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Earth Day: A Short Rundown

4/22/2018

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Forty one years ago, Earth Day 1977, Appalachia- Science in the Public Interest filed Articles of Incorporation. Building on the growing awareness of anthropogenic impact on the environment, the organization was the first of its kind in Appalachia: using science and technology to affect change.  

When the modern environmental movement was at its genesis in the 1970’s, pollution was in plain sight. White birds turned black from soot. Smog was thick. Recycling was nascent. Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring published in 1962. It brought to light the dangerous use of a pesticide called DDT that was polluting rivers and destroying the eggs of birds of prey like bald eagles.

Then, in 1969, a large oil spill struck the coast of Santa Barbara, California. It moved then-Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin to put Earth Day on the national stage. More than 20 million people turned out.

It spurred a movement that pushed then-President Nixon to create the Environmental Protection Agency. In the 48 years since the first Earth Day, there have been more than 48 major environmental wins. Protections have been put in place on everything from clean water to endangered species. A federal agency was created to protect the environment; The EPA also works to protect human health. For example, lead and asbestos, once common in homes and offices, have been largely phased out of many common products.

So it seems that we’re on a pretty good track looking back over the past 41 years. A lot of our cumulative actions have had a real impact. However, as I am writing this, I am struck by my renewed sense of urgency in advocating for taking action; the current administration is rapidly dismantling policies and social norms established to protect the environment.

It’s personally terrifying to watch as decades of outreach and raising awareness that created localized change and led to changing policies can be unraveled in such a short time. I would be remiss to not mention the “Mission Accomplished” sentiment that has prevailed with Earth Day in the new millennium. This administration has proved that nothing is sacred, and crises like Flint, Houston and Puerto Rico prove that we still need to advocate for change and stand up for the earth and all it’s citizens. But that means we must still diligently work to protect the earth.
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So for Earth Day 2018, reflect on what has been done in the past 40 years (!!) and grow hope that we can still affect change. 

We breathe cleaner air. Los Angeles, for example, was infamous for its smog back then. Air pollution there, as measured by ground-level ozone, has dropped from 0.58 parts per million to 0.151 p.p.m. Yet this happened while car-loving California drove twice as much over that period.
. . . partly because gasoline-powered cars are more fuel-efficient. In 1970, the average for cars was 13.5 miles per gallon; now it’s 22.6 m.p.g. Light trucks: 10 m.p.g. vs. 18.1 m.p.g. But the overall fuel efficiency has improved less — 13 m.p.g. vs. 20.7 m.p.g.— because a higher proportion of S.U.V.'s and pickups are on today’s highways.

The per capita use of fossil fuels has decreased. America consumed 14.7 million barrels of oil per day in 1970. It consumed 18.9 million barrels last year, a 29 percent increase. But the United States now has 54 percent more people and the economy is 15 times larger. U.S. coal consumption of 731.1 MMst in 2016 was 8.4% lower than the 2015 level. Consumption peaked in 2015, after rising from 680 MMst to 1,125 MMst since 1977. The electric power sector accounted for about 92.8% of the total U.S. coal consumption in 2016.

We recycle more. In 1970, an average American produced 3.3 pounds of trash a day; almost all of it ended up in landfills or incinerators. By 2012, that American produced 4.4 pounds each day and sent 54 percent of it to landfills or incinerators. The rest was recycled, composted or burned for energy, options that barely existed in 1970. Plastics represented only 2.6 percent of the nation’s trash in 1970 but now account for 17.6 percent, posing a particular challenge since many types of plastics neither decompose in landfills nor recycle easily.

Rivers don’t burn. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire in 1969 because it was so polluted. A survey at the time found that not a single species of fish existed in the lower part of the river, which empties into Lake Erie. Biologists recently counted 32. Average dissolved oxygen levels went from 2 milligrams per liter to above 6. Kayakers and canoers now jostle for room on the river along with ships.

The bald eagle is back. Spotting the national bird in 1970 was a rare treat. There were fewer than 800 breeding pairs in the lower 48 states in 1970. While they still can’t be taken for granted, the eagles are common along America’s waterways. The National Audubon Society, using its Christmas Bird Count, estimates there may now be more than five times as many, while federal government data suggests the population has grown more than 10 times.

