Burn Fat, Not Fuel!

By Molly Schaeffer

 

 

Cycling 6 miles to and from work instead of driving could burn 15 to 20 lbs. of fat each year.

Pollution Facts:

·      60% of car emissions pollution occurs in the first few minutes, before pollution control devices can work effectively.

·      Approximately 40% of all car trips are less than 2 miles.  Biking (10 minutes) or walking (30 minutes) instead of driving, would keep about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air. (World Watch Institute)

·      Motor vehicle emissions represent 31% of total carbon dioxide, 81% of carbon monoxide, and 49% of nitrogen oxides released in the U.S.

Fat Facts:

·      In the U.S. 16% of children ages 6 to 19 years are overweight.

·      In Holland 11% of children ages 7 to 11 years and 8% ages 13 to 17 years old are overweight.

·      64.5% of U.S. adults, age 20+ years old, are overweight and 30.5% are obese.

As a bicycle commuter and member of the Newton Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force, I have a strong personal interest in making Newton more "bicycle friendly".  My co-workers echo the findings of a 1995 Rodale Press survey, which found that 40% of U.S. adults said they would commute by bike if safe facilities were available.

Recently I talked with Anne C. Lusk, Ph.D., Visiting Scientist at Harvard’s School of Public Health, with 25 years of experience working with communities to create bicycle paths, including the Stowe (VT) Recreation path.  She once bicycled 1000 miles from Boston to Washington, D.C. to explore the route for the East Coast Greenway.  Dr. Lusk is writing a book, "Designing a Healthy America: Bicycle Paths, Parks, and Streets".

Dr. Lusk maintains that American communities should provide European Cycle Tracks so that cycling and walking could be part of the solution to the growing American obesity crisis.  By separating vehicular traffic from pedestrian and bicycle traffic (and from other wheeled, non-motorized traffic such as in line skating), walking and cycling become safer and, therefore, viable, options for the entire community.

By building safer cycling facilities alongside, but separate from, roads, bicyclist fatalities were reduced by 64% in Germany and by 57% in Holland between 1975 and 2001.  In the U.S. today, a bicyclist is twice as likely to be killed as a German bicyclist and over three times as likely to be killed as a Dutch bicyclist

 

Dr. Lusk maintains that American communities should provide European Cycle Tracks so that cycling and walking could be part of the solution to the growing American obesity crisis.  By separating vehicular traffic from pedestrian and bicycle traffic (and from other wheeled, non-motorized traffic such as in line skating), walking and cycling become safer and, therefore, viable, options for the entire community.

Today children no longer ride bikes or walk to school and adults spend hard-earned money on memberships to gyms they drive to where they spend scarce time exercising instead of incorporating exercise into their daily routines.  We drive everywhere and make many highly polluting short trips. Then we complain about the traffic.   Many European countries explicitly chose to create and improve mobility opportunities for children and seniors in the 1970s.  During the same time, the U.S. chose, instead, to provide more facilities for cars and trucks.

The development of bike paths does not happen spontaneously in an urbanized environment. It needs catalysts. The extremely popular Minuteman Bikeway from Cambridge to Bedford was a government project. It connects several local communities on an old railway bed that leads to a national park. In many communities, citizens have to organize at the grassroots level or local politicians have to lead the way to get things started.

In Newton, we already have a bike path along the Charles River. However, there are no safe connector paths to it, so cyclists need to ride in the street to get there, making it inaccessible to the vast majority of cyclists (children, senior citizens, occasional cyclists, those with impaired mobility) who are unable or afraid to ride on the road.

Dr. Lusk indicated that funding is available for creating cycling facilities, but that first there should be a consensus about what needs to be built, and where.  She said: "The most far reaching thing would be to build European Cycle Tracks in Newton.  You can't have a system with short sections of paths that aren't connected.  You need an interconnected system for all people, not just fearless road cyclists.  Pedestrians, vehicles and bikes should be separated."

How do we get started?  According to Dr. Lusk, “It's easy to come together for a common cause, but people need to know that they can effect change.  Even in Chicago and New York they're doing bike things.  Boston isn't doing 1/10th as much as Chicago.”

I can imagine European Style Cycle Tracks connecting Newton's Village Centers, the Charles River Bike Path, MBTA stations, schools, and on Beacon Street leading into Boston.  Please share your ideas about this with the Task Force.

Molly Schaeffer, a Chestnut Hill resident, commutes to her job as a systems consultant on an aging Bridgestone bike. She can be reached at mailto:mhschaeffer@alum.mit.edu.  

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Phthalates: Should You Be Concerned?

By Yi Li, Environmental Health Columnist

 

 

 

If you own anything that’s plastic and flexible, chances are likely that you own something containing phthalates.  Phthalates, also known as phthalate esters, were first introduced in the 1920s and are a group of compounds added to plastics to convert them from a hard to a flexible plastic.  When added to a hard plastic substance, phthalates react with the polyvinyl molecules, disrupting the rigidity of their interactions and allowing them to slide over one another more easily.  Different types of phthalates are found in products as diverse as flooring material, PVC pipes, perfumes, pesticides, children’s toys, nail polish, adhesives, cars, medical devices and caulk.  Debates in the health literature about the potential harms of phthalates are ongoing, but worth examining.  In this article, I will present some basic information on current knowledge about phthalates’effects on human health and argue that the U.S. should regulate the manufacture of phthalates.

In the body, phthalates are fat soluble, so when ingested, will tend to accumulate in areas of the body with a high fat concentration.  A National Health and Nutrition Examination survey conducted in 2003 found that most of the U.S. population had some measurable exposure to various phthalates.  In high doses, several phthalates have been shown to stimulate hormonal activity in rodent models.  One particular phthalate, DEHP, has been recognized as a testicular toxicant and an androgen disruptor, leading to malformation of male genitalia and death of testicular germ cells.  At even low exposures, another type of phthalate, DBP, has been shown to act as an endocrine disruptor and damage the reproductive system in male rats.  Some phthalates are also thought to be estrogen imitators, potentially causing infant boys to display an increase in female sexual characteristics.  In 2005, a study conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia showed that infant boys born to mothers with high phthalates urine concentrations displayed a significant shortening of the anogenital distance (AGD), a smaller penis size, and were more likely to have non-descended testes.  The National Toxicology Program, however, has criticized this study for its use of a small sample population from a homogenous area.  Further studies are currently underway to provide more conclusive data.

