Month: October 2019

Charlotte Moore

Anyone who has recently driven along Interstate 85 from Greenville to Atlanta or Charlotte knows how frustrating traveling through Upstate South Carolina is.  Construction, coupled with the sheer volume of traffic on the roads, has the potential to more than double the duration of any trip.

Even more concerning than the additional travel time for your weekend getaway, however, is the impact of this heavy traffic on the environment.  With weak (although improving!) public transportation in Greenville County and the surrounding areas, the Upstate suffers from severe automobile dependence.  The automobile is simply more convenient for most residents, so Greenville citizens pile into their cars and commute to work, travel across the state, or simply zip a mile or two down the road to the grocery store.  This is something I see quite often even on Furman’s campus, where students will hop in their car to go anywhere, even to simply drive to class. Although the car’s reliability may be convenient, it has some major drawbacks, including increased traffic and the obvious CO2 emissions.  Altogether, single-passenger cars are the opposite of sustainable transportation, defined by the Geography of Transport Systems as “the capacity to support the mobility needs of a society in a manner that is the least [damaging] to the environment and does not impair the mobility needs of future generations.”

 

Luckily, a solution may be coming to Upstate South Carolina in the near future.  In mid-October 2019, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration publicized their three proposals for a light rail system running between Charlotte and Atlanta.  The fastest and most expensive of the three options could make the trip in just two hours, half the time it takes to travel between the cities by car. More importantly, light rail transportation systems produce 62% less in greenhouse gas emissions per

passenger mile than the average single occupancy vehicle, meaning that the adoption of such a light rail system could significantly reduce the impact of travel in the Upstate on the atmosphere.

However, only one of the three options proposed utilizes existing railway.  According to the Federal Transit Administration, the construction of new fixed rail transit facilities “normally have significant effects on the environment.”  These influences are detailed in the Environmental Impact Statement, and include impacts on air quality, noise pollution, wildlife, parklands and recreation areas, water resources, and biological resources. 

It remains to be seen what impact, if any, the construction of a high-speed railway would have on the Interstate 85 corridor.  The project is not yet definite, nor is it fully funded. Nevertheless, such an initiative could have a major impact on the development of sustainable transportation in the Upstate.

 

 

“Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan.” Georgia Department of Transportation, Georgia Department of Transportation, Mar. 2019, www.dot.ga.gov/InvestSmart/Rail/Documents/Atl-Char/05-Affected%20Environment.pdf.

Cavallaro, Gabe. “3 Options for High-Speed Rail Route That Could Connect Greenville to Atlanta, Charlotte.” The Greenville News, The Greenville News, 23 Oct. 2019, www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2019/10/23/multi-billion-dollar-rail-could-connect-greenville-atlanta-charlotte/4052926002/?fbclid=IwAR37cnyxCg-v9vTozW9N48ciUcXqIjk49GJft3efwlMpUPo7gtGVUwU1fLY.

Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. “Transport and Sustainability.” The Geography of Transport Systems, 18 Aug. 2019, transportgeography.org/?page_id=5725. 

“Transit’s Role in Environmental Sustainability.” Federal Transit Administration, United States Department of Transportation, 9 May 2016, www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/environmental-programs/transit-environmental-sustainability/transit-role.

Ryan Singer

The sewage and wastewater treatment system is the barrier that separates our surrounding ecosystem from waste that our homes and businesses produce.  Sewage a “mixture of contaminants containing pathogens, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, debris, nutrients, nitrates, and phosphates…from both domestic and industrial sources”.  That is, pretty much anything that we pour down the drain or flush down the toilet.  And educating ourselves on what should and shouldn’t be going into our sewer/septic systems helps keep our lakes, rivers, and oceans cleaner from harmful pollution.

Here is a list of common things that are (yet shouldn’t be) flushed, poured, or put into our wastewater treatment system:

