SageMagazinevolume III, issue I John, Barack, and Hillary fight for the wheel of the flaming VW beetle. Kate Boicourt Moberg Tara Benson Gabler The road well-traveled . . . The road toward cleaner air and a healthier environment.

Where two roads diverge . . . As a first year student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Zack Parisa had a vision. He related it to friends on occasion, but mostly this vision sat filed away among other ideas in the back of his mind. This spring, he decided it was now or never. Inspired by the Conference of Governors on Climate Change (held at Yale April 17-18, 2008), Zack picked off the cobwebs and revived the dream. The vision was a collaborative climate change-themed art installation, centered around the concept that Americans face a pivotal choice. They can continue down the road they have been traveling, or they can forge a new path. At this place where two roads diverge, politicians and citizens have the power to choose the ultimate outcome. Over the span of a week and culminating in one final evening's construction, students came together to build two physical roads reflecting their ideas of "best" and "worst" climate change scenarios. The sculpture John Nixon Students gather together to raise the sculpture in the dark on the evening now sits on the lawn outside of Sage Hall, Yale University. before the conference.

Cover image by Leigha Abergel "Before and Again" MAGAZINE SAGE volume III, issue I

Contents Departments Features 6 Out & Around Green Gyms & Green Homes 12 Inheriting Bhopal Photo Essay 8 Materials Poison Plastics andrea Joyce 9 Innovations Chicken Feathers 22 Conservation For Sale Costa Rica georgia Basso 16 Food For Thought Raw Foods 26 The Hard Facts Behind Soft Drinks Photo Essay 34 The Cabbage Fake News Seve Ponce de Leon 36 Listed 28 Recycling Ritual and Reality Meghna Agarwala and Sara Enders 38 Last Page Raining Avocados

Art & Prose Short Features 20 Artist Portfolio Elizabeth Rose 10 Rediscovering Karukinka Conservation at 32 Spider Plant Mitchell Akiyama the Edge of the World John-Frederick Thye 19 Green Cemeteries When it comes to dying, 33 Heart-Leafed Philodendron Mitchell Akiyama black may be the new green 37 Poetry Daniel D'Angelo Diane McDilda

Funding for SAGE Magazine was generously provided by the Office of the Dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. SAGE Magazine is produced by a local, unionized printer. Please address all article queries, advertising inquiries and letters to the editors to: [email protected] sagemagazine.org

SAGE Magazine • 205 Prospect Street • New Haven, CT 06511

SAGE 3 FROM THE EDITORS sage, n. and a. 1. A plant of the genus Salvia, N.O. ou hold in your hands tender Labiatæ; esp. S. officinalis, an flowers plucked from the branches aromatic culinary herb. Hence, the Yof the plant Salvia magazinus. leaves of this plant used in Notice the semi-gloss leaves and brilliant Cookery. adaptive coloration. Inhale the pungent aroma wafting from the pages. Smear 2. A man of profound your naked thighs with its pollen. wisdom; esp. one of those The unique chemical composition persons of ancient history or can produce results that are literally legend who were traditionally psychedelic. famous as the wisest of mankind; hence, one whose S. magazinus thrives beneath the full exceptional wisdom entitles him to sun, but even planted in barren soil and a degree of veneration like that which whipped with hard cold winds, it remains was accorded resilient. Some argue its origins are in Asia to these. Minor, while others trace its deep roots to Mediterranean soils. 3. Of advice, Whatever its provenance, conduct, etc.: it continues evolving, adapting Characterized by and sprouting anew in its New World profound wisdom; habitat. based on sound judgement. The name Salvia comes from the latin -Oxford English Dictionary salvere, which means "to heal." An ancient proverb The Romans revered the plant, using it for toothpaste (see the famous Roman asks: "Why proverb "toothiness is close to godliness") and harvesting it should with a special knife. They also used it for its proven medicinal properties. a man (This magazine has been die if he has approved by the surgeon general for healing Sage planted in his minor cuts and scrapes--as well garden?" as some sucking chest wounds. Ask your doctor.) Love, Editorialis chieficus

4 SAGE contributors & Credits

Editors-in-Chief Leigha Abergel is a Master in SARA ENDERS lives in a Simon Tudiver Environmental Studies candidate at little yellow house, Kate Boicourt York University in Toronto, Canada. With a vase full of lillies and Conservation and animal issues are thoughts of sage grouse, Art Editor the focus of her studies. She is an And a yard of stray cats and Kate Boicourt avid naturalist often documenting a bike that she flies on, environmental scenes through And a realio love of the curving horizon. Design and Layout photography, drawing and painting. Joshua Berman Besides taking photos of giant carrots... Kate Boicourt MEGHNA AGARWALA is studying at the Karin Kliewer works at the Centre for Laura Frye-Levine Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Sustainable Transportation in Winnipeg, Simon Tudiver Studies. She became a fan of waste MB and has just completed her first year writing this article and hopes that of graduate studies in City Planning. In Assistant & CONTRIBUTING someday someone might want to her spare time, she rides her bike, makes Editors mine the plastic in the oceans. good food, and has creative adventures. Peter Christensen Her collaborator, Tamara Vaags Eva Gladek Mitchell Akiyama lives in Montreal is a closet photographer who loves Max Joel where he writes about cities, plants, capturing stories and personalities Jake Munger sound, and seeing. He is also a through her images. She hopes to Stephanie Niall musician and composer. Mitchell take her story-telling international and Micha Rahder currently teaches film and media explore the world’s cultures. She loves Trisha Shrum at Dawson College and is about to a good curry and the Manitoba sky. begin his PhD in Communications EDITORS EMERITAE and Art History at McGill University. Elizabeth Rose is from Springfield, Joshua Berman Illinois. She received her B.A Cum Laude Laura Frye-Levine GEORGIA BASSO is a 2008 Master of in Fine Arts with a minor in Wilderness Jed Holtzman Environmental Science Candidate Studies from the University of Montana. at the Yale School of Forestry and Her work strongly reflects her interest Additional Support Environmental Studies. Prior to in the environment, in landscape, and Joshua Berman her arrival at Yale, Georgia worked in folk culture, particularly of Eastern Jed Holtzman as an environmental scientist in Europe. She has won many awards and California, Nevada, Arizona, and exhibits her work in various venues. Website & Outreach New York. Georgia enjoys exploring Meghna Agarwala landscapes through art and writing. John-Frederick (J.F.) Thye is a 2010 joint degree candidate for the Master With Special Thanks Sonia Cooke is a Los Angeleno who of Environmental Management/ to our Advisors was brainwashed by the movie Fern MBA at Yale University. Graduated Jane Coppock Gully into thinking she wanted to spend from Cornell University in Civil and Paul Draghi her life saving the planet. A sucker for Environmental Engineering, Fred Strebeigh charismatic megafauna, Sonia hopes J.F. has since worked in commercial to make a career helping animals, or wind farm development. His passion sage office space courtesy of at least writing about the people who for conservation developed during Tom Tuscano help them. She will graduate from Yale a 3-year sail around the globe in with a B.A. in Environmental Studies which he supported research and next month, and plans to celebrate outreach in remote international by eating lots of raw donut holes. marine conservation hotspots.

SAGE 5 Out & Around A step (machine) in the right direction

St e p h a n i e Ni a l l

February 27, 2007, Hong Kong's California Fitness: Above the rows upon rows of exercise machines in the main fitness room, lit by the harsh fluorescent lights and braced against the air conditioned breeze, hangs a sign that reads "Powered by YOU." And so it is—well, sort of. A little over a year ago, Hong Kong's California Fitness announced an innovative concept in gym design: in a trial run, 13 of its exercise machines were specially modified to enable them to generate energy when in use. This energy was then either used to power a specific light located above the machine or stored in a battery for later use. According to Steve Clinefelter, President of California Fitness, a person using one of these machines is able to produce 50 watts of electricity when exercising at a moderate

pace. An energy-saving compact fluorescent A. Heinemann light requires only 8-20 watts, so this amount of electricity would easily produce enough light to enable exercisers to eye themselves in an adjacent mirror, providing an additional incentive to keep those calories burning. but given that the International Energy Agency The presence of the "green machines," for Finally, the environmentally-enlightened world calculated that the United States consumed example, may have additional profit-related exclaimed, all that human energy channeled 3,720,342 GWh in 2005, people will have benefits aside from merely reducing electricity into treadmills, ellipticals and step machines in to peddle much harder before any real dent bills—including increased publicity. It does cast the exercise equivalent of an assembly line is is made. doubt, however, as to whether this venture is now being captured and used as a renewable Even though California Fitness's project is yet commercially viable on a larger scale. energy source. Brilliant. most likely not a simultaneous solution to Maybe this is a step in the right direction. Environmental bloggers from all over the the obesity and energy crises, is treadmill- Maybe one day California Fitness's dream world celebrated this particular initiative as an generated power at least economically viable? that manufacturers will "reconfigure all gym example of a long overdue innovation in the According to Jane Spencer of the Wall Street equipment to cater for this option" will be renewable energy world. One, aptly entitled Journal, if all 13 of California Fitness's "green realized, and gyms will be able to rely "solely "Ecogeek" (www.ecogeek.org), speculated as machines" were in use ten hours a day for a full on clean, sustainable energy." This is a truly to whether this could lead to a treadmill-driven year, they would generate approximately $180 commendable aim. But then again, maybe a solution to America's energy crisis. Based on worth of electricity. Given that this initiative step in a better direction would be for people 200 million American adults exercising for was a $15,000 investment, she calculates that to don a pair of sneakers and head to their one hour a day, every day of the year, they it would take 82 years for the gym to break nearest park. That is about as carbon-neutral as calculated a potential generation of 3,650 even. Obviously, this is a slightly unfair analysis, you can get. gigawatt hours (GWh) per year. Substantial, as it ignores a number of economic factors.

