FMHS APES Fourth Spring 2019

Who doesn’t love relaxing beaches? Having fun under the sun?One of the things to always check off your to do list before a trip usually always includes packing sunscreen for a a pleasant beach going experience. But, how does the seemingly innocent and protective nature of sunscreens effect the environment? Generally, sunscreens are divided into two categories: chemical and mineral sunscreens. Chemical sunscreens, 70% of which contain oxybenzone, convert UV rays into less harmful rays by absorbing and reducing the ability of UV rays to penetrate the skin. Alternatively, mineral sunscreens actually physically block light from your skin by blocking or reflecting UV A and UV B rays and are typically comprised of the ingredients zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. How though are sunscreens causing the significant deaths of coral reefs? The problem is that a 2016 study conducted by Craig Downs and others at the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory has demonstrated that both oxybenzone...

By Junia Lee Paper. A source of entertainment. A place for notes. A planner full of possibilities, dates, and schedules. Paper is an essential tool for our lives today, whether we like it or not. The production of paper being a high demand leads us to the problem of its effects. This is not a new concept nor is it one that has been resolved.  Although the awareness of deforestation and the increase in the amount of waste have risen, we, humans, still overuse this utensil. Annually, 90 million short tons of paper and paperboard are used across the United States, which averages out to be 700 pounds of paper per person each year. Over 40% of municipal solid waste is composed of paper (71.8 million tons each year), as well. Personally, I use a whole bunch of paper on a daily basis and sometimes I do not even realize that I do. This is a problem for most of the society. When it comes to something that is always provided and easy to obtain, it is hard to see the huge...

By Hannah Lee Cleaning supplies, glues, paints and other items can release harmful chemicals into indoor air. Removing them from that air can be difficult and expensive. However, scientists have discovered that houseplants have the potential to be the solution.  This idea is hardly new. NASA researchers first proposed it in the 1980s. When plants take in air through their leaves, they can use proteins called  enzymes to disarm toxic chemicals. But most enzymes only work on a few types of chemicals, and plants may not have enzymes that tackle each of the pollutants in their environment. So plants' usefulness for cleaning up pollution is limited without some help from scientists.  In order to boost their effectiveness, scientists starting by giving plants a gene to make an enzyme called 2E1, an enzyme that targets small, carbon-rich molecules called   volatile organic compounds. VOCs are a big problem, and they turn into a gas at room temperat...

By Rahul Kumar Throughout history, the release of CO2 by human activity has increased vastly. Many environmental problems are caused by increased pollution, but one problem is typically overlooked: Ocean Acidification. In the past 200 years, the pH of surface ocean waters have reduced by .1 pH. The pH scale works like the Richter Scale, meaning it is logarithmic. A 0.1 pH decrease doesn't seem like a lot, but it actually results in a 30% increase in acidity. The Cycle of Ocean Acidification Since the industrial era, the ocean has approximately absorbed 525 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is decreasing its pH. The decreased pH is harmful to a lot of the marine life in the ocean. For example, the shells of some animals dissolve in acidic seawater. The pH also causes chemical reactions, making carbonate ions less abundant. Carbonate ions are essential to the creation of coral skeletons and sea shells. Therefore, not only does the acidic water dissolve th...

Saaketh Koka Genetically Modified Organisms, commonly known as GMOs, have long been a topic of debate in the scientific community. Humans have been modifying crops for centuries. Native Americans selectively bread maize crops in order to get desirable characteristics out of them. Nowadays, scientists target specific sequences in an organism's DNA and change it to their needs. Many scientists debate whether GMOs help or harm the environment. GM crops harm the environment by decreasing the genetic variation which, in turn, decreases the biodiversity. Although GM crops harm biodiversity, non-GM crops require excessive use of pesticides which harm the environment a lot more. GMOs can be seen as a traditional crop replacement because they harm the environment a lot less than traditionally grown crops. Traditional crops require lots of pesticides to properly grow. These pesticides can runoff into streams and rivers and eventually make their way to l...

Jibran Khalil, 4th Period Fixing Water Pollution in Third World Countries There’s a river near my second home; even before you can see it, the smell has already reached you. It’s right in the middle of the city, a canal indented into the ground between lopsided apartments and rundown lassi vendors. The river is where everyone is, and, for the most part, where everyone’s trash is. See, it’s a murky brown color. It’s progressed from an unusual gray into a solid layer of brownness that seems to be unrevertable. There are no fences on the edges, so the people walking by tread carefully so they won’t fall in. Around the sides are torn bags of garbage leaking in. This is the state of rivers around the world, particularly in third world countries — polluted, filled with garbage, and a problem not many think is worth facing; through governmental policies and global efforts, however, these water supplies can return to their natural state. Over 1.7 billion people in third world ...

Anyone who knows me on any personal level won’t hesitate to deny my love for cows. In the summer before 8th grade, I saw a picture of a blow-dried cow and I immediately fell in love. The cow owners shampooed, conditioned, and blow dried their cows and took them to the local cattle show. Their coat looked so fluffy. Y’all it looked like a carpet. After nearly a year of begging my parents for a cow, I got one– more precisely, I got a whole farm. I spent my summers shampooing, conditioning, and blow drying my cows.  From February 22 of my freshman year to February 22 of my sophomore year, I went vegan. A lot of people thought I went vegan because I just loved my cows so much, but good gosh can they be farther from the truth. It was a dare. I love my meat with a burning passion. I eat meat at least 21 times a week– three times a day (for every meal), seven days a week. Initially, I was so staunchly set on the idea that I would not benefit in the slightest bit from going vegan. But...

Our Situation Access to clean water isn’t really a problem for us. All we have to do is walk a grueling couple of steps to the fridge. And dare I say we first have to go to a cabinet and grab a mug. The horror is undeniable. Despite our sheltered lives with fridges, sinks, and masses of bottle water, access to clean water is a big problem.  The Problem Today 1 in 9 people don’t have access to clean water. That’s about 844 million people. Furthermore, 2.3 billion people don’t   have access to the technology to improve sanitization. These  shocking statistics mean that many people around the world have to carry 40 pound jugs miles to clean water and back. Others are subject to the infectious diseases and parasites that reside in dirty water. Waterborne illnesses kill more than 1.6 million children each year. Sadly, every 2 minutes a child dies from a waterborne disease.   Worth It This may seem like a far away problem to great to ...