Cinnamon Flavored Sea?

Now that we know so much about the world around us and how we affect it, it seems that almost everything we do in our daily lives has some kind of environmental impact – and usually a negative one. According to this article, due to holiday baking, traces of vanilla and cinnamon have been found in the Puget Sound’s waters.

Theses spices end up in the Puget Sound after first passing through our bodies when we eat them, then being passed through a sewage plant and eventually being released into the water as treated sewage. Thankfully, even though the water has been “spiced up” there isn’t any real environmental issue because there isn’t a large enough concentration of the substances. At the most, the fish may be picking up a small vanilla or cinnamon scent during the holidays.

However, there is a darker side to the situation. While the Puget Sound gets cinnamon and vanilla flavoring through its sewage system, many other bodies of water can be found to contain antibiotics, caffein, contraceptives, perfumes, painkillers, and antidepressants coming in from the sewage system. Obviously, many of these things are necessary for humans so the blame cannot be totally on us for letting these dangerous substances into bodies of water. I think it’s necessary for sewage treatment facilities to improve their treatment techniques in order to ensure that only completely harmless sewage is let into contact with the clean water. Holiday spices are one thing, but when harmful substances are being released into natural habitats, a change to the system must quickly be made.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_sc/cinnamon_sound

Cane Toad Blues

Although I missed most of the cane toad movie we saw on the day before break, I could tell that if the cane toad problem was big enough to have its own movie (and song), it must pose a very significant environmental threat, moreso than that of most other invasive species. This article caught my eye because it shows that the cane toads are still a huge problem and that drastic measures need to be taken to help preserve Australia’s environment.

According to this article, the military may soon have go into action to officially wage war on the cane toads. This could easily be taken as a joke, but it really shows how serious the cane toad problem has gotten. Australian civilians do a good amount of damage to the cane toad population, often selling the carcasses to tourists as seen in the picture. However, now the battle against the toads has become a very serious one. Drastice measures need to be take before irreparable damage has been done to Australia’s environment.

The toads were first introduced in 1935, in a group of just 101, to try and control the population of cane beetles in Australia. Over 70 years later, the cane toads now number more than 200 million, causing a much worse problem for the environment than the beetles ever would. The cane toads have poisonous skin, which is responsible for big declines in many populations of native Australian animals.

It appears that all of Australia is quickly realizing how serious a threat these toads have become to the continent as a whole. Now that more attention is being brought to the problem, it may not be long before Australia finally finds a cure for its cane toad blues.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16361758/

New Soot Standards

According to an article from USA Today, as of Monday, 13 states are suing the EPA to lower soot emissions from smokestacks and exhaust pipes.  The current maximum for soot emissions is 15 micrograms per cubic foot of air.  The suing states want to see this maximum down to 1 or 2 micrograms.  This is a large reduction in soot emissions and can only positively affect the health of the environment and the people if the new limit is met.

One thing that struck me about this article was the fact that it focused on what soot does to human health: “premature death, chronic respiratory disease and asthma attacks.”  However, we know that soot and other emissions affect the environment just as much as it affects humans, causing acid rain and increasing the acidity in bodies of water, affecting the health of animals living in them.

While it is no doubt very important to consider the health of the people, environmental health is just as important because of what can happen in the future.  I think this is a large problem in dealing with environmental issues.  We are too concerned with the immediate effects.  By letting the long term damage get worse and worse, we are setting ourselves and the future up for major environmental disasters.  I do think that lower soot standards would be helpful either way, but we need to make sure we are making these reforms while keeping the big picture in mind.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2006-12-18-epa-sued-soot_x.htm?csp=34

Prince Charles’s Changes

Prince Charles has recently announced many lifestyle changes he will be making in order to ensure a healthier environment for future generations.  The Prince, who has always been conscious of protecting the environment, is going to begin taking commercial flights and train rides and also have his cars modified so they can run on biodiesel. 

 

Other environmentally friendly actions Prince Charles will be taking are to make use of sustainable electricity sources at his homes and also to begin measuring the greenhouse gas emissions of his food company, Duchy Originals.  Prince Charles has good motivation for making these eco-friendly changes, saying “We are consuming the resources of our planet at such a rate that we are, in effect, living off credit and living on borrowed time.  So it is, of course, our children and grandchildren who will have to pay off this debt and we owe it to them and to ourselves to do something about it before it is too late.”

 

Apart from the good Charles’s own changes are doing for the world, his environmental attitudes are rubbing off on other members of the Royal Family and the government as well.  Queen Elizabeth II, Charles’s mother, recently took a scheduled train for the first time.  Although this may seem like a very small improvement, it is definitely a step in the right direction.

 

Environmental groups are welcoming Charles’s initiatives, saying that Prime Minister Tony Blair has not been very actively responding to environmental issues such as global warming.  Because Charles is on his way to becoming King, the government will soon have a very hard time ignoring these environmental changes and begin to make some of their own. 

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11810

Getting the Most Out of Our Thanksgiving Meals

Without fail, for the next couple of weeks following Thanksgiving my lunch is always a  turkey sandwich.  No one ever finishes all the Thanksgiving turkey so there’s always a good portion of leftovers in the fridge that slowly disappears as everyone in my family makes a point to include turkey into their meals somehow.  By the time the turkey’s all gone, I usually can’t even look at turkey lunch meat for at least a month without feeling sick.  However, I feel good knowing I didn’t let any of it go to waste.  But compared to the residents of Plano, Texas, I’m letting a good portion of the turkey go to waste: the fat.

Below is a picture of the kind of turkey normally eaten in Texas – deep fried.  Although this may not be the most healthy way to enjoy one’s Thanksgiving meal, it very well may be the most environmentally friendly.  After Thanksgiving, the town of Plano, Texas, among others, collects turkey fat that is created as a result of the deep frying process.  Over the past year, 1,200 gallons of fat were collected in Plano alone.  500 of these gallons were received the week after Thanksgiving.  This fat is then donated to Biofuel Industries, the first renewable energy-powered plant producing biodiesel fuel in the state of Texas.

Although the current major alternatives to oil right now are coal and natural gas, as has been mentioned in class, turkey fat is on of many alternative biofuels, and as an added incentive it is also a “clean” fuel, as it doesn’t release any carbon emissions. 

Although turkey fat may not be a realistic option for replacing gasoline, programs similar to what is done in Plano help to pave the way for other biofuels in the future.  So next Thanksgiving, be sure to finish all your turkey, because if you’re not going to use it to help fuel your car, at least make sure none of it goes to waste as food. 

http://enn.com/today.html?id=11734