Mmmm. The days are slowly beginning to warm up, and here at Wesleyan we have bright blue sky with sunlight. Reminds you that despite the enormous amount of upcoming work, there should be more than enough time to play. I plan to watch an intramural softball game this weekend, and maybe do my homework out on the hill. It is almost time to break out the flip flops and the short skirt. Or maybe I am getting ahead of myself.

Spring makes you realize that summer is coming soon - meaning that some sort of job better be on the table. I know that I am still waiting to hear back from a certain internship (..) but - there may be a couple of people who haven't yet thought about what is going on this summer - or maybe your plans fell through. Regardless, there are still plenty of opportunities for you out there - although you may have to go for the part-time, unpaid internship. Using the trusty guidance of Experience.com I found what looks like a good, alternative-energy and communications related internship below. It is in my hometown, DC, and reports that its starting and ending dates are "flexible." Sweeeet. Check out: http://www.globalgreen.org/programs/weapons/internships.cfm
Global green seems to be a small, organized and environmentally-oriented place to work -and they seem willing to accomodate interns. However, there is the lack of pay which might cause some of us an issue - that's why I would suggest working there part time and getting another job on top of it. This way, you can make money and still have something to put on your resume.

Anyways, I am going to go enjoy the weather. Best of luck to everyone with summer jobs.

Emily

Climate around the world

Today I thought we would step back from the USA-news bias and look at some news peices on energy and utilties from around the world. Particularly, a lot of the most interesting stuff occuring in climate change work and alternative energy is still, regrettably, overseas.

Leaky Peat: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6502239.stm

It seems as though the moorlands of the UK are leaking carbon dioxide. The leak occurs when peat begins to degrade due to fires, water drainage, overgrazing and pollution. What exactly is peat, besides a useful word to know when playing Boggle? Peat is a bunch of decaying organic matter that gets lumped and compressed together. Interesting factoid - peat is the first step in creating coal. Although we can see the formation of peat during our lifetimes, the same is obviously not true of coal. Peat, like coal, has a long history of being used as a heat source, and a few countries, namely Finland, harvest it on an industrial scale as fuel. Peat is also used in the distillation of Scotish whisky, which is what gives the drink its "smoky flavor." (For more information about this unlikely source of energy and many other things, see Wikipedia's entry entitled, "peat" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat

The relevant part for the UK is that these bogs (I'm gonna call them what they are) are being drained and otherwise converted. It turns out that in additional to all its other uses, peat stores carbon dioxide. In fact, it stores much more carbon dioxide than forests do - which makes sense. So, the UK is contemplating giving carbon credits to those who take steps to care for peat lands.

Conflicts in Iceland: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/6453703.stm

Not all environmental causes are equal, and I predict that as the world becomes overall more "green" there will be more and more conflicts about what types of environmentalism are best. I would predict that at some point in the future there will be several environmental movements whose goals differ in important ways. This may already be occuring. This article about Iceland is an interesting example of conflicting environmental priorities. The problem is that Iceland naturally has an unusual landscape (astronauts go there to train for trips to the Moon). It also has plentiful sources of renewable energy, including rushing rivers and geothermal vents. Icelanders have no national need to tap these energy sources - but the potential of exporting this renewable energy is beginning to pull corporations over to the wilderness. On the other hand, some environmentalists believe that the good gained from renewable energy is not worth industrializing one of the last remaining pristine wildernesses. I have included two pictures here, one of a dam site in Iceland and one of a geothermal vent site.
My own personal opinion is that extorting renewable energy from these pristine landscapes is a necessity. That is not to say that we should not set some of the land aside with a conservation easement or something, but the value of that clean energy is too large to be ignored. Although, the dams present an interesting issue because dams are one of the more inefficient and environmentally-damaging types of "renewable energy" out there. Dams hardly ever operate at the energy capacity they are designed to, and in addition they flood land and release carbon from their resevoirs. Finally, they impede wildlife in important ways - particularly, in the US at least, by preventing fish migration patterns.

I hope that there is a little food for thought here - and if you want to look further the BBC website has excellent climate change information, articles, podcasts and forums where a wide variety of issues are addressed.

