keely – Page 41 – State of Wilderness

Environmental Issues: Burials and Cremations

In the beginning of the book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”, the main character, a nine year old boy, muses on the increasing world population in terms of where there will be room to bury all the dead. He throws out the idea that there are more people alive right now than have died in all the preceeding generations (snopes.com dispels this myth, but it is based on estimations), and envisions a world where we will have to have multi-story burial facilities to be able to handle all the dead bodies.

I don’t think it will come to that, but I did laugh when I read that, and contemplated other solutions. My concern is that we will indeed run out of space for burial of human remains. Also, I would hope that we as a society move away from burial practices using embalming fluids and heavy-duty non-biodegradable caskets. Humans emerged as a species five million years ago, and formaldehyde was developed in 1867, so in the grand scheme of human history, it has not been long we have been using this method of preservation of tissue. There is potential for embalming chemicals, which are carcinogens, to leak into groundwater sources that lay below grave sites, and this is part of my concern for continuing this practice. Also, the land used for burials might eventually run out, or there may be need to turn that land into food production to feed this growing population of people. Cremation uses up a large amount of energy, and so for that reason, is also not believed to be an eco-friendly way to transform remains.

There is a small, growing number of cemeteries that offer green burial, in which the body is buried without the chemical embalming beforehand, and in by which process the body can return to the earth. As this takes up a large amount of space as well, this is not though to be the sustainable solution for our future. Eco-coffins made out of materials that readily break down in the environment are gaining momentum. There is a company called Eternal Reefs, which will take a person’s remains and mix it with reef material to add to the ocean to help restore fragile reef systems. Some other new ideas that have come out recently are techniques such as alkaline hydrolysis, which turns the body into nutrients for the earth, or eco-friendly urns for cremated remains, like the Bios-Urn, which contains a tree seed and can be planted afterwards. You can choose to be any tree you like. I think there are probably other ideas I haven’t read about yet that are or will soon be out there to bring sustainable burial practices to today’s population.

Environmental Issues: PCBs and Industrial Effects

On my way home from work today, I was thinking about what I consider to be the key environmental issues of our times. Part of this thought process was stemming from a conversation J and I were having the other day about why he seems to have changed his mind about wanting to produce his own heir. He wondered out loud why anyone would want to bring a child into this world when the upcoming next couple of generations might suffer from what we foresee as a climatic disaster.

Later on, I was reading a theory by a professor who published his vision of his future, which referenced humanity huddled in ice caves in a mere generation or two from now, as the rest of the earth will have become inhabitable due to climate change. It also doesn’t help these “doom and gloom” prophecies that I am currently (still) reading Alan Weisman’s “The World Without Us”. In order for Weisman to explain how the world would fare if humans were suddenly gone, he has to explain how we got to where we are in the first place, which includes not just humanity’s impact on the earth, but how the earth evolved before and during us. Weisman is very meticulous in his research, but he also expouses a worst-case scenario that gives a sense of urgency and dramatic results should we continue with our current paths.

Anyway, I am sure none of us are oblivious to the fact that climate change is a major environmental issue we are currently facing. Ever since Rachel Carson published “Silent Spring” and the seventies ushered in a growing environmental awareness, we have been taking notice of the changes that are occurring around us. I am aware that some people out there do not believe that climate change or global warming is a real thing, and if you are one of those, I invite you to have a discussion where we try to see each other’s side of that. I think the grey area in this though is – what are the current impacts, what is our role in this, and what can we do about it?

We made some strides when the EPA elected to ban the use of PCBs in 1979. I was reading, though, that even though the levels of PCBs in temperate zones have fallen to pre-industrial levels, they are finding that these PCBs were still in the environment; just moved to a different location. The artic air caused PCBs to take rest in the colder regions of earth, and now they are finding high levels of this toxin in the milk of Laplander and Inuit mothers, in the body of puffins, in the fat stores of fish and seals. This molecular movement is due to the effect of global warming and greenhouse gases. To date, about 200 hazardous compounds originating from industrialized regions have been found in the bodies of Artic people (source)

There is a whole host of literature I stumbled upon recently that implicates PCBs in reduced spermatogenesis in marine mammals, in changes in gender expression and sexuality in human beings, in reduced reproductive rates across the board and increased infection rates due to decreased immunity levels. There is a possible link between these PCBs and a higher rate of hermaphroditic polar bears. Also, in addition to the melting of our polar ice caps, polar bears are having to swim huge long distances to reach land masses to find food. If the polar bear does not adapt quickly (grow fins? webbed feet?), they could be become endangered (currently their status is “threatened”).

