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"content": "\u003cp>When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, most of lower Manhattan went dark, and it was almost two weeks before most of the power was restored. But in \u003ca href=\"http://www.tecogen.com/2944109b-07d0-44c5-9ea7-48b71fa292b6/about-us-news-and-events-press-releases-detail.htm\">one building\u003c/a> in Greenwich Village, the lights stayed on and the heat kept working (and the building’s population doubled). That’s because, as University of Wisconsin engineering professor Thomas Jahns explained, that building had “its own miniature version of a utility grid”: a microgrid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Big Old Power Grid\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trillions of watts of electricity used every year in the United States are delivered by just three huge power grids. The grids’ size and interconnectivity make electricity cheap and accommodate differences in supply and demand between different regions, but it also leaves the whole network vulnerable -- like the time a glitch in an Ohio control room caused a \u003ca href=\"http://boingboing.net/2012/08/03/blackout-whats-wrong-with-t.html\">$10 billion blackout \u003c/a>in the Northeast and parts of Canada. Or when a worker in Arizona accidentally tripped a power line, and a \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/2011-blackout-in-san-diego_n_1468552.html\">power outage\u003c/a> swept from Southern California to Mexico. The number of major outages like these is \u003ca href=\"http://www.ibtimes.com/aging-us-power-grid-blacks-out-more-any-other-developed-nation-1631086\">rising\u003c/a>, and because climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme Sandy-like storms, the problem is only going to get worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the demands on the grid are climbing as its \u003ca href=\"http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/energy/\">aging infrastructure \u003c/a>is getting more and more fragile. The average U.S. power plant is 30 years old, and the average power line is 25 years old. Transformers that were only designed to last 40 years have been in service much longer. And even if all those elements were replaced, the grid in its current form was mostly designed in the first half of the twentieth century, when electricity was first a novelty, then a luxury. It was never intended to support a country dependent on air conditioning, computers, and millions of personal electronic devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A “Smarter” Option\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planning is underway to replace the aging U.S. power network with a new, \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/03/22/what-is-the-smart-grid-anyway-video/\">“smart” grid\u003c/a>, one that’s energy efficient and flexible enough to handle variability in both supply and demand -- and one that can isolate electrical crises before they spread. Incorporating the communication and automation technologies that already facilitate so many other aspects of our lives should make the currently clunky grid much more responsive and efficient enough to save tens of billions of dollars every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Microgrids: A New Old Idea\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the elements of this reimagined grid is actually a recycled old idea: small, independent grids serving neighborhoods, hospitals, and even individual buildings. The key to a modern microgrid is the “smart” switch linking it to the main grid. These switches can respond automatically to the grid’s needs, opening or closing in less than a thirtieth of a second. When it’s connected to the main grid, the microgrid can draw extra power from the communal pool or return any extra energy back to it so that watts on either side of the switch don’t go to waste. But if the power goes out, the switch can open, severing the connection and keeping the outage from spreading. This gives microgrids flexibility that neither a single large grid nor isolated independent grids have on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71611\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-71611\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771.jpg\" alt='This is the \"smart switch\" for the research microgrid at the Wisconsin Energy Institute. It can automatically isolate the microgrid from the main grid. Photo by Matt Wisniewski/WEI.' width=\"640\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771-400x226.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is the \"smart switch\" for the research microgrid at the Wisconsin Energy Institute. It can automatically isolate the microgrid from the main grid. Photo by Matt Wisniewski/WEI.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Juggling Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>“Really, it's a game-changer in a lot of different ways,” Jahns explained. One of the benefits of a microgrid is that its flexibility makes it easier to incorporate renewable energy sources, something that’s perennially tricky. “Renewables are great,” said Jahns, “but unfortunately, the sun goes up; the sun goes down. The wind blows; the wind doesn't blow. But we want to turn on a light switch and expect the light to come on all the time.” For a microgrid, there’s no problem. If it’s cloudy or windless, connecting to the main grid can make up the difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Capturing Wasted Heat\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Another major advantage of a microgrid is that it allows you to get much more out of the energy sources you’re using. “I don't think people realize just how much of the energy of a lump of coal -- or even from a nuclear power plant -- how much heat is wasted.” In fact, he said, if you’re turning 50 percent of the source energy into usable electricity, you’re doing well. The rest is lost as heat. In a compact microgrid, combined heat and power generators can recover some of that lost energy and put it to work, boosting energy efficiency from 50 to 80 percent. There’s not much else you can do to make efficiency skyrocket like that, Jahns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adapting to Changing Needs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://energy.wisc.edu/annual-report/exploring-energy/WEI-Exploring-Energy-Microgrids.pdf\">microgrid\u003c/a> Jahn oversees at the university’s \u003ca href=\"https://energy.wisc.edu\">Wisconsin Energy Institute\u003c/a> is a cousin of the one that kept the Greenwich Village co-op out of trouble during Hurricane Sandy. This type of microgrid is particularly flexible because it seamlessly adjusts to new loads and new sources without needing a lot of expensive engineering on the front end. “Plug-and-play functionality and autonomous control, that’s the absolutely key part of it,” explained Bob Lasseter, an emeritus professor at UW who developed the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That easy adaptability could make microgrids even more appealing. If a business or a school knew that it wouldn’t have to rework its grid when it needed to add a new building or wanted to put in a solar panel, that might lower the entrance barrier to embracing new technology. These simple but endlessly modifiable microgrids could also be ideal for developing countries without energy infrastructure but with access to energy resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Road Ahead\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting utilities and governments on board with individual consumers supplying their own electricity -- at least part of the time -- won’t necessarily be easy everywhere. Even though microgrids are designed to interact with the main grid, the ability to produce and consume energy locally constitutes a fundamental change in the way we approach and pay for an integral and ubiquitous service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, look out there. What do you see?” Jahns asked, gesturing out the window. “You see power lines and lights. That's a lot of the infrastructure that we just kind of take for granted around us. And now we're talking about changing it in a significant way that is unlike anything that we've seen before. So that's kind of mind-boggling to imagine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71609\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-71609\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14.jpg\" alt=\"Graphic by Vicki Pierce/Wisconsin Public Television\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1056\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14.jpg 1600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-400x264.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-800x528.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-1440x950.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-1180x779.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-960x634.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic by Vicki Pierce/Wisconsin Public Television\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012, most of lower Manhattan went dark, and it was almost two weeks before most of the power was restored. But in \u003ca href=\"http://www.tecogen.com/2944109b-07d0-44c5-9ea7-48b71fa292b6/about-us-news-and-events-press-releases-detail.htm\">one building\u003c/a> in Greenwich Village, the lights stayed on and the heat kept working (and the building’s population doubled). That’s because, as University of Wisconsin engineering professor Thomas Jahns explained, that building had “its own miniature version of a utility grid”: a microgrid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Big Old Power Grid\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trillions of watts of electricity used every year in the United States are delivered by just three huge power grids. The grids’ size and interconnectivity make electricity cheap and accommodate differences in supply and demand between different regions, but it also leaves the whole network vulnerable -- like the time a glitch in an Ohio control room caused a \u003ca href=\"http://boingboing.net/2012/08/03/blackout-whats-wrong-with-t.html\">$10 billion blackout \u003c/a>in the Northeast and parts of Canada. Or when a worker in Arizona accidentally tripped a power line, and a \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/01/2011-blackout-in-san-diego_n_1468552.html\">power outage\u003c/a> swept from Southern California to Mexico. The number of major outages like these is \u003ca