6 SAGE Out & Around Go green and go home

Ja n Fe r r i g a n

The world of green construction is booming. often developed by local home builders' of going through the LEED process because "it If you want to build or renovate green, now associations. was just too onerous...I didn’t feel like I needed is certainly the time to do it. The $7.8 billion Opinions differ on the respective benefits of that credential." a year green home industry abounds with the different programs. Lowe says he likes LEED Besides the paperwork required, green home materials, practices and certification programs. "because it has a higher level of rigor" than certification programs are sometimes criticized But navigating all these options is difficult. So other programs. But he adds, "I don't want to for producing ambiguous results. Bamboo where should the green-minded homeowner shortchange the other ones in saying that. I flooring, for example, gets high marks under begin? Builder Doug Lowe suggests starting want to encourage builders and homeowners LEED standards, even though bamboo may simply. "If I had a very tight budget and had to to do anything they can [to go] green." displace natural habitats where it is harvested, make a few choices, I would spend the money Others may prefer locally-developed programs, and the flooring may be treated with toxic on the envelope of the house doing low-tech chemicals. The programs are also criticized things, such as upgrading the insulation and or simply draw satisfaction from knowing their home design is green. Roger Voisinet, a Virginia for often overlooking a building's usage. For upgrading the HVAC system," says Lowe, who example, teachers in a LEED certified high is President of Artisan Construction, Inc., and real estate agent and Ecobroker, received both Earthcraft and ENERGY STAR home certification school in Virginia have to supplement the who incorporates green design into many school's heating system with electric space of his central Virginia projects. Lowe also on an ultra-energy-efficient house he built, which had many additional green features heaters because not enough heat is provided recommends thinking about site selection, by the building design. house orientation (to take advantage of shade (such as reclaimed wood flooring, low VOC and sun), environmentally-produced floor [volatile organic compound] paints and limited But LaTaunynia Campbell sees some utility in coverings and energy efficient windows. waste during construction). He stopped short the certification trend. The LEED for Homes Manager at Southface Energy Institute, a non- For renovators, the advice is similar: Start with profit that promotes sustainable design, says low-tech energy savers. One useful tool is that the abundance of green home programs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's is "showing the market is ready for green ENERGY STAR Home Advisor (www.energystar. building. It is getting—the residential market gov). Enter your zip code and some basic home especially—to be more professional." information, and the Home Advisor spits back quick, effective ways to lower your home's So how far are we from green going energy appetite, such as plugging up air leaks. mainstream? Current building codes have not kept pace with the different certification Another route is to follow established programs, but some people are hopeful they standards. As Lowe puts it, "your first choice will catch up. "Maybe in twenty years," Lowe is to go green. Your second choice is whether suggests, "we won't need [green certification you want to sign up for a certification programs]." He also emphasizes that going program." Green certification usually requires green "doesn't have to cost substantially paying attention to indoor air quality and more—I am talking in terms of zero to two site selection, and limiting waste of energy, percent. It is easy to do this stuff." Lowe adds, materials, space and water. Arguably, the "There is no excuse for not building a house best-known certification program is the U.S. now that is easily thirty to fifty percent more Green Building Council's national Leadership efficient than a house than was built even in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) just ten years ago. It is not a cost issue, it is an program. There are also many smaller programs implementation issue, and more and more, specifically catering to residential buildings, people are doing it."

SAGE 7 Materials poison plastics

Ho l l y Py h t i l a

When future archaeologists dig up our sex hormones into a male's body is a really Equipment Co-op and Lululemon pulled civilization, they may name this the "plastilithic bad idea. You'll see lower sperm levels, male Nalgene and other polycarbonate resin water era." The wood will quickly rot. Decades later, breast development, and changes in fat bottles off their shelves. the steel will rust away. But a thousand years distribution. In females you'll observe damaged In 2007, Los Angeles attorney Robert Weiss filed from now, plastic will be our most enduring egg cells, repeated miscarriage and genetic a landmark billion-dollar class action lawsuit contribution. abnormalities in the embryos." According against five leading baby bottle manufacturers. The world's population consumes almost 100 to Vom Saal, washing the plastic does not The case was filed on behalf of California babies million tons of plastic every year. It's versatile, help: the older the product or the more it is who may have been injured by drinking out of cheap, portable and virtually unbreakable. But scrubbed, the worse the leaching becomes. plastic bottles that contain BPA. The case will cracks are beginning to form in plastic's solid Other side effects of BPA exposure proceed to a status hearing in Los Angeles reputation. include obesity, diabetes, early- Superior Court before May 2008, where onset puberty, prostate and breast Weiss will seek financial compensation The first signs of brittleness came after the cancer, hyperactivity, hormonal harmful health effects of phthalates were and future mandatory labeling of disruption, neurological bottles that contain the chemical. confirmed in the late 1990s. Concern about damage, and possibly ADHD genital defects, liver damage and reproductive and autism. If you'd like to avoid BPA, you abnormalities surfaced after scientists found might consider switching to glass. that the chemical leached from a flexible Despite mounting evidence If mobility is an issue, stainless plastic known as polyvinyl chloride. This of harmful health effects steel water bottles provide a good new information was enough to ban most resulting from BPA exposure, alternative (be sure it's not lined phthalates from children's toys and products polycarbonate resin is still with plastic). Try to steer clear of in places such as the European Union, China, available in developed canned products, particularly for your Mexico, Canada and the state of California. The countries, including the U.S. baby, and never heat food or drinks rest of the United States may see a similar ban, and Canada. Federal governing in plastic, as heating increases the depending on the success of an amendment to bodies approved BPA decades degree of leaching by a factor of fifty. the Consumer Product Safety Commission bill ago, while published studies To identify plastics that contain BPA, be introduced in March. on the chemical only began to aware of the following: polycarbonate surface around the year 2000. But the problems with plastic do not end there. resin is often labeled with recycling The newest health concern involves Bisphenol Health Canada, the country's number seven, the word "other," or the letters A or BPA, an estrogen mimicker that leaches regulatory body for food and consumer "PC." In general, BPA is found in most hard clear from hard, clear plastics made of polycarbonate products, recently declared BPA a dangerous plastic, whether colored or not. Opaque plastic, resin. Drink containers, the lining of cans and substance—a label that could pave the way for on the other hand, is usually BPA-free. baby bottles often contain the chemical, but a complete ban on baby bottles made using Internet sites with information on BPA are BPA is also found in adhesives, pipes, flooring, the substance. The decision came after a U.S. numerous, but plastics industry websites electronics, paints, helmets and even dental study determined that the chemical may be abound to assure people that there are no sealants. far more dangerous for infants than for adults, health risks associated with using any type of since infants lack the capacity to detoxify it. Dr. Fred Vom Saal, a biologist at the University plastic. Until the legal and legislative debates of Missouri, is an outspoken opponent of Some Canadian sporting goods chains did are resolved, consumers are left on their own BPA. Based on more than three decades of not want to wait for an official request to to decide. research, Vom Saal warns that "putting female pull the plastic. In December 2007, Mountain

8 SAGE INNOVATIONS fast & featherweight

Me l a n i e St u p a r y k

On its journey from the coop to the plate, ecologically sound approach, but also a more use feathers in place of paper products like air one chicken leaves behind approximately five effective one. As Wool explains, it has to do and vacuum filters, as feather fibers are finer ounces of feathers. Walter Schmidt, a research with speed and heat. In typical circuit boards, than wood pulp and require no bleaching chemist for the United States Department of the copper and the plastic board on which it (industrial chickens are bred to be white). The Agriculture's Agricultural Research Center, is printed expand environmental impact of using fewer trees and estimates those ounces pile up to between at different rates chemicals when producing these items could two and four billion pounds of feathers in the when exposed prove to be substantial. United States each year. Until now, the cost- to the heat Chavonda Jacobs-Young, a national efficient way to dispose of all those feathers in a program leader with the USDA's was to grind them up for pet food, where they National Research Initiative, which is provided Fido with little more than fiber. The supporting Wool's research, points costly alternative is to incinerate them or bury out that his work has benefits them in landfills. But feathers have finally found beyond finding a use for a waste their place in the future. material. "It can increase our Schmidt and his team of research scientists national security by decreasing in Beltsville, Maryland, discovered that our reliance on foreign resources, chicken feathers, comprised mainly and it can increase the viability of a micro-crystalline protein Bryan Stuparyk of the farming industry in this called keratin, could be broken country," she says. A technology that down and mixed with other recycles waste and creates a biodegradable materials to add strength and product seems to have no drawbacks. There even absorption. By stripping is always the ethical question of whether we computer. The away the downy hairs from the should be using animal products to make plastic expands at quill, Schmidt was able to grind consumer goods, but Wool says that for now a rate ten times faster than down the feather fibers and form them "the impacts are all positive, apparently." into a sheet resembling a paper towel. Now, the copper, breaking connections. This forces This is just the beginning for feather fiber this USDA-patented technology is being put information to be rerouted, which fatigues the technology. Wool says micro-processing giant to work in laboratories across the country to computer and slows it down. The feather fibers Intel has shown interest in his circuit boards, change the way we make circuit boards, car are hollow, and the thermal expansion of the and his team has begun to experiment with parts—even diapers and insulation. keratin fiber can be manufactured to match to that of copper to prevent breakage. "You carbonizing the feathers to create a more Dr. Richard P. Wool, Professor of Chemical get a faster signal speed and a cheaper lighter porous version of a carbon microtube. They Engineering and Program Director of the product," says Wool. "You've eliminated thermal are collaborating with NASA to use those Affordable Composites from Renewable fatigue and it's environmentally friendly." microtubes to create a cost-efficient method Resources Program at the University of for filling hydrogen fuel cells. To make Pound for pound, Wool estimates his feather- Delaware, has been using the feather fiber hydrogen a viable fuel for the auto industry, soy composite saves its weight in fossil fuels. It sheets in combination with his newly "we need to store hydrogen at low cost and this is not perfectly green, but the technology has developed "soyoil" resin to create lighter, faster could be one way to do it." Wool laughs, "So planted the seed for other potential uses, from circuit boards. Previously made from petroleum instead of a tiger in your tank, we're giving you diapers and absorbent wipes to automotive products like epoxy and fiberglass, Wool's soy a chicken." and feather circuit boards are not only a more parts. Further experiments are being done to

SAGE 9 RediscoveringConservation at Karukinka the edge of the world

John-Frederick Thye

miserable day in October of globally significant gifts of private land ever region. Famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan, On a 2003, I sailed into Tierra del made. whose men—beaten and discouraged by the inclement weather—committed mutiny here, Fuego, an archipelago situated on the tip of At stake was the future of a 1,150 square mile christened Tierra del Fuego the "land of fire" in the South American continent only 600 miles parcel of Tierra del Fuego in Chilean territory— 1520. Its name was inspired by the ghostly and north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Gale force an area approximately the size of Rhode mysterious native bonfires burning in the hills winds and hail pelted my ship and my face. The Island. Goldman acquired this monumental at night. Magellan never did manage to come gray, turbulent Atlantic Ocean stirred in my hunk of land at the end of the world as part to friendly terms with the "giants of the wild," wake, while off the bow lay a ragged ridge of of a larger pool of distressed assets from as he called the natives. They wore thick furs black snow-capped mountains. I shivered and the Trillium Corporation in 2002. The next across their shoulders and pungent seal oil on shook the ice off of my shoulders. Then I looked year, Goldman transferred the notes to their their skin for protection against the elements. around and took in the sight of one of the most corporate charitable fund, which was now in They must have seemed imposing and almost remote, wild and beautiful places on Earth. the process of gifting the land to WCS with the alien to the dejected, malnourished and dying One year later, in a climate-controlled goal of turning it into an ecological reserve. European sailors. boardroom in New York City, a group of Goldman and WCS went on to sign a three-year Goldman Sachs investment bankers and partnership to finalize deed transactions and Two Argentine WCS scientists accompanied conservation scientists from the Wildlife raise a land and conservation stewardship fund. my voyage. Our mission was to survey South Conservation Society (WCS) pored over the this trip to Tierra American fur and elephant seal colonies and same 70-year-old area maps that I had used For me, del Fuego, and later nurseries and to document right whale activity. for navigation. I imagined them debating around much of the rest of the world, was These species are part of the extraordinary vigorously with their sleeves rolled up. They part of a childhood dream. I had read stacks marine and terrestrial biodiversity that still were about to agree on one of the most of dusty historical accounts describing the defines the region. Tierra del Fuego's shores are

