Some gals on campus organized a Vagina Monologues event and it pretty much blew my mind!
Normally, when women gather to talk about how great they are, I roll my eyes just as I would any other kind of ego-stroking activity. What generally makes women's empowerment events such a turn-off to me is that they nearly always include man-bashing. From my perspective, this is dumb, but I happen to be a man and my women friends tell me that that makes me biased.
In my past experiences, femi-nazi, man-hating women are unpleasant to be around so I generally make every effort to avoid any kind of event that facilitates greater emotion against men. I prefer that a woman would hate me because of something I do, rather than hate me for being something I cannot change.
That said, when I got dragged to the V-Day presentation, and roped into helping out with it, I was extremely skeptical about how it would all go down. I sat and listened to story after story and was nothing short of blown away! This wasn't just another man-bashing seminar - this was an "I'm proud of myself" demonstration! It was amazing! They touched on topics that don't really get touched - they moved us all with their passion and performance - they convinced a skeptic of the value of the Vagina Monologues.
This event served to responsibly empower women to be proud of themselves and their vaginas, without demonizing men. It was a chance for them to celebrate their previously unmentionable underparts on a platform that allowed them safety to be proud of being a woman, while educating the audience about them and about their value. Beyond simply being moving, as a man, I found each performance to be incredibly insightful into the different aspects of a woman's life and perspective on life, that each of these women seemed to share. I learned things about women, and their vaginas, that I never would have discovered otherwise and I am so incredibly grateful to know these ladies!
I was truly moved by my friends' presentations. I think it was extra special for me, though, because I know all of them and I could see how they identified with their characters. They were all soooo great! I could go on and on, but still wouldn't do justice to their accomplishments.
Below are some low quality video files of some of the presentations. I regret that I could not post all of them due to file size and youtube limitations. Get your volume control ready - you'll need to turn it up because the sound is so poor - but hang in their, because the performances are so rich!
The gals ran this show as a fundraiser, as is typical for the Vagina Monologues. Every Vagina Monologue presentation contributes 10% of its earnings to a spotlight cause. This year, the spotlight is on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where rape and violence against women is being used as an instrument of war. The other 90% gets donated to an organization of the performers' choosing. They chose the Women's Freedom Organization in Iraq. In total, they raised over 600 USD! Nice work, ladies!!! I'm so proud of all of you!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
I've Been Working On A Master's Degree!
Starting this academic year, with the Canadian/American Thanksgiving celebration, students from different continents have organized a night of celebration to share their culture with the group. It's been amazing so far. Asian Night was a couple months ago and we learned so many different things about the different parts of Asia. There's been ongoing talk of African Night since October, but still no celebration. Last week, we had European Night and it blew me away! They required that all the attending students dress up as if for cocktails. It was the first chance I've had to look good down here. Well, I always look good, I just don't plan it like I did this night.
They opened the European culture presentation with a play that they'd written based upon stereotypes of Europeans according to the other students. They gathered this information on large pieces of paper taped to a wall, on which other students were allowed to write their stereotypes over a couple weeks. My contribution was, "Europeans love to propagate stereoptypes." The play was offensive, extremely well done, and hilarious! They had us all laughing our heads off!
After the play we enjoyed some musical performances, european food, and then we danced - euro club style. I danced the Macarena to every single song. What a night!
In sadder news, the Department of International Peace Studies (DIPS) finished their program this week. This means that between 20 and 30 of our Asian kids are leaving us. We had a party on campus to say goodbye to them and I was filled with emotion. In fact, in the days prior to their final day, I had a nightmare of having to say goodbye to all my new friends and knowing I would not see most of them ever again. I cursed myself for not having enrolled in a two year program so I could spend extra time with everyone. And then I woke up, glad that I would finish school soon, but still sad that I will miss my dear friends. A couple of them, I've come to really respect and enjoy, and their departure really disturbs me. A giant regret I have, is that I didn't get close to many others. The University for Peace is pretty small. Only 160 students can say they'll be UPeace alumni this year, but even so, I can't hang out with and get to know all 160 students, though I regret not having tried a bit harder.
Becca finally managed to get her act together to lead me and some other university friends to climb the tallest mountain in Costa Rica: Chirripo, 3820 meters (in feet = tall!). It took us three buses, a nasty taxi ride, and 10 hours just to get to the base of the mountain. At the ranger station, where we were to register to climb, we learned that they close the mountain one weekend a year for a running race, and this happened to be that particular weekend... Wonderful. We arrived on a Thursday, wanting to climb on Friday, summit on Saturday, and return to town on Sunday. The race was only Saturday, but they would not allow us to pass. They said the soonest we could ascend was on Sunday. So we decided to wait. Half of our group went to the beach, and half stayed in the mountain town to enjoy the hot springs. I stayed in the mountains, of course. It was an amazing time, indeed, the first time I´ve actually enjoyed Costa Rica. I´ve enjoyed my friends, and on occasion the university, but I have not yet enjoyed the country. It was a pretty good feeling and I hope it will stick around for a while.
The ascent up the mountain was mind blowing for an environmental nut like myself. We started out in the typical "jungle" habitat that I'm used to at lower elevations and climbed into a cloud forest. The flora and fauna were all completely different in a matter of kilometers.
The cloud forest finally yielded to elevation as we entered the sub-alpine habitat. Amazing! This was perhaps my favorite ecosystem, as the species that survive, do so in extreme conditions and are so unique as compared to everything else I've seen in the rest of the country. A forest fire had raged through this part of the mountain 10 or so years before, but due to the slow ecological activity at this altitude, it looked as if it had occurred only one or two years prior. Finally, 9 hours and 14.5 km into our hike, we arrived to the lodge, at 11,132 feet. This is 1,132 feet more than all my doctors say I'm allowed to go on account of my bum lung. We checked into the lodge and popped the corks on our bottles of rum - we spent the rest of the day in celebration.
It was cold at the lodge, damn cold, but the warmth of the camaraderie that existed between hikers and climbers kept us comfortable and happy (I guess the rum may have played a bit of that role, too). We tried to go to bed early cause it had been a long day, but pulling myself away from the heavenly display of a starry night sky was too much to ask. I gandered for a while and froze my little ass off. Went to bed only to wake up at 3am in order to be on the trail at 3:30. Accomplished, albeit painfully.
We got lost once on the trail - or rather, off the trail - as it was dark and I had left my navigational star map at home... An excruciating 2 hours went by before we summited, in which I stopped frequently and had some kind of persistent lightheadedness. Becca waited with me and kept asking me if I was going to die because of my lung or if I should go back. Then she went on to tell me she wasn't going to carry my body down the mountain. So of course I pushed on.
Standing at the top of the mountain, 12,533 feet above the transvestite prostitute infested beach towns of Costa Rica, we watched the sun rise - slowly and majestically above the occasional smaller mountain tops, poking through the clouds. It was an amazing, amazing thing. Shaking and shivering, we watched in awe as the valleys all around us lit up. We had packed along a stove and some coffee, but no one's hands had the dexterity to function as the wind took most of our heat away from us.
After some nice relaxing time near the summit, we spent the rest of the day descending, again, marveling at the extreme changes in ecosystems determined by elevation.
Climbing the highest mountain in Costa Rica (and I think second highest in Central America) was a much needed break from classes. We began another class, the best class in the world, Ecological Bases for Sustainable Land Use - at long last, a science class! And then we took another break to the northwestern region of Costa Rica for some more hiking in one of Costa Rica's little explored national parks.
Rincon de la Vieja (The Old Lady's Corner) scored another point for Costa Rica. I guess it only took me 6 months to figure out that the country is nice in the mountains, but shit at the beaches.
Our weekend excursion in the north yielded the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen; a super sore knee from lots of hiking; bugs that left us itchy, bleeding, and drained; encounters with 3 species of monkeys, including one that threw its feces at us; and some extremely relaxing geothermal heated hot springs that put a soothing close on our weekend.
Getting a master's degree is great!
They opened the European culture presentation with a play that they'd written based upon stereotypes of Europeans according to the other students. They gathered this information on large pieces of paper taped to a wall, on which other students were allowed to write their stereotypes over a couple weeks. My contribution was, "Europeans love to propagate stereoptypes." The play was offensive, extremely well done, and hilarious! They had us all laughing our heads off!After the play we enjoyed some musical performances, european food, and then we danced - euro club style. I danced the Macarena to every single song. What a night!
In sadder news, the Department of International Peace Studies (DIPS) finished their program this week. This means that between 20 and 30 of our Asian kids are leaving us. We had a party on campus to say goodbye to them and I was filled with emotion. In fact, in the days prior to their final day, I had a nightmare of having to say goodbye to all my new friends and knowing I would not see most of them ever again. I cursed myself for not having enrolled in a two year program so I could spend extra time with everyone. And then I woke up, glad that I would finish school soon, but still sad that I will miss my dear friends. A couple of them, I've come to really respect and enjoy, and their departure really disturbs me. A giant regret I have, is that I didn't get close to many others. The University for Peace is pretty small. Only 160 students can say they'll be UPeace alumni this year, but even so, I can't hang out with and get to know all 160 students, though I regret not having tried a bit harder.
Becca finally managed to get her act together to lead me and some other university friends to climb the tallest mountain in Costa Rica: Chirripo, 3820 meters (in feet = tall!). It took us three buses, a nasty taxi ride, and 10 hours just to get to the base of the mountain. At the ranger station, where we were to register to climb, we learned that they close the mountain one weekend a year for a running race, and this happened to be that particular weekend... Wonderful. We arrived on a Thursday, wanting to climb on Friday, summit on Saturday, and return to town on Sunday. The race was only Saturday, but they would not allow us to pass. They said the soonest we could ascend was on Sunday. So we decided to wait. Half of our group went to the beach, and half stayed in the mountain town to enjoy the hot springs. I stayed in the mountains, of course. It was an amazing time, indeed, the first time I´ve actually enjoyed Costa Rica. I´ve enjoyed my friends, and on occasion the university, but I have not yet enjoyed the country. It was a pretty good feeling and I hope it will stick around for a while.
The ascent up the mountain was mind blowing for an environmental nut like myself. We started out in the typical "jungle" habitat that I'm used to at lower elevations and climbed into a cloud forest. The flora and fauna were all completely different in a matter of kilometers.
The cloud forest finally yielded to elevation as we entered the sub-alpine habitat. Amazing! This was perhaps my favorite ecosystem, as the species that survive, do so in extreme conditions and are so unique as compared to everything else I've seen in the rest of the country. A forest fire had raged through this part of the mountain 10 or so years before, but due to the slow ecological activity at this altitude, it looked as if it had occurred only one or two years prior. Finally, 9 hours and 14.5 km into our hike, we arrived to the lodge, at 11,132 feet. This is 1,132 feet more than all my doctors say I'm allowed to go on account of my bum lung. We checked into the lodge and popped the corks on our bottles of rum - we spent the rest of the day in celebration.It was cold at the lodge, damn cold, but the warmth of the camaraderie that existed between hikers and climbers kept us comfortable and happy (I guess the rum may have played a bit of that role, too). We tried to go to bed early cause it had been a long day, but pulling myself away from the heavenly display of a starry night sky was too much to ask. I gandered for a while and froze my little ass off. Went to bed only to wake up at 3am in order to be on the trail at 3:30. Accomplished, albeit painfully.
We got lost once on the trail - or rather, off the trail - as it was dark and I had left my navigational star map at home... An excruciating 2 hours went by before we summited, in which I stopped frequently and had some kind of persistent lightheadedness. Becca waited with me and kept asking me if I was going to die because of my lung or if I should go back. Then she went on to tell me she wasn't going to carry my body down the mountain. So of course I pushed on.
Standing at the top of the mountain, 12,533 feet above the transvestite prostitute infested beach towns of Costa Rica, we watched the sun rise - slowly and majestically above the occasional smaller mountain tops, poking through the clouds. It was an amazing, amazing thing. Shaking and shivering, we watched in awe as the valleys all around us lit up. We had packed along a stove and some coffee, but no one's hands had the dexterity to function as the wind took most of our heat away from us.
After some nice relaxing time near the summit, we spent the rest of the day descending, again, marveling at the extreme changes in ecosystems determined by elevation.
Climbing the highest mountain in Costa Rica (and I think second highest in Central America) was a much needed break from classes. We began another class, the best class in the world, Ecological Bases for Sustainable Land Use - at long last, a science class! And then we took another break to the northwestern region of Costa Rica for some more hiking in one of Costa Rica's little explored national parks.
Rincon de la Vieja (The Old Lady's Corner) scored another point for Costa Rica. I guess it only took me 6 months to figure out that the country is nice in the mountains, but shit at the beaches.
Our weekend excursion in the north yielded the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen; a super sore knee from lots of hiking; bugs that left us itchy, bleeding, and drained; encounters with 3 species of monkeys, including one that threw its feces at us; and some extremely relaxing geothermal heated hot springs that put a soothing close on our weekend.Getting a master's degree is great!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
UPeace - Organic Agriculture
I just finished a class called Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Sustainable Development. It really should have just been called Organic Agriculture, as we didn't really touch on anything else. It was two intense weeks of hippie ego-stroking. The final assignment was to use our readings to create a two-page editorial. I went against the grain on this one to balance the bias of the class. If anyone's interested in reading the articles I cited, I still have them in pdf format.
Dear So and So,
I grew up, studied, and worked in and around Portland, but now I'm living in Costa Rica to attend graduate school at the United Nations Mandated University for Peace. From the name of the university, you can accurately assume that the student body is somewhat of an alternative crowd. I'm writing to address an issue that I'm currently studying at UPeace; an issue that I first felt in the unique ambiance of Portland: organic food, and the public's misconceptions of poison.
