On a British Petroleum oil rig off the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20th, there was a series of explosions, killing eleven workers, and destroying the rig. It was caused by a gas leak from a punctured pipe. After the explosions, it was found that the reason for the leak was that part of the cap for stopping the oil from going out of control had simply been destroyed and there were chunks of rubber floating in the oil samples. This should have been reported to the company, but someone decided against it. Oil has been jetting out of the site ever since at an alarming rate. Just a few weeks before the leak, the company’s senior staff visited to celebrate seven years of safe and successful business at the site. The spill has had a nightmare affect on nature. There is oil on the bays of southern USA. The spill has sent oil all around where the site is, and has completely contaminated the water around, killing most of the marine life in the vast area. This has an effect on not only the marine life, but the birds that hunt the fish, and fishing companies. Towns on the coast of surrounding countries that were famous for fishing have lost most of their tourists and income. An extensive amount of money has been spent on trying to stop the flow of oil, but nothing has worked. The only positive thing that came out of this that I can think of with the oil spill is that now drilling companies know to take as much care as possible to prevent this from happening again.
274 Words
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Three Sectors Of The Economy
There are three main parts of the economy. The Primary Sector, the Secondary Sector and the Tertiary sector. The Primary Sector produces materials that can later be manufactured and sold, like minerals and metals, or farm produce. The Secondary Sector is where the products get made into a product that can be sold – the metals get turned into cars, or other metal items and the farm produce gets packaged. The Tertiary Sector is where these products get labelled and sold to customers.
Australia’s labour force consists mainly of people working in the Tertiary Sector, even though our largest exporting sector is the Primary Sector. Australia imports the Secondary Sector the most, because we can’t seem to produce enough ourselves in that area.
The Tertiary Sector doesn’t produce the most, but it has more people working in it than the other two. The Tertiary sector doesn’t require as much hard labour, so there are more people that want to work in it. The Primary Sector produces a lot of produce, but hasn’t got as many workers. This is because there is so much machinery that can help the workers move a lot faster. But, not many people want to work in the Primary sector, because it’s just so much more physically demanding (usually). Australia simply doesn’t have as much produce coming out of the Secondary Sector, so we import a lot.
Australia has always been close trading partners with USA and the UK, but in recent years, this relationship has slowly deteriorated. But, what could this mean for Australian society? I think it means more independence, as we start ‘befriending‘ countries other than the two bigger ones that have almost controlled Australia in the past.
The amount of unstable values of substances and currency that is the Commodities Boom could well damage any economy greatly. If Australia found itself in a situation of a Commodities Boom, we would be in trouble. Because our economy relies so much on things like coal, iron ore, uranium, and all other mining produces, if these things were to lose value, the Australian economy would crumble, crash and burn.
If we didn’t import and export so much, Australia’s economy would need some help because the economy wouldn’t be balanced, with so much produce coming from the Primary Sector, and so little from the Secondary Sector. But, because of the amount of importing and exporting Australia is a part of, I think the economy is sustainable, and could keep going on and on the way it is, for quite some time.
424 words.
Australia’s labour force consists mainly of people working in the Tertiary Sector, even though our largest exporting sector is the Primary Sector. Australia imports the Secondary Sector the most, because we can’t seem to produce enough ourselves in that area.
The Tertiary Sector doesn’t produce the most, but it has more people working in it than the other two. The Tertiary sector doesn’t require as much hard labour, so there are more people that want to work in it. The Primary Sector produces a lot of produce, but hasn’t got as many workers. This is because there is so much machinery that can help the workers move a lot faster. But, not many people want to work in the Primary sector, because it’s just so much more physically demanding (usually). Australia simply doesn’t have as much produce coming out of the Secondary Sector, so we import a lot.
Australia has always been close trading partners with USA and the UK, but in recent years, this relationship has slowly deteriorated. But, what could this mean for Australian society? I think it means more independence, as we start ‘befriending‘ countries other than the two bigger ones that have almost controlled Australia in the past.
The amount of unstable values of substances and currency that is the Commodities Boom could well damage any economy greatly. If Australia found itself in a situation of a Commodities Boom, we would be in trouble. Because our economy relies so much on things like coal, iron ore, uranium, and all other mining produces, if these things were to lose value, the Australian economy would crumble, crash and burn.
If we didn’t import and export so much, Australia’s economy would need some help because the economy wouldn’t be balanced, with so much produce coming from the Primary Sector, and so little from the Secondary Sector. But, because of the amount of importing and exporting Australia is a part of, I think the economy is sustainable, and could keep going on and on the way it is, for quite some time.
424 words.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Annother Interesting Post
This week, the main learning topic was renewable and non-renewable energy. It turns out, that energy is a very important thing in all of our lives, but it isn’t always produced in the best ways.