1. Grains, such as pasta or rice, and flour swell greatly in water and can coagulate to cause blockages in pipes.
2. Fruit pits and orange/lemons peels don’t break down in water and are best if composted.
3. Bones are not disposed of effectively when scraped into garbage disposals and can splinter or get stuck pipes.
4. Eggshells contribute to granular waster, which causes other forms of waste to clump together, causing blockages.  Try composting them instead.
5. Coffee grounds are the worst when it comes to causing drain blockages.  Before rising mugs out with coffee grounds in them, dump it in the trash or compost.
6. Fats, oils, and grease should never be disposed of down a drain.  This includes all cooking oils, motor oil and other car fluids, cooked/melted fat from meats, salad dressings, and mayonnaise contribute to nearly fifty percent of the sewer overflows across the United States.
7. Animal feces and cat litter, not only clog drains but also can attract harmful bacteria and vermin.
8. Sanitary Towelettes, Paper Towels, or Flushable Wipes do not dissolve and breakdown the same way toilet paper does in water.  Furthermore, after use, they are often covered in human bodily fluids or congealed grease and continue to expand while in water.  These often get clogged in wipes and pipes and tangled in pumps, causing damage to wastewater treatment systems and causing cities more money.  Just because a product is labeled as flushable, doesn’t mean it should be flushed.
9. Hygiene products such as cotton balls/Q-Tips, dental floss, facial tissue, Band-Aids/bandage wrapping, and menstrual products all expand, tangle, and stick to themselves and each other, especially when they are made from plastic, which is not biodegradable.
10. Hair, like floss, will form a sort of net and gets tangled in practically everything and does not break down in water.
11. Condoms not made of latex will not disintegrate in water.  They are best disposed of at waste management centers because of the harmful content of human fluids.  If condoms are flushed down the toilet, they can eventually make their way to oceans and be mistaken as food for fish.
12. Diapers are often too big to even flush, but if they do, they usually don’t even make it past the u-bend in the toilet.  They’re just too large to be flushed and cause problems.
13. Gum obviously is very sticky and should not go down the drain
14. Cigarette Butts, other than adding the plethora of toxic chemicals contained in them to the water system, they can also cause clogs, and it’s just a huge waste of water.
15. Fish, despite popular belief, don’t break down in water can absolutely cause a clog.  A proper burial is recommended instead.
16. Medication should never be flushed down the toilet. This isn’t so much a clog concern, but rather an environmental one. Sewage systems have complicated biological processes to break down waste and medications can interfere with that. Most medications cannot be removed from the water, so they end up in our lakes, oceans, rivers, and ponds.  Drop off all unused/expired medicines at local pharmacies which should have access to chemical/medical waste disposal units.
17. Chemicals, such as bleach, paint, sealants, solvents, thinners, cleaning solutions all fall under the toxic/hazardous waste category and can often not be removed from water by treatment systems and can enter and harm ecosystems.  Often, more eco-friendly alternatives are available.

 

Controlling how we manage our waste, including what goes down the drain, fosters a cleaner and healthier environment.  Out of sight does not mean out of mind, as dirty waterways diminish the health of people and the environment.

Sources:

Brain, M. “How Sewer and Septic Systems Work.” How Stuff Works. https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/plumbing/sewer3.htm

Gray, J. “Sustainable Sewage Design.” Sustainable Build, March 3, 2016. http://www.sustainablebuild.co.uk/sustainabledesignsewage.html

Mason, S., Singer, K., Collins, D. “Fats, Oils, and Grease.” North Charleston Sewer District, 2017.  https://www.ncsd.sc.gov/fats-oils-and-grease

Morgan, B. “16 Things You Should Never Flush Down The Toilet.” House Beautiful, June 29, 2018. https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/cleaning-tips/a21992808/what-not-to-flush-down-toilet/

Rinkesh. “25 Things You Should Never Put Down the Drain.” Conserve Energy Future. https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/things-you-should-never-put-down-the-drain.php

“10 Things to Never Throw in a Toilet: Don’t Flush That!” Hiller Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, & Electrical. https://happyhiller.com/blog/10-things-to-not-throw-in-toilet/

 

Cole Becherer

Desertification, defined by  the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, is “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities” (UNCCD 1994). Desertification stems from many different sources, some being completely natural and some being greatly accelerated by mankind’s treatment of the land. Because of the vast amounts of fertilizers that are used across the world on many corporate and private farms, much of the soil gets an obscene rise in salt content, rendering the land useless for farming. Excessive grazing from cattle and other various animals can also cause desertification. When animals have unrestricted access to feeding on a pasture, the land quality can degrade at an alarming rate. 

Luckily for us, desertification is a relatively preventable phenomenon, given we take care of the earth that we cultivate. The best things that humans can do in order to prevent desertification is that we can take care of the land, and practice safer farming methods that will help preserve the land. Making sure that not so much soil is exposed to wind and sun by having a set amount of vegetation can help prevent wind erosion and can keep the soil moisturized and capable of growing plants. If farmers controlled where their animals could graze, and did not let them freely graze the same spot of land for extended periods of time. The human effect that we have had on the climate and the Earth is nearly irreversible, so the least we can do is take care of what we still have in order to stall the inevitable future. 