The recently popular push for organic agriculture has many motivations: avoidance of chemicals in our food, getting back to nature, reducing our impact on the environment, fairness in costs and wages for farmers, and social responsibility. The thing is, some people want more than that, and their voices are loud and influential. According to IFOAM’s Principles of Organic Agriculture (IFOAM, 2008), organic agriculture is being pushed as a lifestyle rather than a practice, a moral value rather than a system, and even as a religion rather than a method.
In fact, organic agriculture is a subset, or a type of agriculture. It is a "new" way to raise crops with particular standards that happen to be stricter, environmentally speaking, than that of techniques seen in conventional agriculture. This particular methodology requires science as a tool to validate its significance. I could tell you that the sky is green, but observation contradicts that statement. The same is true here: I could tell you that crops grown without the use of pesticides are healthier, but testing is required to verify that claim. The scientific processes of observation, testing, analyzing, and reproduction are crucial to the success and the best methodology for this type of agriculture. So what does Science say about pesticides and health?
Anyone from the state of California can tell you, just about everything on the market today can give you cancer. From where did this paranoid misconception of chemicals come? The truth is, everything is made from chemicals, even you. Chemicals are the building blocks of everything you can see and touch. When Organic Preachers talk about “chemical-free food,” they really mean man-made, synthetic, or artificial chemicals. Organic Believers have manipulated the usage of the word 'chemical' as they have done with the word 'organic', which simply means a compound that has a carbon base to its molecular structure. Organic Believers have convinced many people that chemicals in our food is a bad thing - that chemicals are poison and that if you eat them you won't be healthy.
As the father of toxicology, Paracelsus, pointed out nearly 500 years ago, “Everything is poisonous yet nothing is poisonous. The dose alone makes the poison.” (Guggenheim, 1993). Even our most precious resource, water, is a poison. If you drink too much water, it is toxic to your body and you will die. Have you ever tried to cultivate fruits and veggies without water? If you're a fan of 'crunchy', you’ll probably love it! The chemicals used in conventional agriculture are designed to be toxic to pests, not to humans. Standards set by the USDA, and the FDA regulate limits so that the amount of artificial chemicals in our food never becomes harmful. The unfortunate thing is that the Organic Believers have made you afraid of these chemicals anyway.
In my class of future world leaders (how we should think of graduate students), we spent an hour one day bantering about the toxicity of butane in french fries and concluding that we didn’t want butane anywhere near our food! The conversation originated from a passage in The Omnivore's Dilemma, in which Michael Pollan wrote:
"Then there are 'anti-foaming agents' like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry... According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable."
He adds the word 'flammable' here to drive home his poison implication, but any cooking oil and most edible foods will burn! Does that make them toxic? Pollan goes on to say,
"Perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to 'help preserve freshness.' According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e., lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food."
Lighter fluid in our food sounds horrible, but it’s not! The amount permissible is so small that it's not poisonous for human consumption. Pollan connects TBHQ to butane (a very inaccurate connection, chemically speaking) in an attempt to relate to the Organic Worrier that something toxic is going into our food. Why would McDonalds put something toxic in their food? A sick joke? No. It’s there to ‘help preserve freshness’ as is stated. All food decomposes; the purpose of adding something to subdue infectious bacteria is a health and safety supplement. The problem with Pollan’s argument is that butane is not very toxic at all. According to OSHA and the Center for Disease Control, butane is not reactive, unstable, or significantly toxic (NIOSH, 2005) (OSHA, 2004). The most likely way it could harm you is by displacing all the air in your lungs and asphyxiating you. People dying from butane are huffing it, not eating it.
If you don't make a habit or hobby out of huffing chemicals, why then should you worry about butane in your food? Because Organic Believers tell you to. What kind of implications does that have on society? Consumption habits are altered, production methods change to adapt, some businesses fail and others spring up to accommodate the new trend. While Pollan uses fear to sell a book, he convinces Orangic Believers that butane is bad. If many Organic Believers are loud enough they could have the power to get McDonalds to stop using TBHQ. The result is a less safe McNugget. Is this really the sustainability we're looking for?
The organic community’s propagation of fear is eerily reminiscent of something most Organic Believers fought so tenaciously against in recent history: the Bush administration. The Bush administration was accused, and quite rightly so, of fear mongering in an effort to generate support for a ludicrous war. How are Organic Believers' efforts so different in fear mongering for chemical-free food? Their conspiracy theories use the same methods to manipulate people into making ill-informed decisions. In the end, we're losing sight of what's right.
Science is reliable and trustworthy. It can show us what is healthy, and what is not. It can inform us of the best actions to take, and most definitely has a place in organic agriculture. Some may claim that science is inconclusive on the topic of chemical-free foods. That's ok! It just means that further research is warranted and that no conclusions should go unquestioned. Policy makers, businessmen, Organic Believers, pseudo-intellectuals, and even reputable universities need to avoid using manipulated science to support their agendas, as was seen in the Badgley/Avery debacle of 2007 (Avery, 2007).
Consumers need to be aware of the assumptions, speculations, and misconceptions that are prevalent in today's market so that educated and responsible decisions can be made. Knowledge and responsibility are the only things that will ensure sustainability, the future of all kinds of agricultural production, and our health.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it,
Andrew Judkins
Avery, A. (2007). ‘Organic Abundance’ report: fatally flawed. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 22(4), 321–329.
Guggenheim, K. (1993). Paracelsus and the Science of Nutrition in the Renaissance. The Journal of Nutrition, 1193. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/123/7/1189.pdf.
IFOAM. (2008). Principles of Organic Agriculture. 1-3.
NIOSH. (2005). NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards: n-Butane, Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0068.html.
OSHA. (2004). Safety and Health Topics: Butane, Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_222200.html.
Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: Penguin Press.
Dear So and So,
I grew up, studied, and worked in and around Portland, but now I'm living in Costa Rica to attend graduate school at the United Nations Mandated University for Peace. From the name of the university, you can accurately assume that the student body is somewhat of an alternative crowd. I'm writing to address an issue that I'm currently studying at UPeace; an issue that I first felt in the unique ambiance of Portland: organic food, and the public's misconceptions of poison.
The recently popular push for organic agriculture has many motivations: avoidance of chemicals in our food, getting back to nature, reducing our impact on the environment, fairness in costs and wages for farmers, and social responsibility. The thing is, some people want more than that, and their voices are loud and influential. According to IFOAM’s Principles of Organic Agriculture (IFOAM, 2008), organic agriculture is being pushed as a lifestyle rather than a practice, a moral value rather than a system, and even as a religion rather than a method.
In fact, organic agriculture is a subset, or a type of agriculture. It is a "new" way to raise crops with particular standards that happen to be stricter, environmentally speaking, than that of techniques seen in conventional agriculture. This particular methodology requires science as a tool to validate its significance. I could tell you that the sky is green, but observation contradicts that statement. The same is true here: I could tell you that crops grown without the use of pesticides are healthier, but testing is required to verify that claim. The scientific processes of observation, testing, analyzing, and reproduction are crucial to the success and the best methodology for this type of agriculture. So what does Science say about pesticides and health?
Anyone from the state of California can tell you, just about everything on the market today can give you cancer. From where did this paranoid misconception of chemicals come? The truth is, everything is made from chemicals, even you. Chemicals are the building blocks of everything you can see and touch. When Organic Preachers talk about “chemical-free food,” they really mean man-made, synthetic, or artificial chemicals. Organic Believers have manipulated the usage of the word 'chemical' as they have done with the word 'organic', which simply means a compound that has a carbon base to its molecular structure. Organic Believers have convinced many people that chemicals in our food is a bad thing - that chemicals are poison and that if you eat them you won't be healthy.
As the father of toxicology, Paracelsus, pointed out nearly 500 years ago, “Everything is poisonous yet nothing is poisonous. The dose alone makes the poison.” (Guggenheim, 1993). Even our most precious resource, water, is a poison. If you drink too much water, it is toxic to your body and you will die. Have you ever tried to cultivate fruits and veggies without water? If you're a fan of 'crunchy', you’ll probably love it! The chemicals used in conventional agriculture are designed to be toxic to pests, not to humans. Standards set by the USDA, and the FDA regulate limits so that the amount of artificial chemicals in our food never becomes harmful. The unfortunate thing is that the Organic Believers have made you afraid of these chemicals anyway.
In my class of future world leaders (how we should think of graduate students), we spent an hour one day bantering about the toxicity of butane in french fries and concluding that we didn’t want butane anywhere near our food! The conversation originated from a passage in The Omnivore's Dilemma, in which Michael Pollan wrote:
"Then there are 'anti-foaming agents' like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry... According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable."
He adds the word 'flammable' here to drive home his poison implication, but any cooking oil and most edible foods will burn! Does that make them toxic? Pollan goes on to say,
"Perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to 'help preserve freshness.' According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e., lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food."
Lighter fluid in our food sounds horrible, but it’s not! The amount permissible is so small that it's not poisonous for human consumption. Pollan connects TBHQ to butane (a very inaccurate connection, chemically speaking) in an attempt to relate to the Organic Worrier that something toxic is going into our food. Why would McDonalds put something toxic in their food? A sick joke? No. It’s there to ‘help preserve freshness’ as is stated. All food decomposes; the purpose of adding something to subdue infectious bacteria is a health and safety supplement. The problem with Pollan’s argument is that butane is not very toxic at all. According to OSHA and the Center for Disease Control, butane is not reactive, unstable, or significantly toxic (NIOSH, 2005) (OSHA, 2004). The most likely way it could harm you is by displacing all the air in your lungs and asphyxiating you. People dying from butane are huffing it, not eating it.
If you don't make a habit or hobby out of huffing chemicals, why then should you worry about butane in your food? Because Organic Believers tell you to. What kind of implications does that have on society? Consumption habits are altered, production methods change to adapt, some businesses fail and others spring up to accommodate the new trend. While Pollan uses fear to sell a book, he convinces Orangic Believers that butane is bad. If many Organic Believers are loud enough they could have the power to get McDonalds to stop using TBHQ. The result is a less safe McNugget. Is this really the sustainability we're looking for?
The organic community’s propagation of fear is eerily reminiscent of something most Organic Believers fought so tenaciously against in recent history: the Bush administration. The Bush administration was accused, and quite rightly so, of fear mongering in an effort to generate support for a ludicrous war. How are Organic Believers' efforts so different in fear mongering for chemical-free food? Their conspiracy theories use the same methods to manipulate people into making ill-informed decisions. In the end, we're losing sight of what's right.
Science is reliable and trustworthy. It can show us what is healthy, and what is not. It can inform us of the best actions to take, and most definitely has a place in organic agriculture. Some may claim that science is inconclusive on the topic of chemical-free foods. That's ok! It just means that further research is warranted and that no conclusions should go unquestioned. Policy makers, businessmen, Organic Believers, pseudo-intellectuals, and even reputable universities need to avoid using manipulated science to support their agendas, as was seen in the Badgley/Avery debacle of 2007 (Avery, 2007).
Consumers need to be aware of the assumptions, speculations, and misconceptions that are prevalent in today's market so that educated and responsible decisions can be made. Knowledge and responsibility are the only things that will ensure sustainability, the future of all kinds of agricultural production, and our health.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it,
Andrew Judkins
Bibliography
Avery, A. (2007). ‘Organic Abundance’ report: fatally flawed. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 22(4), 321–329.
Guggenheim, K. (1993). Paracelsus and the Science of Nutrition in the Renaissance. The Journal of Nutrition, 1193. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/123/7/1189.pdf.
IFOAM. (2008). Principles of Organic Agriculture. 1-3.
NIOSH. (2005). NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards: n-Butane, Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0068.html.
OSHA. (2004). Safety and Health Topics: Butane, Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://www.osha.gov/dts/chemicalsampling/data/CH_222200.html.
Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: Penguin Press.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Call For The Manager Ashore, Let Me Go Home!
I needed a trip to the beach after my cold trip to NYC for New Years Eve. I saw snow so of course, a day in the sun and surf was required for my Costa Rican adjustment process. Plus, there's no running water in my apartment... For the last week, the water is shut off from around noon or 13:00 until near 22:00 and later! Every day! It's ridiculous! Word on the street is, that this is typical "summer time" shenanigans, which usually occurs in march and april. The local folk keep referring to this as summer time, as the days are hotter and nights are colder than in the wet season (June to October), but I'm seeing trees shed their leaves and people wearing jackets. That means winter, not summer. Silly Costa Ricans.
To start this story off, I thought I'd inform you that I saved up some money and bought myself a pair of flip-flops. I think the last time I owned a pair of flip-flops, I was 12 years old, but these things were calling my name! I bought them on a weekend trip to the beach, Jaco, one of Costa Rica's main tourist destinations. It's the dirtiest, sketchiest, scariest tourist town I've ever been to. In fact, while searching for a cheap hotel room at 12:30 AM, we must have passed 20 transvestite prostitutes! We probably saw 100 throughout the whole weekend - The only thing missing was the flier that advertised, "Transvestite Convention! This Weekend Only - Put on your lipstick and short skirts, guys, it's time to have fun!" Lola was everywhere!