href=\"http://www.ibtimes.com/aging-us-power-grid-blacks-out-more-any-other-developed-nation-1631086\">rising\u003c/a>, and because climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme Sandy-like storms, the problem is only going to get worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the demands on the grid are climbing as its \u003ca href=\"http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/energy/\">aging infrastructure \u003c/a>is getting more and more fragile. The average U.S. power plant is 30 years old, and the average power line is 25 years old. Transformers that were only designed to last 40 years have been in service much longer. And even if all those elements were replaced, the grid in its current form was mostly designed in the first half of the twentieth century, when electricity was first a novelty, then a luxury. It was never intended to support a country dependent on air conditioning, computers, and millions of personal electronic devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A “Smarter” Option\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planning is underway to replace the aging U.S. power network with a new, \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/03/22/what-is-the-smart-grid-anyway-video/\">“smart” grid\u003c/a>, one that’s energy efficient and flexible enough to handle variability in both supply and demand -- and one that can isolate electrical crises before they spread. Incorporating the communication and automation technologies that already facilitate so many other aspects of our lives should make the currently clunky grid much more responsive and efficient enough to save tens of billions of dollars every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Microgrids: A New Old Idea\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the elements of this reimagined grid is actually a recycled old idea: small, independent grids serving neighborhoods, hospitals, and even individual buildings. The key to a modern microgrid is the “smart” switch linking it to the main grid. These switches can respond automatically to the grid’s needs, opening or closing in less than a thirtieth of a second. When it’s connected to the main grid, the microgrid can draw extra power from the communal pool or return any extra energy back to it so that watts on either side of the switch don’t go to waste. But if the power goes out, the switch can open, severing the connection and keeping the outage from spreading. This gives microgrids flexibility that neither a single large grid nor isolated independent grids have on their own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71611\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-71611\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771.jpg\" alt='This is the \"smart switch\" for the research microgrid at the Wisconsin Energy Institute. It can automatically isolate the microgrid from the main grid. Photo by Matt Wisniewski/WEI.' width=\"640\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8459-web-e1405705645771-400x226.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is the \"smart switch\" for the research microgrid at the Wisconsin Energy Institute. It can automatically isolate the microgrid from the main grid. Photo by Matt Wisniewski/WEI.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Juggling Renewables\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>“Really, it's a game-changer in a lot of different ways,” Jahns explained. One of the benefits of a microgrid is that its flexibility makes it easier to incorporate renewable energy sources, something that’s perennially tricky. “Renewables are great,” said Jahns, “but unfortunately, the sun goes up; the sun goes down. The wind blows; the wind doesn't blow. But we want to turn on a light switch and expect the light to come on all the time.” For a microgrid, there’s no problem. If it’s cloudy or windless, connecting to the main grid can make up the difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Capturing Wasted Heat\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Another major advantage of a microgrid is that it allows you to get much more out of the energy sources you’re using. “I don't think people realize just how much of the energy of a lump of coal -- or even from a nuclear power plant -- how much heat is wasted.” In fact, he said, if you’re turning 50 percent of the source energy into usable electricity, you’re doing well. The rest is lost as heat. In a compact microgrid, combined heat and power generators can recover some of that lost energy and put it to work, boosting energy efficiency from 50 to 80 percent. There’s not much else you can do to make efficiency skyrocket like that, Jahns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adapting to Changing Needs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://energy.wisc.edu/annual-report/exploring-energy/WEI-Exploring-Energy-Microgrids.pdf\">microgrid\u003c/a> Jahn oversees at the university’s \u003ca href=\"https://energy.wisc.edu\">Wisconsin Energy Institute\u003c/a> is a cousin of the one that kept the Greenwich Village co-op out of trouble during Hurricane Sandy. This type of microgrid is particularly flexible because it seamlessly adjusts to new loads and new sources without needing a lot of expensive engineering on the front end. “Plug-and-play functionality and autonomous control, that’s the absolutely key part of it,” explained Bob Lasseter, an emeritus professor at UW who developed the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That easy adaptability could make microgrids even more appealing. If a business or a school knew that it wouldn’t have to rework its grid when it needed to add a new building or wanted to put in a solar panel, that might lower the entrance barrier to embracing new technology. These simple but endlessly modifiable microgrids could also be ideal for developing countries without energy infrastructure but with access to energy resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Road Ahead\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting utilities and governments on board with individual consumers supplying their own electricity -- at least part of the time -- won’t necessarily be easy everywhere. Even though microgrids are designed to interact with the main grid, the ability to produce and consume energy locally constitutes a fundamental change in the way we approach and pay for an integral and ubiquitous service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, look out there. What do you see?” Jahns asked, gesturing out the window. “You see power lines and lights. That's a lot of the infrastructure that we just kind of take for granted around us. And now we're talking about changing it in a significant way that is unlike anything that we've seen before. So that's kind of mind-boggling to imagine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71609\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-71609\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14.jpg\" alt=\"Graphic by Vicki Pierce/Wisconsin Public Television\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1056\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14.jpg 1600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-400x264.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-800x528.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-1440x950.jpg 1440w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-1180x779.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Quest-Microgrid-1600x1056-7-17-14-960x634.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic by Vicki Pierce/Wisconsin Public Television\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Coal Ash Conundrum",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>QUEST North Carolina’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/author/dlane/\">Daniel Lane\u003c/a> contributed to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a Sunday in February in Eden, North Carolina, a sinkhole formed in the middle of a pond of coal ash slurry next to the retired Dan River Steam Station. A stormwater pipe underneath the ash pond cracked and was sucking in ash and shuttling it to the nearby river. Duke Energy, owner of the facility, sent emergency crews to the site, but it was a complicated fix. By the time they got it securely sealed on Thursday, the 48-inch pipe had belched more than 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dan, a major tributary of one of the largest and least disturbed ecosystems on the East Coast, ran gray. From Danville, Virginia, whose 42,000 residents draw their water from the river, to Kerr Lake, home to seven recreation areas with 800 miles of trails, a gray ribbon of coal ash was visible along 70 miles of prime sport-fishing territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71432\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 326px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/coal-ash-generation.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71432 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/coal-ash-generation-326x253.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"326\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coal ash can have 24 times the concentration of selenium compared to native soil. Click to enlarge. Courtesy: EPA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Is Coal Ash?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal to make electricity. For every nine million tons of coal burned in the U.S., approximately \u003ca href=\"http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/coal/coalmyb01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">one ton of coal ash is produced\u003c/a>. Coal ash is a highly concentrated source of the mineral content that is left after the carbon is burned. It is similar to soil in terms of grain size and texture but contains high concentrations of toxic elements like selenium and arsenic. Coal ash is typically stored wet behind earthen dams adjacent to the power plant. The security of these impoundments is currently under review. The EPA is assessing the hazard potential of the 676 impoundments around the country. As of March 2014, 52 surface impoundments were given a “high” hazard potential rating by the EPA, meaning a failure of the impoundment is “probable, one or more expected.