Environment Discovery

Plastics are insidious in our society today--plastic bottles, bags, toys, packaging and more. And some of them are bad plastics --containing toxic chemicals like bisphenol-A, PVC and phthalates. Not only are some plastics harmful to our health, they can also damage the environment, especially our waterways and oceans. Here is a thought-provoking video about the effects of plastic pollution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7K-nq0xkWY&feature=share Projects like The Ocean Cleanup  will help, but will take years to complete. Meanwhile, additional debris, including tons of plastics, will continue to be discarded. Many plastics and other debris end up in the ocean after natural disasters, like hurricanes and tsunamis. When I was a utility responder in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, I saw huge amounts of material from destroyed homes and businesses.  One of the photos I took, below, shows the level of destruction. Unfortunatel...

Collage of the Mercury Program. Image Credit: NASA Though I was just a little girl, I still remember the excitement surrounding the Mercury Program--the first manned space flights in America. It seemed an impossible dream that we could send men up in rockets to orbit the planet. As time went by, our explorations into space drew less attention, even becoming commonplace. But I'm still fascinated by what our country has accomplished and what we are still learning from our journeys through the universe. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) New Horizons Mission  is helping us "to understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt – a relic of solar system formation." Launched nearly nine years ago, New Horizons made an early fly-by of Jupiter for a gravity boost. Scientific data and photos of that beaut...

I recently finished writing an online course, Introduction to Reclaimed Water, for CEU Plan, Inc . This is a company that provides training for professionals in the water industry. Recycled water is more in-demand now than ever, especially in water-hungry states like California and Texas. In addition to concerns of water shortage, environmental regulations are very restrictive about putting wastewater in receiving streams. So water conservation and reuse are important factors in meeting those goals. My introductory course focused more on reclaiming municipal effluent. But industry is doing its part as well. I was reading a Water Online article about Nestle's Zero Water Facility . Zero water and zero liquid discharge (ZLD) systems are gaining ground in various industries. A ZLD system is just that--as much liquid as possible is recycled or repurposed within the facility,  and the remainder evaporated or crystalized. The solids or crystals...

As I mentioned in a previous post, you don't have to go far to enjoy nature. Sometimes, you only need to venture into your own back yard. Our back yard is nothing elaborate--in fact, my husband's shop is there, and much of the yard is landscaped with rock, mulch and stepping stones. But we have a great maple tree, viburnum bushes that grow like crazy, a patch of grass and some overhanging trees and flowers from the neighbors' yards. The snake in the photo above, a southern black racer (as identified by the "community" after  uploading the photo to may  iNaturalist  account) was slithering through the viburnum probably looking for something to eat--maybe something like one of the brown anoles shown below. Trying to capture photos of monarch butterflies was challenging. They don't keep still for long. But I was able to snap a shot of these beauties when they lighted on the maple tree. The northern cardinal acted like he was posing for me as he g...

The best way to appreciate nature is to get outside and experience it. Mountain climbers are up-close and personal with the environment on a grand scale. I've always been fascinated by mountain climbing--but way too chicken to actually do it. Here's a short video of the story, "Point of No Return," written by Mark Jenkins, in this month's National Geographic. Point of No Return - Video: Down to Nothing - National Geographic Magazine These climbers (Emily Harrington, Hilaree O'Neill, videographer Renan Ozturk, writer Mark Jenkins and photographer Cory Richards) journeyed through 151 miles of Myanmar's rain forest jungle  to the base of what may be the highest mountain in Southeast Asia--Hkakabo Razi. Since the only way to precisely measure a mountain's height is to be on top of it with a GPS, that was one of the goals of the expedition. (A Japanese climber, Takashi Ozaki, reached the summit in 1996, but did not measure the elevation). Duri...

Wastewater treatment plant clarifiers I'm a fan of recycling. Our resources are limited. So reusing things makes sense. Glass, paper, metal. And water, of course. After 36 years in the water business, I can tell you that water is our most precious resource. And it's very expensive to treat, pump, distribute to each home, and clean up the wastewater. Most wastewater plants are now called water reclamation facilities--because at least part of the treated effluent receives further treatment so it can be recycled. Reclaimed water irrigates golf courses and residential lawns, agricultural crops and football fields. It's used in industrial cooling towers and boilers. Disney World even uses reclaimed water to wash buses. So, recycling water is commonplace. Reclaimed water irrigating golf course turf But I came across an article in my Water Environment Federation Highlights newsletter where the University of Michigan and the Rich Earth Institute are taking thi...

Following up on my last post about antibiotic resistant bacteria--I read an eye-opening article in the October 2015 issue of Consumer Reports . The article, "How Safe is Your Beef?" examines the issue of food poisoning associated with ground beef. According to the article, in July of this year, 13.5 tons of ground beef and steaks were contaminated with dangerous E. coli O157:H7 that can cause intestinal illness and  death. The meat was recalled before any food poisoning was reported. And contaminated beef caused 80 outbreaks of E. coli between 2003 and 2012. Beef is also responsible for salmonella outbreaks.   Consumer Reports conducted their own tests on 458 pounds of ground beef. The beef was categorized by type--conventional, without antibiotics, organic, and grass-fed. They tested the meat for common bacteria found on beef. Conventional beef is the most common, coming from cattle that are penned in feedlots, fed with soy and corn, and given antibiotics to boost g...

A couple months ago we adopted a sweet 8-year old dog, Axe, to be a buddy for our 11-year old dog, Toni. Axe had a lump on his side that turned out to be an abscess. After two different antibiotics didn't resolve the problem, he had surgery, where the vet found his microchip had migrated and become infected. He removed the microchip and cleaned the site, but Axe is now on 3 antibiotics trying to resolve the infection. Our veterinarian mentioned a similar problem he personally had, where a tiny rose thorn pricked his thumb and it became severely infected. It took 3 different antibiotics to get it under control. And when I got pneumonia a couple years ago--again 3 antibiotics and no success. Finally after taking two different antibiotics at once I got better. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls this Antimicrobial Resistance --"the ability of microbes to resist the effect of drugs." According to the CDC, it's impossible to avoid the ...

Back in March, I took a nature journaling course from the University of North Florida. Kelly Johnson, author of Wings, Worms and Wonder taught the class. Kelly is a wonderful leader and great at "sparking wonder!" Our small class visited a variety of locations--the Jacksonville Arboretum , the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens , and Dutton Island Preserve in Atlantic Beach, Florida. The great thing about nature journaling is that you can use your own style and method. Some people draw and write notes, some look up the scientific names and information on what they observe and note it in their journal, others write poetry or prose inspired by nature. You see my poor attempt at drawing in the photo above. Being a photographer, I prefer to take lots of photos, and write observations. I found a great online venue called iNaturalist . iNaturalist.org is a place to "record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers and learn about the natural world." Wha...

The Ocean Cleanup crew just returned from a successful Mega Expedition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. While the media often refers to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), debris items actually collect in several areas of the ocean . The Ocean Cleanup expedition was a massive effort to collect data and map the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, also called the Eastern Garbage Patch. After the Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac 2015) finished, dozens of the yachts returned to assist The Ocean Cleanup with the effort, led by the 171-foot research vessel, Ocean Starr . A detailed database showing vertical distribution of plastics during various weather conditions has also been completed. The technology centers on attaching a scalable array of long, floating barriers to the sea floor and letting the ocean currents help to capture the plastic debris within the barriers. The current flows under the ...