But PCBs are not the only factors in changing our air quality, which is in turn affecting our environment. Dioxins, which are by-products of residential wood-burning, fires, municipal waste incineration, and steel reclamation are also part of the sea of toxins we are introducing. You might have heard recently about Sheryl Crow stating that her breast cancer was caused by drinking out of water bottles left in the car. There is an urban legend going around that re-using plastic water bottles, especially after they have been heated, causes dioxin buildup and therefore, cancer to those who drink it (Snopes says there is little truth to this). Other culprits to our air quality include PAHs and mercury emissions. Climate change related weather events can spread these heavy molecules into all phases of our environment.

Basically, what is happening is that there is a natural cycle of rising temperatures, which would then usher in a new ice age and yet change the landscape of the earth in specific ways that would cause change in ecosystems and organisms that live on it. However, this natural cycle is happening faster than it has before, at least to our knowledge, and there is a large body of evidence that shows that industrialization plays a role. As global temperatures continue to rise, and sea levels rise due to the melting of the ice caps, we will see a decreased ability to raise food to provide for not only our species, but other species on earth. Parts of the world currently in use for farming will be become lost to desertification. Imagine the American Southwest the new Sahara.

It is this future that J doesn’t want to place his personal future generations into. I do wonder what kind of world my children will inherit; I spoke of this before. I keep telling my kids that I believe that the next world war will be over water rights, and some believe this water crisis (which is related to global warming) will occur within the next few generations. Basic things here; the ability to find water, food, and resources could be rapidly declining due to the effects of industrial revolution. I have a lot more I wanted to talk about, but this is already I am sure longer than the typical person’s blog attention span, so: to be continued.

But I wanted to leave you, reader, with one last thought: when I was doing some reading into who was or will be the last prophet (because I was longing for God and wishing He would send another, or the Last, prophet down to us – or wondering why it has been so long since we have had one), I stumbled across this idea that is a little out in left field, but worth contemplating. A random Wikipedia author suggests that perhaps the Last Prophet is not a person, but the Earth itself, and how well we take care of it might be the defining lesson for humanity. If you were approaching Earth as a Prophet, what would it be teaching you – and what do you have to offer it in return?

Enter the Mushroom: Sustainable Packaging

Tonight, I watched an enlightening TED talk that is related to previous posts. I wrote about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch two posts ago, and this sparked the conversation my friend and I and our children were having around the campfire in my last post about Huntsville State Park. I had gotten them all fired up about the prevention of plastic and packaging ending up in our oceans. My son had this brilliant idea that we needed to find a celebrity to promote the cause of clean oceans.
Well, he might not be a celebrity, but Eben Bayer and his company, Ecovative, are doing just that – helping to keep trash out of the ocean by solving the problem of plastic and styrofoam packaging materials. What his company does is take local agricultural byproducts, such as cotton hulls or pea pods, the part of the plant left over when we harvest it, and then uses it to form a base for mycelium, the root-like part of the mushroom. They process the raw materials, and then place this and the mycelium into a pre-formed mold. In about five days, the mycelium has used the raw materials to grow fibrous strands that take the shape of what it is they are trying to make – such as the corner protection for furniture or TVs, the part that protects the ends in a box.

This kind of packaging is usually made of styrofoam, which then is thrown away and ends up breaking down into our environment. Styrofoam uses a large amount of petrol and energy to make, and is practically indestructible. It will sit in the environment for tens of thousands of years, it is projected. This alternative, the mushroom packaging, can just immediately be tossed out in the yard, will biodegrade rapidly and improve the quality of the soil, is very efficient to make, and makes use of raw materials already at our disposal.
It is solutions like this that we need in this time of increasing earth destruction. I was just reading this wikipedia article the other day that made this suggestion, albeit far-fetched, that perhaps the Last Prophet we are all waiting for is the earth itself – that how well we take care of it may be part of the great lesson mankind has left to learn. I think we have come a long way in our understanding of how we can take better care of the earth, but it is imperative we apply the knowledge we have gained so far in coming up with real-world solutions such as this.

