Rachel Carson's Warning Was No Fairy Tale

By Jesus Santos

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is a great book that deals with what has happened to the United States to silence the spring season and how it was basically brought upon by human activities. The first chapter dealt with the author making the world seem like a perfect place; abundance of flowers and trees, then fruits and harvests from those trees.

The animals roamed around having a lot to eat and the world was a happier place, then everything became dangerous. The crops went bad, the people who went near the crops got sick or died and suddenly the United States took a turn for the worst. In my opinion the author tried to convey a satire through this story by saying that the world was a better place before chemical poisons.

This book also deals with the scientific history and background of chemical poisons and what started out as a fantasy story becomes very real, and by using numbers and scientific formulas the audience no longer see this book as a fairy tale, but as how the world may be if we continue to not take care of it.

The chapter “The Human Price” should be the chapter that readers look close at because it describes these poisons as being the new environmental hazards when decades before the major concerns were diseases or infections; now we have to worry about the chemicals in the air and throughout the environment. Also, the rise in cancer in the 20th century, which Carson described as having to do with the consumption of what is around us. Therefore, if people pay close attention to their environment they would better understand the reason for their sickness.

While this book was written in the early 1960’s, I think Carson would be happy to know that a lot of what she wrote about is actually happening. “Happy,” signifying that she was correct. For example, with the amount of deforestation that we face today could be described as the seasons going bad as she described in her book. Not long after the book was written, there was the issue of Agent Orange, a chemical poison sprayed on forests and other plants that caused people to get sick, much like how Carson’s book states.

And last, but not least, the eagles and other birds she described in chapter 8 as being in danger of becoming extinct is something that this generation is used to hearing since many birds and even polar bears seem to face a future of possibly being extinct soon. In the Twentieth Century it must have been hard to try making this point to a society that has not been informed much about environmental hazards. Therefore, what this book accomplishes is a foreshadowing of what can happen if we do not live our lives cautiously and try to take care of it for the next generation.

World as Classroom: Trashing Dogs in the Dominican Republic

By Jesus Santos

While serving with the Dominican Republic Alternative Spring Break team, my fellow volunteers as well as myself noticed how the country, even though covered with beauty, has a lot of improvements to do. The country is very poor and it is not shocking when we found children without shoes because of the bad economy, dogs without homes, and garbage at almost every square foot of the road.

(photo: Jesus Santos)

Every day on our commute to the school where we were volunteering, we saw the same dog under the same bench. Since the weather is so hot the dogs tried to lay in the shade so they can avoid the heat. This dog sometimes came out from under the bench and tried to find something to eat. Constantly, we saw dogs roaming around the streets, and a lot of them seemed to not have a home or food, therefore they tried to find it themselves.

The environmental issue in this country in regards to animals is that “every year stray animals are poisoned in communities, at hotel grounds and at beaches of the Dominican Republic (as well as on other Caribbean islands) because one believes that they may disturb the tourists,” stated a petition on change.org.“No more poisoned dogs at hotels and beaches of the Dominican Republic.”

However, what the country is concerned with is not the environmental factor of stray dogs, it is how much money tourists can bring to the Dominican Republic. By having a large tourist season it opens jobs for Dominicans, which sadly only lasts for a couple of months and the unemployment rates rise again.

What this country struggles to do is to be firm with a law that they have in regards to animal safety. While Trujillo was dictator, his “main concern was to elevate Dominican society to the standard of developed nations. The law carries a maximum 30 days imprisonment for offenders and 60 days if the offender is the animal’s owner or has committed a similar offense in the past. According to Mr. Polanco, the law has never really been applied in its entire 60-year history,” stated Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi in her article “Animal Rights in the Dominican Republic.”

This article explained how Trujillo tried implementing a law and the law was not carried over, until one person was imprisoned because of it. However, this law does not protect those animals that are homeless, which is why hotels think it is acceptable to poison those animals.

What this potentially can lead to is to have the population of animals in only one place of the Dominican Republic and if they are not in one place they will start going extinct little by little. Also, these animals are threatened with the economy being so low that they do not have homes of their own, which ultimately can lead to diseases, hunger, thirst, and death.

A solution I propose to this problem is similar to how I volunteer with the DREAM project, an organization where children who are not financially able to go to school can still get an education; maybe an organization should be formed in regards to an animal shelter. If these animals can be rescued based on donations from advertisements to feed them, they would not roam around the hotel areas as much.

