Application Assignment #3: Profile a Person in Environmental History

Section 1: Important Person in the Environmental History of the US

The person that I have chosen to write about for this blog post is Lois Gibbs. Lois is the founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), but she is really known for her involvement in the Love Canal disaster. Lois had no prior association or involvement in community activism before the issues with Love Canal became present in 1978. Lois lived in Niagara Falls, New York, was a housewife and had two young children. During this time there were a lot of rumors being spread about chemical waste being spilled into the waters contaminating their drinking water and even seeping into people's basements in their homes. It seemed that there were a lot of health issues, like epilepsy, urinary tract infections and asthma, surrounding this community and Lois began to wonder if this was due to the spilling of the toxic waste. After conducting a survey she found out that only 4 out of 22 pregnancies were "normal" pregnancies and that within the whole population 56% of the children were found to have birth defects. She associated this finding to the 21,000 tons of chemical waste that her neighborhood sat on top of. With this information she formed the Love Canal Homeowners Association. When she presented this information to the government along with a petition to close down the schools and relocate all of these families she was basically told that there wasn't enough information present and that they couldn't do anything about this. After years of fighting this against the state, local, and federal government, they eventually evacuated 800 families and they began to clean up Love Canal.

When I think of Michael Brown the image that comes to mind is of a hero. He was the one who discovered Love Canal and got the people of Love Canal their justice, even when he wasn't supposed to. 

This is a picture of someone protesting against the contamination of Love Canal. 

The person who inspired Lois and really got her career started was Michael Brown. Michael was a reporter for the Niagara Gazette staff who wrote a series about the 21,000 tons of chemical waste that was being dumped into a waste dump in their town. Michael was the one who discovered the issues at Love Canal, he was the one who essentially got the ball rolling on things. It was the Hooker Chemical Company that was responsible for the dumping of this toxic chemical waste, and as people became aware they tried to issue out pieces in defense to their actions but Brown ignored them and continued to do some investigating. He began to check with different homeowners about reports of chemical waste oozing down their basement walls and into their backyards. He even collected samples from sump pumps to help strengthen his investigation. He even began to write books one of which was titled, "Laying Waste: The Poisoning of America by Toxic Chemicals." This book was put into articles in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly Rolling Stone, and other magazines across the US. He was one of the first people to dive into one of the most significant environmental issues during his time. His reporting got him nominated for three categories of the Pulitzer Prize and an award from the Environmental Protection Agency. Without Michael Brown and his eagerness to report and investigate on such big issues the issues at hand in Love Canal would not have been dealt with like they were, they may not even have been dealt with at all and a lot more people would have been sick as a result.

Image of a warning sign posted in Love Canal.

Photo by Mike of the calm before the storm. For some reason when I think of Lois Gibbs an image of the calm before the storm comes into my mind. She just seemed like the peace before all of the chaos to me. She was trying to bring peace to her community before a massive storm of angry people and protests broke out but nobody wanted to listen to her and so a storm broke out anyways.

Section 2: Event or Policy related to Lois Gibbs

Besides her accomplishment and involvement with the events of Love Canal, Lois Gibbs has achieved some other remarkable things. For example she formed the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste in 1980 due to the almost 3,000 letters she received in the mail asking for help on how to solve other areas toxic waste problems. This was later renamed the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. The CHEJ is an environmental crisis center that has information, resources, technical assistance, and training to thousands of community groups around the nation. Their purpose is to form local organizations to protect neighborhoods from exposure to hazardous wastes. Lois works particularly with diverse communities and she works to strengthen the environmental justice movement. The CHEJ coordinates regional and national campaigns focused on specific issues to bring power into the corporate and government decision-making processes. If you visit the actual site of this organization you can see all that they have accomplished and all that they are about. Some of the things the write about and try to educate people about are the relationship between the coronavirus and the high levels of pollution, they have recently sued the Trump Administration for Waterway Protections, etc. So they are still very active and very much continuing on with protecting the environment and educating as many people as possible about a variety of different issues, not just issues on hazardous waste. 

Photo by Daniel of a toxic waste dump site.

Section 3: Another Event/ Policy Related to Lois Gibbs. 