10 SAGE Wildlife Conservation Society Wildlife host to one of the world's last great fisheries, and its alpine meadows, old-growth lenga (southern beech tree) forests, peat bogs, and river systems support a wide range of wildlife, including Magellanic woodpeckers (a cousin of the fabled ivory-billed woodpecker of the southern United States), firecrown hummingbirds and Andean fox. The guanaco, a member of the camel family and relative to the mountain llama, is the region's majestic signature animal. I will never forget the sight of silhouetted guanaco males standing motionless on hilltops, keeping watch over the females and young grazing in the valleys below. In 1832, Charles Darwin affirmed to the world that Tierra del Fuego was a natural treasure, writing: "A single glance at the landscape was sufficient to show me how widely different it was from anything I had ever

beheld." Thye J.F. John-Frederick Thye in the Strait of Magellan with his ship Wildlife and WCS's Goldman stated mission fences that have been erected in the process the world are watching and learning, as well as for Tierra del Fuego is to preserve the land have halted ancient guanaco migrations and critiquing. Redford's comments were therefore for the Chilean people. But how, I used to ask devastated herd populations, an issue that is noticeably discreet when I asked about the myself, can an organization headquartered becoming politically contentious. financial agreements between the partners on the other side of the globe successfully WCS has taken action to dispel concern over and any sustainable development activities manage land as ecologically sensitive and their commitment to conservation and respect that might be in the pipeline. unique, as remote, and as politically disputed for local cultural authority, well reflected in Contrary to the partners' 2004 press release, as this? Kent Redford, who is the Director of their selection of the territory's new name. "The which included potential sources of income the WCS Institute and also responsible for property is therefore now called Karukinka, a from ecotourism, income expectations are WCS's conservation work in Patagonia, recently word which means 'our land' in the language still in development now. Redford notes that addressed my question in a phone interview: of the native Selk'nam people who once lived Phase One is all about building relationships "The only way for WCS and Goldman to achieve on Tierra del Fuego," Redford explained. The so that Karukinka can serve as a world-class their conservation goals in Tierra del Fuego name's significance, I believe, speaks volumes conservation initiative whose management is through careful scientific and financial about WCS's intentions. strategy can be applied across Patagonia. The planning—and equally important, through partners are therefore in cooperation with a culturally and politically sensitive outreach to According to Redford, WCS is developing distinguished advisory council made up of local stakeholders." a twenty-first century conservation model implemented by three partners: WCS, the Chilean scientists, historians, professors, and Tierra del Fuego is part of Patagonia, a region Goldman Sachs Charitable Fund, and the community and business leaders. spanning the southern tip of both Chile and Chilean government and community. This Although improved technology has made Argentina. The two countries have had military public-private-government partnership navigation safer, the experience of sailing confrontations over the region as recently is the first of its kind and is an example of Patagonia remains an intense one. Hundreds as 1984. Additionally, in the past 20 years, how corporations can productively support of ships have been destroyed in these waters international corporations and individuals conservation. over the years. And even now, yachts regularly have acquired enormous tracts of the land, disappear in Patagonia's hurricane-force inciting new debates over land ownership The politics of involving a foreign NGO in storms and building-sized waves—a stark and management. The Italy-based Benetton such a high profile land deal have placed WCS reminder that nature, though now in need of Corporation, for example, has become one center stage in the Chilean and international our protection through projects like Karukinka, of Argentine Patagonia's largest private community. Governmental agencies, energy still reigns supreme. landowners. They use prairie lands to raise and mineral companies and purveyors, sheep for wool. The hundreds of miles of conservation groups, and donors from around

SAGE 11 Wildlife Conservation Society Wildlife Inheriting Bhopal

A photo essay by Andrea Joyce and children of Bhopal: Kushbu, Kartic, Shifan, Sharukh, Ishrat, Armaan and Shabana

In 1984, Bhopal was host to what has since children are also beginning to understand the the group of children, who rely on the help of become known as the world's worst industrial meaning of deformities left to them as a result others in their daily life. Each photo was taken disaster. Early in the morning of December of the disaster. A non-profit organization called by a different child, and accompanying text has third, an ill-maintained pesticide plant owned the Chingari Trust has been created to provide been written by Andrea Joyce. These photos by Union Carbide leaked over 40 tons of proper medical care for Bhopal children with shine through the dark veil of Bhopal's history poisonous gases into the night air in the Indian malformations and brain damage. with a sense of the strength and resilience of state of Madhya Pradesh. Over 3,000 deaths This photo essay presents photos taken by the next generation. were officially recorded as a direct result of seven of these children during their daily the disaster, but estimates of related deaths lives. A group of volunteers from Canada currently reach 20,000. Since that night, over For more about the Chingari Trust: and India collaborated with Chingari Trust 100,000 people have continued to suffer to distribute cameras to the children, giving www.chingaritrust.org adverse health effects. them the opportunity to document their lives. Now, 23 years later, the next generation of The cameras also were given with the hope of Bhopal is beginning school. Some of these fostering independent thought and action in

Shifan Gathered at the park that straddles the border between Old Bhopal and New Bhopal, the Chingari kids run wild. Disregarding a few stares, the children fearlessly take lots of pictures. Shifan, age 9, follows his sister to the slide. Shifan has cerebral palsy and is not usually allowed to hold anything fragile, lest it be dropped. This is Shifan's first time ever holding a camera.

12 SAGE Kushbu Kushbu, age 12, gathers the children for a picture in the alley outside of their houses. This is Kushbu's first chance to use the camera and everybody wants to be in the photo. They have stopped the flourish of activity for a moment to pose.a

Shabana Getting Shabana to use a camera was difficult at first. She had little interest, and did not understand its purpose. Most of these children have only had experience on the other side of the camera, photographed by journalists covering the effects of the Bhopal disaster.

SAGE 13 Sharukh Sharukh photographs his uncle inside his fabric shop. His uncle runs the shop in the chowk (market), where people can buy material for Salwar suits (also known as Punjabi suits). In India, buying clothes involves first choosing the fabric from the fabric store and then hiring a tailor.

Armaan When asked if he wanted to join in the camera project, Armaan—who normally has trouble walking—was jumping up and down. Here, he photographs his younger brother who is also angling for the camera. The Chingari Trust has paid for Armaan to attend a state school. Armaan is unable to perform chores around the house, and is therefore able to attend school regularly.

14 SAGE Kartic Inside Aishwarya State School for Special Needs Children, Kartic is snapping away. Here, he takes a picture of a classmate who is learning about colors and patterns with painted wooden blocks.

Ishrat On the way to Ishrat's house, the Chingari Trust volunteers accumulated a following of about twenty children. Before taking this picture, Ishrat was playing with several children at the end of the alley. When the children realized that Ishrat had gone to retrieve the camera, they were overcome with excitement. The children began alternating screams of "Didi!" (meaning auntie, directed at me) and "photo photo" (to Ishrat). In India, everyone loves to pose for the camera in the classic portrait style. This rare candid shot was captured in between formal shots.

SAGE 15 Food For Thought Look ma, it's raw

Sonia Cooke

t's good," my mom said sweetly with a "Igulp. "A little, um, rich." I had just offered her the product of a day's hard labor: freshly un-baked carrot cake. Its richness resulted from the fact that, like most raw desserts, it was 90 percent ground nuts. With nut sauce on top. My raw creation was not only rich but a little, um, moist too. After its debut, it sat, pudding-like, in a huge bowl in the fridge until Tamara Vaags Kliewer and Karin I returned to college. I didn't inquire into its fate after that; even if I had created a culinary masterpiece, finishing it would have required a Herculean effort. Fifty dollars, two pounds of nuts and nine hours after starting, I had produced enough carrot "cake" to sate the Donner Party for weeks. Wondering where I went wrong, and lamenting the cookbook In the raw foods fad, one wonders whether uncooked foods are truly healthier, or just another Hollywood craze to be author's failure to grasp the concept of serving kicked to the curb the way of the grapefruit diet and Richard Simmons videos. size, I swore never to use his book again. At least not until next break. compensate by supplying digestive enzymes and Trotter's often require more than twelve from our own finite stores. By eating foods hours, not to mention obscure (and expensive) My latest foray into the world of raw cuisine with all the enzymes, or "life force," intact, raw ingredients like 25-year-old Villa Manodori wasn't exactly a triumph, but, in my case, it foodists claim to live healthier, more energetic balsamic vinegar. hardly ever is. Raw food concoctions litter my and longer lives. culinary career, and most could be described Most raw food inhabits a middle ground as "interesting" at best. Yet I keep coming Though it may sound exotic, a lot of raw food between these extremes. Typical un-cooked back, drawn by the idea of living on nuts, fruits is of course no different from food we eat every dishes include spaghetti made by coaxing and vegetables that have escaped corruption day. Salad is raw. So are apples. And many raw zucchini into long strands, cashew "cheese" by stove, oven or microwave. Apparently I'm foodists apparently see little problem with ravioli with transparently thin beet slices not the only one: Raw food "uncookbooks" keeping it simple. One raw cookbook I recently standing in for pasta and sunflower seed crust have invaded bookstore shelves, and raw glanced through included a recipe for banana pizza topped with pesto and olive tapenade. restaurants are popping up in the nation's pudding with the sole instructions: "Peel You need more than a fork to prepare this trendiest cities, serving painstakingly banana, mash banana." stuff: A Vita-Mix (high speed blender: $400), dehydrator (very, very slow oven: $200) and a uncooked food to hipsters and health freaks in But just when you start to think raw food is juicer ($150) are de rigueur if you want to move Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. code for carrot sticks, along come chefs like beyond the banana pudding level in the world The typical raw diet consists primarily of Roxanne Klein and Charlie Trotter (better of raw cuisine. organic fruits, veggies, sprouts and nuts that known for his decidedly non-raw five-star have not been heated above 118 degrees Chicago restaurant), whose co-authored raw espite all working with what might seem Fahrenheit. According to raw foodists, cookbook features elaborate creations like Da similarly restrictive ingredient list, raw beyond this Saharan temperature, living food Tengusa Seaweed Gelée with Sea Beans and restaurants all seem to take on personalities becomes dead food—the heat destroys the Jalapeño-Lemongrass Vinaigrette. If basic of their own. While Klein's defunct restaurant food's natural enzymes, leaving our bodies to recipes take only a minute to make, Klein's served haute cuisine in an appropriate homage

