Furman Greenbelt Sustainable Living Community

Acid rain sounds like a made-up idea from a sci-fi movie; when acid rain comes, people run for cover to keep the rain from melting their skin. The truth is, acid rain is real and is affecting our environment every day!

Acid rain is not an alien made torture device, it comes from human made toxins. When excess sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the atmosphere, the compounds react with water releasing hydrogen ions that decrease the pH of the rain. The normal pH of rain is around 5.6, but acid rain has a pH of approximately 4.3! To give a comparison, tomato juice and black coffee have about the same level of acidity. Acid rain dramatically affects ecosystems, especially aquatic environments. Many sea creatures cannot survive in acidic environments. It not only kills the animals sensitive to the acid, but it also disrupts the food chain by eliminating food sources for other animals. Acid rain can also damage plants by removing essential nutrients from the soil, such as magnesium. The picture above shows the detrimental effect of acid rain on a forest in Poland. It destroyed all the foliage, as well as the habitat for all the creatures that used to live there.

How can we stop acid rain from destroying our planet? Well, excess sulfur and nitrogen oxides mainly come from burning fossil fuels by means of factories, vehicles, and power plants. On a global level, we can stop it by shifting towards using more renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power. But more importantly, individuals can make daily changes to stop using excessive amounts of energy that comes from burning fossil fuels. One way to do this is to use alternative forms of transport to gasoline cars. You can buy an electric car, carpool, or bike! You can also try to use less energy by turning off heating and cooling systems when they aren’t necessary or by turning off electronic devices and lights when they are not being used. Individually making small changes does not seem like it will make a difference, but if everyone makes an effort, we can collectively make a tremendous change.

Olivia Larner

Sources:

https://www.epa.gov/acidrain/effects-acid-rain

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/acid-rain/

 

In the spirit of Pumpkin Spice Latte season, I thought it would be a good time to discuss the affects of where our coffee actually comes from.

As a college aged student, 40% of us typically drink at least 1 cup of coffee everyday. Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, equivalent to 146 billion cups of coffee per year, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world.

Coffee production ultimately starts with the farmers. They are the most essential factor into how we get our daily cup yet they are the ones getting paid less for what we buy, and the middle men end up making the most money off of both sides.

Millions of coffee farmers end up living at or below the poverty line due to this unfair trading practice. When coffee prices fall below the production cost the farmers can lose everything.

Does that seem like a fair trade?

When fair trade practices are enforced, farmers get a fair price for what they grow and can be able to be more self-sustainable.

So what can you, as a consumer do about it?

Well…you can start by purchasing your coffee from small roasting companies rather than from major corporate coffee companies. This will ensure that the fair trade movement will help farmers rather than harm them. Claiming that a company is a fair trade one can be one of the most well-respected labels to have in the world.

In the Cabin, we have a whole coffee/tea station that gets used quite often. However, the K-cups that we use for the Keruig do not always come from fair trade coffee companies. The Green Mountain Coffee K-Cups have the “Fair Trade Certified” logo, but our Starbucks K-cups seem to not have the logo.

Check for on the packaging next time you’re buying some K-cups or bags of beans and that will tell you whether or not the farmers they buy from are getting a fair price for what they produce. This is a good technique to use when looking for the right branded coffee to buy.

So next time you want to satisfy your coffee fix, try going to a local coffee shop nearby where they brew up fair-trade beans!

-Amie Newsome

(Coffee Shops left to right in pictures at the top: The Village Grind, Methodical, Tandem, Swamp Rabbit Cafe, Due South)

Sources:

http://fairtradeamerica.org

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/29/americas-coffee-obsession_n_987885.html

http://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1102&context=honors

If there’s anything I’ve learned from my time in the Greenbelt so far, it’s that there’s no one, singular way to live sustainably–there’s a lot of different options for different people. I know that I personally have a hard time abstaining from buying products that aren’t “green.” However, in the past few months, my eyes have been opened to so many options for more sustainable shopping experiences.

The Farmer’s Markets downtown and in TR are such a great way to get involved with the community while simultaneously buying local green products. They sell everything from potted plants to soaps and lotions. The products are all cruelty free, which is very important to me (and in retrospect should have seemed obvious). And while I know a lot of students think Farmer’s Markets are really cool, I feel like I never really see young people there. We live in a really cool city and there are lots of options for fresh produce, crafts, and foods that are good for the environment and the local businesses.

My other favorite sustainable shopping place is through thrift stores. According to Tagpop, an online thrift shop, less than 15% of the clothing used by Americans is recycled even though around 95% could be reused. It’s so easy to just buy new clothes, but that ends up being a lot of textile going to waste when we outgrow things or get tired of wearing them. How often do we set aside clothes and put them in bags or buckets and mean to donate them, but never do? It just accumulates.