Despite all this literature on the harmful effects of phthalates, research indicating the contrary – that there are no harmful effects of phthalates on human health – also exists.  A study conducted by the Children’

s National Medical Center showed no conclusive adverse physical or chemical effects in adolescent children who were exposed to phthalates as neonates.  Additionally, a study conducted in September of this year showed that high levels of DEHP phthalate caused no adverse effect on the development of sex organs in male marmosets.

Given that there is some uncertainty about the dangers of phthalates, what should we as consumers do to protect ourselves from possible adverse effects?  The European Union has already banned the use of six phthalates in the production of children’

s toys as a precautionary measure against potential harms.  The regulation of phthalates is an excellent illustration of the Precautionary Principle at work.  That is, even in the absence of definitive data concerning the harms of phthalates, those who create public policy have an obligation to take precautionary measures and ensure public safety by enacting policies that mandate safer alternatives-- unless and until phthalates are proven to be safe.

Manufacturers and lobbyists may insist that a switch from phthalates to other substances will be expensive, but these costs are often exaggerated. Even if the costs are substantial, they would diminish over time after the switchover. From a public health perspective, the public has a right to insist on safer alternatives, even if the risks of phthalates and the costs involved in restricting or banning them are controversial.  The FDA does not mandate manufacturers to investigate the risks of their products before marketing; thus, the burden of investigations falls upon scientists and public health officials –

a process that may take years to complete.  A responsible approach in the meantime would be to restrict the use of phthalates until more conclusive data is available.

For additional information on phthalate safety, see the U.S. EPA website, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition website of the FDA, the Official Journal of the European Union (with a recently published commission recommendation on risk reduction measures), and the website of the CDC.  The Phthalate Information Center (www.phthalate.org) of the American Chemistry Council provides the perspective of phthalate manufacturers.

Yi Li is a first-year student at Harvard Medical School.

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The Wonder of Green Roofs

By Clydia A. Davenport and Karen L. Weber, Earth Our Only Home, Inc.

 

 

The term green roof refers to a roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation, usually with special membranes to protect the rooftop and hold the plants and growing media in place. Green roofs are a proven technology with significant potential to stabilize our climate by cleaning and cooling our air and reducing stormwater runoff.

Green roofs date back at least to 600 BC, to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  These were terraced structures that were built over arched stone beams, waterproofed with layers of reeds and tar, covered with soil and planted with trees and plants.  There are houses in the Orkney Isles of Scotland from 3600-2500 BC that appear to have had turf roofs. In Iceland, sod homes with grassy roofs were constructed hundreds of years ago. The idea spread throughout Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.  There is a green roof that was planted in 1914 in Switzerland on which an orchid (Orchis morio) thrives today that is otherwise extinct in the region, The Rockefeller Center in New York City has several green roofs that were installed in the 1930s.

Germany has been perfecting modern green roof technology since the early 1970s when the first complete green roof systems were developed and marketed.  These intensive systems require thick planting media of 8 inches or more to support a variety of plants and trees and can add upwards of 54 pounds per square foot.  In the late 1980s many green roof systems were developed for large flat roofs; these lighter and cheaper versions were designed to be self-irrigating and require minimal maintenance.  These systems are generally 3-5 inches in depth, weigh around 20-34 pounds per square foot and utilize various species of sedums, which are hardy succulent plants. 

Green roof systems can be incorporated into new construction or retrofitted onto existing buildings. 

They are usually found on commercial and public buildings, although they can be installed on smaller residential surfaces. Green roofs, unlike roof gardens, are applied as part of the roofing system and can be installed on a pitched roof. The components include the roof structure, a waterproofing membrane, a root barrier, a drainage system and/or water retention system, filter cloth to maintain the integrity of the green roof layers, a specially engineered lightweight growing medium, and plants. The cost of greening a roof starts at $11 per square foot, not including the structural analysis to determine the roof’s load capacity. 

Green roofs serve many environmental functions. They absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in exchange for life-giving oxygen, they cool the air and they retain stormwater.  That means that once installed, they immediately reduce the urban heat island effect, reduce energy costs and reduce stormwater runoff. According to Prof. Brad Bass of University of Toronto, when a city installs enough green roofs to achieve a 1ºC drop in temperature, this will result in a 10% reduction in energy use. Green roofs also provide environmental services by creating new space for biodiversity to thrive, reducing allergens and asthma, diminishing air and noise pollution, and increasing roof longevity (which reduces the need for disposal of old roof membranes).

Nearly 10% of Germany’s building surfaces have green roofs, covering 50 square miles, and is currently adding 5 square miles of green roofs per year. North America lags far behind, with slightly more than 2 million square feet of green roofed space. Green roof installation is costly in the US, so the economic benefits are not always sufficient to motivate consumers.  Our local, state and federal governments need to provide incentives to accelerate the process.  In Toronto, the city subsidizes green roof installation by $2 per square foot. Germany offered large incentives during the initial years.  Tokyo passed a law in 2001 to require new buildings to green at least a fifth of their rooftops.  Chicago, a city with a celebrated green roof on its City Hall, has more than 200 green roofs, and is perhaps the greenest city in the US. It is now requiring developers to green all buildings that undergo city review.

When we cool our coastal cities with sufficient numbers of green roofs, we may even begin to cool our oceans by limiting freshwater runoff, and thereby slowing the rate at which coastal waters are being reduced in salinity due to human activity.  Some advocates feel that green roofs have the potential to keep the Atlantic’s thermohaline pump performing properly.

Green roofs limit greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore can help to slow global warming. The northeast corridor, from Boston to Washington, DC is contributing an enormous burden of CO2 to the atmosphere. Policymakers have an opportunity to turn our urban corridor into the Eighth Wonder of the World, a carpet of green roofs, and help preserve a livable world.

Earth Our Only Home, Inc. is a company led by three mothers committed to reversing the rate of global warming through green roof technology, www.earthouronlyhome.com

 

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Protecting Plants from Winter Injury

By Bruce Wenning

 

Trees and shrubs, whether native or naturalized to our region (zone 6; -10 to 0F), can succumb to cold temperature injury if the natural dormancy or hardening-off process is incomplete. Mild fall and winter temperatures, where day and night temperatures do not go below 35 F for extended periods of time, contribute to incomplete plant dormancy.

When woody plants in this condition are subjected to a sudden large drop in temperature, injury or even death of plants or plant parts can occur. This phenomenon is usually called winter kill. You can limit the damage or even prevent this from happening if you take protective action now.