16 SAGE to eco-elite Marin County, raw chef Juliano's is the ideal haunt for Silver Lake hipsters. Café aw foodism attracts all the usual suspects: restaurant is a casual Santa Monica hangout for Gratitude's hippie vibe fits its location in San Rcelebrities, hippies and health food fanatics. Food For Thought industry types and models looking to eat, well, Francisco's sunny Mission District. Each menu In fact, the history of the raw food movement not very much. (My mother and I spent a good item is titled as an affirmation—an unabashed reads like a right-wing parody of left-coast deal of our visit pretending not to notice that display of new-agey positivity that could be eccentricity. California's role as a hotbed of raw Victoria's Secret Angel Karolina Kurkova was either cringe-inducing or inspiring, depending food activity traces back to the late nineteenth seated nearby.) Juliano's food is fancy but not on how uptight you are. Being incredibly century, when a group of naturmenschen fussy; unlike Roxanne Klein's French-inspired uptight, I avoided all eye contact with the relocated from Germany to Palm Springs menu, he favors vibrant postmodern dishes waitress while ordering an I Am Eternally in the hope of escaping the growing that poke fun at American fast food. Juliano Sweet. The delicious chocolaty goodness materialism of a society in the throes of rapid encourages eating dessert first (purportedly (raw cacao and hazelnut "ice cream") almost industrialization. Taking up raw vegan diets, to ease digestion), and to begin, we dug made up for having to listen to the waitress nudity and heliotherapy (a.k.a. sunbathing), the into a deliciously creamy strawberry parfait earnestly affirm, "You are eternally sweet," while naturmenschen went back-to-nature before the hippies were even born. These pioneers soon attracted followers; the bearded, sandal-wearing "Nature Boy" even became enough of an icon to inspire a hit song by Nat King Cole. The movement continued in the twentieth

Tamara Vaags Kliewer and Karin century through the activities of Germans John and Vera Richter (who founded America's first raw food restaurant, Eutropheon, in Los Angeles in 1917) and Lithuanian émigré Ann Wigmore who, according to legend, cured herself of cancer by imbibing copious amounts of wheatgrass juice. A few books advocating the raw diet appeared during the course of the century, but the modern movement truly began with raw chef Juliano, who—unaware of his German predecessors—went raw in his late teens after a revelatory experience wandering in the desert oases of Palm Springs. Despite raw food's apparently timeless allure, the reasoning behind the movement is suspect. Tamara Vaags and Karin Kliewer Vaags Tamara There doesn't appear to be any mainstream Living la vida raw may involve more than just changing what you eat. Preparation time and effort are often increased greatly in order to make foods similar to the ones we eat every day. Consider "baking" a raw cake . . . medical evidence to support the claim that eating cooked food diminishes our bodies' sprinkled with Tibetan goji berries (don't ask me ceremoniously setting down my shake. enzyme stores. It turns out that the stomach's about the carbon footprint on that one). Then, acidic soup destroys most food enzymes before Raw foodists do indeed love dessert, although uttering words that had never before passed this they aid digestion at all. And it might not be the ubiquitous reliance on dates and cashews longtime vegetarian's lips, I ordered the Bacon all that healthy to subsist on a diet that derives in most raw dessert recipes often makes me Western Double, which, alongside its mushroom the majority of its calories from fat (nuts, olives, wonder how throwing in a few extra medjool nut patty, sported paper-thin dried zucchini coconuts) and sugar (agave nectar, dates). and some coconut can turn "cookies" into posing as bacon and veggie fries splashed with "Uncooking" may have other drawbacks as well: "donut holes." Even if these variations on a ketchup and mustard made from heirloom The benefits of certain foods, such as cancer- theme leave me feeling slightly duped when it tomatoes. The riot of color and texture on the preventing compounds in tomatoes, can only comes to raw chez moi, most raw restaurants plate kept me delighted, even if the fries tasted be released by heat, while kidney beans and seem more than capable of differentiating their like they had spent a little too much time in the other foods contain toxins in their raw form. treats. Cru features a delicious chocolate fudge dehydrator. Some studies have shown that those on a raw cake while Café Gratitude—along with its food diet tend to be underweight, and many Other raw restaurants have also carved out their milkshakes—offers key lime pie and vanilla ice nutritionists tut-tut about the dangers of niches: Quintessence's relaxed atmosphere cream made from (you guessed it) nuts. attracts young East Villagers and tiny, chic Cru malnutrition.

SAGE 17 It seems a bit of a stretch to accuse raw foodists attempt to evoke a prelapsarian world evolutionary history. In Juliano's words, "Raw foodists of insalubrity, though, when the where humans live in harmony with animals was, like, before fire." standard American diet has left many and nature. (Notice that raw meat isn't usually The irony, of course, is that modern raw cuisine Americans wider than they are tall. And on the menu.) In the world of raw food, one relies heavily on thoroughly modern tools.By medical experts who extol cooking's cannot commit the sin of gluttony; raw chefs blending, juicing and dehydrating, we create "sanitizing" effects seem to be under the unanimously tout the fact that, on the raw diet, foods that are distinctly unnatural. Cavemen impression that we have yet to escape the you can eat dessert all day and not gain weight: didn’t sit around $400 dehydrators for 16 hazards of medieval squalor. Yet while no one a dieter's Paradise. hours waiting to extract their flax crackers. In (except die-hard germaphobes) would argue The Jungian yearning for a return to the fact, recent research has shown that fire was against eating more raw fruits and vegetables, Garden is no doubt inflamed by our modern used even before modern humans evolved, by most mainstream physicians consider raw food alienation from the natural world. Writing of Homo erectus. Sadly, the Edenic lifestyle, like health claims pseudoscience. The distaste, his transformative experience in the desert, Eden itself, seems about as real as a mirage in evidently, is mutual: Perhaps sensing that the Juliano described how an "eagle soared out the Palm Springs desert. raw diet hasn't exactly made a splash with from the distant trees down to the pool and conventional medicine, one raw food website But raw reality shouldn't crush raw fantasies. ascended with a fish clamped in her talons . . . exclaims in defiance, "We're not doctors, we're Raw food lets us play Adam and Eve for a while, I, for the first time, felt a part of nature instead mother nature!" and if we don't take it too seriously, it can be of a distant bystander watching the world on fun. I, for one, will keep returning to my raw In the end, this scientific squabbling doesn't the tube." Juliano isn't alone: Many raw foodists culinary exploits in an attempt to escape the really matter, because raw diets have always ascribe their dietary choices at least in part to weight of the modern world—at least until been about much more than health. At its a desire to be closer to nature. Indeed, they some sinfully sizzling fries catch my eye. heart, the raw food movement speaks to the invariably claim that eating food raw is the human desire to return to an Edenic existence. natural way, that the advent of cooking—the By eating food raw, "as nature intended," raw Fall—occurred only recently in human Tamara Vaags Kliewer and Karin

Quit playing games with your food: raw foodists champion the unadulterated vegetable. But, if creating raw dishes requires expensive equipment and extensive manipulation, one wonders when raw is still raw.

18 SAGE When it comes to dying, black may be the new green

Diane McDilda

So many green principles are forged in life, spread in a favorite place or shared amongst but what about death? Can the conventional loved ones. In addition, cremation can often be formula of chemicals and fine polished wood done before preservation is needed, thereby be changed? Yes. When the Grim Reaper avoiding the embalming decision altogether. knocks, you can leave this world as greenly as But cremation incinerates the body at a very you lived in it. New possibilities in eco-friendly high temperature, sending toxic compounds dying combine customs from the past with and chemicals into the atmosphere. contemporary values and procedures fitting for Indeed, crematoria release significant amounts any environment. of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, smog- Embalming, a product of the Civil War era, forming volatile organic compounds, dioxins relies on toxic chemicals and solvents like and other pollutants, yet they are not currently formaldehyde. It destroys pathogens, staves required to meet any federal air quality off microbial decay and allows friends and standards. Individual states can, however, family time to take a last look. But there are impose their own emission guidelines. In other options for evading the grip of time just Homo environmentalis, Jennifer Osborn Florida, cremation facilities are required to a little bit longer. Those who choose to forego Mixed media, 12" x12" measure air opacity, particulate matter and flushing embalming fluid through their lifeless carbon monoxide to determine if levels fall bodies can opt instead for refrigeration in a serve as the partition between body and earth. within acceptable limits. More recently, concern hospital, morgue or funeral home, or can be The eco-conscious individual should consider has erupted over the release of mercury (a by- packed on dry ice. Ultimately, returning the entering the afterlife wrapped in a family product of the combustion of dental amalgam), body to the earth as soon as possible is the heirloom or soft organic cotton. which Florida—like most other states—does greenest option, forgoing any need for artificial not require to be monitored. Already, the Green cemeteries are also gaining in popularity. preservation. removal of teeth prior to cremation has been The Green Burial Council collects information added onto proposed mercury emissions What the body goes into is as important as on nature preserves across the country that legislation, and as more citizens become aware what goes into it. Those choosing their final welcome the deceased, and it is working of emission issues surrounding crematoria, quarters can think outside the box—especially toward a certification process for them. The battles over air quality are likely to ensue. when it’s an ornate mahogany casket or Glendale Memorial Nature Preserve in the protective vault likely to run thousands of Florida Panhandle is one such place. With 350 Undeniably, contemplating death is low dollars. Companies like the Natural Burial acres of countryside, the preserve includes on jocularity and not an easy task. But it is Company offer products that biodegrade wetlands, creeks, boardwalks and bamboo important to share the desire for a green burial smoothly without the release of formaldehyde groves, a stark contrast to the more sculptured with loved ones—or better yet, put it down and other chemicals that are often found in confines and paved walkways of a commercial on paper. Positive impacts on the planet don’t the glues and fillers used in traditional coffins. cemetery. The Glendale preserve, like many have to stop when the death knell tolls. From Alternative containers include sturdy cardboard green cemeteries, bars the use of embalming the preparation of a body to choosing its final boxes, unfinished plywood coffins, woven fluids and burial vaults, but allows burial of resting place, leaving a green legacy means baskets and Ecopods—colorful sarcophagi both bodies and cremated remains. reducing your footprint even after you are made from recycled newspapers. Even lower- finished taking steps. Cremation is alive and well today, but its impact options include burial shrouds or degree of eco-friendliness is debated. Less fabrics that are wrapped around the body and burial space is needed, and ashes can easily be

SAGE 19 Artist's Portfolio Elizabeth Rose

Li s t o p a d , 2006 In t a g l i o , m i x e d m e d i a 17.5 x 13.25 i n c h e s Ho r i z o n Th r o u g h Fo r g e t -Me-No t Pe a r s , 2006 Ha n d -c o l o r e d i n t a g l i o 6.75 x 3.5 i n c h e s

"My work focuses on the relationships between people and landscapes: what people create and observe within the environment, how the environment impacts people, and how living organisms adapt to social structures. My visual depictions embody the details of the biological world."

20 SAGE Un d e r Th e Cl o u d s , 2008 Dr a w i n g , 8 x 8 i n c h e s

"By observing diverse ecosystems and cultures, I try to convey the inspiration that biodiversity can provide to civilization. My goal is to help people gain appreciation for their ecosystems and cultures. I also aim to highlight aspects of wilderness that are overlooked and taken for granted." Ni g h t Tr a i n , 2006 Ha n d c o l o r e d i n t a g l i o , 4.5 x 7 i n c h e s

"Often in our busy society, we are unaware of our relationship with the land and our inevitable impact on the environment. From a tiny clump of moss to a bird fluttering by, these encounters are part of life and have become increasingly rare to many people. This is too important to be lost in this rapidly changing world."

