Third week in April and Earth Haven...

"Building Green"

Green building, to me, is probably the most obvious thing we can do to reduce our footprints on the environment. By simply choosing some alternate means of construction, we have a way to save millions of kilowatt hours and keep potentially billions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. 

We need to learn to build around the environment rather than on top of it. Houses oriented to make full use of sunlight during the respective seasons could save Americans, particularly in the Southwest, thousands of dollars individually by reducing the need for active heating and cooling units (AC units). Solar thermal and geothermal units could also achieve the same goal, and there are few places in the US where at least one of these methods couldn't be incorporated. 

I saw some very interesting practices in green building at Earth Haven, which was probably my greatest take away from the trip. They used primitive, but very effective, building materials to provide better airflow and insulation in the structures, as well as to reduce the carbon footprint that materials like mortar and concrete have. They oriented certain buildings to capture the sun's warmth to heat the house throughout the nights, which I found out can be very cold. They also made very efficient use of the space they had been given, clearing no trees that didn't need to be removed to give more habitat to local fauna, while using the trees they did remove as building material in the structures themselves. I was also impressed that they attempted a green roof, something I've never actually seen firsthand, and found very practical and aesthetically appealing.

Second week of April...

This week we took a trip to the REWA wastewater treatment facility to see firsthand what happens to what we flush down the toilet everyday. 

I can honestly say my nose has never encountered a smell, nor my eyes a sight, quite comparable to the primary settling tanks. Thousands of gallons of raw sewage, solids being allowed to settle out at the bottom to be swept out by huge rotating booms. From there the separated wastewater, still containing a good amount of suspended solids, goes to secondary treatment by specialized bacteria. The smell in this tank reminded me very much of our own Living Machine, which I suppose shouldn't be surprising, since the Living Machine functions on basically the same premise.

One thing that did somewhat shock, if not horrify, me was the large pile of trash that had been initially grated out of the wastewater. It didn't surprise me that people flushed some pretty outlandish things (I saw a piece of a shoe). What concerned me was that if these were the things large enough to be caught in the grates, what about all the countless chemicals and medicines that people assuredly forgot about once they flushed them down? It suddenly made sense to me how these things were wreaking havoc on creatures, particularly fish and amphibians, in our waterways. 

First week of April...

"April showers bring May flowers"

While this classic phrase still rings true in most places in the Western Hemisphere, California hasn't been able to say it without being somewhat sarcastic for quite some time. For FOUR years now the state has been in a state of emergency due to the worst drought on record, which has plagued the Sunshine State with wildfires that have caused billions of dollars in damages and forced many from there homes. However, it's not the fire that's California's greatest cause for concern. It's water. Or the lack thereof. 

The above photo perfectly illustrates the scale of California's water crisis. A naturally rather arid state, most Californians' water comes from vast reservoirs formed by dams on some of the state's most iconic rivers (which are also responsible for California having some of the most endangered rivers in the US). With nary a drop of rain for such a long time, even some of the largest of these reservoirs have begun to dry up. California's state government has even resorted to shipping water by train from wetter states just to meet the bare minimum needs of its thirsty citizens.

California's lack of preparedness in dealing with this crisis points to the fact that the vast majority of Americans can't imagine the idea of turning on their tap and having just a few drips come out. We are so accustomed, from birth, to the comforts of clean, drinkable water instantly at our fingertips, a luxury much of the world would quite literally kill to have. 

It is my hope that we will actually learn something from this crisis. The population of the west is growing at an unprecedented rate, and there simply isn't enough water to cater to the average American's consumption of it. We will have to institute water conservation plans into our new developments out West, or we may see environmental disasters on the scale of the Aral Sea at our doorstep. 

Second and Third weeks of March...

These weeks we discussed the extent to which our diets can impact the environment and our health. We, and by we I am addressing Americans in particular, live in a world (which I could argue isn't the real world) where there is a McDonald's at every exit and Walmart provides most of our produce. What's up with that? How have we allowed these HUGE corporate entities to essentially hijack the food industry from mostly local farmers and gardeners in less than a century? 
Well, it all goes back to the lie of the lowest price. Americans are obsessed with the idea of saving money, because we have devoted our whole lives to the accumulation of it. McDonald's can give you a pretty filling meal for less than the cost of the New York Times. Seems like a pretty good deal right? Almost too good to be true? Well, in the real world, when something seems too good to be true, it almost invariably is. You are not paying the real cost of that Big Mac. Here's who is:

The cows in the CAFOs, crowded shoulder to shoulder and standing waist deep in their own excrement. They suffer short lives of discomfort from a corn-based diet and disease only to be killed without respect and have their meat shipped to a packing facility to be ground and mixed with the meat of thousands of other cows who met the same fate.

The chickens whose beaks are cut off and whose feet will never scratch the dirt for worms. They are stuffed in boxes soon after they reach their genetically accelerated maturity. They are fattened to the point of immobility, so that we can do the same to ourselves. 