This is how plants protect themselves from freezing. Generally, from late August to mid- December light levels and air temperatures gradually decrease, inducing hormonal changes in plant cells to enable them to adapt to the oncoming freezing winter temperatures. Plant growth slows down considerably and the cells of different plant parts reduce their water content by osmotic pressure; water inside the cell travels to the outside of the cell and between all cells. The cellular contents left inside cells become more concentrated allowing the reduction of ice crystal formation (supercooling).

This supercooling process protects plants from being killed at freezing temperatures. Water outside of cells freeze, but contents inside the cell, including traces of remaining water, do not freeze. This remarkable environmental adaptation ensures that plant cells won't burst from ice crystal formation.

Sometimes certain plant species, both woody and herbaceous, contain specific plant pathogenic bacteria in their cells that act as ice nuclei for ice crystal formation. For example, the bacterial plant pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae, is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that kills infected plant tissues. The black-brown colored twig tips of Japanese red maple that you see in spring may be a direct result of this bacterial-induced cold injury.

Winter winds also cause winter injury to plants. The action of drying, cold wind on evergreen foliage draws water out of the leaf stomates faster than the plant can replace water from the roots. Newly transplanted trees and shrubs, young seedlings, broad-leaved evergreens (such as rhododendrons, boxwoods, mountain laurels, and hollies) are especially vulnerable. Even the needle-leaved evergreens such as pines, hemlocks, spruce and firs can be affected. The cold wind dries out leaf tissues and partially or completely kills them. Rhododendron and boxwood leaves in spring may show leaf margin browning or completely brown leaves.

Here’s how to protect your trees and shrubs from cold and drying.

1.    Water the roots of all woody plants until the first hard freeze, one inch per week.

2.    After the soil freezes, mulch the roots of small trees, shrubs, and newly planted and transplanted trees and shrubs with salt marsh hay or leaves. Apply at least three to four inches of mulch around the roots. This will moderate the freezing and thawing action (frost heaving) in the root zone and help to conserve soil moisture.

3.    Wrap evergreens with burlap. This will help reduce the wind speed on the foliage. Better yet, put four wooden stakes around each small tree and shrub that you want to protect and tie burlap to the stakes forming a "room". Fill this room or enclosure to the top with leaves. The protected plant should be a minimum of six inches from the burlap.

4.    If you don't want to wrap your plants you can apply anti-desiccant or anti-transpirant products to the evergreen foliage, particularly for plants in exposed sites and new plantings. According to Brian Hanson, Plant Health Care Manager, Cedar Lawn Tree Service, these compounds are primarily used on the foliage of evergreens, especially the broadleaf evergreens, to reduce transpiration water loss that naturally occurs through the stomata in plant tissues. A possible side benefit for some plants is better foliage color retention. Hanson suggests several applications in late fall and winter depending on weather conditions. Unfortunately, these products provide only limited protection from cold temperature injury.

Bruce Wenning is on the Board of Directors of the Ecological Landscaping Association.  www.ecolandscaping.org.

 

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Surveying Newton’s Nature

By Patricia G. Goldman

 

“I first came to Newton with preconceived ideas regarding the quality of urban-centered conservation areas…I did not really think that I would find much of interest…how terribly wrong I was.  Newton’s conservation areas are rich in beauty and wildlife,” said consultant John Richardson in his 1996 report to the Board of Aldermen. 

Ten years later, a group of volunteers from the non-profit Newton Conservators have been out walking once a week to document the current status of Newton’s natural open spaces.  They are carefully noting every type of tree, shrub, fern, wildflower, and wildlife they encounter.  They are particularly noting invasive species that may be crowding out native plants. And they are noting where illegal dumping may be endangering these environments.

Where Richardson looked closely at seven areas, the Conservators have tackled over 30 sites, as part of their mission to preserve and maintain open spaces in Newton for public use and enjoyment.

“We wanted to do something outdoors, hands-on to preserve these places,” says Beth Schroeder, co-chair of this land management committee with Cris Criscitiello.  “We didn’t even know where all these open spaces were until we met with Martha Horne of the Newton Planning Department.  My interest came from enjoying my own garden, doing landscape design for clients, and wanting to know more about which plants are native to this area.”

Says Criscitiello, a retired physician, “We initially intended a survey of what’s growing in the different conservation habitats in Newton, in the wetlands and elevated hillsides, the sunny areas and shady areas.  We wanted people to have a good time walking around and really seeing things.”

Florrie Funk, a member of the committee notes that “it’s hard to appreciate what’s here if all you do is look around and see green stuff.  If you can identify trees and shrubs, it becomes more exciting and you’re more likely to be interested in protecting good native plants.”

Funk is particularly interested in identifying and preventing the spread of invasive species.  Plants like Japanese knotweed, goutweed, garlic mustard, purple loosestrife and Oriental bittersweet tend to crowd out native plants.  Even though some invasives may be attractive plants, they are tending to endanger rare and beautiful native species, such as gentians and cardinal flowers. 

The volunteer group has a fern expert, bird experts, people particularly interested in wildflowers and mushrooms, even a research botanist who is an expert in plant classifications.  They are waiting for their vernal pool expert to have time to help identify amphibians.  When an expert cannot immediately identify something, they turn to their Field Guides and even take photos to match up on internet sites.

The group intends to keep up their weekly survey trips all winter long.  “Even in the snow and ice, we can identify trees and bushes by their structure, the shape of their leaf buds and whether the leaves grow opposite each other or in an alternating pattern,” says Schroeder.

Thus far the group has produced extensive spreadsheets with checkmarks indicating every time any of hundreds of species has been found in each of the 30 Newton conservation sites. “This document establishes a baseline of existing species, which allows us to detect changes over time,” Schroeder notes.

“As we get the information we compare it with the 1996 Richardson report,” says Criscitiello.  “We would also like to track the species during different seasons and make all the information available for educational purposes on our website (NewtonConservators.org), at the library, in the Newton Planning Department, and in an episode of the Environmental Show on NewTV.”

 “We could use an insect expert in our group,” he says.  Funk adds that it would also be nice to have someone who knows grasses and sedges.  “To identify sedges, you have to look at the seeds under a microscope,” she notes.

Has the group identified anything surprising thus far?  “We have found over twenty types of ferns, Jack-in-the-pulpit, pink lady’s slipper, trout lily, bloodroot, trillium and huge sassafras trees,” says Schroeder.  “There are a lot of things you wouldn’t see unless you look carefully.  Our group has located many of the plants listed in Richardson’s 1996 report and quite a few new ones.”