SAGE 21 Conservation FOR SALE: Can Working With the Enemy Save a Costa Rican Biological Corridor? F. Cascante

Georgia Basso

Costa Rican jungle where for developers to harm the forest where I was only artery through which wildlife can safely In the I conducted field work working was especially high because this travel. In the absence of zoning laws and last summer, everyone I spoke with seemed rainforest is not an endless expanse but rather adequate government protection, the fate to hate real estate developers. Developers, a narrow green corridor. of this entirely privately owned corridor rests environmentalists said, were building tropical Designated as the Corredor Biológico Paso de heavily on the decisions of land owners. If suburbs that cut off wildlife from access to la Danta (Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor), developers and other land owners choose to national parks. I kept hearing that developers this 31-mile-long strip is supposed to provide keep natural corridors intact, animals like the chopped down the rainforest at night, a passageway for some of Latin America's most jaguar and tapir may stretch their legs and their caused rivers to run red with eroded soil, and endangered species, including the jaguar and gene pools, traveling beyond the confines of engaged in illegal land deals. The potential tapir. Although years of hunting and habitat national parks. Conversely, these land owners encroachment have reduced the number of also have the power to narrow the corridor and jaguars and tapirs in this region, locals say squeeze the regions' vibrant life to extinction. that these animals still use the corridor. Tapirs, * * * * related to horses and rhinoceroses, weigh spending a day with one about 700 pounds and resemble large grey I knew of the region's largest mice with short, elephant-like trucks. They use developers, a North American named Thomas these flexible trunks to probe through dense Dolan, was risky business. But after three jungle underbrush for leaves and berries. months of listening to conservationists talk Throughout their 30-year lifespan, tapirs keep about them as enemies of the jungle, I was to large tracts of undisturbed forest. Today determined to meet one of the corridor's most these shy jungle giants are found in precious infamous. When my alarm rang at five a.m., the few locations around the world. The Tapir rainforest's moist heat was already hanging in Biological Corridor connects two of these areas: the morning air. I pushed my notebook into Costa Rica's stunning Osa Peninsula and the my bag and walked quietly down the stairs in lush Los Santos Forest Reserve. These forests, the house I had shared all summer with other also home to the jaguar, are two of the most researchers. Adrian Santiago was sitting in the

biologically diverse regions in the world. dim light, sipping coffee at the kitchen table. With large cities looming just outside the For the past two months I had been working in corridor's boundaries, this pathway is the the corridor with Santiago, a Costa Rican forest Georgia Basso Georgia

22 SAGE scientist who, in addition to having an intense had enabled the grassroots beginning of the Breeze Estates. As we jumped in Gomez's love for this jungle, is one of the corridor’s corridor. These stakeholders felt that their new Toyota 4Runner, he told me that Dolan, leading biological experts. "Where are you common values would be upheld through the a retired dentist from California, was building going today?" he asked. corridor's creation. They agreed to maintain 100 luxury homes across the ridgeline which "To the field," I replied as I quickly laced my and allow forest regrowth on sections of their runs along the spine of the Path of the Tapir boots. land, linking these areas to forest patches on Biological Corridor. adjacent lands. Even though the corridor now Gomez has seen a lot of change in the people "Who is your interview with?" he probed exists to help tapirs travel from one protected further. and the land during his lifetime in the corridor. area to another, narrow conversations obstruct Up until the early 1990s, agriculture and "Thomas Dolan," I said. Everyone in the their movement. I had heard stories of ranching were the main industries for Costa community knew what Dolan was up developers blocking the corridor's potential by Ricans, who commonly refer to themselves to—building luxury homes in the rainforest. placing buildings in highly sensitive areas. Even as "Ticos." "Many of the Ticos were very poor," Santiago's face twisted up a bit. "I thought you basic discussion with an ecologist could have he said. Then the pastures and fields started were an environmentalist," he said to me. led them to do otherwise. By going to meet growing housing developments instead of Thomas Dolan, I was hoping to learn whether I am an environmentalist. But I have noticed cattle and corn. "Because of real estate, things opening the conversation to include an that many environmentalists are only willing to are different for us now." This economic lift for exchange of ideas between environmentalists talk with people that they feel are acceptably Ticos is just one change that development and developers could clear this path for tapirs green. Conversations were different when has introduced. But Ticos see other, more and other critically endangered wildlife. the corridor first began. In 1989, on a sticky surprising changes. "Thomas Dolan is a great July afternoon, a group of farmers, ranchers, * * * * conservationist," Gomez said. "Costa Ricans and environmentalists first gathered to talk a.m., I knocked on don't take care of the forest like gringos do. about the land and what they valued. Some At seven the front door at Before the gringos came, this land was all said cows, others said money, or monkeys, or the home of one of Dolan's most important pasture. But gringos don't want cows, they rivers. The conversation led to an exchange of managers, Juan Gomez. He answered with want to see monkeys. So they re-grow and ideas and eventually, the formation of the Tapir a broad smile and a cup of coffee. Gomez protect the forest." Corridor. Trust between diverse stakeholders had agreed to let me tag along on his usual When we reached the top of the mountain, and a willingness to jointly discuss their values commute up to Dolan's development, Paradise Dolan greeted me with a warm handshake. He was a tall man with a certain kindness in his eyes. "I am glad you came," he said. "Usually environmentalists don't want anything to do with me." I scanned the dense jungle that surrounded us. Dolan owns 2,000 acres of it, an area nearly three times the size of the local wildlife reserve where Santiago works. With very little government regulation, Dolan’s decisions reign over this landscape. "Let me show you what I am building," he said, like a boy eager to show off his latest Lego project. He took me to his ocean view housing lots, areas of bare red soil, each ready to receive one large home. Nearly every exposed incline was blanketed in a tight green mesh that Dolan told me was a new tough but biodegradable erosion prevention technology. "It has never been used on this big of a scale," he said.

Downhill from the green mesh, cement troughs lined roadside drainage ditches. Water traveling through these troughs would flow clean, on

Georgia Basso Georgia top of the earth rather than sweeping up soil in Illegal development often starts with complete removal of the forest underbrush. Trees are poisoned and gradually cleared so that the open space appears to have occurred naturally rather than as the result of rainforest cutting, which un-lined ditches on the way to the river. While is illegal in Costa Rica. cement troughs might not seem like state-of-

SAGE 23 the-art technology, they dramatically reduce two river mouths which were surrounded by canopies really helps wildlife," an observation erosion—one of the main environmental deep reddish- brown rings. The light water that is easy to miss if you are from North problems caused by development in around Dolan's "meter" was the result of America where monkeys do not cross roads. the corridor. In the rainy season, entire his $200,000 investment in green mesh and Santiago has—along with his university degree mountainsides lacking vegetation can slide cement drainage channels. in forest science—a lifetime of experience into racing rivers, turning the tumbling water a These two important but unattractive tools watching this jungle. I looked over at Dolan. His deep red color. When the rivers hit the ocean, will not appear on the front cover of Dolan's eyes were watching his meter. He never looked they spew liquid soil like gushing wounds. This marketing brochure. And he and I both knew at the road. Maybe he just didn't think to. viscous glop smothers coral reefs, blocking out with the lack of strict government regulation, Gomez was right, Thomas Dolan was trying to the sunlight they need to survive. Furthermore, he could get by with a lot less. While I was still develop responsibly. But he was doing it alone. erosion pulls trees and vegetation off the land, thinking about this businessman's decision to * * * * stripping away the jungle's dense cover and spend a bunch of money that he did not need leaving dangerously exposed areas that tapirs and I breathed in a fresh to, Dolan quietly offered an explanation: "I do Dolan gust of air off the Pacific. He was in no hurry to leave this beauty. Eventually we turned away from the ridge and toward the next stop on our tour. On the other side of the mountain, dense green jungle stretched up and down the corridor for as far as my eye could see. I was still scanning this lush stretch when Dolan redirected my attention to an oddly uniform, lighter section directly in front of us. The trees here resembled thousands of identical match sticks propped up in the soil. Dolan explained that the previous owners planted this 500-acre teak tree monoculture with the hopes of harvesting the wood. Creating a teak plantation brings in cash but pushes out local wildlife. Dolan realized this. He told me that he has seen howler monkeys in the jungle off to either side of this block of teak, but that they refuse to cross through it. "What

Georgia Basso I want to do is pull out the teak between these two jungle patches and connect them using native hardwoods," Dolan said, pointing to where the rainforest touched either side of the

plantation, "I am going to create a corridor." Erosion control techniques, including stabilized slopes and properly lined drainage channels, reduce the amount of sediment runoff, a problem which can be particularly detrimental to rivers and ocean ecosystems. But creating a corridor within the Tapir Biological Corridor is not an easy task for a and other shy jungle mammals hesitate to it, because it is the right thing to do." developer. "Where do you get your native cross. hardwoods?" I asked. He told me that there As I looked out over the mountain, I noticed * * * * were no local native plant nurseries large the road that Gomez and I had driven up. From enough support this 500-acre reforestation 2,000 feet up on the my vantage point I could see that the jungle project, so he had started his own. "I have ridge, Dolan and canopy had been sliced open and peeled away Perched five thousand trees in the nursery right now, I had a bird’s eye view of three river mouths from the road's edge. It looked like a sterile waiting to go into the ground once the teak is emptying into the sapphire blue water of the neighborhood street in a manicured Californian pulled out," he said. Pacific Ocean. "See that one there," he said, suburb. I remembered what Santiago taught pointing to the right-most mouth, "That is my me a week earlier as we craned our necks to "How do you know what to plant?" I asked. I meter. That river flows through this mountain watch a troupe of 30 white-faced monkeys had expected that he would tell me about the range." The water surrounding his river was a climb through the tree canopy that arched local foresters he worked with, but instead he light coffee color, a sharp contrast to the other over a road near our home. "Leaving natural replied, "I got an old, out-of-print tree key. Then