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nWhy This Matters\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Water tests at the Danville water treatment plant showed a spike in arsenic in the first days of the contamination, but arsenic levels returned to normal a week later. The ash, however, was not gone. It was just gone from view, merged with the most fertile zone in a river -- the nutrient-rich and life-giving layer of sediment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most species of aquatic insects live in the sediment, collecting, filtering, and grazing upon minute particles of food. Nothing goes to waste down there, not even the arsenic and selenium from coal ash. Heavy metals get lodged into the tissues of any insect that eats them. When minnows eat the insects, they consume the toxins. Larger fish get toxins from every minnow they eat. As you climb higher in the food chain, the amount of arsenic or selenium you find multiplies progressively. This process is called \u003ca href=\"http://sustainablenano.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/3-bioaccumulation-vs-biomagnification.png\" target=\"_blank\">biomagnification\u003c/a> and it has impacts on a food web from bottom to top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://media.news.wfu.edu/experts/dennis-lemly/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Dennis Lemly\u003c/a>, research fish biologist and professor of biology at Wake Forest University, calls selenium an “invisible” toxin because it doesn’t directly harm the fish that eats it. “Instead, it migrates to the ovaries and enters growing embryos, causing defects in major organs and physical deformities in the head, spine, mouth, and fins (see effects of selenium poisoning in North Carolina \u003ca href=\"http://appvoices.org/2013/12/05/effects-of-selenium-poisoning-deformed-and-dying-fish-at-sutton-lake/\" target=\"_blank\">here\u003c/a>). A lot of them die shortly after birth,” Lemly said. “So over a period of two or three years, the older fish die off and there’s no young ones to replace them and repopulate. They just die off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71431\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 367px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71431\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-400x253.jpg\" alt=\"Location of coal ash contamination sites as of Feb, 2014. Red denotes a coal ash contaminated site. Green denotes a coal ash spill. Black denotes both a contaminated site and a spill. Source: EPA Coal Ash Damage Cases. Map courtesy Arc-GIS\" width=\"367\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-400x253.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-800x505.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-1180x746.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-960x607.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites.jpg 1396w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 367px) 100vw, 367px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Location of coal ash contamination sites as of Feb, 2014. Red denotes a coal ash contaminated site. Green denotes a coal ash spill. Black denotes both a contaminated site and a spill. Click to enlarge. Source: EPA Coal Ash Damage Cases. Map courtesy Arc-GIS\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Future of Coal Ash Disposal\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nWhile the long-term effects of the Dan River coal ash spill won't be known for a while, the short-term effects may be influencing regulation. In 2008, the catastrophic 1.1 billion gallon spill in Kingston, Tennessee, galvanized public debate about coal ash storage. In 2010, the EPA proposed the nation’s first-ever rules to ensure the safe disposal of coal ash. According to the EPA, “these rules would ensure stronger oversight of the structural integrity of impoundments in order to prevent future accidents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Lemly is in favor of more regulation, “I have been on record many times recommending a complete banning of the surface disposal in impoundments. I continue to do that. I’m hopeful that the EPA ruling on coal ash that is supposed to come out in December will provide a complete ban on surface impoundment disposal.” The EPA is expected to finalize their rules for coal ash on December 19.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>QUEST North Carolina’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/author/dlane/\">Daniel Lane\u003c/a> contributed to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a Sunday in February in Eden, North Carolina, a sinkhole formed in the middle of a pond of coal ash slurry next to the retired Dan River Steam Station. A stormwater pipe underneath the ash pond cracked and was sucking in ash and shuttling it to the nearby river. Duke Energy, owner of the facility, sent emergency crews to the site, but it was a complicated fix. By the time they got it securely sealed on Thursday, the 48-inch pipe had belched more than 39,000 tons of coal ash into the Dan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dan, a major tributary of one of the largest and least disturbed ecosystems on the East Coast, ran gray. From Danville, Virginia, whose 42,000 residents draw their water from the river, to Kerr Lake, home to seven recreation areas with 800 miles of trails, a gray ribbon of coal ash was visible along 70 miles of prime sport-fishing territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71432\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 326px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/coal-ash-generation.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71432 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/coal-ash-generation-326x253.jpg\" alt=\" \" width=\"326\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coal ash can have 24 times the concentration of selenium compared to native soil. Click to enlarge. Courtesy: EPA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Is Coal Ash?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal to make electricity. For every nine million tons of coal burned in the U.S., approximately \u003ca href=\"http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/coal/coalmyb01.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">one ton of coal ash is produced\u003c/a>. Coal ash is a highly concentrated source of the mineral content that is left after the carbon is burned. It is similar to soil in terms of grain size and texture but contains high concentrations of toxic elements like selenium and arsenic. Coal ash is typically stored wet behind earthen dams adjacent to the power plant. The security of these impoundments is currently under review. The EPA is assessing the hazard potential of the 676 impoundments around the country. As of March 2014, 52 surface impoundments were given a “high” hazard potential rating by the EPA, meaning a failure of the impoundment is “probable, one or more expected.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nWhy This Matters\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Water tests at the Danville water treatment plant showed a spike in arsenic in the first days of the contamination, but arsenic levels returned to normal a week later. The ash, however, was not gone. It was just gone from view, merged with the most fertile zone in a river -- the nutrient-rich and life-giving layer of sediment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most species of aquatic insects live in the sediment, collecting, filtering, and grazing upon minute particles of food. Nothing goes to waste down there, not even the arsenic and selenium from coal ash. Heavy metals get lodged into the tissues of any insect that eats them. When minnows eat the insects, they consume the toxins. Larger fish get toxins from every minnow they eat. As you climb higher in the food chain, the amount of arsenic or selenium you find multiplies progressively. This process is called \u003ca href=\"http://sustainablenano.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/3-bioaccumulation-vs-biomagnification.png\" target=\"_blank\">biomagnification\u003c/a> and it has impacts on a food web from bottom to top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://media.news.wfu.edu/experts/dennis-lemly/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Dennis Lemly\u003c/a>, research fish biologist and professor of biology at Wake Forest University, calls selenium an “invisible” toxin because it doesn’t directly harm the fish that eats it. “Instead, it migrates to the ovaries and enters growing embryos, causing defects in major organs and physical deformities in the head, spine, mouth, and fins (see effects of selenium poisoning in North Carolina \u003ca href=\"http://appvoices.org/2013/12/05/effects-of-selenium-poisoning-deformed-and-dying-fish-at-sutton-lake/\" target=\"_blank\">here\u003c/a>). A lot of them die shortly after birth,” Lemly said. “So over a period of two or three years, the older fish die off and there’s no young ones to replace them and repopulate. They just die off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71431\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 367px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71431\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-400x253.jpg\" alt=\"Location of coal ash contamination sites as of Feb, 2014. Red denotes a coal ash contaminated site. Green denotes a coal ash spill. Black denotes both a contaminated site and a spill. Source: EPA Coal Ash Damage Cases. Map courtesy Arc-GIS\" width=\"367\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-400x253.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-800x505.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-1180x746.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites-960x607.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/4.-location-of-coal-ash-sites.jpg 1396w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 367px) 100vw, 367px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Location of coal ash contamination sites as of Feb, 2014. Red denotes a coal ash contaminated site. Green denotes a coal ash spill. Black denotes both a contaminated site and a spill. Click to enlarge. Source: EPA Coal Ash Damage Cases. Map courtesy Arc-GIS\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Future of Coal Ash Disposal\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nWhile the long-term effects of the Dan River coal ash spill won't be known for a while, the short-term effects may be influencing regulation. In 2008, the catastrophic 1.1 billion gallon spill in Kingston, Tennessee, galvanized public debate about coal ash storage. In 2010, the EPA proposed the nation’s first-ever rules to ensure the safe disposal of coal ash. According to the EPA, “these rules would ensure stronger oversight of the structural integrity of impoundments in order to prevent future accidents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Lemly is in favor of more regulation, “I have been on record many times recommending a complete banning of the surface disposal in impoundments. I continue to do that. I’m hopeful that the EPA ruling on coal ash that is supposed to come out in December will provide a complete ban on surface impoundment disposal.” The EPA is expected to finalize their rules for coal ash on December 19.