Are YOU Answering the Call?

[Swan217]

Now that everyone has been watching Live Earth on Bravo (riiiiight???) and has signed the pledge (riiiiiiight????), the question is... how is your robotics team going to help fix global warming? What are YOU going to do to Answer the Call on your robotics team?

Will you:
- Be responsible for making sure lights are off in rooms that aren't being used at your Robot Build location?
- Set up a recycling program for your robotics team, not just for all of those cans of Mountain Dew, but also the Aquafina bottles and cardboard pizza boxes littering the workbenches?
- Use more recycled materials on your robot and prototypes? (25%? 50%? 75%? 100% Recycled?)
- Ask FIRST (politely) if they can use carpets made out of recycled materials on all of their playing fields?
- Petition your school or Build Location to switch to LED or compact fluorescent bulbs?
- Carpool to or from robotics?
- Take your bike (or walk, or snowshoe, or crosscountry ski) to robotics?
- Ask your school or build location to turn the heat down five degrees?
- Turn off the programming computers at the end of the day, instead of leaving them on all night?
- Make your robot solar powered? (Note to self: requires FIRST rule change. Better Idea: )
- Make your battery chargers solar powered?
- Beg FIRST to include your team in the hydrogen fuel cell Green Machine competition.

If every single robotics team replaced ONE lightbulb with a compact fluorescent, we could save $50,000 during Robotics Season ALONE - enough to pay to start up 5 rookie teams! So don't just sit there, DO something! And tell the ChiefDelphi community what you plan to do this upcoming robotics season!

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

Now that everyone has been watching Live Earth on Bravo (riiiiight???) and has signed the pledge (riiiiiiight????), the question is... how is your robotics team going to help fix global warming? What are YOU going to do to Answer the Call on your robotics team?

Will you:
- Be responsible for making sure lights are off in rooms that aren't being used at your Robot Build location?
- Set up a recycling program for your robotics team, not just for all of those cans of Mountain Dew, but also the Aquafina bottles and cardboard pizza boxes littering the workbenches?
- Use more recycled materials on your robot and prototypes? (25%? 50%? 75%? 100% Recycled?)
- Ask FIRST (politely) if they can use carpets made out of recycled materials on all of their playing fields?
- Petition your school or Build Location to switch to LED or compact fluorescent bulbs?
- Carpool to or from robotics?
- Take your bike (or walk, or snowshoe, or crosscountry ski) to robotics?
- Ask your school or build location to turn the heat down five degrees?
- Turn off the programming computers at the end of the day, instead of leaving them on all night?
- Make your robot solar powered? (Note to self: requires FIRST rule change. Better Idea: )
- Make your battery chargers solar powered?
- Beg FIRST to include your team in the hydrogen fuel cell Green Machine competition.

If every single robotics team replaced ONE lightbulb with a compact fluorescent, we could save $50,000 during Robotics Season ALONE - enough to pay to start up 5 rookie teams! So don't just sit there, DO something! And tell the ChiefDelphi community what you plan to do this upcoming robotics season!

Last years animation theme focused on that.

[Mike]

Well, air conditioners when pointed inside the house make it cooler. So I figure if EVERYONE turns their air conditioners on full blast and just point them out the window, we should more or less get rid of this "warming" nonsense.

[DonRotolo]

Seriously, I think the comment on Compact Fluorescent Bulbs makes a lot of sense, and I urge everyone to consider it.

Pick a light that is on a lot - front porch, basement, hallway, wherever - and put in a CF from Lowe's, Home Depot, IKEA, or wherever. For less than a #1 meal at McD's you'll accomplish a few things:

Use less energy
Pay for less energy (or, your parents will pay less, translates to more $ for you?)
Get equal or more light
Generate less heat for the A/C to deal with (and again save...)
Not have to change the light bulb for several years (HS Students - this means you'll have moved out already!)

Not a lot of effort, but a big payoff. Try it.

Don

[johnr]

what about the mercury in those new bulbs. no there isn't alot in one ,but what happens when we all start throwing them out. oh, and that warming thing , not much you can do about the sun warming up. and did you know that where the ice has melted they found human remains and places where people lived. please don't believe everything you read or hear. oh and what about china, how you going to stop them from opening a new coal plant every week. maybe that is what we need . more clouds to block sun out. know what just clean your room . sorry just don't like how they try to scare the young kids and how the politicians pull this stuff every once in a while.

[Cynette]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Seriously, I think the comment on Compact Fluorescent Bulbs makes a lot of sense, and I urge everyone to consider it.

Pick a light that is on a lot - front porch, basement, hallway, wherever - and put in a CF from Lowe's, Home Depot, IKEA, or wherever. For less than a #1 meal at McD's you'll accomplish a few things:

Use less energy
Pay for less energy (or, your parents will pay less, translates to more $ for you?)
Get equal or more light
Generate less heat for the A/C to deal with (and again save...)
Not have to change the light bulb for several years (HS Students - this means you'll have moved out already!)

Not a lot of effort, but a big payoff. Try it.

Don

Now those are good reasons to consider trying a Compact Fluorescent Bulb. And because energy conservation is always the right thing to do.

And then remember that any kind of Fluorescent Bulb shouldn't go in the trash when it burns out. They contain mercury in small quantities and should be taken to your local hazardous waste collection area. And that's the thing about our world today - every issue has more than one side and every "quick fix" has consequences.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by johnr

what about the mercury in those new bulbs. no there isn't alot in one ,but what happens when we all start throwing them out.

Here is a document that discusses the mercury content in compact fluorescent bulbs. Less mercury is actually attributed to the use of a CFB than the equivalent use of standard incandescent bulbs over the same time period. Turns out coal-fired generating plants produce mercury as a byproduct of the process:

http://www.nema.org/lamprecycle/epafactsheet-cfl.pdf

This document also suggests how to properly dispose of CFB's.

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Seriously, I think the comment on Compact Fluorescent Bulbs makes a lot of sense, and I urge everyone to consider it.

We changed some of our lights to CFLs a few years ago.

The first light we did was the one in the stairway going upstairs, not an easy light to get to and with the decorative shade one of those poles to change a bulb is out of the question. Now we don't have to worry about the bulb buring out as often and rigging up a ladder or scaffold to reach it!

The lamps in the living room were changed also since they're on all the time.

[Kims Robot]

Let me start with as a kid I always loved the idea of being like the hippie treehuggers... I was a nature buff, I spent a summer digging up baby maple trees in my yard and giving them to people to plant, I ALWAYS recycle, try and use/buy recycled materials, reduce power use when possible, etc.

I think all of the ideas here are great ideas, along with many others. We as a world need to reduce the energy we use and be conscious of it. As robotics teams, immersed in technology, its a great thing for us to support.

However I want to say that Im NOT doing this in support of reducing global warming... before I decided to become an engineer, I wanted to study glaciers, and despite Al Gore's movie, glacial studies actually showed that melting and freezing (the earth warming & cooling) was natural. Its a little early for me to find all the sources I read back then, but a quick google search on "what is global warming" brought up some of the top ideas...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...31/ai_60597890
http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?s...ms_documentary
http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/
http://www.askquestions.org/details....ifHgodQSRmy w

But again, Im in full support of doing things for our environment, we should all do more to not be so wasteful. And in reality, I dont think there is enough evidence on either side to totally prove or disprove global warming. But as Ed points out, I think FIRST has the right idea with the Animation, and Dan points out the fuel cell competition (for which 1511 was a participating team). Lets do what we can for our environment because its the right thing, not because its the trend, or because of buzzwords.

[Swan217]

Though I appriciate the dicussion going on, I'd like to reel the thread back into focus - What are you going to do to make your robotics team more enviro-friendly? We shouldn't just be inspiring students in math and science, but EARTH-RESPONSIBLE math and science. Having 5,000,000 engineers doesn't help the world if they are all advocating waste, denying global warming (which is an undeniable fact), and complacent to the OATH ENGINEERS TAKE to make the world better. There's a question on the Engineering Licensing Exam on what the ethical responsibility of engineers is, the answer being to make the world a better place; similar to the Hippocratic Oath "First do no harm." Unfortunately I NEVER hear about this crucial aspect of engineering. Frankly, this is the reason that I find a "Conservative engineer" to be an oxymoron and hypocrisy (But not a Hippocracy).

So I repeat: What are you going to do to make your robotics team more enviro-friendly?

[Cynette]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

So I repeat: What are you going to do to make your robotics team more enviro-friendly?

1. Team 1511 (Rolling Thunder) participated in their towns annual clean-up day and eco-fair which was near Earth Day 2007. A crew went out and picked up litter from an entrance ramp to a local highway. They were convinced that along with the normal roadside trash, they collected enough auto parts to build an entire car (Jeep Cherokee was the choice I think.)

2. The Ladies of Team 1511 in their "Project Girl Wrench" Program selected Storm Water drain painting as a community service project. They learned how to identify the storm drains and paint them to remind the public that storm drains are for storm water only!

3. Rolling Thunder also has a mentor to promote environment-friendly behavior. That would be me, an environmental engineer by degree and certification. But they don't really need mentors to tell them what to do when it comes to energy conservation, recycling and basic environmental protection. They learn it at home, at school, and in their communities. Sometimes I think we need to get out of the next generation's way and let them show us the solutions to the problems we are just standing on our soapboxes and preaching about. [climbs off soapbox...]

[FourPenguins]

Originally Posted by johnr

oh, and that warming thing , not much you can do about the sun warming up.

I'm going to nip this one right in the bud. The sun is putting out the same amount of heat and light that is has for the last billion or so years. Global warming is caused not by the sun warming up, but by greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide, which increase the amount of heat that is trapped by the atmosphere.
There is no debate whether global warming is going on right now. Scientists are entirely in agreement that there is a warming trend. The only question is whether or not humans are responsible, or whether this is a natural cycle that the earth goes through. Though it is likely a natural cycle, the amount of CO2 and other pollutants that people generate is undeniable, and there's no reason not to help reduce your impact, especially since many of these changes cause you to save money in the long run, like CFLs, which cost more, but last longer and use about one quarter of the energy.

Back on topic.
Personally, I have replaced four bulbs in my house with CFLS, one with a fluorescent tube shoplight, and two desk lamps with 30W fluorescent ones that look like 100W incandescents. Replacing our washer, dryer, and fridge with new Energy Star appliances has also made a big difference. All of the computers in the house have a hibernation or energy-saving mode timer. We also don't have central air
The school my team builds at has an active aluminum and plastic recycling program and is lit almost entirely by fluorescent tubes. I would like to see a paper recycling program set up, because most of the school waste is paper. Maybe I'll run that one by team leadership and see how much it would take to set something up.