Earthwatching III. an Environmental Reader with Teacher's Guide. INSTITUTION Wisconsin Univ., Madison

DOCUMENT nESUME

ED 323 094 SE 051 547

TITLE Earthwatching III. An Environmental Reader with Teacher's Guide. INSTITUTION Wisconsin Univ., Madison. Inst. for Environmental Studies.; Wisconsin Univ., Madison, Sea Grant Inst. SPONS AGENCY National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (DOC), Rockville, Md. National Sea Grant Program. REPORT NO ISBN-0-936287-01-2; WIS-SE-89-601 PUB DATE 90 CONTRACT NA84AA-D-0065 NOTE 152p. PUB TYPE Collected Works - General (020) -- Guides - Classroom Use - Guides (For Teachers)(052)

EARS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Air Pollution; *Broadcast Journalism; *Conservation (Environment); Earth Science; Energy; *Environmental Education; Higher Education; Intermediate Grades; Junior High Schools; Land Use; Natural Resources; Science Education; Secondary Education; *Secondary School Science IDENTIFIERS *Global Climate Change

ABSTRACT This book is the third published collection of scripts written for radio by professional staff and student writers. The writers strived to translate complex technical topics into everyday terms without sacrificing accuracy and to provide listeners with fair and balanced reports on the major environmental and scientific issues of the day. This collection characterizes many environmental trends and concerns reflecting on the multitude of scientific discoveries, inquiries, and innovations that characterized the 1980s. Topics covered in this compilation include:(1) "The Atmosphere"; (2) "The Biosphere"; (3) "The Land";(4) "The World of Water"; (5) "Energy"; (6) "Environmental Quality"; (7) "Health and Nutrition"; (8) "People and Society"; and (9) "Around the Globe." A teachers' guide written to accompany this collection is included. This guide discusses concept mapping, questioning in the classroom, and infusion of the material into the curriculum; and includes a sample activity. Appended is a brief list of additional information sources. (CW)

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* from the original document. * *************************************************:********************* ANENVIRONMENTAL READER WITH TEACHER'S GUIDE

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Points of view or opinions stated inthisdocu. ment do not necessarilyrepresent official OEM position or policy

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2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE EARTHWATCHING AN ENVIRONMENTAL READER WITH TEACHER'S GUIDE

illIIMIL

Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute with support from the Evjue Foundation, Inc. Editors Tom Sinclair, Richard Hoops and Stephen Wittman Education Editor Anne Hallowell

Design & Electronic Production Christine Kohler, Paul Rome and Janet Clear Production Assistant Greta French

Project Coordinators Susie Isaksen and Tom Sinclair

Contributing Writers Rae Barnhisel, Sally Benjamin, Annie Booth, Nancy Bryant, Charles Clement, Gary Chappell, Don Davenport, Terry Devitt, Warren Downs, Anne Hallowell, Tim Hawley, Dan Hedeen, Richard Hoops, Nicolas Houtman, Marc Kennedy, Leonora Ko, Nadine Lymn, Jeannette Lytle, Donna McBain, Carol McCall, Richard Moen, Steve Pomplun, Ann Robinson, Paul Rome. Patti Sinclair, Tom Sinclair, Peyton Smith, Jennifer Vogelgesang and Linda Weimer

Earthwatchmg Ill an environmental reader with teacher's gliscle p cm. Collection of scripts from the radio program Earthwatch produced by theistitute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute. Includesbibhographical references Summary A collection of scripts from "Earthwatch," a radio program exploring environmental trends and concerns ISBN 0-936287-01-2 I Ecology Miscellanea--Popular works 2 Environmental protectionMiscellaneaPopular works 3 PollutionEn% ironmental aspectsMiscellaneaPopular works 4 Earthwatch (Radio program). 5 University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Environmental Studies 6 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute

II Ecology 2 Environmental protection I QH541 13 E27 1990 363 7dc2.0 89-26954 CIP AC

This work was funded in part by the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute with grants from the National Sea Grant College Program, National Oceanic & Atmosphenc Administra- tion, U.S. Department of Commerce, and from the state of Wisconsin. Federal grant klA84AA-D-00065, projects A/AS-2k/AS-3.

Educational Report No. WIS-SG-89-601.

First Printing: March 1990 Printed in the USA ISBN # 0-936287-01-2

4 CONTENTS T iii

Contents

Acknowledgments v

Preface vii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1: The Atmosphere 1 Climate/Weather 3 Pollution 6

Chapter 2: The Biosphere 9 Animal Behavior 11 Birds 13 Conservation 16 Fish 18 History 21 Insects 22 Mammals 24 Plants 27

Chapter 3: The Land 31 Agriculture 33 Conservation 36 Land Use 39 a Chapter 4: The World of vVater 43 Fisheries 45 Great Lakes 47 Groundwater 49 Oceans 51 Pollution 53 Recreation 55 Rivers 58 Water Supply 59 a Chapter 5: Energy 63 Conservation 65 Energy Sources 68

.;.: Chapter 6: Environmental Quality 71 General 73 Hazardous Waste 74 Innovations 76 Regulation 80 Solid Waste 83 Urban Growth 87

Chapter 7: Health and Nutrition 91 Food 93 Health 96

Chapter 8: People and Society 103 Culture 105 Pioneers 107 Population 110 Technology 111

Chapter 9: Around the Globe 113 Cities 115 Conflict 116 Development 118 Survival 121

Teacher's Guide 123 Concept Mapping with Eart /watching III 125 What is Concept Mapping? 12F How to Draw a Concept Map 125 Scoring Criteria 128 Questions for Classroom Investigation 131 Plants and Pollutants 131 The Snowflake Man 132 Big Blasts and Bumper Crops 132 Example Activity 133 Activity 133 Procedure 133 More Questions and Activities 135 Infusing End/watching III into a Curriculum 137 Earthwatching III and Social Studies 139 Earthwatching III and Health Education 149

Sources of Additional Information 153

Rf erences 153

Subject Index 155

6 ACKNOWLE,DGMENTS

Acknowledgments

Many people and organizations contributed advice and assistance toward the publication of Earthwatching III. We particularly wish to thank the Evjue Foundation, Inc., of Madison, Wis., for its crucial financial support of this publication. Peyton Smith deserves special credit: As an enthusiasticyoung member of the Sea Grant Institute staff in 1972, Peyton helped launch "Earthwatch," and for the next 16 years he wrote hundreds of scripts, edited thousandsmore, re- cruited scores of radio stations to the ''Earthwatch" network, servedas studio announcer and publicist, and consistently stood up for the program at budget time. He also helped set the stage for publication o; Earthwatching HI before leaving the Sea Grant Institute in 1988. His dedicationto "Earthwatch" will be long remembered and appreciated. We thank the following people for reviewing and offering creativesugges- tions abont the material in this book: Wade DallaGrana, social studies teacher, Edgewood High School, Madison, Wis.; Cheryl Charles, director, Project WILD, Boulder, Colo.; John Disinger, professor, School of Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; David Engleson, environmental education supervisor, Wisconsin Department of Public In- struction, Madison, Wis.; Rick Kalvelage, environmental education coordinator, Madison (Wis.) Metropolitan School District; Jeff Macht, science teacher, Van Hise Middle School, Madison, Wis.; Rob Nurre, former education coordi- nahr, Madison (Wis.) Audubon Society; Barbara Roe, former promotions and publications coordinator, Wisconsin Public Television and Radio Net- work, Madison, Wis.; John Schmitt, science teacher, Mt. Horeb (Wis.) Middle School; Richard Wilke, associate dean, College of Natural Resources, Univer- sity of Wisconsin-Sievens Point; Mary Varley, environmental educator, Pocono Environmental Education Center, Dingmans Ferry, Penn.; Margaret Wilsman, manager, research and education, Wisconsin Pub Pc Televisionand Radio Network, Madison, Wis.; Dennis Yockers, environmental education coordinator, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wis.; and Nancy Schubert, teacher, Falk Elementary School, Madison, Wis. Finally, thanks to the 100-plus radio stations in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minne- sota, North Dakota, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, New York, and Costa Rica that regularly broadcast "Earthwatch" to millions of listeners.

7 Preface

It began modestly on a September morning in 1972. Ashort public service radio program named "Earthwatch" made its debutcn a dozen Wisconsin stations wi' A a story about the causes of Dutch elm disease,which at the time was killing off one of the most familiar trees on the American landscape. Today-17 years and 4,400 stories later"Earthwatch" is aired regularlyon more than 110 commercial and public radio stations in and around the Upper Midwestin Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, NewYork, North Dakota, and Ohio as well as Wisconsin. One of the longest-runningradio programs on the environment anywhere, "Earthwatch" is heard regularly by &lions of people. The jorogram has receivednumerous awards from a variety of organizations, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Midwest Association for Environmental Education, WisconsinNatural Re- sources Foundation, Wisconsin Center for Public Representation, and,most recently, the national Council for Advancement and Supportof Education. "Earthwatch" is coproduced by the Institute forEnvironmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University ofWisconsin Sea Grant Institute. Both institutes regard public information and outreachas a fundamental part of their missions because an informed publicis essential for making sound decisions on environmental and scientificpolicies. "Earthwatch" is one of the many ways in which they share theirresources and expertise with the public. The stories are written for radio by professional staffand by student writers interested in environmental and science journalism.Ten new two-minute "Earthwatch" features are recorded every two weeksat the studios of public radio station WHA on the University of Wisconsin-Madisoncampus. The tapes are distributed free to any radio station thatagrees to broadcast them regularly. As readers of this book will discover, "Earthwatch"covers almost every environmental topic imaginable. The program emphasizes subjectsof special interest to residents of the Great Lakes region and north central United States, but it includes a healthy mix of features about otherpai ts of the nation and other parts of the world. Much time and care goes into researching and wrning the stories for"Earth- watch." The staff works hard to translate complex technicaltopics into everyday terms without sacrificing accuracy andto provide listeners with fair and balanced reports on the major environmental and scientificissues of the day. Earthzvatching IIIis the third published collection of "Farthwatch" scripts. It features the program's best stories from recentyears. The scripts in this book touch on many current environmental trends andconcerns. They also reflect the multitude of scientific inquiries, discoveries, and innovationsthat characterized the 1980s. 8 The more recent scripts also reflect the evolution of the program itself in that they feature an introduction linewe call it a "teaser"that precedes the announcer's greeting and the "Earthwatch" musical bridge before the main part of the story. These teasers appear in bold italics. Because the topics it covers are so broad and interrelated, there is a great deal of interconnectedness in Earthwatching III. Readers are advised to look beyond the most obvious chapter and scan other sections of the book when searching for scripts on a particular topic of interest. Although Earthwatching III is tailored for teachers and students, it is by no means intended only for schools. We hope Abrades, nature centers, muse- ums, civic organizations, and church groups as well as individuals will find Enrthwatching III an informative and readable "sampler" of contemporary environmental knowledge and issues.

dal41-t Arthur B. Sacks Robert A. Ragotzkie Director Director Institute for Environmental Studies Sea Grant Institute University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Wisconsin

i Introduction

Beforc producing Earthwatchmg III, we asked environmental educators whether they thought a book like this would be useful to their work. All responded with a resounding "yes." They also suggested ways to make the book even more useful than volumes I and II of Earthwatching, published in the 1970s. Their ideas have been incorporated into Earthwatching III, and we hope they will encourage its use in the classroom. If you are a teacher, keep in mind the following: Use Earthwatching III's scripts and teacher's guide in whatever ways make the most sense to you. The book can be used as a reference and a reader, or as a source of ideas for student reports and debates, environmental topics to use in your curriculum, examples for analyzing how to write radio scripts, quick reading assignments, and more. You could even ask students to update a script as a research project. Teachers who reviewed the first two Earthwatching books felt they were most appropriate for reading assignments in grades 4-12. Most recom- mended them as optimum for use in grades 5-8. Reviewers said the scripts were excellent for helping students expand their vocabularies by looking up unfamiliar words in the dictionary. You are welcome to make copies of any script in this book for use by your students. N You need no science background to use Earthwatching III. In fact, we encourage teachers of art, health, math, history, social studies, and other subjects to use "Earthwatch" script topics in their classrooms at all grade levels. See the teacher's guide for ideas about how to integrate environmental topics into your curriculum. Because "Earthwatch" is produced at the University of Wisconsin, many scripts are Wisconsin-oriented. However, elements of these scripts can be adapted to similar environmental issues in other states. The state of Wisconsin actively promotes environmental education in schools through a teacher certification rule requiring environmental education com- petencies, a school district standard requiring a written sequential curriculum plan that includes environmental education, and the publication of A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Envii onmental Education (Engleson 1985). For more information about the rules and curriculum guide, contact the Wiscon- sin Department of Public Instruction, Box 78/ll, Ma .son, WI 53707. In light of the important environmental education goals set by the Wisconsin Department ofublic Instruction (DPI), we have tried to show how Earth- watching III can be used to address DPI's requirements for integrating environmental content into the curriculum. We hope this will help Wisconsin teachers develop curriculum plans and classroom activities that include the topics addressed in this book; however, the appendices are designed to be useful to educators in all locales and contexts. l';;,

.1 0 ;re ATMOSPHERE 3

I No Previous Experience III Big Blasts and Bumper Crops The world's climate appears to be changing, A Lrge volcano near the equator erupts in the and the changes may go beyond anything we'veex- spring, catapulting debris high into the atmo- perienced. sphere and creating a narrow band of ash that circles the globe. That autumn, farmers in the U.S. harvest a near-record corn crop. Any connection? Scientists are forecasting weather patterns in the next century that will be much different from Paul Handler thinks so. The University of Illi- those that shape our lives today. nois meteorologist is studying how volcanicerup- tions affect the world's weather. Handler says the Meteorologist Francis Bretherton of the Na- data show that volcanic ash released duringsome tional Center for Atmospheric Research has eruptions is strongly tied to unusual changes in cli- worked on a government study of the implications mate, changes which in turn may affect agricul- of global climatic change. Bretherton says human ture. activityespecially the burning of fossil fuelis altering the atmosphere to an unprecedented de- Associated with the injection of a volcanic gree. aerosol, one sees large climate deviations all over the world, from India to Australia to Burning fuels like coal and oil injects carbon di- South Africa, from frost in Brazil to a good oxide into the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide corn crop in the United States. traps solar enPrgy. Bretherton says atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide have increased noticeably In 1975, Handler also noticed a correlation be- in the past 25 years, and they may double in the tween warm surface waters off the Peruvian coast, next 50 years. 1 he result, he says, may be an in- a condition known as "El Nirio," and varying crease of three to five degrees Fahrenheit in aver- wheat harvests around the world. Weather data age global temperatures. revealed that most El Nirios follow a volcanicerup- Su:h a temperature increase may seem small, tion near the equator. but Bretherton says it equals the warming that has These records indicate this is not a recent occurred since the peak of the last ice age 18,000 phenomenon, and Handler citesa well-known years ago. example. Changes of this type have never occurred that The results also agree with tlw observations quickly in the history of the Earth, but more after the Krakatoa eruption in 1883, when thw importantly they haven't occurred within the sea-surface temperatures became warm in historical experience of human civilization. 1884 and 1885. And a lot of the way we live is built upon as- sumptionsabout the climate, the tempera- Such powerful eruptions wreak havoc for miles ture, the rainfallof the parts of the world in around and can adversely alter the climate world- which we live. wide. But the clouds of ash spewed from these gi- gantic explosions do have something of a silver Bretherton says changes in temperature and lining. rainfall could have serious social and economic After studying records from 1866 to the pres- consequences. For example, the agricultural Mid- ent, Handler says there is indeed a strong relation- west might become a permanent dust bowl, and ship between volcanic eruptionsnear the equator the Canadian arctic might warm up and become and bumper corn crops in the United States. more hospitable to human settlement. May 1984 1111 January 1988

14 Microbursts, Macro-Trouble Behind the Drought Sailors call them point winds. Pilots call them As a relentless drought grips much of Africa, wind shears. To meteorologists they're scientists sift for clues to how long it will last microbursts or downbursts. But whatever you call and what's causing it. them, they mean trouble. Microbursts are highly concentrated gusts of wind that can form at the leading edge of storm Famine plagues dozens of African nations and fronts, usually cold ones. These winds blow has reportedly claimed the lives of more than straight toward the ground and sometimes reach 200,000 people in Ethiopia alone. The famine is speeds of more than 150 miles per hour, though rooted partly in a drought that began 17 years ago they seldom last more than a minute. When and never ended. Dry spells are natural in many rnicrobursts occur over water, they can whip up parts of Africa, but none of the previous ones this sudden, extremely high waves. century have lasted so long or been so severe. A microburst probably caused an unusual oc- Most meteorologists think the current drought currence this year on the Pennsylvania shore of is a natural fluctuation in Africa's climate and that Lake Erie. Witnesses reported that a single huge wet weather is bound to return. But others are not wave crashed ashore during the night. When offi- so sure. They wonder if human activities, includ- cials investigated in the morning, 30 feet of beach ing widespreal cutting of trees and overgrazing of had disappeared. Water and sand covered a road, farmlands, have altered rainfall patterns and made and logs as large as telephone poles were strewn the drought more or less permanent. That's specu- about. lation, though, because nobody really knows what caus,_-; Africa's droughts or determines their Theodore Fujita, a meteorologist and length. Most scientists believe complex, highly microburst expert at the University of Chicago variable interactions between the atmosphere and says most of these powerful gusts of wind strike oceans are the driving forces. But they do not without warning: There is no way to tell if a storm know how specific factors like wind, temperature could produce one simply by looking at the and air pressure figure in. Nor do they know clouds. But Fujita and other weather researchers whether the mechanisms that trigger droughts are are working with sophisticated Doppler radar tInt the same as those that maintain them over time. may help detect microbursts. Doppler radar gives detailed information about the wind patterns that Some U.S. researchers believe they've found form inside clouds. Fujita thinks it may help spot links between droughts in Africa and changes in microbursts, but he adds that the special radar will sea-surface temperatures in the Atlantic and Pa- not be available in most areas until the 1990_ cific oceans. Others claim to have evidence that although human activities on the land may not Microbursts caa spell disaster for boaters. The initiate droughts, they could prolong them. powerful gusts often catch sailboats with their sails still set and can tear the masts off even the It will be a long time before anyone can say largest ships. The sudden high waves they create with certainty just what causes Africa's droughts. can easily swamp most smaller recreational boats. Even then, droughts are so large in scale that peo- The best advice, experts say, is to be a prudent ple will probably never be able to control them. beater and stay off the water when storm fronts But if we could at least predict them, we might be approach.M October 1984 better able to prepare for them when they come. June 1985

13 Numbers and Raindrops The Gales of November

Meteorologists and mathematicians ponder When late fall comes to the Great Lakes re- precipitation. gion, residents are on the watch: The storms of Vovember and December can be killers. You leave work and walk into a downpour. But you get home and your neighbor says it Fall storms are taken seriously around the hardly rained. What happened? Fronk Richards of Great Lakes region, and well they should be. the National Weather Service says summer storms Some of the most deadly storms in the region's his- often have pockets of extremely heavy rainfall. tory have battered the Great Lakes in late fall, sink- These pockets typically appear during storms that ing ships, killing scores of people and causing involve very warm, moist air from the Gulf of great damage to property. Mexico. Richards says the storms usually develop when this warn. air hits cooler air. Currents But is it just legend that weather at this time of within the warm air can then concentrate rainfall year is more severe than at other times? Accord- in certain parts of the storm. ing to Lyle Horn, professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, theanswer is This phenomenon has been known and studied both yes and no. Horn says storms in late fallare for decades. One of the most detailed studieswas severe and have predictable paths, but he adds done back in 1942 after an intense 12-hourstorm that some human factors influenceour perception doused the region around Smethport, Pennsylva- of fall weather. One such factor Hornnotes is nia. Thirty-six official rain gauges, scatteredover shipping. 5,000 square miles, showed that eight inches of rain fell during the storm. But Richardssays an If you live in the Great Lakes area, the ships engineer surveyed hundreds of less formal are still on the lakes in tho shipping season in gaugessuch as buckets, troughs and othercon- November, whereas in March the lakes are tainersand found that 30 inches of rain had closed to shipping, so you tend to hearmore, fallen in some areas. at least as far as Lake Michigan or any of the Great Lakes traffic is concerned, about No- Richards says mathematiciansare looking vember storms than March storms. closely at these pockets of extreme precipitationto figure outEtatistica 1 formulas that could predict Horn says the typical fall storm forms in the tile I, Kal effects of this concentrated rainfall. Such Rocky Mountains and then swings southeast, pick- infurmation coul ' help engineers design dams ing up moist Gulf air before heading north. Me and other structures to withstand high water and storm's frigid air mass kicks up largewaves as it other after-effects of rainstorms. hits the warmer waters of the lakes. Meteorologists can identify conditions thatpro- Some fall storms have become legends, like the duce pockets of intense rainfall, and the Weather Armistice Day storm of 1940. Several ships foun- Service is establishing a nationwide radar network dered and some 40 hunters froze to death along to examine these events more thoroughly. But de- the Mississippi River. More recently, the giantore spite growing interest in this phenomenon, Rich- carrier Edmund Fitzgerald broke up ina November ards says these pockets of precipitationare 1975 storm, taking 28 sailors to the bottom of Lake complex and random, and it may never be possi- Superior with hef. If you're headed outdoors this ble to predict exactly when and where they will time of year, take precautions and check the fore- OCCUr.N August 1988 cast before you go. November 1986

14 1111 For Clearer Skies in Plants and Pollutants

One of the goals of the national park system is It's no secret that air pollution can make people to preserve pristine natural areas for future genera- ill. But did you know it can also take a toll on tions. But it is becoming more difficult to fulfill plants? One Wisconsin scientist says air pollution that goal as areas just outside national parks are may reduce yields of some farm crops by asmuch developed and as pressure mounts to exploit the as 20 percent. parks themselves for oil, gas and minerals. Sulfur dioxide and ozone are the air pollutants Perhaps the most serious threat to many parks that most commonly harm plants. Sulfur dioxide these days is air pollution. Nearby power plants, results from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil industries and automobiles spew out smoke and and coal. It is troublesome mainly near factories dust, and the wind blows it into the parks. and power plants. Ozone, on the other hand, is a by-product of automobile exhaust and is much The so-called Golden Circle of national parks in Colorado '1` h, Arizona and New Mexico is es- more widespread. pecially pla by pollution from outlying Theodore Tibbitts, a horticulture professor at power plants. The parks are situated along the the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says these Colorado River and are renowned for their breath- pollutants seldom kill plants, and they usually do taking canyons and towering, plateaus. Visibility not harm their flowers or fruit. But he says they in these parks once averaged 60 miles. Now it av- do injure leaves, and that's where the trouble erages about 40 miles. At times, it is even impossi- begins. ble to see from one side of the Grand Canyon to Sulfur dioxide and ozone can enter a leaf the other, a distance of only 15 miles. through pores on its surface. Once inside, the pol- People concerned about air pollution in the lutants disrupt the photosynthetic process in the Golden Circle have proposed that the government leaf. This stunts the growth of leaves and can re- create a buffer zone around the parks by purchas- duce the yields of many crops. ing land where pos, ible and regulating its use. Air pollution is not the farmer's biggest worry. New power plants and factories would have to be Tibbitts says drought, floods, frost, insects and dis- built outside the buffer zone, far enough away that ease can all take a bigger toll on crops,and the they would not pollute the parks, but that would farmer, understandably, is more concerned about be both expensive and cc ntroversial. coping with those threats. Just what, if anything, should be done about air Nevertheless, says Tibbitts, air pollution's ef- pollution in the nat: ,nal parks really depends on fects on plants are a legitimate concern. He says how we settle a bigger series of questions: To planting more tolerant crops in polluted areas what extent should we preserve the wildness of could help. But the most important thing, he says, the parks for posterity? Should we permit their ex- is to control pollution from industry and automo- ploi ta tion to meet the material demands of sod- biles in the first place. May 1982 ety? IfSo,are we willing to set limits? January 1983

-5 Star Light, Star Bright The Smog's on the Other Flue Stargazing in a city usually is not a very suc- Ugly brown smoke often clouds the scenic Pa- cessful venture. City lights brighten the sky and cific Northwest, Alaska and the Rocky Mountain wash out the view of the stars. Astronomers call states in winter. It hides the stunning natural this "light pollution," and in some areas it threat- beauty that made those regions famous. But the ens their work. smog doesn't always come from industries and au- Arizona is home to the largest concentration of tomobiles. More and more often, wood stoves and optical telescopes in the world. The state's dry, fireplaces are the Lulprits. Ironically, they heat the clear weather is ideal for observatories. But Ari- homes of those who moved there to get closer to zona also has one of the fast st-growing popula- nature. tions in the United States, and the iight from its Oregon considers smog from burning wood an cities and towns is spreading. Astronomers in Ari- acute problem, and it passed a law last year requir- zona have launched an anti4ight pollution cam- ing all wood stoves sold after 1986 to have paign. They are asking cities and counties to enact catalytic converters or dual combustion chambers laws to protect the darkness of the nighttime sky. to reduce their smoke. Four counties already have done so. Smog hi-.3 marred Missoula, Montana's scenery The light-pollution codes restrict the use of un- for years. Pulp, lumber and paper companies necessary lights. For example, the codes mandate used to be at fault, but the blame has shifted. limited lighting hours for athletic fields, billboards While Missoula's industries cleaned up their emis- and parking lots. The codes also set requirements sions, residents turned to wood heat. Lately, up to for new outside lamps. They encourage cities to 70 percent of Missoula's airborne pollution has replace old mercury-vapor street lamps with the come from wood-burning. The city asked its citi- newer, low-pressure sodium-vapor lamps that do zens to douse their fires voluntarily when pollu- not cause as much light pollution. William Robin- tion levels were high, but most people refused, so son is an engineer for Kitt Peak National Observa- Missoula passed a iaw ordering them to do it. tory in Tucson. He says i: makes economic sense for communities to switch because the sodium- In the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado, develop- vapor lamps use 60 percent less energy than the ers can install only one traditional fireplace in mercury-vapor lamps. every new structure they build. That means Aspen's condominium buildirgs can have only Robinson says the public ha., been fairly recep- one unit with a fireplace. The rest have to make tive to light-pollution laws in Arizona. The gover- do with clean-burning wood stoves. nor of the state supports the codes and has urged the astronomers to carry their campaign through- Smog isn't a problem yet in Beaver Creek, Colo- rado, by.,ocal officials aren't taking any chances. out the state. If they are successful, 1.'nities of Ar- izona may continue to grow with less effect on the They've oanned wood stoves and linked all fire- bright, starry nights of the desert sky. places to a central computer. If air quality ever drops below a certain level in the town, a red light June 1982 next to each fireplace will signal the owner to smother the fire. A heat sensor in the chimney will check for compliance, and people who ignore the order will face a $500 fine. January 1984

v J Amt42-44tRe:'.'

II Acid Revelations II Cancelling a Chemical We know a lot about acid rain, but we still Industry pulls a product off the shelf to keep it don't know everything. out of the stratosphere.

Extensive government research on acid rain Home insulation, air conditioner coolant, even has confirmed what many scientists and environ- plastic hamburger containersthese are all made mentalists said all along: Much of the rain in the with chemicals called CFCs. CFC stands for United States and Canada, particularly in the East, chlorofluorocarbons, a group of chemicals that is is more acidic than normal. And two air pollu- not toxic, flammable or corrosive. But scientists tants, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, are to have discovered that CFCs do have a serious draw- blame. Coal-burring power plants and heavy in- back: When they escape into the air, CFCs rise dustry produce most of the nation's sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere and attack the atmosphere's pollution. Car and truck exhaust and power-plant layer of ozone. Ozone is a gas that shields us from emissions are the primary sources of nitrogen ox- the sun's ultraviolet radiation. ides. Every region of the country contributes to The United States signed a treaty last fall to cut the pollution, but the industrial states of the Ohio back production and use of CFCs. CFC use is sup- River Valley are the biggest offenders. All of this posed to be cut 50 percent within 10 years. The information comes from the U.S. Environmental treaty goes into effect gradually. James Wilbur, Protection Agency, which, under the Reagan ad- chemical analyst with the investment firm of ministration, has been very careful not to overstate Smith, Barney, Harris and Upham, says this will the problem. limit disruptions to the U.S. chemical industry and The EPA says the effects of acid rain are still un- to consumers. clear. Biologists generally agree that acidic water This will give industry a chance to respond to can keep fish, frogs and other small aquatic ani- this sloztOown in production by finding alter- mals from producing normal eggs. It's also sus- nate materials to substitute for the CFCs. So pected that acid rain may kill such animals, either the innnediate impact is really quite small, directly or by washing toxic metals like mercury and the longer-term impact will be absorbed out of the soil and into the water. Yet it's still a by a slow transition of the various companies mystery why some lakes in places prone to acid involved into alternate materials. rain are highly acidic and lifeless while others in apparently similar settings are not. Chemical industries are working on a substi- On land, acid rain has been accused of harming tute for the most common CFC, known as CFC 12, forests and crops, though the EFA says there's lit- which is used in coolants for air conditioners and tle evidence of that. Governmer. . scientists ac- refrigerators. And companies are already cutting knowledge that acid rain eats away at building back production and use of other CFCs. By the materials ranging from marble to steel. But they end of this year, for example, U.S. food service and say how much it does so, compared to other forces packaging companies will no longer use packag- of weathering, is uncertain. Federal officials say ing that contains this destructive chemical. they want answers to those kinds of questions be- July 1988 fore they take any action to preN ent acid rain. August 1986 -4110, 4'44 N.4 m -44 m 4, 4 n .;4444 OninIn, 41,0144 .14 r] n , hn n 44,4141444 n41 o..{i .4,14,4 .1 L

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1 1°1 1 0". ..,11444,7 n,.44414441-4. 4' n ?1,./n144:41 '4'14 BIOSPI-iERE

N Stranded II It's a Jungle Out There Some animals spend their whole lives in water It appears that animals, like humans, have a but come ashore to die. For centuries, scientists lot to learn before they can make it on their own. have wondered why.

As populations of endangered species dwindle, Since July, more than 200 bottle-nosed dol- sLientists are trying to preserve them by breeding phins, victims of an epidemic, 11, ve landed along the animals in zoos and research centers. The ani- the At lank coast. Though some died from dis- mals will be released into the wild in hopes that ease in open water and washed in with the waves, they will thrive again without human help. others came ashore sick. Scientists wonder whether those animals chose to ground them- University of Wisconsin-Madison zoologist selves or whether they made a mistake in naviga- Charles Snowdon says such programs are more tion. difficult than anticipated. The main reason, he says, is that many animal instincts are not as Kenneth Norris studies the biology and history strong as people had thought. of marine mammals at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He says many scientists believe Whatwe're discovering, zvhich is very important, is that fear of predators is not innate but sick whales and dolphinschooseto come ashore because most end up on sandy beaches. He says if has to be taught; that the ability to become a sick mammals made mistakes in navigation, more good parent, to slww maternal and paternal would be stranded on rocky coasts. behavior, is not innate but has to be taught. There are a whole variety of things that peo- Thereis a little bit of evidence that they do ple have made assumptions about. know where they're going because they strand more frequently on the beaches than The assumptions are wrong, says Snowdon, on rocky coasts, where they're simply who himself breeds rare monkeys. He says scien- pounded to death. tists must train animals raised in captivity in basic survival skills. Norris says a sick mamrnal might choose a soft beach and come ashore to escape drowning. Animals in captivity have to be provided with Whales and dolphins sometimes help keep a sick a sufficiently complex social environnwnt to member of their group afloat: If an animal lacks acquire all of these various socially transmit- that support, Norris says it might seek a beach in- ted thingssocial communication, parental stead. care, perhaps even proper sexual behavior. But on the flip side, marine mammals need Snowdon says this may require enclosures water as much as they need air. They become large enough to accommodate several generations stressed within minutes on land. They can neither of an animal so the young can learn from the old. regulate their body temperatures nor move back For example, he instills a fear of snakes in his cap- into water. And they can suffocate under their tive monkeys by putting a lifelike model in the own weight. Norris says the majority ot sick mam- cage with them. The young animals learn to react mals could be dying at sea but we observe only by watching their elders. They gain knowledge those that come ashore. that may save their lives in the wild. The Greek philosopher Aristotle observed Snowdon says the mark of a successful captive beached whales 23 centuries ago and wrote that breeding program is not how many animals are they run themselves aground for no obviousrea- born, but how many can survive on their own son. Norris says it is still not obvious why marine once they're released. mNovember 1986 mammals strand themselves. October 1987 1 9 12 *BIOSPHERE

Learning from Lies II The Price of Poaching Deception among animals may reveal truths Ivorypoachers do more than kill elephants in about the way their minds work. Africa; they kill the way elephants learn to be elephants. Studies of animal communication frequently assume that animals are honest with members of The value of ivory has risen so much that some their immediate social groups. But researchers are speculators buy it as a hedge against inflation. uncovering exampies where animals deceive oth- High ivory prices have also promoted poaching ers to gain individual advantages. Some animals and created a serious threat to African elephants. try to conceal information; others try to give false Diana McMeekin, vice president of the non- signals. Individuals that get caught lying or bluff- profit African Wildlife Foundation, says poachers ing may lose cre dibility. And individuals that re- kill tens of thousands of African elephants every peatedly detect false information may become year. An estimated 700,000 elephants still roam skeptical. Affica, but McMeekin says many of them are ba- Two University of Pennsylvania psychologists, bies or juveniles. Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, found that members of a captive group of African monkeys The poachers are going after the older, larger became skeptical after hearing false alarm calls animals with the larger ivory tusks, and they from another individual. Cheney and Seyfarth say are leaving behind groups of animals who ore the study of animal deception is relatively new without leadership. and could help us understand how animals think. McMeekin says this can be devastating because Seyfarth says more evidence of animal skepti- elephant offspring are much like human infants: cism or the use of deception would strongly sug- They depend heavily on their parents. gest that animals have sophisticated mental They have to learn how to be elephants. They capacities. can walk when they're very small, but other IfI'm going to lie to you, I have to carry than that they're just like human babies. around in my mind a notion of what truth is, They suck their trunks when they're nervous, a notion of whata reasonably acceptable false- and they depend totally on their mothers and hood would be and a notion ofhow presenta- their adult female relatives for about 13 years tion of falsehood rather than truth would of their lives before they are independent at affect your behavior. If you could ever find all. And even in the case of the females, they any evidence that animals deceive ow' an- stay with their mothers and their aunts all of other in the sense that humans deceive one an- their lives. So when they lose the adults, they other, then you would have really definite lose the culture of being elephants, and we're midence that animals are doing some fairly now seeing groups of babies and juveniles complex cognitive operations in their social and teenagers huddled to,gether in confused interactions. The study of deception, which little lumps, just wandering around, not knowing what to do to take care of themselves. focuses on the study of communication, isCs study in which we use communication as a McMeekin says those elephants will be vulnera- kind of window on animal minds. ble to predators and natural calamities. She says Seyfarth and Cheney say animal deception they also may be unable to reproduce. may be a sign that animals can think, reason and To reduce the financial incentive for poaching, plot strategies. September 1987 the African Wildlife Foundation is asking Ameri- can consumers to stop buying ivory.IIJuly 1938

2 0 1-3

II Decoding Dolphinese Ill Magnetic Migration

Humans have successfully trained dolphins to Spring is oil its way. The weather is warmer, perform tricks. Now scientists want to geton to the snow is melting and the first robins are return- the more serious businessteaching them to talk. ing north. But how do those birds know which way to go? Scientists at the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Billions of birds migrate, some traveling thou- Laboratory in Honolulu were among the first to sands of miles. And each year something guides train dolphins in an artificial language that uses them to the same winter and summer homes. Zo- hand signals and computerized sounds. Research- ologist Tim Moermond of the University of Wis- ers there also have found that dolphins are sensi- consin-Madison says they take directional cues tive to many subtleties in a language. from the environment. And different birds use these cues in different ways. Kewalo Basin psychologist James Ralston spe- cializes in dolphin hearing and speech perception. Moermond says birds may navigate by using He says dolphins are sensitive to syntax, the order landmarks or the positions of the sun and stars. of words. Much as humans know the difference They may even tell where they are by sensing between a Venetian blind and a blind Venetian, changes in barometric pressure, wind direction dolphins know the difference between taking a and odors. But Moermond says when these cues surfboard to a ball and a ball to a surfboard. are absent or weak, birds rely on the Earth's magnetic field to tell north from south. Ralston says this has encouraged scientists to go one step further in dolphin communication. At Many researchers have verified this phenome- Kewalo Basin Laboratory, the scientists are ready non. In one experiment, scientists put magnets to train two dolphins to communicate with tnem. around the necks of test birds. They hoped this would interfere with the birds' detection of mag- The goal of our current project is to train netic forceand the birds did become disoriented. them so we can have a two-way flow of rom- Moermond sa)s birds 1...ay also use the mag- munication; that is, we can give messages to netic field combined with other directional cues. them and they can give messages to us. Birds at night use the ma8netic field to set up Ralston is designing a set of sound symbols how to tea where the stars are. They tell the that both humans and dolphins can use to commu- direction they need to go Irile magnetic nicate with each other. Since dolphins vocalize in field, but rather than just trying to con- high-frequency squawks and whistles, Ralston is stantly follow that, they can check which creating a language that matches a dolphin's capa- stars correspond to those directions and then bilities. He will use a keyboard synthesizer to use the stars. mimic the sounds. Ralston hopes to create a language similar to the dolphin's, but he does nut Moermond says researchers don't know yet waiA to duplicate their natural language and con- how birds detect the magnetic field. But they have fuse them. a clue. Several years ago they found a magnetic Ralston says training the dolphins to use an ar- material called magnetite in the heads of pigeons. tificial language could be relatively easy. He says Some think this is Fart of a sense organ that helps dolphins are curious, and they appear as willing birds find their way home in the spring. to communicate with us as we are with them. IIMarch 1985 October 1987

2J 14 ' BIOSPHERE

SI Eulogy for Orange Band Protecting "Our" Birds The sun set on another endangered species re- As fall progresses in the upper Midwest, many cently with the death of Orange Band. He was the of the region's birds will take wing for warmer last of his breed. parts. It's easy to think of these migratory creatures as "our" birds. After all, they may be escap- ing the coldlike tourists on vacationbut they The extinction of plant and animal species is really live here. often an abstract concept. Scientists and the media constantly warn of threats to rare plants and unfa- The notion that these birds belong to our region is now being challenged. Or.hologists miliar animals in far-off jungles. But to most of us, point out that nearly half the species that breed in extinction rarely strikes home. the North spend only about 10 weeks building a That's not the case for a team of biologists at nest and raising their young before heading south Discovery Island Zoological Park in Florida's Walt once more. Disney World. On Tuesday June 16th, 1987, they More than half of our land birds live most of witnessed extinction firsthand. Orange Band, the the year in Mexico, the Bahamas, Cuba and other world's last dusky seaside sparrow, died of natural causes at the age of 12. With him passed the se- Caribbean islands. There they occupy smaller crets of countless generations of little brown birds land areas and must change their habits. For ex- that once filled the coastal marshes of Florida. ample, some species that are very territorial and independent up north concentrate in large flocks in Discovery Island biologist Charles Cook says the south. Orange Band's death came as a blow to the scien- Some birds also change their food sources. The tists who had worked for years to preserve his eastern kingbird, for example, switches from in- kind. sects to the fruits of certain trees. In scattering the The people who had worked with the bird, of seeds, it propagates new trees. course, are saddened by the realization that Despite the adaptability of migratory birds, or- an extinction has occurred. The last of a true nithologists worry about the steady loss of winter wild creation is gone. habitat. The forests that small land birds depend But thoug,h the last dusky is gone, Cook says upon in Central America and the Caribbean are the little bird's genes are still viable, thanks to disappearing. Scientists say the loss of one acre of some modem genetics. Scientists have preserved this habitat in Mexico has the same effect on bird much of the dusky's genetic materidl through populations as the loss of eight acres of natural breeding. The last captive duskys were bred with habitat in the northeastern United States and Can- close relatives, Scot's seaside sparrows. Cook says ada. the Discovery Island zoo has a complete set of the Wildlife advocates admit it won't be easy to de- dusky's male and female genetic material living in elop conservation prngrams with Central Ameri- a number of the sparrow hybrids. One female cal countries that are oeset by urgent economic bird is 87.5 percent dusky and looks virtually iden- problems. But they say it is essential if we al tical to a purebred. Cook and other scientists hope preserve "our" North American birds. they can breed a colony of these hybrids and pass September 1982 on at least a portion of the heetage of Orange Band and his fellow dusky seaside sparrows. July 1987

22 BIO,SP

II A Seabird Sanctuary Migrating "Cans"

In Florida, dead or dying brown pelicans dan- V-shaped patterns will soon fill the Midwest- gle from coastal mangrove trees. On some ern sky as ducks and geese head south for the win- beaches, sea birds hobble aboutcrippled by bro- ter. But ,nany of these birds are having to reroute ken wings or sick from infected wounds. their flight paths and change their resting spots as These grim sights do not appear in Florida's people alter the environment. travel brochures, but they are a tragic result of the Canvasback ducks, for example, commonly state's popular shore fishing. While floating called "cans," once migrated along the lower Fox under piers and bridges, many brown pelicans be- and Illinois rivers. Eighteenth century French ex- come entangled in fishing hooks and lines. Others plorers wrote that waterfowl "blackened the sky" actually dive at lures and baited hooks, mistaking above the lakes of the Winnebago chain in Wiscon- them for fish. sin. That heavy migration of ducksabout three- Too often, fishermen then cut their lines, believ- fourths of the world's canvasback populationis ing they are freeing snagged birds. Unfortunately, seen now over the upper Mississippi River. the tough, long-lasting monofilament line mayen- Why did the "cans" change course? Biologists tangle a bird's wing. If the bird does get airborne, point to declining water quality in the Illinois the weighted Lute may swing in circles, winding River and the Winnebago-area lakes. Pollution, around the bird's body or legs. Eventually, the sedimentation and turbidity have killed many of line may catch on a tree, and the bird may die by the aquatic plants in these waters, and it is on hanging. these plants that the canvasbacks depend. Since 1971, the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary Ducks stuff themselves with calories during near St. Petersburg, Florida, has treated more than their migratory stops to power their long flight 10,000 seabirds. The staff now includes 12 vc:teri- south. The cans' favorite energy foodswild cel- narians who donate their services. Most of the ery and arrowhead plantshave mostly disap- feathery patients are bicught to the sal tt_tuary by peared from the Illinois River and the Winnebago people. In one of nature's mysteries, a few lakes, so the ducks have shifted their course to the wounded pelicans fly or walk io the sanctuary upoper Mississippi, where these aquatic plants still every weekeven birds that have never been abound. treated at the facility before. But with so many ducks crowded into one Most of the birds survive. Those permanent:), place, disease or an oil spill might devastate the crippled either stay in the open-air sanc uaryor go population. And a decline in the Mississippi's veg- to a protecte.2. perk Many of the grouna.A birds etation could leave the canvasbacks nowhere else do their part by mating and producing offspring. to go. Despite such measures, the brown pelican is an Biologists say these resting areas need protec- endangered species. With the support at several tion. They recommend soil conservation practices oil companies, the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary is to halt sedimentation of the river and wave barri- using radio, TV and posters to show fishermen ers to prevent shoreline erosion. It is crucial, they how to share Florida's bridges and piers with its say, that these natural waysides be preserved if trusting native birds. IJuly 19b2 canvasbacks ai-,d other migratory waterfowl are to survive.IIISeptember 1982

23 Competition from Abroad III Bring 'Em Back Alive

Foreign competition is almost as big a head- Kids a couple of generations ago thrilled to the ache for some ecologists as it is for American busi- written adventures of Frank Buck. With th, 'roud ness. But in this cas.:., the fearsome opponents are boast that he would "bring 'em back alive," truck plants and animals brought to the United States scoured the remote corners of the world to capture from abroadsometimes intentionally, sometimes wild animals for znos and circuses. by accident. And the victims art native plants and But times have changed. Civilization is en- animals that just can't keep up. croaching upon wilderness areas, dividing them Becky Brown is an ecologist at the University up into ever-smaller patches. Many endangered of Wisconsin-Madison. She says exotics, as they specia.s live in Third World nations, which under- are called, often get a foothold in this country standably focus more attenticn on meeting human through some sort of ecological disturbance. From needs than protecting wildlife, so zookcepers there, she says, they can go a couple of different now more concerned with preservi..g wildlife ways. than exploiting ithave turned to breeding many of their own animals. In smne cases, the exotics are successful species. If you wait long enough they'll work Unfortunately, breeding captive animals dimin- their way back out of the system and inuve on ishes genetic diversity. And zoo animals have gen- to a disturbance somewhere else, and your na- erally become too domesticated to survive if tive species will come back. However, in returned to the wild. SOWcases ...for instance, the schinus, the The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is con- Brazilian pepper tree in south Florida, is very fronting this dilemma. The zoo opened a Conser- well adapted to grow in the very nutrient vation and Research Center in Virginia in 1975. poor thin soils in the pinelands. And so once This 4,200-acre facility is devoted to propagating that species becomes established in the under- rare and endangered animals. Besides using new story of these pines it is able to out-compete animal breeding techniques, the center's veterinari- the species that were there before. ans and biologists are trying to reproduce the diet, It may not matter to the average person what habitats and behaviors of the animals in the wild. kinds of plants and animals live in an area. But it These efforts are designed to preserve the animals' makes a big difference to people who are trying to natural traits and help some of their offspring -ees- preserve or restore natural wildlands such as prai- tablish the species in protected game parks. ries and forests. Many ecologists will go to great Until recently, zoLb had saved only two species iengths to get rid of persistent exotics. from extinction by captive breedinga Chine,e Sometimes they prevail. Other times they do deer and a Mongolian wild pony. But zoos have not. Once a hearty invader gets established in a begun op rating more scientifically. Retiring Na- new land, halting its spread can be next to impossi- tional Zoo director Theodore Reed says zoos will ble. But Brown says it's worth trying where the in- be the preserver of endangered species if develop- tegrity of a natural area is at stake. And such is ing countries cannot stem the continuing loss of the case in more and more natural areas, where wildlife habitat within their borders. disturbances from human activities are opening September 1984 the doors to foreign competition. June 1984

24 ITIOPHERE 1 7,

Critter Care 1111 River Refuge

When you see an infant animal in the wild by One of the nation's most heavily used wildlife itself, you may think it needs help. Buta wildlife refuges is close to many cities. But most of the specialist says leave it alone. people who visit it don't even know it's there.

