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Letters to Dr. Green

 Dear Dr. Green,

Please help me relieve my atrocious and lazy addiction--littering.   The most inscrutable thing about my habit is that I am aware that it's wrong but I continue to do it anyway.   Sometimes a garbage can will simply be overflowing, so my only choice is to lay the litter down next to it hoping that once the garbage is taken out my trash will be recognized as well.  

Maybe my habit exists because I don't see exactly what the problem is or how it really affects the environment.    What is a single piece of trash going to damage anyway? People have jobs that encompass cleaning it up, so aren't I indirectly helping the economy?  

Please! Relieve me of my ignorance!

- Toxic Boy

Oh Toxic Boy,

My first thought is to spit violently in your face, but I will refrain from doing so for two reasons:

•  It is virtually impossible considering that we are communicating through a computer screen.

•  You are not the only person with these despicable thoughts and habits; it is a problem shared among a great deal of our community. In fact, 94% of people are aware that littering is problematic to the environment yet they still litter.

I find it appropriate that you classified your littering habit as "lazy".   This is because more than 50% of all littering occurs within five meters of a garbage can.   My darling Toxic Boy, I know that it's tough, but I am more than positive that unless you are a sessile urchin you can manage to throw away your waste.

There are three types of people who litter:

•  Wedgers: A wedger puts his litter in hidden cracks and wedges where no one can see.   The fact that the litter isn't visible by the general public leaves this litter-bound boy or girl free of guilt.

•  Undertakers:   An undertaker literally puts their litter under something else such as dirt or sand, once again where it is not visible to the general public.

•  Foulshooters:   You, my friend, are a foulshooter, someone who aims for the trashcan or intends on putting it in, but are unable to accomplish this task because the garbage is too full or you are an inept shooter.

Okay enough of my silly talk.   This is a serious issue.   You mentioned the fact that litter could help the economy..   Littering costs money, nonsensical young man! Money that comes out of your parents' pay checks in the form of taxes!

Litter is also disgusting.   It attracts those icky organisms (i.e. VERMIN and BACTERIA). Yum.   What about glass on the ground? Haven't you always wanted to slice open your bare foot as you are carelessly walking barefoot through the streets? Thought so.   Just a side note--last month I was cleaning up litter at a shoreline and came across a syringe! Imagine if the last user of that syringe had AIDS?   If I had touched the syringe with my fingers, there would be no more Dr. Green.   Among many other issues, litter also kills wildlife.   How you ask?   Containers can trap small mammals, small pieces of Styrofoam can be mistaken as food, and plastic litter can choke or suffocate marine life.   Keep in mind, I am only touching the surface of litter's pure repulsion.

What can you do to help in the litter world? Unlike enormous issues like Global Warming, littering is much easier to tackle.   Here are two websites to visit:

www.planetark.com

www.earthsky.com

Other suggestions: Come to EarthTeam's periodic clean-ups or go out into your neighborhood on a beautiful day and start cleaning up yourself!   When you see a piece of trash on the ground next to the garbage, pick it up and simply place it in the trash. It couldn't get any easier.

Alleviating ignorance one day at a time,

Dr. Green

Reference:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:24dzAynELmsJ:www.praguepost.cz/PPEF/09SC030219.pdf+littering+effects&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&ie=UTF-8

Dear Dr. Green,

Are all environmentalists freaks and hippies?

- Butch

Dear Butch,

Of course NOT!   Sure, there are "freaks" and "hippies" that stand tall in the environmental movement, but there are just as many "hotties" and powerful politicians. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz were two of the first people to drive the electric-gas hybrid Toyota Prius--and make it look trendy.   In Cameron Diaz's MTV series, Trippin', the actress led a varied group of celebrities on a world tour of some of the most ecologically endangered spots on the planet, highlighting the erratic roller coaster of our global climate change.   The hot environmentalist and son of a legend, Robert F. Kennedy, is also traveling all over the world to promote environmentalism.   And of course the household name, Al Gore, has recently released a film ("An Inconvenient Truth")   that may change the green mindset of all Americans.   Other celebrities are doing their piece on a smaller-scale basis: Billy Bob Thorton claims to always recycle, Daryl Hannah eats all organic produce, Alicia Silverstone uses recycled products by Seventh Generation, Robert Redford supports the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, and Jack Johnson prefers skateboarding to all other forms of transportation.

Hop on the environmental bandwagon, Butch!

Dr. Green

Reference:

Elle Magazine May 2006

Comments: DrGreen@Earthteam.net

The Effects of Bottled Water On Our Economy and the Environment

By Veronica Topp Age 12, Diablo View Middle School

We all drink bottled water, right?   Well, each year people spend about $100 billion on average, for bottled water.   The reason that people do this is because they think that it is safer and healthier to drink from a bottle instead of from a tap, when in truth the only difference is that bottled water has added minerals which actually have no benefit.  

The manufacturing of bottled water has a lot of negative effects on the environment.   2.7 million tons of plastic are used to make the bottles for bottled water each year worldwide.   Burning the used bottles causes emissions of toxins like chlorine gas and ash with a lot of dangerous metals in it.   Biodegrading is not an option to get rid of the bottles because it takes up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.   Recycling helps a little, but people cannot be forced to recycle.

Another issue is that we are wasting a lot of fossil fuels just to transport the bottled water, and even more fossil fuels are being used to make the bottles.   Not only that, bottled water is expensive.   With bottled water at $2.50 a liter, it costs more than gasoline in the United States.