(photo: Jesus Santos)

Aside from this environmental issue I have also done research on how the country has poor recycling. You can see the littering that occurs throughout the streets and even in the grass. Since the streets are so narrow, garbage companies have a hard time picking up the trash.

However, the battle with recycling is a tricky one in Dominican Republic, because it benefits them as well. An article written by Erin Taylor states “Low wages and high unemployment rates in many South American countries have compelled many poor people to work as ‘garbage pickers’. These are people who go through municipal garbage to find anything that might be resold. Bottles, cardboard, and metal are the main items collected.” This article focuses on South American countries, but it also includes the Caribbean and states that “to Caribbean musicians inventing styles based on reworked oil drums” as an example to find useful materials out of someone else’s garbage.

A solution I propose to this environmental issue is to have people who usually volunteer experience these harsh living conditions and take it with them to their privileged countries. In doing this, they can spread awareness and a resource on how to help the environment. Since they realize that it is so hard to live in these countries and how people make everything out of nothing they can be more grateful to what they have in their home countries and prevent them from littering or at least help spread awareness on it. Little by little, we can make a change in our environment and ultimately help them.

For more information:
www.change.org/de/Petitionen/no-more-poisoned-dogs-at-hotels-and-beaches-of-the-dominican-republic
dr1.com/articles/animal_rights_1.shtml

Silent Spring: An Alarming Awakening

By Kristen Andrada

Silent Spring is said to be the cause of the American environmental movement in the 1970’s because it asked the American people “Do you realize that life around you is dying?” In the scientific world, people were alarmed about the impacts of toxic chemicals that were carelessly used to kill pests without a thought of how those chemicals would affect their bodies and the environment around them.

Rachel Carson describes how it came to be when “Our attitudes toward poisons have undergone a subtle change. Once they were kept in containers marked with skull and crossbones; the infrequent occasions of their use were marked with utmost care that they should come in contact with the target and with nothing else. With the development of new organic insecticides and the abundance of surplus planes after the Second World War, all this was forgotten.” 

What I absolutely love about Carson’s writing is that she puts this (at the time) new scientific concept into language that everyone could understand. When she mentions a chemical that most people have heard of but didn’t really understand its impacts, she illustrates the body parts the chemical attacks and describes what it could do to the human body.

For example, she describes the physiological effect and symptoms of DDD: “it destroys part of the adrenal gland - the cells of the outer layer known as the adrenal cortex, which secretes the hormone cortin. DDD produced in dogs a condition very similar to that occurring in man in the presence of Addison’s disease.” In this passage, she describes what the adrenal gland is and its normal function in the human body for readers who are unfamiliar with anatomy (such as myself). Even though there was no direct case, no such person who became diagnosed with Addison’s disease after DDD exposure, Carson then makes that connection implying that may be a future case.

In addition to putting the issue into a broad language that wide audiences could understand, Carson also provides examples throughout Silent Spring so her readers can have a sense of that reality. Each chapter becomes a reason for understanding why pesticides are toxic to the environment and human health.

I think the chapter that best describes the relationship between all life on earth is “Earth’s Green Mantle,” when the chapter describes how spraying sage bush, an unwanted plant species in the west, caused an imbalance in the food cycle and affected other non-target species. Wildlife such as antelope, deer and even domesticated animals like cow and sheep fed on sage grass. Ironic how the people who didn’t want the sage bush there were farmers who wanted to make room by destroying the sage bush. The spraying also eliminated non-target species like willows which the moose and beaver feed on. In a chain reaction, the beaver couldn’t build dams to back up lakes and rivers, the trout were struggling to reproduce in lower waters, and birds that would have been attracted to these temporary lakes were forced to travel farther for migration.

Reading Silent Spring reminds us that our actions have consequence and we must think twice before we decide to treat something. We must ask, “Is spraying a living thing that seems undesirable really the only way to treat the problem?” I feel that most of the time, it really isn’t necessary to kill a species for us to live more comfortably. Does chemical warfare on other living things justify the “superior” human race to eradicate a population in the first place?

USA Should Go for Renewable Energy like Germany

By Anthony Vigna

In the United States, environmental advocates constantly fight about the use of energy. Often, those that oppose actions toward renewable resources speak as if a world run on wind, solar, or water energy is too utopian to ever become reality. However, the utopian society that critics think would never happen is already in the process of being created outside of the United States, as Germany projects that 80% of its energy will be renewable in 2050.

Germany’s progress with solar panels in the past couple of years strongly backs that goal up. In July 2013, Germany generated 5.1 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity solely from solar panels, a new record for a country that set their previous record of 5.0 TWh with wind turbines that January.

This is impressive for a number of reasons. Germany is a country that generally gets little sunlight since it’s generally cloudy in that area, yet it still generated a ton of electricity with its solar panels and even holds the world record for energy generated with them. Secondly, utilizing wind energy helped set their previous record. That shows that they used two different renewable sources of energy that both worked exceedingly well.

The most important piece of information to draw from this record is that it will be surpassed once again in the future. This kind of initiative will help Germany reach its alternative energy goal to be effective in sustaining the environment. This proves that alternative energy sources work and should be utilized all around the world; so its mind boggling to me that other countries are behind the times.

According to an article in ThinkProgress, “America’s own German-style solar boom may be just around the corner. Residential solar installations in 2012 reached 488 megawatts — a 62 percent increase over 2011 installations. Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently told Greentech Media that solar is growing so quickly, ‘it could double every two years.’ He continued that other renewable sources will supplement solar, ‘but at its present growth rate, solar will overtake wind in about ten years. It is going to be the dominant player. Everybody’s roof is out there.’”

People often say that solar power would never work, but it clearly works in cloudy Germany. If it works there, imagine what kind of energy the United States would be generating if they were widely adopted here, considering that we have exponentially more sunlight. Solar panels would be efficient in every way possible. In this regard, I want the United States to become more like Germany. They have proved that it is possible to create a utopian society with renewable energy, so it’s our turn to follow in their footsteps and head toward a sustainable future.

For more information:
thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/08/22/2508191/germany-solar-generation-record/

Agent Orange Toxic Legacy Still Expanding

By Rudy Reda

Agent Orange was a deadly mixture of two dangerous herbicides known as 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T that was used by American forces during the Vietnam war. For many years millions of people in Vietnam were exposed to this deadly mixture, friendly and foe; but it was not only in Vietnam that people were being exposed. Here at home, so were many Americans. 

Companies like Dow Chemical, Monsanto and Diamond Alkali were producing vast amounts of this chemical concoction at various factories around the country. These factories contaminated the areas around them, as well as locations downstream from their toxic release into rivers such as the Passaic River in New Jersey.

Although today the U.S provides medical claims for veterans who have been affected by Agent Orange, the government still dispute many claims of expose purely based on location. According to the government, the key locations for Agent Orange exposure were in Vietnam, ships in the ocean off the coast of Vietnam as well as ships conducting operations nearby, the Korean demilitarized zone, Thailand military bases, test and storage facilities all over the globe including within the U.S, and lastly airplanes which were used in Vietnam that may still have chemical residue in post-war conditions.  If a person did not reside at one of these locations during the peak of Agent Orange use, the government is most likely going to argue that ailments have not been caused by Agent Orange exposure.

This lack of acceptance that there has been Agent Orange use elsewhere is causing significant amount of suffering for others who have been legitimately exposed to the deadly chemicals.  One such example of this situation is with members of the Maine Army National Guard who had been sent for training in Canada. These American soldiers report that there has been the use of Agent Orange at the base in they resided at and that this usage is the cause of their illnesses, yet the American government will not accept that idea.  The current governor of Maine recently signed a bill into law which calls on the federal government to investigate the situation so that these American veterans can receive disability aid for their exposure, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Today one half of this dangerous chemical, 2,4,5-T, is banned. While the other, 2,4-D, is in fact very much still in use around the United States. Even without its other half, 2,4-D is an extremely toxic and dangerous chemical. Despite this fact, the chemical companies which produced Agent Orange still wish to see an increase in the use of 2,4-D today but not on the battlefield, but on our food.  With the growing use of genetically modified crops throughout this country there is a push to approve the use of 2,4-D resistant crops. The impact of this could be detrimental to not just Vietnam veterans but all Americans alike. This chemical has a high ability to leach out of the soil in which is sprayed on and into the groundwater where it can spread.

The use of Agent Orange is not a shining chapter in American history, yet it is one in which we fail to close the book on.  Despite the years that have passed, we have yet to fully repay our debt to those who we have caused illness upon and have even taken an attempt to increase partial use on food despite knowing the risks involved. All that we need to do is look to the past and see the suffering that those who have been affected now face and realize that as a whole, our country has some serious work to be done to correct our errors in history. 

For more information:
www.pressherald.com/news/Maine_wants_recognition_of_Agent_Orange_exposure.html

Great Kills Park Radiation Cleanup Planning Underway

By Brianne Bishop

Great Kills Park on Staten Island is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. This area includes Sandy Hook, Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refugee, Jacob Riis Park, Frank Charles Park, Hamilton Beach, Floyd Bennett Field, Canarsie Pier, Great Kills Park, Fort Wadsworth, and Miller Field.  The recreation area consists of many sections of land, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, spread around New York City and New Jersey.

Contamination at Great Kills Park was discovered in 2005 when a police flyover picked up radiation signals. Initial investigation proved that the land contained radium waste. A small piece of land was fenced off from the public for safety precautions. Much of the land that makes up Great Kills Park was the site of a landfill in the 1940s and 1950s. This landfill contained medical and sanitary waste, so it was no surprise that there was some type of contamination.

Initially, the radium was thought to consume a small area. Further investigations using a gamma survey showed otherwise. The process was nearly complete when Hurricane Sandy hit. The storm impacted a large portion of Gateway National Recreation Area and greatly delayed the survey process. The completion of the survey this year shows that the contamination is much worse than thought. The National Park Service is working with the EPA and United States Army Corps of Engineers to further investigate and test the area for more radioactive hot spots.

Out of 488 acres of parkland, 266 acres are now fenced off because they believe these areas are affected by contamination. According to the National Park Service website, the cleanup will be following CERCLA or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as the “Superfund” law. This law states that the owners of the land must take responsibility in taking action to cleanup the site, enforce against the responsible parties, ensure community involvement, and ensure long-term results.

On-going investigations have been conducted on who is responsible for this contamination. “The National Park Service recently identified the source of at least some of the radioactive contamination: discarded radium needles that had been inserted into cancerous tumors,” the New York Times reported last fall. The park service is going to complete further investigation as well as draw up a plan of action for de-contamination.

Projected completion of the project is 10 years, due to the lengthy process and protocol that must be followed in ensuring the process is done thoroughly.

Residents who live around the area have increasing concerns about the growing radioactive activity. The nearby community is primarily made up of Russian-born citizens whom have strong memories of Chernobyl. The National Park Service has been receiving many concerned phone calls regarding the contamination and if it will put the surrounding community in danger. In order to tend to the needs of the people, the park service plans to involve the community with the cleanup as much as possible and allow them to have their voices heard. There will be a public meeting on May 15th to discuss cleanup plans.


For more information:
www.nytimes.com/2013/11/26/nyregion/radiation-cleanup-at-staten-island-park-to-take-years.html?_r=1&
www.nps.gov/gate/parkmgmt/greatkillscleanup.htm

Ramapo College Earth Week Events

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kristen Andrada

A Compilation of News Releases for Ramapo College’s Earth Day Activities

Bee Demonstrations

From Monday, April 21st to Friday, April 25th

Every day from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm

Sharp Sustainability Education Center

During the week of Earth Day, the members of the Ramapo College Beekeeping Club (RCBC) will be giving bee demonstrations, which are open to all members of Ramapo College.

Click on the following link to make a reservation: https://orgsync.com/82393/events/762963/occurrences/1563980.

Those who cannot create or don’t have an OrgSync account, email beekeeping@ramapo.edu to make arrangements. Reminders and additional information (hive visit guidelines and safety tips) will be sent to those who sign up via OrgSync/email.

There is a limit of 10 guests at the hive each day and a person cannot sign up for more than one demonstration. Reservations are required and the club will ask those who did not sign up to leave the hive area for their safety.

For more information on RCBC: https://orgsync.com/82393/chapter.

For contact information, email beekeeping@ramapo.edu.

RCBC poster for the event: http://tinyurl.com/RCBCSpring14poster.  

