Eaarth Day Blog

Eaarth Day

At Proctor Academy

This year at Proctor Academy, as directed by our bodacious friendly environmental coordinator, we shook things up in Andover with mother Earth in mind. Or as our Lakota neighbors would say, "Maka." Make sure to use a guttural noise on that "K". 

Jay Harman and his Spiral Pattern
Found on Google Images

I began my personal Eaarth adventure on Wednesday, April 27th, in our humble student center. Here I embarked on the journey set forth for me by the fantastic film, Elemental. In which I learned about all different kinds of pollution, and how people were fighting against it. Featured in the film were three environmental entrepreneurs: Jay Harman, an extremely innovative environmental engineer and inventor from Australia, Rajendra Singh, a environmental activist in India, and his efforts to save the Ganges river, and finally Eriel Deranger, a Native American woman from Canada, and her commitment to stopping the development of the tar sands in Alberta Canada, and the pipelines that come with it. All of which were equally inspiring, but the one that stood out the most to me was the inventor, Jay Harman, and how he used the spiral shape that he found so repetitively showing up in nature for his designs for just about anything, including fans and even atmospheric piercing devices, designed to pierce the layer of gas keeping the hot air from being cooled by locking it low in the atmosphere. 

My second adventure came the next day, on Thursday, April 28th, our official Eaarth Day. My day began with a hearty lack of breakfast, due to my hearty lack of energy in the early hours of the day. But no matter! I rambled on just the same. I somehow found myself at the Proctor meeting house, in which we all welcomed our guest, J.R. Whitehat. The uncle of a good friend of mine, Mark Whitehat. Because of my connection with Mark, I have become especial interested with native american culture and their specific reservation: Rosebud. So it was great to hear about Lakota beliefs and and how they affected J.R.'s life, and how we should take parts of them into consideration in our daily lives as well. J.R. was a fantastic speaker and I hope to meet him again some day. Perhaps in South Dakota at Rosebud. 

Finally, after our wonderful speaker, I was able to get some food in me. And with the energy I accumulated, I hurried to my bus where we set off to go help Andover! The first half of the day we spent at the East Andover Preschool. Where we used our precious time and energy to put mulch in their playground, so that if they end up on the ground they will not get injured.

Image Found on the Village Preschool Facebook Page

After lunch we moved our work crew down to the Highland Lake Beach, where we cleaned up pine needles and trash, and raked leaves for the remainder of our activity.

Highland Lake
Image Found on Google Images

Carbon Neutrality 

Carbon Neutrality is when the amount of Carbon that you discharge into the atmosphere is equivalent or less than the amount of carbon that is absorbed by your acres of woodlands. 

In 2014 we had carbon emissions equal to 1614.609 CO2 in metric tons
In 2015 we had carbon emissions equal to 1425.925 CO2 in metric tons

Because we have 2300 acres of woodland, and 1.22 CO2 metric tons are absorbed per year, we use this equation to find the amount that we absorb in a year.

2300 acres x 1.22 CO2 e/mton/year = 2806 mton /year absorption

Because we did not factor transportation into the carbon emission totals above, we decided to do the math in class, and this is what we came up with. There are about 20 mini busses. They travel 60 miles 2 times a week, and get about 9 miles per gallon. The Carbon emission rate for gasoline is about 22 lb of CO2 per gallon of gas. Here is an equation to find the amount of CO2 in metric tons from transportation via busses per year.

20 mini Busses * 60mi * 2 times a week / 9mpg * 22 lb CO2/gallon gas = 5866.66 lb CO2 = 2.66 mton CO2 / week * 30 weeks = 79.8 mton/year

If we add this to our carbon emissions from 2015 or 2014, we will find that we are in fact carbon neutral.
+ 1425.925 = 1505.725 = 2015 CO2 in mtons

2806 metric tons carbon (absorption) > 1505.725 metric tons carbon (emissions)

Blog do Tunes: Pandora's Promise

Pandora's Promise

"Pandora's Box" From Google Images

"We can get rid of all these !@#$%^& nuclear plants right away, because we can switch to solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, [and] ocean thermal. . ." (Pandora's Promise, Introduction) An enthusiastic speaker speaks his mind about nuclear power, and how he feels we should replace it. Using vulgar language (with the approval of the audience of course) to express his enthusiasm to the utmost extent.