Since the United Nations wants to save money, they are going to try and get everyone a safe tap water system in the next few years. This way, United Nations would only have to spend $30 billion on water every year instead of $100 billion which it currently spends to provide bottled water to poor countries.   This would be better for everybody because not everyone can afford bottled water, especially not third world countries.     

In conclusion, bottled water has a lot of negative effects on the environment and our economy, and there aren't too many pros out-weighing the cons.   Bottled water is good to have when you are on the go, but only then.   It may be easier to just grab a bottle of water when you're at home or someone else's house, but it is bad for the environment.   Maybe we should think about this the next time we want to buy a bottle of water.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/126829/1/

Comments: VeronicaTopp@EarthTeam.net

Colombian Frog Spotted Even Though It Was Thought To Be Extinct

By Veronica Topp Age 12, Diablo View Middle School

Recently scientists spotted a group of Colombian Painted Frogs that were thought to be extinct.   The last time one of these frogs was sighted was in 1995, and since then there have been no more sightings.   Because of this, scientists figured that the frog species had suffered from a skin fungus that is known to kill off many frogs.  

The significance of this finding is that it may give scientists a way to keep the fungus from killing so many frogs.   The fungus has killed off a third of the frog population, and so knowing that some frogs might have survived this is an amazing discovery.  

Frogs play a very important role in the ecosystem of South America and Central America.   They eat a lot of the mosquitoes carrying malaria, and lower the insect population keeping a balance in the animal kingdom.   This new discovery holds hope for both the ecosystem and some of the human populations threatened by malaria.

http://www.conservation.org/xp/news/press_releases/2006/051706.xml

Comments: VeronicaTopp@EarthTeam.net

Under a Giant Baobab Tree

By Allison Cooper, Albany HS

This photo is of a giant Baobab tree in a village in Mali. I went to Mali in April with the organization called Building with Books to help build a school in a village in Ntiondougou-koloni (meaning the village founded by Ntion with a small well) in the Bougouni region of the West African country. Baobab trees and mango trees, combined with some small shrubs, made up most of the landscape as we drove through miles of hot (always around 100 degrees F-- it was the dry hot season) Sahel desert-- the "shores" of the great Sahara. The village where this Baobab is near Ntiondougou-Koloni; we went there because it has a big market, where neighboring villagers go to the market. The tree is the center of the main marketplace area, surrounded by stands filled with spices, jewelry, henna and other dyes, and random clothing and plastic things. The huge tree centerpiece provides an infinitely important resource to the villagers: Shade! It also provides a fruit called "monkey bread," and the leaves are used in cooking and medicine and the bark used for rope and cloth.     Baobabs store water in their thick corky trunks, collected during the shorter wet season for use during the long dry season. You may recognize the baobab tree as the home of "Rafiki" in Disney's "The Lion King" (which, I might add, was based in part on Mali's legendary ruler named Sundiata, nicknamed "the Lion King of Mali"). I liked to see how villagers in Mali respected what nature had given them. They use only as much of their resources as they need to keep their natural resources alive and well, so they will continue to sustain them in the future. However, bad farming practices are increasing desertification, or the spread of the desert into dried out land. This is a major environmental problem in Mali and other Sahel countries, and global warming will only have negative effects. Hopefully support from other countries and increased education combined with the native nature-loving African cultures will keep such natural masterpeices as the baobab tree thriving. Comments: AllisonCooper@EarthTeam.net

Microscopic Photos and Sketches from Lake Merritt

By Richard Hoang and Dulce Perez, Oakland HS

Comments: RichardHoang@EarthTeam.net or DulcePerez@EarthTeam.net

Documentary Film Review: An Inconvenient Truth

By Dr. Green/Samantha Page

Among all of my sources of knowledge on the issue of global warming, I found An Inconvenient Truth to provide the most logical, powerful, and practical explanation of the phenomenon.

The bulk of this film is composed of graphs and hypothetic visual evidence, allowing the audience to understand that the issue of global warming is not a theory but a solid fact. Gore didn't attempt to scare his audience or provide any kind of fallacious reasoning as to why one should be concerned about global warming, but instead provided a genuine selection of data that allowed the audience to make a logical conclusion on their own.   This was crucial to the credibility of the film because the audience was able to understand the phenomenon based on their understanding of the facts rather than being scared by some type of sketchy marketing tactic.

Many times, I find that regular citizens will simply dismiss the issues brought up by environmentalists by categorizing them as "tree-huggers" and what not.   In this movie, however, it was impossible to criticize Gore by categorizing him because of the clarity of his argument and his professional approach to the issue.  

Experiences in Gore's life that lead him to his purpose (the effort to stop global warming) are woven in throughout the film in a tasteful manner.   This was an essential part of the piece because it allowed the audience to stay focused after listening to solid evidence for quite some time.

I must admit that immediately after being released from the movie, I was blinded to its flaws.   However, my friend Maggie brought an imperfection to my attention that we found quite ironic.   During transitional scenes, Gore would be pictured in his car on an airplane, two forms of mobility that he was advocating against.

Despite a minor defect, I think that EVERYONE should see this documentary, whether it is a barber, a mother, a shoemaker, or a farmer.   An Inconvenient Truth presents a coherent explanation of Global Warming, an overwhelmingly huge disaster exacerbating by the day.

Comments: SamanthaPage@EarthTeam.net

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