Sean Sieurac

10/27 For the past few days I have been watching several videos on youtube about micro wind, and wind power in general. I have looked into the benefits, the negatives and problems with it, as well as some locations that would make perfect places for wind energy generation. The main problem is that wind power is great for small scale operations, but for large scale it is tough with the amount of power needed to be generated. Large wind farms also cause harm to birds as they migrate, so there is a need for research into lacement of wind farms and migratory patterns of birds. Ireland is a great place for wind generation! This makes sense because it is a small place, relative to the rest of Europe or America, so not much power is needed. Also, Ireland is a very windy place and generally has storms that have the potential to both create large amounts of power for the island, but could also destroy some of the wind towers. Another place with potential for wind power is the middle of the US, where there is currently a lot of agriculture. This makes me think if we could one day reduce the amount of and used for agriculture and cattle grazing and turn those into wind energy farms, as long as they do not mess with the migration patterns of birds.

I watched several videos on youtube, going over wave and tidal energy and the whole system workings of it all. There are many types of wave turbines and different designs, all competing to be the main design that we will use in the future, however there is debate over how much energy can actually be generated, with the amount of turbines that we would need to build and place in the ocean. Also, there are problems concerning disturbing fish habitats and populations as well as other species. Other concerns are that barnacles and other similar organisms could build on the turbines and destroy them, slowly breaking the technology as they build onto it like an artificial reef. How It Works: The waves turn or push back and forth (depending on the design) a sort of turbine that is connected to a generator which produces energy and is sent elsewhere, sadly sharks sometimes bite the cables that ar sending electricity. Overall wave and tidal energy is an amazing idea because of its renewability, the ocean and waves will be here forever and are easy to access, but there are many improvements to be made and more research to be done. For now, wave power is not quite efficient enough to power the needs that are require in the majority of areas. Taking into account that high tide and low tide are not always at the same time, and they do not always match times with big energy usage times of the day, (where everyone is doing laundry or watching tv, or working at the office for example) it again shows certain problems that can arise within wave and tidal energy, but perhaps those could be further explored. These ideas are definitely an interest of mine that I would like to possibly look deeper into in the coming future.

10/17 - Learning about geothermal energy is interesting to me because sustainable energy is something that I am interested in as a potential job field, and for a job. Geothermal energy is energy that is extracted from the earth's crust - it comes from the beginning formation of our planet, and decay which is pressurized under the earth's surface. We have been using geothermal energy for electricity and heating for many, many years, but we need to use more geothermal energy sources to create the future that we want. Since the Paleolithic era, we have been using geothermal energy for heating. Geothermal meaning from earth and heat/pressure, because this energy comes from steam and high-pressure hot water which are located in our planet's crust. Sort of like fracking, pressurized liquids are shot into permeable cracks absorbing the heat from rocks in the earth's crust and carrying it up to the surface through pressurized wells. The whole process is pretty amazing, and is considered sustainable because the heat that is extracted from the crust is so small in comparison to the total heat available that we can extract.

Biomass and biofuel include composting and the green waste that we produce being recycled into more useful materials. For now, the majority of biomass is going towards animal feed, however there are newly formed plastics being made from beet biomass. The problem is still that the stronger and more recyclable plastics are more expensive to make than the thin, cheap plastics which are hard to recycle. There is research into plants absorbing carbon from the air, and storing it in the soil through their roots, but this is still small scale. In the future, with time these ideas and practices should become cheaper and more efficient, and more people will buy into it. More people need to compost!

Today, 10/10 I went on a nature walk in the forest near campus. I saw a protected area where they are growing native plants and flowers, and I saw many nice flowers along the path as I was walking. I tried to practice mindfulness and breathe deeply and consistently as well as looking at all the nature that I could, and appreciating the differences between plants. There were many signs of animals and I believe I found an area where coyotes frequently pass through which was both amazing and frightening to think of if I came on this walk alone at night. Finally I cam to a tree that I couldn't resist but climb, and climb I did, all the way to the top! When I got to the top of the tree, I took some pictures and took some time to appreciate the view, but then realized I got tree sap in my hair! I hastily walked home and took a shower then went to my next class, happy for the whole experience.