Month: September 2018

West Nile virus is a mosquito-transmitted disease. Most people infected with the West Nile virus rarely develop any signs or symptoms. However, in some cases, this virus can create life threating illnesses such as brain or spinal cord damage. Mild symptoms tend to go away; however, severe symptoms such as sudden weaknesses or severe headaches require immediate attention.[1] The West Nile Virus occurs during mosquito season which is typical during the summer and early fall. Many people in the United States have been affected by the West Nile virus, yet there are no vaccines to prevent or medication to treat this disease. Studies have shown that 1 out of 5 people who are infected develop fever and other symptoms. However, 1 out of 150 infected people develops a serious illness. About 1 out of 10 people who develop severe illness affecting the central nervous system die.[2] If you are infected with this disease there is an extremely small chance that you will experience symptoms. If you are older and have certain diseases such as hypertension, cancer, and kidney disease it can increase your risk of getting the West Nile virus.[3] However, recent studies have shown that global warming can contribute to more cases of the West Nile virus.

 

 

Mosquito-borne diseases have been on the rise due to global warming. The higher temperatures, humidity, and rainfall linked to climate change have increased outbreaks of the West Nile Virus. A survey has connected the West Nile Virus to warming weather patterns and increasing rainfall. With global warming temperature and rainfall are projected to increase. With the temperature and precipitations being the determinant factor for the West Nile Virus, the changes will increase the disease in the future. According to a study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, they have found that the warmer temperatures had the greatest effect on humans contracting the disease. Higher humidity, temperature, and rainfall are all tied up with the increased rate of the West Nile Virus. Warmer weather helps spread the West Nile Virus because it allows the mosquitos to live longer and also increase the length of the mosquito season. Higher temperature also let mosquitos reach biting age sooner which will speed up the spread of the virus. Not only will there be more mosquitos carrying the West Nile Virus but they will also carry more copies of the West Nile virus making them more likely to infect humans. Another study has shown that a single rainstorm of only two inches could increase infection by 33 percent. The increase of rainfall can increase humidity which will stimulate mosquitoes to bite. An increase of 0.75 inches of rainfall raises the number of infections by five percent. With global warming worsening as the years go on it is important to take precaution and always apply repellent when you are heading outdoors.[4]

 

 

 

Due to the fact that there is a rare chance of developing severe symptoms many do not take this virus seriously. As of September 2018, in Greenville County, a resident was confirmed dead due to the West Nile Virus. The Department of Health and Environmental Control has confirmed seven human cases of West Nile in the upstate. At least five areas in South Carolina have reported being affected which include Greenville country, Boiling Springs, Greenwood, and Columbia. [5] It is important as a community to help promote the use of insect repellent and encourage others to wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors to prevent the risk of developing the virus. The symptoms of developing a serious illness are very slim but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

-Tiffany Mendez

[1] “West Nile Virus,” Mayo Clinic, January 03, 2018,

[2]“West Nile Virus,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 02, 2017

[3] West Nile Virus,” Mayo Clinic, January 03, 2018,

 

[4] Gammon, “Global Warming May Lead to More West Nile Virus,” Scientific American, March 20, 2009

[5] Emily Bohatch, “SC Sees First West Nile Virus Death in 2018,” Thestate.com

References:

Bohatch, Emily. “SC Sees First West Nile Virus Death in 2018.” Thestate. Accessed September 28, 2018. https://www.thestate.com/news/state/south-carolina/article218185280.html.

Gammon. “Global Warming May Lead to More West Nile Virus.” Scientific American. March 20, 2009. Accessed September 28, 2018. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/west-nile-virus-global-warming/.

“West Nile Virus.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. August 02, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2018. https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/symptoms/index.html.

“West Nile Virus.” Mayo Clinic. January 03, 2018. Accessed September 28, 2018. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/west-nile-virus/symptoms-causes/syc-20350320.