As spring approaches and the weatherwarms, The Upper Mississippi River Wild Life and the countryside fills with newborn animals. Dur- Fish Refuge nestles against the banks of the Missis- ing spring and early summer, youmay see these sippi River along a 280-mile stretch from baby creatures sitting in the wild withouta parent Wabasha, Minnesota. to Rock Island, Illinois. Ac- in sight. You may ..hink they've been abando.,ed, cording to Tex Hawkins, it has many unique fea- but that probably is not the case. tures. Nancy Frank, director of the Wildlife Animal Hawkins, conservation officer at the refuge, Rehabilitation Center in Milwaulsee, says adult ani- says it is an invaluable wildlife sanctuary, espe- mals frequently leave their infants unattended, but cially for waterfowl. It is a major stopping point they rarely forget them. on the migration route of the tundra swan, and in varents, birds especially, don't stay with one the fall nearly three-quarters of the world popula- individual baby all the tune. Once tht. baby tion of canvasback ducks gathers there. But in ad- has fledged from the nest, it's on itsown dur- dition to abundant wildlife, the upper Mississippi ing the day. The parents conie by and feed refuge has many human visitors. the baby, and then they feed its siblings, but There a;-e over three and a half minion visits then they may be in the next yard or sothey to the refuge every year, and maybe as many may be quite a ways away from the baby. as 10 million people living within easy driv- Generally speaking, though, if you sit and ing distance. It could get a lot of additional watch, you 11 see the parent birdsconic back. use in the future if the facilities are developed. Frank says people who think they're helping Because the refuge is so spread out and hasno orphans bring thousands of baby creatures to the major entry point or visitor center, Hawkinssays, Milwaukee wildlife center every year. Butmany most visitors are not aware they're in a national of these animals do not need any help, and Frank wildlife refuge. says ,?ven when an infant animal has been abandoned, the parent probably left it fora reason. The majority of people really don't conceive that the refuge exists. They're utilizing it The best thing to do is to leave nature alone. without even knowing it, and that's a danger- Let nature take care of itself. We've often ous situation. They ?wed to be aware that it's found that when an animal has been aban- there, ;tun it's special, and it needs protection doned, there's some biological reason for it. and care. Even if we take it in and nurse it, theresome- times is something else wrong that causes it: Besides human impact, there's the river itself demise, and so it might have been best that one of the major transportation routes through the we had !eft that animal alone to begin with. heart of the nation. The heavy barge trafficcan create problems for wildlife, as can the locks and Frank says if you must move an infant wild ani- dams needed to keep the traffic flowing. mal, put it in a darkened, padded box tc helpre- duce stress on it, and then take it to agame According to Hawkins, wildlife managers face warden or licensed rehabilitator for treatment. a difficult task: balancing the needs of people, com- I February 1988 merce and nature. IIII October 1985 18 ElICIS14-iERE

Phoenix from the Ashes Creatures in the Hold Last summer's fires in Yellowstone were a trag- A lot of marine life is stowed away in the edy to many people. But to others, they were the holds of modern ships. best thing to happen in a hundred years. When ocean freighters and tankers sail without Fire scorched three-quarters of a million acres cargo, they carry ballast to remain stable on the in Yellowstone National I'ark last summer. It was open sea. Wooden sailing ships once carried rocks the biggest burnoff in the perk's history. Many or sand as ballast. Modern ships use millions of people saw the spectacular blazes as a national di- gallons of seawater stored in their holds and bal- saster and criticized the National Park Service for last tanks. The ships discharge the seawater in har- letting them get out of hand. bors before they take on cargo. But ecologists say the fires were long overdue. James Carlton, a marine ecologist at the Univer- Over the next few years, they say, the park will sity of Oregon, says modern vessels, when they blossom with new wildlife habitat and more ani- take on ballast water, become giant aquariums rnals, and the benefits will be felt well into the next filled with marine life. To help determine how sea- century. water stowaways might affect marine environments on the West Coast, Carlton examines The tourism industry contends that park visi- organisms he findsthe ballast water of ships tors want their geysers framed by sweeping forests, not charred stumps and fields of fireweed. that visit Oregon's Coos Bay. Yellowstone public affairs officer Joan Anzelmo We're seeing a surprisingly wide diversity of says the argument pits park ecology against park organisms in the seawater ballast, even more economy. than we expected. We see a lot of truly plank- tonic organismscopepods, which are small If you couid take the developments out of here crustaceans distantly related to the shrimps and you could take the towns that obviously and crabs; we also see a lot of larval forms, depend on the tourism flow out of here and the juvenile stages, of many bottom-tiwelling just took it purely from a biological stand- or benthic species including clams, crabs, point, just purely from the benefits to the eco- shrimp, other small crustaceans and snails. system, there will be long-term benefits to the ecosystem. You know, new habitat has been Carlton says ships full of seawater ballast also created by where fires have burned, the ani- can carry new species to freshwater environments. mals will benefit in the long run, and fire has He says ocean vessels that enter the Great Lakes been an integral part of this forest for thou- have released juvenile European flounders and sands and thousands of years. But again, in Chinese mitten crabs into the lakes. Although the 1988 you have many, many things to take creatures were able to reach maturity, they were into consideration. unable to reproduce. In the wake of last summer's fires, Interior Sec- Carlton says the use of seawater as ballast has retary Donald Hodel announced that the Park Ser- grown since World War II along with the size and vice will fight all future fires in national parks. number of ocean-going ships. However, the envi- Ecologists say that's a mistake because fires are ronmental effects of this practice are still undeter- natural events that preserve ecological diversity. mined. IFebruary 1988 In the long run, they say, Yellowstone and other parks are better off with an occasional blaze. October 1988

., ,B1OSRHERE 19

Musseled Out 121 Sterile Aliens

When European naturalists first explored Scientists are developing a new way to eradi- North America, they reported finding more thana cate sea lampreys from the Great Lakes. They are thousand species of clams and mussels in the Mis- not trying to kill lampreys; they're trying to keep sissippi River and its tributariesan astounding then: from being born. number compared to the handful in the rivers of Europe. David Heath, curator of mollusks at the Univer- Eels known as sea lampreys entered the Great sity of Wisconsin-Madison Zoology Museum, says Lakes years ago through waterways built to allow little more is known about the biology of these shipping between the upper lakes and the Atlantic river-dwellers today than when they were discov- Ocean. During the 1930s and 1940s, sea lampreys ered. But one thing that is known, he says, is that devastated populations of lake trout and severely clams and mussels are not as plentiful in the Mis- disrupted the ecology of the Great Lakes. sissippi as they used to be. The United States and Canada responded to The Higgin's eye musselone of the few that the lamprey invasion with a chemical, known as have been studiedis a good example. It once TFM, that helped kill young lamprey in streams ranged from the Twin Cities of Knnesota down where the adult parasites spawn. Now scientists to the mouth of the Missouri River. Heath says are looking at other ways to wipe out lampreys sewage the north and sedimentation from farm- that remain in the Great Lakes and the streams land erosion to the south have greatly reduced the that feed into them. range and numbers of the Higgin's eye. In fact, Sterilizing lampreys is one option. This tech- .e mussel is now included on both the Wisconsin nique focuses on male lampreys for two reasons; and federal endangered species lists. says James Seelye, chief of the U.S. Fish and Wild- Heath says the river's dams also take their toll life Service office at Hammond Bay, Michigan. on the Higgin's eye and its Mississippi River cous- Male lampreys arefor one thingmore eas- ins. Tiny young clams and mussels begin life float- ily sterilized. And also, we think that in the ing downstream until they land on fish and process of spawning in normal lamprey popu- become parasit-is. Where dams prevent those fish lations, one male lamprey will serv;ce or fertil- from migrating upstream, the mollusks cannot re- ize more than one female lamprey's eggs, and 'aim to the favorable habitats from which they so it makes more sense to sterilize the males came. As a result, their species gradually disap- that ?night actually offset the reproduction of pear from those stretches of the river. one or two or three female lamprey rather That's not all. Heath says where dams slow than the other way around. the MississiHoi's current, silt settles behind them Seelye says a promising sterilization method and can smother clams and mussels on the river uses a chemical called bisazir. The male lamprey's bottom Besides that, the creatures need a steady sperm becomes sterile after the lamprey is im- current to carry food to them, and dams can cut mersed in I-he chemical or injected with it. Seelye off their food supply. says field trials with bisazir may begin in 1989 The Higgin's eye mussel is the only Mississippi after government agencies define safety proce- River mollusk listed a:, end,. gered or threatened. dures for people who will handle the lampreys But Heath says that doesn't mean the rest are thriv- and the chemical. July 1987 ing; it's just that nobody knows for sure how they're doing. May 1985 1111 The Fear of Cod II A Taste for Junk Food

A marine scientist instilled the fear of cod in The shark family includes the largest of fish some naive salmon to teach the fish of worldly and the most feared. But some scientists know dangers. the shark to be more of a garbage disposal than a man-eater.

Fish raised in hatcheries havtasy lives. Be- fore they're released into open water, they do not Sharks have a reputationfed by popular have to search for food or worry ibout predators. books and filmsfor unprovoked attacks on hu- But hatcheries may be artificially safe environ- mans. But very little is actually known about the ments that do not prepare fish for the dangers of feeding habits of sharks. Although they prefer cer- the real world. tain foods, a remarkable variety of items has been Bori Ol la, professor of oceanography at Oregon found in the bellies of sharks throughout the State University and a researcher with the Na- world. tional Marine Fisheries Service, is studying the sur- Stomachs of sharks have revealed a potpourri vival of young fish in the Pacific Ocean. 01 la says of garbage indicative of less-than-discriminating that of all hatchery -raised salmon released in the palates: beer bottles, a handbag, paper cups, or- Pacific Northwest, only about 5 percent survive. ange peels, nearly an entire reindeer and even five He says ha,chery-raised salmon quickly learn to bottles of mineral water bound together with a search for live prey, so they apparently do not wire hoop. One shark alone had swallowed a rain- starve to death. But the young salmon may be coat, three overcoats and a car license plate. dangerously naive about predators. Of the 350 species of shark, only two dozen eat O. gave some hatchery-raised salmon a safe mammals. But these sharks are not selective ei- but scary exposure to a voracious species of cod. ther. A goat, a turtle, a large tomcat, three birds, He wanted to see if a brush with reality would four fish heads and another sharksix feet long help the salmon survive direct encounters with were taken from the stomach of one shark caught predators. He put a clear plastic corral inside a along the Australian coast. larger pool and then put 30 young salmon inside John McCosker, director of San Francisco's the corral and two lingcod outside it. When he Steinhart Aquarium and an expert on great white turned on the lights, the lingcod responded enthu- sharks, says fear of sharks stems from ignorance siastically. and propaganda. He explains why great whites As soon as we switched on the lights, the may inadvertently attack humans. predatorsthe two lingcodsaw the salnwn This is the largest of flesh-eating sharks, and behind the Plexiglas and immediately at- its normal diet is large seals and sea lions as tempted to get in at them, and they'd bang well as dolphins. We humans do our very against the Plexiglas, frightening the fish and best to imitate the behavior of seals and sea attempting to eat them. lions ziqwn we put on our black wetsuits or 011a and other researchers then scared the lie upon our surfboards floating at the sur- salmon even more. They dropped a frozen cod in face, and the shark confuses us for its normal their midst and disturbed water inside the corral. prey. Salmon that endured two of these controlled en McCosker says there are no accurate records counters were more likely to survive a third direct on shark-attack fatalities throughout the world, encounter with the lingcod. 011a says fish in hatch- and scientists still do not know for sure what pro- eries may need this kind of brush with reality if vokes sharks to attack humans. But he agrees they are to survive after they're released into open with most experts: There's no telling what a shark water. April 1987 will eat. iSeptember 1986 BIOSPHERE 21

Pondering the Ponderous M Tailing a Tale

Scientists in New Mexico have made an earth- Mythical beasts are hard to catch. Butone shaking discovery: They've found the remains of group of scientists is sure trying. the biggest creature known to have walkedo:i land. Around the world, tales abound of mythical creatures: the Loch Ness monster, bigfoot and the Imagine an animal bigger thana dozen full- abominable snowman. Most people are skeptical grown African elephants. That's how David Gil- about.the actual existence of such creatures:but lette describes the 150-million-year-old dinosaur scientists at the International Society of Cryptozoo- remains he's excavating in northwestern New logy take them seriously. The society, based in Mexico. Tucson, Arizoni,3 a clearing-house for informa- Gillette, curator mleontology at the New tion on creatures known in folklore but not in sci- Mexico Museum of ".ural History, named the ence. discovery sei mosaurus, or "earth shaker." Hesays Do not scoff. There are modern examples of the 100-ton dinosaur stood two stories tall at the supposedly mythical creatures that in fact exist. shoulder and stretched 120 feet fromnose to tail. For instance, African nativesonce described a rxismosaurus was easily the biggest known land- huge, hairy, man-like creature that roared and dwelling creature. Gillette speculates that this lived in trees. Western scientists wrote off thesere- plant-eater evolved to great size so it could fight ports as superstition until 1901, when the moun- off attacks by allosaurs, relatives of the well- tain gorilla was first seen by a British explorer. known tyrannosaurs. Then there is the coelacanth, a fish discovered in And allosaurus, as the dominant predator of the Indian Ocean in 1938. It was presumed extinct the time, was probably an ambush power for millions of years. predator that would bowl over its prey. Now, International Society of Cryptozoologysecre- an adult allosaur would weigh on the order of tary Richard Greenwell urges people to keepan three to four tons. With that much weight be- open mind about creatures of legend. hind them, it's to an animal's advantage to have weight to protect themselves. One cannot ignore anecdotal informationor information coming from what we generally That kind of weight had its problems, too. Gil- refer to as native peoples who report things lette says if seismosaurs stumbled, their joints that science isn't aware of, or if it'saware of could have snapped under the strain of their shift- it, doesn't accep,. There stillare a lot of re- ing weight. They were probaoly confined to flat, mote areas that zoologists don't get to, and forested land where they could easily keep their we should continue trying to uncover such in- balance and find protection from the hotsun. Gil- formation in the future. lette says the beasts probably lived in lush river valleys much like the area along today's lower Recently, researchers affiliated with the society Mississippi River. have investigated a legendary large cat in Mexico, a dinosaur-like creature in central Africa and a So far, Gillette and his crew have dug outa human-like beast known as bigfoot in the Pacific long section of the dinosaur's tail and part ofa leg. Northwest. IMarch 1988 Depending on how much of the ske: 'on lies under the New Mexico desert, he says, itmay take 10 years to recover the rest. September 1986 I Evolving Knowledge 1111 Count the Bites

Inthe minds of scientists, the concept of evolu- Most people would do just about anything to tion is itself still evolving. ward off mosquitos. That's not true of William Hilsenhoff. He actually waits for mosquitos to bite him. Many scientists no longer picture evolution as Hilsenhoff is an entomologist at the University a process of slow, gradual cl,ange. Geologist Peter of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been known, on oc- Sheehan of the Milwaukee Public Museum says it casion, to submit himself to a biting count. happens in bursts. On those occasions, Hilsenhoff bares his arm or Inreality, there is a much more punctuated his back to ravenous mosquitos while an assistant style to evolution; qzat is, evolution often oc- notes the kinds and numbers of species that accept curs over very shorz periods of time, and we the offer. It's not the most pleasant way to spend go through long intervals of time where an afternoon, but Hilsenhoff says it can reveal a lot. tlzere's not much going on evolutionarily. The studies done on mosquitos have shown By very short periods, Sheehan means a few that certain species feed on people and other million years. That's brief, given the Earth's five- mammals. Other species feed on birds. There billion-year age. are even a few species that feed exclusively on Sheehan says bursts of evolution happen after reptiles and amphibians. The great majority sudden and widespread extinctions of plants and probably feed on manunals, and so from stud- animals. Whatever the cause, extinctions lead to ies that have been done and from biting an evolutionary battle between surviving organ- counts, we know which species are really isms for the food and shener the extinct species bothersonw to people. leave behind. The survivors change rapidly to as- Based on these biting counts, Hilsenhoff has sume new roles. And once they divide up the found that only three or four of Wisconsin's 50 spe- available resources, stability sets in until some cies of mosquitos bother people. One of these, event causes another round of extinctions. Aedes vexans,lays its eggs in temporary pools that That pattern has occurred time and again. The are flooded in late spring and summer. A single best-known example follow s the disappearance of square-foot puddle in one of these areas can pro- the dincsaurs. They went from domination to non- duce as many as 100 mosquitos a day. existence in less than a million years. The Some mosquitos can carry serious diseases like dinosaurs' demise caused a massive ecological re- malaria and encephalitis. But Hilsenhoff says the organization, and mammals came out on top. threat from mosquito-borne diseases is very low in Sheehan says the rise of mammals shows how the United States. The insects are more of a nui- quickly organisms can evolve. During the reign of sance here than anything else. Unfortunately, at- the dinosaurs, most mammals were tiny creatures tempts to reduce their populations are usually that lived in rotting stumps and dined on grubs costly or ineffective, so Hilsenhoff recommends a and insects. They took what they could get. That good mosquito repellant against the voracious lit- went on for a hundred million years, but as soon tle bugs. June 1982 as the dinosaurs died out, mammals burst forth in shapes and sizes to fill the roles that once be- longed to their reptilian rivals. Things have been relatively stable ever since. December 1987 BIO:OHERE 231

W The Mosquito Hawk 1111 Nature's Pesticides

While wandering along a lake or stream, some Insects eat almost half of the world's agricul- of us may flinch as a dragonfly darts across our tural crops. And although scientists continue io path. Its menacing nicknames"horse stinger" add new weapons to their pesticide arsenals, victo- and "devil's darning needle"do little to r-lieve ries against crop pests are usually short-lived. nervous regard for this shimmering-blue, double- winged aerial acrobat. Scientists, however, have taken a new tack in their battle against crop-eating insects. They have But we have nothing to fear and much to appre- discovered natural agents such as fungi, bacteria ciate in the dragonfly. According to Michigan's and viruses that all help control crop pests. Audubon Society, the flying insect is harmless to people, but true to its other monikerthe "mos- In some countries, insecticides consisting of fungi are widely used to combat pests that attack quito hawk"the dragonfly voraciously hunts crops like apples and corn. Mallory Boush, a Uni- ctown mosquitos, flies and other winged insects. In fac. a town in Maine imports thousands of versity of Wisconsin-Madison entomologist, says dragon **es every year to control mosquitos. certain species of fungi act as biological pesticides by attacking and killing insects. He says fungal The a -igonfly's most prominent feature is the spores attach themselves to insects and work their pair of buioing eyes that occupy almost its entire way ',.nto the bugs' bodies. head. The lens of each eye has more than 30,000 facets. As its head swivels freely on its neck, the The spore germinates on the outer wall or in- dragonfly easily detects movements 120 feet away. tegument of the insect and, through enzy- All this makes it a ruthlessly efficient predator of matic action, actually breaks down this outer mosquitos and such agile imiects as gnats and wall, and then the fungal development takes midges. place within the body of the insect. Other notable features of the tlragonfly are two Boush says fungi '..-tave some clear advantages pairs of nearly transparent wings that are oo t- over conventional insecticides. For example, they stretched even at rest. The wings appear fragile are natural agents that do not pollute the environ- but are strongly braced with a network of tiny ment. Unlike chemical pesticides, fungi are host- struts. A complex set of muscles controls the specific, meaning they attack just one or two kinds wings, enabling the dragonfly to hover and then of pests. This selectivity prevents the killing of veer off at speeds up to 30 miles an hour. In these beneficial insects like lady bugs that also prey on flights, its feetcurled forward to form a basket insect pests. under its body--scoop up mosquitos and other Although fungi show promise, they are not prey. problem-free. Boush says weather conditions such So when you spy a dragonfly darting your way as humidity and temperature must be just right this summer, you should not flinch. Contrary to for the fungal spores to germinate and grow on in- folk lore, the devil's darning needle is not going to sects. But scientific 5tudy continues, and some stitch up your ears. It's more intent on snapping day fungal insecticides may be commonly used to up mosquitos, and it should be honored as one of protect valuable crops.IIMarch 1984 our greatest friends. August 1984 E No Picnic II Leave it to Beavers

A tiny insect from South America is making For six years, beavers out West have been life miserable for people in the southern United working with the federal government on several States. critical soil erosion projects. The collaboration between nature's buck-toothed construction engineers and the Bureau of Land Management is Since stowing away on ships from Brazil in the reducing the loss of land and stream-side mead- 1930s, red fire ants have infested nine southern ows in southwest Wyoming. states. And despite the best efforts of science, they continue to spread. Since 1900, about 80 percent of these valuable lands in Wyoming have been destroyed by ero- Entomologist Ann Sorenson of the Texas De- sion. The problem started with herds of cattle partment of Agriculture in Austin has studied fire munching away the willows, aspens and poplars ants for seven years. She says they've earned their alongside the streams. When these trees disap- name. peared, beavers no longer had the materials to They ', e a venj aggressive ant. They will build their dams and lodges. Without beaver readily dtlend their mound, they will readily dams to slow the currents, the streams became sting, and they can sting repeatedly. And ever-deepening gullies. their sting causes a fiery sensation. But in 1977, a Bureau of Land Management biologist saw beavers struggling to build flimsy Sorenson says for most people, fire-ant stings dams using sagebrushthe only material avail- are a painful nuisance. But for a few, they cause a able. It occurred to him that witl- a little help, the dangerous allergic reaction. Fire ants are bad beavers could control erosion better and certainiy news for farmers, too. Sorenson says they can at less expense than the government. harm citrus and soybean crops and are said to have stung newborn calves to death. Besides that, And so the feds bought some cut-down wil- their hardened mounds, often three feet tall, have lows, aspens and poplars and gave them to the damaged farm machinery. beavers. Critics saw the project as simply a welfare program for the animals. But the eager bea- Fire ants naturally spread up to 15 miles each vers held up their end of the bargain, building and year, and Sorenson says they can travel much far- maintaining a series of effective river impound- ther by hitching rides on trucks. To control the ments. problem, Texas restricts the transport of nursery plants and sod and encourages pe.:icide use for On one five-mile stretch, soil erosion dropped local infestations. But Sorenson says getting rid of from 109 tons a day to just four tons. On another fire ants isn't likely soon. once-barren shoreline, vegetation now extends 30 to 40 feet inland from the bank. And the entire It would be next to impossible for us right beaver dam project has cost less than $6,000. now to eradicate this ant,based on what we know about it. What zoe are trying to do is to Success has apparently made beavers and bu- bring it under control, to get people tempo- reaucrats into partners. This fall, they've extended rary relief where there are heavily infested their enterprise to eroding streams in northern areas. Utah. INovember 1983 Sorenson says scientists are studying how fire ants reproduce and search for food in hopes of finding a natural way to rid the South of the imported pest. October 1985

3 2 BIOSPHERE

A Break for Bats 0 Bear Facts

A conservation group says bats have gotten a Go to the zoo on a summer day and you'll bad rap. probably see people tossing marshmallows to doc- ile bears. There's little indication of the strength, intelligence and wildness of these magnificent om- Bats are not vicious, they rarely transmit rabies, nivores. and they do not entangle themselves in people's hair. But myths about bats persist. In the wild, bears are solitary, wary of people and most active at night. They are also unpredict- Bat Conservation International (BCI) hopes to able in their encounters with humans. change that. The Austin, Texas-based group is working to preserve bat habitat and to educate the Black beats and grizzly bears are the only two public about the vital role bats play in ecology. species that live in the lower 48 states. Black bears BCI ecologist Paul Robertson says, for example, are, by far, the more widespread and abundant. that the growth and productivity of tropical for- Despite their name, they are often brown, cinna- ests depend on bats. mon, even blond. From tiny cubs weighing just a few ounces at birth, they grow into muscular Bats in tropical areas are extremely impor- adults of several hundred pounds. Upright on tant as pollinators of plants of many different their short, stocky legs, they stand about six feet t ypes, and they aLo are very important seed tall. In spite of their bulk, they are excellent tree- dispersers. climbers. And apart from man, they have no natural enemies, though they will always yield to the Robertson says most of the 39 bat species in the United States serve a different but equally impor- larger grizzlies when the two meet. tant function. As many campers know, black bears eat almost anything. They have strong jaws with both long, They eat prodigious amounts of insects. Each pointed canine teeth and flat molars enabling species seems to have a different sort of palate them to eat a wide variety of vegetable and animal for insects: Some prefer one form of insect, foods. Although they can reach speeds of 25 miles sonie prefer another form. But in general an hour when chasing prey, they are generally too they're extremely valuable in just controlling slow to catch deer, elk or moose, so they settle insect populations. mostly for nuts, berries, honey and small animals. Robertson says many of the insects that bats eat Black bears once lived throughout North Amer- are crop pests and mosquitos. The most spectacu- ica. Over time, civilization dnd hunting have re- lar bug hunters fly out of a cave north of San Anto- duced their range. But unlike their cousins the nio, Texas. grizzlies, who seem to need true wilderness to sur- Eveny night those bats go out on a feeding vive, black bears have shown an uncanny ability foray. Twenty million batsit takes two to adapt. There are still an estimated 150,000 of hours for them just to get out of the cave. them in this country, and they continue to thrive They go out on a feeding foray, and during in all but a dozen states. August 1982 that time, a conservative estimate of what they eat is one-quarter of a million pounds of insects a night. Robertson often takes college students to stand the entrance of the cave as the Mexican free-tail bats rush by. He hopes people will get over their fear of bats. He says a change of attitude would help protect bat habitat from development, vandalism and other threats. August 1987

33 26 _BIOSPHERE.

Caring Killers ill Look Out fo: Swimming Elephants

Killer whales are hunters with impressive cre- Boaters and swimmers enjoying Florida's dentials. They grow up to 30 feet long and weigh warm coastal waters may be surprised to see a as much as nine tons. They have more than four large creature swimming near the water's surface. dozen razor-sharp teeth. Even their name is sober- It looks like a walrus without tusks, but it's not. ing. It's a West Indian manatee. But those who know them say killer whales This marine mammal shares a common ances- have another side that dispels their nasty image. try not with the walrus or seal but with the ele- Researchers at the Moclips Cetological Society phant. Although it has no trunk, the manatee's in Friday Harbor, Washington, have studied the leathery hide, sparse hairs and fingernails on the animals' social life. Their results show that these flippers do resemble characteristics of the ele- largest members of the dolphin family are not phant. Its size is elephantine as well. It can grow wanton killers. Rather, they are intelligent mam- up to 15 feet long and three feet high and weigh as mals with strong family ties. much as a ton. Killer whales, also called orcas, live in close About a thousand manatees inhabit the coastal family groups known as pods. Pods range from and inland rivers of Florida. Although 17 sanctu- 10 to 50 animals and stay together year-round. aries exist there to protect them, manatees are still The me,nbers hunt, play and care for the young to- in danger. These shy marine mammals have no gether. Richard Osborne, a biologist with the form of defense, including defense against people. Moclips Cetological Society, says some whales Because they have to surface for air, they often even specialize in child-rearing. swim in shallow water where they get hit by speeding motor boats. This can inflict serious inju- We have femaies that are closely associated ries. with mothers, who have never given birth to According to University of Florida wildlife spe- calves themselves but always seem to take cialist Margaret Kinnaird, propeller scars have be- care of the next-oldest calf every time a cer- come a manatee's identification tag. Kinnaird is tain mother gives birth to a new whale. studying boat-related manatee injuries and deaths. Osbornc says these female whales, called "aunt- She hopes to find those areas in the sanctuaries ies," don't always baby-sit alone. Sometimes the where injuries occur most often. Then manatee males take over. warning signs can be installed and boat traffic Part of the reason orcas can maintain such a slowed or even prohibited. complex social life is their skill at communicating. Kim, ird says many swimmers and boaters They use a system of clicks and whistles to com- don'.- know that manatees exist and are alarmed to municate between pod members and between the see them in tht, water. She stresses that public pods themselves. Moclips scientists have discov- awareness and good sanctuary management are ered that each region, and even each pod, has a vital in protecting these gentle giants. May 1983 distinct dialect. This enables individuals to recog- nize pod members and helps different pods identify each other. Unlike some whale species, orcas have a healthy world population. And the work of scientists on the Washington coast is helping it stay that way. IFebruary 1984

34 BIOSPHERE 27

Gorilla Welfare II Old King Clone

A bright idea has saved an endangered species The Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles is of gorilla from almost certain extinction in Africa. not one of the world's most hospitable places. But Only about 300 mountain gorillas remain, iso- King Clone, possibly the oldest livini thing on lated in a small parcel of rain forest in east-central earth, seems to like it. Africa. Amy Vedder. a graduate student in zooi- Ten thousand years ago, when the last ice age ogy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has was ending, King Clone was already an old-timer studied the gorillas in Volcanos National Park in by human st ndards. Now, at the ripe age of Rwanda for the World Wildlife Fund. She says 11,700 years, King Clonea creosote bush their low numbers and limited range make them claims the title of the oldest living thing on Earth. especially prone to extinction. For many years, scientists believed that the old- They can't live in any old forest, and along est living organism was a bristlecone pine in Cali- with the fact that they reproduce very slowly, fornia, dated at nearly 5,000 years of age. But then they develop slowly, they have restricted dis- the researchers started looking at creosote tribution. That means they are a species busheslow, nondescript shrubs common in de- that's vulnerable to problems of extinction. If serts throughout the southwest. something else drives them to small popula- Creosote bushes grow by cloning, beginning tion sizes, they're very vulnerable to becoming extinct. from a single seed. Each successive layer of low branches develops roots on its own. Over time, When Vedder began her studies in Rwanda, it the bush spreads out into a ring, with a circle of looked as thoug,h the mountain gorillas were bare ground in the center. While a creosote bush doomed. She discovered that poachers were kill- may look like a series of unconnected plants, ge- ing many of the animals for their skulls, which netically it is one individual and functions as does they sold as curios. Worse still, the Rwandan gov- a single plant. ernment was planning to clear almost half the rain Using sophisticated techniques like radioactive forest in the national park to raise cattle. carbon dating, scientists are able to estimate the But Vedder and her husband, Bill Weber, who rate at which the cii-cle of a creosote bush expands. also works for the World Wildlife Fund, helped Then, by measuring the distance from the outer change all that. They persuaded the government edge of the plant to the middle of thering, they to promote the mountain g,orillas as a tourist at- can compute the age. traction. Weber organized daily tours to take visi- Creosote bushes with diameters of 30 feet or tors to see the gorillas in the wild. He also ti ained more are relatively common in the Mojave Desert. a regiment of park rangers to scout out snares and But the bush nicknamed King Clone is 70 feet clamp down on poachers. across, making it close to 12,000 years old. Now, says Weber, gorilla poaching is down in By studying very old creosot-i bushes, scientists Rwanda. The country has dropped the cattle hope to learn about the origins of the Mojave Des- ranching scheme because of a 12-fold increase in ert. Old King Clone will be around a while longer money spent by visitors to Volcanos National for such research, thanks to the Nature Conser, Park, and there's new hope for the mountain vancy. The private conservation group bought the goriEas' survival. 111 February 1905 surrounding land because less than a mile away, new houses are springing up. May 1985

5 28 BIOSPHERE

III The Tree that Started a War Autumn Kaleidoscope

If not for the white pine tree, the United States Glorious golds. Picturesque purples. Resilient of America might never have been. Take a look at reds. The greenery of summer bursts into a kalei- colonial history and you'll see why. doscope of color during clear, crisp autumn days. The stately pines once dominated America's Fall foliage can be spectacular. But have you northern forests. They were so abundant in New ever wondered what causes the dramatic change? England that early settlers spent much of their Throughout the summer, trees produce food time just clearing pine trees off the land so they through photosynthesis. Chlorophyll, the sub- could farm. As far as the settlers were concerned, stance that gives leaves their green color, captures white pines were almost a nuisance. the sun's energy to power the process. The cooler England, on the other hand, considered the temperatures and shorter days of early fall cause trees quite valuable. Their tall, straight, light- trees to slow down. They use up their chloro- weight trunks made ideal masts for sailing ships, phyll, and the green tint of the leaves fades. so England passed conservatior laws to protect Yellows and oranges once hidden by chloro- the trees. phyll now show through. Elm, birch and poplar That set the stage for conflict, as Wisconsin nat- are just a few of the trees that light up like gold. uralist Wayne Pauly explains. Maples and red oaks, meanwhile, flame with By 1700, England had lost virtnally all its for- scarlet and purple. As these trees slow down for ests, so they knew what could happen. They the winter, sugars get trapped in their leaves and sent foresters over here to mark trees with the sunlight turns the sugars to a red dye. The more king's broad arrow, and that meant it be- sugar in a leaf, the darker the red. longed to the king. Well, pioneers being pio- The timing of the color change depends on the neers, they cut the trees down anyway. So kind of tree, its location and the weather. Gordon England sent spies over here. Well, spies Cunningham, a University ot Wisconsin-Extension caught the men, but American judges, juries forestry professor, says a sunny, dry, cool autumn and sheriffs wouldn't arrest, try or convict a usually gives the most brilliant display. The man for cutting down a tree. 1 mean, that's brightest foliage peaks in the north around mid- silly! So England decided to take these men Septernl-er; then this kaleidoscope of colors rolls over to Europe for trial. Now we're getting southward through October. September 1982 into the 1760s, 1770s. We're talking about a hundred years of controversy over the white pine trees. So that's why the Revolution really started in the New England states to some extent, because the white pine tree mis an economic and psychological reason. Pauly says colonial settlers got mad just looking at white pine trees, mad enough to go to war, and during the Revolution they carried battle flags whose designs included the white pine as a symbol of their anger and determination. IISeptember 1982 Better to Light than Fight? Iii Now That's a Big Tree

Fires sweep through the foothills of southern They come armed and ready to bag their California with alarming frequency. Each fire quarry. They're the big-tree hunters, tape mea- seems more devastating than the last. People say sures in hand. California's chaparral, a forest of stunted trees and brush, seems almost designed to burn. The critical time is fall, when the hot, dry Santa If you spot a group of people sizing up that Ana winds and low humidity combine to make giant oak tree in your front yard, don't panic. the chaparral extremely flammable. A single bolt They may be looking for a new champion for the of lightning, a bit of human carelessness or an American Forestry Association's National Register arsonist's match can set it ablaze. And once a of Big Trees. chaparral fire begins, there is little anyone can do The private association, based in Washington, to keep it from roaring off on a destructive ram- D.C., is looking for the biggest individual in each page. of 850 free species growing wild in the United Tom Bonnicksen is a forestry professor at the States. To become a champion, a tree must be the Univeisity of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied tallest and have the largest girth and widest crown chaparral wildfires. He contends they are inevita- of any of its kind. New champions are not easy to ble and says conventional attempts to put them find. Some record-holding trees have reigned out can be counterproductive. since 1940, when the American Forestry Associa- tion established the register. Here we have a situation where we can't prevent ignitions from occurring. We can't stop Deborah Gangloff, director of the National Reg- li(gitning, can t stop accidents, can't stop the ister of Big Trees, says honoring the leafy giants deviant individual. If you did succeed in put- encourages appreciation of trees in general. ting out most of the fires, the fuels would It's basically a promotional program to com- gradually accumulate to the point where they municate the benefits of all trees everywhere would inevitably burn again. to people by focusing on those of unusual Bonnicksen says suppressing wildfires allows a size. It's sort of a Ripley's Believe It Or Not buildup of dead limbs and other plant :f.aterial, of trees. And our main point is to get people and that only assures the next fires will be larger, out there learning about trees, learning how hotter and more intense. they're measured, and learning to identify them, which is the number one step. Instead of just fighting chaparral fires, he says, it would be wiser to burn patches of brush deliber- Gangloff says the program helps students from ately from time to time under controlled condi- grade school to graduate school identify trees. She tions. That would reduce the chances of wildfires says everyone can get involved. raging over large areas later. And according to The big-tree hunters we rely on are just peo- Bonnicksen, controlled burning would cost a lot ple interested in trees: They're not necessar- less than conventional fire fighting. ily professional foresters. They spend their In other words, it may be better to light than time looking around the forest for the giant fight.E October 1982 trees, and then they send ine a nomination. The American Forestry Association publishes the locations of champion trees every four years. Landowners often designate them with a plaque. Only Alaska, Wyoming and Nebraska have yet to locate a champion within their borders. November 1988 .. ..1, if?P.-. Bush League Defense III Distress Signals

It's tall, green, and so mean that the U.S. Ma- When they're thirsty, plants call for help. But rine Corps nicknamed it P.T:---sliort for pain and who hears them? terror.

