Earth Optimism Looking to the Future As Earth Day Turns 50
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News from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center SpSpringring 2020 Special Issue: Earth Optimism Looking to the Future as Earth Day Turns 50 ALSO INSIDE: 8 Ways We Can Save the Ocean's Oxygen Maryland's Winning The War Against Mercury Volunteer Spotlight: Kallan Benson of Fridays For Future Left: Tuck Hines as a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley. Right: Tuck Hines as director of SERC. (Photos courtesy of Tuck Hines) SERC Advisory Board William Bohnett, Chair THE DIRECTOR’S LETTER: President, Whitecap Investments LLC Hobe Sound, Florida Kay Dryden, Esq., Vice-Chair Earth Day, Fifty Years Later CEO, Energy Dispute Solutions LLC San Francisco, California t was September of 1969. I was just arriving to start a Ph.D. program in marine zoology at U.C. Berkeley. To Rosamaria Acuña Iget there, I had driven past an oil spill in Santa Barbara that had spewed 3 million gallons of crude oil into Real Estate Professional the sea months earlier. I also passed Monterey Bay, where sea otters and whales had not yet returned. It was San Diego, California a chaotic time, even more polarized than today—war in Vietnam, the draft, civil rights protests, marches, Christine Arena violence and heated rhetoric. But the most powerful impact on me was the intensity of environmental CEO, Generous Ventures, Inc. challenges I had experienced growing up in Hawai’i and California. The hippie lifestyle was in full swing, but San Francisco, California so were pollution, traffic and habitat-destroying development. David Armstrong, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus That same month, a Wisconsin senator named Gaylord Nelson suggested School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences something revolutionary. Inspired by student teach-ins protesting the Vietnam University of Washington War, he proposed a nationwide teach-in for the environment. Seven months Seattle, Washington later, on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was born. Hampton Bridwell The first Earth Day was a big day at Berkeley, full of students giving soapbox speeches CEO and Managing Partner, Tenet Partners laced with colorful “free speech,” tie-dyed clothes and the aroma of marijuana that Redding, Connecticut gave way to acrid teargas. I knew then that I had to find solutions to the complex Phillip Churn environmental decline. For me, that meant a life pursuing environmental science. Major General (Ret.) President/CEO, SYZYGY International LLC On the other side of the country, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Woodbridge, Virginia was just five years old. Still a small field station called the "Chesapeake Bay Howard Cohen Center for Environmental Studies," it had only begun building a larger vision for a Independent Real Estate Consultant permanent presence on the Bay. Senator Ed Muskie, author Estero, Florida Where are we now, half a century later? of the 1970 Clean Air Act, Harold Denton speaks to a crowd of 40,000- (Ret.) President and CEO 60,000 people at the first For the U.S., the 1970s ushered in a new era of ecological action. The Environmental General Land Abstract Co., Inc. Earth Day in Philadelphia. Edgewater, Maryland Protection Agency, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act all emerged in that (Credit: Peter54321. Creative decade. U.S. Senator Charles McC. Mathias convinced Congress to fund $27 million Commons license: https:// David DeVos for research to save the ailing Chesapeake Bay. SERC scientists helped discover a creativecommons.org/ Vice President, Global Director solution to one of its woes—planting streamside forests to absorb excess nutrient licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en) of Sustainability, PGIM Real Estate pollution from farms. Lincolnshire, Illinois Diane Ebert-May, Ph.D. And yet. University Distinguished Professor Department of Plant Biology Oil spills still make headlines. Students are striking nationwide, Michigan State University this time to raise awareness of climate change. And now, a San Diego, California pandemic has brought much of society to a standstill. Jonathan Fink, Ph.D. Director, Digital City Testbed Center It is time to renew the spirit of that first Earth Day. At the Portland State University Smithsonian, we call this movement Earth Optimism. Lake Oswego, Oregon Like so many people, we’ve had to make adjustments for the Jeanne Grasso, Esq. pandemic virus. A three-day Earth Optimism summit originally Partner and Attorney, Blank Rome LLP Marchers at the Earth Day March for Science planned in Washington, D.C., has gone all-digital. We’ve had to Chevy Chase, Maryland in 2017. (Credit: Amaury Laporte. Creative temporarily close our campus, cancel or postpone events, and Captain Kevin Krick Commons License: https://creativecommons. direct many staff to telework. Senior Director of Safety, Quality and org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/) Environmental Affairs, Matson, Inc. But I’ve been amazed at the resilience I’ve seen, inside and Fairfax, California outside the