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm still technically on spring break, but it doesn't feel as much like a break anymore. On the way back from the Caribbean we made a stop in Miami for a family reunion - and right now my sister and I are preparing to go chill with our many relatives at the beach bar. Last night we had a hilarious dinner where I was grinded up on by some ancient, yet spry, family matriachs. We also enjoyed a band led by a man who is 98 years old - damn, I hope that's me in, um, 78 years. The music was amazingly loud and tended to favor "A Chorus Line" and "Chicago" quite a bit, but other than that I had no complaints.

However, I have found a quiet moment in which to write a bit to you all. This may be one of the first times in the past few months where I woke up voluntarily before 10am, so feel lucky.
In fact, I have even researched a few internship opportunities. It is that time of year when a lot of us are waiting to hear back from internship offers, and (if you are like me, anways) feeling nervous about whether there were typos in the application, or whether the application was simply tossed aside and ignored. I know that I have a letter waiting for me when I get back to school - and that letter will let me know whether my summer plans can solidify, or whether they are all about to go up in smoke. So, first, best of luck to you all - at least the most hectic part is over. Secondly, there is good news for those of us interested in environmental, energy and utilities-related work, because often times you can find internships in these areas much later than other jobs. For example, the place where I worked last summer, the Washington DC Water and Sewer Authority does not have their application due until April 15th. If you are interested in water utilities, this is a great place to work - they put a lot of effort into their internship program, and although it may not be riveting at all times, it pays well. Plus, you will be with about 15 other interns, which is fun.
http://www.dcwasa.com/employment/internship.cfm#howtoapply

Not to worry if you guys aren't from the DC area - utilties internships are available everywhere by nature of the business. Below is an opportunity I found in Salt Lake City - the application for this one is due April 2nd.
SLPublicUtilities3-12-07.doc

Finally, if you are interested in electricity, rather than water utilities, below I have attached a fairly interesting application to a competitive program. It is due April 1st, but the application appears to be a bit extensive, so you should get a move on. That said, if you are interested in electrical engineering, this would be a fantastic opportunity. Here is a link to the html version of the application (the word document refused to upload.)
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:aKyc3axWqq8J:www.nwppa.org/html/web/NWPPA_2007_Internship_Program.pdf+electric+utility+engineer+internship+program+summer+of+2007&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Anyways, I should get a move on - time for more family pictures and the like. Best of luck to everyone.

- Emily

Utilities in the Caribbean

Hey guys!

I am currently in the Caribbean, in a tiny internet cafe sipping some passion fruit juice. I did a little local research into utilities yesterday - meaning that I hiked to the source of the island's water. We followed some old rusted pipes up to the top of the volcanic mountain - and saw some of the old stone structures built to control the flow of water. This may seem outdated, but in fact we still use down-hill water flow to deliver water in cities - the water flows down from water towers into our homes. Anywas, we still get news down here - and I found two interesting articles in the Miami Herald from Monday, March 19th, which I would recommend, for some relatively light, spring-break reading.

First, in the opinion section you can find a little piece written by Fred Krupp, entitled, "Markets offer best hope for fixing climate problems." Fred Krupp is the president of Environmental Defense, an environmental activist group which we've talked about before on this blog. It is a propaganda peice for sure, beginning with the classic opening line of ED - that it is in the best interests of big business to become environmentally oriented - to even lead the environmental movement in this country (a line which I more or less agree with). He extensively references the TXU union piece in here - which ED helped orchestrate (see my previous blogging). Keep your eye on Fred Krupp and ED, they are fast becoming an important player on the scene of environmentalism.

The second piece in the Miami Herald is written by Alan Zibel and is entitled, "Analysists: $3 gasoline unlikely." The gist of this peice is that, according to recent estimates, gasoline is unlikely to go over $3 this summer, barring a hurricane or trouble in the Middle East. This should provide some support for US stock markets this summer. Good news too for travellers, and for me, since I want to go cross country this summer.

Anyways, I hope that everyone is enjoying break, or at least looking forward to it. I am gonna go get a pina colada (virgin of course...)

Emily

Environmentalism in Hollywood

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/movies/12vill.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin

For a little light reading, check out the above article which I found on nytimes.com this morning (and by morning, I mean 1pm, yay spring break). It is about an upcoming slew of movies which will focus on mankind's detrimental effects on planet earth. Some movies mentioned include the new "Transformers" movie and a new movie by M. Night Shyamalan called, "The Happening." (He wanted to call it "The Green Effect" but after the failure of "Lady in the Water" he doesn't have too much bargaining leeway). The article states that this is part of an effort by Hollywood to define a new set of villains for the American public - although the producers of the movies admit this is something of a gamble. Often times the villain targeted in these movies will be a large corporation whose evil and careless treatment of the environment spawns unimaginable consequences. I included a picture of a transformer above because I was never really that into them as a kid, so I had forgotten what they look like. Also, I am going to take this time to say that, even though I am not a film critic, M. Night Shyamalan is totally underrated. I thought "The Village" was an awesome movie - creative and unexpected with great filming.