Back to the silly Costa Ricans... My students began their English classes again and boy, were they excited to see me! I usually spend the first few minutes of class on an introduction - "How was your weekend?", "What's new?", that sort of thing. This time, they told me about a local doctor that had committed suicide. It's super shocking that that would happen in a town of this size. They expressed anger at the doctor, saying that his son turns five in only a few days, and asking how he could be so selfish. I thought it was an interesting lesson so I probed a bit. I asked them why they thought he would kill himself, but they were completely baffled. "He had everything," one gal said, "a job, a family, money. He even bought his father a car last year! Probably he was gay."
What?!?
She continued, "Well, why else would he kill himself? He had everything to make himself happy and, you know, if he had mental problems, [like being gay] that's probably why he killed himself." I was lost. I've never been stunned by the likes of this kind of logic before. Close - but not the same. And then the story got deeper. "There was another doctor in the next town who killed himself on the same day and they worked at the same hospital so probably they were lovers." Her claim was verified by the nods of the two other students in class.
"But why?" I persisted, "Why would it mean he's gay if he killed himself? What's the logic?" My disbelief and confusion was met with shrugs and confusion as to why I was so confused. I thought it would be a good time to point out that in many other countries (the developed world) homosexuality isn't looked down upon by all of society and in some cases it's even widely accepted. In other countries (developing countries run by religion) it's a crime to be gay - a crime punishable by jail time or even death! I asked where Costa Rica fit in on that spectrum.
"It's accepted here. Guys are always patting each other on the ass in sports and stuff and making jokes so probably I think it's fine to be gay here. But in Mexico you will get killed if you're gay!"
Oh stereotypes, how you entertain me.
Class went on and one student sneezed. I said, "Bless you" and then explained why we say that in America. The blog inspiring response that followed was, "In Costa Rica, if you sneeze, it means that your wife is cheating on you."
As Costa Rica stimulates the 'I-can't-believe-this' part of my brain, the University for Peace (UPeace) is doing it's damnedest to stimulate the 'this-is-ridiculous' part.
A buddy and I are trying to stage a coup at UPeace to get the university to do something about its lacking amenities. It does some things better than any other university could do: assembling a diverse student body and facilitating discussions and culture exchanges with varying perspectives on current world issues. Unfortunately, it falls way short in important standards to which a university should hold itself. I was briefly in communication with the vice-rector of UPeace to solve some very serious student safety issues, but he stopped responding to my emails and requests for followup meetings in November. Perhaps it's his computer. The campus internet rarely works, and it's affecting classes when we're analyzing things online or referencing something. Researching anything often proves quite difficult when there are no resources with which to work.
At the end of the day, I can only really say that I really like my new flip-flops. They're made of leather, which comes from one of my favorite meals, and they make me feel like I'm on vacation. With that in mind, it really can be a happy day in Costa Rica at the University for Peace!
To start this story off, I thought I'd inform you that I saved up some money and bought myself a pair of flip-flops. I think the last time I owned a pair of flip-flops, I was 12 years old, but these things were calling my name! I bought them on a weekend trip to the beach, Jaco, one of Costa Rica's main tourist destinations. It's the dirtiest, sketchiest, scariest tourist town I've ever been to. In fact, while searching for a cheap hotel room at 12:30 AM, we must have passed 20 transvestite prostitutes! We probably saw 100 throughout the whole weekend - The only thing missing was the flier that advertised, "Transvestite Convention! This Weekend Only - Put on your lipstick and short skirts, guys, it's time to have fun!" Lola was everywhere!Back to the silly Costa Ricans... My students began their English classes again and boy, were they excited to see me! I usually spend the first few minutes of class on an introduction - "How was your weekend?", "What's new?", that sort of thing. This time, they told me about a local doctor that had committed suicide. It's super shocking that that would happen in a town of this size. They expressed anger at the doctor, saying that his son turns five in only a few days, and asking how he could be so selfish. I thought it was an interesting lesson so I probed a bit. I asked them why they thought he would kill himself, but they were completely baffled. "He had everything," one gal said, "a job, a family, money. He even bought his father a car last year! Probably he was gay."
What?!?
She continued, "Well, why else would he kill himself? He had everything to make himself happy and, you know, if he had mental problems, [like being gay] that's probably why he killed himself." I was lost. I've never been stunned by the likes of this kind of logic before. Close - but not the same. And then the story got deeper. "There was another doctor in the next town who killed himself on the same day and they worked at the same hospital so probably they were lovers." Her claim was verified by the nods of the two other students in class.
"But why?" I persisted, "Why would it mean he's gay if he killed himself? What's the logic?" My disbelief and confusion was met with shrugs and confusion as to why I was so confused. I thought it would be a good time to point out that in many other countries (the developed world) homosexuality isn't looked down upon by all of society and in some cases it's even widely accepted. In other countries (developing countries run by religion) it's a crime to be gay - a crime punishable by jail time or even death! I asked where Costa Rica fit in on that spectrum.
"It's accepted here. Guys are always patting each other on the ass in sports and stuff and making jokes so probably I think it's fine to be gay here. But in Mexico you will get killed if you're gay!"
Oh stereotypes, how you entertain me.
Class went on and one student sneezed. I said, "Bless you" and then explained why we say that in America. The blog inspiring response that followed was, "In Costa Rica, if you sneeze, it means that your wife is cheating on you."
As Costa Rica stimulates the 'I-can't-believe-this' part of my brain, the University for Peace (UPeace) is doing it's damnedest to stimulate the 'this-is-ridiculous' part.
A buddy and I are trying to stage a coup at UPeace to get the university to do something about its lacking amenities. It does some things better than any other university could do: assembling a diverse student body and facilitating discussions and culture exchanges with varying perspectives on current world issues. Unfortunately, it falls way short in important standards to which a university should hold itself. I was briefly in communication with the vice-rector of UPeace to solve some very serious student safety issues, but he stopped responding to my emails and requests for followup meetings in November. Perhaps it's his computer. The campus internet rarely works, and it's affecting classes when we're analyzing things online or referencing something. Researching anything often proves quite difficult when there are no resources with which to work.
At the end of the day, I can only really say that I really like my new flip-flops. They're made of leather, which comes from one of my favorite meals, and they make me feel like I'm on vacation. With that in mind, it really can be a happy day in Costa Rica at the University for Peace!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Hail to the Chief!
Sorry for the break in my storyline. My computer crashed, several times, and I lost all my class notes for all my classes... Bummer. So the first semester is now complete and boy, am I grateful. It's been filled with hard work, trying to stay awake, drama, worry, stress, homesickness, and I guess learning or whatever.
I had to say goodbye to some of my great new friends as their term here is finished. I look forward to completing the second and final semester with the remaining students on campus, including new students, and I'm excited for new possibilities.
This program at UPeace is not exactly what I thought it would be. I feel like I felt in third grade when I came home from school and my mom asked me, "What did you learn today?" I would reply, "Nothing" not knowing that I had actually learned something. I feel like I'm not making any significant gains in knowledge or skills as my time in Costa Rica progresses, but perhaps it's just as it was then and I simply don't recognize it. Perhaps it's just that I don't see, on a daily basis, that I am in fact making gains. I hope that's the case. I hope that my daily exposure to mind challenging conversations is actually building my capacity for greatness. Or perhaps I'm just having fun hanging out with hippies. Unfortunately, only time will tell.
I was quite happy to put my first semester of grad school to rest. One down, one to go. I'm starting to aggressively apply for jobs back home and I'm hoping to land something soon. Even if it should happen before my time here is finished. I've been away from the working world for far too long and I miss it almost as much as I miss my friends and family. It's time. I'm ready.
My winter break was great! I got to visit my good Peace Corps friend, Alex, in New York for New Years! It was sooo cold! It was my first time to New York and I loved it! I sure hope it won't be my last!
I'm back in class again and the particular class I'm taking, Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector, is a major challenge to my abilities. It's nothing like anything I've ever studied. This is the "elective term" at UPeace so I thought I'd take something to broaden my horizons. Man, is it demanding! I have to write a 20 to 30 page business plan for a social enterprise from my creative mind in less than 3 weeks time! As you can imagine, I have no idea how I'll pull that off. It's no surprise that I probably won't post that one on this site. Regardless, I think it will hold promise and potential for my upcoming thesis and supplementary material.
Classes were cut short for the Obama inauguration speech the other day. UPeace has students from something like 60 countries, and they all paused their educational progress to take a gander at the current happenings of the United States. It was quite impressive. We gathered in the cafeteria to watch a projected presentation of the speech in real time... Well, with only a 15 second difference between the video and audio, until the internet cut out and we only got patches of the speech. I felt like a kid sitting around a radio broadcast 100 years ago - only a radio broadcast wouldn't have been interrupted by Costa Rican/UPeace shortcomings, I imagine.
In any case, this is really an inspiring global event. And it truly is a global event. To have representatives from 60-ish countries on the edge of their seats, clapping to great statements, is really significant in that it shows that the world is behind the new United States presidential administration. It's quite touching and it made me feel proud.
I know that a larger-than-I-care-to-admit part of my family is not excited about President Obama, but the fact is, that the rest of the world is excited. I don't think Americans recognize that we hold such a leadership position in the world, and as such, we should fulfill the part of a good leader. However, I'm waiting to be impressed by his actions and not by his reputation, but in the meantime, it should be recognized that the world really is watching. Hell, we skipped classes to watch! And large part of our discussion the following day was directly pertaining to his speech and what he stands for. It's an interesting time in history that I hope you all can appreciate.
As far as my love for Costa Rica goes, it is still non-existent and I can't wait to come home.
I had to say goodbye to some of my great new friends as their term here is finished. I look forward to completing the second and final semester with the remaining students on campus, including new students, and I'm excited for new possibilities.
This program at UPeace is not exactly what I thought it would be. I feel like I felt in third grade when I came home from school and my mom asked me, "What did you learn today?" I would reply, "Nothing" not knowing that I had actually learned something. I feel like I'm not making any significant gains in knowledge or skills as my time in Costa Rica progresses, but perhaps it's just as it was then and I simply don't recognize it. Perhaps it's just that I don't see, on a daily basis, that I am in fact making gains. I hope that's the case. I hope that my daily exposure to mind challenging conversations is actually building my capacity for greatness. Or perhaps I'm just having fun hanging out with hippies. Unfortunately, only time will tell.
I was quite happy to put my first semester of grad school to rest. One down, one to go. I'm starting to aggressively apply for jobs back home and I'm hoping to land something soon. Even if it should happen before my time here is finished. I've been away from the working world for far too long and I miss it almost as much as I miss my friends and family. It's time. I'm ready.
My winter break was great! I got to visit my good Peace Corps friend, Alex, in New York for New Years! It was sooo cold! It was my first time to New York and I loved it! I sure hope it won't be my last!
I'm back in class again and the particular class I'm taking, Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector, is a major challenge to my abilities. It's nothing like anything I've ever studied. This is the "elective term" at UPeace so I thought I'd take something to broaden my horizons. Man, is it demanding! I have to write a 20 to 30 page business plan for a social enterprise from my creative mind in less than 3 weeks time! As you can imagine, I have no idea how I'll pull that off. It's no surprise that I probably won't post that one on this site. Regardless, I think it will hold promise and potential for my upcoming thesis and supplementary material. Classes were cut short for the Obama inauguration speech the other day. UPeace has students from something like 60 countries, and they all paused their educational progress to take a gander at the current happenings of the United States. It was quite impressive. We gathered in the cafeteria to watch a projected presentation of the speech in real time... Well, with only a 15 second difference between the video and audio, until the internet cut out and we only got patches of the speech. I felt like a kid sitting around a radio broadcast 100 years ago - only a radio broadcast wouldn't have been interrupted by Costa Rican/UPeace shortcomings, I imagine.
In any case, this is really an inspiring global event. And it truly is a global event. To have representatives from 60-ish countries on the edge of their seats, clapping to great statements, is really significant in that it shows that the world is behind the new United States presidential administration. It's quite touching and it made me feel proud.
I know that a larger-than-I-care-to-admit part of my family is not excited about President Obama, but the fact is, that the rest of the world is excited. I don't think Americans recognize that we hold such a leadership position in the world, and as such, we should fulfill the part of a good leader. However, I'm waiting to be impressed by his actions and not by his reputation, but in the meantime, it should be recognized that the world really is watching. Hell, we skipped classes to watch! And large part of our discussion the following day was directly pertaining to his speech and what he stands for. It's an interesting time in history that I hope you all can appreciate.
As far as my love for Costa Rica goes, it is still non-existent and I can't wait to come home.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
When You Wish Upon A Marathon!
I've decided to try and inspire you to set an impressive and achievable New Year's Resolution! New Years is my favorite holiday because of the New Year's Resolution! I love setting goals, and even more, I love accomplishing them! For this New Year's Resolution, join me in resolving to run the 38th annual Portland Marathon! It will be on Sunday, October 4th, 2009! We have nearly 10 months to train, which is more than plenty!
Too old? Out of shape? Those excuses won't work this time! The Ultimate Guide to Marathons has listed the Portland Marathon as: "The best organized Marathon in North America" (That means there will be plenty of aid stations and medical assistance!) and "One of the top 3 marathons to do as a first marathon"! Plus there are options for walking, yes you can walk the marathon! The course is open for eight hours! Here are the reasons this marathon is super cool:
26 miles and 385 yards of ecstasy! C'mon, seriously, this is gonna be the best thing, ever! And it gets infinitely better with the more people you know participating! Trust me! We'll train together, motivate each other, be in pain together, succeed together and celebrate together! Oh man!
For details, inspiration, and motivation, check out www.portlandmarathon.org
To track your training process, here is a free online training journal:
Active Trainer
Keeping a journal is a huge help in seeing where you're at in your training. It also provides immeasurable motivation to see what you've been accomplishing!