24 SAGE I had some tropical tree books sent to me from run a successful business. He confers with them work. I saw no drainage channels, no erosion Cornell University. All of my old botany classes when he notices that monkeys stop moving or controlling mesh—only gaping gashes cut into started to come back. I learned about two a new road needs to come up the mountain. the jungle. hundred tree species, and there are about eight Nearly the entire corridor is owned by men When I arrived back home, Santiago's boots hundred tree species here." His ingenuity was like Dolan's partners. But they cannot give him were resting against the door, caked with red impressive, but this California native was on a the ecological, place-based knowledge he mud from a day in the jungle monitoring bird solo quest to learn the tree species in one of needs. In contrast, Santiago talks to people like species. Next to his boots lay a book about the world's most challenging classrooms. The the president of the Association of Friends of connecting isolated forest patches to form diversity of species in Costa Rica is among the Nature. These people own relatively little land corridors. I thought about the wide roads highest in the world, and reforesting tropical but have lifetimes of knowledge about wildlife running up one side of Dolan's mountain and species takes specific knowledge. While Dolan movement patterns and tropical reforestation the corridors he was building on the other. has made it his personal quest to complete this strategies. Most of Santiago's colleagues I glanced at Santiago's book, realizing that task, most developers would not spend time believe housing developments will cut the corridors need more than just connections digging up tropical tree guides and starting corridor off to animals like the tapir and howler between forests. Corridors in the Path of native plant nurseries in order to build a monkey. They prefer not to speak with jungle the Tapir and in many human-dominated corridor. enemies like Dolan. landscapes across the world need connections Dolan brought me over to an old shed and * * * * between people. If smart individuals like pulled out five thick tropical forestry books. I walk home from Dolan's, Santiago and Dolan can begin working immediately recognized three from Santiago's On my the afternoon rainforest together, large-scale development can also book shelf. One of the corridor's largest storms set in. Large drops of cool water mean large-scale conservation. developers and one of its most knowledgeable pummelled the dirt road like bullets, sending conservationists were reading the same books muddy splashes onto my legs. The peaceful The names and origins of some characters in this but operating in entirely separate worlds. blue rivers turned instantly into racing red story have been changed to protect their privacy. Dolan was surrounded by the advice of his veins, sweeping the mountains' soil toward business partners, middle-aged American men the ocean. Looming uphill were five exposed who know how to fix teeth, read the law, and slopes, evidence of some developers' shoddy A. R edondo-Brenes

SAGE 25 The Hard Facts Seve Ponce de Leon “Georgia environmental officials could ask Gov. Sonny Perdue to limit the water used by commercial and industrial users as the state struggles through one of the worst droughts in years. [...] Two plants owned by Coke and Pepsi What's In Your Bottle? are among the city of Atlanta's largest water customers.” – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 2007 In today's interdependent global economy, many people are unaware of where their foods and beverages come from, and how they are produced. Some people feel they have more important issues to worry about; for others, ignorance is bliss. But the importance of what we put into our bodies should not be ignored, for it is from food and beverages that we acquire the energy and nutrients necessary for life. Soft drinks—which provide little nutritional value—are the single largest source of calories in the American diet. This photographic series offers an unabashed and often startling glimpse of what goes into a bottle of soda and its meaning for our bodies, our communities Water, water everywhere: Incoming water collects at a treatment facility in Detroit, MI and the environment. Discover some of the Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) owns and operates 79 production facilities around the world. Of these, main ingredients found in this seemingly 72 draw the water they use from "public sources." In 2006, CCE used 38 billion liters of water, over 94 innocuous beverage and trace the impact of percent of which did not come from groundwater. So what exactly are the public sources that constitute the bottle itself to its final destination. such a large percentage of CCE’s water supply? Municipal water systems. As much as 98 percent of most soft drinks is—after being treated, carbonated and flavored with a syrup concentrate—simple tap water.

Not all sweeteners are created equal Although early studies indicated the potential neurotoxic side effects of aspartame, G.D. Searle & Company (who accidentally discovered the chemical in 1965) spent millions of dollars to conduct additional tests to prove its safety. Despite inconclusive and questionable results, aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages by 1983. While the three components of aspartame all occur in nature (phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methyl esther), they never occur isolated from the other molecules that make them safely handled by the body. As a result, they have “You see the little packets of artificial sweeteners laid out for you whenever you go to a restaurant. There they are in pink, blue, and yellow – the colors of baby clothes. Friendly colors. [...] They’re in all been found to metabolize into methanol and formaldehyde, among your diet sodas and snacks. But still, you’re not entirely sure about them. There’s a nagging question at other chemicals. Since its approval, aspartame has been linked to the back of your mind when you see them. Are these really safe?” migraines, cancer, epilepsy, Alzheimer's and depression. – Drs. Joesph Mercola & Kendra Degen Pearshall, “Sweet Deception”

26 SAGE behind soft drinks

“A carefully designed study [...] in The Lancet, a leading British medical journal, shows that a variety of common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate – an ingredient in many soft drinks, juices, salad dressings and other foods – causes some children to become more hyperactive and distractible than usual." – Claudia Wallis, Time Magazine

“...the industrial food chain has made energy-dense foods the cheapest foods in the market, when measured in terms of cost per calorie. [...] Very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots.” – Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma

Corn: the maize craze Sodium benzoate: an ounce of preservation? Every year, more than 15 percent of all cropland in the U.S. is planted with In 2006 and 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sampled soft drinks corn, but less than three percent is actually eaten in its original form. By 1984, containing both sodium benzoate (E211) and ascorbic acid to determine if together most soft drink manufacturers had switched from sugar as a sweetener to high- they were forming benzene, a known carcinogen. Although there is no standard for fructose corn syrup. In the last decade, corn farmers received over $51 billion benzene levels in soft drinks, the FDA found ten drinks with levels ranging as high as in subsidies—almost half the money for all subsidized crops put together. 88.9 parts per billion, over 15 times the acceptable level for drinking water. While all ten have since been reformulated or discontinued, many soft drinks continue to use E211.

Plastic: the earth's biggest PET peeve Although plastic soda bottles were introduced in 1970, it was not until the 1980s that the lightweight, durable, and clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET) surpassed glass in the market for bottled beverages. PET plastic comes from oil, a non-renewable resource. In 2005, the world consumed approximately 30 billion barrels of oil and had 1,312 billion barrels of proven reserves. Additional conservative estimates suggest the total amount of potentially economically recoverable oil may be around 2,000 billion barrels. Some people claim that could all be gone by mid century. Others argue “PET plastic is a petroleum product. Because it is presently recycled at such low rates, tens of billions of new plastic new deposits will be discovered. Either way, the bottles must be manufactured each year from virgin materials – fossil fuels – to replace those bottles that were not recycled. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that approximately 18 million barrels of crude oil equivalent plastic keeps piling up in landfills. were consumed in 2005 to replace the 2 million tons of PET bottles that were wasted instead of recycled.” – Pat Franklin & Jennifer Gitlitz, Container Recycling Institute

SAGE 27 RECYCLING Ritual and Reality

Meghna Agarwala and Sara Enders

an increasingly common sight: the bottle caps. "Waste of time," he said. And recycled materials, others simply made it It'scardboard, plastic and metal lined the rinsing? "Waste of water." illegal not to recycle certain types of solid up on the curb, filling up bins. More than The questions run deeper than just procedural waste. The strategy worked: the EPA goal half of all Americans have the opportunity minutiae. A recent report from England was met by 1995, and then surpassed. Today, to recycle at home, and for many, it seems to revealed that huge amounts of curbside Americans recycle about a third of the more offer more than just an alternative means of recyclables there were being secretly burned or than 250 million tons of municipal solid disposing waste. Recycling also helps clear the dumped. Could the same thing happen here? waste they produce every year. conscience, the weekly trip to the curb serving Or is it happening already? Where does all that But not all of those 80-odd million tons of as a kind of ritual environmental cleanse. junk go when it leaves the curb? material are saved from the trash. The EPA's But myth and confusion often surrounds the definition of recycling is to "separate or practice. Why don't they pick up pizza boxes? In 1989, The United States Environmental divert an item from the solid waste stream How well should I scrub this peanut butter Protection Agency (EPA) set a goal of recycling for the purposes of processing it or causing jar? Should lids and tops stay on or go to the 25 percent of the nation's trash (ten percent it to be processed into a material product." trash? To address some of these questions, we was being recycled at the time). The EPA set up Joke N ijenhuis This definition conceals a lot of complexity. called up Tom Divivo, third generation owner national guidelines, but left implementation There are many legs to an item's journey of the Willimantic Waste Paper Company in and enforcement to the states, which between its initial diversion from the waste Connecticut. We asked him about unscrewing responded in a variety of ways. Some offered tax breaks to help companies adapt to using stream and the creation of a new product,

28 SAGE and at various points along the way, off-ramps buildings the size of airplane hangers. We with oil for processing, or whether the plastic lead right back to the garbage heap. To really followed Amanda's Ugg-booted footsteps container you threw in with your mixed paper understand the fate of all those cartons on the over the colorful tailings from the mounds of is high-density polyethylene or polyvinyl curb, we decided to follow them as they get material and up steel staircases to platforms chloride. One result of this setup is that small transported and transformed. overlooking a roller coaster of conveyor belts. items like plastic utensils may end up as trash As the rolling belts filled with well-mixed because they are difficult to grab. Off the streets junk and climbed toward the ceiling, sorting At the ends of the conveyor belts, piles of In the city of New Haven, Connecticut, it all was clearly the name of the game. A flurry of similar objects wait to be baled or otherwise starts at the curb. Recycling collection vehicles gloved hands plucked items off the belts and bound together for sale. From there, many only have two compartments: one for paper, tossed them onto other conveyor belts or into of them go to processing plants, where the the other for non-paper (those who separate a large bucket. Plastic bottles and cardboard material is more finely sorted. Plastics, for tin from aluminum might want to take note). scraps rained through the air and landed softly instance, are washed and then shredded or Trucks carry the materials from the curb to a in different streams heading in orthogonal turned into pellets. This sorting is a process transfer center owned by the city and operated directions. of greater technical precision, exploiting the by a private company. At this point market Willimantic also uses magnets to sort metals, physics of blowing, sifting, and floating to forces really take over: the company pays and Tom Devivo told us they had recently remove contaminants like lids, labels, and Willimantic Waste Paper Company to haul installed a Dutch-made system of screens product residue. the materials an hour and fifteen minutes and flow tanks to automate the processing of It is a myth that all plastic caps have to come off northeast. There, Willimantic sorts, bales, and construction and demolition debris. Divivo before going in the bin. In fact, loose caps are sells what it can to the highest bidder. says that the wave of the future will be single- hard to grab in a picking line, so leaving them The Willimantic facility covers 40 acres, and stream processing, made possible by advances on may increase their chance of being recycled. processes 800 tons of recyclables every day. in automated sorting. High-tech machines If the cap and the bottle are made of different It never closes. On the sunny day of our visit, like laser scanners will automatically sort glass types of plastic, they will likely be separated Tom Divivo volunteered his daughter Amanda by color. But for now, the vast majority of the further downstream—after going through a to show us around. She took us to watch as sorting is still done in "picking lines" by human chipper and being dumped in a water bath trucks dumped freshly arrived material onto hands (most of them belonging to immigrant for separation by weight. But in some cases, fields of asphalt. Bulldozers plowed the junk laborers). Eyes and hands have seconds to two different materials can have the same to the gaping garage doors that lined two determine whether a pizza box is too saturated specific gravity, making contamination by Joke N ijenhuis Sara E nders