Pandora's Promise is a documentary about the dangers of nuclear power. This is a fitting name for the film, as depictions of Pandora's box don't seem much different from pictures of nuclear accidents. Like the one in Fukushima. "There's no other energy source that does this, leaves huge areas contaminated by this strange invisible presence that is potentially deadly. A journalist says, as he rides through Fukushima in a car, wearing a partial radiation suit. This notion is what scared so many journalists into their anti nuclear beliefs. Some however, were not so easily convinced. Many changed their mind about nuclear, and became pro-nuclear. But only after the experts had drilled into their heads what nuclear power truly was, and how safe and productive it actually tends to be.

In some cases like that of the Nuclear Power plant being constructed on Long Island, other sources of power would put out scare adds with false information trying to spark protests against the Nuclear power plant. Like the oil industry, trying to push upon the people false facts such as "Immediate death to 3,000 people due to radiation," and "early death for 30,000 people due to cancer from radiation."

The documentary goes on to describe renewable energy sources. "I began to feel like a sucker..." Says one renewable energy aficionado, "We believed we would replace the worlds gas power plants with sources like wind and solar." When the data clearly shows that even wind and solar are second to nuclear and hydro when it comes to renewable energy sources. And because of wind and solar, which are generally unreliable, they must be backed up by fossil fuels, which creates an even wider demand for fossil fuels.

Many people fear the radiation from nuclear power plants, but as one ex-activist describes, "If you ate one banana, which have a potassium isotope that is a little high, you would get more radiation exposure, than if you drank all the water that came out of the plant in a day.

Climate Change at Proctor Academy

Photo Taken by William Cox

This photo was taken on February twenty first, at a time when these lands are usually buried under at least a foot of snow. As you can see, this year, we had no such luck. Or no such annoyance, if you are not a snow-sport fanatic. Not only is there grass showing all over the area, but this grass is still green. Which is just another indicator of just how warm that this winter actually was. This is one piece of evidence that climate change could very well be effecting our lives here at Proctor Academy.

"Kappy's Liquors" Sign at Mega
Photo Taken by William Cox

Another piece of evidence that climate change could be effecting our lives at Proctor is the forest fire that happened last spring. With increasing droughts due to heat and evaporation, these kinds of fires are far more likely to occur, and will spread much easier. EPA predictions state that if earth temperature rises another 3.6 degrees fahrenheit, four times the amount of land in the US will burn from wildfires. Of course this fire was not started naturally, but it did spread naturally, and even the small change in climate that happens from one year to the next could be directly related to the burning down of one of my personal favorite places at Proctor.

In the photo below, there is a diagram showing ten of the indicators that are evidence of climate change. All of these impacts, like the melting of glaciers and snow cover, as well as the rise of sea level and temperature over ocean, have their own unique and horrible effects on the world that we live in. For instance, the melting of the snow cover and permafrost can cause the release of massive amounts of methane (CH4) due to the sheer amount of organic matter that is frozen in tundra biomes. Methane is a greenhouse gas, and will contribute to the rise in temperature of the planet as a whole, and in part keep contributing to all the other factors shown on this diagram. This represents a positive feedback loop, where an effect is amplified by the process that gives rise to it.

Found on Google Images

Here is a link describing the impact of climate change on farms here in NH

http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/19651494-95/climate-change-shifting-habits-are-steep-hurdles-for-nh-farms

Here is a video about climate change that I found very interesting, it is a video of Bill Nye explaining how terrorism in Paris can be directly related to climate change:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bill-nye-climate-change-paris-terrorism_us_565ccdebe4b079b2818b810b

Thermal Inversion, Much Wow!

Thermal Inversion

Image form Google images

Thermal inversion is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs when a layer of warm air rests over a layer of cool air near the ground. The warm air holds the cold air near the ground, which traps in pollutants from human activities. Most commonly, thermal inversion will trap industrial or photochemical smog. This is bad for cities, and can cause severe illness and in extreme cases death. This is because of the harmful pollutants and chemicals that compose industrial and photochemical cause. Both created primarily by different types of combustion, they pose an equally scary threat to most organisms in their vicinity.

The Andover Transfe Station

The Andover Transfer Station

Recycling Station
Taken By William Cox

On February 6th, 2016, our AP Environmental Science class took a field trip to the Andover Transfer Station, where all our trash and recycling goes before getting recovered and incinerated. "In Andover, about 72% of trash is recovered" says Alan, seeming almost content with the majority percentage that represents the amount of trash that will be reused amongst us humans. Waste that is recovered is waste that will not end up in an incinerator or a landfill. In the picture above, my peer Amen is recycling some waste products in a system known as single stream recycling, which is a system in which a sizable list of materials can be recycled together in the same container. This list of materials includes all paper fibers, aluminum, plastics #1-7, cardboard, and other recyclable materials. Other recoverable waste products are placed for transfer in other compartments and designated corners of the transfer station.

 

In the picture to the right, my peer QuocAnh is throwing a bag of garbage into the hopper. Which is a giant mechanism stored inside of a building, that occasionally crushes all inside of it into a small cube, to be shipped off and incinerated or planted into a landfill. All waste disposed of in the hopper is the percentage of waste that is not recovered. This includes about 28% of waste. 

"White Goods"
Taken by William Cox

In this picture, all the "White Goods" (Fridges, Freezers, Air conditioners etc...) are placed in one corner of the transfer station because they are to be recovered in specific ways. These products often contain freon, which is a moderately toxic chemical created by the ever-growing chemical industry.

 

Metal Waste Container
Taken by William Cox

The picture above is a picture of the container in which all of our metal waste is to be thrown. This often includes alliances that are non-toxic, as well as any random scrap metal, like broken bicycles. 

Tire Container
Taken by William Cox

The picture above depicts the place in which all of the tires are placed for recovery. These tires must be recovered because otherwise they create very toxic fumes when incinerated, and they take an extremely long time to break down in a landfill. 

"[All] electronics that are brought to the transfer station in 

Andover are shipped to Rochester to be recycled" Says local worker named Debbie. There was a whole room full of old televisions and other electronic devices, including a special spot for batteries and mercury containing devices. 

"Most of the electronics that are brought in still work" Says Debbie, referring to the many old televisions stored in the building, waiting for transfer to Rochester. 

"Most places want to get to 0% waste" Says teacher Alan McIntyre, expressing his hopeful outlook on trash and how we deal with it. Hopefully in the future we can eliminate food waste, which makes up 10-14% of waste. 

Most of the resource recovery at the Andover Transfer Station and most other Transfer Stations is mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, an act designed to create a framework for the proper management of hazardous and non-hazardous waste.  

Kent Armstrong and his Army of Turd Herders

William Cox

January 26th, 2016

Alan McIntyre

Everyone Loves a Good Turd Herder

Image from Da Begor Blog

In Proctor's Advanced Placement Environmental Science classroom on January 24th, we had a guest speaker who talked about his career as a Biologist, and how he plans on helping mother nature deal with the millions of toxic chemicals that are released naturally, and synthetically. His name was Kent Armstrong, and he introduced himself by telling a story from his ever present youth. "I have worn many hats," Says Armstrong, "I started out as a turd herder..." Everyone fell somewhat silent, as is typical of teenagers when they don't quite understand a joke. Armstrong started his career as a Biologist in a waste water treatment facility, conducting tests on the possibly contaminated water. He reminisced about the time he applied for the job, and how he had never seen a magnetically stirred beaker before: "Walk me through all these tests, If I can't do them in two weeks, I will fire myself... 

and I was there for three years." Expressing his constant will to learn, a value that has high praise at Proctor Academy, he kept the lecture interesting with stories from his past. He explained that his job is to test the chemical compositions of surface water in certain areas. "[Microbes] love carbon" Armstrong states, describing some of the larger carbons found in certain toxins, like gasoline. He says that the goal of his work is to add bio-stimulants to increase bioremediation. He also described the most common toxins to the Earth today. Including building materials, like lead paint or asbestos. Also including metals, like sand/dust, or Lead (Pb) Arsenic (As), and Cadmium (Cd). Finally, organic pollutants, like petrol, and solvents. Solvents are typically Chlorine (Cl) based, he adds. He also begins to talk about the dangers of Poly Fluorinated Solvents. Due to their molecular complexity, they are especially hard to fix through bioremediation. He begins to talk about how bioremediation actually works, how great Mother Nature has begun to design microbes who process the bad chemicals through respiration. One of Armstrong's goals is to engineer a microbe that will breath Poly Fluorinated Solvents.

PFo Molecular Diagram
Found on Google Images

"[Synthetic] Solvents were introduced in 1837 (or something like that) for dry cleaning. In 1940 they were mass produced to clean the grease off of metal for the production of war machines, especially for the air force... Since then, theres now about sixty genera of [microbes] who can breath this stuff" Kent describes Earth's resourcefulness in engineering new critters constantly to deal with toxins created and extracted by us insidious critters. 

Screenshot from Kent Armstrong Video 

Armstrong goes on to explain a complicated respiratory response from certain microbes, who breath in chlorinated molecules and eliminate chlorine atoms, one electron at a time. "I enhance their ability to breathe the chloride atom." Unfortunately, through this process, Vinyl Chloride is created, which is an extremely toxic carcinogen, and one of Kent's worst fears in life. He then goes on to describe some of the other toxic chemicals, and why we should avoid them. He talks about old hairspray and nail polish remover, "Like anything else, if it tastes really good, its probably bad for you" These chemicals are directly made out of Vinyl Chlorine, and are "One of the worst things you could put in your mouth."
Hopefully, there will be a day when Bioremediation of chlorine will result in Ethyne, which is a clean chemical that could probably be extremely useful, if humanity decided to adapt to it as a commodity. But this goal is some time off. "Why are these [Dangerous chemicals] in the ground? (turns off light) Because we love this... (turns light back on)." The instant gratification rewarded by the use of electricity is undeniable to most people. Kent Armstrong makes this clear as day, not by shutting the lights off, but by turning them back on. "But what is the Cost?" He asks. "Mother nature has a bucket, but we have a firehose pointed into that bucket, so what we do is try to help her" Says Armstrong, describing the production rate of toxic chemicals versus Earth's natural ability to balance them out through respiration. 

There are three major steps for the clean up of toxic chemicals

1.) Evaluate the site: Learn the site's history, and conduct tests.

2.) Survey out a map: Learn the history of the area in which the site rests.

3.) Clean up/Remediation: "Hog and Haul" or the removal of toxic chemicals in dump-trucks, costs about 100$ per ton. Or, Soil wash with "Magic fufu dust" (I didn't catch what this actually was, but I'm assuming it is something to counteract the solvents in certain soils.) The goal however, is Bioremediation. 

Kent Armstrong then talks about Bioaccumulation, a subject that has become somewhat farmiliar. Bioaccumulation is the magnification of the concentration of certain chemicals as an observer moves up the food chain. For instance, a plankton might only have .0001 parts per billion of any given chemical, but as the fish eat plankton, and the seals eat the fish, and the orca whales eat the seals, the orcas will have an exponentially higher number than the plankton, like 10 parts per billion. 

Kent also tells a story about his experience in the court of law, and how paid lobbyists will do anything to fight the exposure of their industry, which in this case, is the chemical industry. 

Finally, He describes the end result of his career in Biology: Bioremediation. 

Bioremediation is the injection of "nutrition" allowing the solvents, and microbes to breathe, so that they can eat the bad chemicals. This process takes lots of time and money, which is why it gets so often shut down by the government. However, Kent does describe a situation in which the government is more than happy to help. In cities, his business will often buy out old buildings that are in debt because they need remediation, they then ask for help from the city government to remediate the buildings, and flip them for money to go back into research. They call these old buildings Brownfields, and they are different Superfund Sites, which are massive contaminations. Towards the end of his speech, Kent references the Mad Hatter to stress the toxicity of certain chemicals once and for all. 

All of this talk about chemicals I find very ironic. Humanity causes a chemical mess, and Mother Nature's way of dealing with it is creating microbes that exhale carcinogens. I also find it ironic that I have been so angry recently, and I live in an old house where my room used to be painted from floor to roof in lead paint. And a lot of it would crack and fall down to the floor or even onto my bed. This is ironic, because I'm genuinely angry about this, and lead is known to cause anger, so I really don't know how to feel. I believe that if there is a way to make Ethylene out of bad Chlorines through respiration, then it would be a good temporary solution to the toxicity problem, but in the long run I believe we have messed this planet up to the point where we will kill off almost every animal on Earth, and Mother Nature will have to start from scratch, creating a new society in our ruin, perhaps these futuristic creatures will see our remains and learn from our mistakes. 

Toxicity of our City

The Toxicity of our City

"You know, its hard to know what happens to a life, or my life, if you change a central event." 
Andrew McGuire(Screen Shot from Toxic Hot Seat)

Andrew McGuire is a fire safety enthusiast. He was covered in third degree burns on his back, legs, and head as a child, due to a cooking accident when he was only eight years old. Ever since that incident his life has been focused on reducing fire danger for everyone. 