Here are a couple pictures from my first marathon - one of the happiest experiences of my life!
Resolve for health! Resolve for strength! Resolve for personal betterment! Make the best New Years Resolution, ever! Anything your heart desires, will come to you... If it's a marathon! You can do it! Believe in yourself!
Too old? Out of shape? Those excuses won't work this time! The Ultimate Guide to Marathons has listed the Portland Marathon as: "The best organized Marathon in North America" (That means there will be plenty of aid stations and medical assistance!) and "One of the top 3 marathons to do as a first marathon"! Plus there are options for walking, yes you can walk the marathon! The course is open for eight hours! Here are the reasons this marathon is super cool:
- MP3 Player Friendly
- Walker friendly
- Over 70 entertainment groups on the course
- Charity Oriented
- High percentage of women participants!!! Woo hoo!
- Fast course - over 30% of runners set personal records
- Boston Marathon Qualifier
26 miles and 385 yards of ecstasy! C'mon, seriously, this is gonna be the best thing, ever! And it gets infinitely better with the more people you know participating! Trust me! We'll train together, motivate each other, be in pain together, succeed together and celebrate together! Oh man!
For details, inspiration, and motivation, check out www.portlandmarathon.org
To track your training process, here is a free online training journal:
Active Trainer
Keeping a journal is a huge help in seeing where you're at in your training. It also provides immeasurable motivation to see what you've been accomplishing!
Here are a couple pictures from my first marathon - one of the happiest experiences of my life!
Resolve for health! Resolve for strength! Resolve for personal betterment! Make the best New Years Resolution, ever! Anything your heart desires, will come to you... If it's a marathon! You can do it! Believe in yourself!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
I Wanna Run Through This Jungle!
I guess it's been a while since I've posted anything. And to be honest, I don't really have any significant stories that stand alone. So this is just a post to illustrate my life in Costa Rica as it's been happening.
I've been super, super busy with school. This last class I had, Conservation and Development was one of the toughest classes I've ever taken. It was so much theory! And no practicality! At least, that's what I found. I'm craving numbers and hard science like a crazy person. This class involved so much reading and writing - I even had to manage to study when the power went out, for more than eight hours! We even had weekend classes in the form of a three-day field trip! We visited a couple sustainable living communities or something like that. I posted pictures of our tour of a coffee plantation and digging our bus out of a mud hole here. You know, normal field trip stuff.
As president of the Environmental Club at UPeace, I've also been busy trying to facilitate different environmental projects. Most notably, we set up a recycling collection center in town so that students and community members have the option of recycling their recyclable trash. At the moment, we're working hard to put together a 6.5 kilometer fundraiser run for students and community members. The idea is to raise money to implement a project in a nearby community, which is devastated from environmental effects due to being situated directly next to a landfill. Normally that wouldn't be such a problem, but this is Costa Rica - and a landfill isn't what you think it is in a place like this.
I've also been spearheading a campaign for the safety and security of the students at UPeace. I've never felt such a lack of safety and security as I do in this country. It's insane. This place is so unsafe. I would like to find the logic pointing to the fact that it's just because people are so poor here that they've been driven to lives of crime. But it's not true. I've been to much poorer countries that didn't have nearly the same crime, nor feel of insecurity. I can't explain it. For some reason, crime has been increasing exponentially here, and it's just sort of acceptable. No one does anything about it. People just sort of think, oh, that sucks. Pura Vida.
In the last two months, Becca's home was broken into while we were at school, and she lost everything of any value. One student was sexually assaulted. Another student's home was broken into (same story as Becca's). Another student and her boyfriend were shot at, held up at gunpoint and mugged. There have been a few picked pockets - including Becca's (Just the other day, on the bus). I even heard a story of a UPeace student from last year whose home was broken into via a hole in the wall that the thieves created with explosives! They blew a freakin hole in the wall of his home! When he got home, he asked his landlord about it and received an answer of, "Hm. I didn't hear anything." The first apartment in which I lived had a robbery about a week before I left. During the night, someone broke the gate of the apartment complex, came in and stole the three cars that were there. Come to find out, the neighbor had called the police during the robbery, but the police never showed up. Turns out, the three cops in town were busy pulling a guy out of the electrical wires who had been electrocuted while trying to steal the wires to sell at the metal recycler. In any case, there have been a few more crimes against students that I don't know the full details - and all of these pale in comparison to the stories in the news of robbers kidnapping people at ATMs, taking them to ATMs in different cities, draining their account, and then shooting them!
I often ask myself, "Where the hell am I?!" So I'm trying to pressure the university to do more in regards to safety and security. For example, the time Becca's home got broken into, was the third time it's happened. She wasn't aware of that when she moved in - but she should have been. Homes are approved by the university but are not checked with regard to safety issues. I'm pushing for them to do so. We'll see what happens. My guess is, I'll get a response along the lines of, "Hm. That sucks." But they may say it more professionally.
On a different note, my most recent budget calculations show that I will run out of money before school finishes. So... I got a job! I feel like an illegal immigrant! And if I manage to save enough money - I'll even be able to afford a ticket home! What is this magical job, you ask? I'm teaching English. It's a job I've avoided throughout my travels, as I don't know English grammar rules so well. But after giving it a go, I've found that I quite enjoy it! I'm making roughly $6.36 per hour, but I don't have to pay taxes so I'm sure my savings will add up quickly! And so will my pride after six months of hearing kids call me, 'Professor Judkins'! Although, with their accents, it sounds more like, 'Prrrofesorrr Yoodkins'.
OK - last thing for now, a note from the Vice Rector of the university in regards to our Thanksgiving celebration. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I miss you guys so much!
Dear UPEACErs:
Last Friday, November 21, 2008, the UPEACE community celebrated the North American Thanksgiving. The event was fully sponsored by American students (from the US and Canada). True to the Thanksgiving traditions, the students cooked all the delicious dishes associated with the event, such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and of course pumpkin pies! The event attracted not only UPEACE students and staff, but also a large number of families living in El Rodeo and Ciudad Colon. The cafeteria, inside and out, was packed with happy people who came together to express Thanks. Everything was wonderful: Organization, service, food, and beautiful spirit.
This event will go down in the "UPEACE Record of Great Events" as one of the most outstanding, for several reasons: It is the first time that our North American colleagues organized such a wide-scale event; it was so organized with excellent attention to all details; it brought together one of the largest crowds in any UPEACE event; it included a significant presence of the community especially children; and, the North American students did it ALL by themselves- buying all the food, cooking, transporting a massive amount of food to UPEACE, serving everyone, and cleaning the entire place after the event!
I am sure that the entire UPEACE community joins me in thanking our North American colleagues for giving us such a wonderful evening.
THANK YOU! In peace,
Amr Abdalla, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Rector for Academic Affairs
University for Peace
United Nations Affiliated University
There are lots more photos here with more stories! Enjoy!
I've been super, super busy with school. This last class I had, Conservation and Development was one of the toughest classes I've ever taken. It was so much theory! And no practicality! At least, that's what I found. I'm craving numbers and hard science like a crazy person. This class involved so much reading and writing - I even had to manage to study when the power went out, for more than eight hours! We even had weekend classes in the form of a three-day field trip! We visited a couple sustainable living communities or something like that. I posted pictures of our tour of a coffee plantation and digging our bus out of a mud hole here. You know, normal field trip stuff.
As president of the Environmental Club at UPeace, I've also been busy trying to facilitate different environmental projects. Most notably, we set up a recycling collection center in town so that students and community members have the option of recycling their recyclable trash. At the moment, we're working hard to put together a 6.5 kilometer fundraiser run for students and community members. The idea is to raise money to implement a project in a nearby community, which is devastated from environmental effects due to being situated directly next to a landfill. Normally that wouldn't be such a problem, but this is Costa Rica - and a landfill isn't what you think it is in a place like this.
I've also been spearheading a campaign for the safety and security of the students at UPeace. I've never felt such a lack of safety and security as I do in this country. It's insane. This place is so unsafe. I would like to find the logic pointing to the fact that it's just because people are so poor here that they've been driven to lives of crime. But it's not true. I've been to much poorer countries that didn't have nearly the same crime, nor feel of insecurity. I can't explain it. For some reason, crime has been increasing exponentially here, and it's just sort of acceptable. No one does anything about it. People just sort of think, oh, that sucks. Pura Vida.
In the last two months, Becca's home was broken into while we were at school, and she lost everything of any value. One student was sexually assaulted. Another student's home was broken into (same story as Becca's). Another student and her boyfriend were shot at, held up at gunpoint and mugged. There have been a few picked pockets - including Becca's (Just the other day, on the bus). I even heard a story of a UPeace student from last year whose home was broken into via a hole in the wall that the thieves created with explosives! They blew a freakin hole in the wall of his home! When he got home, he asked his landlord about it and received an answer of, "Hm. I didn't hear anything." The first apartment in which I lived had a robbery about a week before I left. During the night, someone broke the gate of the apartment complex, came in and stole the three cars that were there. Come to find out, the neighbor had called the police during the robbery, but the police never showed up. Turns out, the three cops in town were busy pulling a guy out of the electrical wires who had been electrocuted while trying to steal the wires to sell at the metal recycler. In any case, there have been a few more crimes against students that I don't know the full details - and all of these pale in comparison to the stories in the news of robbers kidnapping people at ATMs, taking them to ATMs in different cities, draining their account, and then shooting them! I often ask myself, "Where the hell am I?!" So I'm trying to pressure the university to do more in regards to safety and security. For example, the time Becca's home got broken into, was the third time it's happened. She wasn't aware of that when she moved in - but she should have been. Homes are approved by the university but are not checked with regard to safety issues. I'm pushing for them to do so. We'll see what happens. My guess is, I'll get a response along the lines of, "Hm. That sucks." But they may say it more professionally.
On a different note, my most recent budget calculations show that I will run out of money before school finishes. So... I got a job! I feel like an illegal immigrant! And if I manage to save enough money - I'll even be able to afford a ticket home! What is this magical job, you ask? I'm teaching English. It's a job I've avoided throughout my travels, as I don't know English grammar rules so well. But after giving it a go, I've found that I quite enjoy it! I'm making roughly $6.36 per hour, but I don't have to pay taxes so I'm sure my savings will add up quickly! And so will my pride after six months of hearing kids call me, 'Professor Judkins'! Although, with their accents, it sounds more like, 'Prrrofesorrr Yoodkins'.
OK - last thing for now, a note from the Vice Rector of the university in regards to our Thanksgiving celebration. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I miss you guys so much!Dear UPEACErs:
Last Friday, November 21, 2008, the UPEACE community celebrated the North American Thanksgiving. The event was fully sponsored by American students (from the US and Canada). True to the Thanksgiving traditions, the students cooked all the delicious dishes associated with the event, such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and of course pumpkin pies! The event attracted not only UPEACE students and staff, but also a large number of families living in El Rodeo and Ciudad Colon. The cafeteria, inside and out, was packed with happy people who came together to express Thanks. Everything was wonderful: Organization, service, food, and beautiful spirit.
This event will go down in the "UPEACE Record of Great Events" as one of the most outstanding, for several reasons: It is the first time that our North American colleagues organized such a wide-scale event; it was so organized with excellent attention to all details; it brought together one of the largest crowds in any UPEACE event; it included a significant presence of the community especially children; and, the North American students did it ALL by themselves- buying all the food, cooking, transporting a massive amount of food to UPEACE, serving everyone, and cleaning the entire place after the event!
I am sure that the entire UPEACE community joins me in thanking our North American colleagues for giving us such a wonderful evening.
THANK YOU! In peace,
Amr Abdalla, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Rector for Academic Affairs
University for Peace
United Nations Affiliated University
There are lots more photos here with more stories! Enjoy!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
UPeace - An End to Wasting Our Waste!
I don't expect anyone to read this... But just in case there are a few of you out there interested in what I'm doing down here - Here is my latest essay. It's a smaller version of what my thesis will be.
Products and goods produced, consumed, and disposed of play an integral role in economies and development strategies of societies across the globe. There is an obvious and dangerous flaw in this system, though, when conservation and sustainability are considered. That is, waste is being created, and resources are being depleted at an alarming rate.
Are waste production and resource depletion really problems that need to be solved? There was a time when resources were abundant and their depletion was not considered an issue, as there was a consistent supply to meet demands. Unfortunately, those times are gone. We are seeing resources depleted as we scramble to find viable alternatives. A growing contingent of geologists predict that sometime between 2010 and 2020 the gush of oil from wells around the world will peak at 80 million barrels per day, then begin a steady, inevitable decline (Kerr, 1998). We are trying in vain to slow our consumption to prolong the ultimate and thorough depletion of resources. The only thing there seems to be an excess of is waste. Waste has not always been a problem, either. There was also a time when people thought we threw garbage “away”.
There are several types of waste. Waste can be created as a result of a poor process. Waste can also come in the form of leftover material from producing something. There is also waste that is a result of human consumption. It is everything we throw “away”. Of course, we know now that there is no “away” for our garbage. All of our waste – trash, garbage, unused and unwanted material possessions, dead pets, etc - everything we do not want goes somewhere. Recycling is often not an available option for many communities throughout the United States. For many communities, the most responsible course of action available is a landfill. According to some accounts more than 90 percent of materials extracted to make durable goods in the United States become waste almost immediately. What most people see in their garbage cans is just the tip of a material iceberg; the product itself contains on average only 5 percent of the raw materials involved in the process of making and delivering it (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 27-28).