Instead of buying my clothes from the mall or in boutiques, I really enjoy getting it from stores like Tagpop or Goodwill or other second-hand or vintage stores. You can find some really great articles of clothing or housewares that way. It’s better for the environment because I’m removing textile waste by buying clothes that are pre-loved instead of something brand new. Plus, it’s easier on my college budget!

I’m not perfectly sustainable. But living in the Greenbelt has taught me that there are little ways I can make my lifestyle better, and if that means buying plants from a vendor in the street or skipping on a cute dress downtown, I can definitely handle that!

Source: https://www.tagpop.com/pages/mission

 

–Cammi Stilwell

…drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?

Even if you’ve never heard Katy Perry sing these lyrics in her song, “Firework,” you’ve definitely seen a plastic bag aimlessly drifting through the wind. But have you ever stopped to think about why it’s even there in the first place? Because with one small lifestyle change, it wouldn’t be there at all.

Last week, I purchased my first reusable grocery bag. Honestly, I bought it on a whim, and mostly because I felt a responsibility to be sustainable in Greenbelt housing. Later on, however, I decided to research grocery bags and see if the purchase was worth it. I discovered that the United States alone uses 30 billion plastic bags and 10 million paper bags each year. Manufacturing these bags requires close to 14 million trees and 12 million barrels of oil. Each of the bags then takes up to 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill, and the ones that don’t end up in a landfill or recycling center cause 100,000 deaths in sea turtles & other marine animals annually.

Some countries have banned or heavily taxed plastic bags to discourage consumers from taking them for granted. One U.S. plastic bag manufacturer proposed a 3 or 4 cent tax on each bag to encourage consumer to take responsibility for their groceries. It would push cashiers to conserve bags when packing groceries, and reduce the overall usage.

I was shocked after reading these facts. I used to think I was doing a good job by reusing my grocery bags for trash can liners every week, but I never stopped to realize that they still ended up in the landfill and contributed to the problem. I spent $1.00 on my reusable grocery bag, but it can be used thousands of times and eliminate a HUGE number of plastic bags.

I definitely struggle with remembering to bring it to the store with me, but if that action saves a plastic bag from drifting through the wind, I’ll accept the challenge.

-Haley Park

 

Sources:

http://www.rensselaercounty.org/enviroment%20management%20council/plastic%20bag%20facts.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags_2.html

Throughout my life, sustainability is not something that I have put on the top of my priorities. However, ever since moving into the Greenbelt community, it has allowed me to expand my horizons and be more consciously aware of how my actions are affecting the environment. There are multiple sustainable habits that I have begun to incorporate into my day to day life. When I go to the grocery store, I remember to bring my reusable bags instead of using the plastic bags. I also am more aware of my energy consumption by unplugging my electrical cords, doing bigger loads of laundry and doing them less often, and turning off the lights when I leave the room. I also try to watch my water consumption, which means taking showers that are shorter and making sure I don’t leave the water running when I brush my teeth or wash the dishes. All of these lifestyle changes seem so small but a collective action by everyone would have an extraordinary impact on the environment.

One of the main reasons that I want to be more sustainable is because I love to spend time in the outdoors. For as long as I can remember, my most memorable vacations with my family are the ones where we visited different locations within the United States National Park Service. My first time going to a National Park was Yellowstone in Wyoming where I got to watch the amazing hot geysers and view the bison roam. From that moment forward I was hooked, and I loved visiting the natural wonders of the place that I call home. Ever since then, I have been on amazing adventures within the National Parks System from star-gazing in Yosemite, kayaking in the Everglades, walking along the water in Acadia, touring a cave in Wind Cave, hiking around Devil’s Tower, and trekking through Badlands. If we do not start practicing sustainable ways of living, then we might not have these amazing places for future generations. As for me, I am going to do my part to ensure that I can continue my love for traveling to all of these places.

– Emily Shafer

When you hear the word “clean”, vinegar probably is not the first thing that comes to mind. Rather, you probably think about bleach, hand sanitizer, or some other popular chemical product. This is a problem. The increased use of products like these is associated with many problems, from bacterial resistance to lung problems to birth defects to ecological damage. Common sense would tell us to stop using these harmful products that are a veritable mix of toxic substances. A sustainability standpoint would also encourage us to eliminate these from our arsenal of cleaning products since bleach is very toxic to waterways, aquatic life, and other ecosystems.

Now that I have scared you into not using bleach and other chemical-ridden products, you may be asking yourself what is left to use for cleaning. Never fear! As we learned in our Sustainability class, Vinegar is one of the super-heros of green cleaning. It is biodegradable, good for the environment, and non-toxic to humans and pets. From personal experience, I have found that it is an incredible cleaner, and I would like to share some of my findings with you.