SAGE 29 Sara Enders ecovery Authority, a waste a waste ecovery Authority, ecycling says he chose not to recycle the recycle to he chose not ecycling says esources R esources Willimantic is unusual in even accepting the accepting in even is unusual Willimantic types of plastic sport suite that complete the is Jeff Duval symbol. recycling little numbered the Connecticut for Analyst Senior Operations R the state by created company management FCR, one of the He explains that in the 1970s. not will country, the in brokers recycling largest because seven through take numbers three of May sell them. C. J. to nowhere they have R Yale plastics because he couldn’t higher-numbered He says be recycled. they would that guarantee like lying. felt have them would accepting nearly 2,100 these difficulties, Despite collect "all now nationwide communities a 2006 survey to according plastic bottles," ChemistryAmerican the Council. for conducted just about 1,600 communities up from (That’s for biggest reason The earlier.) years three simplifying the collectionthis is that process plastic more twenty percent to brings in ten the highly valued of which are many bottles, supply And more numbers one and two. opportunitiesmeans more sell: to and other companies Willimantic market growing a finding are overseas. a municipality's decision to implement public a municipality's implement decision to programs. recycling under must be recycled that Most material Willimantic is in and out of the Connecticut law is enough demand There facility within a week. to the company and metal for newspaper for an us tells (Amanda these materials. purchase brings in her aluminum foil, old lady regularly Some of scale.) on a larger but usually they buy demand Low locally. can be resold these items Willimantic means that materials other for and then sells them pick them up, to charges very all—and often at must comb cheaply—if The prices farther much buyers for afield. fickle volatile; buyers goods are recycled for change their minds on a weekly basis. by away cannot be sold is thrown Whatever Willimantic, For the cheapest means available. this usually means exporting landfills to it the makes it cheaper for This out of state. materials discard to company recycling often which are municipalities, than it is for local expensive more to contracts bound by on many expire Contracts facilities. incineration of facilities in December Connecticut waste dynamics of the profit alter 2008, which could disposal significantly. waste that Some materials of the most common are plants reclamation make it to don’t all numbers one recycle "We plastics. Dan Banning says seven," through the to referring Willimantic, of codes that identification resin polymer a plastic’s indicate he "—in theory," type, adds with an easy Banning says smile. plastics other that than numbers and two, one, hard are five sell. to SAGE To market collecting is oftenWhile recyclables a is processing public service, higher-level of private overwhelminglythe province of the fate means that This companies. cost- depends first on the recyclables your and your area, recycling in of effectiveness on whether someone can make a profit second The post-consumer material. your reclaiming of curbside has been recycling proliferation to enough material in generating instrumental profitable. make resale curbside is most recycling In States, the United parts in densely populated of the prevalent of people in percent Eighty-three country. but that the Northeast curbside pickup, have in the South. Economics 39 percent to drops is landfill space where responsible: largely are highest, recycling are and disposal costs scarce In the Northeast, sense. makes more waste been have may costs management furtherby a history inflated of mafia Local politics— fixing. price expand to pressure programs recycling and citizens from NGOs—also a large play in role caps a real concern. There is rarely any way for for way any rarely is There concern. caps a real the composition determine to the consumer area" a lot of "gray are There cap. of a plastic explain which may one, like this answers much preparation how over the confusion out putting the recycling is needed before is of product residue Some level on the curb. much can be a problem. but too acceptable, 30 31

SAGE ecycling trucks that next to impossible. next impossible. to said it Divivo Tom of time a waste was off plastic take to caps and rinse out product residues, but as the operator of a pre-reclamation facility, processing these factors do not affect his abilityto sell What the materials. happens further down the pipe is someone and concern else’s his control. beyond New regulations help hold may people accountable the throughout process. R the curb and leave for make straight mostly landfills are the stuff of urban But while you legend. your be "doing may part" piling bottles by might be a decline in processing of recyclables of recyclables in processing be a decline might impact thinks the But Lifset will be in the U.S. may we modest. "Depending on the regulation, or a slight of recycling in amount see a drop of the industry," rate in the growth deceleration "fall but a demand he says, in international industry domestic also stimulate might to then absorb which could its capacity, increase waste." recycling impact significant of the new a more Perhaps to easier become it may is that regulations passing of the repeated The materials. track bin to recycling your buck—from recyclable a sorting a harbor in facility to a distributor to figuring out exactly explain why Asia—helps plastic bottle ends up can be your where and cans on the curb, believing that’s all there all there believing that’s and cans on the curb, belts of conveyor a whole world is obscures is a long There and pellets and negotiations. of plastic in your piece that journey awaits that hand—a journey is worth that considering buy the plastic in the first place. you before made up of small companies that may not may that made up of small companies with these new standards. comply be able to a greater speak to But the new regulations suggesting world, in the developing awareness is improving. the situation overall that standards of these overseas One odd result Hazardous Wastes have drawn attention to an to attention drawn have Wastes Hazardous the North between uncomfortable relationship American industry recycling and overseas Observers the from processors. reclamation described seeing Basel Action Network have sorting spending hours small children shards plastic found They color. plastic by of shredded fumes, toxic which releases being burned, products being waste and they documented dumped in the countryside. in on these hazards spotlight growing The adopt new to led China countries developing importation on waste in 2006 that standards are There those in Europe. to comparable are this will be. effective some doubts about how Chinese plastics industryThe is almost entirely eid Lifset, a lecturer at the Yale School of Yale the a lecturer at eid Lifset,

One problem with sending recyclables overseas overseas recyclables sending with problem One importers many is that in the developing lax environmental relatively have world monitoring Groups and labor standards. on of the 1992 Basel Convention enforcement of Movements Transboundary of the Control Some of almost every amount type of overseas. way finds its material recyclable goes to is exportedPlastic China. Paper to Scrap metal often ends up in Asia. Canada. made collecting markets have overseas These profitable. more in the U.S. recyclables know to what didn’t we ago, years "Twenty buy it," to do with PET No one wanted bottles. R says Editor-in- Studies, and Environmental Forestry and Chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, then "And enthusiast. waste self-proclaimed it and the for a huge appetite China developed he says. market just boomed," oad nity Abr Opportu nders E Sara

Sara Enders Spider Plant Chlorophytum comosum

Mitchell Akiyama

The German polymath, Johann von Goethe, during a short flirtation with biology, purchased the ancestor of our Spider Plant from a Dutch trader named Jan van Cok in 1782. Van Cok had discovered the plant in South Africa near Boschberg Mountain. He became enamored with the strange plant that seemingly gave birth to perfect copies of itself, dangling them from what appeared to be the botanical equivalent of an umbilical cord. He hung his plant over his writing desk. On a torrid, sunny day in August 1783, a prism, loaned to him by the Privy Councillor Buettner in Jena, caught Goethe's eye. He took the glass triangle from his desk drawer and squinted through it, rotating it delicately. He noticed a the plastic Venetian blinds hanging separation of colors around the contours of his in the small window. The effect was plant. Although strictly passive participant, the positively spectral, particularly on dark Spider Plant was the inspiration for Goethe's winter afternoons. As Riesser's plants controversial Theory of Colours, a work that increasingly overtook his cramped threatened to sink Newton’s canonical work on space, he would give away cuttings in the subject. As Goethe's plant flourished, he coffee cans. Frank Smith, a Columbia made gifts of the plantlets to his friends. One dropout and former student of Riesser's, such friend, Maria Riesser of Hamburg, planted brought one of these gifts with him several in her greenhouse where the lineage to Montreal in 1972, two days after would be maintained for 150 years. The first having received his draft card. Smith rumblings of German National Socialism in crossed the border at Champlain in his the early 1930s compelled Riesser's great- red Chevrolet pick-up truck, his belongings great-great-great-grandson Wilhelm to flee in the back under a tarp. He settled in the to the United States. A botanist by training, Pierrefonds area of Montreal Island and started Wilhlem Riesser brought several seeds a small garden center. Among the plants he from the greenhouse to New York where he sold were Spider Plants grown from cuttings obtained a part-time post researching vascular of the original plant he had smuggled into plants in the Faculty of Science at Columbia Canada. Smith passed his business on to his University. Back in Germany, the ancestral son Richard in 1992. Richard then expanded greenhouse was destroyed during the air raids the business, and began supplying plant stores of 1943. Most of the seeds Wilhelm had carried all over the island. In 2003, a friend bought me across the ocean sprouted and began to fill a Spider Plant, a descendent of the Goethe his small basement apartment. Neighbors plant, from the local plant store Florateria as a found him to be odd; an eerie blue light housewarming gift. seemed to constantly emanate from behind

32 SAGE Heart-Leafed Philodendron Philodendron oxycardium

Mitchell Akiyama

It is not entirely clear how the Heart-Leafed had little interest in vegetation, his grandson During the Depression years, thanks to its Philodendron came to hang from the lintel Donald’s inclination towards biology led him to hardiness and affordability, the Philodendron of our living room. I have been able to trace a job as an assistant to Charles Darwin. Donald soon became ubiquitous and, according to its genealogy as far back as the eighteenth Chisholm, knowing that Darwin had mentioned the Smith County Master Gardener Boots century, but its earlier history eludes us. the Philodendrons of Brazil in his 1865 work, Oliphint, was "responsible for the birth of Captain William Bligh, returning from his The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants, the houseplant industry." A plant from the second voyage to Tahiti (one that would finish gave the naturalist a potted P. oxycardium that Birk Philodendrons was eventually shipped less dramatically than his first), transplanted Christmas. That plant continues to grow in the to Knapps Greenhouses in Newburyport, our Philodendron’s ancestor to the Royal greenhouse at Darwin’s former home, Down Massachusetts in 1965. The species has been Botanic Gardens at Kew in 1793. It was House. In 1886, cuttings from the Philodendron a steady seller for Knapps and in 2001, Peter relegated to a dark corner of the Temperate made their way to North America with the Swartz, a psychologist living in West Newbury House and obscured by the shadow of an eminent evolutionist and friend to Darwin, bought several. His daughter, Jenna Robertson, enormous Chilean Wine Palm. Alfred Russel Wallace. After a series of speaking made cuttings in January 2004 and brought it During the winter of 1797, the eminent engagements organized by the Lowell Institute from Massachusetts to Montreal, smuggled in naturalist and director of the gardens, in Massachusetts, Wallace gave Philodendron ziplock bags and concealed under coats. Jenna Joseph Banks, rediscovered the Philodendron. cuttings as presents to his American hosts. and I hung the plant in March 2004 from the

Discovering that it had survived without water In 1930, Fred Birk, a graduate student with lintel in our living room. and with little light for several weeks, he was an entrepreneurial flair, realized that P. amazed by the apparent indestructibility of oxycardium—thanks to the properties observed the plant. A gardener at Kew named William by Joseph Banks almost a century and a Chisholm, having heard about the new half previously—might make a good acquisition's heartiness, surreptitiously took a houseplant. cutting that he gave to his wife as a gift. He felt that the plant might be a good fit for Agnes, who was fond of plants but had no great gift for keeping them alive. The Philodendron survived three generations of the Chisholm family but eventually caused the tragic poisoning death of two-year old Kenneth Chisholm in 1810. Had grandfather William's botanical wisdom been passed on, someone might have known that the plant was poisonous and noticed Kenneth’s attraction to its shining emerald leaves. While most of William Chisholm's offspring