Pictures:https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/officials_confirm_first_human_case_of_west_nile_vi.html

https://grist.org/climate-energy/wanna-get-west-nile-virus-climate-change-will-help/

https://www.123rf.com/photo_16608092_west-nile-virus-word-cloud-mosquito-standing-water-graphic-illustration-isolated-on-white-background.html

 

 

 

Over the past week, the Furman Greenbelt began a project called the Lifestyle Project. We have each been challenged to select three categories in which to be aware of our behaviors and habits in relation to sustainability. For example, my three chosen categories are reducing my water and electricity usage by half, eating vegetarian a few days a week, and to produce no waste that would end up in a landfill. As I have worked on these 3 categories (though I have slipped up several times), I have become much more aware of my everyday habits in and outside of my selected categories. I have found myself thinking about sustainability throughout the day and asking myself questions about the consequences my actions have on the environment and our resources. As a former music major and a student still heavily involved in the music department, I have found myself thinking a lot about the high percentages of paper usage in the music world due to sheet music, drill sheets in the marching band, etc. 

     Due to strict copyright laws on musical scores, I often find myself having to purchase an entire book of music just to be able to access a single piece. As we are learning new pieces of music, we typically have to make copies to give to our lesson teachers and accompanists. In large ensembles, single pieces or books of music must be purchased in large numbers or copied in large numbers so that everyone in the ensemble has music. In addition to the large amounts of paper it takes to make musical scores, students and faculty typically make sheet music orders online, which means we also use up resources in packaging and shipping. 

      Not only do we go through lots of paper learning our music, we also use a lot in advertising for performances. Despite how much advertising is done online these days through email, social media, etc., it is typical to see lots of paper flyers hanging in various places on campus and around town. When attending performances, audience members receive paper tickets and paper programs. These examples are just a few out of many instances in which lots of paper is used in the music world both in and outside of Furman. 

      So what can we do?! One year ago, Florida State University’s marching band implemented a program in which the 400 or so band members learn their marching drills through an app on their smart phones instead of sheets of paper. Before this new system, they were said to use around 200,000 sheets of paper each year. Learning drills through the app on their phones is estimated to save save eighty five to ninety percent of their paper usage. Another way to reduce paper usage for musicians is through iPads. Many musicians are beginning to purchase iPads in which they can upload all their music and place on their stands instead of paper music. This not only saves paper, but money as well. Most pieces of music can be found or purchased in PDF format online and downloaded directly into your app of choice for reading music. The use of the iPad saves money, paper, and is much easier to transport than regular sheet music. While there are more ways to cut down on paper usage in music to be discovered, these two are a great start. In the future, I hope that musicians around Furman will begin to consider the amount of paper they use on a daily basis and challenge themselves to find ways to reduce it.

-Katie Crockford

Sources:

https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/09/27/florida-state-marching-band-paperless-music-green

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/musicians-embrace-the-ipad-leave-sheet-music-at-home/243726/

How women have been tackling their menstrual cycles since the beginning of humanity has evolved incredibly. Starting with separation from society in many cultures during Biblical times, to bleeding onto rags or right on their clothes in Medieval times, and then to the development of the pad (1). During the 18^th century the Hoosier Belt came into circulation, for sanitary reasons, with a attachable, washable pad. Disposable pads were not on the market until the 1920s when nurses during the war discovered that medical bandages also worked well with absorbing period blood (1). Up until the 1980s, when the Hoosier Belt was no longer in fashion, disposable menstrual products were leaking less, becoming more comfortable, and more popular (1). The alterations in period products gave women more freedom and comfort with a natural bodily function almost all women go through. With the rising concern of waste and sustainable development, menstrual products have been going through another recreation. These new innovations reduce the amount of waste produced during the week of a woman’s menstrual cycle while also giving her more freedom and something to feel good about. Some of the more sustainable options were created years ago but have been improved to fit women’s standards today.

On average, a woman will throw away between 10,000-15,000 pads and tampons in her life, which equates to 300 lbs of waste (4). One of the many environmental impacts attributed to the use of disposable feminine hygiene products, that many people overlook, is how they are created and what they are made of. For instance, a common chemical in plastic tampon applicators and the underside of stick-on pads is low-density polyethylene. This particular chemical requires a large amount of fossil fuel powered energy to create and results in a carbon footprint of 5.3 kg of CO₂ (2). Now imagine that number but with all women around the world that have access to these products and the number of tampons and pads they will use in their lifetimes. In addition, it takes about 500-800 years for disposable feminine products to decompose (3), thus continually filling landfills. This is not sustainable because the life of the product after use is much longer than the woman who used it and that was only one napkin. Also, there are still many people who lack access to menstrual products and for period products to be sustainable they need to be inclusive and meet everyone’s needs no matter where they are. There are many companies who offer sustainable alternatives who also contribute to the fight of helping females in impoverished countries get access to products by donating their profits. Just another reason to buy them!