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Doing the right thing with lovely lumber

By Eric Olson

 

The idea of paying a bit more for products that help us live healthier lives is no longer foreign to most people.  As proof we need only look to the growing interest in fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables and the rise in sales of organic milk.  Some people take the next step and choose products that do not yield personal benefits so directly, but do favor producers over middlemen (Fair Trade coffee) or are considered better for the environment (recycled paper).  How about wood used in furniture and construction?  Are there ways to encourage logging companies to minimize harm to both local and tropical forests?

Roberta Durschlag of Waban asked just this question recently when she and her husband, Mark, set out to remodel their back porch.  They hoped to use a beautiful tropical wood called Honduran Mahogany but hoped not to support companies that are cutting forests willy nilly.  So they did some research and found that there is indeed such a thing as “sustainably harvested” wood.  In a sustainable logging operation, trees must be cut and processed in such a way that a forest’s soils, wildlife, waterways, and other essential features are only temporarily disturbed by selective cutting and carefully constructed logging trails.  Trees are big plants, of course, so any logging operation results in some damage.  But by inviting foresters and ecologists from the Forest Stewardship Council and other groups to observe a logging operation, companies can prove that they are following best-practice rules.  For this whole notion to work, of course, homeowners and businesses must then favor these firms with their purchasing decisions.

Consulting the Green Decade Coalition/Newton,  Ms Durschlag learned several dealers of certified wood in this region, but it turned out that only one – Sterritt Lumber of Watertown – was willing to deal with a residential customer.  Though it cost significantly more than standard lumber, the Durschlags chose the certified product.  Knowing that their wood came from a certified forest should lend it a special glow as they enjoy their porch for years to come.

The Green Decade Coalition/Newton would like to hear similar good news stories from other local buyers and sellers of certified lumber.  info@greendecade.org.

Eric Olson, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Ecology in the Sustainable International Development Program at the Heller School, Brandeis University, is Chair of the Energy Committee of the Green Decade Coalition. 

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The US will still need energy tomorrow!

By Gilbert Woolley

 

On October 1, a report by a task force of the "Council on Foreign Relations" added its voice to those who advocate that domestic resources of oil and Natural Gas should be exploited to the maximum now, in order to reduce dependence on imports. At first glance this seems reasonable, but it is really short sighted.

As the Report recognizes, dependence on imported oil is not going to go away.  Domestic production peaked in the seventies and has been in decline since then.  However hard we pump, our resources are finite and when they are used up we will be totally dependent on imports. It is surely prudent to leave some reserves in the ground for emergencies.

The Report states that the US, with 4.6% of the world's population uses 25% of world's oil.  A comparison with other industrial countries with similar lifestyles is revealing. To allow easy comparison of energy usage in different economies it is helpful to convert the various forms of energy into a common basis.  Since oil is still the predominant source of energy, "equivalent gallons of oil" provides a convenient basis for comparison.

Tons/capita/year oil equivalent
Average for the world	1.69
OECD *	4.63
US	8.1
UK	3.86
*OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) includes the US and other major industrial nations.

It is a widely held opinion that world oil production has "peaked", or is about to peak, while world oil demand is rapidly increasing. If this is so, the US will be competing with the rapidly growing economies in Asia for a decreasing supply of oil.  This will result in a price increase that may well make $80.00 a barrel look like a bargain.  It makes more sense, therefore, to begin to bring demand into line with supply by reducing demand, and the table above shows that the US has the greatest potential to do so without any real hardship.  Sooner or later the US will have to learn to live with less oil and gas.  This learning will not be easy and will take many years, so the sooner we begin, the less of a shock it will be to the economy.  The Report realistically states that, as a first step, increasing the tax on gasoline would result in less driving, encourage purchase of more fuel efficient vehicles, stimulate the development of alternate fuels and make these fuels more competitive with oil.

Importing less oil will reduce the large US foreign trade deficit and also the pressure on the supply and price of oil.  It will also be a significant a contribution by the US towards reducing carbon emissions and limiting Global Warming. Attacking the energy problem requires strong leadership from the federal government. Citizens must convince our legislators to supply this leadership.

Gilbert Woolley is a retired engineer and longtime member of the Sierra Club.

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The environmental benefits of vegetarianism

By Gabe Bronk and Arthur Su/ Special To The Tab

 

 

Vegetarianism is not only a response to the inhumane practices of factory farms; it is also a way to conserve natural resources, improve the environment and benefit human health.

The meat industry is very wasteful of natural resources. An inherent problem with eating meat is that an animal must be fed roughly ten pounds of plants to produce one pound of meat. Therefore, much more food is consumed to support the animals than would be needed if more people were vegetarians. Seventy percent of the grain grown in the US is used to feed livestock. Because of the growth of so much animal feed, half the water consumed in the U.S. is used by the meat industry, and our groundwater is being withdrawn 25% faster than it is being replenished. In the High Plains states from South Dakota to New Mexico, it is projected that the aquifer will be depleted in 60 years. Erosion and nutrient depletion caused by animal feed production and overgrazing by livestock are destroying vast areas of arable land.

 

We are currently in an oil crisis, and the meat industry is exacerbating it. Eight times as much fossil fuel energy is used in the production of animal protein as is used in plant protein production due to the fuel required to manufacture fertilizers and pesticides for animal feed, to operate farming machinery, for transportation and for irrigation. Four hundred gallons of fossil fuels are used to produce food for the average meat-eating American each year.

A meat eater requires two to four times more farmland than a vegetarian. To make room for enough farmland, the meat industry constantly destroys vital ecosystems, thus taking away the habitats of myriad species and reducing biodiversity. The vast Amazon rainforest is rapidly being destroyed to make way for ranching and growing animal feed and will be gone by the end of this century if the current rate of destruction continues. Do you want to let this happen?

The damage to the environment does not stop at animal feed production. The plants are fed to the livestock, which, after digesting the food, produce 1.37 billion tons of manure in the U.S. annually. The manure often spills out of open-air storage pits and into waterways, accelerating the growth of algae. When the algae die, their decomposition depletes the water of oxygen. This causes the deaths of millions of fish. Manure also releases ammonia into the air, which can contaminate rain, killing forests. Fumes from factory farms cause people in the area to experience respiratory problems and other ailments. Nitrates leak from manure into community drinking water, causing serious human health problems.