In the 1970s fire danger was becoming a severe problem here in the United States. There was about 2900 deaths every year from house fires. Back then almost everyone smoked cigarettes, and they were a leading cause of furniture related fires. The obvious solution was to change the cigarette, to make it self extinguishing. But even though they could manufacture this kind of cigarette, the cigarette companies refused. "They don't want their product associated with [fire] incidents." (Andrew McGuire). The cigarette industry instead put all the blame onto the furniture company, repeatedly throwing them under the bus in the court and in the media. "Everyone believes that you cannot take on the tobacco industry, its to big, its too powerful, and probably thats the single leading cause of nothing happening. That people think it isn't possible." McGuire said in an interview in the 80s, describing the struggle he and other fire safety enthusiasts were having against the tobacco industry. Andrew McGuire went on to win a MacAurthur award for his efforts to help the United States pass-fire safe cigarette legislation. Yet in 1975, in California, they had already come up with a different solution, and it was called Technical Bulletin 117: "...all upholstered furniture manufactured for sale for use in this state... Shall be fire retardant..."

No other state or even country had any standard for fire retardants in upholstered furniture. "Because California's market is so huge, its in all your furniture, throughout the country" (McGuire). They began to put fire retardants in everything, just because of California's Regulation. "Nobody knew about it except for the furniture company" (McGuire) The picture on the right is a picture of a flame retardant notice that you can find on nearly any upholstered furniture, even today (Found on google images). 

Many studies later came out in the 1980s with test results, showing how quickly many of these flame retardants can get into our bloodstream, and that they are, in fact, very toxic. In one study, a little girl's urine was tested 1 day after wearing pajamas treated with brominated Tris (a flame retardant), and the chemical was found in her urine sample. The scariest part about this study is that the chemical happens to be a carcinogen, or a cancer causing chemical. With the release of this study, Tris was banned from children's' clothing. However, brominated Tris is still the most popular flame retardant, and can still be found in almost any furniture, and even in baby products. 

Thankfully, We have found other ways to reduce the amount of fires in the United States. Including laws regarding sprinkler systems and fire alarms in nearly all new buildings. Also, cigarettes finally were made to be self extinguishing. "There are ways to mandate that the fabric meet a certain weave and thickness standard, with no chemicals added, that makes it fire resistant." (McGuire). There are ways that the furniture companies can make furniture now so that it is fire resistant naturally, with no toxic chemicals added. Yet still California required flame retardants in all furniture manufacturing. And because of the persistence and bioaccumulation ability of the chemicals, people all over the country were finding toxic flame retardant chemicals in their bodies. It was very hard to propose a successful bill to remove flame retardants from fabrics, simply because the flame retardant industry was able to release hundreds of media adds bashing the bill, stating that it would cause hundreds of fires, stating things such as: the average furniture in our homes without fire retardants will cause severe house fires. "Either you have people behind you, or money behind you, and we don't have the money" McGuire describes his fight against the Technical Bulletin 117. Thankfully the main legislature had enough people to back up their bill, and toxic flame retardants were banned in the state. It did not pan out that way in California, however. In 2008 Mark Leno, a California state senator, proposed Assembly Bill 706, to ban brominated and chlorinated flame retardants, which failed miserably against the opposing chemical industry. In 2010 Leno proposed another bill, Senate Bill 772, to exempt some children's products from TB117, so that they wouldn't have to be made with the chemicals. They were defeated once again by the chemical industry. Leno proposed another bill in 2010, Senate bill 1291 to reevaluate flammability standard, and he failed again to the Chemical industry. Countless bills were trumped by the money that backs up such industries as the chemical industry. "Theres gotta be national media coverage over and over to educate the public" McGuire states, describing the struggle of lobbying against the chemical industry without money to back them up. Finally, due to repetitive journalism coverage on the toxicity of flame retardants, the Governor of California at the time, Governor Brown, released a letter directing state agencies to revise flammability standards. Eventually through a public hearing there was a majority vote to regulate the chemicals released by the chemical industry, and that all synthetic chemicals should be tested for safety before they are released into the public, and from that point forward the flame retardant production companies folded, one by one, giving into the legislatures votes to revise the Technical Bulletin 117 regulation. 

To me it seems crazy that there could ever be such potential harmful chemicals released into the environment with no regulation. Yet that is what it was. There was no checks on the chemical industry. Thousands of chemicals were being released every year, and they would accumulate and spread in the environment to the point where synthetic chemicals can be found in polar bears across the globe from where these chemicals were being produced. Andrew McGuire states his support for "sane chemical regulations" at the end of Toxic Hot Seat. I believe that this notion cannot be stressed enough to not only US legislature, but to any country's leaders and lawmakers. It is not fair to anyone to have these toxic chemicals released into the environment, because these chemicals cannot be taken back, and they will persist in nature probably longer than humanity will even survive. It is not even fair to the earth, to pollute it so boldly, and without immediate consequence. This is why I agree with McGuire, who is still wary of chemicals even after their success in California, and urges everyone to also be wary of the many chemicals that make our lives toxic.