FMHS APES Fourth Spring 2019

IS A ZERO WASTE LIFESTYLE REALLY POSSIBLE? OR IS IT JUST A MYTH? The average American throws out approximately 4.4 pounds of trash per day. With this in mind, many Americans are joining the zero waste movement, a movement in which people are cutting out disposable packaging, making a commitment to reusable products. With a little bit of creativity, joining the zero-waste movement can be a lot easier than it sounds. The zero-waste movement is a lifestyle where people aim to eliminate their trash output completely: meaning no plastic, no wrappers, and no garbage. Even items such as basic toiletries come in plastic packaging that can take hundreds or even thousands of years to decompose in landfills. For this reason, many people have switched to a zero-waste lifestyle. Although it may seem unrealistic, many everyday people have made zero-waste cleaning supplies, toiletries, makeup and much more. By reevaluating the way in which they approach the concept of anthropogenic waste, the...

By: Caroline Tuggle Have you ever heard of walruses jumping off of cliffs? Sadly, it's actually a reality... Walruses look to segments of floating sea ice to rest and mate, but due to global warming, the abundance of these platforms are steadily diminishing . Due to the decreasing about of availability of sea ice, walruses look to the shores of beaches to rest and mate. This causes beaches to become over crowded and forces some to look elsewhere. Walruses climb up cliffs and large rocks to look for a place to rest and relax, but once they wish to come back down, they don't know how .  Due to them not knowing how to safely get back down from these cliffs, they see their family and friends in the water and see the cliff as a quick route back to the sea . While they aren't wrong about the quick access, they are unaware of just how deadly and harmful the decent into the water below truly is . Another source describes witnessing a stretch of shore covered in what was e...

Everyone knows about Starbucks, a chain that had now spread worldwide. I still remember the rave when one finally opened in the local mall in Hyderabad, India. No matter where one goes, Starbucks seems to be a constant among places that have almost nothing else in common. However, what we fail to see the major environmental impact that the “to-go” coffee culture has on the environment. Starbuck uses upto 8000 paper cups in s single minute, which adds up to 480,000 in a single minute, and 691,200,000 in a day and over 4 billion in a year. These cups require 1.6 million trees to be cut down for the paper that they require and cannot even be recycled due to the plastic lining that prevents the drink from seeping through the plastic. This adds up to a great amount of both paper and plastic that are wasted and disposed ineffectively with no chance of being reused or recycled. Furthermore, people have pointed out this impact that Starbucks has on the environment due to which ...

By: Samantha Surdek If you have been keeping up with your blog posts, you would be well aware of the growing decline of Apis mellifera , or the honeybee. In 2016, the United States lost forty-four percent of all honeybee colonies. This is a frightening loss for agricultural industries who largely depend on honeybee pollination. As a matter of fact, three-quarters of crop varieties rely on honeybee pollination such as apples and almonds. Recognizing the large-scale effects of a potential, honeybee extinction, Eijiro Mirako and fellow researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology drafted a short-term solution: a pollinating drone. This revolutionary drone is constructed with two primary components: horse hair pricklers and an ionic gel. Mimicking the fuzzy texture of the honeybee, the pricklers maintain an electric charge to attach the pollen. On the other hand, the ionic liquid gels (IGLs) use their photochromic properties to coll...

Nanotechnology: little technology, big environmental impact? Tiny technology. Nanotechnology. We all know it as the future of engineering - microscopic parts that can execute gigantic functions. The formal definition of nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension from 1-100 nanometers. The potential of nanotechnology for innovation in the future has led countries like the USA and Japan to invest billions of dollars into research. Scientists have found ways to use nanotechnology in a variety of fields, such as organic chemistry and medicine. But like a lot of fields, there’s something that most of us have never considered - how does it affect the environment? The technology itself is small, but how big are its impacts? Water quality is a huge issue around the world, with 15% of the human population unable to access clean, drinkable water. But nanotechnology offers a solution for the problem. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), nanoparticles of zero valent ...

By: Austin Seo Hello, my fellow environmentalists!  Today I will be talking about pandas!  Maybe you know pandas from your favorite Chinese fast food restaurant, or perhaps you heard about it from your favorite Desiigner song.  I know one of my first memorable moments seeing a panda was that very viral video that was posted to originally posted on Youtube in 2006 of the baby panda sneezing and the mother panda jumping up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4rfQSgkZOE).  While reminiscing on the old internet days, not to mention desperately trying to find a topic for this blog post, I noticed that in the background of the video you can clearly see the panda in some type of holding cell. This got me thinking, just why is that? This brings me to my main topic today: the endangerment of the Ailuropoda melanoleuca.   This species is commonly known to people as the Giant Panda. Firstly, let me introduce these lovable animals to everyone out there who has been livi...

Which is a picture of the garbage on Mt. Everest and which is a picture of a landfill? Actually, both are pictures of the garbage on Mt. Everest. It is shocking to see how people have made one of the world’s most beautiful sites into a dumping ground for food cans, torn tents, and empty oxygen bottles, among other items. Since the peak was first summited in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, over 4000 people have climbed the 29,035-foot high Himalayan peak, leaving behind mountains of litter in their tracks. Thankfully, since 2014 Nepal has become more strict on enforcing its rules, or at least one rule in particular: pick up after yourself. More specifically, if a climber returns with less than 18 pounds of trash, which is the average amount that is discarded during the climb, there are significant consequences, including forfeiting a hefty 4000 dollar deposit. Similarly, in Tibet, mountaineers are required to bring down the same amount and are fined ...

By Niyati Prabhu Trophy hunting: arguably one of the most debated ecological topics in today’s world. No matter who you are, where you come from, and what your background and interests are, you probably have some opinion on the notion of trophy hunting. Personally, I can’t fathom the idea of killing animals for sport, but I understand that this may be essential to the lives of some people. Not all hunting should be placed under scrutiny, but trophy hunting is one form that should definitely be further questioned and regulated. Most recently, Idaho fish and game commissioner Blake Fischer was caught in a scandal for posting pictures of his hunting trip to Namibia, in which he killed an entire family of chacma baboons. Disturbingly, he posed smiling next to the animal carcasses— this sparked sentiments of rage and disgust from the public. Following this event, he was forced to resign from his position due to to all the bad publicity. Though the species that Fischer killed is not...

Can this be Recycled? A simple question that comes up anytime someone must throw an item away. Although its a simple question, it has great significance when it comes to keeping are planet free of excessive waste and pollutants. So what really can you recycle? Well lets start with some simple rules. When it comes to food containers, the majority of them cannot be recycled due to one issue: food grease and residue. Recycled items don’t have to be pristinely clean, but food residue can render recycled materials less valuable. More than metal or plastic, paper absorbs oil and residue from food, so it’s harder to get out. Beyond pizza boxes, paper napkins, plates, and towels are all non-recyclable for this reason. So before you recycle a food container, double check for large food remains or significant grease stains before recycling. Secondly, most juice boxes and milk cartons aren't recyclable. These containers are mostly paper, but they have an ultra-thin pla...