Bradley Barnett English 1102 Dr.

Sally Griffin March 23, 2014 Power Plant Pollution As being a freshmen on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, you would figure I would be in clubs and being active on campus. I am part of the freshmen year engineering learning community which is located in Hawthorn Hall. Even though that I am part of discourse community, I decided to go out and fine another community to be a part of. Soon to be one day, I will be a successful electrical engineer so I wanted to do something relatively close in that field. But I chose to focus on the pollution of the power plants and how that will affect the people down the road for future generations. As a person, I want to better the world for others to live in. This all started when I took a trip to Costa Rica where I got to witness the life other than a first world country, which is what I am use to having the privilege to live in America. The effects of pollution can really be serious and needs to be taken seriously. How Do They Work? With anything that uses electricity, there must be a power source. In the past, power plants have ran off of coal which gives off the worse pollution because so much carbon dioxide is given off during the break down of coal. But since the 20th century, coal has begun to decrease in the use of running a power plant. Some power plants, like the ones in Nevada, run off of water that the Hoover Dam produces ("USNRC"). Most of those power plants that use water do not

give off as much power because there simply is not enough power generated from the water. A positive about using water as the power source is there is no nasty pollutants that are given off in the process. Just water is not simply capable of powering everyone on the east coast, so that is why the use of coal is important ("Electricity"). The figure below shows the decrease in coal use since 2005. A new power source is emerging and becoming more popular to use because it gives of lower amounts carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which is good for the pollution. This source is called natural gas. Natural gas is a fossil fuel which means it was made thousands and thousands years ago and has been stored in the earths ground. Natural gas is used in power plants by being combusted (burned). The only bad thing about natural gas is that it is not a renewable source which means that once we run out, we are out. Natural gas takes a long time to be made and if we use all the natural gas up, then it will be back to coal and all the nasty pollution. Not all power plants use natural gas but

the majority do use them. As you can see

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2014 Early Release Overview, December 16, 2013.

on the graph, natural gas usage will certainly surpass the use of coal within the next 20 years but

for how long? That is the question that most people ask but really it is until the natural gas runs out. Overall, natural gas is the ideal use for a good power supply but even if it is better than coal, it still gives off pollutants that are harmful to the earth and to the animals on the planet, including humans (Electricity). Effects of Pollution Pollution can be very harmful to the environment. In fact, the pollution is so bad that the polar ice caps near the north and south poles are beginning to melt due to the increase of temperature that the earth stays at. In America, power plants are the number one carbon dioxide pollutant producers with transportation coming in a close second place. With power plants producing so much carbon dioxide, it could really hurt the ecosystems and the animals that live in them, including humans (Fuente, 138-148). The effects that pollution has on plants is very bad. Plants and trees obtain their energy from a process called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process where a plant takes in sunlight and carbon dioxide to create energy in the form of glucose and oxygen. This process is similar to a humans respiratory system. As mammals, we take in oxygen to produce carbon dioxide. Back in the day before the humans began to over populate the planet and pollute the air, there was more oxygen than carbon dioxide in the air. The air was completely fresh and cleaner than todays air. But now, the air has more carbon dioxide than oxygen which means that the plants have to do more photosynthesis to balance out the mixture. With the power plants producing all the carbon dioxide and humans cutting down trees daily, the carbon

https://www.google.com/search?q=photosynthesis+diagram&espv=210&es_sm=122 &tbm=isch&imgil= http://masterman535.hubpages.com/hub/A-Simple-Diagram-ofPhotosynthesis Photosynthesis%3B520%3B622

dioxide will remain in the air. In the diagram on the left shows the process of photosynthesis in picture form (Levy, 743-750). Besides the atmosphere, the water also gets polluted such as lakes, rivers, and even the ocean from power plants. Usually, power plants are right near a lakes so usually the power plants will dump the solid wastes that are produced in the process into a lake. The EPA has gotten stricter on that because the direct pollution to the lake was killing off the harmless marine life. Not only does the pollution kill off the animals that live in the lake but it also effects how long before animals could relive in that area (Abramovich, 1002-1012). So not only is pollution effecting the air but it is also is effecting the animals that live in them too. I hope that people soon realize the damage that is being done to the ecosystems because once it gets bad, there will be no turning back from it. With all of the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it could deteriorate the atmosphere that helps keep the strong UV light out of earth. Methods The methods I used for this project was reading and learning about how power plants work and how dangerous the pollution they produce is for the environment. I tried to contact a power plant company but they did not respond to my email. I wanted to interview them and see if they knew what they were doing was bad for the environment even though it has to be done for the people in America to have electricity. Even though I did not get to talk to anyone about this, I still feel that I am highly educated on what the consequences of power plant pollution are. Also, to get a better understanding about the ecosystem damage, I turned to one of my old science textbook study guides that I had to do in middle school and high school about pollution. This

helped me remember what I have already learned in the past so that I could better my knowledge with the newer information that I was not aware of. Results After reviewing all of my findings, I have come to a conclusion that from the environmentalist standpoint of power plant pollution is a discourse community. Within this discourse community, many people believe different things which is what a true discourse community is, all different opinions crammed into one group. According to John Swales, there are six characteristics that define a discourse community. The six characteristics are: common goals, intercommunication, participatory mechanisms, genres, lexis, and old-timers vs. newbies. Most of all discourse communities have these characteristics within themselves. The goals for this discourse community is to better the environment with the stopping of power plant pollution. With these goals set, there will be the motivation to limit the amount of pollution that is given off from the power plants. Within this discourse communities, everyone has a different view and opinion as the other person which makes this community so strong. To limit the amount of pollution that is given off, people must continue to help and want to make the earth a better place for it to actually happen. Lexis in this discourse community are no easily found. A lexis that is in a way linked to this discourse community would be a governmental agency. Its abbreviation is EPA, which stands for Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has begun to regulate how power plants dump the wastes that is produced in the process of making electricity. As being part of this discourse community, I have realized that there is more to a discourse community that just meetings and same beliefs. This discourse community could

definitely improve by using some sort of communication to let others realize what effects pollution has on the earth and the animals that intermingle within it.

Works Cited

Abramovich, Sigal. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 62. Elsevier, 2011. 1002-1012. eBook. <http://www.sciencedirect.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/science/article/pii/S0025326X11001 07X>.

Chandler, David. The Effects of Pollution. 1. 21. American Fitness, 2003. 141. eBook. <http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/ehost/detail?sid=b53795de-0827-4a6494ea6b3f02d8503f@sessionmgr114&vid=5&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl 2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl>.

Fuente, Daniel. Mapping Air Pollution. 2. 14. Elsevier, 2013. 138-145. eBook. <http://www.sciencedirect.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/science/article/pii/S1296207412000 945>.

Levy, Jonathan. Environmental Health Perspectives. 5. 115. Brogan & Partners, 2012. 743-750. eBook. <http://www.jstor.org.librarylink.uncc.edu/stable/4489022>.

"Electricity." U.S. Energy Information Administration. Government, 12 Mar 2014. Web. 12 Mar 2014. <http://www.eia.gov/electricity/>.

"USNRC." Operating Nuclear Reactors. Government, 28 Jan 2014. Web. 15 Mar 2014. <http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactor/>.