by Hannah Fernandez
Does eco friendly equal tree hugger? No, it simply means doing what’s best for our environment. In our society today, environmentalists are really pushing “go green”, but from an economic stand point, it’s becoming more difficult for consumers to buy into during a recession and the fact that some environmental products may cost more. Despite some of these obstacles, there are many ways to do what’s right for the environment, even when we're pinching pennies.
One way is using earth friendly chemicals. Most people think that there isn’t a problem with using harmful chemicals. Wrong. When you use a cleaner like bleach, and just dump the bleach water everywhere, it causes an unseen reaction. Household cleaners are not the only problem. We have to be concerned about agricultural waste, and industrial processes; fortunately, we are working on making them less harmful to the environment by manufacturing them with biodegradable chemicals.
Another way is the three R’s. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. These are this biggest things we can do to become more eco-friendly. We have been taught these since we were little, and now were starting to put them into effect. This is the easiest way to become eco-friendly without becoming a tree hugger. Reduce means to bring down to a smaller extent. Reuse means to use again, and recycle means to treat or process to be used again.
Finally, using fewer fossil fuels is a BIG way to become eco-friendly. This is another easy thing to cut back on. We can walk more, try carpooling, use public transportation and ride our bikes. By eliminating the use of many fossil fuels, we can save us from an acceleration of the destruction of the protective ozone layer that rings our biosphere. When looking for other options to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, the auto industry must look at renewable resources for fuel such as hydrogen, soy and corn. Getting a hybrid vehicle is another great way to start saving fossil fuels.
I got a chance to ask Mrs. Hutchison and Mr. Bennett a few questions about how our new recycling program got started. Mrs. Hutchison said, “As a participant in the Newspaper in Education program, I became concerned about the amount of newspapers that were being brought into our school and thrown out each day. I also knew several students who were looking for ideas for service project ideas for their graduation projects. We started talking about the possibility of starting a school-wide recycling program. Initially, we started with about five teachers and newspapers only and it just grew and grew!” They both expect this program will be continued in the years to come.
In conclusion, becoming eco-friendly does not mean you will be labeled tree hugger (not that there's anything wrong with that). There is no reason why YOU can’t do something small in your daily life that helps our environment; at school, we can do the simple things: recycling plastic bottles at lunch and recycling paper in our classrooms. Recycling boxes are located in each classroom, and it is up to us to use them for the good purpose for which they are intended. If you don’t see why you shouldn’t, just think it’s not just you living in this world. It’s your parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and as we are often reminded, for our children's children. Do it for them.
An Eighth Continent
by Sarah Rudasill
Imagine…a mass twice the size of the continental United States has been floating in the Pacific Ocean, undetected for decades. Close to 100 million tons of garbage has been forming just that, and new evidence is arising over its detrimental effects on the environment. This accumulation of harmful plastics and trash is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and scientists are warning of its overwhelming consequences.
A man canoes through trash in the Pacific Ocean
This swirling vortex of primarily plastics threatens not only the fragile marine life in the Pacific; it also has potentially devastating affects on humanity. The collection of trash is not just floating in the Pacific; scientists believe it is caught in a gyre, which is an area of heavy currents and winds that form a whirlpool of garbage. Since this enormous mass of trash could potentially double in size in the next decade, it is pivotal that we, as residents of this beautiful planet, reduce or eliminate our plastic use as responsible consumers. 
Trash scattered along the ocean floor
Tony Andrady, a chemist with the Research Triangle Institute, recently stated that “…every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere.” This is a result of our pursuit of convenient items over the decades, which has created a production of plastic products resistant to even the most voracious bacteria. Since only 3.5% of plastics are recycled in any way worldwide, debris from plastic floating in the ocean is fatal to delicate life in the Pacific. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch alone, the floating accumulation of plastics kills more than 100,000 marine mammals, as well as an astonishing one million seabirds, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. In addition, three hundred thousand dolphins and whales drown annually in trashed fishing gear.The destructive problem with modern plastics is that they are not biodegradable. Experts estimate a convenient disposable diaper takes 500 years to break down, while a plastic six-pack ring for cans takes as many as 400 years to degrade. Even a simple plastic water bottle can take 450 years to break down. Still, after all this time has elapsed, the plastic will not have fully broken down; plastic particles look like confetti in the water, and currently there are trillions of these particles in the Pacific Ocean. The molecules left are too tough for any marine organism to digest and therefore remain in the ocean for an indefinite amount of time.
