Environmental impacts Essay Example for Free

Environmental impacts Essay Environmental impacts of fuel utilization include critical issues such as resource and pollutant issues. The analysis on quantifying the extent should include greenhouse gas emissions and its effect to the environment. Worldwide, the demand for biofuels has been increasing dramatically. With the fast depleting fossil fuels, current initiatives to attain energy sufficiency and sustainability is being pursued with biofuels as one of the alternatives, Moreover, the utilization of alternative fuels is being proposed to address current environmental issues on global warming. Studies on biofuels, specifically bioethanol and biodiesel showed promising results in reducing GHG emissions and in turn create a positive impact on the environment. Given the increasing demand for biofuels, benefits brought about by its utilization is expected to be significant specifically on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. While there are issues on land use and energy balance for biofuels, extensive research should be conducted in order to identify the most viable biofuel feedstock as well as other aspects in its production and utilization. Introduction Biofuel refers to fuels made from biomass and primarily used for motive, thermal and power generation. The earliest experiences in combustion were with the utilization of solid biofuels for domestic needs. Later, liquid biofuels became equally valuable energy resources. Years before the discovery of petroleum, ethanol was already being used as lamp fuel. By 1860, distilleries in the United States of America produced at least 90 million gallons of alcohol per year for lighting. Vegetable oils were also found to be good home heating oils and engine fuels for stationary power systems. Rudolf Diesel has originally invented the diesel engine to run on vegetable oil specifically from peanut. Samuel Morey developed an engine that ran on ethanol and turpentine as early as 1826. Nikolaus Otto, the German inventor who is best known for his development of a modern internal combustion engine, used ethanol as the fuel in one of his engines in the year 1860. Henry Ford’s first automobile was fuelled by pure ethanol. He also fabricated the first flexible fuel vehicle (Model T in 1903) which is fuelled by either gasoline or ethanol or by a mixture of both. Cars and other vehicles, however, begun running on cheap crude oil or petroleum as soon as reserves were discovered in the United States of America. Nevertheless, biofuels remained important energy resources competing with imported oil in countries such as Germany and Great Britain up to the close of World War II. Biodiesel Biodiesel, classified as a renewable and biodegradable diesel fuel which is produced thru extraction of natural fats and oils. It can substantially reduce green house gas emission due to its low sulfur content. It is now commonly used in various parts of the world. Biodiesel can replace petroleum diesel in both the transport and non-transport applications. A shift in the utilization of alternative energy resources (including alternative fuels) will change the total demand for biodiesel as well as the level of utilization in specific applications. Bioethanol â€Å"Bioethanol is a high-octane, water-free alcohol produced from the fermentation of sugar or other converted biomass. In its purest form it is a colorless clear liquid with mild characteristic odor that boils at 78oC and freezes at 112oC† (www. doe. gov. ph). Ethanol burns more cleanly because it contains oxygen and has a high octane number, hence less carbon monoxide emissions and averts premature detonation. It burns slightly cooler, extending engine life, and promotes higher volumetric efficiency of the engine, thus, increases power. Adding ethanol to gasoline â€Å"oxygenates† the fuel so that it burns with less emissions. Most modern gasoline vehicles could operate on pure ethanol with a few basic engine modifications. â€Å"A 10% blend requires no engine modification while making a contribution to reducing emissions. Anything more than 10% requires engine modification† (www. doe. gov. ph). The other commercial blends are E15 (U. S. A. ), E20 (Brazil), E85 (Sweden and Minnesota), and E100 (used with 4% water in Brazil and Argentina). Fuel ethanol is primarily used for land transport as alternative to gasoline in spark-ignition engines. Other Biofuels The potentials of other alcohols such as methanol, propanol and butanol can be exhaustively explored for very specific future applications that can further increase the total amount of biofuel substitute to conventional fossil and fossil derived fuels. Methanol produced from biomass is not economically competitive at present. There is, however, an interesting possibility as alternative to hydrogen as fuel. Propanol and butanol can be produced by the action of microorganisms and enzymes. Butanol, particularly, is produced by fermentation in a process that can be modified for high net enegy gains. It has sufficiently similar characteristics with gasoline fuel such that there is high probability that it can be burned pure in existing commercial engines without modification and without any difficulty. There are other important biofuels such as biogas, charcoal, producer gas, etc. They can be processed and utilized in accordance with the provisions of existing laws, rules, regulations and standards. Studies are conducted in order that these important biofuels can be integrated into the biofuels program in a package for both energy and socio-economic objectives. Other First Generation Biofuels The most common First Generation Biofuel is biogas which is a product of anaerobic digestion of organic materials an example of which is methane from wastes. Both the gas and digestate can be used as fuel. The utilization is usually site specific because of the environmental implications of production. A number of big commercial farms are producing and using biogas from wastes for process heating and the generation of supplementary power. Another first generation biofuel is Charcoal which is the product of the carbonization of hydrocarbon materials including wastes. Producer gas is from the gasification of hydrocarbon feedstock. In the late seventies, this fuel was utilized as engine fuel. The gas was generated from small wood chips fed into a reactor mounted unto the vehicle. Second-generation Biofuels â€Å"Second generation biofuels are those from lignocellulosic biomass feedstock using advanced technical processes. Being currently developed are: BioHydrogen, Bio- dimethylether (Bio-DME), Biomethanol, dimethylfuran (DMF), High Temperature Upgrading (HTU) diesel, Fischer-Tropsch diesel, Mixed Alcohols† (http://www. export. gov). Biofuels, A Preferred Energy Source The earliest experiences in combustion were with the utilization of solid biofuels for domestic needs. Later, liquid biofuels became equally valuable energy resources. In the aftermath of the war, abundance of cheap crude oil from the Middle East brought about the reduced interest in biofuels. The oil crises of 1973 and 1979, however, brought about urgent need for extenders and substitutes, temporarily focusing attention on the indigenous and renewable biofuels. In view of the rising prices (Figure 1) as well as the uncertainty of supply of crude oil and the increasing greenhouse gas emissions, it is time for a major shift in the energy mix towards the use of cleaner indigenous renewable energy in the interest of energy security, the economy and the environment. The start of the present decade ushered in the realization that the era of cheap fossil fuels, particularly petroleum, is drawing to a close. Figure 2 shows the historical and projected petroleum contribution to the world energy mix. The rising oil prices shall persist not only because of depletion of reserves but also because of the continuing political instability in the Middle East. Developing countries shall soon find it difficult to compete for access. There is also the matter of worsening green house gas emissions from excessive burning of fossil fuels. Continuing dependence on crude oil, therefore, is disadvantageous in terms of national security, the economy and the environment. Figure 3 shows the projected greenhouse gases emissions from developed and developing countries based on historical human and natural emissions. In view of the rising prices as well as the uncertainty of supply of crude oil and the increasing greenhouse gas emissions, it is time for a major shift in the energy mix towards the use of cleaner indigenous renewable energy in the interest of energy security, the economy and the environment.

media research :: essays research papers

Running Head: Discovering the World of Journals in Media Research Abstract This assignment consists of 4 journals, two of which were scholarly and the rest were trade journals. The objective of this assignment was to familiarize us on how to obtain and record data from different journals. This assignment will teach the class how to be efficient researchers in different media fields. Media Research assignment 3 Running Head: Discovering the World of Journals in Media Research Discovering the World of Journals in Media Research Class Since my related field is television production, I decided to use Broadcasting and Cable as my first scholarly journal. This journal is published by Reed Business Information (formerly Cahners Business Information) and is a leading provider of critical information and marketing solutions to business professionals in targeted industry sectors. Broadcasting and Cable is a great scholarly journal for anyone who works for a cable company on or off the production set of the business. The journal informs readers on the latest technology such as Cameras, tape decks, lighting and televisions. The journal also informs us on current events in the broadcasting industry, for example the journal reviews how many satellite companies made money last year. I chose to summarize an article called â€Å"News Corp.’s Carey moves on.† News Corp.’s Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey resigned because of a deal that went bad with Direct TV. News Corp was trying to make a deal with Direct TV in order to build a worldwide satellite distribution company. If the deal went through for News Corp, it would have made them one of the most powerful entertainment industries in the world. Unfortunately someone else beat Chase Carey to the punch in buying Direct TV. Chase feels handing in his resignation will prevent News Corp from blaming him for the unsuccessful deal. Media Research assignment 4 Running Head: Discovering the World of Journals in Media Research The last scholarly journal I decided to use was Educational Technology. This journal is published by FNO (For Now On) Press, which makes a philosophical commitment to engaged learning, problem-based learning and Information Literacy. I chose this particular journal because my girlfriend is studying to be a teacher and I wanted to learn some statistics about her field. The term Educational Technology refers to science-based knowledge. Its concerned about hardware and software systems that can help students learn in many different ways. Readers of this journal include anyone who interested in teaching children by using mechanical devices such as computers and video recorders rather then by using strictly lecture.