That house plant in your window may be Its scientific name is trifoliate orange, and it's a screaming cut for water. You cannot hear it, but bush that grows wild throughout Tennessee. A it's possible that insects can. member of the citrus family, it makes a tall, hand- When plants dry out, vein-like tubes inside some hedgerow. Glossy green leaves cover the them snap and let out high-pitched chirping bush from March to October. Pretty white flowers sounds. A plant may chirp for up to six weeks bloom in the spring. before it dies of thirst. These distress calls are too But the plant's good looks cannot hide its ag- high-pitched for people to hear. But special gressive personality. Mike Pardon is marketing recording equipment can capture the sounds in manager for Barrier Concepts, Inc., of Oak Ridge, a laboratory. That allows scientists like Robert Tennessee. He says when planted as a hedgerow, Haack to study them. trifoliate orange creates a formidable barrier Haack is an entomologist with the U.S. Depart- against trespassers. It is, he says, one vicious- looking bush. ment of Agriculture. He believes some insects may home in on the distress signals of plants. The thorns range anywhere from one inch up Haack says thirsty plants are a good find for many to five inches long. And it's a venj dense insects. Plants under stress cannot defend them- mass of limbs all intertwined together. So it's selves against attack as well as healthy plants. impossible to get through. Drought-stricken plants are also richer in sugars and nitrogen, so they make for better eating. Ahd Pardon's company markets trifoliate orange as many wood-burrowing insects prefer to lay their a product called the Living Security Fence, and the eggs in weakened plants. U.S. armed forces are among its most enthusiastic fans. The Marine Corps calls it P.T.as in pain Haack explains that plants do more than chirp and terror. Pardon says the thorny wall gives frantically when they're under stress. They actu- would-be intruders second thoughts. ally run the equivalent of a plant fever, and they give off a different odor than usual. Insects may Most people can go across a chain-link fence look for a combination of these signals to find a in about three seconds, and it may take them meal. an hour or half an hour to even think about a way to go across a hedgerow like this. It could turn out that it's just one more plant cue that the insects use. So they may use Government agencies are not the only ones their eyes, their noses and their poweis of planting P.T. Pardon says suburbanites as far taste. But they also may use their sense of north as Grand Rapids, Michigan, have invested in touch or sense of hearing to pick up these living security fences. So don't be surprised if one vibrational cues. day you find your neighbor posting a sign with this ominous warning: "Beware of Hedge." Haack says it's not yet clear whether insects

111 December 1988 actually hear when a plant is in trouble. But there is one clue in favor of his theory: He says insects rarely land on thirsty plants unless the distress calls have started. I December 1988

38 ,; )fr';',T

VO.

" LAIID. 33

ill New Roots Plant Partnerships

You may not dine on curly-dock pancakes or Next to weeding, the biggest headache for gamma grass on the cob anytime soon. But a Kan- home gardeners is protecting vegetables from in- sas plant geneticist hopes these and other prairie sects and other animal pests. plants will one day replace corn, wheat and soy- Lawn and garden centers usually prescribe beans in America's farm fields. chemicals to get rid of pests, but many people pre- Wesley Jackson, director of the privately oper- fer not to use them. Instead, they try a rather old- ated Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, is trying to fashioned alternative. It's called companion develop perennial crops that would not have to be planting, and the idea behind it is to plant together plowed under and replanted every year. He says two or more crops that benefit each other. this would save energy and protect soil from ero- Jerry Minnich of Madison, Wisconsin, has writ- sion. And he says several native plant varieties ten several books on gardening. He says some are higher in nutritional value than many of plants help keep pests away from other plants. today's crops. For instance, marigolds grown next to virtually According to Jackson, plants like eastern arty vegetable crop discourage pests. People used gamma grass, a high-protein relative of corn, take to think the flowers pungent odor was responsi- nitrogen from the air to make their own fertilizer. ble, but recent research has shown another factor Others, such as Maximillian sunflowers, produce to be important: Marigold roots produce three natural pesticides. Jackson thinks several varieties compounds that filter into the soil and kill several could be planted together in a field to share their common plant parasites. beneficial characteristics and reduce the need for The effect of marigolds is scientifically con- synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. firmed. But generations of gardeners also swear Critics claim these kinds of plants cannot meet by a host of other unconfirmed crop companion,: the demands of the modern agricultural market. The herbs rosemary and summer savory report- They say it isn't possible to get a high seed-yield edly repel beetles from bean plants. Mint is said out of perennials because the plants need to re- to keep away thk- cabbage butterfly. Chives and serve their energy for the next year's growth. So garlic are believed to drive aphids away from peas only annual plants, like corn and wheat, can afford and lettuce. to put most of their energy into seed production. But companion plants don't just protect each But Jackson disagrees. He points out that other from pests. Minnich says deep-rooted plants like curly-dock, a member of the buckwheat plants help break up the soil for weaker-rooted family, are more productive than many common plants. And tall plants like broccoli help shade farm crops. He says by breeding them for certain low-growing crops like lettuce from the withering characteristics, scientists could make other prairie heat of the summer sun. perennials more productive as well. It is still not understood how some plants bene- Jackson says change will come slowly. He fit neighboring plants. But plenty of people are hopes to persuade some farmers to grow his prai- convinced that companion planting keeps gardens rie plants on land easily eroded by row crops. He healthier without the use of a lot of chemicals. believes these farmers would save soil and energy June 1982 and still get a good return on their investment. April 1985

4 o II Ocean Spray? III Casts of Thousands

Algae from the ocean may someday kill im... The earthworin stirs and makes its cast, on the farm. By this we know it's sprirg at last. That poetic tidbit is the creation of Francis Many farmers rely on pesticides to keep crops Hole, professor of soil science and geography at free of insects and to increase yields. But the c' em- the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hole says icals can be ineffective if insect populations be- he wrote the poem after he found several earth- come resistant to them. And pesticides can be worm casts on the edge of a sidewalk one soggy banned ;C they're too toxic to other forms of life. spring day. Consequently, pesticide manufacturers are always What's an earthworm cast? Hole says it's actu- looking for new compounds that are both effective ally eart...vorrn manure. As worms burrow and safe. through the ground, they move the soil and or- Sea Grant chemist Joseph Hanke at the Univer- ganic material through their bodies and deposit sity of California-Berkeley suggests that pesticide their casts throughout the soil. Hole says earth- companies turn to the sea. worm casts contain five to 11 times the amount of three major plant nutrientsnitrogen, phosphorus One way of looking at the marine environ- and potassiumas does the soil that contributed ment is that it's a gold field, and we can go to the casting. The casts also improve the struc- out and mine the marine environment for ture of the soil by making it more crumbly, so it chemicals that are new and therefore different. drains and "breathes" be:ter. Using marine resources in agriculture is not Hole says there are about 1,80C ' nown species new. For example, seventeenth century farmers of earthworms. They vary by species from pl Ice used whale oil to kill insects in rice fields. to place according to types of soil. Some worms Someday, modern farmers may kill insects in prefer the acidic soil and deep layer of needles in the field with algae. Hanke has identified 14 spe- pine forests. Others live in the less acidic soils of cies of red and brown algae that contain corn- hardwood forests or farm fields. pounds lethal to insects. The chemist says much Oddly enough, says Hole, the most common as a skunk protects itself by producing scent, algae earthworm, the night crawler, isn't a native of defend themselves with toxins. North America. lt was brnuht here from Europe Hanke says it is not unusual for marine plants by early settlers. But the night crawler has made a tc rrntect ternselves from insects because the comfortable home here and has given farmers and plants face numerous threats from them. They home gardeners a cheap and efficient means of ' m- may be eaten by the larvae of insects that have proving the soil. April 1982 aquatic life stages. They may be exposed to c ir and to hungry insects when the tide goes out. And in deeper water, they may be on the menus of lobsters and crabs, which are dose cousins to insects. Han1.e is currently testing the effect. veness of algae tc xins against pests that plague cotton, corn and tobacco crops. He says because the toxins occur naturally, they could be safer to use than synthetic chemicals.IIOctober 1987

4 1 Salt of the Earth Chemical Controversy

Of all the natural compounds, salt may be the Will genetic engineering one day make agricul- most puzzling. Ovr body fluids contain it, and in tural pesticides and fertilizers obsolete? Or will it judicious amoun' .r diets require it. We pay re- make farmers more dependent on chemicals than spect to salt in e. :isions like "he's the salt of the ever before? earth," "worth his salt," and even the warning, "take it with a grain of salt." But scientists believe Biotechnologists hope to produce crop plants this worthy compound is a growing threat to that resist pests and diseases and fertilize them- world agriculture. selves. They say this would free farmers from the need to use large amounts of chemicals in the They are alarmed by the gradual salting of field. One industry official even calls genetic engi- croplands by irrigationa practice born in the neerin a "back-to-nature" technology. floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers 6,000 years ago in what is now Iraq. This Fertile Cres- But Terri Goldberg of the Committee for Re- cent, as it was called, once fed a population of be- sponsible Genetics in Boston disagrees. Goldberg tween 17 million and 25 million people. Then it says one of the major thrusts in biotechnology at became too salty to sustain its crops, and now it is present is to create plants that are more tolerant of largely desert. chemical herbicides so the two can be tied together. On lands with plenty of rain and drainage, the I don't see this back-to-nature movement hap- natural salts in water and soil are easily flushed pening in the biotechnology companies. I see into rivers and, eventually, the oceans. But in re exactly the opposite. In fact, many of the com- gions with little rain and particularly poor drain- panies that produce herbici&F are those com- age, :rrigation gradually deposits more and more panies that are most actively interested in salt in the ground. Evaporation from plants and producing new seed varieties that will utilize soil releases essentially pure water to the air and more and more herbicides. further increases salt concentration. In And more herbicides, says Goldberg, could California's San Joaquin Valley, many farmers cause greater environmental harm and pose poten- must use 5 percent to 10 percent of their land for tial health problems. evaporation ponds to remove salt from irrigation water. Robert Molz of the DuPont Corporation dis- putes the claim. Molz says the advent of herbicide- A recent report by the London-based Interna- resistant plants would enable farmers to use new, tional Institute for Environment and Development less-toxic chemicals in smaller amounts. claims that salt has already reduced crop production on.half the world's irrigated land. And the Andwhat all this is going to translate into is U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conserva- lower cost of production for the grower, and tion Service is investigating the salinity of this that will translate into lower costs at the su- nation's soils. The agency hopes to persuade fed- permarket for you and me. I think it will be eral policy makers to give this threat high priority. environmentally less damaging and result in For America's fruited plains, such as-se in the greater safety to the growers and applicators Imperial and San Joaquin valleys of Canfornia, the who use these chemicals. threat is already real. December 1984 Molz maintains that new, herbicide-resistant crops would be just the first step toward chemical- free farming. May 1985

4 2 111 Preventable Pollution Swept Away

Barnyards and feedlots are a big source of Every day, winds whip across open fields and water pollution in the dairy lands of Wisconsin. sweep away clouds of dust. Rain carves gullies But they don't have to be. into unprotected hillsides. The result is soil ero- Fred Madison, a University of Wisconsin-Exten- sion. It happens mostly on farms, but it occurs in sion soil scientist, says farmers can prevent storm towns and cities, too. water from sweeping manure off their farms and Leonard Johnson, a soil conservationist with into streams and lakes. the University of Wisconsin-Extension, says land Divert the water upslope. Keep as much development and construction sites are most vul- water out of the barnyard area as you can. nerable. And then, if necessary, collect what water Because the land is disturbed, it's open and runs out of the barnyard-feedlot area and susceptible to active erosion, and a lot of soil treat it before it's introduced to a waterway. can be moved off. The amounts of soil lost Madison says diversion ditches upslope, gut- per unit area can be truly tnassiveyou ters and downspouts on barns, and other precau- know, 10 to 100 or more times what you tions can steer most runoff away from places might get from an agricultural cropland area. where livestock congregate. He says catch basins Johnson says urban soil erosion can be a big nui- downslope -om those places can trap the rest and sance. Loose soil piles up on streets and clogs hold it until the manure settles out. storm sewers. It also washes into lakes and What can farmers do with manure? Madison streams, adding to water pollution. says they should spread it on their fields to replen- But Johnson says developers and contractors ish the soil. He believes this is generally safe even can control soil erosion. in winter, when the ground is frozen and cannot absorb manure right away. But he says there are There are some relatively simple and effective exceptions. things they can do, in the technical sense, in terms of land stabilizing measures, vegetative Where farmers do not have landsufficient -ractices, using mulches, using temporary land of the right kind of slope and thickness seditnent-retention structures, just managing and separation from streamsto spread the how the surface water runs, retaining it wastes that their cattle will generate during where appropriate, and protecting the soil sur- the wintertime, then storage for the winter face from raindrop impact and from runoff. months is an appropriate water-quatity protection strategy. Some communities and states with severe urban erosion require special protection for con- 1,Arm improvements to stop water pc Ilution struction sites. But no matter where it happens, cost money, of course, and that's something many Johnson believes it is in the best interests of land farmers are short of these days. A new 5:1 million developers to prevent erosion. m February 1982 state fund will give qualifying farmers in Wiscon- sin up to $10,000 each toward those expenses. Madison says a million dollars is not enough to help everyone who needs it, but it's a start. August 1984 LAND 37

Coon Valley's Milestone The Great Land Loss

Coon Valley, located in southwestern Wiscon- Louisiana has 40 percent of the nation's wet- sin near La Crosse, was once plagued by severe lands, but 50 square miles of those wetlands w ash erosion. Today, Coon Valley is hailed as a show- into the Gulf of Mexico each year. The state suf- case for soil and water conservation. fers the greatest losses of any state in the country Nearly 50 years ago, the federal Soil Conserva- to coastal erosion. tion Service picked Coon Valleyan area of That land loss may increase the price we pay rough, rolling terrainto become the nation's first for seafood and energy. As Louisiana's wetlands major target for erosion control. The area had erode, important nursery grounds for fish and seen two generations of intensive agriculture and shellfish disappear, and when catches go down, had suffered droughts and floods. It bore scars in seafood prices go up. New restriction- on energy the form of barren hillsides, numerous gullies and exploration in the wetlands could slow this ero- streams that were choked with eroded sediment. sion, but they also could make natural gas and oil Many Coon Valley farmers saw erosion ruin more expensive to extract. their land. In 1933, with help from the Civilian Louisiana State University marine scientist Eu- Conservation Corps, they adopted new ways of gene Turner says the dredging of canals is the big- farming. They began rotating crops, building gest culprit in wetland erosion. He says his grassed waterways and terracing steep slopes. studies indicate that dredging canals to find and They also planted crops in alternating strips that extract oil and natural gas in the wetlands ac- followed the contours of the land. Over the years, counts for at least 50 percent of Louisiana's coastal these innovations slowed the velocity of storm run- land loss. off and helped rebuild the soil. In places, canals in Louisiana's coastal wet- Because these conservation measures were lands are as dense as streets :a a crowded subdivi- taken, the gullies have healei over and the land is sion. It's not just the land destroyed by dredging productive again. Today, the streams in Coon Val- that has people worried. The bigger problem is ley are flowing clearer because less eroded sedi- that the canals interrupt the flow of sediments and ment washes into them. The numbers of fish and nutrients through the marshes. Thec,! materials wild animals in the areasuch as trout, deer and nourish the growth of marsh ecosystems: Without ruffed grousehave increased substantially. a continuous supply of sediments and nutrients, The lessons learned at Coon Valley have been these fragile areas subside or break up in storms long-lasting and widespread: They've helped es- and wash away. tablish soil and water conser.ation techniques th Piling the dredged materials, or spoils, in are applied not only in Wisconsin and elsewhere banks along the canals has divided the marshes in the upper Midwest, but overseas as well. into impounded fragments. Turner says the spoil August 1982 banks keep water from flowing between marsh and adjacent waterways, and ma.-.y marsh areas have turned into ponds and lakes, some with teil- tale rectangular shapes. There are new restrictions on dumping dredge spoils to protect the wetlands. But, Turner says, Louisiana will continue to suffer as a result of 50 years of virtually unrestricted dredging. IllMarch 1983

4 4 38 LAND

Across the Fruited Plain 111 Harvest of Dust It's a parcel of living history with vistas like The world is losing fertile land at a startling those the first settlers faced as they moved west: a rate, according to the United Nations. And it's veritable sea of grass, shining amber waves harbor- happening fastest in places that can least afford it. ing a multitude of plants and wildlife. The Konza Prairie stretches almost 9,000 acres across Kansas. It's the iast place in America where UNEP, the United Nations Environment Pro- unspoiled remnants of the Great Plains still reach gramme, estimates that 52 million acres of range as far as the eye can see. Lloyd Hulbert and other and crop land are reduced to wasteland every biologists at Kansas State University have stucitc!d year. That's an area roughly the size ci Minne- the Konza for more than 25 years. sota, and UNEP says people are to blame. They are trying to understand how its many In developing countries with fast-growing populations, people are trying to squeeze more from componentsplants, insects, birds, mammals, soil the land than the land can give. They're farming it nd streams, to name a fewsurvive and interact. too intensively, grazing too many animals, irrigat- Hulbert says learning how prairies maintain themselves helps protect the remaining patches. It also ing poorly and cutting too many trees. All of that benefits agriculture: Prairie researchers learn leaves the land barren and infertilea disaster in about grassland management techniques that are places where food, water and other necessities are useful on grazing lands, and they also learn what already in short supply. kinds of soils prairies form and how they stay pro- The process is c...11ed desertification because the ductive. abused land, usually dry to begin with, becomes Kansas State bought a thousand acres of the desert. UNEP says up to a third of the world's Konza Prairie in 1971. The Nature Conservancy, land, including large parts of Africa, Asia and the a private land-preservation organization, bought western United States, is susceptible to desertifica- neat iy 8,000 more acres six years later. That as- tion. One of every five people in the world lives in sures that the prairie will remain forever wild. those areas and would suffer if the land became useless. The National Science Foundation has given Unfortunately, once it starts, desertification is Hulbert and his colleagues a long-term research grant to continue studying the Konza. The univer- hard to stop. People driven off the land by their sity now has six full-time scientists at work there, own misuse of it tend to go elsewhere and repeat and Hulbert says this priceless remnant of the their mistakes. And each time they move, the Great Plains will provide research opportunities problem grows worse as more people try to survive on less land. for generations to come. July 1934 The United Nations Environment Programme says desertification can be stopped, but it will take an international commitment of perhaps $90 billion over the next 20 years. The money is needed to promote environmentally sound development and careful resource management where desertification threatens. The price is high, but UNEP says the price of doin nothing could be much higher. June 1985

4 5 LAND 39

III Patches of Haven El Paradise Lost

The finest pieces of wild America are found in A hurricane that destroyed houses along the the national parks, right? That's what most people Texas coast also blew away private property think. But in fact, the lesser-known system ofna- rights. tional wildlife refuges is bigger, wilder and possibly more important. President Teddy Roosevelt started the National When Hurricane Alicia roared into Texas in Wildlife Refuge System in 1903, 30years after the 1983, houses along Galveston's shoreline crum- creation of the first national park. He set aside I'el- bled in the gale. T'he high winds also blew up a ican Island, located off Florida's coast, as a haven legal storm that has cost some homeowners their for wildlife, not a tourist attraction for people. beachfront property. Now, 80 years later, more than 750 refugespro- The state barred owners of several damaged vide essential habitat for over 800 species of I:nrds homes from rebuilding. The Texas Open Beaches and mammals. Alaska's share alone coversmore Act declares land between the ocean and natural area than all of New Mexico. Every state but West shoreline vegetation to be public property. Hurri- Vnginia has refuge land. cane Alicia eroded the beach and pushed the vege- The system has proven to be a last resort for tation line back 150 feet. That left 300 parcels of sal, in 3 habiL. As America's frontier succumbed private property, some with beachfront houses,on to p,cw and rail, habitat crucial to wildlife was de- what had become public beach under Texas law. stre Jed. In some cases, whole species, such as the The state confiscated tne land. The owners filed bison, were nearly wiped out. But a thoughtful suit, claiming Texas unconstitutionally seized their group of sportsmenhunters, mostlyrealized property. that their dwindling supply of game was not The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme merely bad luck. They knew something had to be Court. The court refused to hear an appeal, up- done. holding the state's argument that beaches are pub- The National Wildlife Refuge System, which is lic property. run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is now Texas assistant attorney general Kenneth Cross the foremost habitat-preservation effort in the says the state's Open Beaches Act accommodates world. Some refuges, like the Arctic National changes in nature. Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, are pristine wilderness. Most are not. It is the smaller sitesa swamp in When you're talking about the natural land- New Jersey or a prairie in the Dakotasthat allow forms down along our coastal areas, it has al- wildlife to live and breed in areas where most of ways been a tradition and always been the their habitat was destroyed. law that as nature moves and reshapes the coastline, then the property rights change The laws that protect wildlife refugesare less along with those natural processes. And all stringent than those protecting national parks. Pri- that we have done is follow that tradition in vate and public interestssuch as mineral leases these Hurricane Alicia cases. constantly threaten the refuges. Nonetheless, they are patches of haven for embattled wildlife across Cross says n-iture, not the state, really took the the nation. March 1984 oceanfront property. He says people who build on hurricane-prone beaches assume that risk. In Galveston, Texas, some beachfront homeowners gambled and lost. August 1987

)C. 14; I

II This Land is Your Land An Outpost of Nature Three and two-tenths acresthat would be Close your eyes and clear your mind. Now, your personal share if all the federally owned land what's the first thing that pops into your head in the United States were parceled out evenly to when someone says "New Jersey?" eveiy man, woman and child in the country. Factories and smokestacks? Gambling casinos A third of the nation's land-740 million and the Atlantic City boardwalk? Sprawling sub- acresis still in federal hands. Most of it is west urbs in the shadow of the Manhattan skyline? of the Rocky Mountains and relatively undevel- If so, you may be surprised to hear this: New oped. And while the government is not likely to Jersey is the home of a wildland reserve almost as carve it into personal-sized chunks, it remains our big as Grand Canyon National Park. It's called the common property. Pinelands National Reserve, or simply the pine The land is extremely diverse. It includes ev- barrens. And while it may not knock your socks erything from deserts and vast grasslands to off the way the Grand Canyon does, it's still an im- mountains and dense forests. It is rich in coal, oil, pressive outpost of nature on the doorstep of the natural gas and other fuels. It is a vast storehouse eastern megalopolis. of important minerals and priceless timber. Griz- The early waves of East Coast development zly bears, bald eagles and bighorn sheep take ref- simply bypassed the pine barrens. Except for a uge there. And it has some of the most flurry of iron mining in the 1850s, they remained spectacular scenery on the planet. an economic backwatera flatland of forests, bogs Small wonder that the future of this land has and streams. Only recently, when city-dwellers become a major public issue. Demand for all of its began seeking a rural escape, did the pine barrens treasures is growing. Once, there seemed plenty catch their eyes. But by then, large tracts h-Icl be- of everything to go around. Now, drilling for new come state forest, and attempts to fill the rest with oil may mean sacrificing a bit of wilderness. Pro- vacation homes and resorts raised an outcry from tecting bears may mean foregoing a timber har- people who wanted the area to remain wild. vesi. Choosing one treasure may mean losing Today, the Pinelands National Reserve is a another, and so people with special interests in patchwork quilt of public and private land. It is these treasures are spending a lot of time, energy not wilderness. Cranberry and blueberry farms and money to persuade the federal government to ring the perimeter, and several small towns dot see things their way. the interior. The 15-member New Jersey Preservationists had the upper hand during the Pinelands Commission has the difficult job of regu- Nixon, Ford and Carter years. Development inter- lating growth in the area without strangling local ests gained favor when President Reagan took of- economies. fice. Nobody knows who will prevail in the The reserve is a haven for birdwatchers, hikers, future. It's safe to say that the political battle over canoeists and others who seek respite from the cit- the use of federal lands is likely to intensify as the ies nearby. The question now is whether the pine nation's appetite for natural resources grows, and barrens can stand the growing influx of the outcome of that battle will touch us all. recreationists. Their very numbers have shaken its IIMarch 1983 solitude and put new pressures on this outpost of nature at the doorstep of megalopolis. August 1984

44 '71 g.i I Forest Lawns Nature's Way

A carpet of green grass is still the preferred People have drastically altered the face of the lawn for most homeowners. But more natural Florida Everglades in the last centany. Now the plantings are creeping into America's neighbor- state of Florida wants to undo some of the dam- hoods. age that's been done.

At least 2,000 people are reconsidering mowing When Florida became a state in 1845, the first their lawns this summer. That's how manycon- legislature declared the Everglades swamp worth- tacted the National Wildlife Federation last winter less and asked Congress to help turn the area into to find out how to landscape their yards to attract usable land. Thirty-five years later, the state sold wildlife. The federation's Backyard Wildlife Habi- four million acres of the Everglades to Philadel- tat Program offers advice on planting that provide phia manufacturer Hamilton Disston and prom- food and shelter for birds, mammals and butter- ised to give him more if he drained it. flies. In the decades that followed, Disston and other Coordinator Toni Pepin says that since the pro- developers built large canals and dikes to stop the gram began in 1973, thousands of people have con- natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee verted their yards to little woodlots or prairies. through the Everglades to the Atlantic Ocean and Pepin says for those folks, flat, sterile lawns just Gulf of Mexico. Farmers moved in to grow crops aren't enough. on the former wetlands. Then came urban devel- I think people are looking at thei- yards, want- opers, who helped turn south Florida into one of ing to do as much as they can with the small the fastest-growing population centers in the coun- amount of space they have, tnying to make it try. favorable to wildlife so they can have the en- Only recently have people realized that the Ev- joyment of getting to see neat critters in their erglades region is far from worthless. It's one of back yards. They can have lots of fun, just the richest wetland areas in the world and a haven looking out their back doors and out their for water birds. Ninety percent of the commer- back windows. cially valuable fish in the ocean surrounding the Natural lawns also require less maintenance. Everglades spend part of their lives in its salt Rain soaks in better, so yards need less watering. marshes. The water that flows through the Ever- Leaves and sticks are best left to decompose on the glades replenishes the underground reservoir that ground, where they provide natural fertilizer. is the only source of fresh water in southeast Flor- And of course, mowing is out of the question. ida. And finally, Everglades National Park draws 600,000 tourists a year and generates up to $30 mil- Those who have switched to natural landscap- lion in tourism revenue. ing find beauty in their new plantings. But notev- eryone likes unmanicured lawns in their With that in mind, the state of Florida neighborhoods. Cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, embarked on a plan in 1983 to restore some of the specifically prohibit natural or wildlife habitats in natural water-flow patterns in the Everglades and residential areas. A few communities, however, to add new wildlife preserves. Governor Bob Gra- are more tolerant. Madison, Wisconsin, for exam- ham is one of the plan's strongest supporters. Gra- ple, has an ordinance that allows people to cover ham notes that human disturbance has, among their yards with native plants such as prairie other things, sharply diminished wildlife and fish grasses or wildflowers. The only catch is that all populations in the Everglades and threatened pub- the neighbors must approve.II lic water supplies. It's time, Ow Florida governor April 1906 says, to help nature take its course once again in the Everglades. October 1985

A r , `1 5 Locked Out III The Value of Nature

Congress addel more land to the federal wil- Your good health depends on a regular dose of derness system in 19848.5 million acresthan in nature. any year since it passed the Wilderness Act two decades ago. Now almost 90 million acres of federal land are off-limits to logging, mining and sim- Consider these facts: ilar commercial pursuits. Hospital patients with views of trees and other That's good news to wilderness advocees but greenery recover more quickly than patients in bad news to Charles Parks, a Stanford University rooms without such views. geologist. Parks thinks wilderness preservation Prison inmates whose cell windows overlook has gone too far, locking up land that may contain natural landscapes seek health care less often valuable energy and mineral resources. He fears than prisoners with less desirable views or the United States will run short of critical materi- none at all. als in 10 to 20 years if new sources are not found and developed. He claims areas considered for Office workers who can see pleasant outdoor wilderness designation are not explored carefully settings from their desks report feeling health- enough for mineral deposits beforehand. And he ier and less pressured than workers who can- says where deposits exist, their future value is not. often ignored. Environmental psychologists Rachel and Ste- Parks says the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area in phen Kaplan of the University of Michigan discuss the Cascade Mountains of Washington state is a these and other research findings in a new book good example. Glacier Peak contains a major cop- called The Experience of Nature. The Kaplans con- per deposit that has to stay in the ground because sider the findings strong evidence that contact mining is outlawed there. Although there's no with nature is more than just pleasurable, it's a shortage of copper now, Parks feels we may regret fundamer `al human need. the decision if copper becomes scarce in the future. One message that emerges from their study is The California geologist insists he loves the out- that public investment in parks, gardens, green- doors but feels public lands should be used to bet- belts and other natural things is not frivolous, as ter advantage. He believes, for instance, that the some taxpayers claim. Another message is that government should lease federal lands now of '- public officials should not judge t''e benefits of limits to mining companies on the condition that such investments strictly in dollar terms. the lands be restored once mining is completed. Rachel Kaplan exp' ,ins: But preservationists contend there's no way to In our book, we discuss the many ways in restore a former mine site to wilderness. Ulti- which the importance of nature shows itself mately, they believe undisturbed natural lands are and the implications of this for public policy. more valuable than anything that lies beneath I think the accumulation of evidence is more them. And as Congress recently demonstrated, powerful than any dollar amount you might sometimes it agrees.IINovember 1984 try, assign to the value of witure. There are so many conversing forces that show how important nature is to people that, in the long run, we can't afford to ignore them. The Kaplans say scientific evidence of the link between nature and the human psyche is relatively new but growing. By all indications, the link is a vital one. October 1989

4 9

WORLD'OF WATER 45

Surf and Turf IN Big Bucks in Boats and Bait The coastal zones of the world's oceans cover Anglers who throw their lines into the Great as much space as all the dry land on Earth. More Lakes :ilso throw a few billion dolh rs into the than a hundred nations of the world on theocean Great Lakes economy. coasts are struggling to share and protect these critical areas. Coastal zones provide most of the world's food Twenty years ago, fishing on the Creat Lakes fish. Demand for fish is expected to double by the was all but wiped out. Pollution, sea lampreys end of the century. Much of the new demand will and overfishing had destroyed stocks of valuable come from coastal areas of the Third World na- fish such s lake trout and perch. In response to tions. these problems, the United States and Canada Whether the oceans can meet the demand is began programs to restore Great lakes water quality and fisheries. Efforts to control pollution and questionable. Modern equipment helped fishing sea lampreys, along with massive fish-stocking fleets triple the world catch from 1940 to 1970, but programs, have paid off. The Great Lakes fishery it also let them overfish parts of the oceans, and has recovered. Now sport and commercial fishing some important fisheries collapsed. The competition for what was left prompted a number of are major contributors to the region's economy. coastal nations, including the United States, toex- A recent report to the Great Lakes Fishery tend their claims to fishing rights to 200 miles off- Commission details the benefits the renewed fish- shore. eries bring to the upper Midwest. The report says A new Law of the Sea Treaty, adopted by the commercial fishing in the Great Lakes region gen- United Nations in 1982, recognized 200-mile limits erates about $270 million a year. Great Lakes worldwide. That placed virtually all of the sport fiqhing is even more valuable; it pumps world's fisheries under the jurisdiction of national about $4 billion a year into the region's economy. governments. Richard Bishop, a University of Wisconsin- Some countries immediately reaped the bene- Madison economist, says these figures providea fits of their new ocr.:an territories. Others could strong argument for continued management and not. Canadian fishermen, for instance, have pollution control on the Great Lakes. However, caught more northern cod than before, and the Bishop, who helped produce the report, says it size of their catch keeps growing because foreign should not be used to argue for restrictions on Great Lakes commercial fishing just to benefit the fleets no longer have access to Canada's waters. more valuable sport fishery. On the other hand, many island nations in the In- dian and south Pacific oceans lack the tools, experi- We need to think about being flexible. We ence or labor to catch migratory fish that pass know that the Great Lakes ecosystem is in a through the vast fishing grounds they claim. state of flux. We need to think in the long What's more, the Law of the Sea Treaty dis- run about our abilities to capitalize on wher- placed some long-time fishing nations like Japan, ever that resource goes next. Spain and Germany, which traditionally took Bishop says commercial fishing on the Great most of their fish from waters now claimed by Lakes provides employment and valuable trade other countries. And the treaty has failed to settle today and a way for resource managers to control quarrels like that over the Baltic Sea, where several the balance of Great Lakes 'ish populations in the countries share fishing rights but cannot agreeon future. m .y1987 how much fish each nation should harvest. October 1984

?;1 Krilling Fields IIISilent Net The Antarctic Ocean teems with millions of Fishermen have laid nets in the sea for centu- tiny creatures called krill that several countries ries. But some modern nets, once abondoned, con- harvest as a source of protein. Some scientists tinue to catch and kill fish and other animals for wonder how that will affect life in the Antarctic. months.

Tiny, shrimp-like animals called krill congre- Nets used in the open seas are called pelagic gate in huge swarms in the Antarctic Ocean. Some driftnets. Some of them, gillnets, are made of plas- scientists estimate that full-scale harvesting of krill tic webbing suspended vertically in the water by could more than double the world's total annual floats and weights. The buoyancy can be adjusted catch of fish and shellfish. to hang the net at any depth. Pelagic driftnets are Krill are consumed primarily by whales, sea virtually unbreakable and can be thousands of birds, penguins, seals and fish. Michael Macaulay, yards long. a marine biologist with the University of Washing- According to marine consultant Robert ton Sea Grant program, says humans can now be Eisenbud, gillnets are not biodegradable. And added to the list of predators. when ased indiscriminate!7, gillnets can kill many fi:311 that are never harvested. Eisenbud says the One of the reasons why krill has become an nets not only catch fish but also snare birds and issue is that it's now being considered both marine mammals. He says about 10,000 porpoises for human consumption and for animal feed. die in driftnets each year. Some people think that because the whales have become so depleted, there's perhaps a Lost and discarded nets may also be a problem, surplus of this animal in the Antarctic. I but some nets are not lost unintentionally. think it remains to be seen whether there's an Eisenbud says U.S. aircraft have observed foreign enormous surplus: It's been estimated at per- boats fishing in protected water. Once the intrud- haps 150 million metric tons. ers discovered they were under surveillance, they cut their driftnets to make a quicker getaway. Macaulay says the Soviet Union is currently harvesting about 200,000 metric tons of krill annu- Sometimes abandoned gillnets wash ashore, ally, and japan harvests between 25,000 and 75,000 but usually they continue to catch fish until the metric tons. The size of the harvest varies depend- weight of the catch drags them to the bottom. Ac- ing on market demand. cording to Eisenbud, castaway gillnets can drift aimlessly for months or even years and continue Macaulay and other researchers fear that larger to catch fish, mammals and birds. harvests will upset the balance of tl-e food chain. The Antarctic Ocean is geographically and climati- He adds that in the North Pacific alone, fisner- cally isolated, and it is not known exactly how men from Japan, Taiwan and Korea set about many animals depend on krill as a food source. 20,000 miles of net a day. That adds up to more Macaulay says until we learn more about the abun- than a million miles of fishing net a year. dance, distribution and basic biology of krill, we Eisenbud says it is up to the nations involved risk depleting not only this potential new food re- to address the dangers of indiscriminately deploy- source but also the many other marine animals ing gillnets or to find alterna Live methods of fish- th:st depend on it. July 1985 ing. August 1985

5 2 WORLD OF WATER 47

111 Down Under, Down Under, The South Rises Again A Big Fishing Plunder One of the most toxic compounds contaminat- Less than fifteen years ago, the pristine waters ing the Great Lakes is toxaphene, a pesticide now off Antarctica were rich with marine life. Today banned in the United States. those waters are fish-poor. Around the Greet Lakes, the names of some Antarctic waters once seemed too remote for pollutantsPCBs, dioxin, dieldrinhave become profitable commercial fishing. But a treaty negoti- household words. But one chemical, toxaphene, ated during the 1970s changed that. has received considerably less publicity, though researchers say it is potentially as dangerous as tho. The treaty is the Law of the Sea. The interna- others. tional agreement allows countries to extend their jurisdiction over coastal waters out to 200 miles. Toxaphene, they say, found its way to the Many areas that were once international fishing Great Lakes by an unexpected route: the air. Ac- grounds became restricted. Several eastern-bloc cording to John Sullivan, a Wisconsin Department countriesincluding the Soviet Union, Poland of Natural Resources environmental scientist, and East Germanywere shut out of thei: tradi- most of the toxaphene that entered the Great tional fishing grounds. They turned to Antarctica Lakes originated in the southern United States and and began to fish there in the early 1970s. Their was carried north by the wind. catch peaked at nearly a half million tons in the Sullivan, coauthor of Toxaphene Status in the 1979-1980 season. It has since plummeted to Great Lakes, a recent report by the University of nearly a tenth that amount. Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, claims that even Kenneth Sherman, chief scientist of the Antarc- though it is banned, enough toxaphene was car- tic Program for the National Oceanic and Atmo- ried from southern soils to create problems. spheric Administration, says the decline occurred When it was used in the United States, it was because Antarctic fish stocks are different from used largely on cotton crops in the southern those elsewhere. United States. And through volatilization of We're looking at fish populations that have the pesticide from the treated croplands and evolved over the millennia, with no perturba- ultimately reaching the atmosphere, it was tion of the kind that can be imposed in a rela- being transported from the southern portions tively short period of time by the efforts of and certain western portions of tile United man-the-predator using big fishing nets over States to the Great Lakes basin and reaching the bottom. the basin through atmospheric deposition, both wet and dry types of deposition. Sherman says the cold-water fish grow at rates nearly half that of fish living in warmer waters. Like other long-lasting contaminants such as This and other factors significantly change the PCBs, toxaphene can end up in the food chain. amount of fish that may be token yearly without First absorbed by plants and microscopic animals, harming the fishery. it can concentrate in waterfowl and in some large fish, particularly trout and salmon. And as with A joint U.S.-Polish research team, Part of a 19- other contaminants, there are more questions than n,tion committee that oversees Antarctic marine answers about the effectsif anythat eating tox- resources, is now studying the situation. Sherman aphene-tainted fish might have on humaps. is optimistic that international agreements to pro- N January 1986 tect the fishery can be r,....ched soon and the once- rich fishily!, grounds will regain their lost vigor. May 1987 5 3 111 Our Brimming Greai Lakes IIII A Costly Diversion

A scientist says we may have misjudged the in- Diverting water from the Great Lakes could ul- fluence of climate on the brimming Great Lakes. timately cost industries in the region millions of dollars. Record high water levels in the last two years have caused great anguish among Great Lakes In some arid western and southwestern states, shoreline residents. Waves are flooding low demand for water is growing while supplies are shorelands, topping sea walls and eroding coastal diminishing. Some people envision piping water bluffs. However, the chief hydrolog!-t at the fed- from the Great Lakes to help meet the demands of eral Great Lakes Environmental Research Labora- the Sun Belt. tory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, says the lakes are Erhard Joeres heads a University of Wisconsin- only doing what comes naturally. Madison research team investigating how diver- Frank Quinn says old shorelines and lake sedi- sons might affect Great Lakes water levels and ment samples indicate climate conditions of centu- certain Great Lakes industries. The researchers in- ries past. He says what is considered the region's vestigated one scenario that would remove 10,000 normal climate may nct be ssormal after all. cubic feet of water per second out of Lake Supe- The period from about 1930 to 1960 may very rior. They found that over five years such a diver- well have been about the warmest 30-year pe- sion would lower water levels in Lake Superior by riod in the last 2,000 years. It was also ex- as much as two feet and those in Lakes Michigan tremely dry. We've built our economy and Huron by eight inches. around the Great Lakes based on what may Joeres, a civil and environmental engineer, says very well be dry low lake-level conditions. the team then determined how much the drop in And current conditions, with the rather cool water levels would affect two major industries. and wet climate and high lake levels, may very well be the norm when we look at the The economic analysis really was a matter of last 2,000 years or so. trying to come up with some real numbers on how shipping and hydropower were depen- Quinn has modeled the effects of various cli- dent on water levels. matic conditions on the Great Lakes. He points out that three times in the last three years, the Economists on the team found that lower water lakes have exceeded levels predicted to happen, levels would force Great Lakes ships to carry ligh- on average, once every hundred years. He says ter loads and therefore make more trips. Lakeside ike levels could go higher and persist indefinitely. hydroelectric power plants would have to cut dec- tricity production and turn to more expensive coal For e.xample we know that if we g_ et several or nuclear energy. Research team member Stuart more years of the wet conditions that we had Rosenthal explains in 1985 and '86, it's possible for Lake Michi- gan to go up another foot and a half or so over The effects of that type of diversion would be the next three years. between $70 million and $95 million per year. The effect of any diversion appears to be Quinn says people must take into account pos- roughly 10 times as great on hydropower pro- sible long-term changes in climate and higher duction than on shipping in terms of total water levels in the Great Lakes. February 1987 costs. Joeres says these estimated economic losses are relatively small compared to the adverse effects diversion could have on water quality and fisheries in the Great Lakes. September 1985

54 II Down the Drain 1111 Probing a Great Lake's Plumbing

If it rains heavily in Milwaukee today, the Some communities in the Great Lakes basin city's sewers are likely to overflow into Lake still depend on groundwater for th ir water sup- Michigan. But a network of tunnels could one plies. Mequon, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwau- day put Milwaukee on top of the problem. kee, is one of those communities, and surprisingly, several wells there are going dry. Modern sewer systems are built with two Heavy use of well water for homes and golf separate networks of pipesone for sewage and courses in Mequon has drawn down the ground- another for stormwater. But Milwaukee's turn-of- water in one area. The result is what hydrogeol- the-century sewer system carries both. And a ogists call a "cone of depression." In this local heavy rainstorm, combined with the city's normal spot, groundwater has dropped 40 feet below the output of sewage, is more than the system can level of Lake Michigan. In Wisconsin, ground- handle. Such storms often force the city to release water normally flows eastward into the lake. But rainwater and untreated sewage from the overbur- Mequon's cone of depression is drawing water dened sewer lines into Lake Michigan and its trib- back the other way. utary rivers. 7 at, of course, pollutes the iake. Douglas Cherkauer of the University of Wis- Milwaukee plans to spend $2.4 billion on im- consin-Milwaukee says this reversed flow high- provements during the next decade to remedy the lights the critical relation between Wisconsin's problem. One sewerage district official says it'll aquifers and Lake Michigan. be the largestI. istewater construction project in We know .tow much river water flows in, and `11e nation. we know how rainfall goes in. We prob- Besides installing better pipes and rool e ably can approximate how much water evapo- ern treatment plants, Milwaukee will dig 17 miles rates off the lake. But we have no idea how of giant tunnels to hold the overflow when there's much water flows in undergrcund. a downpour. The deep tunnels, as they're called, Cherkauer's Sea Grant research team has will range up to 30 feet in diameter and hold as been checking groundwater levels and move- much as 275 million gallons of wastewater until ments in other Wisconsin coastal areas as well. treatment plants can process it. The researchers have used electronic devices off- The idea is simple, but its construction is not. shore to detect porous lakebeds where seepage in At a cost of roughly $13 million a mile, a giant or out of the lake could take place. Special devices mach;ne called a mole will bore out thousands of planted in the lakebed itself have measured rates tons A rock to form the tunnels. But first, the 900- of actual seepage. ton mole must be lowered piece-by-piece down a The objective is to piece together a map that 300-foot shaft and assembied. reveals the present and potential movements of The big question is whether the tunnels will groundwater along Lake Michigan's western work. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Dis- shore This work should help communities like trict insists they will. The Wisconsin Department Mequon take steps to protect the quantity and of Natural Resources is not s,-; sure. The DNR says quality of water sources in a developing area of the tunnels may have to be lined with concreteat the Great Lakes region. March 1983 additional costso they won't leak. But the agency will wait to see until the first tunnel section is built. July 1985 1111 An Island in Distress III Hidden Polluters

"Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to Some of the most serious polluters of ground- drink." That old adage may become all too true water are underfoot and out of sight. for the three million people who live on Long Is- land in New York. Long Island is surrounded by the Atlantic Every community has underground storage Ocean. But converting seawater to drinking water tanksat service stations, schools, factories, is costly, so the islanders rely on wells that tap the farms, hospitals and elsewhere. The tanks store groundwater beneath them. Unfortunately, that everything from gasoline to chemical wastes. water is becoming polluted. There may be 2.5 million of them in the United States, and it's estimated that as many as 100,000 About half the rain that falls on Long Island of them are leaking. eventually becomes groundwater. As it filters through the soil, the rainwater picks up traces of Most tanks are made of steel and built to last 20 chemicals from old dumps and landfills, agricul- to 30 years. When they get older, they rust, and tural pesticides and other contaminants. Besides errmtually they leak. Leaky storage tanks threaten that, Long Islanders are using their groundwater groundwater in many parts of the country, includ- faster than the rain can replace it. Seawater is ing the upper Midwest, but nowhere have they seeping in to fill the gap, contaminating the been more troublesome than in Florida, where the groundwater with salt. water table is high, soils are porous and sandy, and groundwater is especially vulnerable. Sarah Meyland belongs to a New York state legislative commission that is studying Long Most of Florida's population gets its drinking Island's water problems. She says better manage- water from the ground. But many of the state's ment of activities on the land is the key to protect- underground storage tanks leak fuel or chemicals ing the groundwater. into that water. In B?lleview, Florida, 10,000 gallons of gasoline seeped out of an undLtground The solution is going to be to try to Frotect storage tank a 1 years ago. Two years later, gas- those parts of the land that are still pristine, oline turned ur..1 all three of the community's to protect those parts of .e aq, ifer that are drinking-water wells, and they were shut down. still pristine, so that zve will have pristine The people of Belleview had to truck in fresh water in the future in some places. Some water for more than a week. After that, they had parts of the island will probably have to have to boil all the water they got from a temporary treatment. We'll probably have to start ?wr- wed for eight months until a new permanent well ing our water on more of a recsional basis. was drilled. Ironically, Belleview had once We would like to ultimately see regional man- boasted the purest water in Florida. agement of the aquifer system. Until recently, underground storage tanks Meyland believes Long Island's communities were largely unregulated. But federal law now can preserve their drinking water by adopting prohibits the installation of some types of tank'. new zoning laws, phasing out landfills, limiting in- The U.S. Environmental Protection Aguicy and dustrial growth and minimizing the use of fertiliz- many states are developing standards for other ers and pesticides. June 1983 tanksnew and oldthat contain hazardous substances. The EPA regulations are scheduled to take effect over the next three years. N January 1986 ,WORLD OF WATER. 51

III Killer Waves MI Mussel-bound Oil Rigs It speeds through the ocean at up to 600 miles The underwater legs of offshore oil drilling an hour. But you can't see it until it reaches shore, platforms may appear long and skinny. But they where it can ravage coastlines and kill thousands do grow mussels. of people. It's not a secret weapon or a dreaded creature in a horror film. It's a tsunamia powerfulwave A small but enterprising company is profitably that radiates from underwater earthquakes in the harvesting mussels that grow on the legs of off- Pacific Ocean. Only a few feet high but nearlya shore oil rigs in California's Santa Barbara Chan- 100 miles between crests, a tsunami hides its de- nel. These mussels are not the biceps body structive force until it approaches land. As it builders work so hai'd to develop but the small nears shore, the surge of water slows down and shellfish that many of us love to eat. piles up into a wave that can reach as highas a 10- Ten years ago, California biologist Robert story building when it hits land. Meek saw a business opportunity in the mussels In Japanese, tsunami means "great harbor and barnacles encrusting the legs of offshore oil wave." In 1896, one of these giant waves killed rigs. Oil companies were spending hundreds of 27,000 people in Japan. Almost all Pacific Ocean thousands of dollars to scrape off the crustyma- countries have suffered damage from tsunamis. rine growth because its total weight and shape threatened the platforms' stability. In 1948, the United States established the Pa- cific Tsunami Warning System. From Hawaii, the Meek knew that the water was rich in nutrients system includes a far-flung network of seismo- and cleanL in the Santa Barbara Channel than in graphs to measure earthquakes and tidegauges to the pollution-prone tidal mud flats where most report the beginning and progress of tsunamis. A 'mussels are commercially harvested. Why not second warning center now operates in Alaska to scrape these creatures off the oil rigs, he asked, watch more closely over North America's Pacific suction them up to the surface and sort out the edi- shores. ble mussels? The U.S. government's National Oceanic and The California cientist and his marine research Atmospheric Administration has stationeda satel- company, Ecomar, were able to persuade Chev- lite more than 22,000 miles above the facific ron, Phillips, Texaco and other oil companies that Ocean that instantly relays warning signalsover it was a good deal all around. But it took several the entire region. And the United States is helping years to convince regulatory agencies that the pro- Chile place monitoring instruments along its coast posal was environmentally sound and the mussels that will tie into the system. were safe to eat even though they were growing under an oil rig. The tsunami warning networknow includes 18 nations and territories that cooperate to alertpeo- This year Ecomar will sell about 320,000mus- ple to the giant waves before th'zy hit. selsthree times as many as it sold threeyears IIIOctober 1984 ago. Meek claims his mussels have thinner shells and are sweeter than those taken in shallow water. He sells many to East Coast dealers at premium prices. Ecomar is experimenting with growinga special Japanese oyster in seed beds suspended from the platform legs. The company'ssuccess proves that oil and water teclmologies can mix. El January 1987

AIM 52 WORLD _OFIWATER

IR Splash! III History on the Bettom of the Sea Fifty million years ago an asteroid slammed Pages of the Earth's histonj lie in thin layers into the ocean, rocking the Earth. on the ocean floor.

Comets, asteroids and meteorites have left cra- Among the clues to the world's past are micro- ters all over the Earth's continents. But a team of scopic organisms that lived in the ocean and fell to Canadian scientists recently h und the first such the bottom after they died. John Kutzbach, a Uni- crater on the floor of the ocean. Lubomir Jansa of versity of Wisconsin-Madison metetrologist, says the Bedford Institute of Oceanography says the so- changes in the abundance of these organisms re- called Montagnais crater in the Atlantic off flect the evolution of the Earth's climate ovet mil- Canada's east coast is nearly 30 miles across and lions of years. He says scientists read these more than a mile and a half deep. Jansa says the changes in cores taken from ocean-bottom sedi- object that blasted open this crater must have been ment. almost two miles wide and traveling at 40,000 miles an hour when it hit. Once we get back before a few thousand years ago, we're placing more and more reliance on Jansa says the force of the impact that made the ocean sediment cores for understanding the Montagnais Crater 50 million years ago is uni- Earth's history, because you have a book maginable. It packed the wallop of nearly 300 bil- that's accumulated at the bottom, page by lion tons of dynamite. page, which is there to be read. The entire stockpile of atomic weapons right Kutzbach is working on a climate research proj- now is about 16,000 megatons. The ect that analyzes core samples from the floor of the Montagnais impact had a destructive power Indian Ocean. Some of the core samples were about 18 times larger than the total nuclear drilled below more than 6,000 feet of water, and arsenal. they contain hundreds of feet of sediment dating The impact was so devastating that it may have back as much as 10 million years. helped drive the dinosaurs to extinction. Some sci- Different organisms thrive in different environ- entists believe that millions of years ago, such a ments. Kutzbach says the types and abundance of crash threw huge amounts of dust and water organisms in different sediment layers reveal vapor into the atmosphere, changing the Earth's changes in the oceans' temperatures and nutrient climate and dooming the dinosaurs. levels. He says these organisms also reveal past Jansa and his colleagues are investigating this air and water currents and indicate the tempera- possibility. They are also thrilled by the success of ture of the prehistoric atmosphere. advanced techniques that used seismic informa- Since 70 percent of the Earth's surface is cov- tion to reveal the crater, which lies buried beneath ered with ocean, if we understand the Earth's sediment on the Atlantic Ocean's floor. ocean history, we have some pretty good ideas September 1987 of what's happening over the land surface, too. Kutzbach says the Indian Ocean project will help explain climate changes around India, the Hi- malaya Mountains and the Tibetan plateau changes that affected climates around the world. gaJanuary 1988 WORLD OF WATER 53

Acid in the Ocean Ill Skimming the Surface

Acid rain, a th.-,..at to northern lakes,may also Maybe you can't judge a book by its cover, but threaten the ocear. coasts. you can learn a lot about an ocean or a lake by looking just a few inches below its surface. Because of tne sheer size of the oceans, re- These first few inches of water teem with life. searchers have commonly considered themim- Microscopic plants and animals important to the mune to the effects of acid rain. But a study by a food chain live here along with theeggs and lar- private environmental research organization indi- vae of fish and shellfish. In the Great Lakes, tiny cates acid rain may indeed affect the ocean coasts. animals near the surface provide food for small fish, such as alewives, which in turn becomeprey Environmental Defense Fund staff scientist for larger fish sought by sport and commercial Diane Fisher wrote a recent report documenting fishermen. In the oceans, surface waters playa damage along the Atlantic Coast in Chesapeake crucial role for valuable commercial species such Bay. Fisher says the way acid rain harms coastal as flounders, crabs, lobsters and anchovies. waters is unexpected. She says it's not the acid that does the damage. Changes in the top few inches of watercan affect life both above and below the surface. Some People have sort of assumed that acid rain scientists believe the impact of pollutionon this would not be a problem in the oceans because part of the environment deserves closer study. the acidity in acid rain is not a problem. But University of V:onsin-Madison water chemist the nutrient property of the nitrogen in the David Armstrm g has analyzed the pollutants in acid rain is a problem, and that's whatwe the surface layer of Lake Michigan. looked at in our study. The nutrient encourages the growth of algae, which chokes off the We found that concentrations of metals such water and makes it impossible for anything as lead, cadmium and zinc were higher in the else to grow there. surface microlayer than they were in the water below, so there is an increase in concen- Fisher estimates one-quarter of the nitrogen tration at the surface. that enters the bay comes from acid rain generated in part by nitrous oxide, a component of autoex- Armstrong has learned that a high proportion haust. She says a current Chesapeake cleanup ini- of the pollutants that concentrate at the water's tiative aiming to cut nitrogen pollution by 40 surface fall from the air. And though other factors percent will be crucial in limiting the damage. But exert greater influence over contaminants in the Fisher notes there is a larger issue. Great Lakes, Armstrong believes this microlayer is still important because it is wheremany contami- I think that acid rain is a problem not just for nants enter the food chain. a few lakes, it's a problem for our coast, it's a problem for our cities, it contributes to pollu- The surface layer accounts for only a smallpor- tion problems there, and I don't think people tion of the entire volume of a laket:r sea, but it in any par: of the country should assume that may hold answers to many questions that involve acid rain is not a problem for them. deeper waters. 111 October 1984 Fisher says legislation now before Congress could help cut acid rain, taking a burden offsome areas hard hit by this pollution from the sky. IIIJuly 1988 Scales of Justice II Tourists and Toxins In Connecticut, the scales of justice weigh Honeymooners and toxic wastes: Niagara dead fish. Falls remains popular and polluted.

Industries that dump or spill chemicals into For tourists, Niagara Fails is one of nature's public waters often face heavy statutory fines. great speciaLles. But environmentalists call it an Some states have decided this is not enough. In open sewer full of toxic wastes. That's because the Connecticut, companies that discharge unwanted Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie with chemicals into public waters are also fined for fish Lake Ontario, is surrounded by chemical waste that die and recreation that is lost because of the dumps. Love Canal is the best known, but many pollution. othershundreds, by some estimatesalso leak William Hyatt of Connecticut's Department of poisons into the river. Environmental Protection says the extra fines re- A recent report by University of Toronto scien- cover more of the actual costs of damage from tists said the water pouring over Niagara Falls is water pollution. laced with PCBs, chloroform, chlorobenzene, and other suspected cancer-causing chemicals. The sci- In addition to the fines that are paid because entists said the mist kicked up by the cascading of a violation of law, when a fish kill occurs, water also contained these toxins. there's also a loss to the citizens of the state that results from the kill itself. U.S. and Canadian officials deny that Niagara Falls mist poses a threat to humans. And though Penalties for fish kills are based on the value of the Ontario study is not the first warning about the fish and the number and size of those that die. Niagara's pollution, the tourist industry there has Hyatt says all species of fish have been assigned a remained healthy. Marguerita Howe, head of Op- dollar value based on figures from the American eration Clean Niagara, an Ontario-based environ- Fishery Association. For example, a walleye or a mental group, says tourists seem unaware of the salmon may be worth nearly $3; a trout may be river's contamination. worth about half as much. When fish die in a chemical spill, says Hyatt, I wonder how many of them really know a state officials count and measure fish in part of the great deal about it. I have a feeling that they polluted area. Then they calculate the fine based don't, and certainly the tourist people in both on the number and average sizes of each species communities would hesitate to emphasize there is a problem in the Niagara River. that died. Money that is collected goes into a fund to improve spor t fishing in Connecticut. Although Howe sees irony in the condition of Hyatt says other states have programs similar the water that inspires awe in Niagara Falls tour- to Connecticut's. But he says Connecticut is ists, her main concern is drinking water. The river unique because it also charges for the value of lost is a major source of water for Lake Ontario, where recreational time due to chemical pollution. more than five million Americans and Canadians get their drinking water. It is for their sake, says The state has determined a dollar value for an How?, that government and industry must clean average fishing trip. Fines for water pollution re- up the Niagara River. 111 June 1988 flect the number of fishing trips that ue lost while a stream or lake is recovering from chemical pollution. Hyatt says this lost recreational value can far exceed that of the lost fish. Ma, 1988

fi Lake Woes, Begone! II Tomorrow's Trophy A dash of lime may protect a Minnesota lake "Catch and release" catches on throughout the from acid rain. country.

Hundreds of lakes in northern Minnesota, Wis- There's a growing trend in sport fishing these consin and Michigan are sensitive to acid rain be- days called "catch and release." Put simply, if you cause their water is soft. Soft water lacks the catch a fish, you turn it loose againeven if it is minerals needed to neutralize acid, and this could big enough to eat. spell trouble for fish that do not reproduce in acidic water. To protect fish in these northern James Addis, director of the Wisconsin Depart- lakes, scientists are studying the possibility of add- ment of Natural Resources' Bureau of Fish Man- ing limeactually, ground limestoneto keep the agement, explains the reasons behind this trend. water from becoming acidic. Those who catch and release like to release Last May, researchers from the U.S. Fish and those intermediate-sized fish in the hope that Wildlife Service and the state of Minnesota they'll survive, contribute to another day's sprayed five tons of lime into Thrush Lake, a small fishing and also grow intc bigger fish which trout lake in northern Minnesota. will provide irophies. David Wright coordinates the project for the Addis says you can do many things to help a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. fish survive being caught. Keep the fish in water Wright says lime applications have limited but as you remove the hook and avoid using a net. A practical value. They probably will be most useful net can entangle a fish, hook or line and delay the for protecting special fish poopulations worth the fish's return to water. If you are fishing from a expense. But he stresses that liming is a short- beach, take the fish away from waves to unhook it term remedial action and not the answer to the because sand can damage fish gills. acid rain problem. Addis says if you must take the fish out of *Unlike some lakes in the eastern United States water, keep it level to prevent damage to its inter- and Canada, lakes in Minnesota do not yet show nal organs. Moisten your hands or gloves with damage from acid rain. No lakes in Minnesota water before touching the fish and be careful not have lost their fish to acidity. However, scientists to rub off its protective slime. Freshwater fish, es- may have found early warnings of acidification in pecially thin-skinned species like trout, are suscep- Minnesota's Thrush Lake. They've discovered a tible to skin infections. plant called sphagnum moss living on the lake bot- Avoid touching the gills or belly when you re- tom. Wright says this was a big surprise for two move the hook. Then use needle-nose pliers to reasons: First of all, (phagnum moss commonly turn the hook and pull it free. If the hook is deep lives in highly acidic bogs, and second, the moss in the fish s stomach, leave it in and cut the line. usually lives above water. In many cases, Addis says, that will improve the Sphagnum moss itself can make water more fish's chance of surviving. acidic. Adding lime to the waters of Thrush Lake When you are ready to release the fish, move it may ill the moss, and that, in turn, could improve slowly through the water first to revive it. If the water conditions for some of the lake's fish and fish came from deep water, gently plunge it head- other plant and animal life. first and straight down. This can give a tired fish a In effect, the scientists are using northern boost. Above all, Addis says, common sense and Minnesota's Thrush Lake as a giant test tube. care help .ish survive fishing and contribute to They will be watching their experiment until 1993. tomorrow's trophies. aJuly 1987 III November 1988 6 j 56 WOR4D OF WATER

Scavenging Submexged Souvenirs II Teach Your Children Sport divers who pluck souvenirs from sunken Parents who introduce their kids to boating skips are plundering our maritime heritage. should also teach them how to survive on the water. David Cooper, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Greenville, says valuable informa- For some children, boa.ing with their parents is tion about shipping disappears when sport divers a special part of their lives. But often they do riot remove personal effects and sailing gear from learn how to handle a boat in an emergency with- sunken wrecks. Cooper says when these artifacts out help. are taken, archaeologists lose information on the Dolly Garza of the Alaska Sea Grant program age and condition of a ship, the social status of its says children should be prepared to fend for them- crew, and the conditions of shipboard life. selves following a mishap on water. But the boat- There's a lot of information to be gotten off a ing safety specialist says some parents assume wreck, and when that stuff is taken away and they will always be around to protect their kids in put on someone's mantlepiece, all that infor- emergencies. mation is lost. You have parents who don't teach their chil- Cooper is studying a sunken Great Lakes dren how to run the boat or how to put on a schooner, the Fleetwing, which ran aground in life preserver or how to use safety equipment. 1888 on the shore of Lake Michigan in northeast- They assume that they'll always be there to ern Wisconsin. He says such wrecks can provide do that. physical evidence of Great Lakes shipbuilding dur- Garza suggests that parents teach their chil- ing the nineteenth century. The sunken remains dren the basics of boating: how to start a motor can yield details about how the industry adapted and run the boat to shore, where to find the fire ex- to certain types of cargo and special problems of tinguisher and emergency supplies, and how to sailing on the Great Lakes. In the late 1800s, grain use them. Garza also urges parent:, to show their was a major commodity in the Great Lakes region, children how to use the radio to call tor help, how and the Fleetwing may provide clues about how to describe the boat and an accident, and how to ships handled and carried such cargo. pick out landmarks to describe the boat's location. Cooper has run into the problems of scaveng- Garza says kids should know how to survive a ing firsthand. He says his work on the Fleetwing is boating accident on their own. difficult because the wreck has been thoroughly picked over. They have just as much chance of finding themselves either stranded because they re Most all of the moveable artlfacts have been lost, or being the only survivor of a shipwreck taken from the site: the anchors, the windlass or a plane wreck. So I feel they need to know ... afurniture company even took away two just as much as adults do. truckloads of material. The boating safety specialist also recommends Some states, such as Michigan, have estab- that parents take their children to a pool or beach lished reserves to safeguard underwater historical to practice floating in life preservers and survival sites. And Cooper says sport divers are becoming suits. Parents sometimes buy the wrong sizes for more aware that scavenging is not a responsible their children and should make sure the survival part of their pastime.E October 1987 equipment fits before it is needed.E August 1987

6112 woRLaor WATER 57.

MI Handicapped on the High Seas M Hanging Ten on Lake Michigan A special sailing program takes the "dis" out Grab your board and hit the beach. Surf's up of disabled. at Sheboygan!

The Lord Nelson is no ordinary ship. At first, The hotdoggers come from Detroit and Minne- she looks traditional, reminiscent of old British apolis, Racine and Ashtabula. When the weather's sailing vessels. At 140 feet and 400 tons, she just right, they stack their boards on top of their sports a crow's nest and three macts that fly up to cars and hea, for the surf. No, they're not going 18 sails. But look closer and you'll notice a net- to Malibu Beach. They're going to the Indiana work of special harnesses and tracks, electric lifts, Dunes or the long pier at Sheboygan, Wisconsin. even an elevator. And you'll see audio and video equipment adorning the helm. All this enables dis- According to the Great Lakes Surfing Associa- abled sailors to challenge the high seas. tion, about 2,000 surfers chase waves around the Great Lakes. Association president Dave Irwin People who are blind or deaf, and those with says waves may be better on the ocean, but when polio or other disabilities, can help navigate, ma- the wind blows across the lakes from the right di- neuver sails and perform daily shipboard tasks. rection, it can stir up waves three to five feet high. These adventures are just part of the National Surfers call some of these "mushburgers." They're Ocean Access Project. as high as regular ocean waves, but instead of roll- Although it focuses on sailing, the project aims ing over, they just crumble when they approach to make all water sports accessible to the physi- shore. cally disabled. Its activities around the country in- A good wave on the Great Lakes can carry a clude water sports projects on both coasts and on surfer about 50 yards, and the best axe said to be Lakes Erie, Ontario and Michigan. along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at Grand John Lancaster directs the private, nonprofit Haven, Michigan. In the fall, th,' air turns cool but venture. Lancaster has sailed the Lord Nelson and the water stays warm, ideal conditions for surfing warns it is not a pleasure cruise. But he adds it championships. Dave Irwin says about 100 people can be rewarding for everyone. met at Grand Haven last September, competing for trophies in the surfing association's annual con- Disabilities become transparent. Any attitudi- test. nal or other barriers that may exist between people with disabilities and people without Storms often bring the best waves, and storm disabilities soon go away and are forgotten in surfing is popular in the fall and even into the win- thp joy of the joint project that's before the inter. Enthusiasts have been known to don wetsuits dividuals. and carry their boards over ice along shore to get to the water. Lancaster says up to half of the 40-person crew can be handicapped, including eight who use Surfing on the Great Lakes became popular in the 1960s but faded toward the end of the decade. wheelchairs. Any physical disability is acceptable In 1983, Irwin revived the Great Lakes Surfing As- and no experience is required. There's a perma- sociation. nent crew, and Lancaster says the ship meets Lloyd's of London's highest safety standards. He feels there's no comparison between regular board surfing and wind surfing, another popu- Lord Nelson cruises are quite popular. The ship lar water sport. In wind surfing, you have to is scheduled to make a voyage around Great Brit- spend time setting up the sails. Board surfing, he ain this summer and 10 trips around the Bahamas says, is just free: You grab your board, run into next winter.siJuly 1988 the water and go. November 1988

f; 3 58 WORLD OF WATER

Sedimental Journey The Soldiers Grove Solution

Much of the upper Mississippi River's abun- Wisconsin's Kickapoo River has been both dant wildlife lives in shallow backwaters, but bane and blessing to the communities situated these valuable environments are disappearing. along its banks. The first settlers in the Kickapoo Backwaters are the transition zone from marsh- Valley used the river to power mills, and towns land to deep river. Many were formed 50 years eventually grew around the milling centers. But ago when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Kickapoo, located in southwestern Wisconsin, a string of navigation darns to make the upper Mis- has never been a tame river. Periodically, it jumps sissippi safe for barge traffic. But Hen:y Snyder of its banks and floods towns like Soldiers Grove. the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Winona, Min- Although plans to control the course of the nesota, says silt is filling in parts of the river where Kickapoo had been kicked around since the 1930s, the current is weak, and this is especially true in none had been carried out. By the mid-1970s, it the backwaters. was clear something had to be done. Tom Hirsch, former community development coordinator for What we are seeing now is the result of 50 Soldiers Grove, says the town's residents had sev- years of aging and filling in the backwaters. People are beginning to notice that some of eral choices. the good fishing spots and some of the good There were three alternatives, and these were duck-hunting spots now have been filled in. discussed at some length in planning docu- And we just don't have a very good ability to ments as well as in environmental assess- deal with this on a large scale ment. And they boiled down to three choices: The problem is large. The upper Mississippi do nothing; the structural solution, which is, drains millions of acres of farmland. Snyder says as the Corps of Engineers had envision& it, many farms in the drainage area lose more than 10 earthen levies and some channelization tons of topsoil per acre a year. In an average year, deepening the channel so that it could earn./ more than 100 million tons of soil enter the upper more water through Soldiers Grove; and the so-called nonstructural solution, which was Mississippi, and much of it settles in the river's to remove the people and their property from backwaters. the floodplain of the Kickapoo River. The Fish and Wildlife Service predicts that the backwaters will become marshland within 50 The 500 people of Soldiers Grove, after much years and dry land within a century. In hopes of debate, settled on the last alternative. Hirsch says saving the backwaters, conservation agencies from the decision to move the town a quarter-mile from five river states have asked the federal govern- its original location was unique. Most often, rivers ment to promote erosion control on farms through- are moved, not people. out the upper Mississippi watershed. They fear Today a new Soldiers Grove sits on high that without such controls, the river will lose its ground, away from the temperamental but unmo- most biologically productive areas and the fish, lested Kickapoo. Although not the solution for waterfowl and other wildlife they support. every flood-plagued town, relocation could be- April 1985 come an accepted alternative to dams, ievies and dredging. iNovember 1983 WORLD OF WATER 59

III The River's Keeper 1111 The Irrigation Nation

Along the Delaware River, Cynthia Poten is Israel waters its crops more efficiently than any known as the river keeper. other nation in the world. It needs to. According to Sandra Postel, a researcher for the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., the tiny country The sound of bulldozers is becoming more hasn't a drop of water to spare. common along the pristine reaches of the upper Delaware River in New York, Penn! ylvani a and Israel is using about 90 to 95 percent of its New Jersey. It means new homes and neNA shop- supplies. The Israelis have essentially no ad- ping malls. To Cynthia Poten, it al'Ao me:ns new ditional pesh water to tap to augment their threats to the upper Delaware's clear water. supplies, so they are in a situation where they have to find ways to increase water efficiency Poten works for the American Littoral Society, if their economy is going to continue to grow a national nonprofit organization founded to con- and if they're going to continue to expand ir- serve coastal waters. Her job title is river keeper, rigation for food production. and her duty is to watch over the river's health. For the past year, Poten has kept an eye on po- Israel moved rapidly from ancient farming tential threats to the 300-mile-long Delaware. Two methods to high-technology agriculture. Postel of her biggest concerns are joollution by toxic says advanced systems like drip irrigation help chemicals and diversions of water to New York Israel's farmers deliver just the required amounts City. of water rather than flood their fields. Israel has a strict government allocation system Poten's days are often as long and windingas the river itself. Some days, she meets with citizen to encourage efficient irrigation. The government groups to talk over new ways to treat sewage in estimates how much water a crop needs and developing areas. Other days, she works with at- charges stiff fines if a farmer uses more. torneys to fight a plan to fill one of the Delaware's Farmers have used computer-controlled irriga- wetlands. And, on occasion, she gets in her canoe tion systems and high-yield, salt-tolerant crops to to collect water samples from the river for testing. produce more with less water. A gallon of water Poten considers the river inseparable from the yields twice as much food and fiber today as it did surrounding streams and countryside. 30 years ago. This lets Israel meet most of the agricultural needs of a population that has grown The river is a living water system. The small- from 800,000 in 1947 to about 4 million now. est tributary eventually becomes the Dela- But Israel is still pushing the limits of its re- ware Rive- All of these waters that flow sources. Irrigation water becomes more and more together and eventually flow into the river salty as it's reused. Israeli officials estimate that are threatened by numerous problems. by the end of this century, half of their country's ir- Other river keepers are at work around the rigation water will have to pass through purifica- country. In New York, for example, private tion plants before it's used on anything but groups employ river keepers to monitor the Hud- salt-tolerant crops. U may 1985 son River and Long Island Sound. River keeping is not Poten's only job. She also runs a small garden business. She has no formal scientific training, but she teels strongly that everyone is responsible for protecting the environment. She says government agencies may be well-inten- tioned, but they are often handicapped by politics and can do only part of the job. December 1988 f7 5 60 vvORL a OF-WATER

Ill Fresh Water fiorn the Sea 111 Thirst Aid

Most of us take water for granted. We can turn Water is a scarce commodity in the growkw on the tap any time we want and get a drink or cities of the desert Southwest. So scarce, in fact, wash our hands. But until about 15 years ago, that that wastewater in El Paso, Texas, is too valuable simple act was a luxury for the people of St. to throw away. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Lying 1,200 miles southeast of Florida, St. Thomas is a Caribbean island rich in natural El Paso, with half a million people, is the first beauty but very poor in fresh water. Historically, big city in the country to pump treated sewage the islanders have gotten their water from brack- back into its underground water supply so it can ish wells or from cisterns that store the rainwater use the water again. The city has just opened a that runs off the roofs of their houses. unique water recycling ylant to make it possible. Over the past few decades, though, tourism on Local water utility official Robert Bustamante St. Thomas has exploded, creating a need for more says the recycling plant turns out much cleaner reliable supplies of water. To solve this problem, water than conventional waste treatment plants. the islanders have turned to the water that lies all We have to go through much more intense around them: the salt water of the Caribbean Sea. treatment. There are many more stages in In 1981, Aquatechan Israeli firmbuilt one this particular plant than in a sewage plant of the largest desalination plants in the Caribbean that discharges effluent into a river or lake. region on the island of St. Thomas. According to El Paso's water recycling plant can purify 10 technician Hanan Rosbruch, the Aquatech plant million gallons of water a day. That's enough to separates the salt from seawater using a steam dis- meet 10 pei;ent of the city's needs. And tillation process and waste heat from the St. Bustamante says the plant will prolong the life of Thomas power plant. The salt, diluted in seawa- the city's main water source. ter, is pumped back into the ocean. Rosbruch says the plant can produce about 2.5 Right now, we're getting the majority of our million gallons of fresh water a day. To the island- zvater from an underground source that is ers, that water's worth about $100,000. being depleted: We're extracting more water out of the groundwater aquifer than what na- Because the plant is constructed mainly of plas- ture is replenishing, so we're mining this par- tic piping, it won't deteriorate from the corrosive ticular source. This plant is going to slow seawater and fall apart. Only a few years ago, dozen that depletion; it's not going to elimi- that's what happened to St. Thomas' first desalina- nate it. tion plant. The Texas city is stretching its water supply in Rosbruch says his plant is economical and very other ways. City reservoirs are lined with plastic easy to maintain. Best of all, the islanders and to prevent leaks. Many residents are landscaping tourists on St. Thomas can turn on the tap any with native plants suited to the desert climate. time and get fresh water from the sea. And water is priced to encourage conservation. IIMay 1983 But even all those things won't slake the city's thirst if El Paso keeps growing, and local officials are eyeing new, untapped water sources in New Mexico for the future. July 7985

CG WORLD OF WATER 61

Leaky Pipes 111 Not a Drop to Drink

The water supply systems of many American Enough water falls to earth as precipitation cities need costly repairs. But changing attitudes each year to support more than five times the pres- about water use may be just as important as fix- ent world population. Yet people still suffer from ing pipes. lack of water. Why? Mostly because some regions enjoy an abundance of water while others go thirsty. About 10 years ago, engineers discovered some of the water pipes still used in Boston were made Sandra Postel of the Worldwatch Institute re- of wood and were installed at least 150 years ago. cently examined the global water supply, and she Those old pipes are a sign of a problem that faces predicts dry times ahead for much of the world. many older eastern cities like Boston: Their water Postel says farmers account for about 70 percent of supply systems need massive overhauling. the world's water consumption, and they already face shortages. The Soviet Union provides one ex- The Freshwater Foundation estimated that Bos- ample. ton lost 20 percent of its water through leaky pipes in 1983. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers re- The Soviet Union has the problem that most ported in 1980 that one-fifth of the nation's larger of its water is in the northern and eastern cities required replacement or restoration of their parts of the country, but most of its people water supply systems. The Army Corps estimated and the best land for agriculture are in the this would cost between $50 billion and $80 billion southwestern part of the country. The Soviets over the next two decades. have developed the supplies in the southwestern part of the country almost to their limit, The big question, according to James Crewes, a so that in many dry years, all the water re- civil engineer with the Army Corps, is this: Who sources in that region are essentially used up. is going to pay for revamping those water supply systems? Postel says many American farmers will also need new water sources sooner or later. The major issue is: Should it be done by federal dollars, or should federal dollars help, or In the United States, for example, in the high should it be done by nonfederal? Of course, plains area, which includes a lot of Midwest- the administration's policy is that water sup- ern states, farmers have been relying for sev- ply is a nonfederal responsibility. eral decades now on water from the Ogalalla aquifer, which is essentially a nonrenewable Crewes says many states, like Massachusetts, water resource. are solving water problems with new laws and public information campaigns that promote con- In regions not blessed with much water, Postel servation. For example, Boston's successful "Use believes shortages will be severe within 15 years. Less Water" campaign provides educational mate- She says North Africa and the Middle East will rials about water consersration to schools and need every drop of their usable water by then. grants for innovative water-saving devices. Parts of Europe and Asia will also tap nearly all of their reliable water supplies. Unfortunately, she Such efforts, Crewes says, are ne to help says, pollution and poor management will make raise public awareness about water supply and conservation issues. They also will help make the those supplies even more scarce than they are now. public cost of replacing the 150-year-old wood aFebruary 1985 pipes easier to accept.IISeptember 1985 IN 5: Energy

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ael ';;" ENERGY.% 6.5

III Bright Ideas MI Window Breakthrough

Light bulbs use a quarter of the electricity gen- Windows are notorious for losing heat in win- erated in the United States, according to the Elec- ter. But a new type of glazing makes some win- ttic Power Research Institute (EPRI) of Palo Alto, dows a lot stingier. California. The institute also claims that half of the 420 billion kilowatts a year used for lighting could be saved. Glass manufacturers predict a bright future for Conventional incandescent light bulbs waste 90 a metal-oxide window glazing that keeps heat in- percent of the energy they consume, yet incandes- doors when the mercury drops outdoors. It's c. nt bulbs remain the most popular bulbs sold be- called low-emissivity coating, or "low-e" for short. cause their warm light makes people, rooms, and Roger O'Shaughnessy, president of Cardinal In- foods more attractive. But recent improvements sulated Glass of Minneapolis, s7.ys depending on in fluorescent and arc lamps have softened those the direction they face, most iow-e windows actu- types of light and given them more pleasant, rosy ally gain mc io. heat than they lose. auras. The news is welcome because fluorescent and arc bulbs are five to six times more efficient Windows with low-e coatings will be energy- than incandescent bulbs. positive in all areas of the count; y, including the very coldest areas, on three elevations: The bwiness world is paying attention to the east, south and west. The north side win- costs of lighting, and rightly so. EPRI says light- dows with these improved g,lazings get close ing can account for 10 to 50 percent of a bu .ness's to neutral, but they are still somewhat energy- electricity costs. Some businesses are replacing in the very coldest part of the country. overhead lights with desk lamps. Others are switching to lamps coated with super-rAlective v-e wiadows let most sunlight shine in from films that boost lighting efficiency by 15 percent. ou'3:de but trap up to 90 percent of the heat that tries to escape. By comparison, uncoated glass And that's just the beginning. The research in- traps only a third of that heat. stitute says buildings designed to capture sun- shine can cut back on electric bills. They can even A double-pane, low-e window 'risulates as well use sensors to adjust electric lights as the natural as a triple-pane conventional window and costs light brightens or dims. Timers can switch lights about the same, but it's lighter in weight and lets on when people arrive for work and off when they in less of the ultraviolet light that fades furniture leave. Some devices know which rooms hi light and carpets. by detecting the presence of people. The most so- O'Shaughness says low-e windows, which hit phisticated systems operate by computer, main- the market just a few years ago, are becoming a taining not only lights but also heating and best seller. cooling equipment for entire buildings at the most comfortable and efficient levels. Within the next five years, I would expect that 75 percent of all the windows produced EPRI says each time something clicks off,. the in the northern climates, perhaps more gener- energy soved helps reduce the demand for new ally in the wood-window industry, will be power plants and helps hold down the future cost converted over to low-e. of electricity. mOctober 1984 Glass manufacturers say low-e windows are best suited for homes and small commercial buildings.IIJanuary 1986 II A Better Idea? 1111 Poolside Chat The average car gets just a fraction of its poten- Jump in, relax, and enjoy the pool. More than tial gas mileage, partly because of the way its 900 employees of the state of Wisconsin do just transmission and brakes work. The transmission that every weekday on their way to work. The has only a few settings, or gear ratios, that allow pool they jump into is a vanpool organized by the the engine to work at peak efficiency. And the state to save fuel, ease traffic and parking conges- brakes, whenever they're applied, literally burn tion, and encourage other Wisconsin employers to away the energy that got the car moving. try ride-sharing. A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Besides the expeLted benefits of vanporling, says it doesn't have to be that way. Andrew the state is also getting workers who are more Frank, an electrical engineer, has fitted a con en- ready to do their jobs, according to venpool coordi- tional car with two mechanisms he claims can dou- nator Steven Heidt. bk: the car's mileage. The people feel more relaxed upon coining to The first is called a continuously variable trans- workless strained and more conifortable in mission. It pumps oil through the motor to turn the job setting. That's an intangible that's gears much as flowing water turns a mill wheel. hard to measure, but that's a benefit not only The transmision has an infinite number of gear ra- to the employee but also to the employer. tios, so the engine always runs at peak efficiency. And the state gets these benefits for free. Heidt The second modification is a flywheel that acts says all 68 state vanpools in Wisconsin are paid for as a sort of mechanical battery. It stores energy by the people who use them. normally lost during braking. Stepping on the brake engages the flywheel, which starts to spin as There is ;io taxpayer money cohling directly its resistance slows the car. To accelerate, the into the program. The fares that are charvd driver steps on the gas pedal. That diverts the to the passengers by state statute have to pick flywheel's spinning momentum back to the tires up the total cost of purchasing the vehicles, and helps send the ca 3n it way supplies for the vehicles, insurance, parking Frank says his redesigned car is extremely effi- costs, administrative cost:. cient. it also pollutes less titan standard cars. And Heidt says ...riders don't mind Faying their it s quieter becau:it can run, at times, solely off own way. In a recent survey, vanpool participants the flywheel with Lie engine turned off. estimated that they save half of what they would Frank is road-testing a prototype of his modi- have spent driving their own cars to work. Heidt fied car now. He hopes to have an Improved says most people underestimate the costs of com- model out later this yea,. Whether his creation muting, and he thinks vanpooling actually saves ever reaches the consumer rr,...xet is up to Toyota riders much more than they realize. of Japan, which paid for his research. Fran,lys Either way, the participants get their money's no U.S. car makers were willing to put up money worth. And they also have a voice in the opera- for his project, so any patents that result from the tion. Heidt says some riders have asked for air research will belong to Toyota. m June 1983 conditioning, AM-FM radios, and deep-tinted w in- dows, and the state has tried to comply. After all, he says, vanpooling ought to be fun as well as practical. January 1985 Looks Good on Paper Udder Delight

It took more than 34 million barrels of crude oil The Baumgartners of Owen, Wisconsin, havea to turn the wheels of industry in Wisconsin last warm spot in their hearts for thei- dairy cows. In year. Nearly 40 percent was consumed by pulp fact, their whole farmhouse stays nice andwarm and paper companies, making them by far the larg- thanks to the cowsanda clever heating system est industrial user of energy in the Badger State. with a catchy name. That percentage might be even higher except It's called a Dairy-Air. that the state's paper makers, who lead the nation in production, have also become leaders inenergy Dairy-Air uses heat from cows to warm homes, conservation. and the Baumgartners were the first farmers to try one. Their system began as an experiment. Marge Thomas Schmidt, executive director of the Wis- Baumgartner and her husband were looking fora consin Paper Council, says it takes 14 percent less way to keep their barn cool and dry because too energy to produce a ton of paper today than it did much heat and moisture were making theircows a decade ago. With the state's paper mills produc- sick. ing more than ever before, the savingsin bothen- ergy and dollarsadd up quickly. At the heart of OH r main reason for putting it in was busi- it all, says Schmidt, are several innovations. ness-oriented more than home-oriented because we had pneumonia problems due to tile I think perhaps the most obvious one is tech- moisture. It was originolly a pig barn, con- nclogical change, whereby the industry has verted into a dairy barn, and we had low ceil- hnproved its manufacturing processes tore- ings and a lot of calf loss, a lot of mortality, duce the cost of energy, the use of energy. due to pneumonia. Secondly, the industry is conserving energy by burning more waste fuels, such as bark Baumgartner mentioned the problem at work, and chips that are not being used to make and her boss, Del Lussenden, sawa chance to try pulp, and we're also consumingsome of our an idea. Lussenden had some heaing and cooling spent pulping liquors. know-how, and he built a system that worked something like a refrigerator. It pulled heat and The results are impressive. In 1972, Wisconsin moisture out of the barn, saved the heat, and paper makers had to buy more than 80 percent of piped it to the farmhouse. tly-sir fuel. That figure has shrunk to 71 percent. Schmidt says the companies supply the other 29 The Baumgartners were delighted. Marge percent themselves. Baumgartner says the cows grew healthier, and the house, cozier. That, to me, is a tremendous accomplishinent, and it has a positive impact: Not only does it The house was warmer than it had ever been conserve our natural resources, but it also is since we'd owned the farm,which was about a cost-effective way to operate a particular 10 years, and we had tried wood heat and natural gas before. For the paper industly, says Schmidt, energy Lussenden patented the system, and he is in- conservation is good business. a April 1983 stalling more Dairy-Airs. Each must be custom built, but if the Baumgartners' enthusiasm isany measure of its prospects, the Dairy-Air is something a lot of farmers will warmup to. 2 November 1983 68 ENERGY