If you want to read something a bit more disheartening, try the opinion section with an article entitled, "Whose Oil is it, Anyway?" (See hyperlink below). The article begins with an interesting piece of information - that 35 years ago international oil corporations controlled a lot more of the world's oil supply than they do now. Currently, the world's oil supplies are in the hands of national governments. The article then goes on to detail the situation in Iraq, where a new law, the Hydrocarbon Law, may soon be passed, allowing international companies easy access to Iraq's oil reserves. Iraq itself would receive very little benefit from allowing this type of access, but the United States is pushing for passage of the law.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/opinion/13juhasz.html

Forestry....Is that like Robin Hood?

When I told my mom I was interested in applying to the Yale School of Forestry, she was very confused. "You want to be a forester?" (Probably thinking about the money spent on that liberal arts education in order for me to spend my career tramping through the outdoors). But no, the Yale School of Forestry is actually one of the oldest and most well respected graduate school for environmental studies. The school does own a sizable tract of land in Connecticut and Vermont (~11,000 acres according to Wikipedia). However, its main purpose consists in its respected masters and doctoral programs. What is so special about the Yale program is that it is incredibly interdisciplinary. The masters programs include a "Master of Environmental Management," a "Mastery of Forestry" a "Master of Forest Science" and a "Master of Environmental Science." In particular, the "Master of Environmental Management" is a unique program which forces the student to take courses from a wide range of areas, including climate science, biology, and economics. It is relevant for people interested in resource management, environmental consulting, environmental policy and analysis, ect. To check out the specific details on this masters program, as well as the others, click on:
http://environment.yale.edu/3796/masters_degree_programs/

So how do we get into this place? The website has a very vague statement regarding the application process which implies that background courses in mathematics, social sciences and natural sciences in encouraged, although not required. Those of us who are in interdisciplinary programs react joyfully to this news, because we are probably in some of the only majors which make it easy to have experience in such disparate areas. However, I have personally never ventured too near the scary realms of chemistry or physics. I mean, biology is just so much more interesting! If you are interested in applying to the Yale School of Forestry, I would recommend taking as many of the following classes as possible:

Calculus, Political Science, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Statistics, Physics

Possible additions: Anthropology

I know that sounds like a lot - and this is just to be on the safe side. What is so exciting and demanding about environmental studies is that it requires knowledge from a wide variety of fields.

There are other schools besides Yale which have programs aimed at addressing environmental concerns in similar, multidisciplinary ways. For example, the University of Columbia has a graduate school program called, "The Earth Institute." The Director of the Earth Institute is the well known Jeffrey D. Sachs (whom I actually got to see speak at Yale once). Jeffrey Sachs is famous for arguing that it is possible to solve world hunger through the application of economics - and copious amounts of foreign aid from developed nations. He also has worked on sustainable development and prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS. His most famous work is The End of Poverty. The Columbia program has more options than its Yale counterpart, and includes 8 masters options. To see all of them, check out:

http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/education/articles/view/7

One of the newest of these degree programs is called "Climate and Society", there is another in scientific journalism and a third in conservation biology.

Just to gloat a bit...I am in Washington DC, my home town, on spring break! Two weeks off, never mind that I have so much work to do the first week that I might as well be at school. But the second week, I am going to a little island in the Caribbean (no worries...I can blog from there too..)

Emily

Is Oil a Renewable Energy?

