Week 2: SOTU "Clean Coal" Remark, Wyoming Beats the Sheep, and an Unexpected Surprise

A little bit about my life:

The second week of the semester is well underway and my classes are beginning to heat up. What I like about this semester is that most of my classes go by a set homework schedule, helping me plan out the week ahead and when I need to work on each project. So far, the lectures have taken up the majority of my time, with only homeworks being assigned off of what is taught in lecture. No exams yet, thank goodness, but that time is about to begin I'm sure of it.

The first half of this week was like many others, go to class, complete homework assignments, and try to escape reality for a little while using my PS4 or other gaming devices. Wednesday is when my week got interesting. You see, the Wyoming Cowboy's basketball team is quite good this year (4th in conference), and Wednesday happened to be the second rendition of this year's "Border War" with Colorado State University. CSU, hailing from Fort Collins, is a mere 65 miles away from Laramie, just across the border into Colorado, hence the name "Border War". And yes, they are our rivals, no matter what anybody says, sheep or Cowboy, these are the games that fans circle at the beginning of every season because they are the best games of the year for the most part. This year was no different.

The day started at class, blah blah blah boring stuff, and soon I was heading down to Fort Collins with my Dad in the passenger seat of Old Blue (my '91 Chevy truck). The only reason we were taking my truck, and not a more gas friendly car, was because my Dad had driven his work car to Laramie for a work related venture, and we couldn't take it into Colorado. But hey, it's about the memories right? So anyways, Old Blue made her first venture, that I know of, into the state of Colorado. Since we had to go about 7 hours before game time, the majority of that time was spent in a Starbucks in Barnes and Noble doing homework, at least I was at my two favorite stores. After a long homework session, sometimes the only way to get any homework done, we heading for a quick dinner at a BBQ joint in Old Town, and headed to Moby Arena, or "The Barn" as my Dad likes to call it. Of course when we got there, the parking staff charged us $15 (too high if you ask Dad), and made us park as far away as possible (too far if you ask Dad). I'm sure they were just doing their jobs, but one would think they were taking advantage of us Wyoming folk. Regardless we made to our seats in "The Barn", and for how many showed for the game, they certainly could have made the seats a little bit wider for big bones here.

"The Barn"

Now, the Pokes could have started a little hotter, that's for sure. With about half of the first half finished, the Pokes had only scored one layup, and that was the first basket of the game. Somehow, the Pokes managed to go on a run and were up 32-30 heading into the locker room at half. Following that, the second half ran much like the first half with the Rams waltzing out to a comfortable 62-46 lead with 5:31 left on the clock. The game looked almost as if it were over, but as they say, it isn't over until the fat lady sings. The Cowboys, by the grace of God, went on a 26-10 in the final five minutes to tie up the game at 72 all heading into the first overtime period. CSU and the Pokes traded blows much of the first overtime, and finished that period notched at 80-80. In the second OT period, Wyoming made less mistakes than the Sheep, and won by a score of 91-86. It was a bittersweet moment, coming back down by 16 and beating our rivals in their arena. As we always say here in Laramie, it sucks to be a CSU Ram!!

Final score: WYO 91 - CSU 86

My week ended pretty much in that fashion, on a high note. On Friday, following class, I headed to Chadron, NE for some much needed R&R with my beautiful fiancé. Upon arrival, we took to the highway and drove the 100ish miles to Rapid City, SD to go to an Aaron Watson concert (his best song can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWOVbR-vggc). There, we met up with Hally's roommates and had a nice relaxing evening listen to some live, down-to-earth, country music! Saturday was spent mostly by shopping, and eating, in Rapid City. Hally was designing her bathroom at her house, so most of the shopping was in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and other related stores. We did go to Cabela's and I did fantasize about owning boat, and a gigantic $4000 safe, not because I wanted the safe, but because it was big and frankly badass. Unfortunately, the day would not continue in that manner, as every time I looked outside the weather was getting worse. By the time we (by we I mean Hally) decided to leave, the snow was coming down and the wind was howling, and that made for an exciting return trip to Chadron. Nonetheless, we made it to Chadron, no harm no foul right? Wrong. It was pretty cold so I decided hey, I'm going to be nice and make some coffee for myself in order to settle down for the evening. I was getting the coffee pot filled and had moved the coffee bag to gain access to the filters when one my worst nightmares occurred. There was a freaking snake inside of the house, inches from my hand. I have never had more of a heart attack than I did in that instant. Soon, Hally and I were busy planning exactly how to take care of this menace. We completed this task by placing it in the trash can and instantly throwing the trash bag into the garbage outside, ensuring the snake a cold demise. What can I say, Hally and I were pretty happy it was gone...

