Current Events

EARTH DAY
by C.B.

April 22, 2008 was Earth Day. Not many people know the origin of Earth Day or why we celebrate it, they just know that it's about keeping the Earth healthy. Earth Day is a time to celebrate the environment, figure out how to help the environment, and how to protect our planet's natural beauties and gifts. There is no central group that organizes it every year or that started it in the first place, but there are several groups that work with it. There are thousands of events that are organized in communities and such but, in no country is it a national holiday. When the United States has events to celebrate Earth Day, it's just to confirm that we are environmentally aware. Since organizations hold so many events, Earth Day has become a mainstream American thought. In the 19th century, Americans had no environmenal concern, and water/air pollution was not a recognized problem. When the 1960's came around, people started to see all the damage that was happening to the environment. In 1962 Rachel Carson published a best-selling book titled Silent Spring. It was a wake-up call telling about how dangerous pesticides and daily-life chemicals were to the environment. In 1968 the first photo of Earth was taken from outer space. People had a glimpse of how their beautiful Earth would be without all the natural things that made it beautiful. The awareness in turn created Earth Day.

PENNSYLVANIA PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
by S.C.

On Tuesday, April 22nd, all eyes were on Pennsylvania. The ongoing fight between Obama and Clinton had a chance to end here. The polls had fluctuated between the two but really everyone knew it would come down to the very last ballot. Hillary desperately needed to win Pennsylvania by at least double digits to stay in the race for the nomination. And she did exactly that; winning the state by 10%. The democrats count points by percentage not the number of states they win. With this victory, the race continued on to Indiana and North Carolina.

The May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina had votes split between Clinton and Obama. Clinton took Indiana and Obama took North Carolina. At this rate, it's anyone's guess as to who will be the Democratic candidate in November.

GAS PRICES BY M.P. Shell: $3.86/gallon - regular unleaded Wawa:$3.04/gallon - regular unleaded Sunoco: $2.97/gallon - regular unleaded Lukoil: $3.09/gallon - regular unleaded BP: $3.06/gallon - regular unleaded America needs alternate fuel now! http://www.gaspricewatch.com/new/default_V3.asp to look at the price of gas without leaving home. We need a brain to solve this gas scenario so millions of problems won't be created amongst our society. Someone needs to find an alternate fuel. Not only does gas cost a lot of cash to buy, but it has effects when being burned. For instance, global warming. Here's a scientific view on it. The Earth's climate changes in response to external forcing, including variations in its orbit around the Sun, changes in solar luminosity, volcanic eruptions, and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The detailed causes of the recent warming remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus is that the increase in atmos- pheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era. According to Wikipedia, our burning of fossil fuels has caused a hole in the ozone layer letting in more sunlight and burning the polar ice caps. Besides that, people all over the world are still burning these un-ecosystem friendly fuels raising the air temperature and burning the polar ice caps even more. So not only do you destroy life on the polar ice caps, but America will be flooded along with other countries unless we stop this greenhouse gas and fossil fuel scenario now.

______________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________