The meat industry contributes significantly to global warming. Methane, a greenhouse gas, is released by bacteria in the rumens of cattle and in the manure of many farm animals. Furthermore, forests and grasslands that would absorb high amounts of carbon dioxide are cleared to make way for farmland. To make matters worse, the enormous fires used to burn down these forests release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The fishing industry also contributes to environmental degradation. Many species are being fished faster than they can reproduce. 15 of the 17 major ocean fisheries are exhausted or overexploited, so many marine food webs are depleted, and ocean ecosystems are seriously damaged. Myriads of other animals are accidentally caught and killed in the nets, such as nearly 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises killed each year. Pulling bottom trawls across the seafloor devastates habitats including coral reefs.

You can help save the environment and keep yourself healthy at the same time; according to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada, vegan and vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of life as long as the vegetarian gets all necessary nutrition, which is easy to do. Visit www.veganhealth.org for nutrition information.

A well-planned vegetarian or vegan diet offers many health benefits. Vegetarians have lower blood cholesterol levels, lower rates hypertension and lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease due to the lower levels of saturated fat found in animal products and the higher levels of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and whole grains, all staples of a vegetarian diet, provide better nutrition and help prevent many diseases.

Spurred by this knowledge as well as by the meat industry's brutality towards animals, we became vegetarian/vegan and have examined and promoted vegetarianism as a project for our biology class at Newton North High School.

Consider the possibilities. There are many delicious and varied foods that do not contain animal products. We're not just talking lettuce and bananas; think grilled veggie burger or bean burrito. If becoming vegetarian seems like a difficult task, try reducing your consumption of meat gradually; cut out meat one day a week at first. Soon you will have a healthier diet and be saving natural resources and the environment. If you do become vegetarian, email us at vegetarianism@comcast.net to let us know that this article had the desired effect.

More information at http://www.sierraclub.com/factoryfarms www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan and Pamela Rice, 101 Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian. Lantern Books, 2005.

Gabe Bronk and Arthur Su will be seniors at Newton North High School this fall. Members of the award-winning school science team, they are passionate about environmental protection.

This article is archived at www.greendecade.org/tabarchive.asp.

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Biodiversity and Health: Locally and Beyond

By Yi Li

 

Dr. Edward O. Wilson, distinguished biologist and researcher at Harvard University, wrote nearly two decades ago that “biological diversity must be treated more seriously as a global resource.”  Wilson realized that the depletion of organismal variation was leading to a host of environmental and economic problems  Many scientists today share Wilson’s concerns about biodiversity; and this concern has only grown in the past few decades.  Biodiversity, defined as variation in life at all levels of biological organization, is quickly diminishing, and this erosion is being catalyzed by human pollution, consumption, and exploitation of our resources. 

In this area, one prominent example of the effects of loss in biodiversity can easily be observed.  Every fall in New England, incidences of Lyme disease increase as more people head outdoors to enjoy the weather and fall foliage.  Lyme disease is spread by small insects called ticks, and the disease is more prevalent in the northeastern United States because disease-bearing ticks and animals that serve as reservoirs for these ticks have become more prevalent as well.  This increase in the tick population and their hosts can be attributed to a recent decrease in their natural predators.   In the northeast, ticks are often carried by white-footed mice, and the predators of these mice – wolves and wildcats – have decreased in number over the years.  Additionally, the number of other small animals that may serve as targets for tick bites have decreased as well.  The synthesis of all of these factors leads to a rise in the number of cases of Lyme disease in the human population, serving as just one example of how the maintenance of biodiversity in our environment is so crucial to everyday health. 

Losses in biodiversity cause much environmental instability.  My arguments for the importance of biodiversity in health for human populations come mainly from two fields: a scientific argument based on the importance of environmental stability, and an economic argument based on the cost-effectiveness of preventative biodiversity measures. 

In scientific terms, throughout evolutionary history, when organisms become extinct or move away from their environments of origin, parasitic agents take over the niche that these organisms had inhabited.  These parasites often find new hosts, and when they jump from one host organism to another, new diseases begin to emerge.  Parasitologists postulate that this is the mechanism of emergence for new human diseases like West Nile Virus and the Avian Flu.  Currently, researchers still have a poor understanding of the exact roles that various identified parasites play in different diseases.  Research is still ongoing and is being aided by advances in fields such as molecular taxonomy.

The importance of biodiversity can best be illustrated through case-studies of diseases that have spread among human populations due to disruptions in biodiversity.  Deforestation in the Amazon and in remote regions of Africa has exposed people to diseases that originally inhabited wildlife; this is the proposed origin of diseases such as AIDS and Ebola.  Research by Dr. Peter Daszak, of the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, has also identified a connection between Chinese horseshoe bats and the outbreak of SARS in Asia.  Most poignantly, we may look back in history and see that the introduction of smallpox, typhus and measles by Spanish conquistadors to South American natives in the 15th century resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 million.  These examples illustrate how the introduction of disease-causing agents into environments where they were previously nonexistent can have profound consequences.

From an economic perspective, vast amounts of money and economic resources can be saved by taking a preventative approach to the loss in biodiversity, instead of a reactive one.  When SARS broke out in Asia, the economic losses from trade and travel totaled around $50 billion – a figure that hugely impacted the developing economies of the countries affected.  On top of that, 800 people died from the disease.  The costs of Lyme disease treatments in the United States total to nearly $500 million each year.  One can only imagine the magnitude of these figures for diseases such as AIDS where cost of care is staggering and new transmissions remain undiminished. 

A vastly better use of these economic resources is to take a preventative approach to these problems.  Scientists advocate for tougher regulations on trade, agriculture and travel as methods of reducing the spread of disease-causing agents and preventing the jump of diseases from wildlife to humans.  By protecting the environment, we prevent the catastrophic consequences of emerging disease and spend well below the current costs of reactive measures.  All of these benefits come in addition to the inherent benefits of preserving our natural resources and preventing organisms from extinction.  Many yet-unstudied and undiscovered organisms may hold the secrets to medical cures.  At one point, scientists believed that the Australian gastric brooding frog held the secrets to anti-ulcer treatments because these frogs incubate their young in their stomach only after shutting off digestive acids. Tragically, the frogs became extinct before scientists could study them – their secrets and mysteries died along with them.

As citizens of the metropolitan Boston area, with so many educational resources, we have many opportunities to learn more about the issues surrounding biodiversity.  The Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment (chge.med.harvard.edu) and Wildlife Trust (www.wildlifetrust.org) are great online resources for more information on research, recommendations, and upcoming events.  We must also remain aware of legislation that will affect biodiversity locally and beyond.  Our actions begin with becoming aware of what organizations and companies to support, what initiatives to advocate for, and what political agendas to push for.  This approach to biodiversity maintenance requires a long-term vision, but the action must begin now.  We must take a stance on this issue before further diseases emerge as a consequence of our actions and before many more resources are depleted in the process.

