FMHS APES Fourth Fall 2019

We Rarely Remember the Rare Minerals By: Urvi Vallapareddy Smartphones, military equipment, aircraft engines, and wind turbines all require a resource in common: rare earth minerals (REM). REMs include dysprosium, europium, terbium, and thulium. These elements are necessary for developing high-tech  products, therefore making REMs a highly demanded mineral. Problematically, mining for REMs causes extensive water and soil pollution. Even though REM mining has caused significant destruction in mineral abundant areas, like China, technology companies need these minerals to produce their products, so the pollution continues to intensify. It is not just products like iPads and AirPods, wind turbines require up to TWO TONS of rare earth magnets. It becomes challenging when sources of clean energy require destructive mining in order to be constructed.  workers at a rare earth mining site in Ganxian county, China When it comes to mining, operations h...

Who Gets to Change the World? by Emi Thomas      One of the most prominent voices in fighting climate change is not a world renowned scientist, a politician, or even an adult. Greta Thunberg is a sixteen year old girl from Sweden who has made it her mission to teach the world about the effects of climate change in hopes of stopping the damage before it’s too late.      Starting in August of 2018, Greta chose to skip school to strike in front of the Swedish parliament. Her strike quickly picked up with her peers and others who also felt that something needed to be done about the climate change issue at hand. Before she knew it, Greta became the face of climate change and started speaking out to a bigger audience about what she believes in. That same August, Greta started her own foundation called “Fridays for Future” where children all around the globe can participate in the strike against climate change. The movement has spread all over the world a...

By: Andrew Thomas A big issue that we face in our day to day lives in the presence of harmful emissions. This has been an ongoing issue that has presented a great obstacle for the people as the increase in nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, and many other gases are released in transportation, especially in cars is affecting our air. A new study led by University of Toronto Engineering researchers reveals that emissions from nearby traffic can greatly increase concentrations of air pollutants, with highly polluting trucks making a major contribution to the air pollution.  In a recent report, the study has shown that in the large cities of Canada, Vancouver, and Toronto, that traffic emissions have been increasing in these cities which means that nitrogen oxides, ultrafine particles, black carbon, metals, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide are also increasing. Cars, SUVs, and light-duty trucks that are fueled by gasoline, diesel, and E85 emit both...