Huntsville State Park #2

Finally, a camping weekend. It’s been a long six months since we went camping. Last time we went, we were actually at this same park. It’s not the closest state park to us, but it might be the most popular, especially with the scouts. Last time we were here, it was with scouts, and this time we were surrounded by them. There was even some kind of misunderstanding where they thought our campsite was part of their reserved lot, and even after they realized their mistake, scouts were kinda spilling over into our site. A green pup tent claimed a part of our land, quite a bit beyond our tents, but we didn’t put up much of a fuss about this. Scouts were out and about riding bikes, playing lacrosse, hiking – all over the park.
We chose this park this weekend because it was the closest one to a family we are best friends with, who had just gotten some yaks and wanted to try them out. They didn’t really have a way to transport said yaks, though, so we headed over there first to strap them on top of the luggage rack of our van.
I was trying to to figure out for a few weeks the puzzle of how we were all going to make it on to the water this time around. We had the two yaks, but they were very small, so the most likely candidates for that were the two teenage boys, but neither of them had been in one before. My parents wanted to meet us up there with the canoe, but they wanted to take it out on the water, with a small child in it (preferably my youngest). I wanted to be out on the water with the boys in case they needed help, my friend thought her daughter would not like it if she was not out there as well – and we were in need of another vessel. Fortunately, they do rent boats there. The park leases canoes and paddle boats for $10 an hour, or $25 for three hours (for canoes).
So this is how Jen and I found ourselves furiously cycling a paddle in the midday on Lake Raven trying to make it from the boat house on one side of the lodge to the boat ramp on the other side, where the boys were waiting for us before they could their yaks in. We wanted to make full use of the hour we had!
On our way over there, I got this shot of the outdoor patio area of the lodge, where I want J and I to have our wedding at later this year. I’ve been shopping for ideas, including making an arch very similar to this, so I thought it was really cool to see how these people had their set up.

We ended up spending most of our hour watching the boys try out the yaks very close to the boat ramp area, and then picked up my youngest boy, who had just finished his canoe ride with his grandparents, and took him with us on the paddle back to the boat house. In all the times I have been to this park, I have never rented water vehicles here, so I am glad to know about this service they offer.
After dropping the paddle boat off, my friend took her daughter swimming in the swimming area right there between the boat house and the lodge, and I went back over to join my parents for a little longer. They had gotten the boys some lacrosse sticks, and the boys were learning how to play. My dad used to play lacrosse for many years, and it is nice that he can share that with my sons during this time. Soon after, they left and I took the boys to join Jen and little K at the swimming area, where we cooled off in the shady (albeit) crowded beach area. I also had never used this feature of the park. It was truly a water weekend for us – I guess that is what happens when we finally clear out all the geocaches in the parks – we actually try NEW and different things that are also fun.

We had spent the morning before this hiking along the Chinquapin Trail, testing out the limits of our hiking abilities. Jen and I really want to go on some long distance hikes, starting this year. We wanted to do long backpacking trips. The problem is, I have this leg injury I am still recooping from, and she has this young daughter, who just turned four, that she has sole care of most of the time. It is a rare day that she is without her daughter and not working, so we have come to accept the idea that little K is going to have to join us on many of the hikes we plan on taking. We went about two miles, at a relatively slow pace, with no gear – and that was about my limit, as I was limping by the time we got back and needed to rest my leg. It was also little K’s limit, as she was asking to be carried and telling us she was tired, wanted to go home, and was hungry and thirsty by then. The boys had a really good time on the trail, and we let the older boys have a sense of independence on the way back, which satisfied their need to prove themselves a little bit.

During this water adventure, J had some solo time at the campsite, and took the dogs for a long walkin the woods, so that was a good respite for him. He had worked really hard to load all our gear up and get us and Jen’s family set up the night before with tents and whatnot, and the kids had been driving him crazy so it was good for him to get a break. When we were done swimming, he brought the van back over to pick us up, and we went back to the campsite to cook our dinner, start our fire, and get some s’mores going.
He and little K went to bed first that evening, while Jen and I stayed up with the boys talking around the campfire. There was a long conversation about who was going to be our celebrity environmental spokesperson (Ted Danson, we decided, after reviewing the dossier of several candidates), and then told spooky stories around the fire. In the morning, we thought we might take another hike, but packing up and breakfast took all the remaining time we had before having to rush back to get a kid to a school related project meeting.
Wildlife we saw over the weekend: a raccoon sneaking into an open trash can as we pulled into the park, a big alligator lazily making his way up the lake as viewed from the fishing pier, a red shouldered hawk flying from tree to tree in the afternoon sunlight above the lake, a small copperhead snake making its way from our campsite to the scouts, squirrels, ravens, cardinals, a tufted titmouse who landed on the ground in our campsite to say hi, a pileated woodpecker checking out different trees near the newer restrooms in the campgrounds, and many other little birds we didn’t identify (forgot to bring our bird book or get our binoculars out). An amazingly large amount of bullfrogs were up singing to each other during the night – it was almost overwhelming. Bullfrogs are in no danger of going extinct at HSP, that is for sure.
It was a fun camping trip – almost too short, although we were sufficiently exhausted when we got home. Hopefully the first of many more trips to come this year, as I am ready to get back out there and play!