SAGE 33 THEFAUX CA NEWS: FAIR ANDBB UNBALANCEDAGE It's getting hot in herre: hip hop style takes on global cooling K-Boi Court

Scientists in U.S. cities like Miami, Los Angeles, and New York have recently made a shocking discovery. While running climate models, they noticed a distinct dip in temperatures unique to the cities, beginning in the 1980s and continuing through present day. After exhausting hours of attempting to account for this strange phenomenon, scientists decided to call a meeting to see if their confusion was shared. The meeting went into the early hours of the morning, until finally one of the scientists broke the code: "It's albedo ladies and gentlemen—bling albedo." Aghast that they had been blind to this factor, the scientists quickly ran some calculations, determining the correlation between the rise of gangsta rap, bling popularity, and approximate albedo effect of bling. Blingo—they had their white whale. Said climatologist Ernst Schlegenheimer, "It was about time to pass the Courvoisier." Fittingly referred to as "ice," bling is now being pushed as a promising global warming solution. The effect of bling is so great that scientists Taking yet another lesson from Mr. T: One might say that, along with Run DMC, Mr. T was one of the great are saying "bling may actually be the one grandfathers of bling. single factor keeping New York froze during hip-hop movement. The going isn't all cake, American Intergovernmental Panel on Climate the winter." When five-year old Johnny Trucks however, as there has been a recent spike in Change scientists come together on July 14th was interviewed at Rockefeller Center this past the popularity of ceramic bling (sometimes with stakeholders to discuss project ICE-B: February, he said that indeed, "it was all iced referred to as "blong"), an affordable bling- International Cooling Effect and Bling. out." Is bling the solution to global warming? substitute. The popularity of blong points to How big is the bling effect? Scientists say it "It's just part of the battle," says eco-conscious a critical issue: One of the major drawbacks of largely depends on the composition and size rapper Ol' Dirty Power Plant. "Right now there's the bling movement is price. It's all about that of the bling. It is estimated that the dinner- just a big difference between 'Hott' and 'hot.' paper dough. A debate is brewing between plate-sized diamond-encrusted clock worn by We're trying to bridge the gap between 'Hott' environmental rappers and corporations like Flava flav could have an albedo as high as .99 and 'cool.'" "Eqwal-Mart," which take a social position, (for reference, asphalt is about .04, fresh snow maintaining that affordability is about equality: In a meeting last Saturday evening at 11 p.m., about .90). That's about .99 parts of which "blong is the every man's bling." Debate a group that calls itself "Earth, Wind, and no carbon ain't one. Fire" met to discuss the new bling-filled rap and will culminate in the next few weeks, when

34 SAGE THEFAUX CA NEWS: FAIR ANDBB UNBALANCEDAGE

Point Counterpoint Eating Lower on The Food Chain Drinking orange juice enhances Enhances My Moral Superiority my throat mucus

Did you know, that veal cutlet Mmmmmm. Ice-cold, refreshing OJ! THAT is what hovering just outside your lips took I'm talkin 'bout. A long day of workin' in the yard is ten times as many acres to grow as totally worth it when I've got a tall orange glass of the quinoa and herbed tofu salad Florida's finest to come inside to. Dude, super tasty. Laura-Alex Frye-Levine Laura-Alex I just scarfed down. Yup, that's Hey man, check this out. I can spit almost to the right—ten times. Well, I'm no Rainman, but if my calculations are correct, ground and then pull it back up. See how it just that makes me a ten times better person than you. Only saying. . . hangs there? It's the OJ, man! It gave me magical We herbivores are a noble breed: sleek, well-muscled, graceful, ever- mucus. Check it out. Dude, look. watchful for an approaching carnivore to condemn with sharp looks of I can only think of two foods on God's green earth that give you this disdain. I can even trace my meat-free lineage back to first agriculturalists magic power. One you know about already (it's the OJ). And the other? in the Fertile Crescent ten thousand years ago. I know, you're impressed. . . . Give up? Milk! Milk, dude. Actually milk’s sort of radder because it But I try not to let my impeccable heritage of consuming only from the makes your spit whitish too. I wish I had some so I could show you. I lowest trophic levels swell my ego too much. If I lead a more virtuous life wonder why OJ and milk make your spit so thick. Everything evolves for than then next man, I'll let my actions speak louder than my words. a particular reason, like the giraffe's neck is long to reach leaves that are high up, but I just don’t know what it is in this case. Man, evolution is so awesome.

In the next issue:

Point: Counterpoint: All this hubbub about corn-based Sitting in the back of this crowded ethanol is making me sick bus is making me sick.

SAGE 35 ListED

Top six words misspelled Top nine signs your Top six places by Canadians environmentalism may have that are way nicer peaked a while back above water 6. Color 9. You fly internationally to attend a 5. Flavor meeting on climate change 6. Maldives 4. Stupor 8. You drive a biodiesel Hummer 5. Nauru 3. Neighbor 7. You buy Kraft granola 4. Venice 2. American hegemony 6. You're bummed you can't get a fair 3. Bangladesh 1. The trade frapuccino at McDonald's 2. New Orleans 5. Your vegetarianism has grown to 1. Atlantis include fish and beef 4. Networking now takes place on a Top nine sexy matings we'd golf course like to suggest 3. You work for UNEP 2. You own a coal-fired power plant Top eight elements 9. Elephant and mouse I'm totally sick of 8. Salmon and pear (in a white wine 1. You're totally over glaciers sauce) 8. Carbon 7. Horse and narwhal 7. Nitrogen 6. Human and sheep Top five new organizations and 6. Boron 5. Amoeba and dinoflagellate their celebrity spokespeople 5. The fifth 4. Centaur and mermaid 4. Air 3. Walrus and carpenter 5. Bea Arthur for Golden Girls Gone Wild 3. Einsteinium 2. Applebees and Chilis 4. Kid Rock for Metric System Now! 2. Being in my own 1. Walmart and iguana 3. Run-DMC for The Shalom Eco-Retreat 1. Back left 2. Tom Cruise for the Union of Concerned Scientologists 1. The Hamburgler for The Association of Top five reasons the sky is Vegan Yoga Mothers cool Top eight rivers 5. It's really high that no longer 4. Two words: Northern Lights Top eight climate change cereal flow to the sea 3. It's further from hell toys 2. It keeps all the gravity from seeping 8. Deforestation word search 8. Colorado out into space 7. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 7. Indus 1. Lucy and diamonds decoder ring 6. Nile 6. Endangered species rookie cards 5. Rio Grande 5. Make your own IPCC scenario (Now with 4. Yellow "Business As Usual!") 4. Greenhouse gas scratch-and-sniff 3. Jordan 3. Lump of coal 2. Murray 2. Famine connect-the-dots 1. Elbe 1. Life jacket 36 SAGE Poetry

Where Night’s Self Darkly Burns Dueling Global Warming Haiku Daniel D'Angelo Jed H. Reducto and Josh B. Wasteful

Where nothing can be found A noiseless shout cap it or tax it Crawls into your skin. but get on with it quickly. Licking fires to feel something, i’m sick of carbon! Chase your own bones To tame the marrows, hybrids? why hurry? To chain them back to the body. there is always more oil under Alaska What little you find familiar In the night where your eyes it’s time leaders said Are only a dim light, lightbulbs ain’t gonna cut it. Filtered and confused. we need big changes.

But, you’re there very often, change means sacrifice: Appraising your wish and will. do you want to be told you Amid the destruction of a dream. can’t drive your Hummer? By yourself, so strange You can’t even find a name, Only a sleeping beast will our next leader Knows who you are. make the big changes we need? Hillary? Barack?

fixing time has past we’re on to mitigation and adaptation

switchgrass, jatropha: plant cellulose can save us from fossil despair.

high prices? that’s life. energy security from corn ethanol!

oh global warming we'll eradicate you yet and PowerPoint's next Kate Boicourt Kate

SAGE 37 Last Page raining avocados

Am y Ch e n g

With plastic bags in hand, the five of us the rod on a branch above him, and then shook followed Julio into his yard. We waded it with all his might! through tall grass that brushed against our Almost instantly, the fruit began to fall. Against knees, sweeping it apart with our hands. We a lush backdrop of foliage, avocados rained had only ventured for several yards before down all around us. Across my field of vision, Julio stopped—and for the first time, there I all I could see were falling silhouettes. Each one stood—under a great, tall, avocado tree. The fell fast and heavy, landing on the ground with magnificent giant was probably twenty feet a muffled thud. They disappeared in the tall tall and was just one of a dozen others. As I grass, and awaited our search and rescue. glanced up into the canopy, my eyes explored the kaleidoscope of emerald green leaves, After several minutes, Julio stopped shaking Costa Rican blue skies, and specks of blinding the branches and the shower of avocados sunlight. ceased. We scattered under the canopy, searching for the hidden fruits. It was tough to Suddenly, I felt very small, and it wasn't find them in the tall grass, but eventually, each because of the towering canopy. Seeing of us emerged with full bags of warm avocados avocados in the wild for the first time, I realized in each hand. We grinned at one another, I never even knew that they grew on trees. Back amazed at Julio's generosity, and excited about home in Canada, I routinely picked the fruit— our new bounty and the weeks of guacamole but from a perfectly stacked pyramid under the meals to come. As we walked back across the cool glow of supermarket lights. I think of how yard, I looked over and saw Julio peel one of often I had devoured them with chips and salsa the avocados and sink his teeth into the soft, and savored their buttery taste, but I knew buttery fruit, eating it like an apple. nothing of their biology or origins. Curiously, I had never even wondered. Six years later and back in Canada, I return to harvesting avocados from my local grocery "Venga! Venga!" store. Standing before a pyramid of them, I The sound of Julio's voice jolted me from my pick one up. The dark green fruit feels cool and thoughts. Shielding my eyes with one hand, hard in my hand. I squeeze it gently, and my I glanced up just as Julio began to climb the fingers remember the warm softness of the avocado tree. Quick and agile as a monkey, he sun-ripened fruits as I picked them up from the hopped and swung from branch to branch. At forest floor. I can still see the lush and brilliant about fifteen feet off the ground, he found a greens, the falling silhouettes, and Julio's satisfactory spot and steadied himself with a smiling face. In this small piece of fruit, I feel the firm, wide stance. In one hand, he held a long pulse of my questions as I stood beneath the metal rod, curved at one end to make a wide, avocado tree. I drop it in my basket and walk to u-shaped hook. He motioned for us to back out the next pyramid. from under the canopy. Suddenly, Julio hooked

38 SAGE Last Page Charles F. McNeil and his unexpected muse Charles McNeil uses acrylic paints and melted water bottle plastic as an encaustic. In the past, encaustic paintings were executed in wax and pigments, but McNeil's method offers a new twist.

Water bottle plastic offers McNeil a way to make a statement about waste, as well as explore a new medium.

SAGE 39 Darcy Dugan