All posts by Acadia Branch

4.4 Earths

December 12, 2014 Acadia Branch 1 Comment

So, right off the bat I was very pleased that my carbon footprint was below the national average by 0.6 Earths. I’m not the largest environmentalist, so I was happily surprised by this.

Next I maximized consumerism- buying new clothes and furniture. The number of earths increased to 6.

Next I increased all the food intake, making me eat much more eat and dairy products. That increased the number of earths to 7.

Finally, I increased the amount of public transportation I take. This increased the number of earths to 4.8 which is a 0.4 Earth addition.

Thinking about how I could bring my own footprint down further than it already is, I could probably become a vegetarian or a vegan. I could also seek out local food. I can decrease the amount of energy I use, especially because in my apartment we don’t always turn the lights off. I don’t know what degree these changes would help the environment, but every little bit counts.

In terms of what our society need to do to be more sustainable, I think our chief concern should be to find another hospitable planet because I lack the confidence that our major governments can enact change fast enough. Otherwise, I’m reminded of wartime rationing programs that were accompanied by propaganda. If those programs worked to get the American citizen to do their part with victory gardens and a “make-do” attitude, I wonder if they could work again in the face of a failing environment policy.

AMNH

Paying money to be bored

December 11, 2014 Acadia Branch 1 Comment

Our trip to the American Museum of Natural History was a great excursion (despite my initial panic over forgetting all about it.) Sometimes a break of routine and getting away from the classroom is the healthiest thing for us.

(selfie)

While there I observed the Tiger in the Endangered Species display and an interactive video on Amphibians.

The tiger was a big hit among the crowd. 20 people actually stopped and looked, while more would quickly pause to look closer and then continue on their merry way. People seemed absolutely in awe of this tiger. I guess that they are larger than we would expect. There wasn’t a lot of reading going on. People were looking and then leaving. The information on the glass was for the most part ignored.

There was a very sweet interaction between a mother and a daughter where they roared at each other. A tour came through with only one elderly couple on it. As the tour guide said, “These are endangered,” I suspect the elderly couple thought to themselves, “We aren’t going to live that long anyway.” They did look in danger of dying at any second. But to contrast that, a woman showed her child in a stroller the tiger, as if to say, “This is what the future can hold, if we preserve it.”

The other exhibit I did was an interactive video based on amphibians. It had a little statue next to it. I’d say that 11 people were in the vicinity of the video but only 3 people actually looked at it. The most interested were a set of three girls, one of whom spent all her time touching the tongue of the statue, and the oldest of the three spending the longest time there- probably 3 minutes top.

Often enough children would stand right in front of the video, even touch the video, but not look at it. I felt like I was routing on the last place horse in the Kentucky Derby. At one point a man came over and truly seemed to be interested… until I realized he was just taking pictures of the wall behind it. There was so much stimulation and so much going on that the video was ignored.

Which brings me to my next point- I don’t think that the museum can be more engaging, more interactive, more conducive to educating the masses. Why is this? Because the masses aren’t trying to be educated; they’re trying to be entertained. The tiger exhibit drew eyes because tigers are cool, terrifying animals, not because tigers are going extinct. What people what to give their attention to is what will succeed. We live in a modern day where the real currency isn’t dollars, but instead attention. If people want to get educated the resources are out there and easily accessible. A trip to the museum is no longer solely about learning. It’s akin to amusement park attraction. And people aren’t going to pay good money to go and be bored.

Ps. I found this cool painting of a giraffe.

Uncategorized

Even after being treated, fracking water is toxic

October 17, 2014 Acadia Branch 1 Comment

I read the piece, “‘Fracking’ wastewater that is treated for drinking downstream produces potentially harmful compounds” dated 9/24/2014 on Science Daily. The piece rested on the assumption that a common practice for dealing with fracking’s highly radioactive and heavy in metals and halides waste water was to purify it and release it into rivers. The main conclusion of this article was that even after being initially purified, should the water be purified for drinking purposes down the road, the typical method of purifying could lead to the formation of toxic byproducts. The author cites a study from the American Chemical Society. The study took samples of waste waste from fracking operations, diluted it with river water, and then used drinking water disinfection methods on it. The result was the formation of toxic compounds. It was further concluded that either fracking waste-water should not be released into rivers or drinking purification should include halide-removal techniques.

The author didn’t seem biased at all. Overall, this was just reporting on one study. No further evidence was offered. The study itself should be further looked at. The American Chemical Society could very well be a special interest group against fracking entirely. That said, off of only a single study, not much can be firmly concluded. Multiple studies really should be run to get a fuller picture of what’s going on.

Link to article:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140924113521.htm

Bioblitz

Plants aren’t boring

September 12, 2014 Acadia Branch Leave a comment

Due to a registration issue, I was not assigned to work with my beloved spiders, but instead with the less interesting plants alternative. More than a little bummed, I faced the fate of the boredom that would approach. But the big surprise for me was how interesting the plants could be.

We didn’t walk too far before we started to pick out plants and learn about their underlying intricacies. Plants that seemed common and dull each had an interesting quality to them when viewed through the eyes of an expert. I don’t think we walked more than 20 feet because we kept finding new plants to ask about. We learned something interesting about every plant in a five foot radius, and it took us the entire period to do so. One plant had a seed pod that explode when you touched it. One plant was similar to what they put in Absinthe. One plant, if eaten, would cause a mitogenic breakdown, essentially cancer.

This made me realize just how interesting and important even the smallest section of nature can be. I shouldn’t discount New York’s parks just because they aren’t forests. A lot can be packed into small spaces, and what appears mundane may actually be very special.

This made me think that scientist, at least the good ones, give everything a chance to surprise them. They don’t assume right off the bat that a specimen will behave this way or that way. They follow the process without judgement and see what will come their way. Listening to our leader talk about his work in the field, it made me a little jealous that I wasn’t the one discovering new plants. And that a big deal, coming from a spider lover.