Catching Rays in California, and Storing Them

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/business/energy-environment/catching-some-rays-in-california-and-storing-them.html?ref=earth

According to Wald's article, "solar power is growing so fast in California...that it is turning the stat's power system upside down". This new system uses a technique we have known about for some time now, but it uses it in a more creative way, working in the opposite direction. The original idea was to "use batteries to store power at night form traditional sources...and run them down in the peak heat of late afternoon". But, in California, the sunset is when there is the most sun available, so the panels "keep operating in the late afternoon, when the output from solar panels eliminates the need for their electricity".

The only issue with this new method is that they sometimes find they have too much power than they have use for, called an "oversupply". As far as I can tell, it's better to have too much than not enough and it's impressive that California has such a handle on this innovative solar panelling technique, using their own resources to their best ability.

In the Shadow of Rising Towers, Laments of Lost Sunlight in New York

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/nyregion/in-the-shadow-of-rising-towers-laments-of-lost-sunlight-in-new-york.html?adxnnl=1&ref=earth&adxnnlx=1388154841-OtUc2ysTTkDYVda/f+WF7w

As much as I love going in for the day or the night, I've always know that I don't want to live in New York City, and this article confirmed it for me. With skyscraper after skyscraper being built, "the quest to reach higher often comes at the cost of stealing someone else's light". Whether blocking off someone's window with brick or blocking off its view of the sun by height of a new building. many new yorkers constantly find themselves stuck in the "dark". This article interviewed some new yorkers about their own loss of light and the way this constant construction makes them feel. George Sanders had a building built right next to his apartment, but was disappointed with how it was carried out. He thinks that "going higher and staying narrow would've allowed light and air...Now we're just plunged into darkness. It's just too bad".

Some call it "a sense of being sealed off, of being isolated" and that their apartments now are very "cavelike". Who wants to come home to that? I guess they could just escape to places like Central Park to get a breath of fresh air and some sunlight. But, not for long; "Seven towers are planned or underway along the area south of Central Park", taking away sunlight there too. While I understand the importance of constant expansion in a city like New York, it seems clear to me that more efforts have to be made in order to maintain sunlight for all of its essential benefits to the people living there.

Chile: Indian Leader Found in Reservoir

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/world/americas/chile-indian-leader-found-in-reservoir.html?ref=earth&_r=1&

Definitely a bit more morbid than I usually choose for my articles, this one I found really interesting. This past Tuesday, Nicolesa Quintreman was "found floating in a reservoir she spent a decade trying to prevent from being created". In her life, she was a leader of the Mapuche Indians in Chile and "became a national figure in Chile during protests against the construction of a hydroelectric dam on tribal land". She literally died fighting for what she believes in. This tribe clearly didn't have a say when outsiders came in to construct the reservior. Being their own native land and after we have literally taken everything else away from them, I think this was very much overstepping our boundaries. It's a shame that Quintreman died in her protest, but hopefully now people can learn from it and prevent it from happening again. The native people have every right to have a say in how outsiders manipulate their land.

A Struggle to Balance Wind Energy With Wildlife

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/science/earth/a-struggle-to-balance-wind-energy-with-wildlife.html?ref=earth

The topic of this article immediately intrigued me because it's something that I haven't really thought about: the fact that it could be a problem if too many people are trying to do good. Wind energy is obviously a major help when looking toward our future climate, but it is definitely crucial to keep preserving wildlife. In this article, Dan Frosch calls "the wind energy industry and environmental organizations" "two staunch allies" and I completely agree. Environmental organizations claim the new federal rule, that wind farms can "lawfully kill bald and golden eagles under 30-year permits", as not looking far enough into the long-term. David Yarnold from the National Audubon Society claims "it basically says you can go operate these wind turbines and kill as many eagles as happen to die".

However, the federal figures assure the agreement serves to "balance the practical considerations of long-term wind farm projects with the need to keep eagle populations stable". And, it could be possible that the conservationists are overreacting a little bit, being that neither bald nor golden eagles are considered endangered anymore, as of 2007. Moreover, "fewer than six bald eagles have ever been killed by a wind turbine". In science and in life there are sometimes no right answers. Coming up with agreements and compromises is always complicated, especially when involving our future and the future of our changing climate.