It may seem necessary to use disposable feminine products because that is what is advertised and primarily sold in stores, but it does not have to be that way. There are many comfortable alternatives to the menstrual products women are accustomed to today. There are menstrual cups, reusable pads and tampons, period underwear, sponges, and more sustainable, yet conventional products out there, like organic cotton pads and tampons. These products create less waste in landfills and are not created from chemicals harmful to the environment and to you. There is not that much information about menstruation due to the stigma that surrounds it, which hinders creative, sustainable innovations. in addition, many of the companies that oversee creating new period products for women do not want to pursue the sustainable route because it will decrease their sales and the dependence of women on their companies. The stigma and company power needs to change so that women can approach a natural occurrence in a more sustainable way that will also enhance future generations of females to have more power over their bodies and the impacts they have on their surrounding environment.

Here are the links to some sustainable menstrual products that supplies reviews, options, their missions, and why to make the switch.

• Diva Cup (menstrual cup): http://divacup.com/
• Lunapads (reusable pads): https://lunapads.com/
• Thinx (Period underwear): https://www.shethinx.com/
• Natracare (Organic pads/tampons): http://www.natracare.com/

 

Sources:

1. https://www.medicaldaily.com/menstrual-period-time-month-history-387252
2. https://rctom.hbs.org/submission/the-ecological-impact-of-feminine-hygiene-products/
3. https://medium.com/one-future/sustainable-menstruation-the-environmental-impact-of-menstrual-products-eba30e095cda
4. https://www.bustle.com/articles/129938-6-ways-to-be-environmentally-conscious-during-your-period

• Emilia Hyland

How many pages do you print each day? While just spending a few moments in the library I see several printers each being used one person who looks like a senior is printing an entire text book he borrowed by a friend. An RA prints hall activities and posters for their hall and the rest of the printers are being used by students print their papers that are most likely due in a few hours or minutes. Although I know that everyone likes that warm feeling of freshly printed paper in their hands but just how detrimental is that to the environment and how much does a Furman student print in a semester? And how is paper recycled? These statistics took a long time of planning and a study that lasted four years.

In the year 2000 26,935 tons of paper were sold in the United States alone (2000, U.S. Statistics Bureau), for reference a ton of paper has about 200,000 sheets of computer paper which is comprised of 400 reams of paper, one tree is 16.7 reams While the process for recycling paper is better than throwing out your paper you received an F on, it’s still a process and does use harmful chemicals and ink to repaint paper into its final form. Also, another issue with recycling paper is that paper can only be recycled a number of times. The strongest paper is that which books are drafted from since a book will be read multiple times while a newspaper may only be read once. As with all recycled materials they can only be recycled down the strength scale. A recycled book will never be a book again and may turn into a newspaper eventually that paper will reach the end of its life and will be unrecyclable.

The study conducted by Shannon Bartholomew and Weston Dripps looked at paper consumption before and after a paper limit was set on Furman students. The study recorded the total printed pages of an average student by class year over an expanse of four years. The program also recorded major, sex and type of document that was printed. Princeton University conducted a similar study and concluded that their students printed a total of 11,040,362 sheets of paper over the course of two semesters. Shown below is the breakdown of how much that actually is.

University	Princeton	Furman
Total	11,040362	4,400,000
Total per semester	11,040,362/2 = 55,20,181 sheets	4,400,000 /2 = 2,200,000
Total Graduate	2,845
Total Under Graduate	5,260	2,800

Keeping these numbers in mind we have to account for the fact that Princeton is an R1 University, meaning there are quite a few graduate students and that the undergrad population is twice the size of Furman. Before reviewing this study, I had no idea how much paper was actually being printed on campus. I wanted to research this based off of the amount of paper left in the printers and I wanted to see undergraduates printing habits.

• Spencer Jones

With all this commotion surrounding Hurricane Florence many wonder what the correlation is between hurricanes and global warming.There has been a lot of claims that global warming is the cause of the excessive amounts of hurricanes that have been forming throughout the past few years. While global warming is a reason for the excess amount of rain fall and flooding, scientists say that global warming does not actually cause the hurricanes. However, it does make the hurricanes more destructive and powerful.