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Fire Returns to The Great Plains",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/qbl-int-usw2/QUEST+Nebraska/Radio/Stream/PrescribedBurnQuest.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71048\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71048 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis.jpg\" alt=\"QUEST jose luis\" width=\"639\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis.jpg 639w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jose Luis Duce, from Spain's Ministry of the Environment, is training to do a prescribed burn with firefighters from Spain, Colorado, Wyoming, California, and Nebraska. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71043\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 168px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Phil-Dye.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71043 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Phil-Dye-168x253.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Dye\" width=\"168\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Phil Dye uses a flapper tool to put out any remaining flames on the black line. (Photo credit: Ben Wheeler, Pheasants Forever)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you’re working on a prescribed burn, you need to have a few things with you. “This tool here is called a thaw claw or a hoe… This is called a fire swatter or flapper,” said Phil Dye, a firefighter from the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flapper looks exactly like a giant flyswatter. But that’s not how it’s used. Right now Dye and a few dozen firefighters are doing what’s called “black lining” just outside Elba, a small town on the Loup River in north central Nebraska. The crew is split into igniters and holders, and they’re walking along a 15-foot-wide line of grass that’s been mowed around the perimeter of a burn unit. The igniters pour gasoline on the short grass and then light the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the grass has burned black, the holders drag their flappers on the ground to smother any remaining flames. Tomorrow, if the weather, wind, and humidity are just right, the firefighters will set fire to the 700 acres inside the black line. That line keeps the fire from spreading outside the burn unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically, it’s a buffer, because fire’s not going to burn in an area that’s already been burned,” Dye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71052\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Small-Cedars.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-71052\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Small-Cedars-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Young eastern redcedars killed during the burn. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young eastern redcedars killed during the burn. (Photo credit: Ben Wheeler, Pheasants Forever)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Why burn?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The firefighters are participating in a 10-day-long training exchange hosted by \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.org/\">The Nature Conservancy\u003c/a> and the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://nebraskapf.com/\">Pheasants Forever\u003c/a>. The exchange has two goals: one is for firefighters to train on a prescribed burn and the other is to actually burn 4,000 acres of land to control the eastern redcedar population on the prairie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redcedars are native to Nebraska, but they’re starting to take over grassland areas -- partly because of us. Ben Wheeler, the wildlife ecologist with the conservation group Pheasants Forever, said, “When white settlers moved in, we began some pretty aggressive fire-suppression campaigns, you know, because people were worried about fire going through their homesteads and being destructive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today the redcedar population has grown so much that parts of the prairie look more like forest than grassland. Wheeler says that eastern redcedars used to only grow where natural wildfire couldn’t reach them, like steep, northern-facing slopes. Without fire, Wheeler said, “Those refuge areas for trees expanded exponentially -- basically across the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71053\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 168px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Ashley.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71053 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Ashley-168x253.jpg\" alt=\"Ashley\" width=\"168\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Ashley Whitworth sprays water along the edges of the black line that will end up being about 15 feet wide and encompass 700 acres. (Photo credit: Ben Wheeler, Pheasants Forever)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Don Westover, fire program leader with the \u003ca href=\"http://nfs.unl.edu/\">Nebraska Forest Service\u003c/a>, said recently that land management organizations like the U.S. Forest Service went from seeing fire as a threat to an integral force in prairie ecology. Westover said, “The U.S. Forest Service had a policy for a number of years that they called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Policy/Fire/Suppression/Suppression.aspx\">10 am policy\u003c/a>, and that policy stated that all wildfires will be suppressed by 10 am the morning following the fire started.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That all changed for the Forest Service and other federal agencies about 25 years ago. Instead of putting every fire out, the current policy is to let wildfires happen under very controlled circumstances, like at the training exchange near Elba, Nebraska.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping control\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Safety is every firefighter’s concern on the training exchange, especially for Dye, who is the burn’s plan chief. Every night he writes the \u003ca href=\"http://gpfirescience.missouristate.edu/assets/gpfirescience/NE_NRCSexampleBurnPlanFillable.pdf\">incident action plan\u003c/a>, or IAP, for the next day’s work. It’s a thick document that lists things like the burn’s objectives, weather forecast, each crew member’s assignment, and a go/no go checklist. Everything on the checklist has to be “yes before we can light fire,” Dye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71041\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.33.52.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71041 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.33.52-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After spraying water on the borders of the black line, firefighters pour gas, ignite the grass, and wait for the fire to burn out. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The IAP is handbook, schedule, and manual all in one for the firefighters to refer to throughout the day. It cuts down on the chances that someone will accidentally start a fire. Dye has worked on grassland burns before, but not all the firefighters here have, like Ashley Whitworth, a firefighter in the Colorado Springs Fire Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve only done ditch burning and a few prescribed fires, but not 700 acres,” Whitworth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71039\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.36.37.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71039 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.36.37-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Once the grass has burnt, the crew follows with flappers to make sure the fire is out. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are also firefighters from Nebraska, Idaho, Minnesota, Utah, California, and even Spain. Jose Luis Duce works for the Ministry of Environment in Spain and is one of 12 visiting firefighters. He’s also never worked on a prescribed fire, but he says that Spain’s grasslands evolved with fire, similar to Nebraska’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This kind of fuel, we have this fuel in Spain,” Duce said, “but we don’t burn that much in Spain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel, to firefighters, means anything that will burn. In this case, Duce means grass. Like Nebraska, wildfire spreads easily in Spain because of that grass, and especially on dry, windy days. In July 2009, those factors led to \u003ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8167101.stm#map\">wildfires across Europe, from Spain to Turkey\u003c/a>, resulting in hundreds of people evacuating their homes and eight deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Duce thinks that’s why people are so reluctant to use fire as a management tool. “People only see the bad side of fire. It’s a part of the ecosystem. People don’t consider using fire as a natural tool.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71042\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-15.17.31.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-71042\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-15.17.31-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"The blackline acts as a buffer to keep fire from spreading beyond what's planned. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The black line acts as a buffer to keep fire from spreading beyond the intended unit. It took the burn crew a few hours to complete this section of the line. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once the crew finishes black lining, the firefighters will head back to the command post to get some sleep. Except for Dye. He’ll be working late into the night on the burn plan for tomorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dye spends so much time on the IAP because it’s the only way to make sure the burn stays safe for everyone involved, from the firefighters to the landowners. And it’s those procedures that drew so many firefighters to Nebraska for the training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch \u003ca href=\"http://netnebraska.org/media/media.php?bin=NET&vidgroup=40164419\">a timelapse video of the prescribed burn on the Loup River\u003c/a> from QUEST Nebraska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"http://netnebraska.org/media/iframe.php?vidgroup=40164419&w=600&h=385&bin=NET\" width=\"100%\" height=\"385\" frameborder=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Fire can be dangerous, but it's not always a bad thing. On the Great Plains, firefighters, ecologists, and ranchers are slowly trying to make fire a part of the region's ecosystem again. ",
