Sean Sieurac

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.