FMHS APES First Spring 2019

A handful of blog posts ago, all of us (or at least most of us) read about wildfires in California, and how they are such a volatile danger. It only takes a spark on a dry day to birth an inferno that engulfs homes and forests alike. Obviously, this is an issue that is taken very seriously by anyone who puts value in not being on fire. However, one of the better solutions happens to be more counter-intuitive: light the forest on fire on purpose. This is obviously over simplified, so let me explain. A controlled burn takes all of the positive after effects of a wildfire on our terms. Skilled firefighters and park rangers can keep it contained exactly in the area they want, and can provide immense benefits to the environment. After a fire, many resources (such as carbon or nutrients)formerly locked away in dead plant matter are released into the surrounding environment. If you remember our discussion of Yellowstone, a few years after the devastating 1988 wildfire, everything was b...

           Americans buy about 29 million  plastic water bottles each year. Unsurprisingly only one out of every six of those bottles are recycled. This is a huge problem since it takes about 1,000 years for a single bottle to decompose. Our landfills are overflowing with all 2 million tons of bottles.                    Studies have shown that decomposing bottles release toxins into the environment that can cause health problems such as reproductive issues and cancer. These bottles are not only harming the environment when they are being thrown into landfills but during production as well. Plastic bottles are made from a petroleum product called polyethylene terephthalate which results in the use of large amounts of fossil fuel.       An unlikely figure however has created a product to combat the negative effects of plastic bottles. Jaden Smith has created a compa...

Palm oil ― it’s in everything, from soap to pizza dough to bio-diesel . It’s also a massive contributor to rain forest destruction. Palm oil is produced from the brightly colored fruit of the oil palm tree, specifically the African oil palm, which is native to west and southwest Africa. Despite its place of origin, the main growers and exporters of palm oil are actually Indonesia and Malaysia, who together produce around 85% to 90% of the world’s supply. The oil is insanely versatile; it's used to create the smooth creamy texture of ice cream, make lipstick pigmented and smooth, and produce moisturizing soaps and shampoos. This all-purpose characteristic of palm oil puts it in great demand, which unfortunately also puts great strain on the environment. Oils palms grow best in the tropical climate of rain forests , prompting mass conversion of Malaysia and Indonesia’s rain forests into oil palm plantations. The destruction of the tropical forests have considerable...

Jessica Park - Noise Pollution We have been taught at a young age that we shouldn't create pollution due to the detriments it poses to the environment and ecosystems around us. However, whenever we talk about pollution, we tend to think about the tangible kind like water, land, and air pollution. One type that we don't talk about is noise pollution. That's right, folks! You are polluting the earth just by talking. Maybe classifying conversations as pollution is a bit of a stretch, but if you have a friend who doesn't have an "indoor voice", then you can inform them that they’re contributing to noise pollution. Better yet, if you live by the airport and the constant planes travelling is too loud for you to live peacefully, you can yell at them to stop disturbing the natural balance of the ecosystem. Then again, you wouldn't be helping the situation by shouting like a grumpy old man on his porch at a bunch of whippersnappers, but you get the id...

Pollution in the Ganges River The Ganges River, considered holy by a majority of Indians, flows from the western Himalayas down to the Bay of Bengal. It passes through crowded cities and some of the most populated areas in the world. The west bank, in particular, lies in Varanasi, the religious capital of India and Hinduism. Varanasi is India's oldest city and is thought to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Several Hindus aspire to die here and have their ashes spread in the Ganges. The irony of this seemingly holy, sacred site is that it is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Pollution, untreated sewage and use by hundreds of people transform it into toxic sludge by the time it reaches the sea. Because of India's loose environmental regulations, industries along the river are able to release chemicals and other poisonous material into the Ganges. In addition, fertilizers from fields find their...

“Dead zones” are areas of large bodies of water, typically occurring in the ocean, that lack the necessary amount of dissolved oxygen to support marine life. Historically, many of these sites were naturally occurring. However, recently there have been increased instances of these zones expanding and new ones being created. This is likely triggered by the process of eutrophication, caused by an excess of plant nutrients due to runoff from the land. These excess nutrients often cause rapid increases in the density of phytoplankton, a phenomenon known as an algal bloom, which allows small heterotrophs, such as zooplankton, to proliferate. Eventually, as phytoplankton and zooplankton die, the large amount of decomposition exhaust the water’s supply of dissolved oxygen. Low levels of oxygen have several different effects on marine organisms. Many fish face reproductive problems, such as low egg counts and a lack of spawning. This occurs because the hypoxic (low-oxygen) conditions activat...

Throughout the 2016 Presidential Campaign and Donald Trump’s presidency, climate change has been a prominent political talking point. The Trump administration has proposed slashing the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency by 25%, eliminating some 3,000 jobs. The GOP have characterized the agency as non-productive, with only negative effects such as burdening businesses with regulations. In the eyes of the American people, the environment ranks low on the list of priorities the government should address. However, with the rise of millennials into politics,it seems the environment has some on its side. In the 1960s, the environment was a bipartisan issue, and a Republican president created the EPA in 1970 in response to public pressure. However, the period since the EPA was created has been defined by debate and disagreement over the environment. It has become increasingly more political than at any other time. This “politicization” of the environment is extremely promin...