To Dam, or Not To Dam Essay -- Marc Reisner Ecology Environmental Essa

To Dam, or Not To Dam â€Å"The River, slightly milky from glacial sediment, tumbles down rocky chutes, boils through tight canyons, and glides across beds of agatelike stones. In the distance, poking through storm clouds, are plunging slopes dense with virgin hemlock and fir†¦Intruding into this primeval scene are two decrepit dams† (Reisner, 382). In this essay by Marc Reisner, his standpoint on the issue of dams is very well seen. Reisner talks of the ecological damages that dams create. The debate over dams has been heated in recent years, their harmful effects and overall abundance is the topic for such debates. But are dams as bad as everyone says they are, do dams do more harm than good, or more good than harm? Emphasis should be placed on comparing the ecological effects verses the economical benefits. There are many pros and cons for the ecological side of this debate. One pro is that dams help areas that would otherwise be waterless and barren support life. Taken from a pamphlet prepared by the Committee on Public Awareness and Education, â€Å"Water is the vital resource to support all forms of life on earth. Unfortunately, it is not evenly distributed over the world by season or location. Some parts of the world are prone to drought making water a scarce and precious commodity, while in other parts of the world it appears in raging torrents causing floods and loss of life and property. Throughout the history of the world, dams and reservoirs have been successfully in collecting, storing and managing water needed to sustain civilization† (CPAE, 1). This is a major benefit to the ecology of the world, as the quote stated water is the basis of life, the human body depends on water for survival. Although ther... ...to benefit the United States. Even those who oppose dams benefit from them in one way or another, destroying them would give our nation’s economic system a detrimental blow. Finally for the solution for this dilemma, I don’t believe there is an general solution. Each dam should be looked at individually, if the costs outweigh the benefits, then it should be destroyed, and vice versa. The issue of dams will not be easily solved. Ever since the first dam was built there has been controversy, and as long as one stands so will the debate. References McKibben, Bill. Daybreak. In A Forest of Voices: Conversations in Ecology – 2nd Edition (pp. 156-169). Mayfield Publishing Company. Committee on Public Awareness and Education. (1997, May). Benefits and Concerns About Dams – an Argumentaire. Retrieved March 3, 2003, from http://www.icold-cigb.org/BandC.PDF

How Beneficial an Online Education Can Be for You

An online education is a wonderful opportunity. You have the flexibility of taking a course on your own time. The flexibility of an online education allows you to be able to attend classes no matter your work schedule, or home schedule. Anywhere you have access to the Internet you can take classes. With recent computer mobility in the form of netbooks and the iPad, the opportunity to receive an education is endless.Learning online enables you to become Internet and computer savvy, two skills that are necessity in the ever-changing world of technology. You have access to course material round the clock. In a virtual classroom setting, you are able to go over lectures, lessons and other dicussions multiple times. You can learn at your own pace and do not have to worry about missing a class because of illness or other personal reasons.Participating in an online lesson discussion is not as daunting as in a regular classroom setting. Students remain pretty much anonymous are not judged by age, race or gender. Many people feel intimidated to participate in a regular classroom for fear of being judged or not having time to catch up to what is being taught. On the Internet, students have a chance to give thought to a question before answering and submitting their comments. The virtual classroom makes it easier for students to approach their instructor.They feel it is easier to speak with their instructor through online chats and email; this form of communication boosts student and instructor interaction. Everybody wins in this type of environment. Students that need flexibility because they have to work or have to care for children or other members of their family, the opportunity to earn a degree virtually is invaluable. With all the benefits of an online education, it is no wonder there is an ever-increasing number of students are turning towards an education online.

Efficient Wireless Power Transfer Through Magnetic...

Imagine a situation where no electrical device has to be plugged into a wall. In this case, a laptop or cell phone can charge itself easily and seamlessly just by being placing inside a room. This is the ability of many experimental wireless power devices that will be adapted to domestic use in the future. Today, the prevailing methods of energy transfer are wires and batteries. Wired connections are perhaps the most common. With this energy transfer method, energy is delivered from a power plant to a home. In the case of batteries, energy is stored as chemical energy in the battery cell. Once it is needed, the chemical energy can be released as electrical energy. However, both these methods have flaws. Both suffer from mild inefficiency†¦show more content†¦This process eliminates the use of wires between the transmitter and receiver therefore making it wireless. For example, solar power is essentially radiative wireless energy transfer. The sun is the transmitter, the phot ovoltaic solar cell is the receiver, and the sunlight is a high frequency electromagnetic wave (Little et al.). The process can be adapted for everyday use if electricity is transformed into light by a light source and then absorbed by a photocell that transforms the light back into electricity. However, due to issues with efficiency, this application will never be practical unless a more efficient solar cell is developed. Of course, the efficiency can be increased if a focused beam of light is used instead, but this still lags far behind compared to the efficiency of a standard wired connection. For home use, this method is impractical, but in other fields, its advantages outweigh its disadvantages. Radiative energy transfer has many advantages and disadvantages. A distinct disadvantage that makes this method impractical for home use is that the transfer can affect other objects and requires that no object blocks the space between the receiver and transmitter (Kurs et al.). With this in mind, there are a number of things to be concerned about. First, it requires that no object blocks the line of sight between the receiver and the transmitter. Second, efficiency isShow MoreRelatedThe Effect Of Electricity On Our Lives1679 Words   |  7 Pagescurrent can create a magnetic field [3]. The combination of magnetic fields and electrical currents creates extremely fast waves of energy called electromagnetic radiation that can be seen in such forms as light, radio waves, x-rays, and gamma rays [3]. At the United States Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, a high-performance magnet alloy has been designed that can operate with good magnetic strength and actually helps make ele ctric drive motors be more cost effective and efficient [4]. 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