Another thing that Lois contributed to was the US Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund. This is used to locate and clean up toxic sites throughout the US. They clean up some of the most contaminated land and respond to environmental emergencies including oil spills and natural disasters. The Superfund program specifically focuses on making sure that people can live and work in healthy and safe environments. This agency was created in 1980 in response to the issues revolving around Love Canal and it was originally called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Responsibility Act. It is informally called Superfund. This is what allows the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up contaminated sites and it forces the people and companies responsible for the contaminations to reimburse the government for clean ups done by the EPA or perform the clean ups themselves. Some of the things they have achieved over the years is they have provided oversight to 242 removal actions to address imminent threats to communities, they have completed a cumulative total of over 96,000 remedial site assessments, they have about $390 in appropriated funds, etc. 

A diagram of the process the CERCLA goes through. 

Section 4: How Lois Gibbs and Events/ Policies Related to her Affect the Life of People in Keene, NH

Without Lois Gibbs and her aggressive fight for environmental justice the people of Love Canal would have never been relocated and they would have never seen justice and gotten the proper clean up that their community deserved. The rivers and homes of the people would have been completely ruined and the numbers of unsafe pregnancies and birth defects would be extremely higher than they were. Without the media attention and the number of supporters that Love Canal generated there wouldn't have been the creation of the new policies and agencies like the CHEJ and the Superfund program. It was very important that all of these things fall into place the way the did because without one small detail happening the whole thing would crumble and potentially would have never happened. Without the Superfund program there would still be thousands of toxic dumping sites contaminating peoples homes and drinking water. 

On another note this affects the life of people in Keene, NH specifically because the Environmental Protection Agency that was created with Lois Gibbs is also apart of New Hampshire. It deals with protecting the air, water, toxic waste, etc. There is a Clean Air Act Permitting in the EPA's New England region. The Superfund project also runs into New Hampshire and they have cleaned up a decent amount of sites including some landfill sites, some waste oil sites, etc. Without these events we wouldn't have anything protecting us from consuming contaminated water, excessive pollution in the air, and toxic landfills exposing people to violent amounts of toxic waste and different health problems. 

                                                 Photo of a person drinking clean water from the clean water act. 

Section 4 Optional: Environmental Policies vs Individual Choices

In my opinion individual choices are much more effective than environmental policies. Environmental policies only get started because of individual choices. By this I mean that we never enact laws or rules just because it is always based on events that have happened in the past that we are trying to keep from happening again. Most of the environmental policies come from people making choices to do certain things to protect the environment and then enforcing these decisions. Making a difference starts with you and when enough people come together to fight against one thing that's when the real progress is made. All of this relies on individuals making a choice to do better and do whatever they choose. You can enact a policy all you want but it all comes down to what that person wants to do. Without Lois Gibbs doing what she did and making the decision to keep on fighting for justice most of the policies enacted wouldn't have been brought up. Individual choice is the most powerful weapon because you can use it even without environmental policies and you can always have your individual freedom/ choice, but you won't always have policies to fall back on. 

Application Assignment #2: Protecting the Green Sea Turtle

Section 1: My endangered Species
The endangered species that I have chosen to write about is the Green Sea Turtle. They can grow up to for feet long and over 400 pounds! They are usually found in tropical waters and sometimes, but less common, in subtropical waters. Green Sea Turtles are primary consumers and they are omnivores. When they are young they primarily eat other animals but as they grow older they tend to eat both plants and animals. The primary plants they eat are algae and sea grass. Sea turtles also have their fair share of predators. When they are babies they are at risk of being eaten by raccoons, birds, crabs and even some fish. When they are adults they are at risk of being eaten by sharks, whales, and even humans! These sea turtles start their lives out on a beach where they are waiting to hatch. Once they hatch they make their way to the sea where they will live out the rest of their lives. The next stage of their lives is as juveniles where they grow for about 10 years  They enter adult hood when they are about 20-50 years old. Here, the females will travel back to the beaches to start to nest and the males will visit them annually. A Green Sea Turtle can live for about 80-100 years. After this the cycle starts all over again. The number of organisms has not been recorded but these turtles are considered endangered as their species is declining at a rate so rapid that they are at risk of becoming fully extinct.

