Meeting Recap: April 30, 2013

This meeting we got to meet a professor named Stephen Kellert, who basically creates designs in buildings that let the environment in to the building. He talked about how environment has an effect on a person’s health or personality. He talked about a study where they watched hospital patients. Ones who looked at trees and plants were less likely to need strong medication compared to those who looked at a brick wall. This is why, he explained, you see more hospitals building fountains and gardens in their buildings. He also talked about how in schools, the environment is very closed off and doesn’t let the environment in which studies have shown gets kids more motivated to learn and have a better personality. He also talked about ways you can subtlety design buildings to let the environment in such as having tables or cabinets made of wood or other things that are naturally from the earth. He also talked about how he is now on the board of directors on a new environmental building company where they are going to build energy efficient, environmental friendly, and also structures that will also let the environment in like as previously stated. Overall it was a very enlightening meeting with Stephen Kellert.

See you next time,

 Paul and Bay Fellow, Kurt LoPresto

Re-Cap: Wooster Square Farmer’s Market, April 20, 2013

This past Saturday we went down to the Wooster Square Farmer’s Market in New Haven, CT. The market is run by a program called City Seed. Their mission is to engage the community in growing an equitable, local food system that promotes economic development, community development and sustainable agriculture. I like their program because they give the whole community access to healthy sustainable food options. They even incorporated the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) into the market. SNAP is a program modeled after food stamps. At the market, you are able to exchange SNAP for wooden chips with a given budget. The only two problems are that you can only use them for fruit and vegetables and you don’t get change. For instance if I had a $5 chip and I wanted to get a couple potatoes for $4.25. I would not get my 75 cents back in change. Overall, City Seed is doing a great job at making sustainable agriculture available to the community.

-Jesse, Bay and Paul Fellow

NRCS Field Trip: April 6, 2013

Hey all you people
Hey all you people
Hey all you people
won’t you listen to meeeee
I just had a journey
No ordinary trip,
A trip filled with green ecology(yyyyy),
Hey man you got to try this journey,
It’s no ordinary journey,
It was the most epic experience with NRCS(SSSSSS)

Okay enough with my remix of Hey all You People from SpongeBob.

On April 6, 2013; all of my fellows (Kurt, Amanda, Mia, Christine, and Jesse) accompanied by Amara and Andrea went to Bristol, CT to meet with Arthur Ramthun and his colleague—who work for the NRCS which is a branch of the USDA.

A little background information about the NRCS, it was originally established by Congress in 1935 as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS). NRCS has expanded to become a conservation leader for all natural resources, ensuring private lands are conserved, restored, and more resilient to environmental challenges, like climate change. Seventy percent of the land in the United States is privately owned, making stewardship by private landowners absolutely critical to the health of our Nation’s environment. NRCS works with landowners through conservation planning and assistance designed to benefit the soil, water, air, plants, and animals that result in productive lands and healthy ecosystems.

The purpose of this trip was to give Bay & Paul Fellows the economic side of the environmental damage. Arthur was nice enough to give a packet that mention, “In late August 2011, Hurricane Irene/Lee cause extensive damage in the City of Bristol. Approximately 18” of rain fell near the town in two separate storms. The Pequabuck River overflowed its backs and large debris plugged critical culverts through the town. The NRSC assisted the town with several projects using Federal Funds and the Emergency Watershed Protection Program.”

Surprisingly, ¼ of total projects is completed with a total of $500,000 is reconstruction; the actual total (estimate) of these projects is $1,800,000! Take about some serious cash.

It was a wonderful experience to get this “private” tour from two people who actually never done this act before; but their expertise in the following areas that they demonstrated to us all around Bristol convinced me. Additionally, I finally acknowledged how the government has this sort of equilibrium between protecting the environment and its habitants. Before this trip I always stereotyped the government as non-environmentalist who preferred expanding and deforesting for society than conserving it; not necessarily true.

To avoid repetitiveness and self-bias in my blog, I included some opinions from my other fellows, in order to include them.

Kurt- I thought the field trip on Saturday was amazing. First of all, the guys that led us on the tour created the tour just for us. Not many people can say that. I went on the trip thinking it was going to be boring but I soon realized it would be very interesting. It was very enlightening just how different the solutions to fixing the damage, and preventing it from happening again. Such as the stone wall that was created to stop the erosion of the hill. It was also interesting how they were able to fix the giant hole in the ground due to erosion. It was also enlightening to see/hear  just how much government can stop/make sure a fix can happen when things are damaged in a storm. It was also interesting to see how much different solutions to problems, such as flooding and erosion, can cost. It didn’t even look like it ever had a hole in it. I also can say that I actually know what a watershed is. I would have never known that if I didn’t go on the field trip.

Mia- I thought it was really nice of them to give us a tour, especially since they have never done one before. I would see workers repairing the roads after a huge storm and think why they do they take so long to finish one area. I would get frustrated by road workers because they would take so long and make a lot of noises. But now I see how much work has to be done behind the scenes, how much paperwork needs to be done before workers can even be hired.

Until next the trip, see you guys!

-Cindy

P.S. For more information about NRSC here is their website: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/ct/home/

Citaitons:

http://www.lyricstime.com/spongebob-squarepants-hey-all-you-people-lyrics.html

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/about/

The Invasion

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5TX1FQ6oqt6TkVCN2ZnUWk1OVE/edit

Here’s a film about zebra mussel invasion by one of our fellows, Jesse. Enjoy!