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"description": "Fire can be dangerous, but it's not always a bad thing. On the Great Plains, firefighters, ecologists, and ranchers are slowly trying to make fire a part of the region's ecosystem again. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/qbl-int-usw2/QUEST+Nebraska/Radio/Stream/PrescribedBurnQuest.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71048\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 639px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71048 size-full\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis.jpg\" alt=\"QUEST jose luis\" width=\"639\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis.jpg 639w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/QUEST-jose-luis-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jose Luis Duce, from Spain's Ministry of the Environment, is training to do a prescribed burn with firefighters from Spain, Colorado, Wyoming, California, and Nebraska. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71043\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 168px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Phil-Dye.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71043 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Phil-Dye-168x253.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Dye\" width=\"168\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Phil Dye uses a flapper tool to put out any remaining flames on the black line. (Photo credit: Ben Wheeler, Pheasants Forever)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you’re working on a prescribed burn, you need to have a few things with you. “This tool here is called a thaw claw or a hoe… This is called a fire swatter or flapper,” said Phil Dye, a firefighter from the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flapper looks exactly like a giant flyswatter. But that’s not how it’s used. Right now Dye and a few dozen firefighters are doing what’s called “black lining” just outside Elba, a small town on the Loup River in north central Nebraska. The crew is split into igniters and holders, and they’re walking along a 15-foot-wide line of grass that’s been mowed around the perimeter of a burn unit. The igniters pour gasoline on the short grass and then light the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once the grass has burned black, the holders drag their flappers on the ground to smother any remaining flames. Tomorrow, if the weather, wind, and humidity are just right, the firefighters will set fire to the 700 acres inside the black line. That line keeps the fire from spreading outside the burn unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Basically, it’s a buffer, because fire’s not going to burn in an area that’s already been burned,” Dye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71052\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Small-Cedars.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-71052\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Small-Cedars-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Young eastern redcedars killed during the burn. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Young eastern redcedars killed during the burn. (Photo credit: Ben Wheeler, Pheasants Forever)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Why burn?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The firefighters are participating in a 10-day-long training exchange hosted by \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.org/\">The Nature Conservancy\u003c/a> and the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://nebraskapf.com/\">Pheasants Forever\u003c/a>. The exchange has two goals: one is for firefighters to train on a prescribed burn and the other is to actually burn 4,000 acres of land to control the eastern redcedar population on the prairie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Redcedars are native to Nebraska, but they’re starting to take over grassland areas -- partly because of us. Ben Wheeler, the wildlife ecologist with the conservation group Pheasants Forever, said, “When white settlers moved in, we began some pretty aggressive fire-suppression campaigns, you know, because people were worried about fire going through their homesteads and being destructive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today the redcedar population has grown so much that parts of the prairie look more like forest than grassland. Wheeler says that eastern redcedars used to only grow where natural wildfire couldn’t reach them, like steep, northern-facing slopes. Without fire, Wheeler said, “Those refuge areas for trees expanded exponentially -- basically across the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71053\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 168px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Ashley.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71053 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Ashley-168x253.jpg\" alt=\"Ashley\" width=\"168\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Ashley Whitworth sprays water along the edges of the black line that will end up being about 15 feet wide and encompass 700 acres. (Photo credit: Ben Wheeler, Pheasants Forever)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Don Westover, fire program leader with the \u003ca href=\"http://nfs.unl.edu/\">Nebraska Forest Service\u003c/a>, said recently that land management organizations like the U.S. Forest Service went from seeing fire as a threat to an integral force in prairie ecology. Westover said, “The U.S. Forest Service had a policy for a number of years that they called the \u003ca href=\"http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Policy/Fire/Suppression/Suppression.aspx\">10 am policy\u003c/a>, and that policy stated that all wildfires will be suppressed by 10 am the morning following the fire started.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That all changed for the Forest Service and other federal agencies about 25 years ago. Instead of putting every fire out, the current policy is to let wildfires happen under very controlled circumstances, like at the training exchange near Elba, Nebraska.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping control\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Safety is every firefighter’s concern on the training exchange, especially for Dye, who is the burn’s plan chief. Every night he writes the \u003ca href=\"http://gpfirescience.missouristate.edu/assets/gpfirescience/NE_NRCSexampleBurnPlanFillable.pdf\">incident action plan\u003c/a>, or IAP, for the next day’s work. It’s a thick document that lists things like the burn’s objectives, weather forecast, each crew member’s assignment, and a go/no go checklist. Everything on the checklist has to be “yes before we can light fire,” Dye said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71041\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.33.52.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71041 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.33.52-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">After spraying water on the borders of the black line, firefighters pour gas, ignite the grass, and wait for the fire to burn out. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The IAP is handbook, schedule, and manual all in one for the firefighters to refer to throughout the day. It cuts down on the chances that someone will accidentally start a fire. Dye has worked on grassland burns before, but not all the firefighters here have, like Ashley Whitworth, a firefighter in the Colorado Springs Fire Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve only done ditch burning and a few prescribed fires, but not 700 acres,” Whitworth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71039\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.36.37.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71039 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-14.36.37-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Once the grass has burnt, the crew follows with flappers to make sure the fire is out. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There are also firefighters from Nebraska, Idaho, Minnesota, Utah, California, and even Spain. Jose Luis Duce works for the Ministry of Environment in Spain and is one of 12 visiting firefighters. He’s also never worked on a prescribed fire, but he says that Spain’s grasslands evolved with fire, similar to Nebraska’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This kind of fuel, we have this fuel in Spain,” Duce said, “but we don’t burn that much in Spain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuel, to firefighters, means anything that will burn. In this case, Duce means grass. Like Nebraska, wildfire spreads easily in Spain because of that grass, and especially on dry, windy days. In July 2009, those factors led to \u003ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8167101.stm#map\">wildfires across Europe, from Spain to Turkey\u003c/a>, resulting in hundreds of people evacuating their homes and eight deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Duce thinks that’s why people are so reluctant to use fire as a management tool. “People only see the bad side of fire. It’s a part of the ecosystem. People don’t consider using fire as a natural tool.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71042\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 337px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-15.17.31.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-71042\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/2014-03-28-15.17.31-337x253.jpg\" alt=\"The blackline acts as a buffer to keep fire from spreading beyond what's planned. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\" width=\"337\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The black line acts as a buffer to keep fire from spreading beyond the intended unit. It took the burn crew a few hours to complete this section of the line. (Photo credit: Jackie Sojico, QUEST Nebraska)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once the crew finishes black lining, the firefighters will head back to the command post to get some sleep. Except for Dye. He’ll be working late into the night on the burn plan for tomorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dye spends so much time on the IAP because it’s the only way to make sure the burn stays safe for everyone involved, from the firefighters to the landowners. And it’s those procedures that drew so many firefighters to Nebraska for the training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch \u003ca href=\"http://netnebraska.org/media/media.php?bin=NET&vidgroup=40164419\">a timelapse video of the prescribed burn on the Loup River\u003c/a> from QUEST Nebraska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Using Science to Grow Better Strawberries",