The pigs, or whatever the McRib, may be made out of, who get corralled and killed by gassing because it is more "humane." After the lives they endure, any sort of death seems comparatively human I suppose. 

The workers in the McDonalds, who are paid alarmingly low salaries that can barely feed them and their children. They are promised upward mobility, when in truth they are fired and replaced at will by the corporate higher-ups. 

Your children, who can all too easily buy into the ploy of the Happy Meal, if you allow it. Childhood obesity is at the highest it's ever been, and fast food chains that prioritize red meat and greasy foods are largely responsible. If all they know is McDonald's, odds are they will take their own children there one day, the cycle will continue, and health conditions will worsen.

So, is it worth it?

First week of March...

We read the article entitled The True Price Question. I appreciate that this article puts Americans in the hot-seat about their gross consumerism. While consumerism itself can be detrimental to the health of the individual and the environment, uninformed consumerism, like what we see in many American homes, can be deadly. Most of us don't take the time to question our buying decisions, because we've been fed so many lies like "cheaper is better" or "the more stuff you have, the more affluent you are." We don't stop to think how the things that we buy define us. Each time we buy, we cast a vote. Would the average American carelessly vote for a politician that they didn't support? I would hope not. So why do so many Americans cast their monetary vote on things that are killing communities and environments all over the world, and in the US itself? The answer is fairly simple: out of sight, out of mind. And it's not totally the consumer's fault. The producer has the responsibility to allow their consumers to make informed decisions by being totally transparent about what they're putting out. It seems like a basic human right to know everything that goes into the things that we put into our bodies and our homes. But in the interest of self-preservation and gross profit, large corporate entities often try to hide the truth in plain sight with branding ploys like "made with natural flavors" or "free-range." So maybe it is too much to ask the corporations to be honest with us. But if that's the case, we shouldn't just say "well, it's not my fault, I didn't know." We, as the most affluent population in the world, have the responsibility to get informed by any means necessary. Our habits are starving children in other countries and making our own children obese. Our lawns grow lush and green from chemical fertilizers while the rainforests that give us the greatest biodiversity and a large portion of our planet's oxygen get carved away by dozens of acres each day. It is my belief, or at least my hope, that if the average American were really informed about these issues, then they would attempt to make the right decisions. I can not believe that we are so stuck in our habits that we would not change if we knew what our purchases were doing to the world. We shouldn't hope for a savior in the form of a politician. We shouldn't wait for the corporations to hear us. As long as the money is there, that won't happen. The money comes from us, and if we continue to stay uninformed and turn a blind eye, we will be the true price. 

On the last two weeks...

During the former of the last two weeks, the article that really caught my attention was the one regarding the potential benefits and hazards of instituting nuclear energy as a critical energy resource. The case for installing a nuclear plan similar to France’s in the US is rather convincing. We would recycle the mostly (emphasis on the ‘mostly’) spent uranium rather than storing it on site (aka the 'big red terrorist bull’s-eye' strategy). Alternatively, as the article suggested, we could use thorium as our primary nuclear fuel rather than uranium, making a clandestine weapons-grade uranium plant less likely. And after all, uranium burns with quite literally the intensity of the sun with nary the atmospheric pollution of our conventional fossil fuels like petroleum and coal. However, if it sounds almost too good to be true, I’d agree. Because like fossil fuels, the usage of uranium comes with its own elephant in the room: waste. And, unlike the atmospheric waste produced by burning fossil fuels which will only slowly kill us, the “depleted” uranium waste stored in vast quantities underneath our current nuclear plants could quickly wipe out vast swaths of civilization if successfully breached. Not to mention the whole controversy of denying developing countries access to uranium power plants for fear of corrupt governments creating nuclear weapons that could actually kill us all and turn the planet into an inhospitable ball of glass. With all this in mind, I am unbelievably going to agree with the majority of Americans that do not want to build more nuclear power plants. Instead, I would agree with those who support nuclear power as a transitional resource, one to tie us over during the eventually mandatory switch to renewables. Nuclear, after all, isn’t any more renewable than petroleum, and would therefore not be a logical investment for the long term.

In the latter of these two weeks, the Chinese film festival arrived on the Furman campus! I enjoyed the first film, although some found its documentary style bland, and thought it had some deep insights into how the Chinese government has misdealt with its environmental issues and how its citizens feel they have been misdealt with in the same way. From the interviews with the lawyer and his clients we see how the Chinese legal system has a stifling number of footnotes and seemingly unnecessary clauses that prevent so many citizens from changing their societal or legal status. Similarly, they handle their environmental hazards in the film, mainly the benzene leak towards the end of the film, with a loudspeaker-based detachment that borders on reckless abandon. It is no wonder to me that Chinese citizens would feel unrepresented in their own country if the film is any indication of how the Chinese government still handles these types of environmental and legal issues.

