Clean Air A 'Luxury' In Beijing's Pollution Zone

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143214875/clean-air-a-luxury-in-beijings-pollution-zone?ft=1&f=1025

Picture: The air in Beijing now (top), compared to the way clean air should look (bottom).

Article: On the way to school, my kids and I play a guessing game: How polluted is the air today? We use an app linked to the air pollution monitor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and we try to guess the day's exact level on the Air Quality Index, and whether the air is dangerous.

These days, chances are that it could well be. For more than half of the past 60 days, the air pollution has hit levels hazardous to human health. Experts estimate long-term exposure to such pollution could reduce life expectancy by as much as five years. But I don't tell the kids that.

Living inside the pollution zone, those daily measurements determine how my family spends its days. Whenever the levels hit "very unhealthy," we keep the kids indoors and refuse to let them take part in outdoor activities, no matter how much whining might ensue. When to wear a pollution mask, when to stay indoors, it's all become crucial knowledge, even for our 4-year-old.

Reflection: I find this article to be very shocking because I never realized just how polluted Beijing was. And just the fact that the article talks about their 4 year old child worrying about these issues is startling. I couldn't even imagine how horrible it would be to deal with terror everyday that you might get sick from the very air your breathing. Beijing needs to slow industry and technology production before everyone in Beijing becomes ill.

Questions:

1. After reading this article, do you think you would ever visit Beijing?

2. If you could give Beijing any advice what would it be?

3. Would you ever let your family be exposed to such poor air quality?

4. If you could do anything to help Beijing, would you?

5. What would your life be like if we had air quality issues like in Beijing, in Horsham?

Colorado and Texas to Require Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals

http://www.treehugger.com/fossil-fuels/colorado-and-texas-require-disclosure-fracking-chemicals.html

Picture: A fracking location in Wyoming

Colorado and Texas passed laws forcing companies to inform the public on the chemicals used in their fracking procedures. Colorado forces all chemicals and the amount used to be disclosed. Texas will put information online at a special website to inform the public. The EPA recently said fracking has caused pollution in Wyoming aquifers. John Hickenlooper, the Governor of Colorado, thinks that other states may use the same laws.

I think that these laws are a great thing and a great start. As we've seen in Gas Land, fracking has caused tons of damage to many areas of the country. More people may care to do something if they know all of the terrible chemicals in their water. I hope that more states do adopt these laws. The public deserves to know what chemicals are being put into their aquifers. These chemicals could all wind up in people's tap water, and they deserve to know about it.

1. Do you think that these laws will help the problem?

2. What are your thoughts on fracking?

3. If you lived in an area where fracking occurred would you want to know the chemicals used?

4. Do you think that people will be more active knowing what is in used in fracking?

5. Do you think other states will adopt these laws?

SEPTA Receives $1.2 Million EPA Grant to Improve Air Quality

The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, recently donated 1.2 million dollars to SEPTA, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA is making the switch from locomotive to cleaner diesel fuel engines to power trains. The switch will improve air quality for surrounding areas. The GenSet locomotives can reduce carbon dioxide by 25 percent and nitrous oxide and particulate matter by up to 80 percent. The donation was made by the EPA's Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Program. The donation will encourage other companies to make the switch. SEPTA has made many switches in past years like when they won EPA's Energy Star Building label last year when they improved energy efficiency by greater then 85 percent at the 1234 Market Headquarters. They are also switching many buses over to cleaner disel-electric engines.

Reflection: SEPTA is really making an effort to improve their environmental effect and the EPA is doing the smart thing and funding these plans. If others see that the switch to these things are better for the surrounding areas, save money and are sometimes payed for by the EPA, I can't see why they won't want to switch. After the SEPTA strike it was important for SEPTA to show that they care about Pennsylvanians, and what better way to show it by then creating less pollution for the people. SEPTA really is a fine company.

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/0D1134081728AD4285257960006D6A13

http://blog.cunysustainablecities.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/10_SEPTA-reg-rail-car_Septa.jpg

Questions:

1) How much will the cleaner engines help?

2) Do you see any downside to the switch?

3) How do you think Pennsylvanians feel about SEPTA?

4) Do you think SEPTA is doing it for the recognition, people or environment?

Storms spark debate over Conn. trees

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/04/9205727-storms-spark-debate-over-conn-trees

Written by: The Associated Press

The state of Connecticut has a high density of trees, with as much as 58% of the statebeing forested. After Hurricane Irene many tree limbs and leaves were brought down onto houses and electric lines were down, which blocked streets and slowed repair trucks. Two months later many more were brought down by a harsh winter snow. Investigators are trying to come up with ways to prevent these problems that leave such large impacts such as the one in October that affected 800,000 utility customers for a week or longer. One of their solutions is to burry the power lines underground to avoid having to cut down so many trees, but United Illuminating claims "It isn't prudent and customers don't appear to be in the mood to pay those costs". Another solution is to trim the trees down a little, but the Greenwich Tree Conservancy says that "takes the heart out of the trees and they die".

Reflection: I think that this is a very hard decision to make, but needs to be done quickly before the winter comes and snow breaks even more branches, breaking more electrical lines. I think ultimately my decision would be to burry the electrical lines because when people think of Connecticut they make connections to images of large trees and at the rate that trees are being cut down for land to build buildings on now a days, I don't think we should be cutting more down if there are other options. Even though burying the lines is very costly, the cost of damage repair due to trees taking down power cables over the years will out weigh the cost of burying them.