"title": "Using Science to Grow Better Strawberries",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s not your fault, gardeners. Strawberries are not very well suited to this \u003ca href=\"http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-north-carolina-usda-plant-zone-hardiness-map.php\" target=\"_blank\">hot, dry climate\u003c/a>. That’s why your garden-variety strawberries probably don’t look -- or taste -- much like the plump varieties found at farm stands or grocery stores. But help is on the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact is, the North Carolina climate is hostile to the so-called “love fruit.” These delicate seed receptacles are more suited to temperate climates, \u003ca href=\"http://www.fred.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/webinar/Strawberry.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">like coastal California\u003c/a>, where cool, moist nights help the plant thrive. But strawberries \u003cstrong>can\u003c/strong> flourish in more extreme climates, thanks to science and “North Carolina is able to grow strawberries because of all the science and technology that is devoted to the crop,” said Debby Wechsler, executive secretary of the North Carolina Strawberry Association. “It’s really what is known as intense management. It takes a lot of care. It’s not like you just throw them out and let them grow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A good example of that intense management can be seen on the \u003ca href=\"http://www.wallerfamilyfarm.com/Site/Welcome.html\" target=\"_blank\">Waller Family Farm\u003c/a> in Durham, NC. Mark Waller farms 40 acres of strawberries on what used to be a tobacco farm. Customers can pick their own strawberries or visit the market he runs during the strawberry season, which lasts anywhere from April through June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once we see about eight to ten blooms per plant, we really pick up the intensity around the farm,” said Waller. “Not only are we fertilizing but we are also really watching for frost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s where North Carolina State University Professor Emeritus Barclay Poling’s research comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s real humid, with ‘lots of moisture in the air’ type of night, we can get frost or ice crystals on the bloom and we’ve killed blossoms as high as 31 degrees, which is really interesting,” explained Poling. “If it’s a dry night, with a low dew point, in those conditions the flowers can super cool to as low as 27, so that’s quite a range.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcV_jYeHGQ0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch this video to learn how farmers and scientists use digital thermometers to help strawberries thrive in North Carolina.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poling has found the average critical temperature for strawberry blooms in the state is 28 degrees. If the blooms get much colder than that, they will either stay dormant and wait for warmer weather or possibly die if the cold persists. Because the blooms are the most vulnerable tissue for the strawberry plant, and the most critical to a successful harvest, Poling compiles a wealth of weather information into an alert system to warn farmers of significant weather events during the all-important spring growing season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a key tool in this “nurture versus nature” battle is a new type of handheld digital thermometer, which Poling helped develop. Electrodes at one end of a wire are inserted into the strawberry blossoms while the other end of the wire is connected to a digital thermometer. The device reads the temperature of the strawberry blossom. Farmers use those readings together with the weather forecast to decide whether to cover the crops or irrigate them to protect from frost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not just protection from the cold: the handheld thermometer is also helpful as the weather gets warm. If the strawberry blossom temperature gets too high, the farmer needs to increase irrigation to cool the plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71007\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8109_640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71007\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8109_640x360-450x253.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8109_640x360\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The United States is the world's leading strawberry producer, accounting for \u003ca href=\"http://www.fred.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/webinar/Strawberry.pdf\">over 25 percent of global production\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The reality is that for all of the help science has provided to strawberry farmers, Mother Nature is still full of surprises and challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sort of like going out on a hike and seeing a sign that says ‘unmarked trail,’” said Poling as he smiled and plucked a berry from a plant to examine it. “For all we can monitor and plan for, every strawberry season is an unmarked trail, and so you go out and anticipate what might be happening, but you are never sure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So where does that leave you, the intrepid gardener, trying to grow strawberries in this hostile North Carolina environment? Well, you can either invest in one of Poling’s $1,000 thermometers, or you can head to your closest \u003ca href=\"http://www.pickyourown.org/NC.htm\" target=\"_blank\">“U-pick” farm\u003c/a>, walk the rows, and pick your own perfectly plump strawberries for under $2 a pound.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s not your fault, gardeners. Strawberries are not very well suited to this \u003ca href=\"http://www.plantmaps.com/interactive-north-carolina-usda-plant-zone-hardiness-map.php\" target=\"_blank\">hot, dry climate\u003c/a>. That’s why your garden-variety strawberries probably don’t look -- or taste -- much like the plump varieties found at farm stands or grocery stores. But help is on the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact is, the North Carolina climate is hostile to the so-called “love fruit.” These delicate seed receptacles are more suited to temperate climates, \u003ca href=\"http://www.fred.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/webinar/Strawberry.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">like coastal California\u003c/a>, where cool, moist nights help the plant thrive. But strawberries \u003cstrong>can\u003c/strong> flourish in more extreme climates, thanks to science and “North Carolina is able to grow strawberries because of all the science and technology that is devoted to the crop,” said Debby Wechsler, executive secretary of the North Carolina Strawberry Association. “It’s really what is known as intense management. It takes a lot of care. It’s not like you just throw them out and let them grow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A good example of that intense management can be seen on the \u003ca href=\"http://www.wallerfamilyfarm.com/Site/Welcome.html\" target=\"_blank\">Waller Family Farm\u003c/a> in Durham, NC. Mark Waller farms 40 acres of strawberries on what used to be a tobacco farm. Customers can pick their own strawberries or visit the market he runs during the strawberry season, which lasts anywhere from April through June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once we see about eight to ten blooms per plant, we really pick up the intensity around the farm,” said Waller. “Not only are we fertilizing but we are also really watching for frost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s where North Carolina State University Professor Emeritus Barclay Poling’s research comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s real humid, with ‘lots of moisture in the air’ type of night, we can get frost or ice crystals on the bloom and we’ve killed blossoms as high as 31 degrees, which is really interesting,” explained Poling. “If it’s a dry night, with a low dew point, in those conditions the flowers can super cool to as low as 27, so that’s quite a range.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/BcV_jYeHGQ0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/BcV_jYeHGQ0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch this video to learn how farmers and scientists use digital thermometers to help strawberries thrive in North Carolina.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Poling has found the average critical temperature for strawberry blooms in the state is 28 degrees. If the blooms get much colder than that, they will either stay dormant and wait for warmer weather or possibly die if the cold persists. Because the blooms are the most vulnerable tissue for the strawberry plant, and the most critical to a successful harvest, Poling compiles a wealth of weather information into an alert system to warn farmers of significant weather events during the all-important spring growing season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a key tool in this “nurture versus nature” battle is a new type of handheld digital thermometer, which Poling helped develop. Electrodes at one end of a wire are inserted into the strawberry blossoms while the other end of the wire is connected to a digital thermometer. The device reads the temperature of the strawberry blossom. Farmers use those readings together with the weather forecast to decide whether to cover the crops or irrigate them to protect from frost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it’s not just protection from the cold: the handheld thermometer is also helpful as the weather gets warm. If the strawberry blossom temperature gets too high, the farmer needs to increase irrigation to cool the plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71007\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8109_640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71007\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_8109_640x360-450x253.