In this paper, I will illustrate an optimistic outlook on our future with real solutions for tomorrow instead of analyzing what went wrong yesterday. Of course, an analysis of yesterday is imperative to deduce the right course of action for tomorrow, but the focus of this paper is on humanity's resolve, rather than its plight.
Problems of Waste and Resource Depletion
In many cases, products are designed for one-time, or short-time use, to be replaced or disposed of quickly (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 28). This is a simple factor of marketing called, “Planned Obsolescence”, that started catching on in the 1950s. Designers planned how fast they could make stuff break and still leave the consumer with enough faith in the product to go buy another one (Leonard, 2007). The idea is that production can increase as soon as the product needs to be replaced. Whether it is at the end of its useful life or just obsolete, there is a better financial incentive for the producer if its product is frequently purchased, thrown out, and replaced. The faster this process happens, the better profits there will be for the producer.
This practice has made many societies in today’s modern world function as disposable societies. Everything that is made, at some point or another, will be disposed of. This is a tragic phenomenon. It is linear, with a very clear end. For example, if you have a bag of chocolate chips and you’re making chocolate chip cookies – when you run out of chocolate chips, the game is over. No more cookies! When we run out of natural resources, that’s it – no more cookies. The option of going to the store to get another bag won’t exist, nor will the option of drilling another well. As Annie Leonard put it, in the Story of Stuff (2007), “The reason it [the system] is in crisis is that it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet and you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.” The depletion of our natural resources is a waste-induced problem that deserves as much attention as the problem of waste itself.
How about the option of digging another hole to bury our waste? Is there anything wrong with burying our solid and toxic wastes? Well, it is certainly not the best example of environmental stewardship. Beyond stewardship: we are running out of space for landfills; landfills have a tendency to be a concentration of toxicity, which sometimes leaches into the surrounding environment causing ill health and environmental effects; and it is a costly process to pay for waste to be wasted.
The connection between waste leaching from landfill into a water table and negative impacts to the environment from landfills is obvious. This is not just the case for solid waste, but toxic waste and nuclear waste as well. Leachate is transported from a landfill into the environment via natural water flows that collect hazardous chemicals from within these landfills (Blazquez, Lema, & Mendez, 1988). The continued production of waste will only amplify the landfill leaching process. As we need and create more landfills, more incidences of chemical leaching from them will occur. This is not the only environmental problem associated with waste.
We are depleting the earth’s natural resources at an incredible rate. In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed (Leonard, 2007). We preach about renewable resources, but the lack of sustainability of renewable resources continues to hinder our responsible use of them. We are taking, taking, taking from the earth and only returning a minimal amount. We mine resources, use them, and instead of continuing to use them in another form, we set them aside and ignore them as best we can. We search for new resources, while the vast majority of our waste is locked and bound in landfills (except for the leachate, of course).
There is also an energy crisis in our modern society. We depend on foreign oil to fuel our economy. As the developing world continues to develop, there is an increasing demand for oil to fuel their economies as well. This competition for oil serves only to more severely deplete the world’s energy reserves. Alternatives are being sought, but only at a snail’s pace. Alternatives have shown great potential, but are lacking in marketability, effectiveness, efficiency, and the political influence necessary to be implemented properly. There is a huge demand for energy in today’s global society, and that demand gets bigger every day. Alternatives, so far, are not filling the tanks of the world’s energy needs. What should be the course of action?
Drilling for oil in wildlife reserves only prolongs the complete depletion of the resource. There needs to be something cyclical that will continually supply a resource that can fuel world economies. Perhaps combining a waste crisis and an energy crisis could make a recipe for success.
Waste Production and Natural Resource Depletion
The process that describes the linear transition of product from beginning to end is referred to as, “Cradle to Grave” (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 27). It describes the entirety of a product’s life, from its creation to its end of life:
Waste production can be seen in each of these steps, be it a byproduct or the product itself. Waste is produced in different ways and in different forms; some of it is useful, some of it is not. The good news is that much of this waste is avoidable. With better product and process design, the linear timeline of a product’s life can be effectively turned into a resource cycle.
If products are designed sustainably, that is if they are designed to be recycled, they can go directly from step six (i.e., the landfill) to step two (i.e., processing) without extra waste production, and without compromising the resource’s integrity. Currently, a product that finds its way to a recycler instead of a landfill can be sent back to either step two, or three (i.e., manufacturing). The problem with today’s methods of production, however, is that recycling does not create a resource cycle – it simply prolongs the Cradle to Grave process.
Most materials were not designed for recycling. Take, for example, a plastic product – water bottle, Tupperware, etc. Plastic products are made with plasticizers. Plasticizers are chemical additives, which give plastic a particular property or characteristic, like flexibility and durability. Once a plasticizer is introduced into the molecular structure of the polymer making up a plastic, that polymer base is altered. This method makes sense from a material usefulness standpoint, but not from a resource cycle standpoint, because the plastic takes on a new property and can no longer be used in any other form. Once this plastic takes on a modified molecular structure, the plastic is extremely difficult to use for anything else. Forcing products and their additives into the process of recycling jeopardizes the base material’s durability. This means that they can only be recycled a finite amount of times before the material is so broken down, diluted, and weak that it ends up at step six anyway (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 56-59).
Product reuse is another way to prolong product arrival at step six. Reuse directs the product from step six to step five (i.e., product use). Depending on the construction of the product, reuse can significantly draw out its ultimate end. Nevertheless, the end will inevitably arrive.
In step six, the process of landfilling or incinerating waste is equivalent to wasting our own waste. This is the end of the line. This is what needs to be addressed for humanity to have a future with enough energy and resources to fuel its development ambitions. Although a product may meet the end of its intended use, its usefulness is by no means finished. Designing a process that can fully utilize the remaining product usefulness is the task at hand. New technologies are slowly being implemented that hold potential answers pertaining to our past and future waste management issues.
Real sustainable design is too idealistic of a goal for our modern society. It requires a complete overhaul of the entire manufacturing and producing industry throughout the world. It is a great goal for which to strive. It should be sought, but in the meantime, why not find a solution that will take our waste problem and create something we need? Waste is mounting and resources are depleting. Industry is producing and communities are consuming. It’s the way things work. In order to maximize energy efficiency, it is essential that someday we find a way to minimize that waste. But for now, what if we could do better than simply minimizing waste? What if we could, instead, use that waste for something we wanted, or even needed? Waste could be a great renewable resource, and even a source of energy. Disposable Societies? If we had a way of transforming waste into material or energy resource, there would be no problem with continuing our way of life in a disposable society. We have the technology to make this happen, but we need to make sure that we use only responsible technologies.
Some alternative technologies are becoming more trendy than they are responsible. The actual effectiveness of certain alternative technologies is questionable, as they compete with food resources, generate hazardous waste products, and lack appropriate efficiency to make them viable tools of progression. For example:
Resource Production and Waste Depletion
If it was possible to force everyone to conform their daily activities and habits to those consistent with environmentally sound practices, waste problems might not exist. Unfortunately, forcing people to adopt a new lifestyle is seldom successful. In fact, change is usually met with resistance (Holling, 2001). And in the end, the waste problem still exists. Is it even possible then, to create an atmosphere of change? We could implement methodologies of manipulation and propaganda to “convince” the masses that being responsible for their actions and their waste generation is ultimately in their best interests. We could also campaign heavily for environmental education. How can we most effectively convince the world to be responsible for their actions? Well, perhaps we do not have to.
Through new, available technologies, it is possible to transform waste directly into pure and usable resources. The products of a disposable society that plague future development and conservation could be used as fuel and many other useful products in a society that contributed to a solution rather than a problem. The best part is that citizens do not even have to be environmentally aware or change their actions! Of course, a conscious, educated society would be ideal, but environmental education has been a tactic for a long time, and there is still so much to achieve. The green agenda should not be forgotten, but while it is being pushed, let us consider more effective options to maximize the rate at which we reduce human impact to the planet.
In the United Kingdom, a system called Vantage Waste Processing (VWP) has been developed to utilize waste in the production of energy. The system can effectively prepare waste for processing, reduce its volume by more than 60%, extract raw materials for recycling, and produce biofuel from the organic waste. VWP uses a process called Thermal Hydration Steam Treatment to break down organic material into a useful form. Each waste treatment unit can process up to 10 tons per hour, totaling up to 75,000 tons of household waste per year. The breakdown of its output, which is based on a European waste norm, is 63% biomass fiber, which can be used to make building materials, biofuel or biodiesel. 18% plastics, mostly recovered from bottles, reduced in size but not melted - once sorted, they are clean and sterile and can be recycled back to plastic processors or ethanol/diesel. 4% ferrous metals from food cans - all labels have been stripped and cans are clean ready for recycling. 1% non-ferrous metals, mostly from drinks cans, paint cleaned off and metal ready for recycling. 5% textiles in the form of rags and textiles, which are sterilized and ready for sale/collection. 9% other residues, mostly glass, china and rubber – they can be sold back for aggregate (Resource Reclaim Limited, n.d.).
A United States company, Global Resource Corporation (GRC), claims their process requires only a finely tuned microwave that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials, and a mix of materials made from oil to reduce the product back to oil, a combustible gas, and a few leftovers. GRC's machine is called the Hawk-10 and an example of its output from running 9.1 kilograms of ground-up tires produces 4.54 liters of diesel oil, 1.42 cubic meters of combustible gas, 1 kg of steel and 3.40 kg of carbon black (Bio-Medicine, 2007). GRC is now manufacturing the equipment that is revolutionizing the applications of tire processing, and future applications will include: shale into diesel fuel, coal into methane and hydrogen gas, upgrading heavy oil at the wellhead, plastics into gas fuel, and many other carbon-based substances into fuels without CO or CO2 emissions (Global Resource Corporation, 2008).
Another United States company called Changing World Technologies, Inc. (CWT), developed a process called the Thermal Depolymerization Process (TDP), which it designed to create resources and energy from any kind of organic waste. Using this process, any organic material can be converted into oil, gas, minerals and carbon, as well as sterilized water. TDP accomplishes this by using extreme heat and pressure to decompose complex hydrocarbons into simple, small-chained hydrocarbons. CWT developed a demonstration facility for the TDP technology where process refinements were accomplished as the TDP evolved into a more directed Thermal Conversion Process (TCP). According to CWT, this technology is more than 80% efficient and offers a closed loop cycle (Changing World Technologies, Inc., 2008). Their stance is that organic material takes carbon from the atmosphere as it grows. We harvest that organic material whether it is trees for paper, or oil from dinosaurs, and we put it into some kind of product. We then consume and use that product until it is no longer useful. The waste, which would ultimately break down and return carbon to the atmosphere, is converted directly back into organic material. This organic material is used to create new products, completely bypassing the atmospheric phase of its existence.
It sounds like the cycle is foolproof. There is definitely a potential for organic material to be cycled completely when we are talking about solid products for it to be made into and from which it can be broken down. However, when waste is broken down through thermal depolymerization and made into non-solid products, such as fuel, it puts carbon directly back into the atmosphere through its use. Sure, in time, it will be taken back up by plant life to become organic matter once again, and so the cycle goes. Is this still a responsible cycle? Is this technology the best thing for the environment and for humanity?
These are examples of humanity’s potential – advanced technology in alternative energy and alternative resources that address a possible solution to an ever-pressing problem. In their early stages, these technologies demonstrate the potential to transform every landfill into a resource-laden mine. They are also demonstrating a potential for the future of all waste management. Imagine waste management being synonymous with alternative energy production and alternative resource acquisition.
Test runs for research will pave the path towards the implementation of these technologies. If a conclusion is made that these technologies are truly responsible in that they are clean, efficient, and productive, then all former landfills will become resource mines. Instead of waste being “thrown away”, it will be thrown into the device as a very valuable source of raw materials. If these technologies become what they have the potential to be, we need to implement drastic changes to our waste management policies and practices. Where do we start? This is a situation in which local governments and the private sector will have to work together to successfully implement a new waste management regime.
Local government participation is essential in creating policy conducive to restructuring waste management within communities. More specifically, city planners will have the task of outlining a methodology in which hazardous waste and recyclable material are separated from the solid waste load. Once the solid waste is free of inorganic and dangerous compounds, it can be treated as a raw material and then processed. Furthermore, city planners will need to contract out labor for the installation and management of the TCP, Hawk-10, and VWP technologies.
The infrastructure needed to implement a project such as this is very much in the hands of local governments. Once that is in place, the private sector should take over and facilitate its operations.
Profit is the main motivator that will ensure these technologies’ economic sustainability. Raw material, in the form of garbage, will be delivered to the facility, and the party responsible for producing the waste will be charged normal disposal fees. Nothing changes for the consumer. The disposal industry, however, is now being paid to take raw materials, which they will then process and indirectly sell back to the consumer via the manufacturing industry.
CWT claims that their TCP technology can produce 4 billion barrels of oil in a year from agricultural waste in the United States alone. This is equivalent to amount of oil that the United States imports each year, and more than half of the 7.3 billion barrels a year that it consumes (Changing World Technologies, Inc., 2008). Imagine the possibilities if we created 4 billion barrels of oil from just agricultural waste, and if landfills were used to supplement our raw material resources! CWT’s subsidiary, Renewable Environmental Resources, LLC (RES) has been created to demonstrate these claims.
In Carthage, Missouri, RES installed a plant that is currently producing 100-200 barrels of oil per day utilizing byproducts from an adjacent turkey processing facility. This facility is converting approximately 250 tons/day of turkey offal and fats into approximately 20,000 gallons of a renewable diesel fuel oil and valuable fertilizer products. And this is only 30% of the plant’s capacity (Gelfand, 2008)!
