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-Bruce Barcott
 * “What’s the Catch?”** http://www.onearth.org/article/whats-the-catch?page=1

Globalization has lead to the realization that many regular occupancies that people all over the world hold, (such as fishing) have been causing almost irreducible collateral damage over the years. Since the earliest times when people have resorted to the seas for food sources, bycatch (the unwanted organisms/byproducts caught while attempting to catch the desired organism) has been a growing problem. As humans have continued to catch and eat the wanted fish and other sea creatures they have also continued __not__ to eat bycatch. This has allowed the buildup of unwanted organisms and the decrease in the numbers of desired catch. "In 50 years we've taken -- we've eaten -- more than 90 percent of the big fish in the sea," the oceanographer Sylvia Earle remarked last year. As of late, bycatch makes up nearly 26 percent of the world’s total commercial catch as a whole. Recently, to try and lessen the problem governments and commercial fleets have put into affect stricter regulations and changes in equipment. The numbers have since gone down, but nonetheless, bycatch remains a problem. The real predicament is that fishery provides so much in the way of finances, food source, and industry that simply giving it up will never be possible. Globally, the human population needs fishing to support families and fill the nutritional needs of the 400 million people living in poverty in the world. It seems apparent that problems such as these in the environment are unavoidable with such a growing number of people who depend on something as simple as fishing. Often times the consequences of actions like disposing of the prize catch of the Earth’s waters are overlooked because of things that are clearly more important at the time (i.e.: food for the night, business and industry, supporting your family). The bycatch dilemma serves as a reminder of the damage slowly building up over time.

-Nadia Hunt

- Scott Dodd
 * “Heat + New Gizmo = Power”** http://www.onearth.org/article/heat-new-gizmo-power

Clean energy is a newer topic brought about especially in recent years as it has become more and more crucial to find new ways to save energy, money, labour, etc. When energy is converted from one form to another (e.g.: electricity-> heat -> steam) we inevitably lose some of the energy as heat through the transfer. Today scientists estimate that an entire two thirds of the energy generated in the world is lost. Scientists also estimate that if we could reserve a small three percent of that lost energy each day, this would cause drastic positive change over time. Researchers have been working on the latest tools to preserve energy and work the most efficiently as they rise up to the challenge of creating devices that would help to reduce energy loss. One way this is being done is that scientists and researchers have harnessed the potential of transfers of electrons from hot metal surfaces to cold ones. If these devices are connected to appropriate wires then you’ve created a new electricity source. These tools are called semiconductor chips and could be used in the future on the same tab as other clean energy devices such as solar panels to turn heat into usable energy. Researchers have discovered this new and amazing way to collect and put to use the heat energy that would otherwise be wasted or lost for new causes. Eventually it could be helping to run your computer or car. This is an example of globalization working in a positive way. This type of innovation in industry is helping to create more efficiency in the global market and even reverse some effects of energy loss by way of heat. These inventions are amazing and I believe that they will prove very helpful in later times. There are still many problems to be worked through, but this new idea of harnessing heat energy has a level of inspiration to it.

-Nadia Hunt

-Kevin Krajick
 * “A Climate of Denial”** http://www.onearth.org/article/a-climate-of-denial

A very controversial subject, Global Warming has been getting quite a lot of attention since the 1980’s when Scientists first began to propose that humans have altered the global atmosphere, but especially recently (2004) when Time magazine stated that global warming awareness first “got respect”. Congress is coming back to its efforts of previous years to have legislation passed on climate this summer. This is a perfect topic to address with the perspective of globalization and industry because it is so well connected directly to both subjects. Global warming is an environmental effect caused as a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions released globally since the start of industrialization. Carbon emissions from cars and power plants have been slowly eating holes in the ozone layer which is the Earth’s natural coat of protection from harmful rays from the sun. These openings allow too much heat into the Earth’s atmosphere and don’t allow it to escape properly which causes a rise in the global temperature. All time highs have been reached in recent years and scientists speculate it is due to global warming. Some politicians and other people are in a sort of denial about the reality of global warming and refuse to accept it as a real problem. These people view the issue as a hoax and though they don’t seem to hold the majority in this argument, they strongly believe that they are right and will defend their standpoint. Globalization has caused both the global warming effect and the denial of it. The denial has spread like wildfire partially through e-mails sent by hackers who used accounts stolen from top researchers in Britain and the United States suggesting that they had exaggerated on the threat of global warming itself to create this reaction. Bloggers and anonymous e-mailers immediately rushed in each with their own opinions on the matter reaching thousands of people and causing them to form their own thoughts about the greenhouse effect.

-Nadia Hunt