SF Ocean Beach preservation plan to be shored up

This article was published on Friday March 4th, 2011 by Kelly Zito.

This picture shown to the right is an Erosion of Seaview Beach in New York. The repeated crashing of waves, throughout the year has caused erosion of the shoreline.

Summary:

Basically the article I read was about the erosion of beaches in San Francisco. The erosion of the beaches have caused roads by them to close down and are now being forced to try and preserve the beaches. The problem with this is that the East Coast doesn't have as much machinery to nourish or taking sand dredge from the Golden Gate shipping channel and then to dump it on the beaches. The erosion of these beaches is also forcing San Francisco to move their water utility inward because it pumps water and waste water plants at the beaches and drains and treats 150 million of gallons of water from the city's neighborhoods on a wet day. To move this, it would cost billions!

Opinion :

In my opinion, I feel as though as humans would could have saw the erosion of beaches happening years ago. If we saw this coming, then how come we didn't do anything to prevent it. I mean I understand where San Francisco is coming from with the East Coast having more knowledge and machinery to fix the beaches, but why haven't we come up with a plan to save the beaches. If we don't then eventually, they're all going to erode away and destroy cities and towns and roadways nearby.

Questions :

1. Why has it taken us so long to finally realize how the weather effects us now, rather than to take a jump start on the problem and find better solutions to fix it or work around it?

2. Are they also fixing beaches that most people don't use? What is the point of trying to improve something that no one has any interest in visiting to, it's just a waste of money in my opinion.

3. Where do the people who work for the companies that fix the beaches and the water in San Francisco get all this money from the fix them? To move their water utility inward is a lot of money and on top of that the machinery to fix the beaches must be a boat load to. Is there something these people are not telling us?

Site of Article : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/03/04/MNGM1I1O92.DTL

Solar Still Makes Water Purification Easy

Pictured: The Eliodomestico, a simple invention for purifying water

Solar Still Makes Water Purification Easy, Works Like an Upside-down Coffee Maker
by, Alex Davies, treehugger.com, written on 10/26/11
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/10/eliodomestico-solar-house-still.php?campaign=th_rss

Summary of Article:
Availability and purity of water is an important issue all around the world. In third-world countries, finding clean water for drinking is a daily struggle. According to the article, half of humanity will be threatened by water shortage by 2030. Fortunately, people like Gabriele Diamanti are coming up with creative solutions. Diamanti invented a portable, inexpensive water purifier that doesn't require electricity. It's called the Eliodomestico and it works by using a special top that attracts maximum sunlight all day, purifying up to 5 liters of water a day. Gabriele also put his invention under a Creative Commons license allowing anyone to create and share one freely and legally.

Opinion/Reflection:
I think this purifier is an incredible invention. It seems to have no downsides; it's cheap, portable, effective, and available for anybody. I can relate to this article because of what we have been learning in class about water availability. While there is much water in the water, only a tiny portion is freshwater, and only a tiny portion of that is drinkable. Water availability in Africa and other poor areas of the world is a big issue, and I think this invention can do a lot to help.

Questions:
1. How can this invention be distributed in mass to Third World Countries?
2. What else can be done to help the water availability crisis?
3. What are some downsides to this invention?
4. Why isn't water availability a more discussed issue?

Celebrating River Conservation with Gorgeous Photos
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 10.21.11
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/10/national-geographic-boundless-rivers-highlights-conservation-efforts-brothers-john-and-frank-craighead.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29&utm_content=Google+Reader



Picture: This picture shows the Allagash River. It is protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Summary:
You hear about pollution all the time, yet you never really hear about how it is being solved. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act preserves certain rivers with outsanding natural and recreational values. It was signed into law in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson. The act protects over 200 rivers. The rivers are in 39 states and in Puerto Rico. The act does allow for new rivers to be added. Even though 200 rivers seem like a lot of rivers to be protected, that is only 0.35% of all the US rivers.

Opinion/ Reflection:
There is not a big river in Hatboro that is protected. However, there is a creek in Hatboro that is used as a dumping ground. I believe that if the main rivers are anywhere near as bad as this it is an amazing thing to have a conservation act to protect rivers. We've seen how the watere cycle effects life and how much water we need to survive so I believe we should protect as much water as we can.

Questions:
1.) What else can we do to preserve rivers?
2.) What would be the effect on the environment if all the rivers were protected?
3.) If we do protect all the rivers, could it endanger any wildlife?
4.) If there is a way to protect more rivers, would it involve volunteers being forced to spend their time there or everyone to pay more money?