But the atmosphere is still full of CFCs. At the time of the first Earth Day, chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs (among them the well-known brand Freon) were in worldwide use as refrigerants and propellants in aerosols. It wasn’t until later in the 1970s that scientists discovered their destructive effects on the ozone layer.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began tracking atmospheric concentrations of CFC-11, one of the most significant types, in 1977, measuring it at about 140 parts per trillion. That number nearly doubled, to 270 parts per trillion, in 1994 before beginning a slow decline as production was phased out and existing CFCs were replaced by other chemicals. In January 2016, the concentration measured 232 parts per trillion.

And the earth is warming. Since that first Earth Day, the world has been warming at an accelerated pace compared with prior decades, and scientists believe rising emissions of greenhouse gases are the main cause. They calculate that the world has warmed by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the 19th century, with about 1 degree of that occurring just since 1970. The warming has been sharply higher over land and in some polar regions. As a result of melting glaciers and the expansion of warmer ocean water, the sea level is rising ever faster. It rose at an average rate of 2 millimeters a year between 1971 and 2010, and even faster in the past decade, after rising at an average rate of 1.7 millimeters per year in the last century.

What to do today: 
The theme of 2018's Earth Day celebration is plastics—specifically how to decrease their unwanted impacts on our environment. What was perhaps set in place in the mid-20th century when plastic was manufactured on a large scale has come back to haunt us.

Plastic refuse is everywhere. It's bigger than Texas in the Pacific garbage patch, and it's as small as the micro plastics getting eaten by fish and churned out on our dinner plates.

Some environmental groups are leading grassroots movements to cut back on the use of common plastics like straws; the U.K. even recently proposed passing a law to ban them. Its one incremental way to cut back on the whopping 91 percent of plastic that isn't recycled.

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National Hanging Out Day

4/19/2018

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It’s not an occasion to hang out with friends, although having company while doing laundry is never a bad idea. It’s a day to encourage communities to learn about the benefits of using a clothesline for drying laundry. It saves money, reduces energy consumption, makes your clothes last longer, and gets you outside. Some benefits:
  • Save money
You can save more than $25/month off the monthly electric bill for many households. You can read about drying costs. Find out how much you spend on drying clothes by using the DOE’s appliance energy calculator. 
  • Clothes last longer
Where do you think lint comes from?
  • Pleasant Scent
Clothes and linens smell better without adding possibly toxic chemicals to your body and the environment. Yankee candle, Febreeze, Tide, and any number of high priced candles, air fresheners or room sprays strive for the smell of air lined laundry.    
  • Saves Energy, Preserves Environment, Reduces Pollution
You could make your own clothes with needle and thread using 100% organic cotton sheared from sheep you raised on a Whole Foods diet, but the environmental quality of your wardrobe is ultimately determined by the way you wash it. A recent study by Cambridge University's Institute of Manufacturing found that 60% of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent in washing and drying it. Over its lifetime, a T shirt can send up to 9 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the air.  When they're clean, dry your clothes the natural way, by hanging them on a line rather than loading them in a dryer. Altogether you can reduce the CO2 created by your laundry up to 90%. Plus, no more magically disappearing socks.
  • Healthy Work
It is moderate physical activity which you can do in or outside. You can even lose weight!
  • Get the Sunshine Treatment
Sunlight is a natural disinfectant. Ultraviolet radiation of the sun kills pathogens that cause diarrhea. In fact, scientists have found that exposing a bottle of water to sunlight for 6 hours is an economical way to provide developing countries with safe drinking water 
  • Replace another appliance
Indoor racks can humidify in dry winter weather.
  • Avoid a Fire
Clothes dryer and washing machine fires account for about 17,700 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 360 injuries annually. The yearly national fire loss for clothes dryer fires in structures is estimated at $194 million.
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Don’t know how to dry your laundry? Here are some high quality tips to help you get that job done:
  • When using a drying machine, make sure your clothes are well spun out before hanging them on a rack.
  • If you have washed some delicate clothing, be sure you have removed as much water as possible by rolling the garment in an absorbent towel.
  • Give your clothes a good shake to make them softer, prevent wrinkles and reduce drying time.
  • Hang your T-shirts on a hanger. You can put them directly in your closet and they will be sleek. You won’t even have to iron.
  • As for the jeans, you will need multiple hanging racks, so that they get as much air circulation as possible. To speed the process, when hanging your clothes, try to place them near the heating or the air conditioning vent. An air or floor fan will also speed up the process. The fabric is thick, so a good air circulation is important.
  • Occasionally, we are in a rush and we need a particular blouse to be clean and ready within an hour, which means that there is simply no time to hang-dry. In this rare case, you should turn on the spin function on your washer. It will absorb all the water from your clothes and will take less time for the dryer to evaporate it from your clothes. It is better for the environment and much quicker for you as well.

