I'm Just One Person -- What Can I do?

So, you care.

You've sat down, read some blog posts, and decided that you want to do something! You now want to do your part to protect the environment, and your children's future, in the ways you feel are best. You move past what you've read here and you decide to do a little research of your own.

Your heart freezes -- You overload yourself with information about things you never may have thought were happening before and you wonder what you as a person can do.

Well, here's what you're not going to do:

No one expects you to save the world single-handedly. The thought is changing our perspective, then our culture as a whole.

There are some organizations working to bring issues to light, knowing that sometimes people have to have a little shock to be able to realize that something's not quite right --

...

But, I honestly think that a little conversation goes a long way. Let's talk to one another. Start the conversation instead of pretending it's a hoax, Learn what we can and then save ourselves, for our future and for the future of all generations born after us.

Photo Credit:

Public Awareness Ads

Why Does Our Carbon Footprint Matter?

You may ask yourself, why does my carbon footprint matter?

You may have heard of the phrase before, but does it actually mean anything to you?

What our carbon footprint means to us, in our daily lives, is the number of how much we're polluting the environment, with carbon byproducts. These byproducts form anytime carbon dioxide is released into the environment, typically as gas, coal or other carbon-producing fuel is burned.

Your footprint matters because you only have control over yourself -- you can't make someone else respect our environment, no matter how much they seem to be bent on polluting it, but you can do as much as you can to decrease your harm on the environment. 

As shown in the film, An Inconvenient Truth, our choices can, and will, have devastating effects on our planet if we choose to continue our complete disregard for our impact  we individually have on our one and only planet.

photo credit: ItzaFineDay via photopin cc

Sustainable Skylines Initiative

This week I had planned to inform my viewers of local sustainability projects that our state and local government had been involved with, however, once I found the Sustainable Skylines Initiative and subsequently how it had been seemingly thrown on the back burner, I felt like sharing information about this exciting initiative so we might all urge our representatives to continue with these forward-thinking programs:


 

Additional resources to view: 

Parking Lots to Parks Program 

KC Idle Free 

Mid-America Regional Council Environmental Page
Mid-America Regional Council Air Quality Action Plan

A World Without Bees?

Colony Collapse Disorder --

 A pathological condition affecting a large number of honeybee colonies, in which various stresses may lead to the abrupt disappearance of worker bees from the hive, leaving only the queen and newly hatched bees behind and thus causing the colony to stop functioning. Abbreviation:  CCD

- Dictionary.com

The bees are dying en masse and no one knows how to stop it.

You might ask yourself, why should I care and even if I did care what can I do about it? Well, for starters, do you like your coffee?

"Some types of crops have flowers that may only be pollinated during a short period. If such a crop is not pollinated during that time, the flowers will fall and no seeds, berries or fruit will develop. There have to be sufficient numbers of bees in the pollinated crop."

"A single coffee flower is only open for three to four days when blooming. If a bee or another insect does not pollinate the flower during these days, it will wither, and no coffee bean will be produced. Clever coffee farmers take care that there are plenty of honeybees or stingless bees for pollination in the farm."

- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Other examples of crops that depend on a honey bee population to produce quality fruit include, but are not limited to:

Apple, Apricot, Asparagus seed, Avocado, Bean (Lima), Blackberry, Blueberry, Cabbage, Brassica (canola, oilseed, rapeseed), Carrot seed, Clover seed(White), Citrus, Cotton, Cucumber, Eggplant, Gourds, Kiwifruit, Mandarin, Mango, Melon, Onion seed,Peach and nectarine, Pear, Pepper (Green, Sweet), Pumpkin, squash, gourd, Strawberry, Watermelon, Safflower, Sunflower, Onion seeds.

- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Cultivation of new queens and beekeeping helps, but there are only so many honey bee queen breeders in the United States and even then you're trying to fix a symptom and not a cause. 

View Honey Bee Queen Breeders Map in a larger map

What causes Colony Collapse Disorder?

There's a severe problem here, when it comes to being able to solve the actual problem -- No one knows exactly what causes Colony Collapse Disorder. There are, however, many ideas at the forefront and also many things that we use today that are known to outright kill bees, helping to contribute to the lower numbers in their declining population.

Neonicotinoids

Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine. The idea was that Neonicotinoids are already present in plants, therefore they would make a great pesticide because no harm could come to the plants themselves, only the insects that would try to feed upon them. Unfortunately this pesticide is also present in the flowers and pollen that bees will ultimately interact with to build their hives and pollinate other plants. The EPA did require a study done as to the effect that this class of pesticides, specifically Clothianidin, would have on the bees, but only after the product hit the shelves. 