Yi Li is a first-year student at Harvard Medical School. She served for two years as Editor-in-Chief of Duke University's undergraduate Journal of Science and Technology.

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Energy Efficiency Makes Cents

By Jill Hahn

 

Here in Newton, we take pride in being a "green" city, mainly due to our concerns about global warming and the long-term health of our citizens. But improving the energy efficiency of buildings is also a great way to save money. Corporations are beginning to realize this. Bank of America's new headquarters in New York City, which will be the most environmentally friendly skyscraper ever built when it opens in 2008, has been designed with resource-saving measures from basement to the 54th floor roof. Even so, the building's eco-friendly features add up to less than one percent of the project's total price, and since water and energy usage is decreased by 40%, tenants will reap savings for years to come. (from Wright L. The world's coolest skyscraper. OnEarth 2005; Winter: 12-13.)

State governments, including our own, have begun to come to the same realization. In February 2006, Massachusetts passed "An Act Relative to Contracts for Energy Management," making it easier for municipalities to contract for work that will improve their buildings while saving them money at the same time. The new procurement rules encourage municipalities to invest in energy conservation measures by entering into performance contracts with an Energy Services Company (ESCO). Using conventional procurement, a city has to hire service providers (auditors, engineers, architects, general and subcontractors) and separately procure equipment. An ESCO is a one-stop shopping alternative. It first performs an energy audit of the public buildings. It then recommends energy conservation measures - such as automatic light switches, new boilers, new windows or roofs, improved plumbing - and estimates how much energy the city would save if such measures were put in place. It finally acts as the general contractor for the city, purchasing and installing the energy conserving measures selected by the city. And here's the hook: the ESCO guarantees a certain amount of energy use reduction. If it fails to meet its guarantee, the ESCO pays the city for the extra energy usage.

Financing is usually done through a tax-exempt lease provided by a bank, rather than through the bonding municipalities usually use to pay for such work. Passing a bond is  a political act, with the long approval process that implies, and it adds to a city's debt burden.

Tax-exempt leases do not. Monthly lease payments are made by the city to the bank, with energy cost savings providing the cash needed to pay the leases. Because of the way the performance contract is structured, the only way savings would not equal or exceed the monthly payments would be if utility costs skyrocketed or if energy usage increased unpredictably and dramatically.

In 2005, Belmont became the first town in Massachusetts to contract with an ESCO for a project that involved both school and government buildings. The contract cost the city $1.7 million, and guaranteed the town at least $200,000 in cost savings over each of the next 10 years. ESCOs are able to make such guarantees because they couple measures that bring quick savings, such as energy-efficient lighting, with projects that slowly pay for themselves, such as replacing boilers. The guaranteed savings enabled Belmont to fund improvements to six schools and five government buildings out of its operating budget rather than as capital expenses. "I felt that I probably couldn't have sold this solely on the basis that it was environmentally friendly," Selectman Paul Solomon said. "But I did think that I could sell it on the basis that it would save money."

And that's the beauty of this approach. Energy costs in Newton's aging public buildings are currently rising at a rate of 40% per year. One only needs to compare the energy cost per square foot of newly renovated Newton South High School ($1.61) to that of, say, Zervas Elementary School ($4.34) to get a hint of the sort of savings the city could realize if it entered into its own performance contract with an ESCO. And a wonderful side effect of all this fiscal responsibility would be the savings we realized in greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, savings that will benefit all of us long after the tax-exempt lease is paid for and forgotten.

 Jill Hahn,  jkkhahn@comcast.net, a Newton Highlands resident, is a biologist, a writer, and a mom. All three roles contribute to her interest in environmental issues. She is co-chairing a local effort to educate the city of Newton on the benefits of performance contracting as a means of improving our public buildings.

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Mushrooms and Fairy Rings

By Bruce Wenning

 

Every fall I get questions from people who are worried about the appearance of mushrooms (toadstools) growing in their lawns and gardens. Some people feel that they are unsightly and sure that their presence indicates that something is wrong. Others welcome these fungi and are delighted when they learn that mushrooms serve an ecological purpose by helping in the decomposition of soil organic matter. Only one caller has mentioned that the mushrooms growing in her garden and lawn added interest as "colorful little plants."

Mushrooms are fungi. Green plants (trees, shrubs, lawns and garden plants) contain chlorophyll in their leaves, and, by the action of photosynthesis, produce sugars and other compounds from carbon dioxide and water. Mushrooms, on the other hand lack chlorophyll and cannot undergo photosynthesis. They must derive their nutrients from dead plant and animal matter.

How do they do this? Mushrooms colonize organic debris in the soil by hyphae (fine branching tubes). As their hyphae grow and "seek out" organic debris such as buried wood chips, dead roots, pieces of wood, lawn thatch, etc., they gain more mass by branching outward and fusing together forming a larger structure called a mycelium. Mycelium is the body of the fungus and hyphae are its individual components.

As the mycelium moves or grows through the soil by way of multiple growing points, it increases in size as a diffuse, loosely combined fungal mass-producing various enzymes and other chemicals to digest or feed on organic compounds in the soil. Mushrooms and other decomposing fungi are important garden organisms involved with organic matter break down and nutrient recycling. They are welcomed additions to the organically-tended lawn and garden.

Mushrooms are the above ground portion of the underground growing mycelium. Mushrooms are the actual fruiting body or reproductive structure of the fungus. They are the "tip of the iceberg" of the entire fungus. In general, a mushroom is composed of a cap, gills, ring, stalk, cup and root-like extensions (rhizomorphs). Under the cap, spores are produced in the gills for release into the air. Boletes mushrooms release spores from pores instead of gills.

Spores, when released, can be carried by wind, rain, irrigation water from sprinklers, animals, insects and gardening tools that come into contact with the mushroom. For a spore to germinate into hyphae, the right combination of moisture, temperature, and available organic compounds must be present for growth and eventual development to occur. The process from spore to hyphae to a mycelium that produces a mushroom could take weeks to years depending upon the fungal species and environmental conditions.

Fairy rings are groups of mushrooms growing in lawns and pastures that form circular or semi-circular patterns. These mushroom rings occur during spring and fall in all types of grasses when temperatures range between 45 and 65 degrees F. Many species of mushrooms can form fairy rings, however these three species are the most common; Marasmius oreades (small, tan color), Agaricus campestris (edible, sold in grocery stores), and Chlorophyllum molybdites (large, white poisonous).