Literary analysis of “A Good Man is Hard To Find” Essay

In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner, the reader is taken on a journey and tags along with a self-centered family as they explore the sights of the rural south while en route to their destination, a family vacation in Florida. As they travel the dusty road, O’Connor (2012) takes them from heaven, â€Å"all at once, they would be on a hill, looking down over the blue tops of trees for miles around,† (p. 139) and spirals them down to hell â€Å"then the next minute, they would be in a red depression with the dust coated trees looking down on them,† (p. 139) where they meet their sudden and unexpected demise. Through it all, O’Connor spins a violent, dark and dismal tale, utilizing symbolism, allusions, irony and psychological aspects to effectively convey her theme of good versus evil, and reminds us that good does not always win. O’Connor (2012) starts us in an unnamed city, with a family of six as they discuss their upcoming vacation to Florida. The husband, Bailey, is succinct and short with his words. His wife and mother, both remain unnamed in the story but have quite contrasting personalities. Bailey’s mother, the grandmother, is self-centered and often manipulative. His wife, the children’s mother, is quiet and meek as she cares for her youngest child, the baby. His 2 older children, John Wesley and June Star, are outspoken and disrespectful, and their rude behavior goes unpunished. They travel the back roads of Georgia together as the grandmother tells tales of the past and points out uninteresting sights, which fall on the deaf ears of her family. The family stops for lunch at a roadside diner, and the reader gets a further glimpse into their everyday interaction, and for a moment, things actually seem hopeful for the dysfunctional family. After their meal, the family continues on to their destination, and the grandmother and children manipulate Baily into taking a detour to visit an old, mysterious estate that the grandmother once visited in her younger years. A sudden and  embarrassing thought of the grandmother leads to a car accident where miraculously, nobody sustains any serious injury. A moment of hope in rescue turns dismal as their rescuer turns out to an escaped killer, the Misfit, who eventually kills the family. The grandmother, who in more ways than one is responsible for the family’s untimely end, has a moment of grace in her last moment and dies with a smile on her face (p. 134-146). O’Connor’s story is filled with symbolism and allusion, in order to further convey her dark theme of death and ideas surrounding it. An example of such symbolism is when the family is passing the town of Toombsboro. O’Connor (2012) writes â€Å"outside of Toombsboro she woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady† (p. 138). The name of the town, Toombsboro plays on the word tomb, which represents death. This alludes to the reader that death may be in the family’s future. O’Connor continues with the symbolism after the family has crashed, and their hope for rescue comes in the form of a hearse. The family sees a car slowly driving towards them, lumbering along the twists and turns of the road they had just traveled. As it appears in front of them, O’Connor (2012) writes â€Å"it was a big black battered hearse-like automobile† (p.140). Again, the image of a hearse, which is used to transport the dead, brings the idea of death to the mind of the reader, and further alludes to the death that the family is about to encounter. O’Connor (2012) furthers her death allusions and symbolism when she writes â€Å"the Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and then covered it up again† (p. 142). The Misfit in this case, is digging a hole and then covering it back up, symbolizing the digging of a grave, and then filling the grave back in. O’Connor’s use of symbols of death advance her theme and add to the dark tone of the story. O’Connor also uses a number of psychological aspects to further relate her characters to her readers. As O’Connor starts the story, all members of the family appear in one way or another to be self-centered, which relates to the psychoanalysis term of the â€Å"Id,† which are the unconscious desires of the character and the gratification of those desires. In one passage, the grandmother speaks to the children of an old southern gentleman she once  knew, Mr. Teagarden. O’Connor (2012) writes â€Å"she would have done well to marry Mr. Teagarden because he†¦ had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he had died†¦ a very wealthy man† (p.137). This comment by the grandmother hints on her unconscious materialistic desires about money, and is even shameful enough to impart this negative personal quality onto her grandchildren. Moreover, this quality is seen in the children when O’Connor writes about June Star as she speaks about the roadside diner where they have stopped. June Star says â€Å"I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks† (O’Connor, 2012, p. 137). June Star is showing her materialistic desires when she states that she has no care to live in anything but luxury, even for a large sum of money. Further in the story, the children throw a tantrum, even resorting to violent tactics, in order to get their way and visit the old estate where hidden valuables are rumored to be stashed. O’Conner (2012) writes: â€Å"The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the house with the secret panel. John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mother’s shoulder and whined desperately into her ear†¦ The baby began to scream and John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney† (p.139). Again, O’Connor illustrates the Id of the children as they seek gratification of their desires, which is to get the hidden valuables. This shows the