Questions:

1) Which do you think is the better option, burying the electrical cables or trimming/cutting down trees?

2) Do you think actually living in Connecticut would change your decision as to which method you think is best?

3) Can you think of any other methods that may help solve this problem?

Profit for Good: Carbon Credits Bring Clean Water to Rural Kenya

Author: Rachel Cernansky Date: June 28th 2011
http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/profit-for-good-carbon-credits-bring-clean-water-to-rural-kenya.html?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29

Photo: In this photo, a woman tries out her new LifeStraw filter in her home. 

Summary:
 In many rural communities in Kenya, the water supply is very scarce. With the water they can collect, most of is is highly contaminated with chemicals and pollutants. This is increasing over the years and is started to become a huge problem. More and more families die from either lack of water or diseases they contracted from drinking contaminated water. Thankfully, an organization has stood up to support those struggling in Kenya. This organization is called the Carbon for Water campaign which is run by Vestergaard Frandsen. They offered water filters to many families in the city, Kakamega. These filters, also called LifeStraw, can give a family of five clean healthy water every single day. Since these filters have been sent out to various families, less and less people are dying due to water related illnesses.

Reaction:
I think it is great that more and more organizations and campaigns are finally helping those in need in places like Kenya. However, there are so many other families that must also be helped throughout the world, and these people need to be helped quickly. I think that many many more organizations should help out from every country that can. We need to stop being so wasteful of our water, and realize that many people are without this precious necessity every single day. This article reminded me of the videos we watched in class this week.

Questions:
1. Do you think the installation of LifeStraw will make a huge difference?
2. Do you think that rural communities like the ones discussed need more help?
3. How do you think school students could become involved in such a big issue in the world?
4. If given the opportunity to help improve water quality, would you?
5. Do you often waste water?

Green Issues and Greenbacks: Occupy Wall Street connects the dots

http://www.grist.org/climate-energy/2011-11-01-green-issues-greenbacks-occupy-wall-street-connects-dots-video

Occupy Wall Street is a movement that has spread across the United States and has protested against American politics as they are and large corporations and banks. One of their arguments now is the negative effects on the environment of the things that many of these companies do. Fracking, deep water drilling and many other practices are among their chief concerns. Many connections were made between the economy and the environment. A protest against Delaware River fracking will be held in Trenton, New Jersey on November 21.

I think that it is a good thing that many of these issues are being brought to light. This group protested against the economy which is a huge problem, and it is good that they are focusing on another huge problem, the environment. I think that many comparisons can be made between the poor economy and our environment, as many large corporations use techniques which put the environment at a greater risk.

1. Do you agree with these protesters putting a lot of the blame for our environmental problems on big businesses?

2. Do you believe that these protests will help the problem and are a step in the right direction?

3. What other steps do you think should be taken?

4. Other than big businesses, who else do you think is at fault for our environmental problems?

5. If big businesses started using processes that were better than the current ones, do you think our environmental problems would be better?

Lead pollution: Urban gardeners beware!

http://www.macroevolution.net/lead-pollution.html

(The picture to the right is a map of soil lead pollution in Indianapolis. Dark orange: more than 200 parts per million (ppm) lead in
soil; light orange: 125-200 ppm; yellow: 75-135 ppm)

Summary:

Urban gardens today are becoming almost at popular as Victory gardens were during the World War II era to survive food shortages. Gabriel Filippelli, professor of earth sciences at the School of Science at Indiana Universtiy, warns that urban soil used for gardening may be tainted by lead pollution. "Most surface contamination in urban settings like Baltimore, Brooklyn, Detroit or Indianapolis is from harmful metals, especially lead, and tends to be found near roadways, older homes or lead smelters. Sources of contamination can be automobile exhaust, degraded paint, tire and vehicle debris, industrial emissions or other products of human technology," says Filippelli. He suggests that urban gardeners to determine the potential lead pollution risk in their gardens by proximity busy streets, major roadways, freeways, dilapidated painted structures or older industrial facilities. Gardens with no or low levels of contamination (200 parts per million (ppm)) can be abundantly planted. Gardens with medium levels of contamination (200-500 ppm) are recommended to be planted in raised bed settings, and mulching between beds to reduce the risks of tracking lead-rich soil onto the pots or into the home is recommended. Gardens at high risk level (500+ ppm) should only grow tall fruit plants, not root vegetables and leafy greens like lettuce due to the difficulty of cleaning the produce before consumption.

Reflection:

I think that lead contaminating our soil is a very big issue. Consumption of lead can very well lead to lead poisoning which comes along with symptoms like head ache, abdominal pain, memory loss, kidney failure, and weakness, tingling, or pain in the extremities. If any of these people are growing their produce with the intentions of selling it could cause big legal issues, similar to when toy manufacturers in China were sued for using paint with lead in it on their toys, which the children were eating and getting lead poisoning from.

Questions:

1)Do you think that it's possible for soil around the world, not just near cities, to be contaminated with lead and we don't know it?

2) If you were an urban gardener, what precautions would you take to make sure your soil did not had lead in it?

3) Considering that consuming only a little lead is not terrible for you, would you feel comfortable eating a vegetable grown in a garden with low lead levels?