This Week in Environmental News: August 28th
Wildlife Refuge
Canada’s Environment Minister John Baird announced last week that the government fund the opening up a wildlife sanctuary on and around Baffin Island. The wildlife refuge will be established to protect the habitat of the native species in the area. Some of animals they attempting to protect are bowhead whales, polar bears, seals and walruses. The government plans on spending a total of 8.3 million Canadian dollars on a seven year deal that will establish a total of 12 wildlife and bird sanctuaries in the Nunavut territory. There have been concerns for many years for the population of the bowhead whales as populations have been as low as 5000 just a few years ago.
Google’s Geothermal Plan
Google has recently announced that it’s charitable wing, Google.org, will put nearly $11 million towards the development of the less known alternative energy, geothermal. In particular, Google.org will be funding a technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems or EGS that will allow us to harness the earth’s energy. Other countries including Australia and several European and Asian countries have already started to invest heavily in this renewable source of energy. The biggest obstacle with accessing geothermal energy is be able to drill deep enough into the earth to have access to it. The only way that geothermal energy will become a viable option is for the technologies for drilling to become more efficient. It will be some time before America and other countries can really utilize geothermal energy as a financially viable option, but it does look like an extremely promising energy source for the future.