The timing of the decline in bees and the introduction of  the first Neonicotinoids on the market is also very suspicious. According to a French study, done in 2001, the bee population weight per hive dropped by over one half between 1995, when the first Neonicotinoids were introduced, and 2001.

Studies like these have lead to the European ban on several Neonicotinoids, but there is still far too much in action when it comes to the rest of the world. 

What can we do?

Neonicotinoids are not the be all end all of the debate on the bees, either, several other possibilities exist, including many theories that may not even exist at present. So, what can we do to help solve this problem before we're required to use chicken feathers and bamboo poles to pollinate crops for some 300 million people who live in our nation?

According to Dr Ivor Davis, master beekeeper and past president of the British Beekeepers' Association, there are 10 things you can do to help:


1. Become a beekeeper

2. Help to protect swarms

If you see a swarm of bees do not try and spray it with water or do anything to break it up. Call a local bee-keeper or the police and someone will come and take care of the problem for you. These are natural events in which bees can add to their colonies.

3. Plant your garden with bee friendly plants

4. Buy local honey

5. Ask your [representatives] to improve research into honey bee health

6. Find space for a beehive in your garden

Or try to find aspiring bee-keepers who have no space in their yards to loan out part of the space in your garden to -- you'll both benefit.

7. Remove jars of foreign honey from outside the back door

These can infect bees with diseases that other bees, in different regions, might have stored within their honey.

8. Encourage local authorities to use bee friendly plants in public spaces

9. Learn more about this fascinating insect

10. Bee friendly

Stay calm, do not swat at bees who come close to you, and do what you can to not cause harm to any bees around you.

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Besides these tips, there are other things you can do. There are always petitions that can be found to be signed, as well as activist groups like Bee Against Monsanto, who want to bring more public attention to this sometimes undervalued cause.





Edit:

My lovely friends at Bee Against Monsanto would like to add that they would like everyone to join the swarm across the globe as we 'Swarm to Save the Bees' - International Honey Bee Day - August 16th. 

For more info visit: Swarm the Globe to Save the Bees

Photo Source:

Bee Against Monsanto Facebook Page

Housing Alternatives -- Off-the-grid and Tiny Homes

Housing, outside of the box

Not many of us would ever think about it, or consider it even remotely an option, but did you know there are alternatives to the "natural order" of either living in an apartment or buying a costly house for the rest of your life? You might be thinking to yourself, "What? Do you mean going homeless or living like animals in the woods?", but the answer to that question is a definite no. What I want to inform you about, today, is the option of off-the-grid living, specifically within regards to "Tiny Homes".

Now, we might not all have to live in on a re-purposed parking spot, as did this man in Tokyo, but there are quite a few reasons people right here in the U.S. find reasons to want to participate in this self-reliant, sustainable, green living alternative.

Some people in the U.S. just want to be completely independent of all forms of reliance on the outside world.

You may have heard about them: Off-the-gridders living in radical opposition to modern amenities by growing their own food and cutting themselves off from the rest of society. Not so. Sure, more people are choosing to cut their dependence on the power grid, the grocery story and fuel pump. But these new homesteaders are hardly radicals -- they are simply DIYers who, for a variety of reasons, revel in self-reliance. This is their story.

- Popular Mechanics

There are others who maintain a personal complete personal responsibility when it comes to saving the environment, and choose to do their part to the maximum of their ability. 

Some people also choose the life of the open road and choose to use R.V.s or vans as a form of rent-free living, so they can live life to the fullest, experiencing it for all its ups and downs.

If any of these ideas appeals to you, definitely take a look at this documentary on tiny homes, because you deserve to know that there are more options in life than just those set in front of you:

Mangrove Forests

The Beauty and Tradgedy of Mangrove Forests

"On the edge of the ocean, there is a very special forest, that lies above and below the water. A place where the most delicate creatures can safely refuge. Where the ocean's most mighty come when they are still too small to rule the sea. These are the mangrove forests."

You may ask yourself, why should I care about the mangroves? In fact, if you're anything like the majority of the world, there may not even be a mangrove forest within traveling distance, let alone within any sort of geopolitical lines, but there are in fact many reasons to care.

But before we can understand more about why we should save them let's learn a little more about how and what their function is from a world perspective. 

There are 4 types of mangrove trees, which when compared to the dense forests of South America may seem to be unimportant, but in reality three quarters of all tropical fish are born in the relative safety and care of these brackish nurseries.

What allows these vulnerable fish to survive has to do both with the environmental setup of these forests, with plenty of different options of terrain for each species to exploit to their needs, yet also they can  flourish within the nooks, crannies and pockets of safety made available to them by way of the trees themselves.

