Tag: computer

WHAT WILL GLOBAL WARMING BRING? (Short Version)

  • Researchers are developing models to try to determine what the effects of global warming will be on the Great Lakes region. Photo by Jerry Bielicki.

Researchers are trying to determine how global warming might affect this region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Researchers are trying to determine how global warming might affect this region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports.


Using two different sophisticated computer climate models, researchers are asking questions such as what happens to the water levels in the Great Lakes. Both models predict they drop even farther, causing shipping problems. They predict crops will produce more, and they predict some trees will die off. Peter Sousounis is one of the researchers studying the models. He says the region needs to consider what appears to be happening.


“I’m concerned that we won’t be prepared, we will not have done our homework. I think as a society we can certainly adapt, if we are given enough time. And if we don’t adapt, life might adjust to a new mean state all around.”


While nearly all climatologists believe the earth is warming, not everyone agrees whether the changes will be harmful. Sousounis agrees more research needs to be done to try to determine what the effects might be. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Obsolete Computers Piling Up

The growth of computer technology makes our lives easier in
many ways. But there’s one big drawback: as the technology improves,
you have to update your system frequently. Now some environmentalists
are becoming concerned about the pollution caused by discarded
computers. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports:

Commentary – Beyond Y2K

After all the hype and preparation, Y2K came and went without
so much as a bleep on the computer screen. But instead of congratulating
ourselves for a disaster avoided, Great Lakes Radio Consortium
commentator Suzanne Elston thinks we should be remembering what
caused the problem in the first place:

Transcript

After all the hype and preparation, Y2K came and went without so much as a bleep on the computer

screen. But instead of congratulating ourselves for a disaster avoided, Great Lakes Radio

Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston thinks we should be remembering what caused the problem in

the first place;


I have to admit I was one of the few people who didn’t stockpile canned goods and cash in

anticipation of the Y2K crisis. And although I had plenty of candles on hand New Year’s Eve, they

were there to create a festive atmosphere for my dinner guests, not to light our way into some

post millennium darkness.


But if all the hype leading up to Y2K wasn’t enough, ever since the greatest non-event of the

century came and went, we’ve had to listen to all this self-congratulatory nonsense. All the hard

work. All the careful planning. Aren’t we great? Doesn’t anybody remember we caused this mess in

the first place? We keep developing these new technologies and then applying them without ever

looking beyond the most obvious consequences.


Things like the personal computer promise to change our lives. And they do, but until there’s a

crisis – like the silly Y2K thing – nobody bothers to ask at what cost.


Look at the environment. We deal with the obvious and forget about everything else. So if a

chemical’s highly toxic or a nuclear device is highly explosive, then we have a tendency to avoid

it, or at least try to contain it somehow.


But look at things that have had a subtle but deadly impact, like chlorofluorocarbons. Down here

an earth they were the greatest thing since sliced bread. Inexpensive, inert substances that could

do everything from keeping our food frozen and our houses cool to cleaning our computer chips. And

then we found out that CFCs were destroying the ozone layer. Who knew? Better yet – who even

bothered to ask?


Look: I’m not saying that we should abandon any new ideas in case they might backfire on us. What

I am saying is that everything has a cost… everything. And we could avoid a whole lot of trouble

and panic, if we really bothered to look at the price tag in the first place.


Suzanne Elston is a syndicated columnist living in Courtice, Ontario. She comes to us by way of

the Great Lakes Radio Consortium.

Is E-Commerce Green Commerce?

If you shopped on the Internet this holiday season, you not only beat
the crowds at the mall, you also may have helped to conserve natural
resources. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Julie Edelson-Halpert has
more:

Capturing Chippewa History

New technology is being used to expose students in the
Great Lakes states to the history and ways of the six Chippewa
tribes of the Lake Superior region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mike Simonson reports … the C-D ROM, created with the help from tribal
leaders, has been six years in the making:

Y-2-K’S Effects on the Environment

With less than a year to go before we reach the Year 2000, everyone
from computer experts to doomsday cult leaders is warning about the
Y-2-K bug. As Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Suzanne Elston
points out, no one knows for sure what’s going to happen because we
can’t imagine a world without computers.

Computer Recycling

Personal computers are quickly becoming as common in American households
as TVs and telephones. But unlike those appliances, computers become
obsolete at a much faster rate. And while many computer owners abandon
their machines after just a few years of use, others think they still
have a lot of value. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Steve Frenkel
reports:

Teens Design Program to Evaluate Trees

Last winter, small towns and villages throughout the Northeast were devastated by an ice storm. Many residents lived without power for two weeks. But even after electricity was restored and the roads were cleared, the damage to thousands of trees remained. Local officials quickly cut many of them down, despite protests from residents. Now, a group of high school students has developed a software program that they hope will help the public officials make better decisions about the fate of damaged trees:

Great Lakes CD-ROM

Chances are when you were in elementary school, you saw your fair share of film strips. They weren’t much more than a boring lecture, with pictures…And the only good thing about them was getting chosen to run the projector. But today, computers in the classroom can really jazz up a lesson. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports on some new software that’s helping kids learn about the Great Lakes:

Computer Recycling

Personal computers are quickly becoming as common in American households as T.V.’s and telephones. But unlike those appliances, computers become obsolete at a much faster rate. And while many computer owners abandon their machines after just a few years of use, others think they still have a lot of value. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Steve Frenkel reports: