Summer Issue I

Summer 2020 Issue I

The Green Observer

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Dear Green Observers, Wow, what a year it has been! Through the many changes, shifts, and variations, we have all faced challenges that many of us have not previously seen in our lifetime. Although this spring semester has certainly been different than the previous semesters, the Green Observer has remained steadfast in its goal: providing local and extra-local environmental news to our readers.

This issue is the culmination of the two issues we would have published during a typical spring semester. Presenting our first ever Summer I issue, we highlight sustainable cities and how artificial intelligence may help streamline urban life. We also dive into the world of nuclear energy and the effects it could have on our environment, as well as describe how you can create your own Bokashi composting bin in your home. You can also find information on different types of beekeeping styles, sustainable skincare, snails, and more! We are very excited for you to read this summer’s issue, and hope you enjoy it.

Before we begin this issue, I would like to take a moment to thank all of the Green Observer staff, authors, and artists—whether they are in the organization or just guest writers. Without your dedication and passion for the magazine, we would have nothing to publish. It is through all of you that I learn more each and every day, and I am thankful to have such an incredible team. Your perseverance throughout these challenging times are unparalleled, and it shines through the content in each of these pages. Lastly, thank you to our readers—we dedicate this issue to each and every one of you.

Kindly, AIM

Artist: Emily Chen

STAFF

Ana Isabel Mendoza

Noah Simon

Editor in Chief

Treasurer

Sayani Majumdar

Sowmiya Raju Art Chair

Copy Editor

Authors & Artists Taiya Tkachuk

Shallon Malfeo

Grace Gudwien

Ariana Palermo

Taskeen Khan

Lucy Quinn

Andy Eltzroth

Andy Sima

Niharika Manda

Ayda Asadnejad Web Chair

Taiya Tkachuk Social/Fundraising Chair

TABLE OF CONTENTS The Case for Smart Cities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6-7 A Solution to Our Energy Crisis?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9 Light Pollution: Why Should We Care?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10-11 What Hive Is Right for You?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-13 Bokashi Composting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-16 Magnificent Monarchs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16-18 Snail Facts! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-20 Sustainable Skincare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Project Drawdown: A Hope For the Future. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24 Much More Than Rain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Moving With Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Climate Change Along the Florida Coastline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27-28

THE CASE FOR SMART CITIES Author: Taiya Tkachuk

Today more than ever, cities are leaders in deciding the future of the United States. Since the end of the First World War, our urban population has grown nine-fold. Urbanization is unlikely to slow down, as nearly seven in ten people are projected to live in cities by 2050. As U.S. cities continue to expand and evolve, they face unprecedented developmental challenges. Some of the biggest issues facing our cities today include the need for more efficient management of water, transportation and energy.

Smart technologies, notably the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), are a key solution to these issues. IoT and AI work by collecting data from billions of objects and analyzing them to reveal patterns. This intelligent data can help guide sustainable urban development, help reduce resource consumption, enhance public services and protect public health.

“This intelligent data can help guide sustainable urban development, help reduce resource consumption, enhance public services and protect public health.”

Due to rapid population increase in most urban areas, it is common to find inadequate sewage and water facilities overwhelmed by increasing demands. Sanitation quality has decreased in many U.S. cities and sewage flows are often drained into local bodies of water. This has caused a number of public safety concerns as diseases are more likely to spread through urban water systems. Urban overcrowding has also contributed to water scarcity, often leaving the most vulnerable populations without essential water supplies.

In addition to water management issues, increased urbanization has created issues for transportations systems, which have not been able to keep pace with booming populations.

New York, one of the United States’ fastest growing cities, still utilizes an aging and slowing subway system designed over 100 years ago for its 8.6 million residents. Increasing numbers of residents have caused widespread congestion and air pollution across New York and a host of other major U.S. cities.

Despite only representing 2% of the world’s surface area, urban areas account for more than 70% of global carbon emissions and 70% of worldwide energy consumption. This places U.S. cities at the center of the debate on climate change, as they are key contributors to growing global carbon emission levels. In addition to ecological threats, increased demands for energy have harmed public health. Air pollutants can lead to cancer, birth defects and other serious health conditions. Low-income urban neighborhoods are even more at risk, as they are disproportionately exposed to higher levels of air pollution.

Fortunately, smart technologies can help combat these challenges and enable more sustainable urban growth. AI and IoT are cornerstone technologies for building smart cities, which are urban areas that utilize smart tech. IoT allows cities to gain intelligent insights from connected sensors placed around the urban landscape. AI then uses the collected data to develop algorithms, which make suggestions for how to improve various urban operations. By utilizing IoT and AI in urban planning, cities can lower water consumption, make transportation more efficient and reduce energy consumption.

AI and IoT can improve urban water management by providing cities with more sophisticated control over utility management. AI and IoT can help implement smart grid technologies that are able to locate leaks and prevent the excess use of water, making its distribution more equitable and sustainable around urban communities. Smart tech can also monitor water quality and ensure safe drinking water through tracking water flow, protecting public health.

Smart tech can also help streamline urban transportation systems. Urban planners are able to use AI and IoT to help residents travel from one point in the city to another in the most efficient way possible. Pilot cities including Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and San Antonio have had great success in small-scale implementation of smart road-surface sensors. These sensors send live updates to users about road conditions and traffic signal malfunctions, helping reduce travel time. AI and IoT can also help urban planners make routes for public transportation more efficient.

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Additionally, AI and IoT can reduce energy consumption and lower the rates of hazardous emissions. Smart tech can be installed in buildings to monitor and make suggestions for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, essentially telling the building how to behave more sustainably. Research has shown that smart systems can help cities save 30% of all energy used. AI and IoT can also be used for city-wide projects to monitor CO2 levels, temperature and air quality to pinpoint pollution sources and create models to save energy.

Together, AI and IoT provide valuable insights for sustainability strategies that can im-

prove a variety of urban services. Investment into the research and implementation of smart tech can help make the U.S. a global leader in smart development and ensure a safe environment for all urban residents.

Figure One: Singapore has been named the Smart City of 2018 Photo: Vismaya Jayakumar

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A SOLUTION TO OUR ENERGY CRISIS? Author: Shallon Malfeo

For decades, nuclear energy has received a bad rap from the public. Fearing nuclear meltdowns similar to those in Chernobyl or Three Mile Island, most people are opposed to the construction of new nuclear energy plants in their neighborhood. Worries about unprecedented radiation, toxic waste, and other factors like the “not in my backyard” argument have also helped to solidify a muddled, negative view of nuclear energy. Fortunately, some are considering alternatives to fossil fuels, realizing nuclear energy may be a source of hope for the future.

First let’s begin with the basics of nuclear energy and how it is produced. Nuclear energy dates back to the early 1950’s, when Americans began exploring its full potential in detail post World War Two. It’s powered by a process called fission, in which Uranium-235 atoms split due to their atomic instability. This generates enormous amounts of heat and steam, the latter of which is used to propel steam turbines that create electricity. Today, this accounts for roughly 10% of our current global energy consumption.

While radioactive waste, pollution and meltdowns are among the top concerns when it comes to nuclear energy, the truth isn’t what you may think. According to Yale Environment 360, other major sources of energy produce much more radioactive pollution than nuclear energy. This may seem ironic at first, but careful research has shown that coal is much worse. In fact, coal is actually the major source of radioactive matter in the environment.

“This may seem ironic at first, but careful research has shown that coal is much worse. In fact, coal is actually the major source of radioactive matter in the environment.”

Nuclear energy accidents are also relatively less dangerous than accidents occurring with other major energy sources. Following the Chernobyl accident, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation

Figure One: Nuclear containment structure diagram

(UNSCEAR) concluded that the only long-term health consequences for the population exposed to the meltdown was an increased incidence of thyroid cancers, with approximately 6,000 cas-

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es reported in children and adolescents as of 2005. No significant increase in thyroid cancer was observed in adults and there were only 54 deaths attributed to the accident. While the ramifications of the accident were devastating to many, UNSCEAR concluded that the vast majority should not have to worry about serious health onsequences because they were only exposed to “radiation levels comparable to or a few times higher than annual levels of natural background.

In comparison, a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, “released at least 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate, as well as a number of other poisonous gases,” with death toll estimated at about 15,000 and up to 600,000 exposed. Even the worst nuclear meltdown doesn’t compare to major industrial failures such as this. NASA also claimed that, although burning natural gas emits less GHGs and deadly pollutants than burning coal, it is far deadlier than nuclear power, causing about 40 times more deaths per unit electric energy produced, signifying that nuclear energy might actually be one of the safest forms of producing electricity.

Some have started to take notice of the potential power that could be unlocked with innovations in nuclear technology. In light of a recent Netflix Original Series, Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, I too believe that there is more to the nuclear energy picture. Having founded TerraPower in 2006, Gates believes that a powerful solution to climate change could lie in our nuclear energy sector. He emphasizes the need for innovation when it comes to reducing our impacts on the environment and building smaller nuclear reactors that could even fit underground in order to minimize issues with appearance and the impact on the surrounding environment.

According to the Washington Post, TerraPower still has many critics as they work out the technological kinks. With questions like how to refuel the reactors or which metals are strong enough to withstand high pressures and temperatures, many believe this show isn’t ready to hit the road. Bill Gates and TerraPower have suffered many setbacks already and continue

Figure Two: Electricity generation by energy source to face obstacles when testing new technology.

Just last October the Department of Energy, announced protocols to prevent China from using US technology for military means, effectively killing any chances of building a demonstration reactor in China. They also lack the capital necessary to make their engineering visions a reality.

Although they have been working on state-of-the-art technology for over a decade, they have not yet secured solutions that can be mass-produced or completely replace our fossil fuel consumption. What’s important to remember is that we’re still innovating. In order to solve climate change we’re going to have to experiment with all of our options, even if that means attempting something new.

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LIGHT POLLUTION: WHY SHOULD WE CARE? Author: Grace Gudwien

As my boyfriend and I walked out of the Union one night after a major study session, I looked up at the sky and was surprised; all I saw was a giant, orangish-gray sheet across the sky.

Where were the stars? Granted, it was cloudy, but where at least was the pitch black nighttime sky we all have come to know and love?

Light pollution. That’s the culprit. It’s a term that most people living in this increasingly environmentally-conscious era have heard, but I realized not many individuals, myself included, truly know the facts about light pollution. Sure, many know that it is the result of excess artificial lights shining into the wee hours of the morning, but how does the process happen, and why is it harmful? Basically, why should we care? I decided to set out to answer these questions.

According to the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), light pollution can come from both outdoor and indoor as well as public and private lighting, such as neon signs, sports stadiums, and brightly-lit rooms in homes and offices.

These artificial lights can cause several forms of light pollution, such as harsh glares, clusters of bright light, or the trespassing of light into unnecessary places. Possibly the most well-known type of light pollution is skyglow, which is what I experienced walking on campus that night.

Skyglow, as explained by the Lighting Research Center’s National Lighting Product Information Program, can be a natural phenomenon caused by the slight radiance of the upper atmosphere and reflected light off of objects and dust in space. This kind of skyglow is not an issue, though; anthropogenic skyglow is the force making our night skies too bright. This human-induced skyglow comes from artificial lights reflecting off of dust and particles in the atmosphere. Likely, much of these air particles are the result of air pollution, such as smog.

Unfortunately, as society continues to live with a consumer-based mindset, people will keep purchasing items that increase light and air pollution, through either the product itself or the production of the item.

At this point, I learned what light pollution is, but I was still on the hunt to understand why it is harmful. To answer this question, I turned back to the IDA, whose website explained that the abundance of artificial light across the Earth is throwing off many species’ migration and

biological rhythms. For example, many migrating birds begin their transcontinental flights too early or late in their migration season due to light pollution confusing them about what time of year it is. If the birds leave at the improper time, they will not be able to find the food and resources needed for survival during their trip and upon their arrival. In addition, they sometimes are drawn to brightly-lit cities, going to the wrong location entirely. Baby sea turtles making their trip from their nests to the ocean have the same issue, traveling toward light sources rather than the ocean.

“Baby sea turtles have the same issue...traveling towards light sources rather than the ocean”

Another problem described by the IDA surrounding light pollution is that all of the excess light, especially blue light from electronics, decreases the production of melatonin in humans. Melatonin is produced in response to humans’ circadian rhythms, which are influenced by cycles of light days followed by dark nights.

Increased blue light throws off circadian rhythms, thus affecting the amount of melatonin produced. Melatonin helps humans regulate several glands and reproduction organs, keeps cholesterol levels low, and helps people sleep. Thus, a reduction of melatonin due to light pollution harms humans’ health.

Last but not least, as I reflected on light pollution, I came up with a final issue - fewer and fewer people have the chance to see a pitch black sky studded with bright clear stars. There are so many examples of people celebrating this magnificent sight, from kids singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to astronomers studying Orion’s Belt. Heck, even as I walked back from the Union, I was telling stories of stargazing when camping as a girl. As National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Chris Elvidge of the National Centers for Environmental Information explained, “We’ve got whole generations of people in the United States who have never seen the Milky Way, [and] it’s a big part of our connection to the cosmos—and it’s been lost.” So flip the switch and reduce your artificial light output; help us rediscover the stars.

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Figures One & Two: Skyglow on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus Photos: Grace Gudwien

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Figure One: Langstroth beehive box Photo: Ariana Palermo

Photo: Ariana Palermo

Figure Two: Langstroth beehive frame

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WHAT HIVE IS RIGHT FOR YOU? Author: Ariana Palermo

Have an interest in becoming a beekeeper, but don’t know where to start? The first thing you’re going to need is a hive that your bees can call home. There are several different styles of beehives that a beekeeper can choose from. The most commonly used beehive model is the Langstroth Hive whereas another kind, the “top bar hive” is seen as a more natural and bee-friendly choice. The top bar hive is considered to be the simplest and most cost-efficient option when it comes to building your own and it is said to be the healthier and more humane option for the bees as well.

The Langstroth hive is essentially multiple boxes each with 8 or 10 individual frames, which the bees can make their honey in. The frames have a sheet of plastic coated in beeswax to replicate honeycomb, so the bees can just focus on the production of honey onto them. In a top bar hive, the bees create their own natural honeycomb on parallel bars of wood, more similar to what they would do naturally. The man-made sheets in the Langstroth model can also be coated in pesticides, which you surely wouldn’t love lingering in your home if you were a bee! Opening the Langstroth hive can be traumatic for the bees inside because removing the roof leaves the entire hive open and vulnerable, along with the almost impossible task of not crushing bees when stacking the boxes on top of one another. Although the top bar hive can be seen as a more humane option, this doesn’t mean that use of the Langstroth hive is wrong or evil in any way. Many beekeepers are in it for the business and the production of honey is the main focus.

In this case, it may be more beneficial to use the Langstroth model, which can typically hold more bees and therefore, produce more honey.

The top bar hive is popular among “natural” beekeepers who prefer to focus more on the state of the bees than the production of honey. Instead of vertical boxes with man-made comb sheets, the hive is horizontal and has parallel wood bars that the bees can build their own comb onto. In order to observe the bees in this hive, you can make room to slide the bars slowly to different sides instead of pulling them out completely every time. Since this structure doesn’t involve stacking boxes on top of each other, it is less invasive and is supposed to keep

the bees more at ease. With this hive, beekeepers find that they don’t have as much of a need to smoke the hive and the bees in order to keep the bees calm, in comparison with the Langstroth hive. These hives can be more easily made from recycled or repurposed materials as well!

Bees are a very important species, due to the need we have for them in pollination and seed dispersal of plants. The decrease in the numbers of different bee species has caused widespread alarm among those who care about bees and environmentalists alike. The decline is largely due to existing farming practices and the extensive use of agricultural chemicals. The increase in temperatures due to climate change also poses a threat to bee populations around the world. Getting involved in beekeeping is a great way to try and make a small difference to this worsening situation. Many beekeepers decide to keep bees as a hobby and consider their bees to be pets. Beekeeping can be simple if you do your research! If you wish to have bees as your pets and friends then it may make more sense to use the top bar hive so that you can observe them and care for them in the healthiest way possible. ***If you are interested in building your own top bar these are the most simple steps.***

Photo: Ana Isabel Mendoza

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BOKASHI COMPOSTING Author: Taskeen Khan

What comes to mind when you think of composting? A bin filled with worms, a huge pile of leaves and grass clippings, or a stinky bin of fruits and veggies? None of those images are particularly college apartment friendly, but that doesn’t mean you cannot compost on campus.

Enter Bokashi composting, a method of composting that works well in small spaces with limited outdoor room.

Most composting methods rely on aerobic processes. This means that the microorganisms that break down food and other waste need air to survive. It also means that the compost has to be regularly turned, to ensure proper aeration. In contrast, Bokashi composting uses anaerobic processes, so the microorganisms work best when they do not come into contact with air. Bokashi composting typically takes place in a sealed container, which is perfect for college apartments where roommates may not love the idea of an open composting bin.

Only a few supplies are needed for Bokashi composting, with the most important item being the Bokashi bran. This item is a substrate--usually wheat bran, rice bran, or rice hulls--that has been inoculated with the microorganisms that will be breaking down your kitchen waste. You can also make your own Bokashi bran, but that requires purchasing a mother culture of the beneficial microorganisms. You also need an airtight container which you can open and close.

Bokashi composting bins can be bought , but you can use an empty five gallon bucket as well . I used an empty juice container, which had a screw top lid, making it easy to seal. The bottle was also clear, so I could watch my compost to make sure everything was going well.

Composting Steps 1. The first step is to sprinkle a layer of the Bokashi mix along the bottom of your container.

You do not need more than a light dusting.

2. If you have a Bokashi bucket, it will have a spigot on the bottom to drain the liquid that forms during the process. The liquid is called leachate and is great for soil. If you are using a five gallon bucket or similar container, you can either make a hole and attach a spigot, or create a layer of crumpled up paper at the bottom to help absorb the liquid, which is what I did.

3. After that, add a layer of food scraps. Chopping the food up increases the surface area the microorganisms have to work with, speeding up the composting process. In addition to food, I added some dead leaves to the mix.

4. Next, add another layer of Bokashi mix. Once again, this does not need to be a thick layer.

5. Finish up by adding a layer of newspaper, or something similar, with a weight on top. This compresses the waste, and can help speed the process. Due to the shape of my container, I skipped this step.

***Each time you add a layer of scraps, sprinkle a thin layer of Bokashi bran on top of it.***

Artist: Erika Mendoza

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1

The compost should be stored somewhere that is warm and out of direct light--the warmer the space is, the faster the process goes.

If there is white mold, that is fine, but black and blue mold are a sign that something isn’t going right. If your Bokashi bin starts to smell like spoiled food, that’s another sign that something has gone awry. Try adding more Bokashi to the mix to fix both these problems.

My first attempt at Bokashi was in a salad container that was not airtight, making it easy for aerobic bacteria to take over. I was able to see blue and black mold taking over. Luckily, this method of composting is simple enough that it was easy to start over and build a second Bokashi bin.

Bokashi mix

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Container with bokashi mix and paper

Figure Four: Failed bokashi compost bin Photos: Taskeen Khan

3 Add food scraps, more mix, and dead leaves

Once your compost bin is filled, the next step is waiting. The fruits and veggies won’t transform into soil, like they do in other composting methods, since fermenting doesn’t change the physical structure of the food (think sauerkraut or kimchi). After letting your filled bin sit for two to three weeks, you will have pre-compost. Unfortunately, the next part of the process is not as apartment friendly and requires mixing the pre-compost with soil.

If you have a large outdoor space, you can dig a trench, pour in your pre-compost, mix it with soil, and then cover the trench with soil. Within weeks, the pre-compost will break down into soil. Plants can then be grown over where you made the original trench. If you already have a garden planted, you can dig small

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trenches between the plants and add the Bokashi pre-compost in. You can also transform your pre-compost into soil indoors. Drain any leachate out of your pre-compost, then fill a large container ⅓ of the way with soil, then ⅓ with pre-compost, and then ⅓ with soil again.

Mix the layers together. Close the container, and put it somewhere warm and dry. After about four weeks, you should have completed compost.

This can be added to houseplants, or to outdoor plants.

My plan is to take my Bokashi compost home over break, and add it to my garden. The book Bokashi Composting by Adam Footer has been a great guide throughout this process.

Hopefully, I will be able to limit the amount of food waste I throw away, and give my plants an extra boost!

Taskeen Khan is a guest Green Observer author and a U of I graduate. She enjoys spending time outside and taking care of her many house plants.

MAGNIFICENT MONARCHS Author: Ana Isabel Mendoza

Scientific Name

Weight

Habitat

Lifespan

Wingspan

Fun Fact!

Danaus plexippus

Less than one gram

Forests and mountains

4 to 7 weeks

4 inches

Males typically have black dots along the veins of their wings

Did you know?

Photo: Angelica Ruiz

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Monarch butterflies are known for their deep, vibrant orange, white and black wings.

Their unique color pattern is certainly aesthetically pleasing, but there is much more to these gentle creatures than meets the eye.

The monarch butterfly is a member of the Danaus family, which includes tiger butterflies and wanderer butterflies and monarch butterflies alike. However, of all the species in the family, the monarch butterfly is the only one that relies on milkweed for survival. Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat milkweed exclusively, and adult butterflies will only lay their eggs on said plant.

tains of central Mexico. The mountains in central Mexico are home to oyamel firs, also known as ‘sacred firs’. These firs create a pleasantly warm microclimate, and millions of monarchs huddle together in their branches. As warmer weather emerges back north, these monarchs head north towards Texas, where they mate and lay eggs on newly grown milkweed plants.

Figure Three Male monarch butterfly Photo: Elena Velasquez

Figure Two Monarch caterpillars Photo: Alvaro Amat

What else is necessary for their survival? Their migration during winter to warmer climates in the south. Monarch butterflies migrate for two main reasons, the first being that they cannot survive the freezing winter temperatures in the north, and second, the milkweed plant — their main source of food—also cannot withstand the cold northern temperatures. These creatures travel down south to follow the food and escape the cold temperatures, never to return to their original birthplace.

The Migration

As shorter, cooler days loom on the horizon, monarch butterflies begin to abandon their feeding and breeding grounds in search of a safe winter location. For a majority of these majestic creatures, that location is in the moun-

Figure Four Hundreds of monarch butterflies on an oyamel fir tree

Photo: Yolanda Mendoza

A few days later, the eggs hatch into the iconic caterpillars and begin their life cycle. This generation of butterflies will eventually take to the skies and fly another couple hundred miles north to repeat the process. It may take as many as five generations to complete the journey all the way back to Canada. Around that time, fall rolls around once more, and the monarchs make use

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of the Canadian air currents to wing and drift back to Mexico.

Interestingly enough, the waves of butterflies heading north typically live 4 to 7 weeks, but the fall migration monarchs—the ones traveling from the far north to Mexico—are what scientists call a ‘super generation’. This generation can live up to eight months, adding to the uniqueness of these creatures.

The Importance

What is the importance of this intricate cycle?

Apart from being critical to the species’ very survival, this migration also plays a crucial role in the various ecosystems they visit. Feeding off of various plants in every region they inhabit, adult butterflies carry pollen to different fields and regions, assisting in the reproduction of different plants.

In an effort to combat the decline in monarch populations, many people and schools have turned to hatching their own monarch butterflies which spawns other issues. Unfortunately, there is little regulation governing commercial monarch caterpillars and they sometimes carry diseases, which could be more devastating for the native populations.

How to Help

Luckily for us, there are some ways we can help our flying friends at an individual level.

One important way would be to plant milkweed and other native plants in your home and community areas. By planting milkweed and native plants, we can help ensure that monarch butterflies have a place to lay their eggs and also support a healthier ecosystem. Another way would be to stop using herbicides and pesticides in your own garden. Opting for a more natural solution can help support the growth and attraction of these butterflies. Lastly, ensuring the wood products you use are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified goes a long way. As seen in this article, monarch butterflies rely on the forests in Mexico for their survival, but the rate of illegal logging has sadly gone up. FSC Certified Wood ensures that the wood used in that item is sourced in an environmentally responsible manner.

Sketch Two Monarch butterfly

Endangered Species

While not on the endangered list yet, the subspecies known as Danaus plexippus plexippus is the only one that performs the great North American migration—and these butterflies are increasingly coming under threat. The decline of native milkweed populations to accommodate the rise of manicured lawns and parks, various herbicides, diseases, and even the growing popularity of avocados all play a part in the survival struggle of monarchs. The avocado problem is an especially tricky one. People who live near the monarch wintering grounds need to make a living, but when native forests are replaced with avocado plantations, it can have a ripple effect on monarchs higher up in the mountains.

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SNAIL FACTS! Author: Lucy Quinn

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SUSTAINABLE SKINCARE Author: Andy Eltzroth

With the huge variety of skincare products available on the market today, finding a brand that works for your skin and whose values align with yours can seem like a daunting task.

For anyone searching for more environmentally-friendly skincare brands, this list has many suggestions of brands that use eco-friendly or low-waste packaging, sustainably source their ingredients, and engage in environmentally-conscious business practices.

Why does sustainable skincare matter?

Plastic packaging for skincare products can end up in the oceans, where it can take up to hundreds of years to disintegrate and leave behind toxic particles and chemicals. This is harmful to marine species. Look for brands that use low- or zero-waste packaging, recycled packaging, or have a program that allows you to send back your containers for reuse.

Additionally, certain ingredients commonly found in skincare or sunscreen brands can harm wildlife. For instance, oxybenzone and octinoxate, two chemicals often used in sunscreen, can increase the risk of coral bleaching if they get into the ocean. Palm oil, another common ingredient in skincare products, is linked to deforestation, climate change, and the extinction of wildlife. By choosing brands that sustainably source their ingredients, you can help reduce these issues.

Making informed choices when it comes to your daily routine can help make a difference!

As an alternative to the brands on this list, you could also try DIY-ing your own skincare, which is often simple and much cheaper. Plus, you can customize your products with ingredients that suit your skin best. There are plenty of guides online on how to make your own facial scrubs and masks, exfoliants, moisturizers and toners, cosmetics, and more.

Badger

• Products for face, hair, body, and sun protection • Vegan and fair trade options • Organic ingredients • Donates to charities

Babo Botanicals

• Products for face, hair, body, and sun protection • All products are botanical- or mineral-based • Reef-friendly

Meow Meow Tweet

• Products for face, hair, body, and sun protection • Vegan • Organic ingredients • Palm oil-free • Plastic-free • Allows you to send back your empty containers so they can be reused • Donates to charities

Figure One: Organic, fair trade, and vegan skin

cream from Meow Meow Tweet that comes in a glass jar, with the option to send it back to the company for a refill.

Dirty Hippie Cosmetics

• Products for face, hair, body, cosmetics, and sun protection • Vegan • Organic • Plastic-free • Reef-friendly • Donates to charities

Rainwater Botanical

• Products for face, hair, body, cosmetics, and sun protection • Vegan • Palm oil-free • Recycled and low-waste packaging

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PROJECT DRAWDOWN: A HOPE FOR THE FUTURE Author: Andy Sima

“It has nothing to do with drawing.”

Generally, I like to think I’m a pretty optimistic person, but I’ve noted that most of my articles about environmental science tend to lean heavily on the doom and gloom side of things.

And while it’s true that if we don’t do something about climate change, society as we know it may collapse, and while it’s true that not nearly enough is being done right now, and while it’s true that the United States is the largest polluter historically and refuses to take responsibility for its actions, it’s also true that there is hope.

In fact, depending on who you ask, there is an abundance of hope.

That’s where Project Drawdown comes in.

Everyone knows of different ways they can personally help the environment, but Project Drawdown is the only source I’ve seen to categorize, list, and quantifiably measure every large-scale possible solution to climate change. Project Drawdown is essentially a scientific organization/ think tank that researches and compiles data regarding every reasonable strategy to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and lessen the impacts of climate change, and it has some of the most positive outlooks on the future that I’ve ever seen. Today, I wish to share some of that hope with you.

Project Drawdown lists eighty different methods of reducing atmospheric carbon, and it ranks them all based on how many gigatons of carbon dioxide (or projected future carbon dioxide equivalents) each method can remove from the atmosphere, ranging on a scale of less than one metric gigaton to almost 90 gigatons.

For some reference, in 2017 the USA produced about 5.1 gigatons of atmospheric carbon, and the world as a whole, about 37 metric gigatons.

That’s a lot of CO2.

It hasn’t always been this bad. As recently as 1990, the world produced “only” 22 gigatons of carbon. But this has been happening for a long time, and all that carbon has to go somewhere. Some of it is taken up by plants, or absorbed by the oceans, or deposited around the world. But most of it just sits in the atmosphere, trapping more heat and causing the planet to warm. We’ve increased the levels of carbon

dioxide in the atmosphere at a rate that, compared to the rest of history, is monstrously fast, and we aren’t slowing down anytime soon. So we get a warming planet, more extreme weather, more natural disasters, and an unstable climate.

That’s the problem.

In theory, it’s pretty easy to fix. Just cut global carbon emissions down to lower levels and then, over time, begin reducing, or “drawing down,” carbon from the atmosphere. This’ll eventually bring carbon dioxide levels back to pre-industrial levels and should help ease or even reverse the damage we’ve already done.

There’s a lot more to it than just that, but the idea is simple. It’s the implementation that gets people riled up, though, because all these solutions cost money. Lots of money.

Return to Project Drawdown. Each of their solutions come with a maximum feasible amount of carbon reduction, as well as a more realistic amount of reduction, but each one also has a price tag. Though more importantly, each one also has how much money we’ll save by implementing that particular solution. How does spending money save money, you might ask?

The same way that going to a doctor for regular checkups is cheaper than emergency surgery; if we stop the problems from happening, we don’t have to pay for them down the line. And if Project Drawdown is right about these estimates, we can save a lot of money that way.

Looking at their conveniently-designed chart, Project Drawdown proposes that, should all 80 solutions be adopted in their complete forms, we can reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by 1034 gigatons. This is enough to reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 470 parts per million (or ppm, a measure of the concentration of a fluid in a given space).

And considering we’re hovering at about 410 ppm total, 470 is a chunk of change. Today, we only need to reduce it by about 100 to 150 ppm to reach pre-industrial levels, meaning that the solutions proposed by Project Drawdown actually have a lot of wiggle room to be both incorrectly predicted, incorrectly implemented, or not implemented at all.

Looking at the costs of everything is similar in scale. The overall cost of implementing all 80 solutions is about $30 trillion dollars. Sheesh.

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That’s a lot of money by any standard. The entire GDP of the USA is about $20 trillion, with the world at about $90 trillion. But here’s the thing, then; climate change, and climate change solutions, aren’t the sole responsibility of any single country, and it doesn’t have to happen immediately. That estimated $30 trillion doesn’t have to happen all at once, in a single country, or even to that extreme level; like I said, there’s some buffer space between what we can do and what we need to do. That being said, if each country contributes an amount of money to the solution that’s proportionally equal to their initial contribution to the problem, the USA would be responsible for about 25% of the costs of the solution. Personally, I think that’s a fair assessment, but that’s a whole other story that I’m not going to get into here.

What’s more important, though, is the savings that these solutions are expected to generate. And while not every solution is a winner, with a few that actually do cost money over their lifetime, the overall amount of money saved by avoiding the impacts of climate change is esti-

mated at about $75 trillion, or more than double the cost of preventing climate change. In theory, for every dollar you invest in preventing climate change, you’ll save two and a half dollars in the future by not having to, say, rebuild all of Miami when it gets destroyed by a super-hurricane or not having to bail out every Midwestern farmer when a heat wave torches American agriculture.

On a long-term investment scale and on the scale of human rights and societal survivability, the answer is obvious. We have to implement these solutions. If not for the fact that we want society to be around in a thousand years then for the fact that we’ll save trillions of dollars by stopping a problem that we created. Not solving climate change is like shooting yourself in the foot and then wondering why you’re bleeding out, and then ignoring all the blood and claiming that it’s natural and isn’t a problem. It’s ludicrous.

The reason why there’s so much resistance to these solutions is the fact that people either a) don’t believe in climate change at all, b) don’t care or don’t understand the impact it will have, or c) don’t want to pay the upfront costs of sur-

Figure One: Project Drawdown’s proposed sectors

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vival. Some of these mental obstacles are more easily remediated than others, but that, like I said before, is a whole other story.

The numbers of Project Drawdown give me hope. They give me a lot of hope, and I hope they’re right, but what also gives me a lot of hope are the actual solutions to the climate crisis. They’re easily understood, effective, and all possible with modern technology. And maybe the best part is that implementing some of them will even solve other world crises.

For example, two of the highest-rated climate change solutions are educating girls and family planning. These go hand in hand to lower CO2 in a couple major ways, with the primary method being population control. It’s well-documented that as women become wealthier and societies become more equal, birth rates drop off and population growth decreases. This is ideal because it reduces the number of people who are born and are contributing to global warming while also decreasing stress on things like industry, agriculture, and electricity generation. And because societies tend to use fewer resources as they become richer (after a certain point, anyway), educating girls helps to lessen poverty as well. Reducing poverty also contributes to reducing CO2 in the atmosphere and reducing the future outputs of CO2 as wealthier countries move to cleaner energies. And all that is in addition to the social value inherent to educating impoverished women and communities. It’s a multi-pronged opportunity that has numerous positive outcomes, for individuals and the world, regardless of what scale it’s implemented on.

The whole list of solutions is like this. Refrigerant management reduces future CO2 equivalent emissions while also helping with volatile organic chemicals, which cause problems like smog.

Onshore wind turbines help cut back from a dependence on fossil fuels which not only reduces CO2 emissions but also increases power grid stability and creates jobs. Reduced food waste and plant-rich diets not only decrease the need for agriculture but can also help with the American obesity epidemic and the rate of land use change for agriculture. And the list goes on and on, with dozens of possible solutions that will all make the world a better place in more ways than one.

A lot of the solutions require change at a large-scale societal level, but some of them are ones that individuals can do, too. Like changing the way we view food or investing in electric

cars and renewable energy generation. There are tons of possibilities for individuals reducing carbon emissions and improving the world.

Some are more effective than others, but they all help, and that’s what’s important.

The world needs our help. There are a lot of problems out there that these solutions won’t directly solve, like microplastics in the ocean and deadly algal blooms, but climate change is the biggest crisis facing humanity and we can fix it. We have the solutions in reach. We have the technology. We have the resources. We have the know-how. We just need the drive to do it.

And that’s why every person matters in this; we need as many people as possible to want to fix this problem, because if we don’t work together now, it’s going to affect everyone soon.

So, eat less meat. Bike or walk more. Say no to that plastic bag. Vote for candidates that promote green policies, and boycott companies that aren’t making a positive change. As the saying goes, we don’t need one person doing zero waste perfectly. We need a million people doing zero waste imperfectly.

Or, in this case, we need a whole planet.

We can do it. We just need to start doing it.

Andy Sima is a guest Green Observer author and an ESES and Creative Writing major. He enjoys reading, writing, hiking, birdwatching, and video games. Sima also keeps a blog, with articles about wildfires, cities, horror stories, birds and more. You can read it here: www.owlmanandy.com

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Much More Than Rain Author: Niharika Manda

Apparently there’s a word for the way the earth smells right before it rains, and apparently the word is petrichor. Of course as a middle schooler, I didn’t know what that meant. All I knew was that every day of the monsoon season, at 4 PM sharp, our school bell would ring, and the sky would turn cloudy and gray. The dust from our school’s abandoned bus yard and the fog all blurred into one big cloud of anticipation.

The air around me would turn rich with moisture, and suddenly it would become easier to breathe.

Most of May was hot and brooding but as soon as June rolled in, there was a sense of hope that uplifted the air around me. Kids were allowed to play in the sun more, and the food was more deep-fried. Bollywood song lyrics made more sense, and storytellers finally had an audience. The chai was a little sweeter, and something about the rainy season made people just a little bit more poetic. But just like all love stories, the monsoon would sometimes disappoint. The same food that was supposed to be celebrated would be too expensive to afford, and the floods left thousands of people homeless. We would have to leave our homes way too early for school because the Bangalore streets would choke with traffic. Some years, the love was rather unrequited and the country would see poor rainfall all over. A drought meant that crops would be destroyed, and the city’s water supply would be parched. But in the end, I think the one thing that India and all of her people would agree on is that monsoon was much more than the rain it brought with it.

raincoats, hiding from the cars and their splashes.

I realize that as humans, seasons are so much more to us than just the type of weather they bring. For years, people have built lives around seasons like the monsoon. For them, the rains are a form of salvation, the pulse that keeps the county alive, and feeds her people.

The same 4 PM showers that people around me detest now, are worshipped on the other side of the world. I reach out from my balcony, and feel the drops of rain on the back of my palm.

The rain feels the same, and the Earth smells just like it used to back home. Yet, it feels like something is missing. There’s no celebration.

There’s no relief. There is no chai or pakora to welcome the monsoon. And that makes me think that a few clouds and rainy days may be enough to describe the rainy season, but it’s the people that make it a monsoon. It’s the decades of history and culture in the hearts of the people that transform a grey, roomy day, into the most colorful celebration of the year. And in that, lies the beauty of it all.

“And in that, lies the beauty of it all.”

Today, I sit on my balcony in Urbana, IL, basking in the humid heat of early June. The sky turns a silvery, pearly grey and thunder echoes all through my college campus. The dewy petrichor around me makes me think to myself that the monsoon followed me here, all the way across the world. But somehow, I look around and the other half of my brain, the one that isn’t riddled with nostalgia & homesickness, knows it’s not true. I see umbrellas go up, windows close, and people run into their homes with a fervent urgency that makes the rain seem unwelcome. I see people disappearing under their utilitarian

Figure One: Jaipur, India Niharika Manda is a guest Green Observer author and a Computer Science + Linguistics major. She enjoys reading, writing, singing, and playing her ukelele.

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Moving with Spring Author: Grace Gudwien

Legs striding over the pavement.

A cool breeze blowing over her forehead, Drying the beads of sweat forming along her hairline.

Arms swinging back and forth.

The sun shining down on her back, Warming her gently from the outside in.

Lungs expanding and contracting.

Grass growing and turning green, Smelling fresh as her neighbors mow.

Feet flying as she moves along.

Trees gaining leaves and providing shade, Cooling her as she passes.

A smile spreading across her face.

Breezes and sunshine and grass and trees, Giving the happy girl what she oh so wanted.

The first Spring Run.