Asian Pacific Islander Keynote Speaker - Jea Sophia Oh

Tuesday, April 22nd

1:00 pm-2:00 pm

Pavillion

As part of Asian Pacific Islander (API) Month, the API committee has invited Jea Sophia Oh, the author of “A Postcolonial Theology of Life: Planarity East and West,” to speak in the Pavillion at Ramapo College of New Jersey from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm for Earth Day. Oh is also Professor of Asian Philosophies at City University of New York Brooklyn College. Her research areas are constructive theology, eco-theology, post-colonialism, women's and gender studies, and comparative theologies and religions. She will give a lecture on "Delivering Peace Out of the Broken Womb: A Postcolonial Inter-religious Perspective.” This lecture is free and open to the public and it provides a unique opportunity to learn about the environmental philosophy of East Asia.

For contact information about the event, email Seon Mi Kim, the Assistant Professor of Social Work at Ramapo College, at skim14@ramapo.edu.

Urban Planning Earth Day Celebration with SWAG (South Ward Agricultural Garden Project)

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

2:00 pm-6:00 pm

343 Meeker Ave, Newark, New Jersey

SWAG is an Urban Farm, Food Justice and Community Building project in the South Ward of Newark. Their main goal is for people to gain exposure to SWAG and to learn something about food, fitness, environment or their community.

This year SWAG will have Earth Day in conjunction with Peshine School but the event also open to rest of South Ward. SWAG will feature dance classes, many activities for kids, information on the farm, dietary health, and a healthy foods potluck with samples for people. 1Step is sponsoring this event at Ramapo College of New Jersey so students are offered the opportunity to work with SWAG on Earth Day. Students will have a chance to learn more about the field of urban planning and instruction on sustainable gardening and farming.

Volunteers will participate by helping set up, station at tables in the garden/farm, break down stations, and clean up. Students will work directly with children from adjacent schools.

A bus will depart from the Bradley Center on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 1:25 pm to arrive at 343 Meeker Ave., Newark, NJ by 2:45 pm. The bus will leave promptly at 7:00 pm.

Students must get their free tickets from Roadrunner Central in order to go on the trip.

For contact information, email Dayvonn Jones, the President of 1Step, at djones1@ramapo.edu or Angel Williams, the event coordinator, at angelhiphop.williams@gmail.com.

For more information on SWAG Project: http://plantseedsofhope.org/swag-project/  

1Step Poster for SWAG Earth Day Celebration: https://os_uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/541186_SWAG%20Earth%20Day%20Poster.jpg

Foraging for Edible and Medicinal Plants

Wednesday April 23, 2014

10:30am-2:00pm

Sharp Sustainability Education Center

The Master’s Program for Sustainability Studies along with other co-sponsors 1-Step and Sigma XI are presenting speaker “Wildman” Steve Brill at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Steve Brill is an environmental educator and has been doing foraging tours for almost 32 years! His first public tour was done on April 24, 1982 in Central Park. At Ramapo College’s Sharp Sustainability Center, Brill will take faculty and students out onto Ramapo campus and find edible wild plants. Click on the following link to register for free: Ramapo College Foraging for Edible and Medicinal Plants Eventbrite Event. Upon registering for the event, participants may also donate money for Brill’s efforts.

After Earth Day, his next tour will be on April 26, 2014 again in Central Park. To sign up for this tour, call (914)-835-2153 at least 24 hours in advance. For more information on the tour (including where to meet in Central park and expected plants to forage), click on the following link: Steve Brill's April 26 Central Park Tour

For more information on Steve Brill and his work: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/body.html

For contact information on the Ramapo event, email Ashwani Vasisth at vasishth@ramapo.edu.

Master of Arts in Sustainability Studies (MASS) Capstone Presentations

Thursday, April 24, 2014

6:00-9:00 pm

Friends Hall (Student Center, Room 219)

As part of this Spring’s Expert Practitioner Series, the students of MASS will present their capstone projects that they have been developing over the two years of the program. The Sustainability Program has hosted the Expert Practitioner Series for three years at the start of each Spring semester. This year, the program has invited speakers from diverse backgrounds from the locality of Ramapo College to small islands of Maldives, the lands of Russia, and the deep jungles of the Amazon. The series of presentations is free and opened to the public.

For more information, visit http://www.ramapo.edu/mass/

For contact information, email Michael Edelstein, Professor of Environmental Psychology, Programs in Environmental and Sustainability Studies, at medelste@ramapo.edu.