A Green Sea Turtle. Photo by Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

Section 2: The Habitat
The Green Sea Turtle occupies a variety of different habitats as it is described as being "highly migratory and use a wide range of broadly separated localities and habitats during their lifetime."  While they are waiting to be born their main habitat is the nesting beach. Once they are born their next habitat is the oceanic zone as they are just floating through the current systems. After a few years they then go into neritic areas that are rich in seagrass and algae and they usually stay here until they reach their maturity which is at about 20-50 years old. During their breeding time they will usually migrate to nesting beaches or foraging grounds, this happens every few years. During periods of non-breeding they will settle down at neritic feeding ground areas.

Green Sea Turtle at nesting beach. 

The major biome for green sea turtles is the coral reef. Coral reefs are located near the equator in tropical oceans. One of the largest coral reefs is The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Coral reefs thrive better in warm, shallow, and sunny environments, hence why they are located so close to the equator. The temperature needed to maintain these reefs is anywhere from 73-84 degrees fahrenheit. These reefs actually survive a lot better when the ocean waters provide very few nutrients/ organisms on top of the water as it blocks the sunlight from getting to the reef. Due to their intense need for sunlight they only grow down to about 150 feet. Coral reefs are important to humans because they have chemicals in them which can actually help to make medicine for some cardiovascular diseases and even lymphoma. And of course they are a beautiful destination for tourists to visit. A few primary producers in coral reefs are seagrass, phytoplankton, and most importantly the zooxanthellae algae. The zooxanthellae algae live in symbiosis with the coral animals and they are the primary energy that fuels the coral reef. Phytoplankton actually remove the carbon dioxide from the water and help to regulate the water temperature. The primary producers are key for survival for everyone essentially because without them no one could eat!

The primary consumers in the coral reefs are the herbivores, the ones that eat the primary producers. These include things like the green sea turtles, sea urchins, sponges, and coral. Coral itself s so important because the reefs are made up of thousands of tiny coral polyps and these are what make the coral reefs. Sponges are very important to this biome because they filter water, collect bacteria, process carbon and nitrogen, and the protect the reef against nutrient density, temperature and light. The tertiary consumers, also known as the top predators, are the carnivores, the ones who hunt but are not really hunted themselves. These would be things like sharks, whales, dolphins, etc. The coral reef is different from the biome of the open ocean as it is just a more specific biome. The open ocean biome is found all over the world wherever there is an ocean, it is the largest biome on earth.

Coral Reef locations.

Open Ocean biome.

Sea Sponge in a coral reef. 

     

Great Barrier Reef. Photo by Kyle Taylor.

Section 3: Critical Threats 
One major threat to these turtles is the intentional harvesting of eggs and adults from nesting beaches. This is mostly done as people like to consume the meat and most of the time they will take the female turtles too. In Mexico turtles are only eaten on religious holidays but during this time is it recorded that as many as 5,000 sea turtles die from this. The most commonly eaten sea turtle is the green sea turtle. People will also take these turtles to sell them for their oil, skin, cartilage and shell. This is the most dangerous threat imposed on this species and this is the reason why they are so endangered. This itself could lead to the possible extinction of the whole species. With the green turtles being a huge primary consumer this would be extremely unfortunate for the whole coral reef biome is the became extinct.

Green Sea Turtles are omnivores as stated earlier so they eat both plants and animals. If all of the turtles were to die off many different things would happen. These turtles eat the seagrass and so without them the level of seagrass in the ocean would become unbalanced and overabundant. Healthy levels of seagrass help to stabilize the ocean bottom which helps protect the beaches from erosion.  Due to their long migration periods they also help to transport things like algae, barnacles, small crustaceans, etc. It would also cause an over abundance of the smaller animals that the sea turtles eat. This would also affect the larger predators like the sharks and the whales because they eat the turtles and so they wouldn't have them to feed on anymore. The birds, crabs and fish also wouldn't be able to feed on the hatchlings because there would be none. All of this would put a huge strain on the coral reef itself because it is very sensitive to any slight changes in the water and throwing off the whole food web would just in simple terms destroy the whole reef. This could also affect the general biome of the open ocean because a lot of the same things would be happening. A lot of the species found in the coral reef are present in the open ocean and so the effects would be just as bad to the species but maybe not as bad to the biome itself as it is quite larger and doesn't have the specific requirements to survive as the coral reef does. 