 

Fairy rings can vary from a few inches to more than 50 feet in length. The mycelium producing the fairy ring mushrooms can be as deep as eight inches or more, impeding water from reaching turfgrass roots. This is the reason why fairy ring fungi are considered a disease in lawns. Grass is killed inside the ring of mushrooms and grass. The outer ring of mushrooms and grass is alive with the grass exhibiting deep green color and a faster growth rate. This is due to the mushrooms' decomposing soil organic matter and releasing nutrients to the grass as a natural fertilizer. It is not unusual for a fairy ring to resemble a bulls eye appearance similar to dog urine spots on a lawn. However, dog urine spots lack mushrooms.

Fairy rings spread outward from a few inches to several feet per year. According to Mass Audubon naturalist, Dan McCullough, if the fairy ring mycelium hits a rock, fence post, bird feeder post or some other impeding object, the ring will become interrupted, possibly loosing its circular or semi-circular pattern. Digging out the mushroom-mycelium mass and replacing with good topsoil will help eliminate this problem.

McCullough owns fourteen mushroom field guides and still has problems identifying certain species. He strongly urges the beginner to use caution when looking for edible mushrooms. Identifying mushrooms is not like identifying birds, where one bird guide may cover all the birds in an area. You must use several guides when trying to identify mushrooms and it is strongly advisable to take a class to sharpen your skills.

Bruce Wenning is the horticulturist-grounds manager of the Mass Audubon Society, Habitat sanctuary, Belmont and serves on the Board of Directors of the Ecological Landscaping Association. www.ecolandscaping.org

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Nutrients help turn the Charles green

By Anna Eleria and Rebecca Scibek/Special to the TAB

 

 

While this summer was filled with warm, sunny days that encouraged recreation on the Charles River and in its parklands, it also saw an explosive growth of a potentially harmful algae in the Lower Charles. First identified in early August, the fluorescent green algal bloom extended from the Harvard/Massachusetts Avenue Bridge east to the Museum of Science, with dense, floating mats of algae most visible in lagoons, canals and along the river’s edge in Boston and Cambridge. 

Algal blooms have been a problem in the Charles River for years, but this year’s bloom was remarkable for two reasons. First, it was the first time that the algae bloom was identified - a sample collected in early August was identified as microcystis, a type of blue-green algae that secretes toxins and grows naturally in fresh and estuarine waters. Second, the amount of algae was extremely large. The abundance of algae was due to heavy late spring and early summer rainstorms that brought an enormous influx of nutrients to the river, followed by a period of extremely warm water temperatures, creating perfect conditions for algae growth.

In early August, the density of sampled algae was ten times greater than the moderate health risk threshold designated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Samples taken the second week in September by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) showed that algae levels had decreased significantly, close to the WHO low health risk threshold. CRWA sent water samples (with algae concentrations slightly above the low health risk probability threshold) to a laboratory at the State University of New York in Syracuse to determine if and how much of the toxin was released by the algae. The results showed that a small, but significant, amount of toxin was present in the water at that time. Exposure to the toxin at that level could lead to short-term health problems such as skin irritations, diarrhea, and nausea. 

To notify the public of the potential hazard, CRWA informed all boathouses involved in the Flagging Program, a daily water quality public notification system, of the algal bloom, and instructed those within the affected area to fly red “do not boat”

flags. DCR posted signs along the river warning people to avoid direct contact with the water. CRWA and state environmental and health agencies are continuing to work together to better monitor and understand the algae issue.

Algae is a natural and critical part of the Charles River ecosystem that provides food for fish and other small aquatic animals. However, too much algae drives the ecosystems out of balance, as it blocks sunlight from underwater plants, creates large day-night swings in oxygen levels in the water, produces scum and odor and may secrete large amounts of toxins. Upon die-off, algae consumes large amounts of oxygen, which can damage or kill fish and plant species that are dependent on dissolved oxygen in the water.

The primary cause of algal blooms in freshwater is excessive phosphorus, a nutrient found in wastewater treatment plant discharges and in stormwater runoff. The single greatest source of nutrients in the Charles River is run-off from high-density residential land, which comprises nearly fifty percent of Newton’s land. Lawn fertilizers, soaps and detergents are the main human sources of phosphorus. Other “natural”

sources of phosphorus from residential areas are decaying leaves, grass clippings, and pet waste, all of which increase the level of algae-inducing nutrients when they flow into the river through storm drains or small streams.

The property management practices of homeowners and municipalities have a dramatic impact of the amount of nutrients flowing into the Charles. Property owners should minimize fertilizer use, use only low phosphorus fertilizers, pick up and dispose of dog waste, and dispose of yard waste properly (not in the street or into storm drains). Cities and towns should minimize the use of fertilizers on public playing fields, parks and landscaped areas, provide yard waste pickup, enforce “pooper-scooper” laws, clean catch basins regularly, and build “green infrastructure”

wherever possible. 

Other factors, such as low river flow volume, warm water temperature and the presence of dams, magnify the impacts of phosphorus and increase algae growth.  CRWA continues to develop science-based solutions to tackle these problems, and to advocate for policies and programs that will help reduce algae levels and ensure cleaner, safer waters for fish, wildlife and the public. 

Anna Eleria is a CRWA Project Manager/Engineer, and Rebecca Scibek is CRWA Volunteer Coordinator.

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Embedded Energy in Buildings

By Gilbert Woolley

 

For the past 30 years we have been harangued and implored to reduce use of energy and raw materials: drive less, turn down the thermostat, insulate; recycle paper, cans and bottles; use renewable materials and fuels. These are all necessary and beneficial. But there is one major use of energy that has received little attention: the energy "embedded" in construction materials. This is the energy used to turn wet clay into hard baked bricks, limestone into lime and cement, to melt and process steel, copper and aluminum used in a building. The raw materials for roofing shingles, vinyl siding, cable insulation and plastic piping is derived from oil or natural gas. Even the insulation added to reduce energy losses has an energy content.

To this must be added the energy used to mine the clay, lime and sand, to harvest trees and to transport these materials from mine, quarry and forest to the factories where they are processed, and finally to the construction site.  For a typical house in Massachusetts, this embedded energy may exceed the energy used to heat, cool and light it over a fifteen year period. So, how can some of this energy be saved?