Sustainability: The War in Washington

Last week Furman graduate Emily Wirzba, who now works in Washington DC as a political consultant with a Quaker lobbyist organization. I was very enthralled with her passionate description of the excitement of working in Washington and I found her description of the application of Quaker ideals in politics even more interesting. While some of her comments on political negotiation regarding climate change were reassuring (reassuring in that there are actually legitimate environmental negotiations going on in DC), I did not feel totally convinced that some of the hard-line climate change deniers she consults with are serious about their commitments. Her comments about the installation of the Keystone Pipeline alone, and how barely half of Republicans in the Senate would even acknowledge climate change as being real, and hardly any saying that it was influenced by humans, were very sobering. As long as these politicians continue to be subsidized by big companies (especially oil companies) and as long as they are afraid to speak what they really feel for fear of losing their vote, I don't think we'll see significant change in how the country addresses sustainability. Those who actually do feel that climate change is an issue are closeted for their beliefs. The media does not bring attention to it - the fact that Fox News is even considered a valid news source I think is a travesty in itself. Money, ratings, and conformity are the names of the game still. Change is present but stunted because of these things... My biggest fear is that we will not enact the change that we need soon enough to save our lifestyle and those of the lives after us.  

Forest-bound

This past week, the cohort took a field trip to Clemson University's experimental forest during our designated lab time. The forest, located just away from Clemson's main campus, is an attempt at taking an area that was heavily logged and desecrated by development once and reestablishing it as a healthy, biodiverse forest. While some parts of the forest were farther along in recovery than others, the general format was apparent: alternating, spacious stands of pines and hardwoods. Most of the trees were mast-bearing (releasing acorns or some other form of casting) to allow the forest to fill out faster. Other features of the forest included simulated wetlands to allow amphibians to flourish, uncut dead trees to serve as food and homes for woodpecker species, as well as areas prescribed for burning in the winter to prevent the undergrowth from becoming too thick. These control burns may seem destructive, but they are done according to a strict science that has been practiced and has been an important part of the ecosystem since the time of the Native Americans. In fact, the disappearance of controlled burns has led to the decline of animal species and tree species in certain areas, like the gopher tortoise and the longleaf pine tree whose cones only open in the presence of fire. After stopping in the forest for a lecture on features of the forest and some analysis of statistical forestry data, we took a trip to the large beaver-made pond present at the site. Here I got to see some of the species unique to the area, including some introduced, endangered longleaf pines, Virginia pines, red cedars, and large red and white oaks. The pond also apparently sports a healthy wood duck population, which really reminded me of home, back on the Ocmulgee River in Georgia where we had wood ducks nesting in the trees around our house. Then again, nature being out and about, seeing nature makes me feel at home no matter where I'm at.

No Rock, No Matter How Small...

This past week has been a rocky one. Our field trip to the Vulcan quarry in Greenwood was a good place for me to apply some of the deeper knowledge on geological features I've been gaining in Surficial Processes (in which I had my first test), and it was very cool to see those processes literally in action. Supplemented with Dr. Ranson's extensive lesson on lithology, I pretty much feel like a certified geologist already! My Surficial class also embarked on a trailblazing field trip to Jones Gap, collecting data (while not collecting sleep) on the unique geomorphological processes that shaped and are still shaping the pristine area. We left the beaten path to get up close and personal with an icy waterfall and a fairly recent landslide debris field, from which I took it upon myself to collect some souvenirs...I mean, rock specimens for further analysis. The Reedy River project is also ago, and I'm excited to tackle it full swing as soon as possible and start some local trouble! 

Now, if there's one thing I've learned from this past week, it's that no rock, no matter how small, is JUST a rock. It's part of a much greater, older, and more massive whole. I think that has something to say about each of us and our role as part of a collective species  to shape our world as we want future generations to see it. The difference between us and a rock is, we can shape our own destinies. We shouldn't just be along for the landslide. Just as one small rock's movement can cause an entire mountain face to move, each one of us can start a movement of our own. So don't be sedimentary, ignite the spark and cause a metamorphosis. 

Taking Initiatives

Over the last week, I've felt inspired by some of our readings and our class discussions to try to stay a little more positive and active about ways to live sustainably. I find myself doing little things like turning the sink off while brushing my teeth and turning off the lights and opening the blinds in my room. While these little things seem rather insignificant at the surface, I've noticed a change in my overall tendencies as a result of being conscious and proactive. I feel more energized during conversation and while doing classwork, and I've been performing better on graded assignments. Some things I do subconsciously, like making sure to get a seat by the window in class so that I get the natural light and can hear the noises of nature outside, which I find comforting and conducive to focusing on the task at hand. Overall I feel more driven and positive about my situation, because I feel like I have this goal of being sustainable to work towards. Not just sustainable in an environmental sense, although it does start with that, but also in my lifestyle itself.