materialistic values that the young children hold. O’Connor’s use of psychoanalytic ideas helps further convey her theme and tone to the reader. O’Connor also employs a number of examples of irony in her story to better involve the reader. The grandmother states â€Å"I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscious if I did† (O’Connor, 2012, p. 134). This statement, while foreshadowing to a certain degree, turns ironic at the end of the story, as it is the grandmother that detours the family down the dirt road, where they ultimately come into contact with the Misfit, and are killed. It is also ironic in that the grandmother does have to answer to her conscious, and O’Connor (2012) describes the grandmother, after being shot by the Misfit, as having â€Å"her face smiling up at the cloudless sky† (p. 145), showing that the grandmother died at peace. Again, this is ironic in that the  grandmother was directly responsible for her children and grandchildren’s deaths, yet she died at peace with the world. O’Connor’s use of irony throughout the story is an excellent way to further her overall tone, and engage the reader deeper into the story. O’Connor’s story brings the reader into the realm of death by her use of symbolism, irony, and psychoanalysis. Her use of symbols and allusions of death, seeking gratification for personal desires, and the idea that the characters meet an ironic death, all build a solid base in which to convey her theme that living a good, pure and wholesome life may spare you from evil. The character’s may feel on top of the world as they travel down the dusty, winding road of life, but ultimately die, due to their selfish ways, in a reddened, deep ditch, at the edge of a dark woods. References O’Connor, F. (2012). A Good Man Is Hard to Find. In P. Schakel, & J. Ridl, Approaching literature: Reading, thinking, writing (3rd ed., pp. 134-146). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Definition and Examples of Sentence Negation in English

In  English Grammar,  sentence negation  is a type of  negation  that affects the meaning of an entire  clause.  Also known as  sentential negation, clausal negation,  and  nexal negation. (In contrast, a negation that affects the meaning of just a single word or phrase is called  constituent negation—also known as  special negation  and  subclausal negation.) Sentence negation is commonly indicated in English by the  negative particle  not  (or its reduced form,  -nt). In  colloquial English, sentence negation may be indicated by phrases such as  like hell  and  no way. Examples and Observations Two Types of Sentence NegationIt is usual to distinguish between two types of non-affixal  sentence negation  in English: firstly, negation with  not  or  -nt; and secondly, negation with the negative words  never, neither, nobody, no, none, nor, nothing  and  nowhere. Tottie (1991), for example, terms the first type Not-negation and the second type No-negation. Quirk et al. (1985: 782) give a list of the negative words together with their corresponding non-assertive forms, pointing out that there are two negative equivalents for a positive sentence containing an assertive form: thus  Weve had some lunch   has the two negative forms  We havent had any lunch  and  Weve had no lunch  (Quirk et al. 1985: 782). In the same way, these authors tell us,  He sometimes visits us  has the two negative forms  He doesnt ever visit us  and  He never visits us.(Jenny Cheshire, English Negation From an Interactional Perspective.  Negation in the History of En glish, ed. by Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade, Gunnel Tottie, and Wim van der Wurff. Walter de Gruyter, 1998) I did  not  cry or yell or  lie down on the pine floorboards and kick my feet.(Sarah Tomlinson,  Good Girl: A Memoir. Gallery Books, 2015)Its  not  the case that  I cant hold my own; I can.(Morris Philipson,  Secret Understandings.  Simon Schuster, 1983)I dont  think anybody is  in a position to give answers to social problems, definite, final answers.(Satyajit Ray in  Satyajit Ray: Interviews, ed. by  Bert Cardullo. University Press of Mississippi, 2007) Arson  isnt  difficult  to prove, but it can be very difficult to prove who committed it.I see whats going to happen. You only want to go to her. You want to get your share, after all. Youll leave me without a pang.Mrs Magaw stared. But wont  you be going too? When Mrs Taker sends for you?(Henry James,  Ã¢â‚¬ Fordham Castle, 1909)  My parents didnt  want to move to Florida,  but they turned sixty and thats the law.(Jerry Seinfeld)Never in my life  did I  remember Mama staying in bed past sunrise.(Jennifer Niven,  Velva Jean Learns to Drive. Plume, 2009)At no time  did I  feel threatened or in danger of violence.  At no time  did I  feel inclined to regard any of my colleagues as lazy or inept—or feel they were insinuating similar judgments about me.(Garret Keizer, Getting Schooled.  Harpers Magazine, 2012)  Exclamative Sentence Negation- In adult  colloquial  English,  exclamative  sentence negation  can be defined as the combinat ion of an  idiomatic  word or phrase, e.g.,  No way, like hell, the hell, yeah right, my eye, bullcookies, nonsense,  with a sentence..., e.g.,  Like hell Al and Hilary are married, Al and Hilary are married, my eye.(Kenneth F. Drozd, Metalinguistic Sentence Negation in Child English.  Perspectives on Negation and Polarity Items, ed. by Jack Hoeksema et al. John Benjamins, 2001)- Shelby Boyd sidled up to Al Heakland and said under his breath, Its time to pay up, Al.Like hell, I will,  Heakland whispered in a stern tone.Like hell, you wont, said Boyd in the same tone of voice.(Ralph Cotton,  Showdown at Hole-In-the -Wall. Penguin, 2009)- My throats all tight, and  theres  no way  Im going to  cry in front of Ellery and Peyton.(Gail Nall,  Breaking the Ice.  Simon and Schuster,  2015)