There are significant differences in the energy embedded in various materials. In general, lighter construction embeds less energy than more solid masonry construction.  However, masonry has a much longer potential life and has other advantages, like rot and insect resistance.  In poor countries materials salvaged from demolition of buildings are often recycled, but in the US the cost of labor to separate the wood, cables and pipes from the concrete, plaster and bricks is usually greater than the value of the materials salvaged and the demolition debris is hauled away to a landfill, adding transportation energy and compounding another dilemma of modern life: shortage of landfill space.

The optimal way to save embedded energy (and in the long run to save money) is to make buildings last longer.  Often, demolition is not necessary.  Rooms can be added to houses; factories and warehouses are turned into office space; pricey condos and apartments; unused churches are transformed into restaurants and schools into apartments.  Such re-use by the private sector is usually motivated by cost savings. Local examples show how apparently unpromising buildings can be "recycled". The computer design and prototype manufacturing workshops of Digital Equipment Corporation were located in a 150-year-old mill in Maynard. This mill was fitted out with the latest methods of communication, including fiber optics cables throughout the million square foot, 21 building complex.  The old windows were double glazed, air-conditioning added and roofs well insulated.  Just over the border from Newton in Watertown, "HighTech" Boston Scientific has refurbished an old water mill on the Charles River.  These old buildings are often better built and have finer esthetics than recent construction.

If you are planning remodeling or an addition to your home, ask your architect to incorporate the existing building into the new design. A building is just a shell and the conveniences of modern life can be added to it. In Europe and Asia, buildings are still in active use that are 500, 1000 and more, years old. Even in the US buildings more than 200 years old can be found at many older universities, such as Harvard, and in historic sites like Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. There are many examples of imaginative use of old buildings, impressive structures that escaped being been torn down in the name of "urban renewal".

Gilbert Woolley is a retired engineer and longtime member of the Sierra Club.

This article is archived at www.greendecade.org/environmentpage.html

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Putting a wedge in global warming

By Jill Hahn

The argument over global warming has shifted, from whether it’s real to what we ought to do about it.
On the one hand are those who’ll give you advice about what you, the individual consumer, can do to help. Buy energy-efficient appliances. Trade in your SUV for a hybrid. Change your lightbulbs to compact fluorescents.

On the other hand are those who point out that global warming is a problem of - well, of global dimensions, and your noble yet pitiful attempt to help is like hoping the ocean will care if you remove a drop of water. What you really need to do is learn how to adapt. Get flood insurance. Make sure your air-conditioning works.

So should you change your behavior, or is it pointless? In order to answer that, we need to get a handle on the magnitude of the problem, and the magnitude of your potential response.

Before the industrial age, Earth’s atmosphere contained about 280 parts per million (ppm) of CO2. Today the concentration of CO2 stands at about 375 ppm. There is some agreement that, in order to prevent most of the damaging climate change predicted by global models, we need to limit future atmospheric CO2 concentrations to no more than 500 ppm.
Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala, economists at Princeton University, asked what we would need to do in order to keep atmospheric CO2 from climbing past 500 ppm in the next 50 years. They found that carbon emissions would need to be held near the present level of 7 billion tons (or gigatons) of carbon per year (7 GtC/year) for the next 50 years. There’s a problem, though: emissions are currently on course to more than double in that time, pushing atmospheric CO2 concentrations past 700 ppm.

So Pacala and Socolow made a graph. The top line rises as emissions will if we continue “business as usual.” The bottom line is horizontal, holding steady at 7 billion tons of carbon per year. Pacala and Socolow then divided the difference between the top line and the bottom line into seven equal ‘wedges.’ Each wedge represents an emission-reducing activity that starts at zero today and increases until it accounts for a cumulative total of 25 GtC of reduced emissions over 50 years. In other words, if we can find seven different ways of lowering emissions by 25GtC over the next fifty years, we’ll keep ourselves below the ceiling of 500 ppm of atmospheric CO2.

Gigatons – that’s a lot of carbon. Trading in one SUV won’t do the trick. But what if we insisted that every new car sold in the United States be twice as fuel-efficient as the current fleet? That wouldn’t be hard to achieve, considering that right now the average American passenger car gets 22.4 mpg, while vans, pickups, and SUVs average a measly 16.2 mpg. Pull out your scratch paper.

We buy lots of new cars and light trucks in the US, 6.6 million in 2003 alone. If we doubled the fuel efficiency of these new vehicles, we would save over 5 billion gallons of gasoline per year. Each gallon of gasoline accounts for about 3 kg of carbon, so our new vehicles would save 17 million tons of C in a year. Over 50 years, the savings from that one year’s worth of new, more fuel-efficient automobiles would accrue to 846,387,000 tons, or 0.8 GtC.
Assuming that the same number of new vehicles is built each year for 50 years, these more efficient vehicles would save 21 GtC, almost an entire wedge. Buying that hybrid may represent only a tiny drop, but mandating higher fuel efficiency for all new vehicles would go a long way towards stopping draining the ocean.

What about potential energy savings in your home? Dr. William Moomaw, Director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy at Tufts University, recently built a new home that uses one-third the energy of a conventional house. That’s a high bar to achieve, but “my contractor,” says Dr. Moomaw, “… has built houses that … use 2/3 of the energy of a standard house at no extra cost.”

We know how many new houses are built in the U.S. in a given year, and how much energy they use annually, because the U.S. Census and the Department of Energy keep track of it. We can therefore calculate annual carbon emissions due to new homes (not counting AC): 3,363,228 metric tons.

Let’s be conservative and imagine that these houses were built to be 25% more energy-efficient. That would save us 840,807 metric tons of carbon each year. Over 50 years, adding a million energy-efficient new houses each year, we get a total savings of 1GtC, or a twenty-fifth of a wedge. So, although buying an energy-efficient refrigerator is a responsible thing you can do right now, it’s changing how we build all new buildings that will really make a difference to the planet. And the sooner we begin, the more of an impact we’ll have, since accrued over fifty years, it’s the early changes that make the most difference.

And what about lightbulbs? In 2001, lighting accounted for 101 billion kilowatt hours of U.S. household electricity use, which translates about 105 metric tons C. Compact fluorescents would save 66% of that, or about 5 GtC over 50 years. That’s a fifth of a wedge, if we simply replaced every lightbulb in every home in America with compact fluorescents. How many people does it take to change a lightbulb? Everybody, if we want to change the world.

Jill Hahn, a Newton Highlands resident, is a biologist, a writer, and a mom. All three roles contribute to her interest in environmental issues. She can be reached at jkkhahn@comcast.net.

This article is archived at www.greendecade.org/environmentpage.html

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