Sea Turtle eggs being rescued from poachers.

Another major threat to the green sea turtles is bycatch in marine fisheries. Bycatch is the incidental capture in fishing gear. This happens when people go out fishing for one certain thing, like tuna or other big fish, and they catch things like sea turtles and other species on accident. Usually when this happens the animal is discarded as trash or they are sent back into the ocean where they will most likely die. These turtles also drown as they sometimes get caught in these gill nets that these fisheries send out in the ocean to catch fish. Humans also pose a large threat on sea turtles as they do things to destroy their nesting beaches. Some of these things include walking over the areas where the eggs are buried and damaging them, the construction of buildings and sand extraction, and even an excess of lights as they are fatal to hatchlings because they distract them from going into the water. Humans also destroy their marine habitat by polluting and contaminating the ocean water. 

Sea Turtle caught in a fishery net.

Section 4: Solutions to the Threats
 Although it may not seem like it, people all over the world are contributing to these threats of the green sea turtles, even people in Keene, NH. If you eat seafood, any type of seafood, you are contributing to the problem of bycatch from fisheries because you get your seafood from these fisheries going out and capturing the fish and crabs, etc. One of the solutions to this is to get your seafood that is caught sustainably without bycatch. The Monterey Bay seafood watch helps people find sustainably caught seafood. Also if you eat turtles than you are contributing to the problem of illegally harvesting them. In the United States sea turtles are protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This provides help to these species and makes things like harvesting turtle eggs illegal. The problem with this is that the only place these turtles are protected is in the United States, so this doesn't help the species as a whole it only helps the ones who are protected under this law. So some other possible solutions that we could enforce are educating as many people as we can on what is happening to these turtles and advocate for their protection to individuals in power who would have the authority to do something about it. We could also advocate for their to be someone who patrols these nesting beaches daily in hopes of cutting down the amount of eggs that are stolen. Some other things we could do would include putting up signs to warn about where potential hatchlings are, STOP POLLUTING THE OCEANS, and just being mindful of where these species are and what they need to survive. 

A sea turtle nest being blocked off to warn people not to touch this area. 

Myakka River State Park

The entrance of the Myakka River State Park Trail. Photo by me

Every summer my family and I go visit our home in Venice Florida. With so much to explore down there we decided to go look at the Myakka River State Park this summer. The trail we walked down was only a small portion of the park but there was so much to see in just a 20 minute walk. When we first entered the park we were greeted by a sign that warned us of seeing deer and turkeys and other wildlife. While we didn't see any deer or turkeys unfortunately, we saw an abundance of other wildlife. We saw tons of beautiful birds sitting high up in the trees, plenty of geckos wandering around and climbing up the trees, a ton of bees up at the top of the viewpoint, and we even saw an alligator in the water on our way out of the park. Towards the end of the walk there are these stairs that you can climb that bring you higher up than the trees and the view is absolutely breathtaking. It's very exhilarating as you are only standing on this thin platform of wood, but it gives you the whole view of the forest from an angle way up above the trees. I would definitely recommend any who could to go and check out this place. t is such a beautiful and peaceful area. While on our walk we only encountered three other people as we were exiting and they were entering because the trail loops back around, so there isn't a lot of human traffic happening too often which allows you to really focus on the beauty of the park. This park was honestly nothing like any place I had ever been and the pictures truly do not do it justice.

 

The bridge before climbing the stairs. Photo by me

The platform to look out over the park. Photo by me

The view of the park. Photo by me. 

The Effects of Coffee on the Environment

Coffee and coffee beans.

If you're anything like me, every morning starts with a fresh cup of coffee. Most of us don't think about things like where our coffee is coming from and how it is affecting the environment around us, but maybe we should be. in the article, Ways to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Your Morning Coffee, William Schlesinger explains how our everyday cups of coffees are actually quite harmful to our environment. Some of the main effects that are touched on in this article are deforestation, the amount of energy being used, and the large amounts of plastic disposal and caffeine waste. In this article is was stated that "Coffee consumption is growing faster than the human population, with annual consumption now topping 10 million tons per year." This is crazy! 10 millions tons of coffee per year is huge, and the number is only going to keep growing! With this rapidly growing consumption rate things are only going to continue to get worse, unless we start taking control of it now.