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Turning off the lights

4/16/2018

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This week is International Dark Sky Week, which draws attention to the problems associated with light pollution and promotes simple solutions available to mitigate it. Turn off the lights at night and experience the nighttime environment. Go outside, look up and look around. Explore!

Light pollution is reversible and its solutions are immediate, simple and cost-effective. Here are a few simple things you can do to confront the problem and take back the night:

• Check around home. Shield outdoor lighting, or at least angle it downward, to minimize “light trespass” beyond your property lines. Use light only when and where needed. Motion detectors and timers can help. Use only the amount of light required for the task at hand.

• Star Party! Many astronomy clubs and International Dark Sky Places are celebrating the week by holding public events under the stars.

• Download, Watch, and Share “Losing the Dark,” a public service announcement about light pollution. It can be downloaded for free and is available in 13 languages.

• Talk to neighbors and your community. Explain that poorly shielded fixtures waste energy, produce glare and reduce visibility.

• While you’re out there, take some notes. Become a citizen scientist and collect data about the night sky in your neighborhood for Globe at Night. It’s fun, easy and you’ll be helping scientists across the globe better understand the threat of light pollution to our planet.

• Photograph the sky and enter the 2017 International Earth and Sky Photo Contest, which aims to educate the public about light pollution (contest dates to be announced in early March).

Even though Rachel Maddow has been killing it on MSNBC, turn off the TV and go outside and observe a light-less night sky this week!
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Plant Appreciation Day

4/13/2018

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“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth and no culture comparable to that of the garden.”- Thomas Jefferson, born today, April 13, in 1743.

April 13 is Plant Appreciation Day. As you start to tend your garden, consider gardeners over the centuries that relied on their gardens for food. They observed growing conditions like insects and soil health to improve productivity because they had no other choice. Like Thomas Jefferson, they traded and saved seeds and experimented with different varieties in order to maximize the benefits of the garden. You are participating in one of the most important and oldest activities to sustain life.

Experiment

Jefferson once wrote that the “greatest service which can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.” When he traveled throughout our young country and abroad, Jefferson often exchanged seeds and seedlings with other gardeners. He enjoyed cultivating those seeds and young plants in his Monticello garden.

Because he grew a variety of crops, including a mix of tropical species with cool weather crops, he devised a unique terraced landscape for his 1,000-foot-long vegetable garden. By placing the garden on a south-facing slope, he was able to capture abundant sunshine.
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Creating this unique form of “hanging garden” involved the removal of about 600,000 cubic feet of red clay and the creation of a 1,000-foot-long rock wall that was 15-feet tall in some places.

Grow what you eat
Jefferson loved to eat vegetables. His Monticello garden featured 330 different varieties of vegetables and 170 varieties of fruits. According to Monticello gardening expert Peter Hatch, Jefferson’s garden inspired a “revolutionary cuisine.” A Monticello recipe for okra soup, for instance, reflects influences from Native Americans (lima beans), Europe (potatoes and tomatoes) and Africa via the West Indies (okra).

Go natural
Jefferson would be quite at home with the organic gardening movement of today. When his daughter, Martha, wrote to him while he was in Philadelphia serving as secretary of state, she complained about insects damaging the vegetables at Monticello.

He responded, “I suspect that the insects which have harassed you have been encouraged by the feebleness of your plants; and that has been produced by the lean state of the soil.”

He recommended the garden be covered that winter with “a heavy coating of manure. When is rich it bids defiance to droughts, yields in abundance, and of the best quality.”

Keep notes
Jefferson had a scientist’s mind, and because of that, he kept scrupulous notes about what worked and what did not work in his garden.

He recorded his gardening efforts in his Garden Book, a personal journal he maintained from 1766 to 1824. Hatch reports that Jefferson was not afraid to admit defeat in certain gardening circumstances. “On one page in 1809 the word failed is written down 19 times,” Hatch writes.  “He had a holistic view, as we say today, of the gardening process. It is the failure of one thing that is repaired by the success of another.”

Make your garden a retreat
Jefferson enjoyed the restorative aspects of being a gardener and believed that gardens should be seen, experienced and enjoyed.

For example, he designed and built an octagonal pavilion in a central garden location at Monticello and used this spot as a location for reading, writing and even entertaining.

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth,” he once wrote, “and no culture comparable to that of the garden.”
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