II Dust to Ashes Cold Facts for the Hot Tropics A Wisconsin company turns farm waste into a Ah, the tropics! Some call it paradise, w here source of cheap energy. ocean waters stay luxuriously warm all year long. But deep beneath the surface, water temperatures are much colder. Midwestern grain elevators produce moun- This contrast in temperatures has been put to tains of dust while handling oats, corn and other work in Hawaii as an energy resource called crops. That dust, mostly tiny bits of seed hulls, is OTEC. OTEC stands for Ocean Thermal Energy usually dumped into landfills. Occasionally, the Conversion, a system for turning the seawater's dust-filled air inside a grain elevator ignites and thermal energy into electricity. explodes. An entire OTEC system can be huused in a Robert Nor lin, operations manager for the Na- floating offshore power station. Raymond Tabata, tional Energy Corporation of Humbird, Wiscon- University of Hawaii Sea Grant scientist, says sin, says those tragic explosions demonstrate the OTEC works by using wa-m seawater to evapo- energy locked up in grain dust. His company is rate a liquid, such as ammonia, into a gas. The gas capitalizing on that energy. It compresses the dust turns a turbine and generator to produce electric- into fuel pellets that industrial boilers can burn. ity. Cold seawater is drawn up from the depths The pellets cost 40 percent less to burn than natu- through a large pipe and used to condense the gas ral gas. Nor lin says his fuel is still more expensive back to a liquid. The seawatei is then recycled. than coal, but it has environmental advantages that coal lacks. Tabata says the beauty of OTEC is that its power source, the solar energy that is stored in sea- it/ins about one-tenth the sulfur that coal or water, is unlimited and nonpolluting. That means other fossil fuels do, and so it does not contrib- OTEC power could reduce the need for tropical is- ute to the acid rain problem. lands to import fossil fuels. Grain dust is abundant in the Midwest. Eleva- But a few clouds lie on OTEC's horizon. The tors in the Twin Cities area alone proiuce about floating power stations are vulnerable to damage 70,000 tons of it each year. Norlin says that's the from wind and waves, and OTEC's large pipes energy equivalent of eight million gallons of fuel and equipment are expensive. Also, scientists are oil. He says if compressed grain dust pellets catch not sure of the environmental consequences of on as fuel, it could be the start of something big. mixing cold and warm seawater on a large scale. There are a lot of waste products that can be But labata believes OTEC's problems can be densified by this same process: waste paper, ironed out with additional research. He says a corn cobs, corn stalks, that type of thing. major advance in years ahead will be the construc- We're a very wasteful country, and all of tion of large power plants on shore, eliminating those things can be converted into good fuel. the problem of operating them on the water. He expects the U.S. government will continue to sup- orlin says putting those wastes to good use port OTEC in the future. 111 March 1982 would help make Midwestern states, which import most of their energy, more self-sufficient. January 1987 III Future Generations El Quest for Fuel

Nuclear engineers push a new generation of The first trickle of oil reached the southern end commerci A reactors. of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in thesummer of 1977. Since that time almost a fifth of all domestic oil has come from Alaska's North Slope. That If nuclear power has a future, say industryex- total may soon climb higher. perts, it lies in new reactor designs. They say the current generation of so-called light-water reactors Engineers from several major oil companiesare is at a dead end. The reactors are complicated, eyeing deposits of oil and natural gas that may lie costly and hard to operate. Utilities have notor- under the Arctic Ocean off Alaska's north coast. dered any for years and do not plan to. Geologists estimate that 40 percent of the remaining undiscovered oil and gas in U.S. territory is in Nuclear engineers say new reactor designs the Arctic Ocean, one of the most inaccessible solve the safety and technical problems that have places on Earth. plagued the nuclear industry. They're simpler, and they rely more on automation and computers, The problems of oil and gas exploration in the less on human operators. Someare updated ver- far north are staggering. Summer there is short. sions of light-water designs, others are radically Many ocean sites are free of ice for only two different in their safety and fuel systems. months a year. Winter, of course, is legendary: Temperatures can dip to 80 degrees belowzero, These models also tend to be smaller than most and the midday sun barely tops the horizon. current reactors. Engineers say several small plants would be easier to maintain thana single But to engineers, the biggest problem facing large plant, and less production capacity would be Arctic oil drilling is ice. Winter pack ice precludes lost if one broke down. The result of all this, they the use conventional offshore drilling platforms, say, will be safer, more efficient and less expensive so oil companies have developed new methods to nuclear power. tackle the problem. In some locations they have hauled tons of rock out over the ice in winter and But University of Wisconsin-Madisonenergy dumped them through large holes to create artifi- expert John Steinhart has reservations about the cial islands on which to build drilling rigs. In new reactor designs. deep,r water, where island-building is out of the Certainlyon paper and while being envi- question, drilling barges that ride over ice and con- sioned they appeartoavoid some of the diffi- ical platforms that divert ice around them have culties that we have experienced in Three been proposed. Mile Island, Chernobyl, and some of the other The economic problems of drilling in the Arctic near misses. But whether that satisfies all of are enormous, too: It can cost 30 times as much as our problems is difficult to say. You build the exploring for offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico thingsand then you find out what it was that some $50 million per well. One test si`.:e at Harri- you had not anticipated. son Bay, Alaska, cost an estimated $140 million. It Steinhart is not convinced that more nuclear became the most expensivedrywell in history. plants are needed. He says other options, suchas August 1984 solar energy, could probably meet future electricity needs. But he says we cannot know forsure how any new technology will perform until it's been around a while.N August 1988

.e."'1, 70 ENERGY

Hawkeye Hydro El Carrying the Fire

Hydroelectric dams were a common sight in How to contain a fire that's hotter than the Iowa a few decades ago, but only six are now oper- sunthat's a problem for scientists seeking to ating in the state. That may soon change. There's harness the enormous power of nuclear fusio,:. new interest in Iowa's hydroelectric potential, and dozens of idle dams may come to life again. The Iowa legislature passed a law in 1983 en- Nuclear fusion could one day provide a safer couraging the development of renewable energy form of nuclear power. But fusion still faces ex- resources. The law requires electric utilities to buy traordinary technical obstacles. electricity from small hydropower plants at a price A fusion reaction can proceed only if the fuel is the state commerce commission deems fair. That kept at temperatures of millions of degreeshot- may make hydroelectric power economically feasi- ter than the surface of the sun. But matter that hot ble once again at several old dams. reaches a bizarre physical state known as plasma. Larry Bean of the Iowa Energy Policy Council It's difficult to contain because it vaporizes any- says developers are looking seriously at 39 sites thing it touches. Scientists hoping to develop a around the state. If all of them were returned to successful fusion reactor must find a way to con- service, their total electricity output would equal trol plasmas while maintaining their extreme tem- no more than that of a small coal-fired power peratures. plant. Still, Bean says hydroelectric development University of Wi3consin-Madison physicist could contribute significantly to the state's econ- Clint Sprott says pow erful magnets can hold omy. He estimates construction projects could plasma away from the walls of a fusion reactor. total $250 million, and the refurbished plants But the electricity used to keep the plasma hot cre- could generate $60 million worth of electricity ates problems. each year. Wizen a current is passing through it, an elec- There are environmental benefits, as well. Hy- tric -urrent, it behaces in quite a similar man- droelectric energy is clean and renewable. And be- ner to a garden hose with a current of water cause the dams are already in place, little flowing through it.It will thrash around and disruption of farmland or wildlife habitat is ex- ultimately strike the walls of the reactor ves- pected. sel and lose its energy. Still, some questions have been raised. The Sprott is looking for ways to heat plasma with- Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, out making if so unstable. an interstate organization of natural resource agencies, is concerned about how hydroelectric devel- One general way of heating plasmas is with opment could affect fish migrations and river the use of radio frequency power.electromag- currents. Because several of the dams being con- netic waves in the radio frequency or micro- sidered are on the Mississippi River, the conserva- wave range. One can in fact heat a plasma tion committee is urging further study of the very much like you would heat a turkey in possible impacts before Iowa issues any construc- your microwave oven. tion permits. aJanuary 1985 Fusion scientists are slowly overcoming such technical obstacles. But each advance turns up more problems, and the fusion research programs's latest goalbuilding an experimental reactor by the year 2000may be a long shot. aMarch 1987 NUN.. ,. ' et

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,,,s9/7.14-406?elr''' 4%'5;;. kfr:^11, il Once Upon a Time II Not-So-CIean Industry Environmentalists who long for the good old The industrial states of the upper Midwest are days don't know their histony. eager to fill the gap left by the decline of the "smokestack" industries that were their economic backbone for decades. Politicians and business There is nothing new under the sun, including leaders are especially interested in luring high- air and water pollution. Don Bronkema of the technology industries, the sort that have U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says air blossomed in suburban Boston and in California's pollution dates back more than 2,000 years. An an- Silicon Valley. cient Egyptian wall painting, for example, shows officials ordering people to douse their smoky Among other things, high-tech industries have fires. Bronkema says early England also had pollu- a clean image. Most of them operate out of tidy tion troubles. Coal fires were a particular source laboratories in park-like surroundings. But it of royal displeasure. seems no industry is free of environmental problems. That goes for high-tech too. In Silicon Val- The first complaints about coal appeared ley, the home of dozens of microelectronics firms, around 1435 or 1450 during the reign of Ed- groundwater pollution and worker health prob- ward the Fourth. Coal fires were, by then, so lems have cropped up. They've been traced to common and there was such a pall of pollu- hazardous chemicals used to make computer tion hanging over London that the king him- chips. Some of these chemicals have leaked out of self complained about it. waste-storage tanks into local water supplies. Trash disposal has also caused discomfort and Another high-tech enterprise, biotechnology, illness for centuries. Just 200 years ago, people has not caused environmental problems yet. But dumped garbage and human waste out the near- some scientists fear it could as the industry grows. est window. Europeans carried umbrellas to pro- Genetic engineers are developing new forms of tect themselves from the rain of waste. And as lifelike bacteria that turn hazardous wastes into cities grew, so did the amount of trash. Garbage harmless substances. The fear is that if organisms 'leaps fed rats. Along with the rats came fleas, like these got loose before they were fully tested, which carried bubonic plague. Half the popula- they might do more harin than good. What's tion of Europe died of plague in the 14th century. more, they might reproduce rapidly, with drastic Bronkema says careless waste disposal also pol- results. luted drinking water. In 19th-century England, ty- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is phoid from bad water killed half of all babies considering regulations on bi -itechnology to pre- before their first birthday. The Victorians finally vent anything like that from happening. The trou- put in sewers, which cleaned up the streets but ble is, the industry is new and unique, and nobody polluted rivers, including the Thames. Bronkema knows what kinds of regulations it needs. High- says the stench nearly caused political chaos. tech industries do, indeed, hold promise for the future, but appearances can be deceptive. They may They had to hang huge sheets soaked in lime be gentler on the environment than smokestack in- over the windows of the houses of Parliament dustries, but they aren't necessarily squeaky clean. so they could omplete their budgetary delib- erations, and on more than one occasion, too. m October 19C3 Environmentalists might do well to remember a little history. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. III October 1986 III Household Hazards Punchless PCBs Your bathroom, kitchen and garage are all fa- Taking the punch out of PCBs: Scientists find miliar places that may hold hazardous wastes. new ways to detoxify this hazardous waste.

Caution! Warning! Danger! Federal la w re- Polychlorinated biphenylsPCBswere quires manufacturers to put these warnings on the widely used, especially in electrical equipment, be- labels of products harmful to people. But these fore they were banned in 1976. Of the 1.4 billion warnings are not always marked on the labels of pounds of these toxic chemicals produced in the products harmful to the environment. United States, roughly half has escaped into the en- Elaine Andrews, environmental educator with vironment. PCBs are extremely persistent, and ex- the University of Wisconsin-Extension, helps com- posure to small doses may contribute to a variety munities dispose of hazardous household wastes. of health problems in people and animals. She says pesticides, unused paint, flammable sol- Cleaning up PCB-contaminated sites is a logisti- vents, old mothballs and even nail polish all con- cal and financial headache for government agen- tain chemicals that may contaminate the cies like the U.S. Environmental Protection environment if flushed down the drain, buried or Agency. More than a hundred different public burned. But Andrews says many people dispose and private research efforts are now under way to of hazardous chemicals this way. develop new, economical methods of detoxifying PCBs. This process is called dechlorination. Different groups have done studies to find out how people dispose of hazardous materi- The problem with PCBs lies with the Cthe als from their homes. And one of the things chlorine comprgientwhich makes the substances they found is that depending on the dzsposal highly toxic. Chlorine attaches to PCB molecules method, 15 to 25 percent of the people throw in different ways. Some arrangements are more their stuff away somewhere besides the gar- toxic than others and some are easier to break up bage In other words, they dump it in or dechlorinate. their back yard, they dump it down the storm Scientists at General Electric discovered that sewer, they bury it or they burn it. bacteria on the bottom of the Hudson River in Andrews says three categories of household New York were munching on PCBs and convert- products require special disposal. those that kill, ing them to less-toxic compounds. They are now such as herbicides, flea collars and mosquito breeding the bacteria to develop a strain that sprays; those that dissolve, such as oven cleaners, could help break down PCBs. Elsewhere, scien- spot removers and degreasers, and those made of tists at West Virginia University are using sunlight petroleum, such as oil-based paints and motor oil. to help dechlorinate PCBs. And at the University The chemicals in these producis can kill living or- of Connecticut, researchers use ultrasound waves ganisms and contaminate groundwater. to mix PCBs with dechlorinating chemicals. Andrews suggests buying one product and Which, if any, of these new methods may have using it for many jobs or buying only what you large-scale applications is not yet known. But the need for the job at hand and sharing unused chem- race to be a market leader in the multibillion-dol- icals with neighbors. She strongly recommends lar toxic cleanup industry may yield cheaper, safer community drives to collect unused household ways to dispose of a big problem. hazardous wastes and hiring professionals to dis- February 1988 pose of the wastes properly.E April 1987

pas P.4 4 al Costly to the End FA From Here to Eternity

How do you permanently dispose of a used-up The federal government has ambitious plans to nuclear power plant? So far, no one knows. dispose of high-level radioactive waste. But will they work? Safety concerns, waste disposal questions and construction cost overruns have all but doomed Since nuclear energy was hamessed four de- the U.S. nuclear power industry. No American cacles ago, a nagging problem has plagued thenu- utility has ordered a nuclear plant since 1979. cleer power industry and the government: what to Now a new problem looms for the industry and do li rid-, the waste, which can remain dangerously for policy makers: what to do with existing plants ralic:ctive for thousands of years. Millions of once their usefulneJs has passed. pound.: of spent nuclear fuel rods and leftovers Cynthia Pollock of the Worldwatch Institute,a from weapk-ns production have piled up at nu- Washington, D.C., research organization, says re- clear power plants and government facilities. And tired nuclear reactors present special disposal the piles grow bigger every day. problems. Congress and President Reagan ordered the When you tear apart a reactor, you get con- federal Department of Energy in 1982 to get rid of taminated concrete and steel that has to beiso- that waste once and for all. The Energy Depart- lated, most of it for several decades,some of it ment is under orders to build undergi ound reposi- several hundred years. But you get very tories where it can bury the waste permanently. large volumes: 18,000 cubic meters for each The first repository is to begin operating in Texas, 1,100 megawatt plant. That's enough to Nevada or the state of Washington by 1998. bury a football field under 12 feet of radioac- Under the federal plan, the waste will be tive debris. packed in triple-insulated containers, iowered as There are about 100 licensed nuclear plants op- deep as 4,000 feet ii.to granite tunnels and sealed erating in the United States, and many are nearing into the floors. Eventually, the shafts will be re- the end of their 30-year life spans. Pollock says no filled with crushed rock. major commercial nuclear plant has ever been dis- At ground evel, 16 square miles will be fenced maniled or decommissioned, and there are no gov- off and heavily guarded. Trucks carryir.g crash- ernment regulations to deal with cleaning up a proof casks of nuclear waste will arrive almost reactor site. She says many utilities are not pre- hourly for 30 years until 70,000 tons of waste have pared to handle tne coming costs. been buried. The facility will cost an estimated $50 billion and employ 1,500 people. Many utilities have not set aside adequate 1 funds to pay foi the decommissioning, so fu- Despite such detailed plans, federal officials ture customers or taxpayers will be charged are quick to admit they've never done anything for decommissioning the plants froni which like this before. In fact, no one has. And the lack they derived no power, no benefits. of a proven track record in high-level nuclear waste disposal has compounded public criticism Pollock says if and when a way is found to of the plans. April 1986 safely dispose of retired reactors, doing so could cost hundreds of millions of dollars for each one. January 1987

kl 7S 76 ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Dirty Diving El Fish and Chips

Thirhy-five brave men and women swim Here are some fish and chips you won't find in through lethal waters to see that justice is done. a restaurant.

This is not a job for the faint-hearted or the A compost made of fish remains and wood squeamish. chips may help fishermen get rid of the mess Divers employed by the U.S. Environmental that's left after they clean their catch. Protection Agency descend into the deep in search This problem is very real in fishing country like of hazardous waste. They're the agency's under- Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, which sepa- water watchdogs, and they're out to make sure rates Green Bay from Lake Michigan. The region would-be water polluters stay in line. has thin soil, so fish wastes must be trucked up to Decked out in orange, double-lined body suits, 70 miles to a landfill near the city of Green Bay. the EPA divers often swim in contaminated wa- The cost of this disposal is steadily increasing. ters to gather evidence against illegal dumpers. Lynn Frederick, a University of Wisconsin Sea Using the buddy system, they dive as deep as 130 Grant field agent, suggested to two UW-Madison feet into what may be deadly chemicals. In their scientists that they use fL, remains as a compost. underwater quests they've encountered every- Soil microbiologisti3obin Harris is now testing thing from drums of hazardous waste and loads of wood chips as an essential ingredient of the com- sewage sludge to illegally dumped fish remains. post mixture. EPA divers have investigated the bottom of We take about an equal weight of dry wood highly polluted Boston Harbor. They also have chips and wet fish wastes, which is heads and worked in Long Island Sound, in water so murky backbones and tails and guts and whatever. they had to feel their way around. And they re- And if we nnx that 1-to-1 ratio together, then cently discovered deadly hydrocarbons in Seattle's the liquid part of the fish gets readily ab- Lake Union. As a result, the lake is now off-limits sorbed into the wood chips, and it's a fairly for fishing and swimming. dry inixture. Dwayne Karna heads the EPA's West Coast Harris says this initial product can be ground diving team. He says sometimes its work is more and mixed with more wood chips to help it decom- comical than dangerous. During a diving excur- pose. The final product should be a well-aerated sion off Kodiak, Alaska, for example, Karna's team compost free of odors and flies and easily han- got a surprise. As divers snapped pictures of fish dled. waste illegally dumped by a seafood processor, a grJup of thousand-pound sea lions swam up. The UW-Madison horticulturist Lloyd Peterson will playful animals slapped the divers around. The eventually test the product as a fertilizer. EPA employees scrambled back into their boat. I really can't foresee any problems once we The sea lions barked at them to come back into the get to plant testing. And as a soil amend- water. ment. I think it's going to be excellent.I But lighthearted moments are rare for the EPA think it's just a matter of getting it in the divers. Karna admits that the job makes him a lit- right condition. tle nervous. It's a dirty business, he says, but Peterson and the other Sea Grant researchers someone's got to do it.E November 1988 point out that a fish-and-wood-caips compost makes good environmental sense. They hope the technology can be simplified enough to offer an economic a ltei native to landfill disposal. October 1985

7 9 VIR ONMEN TA L QUALITY 77

111 New Life for Old Milk Jugs 111 Solar One-Holer

Plastic. It has the ring of something cheap and Perched on a ridge in the wilds of Maine, justa artificial. Even worse, its various forms represent few feet from the Appalachian Trail, isan $8,000 potential waste and litter. But now some plastic outhouse. milk bottles are being recycled as a valuable and durable resource. The price may be a bit steep, but this is no ordinary outhouse. It is specially designed to treat For three years, a Luxemburg, Wisconsin, plas- human wastes using the sun's heat. It requiresno tics manufacturer has collected used milk jugs and chemicals. It is odorless and nonpolluting. It is turned their polyethylene into a tough, wood-like simple to clean and maintain. And it producesa material. One of the company's first customers sanitary byproduct that is easy to handle. was Port-A-Pier, a family-owned firm in Man:io- woe, Wisconsin, that builds boat docks and piers. Proponents have nicknamed it the "solar one- holer," and they say it could solvea problem as When western cedar wood became too expen- old as camping itself. The outhouse serves apopu- sive, owner Bill Paulson cast about for a substitute lar rnountain campsite that accommodates about planking for his piers and docks. He heard about 20 people a night. The soil in thearea is shallow. the recycled milk bottle operation and soon be- The teinperature is generally cool, and the air is came a satisfied customer. From the plastic sheets, thin because of the altitude. All of this inhibits the he cuts out inch-thick planks. As the planks decomposition of organic wastes. An old-fash- weather, they take on the appearance of wood. ioned outhouse here must be moved toa new spot But unlike wood, they do not crack, chip, or peel. about once a year. That's a tedious job, and woe And they grip nails and screws tenaciously. to the camper who happens upon one of its former Last July one of those big storms that come locations. about every 10 years pounded the Green Bay The solar one-holer, on the other hand, never shores of Door County. Paulson says fiveor six of needs to be moved. Its solar panels and construc- his piers were among those battered. tion absorb and circulate heat through a compost- our piers were the only piers that stayed ing tank below that turns organic waste into dry in the water, using this plastic decking. We humus. The humus can be spread over the feel that what helped our products at the end ground with no ill effects en the campers. In fact, was that the plastic decking has a little give to it actually enriches the soil. it, whereas wood has no give at all. Its proponents admit that $8,000 is a lot to shell Recycled milk bottles are also ending up in out for an outhouse. But they say that if the de- lawn furniture, park benches, livestock pens and sign proves reliable over time, solar one-holers-- golf-course bridges. In these and other products, or four or five-holers, for that mattercould be the tough plastic resists breakage, vandalism, mass-produced at much lower cost. And if it works on a mountain in Maine, it ought to work chewing animals and spiked golf shoesand the elsewhere. homely milk jug takes on new life.IIJanuary 1984 That could be good news not only for campers but for lakeside-cottage owners, park operators and others whose conventional outhouses don't work as well as they ought to.leNovember 1982

8f; 78. ENVIRONMEKAL QUALITY.

A Saline Solution 10 Garbage In, Compost Out It damages roads, bridges and automobiles. It Today's trash may be tomorrow's fertilizer. A contaminates water supplies. And it can poison University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point scientist plants and animals and endanger human health says landfills are full of valuable resources. Yet each winter we pour tons of it on our streets and highways. Sodium chloride, the salt used to de-ice roads, is widely considered indispensable to Where will all the garbage go? Many' commu- safe winter travel, despite the problems it creates. nities are asking that question these days as land- When salt dissolves, the sodium and chlorine fills overflow and new dump sites grow more go their separate ways. The sodium often ends up expensive and elusive. But soil scientist Aga in wells and aquifers, posing a threat to people Razvi of UW Stevens Point may have an answer. with hypertension or heart disease. And chlorine, Razvi is working with the Wisconsin Depart- one of nature's most corrosive elements, eats holes ment of Natural Resources on a one-of-a-kind proj- in highway structures and car bodies. Stanley ect to turn nonrecyclable refuse into valuable Dunn of Sedun Incorporated, a private research compost. In a low-cost, one-person operation in firm in Madison, Wisconsin, has developed an al- Lodi, Wisconsin, curbside trash is shredded, ternatik e to road salt. It's an organic compound mixed with sewage sludge and piled into mounds. called calcium-magnesium acetate, or CMA, and Pipes in the mounds allow air to circulate, and a Dunn claims it's noncorrosive, nonpolluting and bullciozer occasionally turns the refuse over. As effective at even lower temperatures than salt. the paper, sewage, cloth and other discarded items With all those advantages, w hy aren't snow-belt decompose, they create enough heat to kill un- communities spreading CMA on their icy streets? wanted bacteria. The final product is screened to The primary reason, says Dunn, is economics. remove glass and metal, leaving a fine soil-builder that farmers can spread on their fields. The very cheapness of sodium chloride: It's found in deposits all over the country in ve?y Razvi says the process saves three-quarters of pure form. All you have to do is ?nine it, the landfill space the trash would have occupied. grind ;t and sell it, and it's very cheap. You And he says the compost increases the ability of cal?I,eat that for a cost of something farm soil to retain nutrients and water and makes you're talking a penny a pound. the soil less vulnerable to erosion. Razvi says his low-tech method of waste disposal is designed for Unlike sodium chloride, CMA is expensive to communities of 7,000 to 10,000 people. He points proauce. But Dunn believes that using CMA out that it might not work in places with industrial would actually be cheaper in the long run if salt- wastes in their sewage. But Razvi says the start- related damages, estimated by the U.S. Environ- up costs are less than $100,000, and other cities are mental Protection Agency at $3 billion a year, watching the Lodi project closely. were taken into account. Composting trash may not dminate the need Not everyone is convinced, but the federal De- for new landfills. But Razvi believes it's a creative partment of Transportation does plan to road-test and inexpensive way to grealy reduce the need Dunn's product in three northern states this win- for them. IJune 1985 ter. November 1984 A Healthy Profit II Paper Revolution

Many attempts to protect the environment A new way to pulp wood may save trees and focus on cleaning up pollutants after they are pro- money and virivally eliminate paper-mill pollu- duced. The 3M Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, tion. is trying to stop pollution before it happens, and it's paying off. Ten years ago, 3M began a program called Pol- The century-old terhnology used to break lution Prevention Pays, or 3P. The company en- down wood to make paper has been a heavy pol- couraged its scientists and engineers to find luter of air and water. But a University of Wiscon- manufacturing technologies that pollute less and sin-Madison wood chemist says that may soon save money. The 3P coordinator, Sara Zoss, says end. this made the company reassess its production Forestry professor Raymond Young has discov- methods. ered a way to process pulp wood that he says will In the past, the manufacturing process used revolutionize the paper industry. The new to be left on its own and then they'd turn to method, called ester pulping, uses no sulfur the the environmental people and say, 'Well, main pollutant from paper mills. In fact, says here's my exhaust or emission, please take Young, ester pulping emits no pollutants at all: care of it.Now what we're doing is turning Every chemical used is recycled, and one of them, the problem-creators into the problem-solv- acetic acid, is extracted from the wood itself. ers. And sometimes those are the people that Young says the process may save the paper in- have the very best ideas to begin with. dustry millions of dollars. He says new ester mills will cost half as much to build as conventional The 3P Program has grown from 10 projects in mills, use less energy and get more pulp from the its first year to about 1,200 now. Zoss says every wood. project has to meet three criteria: It must reduce a primary poll-itantone created during manufac- We've found that yields are dramatically in- turing; it must involve some form of technical inci eased, almost doubled, compated to Lurrent novation; and it must be economical. According pulping pi ocesses. So the increased yield is to Zoss, the program has saved 3M more than an maw tWe because even a inci ease is $190 million so far. worth millions of dollars. It's had other benefits too. Zoss says polluting oung says ester pulping could boost paper- materials have often been ronoved from products mill production 50 percent without wnsummg entirely, reducing disposal problems for consum- more wood. That, he says, coold save a lot of ers and easing the burden on government regula- t.ees. tors. Paper companies are intrigued by Young's dis- 3M's pollution-prevention approach could covery. They are eager to in, old spending money catch or elsewhere. Zoss says the company gets on pollution-control equipment when many of hundreds of inquiries every year from other firms them are not doing well finan11v. And Young curious about how it works. rNovember 1984 says the companies that are worst off could benefit most from ester pulping. That's in our plans, to basically retrofit those old mills and jump in with a new process, and maybe we can revitalize total communities that normally would go down the drain. It could have a great economic impact. - December 1985 82 89 ENNONMENTAL QUALITY

III De-oil in the Water NIse to the Grindstone New chemicals make breakins up easier to du. The people of Jacksonville, Florida's udor patrol follow their noses to the job. Some of the most dramatic images of marine pollution have come from oil spillsbeacnes At first glance, Jacksonville. Florida, with its blackened by sticky lumps of crude oil, a1.d birds pleasant climate, fresh :.ea breezes, and white and other wildlife befouled and dying. Cait disper- beac,.es, seems to ha e a lot to offer. But for years sants offer hope in the war against oil spills. Dis- the city h,.s been known more for its bad smell persants arc chemicals that break up oil, causing it than for its attractions. to disperse in t:te wa,er, wheie it evaporates or Thc odor conies from pulp milts aad chemical breaks down. Oil treated with these chemicc.ls plants in tIlc area. The smell has driven property poses much less of a threat to the marine environ- values down. Tile situation lied become so bad in ment th:n oil that remains in a slick. recent years that many people reported feeling Gordon Lindblom is a research scienh >1 with sick from the stench. Exxon Chemicals Technology in Houston, the Jacksonville city offices have been bombarded world's leader in dispersant technology. with odor complaints. In 1987, a new mayor set Lindblom says dispersant chemicals could drasti- out to clear tl-w air. Jacksonville passed an odor cally change the ef icy of oil-spill cleat mps. nuisance law last spring, the first of its kind. The Ifthere is oil on the seathat is, if theie has law creat2d a way to regulate air pollution based been a spillyou have only two choices: Let on odor levels. it come ashore and handle it thereeveryone Citizens call in complaints on an odor hot line. knows the problems that entails, to say noth- A group called the odcr patrol goes into action. ing of lawsuits and things that follow a mas- Arm',with a ariety or equirmentand its sive cleanupor handle it at sea and prevent nosesthe team measures wind speed and direc- it from coining ashore. That's the main thing tion, humidity, and other atmospheric conditions about dispersants: They are preventive of en- to find the source of the odor. If the patrol is able vironmental damage. to verify a complaint, it sends a citation to the Exxon's Lindblom says dispersant technology fender. The guilty party either draws up plans for has be2n around tor almost 20 years. But early dis- changes or fAces fines of up to $10,000. persant chemicals were as toxic as oil, and they cre- Robert Tolen heads the odor patrol. He says ated as many problems as they solved. However, Jacksonville citizens are excited about the city s scientists have made great advances in dispersant get-tough policy. They feet it's a chance to make safety in the last 15 years, and today's chemicals the city more livable. According to Tolen, indus- are not toxic to marine life. Lindblom thinks fur- tries in the area are already making noticeable ther research will perfect techniques for using dis- changes. Back in the spring, tl e patrol was persants aad will ultimately save beaches and swamped with as many as 300 odor complaints a wilClife imperiled by spills at sea. June 1986 day. Now the calls number about 250 a month. Tolen says he notices fewer odors now on his investigations. He hopes the odor patrol will snuff out Jacksonville's stinky reputation once and for all. October 1988

f-e3 pyylROKIMENTA :ILJALITc" 81

Victims of Pollution E Recycling Simplified

Japan is only the size of California, but its pop- A California city ni-ikes recycling as easy as ulation is half that of the entire United States This taking out the trash. crowded nation exports tremendous volumes of r ianufactured goods, and its intense industrial ac- civity has produced air and water pollution that is With trash collection costs on the rise and land- difficult to escape. fills nearly full, San Jose, California, like many As a consequence, Japan passed a unique law other cities, faces a waste-disposal crisis. The city in 1973 to compensate people afflicted with dis- has begun a pilot recycling program to cut the eases caused by pollution. Under the law, a per- flow of trash to landfills. People are asked simply son who contracts a pollution-rehited disease to place their newspapers, tottles, and cans in sep- while living in a highly polluted ara may be medi- arate boxes at curbside on crash day. The city pro- cally certified as a "victim." The government com- vides the boxes. A private waste-disposal pensates the victim for medical bills and company, hired by the city, picks up the junk and disabilities. Today, there are 100,000 of these offic- has it recycled. ially certified victims in Jaran. San Jose's recycling coordinator, Richard The compensation money comes from a pollu- Gertmann, says the program is popular in neigh- tion tax levied on automobile owners and indus- borhoods where it's being tested. Nine thousand tries. The more one pollutes, the more one pays. households received free recycling boxes at the outset, and 70 percent are using them. Koichiro Fujikura, a law professor at the Uni- versity of Tokyo, says the victim-compensation Gertrnann says the pilot program, which so far system has helped reduce pollution in Japan. serves only 10 percent of San Jose's three-quarters of a million people, is less than a year old. But it It added an extra incentive for industrial con- already has cut the amount of waste the city ships cerns to reduce the amount of emissions into to landfills b- 'Percent. tlw air and to be more careful about the discharge of chemical substances into thw water. We're s fur a 25 ivrcent reduction in In that sense, it is very effective. total ni teria. for landfill by 1990. That will include a lot of programs in addition to the Fujikura says the victims form a strong constit- curbside program. We intend to do yard- uency for pollution control. Their numbers help waste composting and hav2 the waste-reduc- the government determine appropriate pollution tion centers do sonie commercial-indlistrial standards, and they pose a constant reminder to recycling in addition o the curbside pro- the nation that more still needs tu oe done to clean gram. So we have a wide variety of prop ani its air and its water.I May 1983 initiatives to reduce the amount of garbage to landfill. Gertmann says it's too soon to know how much money San Jose will save in the long run. But he says recycling costs the city far lecs than waste disposal. And the city expects an $80,000 rebate ne,Ayear from trash collectors as recycling reduces the amount of waste dumped into precious landfill space.I February 1986

E; 4 82 . ENVIRONMENTAL QUZLITY

111 Burden or Blessing? El Towards Greater Safety Do environmental regulations hinder economic For all that we hear about health hazards in growth? Some people in irOustry and government the work place, have we really done much about claim they do. They say, for instance, that strict ihem? An expert in risk management says we air pollution laws hurt auto manufacturers and have. tough toxic-waste disposal rules burden the chemical industry. That's one reason why the Reagan administration favors relaxing environmental reg- Hazardous waste. Toxic chemicals. Radiation. ulationsto help business grow. Most of us keep our distance from these things. But other people say there is little evidence that But many industrial workers cannot. Their jobs ex- such regulations weigh heavily on the economy. pose them daily fo materials and processes that On the contrary, they say, environmental laws can be deadly. have helped create a whole new industryand Congress created the Occupational Safety and with it, new jobsdedicated to pollution control. Health AdministrationOSHAin the early The few industrial plants that have closed for vio- 19705 to ensure that employers minimize hazards lating enviror.mental rules, they say, were obsolt '-e in the work place. Although OSHA took a tough and likely to close soon anyway. regulatory stance throughout the 1970s, critics Daniel Bromley is a University of Wisconsin- complain that it has become too lenient under the Madison economist. He says environmental regu- Reagan administration. Nevertheless, William lation can create new costs for some industries, Lowrance, an expert in risk assessment and man- but there may be hidden benefits. agement at New York's Rockefeller University, says most workers are better protected now than It might raise their costs, and usually it does. they were in the past. But it could also lower their costs. If all of a sudden they say, 'Yeah, this old boiler is I think over the last 10 to 20 years we have ac- about to die and we were going to replace it complished a tremendous amount in making within five years but the government is crack- the work place safer in general in this coun- ing down on usI guess we better replace it try. We've tackled some enormous problems, this year,' has it raised their costs? I don't such as asbestos, and that's going to go o.i for know. It's pushed an investment into the a long time. But we recognized it as a prob- present, whereas they had planned to put it lem, we figured out ways to get rid of it and off into the future. But the nice thing about deal with it, and we also helped people who new machinery is that it's usually cheal are affected by asbestosis. In fact, OSHA has operate than old machinery. just adopted new regulations on asbestos cov- ering more than a million American workers Bromley believes what really hurts bth,ness is who are regularly exposed to the cancer-caus- inconsistent regulation from one administration to ing substance. And for the first time, they in- the next. He says on-again, off-again policies clude construction workers. All must now be make it hard for industries to plan and encourage specially trained to work with asbestos, and them to hold off until the political climate changes they must wear protective masks in certain to suit them. February 1983 areas. Not everyone is happy with the regulations. Some industry spokesmen say they're unneces- sary; some labor officials say they don't go far enough. But OSHA claims they will cut the risk of asbestos-related death and disease among workers by 90 percent. July 1986 EVORONMENTAL QUALITY 83

M Agreeable States 111 Return of the Returnables

The governors of the Great Lakes states agree The returnable bottle is becoming fashionable not to let competition for new industries zveaken again. In the last decade or so, nine states, includ- their environmental protection. ing Iowa and Michigan, have adopted laws requiring deposits on all beer and soft drink bottles and cans. Thanks to efforts by the states and provinces surrounding them, the once heavily polluted Oregon passed the nation's first so-called bottle Great Lakes are recovering. Levels of many toxic bill 11 years ago, and state officials there say it has chemicals are declining and the lakes' fisheries been a big success. William Bree of the Oregon De- have come back. Today the fisheriesare worth partment of Environmental Quality says more more than $1 billion a year to the region, and Lake than 90 percent of the deposit containers sold in Erie, considered hopelessly polluted 20 years ago, the state are brought back for redemption. Studies is once again swimmable. by his department show that litter has beenre- duced 83 percent and substantial amounts of en- But low levels of toxic pollutants in the lakes ergy have been saved annually. The law also has still raise concerns about public health. And be- ci eated jobs and reduced some beverage prices. cause the sources of the pollutants are many and widespread, the surrounding states can't combat Bree believes putting a price on bottles and them on their own. cans helped change people's attitudes in Oregon. He says it promoted a recycling spirit that has The governors of the Great Lakes statesre- been the real key to the deposit law's success. cently agreed to tackle the problem together. Lyman Wible of Wisconsin's Department of Natu- The system works because of the actions of ral Resources says the governors agreed that pro- the public. All tl:e success is a result of the tecting the lakes requ:res extraordinary people, the public achons and the public atti- cooperation. tude and the public acceptance. All the law does is provide the structure under which it These political boundaries that we all recog- can take place. nize and have to deal with, they ought not be boundaries on the resolution of these prob- Deposit laws still have many critics, though, lems, and we're giving thon higher priority. and voters in four statesArizona, Colorado, Cali- We want state employees, we want advisors fornia, and Washingtonrecently rejected bottle on environmental issues, to go out and talk to bills. Opponents claim recycling is possible with- each other, spend the time, snake it a priority, out regulation, and they warn that forced deposits get moving on this stuff. will put people out of work inid raise beverage prices. State officials will do more than just talk. The formal agreement calls for 34 specific actions to But supporters of deposit legislation are persis- combat toxic pollution over the next few years. tent. And they hope that if more states adopt de- They include guidelines for dealing with chemical posit laws, there will one day be strong support spills and consistent consumption advisorieson for a national bottle bill. December 1982 toxic levels in sport-caught fish. But the governors also agreed not to let competition between the states to attract industries interfere with antipollution efforts. They agreed to keep tough eiwironmental regulations on the books and to enforce them fully, even in the face of pressure for new economic development. July 1966 '84 ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

1111 Recycling at a Ripe Age Lost in Space A Wisconsin woman proves people and rub- Since the launcl, of Sputnik Ithe first artificial bish need not be retired before their time. object in spacein 1957, the Soviet Union, United States and other nations have hurled over 3,000 payloads into orbit. As a result, thousands of Mildred Zantow was mad when a landfill near pieces of space junk, ranging from microscopic her Wisconsin home leaked and polluted her well. particles to dead satellites that weigh several tons, She decided it was time to stop simply dumping now clutter space as they rush around the Earth at trash and started her own recycling company. seven miles per second. Zantow, who was nearing retirement, won few be- lievers at first. Keeping track of this space debris is the job of the U.S. Air Force Space Defense Operations Cen- They all thought that was really funny, that ter in Colorado Springs. Using super-sensitive Millie is 20 years ahead of her time, people equipment, the center can track any object larger aren't going to do any of this. And I guess than four inches. It takes 30,000 observations that really made me more determined than daily and meticulously tracks and catalogs the or- ever. Men in particular said that I wouldn't bits of 5,000 artificial objects. have the strength to go through with it, but Only abou1- 250 of the objects in space are oper- they changed. They know I'm going to stay. ational, including more than 40 nuclear-powered Z --Itow found a buyer for ground-up plastic devices, which carry an estimated ton of enriched and cuL,hed in her life insurance policy to buy a uranium and plutonium-238. The rest is junk grinder. She also recycled aluminum; glass, news- spent satellites and rocket stages, separation de- print, cardboard and motor oil. Business boomed vices, and even an American astronaut's lost and now, ten years later, it's still thriving. Last Hasselblad camera. year the company recycled 1,000 tons of refuse, Most of the debris is the result of more than 60 saving space at the county landfill and $19,000 in explosions in space. An American Nimbus dumping fees. And Zantow says her company weather satellite that blew up in 1970 dumped 318 jobs took three families off welfare. All of that trackable pieces of junk and myriad smaller frag- changed local attitades about recycling. ments into orbit. The Soviet Union routinely When I started they said, 'Ugh! You mean blows up exhausted satellites, and scime authori- clean out a cat food can? I'll never do that!' ties estimate the smaller, unseen fragments in And now they not only clean them out,they space could number in the tens of millions. de-label them, they wash them, they flatten While there has never been a collision involv- them, and theybring them to me. That is ing a manned spacecraft, it is believed collisions just one symbol of what is happening. with space junk have caused some unexplained Millie Zantow says it's worth spending her satellite failures. And with space debris increasing golden years in garbage for clean water and at the rate of more than 10 percent each year, some longer-lived landfills. April 1988 space authorities fear the probability of such a collision will even:11,111y reach unacceptable levels, perhaps within a decade.ixOctober 1983

8 7 , ENVIRONMENTAL_ QUALITY 85.