A couple of photos from the Aaron Watson concert. It was pretty cool being on the floor in this indoor rodeo arena!

We got pretty close to the stage!

Our little snake buddy that decided to pester me as I was making coffee!!

All in all, it was a pretty fun packed week that concluded with the Philadelphia Eagles beating the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 52. What a great way to end the week. It was pretty nice because not only did the Patriots lose, but I won $30 because of it, thank you to my friends for betting on Tom Brady. I hope you all had a similar week, and have a good upcoming week as well. 


The news story of the week:

I know the State of the Union speech happened this week, but I don't really feel like covering the whole thing will do anybody any good. So I wanted to focus this week's spotlight on one statement that Trump made: "We have ended the war on American Energy — and we have ended the war on clean coal." Now, I suppose that this statement is true, since the US is now one of the biggest exporters in the world, but the fact that he called coal clean is what I'm going to discuss.

Global warming, change in near-surface temps, and climate change, change in large scale, long-term average patterns have been linked to the usage of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas, etc.). Now, you might ask how the scientists know that burning fossil fuels pumps metric tons of CO2 into atmosphere is because the CO2 from fossil fuels has a distinct signature. According the Union of Concerned Scientists, δ13C is an identifier that is common to carbon dioxide molecules unrelated to the consumption of fossil fuels. Over the years, this marker has been decreased, showing an increase of CO2 as a direct result from burning fossil fuels.

In case you didn't know how the atmosphere worked, here is a brief explanation. The sun's light is a form of energy known as radiation. This energy is absorbed by various parts of Earth's atmosphere and Earth itself. However, to maintain equilibrium, the Earth also radiates it's own heat. This heat can do one of two things, it can escape to space or it can be absorbed by gaseous molecules in the atmosphere (known as greenhouse gases). This absorption of energy warms the atmospheric temperature, therefore warming the planet. Now, this process happens all the time, no matter if fossil fuels are being burned. But the Earth's climate change is related to Earth's equilibrium. In essence, in order for the planet to maintain a steady temperature, the energy absorbed (via sunlight and Earth's radiation) must equal the amount energy the Earth is radiating back to space. Here is where fossil fuels come back into this, because burning and fossil fuel pumps CO2 into the atmosphere as fossil fuels are composed of carbon and oxygen. CO2 happens to be a greenhouse gas, therefore absorbing a portion of Earth's radiation. Since the levels of CO2 are on the rise, the Earth's temperature equilibrium is upset, as more heat is being absorbed by the Earth than is being released, hence the climate change.

A diagram showing what I described above.

Now you might be saying to yourself, well the Earth has natural CO2 cycles where the CO2 dips (ice age) and rises (interglacial period). Technically you are correct, but today's CO2 levels are up around 400 ppm (parts per million). Just to give you an idea, during an ice age CO2 levels were around 200 ppm and during an interglacial period they were around 280 ppm. Therefore, today's CO2 levels are the highest EVER recorded in Earth's history, and has a clear correlation with the burning of fossil fuels.

The blue represents the cycles of CO2 concentration but the rapid increase of CO2 that is human related is denoted by the red line.

Here is my take on the issue. I understand that coal and oil are a big part of the country's economy and I understand that these fossil fuels are a key part of our life, since there isn't any available eco fuel. However, the part that upsets me, is that the current administration and basically all of the Republican politicians refuse to address this matter. When people come forward and try to establish a secondary, cleaner means of energy, we are not trying to end the production of coal and oil immediately. All we want, and I'm pretty sure the Earth wants, is to work towards a cleaner fuel option, so we can quit harming our planet. There is no way that we could end coal and oil burning immediately since no work towards a secondary fuel option has been found or funded.

All I ask of my fellow Americans is that we address this issue, one of the most dire issues in the world today, as soon as possible. That doesn't mean put a bunch of oil/coal peeps out of a job, but give them a future that will quit harming the planet and can reverse the adverse affects of humans.

As always, please comment below your thoughts on this issue!

Sources:

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/global-warming-faq.html#.WnpjjWaZNBw

https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2