One of the front page articles of the New York Times today was entitled, "Oil Innovations Pump New Life into Old Wells." (What a bad headline for a good article...) I suggest you all skim through the article, which is available at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/business/05oil1.html?em&ex=1173243600&en=115684c949c827ab&ei=5087%0A

The article gets at a controversy which environmentalists, economists and others have been debating for years. It goes like this: environmentalists argue that oil supplies are running out, and that oil has already peaked. This is a scary claim, because if it is true, then due to the laws of supply and demand, the price of oil will peak and our society will have to scramble to find new sources of energy. Some environmentalists claim that this has already happened. However, many conservative economists, such as those at the CATO institute, claim instead that oil reserves have been, and still are increasing. How can this be? Intuitively, it seems certain that there are only a certain number of barrels of oil available on earth, since it takes billions of years to make oil "from scratch." However, what these economists mean is that because human technology has advanced, and continues to advance at an enormous rate, every year more oil reserves become available. This article supports the latter position. Recently, oil companies such as Exxon and Chevron have developed new technologies which allow them to drastically up the production of old oil wells. With this new technology, oil fields which were previously discounted as "dried up" are now being rejuvenated. There is therefore more oil available today than there was 50 years ago.

Understandably, some environmentalists hate this type of reasoning, and fear that if oil supplies are seen as unlimited, that global warming will once again fade from public consciousness. However, in reality such news is heartening. The ability of humanity to advance technologically is hopeful - and it is my opinion that renewable energy is not advanced enough to power our world, should oil run out. Of course, this does not mean that global warming is not incredibly important. However, it might be wise to focus environmental campaigns around messages regarding national security (it is unsafe to rely on oil imports from hostile and unstable countries) and the dangers of global warming itself (coastal flooding, drought in the midwest, the extinction of species, melting of the ice cap, ect.) From a career perspective, this also means that it may be a smart choice to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry, especially if you are someone with creative engineering skills and a steady hand. The industry is often subject to oil reserve scares, and additionally is constantly in need of new technology.

Okay, I am going to go get a chocolately snack before my next class.

Emily

Confused Vermonters

My friend from Vermont just sent me an article from CNN about the effects of global warming on Vermont. Apparently, not only are the ski places having a bit of a rough time - but people throughout the state are feeling quite discombobulated. The maple-syrup industry is feeling particularly hard done by, as it can no longer predict when the trees will start producing syrup. The above picture is of a local, 4 person protest against the weather. The protestors are rafting down a river which should be frozen at this time of year. The article is pretty funny, especially for those of you familiar with New England humor. Best of luck on a sunday night.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/03/04/changing.winter.ap/index.html


Emily

A Green White House

I am sorry I didn't post again before the March 1st deadline, I am afraid that my own deadlines caught up to me. Additionally, the stock market crash on tuesday lost me quite a bit of money, and forced me to think over my investment strategy. (Small plug: I know this is an energy and utilities career blog, however, one of the best things that college kids can do to start making money is to learn how to invest. You need to save up a few thousand to start, but then you can open up an account at one of the online brokerages, like Ameritrade or Etrade - and they charge you about $10 a trade. It makes sense for people our age to be investing in riskier things, such as stocks, so I suggest everyone take a look at it. Additionally, long term investing is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure future financial stability.)

However, I promise to make it up to you all by posting future internship opportunities on here - and don't you worry, there are plenty more out there. First though, a little news story from my home town of Washington, DC. It seems as though Nancy Pelosi is attempting to make the White House and, more generally, the entire capitol, a bit more green. She has asked her "chief administrative officer," a man named Daniel Beard, to complete the preliminary sketch of this plan by the end of April. She will be appealing to some of the new green building standards as the white house gets improved. Green architecture is a rapidly growing field, and if I had the slightest bit of artistic talent I would launch myself right in there as fast as possible. As it is, I content myself by reading about it, and imagining the cool, eco-friendly house that I plan to build when I "grow up." (I confess, in tenth grade I desperately wanted to live in a hay bale house. And before you scoff, look them up, because they are the coolest things ever.) Before I get distracted, lets think about the politics behind the "greening the capital" move though, because Nancy is not merely interested in getting energy efficient copier machines, and organic coffee. Currently, environmentalists are divided about whether it will be better to push environmental legislation through now - legislation which will have to be "dummed down" in order for Bush and other Republicans to swallow it. Or, is it better to wait for the 2008 elections and a president who, presumably, will be more environmentally inclined than Bush -and therefore willing to pass tougher legislation? If democrats such as Nancy decide to wait, they will want to appease the public in the meantime by passing green, but unimportant legislation. Don't get me wrong, I am excited the capital will be more eco-friendly in the future, but lets not forget that it is part of a political maneuver.

Wow, how time flies on a saturday. Especially when you wake up at 2pm, which I may have done. . .

Have a great weekend,
Emily