GMOrganic: A Botanical Love Story

Christine, again!  This time, I’m writing to tell you about an environmental issue I’ve stumbled across recently.  Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) has been a hot topic for a long time, and with it comes much controversy.  For years, genetically modified farming has been looked at as the antithesis of organic farming.  However, GMOrganic presents the idea that these two types of farming are not as opposed to one another as we think.  This documentary believes that we should consider a combination of GMO and Organic farming.  This is quite a unique perspective on the issue of genetically modified farming and it caused me to reconsider my own beliefs.

 

I first saw this in my movie making class as it’s a great example of documentary film making.  However, the topic was extremely interesting and closely related to the issues we discuss in Bay & Paul.  I quickly wanted to share my findings with the fellows!  Enjoy everyone.  

 

Until next time,

Christine, Bay & Paul Fellow

 

follow link below to view the short (3 minute) documentary

http://berkeley.news21.com/theration/2011/07/27/video-gmorganic-a-botanical-love-story/

 

Meeting Recap – April 2, 2013

This week at Bay & Paul, the Interns discussed current issues. We also all had a chance to share an environmental news article that we found this week.

 

• Public Health Awareness

The first full week of April is National Public Health Awareness week since 1995. This year it was

from April 1 to April 7.

• Gulf Coast Dolphin attack

In Louisiana, a tiny piercing was found on the right side of a dolphin’s blowhole which revealed that a small bullet was lodged inside the animal. Every year the number of dolphins coming onto the shore dead because of human activity and hunting is increasing. Dolphins are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which strictly forbids human harassment of dolphins.

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130329-dolphin-attacks-gulf-coast-marine-mammals-oceans-science/

 

• Arctic Sea Ice is Growing: A Global Warming Paradox

In September of 2012, satellite data showed that Antarctica was surrounded by 7.51 million square miles of sea ice, the highest ever recorded. Previous studies showed that global warming warmed Antarctic air, which means more moisture and precipitation. This means more snow falls on Antarctica. Snow makes the top layers of the ocean less salty, less dense, and more stable. This stability prevents warm currents from melting sea ice. New study shows that Ice shelves fall apart in warming temperatures. The water that flows from them gathers a cool surface layer on top of the ocean, which prevents the surface ocean from deep water that is melting the ice caps. Study leader Richard Bintanja said that this study “shows that global warming can cause regional cooling, and that’s quite counterintuitive”.

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130401-global-warming-antarctica-sea-ice-science-environment/

 

• Three Ways global Warming can make you sick

Why should we care about global warming and our environment? Here is why:

1. Toxic Algae contaminating seafood

2. Harmful Ocean Bacteria explosion

3. Sewage tainting drinking water

Read full article here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110301-global-warming-health-science-environment/

• Invasive Species: Zebra Mussels  

A video made by Jesse is coming soon!

 

• The Environmental Consequences of Human Food Choices

The Earth’s environment is fragile and Australia understands this Australia is taking action to reduce their personal impact such as reducing car usage, using energy efficient lightbulbs, and taking short showers. Let’s get a reality check here:

→It takes between 50,000 and 100,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef.

→It takes 2,500 litres to produce 1 kilogram of white rice.

→67% of water in Australia is used for agriculture and only 9% used for the household.

Read full article here:

http://www.veg-soc.org/PDF_Downloads/’Eating%20Up%20the%20World’.pdf

This got us thinking about vegetarianism in general, and we’ve decided to try being vegetarian for our Bay and Paul dinners for a while. Let’s see how we do! It’s good to challenge ourselves to live up to the values we hold; if we aren’t able to, at least we’ll understand the roots of some global problems better.  

Mia, Bay and Paul Fellow

Current Events: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a mass amount of marine garbage in the Pacific Ocean. It lies in a high pressure area between Hawaii and California. This area is in a circular current called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (an ocean gyre is a circular current formed by Earth’s wind patterns). The circular current draws in the trash and also prevents it from leaving the current. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch collects trash from North America and Asia. It takes a year for trash from Asia to get to the patch and about six years for trash from North America to get to the patch. Also, the trash that is in the patch is mostly non-biodegradable (such as plastics), so it will not go away and the amount just continues to build. Most people imagine an island of trash when they picture a “garbage patch”. However, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is mostly made up of “microplastics”. Microplastics are very hard to see and a satellite can’t even pick up the image of the garbage patch. The garbage patch also can have medical waste, glass bottles, and aluminum cans (which are also dumped into the ocean). Researchers have found up to 1.9 million bits of plastic per square mile. The Great Pacific Patch is approx. 7 million square miles. No one knows how much the garbage patch actually is as the North Pacific subtropical Gyre is too big for scientists to calculate or find an exact amount for the amount of garbage. Plastic is very harmful to various marine wildlife, such as the loggerhead turtle which can mistake plastic bags for jellyfish (which they eat). The garbage patch also disrupts food chains which are a key component to an ecosystem. The trash (especially the microplastics) collect on the surface, so it blocks the sunlight the plankton and algae need to live/thrive. Plankton and algae are very important to marine food webs as they are the foundation for many marine food webs.

By Kurt, Bay and Paul Fellow

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1