Besides the benefits that these forests confer upon our planet's watery denizens there are hundreds of above sea-level species that benefit from the forest's protection, including humans.

Not only has there been less devastation from hurricanes and tropical cyclones in countries that allow their mangroves to thrive, but the mangrove forests have been found to actually be an inexpensive alternative to some popular theories as to how to combat climate change.

While they make up only 0.7 percent of the world's forests, they have the potential to store about 2.5 times as much CO2 as humans produce globally each year. 

- Scientific American 

Deforestation causes devastation

In just the last decade 35% of the remaining mangrove population has been destroyed. This rate of loss is almost incomprehensible when compared to the amount of coverage that rainforest deforestation receives -- most of us know next to nothing about mangrove's existence, and let alone the effects of its loss in the world.

So, what does happen when we lose the mangroves? 

Mangroves form dense barriers against storms and tsunamis, saving lives and protecting property. They also provide us with many other important benefits—more than many people may realize. For example, mangroves produce seafood, fruits, medicines, fiber, and wood. They stabilize shores by trapping sediments and building land. They improve water quality by filtering runoff and polluted waters. They protect the climate by absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the amount of greenhouse gas. All in all, researchers estimate, the world's mangrove forests provide human communities with many billions of dollars worth of free services.

- Smithsonian Institute 

If you're looking at it from a more local perspective, an estimated 75% of the game fish and 90% of the commercial fish species in south Florida depend on the mangrove system. When you look at it at a global level you see carbon emissions rising, not only from the deforestation effort itself, but in the dislodging of millennia worth of carbon stocks that have accumulated in the shallow water sentiment. There is also the point that mangroves and coral reefs have a symbiotic relationship and each serves to protect the other, and the over all ecosystems, from the destruction of tropical storms, hurricanes and storm surges that otherwise would harm both. Also, globally, the diversity of the life, both on land and under the water, cannot be overstated. Everything from tigers to the smallest of crab thrive in the protection they provide, and in removing these forests hundreds of species will either be wiped out or further encroach on human habitats because they have no where else to go.

More over, if we lose the mangroves we lose a ecosystem of true beauty and inspiration. There is nothing that shows life at its greatest than a congregation of hundreds of different types of life taking up the same place in this world and not only surviving, but thriving off of their close community. That, in itself, should be enough for us to care and do what we each can to save the mangroves before it's too late. 

Video Source:

The Beauty of Mangrove Forests from Dennis Zaidi on Vimeo.

Photo Sources:
photo credit: Phil's 1stPix via photopin cc
Wikipedia

Hydraulic Fracturing -- A Risk-benefit Analysis

Fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing) 

Hydraulic Fracturing, or Fracking as you might hear it called on the news, is a process in which fresh water is mixed into a proprietary mix of chemicals then injected into a natural gas or petroleum well in order to stimulate the well to fracture around the preexisting well and release more of the possible contents surrounding the setup.

Fracking Benefits

There are some substantial benefits surrounding the use of Hydraulic Fracturing. These benefits mainly have to do with the interplay between supply and demand. The more fracking that happens in the U.S. the more natural gas and petroleum we have to sell around the world and the better off we are, financially, as a nation as well as the possibility of reduced energy costs around the globe.

"The boost that this would give to gas supply would bring a number of benefits in the form of greater energy diversity and more secure supply in those countries that rely on imports to meet their gas needs, as well as global benefits in the form of reduced energy costs."

- World Energy Outlook

Fracking Downsides

However, there are some truly scary downsides to Fracking. 

Proprietary mixes of the chemicals injected into the wells contain known and unknown levels of chemicals, hundreds of which are known carcinogens. Unfortunately, since these companies have not produced patents on their "slurry", as it's called, they can not be forced to disclose these chemicals to the public with respect to their need to keep the chemicals undisclosed to their competition.

Another issue with fracking plays into the first issue quite well, because unfortunately the chemicals involved with fracking can, and have been known to, penetrate into ground water aquifers and contaminate the entire drinking supply of cities. There have been reports of people in contaminated water areas having severe health problems including: adrenal and pituitary tumors, headaches, nausea, joint pain and respiratory problems. As well as the movie 'Gasland' where water, straight from the tap, has been made made flammable enough to catch on fire.

There is also the issue of the release of the very gasses that are trying to be collected can majorly pollute the atmosphere of their own accord and also cause health problems.

My Fracking Conclusion

I do not believe that fracking, at the level we are producing today, is worth the continued risk. My research has shown me that there is considerable risk involved and that the EPA is only now starting an investigation into whether or not these health claims are valid even while new fracking sites are going up.