Global warming is defined as an increase in the overall temperature of the atmosphere. The rise of atmospheric temperature is said to be caused by the greenhouse effect which is caused by increased amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases being produced and emitted. Although temperature change is expected, the rate at which it is rising is alarming because it is changing at a pace that is to fast for some living things to adapt too according to National Geographic. In addition to this, global warming can also cause the oceans to heat which can cause certain natural disasters to become more drastic and dangerous such as tropical cyclones and hurricanes.

North Carolina State research meteorologist, Dr. Carl Schreck states that over 30 other hurricanes have passed through the same axis point as Hurricane Florence has but of those 30 plus hurricanes, Hurricane Florence is the only one to make landfall. Schreck states that because of the shift of winds in the atmosphere, Hurricane Florence has shifted more towards North Carolina instead of staying in the Atlantic ocean like other Hurricanes that have gone through that axis point.  According to National Geographic, the rain fall from Hurricane florence is expected to be over 50% worse than it would have been if global warming did not exist. The reasoning behind this is because the higher temperatures of the ocean and the higher atmospheric temperatures . To further back the evidence that global warming is a cause for worse hurricanes, the Chicago Tribune states that scientists have found “for every degree the air warms, it can hold nearly 4 percent more water and offer measurably more energy to goose the storm.” Global warming can also cause hurricanes to move slower and stall, causing large floods as seen most recently in Myrtle Beach and other coastal cities.

Even though we cannot stop climate change completely there are many ways that we can slow down the rise in climate. One way to do so is by powering your homes and other buildings with renewable energy. By using solar power or other renewable energy sources you can cut your energy use and greenhouse gas emissions down significantly which can help slow down the rise of atmospheric temperature.

 

-Kendall Perez

sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/09/hurricane-florence-rain-climate-change-science/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-climate-change-hurricanes-20180914-story.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-overview/

 

pictures:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/09/hurricane-florence-rain-climate-change-science/

https://www.axios.com/hurricane-florence-worst-case-scenario-carolina-coast-e25afc3d-cb78-4ff6-ac0e-43110590dce9.html

70% of the surface of the Earth is covered with water and 80% of life on earth lies under the water. Many of us forget how immense the Ocean is. Its capacity is hidden from us still remaining in mystery. With containing the vast biodiversity, one of its role is to chemically balance the pH of the entire earth. The enormous body of water acts as a buffer. A buffer can resist sudden changes of pH whether the atmosphere is too basic or too acidic.

Day to day, Earth is maintaining a constant equilibrium with Carbon Dioxide (CO₂). Depending on the amount of the CO₂ the Ocean either absorbs or releases CO₂. While CO₂ still remains as a key substance which flourishes all the greens on earth (photosynthesis), the earth came to a point where the level of CO₂ is threatening the beautiful life under the water.

So how actually does CO₂ acidify the Ocean? The Atmospheric CO₂ dissolves into the water. When it meets the water it becomes a Carbonic acid (H₂CO₃). Since the carbonic acid is a weak acid with 6.4 pKa(whereas one of the strongest acid; Hydrochloric acid’s pKa is just about -10), it constantly tries to be in an equilibrium from H₂CO₃ to Biocarbonate ions (HCO₃^–) and Hydronium ions (H₃O⁺). However, increased concentration of Hydronium ions lowers the pH. The ocean naturally has a base, a carbonate ion (CO₃^2-),that can bind with the hydronium ions to restore the normal pH. When natural concentration of  CO₃^2- in the sea gets depleted, organisms like shellfish and corals that build their structure with Calcium ion (Ca+) and Carbonate ion (CO₃^2-) gives up their minerals to balance the acidity. Then they become “bleached out” due to the escape of CO₃^2-  in the organism’s structure.

Losing the corals means destroying billions of fish’s habitat and their source of food. The more acidic the ocean becomes the more organisms will melt into the sea to stop the acidification. Why should they be the ones melting away because of our convenience and ignorance? When we become more aware of our better daily choices to the environment and more uncomfortable about our selfish habits, the chance of saving the biodiversity increases. Reducing unnecessary consumption of red meat, voting for political parties actively involved in sustainability, choosing green energy, and simply just using and spending less will remarkably decrease the CO₂ emission.

Dahye Kim

https://seagrant.unh.edu/news/ocean-acidification-gulf-maine-nhsgs-response-emerging-environmental-concern http://www.riclimatechange.org/changes_ocean_acidification.php

https://bravenewclimate.com/2008/08/29/top-10-ways-to-reduce-your-co2-emissions-footprint/