In class, we made two products with vinegar mixtures, one all-purpose cleaner and one window cleaner.

                                                                          

I will start with the all-purpose cleaner. This was an incredibly simple recipe: equal parts vinegar and water mixed into a spray bottle. I was initially skeptical that this would work, so as soon as we made it in class, I brought it back to my Cabin and tackled the kitchen. Sure enough, this cleaner cut through the grime that accumulates in a kitchen used by eight girls! I will say that, even though we added a few drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil to the mixture (which also has incredible anti-bacterial and cleansing properties on its own), this mixture does not smell very good (unless you like the smell of vinegar). However, I found a natural solution to this! Whenever I sprayed the cleanser, I would add 1-2 drops of Lemon Essential Oil (purchased from the Traveler’s Rest Farmers Market) to the same surface. This greatly improved the smell and made this cleaner exceptional.

The window cleaner was INCREDIBLE. I actually prefer this homemade, eco-friendly window cleaner to Windex. The recipe for this is also fairly simple: 2 cups water, 1/2 cup white or cider vinegar, and 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol (70% concentration). A few drops of your favorite essential oil can also be added to improve the smell. I am incredibly impressed with this window cleaner– it leaves our bathroom mirror streak-free and shiny.

Overall, making green cleaning products was a great experience and showed me that sustainable cleaning products work just as well as store-bought products, but they are healthier for both people and the environment because  they do not use harmful chemicals. This is transferable to many other experiences. The sustainable choice may take a little bit of extra thought or effort, but has many benefits to your health and the health of the environment.

-Catherine Lippert

Background:

Honey bees are responsible for pollinating almost one third of the foods we eat, including avocados, almonds, and apples.  Even if you don’t realize it, everyone relies on honey bees one way or another.  Unfortunately, bees and many other pollinators are on the edge of extinction due to the disease “colony collapse disorder” (CCD).  Which can leave a hive greatly weakened and prone to abandonment during the winter season.  There is no single cause to colony collapse disorder, but instead many possible factors including Varroa/Acarapis mite infestation, loss of habitat, and neonicotinoids exposure(pesticide).  Colony collapse disorder has already claimed nearly 10 million hives since its discovery in 2006.  As well as destroying almost 44% of American colonies from 2015-2016.  It is obvious that bees are too essential to our survival for us to not do anything about CCD; yet each year, up until 2016, we’ve seen more bees die than the last…

Recent News:

It wasn’t until recently have we finally been getting some good news regarding bees.  2017 was the first year since the discovery of CCD that we have seen a lower rate of abandonment than the years before.  Seeing only 226,000 colonies destroyed compared to the 330,000 in 2016. Scientists relate this to new laws banning the use of neonicotinoids after identifying it as the pesticide responsible for bee death in early 2017.  Individual states are also stepping up to introduce new laws designed to protect bees like California’s “Pollinator Protection Act”.  Which requires plants treated with neonicotinoids to be labeled and also protects bee habitats in suburban areas.  The bees still have a far way to go before they’re in the clear but at least were taking a step in the right direction.

How to help:

Plant bee-friendly flowers in your garden

Remove/ limit pesticide use in your yard

Reach out to your local congress representative to express your concern

Protect essential bee habitat

Support local farms and apiaries

– Ty Carlson

Environmental Disasters and the Disadvantaged

As Hurricane Harvey inundated regions of the southern United States with more than 40cm of rain, Hurricane Irma and Jose trailed behind just weeks later, striking Florida and coastal North Carolina. It has now been reported that Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 Hurricane, is positioned to run through Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic. On top of this exceedingly strong hurricane season, wildfires in Oregon, earthquakes in Mexico, mudslides in Sierra Lione and Colombia, and flooding across South East Asia, have wreaked destruction on a global level. While natural disasters are difficult to predict, their occurrence remains inevitable, demanding heightened attention for disaster relief.

While there are many factors that affect the degree of destruction brought by a natural disaster, poverty remains the central determining variable.  The Brookings Institute identifies this pattern by first pointing out a 1989 earthquake that struck San Francisco at a level of 7.1 on the Richter scale, causing 21 casualties and leaving 1,200 people homeless. By contrast, the Spitak earthquake that famously ravaged Armenia in 1988 killed some 50,000 people and left over 500,000 homeless, yet the disaster only registered a 6.9 on the Richter scale. It remains clear that the poor and marginalized are at a disproportionately higher risk–– particularly in natural disasters.

