this source of energy. Government said that this project of putting generators in dams will be done by 2014.

Paul, D. (2008). Water Power Gets New Spark. USA Today. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

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Response to Wendell Berry's essay "The Use of Energy"

The "Use of Energy" by Wendell Berry is describing two types of energy: the mechanical energy and the biological energy. He said that energy is cyclical, which is the best energy, and if trapped it will last a long time. In mechanical energy, there is a production and consumption, but people cannot reuse it again. It will only produce waste, while in biological energy there is a production, consumption, and then recycling of the energy to reuse it again. He talks about the people that always take a simple way out like mechanical energy, (Berry, 1986). People do not really think about how to reuse or recycle energy that are able to use it again, like biological energy. He said that people who mastered technology were the people who do not use energy that much, because they only use their hands as main tools. He also referred to the hydroelectric dams as storage power, which is true. Experts used dams to store water for the operation of hydroelectricity.

Berry, W. (1986). The Use of Energy: In the Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. San Francisco: The Sierra Club Books.

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Annotated Bibliographic "Is Hydroelectricity Green?"

Vincent Childress wrote an article about hydroelectricity. A hydroelectric dam is constructed with non-organic soil and rocks. The water goes to the passageway, which is located inside the dam. Then the water will go through the dam to the scroll case, which makes water flow around the turbine. The water will turn the turbine that is connected to the generator, and it will produce a magnetic field that produces electricity. He asked a question, "Is Hydroelectricity Green," (Childress, 2008). It made me think that hydroelectricity is good for our environment. He discussed that hydroelectricity is green because it does not produce any pollution. He said that hydroelectricity does not produce any air pollution unlike other sources of energy. Coal and nuclear are major source of energy that are used in the United States, but these sources of energy produce pollutions that are not good for our environment. Air pollutions that are produced by coal can cause people to have lung cancer, asthma, and other diseases. Government must think of the side effects that can happen when they are using energy sources. A hydroelectric dam is also built to prevent floods in some communities that are located downstream. Although hydroelectricity does not produce any pollution, it also has some disadvantages that experts are worrying about. Experts say that huge dams are more unstable that the small dams. Experts are afraid that large dams might be vulnerable to earthquakes, (Childress, 2008). Some communities started to experience flooding due to some spill from the dam. Some issues were resolved by the government. After the dam was built, some fish are unable to swim up to the streams to lay their eggs. The operational dams made use of stairs channels around the dam, so fish could lay their eggs upstream. There is also a problem about hydroelectricity producing electricity. Because of the limited water, the hydroelectricity was unable to produce 100 percent of electricity at a time. People cannot depend on the hydroelectricity because it will not operate with low water, and conductors, who operate the generators, cannot predict the rainfall level. Basically, Childress is saying that hydroelectricity is good for our environment, but there is no energy source that does not have negative side effects from it.

Childress, V. (2008). Energy Perspective: Is Hydroelectricity Green? (Cover Story). Technology Teacher, 68(4), 4-9. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

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Response to a friend's blog "Go Green"

This blog that I am linking to is very interesting. This blog's topic is about recycling energy. It shows many ways how to conserve energy, and she showed about the solar panel homes. It is really interesting that it can be effective to save energy and money by having solar panel homes. It would be great to have a solar panel home, not only to save money but to save energy as well. She also talked about unsafe water that people are drinking these days. It is really surprising too that many people are dying from water, "Every fifteen seconds, children die from water disease related," (Xiong, 2010). She showed a man drinking dirty water; it made me think that there is no safe water around the world. This blog is really interesting, to check out her blog just click THIS.

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Chart who uses Hyfroelectricity power

In the first chart, it shows the states in the United States of America that use hydroelectricity the most, while in the second chart it shows the countries that uses hydroelectricity the most. Based on the U. S Geological Survey, the lowest percent in the graph are the states and countries that produce hydroelectricity the least. Some countries and states do not produce hydroelectricity that much because the need of large amounts of water to keep the energy flowing continuously, and the need of a lot of money to build dams and reservoirs. It is not easy to build a dam; you need a lot of people and great engineers to build a stable dam to hold enormous amounts of water. In the second chart, China is the leading country that uses hydroelectric power because "China has developed large hydroelectric facilities," (U. S. Geological Survey, 2010), while other countries use their large rivers as a resource for their hydroelectricity power.

U. S. Geological Survey. (2010, March 03). Hydroelectric Power Water Use. Retrieved April 5, 2010, from USGS: http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wuhy.html

Response to "Where I Lived, What I Lived for" by Henry David Thoreau

This essay, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived for" by Henry David Thoreau is about how he wanted to live a simple life. He went to the woods to find out what life is about. He wanted to do things that are very useful in living, "I wish to practice resignation, unless it is quite neccessary," (Thoreau, 2007). Thoreau wanted to give up many things unless it is essential for him to live in this world. I can somehow see the connection of Thoreau's essay to my blog's topic. He wanted to reduce his works to its proportion to save some energy. he did not want to waste any of his energy; therefore he did not want to use up a lot of things that involves electricity. Unlike in our generation, most people multi-task almost every day, instead of working one thing at a time, they are doing many things at the same time. Working many things at the same time can waste a lot of energy and electricity, which Thoreau was trying to point out in his essay. He wanted for himself and for other people to live simple and try to do one thing at a time, which can help us and to conserve electricity.

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Thoreau, Henry D. (2007). Where I Lived, What I Lived for. In S. Cohen, 50 Essays (pp. 424- 430). Boston: Bedford St. Martin's.

BP results

The result of my energy usage from the BP energy calculator is 43594 kWh/yr, and 14.2 tonnes of CO2/yr, which according to the BP, it is lower than the average usage in United States (23.6 tonnes CO2/yr). I was not surprise when I found out the result because in our household we have three vehicles that we use every day. According to the BP, one gallon of gasoline is approximately 35 kWh of energy. If I am using almost 15 gallons of gasoline per week, then I will use almost 28000 kWh of energy per year. Meaning that half of my result from the BP energy calculation is from the usage of gasoline. I would like to lessen the usage of the gasoline, but it would be hard for me because I always use my vehicle for every day work. One thing that I could think to lessen my usage if gasoline is to use the gas saver tool. My boyfriend's truck has a gas saver, and it is really efficient for him to have the gas saver in his vehicle. It really saved him some gas and money. I will ask my boyfriend to install a gas saver in my vehicle, so I can lessen my usage of gasoline, and it can also help me to save some money. You should try and find out how much energy you use up in a year.
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