In 2006, the UN estimated every square mile of ocean contained 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. For every six pounds of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean, there is only one pound of naturally occurring zooplankton. Unfortunately, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is only one of five enormous gyres, and scientists expect there are more we do not even know about yet. Currently, researchers believe there are garbage patches off the coast of Japan and another garbage patch in the Sargasso Sea, located in the Atlantic Ocean.
The result of all this trash is that filter feeders such as jellyfish cannot distinguish between plastic pellets and their food source. Even some types of fish that consume the harmful plastics are poisoned, since trash particles serve as carriers for chemicals such as DDT, a restricted pesticide with devastating effects on the environment. These poisons in small ocean creatures cling to its tissues, so when a predator feeds on it, the toxins are transferred to the predator. In this way, large concentrations of toxics build up, and as these poisons move through the food chain, humans are ultimately affected.
A sea turtle stuck in a trashed fishing net
(it was later rescued)
The prospects for the future of the Pacific Ocean look bleak. By the end of 2010, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) predicts the amount of trash in the sea will increased 10-fold, with an estimated ratio of a shocking 60 pounds of plastic for every one pound of natural organisms. Although many organizations want to solve the plastic problem in the Pacific Ocean, a lack of comprehensive data on the issue has prevented associations such as the AMRF from collecting funds to take action against the growing volume of trash. A suggestion for cleaning up the massive amount of plastics was to convert the trash into diesel fuel, which another research group is experimenting with.
While information is gathered on the deadly mass of trash in the Pacific Ocean, only we as consumers can control the volume of trash emptied into oceans around the world. The next time someone goes to throw away a plastic water bottle in the trash, think of the massive vortex of bottles, wrappers, plastic bags, light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes and other objects killing large amounts of marine life and threatening our food chain.
Recycling is crucial to lowering the amount of toxic poisons in our oceans, so take the time to recycle a plastic water bottle or plastic bags. Some stores collect excess plastic shopping bags to recycle; better yet, purchase reusable shopping bags to eliminate your use of plastic bags! If your community does not have a recycling program, take the initiative to start one yourself. Attend the local borough meeting and find out how you can help limit the trash forming the enormous Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Disgusting trash floating on the ocean
The Sincerest Form of Science: Biomimicry
by Eli Ford
Biomimicry by definition is the science and art of emulating nature's best biological features to solve human problems. Non-toxic adhesives inspired by geckos, energy efficient buildings inspired by termite mounds and resistance-free antibiotics inspired by red seaweed are all examples of biomimicry happening today and none too soon. Humans may have a long way to go towards living sustainably on this planet, but ten to thirty million species with time-tested genius may teach us the most efficient ways of getting there.
A good example of biomimicry with positive real world applications can be seen in the way engineers benefitted from studying the kingfisher: a small sleek and slender bird that when fishing will dive into the water with the smallest splash. Due to the application of biomimicry, the bullet trains of Japan have been designed so that the front of the train resembles the shape of the head of the kingfisher. When it emerges from tunnels travelling at full speed, the bullet train produces a characterisitic boom that can be heard from miles away. What does the kingfisher and the bullet train have in common? Biomimicry has helped engineers understand that by shaping the front end of the train to resemble the kingfisher's head, the train will more effectively be able to cut through the air at the end of the tunnel thus reducing the sound of the bang produced, much like the way the kingfisher's head cuts through the water without a splash.
This concept of designing things to be like animals to better our lives applies to much more than a splash or a loud bang. Biomimicry has also been applied to making more heat efficient windows by using the honeycomb design first developed by bees in their hives. Scientists have also developed more weather resistant clothing from the concept of an otter's hair and skin. Now biomimicry is being used more and more, and more applications are being developed for it. Fighter jets are now even being designed around the most agile of sea creatures -- the dolphin.
Biomimicry is a very useful field of science that with our attention will continue to produce more and more helpful designs that could better our lives. More about this fascinating field of study may be found at the Biomimicry Institute.
And Now for Something Completely Different...
Can Ants Count?