Climate change, a huge issue for today’s environment, is something that is not to be ignored when considering desertification. The recent change in the environment has caused certain seasons to be much dryer, and allows for many natural (and unnatural) phenomenons such as wildfires, and other various things that can cause land to die and not be able to regrow. Many governments, such as the Brazilian administration, have taken it upon themselves to burn down massive amounts of forest in order to create new farmland. With the changing weather patterns following humanity’s effect on the Earth through Global warming, we must strive to be better prepared to take care of our land, before we lose it forever, and it is no longer farmable. 

 

Bendiksen, Jonas. “Desertification, Explained.” Desertification Facts and Information, 31 May 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/desertification/.

“Explainer: Desertification and the Role of Climate Change.” Carbon Brief, 20 Aug. 2019, www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-desertification-and-the-role-of-climate-change.

“United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.” United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, www.unccd.int/.

Aquaculture and the future of Farming

Caroline Lackey

Aquaponics allows for the growth of plants and fish in one, much, smaller area. Aquaponics is one of the many small space agricultures that can be used in cities and to maximize yields as sustainably as possible. It uses a tank of fish with soilless plant growth. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that introduces no chemical fertilizers or pesticides into the water. This decreases nutrient runoff into rivers, lakes, and oceans. The crops and fish harvested are in turn organic leading to a higher profit turn out for the farmer. Indoor aquaponics is also able to be climate controlled by the farmer allowing most crops to grown despite the season. Aquaponic systems are also much less likely to succumb to natural disasters such as floods or droughts. It can be done at a home or commercial level and can decrease the effects of farming on the environment as well as increase the amount of food in areas that do not have access to fresh produce.

The use of aquaponics leads to an increase in jobs, an increase in sustainable practices, a decrease in unused space, and a decrease in food deserts. Persisting past the obstacles in creating urban agriculture could lead to a solution to a whole host of problems. To succeed in combating food deserts, large amounts of money must be put into the solutions. The best way for this to happen is to use a combination of private and public money. Federal and local governments spend millions of dollars to subsidize stores with no real result (Allcott et al, 2018). Channeling that money into solutions like indoor aquaponics would be more productive.

However, this has already been put into place and has been a success in Chicago. In 2010, an abandoned meat packing building and Plant Chicago has used it to create an aquaponics center. The fish and plants grown are sold in local farmer’s markets and to restaurants. The plant also creates energy from leftover biowaste and will eventually become a net-zero energy user with the ability to sell electricity back to the grid (Tomlinson, 2015).

Aquaponics is also in use at Walt Disney World. Much of the produce grown at EPCOT is grown with high-yield, low-impact ways. Plants on grown vertically, in fact the tomato ‘tree’ grew 32,000 tomatoes in 16 months, setting the record for most productive tomato plant. They also use a combination of hydroponics, aeroponics, and aquaponics in order to to save space, water, and fertilizer. Disney grows and serves between 20 and 30 tons of their own produce and fish every year in their own restaurants (Lynch et al., 2018).

 

Allcott, H., Diamond, R., Dubé, J., Handbury, J., Rahkovsky, I., & Schnell, M. (2018). Food deserts and the causes of nutritional inequality. Working Papers (Faculty) — Stanford Graduate School of Business, , 1-78. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=134420535&site=ehost-live

Lynch, C., Bertone, R., Yancey, J., & Stiers, J. (2018, June 1). How Walt Disney World’s Farm Grows Its Magical Produce. Retrieved from https://www.farmflavor.com/florida/walt-disney-world-farm-grows-magical-produce-earth/.

Tomlinson, L. (2015). Indoor aquaponics in abandoned buildings: A potential solution to food deserts. Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 16(1), 16-40. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lft&AN=113893030&site=ehost-live

Claire Maybin

Fast fashion is inexpensive, constantly changing, mass produced clothing (Bick et al.).

Increased consumption encourages the production of cheap clothing. The United States consumes more clothing that any other nation in the world.  A large hinderance from sustainability is this consumption culture that we live in today.

Model for sustainability

The model widely used for sustainability is Raworth’s donut model. To summarize this model without going into too much depth; it illustrates how in order to achieve true sustainability we must not destroy the earths life sustaining services through over use and abuse– exceed the planetary boundaries but we must also not neglect human rights and human needs—pass the social foundation. There is a delicate balance between the two that we must strive to stay between. (Raworth)

Unsustainable fashion

Fast fashion is extremely unsustainable from the very beginning of the supply chain.