There is also the economic issue that we're faced with -- we produce much, much more natural gas now and the price bottoms out but what happens when the wells dry up? Prices would then sky rocket back to, or past, the initial price and when we could have been drilling it sparingly we decided it would be much better to go every man for himself and make a quick buck.

All in all, there needs to have been more research done in the subject before the complains of cancer started to occur and the cocktail that makes up the slurry needs to be disclosed to that people can really know what they're signing up for when they allow fracking to occur around their town.

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Supplement your Current Lifestyle with Vegetarian Staples

Vegetarian living doesn't have to be boring.

It doesn't have to be bland or unappetizing either.                                 

In fact, to have a great impact on the world, you don't even need to stop eating meat, you just have to learn how to make wise choices about what you consume and how many resources it takes to make your delicious hamburger. 


So, you've had your breakfast for the day. Probably some cereal or some eggs (all of which is considered alright to consume when responsibly raised and cared for under a vegetarian diet) but later on you decide you want something to snack on. Well, P.E.T.A. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has a vested interest in finding as many types of food as possible that help you help animals and the environment, so they made a vegan shopping guide!

In this guide you can find baking goods, baked goods, beverages, snacks, staple foods and more. With foods on the snacks such as Oreos and Monster Energy Drinks on the list, you don't have to worry about never being able to enjoy your splurges -- all they're attempting to do is replace your protein needs with sustainable and non-harmful alternatives.

Personally, the way I choose to live, isn't completely vegetarian either. I don't believe that I should eat meat that was abused in its life -- I don't believe I should thrive on something that's inefficiency is killing the land around it -- I believe I need to make smart choices as to what I consume and not assume an all or nothing attitude when it comes to whether or not I will eat lasagna or vegetarian lasagna.
 

photo credit: Sergiu Bacioiu via photopin cc

Self-Sustainability

In order for humanity to save itself, it must adapt or die, like any other species.

 This ability to adapt, unfortunately, is a little more challenging for our species. You see, we can rationalize, and convince ourselves of ideas deemed too demented for animal-kind. We have been known to clear-cut whole forests in the name of progress, unwittingly killing thousands of species in the process. We tell ourselves that everything is okay, because the system works, because people care, but what happens when people stop caring and start profiting?

As a species, we've found ways to live cleanly through science. We now can harness wind and solar energy, given freely, straight from the planet itself, yet we still choose to drill into the ground to bring oil to our surface. In fact, Germany, which isn't known for its record-breaking days of sunlight, has now been able to produce half of the necessary energy to power its entire country, for a single day. In fact, according to AWEA (American Wind Energy Association) Kansas has the second highest wind potential in the whole United States. 

Yet, we still live with only one lonely windmill in our town of Topeka, Kansas.While this marks a progressive effort, why did it take us so long to start realizing our potential? Were we worried about the birds? The up front cost? Or do we really just not like looking at them?

Whatever our reasons, we can't forget the inevitable conclusions that most scientists agree on: Global warming is happening.

If we don't change our habits and take things seriously, the consequences for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren could be significant. Even more water shortages, causing even more wildfires, more super-storms and flooding, even down to furthering our already miserable summers with more allergies, insect bites, and worse air quality.


As with any topic, it is important to verify this information for yourself. You have the power to inform yourself when it comes to environmental issues and what we can do as a nation to sustain ourselves. The best way to do that is not to sweep this under the rug, but to keep the discussion going. The consequences are too dire to ignore this issue any longer.

If we all do our part, we can save the world.

Photo sources:

photo credit: Sigfrid Lundberg via photopin cc

photo credit: Ed Suominen via photopin cc

photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center via photopin cc

When the levees break

When the levees break, where will I go?

The cool breeze that buffets my Kansas porch, twice a year,  will no longer exist

When the levees break, who will I turn to?

No one can cope any better or worse than  another, as long as they survive.

When the levees break, who will I become?

The hero or the villain?

No one can tell us these answers. This is something we experience ourselves, learning how to wade in the murky depths where all colors are shades of grey, but there is hope -- do the levees have to break?

 I sit here in my comfy chair, in my comfy childhood house, pondering life, even as its experiences are so far away. I watch the news, wondering to myself, is there anything Stephanie can do? Then I click the remote and press my head against my pillow, falling into a deep, restful sleep -- those answers can wait until tomorrow.

But, they can't.

If we don't start coming up with the answers today then nothing will ever change, because it will always be put off until tomorrow.

So let's do that! Let's start a conversation, stop glossing over the important matters or letting our personal bias cloud us from the overarching themes in this world.

If we all try, we can save the world together.

photo credit: OmahaUSACE via photopin cc