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_8109_640x360\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The United States is the world's leading strawberry producer, accounting for \u003ca href=\"http://www.fred.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/webinar/Strawberry.pdf\">over 25 percent of global production\u003c/a>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The reality is that for all of the help science has provided to strawberry farmers, Mother Nature is still full of surprises and challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s sort of like going out on a hike and seeing a sign that says ‘unmarked trail,’” said Poling as he smiled and plucked a berry from a plant to examine it. “For all we can monitor and plan for, every strawberry season is an unmarked trail, and so you go out and anticipate what might be happening, but you are never sure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So where does that leave you, the intrepid gardener, trying to grow strawberries in this hostile North Carolina environment? Well, you can either invest in one of Poling’s $1,000 thermometers, or you can head to your closest \u003ca href=\"http://www.pickyourown.org/NC.htm\" target=\"_blank\">“U-pick” farm\u003c/a>, walk the rows, and pick your own perfectly plump strawberries for under $2 a pound.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "My Wild Tech-Free American Summer",
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"content": "\u003cp>I’m 50 feet from the entrance to an \u003ca href=\"http://campgrounded.org/\">adult summer camp\u003c/a> in Northern California and “Honey Bear,” a short, bearded man with a long blond wig, is giving me a hug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s stop and take a moment to appreciate where we are,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Light flickers through the redwoods, blue Steller’s jays squawk and everyone smells like a sweet chemical mixture of sunscreen and bug spray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71388\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 342px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4092_ScreenRes1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-71388\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4092_ScreenRes1-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"Campers arrive on a big yellow school bus. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson. Campers arrive on a big yellow school bus. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson. \" width=\"342\" height=\"228\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campers arrive on a big yellow school bus. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Four other campers have just arrived and I start clicking photos with my iPhone. As a tech junkie, I’ve come to rely on my phone to feel connected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m online from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep -- sending emails, writing blog posts, crafting tweets, texting, making phone calls, and posting to Instagram. Being a multimedia producer means constant multitasking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last time I picked up a real book I couldn’t concentrate. I kept wondering if there were new comments on my Facebook page or likes on my latest Instagram post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/video/nature-deficit-disorder/\">Nature Deficit Disorder\u003c/a>, a term journalist Richard Louv coined in 2006 to describe children who have a lack of exposure to the outdoors, should be listed in my medical chart. As I sit in a fluorescent-lit, windowless office I lose all touch with the outside world. At the end of the day, I stumble out of the building like a Vegas gambler, not knowing what time it is or where the past 13 hours went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71401\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 341px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/photo-2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71401\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/photo-2-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"photo (2)\" width=\"341\" height=\"256\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One counselor sports a watch reminding him to live in the moment.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As I snap more photos, Honey Bear ties a “pause button” -- a plastic button with twine -- around my wrist as a reminder to slow down. His watch is covered with two strips of masking tape and the words “right meow” scrawled on top. I snap a photo and then -- my phone dies. I freak out and realize this is exactly why I’m here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://campgrounded.org/\">Camp Grounded\u003c/a> is a four-day adult summer camp in Navarro, California, where tech-addicted urbanites go to unplug. Founder Levi Felix started the camp last summer to help people “shake free of the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The average American spends half of their waking life on a screen and we need to give ourselves permission to unplug,” Felix said. “Being in nature and dancing and making art and sharing hugs can’t be replaced by a screen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71393\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 326px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4831_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71393 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4831_ScreenRes-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"2014Jun13_IMG_4831_ScreenRes\" width=\"326\" height=\"217\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campers imitate zombies as they walk toward the dining hall. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As one of many events put on by \u003ca href=\"http://thedigitaldetox.org/\">Digital Detox\u003c/a>, an Oakland-based company, it has attracted more than 200 campers per session for three consecutive weekends in June. For $340 to $570, depending on the availability of scholarships and the time of registration, campers get meals, lodging, and unlimited access to daily activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The slogan “Disconnect to reconnect” is uttered everywhere at camp and is even printed on a wooden signpost near the dining hall. And the camp rules were simple: no talking about work, your age, your real name, and absolutely no digital devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was during the mandatory digital inspection that I became increasingly uncomfortable with this idea. On the concrete porch of the dining hall, I stepped into the middle of a hula hoop and two counselors, “Condor” and “Golden Bird” lifted it to my waist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71382\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun06_IMG_9075_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-71382\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun06_IMG_9075_ScreenRes-240x360.jpg\" alt=\"A counselor in a hazmat suit ready to search campers for digital devices. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\" width=\"240\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A counselor in a hazmat suit ready to search campers for digital devices. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Contaminated, contaminated,” they said in robotic voices. Both were wearing white plastic hazmat suits and goggles. I clutched my phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They set down the hula hoop and opened two double doors that led down a long hallway filled with fog machine “smoke.” Someone at the end of the hallway was playing a ukulele.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the walls were stats about Americans’ addiction to their digital devices. “One-third of people would rather clean toilets than their inbox,” and, “25% of people have taken a phone call during sex.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your devices?” asked a woman behind a counter halfway down the hallway. She held out a large brown paper bag. I inspected my phone the way a mother would inspect her child and then I dropped it in the bag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK, you’re all set,” she said after taking down my name. I walked toward the end of the hall, through open doors, and into the sunlight. On a grassy field surrounded by redwood trees, campers were throwing Frisbees, playing guitars, sporting face paint, consuming free milk and cookies from the welcome table, and embracing each other. That’s the thing about this camp -- everyone wants to give you a hug. And they really mean it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71409\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 356px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun14_IMG_5955_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71409\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun14_IMG_5955_ScreenRes-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"2014Jun14_IMG_5955_ScreenRes\" width=\"356\" height=\"237\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At the archery range, Camp Grounded taps into the nostalgia of summer sleep-away camps. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the next three days I went rock climbing, forded a river, shot a bow and arrow, sang camp songs and learned to build a fire. I drank five-dollar kombucha on tap from the canteen, scrawled my fears on a sheet of paper and burned them in the camp fire, and completely stopped “shexting” -- texting while…using the restroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on an afternoon walk back from archery I struck up a conversation with a stranger, something I’m too harried to do back home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How did you come up with the name ‘Whisker’?” I asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m sort of a personal chef,” he said. “I kill it in the omelet department.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ah, so ‘whisker’ like a cooking utensil, not like a cat?” He put one finger on his nose and pointed at me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How did you get the name ‘Tickle’?