https://www.sciencebuddies.org/fluor-challenge-2022?from=Newsletter

Fluor 2022 Engineering Challenge

The Canadian Government, Environment and Climate Change Canada, has opened the comment period on a proposed ban on single-use plastics.  The comment period ends on March 5, 2022.

Read the email from Environment and Climate Change Canada – get ready to provide a comment 🙂
Email from Environment and Climate Change Canada

December 30, 2021

Greetings,

On December 25, 2021, the proposed Single-Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, Part I initiating a 70-day public comment period ending on March 5, 2022. During this period, stakeholders and partners are invited to submit comments to Environment and Climate Change Canada on the proposed Regulations, the accompanying Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, as well as the draft Guidance for Selecting Alternatives.

The proposed Regulations would prohibit the manufacture, import and sale of six categories of single-use plastic items (checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics, ring carriers [think six-pack holders], stir sticks, and straws), with certain exceptions for straws.

The feedback received on the proposed Integrated Management Approach to Plastic Products has been considered in the development of the proposed Regulations. A What We Heard Report summarizes this feedback.

The draft Guidance for Selecting Alternatives to the Single-Use Plastics in the Proposed Single-Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations has been developed to help businesses and other organizations make decisions on alternative products or systems that prevent pollution and help Canada transition to a circular economy.

We invite you to review the proposed Regulations, the accompanying Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, as well as the draft Guidance for Selecting Alternatives and to provide your feedback, no later than March 5, 2022, to the following email address: plastiques-plastics@ec.gc.ca.

Feedback should include the following for each specific comment:

1. the section of the proposed Regulations, Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, or draft Guidance for Selecting Alternatives to which the comment relates

e.g., 5(1)(a)(i) of the regulatory text; “Select Canadian Market Characteristics” section of the Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement;“Considerations for Alternative Single-use Plastics” section of the draft Guidance for Selecting Alternatives;

2. the comment itself; and

3. any supporting information or rationale.

All written feedback received during the comment period will be considered in the development of the final Regulations and Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, which will be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II. Feedback will also inform the finalization of the Guidance for Selecting Alternatives.

Environment and Climate Change Canada is available to provide further information and clarification on the requirements of the proposed Regulations to affected businesses or organizations, via virtual meetings or webinars.

Should you have any questions on this consultation process, or if you do not wish to receive future updates about the proposed Regulations please contact us at plastiques-plastics@ec.gc.ca.

Another first for space exploration, the solar Parker probe begins to  explore the corona to help scientists better understand solar outbursts that can interfere with life on Earth.

The sun does not have a solid surface.  This means that the corona is where the magnetically intense region of the sun is.  Scientists can better understand this magnetically intense region and  better understand the solar outbursts that can interfere with life on Earth.

The solar Parker probe was Launched in 2018. The Parker probe was 13m km from the center of the sun when it first crossed the jagged, uneven boundary between the solar atmosphere and outgoing solar wind.

Learn more about how energy is transformed but never lost:

Miniture Science

Learn more about the worst toxic waste – nurdles

Nurdles, the colloquial term for “pre-production plastic pellets”, are the little-known building block for all our plastic products. The tiny beads can be made of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and other plastics. Released into the environment from plastic plants or when shipped around the world as raw material to factories, they will sink or float, depending on the density of the pellets and if they are in freshwater or saltwater.

They are often mistaken for food by seabirds, fish and other wildlife. In the environment, they fragment into nanoparticles whose hazards are more complex. They are the second-largest source of micropollutants in the ocean, by weight, after tyre dust. An astounding 230,000 tonnes of nurdles end up in oceans every year.

Learn more about how the science and forecasting language of the climate crisis is adapting to meet our new weather reality:  Link to article 

This paper introduces a scale for the intensity and impacts of ARs. Its utility may be greatest where ARs are the most impactful storm type and hurricanes, nor’easters, and tornadoes are nearly nonexistent. (Martin, 2019).

Learn more:  Link

The Great Pacific garbage patch is getting a clean up:

Learn more about how our oceans are being polluted by plastic waste:

Science is a way of learning about the natural world. You do not have to believe in science for it to be true.

Review Chemistry skills from Grade 8 and Grade 9:

Watch the following video clip = read the periodic table + Bohr models
Watch the following video clip = periodic table familes and reactivity trends