IIII New Deposit, Big Return NI Dumping Diapers

Aluminum manufacturers have discovered a Disposable diapers rank at the bottom of a rich "deposit" of aluminum that, until recently, Michigan group's list of environmentally sound was almost untapped. They have found the valu- consumer products. able metal along highways, in parks and towns, even in the middle of major cities. And nobody minds them taking it. In fact, millions of citizens The Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, are helpinj them. has named the disposable diaper the Most Waste- That's because the "deposit" is ordinary trash, ful Consumer Product of 1986. The environmental and it's full of aluminum that used to be dis- group says throwaway diapers waste energy and carded. Nowadays, aluminum companies pay paper, and they also gobble up valuable space in good money to those who save aluminum andre- overburdened landfills. turn it to them via recycling centers. Center spokesman Bryan Weinert says theavei- The biggest source of the metal in trash is soft- age baby uses at least eight diapers a day through drink and beer cans. Before 1972, only 15 percent age two. He says with six million children in the of these cans were recycled. Now it's more than United States less than two years old, and with more parents rearing their children on dispos- aHes, billions cf the diapers end up in landfills Why the big change? Quite simply, the alumi- each year. num industry finds it cheaper to make products from recycied aluminum than from aluminumore. Weinert says most landfills are not designed to Almost all of the ore comes from overseas, and it handle what's in those diapers. As a result, he takes a lot of energy to mine and refine. Energy says, bacteria leaking from the dumped diapers costs account for a fifth of the price of aluminum could reach groundwater and spread disease. products made from scratch. They are substan- We've got very sophisticated systems tially less for products made from recycled alumi- throughout the country for the processing, of num. hunmn waste, and yet we kind of slapped that Beverage cans made up more than half of the ir the face with dispcsable diapers and said two million tons of aluminum recycled in 1982. it's perfectly legitimate to take human waste Aluminum companies now have their eyeson au- and throw it in a landfill. tomobiles as another cheap source of the metal. Weinert notes that most adults would not con- Most junked cars today r-ontain about 75 pounds sider buying disposable clothes for themselves. of aluminum. When 1983 cars hit the scrap pile in a few years, they will yield about 135 pounds It's obviously more efficient to have clothes each. And one 1984 model containsmore than 400 that you can wear over and over again, that pounds. you rust need to wash and then can wear over Aluminum companies clearly want to step up and over again, rather than having either recycling. They are studying more r,fficientways cloth clothes or paper clothes or plastic to separate aluminum from less valuable metals clothes that iifru wear once and Huck,' away. and to identify and sort different kinds of alumi- According to the Ecology Center's Wemert, one num. They also are campaigning for less expc n- reusable cloth diaper is worth hundreds of dispos- rive freight rates for scrap metal, something that ables. He says parents who are too busy or carnot would make aluminum recyclingeven more eco- stand to wash cloth diapers should look into dia- nomical than it is today. iApril 1984 per delivery services. He sa y3 most of the time even those services cost less than using disposables, and for many peopl. that's the bottom lire.

1111 September 1986

Pi 8 Shifting Gears A Plague of Plastic If you're overwhelmed by all the junk you A recent government report says plastic litter carry to the curb on trash day, imagine how the plagues the Great Lakes. people at Buick City feel. Buick City is a General Motors assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. Sev- enty-five percent of all the parts and supplies that Plastic debris has become a nuisance in both go into the Buicks and Oldsmobiles made there the Atlantic and Pacific occans. The debris entan- come in throwaway containers. Every year, the gles marine wildlife, threatens coastal recreation plant has to get rid of 87,000 square feet of corru- and inconveniences fishermen. A report by the gated fiberboard, 1,600 woc.:en pallets and t.s of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicates other packaging materials. that plastic debris is plaguing the Great Lakes as Buick City's dilemma is typical of the car indus- well. try, but its response is not. Beginning next Septem- Marine biologist Kathy O'Hara of the Center ber, General Motors will require that all parts and for Environmental Education wro;- the EPA re- supplies used at the plant come in returnable, reus- port. O'Hara surveyed national wilulife refuges able containers. The policy is part of a complete and natural resource departments in the states sur- overhaul of the plant's operation aimed at cutting rounding the Great Lakes. She says all states bor- waste of all kinds. dering the Great Lakes report that plastic waste General Motors hopes to save $6 million a year has become a nuisance to fish and wildlife. And at Buick City from not having to store and dispose she says all kinds of plastics are causing problems. of thro%N away containers. David Johnson, a waste- For example, a Michigan State University biolo- management specialist at Michigan State Univer- gist estimates one out of every hundred birds on sity, says indu5try is watching the experiment the Great Lakes gets entangled in fishing line or with great interest. six-pack rings every year. On Lake Superior, trawlers report that a lost plastic fishing net a half- If Buick City makes this thing go and they de- mile long had trapped about a hundred pounds of crease costs as much as they claim, about $10 fish before it was salvaged. Plastic nets are slow to per automobile, the whole manufacturing sys- decompose, and they can continue to trap and kill temI'm talking about mnajor manufactur- fish after they're lost. The state of Michigan has ers,, not only automobiles but tractors, you banned plastic nets for this reason. O'Hara says know, and anything that is assembly-line ori- U.S. and Canadian officials report that plastic tam- entedcould very, very quickly follow in pon applicators are becoming a nuisance on Lake that same pattern because it's time-saving, it's space-saving, it's cost-saving. Ontario. They float on the water and accumulate on the shore. And O'Hara says Pennsylvania offi- And there's a kicker to the story. Johnson says cials are struggling to clean up polystyrene fast- most of the reusable containers designed for Buick food containers that litter Lake Erie. City wil' be made of recycled plastic. If other man- O'Hara points out that the greatest environ- ufacturers follow suit, he says, it could open up a mental insult of plastic litter is its durability. A whole new market for plastic recycling. plastic six-pack ring, for example, may have a life 111 March 1985 span of 450 years.IIApril 1987 ENVIROAIMENN, QUALITY

City Limits II Ski Control

In Holland, farms are farms and citiesare Ski resorts in Colorado and Vermont are boom- cities. The Dutch intend to keep it thatway. ing. But critics say the environment around them is sliding downhill. Across the United States, shopping malls and subdivisions are springing up on what was, until The populations of two Colorado resort areas recently, farmland. Few communitiesseem ab l.? to Vail and Aspengrew nearly 400 percent in the stop urban sprawl. City governments are reluc- 1970s. Ski-resort development is robust in Ver- tant to stall economic development, and farmers mont, too. And controversy has developed in near urban areas can make more money selling both states. their land than farming it. In Colorado, the National Forest Service is per- Some European countries have proven that mitting new resorts to be built on federal land urban sprawl is not inevitable. Herman near Vail despite the opposition of state wildlife of- Felstehausen, a professor of landscape architecture ficials. John Seidel, Vail-area supervisor for the and environmental studies at the University of Colorado Division of Wildlife, says new develop- Wisconsin-Madison, says the Netherlands i anex- ments will interfere with the migration of elk, ample. lt's the most densely populated country in mule deer and other animals. the developed world. Land is scarce, yet agricul- tm 0 thrives. The Forest Service says it has considered how the resorts will affect wildlife on its land. But Sei- Felstehausen says tough laws keep farmland af- del contends that development on private land fordable to farmers but out of the hands of specula- around the resorts will have greater impact. He tors. says neither the federal nor state government can They simply set up requironents: If you are control that growth once the resorts are built going to buy a piece of farmland, then you You have an awful lot of approved subdivi- must be a farmer. sions that have not been built at this point in When Dutch cities need to expand, voters de- time. When they are built, I think it's going cide where and how much. Felstehausensays city to really affect tlw quality of life and the es- governments then play middleman. thetics of the valley. They're very narrow valleys, and they're being completely filled with The city government will actually go out to human habitat. the fringe of the city and acquire the land at public expense. And it will then draw the Seidel says county governments in Colorado basic floor plan, the blueprint for that area, (12- can restrict ski-related development, but countirc ciding where the streets zvill be, what theser- hesitate to interfere with what is often their ma) vices will be, and how big the lots zvill be. source of employment. Vermont is trying to control growth around its Green Mountain ski resorts The city then sells the land ata profit to devel- by limiting the number of sewage discharge per- opers, who take it from there. The profits pay for mits for new subdivisions. The resulting contro- utilities, policP and fire protection, and other versy has emLrolled the state and developers in urban services. Felstehausen says this combina- public debates and law suits. tion of careful planning and free enterprise keeps Dutch cities orderly and attractivc and saves farm- Critics in both states say long-term plans are land. needed to control ski-area growth. But John Seidel October 1988 says in Colorado, at least, the prospects for suich plans are dim. January 1986

90 Paying the Piper 111 Turnaround at Tahoe

In the upper Midwest, the question is how to Gaze into the waters of Lake Tahoe and you stimulate economic growth. In some parts of the may have to catch your breath. This large moun- Sun Belt, the question is how to cope with it. De- tain lake straddlinthe California-Nevada border velopment holds the promise of new jobs, a is so clean you c&i. see objects more than a hun- broader tax base and prosperity. 3ut it also has its dred feet down. price. Nowhere is that more evident than in Palm But Lake Tahoe's remarkable clarity faces a for- Beach County, Florida. midable threat. People have built many new vaca- One local newspaper reporter says Palm Beach tion homes, stores, high-rise hotels and even County used to be a "sleepy bedroom commu- gambling casinos along the shores. No sewage is nity" compared to nearby Fort Lauderdale &ad permitted in the lake. But all the development has Miami. Not any more. Housing subdivisions, stripped the surrounding land of trees and other high-rise condominiums, business parks and shop- plants that once kept soil and nutrients from wash- ping centers have sprung up all along U.S. Route 1 ing into the la ,e and polluting it. and Interstate 95. The county now has 100,000 Alarmed by the problem, representatives of more residents than it did five years agomany of California and Nevada recently agreed on strict en- them retirees. New homes are selling at a rate of vironmental standards that will control future de- 750 a month. Some economists predict the West velopment around Lake Tahoe. Charles Goldman, Palm Beach-Boca Raton metropolitan area will be a limnologist at the University of California-Davis, the fastest growing in the nation in the next three says the pristine quality of the lake would be lost years. without such standardc. Many people in Palm Beach County are ec- static. Real estate and other businesses are boom- If development were to continue in the Lake ing. But others regret the county's transformation. Tahoe basin at its current rate, we'd be look- They have watched traffic snarls, crime and pollu- ing at a very ordinary, green lake within our tion multiply. They've seen development eat lifetimes. The only way to preserve the qual- away at the county's shoreline and forests. ity for future generations is to be firm about the zoning already established, to prevent con- Now they face the most unwelcome prospect struction on steep, erodible slopes, and bring of all. Palm Beach County needs additional court- the Nisi?i under cont vol. If we can't do it house space, a new trash incinerator and landfill, hele, with the tremendous affluence, with one and more and bigger roads to handle all the new- of the most populous and economically suc- comers. Those will cost hundreds of millions of cessful states in the union, it can't be done dollars. One county commissioner says the big- anywhere. gest local issue of 1985 will be how to raise the money without, as she puts it, "taxing residents Goldman says it may be several decades before right out of the county." the benefits of the new environmental standards are noticeable to most people. But eventually they The Snow Belt may have its economic prob- will assure that Lake Tahoe is actually cleaner lems, but if Palm Beach County, Florida, is an ii.di- than it is now. September 1982 cator, all is not rosec in the Sun Belt, either. 1January 1988

91 -ENVIRONMENTAL'QUALITy .89

From Boom to Bust MI Close Quarters

The boom has gone bust in Austin, Texas, and Tailor-made neighborhoods are designed to the city's still paying the bills. make home life more efficient and friendly.

For developers, real estate agents, and bankers, Many people have trouble finding housing to it was the best of times. Austin, Texas, becamea fit their needs. Conventional housesmay be too magnet for high-tech industries, and by the early big, too expensive, or too much trouble for the el- 1980s it was the nation's fastest-growing city. derly, single people and working parents. Apart- Property values soared and construction boomed. ments and condominiums often do not suit Austin officials tried to control the rate and lo- families with children, and others find them too cation of new growth by refusing to extend public confining and impersonal. uti lies beyond city limits. But Texas iav,, allows A new form of housingone that's popular in developers to put in their own utilities. So private Denmark and beginning to catch on it. the United development centers, complete with,opping Statesmay solve these problems. It's called malls and subdivisioi,s, sprang up outside the city. cohousing, and it consists of 15 to 30 side-by-side Austin's metropolitan area doubled between 1980 dwellings. Groups of people plan, build and live and 1986. together in these custom-designed neighborhoods. To regain control of the growth beyond its bor- Each unit has a private back yard and a front ders, Austin cut deals with the developers. The la ,vn facing a grassy commons. Laundries, gar- private growth centers would abide by city zoning dens, workshops and playrooms are shared. So is ordinances and building codes. In return, the city a large dining room, although each unit has its would provide water, sewer, and other services. It own kitchen. Residents can dine alone or with oth- also would assume some of the developers' debts. ers. The units have movable walls and can expand But the boom ended in 1986 after falling oil or contract to fit changes in family sizes. prices crushed the Texas economy. The buleft Architectural designers Kathryn McCamant Austin with vacant homes and office build, ogs c.nd Charles Durrett have written a Look about and a $2 billion debt. Kent Butler, an urban plan- these innoN ,,tive dwellings entitled, simply, ner at the University of Texas-Austin, says city Cohousing. McCamant says cohousing gives peo- pthnners were certain the boom would continue. ple a sense of community that they've lost inre- They thought there would be plenty of new cent generations to careers, frequent moves, and customers to help pay for construction of sewer growing distances between family members. She and water lines to the new developmelits. They says the tightly knit neighborhoods also use land were wrong. And as a result, says Butler, Austin and energy efficiently without making people feel residents are picking up the tab. Their utility bills crowded. have risen by as much as 27 percent a year. It's much more viable to incorporate various Butler says Austin's booming growth was in- innovative systemssuch as solar energy toxicating, but the city should have foreseena systems, recycling systemsat that &Ale hangover. He says the experience is a lesson for than it is in a single-fainily house, so you can those who advocate unhindered growth: There do more with appropriate technology. are no free lunches.IINovember 1988 McCan-ant says some 25 groups in the United States, mostly on the West Coast, alreadyare designing their own cohousing neighborh-)ods. September 1989

9 2 AL. 7: Health and Nutrition ,.... T.pit ArLiiraai 17.tki

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11 Fish Fat Facts Waiter, There's No Fly in My Soup Scientists say fish in the diet helps preventcor- onary heart disease. Now it seems eating fish may also prevent certain cancers. Dnj-roasted grasshoppers, crickets in garlic sauce, or deep-fried caterpillars: In some parts of the world, insects are gourmet items. The fat in meat, fish and vegetable oils affects human health in a variety of ways. Red meats, for Gene Defoliart says he's got a good recipe for example, contain saturated fats that, inexcess, a may impair blood circulation and lead to coronary type of caterpillar. heart disease. They're about an inch long, I guess... Wi.ite, Nutrition scientist Rashida Karma li of Rutgers hairless. You drop one of these into a deep-fat University says there is evidence that certain fatty fryer, leave it for about 40 seconds, and pull acids in vegetable oils and meat may also lead to it out and dip it in salt. It melts in your cancers of the breast, colon and prostate. These mouth and it tastes just like bacon. risky compounds, called omega 6 fatty acids,are Defoliart's testimonial may leave your taste found in sunflower, corn and safflower oil, ingredi- buds rather cold. But the University of Wisconsin- ents common to the average American diet. Asa Madison entomologist says insects are commonly nutritionist, Karma li is concerned. eaten in many parts of the world. The fact that we are eating 40 percent ofour You on to Africa or South America: In many total calories as fat is too high. And we really in the indigenous populations, if you should aim at reducing our fat intake down give them a choice, they prefer insects. You definitely to 30 percent, or even down to 20 can keep the beef; they'll take the insects. percent, of the total calories if that is possible. Defoliart says people in most non-European But Karmali also has good news: Fish oils con- cultures eat at least some insects. In rural Japan, tain a different set of fatty acids called omega 3. In grasshoppers and bee larvae are a regular part of animal studies, Karmali finds that these organic the diet. Japanese city dwellers wash their compounds probably counter the harmful effects waterbugs down with a stiff drink. And in Thai- of the omega 6 fats. land, gourmets consider grasshoppers the perfect Karmali says we don't have to live by fish snack alongside a beer. alone. But in many countries, insects are more than What is important is to have an optimal ratio snacks. Some Brazilians depend heavily on bugs of the different types of fatty acids from fish for protein. In Zaire, a central African country, in- oil and from vegetable oil. sects make up a good 40 percent of the animal protein eaten by the average person, and with good As a rule of thumb, the Rutgers nutrition scien- reason: They are rich in protein, vitamins, miner- tist suggests that we eat fish at least onceor twice als and calories. a week while reducing the overall level of fat in our diets. NI June 1986 Defoliart says ii;tle research has been done on the potential nutritional uses of insects, but he believes they could easily be mass-produced for food. In fact, he says, even migrating locusts could turn famine to feast in Africa if people simply caught and ate them. February 1988

9 4 94.HEALTH NUTRLTION

Bad Taste? al The High Cost of Carryouts A United Nations economist says a growing People in the United States waste enough edi- taste for North American-style diets is partly to ble food to feed all of Canada. So says an archae- blame for malnutrition in the Third World. ologist who studies modern-day garbage.

Cassio Luiselli believes poor people in develop- It's called the Garbage Project. For 13 years, ing countries would eat better if they returned to University of Arizona archaeologist William more traditional diets. Influenced by North Amer- Rathje and his students have sorted through ican eating habits, he says, these people are spend- household trash in Tucson, Milwaukee, and Marin ing scarce money on meat, so-called junk food and County, California, in neighborhoods representing alcohol. a cross-section of American consumers. Their pur- Luiselli led a team of social scientists and nutri- pose: to find out how much food we waste. tion experts in a two-year study of food and nutri- And Rathje says we waste a lot. tion in Mexico commissioned by the Mexican government. They found that the country as a Our results indicate that, at least in the sam- whole was fairly well fed, but significant pockets ple neighb&rhood- the households are discard- of poverty and malnutrition existed. ing between 1c,id 15 percent of the solid food that they buy. At a national level it's They traced the problem to a shift away from been estimated that we're wasting $11.7 bil- the traditional, low-cost diet of corn tortillas, lion worth of food a year. squash, beans and rice to one of meat and potatoes. The newer diet, says Luiselli, is more expen- The Garbage Project has found that a third of sive.It also includes some junk food, which gives the edible food thrown out is prepared but not people little real nutrition, so the poor are paying eaten. The rest is unused whole items like pro- more and getting less. duce and meat that spoil in the refrigerator. Peo- ple apparently buy these items intending to The United Nations economist says it takes prepare fresh meals. But after a long day at work, more energy and land to meet people's protein they often lose that ambition and opt for TV din- needs with meat than with grains and vegetables. ners or othe.. packaged meals instead. It also diverts farmland away from growing food for people to growing food for 1:,vestock, and that Even through recent recessions, says Rathje, r_duces the overall food supply available to the the amount of food wasted has remained fairly hungry and growing population. constant. The trend is not unique to Mexico. Luiselli Householders are just totally unaware of it, says red meat and imported foods and beverages so even in times of great economic stress, have become status symbols throughout the devel- when food is high-priced, people tend to wacte oping world. While he does not condemn im- a considerable quantity of food. ported tastes, he believes Third World countries The Arizona archaeologist believes the average should encourage their people to rediscover their family could save $250 a year through better meal traditional diets. Besides improving nutrition in planning. If people then donated some of those those countries, it would make them more self-suf- savings to famine relief, says Rathje, they could ficient in food. And that, says Luiselli, is the sur- pump new life into that old line about cleaning est way to strengthen their economies. your plate because people are starving elsewhere. June 1985 April 1986 This Spud's for You 111 Chemistry, Flavors and Fillets

I Ay the poor potato. It's homely, it tastes a lit- New discoveries of the chemistry underlying tle bland, and its history is tarnished by the great fresh and spoil& fish flavors may lead to longer- Irish famine of the 1840s. lasting, better .asting seafood products. But do notunderectimatethe potato. It ranks right behind rice, wheat and corn as one of the world's most important foods. About 300 million What makes fish taste fishy? Robert Lindsay tons are harvested annually in 130 countries. Peo- can tell you. Lindsay is a food scientist at the Uni- ple eat far more potatoes than they do fish arid versity of Wisconsin-Madison, and he has identi- meat. And animals eat a lot of potatoes, too. fied the chemicals that give fish its tasteboth good and bad. Lindsay says the processes that Potatoes are not empty calories. Richard Saw- make fish taste fishy instead of fresh are prevent- yer, director of the International Potato Center in able. Lima, Peru, says the potato is second only to eggs as the most nu'ritionally balanced food. He says it Two factors are responsible for bad-tasting has higher-quality protein than most crops, and its fish: bacteria and the breakdown of fat in the fish's proportion of protein to carbohydrates is also body through oxidation. Lindsay says most peo- high. That means it's not potatoes, but ffie butter, ple have a very accurate seafood quality tester sour cream and cooking oil people eat with them, with them all the time: -I nose. If you wonder how that are fattening. fresh it is, he suggests ycl take a sniff. Potatoes are good from the farmer's stand- That's a very fair rule of thumb for anybody. point, too. Sawyer says they yield more volume If a fish product has a distinct fishy aroma, it per acre than any other crop. They can grow at has been oxidized or been subjected to some both low and high altitudes. And they mature microbial growth and deterioration. more quickly than rice, wheat or corn. Some varie- Lindsay says understanding the chemistry of ties can be harvested in as little as two months fish flavors may help commercial seafood busi- after they are planted. nesses package fish ro keep it tasting fresh longer. All this has made the potato an up-and-coming It also may help nutritionists use fish oil in more crop in many developing countries, where the bal- food products without making the food taste ance between food supply and demand is precari- fishy. And Lindsay says his work suggests that an- ous. However, the potato is still vulnerable to glers can keep their fish tasting fresh by skinning diseases and pests, especially in the tropics. And their catches promptly, keeping slime from the in some ways, it is more expensive to plant, store fish skin from rubbing onto the fillets, and icing and transport than other crops. But scientists like fish down. Richard Sawyer are trying to work through these Lindsay's findings come at a time when con- problems, and if they succeed, the humble potato sumers are eating more fish. Fish (, apparently may at last get the credit it deserves. help reduce fatty deposits in blood vessels that IIFebruary 1983 may lead to heart problems, and research indicates that a regular diet of fish can help prevent certain types of cancer. mSeptember 1987 96 HEALTH &NUTRITIQICI

Perilous Panic III Threads with a Great Disposition What do SCUBA divers and firefighters have Crab shells may not keep patients in stitches, in common? They both depend on breathing de- but they may keep stitches in patients. vices for air. But sometimes those life-giving devices can be deadly. When physicians sew up a cut, the thread they use is important. Thread made of natural fibers SCUBA divers rely on portable air supplies to car. cause the body to have an allergic reaction. keep them alive. In a smoke-filled building, fire- Thread made of synthetic fibers can cause the fighters do, too. But ironically, their air masks or body to react defensively and attack the stitches. breathing regulators may sometimes be their And neither type of thread can be used to stitch, or downfall. suture, some parts of the body. A conventional su- Some SCUBA divers and firefightersno mat- ture in the urinary tract, for example, will dissolve ter how experiencedoccasionally panic with no before the wound heals. apparent cause. It can happen in clear, shallow But Sea Grant cheirust Paul Austin of the Uni- water with no present danger or on a routine in- lersity of Delaware recently discovered a suture spection of a smoky house. This panic often material that does not dissolve readily in the body causes the victims to believe they can't breathe, and is nonallergenic. The material is called chitin. and they tear off their life-giving supply of air, Chitin forms the outer skeleton of insects and shell- then drown or succumb to smoke. fish, and it is made up of long strands of sugar Sport psychologist William Morgan at the Uni- molecules that harden with age to give these or- versity of Wisconsin-Madison believes divers and ganisms structure and protection. fire fighters may soon be able to take a combined Research at Columbia University showed that physiological and psychological test that would re- Lhitin had wound-healing properties, but no one veal susceptibility to panic attacks. The UW Sea knew how the medical industry could use it. In Grant researcher says preliminary results indicate the meantime, the U.S. Environmental Protection these tests may be accurate in up to 80 percent of Agency had banned ocean dumping of shellfish all cases. wastes. Crab shells, a prime source of chitin, were piling up beside crabmeat processing plants along In our pilot work with beginning SCUBA Delaware's coast. students at the university, the psychological profiles have discriminated between those Austin decided to put the crab shells and their who've gone on to experience panic or near- healing properties to work. He found a way to dis- panic behavior during the course of a semes- solve and extract chitin from discarded crab shells ter and those who have not. So there is a lot and spin it into thread. He says experiments on of reason to believe that what I'm suggesting animals show that chitin sutures are strong, non- is, in fact, possible. allergenic and will not come untied. In addition, the Sea Grant chemist says thread made from chi- Morgan says if he can accurately predict which tin can be used anywhere in the body and will not people are likely to experience panic, they can quit dissolve until after the wound heals. April 1987 diving or fire fighting or they can learn psychological tricks to help them cope with panic it it happens. These techniques are easily learned, he says, and they may save a person's life.I July 1986

oe 7 HEALTki& NU-TRItION 97

U The Smell of Success IIII Get the Lead Out A keen sense of smell was vital to the survival Lead poisoning. It's still a serious problem in of early humans. Your nose is just as important the United States. today.

You've probably heard of lead poisoning as a Trygg Engen says most people don't realize problem that affects poor, inner-city children who how much their sense of smell tells them. Engen, eat peeling paint chips. But studies suggest the a psychologist at Brown University in Rhode Is- problem cuts across age and income levels land, is an expert on human responses to odors. throughout the United States. He says you're probably not aware of all the smells your nose picks up. Lead exists in soils and rocks everywhere. Al- though the human body has no use for lead, it nor- The sense of smell is something we use all the mally contains a small amount. But high levels of time but in a more or kss 1111C01156016 fash- lead in the body can cause irritability, nervous ion. We're always noting the odor in a room problems, miscarriages, high blood pressure, kid- or a building we walk into. ney failure and even death. Engen says people usually don't think about Lead contamination has many sources. Much odors unless they're strong ones. Cooking odors of it comes from automobile exhaust and from old may remind you that you're hungry; foul smells pipes and solder in household water systems. may prompt you to cut short a visit. Engen says Lead is still found in some imported paints and in these same responses probably gave early humans ceramic glazes used on dishes, even though im- immediate information about what to eat and porting such products is illegal. what to avoid in their environment. This natural Irene Mirkin, an epidemiologist with the Wis- warning system still runs strong. If you eat some- consin Department of Health, says the amount of thing and become ill, you don't care to eat or even lead discharged into the environment has dropped smell that food again. because of pollution controls, but scientists now Engen runs a hospital clinic for people who've believe that even low lead levels cause problems. lost their sense of smell. Their frustration goes be- The lead levels have gone down in this cowl- yond the meals they can't taste or the flowers they try over the past few years, and that doesn't can't smell. They also miss the warnings that foul mean lead poisoning isn't a problem, but it's odors give, whether of spoiled food, a natural gas now more asymptomatic. Children may hove leak or a fire. lead poisoning, but they won't show any clini- The psychologist adds that sensitivity to odors cal signs of it.It's important to realize that is also a problem for people in tightly insulated somebody may not manifest any signs but buildings. still have lead poisoning, and that's why screening is so important. Odor perception is becoming more and more of interest to air-conditioning engineers be- Mirkin says all children should be screened for cause when an odor smells bad, it's likely to lead with a simple .md inexpensive blood test. If be contaminated. The fact is, there isn't any blood-lead levels are high, the source car. often be much better index of it than that. identified and removed. Mirkin says you need to find out early because many problems caused by Put simply, things that smell bad are bad, and lead poisoning are not reversible. your body know_ it. U December 1987 December 1987 .9.8 ,HEALTH & NUtITIOAL,

III The Wrong Target ill Underwater Relief Summer weather means gardening, lawn care Soft coral from Caribbean waters may promise or field work for many people. A lot of them will relief from pain. use pesticides, but Walt Gojrnerac, a University of Wisconsin-Extension entomologist, says these chemical poisons sometimes hit the w rong target. In tropical waters, soft coral abounds in vibrant It may be just a simple mistake when they do, but colors of red, white and purple. It lacks the rigid it can have tragic consequences. outer coating of hard coral, so it must rely on Gojmerac recalls an incident in which a Wiscon- chemical defenses to protect itself from predators. sin brewery work_ was accidentally poisoned be- Three Sea Grant scientists from California and cause he brought a powerful herbicide home from New York believe the defensive chemicals these work in a beer bottle. animals use may someday help yield new drugs. The scientists recently discovered that one type of His wife came along, saw this beer bottle on the rare soft coral found only in the Bahamas and Flor- window shelf, took it upstairs, put it in the re- ida Keys contains a unique class of compounds frigerator. Some time later--1 don't know the that relieve inflammationthe pain and swelling time sequencehe caine in, opmed up the beer of body tissue and joints. Oceanographer William bottle, took a swig out of it. He did not make it Fenical of the Uni versity of California in San to the telephone to call the rescue squad. He Diego says experiments with mice showed these was dead. compounds contain anti-inflammatory agents Gojmerac says .,:e tragedy could have been stronger than the most commonly prescribed avoided if the man had not put the herbicide in a drugs. He says the compounds also act in unique common beverage bottle that did not have a spe- ways to relieve the pain associated with swelling. cial label. These findings may lead to the development of He says people should follow a few special new drugs for treating inflammatory conditions. rules to keep pesticides on target. Read and follow Fenical says the compounds are nontoxic, but it the directions every time you use a pesticide. will still take time before they can be synthesized and new drugs are developed from them. Store pesticides in their original containers with the labels intact. Not only can that prevent We don't know the side effects. The side ef- an accident, but if one happens, doctors or rescue fects may take years to understandif there workers will know what they're treating. are any. At the moment,we see little or noth- Don't eat, drink or even smoke while using pes- ing to be worried about. But this is very ticides. The chemicals can get on your hands and early testing, and it will require at least 10 in your food, and it they are supposed to kill pests, years of very thorough testing before we'll chances are good the chemicals could poison you have any feelings for side effects. as well. The Sea Grant researchers hope the com- Gojmerac says to be aware of animals and pounds can provide new insight into how inflam- plants that might come in contact with pesticides mation occurs and someday provide new sources and to avoid using them around children, li of relief to those who suffer pain. January 1987 stock or pets. And when you are through using pesticides, clean your equipment, your clothing and yourself thoroughly. Remember that even in small amounts, pesticides can kill, and it pays to handle them with caution. May 1984 HEALTH ,e( NUTRITION'. 99

1111 Homemade Air Pollution II Catching Ultraviolet Rays You can't hide from air pollution. Studies The popularity of outdoor summer activities have shown that toxic chemical levels may be and the advent of skimpy bathing suits have led higher inside your home than outside. to an increase m skin cancer in the United States.

People spend an average of 22 hours a day in- Over the past 50 years, Americans have increas- doors. That's not good, according to an environ- ingly turned to swimming, fishing, boating and mental scientist at the Harvard School of Public just plain sunbathing for summer recreation. Health in Boston. Lance Wallace says toxic chemi- Switnwear has gradually gotten skimpier, and a cal levels in the air are often higher indoors than deep tan has come to represent affluence, fashion out. Wallace says there are probably thousands of and health. But dermatologists consider one resources of air pollution in an average home. They sulting trend quite unhealthythe rising rate of range from cigarette smoking to hot showers, skin cancer in the United States. which release chlorine at five times the levels found outdoors. Wallace says other major sources Derek Cripps, head of the Dermatology Clinic of indoor pollution are consumer products, such at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madi- as paints and cleansers, and building materials son, says overexposure to the sun produces the like adhesives and insulation. worst form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma. Air stays inside the average home for about an It seems that we're seeing it in areas of the hour before fresh air from outdoors replaces it. In body that normally used to be protected. If that time, pollutants accumulate and becomemore you look at the swimming trunks, swimming concentrated. In the case of carcinogens, Wallace costumeswell, at one time, they were says, the higher the concentration, the greater the maybe to their ankles, and now they're so risk of cancer. brief that you can hardly see them, and there is a rising incidence of malignant melanoma. Wallace says indoor air pollution levels are independent of levels outside. Rural homes tested Scientists believe melanoma is caused by long- by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencycon- term exposure to the ultraviolet rays in sunlight, tained just as much pollution as urban homes in which damage the genetic material of skin cells. New Jersey. Wallace believes most indoor pollu- Melanoma often first appears on the skin as a tion originates within homes, and he suggests blemish or an irregularly shaped mole. According ways to reduce it. to Cripps, people with fair complexions and red, blond or light-brown hair face the greatest risk of There's several things one can do. Obvi- sunburn and skin cancer from too much sunlight. ously, the simplest is to open a window, even in New Jersey. According to our study, Cripps, who helped develop the protection rat- that's better for you in the long run. There ing system for sun screen creams and oils for the are times when you can't, and in those cases, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says mela- the best thing to do is to take the sources out noma can be fatal if not diagnosed early and of the house if possible. trea:ed promptly. The best cure, he says, is prevention: Use sunscreen, wear a hat, andif you Wallace erphasizes that these are mostly tem- burn easilyput on protective clothing. And, he porary measures. He suggests that the govern- adds, consult a physician if an irregular moleor ment set safety standards to help ensure a healthy blemish suddenly appears on your skin. indoor environment. November 1985 1 July 1985 HEALTH :3 NUTAltiON

Lighten Up Smoke Alarm Does winter give you the blahs? Maybe you Tobacco smoking is a hazard to nonsmokers as should lighten up. well as smokers, according to recent studies.

Many people get mildly depressed in winter Although cigarette smoking in the United and blame it on cabin fever. But some people get States is on the decline, more and more people are severely depressed. Scientists call the problem sea- dying each year of lung cancer linked to smoking. sonal affective disorder, or SAD. And the victims are not all smokers. Neuroscientist George Brainard of Jefferson The acting director of the U.S. Office of Smok- Medical College in Philadelphia describes the ing and Health, Donald Shopland, says passive symptoms: smokersthose who breathe in smcAe from someone else's cigarettesstand a strong chance of de- Decreased libido, decrease in physical energy veloping lung cancer, too. accompanied by feelings of fatigue, increase in appetite and increase in carbohydrate crav- The majority of studies are actual'y showing ingand that's often followed by weight that nonsmokers who are exposed do tend to gain, rnhch as a hibernating bear would go be at a higher risk for developing and dying of out and eat a lot more before it slept off the lung cancer. winterand an increase in sleepiness and increase in sleep time. The most recently published study from the American Cancer Society indicates that women Although researchers are not sure what causes who are exposed to heavy amounts of tobacco winter depression, they're finding out that more smoke from their husbands' smoking are twice as light may help some of its victims. Brainard ad- likely to develop lung cancer as women who are vises SAD people to cheer up because their prob- not exposed in this way. lem is probably a physical one that many Shopland says studies also have clearly shown psychiatrists can treat with light therapy. young children are more susceptible to respiratory Psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal of the National problems if their parents smoke at home. Institute of Mental Health in Maryland says light But there's hope for the nonsmoking majority, directly affects the brain. Rosenthal treats his SAD at least in public places. Only a third of all adults patients with bright lights to make up for the short in the Unit_ J States now smoke cigarettesdown days of winter. He believes people who get mildly from 43 percent two decades ago. Shopland says depressed in winter might need only more light in 40 states now have laws that limit smoking in pub- their surroundings. lic places, and most smokers accept them. But Brainard cautions depressed people not to treat themselves with bright light that could dam- There have been a number of surveys pub- age their eyes. He says most people could simply lished, not only by people like the American take walks outdoors because even when it's Lung Association but even by the Tobacco in- cicudy, daylight is much brighter than most institute, that have shown over and over again door lighting. that even the majority of smokers accept rea- sonable restrictions for smoking in public Those who don't like to venture outside in win- places. ter needn't despair. Brainard says special thera- peutic lights may soon be available in stores. Shopland says unwanted smoke in the air is no II longer considered merely annoying to nonsmok- December 1985 ers; it's now recognized as a potential threat to their health. February 1986

I 01 Gut Reaction IR The Big Chill

The crystal-clear mountain stream that beck- Victims of hypothermia require special treat- ons thirsty hikers and campers to drink could ment if they are to survive the big chill. cause months of intestinal distress.