Renewable energy is energy that’s source doesn’t run out. At one stage during the week, Neil noticed that renewable is an extremely self-explanatory word I also realised this about a day earlier, but failed to mention this to him). Looking at the word, renewable energy has the ability to be new over and over again. Exciting stuff.
I think that Australia needs more renewable energy. If Australia could find a way of relying on Ethanol, Geothermal Energy and Solar Power, our emissions would plummet. But, these three energy sources may not produce enough to power Australia. So we need another alternative. Nuclear Power is often thought of as an ecological nightmare. But, with the new technology, and new ways to build cheaper plants, it could be the answer. By new technology, I mean the idea (that has been shown to work) of putting the nuclear waste into graphite balls, which can be buried, or stored, without leaking waste. The cheaper alternative is simply assembling the parts of the plants in factories, then putting the together at the site, like a giant, nuclear Lego set. Genius.
If Australia is to become more ecologically friendly, we need to put things like these into action. But how? The government could start building the plants, funding Ethanol production, encouraging the use of more solar panels, make solar energy more of an option for people and enforce geothermal energy. But are the people going to tag along with this? Would the government do this? Citizens are more likely to approve and enforce something they come up with, like a bottom up solution. If the people could make, purchase and apply more solar panels and energy, farm more sugar cane to make more Ethanol and push for ‘clean’ Nuclear Plants, we would be on our way to a future with some sort of an eco system.
You can do better, environmentalists!!
350 words.
Renewable energy is energy that’s source doesn’t run out. At one stage during the week, Neil noticed that renewable is an extremely self-explanatory word I also realised this about a day earlier, but failed to mention this to him). Looking at the word, renewable energy has the ability to be new over and over again. Exciting stuff.
I think that Australia needs more renewable energy. If Australia could find a way of relying on Ethanol, Geothermal Energy and Solar Power, our emissions would plummet. But, these three energy sources may not produce enough to power Australia. So we need another alternative. Nuclear Power is often thought of as an ecological nightmare. But, with the new technology, and new ways to build cheaper plants, it could be the answer. By new technology, I mean the idea (that has been shown to work) of putting the nuclear waste into graphite balls, which can be buried, or stored, without leaking waste. The cheaper alternative is simply assembling the parts of the plants in factories, then putting the together at the site, like a giant, nuclear Lego set. Genius.
If Australia is to become more ecologically friendly, we need to put things like these into action. But how? The government could start building the plants, funding Ethanol production, encouraging the use of more solar panels, make solar energy more of an option for people and enforce geothermal energy. But are the people going to tag along with this? Would the government do this? Citizens are more likely to approve and enforce something they come up with, like a bottom up solution. If the people could make, purchase and apply more solar panels and energy, farm more sugar cane to make more Ethanol and push for ‘clean’ Nuclear Plants, we would be on our way to a future with some sort of an eco system.
You can do better, environmentalists!!
350 words.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Virtual Water & Water as a Resource
1.
Virtual water is water that goes into the production of things*. Personally, I don’t believe virtual water is exactly accurate, but if I could find just a bit more proof that it’s genuine. It has certainly given me something to think about, but it hasn’t altered any decisions yet.
*‘things’ is a broad term, covering almost all food products, and everything that is made out of anything that has ever consumed water.
72 words
2.
There have been wars fought over recourses, like oil, but water seems a tad absurd. One day, if countries ever run out or start running extremely low on water, there could be wars fought, but not in my lifetime. Of course, if things like desalination plants and wells work properly, there shouldn’t be a single war over water for thousands of years. (That is, if we survive 2012)
68 words
3.
If Australia can find a way to make desalination plants work well, by keeping the salt produced, and using less energy to harvest the fresh water, then desalination plants should work just fine, and we won’t need to worry about water quite so much for a long time. The water should be used for the closest areas, and the areas further inland can use the water that is currently being sent to the cities.
74 words
Total words: 214
Virtual water is water that goes into the production of things*. Personally, I don’t believe virtual water is exactly accurate, but if I could find just a bit more proof that it’s genuine. It has certainly given me something to think about, but it hasn’t altered any decisions yet.
*‘things’ is a broad term, covering almost all food products, and everything that is made out of anything that has ever consumed water.
72 words
2.
There have been wars fought over recourses, like oil, but water seems a tad absurd. One day, if countries ever run out or start running extremely low on water, there could be wars fought, but not in my lifetime. Of course, if things like desalination plants and wells work properly, there shouldn’t be a single war over water for thousands of years. (That is, if we survive 2012)
68 words
3.
If Australia can find a way to make desalination plants work well, by keeping the salt produced, and using less energy to harvest the fresh water, then desalination plants should work just fine, and we won’t need to worry about water quite so much for a long time. The water should be used for the closest areas, and the areas further inland can use the water that is currently being sent to the cities.
74 words
Total words: 214
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