Textile dyeing results in additional hazards as untreated wastewater from dyes are often discharged into local water systems, releasing heavy metals and other toxicants that can adversely impact the health of animals in addition to nearby residents (Bick et al.).  Beyond the enormous amount of waste that is produced by “fast fashion”, it also encourages the need for cheap efficient labor, which usually comes with the cost of human rights. Textile mills are associated with many occupational hazards and low wages (Harris et al). The true price of clothing is not paid by the consumer. Additionally, items that are considered fast fashion, are not intended to be worn for years so they tatter and fray quickly. This means that their short lifespan lands them in the landfill after only a few years of wear. At every point in the garments lifespan there are improvements that can be made to make it more sustainable.

Solutions!

Buy ethically made clothing! Consumers can have a considerable impact in improving clothing sustainability. Look for items that are made with organic cotton or are certified fair trade! When you buy organic and fair trade you are not only encouraging environmentally friendly companies you are also being a supporter of humane working conditions. One drawback is that shopping ethically and sustainably can be very expensive many people lack the knowledge about the companies they are buying goods from.  However, shopping at thrift stores and other secondhand shops can be a great way to find a fresh look without fueling consumerism and unethical business practices. Another solution can be as simple as shopping less and cutting back on consumption in general.  There is disillusionment when seeking happiness through consumption, so why not buy ethically and find fulfilment in voting with your dollar for a better world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bick, R., Halsey, E., & Ekenga, C. C. (2018). The global environmental injustice of fast fashion. Environmental Health, 17(1). doi: 10.1186/s12940-018-0433-7

 

Harris, F., Roby, H., & Dibb, S. (2016). Sustainable clothing: challenges, barriers and interventions for encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 40. doi: 10.1111/ijcs.12257

 

 

Raworth, K. (2013). Defining a Safe and Just Space for Humanity. State of the World 2013, 28–38. doi: 10.5822/978-1-61091-458-1_3

 

Sydney Andersen

    Vast stretches of America are devoid of nutritious food, with no ready access to fresh vegetables or grocery stores in both rural and urban areas. Even in places where our food is grown, agricultural workers do not see what they have produced returned to them in shopping carts or local farmer’s markets. McDonald’s and ready-made fast food options spread like a rash through these ‘food deserts,’ causing obesity, health problems, and lack of community. In the United States alone, there are at least 23 million people living in food deserts, and more than half of them reside in low-income areas where they may not have the resources to travel to a grocery store or the leisure time to cook meals.

So what can be done to ensure that all American people enjoy the benefits of fresh food options? In rural areas, more advocation for small farms and strong legislation to promote producing a variety of products, rather than just one mono-crop, would give farmers the support to produce food for themselves and their communities. Doing this would hopefully bolster community ties and allow rural areas to put on farmer’s markets and enrich their diets. However, in urban areas there are no local farmers to produce food at all, so it seems cities are doomed to stay deserts forever…

But there is a way!

Urban agriculture can have a huge impact on the diet and sense of community in an urban area. It still requires leisure time to communally plant and harvest produce, but if supported properly by city governance and if city residents are involved, urban agriculture can easily alleviate the effects of food deserts. Cleveland, Ohio, a city entrenched in the rust belt and prone to economic decline and depopulation, is one of several American cities who have successfully integrated urban green and agricultural space. Over the past couple decades, city legislators have established community gardens in vacant lots around the city so existing space can be repurposed in a sustainable way. In fact, the most successful community garden, the Ohio City Farm, is on urban land deemed unsuitable for building. The city manages it and coordinates volunteers, extends jobs to refugees who were farmers and agricultural workers in their homeland, and offers free nutrition education to city residents. These steps can be taken by any urban area, large or small, to stop food deserts from drying up good nutrition and healthy communities in America.

 

Sources:

Quick, S. (2014, April 3,). A town called malnourished. Newsweek Magazine, Retrieved from www.newsweek.com/2014/04/11/town-called-malnourished-248087.html

Flachs, Andrew. “How Agricultural Policies Can Support New American Farmers.” Scholars Strategy Network, scholars.org/contribution/how-agricultural-policies-can-support-new-american-farmers.

Masi, B., Fiskio, J., & Shammin, R. (2014). Urban agriculture in rust belt cities. The Solutions Journal, 5(1), 44-53. Retrieved from https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/urban-agriculture-in-rust-belt- cities/