Animal Warfare (Topic 3)

               
               Topic three, Animal Welfare from Putting Meat On The Table surrounds the idea of how to keep animals when farming. It talks about what the best ways to raise the animals are, indoors or outdoors. In Hoop Barns or Confinement Systems. There are arguments for both sides. Hoop barns are nice when you want a cheap small area for pigs to be raised in, but the cost goes up when you need to buy bedding for the urine and feces to soak into. It also doesn't last as long as a Confinement System. Hoop Barns also aren't meant for colder climates. Confinement Systems are nice because there tend to be lower incidences for diseases. But, on the other hand, animals are kept in more crowded conditions, are subject to a number of chronic and production-related diseases, and are unable to exhibit natural behaviors. In addition, animals are physically altered to reduce further injury. Most animals are physically altered without pain relief when raised in confined production systems even though it is widely accepted that such alteration causes pain. For example, hogs have their tails docked to avoid tail biting by other hogs in close proximity. Laying hens and broilers have their toenails, spurs, and beaks clipped. The purpose of such alteration is to avoid injury to the animal or any other animal. The fundamental welfare concern is the ability of the animal to express natural behaviors, for example, having natural materials to walk or lie on, having enough floor space to move around with some freedom.
According to an article I found, (http://animalrights.about.com/od/animalsusedforfood/a/SolutionFactory.htm) it states that going vegan is the only solution. I disagree with this completely. There are tons of ways farmers can make living situations more comfortable for animals. These ways include, giving them more living space with less of them in said living space. Feeding them correct food and an appropriate amount. And just all around treating them better, especially if these farmers plan on keeping them around for a while to use for a source of milk and eggs.

Tar Sand

1) Which energy source should we extract and use first, oil shale or tar sands? Why? 
      We should extract and use tar sands first because it doesn't require so much digging, and it could be less harmful to the environment it is in. It also only requires steam to extract. 

2) Describe one similarity between the process used to get oil from tar sands and the process used to get oil from oil shale.
      A similarity between getting oil from tar sands and from oil shale is digging. They both require some drilling to extract the oil. They also both, once the drilling is done, require heat. 
3) Describe one key difference between the process used to get oil from tar sands and the process used to get oil from oil shale.
      One difference between extracting oil from oil shale and from tar sand is that when extracting oil from tar sand it only requires steam to heat it whereas, extracting oil from oil shale it requires drilling heater holes about 7,000 feet down and that can get dangerous. 

4) Explain, in terms of EROI, why the author believes "off-shore oil drilling may be a smart way to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the long run".
The author thinks that drilling off shore will reduce greenhouse gas emissions because 

5) Use EROI/Best First Principle to explain one decision that you have made in your day-to-day life. This could literally be anything, but I am looking for new examples other than the energy resources we have been studying. In other words, you should provide an example of how EROI influenced a decision at your individual level rather than the societal level.