It is extremely appealing that with TCP, Hawk-10, and VWP technologies, two crises could become one grand solution. But is it feasible? Would these technologies simply further prolong the ultimate end of oil resources? After all, there is only a finite amount of waste on the planet. If we keep producing waste, and if TCP, Hawk-10, and VWP technologies are supremely successful in converting waste to resources, then it stands to reason that all waste could become products. If the technologies are what they claim, then an efficient cycling of resources may be attained, thus negating the possibility of an end of resources.
Conclusion
The nature of our societies, economies, and industries has ended up producing a significant amount of waste. This waste creation has led to a depletion of resources, inspiring questions into the future. How are we going to create more things if we don’t have any more stuff out of which to make them? Where do we find more resources and where do we put the resources that we no longer want? Other questions are directed towards the environment. What pollution implications does our waste have on the future of the environment?
Identifying how this waste is created is a good first step towards figuring out a potential solution. One potential solution is in the concept of planning and designing of products. Products can be designed for recycling and waste minimization. Another, more feasible, solution is designing and adapting a process to accommodate waste production and resource depletion. We have the technology available to adapt our waste production problem into being a solution that fills in the holes of our depleting resources.
Environmental education has told us that everyone has to do his or her part in helping to lessen the impact to our natural world. While this is absolutely true in most cases, the beautiful thing about these technologies is that they do not require the participation of every last individual. When less participation is required in achieving a goal, that goal will be achieved with greater efficiency.
Although the problems of waste and resource depletion may seem overwhelming, humanity’s ingenuity and resolve have shown us that real solutions to our problems exist. If we work toward implementing those solutions, as preliminary examples of these technologies have shown, we will succeed.
For the future of these super-decomposing technologies, the best thing that can be done would be to ramp up the scale, and increase the efficiency with which they run. Optimizing efficiency levels for these devices will optimize their economic viability. Economic viability leads to social and political support. And support leads to success!
This paper has been written with Western countries in mind. However, there are enormous positive implications in utilizing such technologies in developing countries as a means to alleviate poverty. These technologies have the capacity to reduce the stress on the availability of overburdened energy and resources. Giving developing countries energy and resource independence would be a huge gain that could facilitate further progress in the direction of eliminating poverty.
Bio-Medicine. (2007). Giant Microwave That Recycles Plastic Back into Diesel, Gas. Retrieved on November, 25, 2008, from http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Giant-Microwave-That-Recycles-Plastic-Back-into-Diesel--Gas-22398-1/
Blazquez, R., Lema, J., & Mendez, R. (1988). Characteristics of landfill leachates and alternatives for their treatment: A review. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Volume 40, Numbers 3-4, p. 223-250. Retrieved on November 25, 2008, from http://www.springerlink.com/content/q7nj9p0304354516/
Braungart M., & McDonough W. (2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.
Changing World Technologies, Inc., (2008). The Solution for Energy Independence Is All Around Us. Retrieved on November, 26, 2008, from http://www.changingworldtech.com/
Gelfand, Julie. (2008). Waste-To-Oil Technology Selected as Modern Marvel. Retrieved on November, 26, 2008, from http://www.changingworldtech.com/press_room/index.asp
Gipe, Paul. (1995). Wind Energy Comes of Age. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Global Resource Corporation. (2008). Harnessing Carbon Energy without CO2 emissions. Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.globalresourcecorp.com/technology
Holling, C.S. (2001). Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems. Ecosystems, 4: 390–405.
Kerr, Richard. (1998). The Next Oil Crisis Looms Large--and Perhaps Close. Science, Vol. 281. no. 5380, p. 1128 – 1131. Retrieved on November 25, 2008, from http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/281/5380/1128
Leonard, Annie. (2007). The Story of Stuff. Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Mitchell, Donald. (2008). A Note on Rising Food Prices. Retrieved on November, 26, 2008, from http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/07/28/000020439_20080728103002/Rendered/PDF/WP4682.pdf
Reclaim Resources Limited. (n.d.). Recycling Household Waste to Produce Electricity Removing Odour. Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.reclaimresources.com/Gasification_Electric_020508.pdf
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2004). What is the energy payback for PV?, Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf
An End to Wasting Our Waste
Andrew Judkins
NRD 6091: Conservation and Development
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
Andrew Judkins
NRD 6091: Conservation and Development
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
Products and goods produced, consumed, and disposed of play an integral role in economies and development strategies of societies across the globe. There is an obvious and dangerous flaw in this system, though, when conservation and sustainability are considered. That is, waste is being created, and resources are being depleted at an alarming rate.
Are waste production and resource depletion really problems that need to be solved? There was a time when resources were abundant and their depletion was not considered an issue, as there was a consistent supply to meet demands. Unfortunately, those times are gone. We are seeing resources depleted as we scramble to find viable alternatives. A growing contingent of geologists predict that sometime between 2010 and 2020 the gush of oil from wells around the world will peak at 80 million barrels per day, then begin a steady, inevitable decline (Kerr, 1998). We are trying in vain to slow our consumption to prolong the ultimate and thorough depletion of resources. The only thing there seems to be an excess of is waste. Waste has not always been a problem, either. There was also a time when people thought we threw garbage “away”.
There are several types of waste. Waste can be created as a result of a poor process. Waste can also come in the form of leftover material from producing something. There is also waste that is a result of human consumption. It is everything we throw “away”. Of course, we know now that there is no “away” for our garbage. All of our waste – trash, garbage, unused and unwanted material possessions, dead pets, etc - everything we do not want goes somewhere. Recycling is often not an available option for many communities throughout the United States. For many communities, the most responsible course of action available is a landfill. According to some accounts more than 90 percent of materials extracted to make durable goods in the United States become waste almost immediately. What most people see in their garbage cans is just the tip of a material iceberg; the product itself contains on average only 5 percent of the raw materials involved in the process of making and delivering it (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 27-28).
In this paper, I will illustrate an optimistic outlook on our future with real solutions for tomorrow instead of analyzing what went wrong yesterday. Of course, an analysis of yesterday is imperative to deduce the right course of action for tomorrow, but the focus of this paper is on humanity's resolve, rather than its plight.
Problems of Waste and Resource Depletion
In many cases, products are designed for one-time, or short-time use, to be replaced or disposed of quickly (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 28). This is a simple factor of marketing called, “Planned Obsolescence”, that started catching on in the 1950s. Designers planned how fast they could make stuff break and still leave the consumer with enough faith in the product to go buy another one (Leonard, 2007). The idea is that production can increase as soon as the product needs to be replaced. Whether it is at the end of its useful life or just obsolete, there is a better financial incentive for the producer if its product is frequently purchased, thrown out, and replaced. The faster this process happens, the better profits there will be for the producer.
This practice has made many societies in today’s modern world function as disposable societies. Everything that is made, at some point or another, will be disposed of. This is a tragic phenomenon. It is linear, with a very clear end. For example, if you have a bag of chocolate chips and you’re making chocolate chip cookies – when you run out of chocolate chips, the game is over. No more cookies! When we run out of natural resources, that’s it – no more cookies. The option of going to the store to get another bag won’t exist, nor will the option of drilling another well. As Annie Leonard put it, in the Story of Stuff (2007), “The reason it [the system] is in crisis is that it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet and you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.” The depletion of our natural resources is a waste-induced problem that deserves as much attention as the problem of waste itself.
How about the option of digging another hole to bury our waste? Is there anything wrong with burying our solid and toxic wastes? Well, it is certainly not the best example of environmental stewardship. Beyond stewardship: we are running out of space for landfills; landfills have a tendency to be a concentration of toxicity, which sometimes leaches into the surrounding environment causing ill health and environmental effects; and it is a costly process to pay for waste to be wasted.
The connection between waste leaching from landfill into a water table and negative impacts to the environment from landfills is obvious. This is not just the case for solid waste, but toxic waste and nuclear waste as well. Leachate is transported from a landfill into the environment via natural water flows that collect hazardous chemicals from within these landfills (Blazquez, Lema, & Mendez, 1988). The continued production of waste will only amplify the landfill leaching process. As we need and create more landfills, more incidences of chemical leaching from them will occur. This is not the only environmental problem associated with waste.
We are depleting the earth’s natural resources at an incredible rate. In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed (Leonard, 2007). We preach about renewable resources, but the lack of sustainability of renewable resources continues to hinder our responsible use of them. We are taking, taking, taking from the earth and only returning a minimal amount. We mine resources, use them, and instead of continuing to use them in another form, we set them aside and ignore them as best we can. We search for new resources, while the vast majority of our waste is locked and bound in landfills (except for the leachate, of course).
There is also an energy crisis in our modern society. We depend on foreign oil to fuel our economy. As the developing world continues to develop, there is an increasing demand for oil to fuel their economies as well. This competition for oil serves only to more severely deplete the world’s energy reserves. Alternatives are being sought, but only at a snail’s pace. Alternatives have shown great potential, but are lacking in marketability, effectiveness, efficiency, and the political influence necessary to be implemented properly. There is a huge demand for energy in today’s global society, and that demand gets bigger every day. Alternatives, so far, are not filling the tanks of the world’s energy needs. What should be the course of action?
Drilling for oil in wildlife reserves only prolongs the complete depletion of the resource. There needs to be something cyclical that will continually supply a resource that can fuel world economies. Perhaps combining a waste crisis and an energy crisis could make a recipe for success.
Waste Production and Natural Resource Depletion
The process that describes the linear transition of product from beginning to end is referred to as, “Cradle to Grave” (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 27). It describes the entirety of a product’s life, from its creation to its end of life:
- Acquisition of the various raw materials necessary to construct a particular product.
- Material manufacturing is necessary to process the raw materials so that they may be in a useful form.
- The particular product is created/assembled/constructed in the manufacturing process.
- The product is marketed and sold.
- The product is used or consumed.
- The product’s life ends at a landfill or incinerator.
Waste production can be seen in each of these steps, be it a byproduct or the product itself. Waste is produced in different ways and in different forms; some of it is useful, some of it is not. The good news is that much of this waste is avoidable. With better product and process design, the linear timeline of a product’s life can be effectively turned into a resource cycle.
If products are designed sustainably, that is if they are designed to be recycled, they can go directly from step six (i.e., the landfill) to step two (i.e., processing) without extra waste production, and without compromising the resource’s integrity. Currently, a product that finds its way to a recycler instead of a landfill can be sent back to either step two, or three (i.e., manufacturing). The problem with today’s methods of production, however, is that recycling does not create a resource cycle – it simply prolongs the Cradle to Grave process.
Most materials were not designed for recycling. Take, for example, a plastic product – water bottle, Tupperware, etc. Plastic products are made with plasticizers. Plasticizers are chemical additives, which give plastic a particular property or characteristic, like flexibility and durability. Once a plasticizer is introduced into the molecular structure of the polymer making up a plastic, that polymer base is altered. This method makes sense from a material usefulness standpoint, but not from a resource cycle standpoint, because the plastic takes on a new property and can no longer be used in any other form. Once this plastic takes on a modified molecular structure, the plastic is extremely difficult to use for anything else. Forcing products and their additives into the process of recycling jeopardizes the base material’s durability. This means that they can only be recycled a finite amount of times before the material is so broken down, diluted, and weak that it ends up at step six anyway (Braungart & McDonough, 2002, p. 56-59).
Product reuse is another way to prolong product arrival at step six. Reuse directs the product from step six to step five (i.e., product use). Depending on the construction of the product, reuse can significantly draw out its ultimate end. Nevertheless, the end will inevitably arrive.
In step six, the process of landfilling or incinerating waste is equivalent to wasting our own waste. This is the end of the line. This is what needs to be addressed for humanity to have a future with enough energy and resources to fuel its development ambitions. Although a product may meet the end of its intended use, its usefulness is by no means finished. Designing a process that can fully utilize the remaining product usefulness is the task at hand. New technologies are slowly being implemented that hold potential answers pertaining to our past and future waste management issues.
Real sustainable design is too idealistic of a goal for our modern society. It requires a complete overhaul of the entire manufacturing and producing industry throughout the world. It is a great goal for which to strive. It should be sought, but in the meantime, why not find a solution that will take our waste problem and create something we need? Waste is mounting and resources are depleting. Industry is producing and communities are consuming. It’s the way things work. In order to maximize energy efficiency, it is essential that someday we find a way to minimize that waste. But for now, what if we could do better than simply minimizing waste? What if we could, instead, use that waste for something we wanted, or even needed? Waste could be a great renewable resource, and even a source of energy. Disposable Societies? If we had a way of transforming waste into material or energy resource, there would be no problem with continuing our way of life in a disposable society. We have the technology to make this happen, but we need to make sure that we use only responsible technologies.
Some alternative technologies are becoming more trendy than they are responsible. The actual effectiveness of certain alternative technologies is questionable, as they compete with food resources, generate hazardous waste products, and lack appropriate efficiency to make them viable tools of progression. For example:
- Solar - Solar energy technology is nearly 60 years old and extremely inefficient. The production of solar cells is very energy intensive and the use of that solar cell takes from one to four years to create the amount of energy that was used in its production. They do, however, have an estimated lifetime of 30 years (The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2004).
- Wind - Energy production from windmills is a controversial alternative energy because migratory birds are being killed by the rotating blades (Gipe, 1995).
- Biofuel - The controversy with biofuel is that some say there is a competition for agricultural crops between the food and fuel industry. Also, there is a debate on whether or not this is an eco-efficient technology (Mitchell, 2008).