Figure One: Girl on a run

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Climate Change Along the Florida Coastline Author: Shallon Malfeo

Over the past 200 years, Earth has suffered rising global temperatures due to increases in greenhouse gas emissions. This includes gases like carbon dioxide and methane that contribute to warming processes that create climate change. According to NASA, human activity is changing the composition of the atmosphere or the natural greenhouse. Burning fossil fuels and oil has contributed to rising carbon dioxide levels. Across the globe climate change has translated to things like more extreme weather patterns such as wildfires, hurricanes, and warmer temperatures, but also rising sea levels and flooding that can particularly impact people who live along coastlines.

In Florida, intense hurricanes and unpredictable floods have already left their mark and will continue to do so. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), hurricanes and tropical storms have become more intense during the past 20 years. This means more damage to coastal homes, more evacuations and money spent on cleanup. “Changing climate is also likely to increase inland flooding.

Since 1958, the amount of precipitation during heavy rainstorms has increased by 27 percent in the Southeast, and the trend toward increasingly heavy rainstorms is likely to continue,” (EPA).

On top of that, the sea level around Florida is about 8 inches higher than it was in 1950. With an increasing number of powerful storms, heavy rains, and rising sea levels, communities across the state have been forced to make changes to their everyday lives.

There are also many geographic disadvantages that put Florida at risk of coastal changes.

To start, the state has over 1,200 miles worth of coastline, 4,200 square miles of estuaries, 6,700 plus square miles of other coastal waters and low-lying topography, making it comparatively more vulnerable than other states geographically.

Since Florida is at such a disadvantage geographically, there are going to be economic consequences as well. There’s about 18 million residents within 60 miles of the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico who are largely at risk.

One study concluded that all real estate vulnerable to a 27-inch sea level rise provides a starting value for the damage estimates at about $130 billion. If we continue business as usual, residen-

tial real estate alone will constitute about $66 billion worth of damage by 2100 or about $10 billion in a rapid stabilization case. This means that if something isn’t done to combat climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, the state will endure vicious financial results in either case.

In addition to potential real estate costs, the state is already planning over $4 billion in sea level rise prevention, which includes protecting sewage systems, raising street levels, stormwater improvements, and seawalls. It’s obvious that the damages caused by climate change and greenhouse gases will be costly and have the power to reshape the economy in Florida.

“The state is already planning over $4 billion in sea level rise prevention”

Another lesser known consequence of climate change impacts on Florida is a prolonged mosquito season that can harm human health.

Between 1980-1989 Florida has seen 317 mosquito days, but that has since increased to 337. With mosquitoes being a common vector for disease, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an appearance of such transmitted diseases. In fact, University of Florida states that over the next 30 years, nearly half a billion more people could be at risk of changing yellow fever and Zika among other mosquito-borne diseases as a result of climate change. Florida, being a state near the equator, will suffer some of these impacts. It’s suggested that government planners and public health officials start preparing now to prevent future disease outbreaks.

Greenhouse gases and climate change describe the impacts we’re seeing in Florida because they explain the increases in temperature which leads to extreme weather patterns.

An EPA article states that humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by about 40% since the late 1700’s and these gases have warmed the surface of our planet by about one degree in the last 50 years. This means that with the introduction of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere, we have seen an increase in global temperatures as well as ocean temperatures. As a consequence, Florida has suffered an observable global increase in the proportion of Cat 4-5 hurricanes by about 25-30

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Figure One: Artist’s rendition of energy use and the climate

percent per degree Celsius of anthropogenic global warming. As I previously stated, we’ve already increased surface temperatures by about a degree! So that means we could currently be witnessing a large increase in stronger hurricanes. While the number of actual hurricanes may not be increasing, they are becoming more intense, proving that greenhouse gases and climate change are linked to rising temperatures that create extreme weather.

In order to understand why greenhouse gases and climate change are impacting Florida’s coastal life so particularly, it’s important to think about how they interact with the environment to produce change. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide can produce positive feedback loops. A positive feedback loop is a system in nature that builds on itself similar to a snowball.

According to NASA, greenhouse gases re-radiate and absorb heat causing global warming in our atmosphere.The effects of this can be seen especially at our ice caps where they melt at some of the highest rates ever recorded as a result of warmer global temperatures. They release air bubbles full of greenhouse gases that in turn warm the earth more and produce more melting sea ice; this is essentially how a positive feedback loop is created. While melting sea ice may not seem like a major issue to residents of Florida, they do actually contribute to sea level rise. Many hundreds of millions of people live

near a coast so predicting the rising sea levels is very important. Wrong predictions and a lack of preparation will have significant human and economic ramifications.This is just one example of how greenhouse gases and climate change create the complex issues that residents of Florida may face in the future.

As Floridians can clearly see, in order to combat the ramifications of climate change due to greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, a sharp reduction must occur. Fortunately, Florida policymakers have begun combating the issue. Rep. Ted Deutch and a small bipartisan group have introduced a bill that would impose a fee on carbon emissions and return the money to the members of the community. This kind of market incentive ensures polluters compensate for the damage they subject citizens to, in other words, a pigovian tax. According to the Miami Herald the fee would slowly raise the price of carbon emitting products like coal and petroleum. The goal is to get companies to innovate and find clean energy solutions as well as encourage consumers to use less. If the policy works, Florida might reduce some of the impacts related to climate change and greenhouse gases.

In order to truly see the change Florida needs, the whole world needs to do its part. Even though greenhouse gases are emitted in one area, the effects can turn up somewhere else.

In the future, Florida’s coastlines will suffer comparably more than any other state in the nation due to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. If we don’t make changes to the way we produce energy or find ways to reverse the effects of climate change, by 2045, nearly 64,000 homes in Florida will be dealing with flooding almost every other week. With this in mind, it’s not hard to imagine that many people will choose to leave behind their homes. If we kept world fossil fuel emissions low and ice melt to a minimum, a lot of sea level rise could be averted. This means that there’s potential to save up to

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