Recently, a 10-year-old Massachusetts boy was As many as 16 million Arne:icansare thought pulled from an icy pond two hours after he fell in. to be infected with the parasitic microorganism He barely had a pulse, and his temperaturewas known as giardia. Giardiasis causes intestinal just over 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, cramps, bloating and diarrhea that can last for the boy didn't make it; he died, a victim of acute months. The parasite interferes with the body's hypothermialow body temperature. ability to absorb nutrients, resulting in weight loss and weakness. Someone who falls into cold water will begin to suffer from hypothermia within minutes. And Dr. Dennis Maki, an infectious-disease special- though it takes longer, it can also affect personsex- ist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and posed to the cold on land. Clinics in Madison, says although giardiasis has been around throughout human history, its infec- According to Jim Lubner, University of Wiscon- tious cysts have recently shown up in unexpected sin Sea Grant field agent, a hypothermia victim, be- places. fore losing consciousness, will quickly lose motor control and then become confused. Lubnersays We think of crystal-clear, pure streams in the this confusion will often cause the victim to resist Rocky Mountains. There's containination by help. giardia cysts. And it's recently been found Nonetheless, rescuers shouci persevere and get that in other mammals, such as beavers and a hypothermia victim out of wet clothing and muskrats, the parasite is able to infect these make him or her as warm as possible. Above all, animals, and they can be a reservoil for infec- Lubner says, handle the victim with care and do tion and contamination of the water supply. not rub and massage arms and legs to circulate Maki says more than 60 giardiasis epidemics blood. broke out in the United States in the past decade, mostly because of breakdowns in the purification A hypothermia victim often is in a very frag- of municipal water supplies. But he ile state, and jostling that person may lead to says common- cardiac problems. In any event, it's going to sense measures could prevent many of the individual cases he regularly sees. force the body to push warm blood out to the extremities before it wants to do that. Anybody who is going camping, particularly in the Rocky Mountains area, and is going to Lubner says if medical aid is more than a half drink the water in the lakes or streams would hour away, rescuers should try to rcwarm a hypothermia victim themselves. The bestway, the be well advised to either boil the wateror to pretreat it with halazone tablets. Sea Grant agent says, is to crawl intoa sleeping bag with the victim and share body heat. And, he Halazone is an iodine compound available at adds, do not give alcohol to someone suffering most pharmacies. from hypothermia. January 1986 Maki says people travelirg to developingcoun- tries should take similar pl ecautions. And stresses that even in many industrialized c. An- tries, such as the Soviet Union, giardia contamination of the drinking water is alarminglycommon. August 1985 1 02

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P7 LO

Mc III Sea Talk II An Anthropologist's Dilemma

In the old days, being shanghaied to the boon- Anthropologists who study primitive cultures docks was not much fun. But mindingyour Ps and have a problem: Should they help remote tribal Qs could make you a proper jack tar. communities cope with threats to their traditional ways of life? The English language owes many of itscom- mon expressionssuch as "minding your Ps and Cultural anthropologists usually try to live Qs," "knowing the ropes" and being "threesheets quietly among the tribes they study. They hope to the wind"to seafarers and sailors. Familiar the people will not react to an alienpresence and words like bootlegging, posh, scuttlebutt and sky- begin to alter their customs, beliefs and practices. larking also have their origins in the language of the sea. But anthropologists find it difficult not to take part in community life. After an outbreak ofmea- For example, the expression "tapping the admi- sles, a compassionate scientist may give vaccina- ral" means having a drink. It dates backto the bat- tions. If a child falls into a fire, a scientist may end tle of Trafalgai when Admi 31 Horatio Nelsonwas up treating the victim with modern medicines in- mortally wounded by a musket ball. Rather than stead of standing back and observingmore primi- being buried at sea, he was preserved ina barrel of tive treatment and attitudes. rum and shipped back to England. When::-.2bar- rel was finally opened, the admiralwas there but But the dilemma is even more far-reaching. the rum was gone. Should an anthropologist interveneon the tribe's behalf if land and mineral exploitation threatens "Mind your Ps and Qs" was originallya warn- tribal lands? ing to a drunken sailor. In his home port,a sailor usually had a charge account at the localtavern. John Yellen is an anthropologist at the National The bartender would keep a tally of pints and Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. Yellen quarts of beer the sailor consumed, writing P for notes that logging, mining and agricultural devel- pints and Q for quarts ona chalkboard. If a sailor opment threaten to deprive 200,000 Indians living didn't keep his wits about him, he mightpay for in the junglec of Brazil of their land and traditional more quarts than he actually drank. way of life. Sailors were sometimes called "jack tars" be- Very often you end up with a moral dilemma: cause they wore their hair long and secured it On the one hand,WMthink, 'Gee, I want to back in a pigtail with tar. The laige bib that sailors leave things alone': on the other hand,you wear on their backs today came abc it originally to see things happening that you're concerned keep tar off their shirts. about and you think shouldn't be happening. The word "posh" is also seafaring jargon. Ac- Yellen says several loose-knit organizations of tually an acronym, it stood for port out and star- anthropologists are trying to adiress thisconcern. board home. This indicated on what side of the One group called Cultural Survival, basedat Har- ship distinguished people should have their cab- vard University, has ht.lped persuade the World ins for maximum shade. Bank to fund only development projects thatare And finally, the expression "knowing the compatible with the welfare of indigenous peoples. ropes" was one way a captain could describe what But anthropologists still face the dilemma: a sailor had learned on the journey. But in those When should they stop being quiet observers and days the expression meant the opposite of whatit intervene in the lives of the people they study? means today. It was another way of saying that July 1987 the sailor had learned practically nothing. Ili December 1986 I 04 II Flat Earth Flattery III The Mystery of the Mounds The theory that the world is flat never had a High atop the Mississippi River bluffs near big following, even in 1492. Marquette, Iowa, lies one of the ancient mysteries of the upper Mississippi Valleythe centuries-old Indian mounds at Effigy Mounds National Monu- When Christopher Columbus sailed west from ment. Spain five centuries ago, people thought the world Nearly 200 prehistoric mounds have been pre- was flat and ships would fall oft its edge if they served by th-_s National Park Service. Twenty-nine crossed the Atlantic Ocean. That's what many of are effigy mounds, intriguing banks of soil built in us learned in grade school, and it's a gross exag- the shape of birds and animals. Who built them, geration. and why? University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer The effigies were built between 600 A.D. and David Woodward says few medieval scholars ac- 1400 A.D. in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota tually believed the Earth was flat. But he says we and Illinois. Of the 3,000 to 4,000 constructed, have all heard that theory because of offbeat intel- only about 20 percent still exist. lectuals from the Middle Ages. The mound builders were nomadic woodland Two of them, prominent Christian scholars people who lived in small family groups and wan- named Cosmas and Lactantius, said the Earth was dered across the countryside, living off the land. flat, the Bible proved their claim, and anything to One family may not have traveled more than 10 or the contrary was heresy. 15 miles in an entire lifetime. Why they built the Woodward says we have all heard about their effigies remains a mystery, but there are some tan- theory because they were unusual, not because talizing clues. their views were well received. Most effigies are found near major sources of We know about people like Cosmas because water, the first places where food would appear in the historians have tended to emphasize the the spring. And the emblematic mounds are unusual in the medieval period. In fact, dur- found only in a zone of transition between the ing his own day, Cosmas was regarded as a prairies of the South and West and the great for- second-rate scholar. So here is an example of ests of the North and East. Here the two _aviron- an erroneous idea being hlozon up out of all ments mixed together, providing a large supply of proportion because it happens to be of interest plants and animals for food. Outside this zone of to historians, but it does not reflect the main transition, effigies are simply not found. thread of thinking about the shape of the It's thought the effigies may have served a reli- world and the distribution of earth and water gious purpose. Some were used for burial, but on its surface during the Middle Ages. others contain no human remains or artifacts. Woodward is compiling a six-volume history What is known is that the mound builders disap- of map making. The idea that the Earth was spher- peared from the Mississippi River valley about 150 ical began with the ancient Greeks, Woodward years before the first European explorers arrived, says, and it did not die out during the Middle taking the secrets of the mounds with them. Ages. He says the myth that the flat-Earth theory Where they went, and why, no one knows. was once widely believed began with a biography March 1983 of Christopher Columbus written in the early 1800s. May 1988

14,5

, . s Travel Expenses Building a Science The wayAmericans gct around costs us more Half a century ago, wildlip managers relied thanwe think. more on good intentions than on hard science. But in just a few years, one man changed that. City buses, passenger trains and other forms of public transit are frequent targets of budget No science can trace its roots back to just one cutters who resent having to subsidize them. Like- person. But wildlife ecology can come close. wise, taxpayers sometimes consider bicycle lanes and even sidewalks luxuries. At the turn of the Lentury, no field of scienre dealt with the ielations between animals, land and But Mark Hanson says if people tooka hard people. There were fields like zoology and geogra- look at thepublic costs of getting around in pri- phy, but nothing that combined them. Then, in vate cars, they might see things differently. Han- the late 1920s and early '30s, Aldo Leopold fused son is an assistant professor of environmental these distinct fields into a new disciplinewildlife studies and urban planning at the University of ecology. This year is the hundredth anniversary Wisconsin-Madison. He estimates that forevery of Leopold's birth. vehicle on the road in Wisconsin, state taxpayers shell out more than $100 a year just to build and Though he was trained as a forester, Leopold's maintain highways and enforce traffic laws_ That years with the U.S. Forest Service crystallized his does not count vehicle registration fees andgaso- ideas about the relations between people, land and line taxes. wildlife. In 1933, Leopold put those observations into a book titled Game Management. This was the Hanson's estimate does not iaclude publicex- critical thesis around which wildlife ecology grew. penditures on air pollution, traffic accidents, health care for the injured, and otiler indirect costs Robert McCabe, a retired professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, of car travel. All this adds up to what Hansoncon- siders a whopping subsidy of its own. was one of Leopold's early graduate students. He describes Leopold's influence: When Ilook at discussions of what we should do about nwss transit or bicycles or walking, He s regarded as the father of wildlife man- provisions for pedestrians or wha.`ever,I'd agement. He was in on almost every aspect like to see the different nwdesthis includes of the development of game management thought. And hishook really coalesced all of light railput on a level playing field. Ifwe want to subsidize the automobile at the level these ideas. And today, the basic concepts of we're doing it, then let's subsidize all the that book are as good as they were the day they wcre written. All that has happened is other modes and then lei them compete. Ifwe want to get rid of the bus subsidy, fine, let's that in the intervening years we've produced get rid of the subsidy for all the other modes scientific data to support those concepts. as well and then see what happens. In 1939, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hanson says putting all forms of transporta- created the first Department or Wildlife Manage- tion on "a level playing field," as he puts it, might ment in the world; it was hi- r renamed the De- change the way Americans choose to get around. partment of Wildlife Ecology. Aldo Leopold was its first professor. March 1987 June 1987 108 PEOPLE & SOCIETY

III The Snowflake Man A Parks Pioneer

There's a unique old farmhouse in the hills of What better monument could there be to a man northern Vermont, distinguished from all the rest who believed nature rejuk enates the human spirit by a large metal snowflake at the peak of its roof. than a lush, beautiful park? This is the house where Wilson Bentley made pho- There are many such monuments to Frederick tographic and scientific history by taking the Law Olmsted. He designed some of the nation's world's first picture of a snowflake almost 100 best-known parks, and a century later, they re- years ago. main a tribute to his uncommon foresight. Bentley's remarkable technique has never been Olmsted was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in matched. Working in an unheated shed, he would 1822,the son of a well-to-do merchant. He tried sift through a collection of flakes, spear a perfect his hand at engineering, farming, writing and pub- crystal and transfer it to a microscope slide. Care- lishing. But he made his biggest mark as ful never to breathe on the delicate specimen, he America's first landscape architect. would rapidly slip it under his microscope-camera and take a picture. During his lifetime, Bentley In the late1850s,Olmsted a partner turned photographed more than5,000snowflakes. The 840acres of swamp, rocks anc.. _tills into a now-fa- prints have been used not only by scientists but miliar landmark, New York's Central Park. There also by jewelers and designers. had been city parks before, but none of this magni- tude or beauty. It was an instant success. Twenty- Whatever inspired a shy dairy farmer to dedi- five thousand people a day flocked in to relax and cate his life to the cold pursuit of snow? Amy play as soon as it was completed. Hunt, Bentley's niece, says her uncle's infatuation with snowflakes began at the age of15when Ills Olmsted firmly believed city dwellers in this mother gave him a microscope. young but rapidly growing nation needed large, natural, open spaces to relieve the pressures of civ- When he noticed them with his ink-roscope, ilized life. He lobbied hard to protect such places, he thought that they were so beautiful. And and he won many supporters. Eventually, he was he said that they'd come frow 'cloudland' and asked to design and supervise the creation of more that was God's gift to the world,, to enjoy than three dozen major parks in cities ranging these beautiful snowflakes. from Boston to Louisville to Milwaukee. Mrs. Hunt, who is84years old, fondly remem- Always, Olmsted chose to work in harmony bers her uncle's perseverance. with the landscape rather than against it. He in- He never would give up until he got his per- sisted on lots of greenery. He liked curving paths fect snowflake, which was in 1885, when he and roads with new vistas at each turn. He tried did his first one. My folks were in Florida at tc keep buildings from intruding. the time, and they were trying to get him to Perhaps most important, Olmsted believed in go down, but no way, he conldn't leave that looking to the future. He sowed seeds not just for snow. his contemporaries but for many generations to reap. August 1982 There's an ironic twist to the story of the man who became known as Snowflake Bentley. After a lifetime of fascination with snow, he died of pneumonia in Cie winter of 1931an illness that some say he got walking home in a blizzard. IIFebruary 1983 PEOPLE & SOCIETY 109.

III Leap of Faith III The Tree Huggers of India

A 17th century pioneer in anatomy and geol- More thaii 250 years ago, a young girl in India ogy spurned fame and fortune to minister to threw her arms around a tree in desperation. Europe's poor. Shielding the tree with her body, she hoped to prevent the maharajah's axemen from cutting it down. lnst?ad, the girl and 363 other protesting Today's science stands on a foundation laid in villagers were themselves felled before the maha- the 17th century. Scientists such as Galileo, New- rajah stopped the slaughter. ton and Halley replaced speculative and mystical notions with experimentation and proof. But they These early martyrs of forest conservation in- were often caught between their discoveries, pow- spired what was called the chipko movement. In erful church authorities and their own religious India, "chipko" means "to embrace." convictions. As Galileo found at his trial by the Today, popubtion pressures and a desperate Inquisition, science and religion were not always need for timber and fuel are causing the forests of compatible. northern India to be over-harvested. For these Another casualty of this conflict was Nicolaus same reasons, neighboring Nepal is currently los- Steno, a devout Danish scholar born in 1638. In ing about 3 percent of its torests each year. A his early twenties, Steno traveled around Europe United Nations study predicts this trend will turn demonstrating his skills in dissection and his the mountainous regions of these two countries knowledge of human anatomy. He was the first to into desert and bring flooding to central India by accurately describe the workings of the glands, the end of the century. muscles and heart. His reputation earned him the In response, a modern version of the chipko admiration and financial support of Italian royalty. movement has sprung up. For 20 years, the pres- That royal interest led to another of Steno's sci- ent-day chipkosmostly womenhave been dem- entific achievements. When a duke sent hima onstrating against the loss of forests in northern shark's head to study in 1665, Steno noticed that India. These women and their children have been the shark's teeth resembled fossils he hadseen in literally hugging trees to stop the axes and the Italian countryside. To explain how those teeth chainsaws from cutting them down. The chipkos and other marine animal parts became sealed in also urge massive tree-planting programs to pro- rock, Steno established fundamental principles of. vide jobs, restore the forests and anchor the erod- geology. ing soil. This was no small feat in the 1600s. Only the All this has earned the respect of the Indian Biblical account of the earth's history was widely government, and forest clearing has been sus- accepted in Europe, and fossils were not thought pended temporarily in some regions. to have come from living things. Some historians Other tropical forests such as those in South say this conflict raged in Steno's own mind and ul- America and Africa are also threatened. This year timately drove him to the Church. He becamea the World Wildlife Fund and the International priest at age 36 and preached among the poor of Union for Conservation of Nature is campaigning northern Europe. He never practiced science to save the world's forests. Helping to lead the again, but even in his short career, Nicolaus Steno way are the chipko tree huggers of northern India. pioneered careful methods of observation essen- March 1982 tial to modern science. June 1986 111 A Matter of Proportions II Feeling the Strain A leading environmental scientist says popula- "Short of thermonuclear war itself, population tion is growing fastest in parts of the world that growth is the gravest issue the world faces over can least support it. the decades immediately ahead." The words are those of Robert McNamara, former U.S. defense secretary and retired president of After years of slow but steady decline, the the World Bank. But the idea is shared by many world population growth rate rose last year. A pri- people concerned about international develop- vate organization called the Population Reference ment. Bureau in Washington, D.C., says the growth rate now stands at 2.8 percent a year. It may not sound Leaders of Third World countries such as like much, but at that rate world population Egypt, India, Mexico and the Philippines worry would double to more than 10 billion by the year openly that population may be their biggest obsta- 2030. And most of the additional people would cle to security and prosperity. The population c r live in impoverished developing nations. these and other developing countries has doubled since World War II and probably will double Peter Raven directs the Missouri Botanical Gar- again in the next 17 to 35 years. McNamara and den in St. Louis and is a leading spokesman on in- others say industrial -aations like the United States ternational environmental issues. He says citizens cannot turn their backs on the problem. Its ripple of industrialized countries must understand that effects are felt throughout the world. Countries they're members of a fast-shrinking minority. that cannot support their populations often fall For somebody born in 1950 in an industrial into deep foreign debt; suffer high unemployment, country, there would have been two people food shortages and poor living conditions; and see living outside of industrial countries for one tb 2 gap between the rich and the poor grow wider. of him or her. At the end of that person's life, Social scientists warn that those conditions give or toward the end, in 2020, there will be five rise to the sort of political turmoil, both domestic people living outside the industrialized coun- and international, that's so evident today in Latin tries of the world for every one of them. America and Africa. And this turmoil threatens Raven says those numbers do not bode well fur the security of the rest of the world. the 20 percent of the world's population that cur- When ecologists like Paul Ehrlich first warned rently enjoys a high standard of liv;ng. of a ticking "population bomb" in the early 1970s, That's a change in global proportions, which they expressed the problem largely in biological makes the fact that we in the industrialized terms. There was a limit, they said, to the number countries control about 80 percent of the total of people the Earth could hold, and when the pop- gross national product of the world, about 80 ulation reached that limit, there would be wide- percent of the n:dustrial energy, and about 80 spread famine, disease and death. to 95 percent of all the materials that go to It seems now that the dangers Gf overpopula- make up the standard of living, a serious ineq- tion are much more complicated. Whether or not uity and one that will have increasingly obvi- there's a biological "upper limit," the world's eco- ous repercussions. nomic, social and political systems all feel the strain of too many people. E January 1984 Raven says those repercussions include increasing tensions between the haves and have-nots of the world. May 1987 PEOPLEL SOCIETY il

Crisis? What Crisis? The Promise

End of the world getting you down? Simon Biotechnology, which makes it possible to says, "Relax." char6e the genetic makeup of living cells, is barely a decade old. But scientists say it promises to revolutionize medicine, agriculture and industry. Julian Simon angers environmentalists when By transferring genes from one cell to another, he says the world is not overpopulated, is not dan- sdentists can endow living organisms with new gerously polluted, and will not run out of re- abilities. Implanting the gene that produces sources. In fact, Simon, a University of Maryland human insulin in a bacterium, for example, has business professor, believes quite the opposite. made it possible to easily and cheaply mass-pro- He claims that more people mean more producers duce insulin, which is so important to diabetics. and consumers to fire up the economy and more brains to think up new ways to solve problems Richard Burgess, director of the University of and create new things. Put them in a free market, Wisconsin-Madison's new Biotechnology Center, he says, and prices and profits will ensure a steady says genetic engineering holds unlimited potential. supply of the good life. We can do things now that we couldn't His critics call Simon's ideas fairy tales. They dream of doing several years ago. Almost say he overlooks evidence that parts of the world anything yon can imagine doing that in- have more people than they can feed and that volves a geneisolating a gene, changing a many nonrenewable resources are being depleted. gene, expressing that gene at high levels, puri- But Simon considers dire warnings about the envi- fying the enzyinesanything yon can think ronment unnecessarily gloomy. about doing is feasible. I'm not saying that all is well everywhere, Burgess, a cancer researcher, sa, s biotechnol- and I don't predict that all will be rosy in the ogy has triggered a revolution in the diagnosis of future: Children are hungry and sick, people certain diseases. And he expects new, more effec- live out lives of physical and intellectual pov- tive treatments to follow, including, perhaps, a erty and lack of opportunity, war or some cure for cancer. He also thinks farms and factories new pollution may finish us off. What I am will soon benefit from genetic engineering. Bur- saying is that for most relevant economic mat- gess says more productive crops and nonpolluting ters that I've checked, the aggregate trends industrial processes are on the horizon. are improving rather .'.an deteriorating; not Despite all the promise of biotechnology, critics that things are good, but that they've been have raised questions about its potential for nega- getting better. tive environmental, social and economic repercus- And they're getting better, says Simon, because sions. Some have even challenged the ethics of people throughout history have struggled to make transferring genes between species. them better. He says the evidence is all around: Burgess belies es most of their fears are exagger- Pollution levels are dropping, and raw materials ated. He says scientists have proceededwith are getting more affordable all the time. If re- cautionbecause the potential for good in biotech- sources were getting more scarce, he asks, how nology far outweighs the risks. May 1985 could their prices go down? Environmentalists say Simon uses only those facts and figures that support his case. Simon denies that and insists that people always find a way to get by. He says he has faith that they'll continue to do so. September 1987 Miracle or Nightmare? 11 Sword,into Plowshares Scientific miracle or impending nightmare? Jer- Guns or butter? For many nations, the choice emy Rifkin says genetic engineering spells trouble. is very real. Some scientists claim biotechnology could one day eliminate disease and starvation. Economist and author Jeremy Rifkin says these goals are ad- What makes a nation secure within its borders? mirable, but he questions the wisdom of tamper- Not just military hardware, accord 'ng to Michael ing with nature's designs. Renner. Renner is an expert on international relations at Ibelieve each species has an essential nature, the Worldwatch Institute, a private research orga- an integrity, a self-worth that's imprinted nization in Washington, D.C. He contends that into its genetic code, and that it is irresponsi- governments routinely risk their national security ble of us to atten),,t 'rearrange those codes by defining it strictly in military terms. In the long after millions Of of natural development. run, Renner says,economicandenviromiwntalstabil- Rifkin, whose lawsuits have delayed several ge- ity may be more important than military might to netic research projects, claims biotechnology is re- a nation's well-being. ducing life to a set of design principles. Ethiopia is an example. During the 1980s, fam- Andit raises some troubling questions. ine devastated this eastern African country. Ren- What are the criteria, for example, for what is ner says the Ethiopian government was too a good and bad gene? Efficiency? National preoccupied with a civil war to head off the disas- security? Those are cultural values, not bio- ter. logical rules. Then the ultimate question is If Ethiopia had spent something like $50 mil- raised: Who do we entrust with the authority lion a year on halting its soil erosion and de- of deciding what is a good and bad gene? forestation, it could have avoided the much Rifkin's critics point out that nature has pro- larger costs that it incurred in the early and duced hardships such as disease and famine. mid-1980s in the form of declining agricul- They say science should work to overcome human tural productivity and mass starvation. suffering. Rifkin agrees, but he Lelieves the long- Instead, says Renner, the Ethiopian govern- term costs of genetic engineering will outweigh its ment spent $50 million every two months to arm potential benefits. itself against anti-government rebels. Ironically, You know, we rushed into the nuclear revolu- the rebels gained strength and determination as tion without any questioning, and we rushed Ethiopia's environment deteriorated. Renner says into the petrochemical revolution without starving people lost faith in the government and any long-term look at the costs. And now looked to the rebels for help. our children's generation is reaping a very The Worldwatch expert says he does not mean terrible legacy in regard to everything from to say the governments must choose simply be- nuclear power plants that cannot be tween arms and the environment. He says they decommissioned to chemical waste dumps must deal with threats as they perceive them. But that cannot be cleaned up. We owe it to our- in their drive to arm themselves, some may ne- selves this time around to ask the hard ques- glect the land and water that ultimately sustain tions at the beginning of the technology. their people. August 1989 May 1985 nr&

*4:

, III Thailand's Sinking City III Pushing the Limits

Overpopulation, pollution, flooding and food Cairo, once the mystical city of a thousand min- shortages are problems all over the world. But in arets, has changed drastically under the crush of many developing countries, these problems are ag- millions of people. Like man; cities, the Egyptian gravated by shortages of money and technical capital struggles to provide its citizens with hous- knowledge. ing, food, clean water and other basic human Bangkok, Thailand, for example, with an esti- needs. But people's demands far outstrip Cairo's mated 5.4 million people, subsists on an annual ability to meet them. budget of only $170 million. By comparison, New Designed to hold a million and a half residents, York City has a budget 100 times larger. the city today has more than nine million people Bangkok, a city handicapped by a mushroom- and gains another 800 every day. Its Giza district ing population and poor urban planning, suffers is tnree times as densely populatedas Manhattan, from severe flooding. During the rainy season, and in Giza, people are crowded into four- and water runs more than three feet deep in some five-story buildings, not skyscrapers. Many of places and often stands in pools for months. But Cairo's poor build shacks on roofs of other build- flooding is just a symptom of bigger problems. ings. Hundreds of thousands live in the city's huge cemeteries, usually with no services at all. Thirty years ago, this coastal city made way for automobiles by filling in most of the canals that In this overburdened city, human needover- branched off a nearby river. This shut off a natu- shadows questions of environmental protection. ral drainage system. Then, with the increasing With sewage flooding the streets, no one asks if population, there was a greater need foi drinking the Nile River is polluted. Yet in tackling Cairo's vater. The city dug 1,000 additional wells, but social problems, Egypt is starting to salvage the that severely depleted the water table that helped city's natural environment. The government is support the land upon which Bangkok is built. As working to curb Cairo's population growth, repair water was taken out, the land subsided. Today and extend its sewer and water systems, and im- the city is three feet lower than it was 30 years ago. prove its housing. Bangkok is now sinking as rrir ch as four inchesa F.gypt's citizens are helping too. One television year, and experts warn that in 20 years, the city commentator spearheaded the creation of an Egyp- could sink below sea level and become uninhabi- tian environmental agency. Some people have table. helped the environment by helping themselves. This year, Thailand authorized $16.7 mil'ion to Forty thousand famiiies make a living collecting, begin dredging a canal and building a dike and sorting and selling trash from Cairo's upper-class floodgates. But officials believe that the project households. will not be complete for several years. Given its But the city's environmental problemsare far ever-increasing population and a lack of money, from solved, and the main obstacle is money. One BangkokThailand's capital cityfaces a most important government agency Egypt's Ministry precarious future. U June 1983 of Planning, has stated flatly th.:14- it cannot afford to worry about protecting the c:Iy's environment when it faces so many other urgent problems. I December 1983 116 AROUND THE GLOBE

Supercity ii Grim Harvest

Jose Lopez Portillo, the president of Mexico, In a major nuclear war, an estimated one bil- has called it "the most absurd thing that ever hap- lion people in the northern hemisphere could be pened." Portillo was referring not to an event but killed outright. But a recent study predicts far to the capital of his own country: Mexico City. more would starve to death. First settled by the Aztec Indians more than 600 years ago, Mexico City has mushroomed this century into a metropolis of 14 million people According to a report by the Scientific Commit- twice the size of New York City. And it is adding tee on Problems of the Environment, far more peo- the equivalent of the population of Milwaukee ple would die of starvation following a large-scale about 700,000every year. nuclear exchange than from bombs. Urban experts say Mexico City may swell to The committee, part of the Paris-based Interna- more than 30 million people by the year 2000, mak- tional Council of Scientific Unions, stressed the ing it by far the largest city in the world. fragile nature of the world's agriculture. The 200 biologists who contributed to the report agreed Hundreds of poor peasants and job hunters that a nuclear war would interrupt most agricul- from small towns stream into the city each day. ture in the northern hemisphere for almost a year They hope to find work and prosperity for their and impair it for years thereafter. families. Some do, but many more do not, and so Mexico City is a place of stunning contrasts. It has Several factors account for this dire prediction. a grand boulevard lined with great buildings, glit- Proponents of the "nuclear winter" theory claim tering monuments and beautiful greenery. It has unlimited nuclear war would produce persistent luxurious homes, fashionable shopping centers clouds of dust and smoke that could lower temper- and elegant restaurants. But only a few miles dis- atures drastically. The biologists point out that tant, multitudes of families still live in rickety even a small drop in temperature would reduce shacks and caves along dirt roads piled high with corn yields in the northern hemisphere. In fact, garbage. Many have no water or sewer systems. just a three- and-a-half-degree drop through the Some are literally starving to death. Even those grow'rg season would cut grain production 50 who prosper must cope with huge traffic jams, se- percent in Canada and the Soviet Union. And a vere air pollution and frequent breakdowns in city one- or two-day cold spell could wipe out rice har- services. vests. Cereal grains such as these make up 70 percent of the world's food supply. Some urban planners blame Mexico City's woes on the local government, which did nothing Computer models of the world's climate also to control the city's growth for decades. Now, suggest that the aftermath of nuclear war would they say, it is too late to solve the city's problems; temporarily cut sunlight in the northern hemi- the best hope anyone can have is to make those sphere by as much a; 90 percent, which would seriously inhibit plant photosynthesis. Other problems more manageable. July 1982 environmental damage would include rain that's more acidi-: and toxic compounds in the air from widespread fires. A Toronto University scientist who helped prepare the committee's report predicts its message will increase public pressure to reduce the world's nuclear arsenal. November 1935 . AROUND THE GLOBE 117

Aftermath of War El Antarctic Disharmony? As Vietnam attempts to recover from three de- For years, Antarctica has been an interna- cades of war, it is struggling to prevent an ecologi tional laboratony where iesearch takes precedence cal catastrophe. over politics. But now, the search for oil and precious minerals may disrupt this harmony. The war in Vietnam may be history, but its scars remain. Twenty-five million tons oi bombs Researchers from 16 nations have conducted ex- were dropped on Vietnam during the fighting. periments in Antarctica for the last quarter cen- Countless villages and vast tracts of jungle were tury with scientific rather than political set ablaze. And much of South Vietnam was imperatives in mind. The Antarctic Treaty of 1961, sprayed with massive do3es of defoliants. signed by a dozen nations, proclaimed Antarctica The human toll was tragic enough. But John an international laboratory for scientific research. MacKinnon, a consultant to the Swiss-based Inter- Many scientists consider the isolated Antarctic national Union for the Conservation of Nature and continent an ideal natural laboratory. It has the Natural Resources (IUCN), says the war also Earth's cleanest air and watergood conditions wiped out forests, poisoned land with toxic chemi- for biological research. Antarctica has been spared cals and harmed valuable fisheries. political posturing by the many nations who lay All of that, says MacKinnon, compounds a some claim to it partly because the research was problem Vietnam shares with so many other Third not geared toward exploitation of natural re- World countries: It has a large and growingpopu- sources. But that may soon change. Many geolo- lation in a relatively small area, and the demand gists believe that beneath the offshore continental for food, fuel and other necessities is mounting. shelf of Antarctica lie the Earth's last giant oil re- MacKinnon says the Vietnamese are clearing land serves. Others think the continent contains large for farming and firewood at a rate that will leave deposits of gold and diamonds. them without forests in 25 years. The land they're Many scientists fear once oil and mineral explo- clearing has relatively poor soil and cannot sustain ration begins in earnest, there will be no stopping crops for more than a few years. And in their the influx of governments and private corpora- quest for meat, Vietnamese hunters have dimin- tions determined to get their piece of the Antarctic ished the country's wildlife. pie. But others claim that the weather and condi- The leaders of Vietnam are aware of the prob- tions are too hostile, that it would cost too much to lem they face. The government recently embarked drill for oil in temperatures that can drop to 100 on a national campaign to stabilize farm produc- degrees below zero and where winds often reach tion and conserve soil> plant millions of new trees, hurricane force. create fo-est preserves and wildlife refuges, and Conflicts over jurisdiction will be considered slow the country's population growth. when the Antarctic Treaty is reviewed in 1991. Invited by the Vietnamese, the IUCN is helping But some nations are already attempting to with the campaign. MacKinnon says the situation strengthen their position at the bargaining table. in Vietnam is perilous but not hopeless. A combi- Chile and Argentina have even settled a few fami- nation of conservation and ecologically sound de- lies on the Antarctic peninsula. December 1985 velopment, he says, could give the once war-torn country a brighter future. September 1985

4 1 5 118 AROUNI,ThE GLbE3E

The Unkindest Cut Chemical Dependence

Brazil is pushing hard to develop the natural re- Developing countries that try to boost their ag- sources of the Amazon River basin. Large areas of ricultural production with chemicals may do rain forest are disappearing as a result, and scien- themselves more harm than good. tists say the forests could be gone in 35 years if un- controlled cutting continues. The Amazon basin contains more than half the Chemical fertilizers and pesticides have multi- world's tropical rain forests and the largest variety plied farm productivity several times over in coun- of plants and animals anywhere. The lush vegeta- tries like the United States. The so-called Green tion also helps moderate the world's climate. Revolution is the envy of many Third World countries fighting widespread hunger. Some of them But biologist Philir ''earnside of Brazil's Na- are trying to join the Green Revolution by subsidiz- tional Institute for Amazon Research says the Bra- ing the use of pesticides by their own farmers. zilian government's promotion of mining, forestry and agriculture is causing the forests to be cut at Economist Robert Repetto of the World Re- an alarming rate. Fearnside says agricultural de- sources Institute, a private environmental research veloFment is taking the biggest toll: Brazil is organization in Washington, D.C., has studied pes- building roads into the tropical wilderness and ticide subsidies in nine developing countries providing financial incentives for new farm settle- where the government picks up an average of 44 ments. percent of the farmers' costs of pesticide use. Ironically, despite its dense tropical growth, Repetto says this government support may be much of the Amazon region is not good for long- a bad idea. He says many Third World farmers term agriculture. Fearnside says farm crops use who can afford pesticides because of the subsidies up all the soil's nutrients within a few years after don't know how to use them safely. As a result, the trees are cut. The land soon become-: barren health and environmental problems, such as f a rm- and hard and can no longer support either crops worker poisonings and groundwater contamina- or natural vegetation. tion, are common. In addition, indiscriminate use of pesticides is creating populations of pests resis- But Fearnside says the desire to push back the tant to chemicals that are supposed to kill them. frontier is deeply rooted in Brazil. Political parties campaign on big promises of land development. Repetto says simply ending government subsi- Speculators buy land as a hedge against Brazil's dies for pesticide use in developing countries 200 percent inflation rate. And the government would solve many of the problems. The chemicals seeks to raise cattle for export to help pay off its would once again be too expensive for most Third mounting international debts. World farmers. Pakistan dropped its pesticide subsidies a few years ago, and Repetto says most Fearnside and other scientists warn that of the related health and ecological problems have Brazil's push to overcome its economic problems disappeared. by developing the Amazon basin could have serious long-term environmental consequences. Rare The World Resources Institute economist be- and valuable plants and animals may be driven to lieves international relief organizations like the extinction, and unwelcome climate changes could U.S. Agency for International Development could do more for the long-term agricultural health of reach well beyond Brazil's borders. April 1985 Third World countries by promoting natural methods of pest control and helping those countries monitor and regulate their pesticide use. March 1986 AROU !D THE GLOBE 119

III Be It Ever So Humble 111 A Grand Plan

Housing conditions in many developing coun- Third World countries are sometimes tempted tries are abysmal. The United Nations estimates to do things on a grand scale to catch up with that up to 70 percent of the rural homes in the wealthier nations. But if undertaken too hastily, Third World provide inadequate shelter or lack their development schemes can go awry. basic necessities. Witness the case of se Lanka. This small is- Many developing countries have policies land nation off the coast of India imports 40per- geared toward improving housing. But Bruce cent of its food and nearly all of the fuel it uses to Stokes, a former researcher with the Worldwatch generate power. But Sri Lanka is struggling to be- Institute in Washington, D.C., telieves some of the come more self-sufficient. The centerpiece of its plans are ill-advised. struggle is a scheme to build four huge dams to Some poor nations, trying to emulate more af- draw hydroelectric power and irrigation water fluent countries, are building new dwellings out of from the Mahaweli River. The government cement. Unfortunately, says Stokes, cement embarked on a crash program seven years ago to homes reqiire lots of material and sometimes build the dams by 1986. Four western countries have hidden costs that can raise the price ofcon- agreed to help finance the job. struction unexpectedly. This is a serious problem Half a decade later, two of the dams are built in countries where money is scarce and invest- and the other two are under construction. But ments in industry and farming take precedence their estimated cost has more than doubled in the over those in housing. past five years to $2.5 billion. The Sri Lanka n peo- Stokes says Thitd World countries would be ple, already strapped for cash, are bearing the bur- better off adapting traditional building materials den through cutbacks in public services. to modern needs. For example, he says adding Perhaps worse, the potential benefits of the small amounts of cement to mud and straw makes Mahaweli project are threatened by erosion of earthen bricks that are stronger and that insulat2 bare hillsides along the I. ,er. Farmers have cut better. And mixing in a little asphalt makes the most of the trees there to grow tobacco and other bricks water-resistent. crops. In its haste to build the dams, the govern- Stokes also recommends creating village wood- ment overlooked warnings that if new trees were lots with fast-growing trees. He says they would not planted, erosion coulu dog the irrigation ca- provide timber for roof beams and wall supports, nals with silt. The government began a tree-plant- which are needed even in homes built of mud. ing program in 1981, but it's proceeding very And they would increase stocks of firewood, slowly and draining the public till even more. which is in short supply in some countries. The Mahaweli project may yet deliver on its Stoke- 1-,elieves innovative use of traditional promise of economic hope for the people of Sri materials should underlie all plans to improve Lanka. But critics point out that a revitalization of housing in developing countries. It's less expen- hundreds of now-unused small hydro dams sive than other options, he says. And since mud, around the country might have been a less expen- thatch and wood are available almost everywhere, sive, more environmentally sound option. their use would lessen the need for imported mate- liSeptember 1984 rials and keep more of the money in developing countries at home, where it is desperately needed. May 1983

1 P.** 4it III The Price of Growth III Another Japanese Success Poland has become an industrial power since What are Japanese farmers doing in the heart World War II. It also has become one of the of Brazil? l'hey're showing everyone else how to world's most polluted countries. farm.

Once a simple farming country, Poland is now Japanese farmers who immigrated to Brazil in the 11th most industrialized nation in the world. the 1920s have found a successful formula for agii- Steel, xal, chemicals and shipbuilding have sur- culture in the tropics, where many farming ven- passed agriculture in Poland's economy in the tures are marginal at best. past 30 years, and the farming that remains de- About 2,000 of the Japanese farmers live in the pends more on chemicals and machinery than Amazon jungle. They grow some annual crops ever before. like rice, corn, and squash. But their success lies in Poland has paid for rapid modernization with perennial crops that yield high-value prot:..ucts like widespread air and water pollution. As much as rubber, cacao and spices. three quarters of the country's sewn:r flows into Christopher Uhl, an ecologist at Pennsylvania rivers untreated, and studies suggest that half of State University, says the Japanese make a good Poland's river water is unfit for consumption by living off the infertile soil that characterizes much animals. Streams once rich with salmon are now of the tropics. Their perennial crops are suited to devoid of animal life. the land and they also have fewer troubles with Popular recreation spots along the Baltic Sea pests. And the Japanese farmers do not have to also have suffered. Poland's major rivers flow into move every few years, unlike many of their neigh- the Baltic and carry sewage and industrial wastes bors who grow annual crops and, when their land that render the coastal waters unfit for swimming. is exhausted, need to clear more forest for new Air pollution has taken its toll, too. Poland de- fields. rives 80 percent of its energy from coal, and that Uhl believes other tropical farmers could fol- produces high levels of sulfur dioxide pollution low the Japanese example. He says that would be thought to cause acid rain. Scientists believe se- for their own good and for that of the forests, vere air pollution is killing Polish forests and dam- which are rapidly giving way to sprawling farms aging historic buildings. They also fear the public and cattle ranches. health conseque:.ces of the dirty air. It's rather revealing to see a Japanese farm, Poland plans to continue its industrial L aildup, which might be at best 10 acres in sizethat but there are signs the country is waking up to its would be a very large operationside-by-side plight. Since 1980, environmental activism has with a 3.000-acre i anch, and the Japanese spread across Poland, and the government seems kmer is makin$ much more money. It just willing to tolerate it. In fact, Poland's State Envi- illus:, ates how intensive prming of the right ronmental Protection Council recently promised c'op,, in this case intensive fanning of a high- to make environmental concerns a priority in fu- value crop, can more wisely use land. ture economic plans. The government warned, though, that it will do only as much as it can af- The Japanese success in Brazil is more than just ford. And in a country beset with a huge national luck. Uhl says the farmers are hard workers and January 1987 debt, that may not be much.laJanuary 1986 good ecologists.

,t IS ABOUND THE aLQBE 121

III Dangers of Development El Tragedy of a Continent

In their rush to develop industry and agricul- Most Americans cannot imagine what it's like ture, the nations of the Third World have also to starve. But television has given us glimpses re- rushed into serious problems with occupational cently of the starving poor in Africa. And theyre- health. mind us that not everyone is as well off as weare. Desperate even for meager wages, people in The famine in Africa should notcome as a sur- Asia and South America take jobs in factories and prise. Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute fields that expose them constantly to hazardous warned three years ago th.-it conditions in sub- dust, chemicals, gases and noise. Mostare un- Saharan Africa were ripe for disaster. Brown said aware of the hazards until it is too late. soil erosion, the cutting of forests and excessive Textile workers in India, for example, suffer cropping had reached the point where the land from a spate of occupational diseases. The Indian could no longer support the swelling population. government estimates that one out of five has bys- Crop yields were declining, and many of the af- sinosis, or brown-lung disease, a debilitating respi- fected countries were too poor to import the addi- ratory ailment that occurs in people who inhale tional food they needed. The United Nations, the cotton dust for several years. Textile workers also World Bank and other international organizations breathe gases from dyes and other chemicals that agreed that Africa was in serious trouble. can cause heart disease, nervous disorders and By mid-1983, severe drought had compounded even death. the misery. Scattered press reports in the United Because the majority of workers in developing States told of devastated crops and livestock. By countries are still farmers, the most pervasiveoc- last March, news trickled in that thousands of Afri- cupational hazard may be pestickies. Hard statis- cans were dying daily in 24 drought-stricken coun- tics are far from complete, but David Bull, author tries. An estimated 150 million peoplewere in of a book on the problem, estimates thatat least peril. That's equal to two-thirds of the population 375,000 people in the Third World suffer frompes- of the United States. ticide poisoning each year, and 10,000 of those vic- Publicity in the last few weeks has bolsteredre- tims die. The tiny island nation of Sri Lanka alone lief efforts. Thousands of tons of grain and other has reported a thousand pesticide-related deaths foods have been shipped to Africa, andmore will in one year. follow. But the conditions that led to Africa's fam- Illiteracy and a lack of information about work- ine are complex and deeply rooted. Besides envi place hazards make occupational health problems ronmental problems, civil and international strife all the more ominou, in developing countries. and government mismanagement have been World health officials say that even where people blamed. Emergency food shipmentsmay help in are aware of health threats in factories and fields, the short run. But a recent report prepared for the they have difficulty finding out what to do about U.S. House of Representatives' Committeeon For- them. Stepped-up research and public mforma- eign Affairs says major improvements in the Afri- tion programs offei some hope, but with the rapid can food situation will take time, if they happen at pace of economic growth in the Third World, ktep- all. And it seems certain that hundreds of thou- ing development healthy and safe is amonunwn sands moreif not millionswill starve before tal task.IlJanuary 1984 the tragedy ends. November 1984 122 AROUND THE GLOBE

Ecological Refugees II Where Hunger Strikes

Large-scale environmental damage is creating There's good news and bad news in the battle a new class of desperate people: ecological refu- against world hunger. gees. Harvests around the world are expected to be Millions of people have abandoned their bigger this year than last. The U.S. Department of homes in drought-stricken regions of Africa. Agriculture says thanks largely to rains that They've fled the famine that ravaged Ethiopia, brought some relief to dozens of drought- and Chad and other countries and that still plagues na- famine-stricken countries in Africa, more food tions such as Mozambique. should be available to the work's hungry. That's The World Bank blames natural climate change the good news. for the famine, but it says human activities intensi- The bad news is that developing cour ries still fied the problem. Tree-cutting, grazing cattle and will need nine million more tons of food this year poor farming practices helped render many areas than they normally grow and import just to main- uninhabitable. tain their current levels of consumption. Accord- Noel Brown of the United Nations Environ- ing to the USDA, it would take twice as much ment Programme says mass exoduses may be- additional food to meet the minimum nutritional come common if large-scale environmental needs of everyone in those countries. And they problems continue. Brown cites Haiti, a poor Car- are not likely to get it. ibbean country, as an example. Haitian refugees Meeting the rising long-term demand for food risk their lives daily in makeshift boats to escape around the world is a complex problem. Most ana- poverty and political turmoil. lysts agree that there is no overall shortage of food in the world but that its distribution is very un- The Haitian boat people are as much ecologi- even. While countries like the United States have cal refugees as they are political refugees. large surpluses, others don't have nearly enough. That is, you find a situation where the local environment has become so strained that the Overall, world food production has more than agncultural backbone is broken and people doublEd since 1950, and some developing regions are looking for escape. have come a long way toward self-sufficiency. Southeast Asia, for instance, has tripled its output. Brown says mass human migration may incite But other areas have not been as fortunate. Most conflirts between nations. of Africa has managed only modest gains in food The question of space for population, living production, and those have been outstripped by space, becomes a major social problem and a the continent's rapidly growing population. political problem. Arid then states find that Today Africa produces less food per person than it their borders are under very heavy pressure. once did, and more people go hungry. Will this create sent, ;ty problems for na- There are no easy answers to the problem. Ad- tional territories and across national bound- vances in agriculture offer hope for more growth aries? We are therefore concerned about how in food production. But analysts say poverty, civil to define and redefine security within these strife, corruption, population growth and weather terms. are all part of the problem, too. And any of those The United Nations' Brown says developed na- things can stand in the way of a better life for the tions like the United States must help head off en- world's hungry.laAprll 1986 vironmental catastrophes that create ecological refugees. May 1987

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1 r I^ff '?' Concept Mapping with Earthwatching III

What is Concept Mapping? Concept mapping is a technique for drawing a kind of visual roadmap of how concepts are connected and understood. By drawinga concept map of an "Earthwatch" script, for example, you can identify the key concepts and show the relationships between them, helping your students understand more clearly the meaning of the script.