Resource Production and Waste Depletion
If it was possible to force everyone to conform their daily activities and habits to those consistent with environmentally sound practices, waste problems might not exist. Unfortunately, forcing people to adopt a new lifestyle is seldom successful. In fact, change is usually met with resistance (Holling, 2001). And in the end, the waste problem still exists. Is it even possible then, to create an atmosphere of change? We could implement methodologies of manipulation and propaganda to “convince” the masses that being responsible for their actions and their waste generation is ultimately in their best interests. We could also campaign heavily for environmental education. How can we most effectively convince the world to be responsible for their actions? Well, perhaps we do not have to.
Through new, available technologies, it is possible to transform waste directly into pure and usable resources. The products of a disposable society that plague future development and conservation could be used as fuel and many other useful products in a society that contributed to a solution rather than a problem. The best part is that citizens do not even have to be environmentally aware or change their actions! Of course, a conscious, educated society would be ideal, but environmental education has been a tactic for a long time, and there is still so much to achieve. The green agenda should not be forgotten, but while it is being pushed, let us consider more effective options to maximize the rate at which we reduce human impact to the planet.
In the United Kingdom, a system called Vantage Waste Processing (VWP) has been developed to utilize waste in the production of energy. The system can effectively prepare waste for processing, reduce its volume by more than 60%, extract raw materials for recycling, and produce biofuel from the organic waste. VWP uses a process called Thermal Hydration Steam Treatment to break down organic material into a useful form. Each waste treatment unit can process up to 10 tons per hour, totaling up to 75,000 tons of household waste per year. The breakdown of its output, which is based on a European waste norm, is 63% biomass fiber, which can be used to make building materials, biofuel or biodiesel. 18% plastics, mostly recovered from bottles, reduced in size but not melted - once sorted, they are clean and sterile and can be recycled back to plastic processors or ethanol/diesel. 4% ferrous metals from food cans - all labels have been stripped and cans are clean ready for recycling. 1% non-ferrous metals, mostly from drinks cans, paint cleaned off and metal ready for recycling. 5% textiles in the form of rags and textiles, which are sterilized and ready for sale/collection. 9% other residues, mostly glass, china and rubber – they can be sold back for aggregate (Resource Reclaim Limited, n.d.).
A United States company, Global Resource Corporation (GRC), claims their process requires only a finely tuned microwave that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials, and a mix of materials made from oil to reduce the product back to oil, a combustible gas, and a few leftovers. GRC's machine is called the Hawk-10 and an example of its output from running 9.1 kilograms of ground-up tires produces 4.54 liters of diesel oil, 1.42 cubic meters of combustible gas, 1 kg of steel and 3.40 kg of carbon black (Bio-Medicine, 2007). GRC is now manufacturing the equipment that is revolutionizing the applications of tire processing, and future applications will include: shale into diesel fuel, coal into methane and hydrogen gas, upgrading heavy oil at the wellhead, plastics into gas fuel, and many other carbon-based substances into fuels without CO or CO2 emissions (Global Resource Corporation, 2008).
Another United States company called Changing World Technologies, Inc. (CWT), developed a process called the Thermal Depolymerization Process (TDP), which it designed to create resources and energy from any kind of organic waste. Using this process, any organic material can be converted into oil, gas, minerals and carbon, as well as sterilized water. TDP accomplishes this by using extreme heat and pressure to decompose complex hydrocarbons into simple, small-chained hydrocarbons. CWT developed a demonstration facility for the TDP technology where process refinements were accomplished as the TDP evolved into a more directed Thermal Conversion Process (TCP). According to CWT, this technology is more than 80% efficient and offers a closed loop cycle (Changing World Technologies, Inc., 2008). Their stance is that organic material takes carbon from the atmosphere as it grows. We harvest that organic material whether it is trees for paper, or oil from dinosaurs, and we put it into some kind of product. We then consume and use that product until it is no longer useful. The waste, which would ultimately break down and return carbon to the atmosphere, is converted directly back into organic material. This organic material is used to create new products, completely bypassing the atmospheric phase of its existence.
It sounds like the cycle is foolproof. There is definitely a potential for organic material to be cycled completely when we are talking about solid products for it to be made into and from which it can be broken down. However, when waste is broken down through thermal depolymerization and made into non-solid products, such as fuel, it puts carbon directly back into the atmosphere through its use. Sure, in time, it will be taken back up by plant life to become organic matter once again, and so the cycle goes. Is this still a responsible cycle? Is this technology the best thing for the environment and for humanity?
These are examples of humanity’s potential – advanced technology in alternative energy and alternative resources that address a possible solution to an ever-pressing problem. In their early stages, these technologies demonstrate the potential to transform every landfill into a resource-laden mine. They are also demonstrating a potential for the future of all waste management. Imagine waste management being synonymous with alternative energy production and alternative resource acquisition.
Test runs for research will pave the path towards the implementation of these technologies. If a conclusion is made that these technologies are truly responsible in that they are clean, efficient, and productive, then all former landfills will become resource mines. Instead of waste being “thrown away”, it will be thrown into the device as a very valuable source of raw materials. If these technologies become what they have the potential to be, we need to implement drastic changes to our waste management policies and practices. Where do we start? This is a situation in which local governments and the private sector will have to work together to successfully implement a new waste management regime.
Local government participation is essential in creating policy conducive to restructuring waste management within communities. More specifically, city planners will have the task of outlining a methodology in which hazardous waste and recyclable material are separated from the solid waste load. Once the solid waste is free of inorganic and dangerous compounds, it can be treated as a raw material and then processed. Furthermore, city planners will need to contract out labor for the installation and management of the TCP, Hawk-10, and VWP technologies.
The infrastructure needed to implement a project such as this is very much in the hands of local governments. Once that is in place, the private sector should take over and facilitate its operations.
Profit is the main motivator that will ensure these technologies’ economic sustainability. Raw material, in the form of garbage, will be delivered to the facility, and the party responsible for producing the waste will be charged normal disposal fees. Nothing changes for the consumer. The disposal industry, however, is now being paid to take raw materials, which they will then process and indirectly sell back to the consumer via the manufacturing industry.
CWT claims that their TCP technology can produce 4 billion barrels of oil in a year from agricultural waste in the United States alone. This is equivalent to amount of oil that the United States imports each year, and more than half of the 7.3 billion barrels a year that it consumes (Changing World Technologies, Inc., 2008). Imagine the possibilities if we created 4 billion barrels of oil from just agricultural waste, and if landfills were used to supplement our raw material resources! CWT’s subsidiary, Renewable Environmental Resources, LLC (RES) has been created to demonstrate these claims.
In Carthage, Missouri, RES installed a plant that is currently producing 100-200 barrels of oil per day utilizing byproducts from an adjacent turkey processing facility. This facility is converting approximately 250 tons/day of turkey offal and fats into approximately 20,000 gallons of a renewable diesel fuel oil and valuable fertilizer products. And this is only 30% of the plant’s capacity (Gelfand, 2008)!
It is extremely appealing that with TCP, Hawk-10, and VWP technologies, two crises could become one grand solution. But is it feasible? Would these technologies simply further prolong the ultimate end of oil resources? After all, there is only a finite amount of waste on the planet. If we keep producing waste, and if TCP, Hawk-10, and VWP technologies are supremely successful in converting waste to resources, then it stands to reason that all waste could become products. If the technologies are what they claim, then an efficient cycling of resources may be attained, thus negating the possibility of an end of resources.
Conclusion
The nature of our societies, economies, and industries has ended up producing a significant amount of waste. This waste creation has led to a depletion of resources, inspiring questions into the future. How are we going to create more things if we don’t have any more stuff out of which to make them? Where do we find more resources and where do we put the resources that we no longer want? Other questions are directed towards the environment. What pollution implications does our waste have on the future of the environment?
Identifying how this waste is created is a good first step towards figuring out a potential solution. One potential solution is in the concept of planning and designing of products. Products can be designed for recycling and waste minimization. Another, more feasible, solution is designing and adapting a process to accommodate waste production and resource depletion. We have the technology available to adapt our waste production problem into being a solution that fills in the holes of our depleting resources.
Environmental education has told us that everyone has to do his or her part in helping to lessen the impact to our natural world. While this is absolutely true in most cases, the beautiful thing about these technologies is that they do not require the participation of every last individual. When less participation is required in achieving a goal, that goal will be achieved with greater efficiency.
Although the problems of waste and resource depletion may seem overwhelming, humanity’s ingenuity and resolve have shown us that real solutions to our problems exist. If we work toward implementing those solutions, as preliminary examples of these technologies have shown, we will succeed.
For the future of these super-decomposing technologies, the best thing that can be done would be to ramp up the scale, and increase the efficiency with which they run. Optimizing efficiency levels for these devices will optimize their economic viability. Economic viability leads to social and political support. And support leads to success!
This paper has been written with Western countries in mind. However, there are enormous positive implications in utilizing such technologies in developing countries as a means to alleviate poverty. These technologies have the capacity to reduce the stress on the availability of overburdened energy and resources. Giving developing countries energy and resource independence would be a huge gain that could facilitate further progress in the direction of eliminating poverty.
Bibliography
Bio-Medicine. (2007). Giant Microwave That Recycles Plastic Back into Diesel, Gas. Retrieved on November, 25, 2008, from http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Giant-Microwave-That-Recycles-Plastic-Back-into-Diesel--Gas-22398-1/
Blazquez, R., Lema, J., & Mendez, R. (1988). Characteristics of landfill leachates and alternatives for their treatment: A review. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Volume 40, Numbers 3-4, p. 223-250. Retrieved on November 25, 2008, from http://www.springerlink.com/content/q7nj9p0304354516/
Braungart M., & McDonough W. (2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press.
Changing World Technologies, Inc., (2008). The Solution for Energy Independence Is All Around Us. Retrieved on November, 26, 2008, from http://www.changingworldtech.com/
Gelfand, Julie. (2008). Waste-To-Oil Technology Selected as Modern Marvel. Retrieved on November, 26, 2008, from http://www.changingworldtech.com/press_room/index.asp
Gipe, Paul. (1995). Wind Energy Comes of Age. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Global Resource Corporation. (2008). Harnessing Carbon Energy without CO2 emissions. Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.globalresourcecorp.com/technology
Holling, C.S. (2001). Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems. Ecosystems, 4: 390–405.
Kerr, Richard. (1998). The Next Oil Crisis Looms Large--and Perhaps Close. Science, Vol. 281. no. 5380, p. 1128 – 1131. Retrieved on November 25, 2008, from http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/281/5380/1128
Leonard, Annie. (2007). The Story of Stuff. Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.storyofstuff.com/
Mitchell, Donald. (2008). A Note on Rising Food Prices. Retrieved on November, 26, 2008, from http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2008/07/28/000020439_20080728103002/Rendered/PDF/WP4682.pdf
Reclaim Resources Limited. (n.d.). Recycling Household Waste to Produce Electricity Removing Odour. Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.reclaimresources.com/Gasification_Electric_020508.pdf
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2004). What is the energy payback for PV?, Retrieved on November 26, 2008, from http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Those Turtles Were Kung Fu Fighting For Their Lives!
Unfortunately, sea turtles can't move as fast as lightning. So I took a weekend from my busy schedule to assist them in their fight for life.
A group of UPeace students and I headed out to Punta Mala beach, a bit south of Jaco, on the Pacific side of the country, where we met up with an organization dedicated to protecting sea turtles. We volunteered for their effort for the weekend.
It is said that only one sea turtle will live to adulthood from 1000 eggs. An average female sea turtle starts laying eggs around age 20, and can lay up to 100 eggs at one time. The temperature in which they develop determines the sex of the turtle. There are natural predators, but the biggest threat that faces these amazing creatures is poaching. A poacher can get between two and four USD per egg as they're used in a popular drink and some fancy recipes and superstitions here in Costa Rica.
We started our volunteering with a night patrol of a 5km section of beach at 9PM. We were hiking along the beach without lights. Lights would give away our position to any potential poachers in waiting. They also startle the turtles. After a few stubbed toes and linking arms for our own safety, we came to a small river. We had to cross to continue our patrol, but the water was only a couple feet deep at the deepest. Easy. The hard part was that this particular river is crocodile habitat. Yes, crocodiles - the ones with big mouths that bite and don’t let go. The one guy that was leading our volunteer team pulled out a tiny AA-flashlight and scanned the water for signs of the scary snappers. Everything looked OK so we pushed on to the other side.
Finally, we came across the path that a sea turtle makes in the sand on her way up the beach to lay her eggs. We followed the path up and lo and behold, a big ole sea turtle was making her way back down to the sea. We watched her disappear into the waves and the darkness and then we went to find her nest.
I don't think I'll ever understand how she managed to dig such a hole, and cover it up as if she'd never been there. The plan was to dig up her eggs and bring them to a protected environment. So, we dug them up. She laid 84 eggs, which resembled very soft ping-pong balls. We put them in a plastic bag and reburied them in order to complete our patrol. Upon our return, we retrieved them and brought them to the hatchery where we buried them properly (without the plastic bag). The night was finished!
In the morning, we dug up old nests that were ruined by flooding. All the eggs "drowned" so our task was to dig them up and prepare the area for future nests. We dug up 22 nests of destroyed eggs. However, we found one lone survivor that had managed to hatch but couldn't manage to dig its way out of the sand. It was severely dehydrated and very weak. We put it in a bucket of water while it adjusted to life. When it was moving like healthy little sea turtles do, we decided to take it closer to the ocean and release it.