Deforestation of a forest. 

The actual growing of the coffee is perhaps the most harmful process as it requires the destruction of many beautiful rainforests. When coffee is grown and harvested in the shade, and under canopy of the rainforest it isn't too bad for the environment, but of course what's in high demand right now as the consumption rate of coffee goes up is sun-grown coffee. So this requires for a large area of trees to be cleared out so there is nothing blocking the sun from the coffee. Another problem within this is that the birds in these tropical forests actually disappear because of the clearing of these forests.

Photo of a Keurig (pod-brewing system). Photo by Adam Dachis

When you decide to have a cup of coffee, you have already made your largest contribution to the energy used to deliver coffee to your cup. As you may know there are many different ways to brew coffee. For example, there's the french press, the traditional coffee pots and pod brewing systems. The traditional coffee pot. These use a huge amount of energy, especially because they leave the heat on all day to keep it warm for however long they need. Pod brewing systems are perhaps the most harmful ways to brew coffee. They use an extreme amount of plastic and electronics so therefore a lot of energy is needed. The pod brewing systems that are left on standby mode where the hot water is left available for the next person leaves the worst environmental impact. The most environmentally friendly option that uses the least amount of energy is the french press. 

Aroma Joes Coffee in a plastic cup. Photo by me. 

 Another huge way that coffee is negatively impacting our environment is by the amount of plastic waste. When you buy an iced coffee at any coffee shop it is usually served to you in a plastic cup. These plastics are some of the worst kinds because they are single use and they are extremely hard to recycle properly. In class we learned about how the materials we recycle actually get recycled and the results were horrifying. All of our recycled items get sent to different countries, many of which are developing countries who are struggling to even take care of their own recycling. In order for an item to be properly recycled it cannot be contaminated in any way, and most of the plastics waiting to be recycled are in fact contaminated. If they are not properly recycled they just get thrown into landfills and most of the time they end up in the ocean or they end up flooding peoples yards. The coffee itself is also very harmful as it is shown to be contaminating the natural waters which can affect the fish and other wildlife.

 

Iced Coffee from a coffee shop in Venice Florida. Photo by me.

While I usually never feel guilty about grabbing my daily coffee I have started to now consider the affects my actions are having on the environment, as should everyone else. One of the things that a lot of places have started to do is ban plastic straws. Now while this is a positive change, it isn't really doing much in the long run. One of the things that my local coffee shop does is they allow you to put your coffee in your own reusable cup. Now when doing this you feel as though you are helping out big time because you aren't using that plastic cup, but if you aren't someone else is going to. The only way for this to really make a difference is for the consumption of single use products to really stop as a whole, or as least drastically reduce. Another positive impact you can do is buy shade-grown coffee, which helps battle the deforestation issue, and really just learn how to properly dispose of your coffee grounds.

Application Assignment #1: Environment and Health Impacts of Plastic Recycling

Photo of a dumping center for plastic waste

Section 1: The environmental effect of Recycling

When people think of recycling they think they're saving the world one plastic water bottle at a time, but where does your plastic go after you properly dispose of it in the bin designated specifically for recyclables? The answer to this question is quite unpleasantly described in the article 'Where does your plastic go? Global investigation reveals America's dirty secret'. Plastic as many may know is extremely bad for the environment, but it's even worse when it has nowhere to be properly disposed of. In order to save money and get things done as quickly as possible the US sends all of our plastic recycling to underdeveloped countries, places like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. The problem with this is that these countries are having a hard enough time disposing of their own plastic waste and so we're essentially just adding on to their already ridiculous pile. In order for a plastic material to be recycled properly it can not be contaminated at all and more than half of the plastic that the US sends over to these different countries is contaminated and so it just gets tossed into a landfill or it gets burned. Most of the times this plastic waste will end up in the ocean, on the streets, in huge dumping piles all across the country, and even in peoples backgrounds and all around their houses.