Nonetheless, while disaster relief programs aim to aid these very populations, evidence overwhelming demonstrates that natural disasters exacerbate these social inequities. Preferential treatment in times of natural disasters may appear in subtle forms, such as providing greater access to aid in safer communities than in at-risk areas. At the same time, overt discrimination also takes place often during natural disasters. Red Cross notes how Dalits in the Hindu caste system were institutionally forbidden from accessing water after the destruction of a major tsunami and how gender-based violence saw a 536% increase in rape cases after Hurricane Katrina.  The issue of social injustice in times of national disaster remains evident, but the role a sustainably-minded individual can play to curb this trend is still a difficult topic to address.

The Importance of Social Participation

One of the most important measures to prevent against discrimination in access to disaster relief aid is to elevate the voices of those disadvantaged. While it might seem like an organizational task to institute overreaching policies for including the opinions of marginalized persons, the individual plays a crucial role in this process as well. Social participation– in the forms of social media involvement and engagement in topical discussions–are two easy ways to help understand complex environmental issues.

Social participation is also crucial for bringing attention to these problems, when those around you may not be aware, and for sharing the opinions of those most deeply affect. In particular, social media is a great tool for discovering how people from various backgrounds are impacted by almost any given issue. Meanwhile, group discussion, whether shared between friends, in a classroom setting, or at the work place, is a necessary action to discover ways you can do to help within your own communities. As natural disasters continue to transpire at alarming rates, it has never been more important for individuals to begin making a commit to center the conversation on helping those most in need. In short, social participation is not just a political point or some humanitarian gesture, but an essential and basic expression of empathy.

-Matt Martin

Sustainability practice in tennis is something that doesn’t really cross many tennis player’s minds, but it really should. When you start to think how many tennis balls we open from a new can, hit as hard as we can with lots of crazy spin, then decide they are not bouncing quite how we want (trust me we are very picky when it comes to what makes the ball good enough) and then replace them. This cycle starts again. Using a basket of balls for practice, which is made up of 24 cans, then 4 balls per can, means we are playing with 96 balls. This is then changed weekly, with a whole new set of balls. So just in this one semester we are using about 1536 tennis balls… and the tennis season hasn’t even begun yet!

Seems like a waste really, so where do all these tennis balls go? If they went in the trash that would be a waste but these tennis balls are then recycled. Some are distributed to the club team, for them to have free and decent balls. The rest are distributed to local schools for children to enjoy and play with.

I know what you’re thinking now though, where do they go after that? Well when they’ve reached the stage of flat and fluffy balls, they can no longer be used for tennis. These tennis balls are then commonly used as dog toys, or more innovatively they are used as decoration. Such as on the outside of trash cans at some local clubs (but not inside the trash can) or as props for tennis scoring, where they don’t need to bounce anymore only required to look like the size of a tennis ball and hopefully still be slightly yellow.

Sadly there will be waste where many balls are put in the trash and not recycled. This is inevitable in our society but I think people are trying harder. The materials in these tennis balls are not easily broken down but there may come a time where the biodegradable tennis ball is invented.

Try picturing the tennis centre at Furman to have every chair like the one pictured below, well stop because we haven’t quite reached that impressive level of being that sustainable. Hopefully, in the near future though I could have some influence in making that happen… not sure they look particularly comfortable though but definitely sustainable.

Hannah Ferrett

Picture yourself walking around Furman’s iconic lake. Those that frequent the lake, will recognize many familiar sites. One of those being families and children clustered around the waters edge, throwing crumbling handfuls of bread to eager waiting waterfowl. Little do they know, they are harming these birds that they feed.

Just as children love sugar, ducks love bread. And why wouldn’t they? It’s an easy food source they don’t even have to work for. However, bread and other processed wheat products are lacking in essential nutrients ducks natural food source contain. Many ducks, like mallards, the most common on our lake, are divers that eat dark green plant material found on the lake floor. As a child, my mother drilled into my head that more colorful foods have higher nutrient counts. So, instead of ducks eating a diet of dark greens rich in vitamins, they’re eating overly processed white bread.

This leads to a condition known as angel wing, which can actually be seen in several ducks on the lake. As they are over consuming processed foods, ducks are not getting their key nutrients, and their bones actually start to warp. This leads to some funky looking wings, and the birds can be severely incapacitated and no longer able to fly.

An additional side effect of the ducks horrible bread diet is their gut bacteria is altered. They cannot properly digest it, and they over produce the bacteria ecology, which they then excrete into the water.

Instead of feeding birds bread or cereal, instead try something less processed. Easy switches can be to whole oats which have more nutrients, seeds (especially reduced sodium ones or preferable all natural mixes) or even split grapes. Some ducks, such as ruddy ducks, prefer a diet of fish. A really enthusiastic duck lover could try and feed these birds sardines, if they really wanted to. – Julia Clements