As the tiny newborn turtle made it's way to the sea I reflected upon the work being done at this facility. We put so much energy into ensuring that these turtle eggs would be safe. We gave them a leg up in the struggle to be born. We focused so much effort into their lives before they're actually alive, all I could think to say in my head to this little guy as he was pummeled by wave after wave was, "OK, little guy, now go be a turtle." His entire ecological niche and significance was lost due to my focus on just making sure he'd have a chance to be born. Either way, it was a beautiful thing to witness his release and ponder his future existence.
We left Punta Mala, sore and exhausted, and made our way to Manuel Antonio National Park. We spent the afternoon protecting our lunch from extremely aggressive White Faced Capuchin monkeys and raccoons. We swam and hiked in the national park, and then we headed home. Job well done. Hi-ya!
A group of UPeace students and I headed out to Punta Mala beach, a bit south of Jaco, on the Pacific side of the country, where we met up with an organization dedicated to protecting sea turtles. We volunteered for their effort for the weekend.
It is said that only one sea turtle will live to adulthood from 1000 eggs. An average female sea turtle starts laying eggs around age 20, and can lay up to 100 eggs at one time. The temperature in which they develop determines the sex of the turtle. There are natural predators, but the biggest threat that faces these amazing creatures is poaching. A poacher can get between two and four USD per egg as they're used in a popular drink and some fancy recipes and superstitions here in Costa Rica.
We started our volunteering with a night patrol of a 5km section of beach at 9PM. We were hiking along the beach without lights. Lights would give away our position to any potential poachers in waiting. They also startle the turtles. After a few stubbed toes and linking arms for our own safety, we came to a small river. We had to cross to continue our patrol, but the water was only a couple feet deep at the deepest. Easy. The hard part was that this particular river is crocodile habitat. Yes, crocodiles - the ones with big mouths that bite and don’t let go. The one guy that was leading our volunteer team pulled out a tiny AA-flashlight and scanned the water for signs of the scary snappers. Everything looked OK so we pushed on to the other side.
Finally, we came across the path that a sea turtle makes in the sand on her way up the beach to lay her eggs. We followed the path up and lo and behold, a big ole sea turtle was making her way back down to the sea. We watched her disappear into the waves and the darkness and then we went to find her nest.
I don't think I'll ever understand how she managed to dig such a hole, and cover it up as if she'd never been there. The plan was to dig up her eggs and bring them to a protected environment. So, we dug them up. She laid 84 eggs, which resembled very soft ping-pong balls. We put them in a plastic bag and reburied them in order to complete our patrol. Upon our return, we retrieved them and brought them to the hatchery where we buried them properly (without the plastic bag). The night was finished!
In the morning, we dug up old nests that were ruined by flooding. All the eggs "drowned" so our task was to dig them up and prepare the area for future nests. We dug up 22 nests of destroyed eggs. However, we found one lone survivor that had managed to hatch but couldn't manage to dig its way out of the sand. It was severely dehydrated and very weak. We put it in a bucket of water while it adjusted to life. When it was moving like healthy little sea turtles do, we decided to take it closer to the ocean and release it.
As the tiny newborn turtle made it's way to the sea I reflected upon the work being done at this facility. We put so much energy into ensuring that these turtle eggs would be safe. We gave them a leg up in the struggle to be born. We focused so much effort into their lives before they're actually alive, all I could think to say in my head to this little guy as he was pummeled by wave after wave was, "OK, little guy, now go be a turtle." His entire ecological niche and significance was lost due to my focus on just making sure he'd have a chance to be born. Either way, it was a beautiful thing to witness his release and ponder his future existence.
We left Punta Mala, sore and exhausted, and made our way to Manuel Antonio National Park. We spent the afternoon protecting our lunch from extremely aggressive White Faced Capuchin monkeys and raccoons. We swam and hiked in the national park, and then we headed home. Job well done. Hi-ya!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Panama, Panama!
I finished up my last class with a field trip to the northern part of the country, in a place called Sarapiquí. The class was called, Forests, Forestry, and Poverty and it focused on the dynamics of forestry practices correlating with poverty in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
It was an interesting thing to consider that the methods used to harvest forest products can be directly related to poverty stricken communities. It's not something I've ever considered. I've always focused on the element of deforestation due to the mismanagement of forests. Apparently mismanaged things can have other consequences as well.
On our field trip to Sarapiquí, we checked out a few different things. First was a forest plantation. Traditionally I had been against forest plantations because it's human's manipulation of the forest and 100% unnatural. But I quickly learned that the land area used to produce trees on a plantation was far smaller than the forest land area affected by harvesting the same amount of trees. This means that the more plantations that exist, the less natural forests are needed to provide forest products to meet society's needs! Plantations are a form of preservation! Oh, what a grand new perspective!
Our next stop was to a sustainably managed forest. Even though plantations are far better producers of wood products, they still don't produce enough to meet society's overwhelming demand. Of course, consuming less is the best answer, but it's also the hardest method of which to convince people. Because of that, forests are still being cut down to meet our needs. The best way to do that is to do it sustainably. This means that we take a minimum amount of trees from the forest so as to not affect the forest's health. Sure, there are damages to the forest, but if trees are harvested in a way that the damage is not severe, then the forest can recover and continue being a happy, healthy forest! The plot of forestland that we visited was a great example of this. There were lots of health indicators and it felt nice to hike through it. At least through most of it. Half way through our hike, the rains of the rainy season hit us hard! It was intense! I had been walking through the forest delicately so as to not get stung or bitten by any of the terminally poisonous things we were identifying such as Poison Dart Frogs and Bullet Ants. I've been attacked by Fire Ants and Army Ants during my short time here, but I hear it only takes four bites from the inch long Bullet Ants to end me! Yikes! Anyway, after the rain hit, my delicate hiking tactics went right out the window. I was grabbing trees and plants and soil, anything to get myself out of the valley in which I seemed to be stuck. I was at the end of the class so everyone that had hiked through before me destroyed all the traction I could have had. I was slipping and sliding all over the place! When I finally made it to the top and out of the forest, I was completely covered, head to toe, in mud - and soaking wet! No worries though, the intensity of the rain rinsed the mud right off of me by the time I got back to the bus...
Our last stop was to a hydroelectric power plant, which has a unique relationship with the land owners of the upstream forests. The hydroelectric power plant knows that the consistency of the river flows depends on, and is influenced by, the existence of forests upstream. In order to preserve their interests, the flow of the river, they are employing a plan called Payment for Environmental Services. Through governmental money and coordination by a group called FUNDECOR, they're paying landowners to not cut down their forests. That is, the landowners are receiving money to leave the upstream forest land alone. Financial incentive for conservation! What a great spin on natural forest protection! It's been working great for the last few years with no signs of changing in the near future! It's a great example that I wish more governments would support.
So why the Van Halen title for a forestry blog? Simple - I had a five day break after this class finished and I celebrated by going to Panama! Panama! That and I needed to renew my 90 day visa...
The funniest part of the whole trip happened when we crossed the border into Panama from Costa Rica.
There was some kind of fumigation chamber that the bus parks in before leaving the country. The purpose was obviously to kill any bacteria, fungi, pollen, etc. from dirty Costa Rica before entering sterile Panama. We quickly closed the windows in fear of being poisoned! The bus sat there and the temperature seemed to go through the roof! Nothing happened. Finally the bus pulled out of the fumigation chamber and crossed a rickety old bridge over a dirty brown river that serves as the border. Confused that no chemicals had hit the bus we decided to open the windows again for some much needed fresh air. Ah refreshment! On the other side of the bridge, the bus stopped in another fumigation chamber. Unfortunately we were oblivious to this action, as the excitement of being in a new country (50th for me!) was upon us! All of a sudden, we all got sprayed in the faces from something outside! Damn fumigation chamber! We scrambled to close the windows but were too late. I tried to use my lack of sense of smell and interesting work history to determine what kind of pesticide had covered us all. No dice. So Becca asked the border guard. "Oh, don't worry." He said calmly. "That's for the bus, not for you." Hahaaaa!!! We tried to explain to him that we had been sprayed and wanted to know with what we had been sprayed, but he was adamant about those chemicals being for the bus and not for us. Thanks, guy.
I was in a group of 10 other students and we traveled to some islands off the northeastern coast of Panama called Bocas Del Toro. It was beautiful there!
We spent our days exploring different beaches of the islands in kayaks, hanging out at Caribbean Sea side bars, swimming our brains out, and not relaxing at all! It was a blast!
I'm now back in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica and have started a new class. Research Methods. Oh boy! As you can imagine, I'm spending lots of time, glued to my computer researching. Or learning how to research, as it were. I'm using this class to get a foundation for the thesis I'll be doing at the end of the school year. Get ready for some reading and editing! I mean, if you want. Seriously - please let me know if you're willing to proof read my thesis next spring-ish when I have it ready!
XOXO
It was an interesting thing to consider that the methods used to harvest forest products can be directly related to poverty stricken communities. It's not something I've ever considered. I've always focused on the element of deforestation due to the mismanagement of forests. Apparently mismanaged things can have other consequences as well.
On our field trip to Sarapiquí, we checked out a few different things. First was a forest plantation. Traditionally I had been against forest plantations because it's human's manipulation of the forest and 100% unnatural. But I quickly learned that the land area used to produce trees on a plantation was far smaller than the forest land area affected by harvesting the same amount of trees. This means that the more plantations that exist, the less natural forests are needed to provide forest products to meet society's needs! Plantations are a form of preservation! Oh, what a grand new perspective!
Our next stop was to a sustainably managed forest. Even though plantations are far better producers of wood products, they still don't produce enough to meet society's overwhelming demand. Of course, consuming less is the best answer, but it's also the hardest method of which to convince people. Because of that, forests are still being cut down to meet our needs. The best way to do that is to do it sustainably. This means that we take a minimum amount of trees from the forest so as to not affect the forest's health. Sure, there are damages to the forest, but if trees are harvested in a way that the damage is not severe, then the forest can recover and continue being a happy, healthy forest! The plot of forestland that we visited was a great example of this. There were lots of health indicators and it felt nice to hike through it. At least through most of it. Half way through our hike, the rains of the rainy season hit us hard! It was intense! I had been walking through the forest delicately so as to not get stung or bitten by any of the terminally poisonous things we were identifying such as Poison Dart Frogs and Bullet Ants. I've been attacked by Fire Ants and Army Ants during my short time here, but I hear it only takes four bites from the inch long Bullet Ants to end me! Yikes! Anyway, after the rain hit, my delicate hiking tactics went right out the window. I was grabbing trees and plants and soil, anything to get myself out of the valley in which I seemed to be stuck. I was at the end of the class so everyone that had hiked through before me destroyed all the traction I could have had. I was slipping and sliding all over the place! When I finally made it to the top and out of the forest, I was completely covered, head to toe, in mud - and soaking wet! No worries though, the intensity of the rain rinsed the mud right off of me by the time I got back to the bus...
Our last stop was to a hydroelectric power plant, which has a unique relationship with the land owners of the upstream forests. The hydroelectric power plant knows that the consistency of the river flows depends on, and is influenced by, the existence of forests upstream. In order to preserve their interests, the flow of the river, they are employing a plan called Payment for Environmental Services. Through governmental money and coordination by a group called FUNDECOR, they're paying landowners to not cut down their forests. That is, the landowners are receiving money to leave the upstream forest land alone. Financial incentive for conservation! What a great spin on natural forest protection! It's been working great for the last few years with no signs of changing in the near future! It's a great example that I wish more governments would support.So why the Van Halen title for a forestry blog? Simple - I had a five day break after this class finished and I celebrated by going to Panama! Panama! That and I needed to renew my 90 day visa...
The funniest part of the whole trip happened when we crossed the border into Panama from Costa Rica.There was some kind of fumigation chamber that the bus parks in before leaving the country. The purpose was obviously to kill any bacteria, fungi, pollen, etc. from dirty Costa Rica before entering sterile Panama. We quickly closed the windows in fear of being poisoned! The bus sat there and the temperature seemed to go through the roof! Nothing happened. Finally the bus pulled out of the fumigation chamber and crossed a rickety old bridge over a dirty brown river that serves as the border. Confused that no chemicals had hit the bus we decided to open the windows again for some much needed fresh air. Ah refreshment! On the other side of the bridge, the bus stopped in another fumigation chamber. Unfortunately we were oblivious to this action, as the excitement of being in a new country (50th for me!) was upon us! All of a sudden, we all got sprayed in the faces from something outside! Damn fumigation chamber! We scrambled to close the windows but were too late. I tried to use my lack of sense of smell and interesting work history to determine what kind of pesticide had covered us all. No dice. So Becca asked the border guard. "Oh, don't worry." He said calmly. "That's for the bus, not for you." Hahaaaa!!! We tried to explain to him that we had been sprayed and wanted to know with what we had been sprayed, but he was adamant about those chemicals being for the bus and not for us. Thanks, guy.
I was in a group of 10 other students and we traveled to some islands off the northeastern coast of Panama called Bocas Del Toro. It was beautiful there!
We spent our days exploring different beaches of the islands in kayaks, hanging out at Caribbean Sea side bars, swimming our brains out, and not relaxing at all! It was a blast!
I'm now back in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica and have started a new class. Research Methods. Oh boy! As you can imagine, I'm spending lots of time, glued to my computer researching. Or learning how to research, as it were. I'm using this class to get a foundation for the thesis I'll be doing at the end of the school year. Get ready for some reading and editing! I mean, if you want. Seriously - please let me know if you're willing to proof read my thesis next spring-ish when I have it ready!XOXO
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