The people responsible for sifting through the plastic are extremely underpaid, they're working awfully long days, and their working environment is anything but acceptable. This plastic waste can cause respiratory illnesses (due to the burning of the plastic materials), unsanitary drinking water from the fumes, and even cancer. The problem with this system is that many Americans are recycling their plastic waste, which is awesome, but nobody knows what is happening to it after. More than half of the plastic that is sent over can't be recycled anyways so it's almost questionable as to whether recycling is actually good or not.

Section 2

Barrels of oil exported each day

Section 2: Recycling vs Internet Usage/Oil

This recycling dilemma is only going to get worse as the demand for more plastic goes up. Oil companies in particular are guilty of profiting off this. The more plastic that is needed the more oil we need to produce which means the more business these companies are going to get, which is exactly what they want. Especially because nowadays everything comes all packaged up in plastic, it is hard to buy something that isn't wrapped up in it. The highest demand of oil comes from things like plastic, clothing, transportation, heating/electricity, etc. All of these things have their fair share of damages made to the environment. In order for any of this to even happen the oil needs to be drilled up from the ground and that itself is a whole other category of a human impact on the environment. This requires the burning down of trees, and the destruction of a whole environment. There are literally groups of people who protest against this because it is such a danger to the environment and the people living in these certain areas. The heavy use of oil can do things like contaminate peoples drinking water and cause serious illnesses if mishandled. This has proven true when we have had major oil spills into the ocean which was very costly to clean up and it damaged many things including the lives of many organisms, it contaminated the water, etc. The misuse of recycling is also damaging our oceans and our animals in the oceans as it is invading their living spaces and forcing them to adapt to certain changes.

Another major human impact on the environment we are dealing with is our internet power usage. Although internet usage and plastic recycling are totally different from each other, they do share some of the same components. They both deal directly with oil and that is one of the main reasons they are so bad for the environment. They both are apart of our everyday lives and they are both something we use without even really thinking twice about how we are hurting the environment. For example there are huge computer centers that store all of the information on the internet which then provides the information we need to our computers. this process specifically requires a large amount of electricity to operate. One of the bigger connections is that both of the producers of these two things benefit off of the use of their products. The oil/plastic companies benefit off of more people needing/wanting their products and the internet companies benefit off of more people using their products. But the overuse of both of these products is putting us into a huge dilemma with the safety of our environment.

Internet usage over the years

Section 3

People protesting

Section 3: How people at Keene State College can make a difference

This issue isn't really derived from us as individuals in Keene NH and so it isn't really an issue that can be solved by just us in Keene. With that being said though we are related to this issue because we do use plastic materials and we do partake in recycling our plastic materials. Some things that the individuals of Keene can do to maybe help get the ball rolling on cleaning up our plastic waste are protesting, voting, using less plastic materials, educating others, organizing a group to get a ban on single use plastic products, etc. Some of the things that the students at Keene State College have done is continuously protesting about single use plastics and about the environment in general. Another thing that we have done is implement a ban of certain single use plastic product such as plastic bags from some of the on the go food places on campus. 

It is so important to vote for the people who are willing to bring about these changes and actually put them into action. Getting a group together and going up to different companies who are associated with the high use of plastics is also an important first step. Especially these big water bottle companies who just load their products up in plastic. The answer to this is not to recycle! We are already doing that and is it backfiring right in front of us! We as individuals can only do so much, but a city wide ban on certain plastic products could do so much more. Electing the right people to make these changes could do so much more. Shifting the way we use plastic could do so much more. The main thing we need to do is just show that we care and that we want to make a difference, and we can do that by doing any one of these solutions. Spreading knowledge to as many people as we can is how we are going to get the change we need.

My Favorite Place in Nature: Venice Beach

Located in Venice, Florida, Venice Beach has long since been one of my most favorite places to visit. My family and I have owned a house in Venice Florida for quite some time now and we make yearly trips down to visit as often as we can. With this beach only being a 10 minute drive from our house we make it our mission to make an appearance here at least once a day, whether it be to have a beach day, watch the sunrise or even have dinner at the pier to watch the beautiful sunsets. With Siesta Key being one of the most popular beaches near us Venice Beach doesn't get a lot of traffic through it, leaving more room for us to enjoy ourselves. The calming sounds of the waves crashing into the shore and the hot sun beaming on my skin makes this the perfect place to be.

Venice Beach. Photo by me.

The fishing pier at Venice Beach. Photo by Don Miller.

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