"Concept" means a regularity in an object or event that is labeled witha word, like "bottles," "air," "recycling," and "pollution." A concept is given new meaning when it is linked with other concepts, as in "recycling the bottles" or "pollution in the air." Concepts also change whennew co nections are made. Consider this sequence using the concept "grass": "grass is green," "grass is a plant," "grass is a monocot," "grass photosynthesizes." With each phrase, the meaning of the concept "grass" becomes broader and richer. Concept mapping can foster more creative, meaningful, long-term learning as well as more positive feelings about learning. Students from grade 1 on have been taught how to use concept mapping to help them learnmore effec- tively. By drawing concept maps, students begin tosee the relationships between new information and what they already know. The new information then becomes more relevant to them and can be recalledmore readily. In addition, in mapping even old and familiar material, students sometimesrecog- nize new relationships and meanings. By examining your students' concept maps with them,you can learn what they know and think about a subject. (Are they misunderstandingan idea or missing a concept? Do they feel confused or frustrated? Or do they understand the topic with great insight in away you never expected nr even thought of yourself?) You can then tailor the lesson to fit their needs. Thus, concept maps help us take into account the most irr,portant factor influencing learningwhat students aiready knowand then teach them accordingly. Also, by comparing maps that students drawbeforea lesson with those they drawafterit, you can assess how well a student understands whatyou taught. For a comprehensive discussion of concept mapping and its,!scs, see Novak and Gowin (1984, pp. 15-54). How to Draw a Concept Map "Earthwatch" scripts are excellent materials for concept mapping because they offer short, concise descriptions of important subjectsor issues. Step 1: Select and read an Earthwatch script. Circle the key conceptsnecessary for understanding the script (Figure I). Step 2: Decide which concept is the most importantor most inclusive idea, and make a list with this concept at the top. Find the next most general concept in the script aild write it next. Continue to rank-order all the concepts. There isno single "correct" way to rank the concepts because the meaning of the text may be interpreted in more than one way (Figure 2). 1.22 Plants and Pollutants air pollution sulfur dioxide/ozone It's no secret thai air eollutiocan make people ill.ut did you know Ican also take a toll on burning One Wisconsin scientist says air pollution fossil fuels maeduce yields of some farm ciCy)by as much as 20 percen automobile exhaust Qulfur dioxicRian re the air pollutants oil/coal that most commonl ants.ulfur dioxide results from th ossil fuelsuch a factories/power plants and It is troublesome ea factories plants an zone, on the other hand, is a by-pros uc o automobi e ex aust nd is much reduce more widespread. crop yields Theodore Tibbitts, a horticulture professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says these disrupt pollutants seldom kill plants, and the.,,- usually do not harm their flowers or fruit. But he says they photosynthetic process dc(injuand that's where the trouble injure/stunt beg_ns. ''.ur dioxide and ozone can enter a leaf growth through oron its surface. Once inside, the pot- leaves lutants h p otos nt etic procespin the leaf. Thi snts h ow ieaves an can re- farmer's biggest worry duce the yies of ma crops. drought/floods/frost/insects/disease Air pollution inot th farmer's biggest worr Tibbitts say drought control (of pollution) an all tale a bigger to on crop , an the planting arme7, understandably, is more concerned about coping with those threats. tolerant crops Nevertheless, says Tibbitts, air pollution's -`- fects on slants are a le itimate concern. He says 413:8111; mor to rant crop in polluted areas cou el .Bu e most important thing, he says, is te contro ollution from industy and automobiles in t e first place. May 1982

Figure 1. Key Concepts in "Plants and Pollutants" Figure 2. Concepts in "Plants and Pollutants" in Declin- ing Order of Importance t23 TEACHER". 127

the forms of

ozone

resulting from from I. automobiie exhaust

fossil fuels

sut,h as oil and coal ) Is not the factories and plants power plants 1 and because

reduces

the although photosynthetic not the farmer's biggest process crop yields . worries

1 and thereby -60ssibier-emedies,include which are injures / stunts planting (irought, floods, fros.) the insects and disease

of leavesi

Figure 3: A Concept Map of "Plants and Pollutants"

1 24 Step 3: Begin constructing a concept map by placing the broadest, most inclusive concept at the top of a large piece of paper. Work down, adding more specific concepts. Step 4: Join the concepts with lines and label the lines with linking words that show meaningful connections between the concepts. One way to practice map- making is to write concepts and linking words on paper rectangles and then rearrange these as you see new relationships. Step 5: Now look for links between concepts and label these connections. You can add concepts not in the text to increase the comprehensiveness of the map or to clarify your understanding of the concepts. You also can add examples of concepts (e.g., soybeans, potatoes, tobacco, grapesnd peas are examples of the concept "crop") (Figure 3). Step 6: Remember that there is no one way to draw a concept map. As your understanding of relationships among concepts changes, so will your map. Draw a new map if you see new ways to link concepts. Keep your maps and refer to them to help you see how your understanding evolves. Now that you and your students have drawn (and redrawn) concept maps of a script, have one of the map-makers "read" the map so that it's clear to the other students what the script is about. Are there any concepts you would like to add to help you understand the script more completely? Do you have questions about the content that you'd like to investigate? (Example questions for the script mapped in figures 1-3 are presented in the following section, Questions for Classroom Investigation.) Come up with your own questions for the script you mapped, then find the answers to some of them. Remember that concept mapping can be used to clarify any subject.

Scoring Criteria Novak and Gowin (1984, p. 36) suggest using the following scoring system to evaluate how well your students have integrated and understood this exer- cise (Figure 4). Propositions 11. the relationship between two concepts indicated by the connecting line and linking word(s)? Is the relationship valid? For each meaningful, valid propo- sition shown, score 1 point. Hierarchy Does the map show hierarchy? Is each subordinate concept more specific and less general than the concept drawn above it (in the context of the material being mapped)? Score 5 points for each valid level of the hierarchy. Cross links Does the map show meaningful connections between one segment of the concept hierarchy and another segment? Are the relationships shown significant and valid? Score 10 points for each cross link that is both valid and significant, 2 points for each CIDSS link that is valid but does not illustrate a synthe- sis between sets of related concepts. Cross links can indicate creative ability; therefore, special care should be taken in identifying and rewarding its expression. Unique or creative cross links might receive special recognition or extra points.

.4% t D Examples Specific events or objects that are valid examples of those designated by the concept label can be scored 1 point each. Criterion (optionel) In addition, a criterion concept map can be constructed and scored for the material to be mapped, and the student scores divided by the criterion map score to give a percentage for comparison. (Some students may do better than the criterion and receive more than 100% on this basis.)

Hierarchy

Level 1

Level 2 link link

link link i Level 3 example example event event ------link example example Z specific 1 I Level 4 object object concept

Scoring for this model:

Relationships (if valid) = 14

Hierarchy (if valid) 4 x 5 = 20 Cross Links (if valid

and significant) 10 x 2 = 20 Examples (if valid) 4 x 1 =_4 58 points total

Figure 4: Scoring Model for Concept Maps

e-k. ok 4;;;...A Y TEACI-IERS 'GUIDE I 31

Questions for Classroom Investigation

Although each script in Earthwatching III presents facts and issueson a topic, a script may leave some questions unanswered and may stimulate other questions worth investigating. Earthwatching IIIcan suggest investigations not only in science but in art, history, literature, geography, social studies, mathematics and other disciplines. We encourage you andyour students to ask further questions about the topics discussed in this book and find imaginative ways to incorporate them into your studies. To get you started, here are some examples of spinoff questions from several scripts. Each auestion could serve as a subject for classroom investigation.

"Plants a d Pollutants" iWhat is combustion? What are the results of this process? Page 6 How do we develop pollution-tolerant plants? How can sulfur dioxide and ozone pollution affect people? Why is sulfur dioxide pollution less pervasive thanozone pollution? Is sulfur dioxide pollution a problem only near factories? lig Why is ozone called a "by-product" of car exhaust? How does it form? What is the chemical formula for ozone? Why is ozuneso reactive? What is the structure of a leaf? How doesozone enter a leaf? What does ozone do to a leaf? How does this affect the plant?

Should farmers be more concerned about ozone pollution than they are? Should other people be more concerned, too? Why?

How do we measure ozone levels? How would you find out aboutozone levels in your state? In the United States?

Where is ozone monitored in your state? In the United States?

Are the causes and effects of the ozone problem discussed in the script the same as or different from those of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere?

What are some other forms of air pollution?

How can we control air pollution?

What can you do to reduce ozone and other forms of air pollution? th2 TEAGHE:RS

"The Snowflake Man" How do snowflakes form? Why do they have six sides?

Page 108 Do joeople still study snowflakes? Where and why (e.g., in avalanche control, military research, oil rigs, glaciers, the Antarctic, art and design)? What effect does snow have on the landscape, on wildlife, on people (e.g., insulation, shelter, mobility, food availability)? In our society, what are peoples' attitudes towards snow? Is snow considered beautiful, a nuisance? What attitudes about snow are portrayed on television weather forecasts? Why do we often have a negative view of snow? Do you like snow? Why or why not? What are some other societies' attitudes about snow (e.g., the Laplanders and Inuit peoples of the Arctic)? How is snowfall recorded? Is there as much snowfall in your state now as there used to be? Have weather patterns changed since Snowflake Bentley's time? Obtain annual snowfall records for your region and draw a graph. If you see long-term changes in snowfall, what do you think are some possible reasons for the changes?

"Big Blasts and Bumper Crops" What are volcanoes? How do they form? Where do they form?

Page 3 What role do volcanoes play in the Earth's evolution? Why do you think paintings of dinosaurs usually have volcanoes in the background? Is this an accurate portrayal of the Eaith when the dinosaurs were living? Although a volcanic explosion on the equator may benefit U.S. corn crops, what are the effects of the explosion where it happens (e.g., El Chichon in Colombia, Mount St. Helens in Washington)? What other ways can volcanic activity be beneficial or harmful to people (e.g., geothermal energy in Iceland and New Zealand, poisonous gas in Cameroon)? What are some historic "big bangs" (e.g., Krakatoa, Vesuvius)? What eventually happened to the ash that was spewed into the upper atmosphere by these eruptions? If ash from volcanic eruptions affects the world's weather, what do you think dust and smoke from a nuclear explosion could do? Describe what is meant by the concept "spaceship Earth" or the phrase "everything is connected to everything else." What are some folk stories/fears/myths about volcanoes? How well can scientists predict when volcanoes will erupt? How do they do this? , =. " t 446 TEACHER'..§ GUIDE 133

Example Activity

Earthwatching III can be useful inmany curriculum areas. The following activity shows how the script, "Dumping Diapers," could be usedin a math unit to illustrate concepts of measurement. It alsosuggests how to use the same script and subject to teach lessons in home economics and to help students make the connection between classroom activities andthe world outside of school. We encourage you to devise similar activitiesfrom the many other scripts in this book.

Activity

Objective: To help students develop skills in measurement andcost analysis and inter- pret their findings in the context of an actual environmental problem. Grades: 7-12. Subjects: Mathematics, social studies, home economics, health,environmental education. Background: Earthwatching III script "Dumping Diapers" (page 85). Materials: Disposable diapers, metric ruler, gram balance, graduated cylinder,container for saturated diaper, water.

Procedure

Step 1. Measure a dry disposable diaper as follows: a. Use the gram balance to calculate weight kto the nearest gram). b. Use the metric ruler to calculate volume in cubic centimeters.

Step 2. Measure a saturated disposable diaperas follows: a. Use the graduated cylinder to calculate maximum volume of watera disposable diaper can hold (to the nearest milliliter). b. Use the balance to calculate (1) the weight ofthe saturated diaper and (2) the weight of the water alone. c.Use the ruler to measure the diaper's volume (to thenearest cubic centi- meter). Step 3. Answer the following questions: a. Assume that he maximum weight limit for a typical garbage can is 18.5 kilograms. How many saturated diaperscan it hold?

, ^%, 4: 9 134 'TEACHERS GDIDE.

b. Read the Earthwatching III script "Dumping Diapers." How many days will it take a family with one young child to accumulate 18.5 kilograms of saturated disposable diapers (round to the nearest 0.25 day)? c.If garbage collection is once a wee, how many garbage cans will a family that uses disposable diapers need for two young children? d.If a garbage truck can carry an average of 5,900 kilograms of refuse, how many garbage cans full of saturated disposable diapers can one truck haul without exceeding its capacity? e. One garbage truck can hold a week's worth of saturated disposable diapers from how many children in all? f.Calculate the volume of a typical one-car garage in cubic meters. If the garbage collector goes on strike and a family with one young child has to store its saturated disposable diapers in the garage, how long will it be before the garage is full?

g.Calculate the total number of diapers a child will need from birth to age two. Calculate the mass and voiume of both dry and saturated disposable diapers used by the child during this time.

Once your students have done the measuremenis and mathematical calcula- tions, you can either consider the lesson complete or discuss the real-life implications of the measurements they derived. Here are some questions raised by the "Dumping Diapers" activity that you may wish to consider with your students. What happens to disposable diapers after people throw them away? About how many children in your community are under the age of two? If all of them used disposable diapers, how much landfill space would be filled with diapers in one year? Do youi think this is a good way to use land? Why or why not? How many years will it be before your community landfill is full? What will your community do with its waste after that? What laws does your community have for treating human waste? Do these laws apply to waste contained in disposable diapers? m Assume that your local store sells disposable diapers in two sizes of bags: 48 per bag for $10.99 and 18 per bag for $4.49. What would a sales tax of 5 percent add to the cost of each bag? Which is your best buy? Calculate the percentage of your savings. The smaller bag has a rebate coupon: If you mail in labels from three small bags, you'll get a $1 rebate. Considering the rebate, which is your best buy (including the 5 percent tax)? Calculate the percentage of your

savin0; d %;0 TEACHER'S GUIbE 135

Assume that a child requires 48 cloth diapers, whichcan be washed and reused, from birth to age two. A package of 12 cloth diaperscosts 8837. What is the total cost to purchase cloth diapers forone child, including a 5 percent sales tax? What is the cost difference betweena two-year supply of disposable diapers and a two-year supply of cloth diapers?

What other costs should parents consider when usingcloth diapers (e.g, detergent, electricity, water, washer and dryerwear, time)? A commercial diaper service has compiled the following statisticsabout diaper costs (toddlers often require 90 ormoi diapers per week): 90 diapers, home delivery service:810.15/week 90 disposable diapers: 818.50/week 90 diapers, home-laundered: $9.36/week (induding estimated costs of detergent, water, electricity, washer and dryer, etc.)

If you were a parent, which diaper option wouldyou choose? Why? Is cost your only concern? Have you considered otherpros and cons, such as energy use, environmental impacts, convenience, your child's comfort, etc.?

More Questions & Activities About 80 million children are born in the worldevery year. If all of them used disposable diapers, how many disposables would be consumed every year? What do you think about this? Investigate what people in other parts of the worlduse to diaper their children. Brainstorm ways that old cloth diapers can be recycledused forother purposes. Investigate how much paper pulp is required to manufacturea disposabie diaper. How many trees must be cut to make the diapers used byone child from birth to age two? Investigate tluossible health effects of disposing of human wastes in landfills.

131 -TEACHER'S GUIDE 1.37

Infusing Earthwatching III intoa Curriculum

At first glance, "infusion" may sound complicated, butit is really a simple idea. It's also an importantone. Infusion means using environmental topics like those in Earthwatching III as a vehicle to achieveyour teaching objectives in math, art, languagesin all subjects (not only science)at all grade levels. By doing this, you integrate environmental education intothe regular curriculum rather than treat it as a separate subject. Adding environmental content to the curriculummay require additional planning and instruction. The exact amount dependson how much information you have at hand and how muchmote you would like to know about a topic. But you do no! have to be an experton the environment to use env; ronmental topics in your classes. By selecting examples ofpersonal interest to you and your students and investigating them together,everyone can learn more. Such inquiry can enhance your teaching and your students' enthusiasm about learning. The following paragraphs describe some environmentaltopics or activities that can be addressed in various curriculumareas according to A Ghide to Curriculum Planning in Environmental Education (Engleson1985, pp. 60-62). Agriculture Groundwater contamination from agricultural chemicals;organic and inor- ganic pest controls; soil erosion, nutrients, and conservation;water conservation, irrigation, salinity, and nonpoint-source pollution;threatened and endangered species and habitats;energy issues; biotechnology and its impact on agriculture; economics and environment. Art The nature of aesthetics; environmental ethics; naturaland urban environmental aesthetics; aesthetics in land-use planning; the role ofart in communicating environmental messages; architecture; historicpreservation. Foreign Language Global perspectives; how we perceive people of other countries;how people of other countries view us; commonalities and differencesamong peoples; how people of other countries feel about and deal with environmentalissues; how we influence the environments of other nations.(Study current publications to learn about other nations' environmentalconcerns, such as France's position on nuclear energy, the effects of acid rainon German forests, and the destruction of tropical rain forests in Latin America.) Health Education The relationships among physical, mental, and environmentalhealth; occupational health; consumer health; hazardous chemicalsin the home and workplace; the role of government in health issues; air,water, and noise pollution; healthful recreation; nutrition; disease; populationissues. Home Economics Water and energy use and conservation;excess packaging and solid waste disposal; recycling, food additives; hazardous householdchemicals. Industrial Education Resource use and conservation (energy, raw materials,clter, land, air, etc.); use and disposal of hazardous chemicals; aesthetics in structural design;social and environmental responsibility; creativity; alternative technologies. 32 13Er fiEACHEA'S GaDE

Language Arts Use environmental subjects in creative writing; reading, dramatics, speech; journal, editorial, letter, artick, script, and report writing; research; literature; literary analysis. Mathematics Use environmental subjects when collecting and analyzing data; communicating results through charts and graphs; studying geometric shapes and patterns. Physical Education Canoeing, backpacking, camping, fishing, hiking, skiing, swimming, etc.; outdoor ethics; safety; pros and cons of hunting; consumptive versus non- consumptive outdoor activities; relationship of environment to human physical and mental health. Science Develop problem-solving skills and understand relationships among science, technology and society. Social Studies Describe, study, and analyze the relationships of human actions and behaviors to the environment and their impacts on the environment; develop citi- zenship skills, geography concepts, map skills; consider possible futures. The next two sections describe in greater detail how to use Earthwatching III in social studies and health education, two curriculum areas for which it is especially suited. Using Earthwatching III in Social Studies

The following chart correlates scripts in Earthwatching III withcontent that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction suggests be coveredin K-12 social studies education. It is basedon chapter 2 of A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Social Studies (Hartoonian 1986). The chart is by no means all-inclusive; it merely provides examples ofwhere Earthwatching III scripts might be used in the social studies curriculum.We encourage you to review the many other scripts in this book that addressso- cial issues and develop ways to incorporate their content intoyour social studies program at all grade levels.

04 Topic - 'Grade Relevant Curriculurh 'Questions Relevant Scripts/PapeNumbers

Air pollution K How can you care for your environment? The Smog's on the Other Flue/7, Pool- side Chat/66, Victims of Pollution/81, Homemade Air Pollution/99, and othersv

5 What are the current trends in resource use? Is it possible to change these trends? How?

Hunger K How do different people meet their needs:Bad Taste?/94, This Spud's for You/95, Feeli g the Strain/110, Trag- e'cly of a Continent/121, Where Hunger Strikes/122, and othersv

5 How are the United States and the rest of the world interdependent? What are current trends in resource use and population growth? What alternatives exist for changing these trends?

6 What issues, crises, and opportunities face each cultural region of the world?

7 What are the causes and consequences of an uneven distribution of wealth in the world?

8-9 To what degree is population growth a problem? What issues of today are likely to be with us in the future?

10-11How is your community interdependent with the rest of the world?

Recycling 1 How does your school recycle materials? New Life for Old Milk Jugs/77, Recycl- Your neighborhood? Your community? ing Simplified/81, Return of theeRe- turnables/83, Recycling at a Ripe Age/84, New Deposit, Big Return/85, Shifting Gears/86, and others, 5 What are the current trends in resource use? Is it possible to change these trends? How? Topic GradeRelevant.Curriculbm Questions 'r---:-:Ftelevailk$61:fs/Page Number's

6 What changes have taken place in the way (Continued from page 141) people use resources and produce goods and services?

10-11How did life in the United States change during and after World War II?

Oceans What are oceans? How many oceans can The Fear of Cod/20, Surf and Turf/45, you find on a globe? What are coastlines? Mussel-bound Oil Rigs/51, Killer How do coastlines differ from each other?Waves/51, Skimming the Surface/53, How close do you live to the nearest A Plague of Plastic/86, Underwater ocean? Relief/98, and othersY

3 How do oceans affect weather and climate? How do they affect our lives?

4 How do oceans influence coastal communities? In what ways do people make their livings from the oceans?

7 How are people and oceans interrelated?

9-10 How do people and society affect oceans? Is it possible to harm oceans? Hoy?

Transpor- 2 What forms of transportation are available A Better Idea/66, Poolside Chat/66, tation in your community? Other communities? A Saline Solution/78, Travel Expenses/107, and othersv

II Ho A. might technology influence our future?

ICORMEM10111 Climate 3 How do geography and climate affect Big Blasts and Bumper Crops/3, No Pre- communities? vious Experience/3, Behind the Drought/4, The South Rises Again/47, Our Brimming Great Lakes/48, History on the Bottom of the Sea/52, and othersv

7 What is the nature of relationships between people and Earth systene;? How are nations interdependent?

9-10 What do peop' mean when they say the world has becoi,.e a global community?

s, 4. If ,

Cities 3 Why do ioeople live in cities? How do Star Light, Star Bright/7 Down the cities influence the environment? How Drain/49, An !sland in Distress/50, does the size of a city intluence the way itsThirst Aid/60, Leaky Pipes/61, City people live? Limits/87, Paying the Piper/88, From Boom to Bust/89, Pushing the Limits/115, Thailand's Sinking City/115, Supercity/116, and othersv 7 What is the natue of relationships beteen people and earth systems? How are nations interdependent?

8-9 What important issues do nations face today?

Farming 3 What special problems do farmers face Plants and Pollutants/6, New today? How do farming methods com- Roots/33, Salt of the Earth/35, Prevent- pare in different places? able Pollution/36, Haivest of Dust/38, Duet to Ashes/68, Chemical D-ren- dence/ 11S, Another Japanese Success/ ;20, and othersv

6 What changes have taken place in the ways people use resources?

8-9 What important issues do nations face today? How are technology and global interdependence changing :he economy of our nation and the world?

11 How might technology influence our future?

Great Lakes 2 What are the Great Lakes? Where are the T. le South Rises Again/47, Our Brim- Great Lakes on a globe? How close do youming Great Lakes/48, A Costly Diver- live to the nearest Great Lake? Which sion/48, Probing a Great Lake's states and province's border the Great P1 umbing/49, Down the Drain/49, Lakes? Hanging Ten on Lake Michigan/57, and othersY

.1 7 eb ) To GradeReleyant Curriallum Questions Relevant Scripts/Page NumbeAs

3 How do th-. Great Lakes affect weather (Ccntinued from page 143) and climate in the region around them? What cities are located on the Great Lakes? Why were these cities built on the lakes?

5-6 Who were the first people to live near the Great Lakes? Which early European explorers visited the Great Lakes? How was settlement of your state or province influenced by the Great Lakes? How and when did the Great Lakes get their names?

6 What role do the Great Lakes play in international trade?

7 How and why do the United States and Canada share the Great La'-es?

8 What do the Great Lakes states and provinces have in common with other states and provinces? How are they different?

9-10Where do the water and pollution in the Great Lakes come from? Which lakes are cleanest? Which are most polluted? How can lake pollution be prevented?

Political 4 What states or provinces are your neigh- A cid Revelations/8, Surf and Turf/45, boundaries bors? How do maps tell us special stories The South Rises Again/47, A Costly about our region? Diversion/48, Agreeable States/83, Feeling the Strain/110, Antarctic Dis- harmony/117, and othersv

7 How can confli-ts between states and nations be resolve_ or avoided?

Nature and 4 How do people enjoy nature's gifts? Forest Lawns/41, The Snowflake beauty Man/108, A Parks Pioneer/108, and others

Resources 5 Why did the colonists seek independence The Tree that Started a War/28, Grim and conflict from European nations? Harvest/116, Aftermath of War/117, Antarctic Disharmony/117, and othersV TEACHER'S GUIDE 1'45

Topic GradeRelevant Curriculum Questions' Relevant Scripts/Page Nurntiers 7 How is the future of the United States tied to the future of the world? What are the causes and consequences of uneven distribution of wealth and resources in the world?

9-10 How did imperialism and colonialism contribute to exploitation, tensions, and confrontations that led to international conflict?

10-11What were the major causes of the Ameri- can Revolution? How do geography, land settlement, cultural conflict, and history interrelate?

11 How do other cultures view our culture? What have been the results of international conflict? What are the challenges to peace today?

Population 8-9 Is population growth a problem? Why? peeling the Strain/110, A Matter of How serious a problem is it? Proportions/110, Crisis? What Cri- sis?/111, Pushing the Limitt./115, Witere Hunger Strikes/122, and othersy

9-10 How has geography influenced population in Asia?

Government 8-9 How are political decisions made? How Victims of Pollution/81, Burden or and regull- can citizens participate in and influence Blessing?/82, Towards Greater tion politics? Safety/82, Return of the Return- ables/83, Ski Control/87, and others

Energy What are the major natural resources? Bright Ideas/65, Window Break- through/65, Looks Good on Paper/67, Cold Facts for the Hot Tropics/68, Dust to Ashes/68, Quest for Fuel/6,9, Hawkeye Hydro/70, Carrying the Fire/70, and othersv

6 What changes have taken place in the ways people use resources?

S ; Topic . Grade" Relevant Currictilum Questions Relevant Scripts/Page Numbers

7 What are the causes and consequences of (Continued from page 145) the ways people use resources in the world?

Hazardous 3 How do communities try to solve their Hidden Polluters/50, Not-So-Clean waste problems? Industry/ 73, Punchless PCBs/ 74, Household Hazards/74, Costly to the End/75, From Here to Eternity/75, The Wrong Target/98, and others',

4 What could happen to the natural resources of your state or province if they were used wisely or un wisely? What is being done to protect them?

What major environmental issues do we face today? What are some possible solu- tions? 11.CMI Water K How can you ca. e for your environment? Skimming the Surface/53, Scales of pollution Justice/54, Tourists and Toxins/54, Lake Woes, Begone!/55, Turnaround at Tahoe/88, and othersv

5 What are the current trends in resource use? Is it possible fo change these trends? How?

Global 1 What is 3 alobe? What can it cell us? Big Blasts and Bumper Crops/3, environment Protecting "Our" Birds/14, Competi- tion from Abroad/16, Not a Drop to Drin:./61, Grim Harvest/116, and othersv

9-10What do people mean when they speak of a world community?

10-11What global issues does the United States face? How are political and other institu- tions responding to those issues? How is your community an example of global in- tordependence?

t 4 1.1 ..8'.. . - I a - - . m.o- . 7 How is the future of the United States tiedThis Land is Your Land/40, Locked to the future of the world? Out/42, From Here to Eternity/75, Feeling the Strain/110, A Matter of Proportions/110, Crisis? What Crisis?/111, and othersv

8 What challenges is the U.S. likely to face in the future?

8-9 What are some important issues v. e face today? How will technology and increasing global interdependence change the economies of our nation and world?

9-10What will our planet be like in the future?

11 How do other cultures view our culture? How has technology changed the way Americans relate to each other and to the land?

141 TEACHER'S dUID. .149

Using Earthwatching III in Health Education

The following chart correlates scripts in Earthwatching III withcontent that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction suggests be covered in K-12 health education. It is based on Table 1 in A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Health Education (Bradley 1985). The chart is by no means all-inclusive; it merely provides examples of where Earthwatching III scripts might be used in the health instruction curriculum. We encourage you to review the many other scripts in this book that address human health issues and develop ways to incorporate theircontent into your health program at all grade levels.

I 4 2 TEAC_FIER'S GUIDE j51

TOpic GradeAppropriate Content A reas Relevant Scripts/Page NuMbers Pesticides Accident prevention and safety Nature's Pesticides/23, Ocean Spray/34, and health Chemical Controversy/35, The Wrong Target/98, Chemical Dependence/118, and others

3-12 Environmental health

6-12 Consumer health

Nutrition 1-12 Nutrition Waiter, There's No Fly in My Soup/93, in the Bad Taste/94, Tragedy of a Conti- Third nent/121, Where Hunger Strikes/122, World and others

Sources of 1 Nutrition Fish Fat Facts/93, Waiter, There's No Fly food in My Soup/93, Chemistry, Flavors, and Fillets/95, This Spud's for You/95, and others

Recycling 3-6 Environmental health New Life for Old Milk Jugs/77, Recycl- ing Simplified/81, Return of the Return- ables/83, Recycling at a Ripe Age/84, New Deposit, Big Return/85, Shifting Gears/86, and others

Air pollu- 3-12 Environmental health Victims of Pollution/81, The Smell of Suc- tion and cess/97, Homemade Air Pollution/99, health Smoke Alarm/100, and others

Hunger 3-12 Nutrition Waiter, There's No Fly in My Soup/93, This Spud's for You/95, Tragedy ofa Continent/121, Where Hunger Strikes/122, and others

Water pol- 3-12 Environmental health Leaky Pipes/61, Victims of Pollution/81, lution and Gut Reaction/101, and others health

Recreation 4-12 Environmental heal Teach Your Children/56, Handicapped on the High Seas/57, Hanging Tek, on Lake Michigan/57, The Big Chill/101, A Parks Pioneer/108, and others

t 4 3 II II .e- Ate of-- - - II ,* Occupa- 4-12 Community health, consumer health Not-So-Clean Industry/73, Victims of tional Pollution/81, Towards Greater health and Safety/82, Perilous Panic/96, Dangers of safety Development/121, and others

Disease 5-12 Prevention and control of disease Get the Lead Out/97, Homemade Air Pollution/99, Catching Ultraviolet Rays/99, Smoke Alarm/100, Gut Reac- tion/101, and others

Hazardous 10-12 Environmental health Hidden Polluters/50, Not-So-Clean In- waste dustry/73, Punchless PCBs/74, House- hold Hazards/74, Costly to the End/75, From Here to Eternity/75, The Wrong Target/98, and others

Population 10-12 Family life, environmental health Feeling the Strain/110, A Matter of Pro- portions/110, Crisis? What Crisis?/111, Pushing the Limits/115, Where Hunger Strikes/122, and others

41111M111, , i 4 4 _TEACHER' UIDE 153

Sources of Additional Information

Thousands of public and private organizations throughout the United States and Canada offer a variety of materialsbooks and pamphlets, films and videotapes, computer software, and curriculahelpful to environmental educators.

One of the most comprehensive lists and descriptions of these organizations is the Conservation Directory published annually by the National Wildlife Federation, 1400 Sixteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036-2266. (Cost of 1990 edition: $18 plus $3.50 shipping and, in certain states, sales tax).Among other things, this excellent directory lists sources of information and audio- visual materials on conservation and environmental topics, currentstate education agency coordinators for environmental education, and other useful directories.

In addition to Earthwatching III, the Sea Grant Institute and the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offermany publications, including a selection of educational materials,on the Great Lakes and other environmental topics. For lists and prices, contact the UW Sea Grant Institute, 1800 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53705 (phone 608/263-3259), and the Institute for Environmental Studies, Room 15 Science Hall, 550 N. Park Street, Madison, WI 53706 (phone 608/263-3064).

References

Bradley, Chet. 1985. A Guide to Curriculum Planning in I:-1t1i Education. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, P.O. Box /841, Madison, WI 53707.

Engleson, David C. 1985. A Guide to Curriculum Planizmg in Environmental Education. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, P.O. Box 7841, Madison, WI 53707.

Hartoonian, H. Michael. 1986. A Guide to Curriculum Planning in Social Studies Education. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, P.O. Box 7841, Madison, WI 53707.

Nov: c, Joseph D., and D. Bob Cowin. 1984. Learning How to Learn. Cambridge University Press, New York. 1 4 5 Index

Urban planning 87-89 Urban problems 115-116 Agriculture Waste disposal 81 Biotechnology 111 Water use 49, 60-61 Chemical use 35, 118 Climate Climate effects 3, 116 Disruptions 3, 116 Conservation practices 36-37 Drought 4, 121-122 Crops 33, 95 Effect on Great Lakes 48 Effects of air pollution 6 Evolution of Earth's climate 52 Energy from grain dust 68 Global warming 3 Energy use 67 Coasts Foreign 38, 118, 120-122 Coastal oceans 45 Irrigation 59, 61 Development 39 Near urban areas 87 Ecology 53, 59 Pests and pesticides 23, 33-34 Gulf of Mexico wetlands 37 Salt on cropland 35 Severe weather 51 Air Pollution Wildlife 15, 26 Acid rain 8, 53; 55 Conflict Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 8 American Revolution 28 Effects on agriculture 6 Ethiopia 112 Effects on astronomy 7 Genetic engineering 35 Foul odors 80 Nuclear war 116 From wood-burning stoves 7 Over Antarctica 117 Historical 73 Over global resources 110 Indoor 99-100 Over natural resources 110, 122 Near parks and preserves 6 Over wilderness preservation 40 Vietnam 117 Conservation Birds Foreign 109, 117 Dusky seaside sparrow 14 In Florida Everglades 41 Migration 13-15 In New Jersey 40 Refu ges 17 Prairie plant communities 38 Threats to Florida seabirds 15 Wilderness preservation 42

Cities Development Air quality 80 Housing 89 Housing 89 Industrial 120 Parks 108 Land use regulations 88 Near parks and preserves 6, 40-41, 87 A 3 156 INDEX

Third World 105, 115-121 Great Lakes 83 Urban 36, 87-89 Hatcheries 20 Worldwide 111 Sharks 20 Sport fishing 45, 55, 76 Food Fish 93, 95 Ecosystems Insects 93 Aquatic 18-19, 53, 58 Krill 46 California chaparral 29 Potatoes 95 Forest 18 Shortages 116, 121-122 Gulf Coast 37 Waste in the United States 94 Marine 46 Forests Prairie 38 Amazon River basin 118 Endangered Species Autumn foliage 28 Captive breeding 11, 16 Forest fires 29 Clams and mussels 19 National Register of Big Trees 29 Extinction 14 New England 28 Gorillas 27 Protection in India 109 Habitat loss 14 Manatees 26 Poaching 12 Threats to Florida seabirds 15 Great Lakes Energy Exotic snecies 18-19 From grain dust 68 Governors' agreement 83 From oceans 68 Groundwater near Lake Michigan 49 Hydroelectric 70 Maritime history 56 Nuclear 69-70, 75 Plastic waste 86 Oil 69 Severe storms 5 Solar 77 Sport fishing 45 Wood-burning stoves 7 Surface layer 53 Energy Conservation Surfing 57 Automobiles 66 Wafer diversions 48 In industry 67 Water levels 48 Lighting 65 Water quality 47, 49, 54 On farms 67 Water sports for the disabled 57 Ride sharing 66 Groundwater Windows 65 Near Lake Michigan 49 Pollution from storage tanks 50 Ii Protection 50, 60 Fish /Fisheries Commercial fishing 45-47 Ill Effects of plastic waste 86 Hazardous Materials Effects of pollution 54-55 In households 74 Exotic species 18-19 in microelectronics industry 73 Fish consumption 93, 95 In Niagara River 54

1 t47 In the Great Lakes 83 Insects In water 76 As human food 93 Pesticides 98 Dragonflies 23 Polychiormated biphenyls (PCBs) 74 Farm pests 34 Radioactive waste 75 Fire ants 24 Toxaphene 47 Garden pests 33 Workplace 82, 121 Mosquitos 22 Health Natural insecticides 23 Diet in Third World 94 Effects of sunbathing 99 Fish consumption 93, 95 ti Hypothermia 101 Lakes (see also Great Lakes) Insect consumption 93 Effects of acid rain 55 Medicine 96, 98, 111 Lake Tahoe 88 Nature as a cure 42 Surface layer 53 Occupational 82, 96, 118, 121 Land Use Poisons 98 Agricult,Iral 37-38 Pollution hazards 81, 83, 97, 99-100 Amazon River basin 118 Potato consumption 95 Effect on groundwater 50 Sense of smell 97 In Florida Everglades 41 Starvation 121 Industrial 6 Waterborne diseases (giardiasis) 101 Louisiana wetlands 37 Winter depression 100 On federal land 40, 42 History Regulations 87-88 American Revolution 28 Residential 39, 41 Christopher Columbus 106 Third World 122 Game management 107 Urban 87-89 Maritime 56, 105 Wildlife refuges 39 Native Americans 106 Law and Regulation Of pollution 73 Antarctic Treaty 117 Public parks 108 Land use regulations 39, 87-88 Scieutific research 109 Law of the Sta 45, 47 Snowflake studies 108 Occupational health 82 Penalties for pollution 54, 81 Pollution controi 7-8, 50, 80, 82-83 Recycling 83 Industry Smoking 100 Biotechnology 111 Energy conservation 67 Energy production 69 112 Great Lakes water use 48 Mammals Nuclear energy 75 Bats 25 Occupational health 82 Bears 25 Oil 69 Beavers 24 Pollution 8, 54, 73, 79-82, 120 Dolphins 13 Recycling 85-86 Elephants 12 148

,. % 4 Gorillas 27 Fisheries 2 , Killer whales 26 Law of the Sea 45, 47 Manatees 26 Marine mammals 11, 13 Marine plants 34 Maritime history 105 Medical products from 98 Natural Events Oil exploration in 69 Desertification 38, 121 Oil spills 80 Drought 122 Plastic waste 86 Floods 58 Pollution 53 Forest fires 18, 29 Research 52 Hurricanes 39 Surface layer 53 Precipitation 5 Tsunamis 51 Seasonal changes 28 Water sports for the disabled 57 Severe storms 5 Tsunamis 51 Volcanic eruptions 3 m Weather 4 Parks and Preserves Natural History Africa 27 Animals and myths 21 Mineral exploration 40, 42 Asteriod impacts on Earth 52 National Wildlife Refuge System 39 Bat behavior 25 New Jersey pine barrens 40 Bear behavior 25 Prairies 38 Bird migrations 13-15 Southwestern United States 6 Dinosaurs 21 Underwater 56 Dragonflies 23 Tipper Mississippi River 17 Earthworms 34 Yellowstone National Park 18 Evolution 22 Pests Evolution of Earth's climate 52 Fire ants 24 Great Lakes water levels 48 Genetically engineered pesticides 35 Killer whales 26 Mosquitos 22 Oldest plant 27 Natural pesticides 23, 33 34 Plants 30 Pesticide use in developing countries 118 Sha-k behavior 20 Sea lampreys in the Great Lakes 19 Navigation Plants Great Lakes 5, 56 Autumn foliage 28 Organisms in ballast water 18 Creosote bushes 27 Crops 6 Distress signals 30 Exotic 16 Oceans Garden 33 Antarctic Ocean 46 National Register of Big Trees 29 Commercial fishing 46, 51 Native plants on residential lawns 41 Crater in North Atlantic 52 Perennial crops 33 Desalination 60 Trifoliate orange 30 Exotic species 18 White pine trees 28

149 , INOEX

Pollution Evolution 22 Agricultural chemicals 118 Fish behavior 20 Effect on economics 82 Medical 96, 98 From disposable diapers 85 Meteorology 3, 5, 8, 52 Great Lakes 83 Natural pesticides 34 Health effects 97 Nuclear fusion 70 In Japan 81 Paleontology 21 In manufacturing 79 Plants 38 In Poland 120 Pollution cleanup techniques 80 In space 84 Preservation of species 14 In Third World 121 Psychology 42 Population Sea lamprey eradication 19 Growth problems 110-111, 115-116 Solid waste in landfills 94 Toxic waste disposal 74 Water chemistry 53, 55 Recreation Wildlife ecology 107 Rivers Boating 56 Delaware 59 Camping 101 Diving 56, 96 Hydroelectric power 70 Kickapoo 58 Skiing 87 Mississippi 15, 17, 19, 58 Sport fishing 15, 54-55 Niagara 54 Sunbathing 99 Surfing 57 Urban 108 Water sports for the disabled 57 Soil Conservation Recycling Alternative farm crops 33 Aluminum cans 85 Benefits 37, 58 Community efforts 81, 84 Desertification 38 Composting 78 Earthworms and soil condition 34 Groundwater 60 Erosion at construction sit( ; 36 Industrial 86 Help from beavers 24 ,tic 77 Solid Waste Returnable bottles 83 Composting 76, 78 Research Historical problems 73 Animal communication 13 PlciAc pollution iwater 86 Animal intelligence 12 RPC._ clips 77, 81, 84-86 Antarctic 117 Returnable bottles 8' Anthropology 105 Wasted food 94 Astronomy 7 By historical figures 108-109 Composting 76, 78 Cryptozoology 21 Technology Diving physiology 96 Agricultural 59 Energy conservation 66 Energy production 68, 70 Entomology 22 Energy-saving 65-67 Genetic engineering 35, 111-112 Historical problems 73 Nuclear energy 69-70, 75 Lake Tahoe 88 Pollution cleanup and control 79-80 Law enforcement 76 Problems with high-tech industries 73 Milwaukee sewer project 49 Recycling 77 Nonpoint sources 36 Solar energy 77 Penalties 54 Space 84 Weather Toxic waste disposal 71 Drought 4 Third World Effects of volcanic eruptions 3 Aboriginal triL,es 105 Global warming 3 Agriculture 118, 122 Precipitation 5 Development 119-120 Severe storms 4-5, 39 Ecological refugees 122 Wetlands Environmental conservation 109, 112, 117-118 Florida Everglades 41 Famine in Africa 4, 121 Louisiana wetlands 37 Housing 119 Upper Mississippi River 58 Nutrition 93-9' Wildlife Occupational health 121 Animal behavior 11-12 Population problems 38, 110, 115-116 Care of infant animals 17 Transportation Game management 107 Automobile 66 Habitat in resik ential areas 41 ass trealsit 107 Pollution threats 86 Ride sharing 66 Wildlife Conservation Water pollution from road salt 78 Bird habitat 14-15 Captive breeding 11, 16 Elephants 12 Es Gorillas 27 Water Habitat protection 58, 87 Drinking water 60, 101 Marine 46, 51 Economic value 48 Preservation of species 14 Irrigation 35 Refuges 17, 39 Water Cc nservation In El Paso, Texas 60 In Israel 59 Worldwide 61 Water Pollution Acid rain 8, 53, 55 At Niagara Falls 54 Citizen watchdogs 59 Cleanup tethniques 80 Effect on surface layer of lakes and oceans 53 Effect on wildlife 15 From microelectronics industry 73 From road salt 78 Grcat Lakes 47 Groundwater 50

1 5 1 "Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth."

CHIEF SEATTLE, 1854 -

.11.6

NASA

Institute for Environmental Studies, University of WisconsinMadison and the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institt....?, with support from the Evjue Foundation, Inc. 152 ISBN 0.--936z87-01-2