Smithsonian. Educators remain committed to their students, rethinking months of lesson plans Tom Lindley, Esq. to teach online. In response, our colleagues have unleashed the Smithsonian’s vast troves of digital resources. Of Counsel, Perkins Coie LLP Stories from the Earth Optimism summit became accessible to new audiences now, at a time when the world West Palm Beach, Florida needs positivity. Lara Mathews, Esq. Some of those stories are in this newsletter. Mercury pollution is falling across Maryland. Scientists are finding Associate General Counsel – Global Policy and secrets to conserving Alaska’s salmon. We even have an interview with a student striker, a young girl who Regulatory Affairs, Koch Companies Public Sector Alexandria, Virginia began her journey as a SERC homeschool student. Midgett Parker, Jr., Esq. Earth Optimism was made for challenging times like these. We have the solutions to meet today's problems. Attorney, Midgett Parker Law And as the last weeks have shown, our society has the grit to step up and meet a crisis head-on. We need only Annapolis, Maryland scale up the solutions, channeling the determination of the human spirit. Nicholas Penniman IV (Ret.) Publisher, St. Louis Post-Dispatch What will your legacy be? This year, as Earth Day turns 50, find the story that inspires you and join us. Naples, Florida — ANSON “TUCK” HINES, SERC DIRECTOR Jim Toomey Sherman’s Lagoon Creator Learn more at https://earthoptimism.si.edu Annapolis, Maryland Editor's Note: In the fall 2019/winter 2020 issue, the intern spotlight on Chaz Rhodes said, "Methanotrophs emit Francis Chaney II methane, and methanogens consume it." Methanogens emit methane, and methanotrophs consume it. The Emeritus Member mistake was the editor's, not the author's, and we regret the error. Chairman of the Board, Chaney Enterprises Chairman, The Chaney Foundation Lothian, Maryland Front cover image: Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn in Bocas del Toro, Panama. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Gignoux-Wolfsohn) This Alaskan peninsula is one of the few remaining places on Earth where salmon are still sustainable. (Credit: Kelsie Moore) Preserving Salmon In Alaska's Kenai Lowlands BY KRISTEN MINOGUE “Not everybody in Alaska is a Bay suffer from excessive nitrogen pollution, Native American students have also joined here in Alaska, natural sources of nitrogen are Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve fisherman. But all of us live on critical. In streams where both carbon and staff in the field to observe juvenile salmon. salmon land….Salmon are like nitrogen abound, young salmon can thrive. "They've never seen juvenile fish," Whigham the heartbeat.” "These are places you don't want to screw up," said. "They live in communities that live off of Whigham said. fish, but they've never seen a baby fish." hese words, spoken by young Alaska Tfisherwoman Hannah Heimbuch, open a Alder trees supply nitrogen through bacteria Climate change still looms. Warmer waters spell short documentary the Smithsonian created in their roots. Peatlands and bogs provide trouble for young salmon that like it cold. But, called The Heartbeat. Featured in the D.C. carbon via decomposition. For a long time, Whigham pointed out, wetlands can supply Environmental Film Festival this March, it tells ecologists were skeptical of how much a certain cooler groundwater. Alaska certainly has the will the story of Alaska's Kenai Lowlands—one of type of carbon from land—"dissolved organic to save its salmon. It may keep finding a way. the few places on Earth where salmon carbon"—could really impact streams. remain sustainable. But in a January study, Whigham and Juvenile salmon swim in a his partners revealed adding even sampling container, held SERC ecologist Dennis Whigham, a little more carbon can spiral by Coowe Walker, manager also in the film, has studied up the food web. Burgeoning of Alaska's Kachemak Alaska's landscapes and algae and phytoplankton led to Bay National Estuarine headwater streams for over 15 more insects and other stream Research Reserve. years. Whigham looks at the invertebrates. That in turn nearly (Credit: Kelsie Moore) entire ecosystem to uncover doubled the salmon population in what salmon need, and which regions near the extra carbon. "hotspots" are most important to protect. It's part of a larger Today, the team hopes to map carbon- Watch the 10-minute documentary The Heartbeat collaboration, with Alaska's Kachemak nitrogen hotspots to target for salmon and learn more about the Salmon and People Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Baylor conversation. They've already had some success Project at https://global.si.edu/projects/salmon- University and the University of South Florida. reaching out to stakeholders. One landowner and-people-project moved a proposed project when it became clear the Much of the team's work focuses on two original spot would destroy alder trees. Another Link to salmon and carbon study in Freshwater nutrients young salmon depend on: nitrogen and group used the team's discoveries on good salmon Biology: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ carbon.