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought it would make people laugh,” I said. “And come on, who doesn’t like a tickle?” He smiled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We walked in silence for a moment. You could hear the wind in the trees and the sound of a bird’s wings flapping. Somewhere back on main campus a piano was playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can I hold your hand?” he asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71412\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 368px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun15_IMG_7001_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-71412\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun15_IMG_7001_ScreenRes-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"Campers spit colors during the much-anticipated all-camp color war competition. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\" width=\"368\" height=\"245\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campers spit colors during the much-anticipated all-camp color war competition. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What? Why?” I said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s on the list of things to do in the field guide.” We’d all been issued pocket-size books with suggested activities. Not wanting to ruin the spirit of camp I relented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK,” I said. And he reached over and took my hand. For five minutes we walked without speaking across a dirt path back onto the main field, losing track of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I realized Camp Grounded is either the apotheosis of summer camp or the complete upending of it. With no schedules or clocks and absolutely no agenda, campers are encouraged to do “what feels right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than once I heard the adage, “Wherever you go is where you’re supposed to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally, such a willy-nilly approach to structure made many campers manic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have serious ADHD,” a woman named “Conversational Vocabulary” told our cabin group on the first day. “I need to know what is going on!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My bunk mate, a sarcastic New Yorker named “Goldie,” saw the rules as malleable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71387\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4081_ScreenRes1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71387 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4081_ScreenRes1-240x360.jpg\" alt=\"2014Jun13_IMG_4081_ScreenRes\" width=\"240\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reminders to slow down dot the redwoods. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What could they say if I just asked for my phone back?” Goldie asked. “I mean, they can’t deny me my own phone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later that afternoon, “Coyote,” a moccasin-clad camper from San Francisco had a minor freak out when she realized she’d missed the morning polar bear dip in the creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What? I didn’t even know that was happening! I’m having major \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/03/27/do-you-have-fomo-fear-of-missing-out/\">F.O.M.O. \u003c/a>right now,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>F.O.M.O. was the language we’d learned in our former lives -- Fear of Missing Out. Fear of missing something bigger, better, more interesting. The realization that when your options are limitless, your choice may be the wrong one. But at camp, there were no wrong choices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can sign up for an activity and attend a different one instead,” “Dilly,” our counselor, told us. “Or not go at all. Whatever you choose is the right decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I took this as a sign to sleep in, flit from one activity to the next and not freak out when the survival class I’d signed up for turned into a semi-nude afternoon in a sweat lodge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And do we need such a radical shift to shed our former selves? New names and the virtual erasure of our ages and jobs to simply engage with others? What does it mean that Nature Deficit Disorder is a recognized condition? Do we need four-day immersions to teach us how to play again? Would life be better everywhere if the motto was simply, “Welcome -- free hugs and take a cookie”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know. But for the five minutes that I was holding hands with someone I’d just met, I didn’t need a machine to feel connected.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I’m 50 feet from the entrance to an \u003ca href=\"http://campgrounded.org/\">adult summer camp\u003c/a> in Northern California and “Honey Bear,” a short, bearded man with a long blond wig, is giving me a hug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s stop and take a moment to appreciate where we are,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Light flickers through the redwoods, blue Steller’s jays squawk and everyone smells like a sweet chemical mixture of sunscreen and bug spray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71388\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 342px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4092_ScreenRes1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-71388\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4092_ScreenRes1-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"Campers arrive on a big yellow school bus. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson. Campers arrive on a big yellow school bus. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson. \" width=\"342\" height=\"228\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campers arrive on a big yellow school bus. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Four other campers have just arrived and I start clicking photos with my iPhone. As a tech junkie, I’ve come to rely on my phone to feel connected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m online from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep -- sending emails, writing blog posts, crafting tweets, texting, making phone calls, and posting to Instagram. Being a multimedia producer means constant multitasking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last time I picked up a real book I couldn’t concentrate. I kept wondering if there were new comments on my Facebook page or likes on my latest Instagram post.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/video/nature-deficit-disorder/\">Nature Deficit Disorder\u003c/a>, a term journalist Richard Louv coined in 2006 to describe children who have a lack of exposure to the outdoors, should be listed in my medical chart. As I sit in a fluorescent-lit, windowless office I lose all touch with the outside world. At the end of the day, I stumble out of the building like a Vegas gambler, not knowing what time it is or where the past 13 hours went.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71401\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 341px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/photo-2.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71401\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/photo-2-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"photo (2)\" width=\"341\" height=\"256\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One counselor sports a watch reminding him to live in the moment.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As I snap more photos, Honey Bear ties a “pause button” -- a plastic button with twine -- around my wrist as a reminder to slow down. His watch is covered with two strips of masking tape and the words “right meow” scrawled on top. I snap a photo and then -- my phone dies. I freak out and realize this is exactly why I’m here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://campgrounded.org/\">Camp Grounded\u003c/a> is a four-day adult summer camp in Navarro, California, where tech-addicted urbanites go to unplug. Founder Levi Felix started the camp last summer to help people “shake free of the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The average American spends half of their waking life on a screen and we need to give ourselves permission to unplug,” Felix said. “Being in nature and dancing and making art and sharing hugs can’t be replaced by a screen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71393\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 326px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4831_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71393 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4831_ScreenRes-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"2014Jun13_IMG_4831_ScreenRes\" width=\"326\" height=\"217\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campers imitate zombies as they walk toward the dining hall. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As one of many events put on by \u003ca href=\"http://thedigitaldetox.org/\">Digital Detox\u003c/a>, an Oakland-based company, it has attracted more than 200 campers per session for three consecutive weekends in June. For $340 to $570, depending on the availability of scholarships and the time of registration, campers get meals, lodging, and unlimited access to daily activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The slogan “Disconnect to reconnect” is uttered everywhere at camp and is even printed on a wooden signpost near the dining hall. And the camp rules were simple: no talking about work, your age, your real name, and absolutely no digital devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was during the mandatory digital inspection that I became increasingly uncomfortable with this idea. On the concrete porch of the dining hall, I stepped into the middle of a hula hoop and two counselors, “Condor” and “Golden Bird” lifted it to my waist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71382\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun06_IMG_9075_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-71382\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun06_IMG_9075_ScreenRes-240x360.jpg\" alt=\"A counselor in a hazmat suit ready to search campers for digital devices. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\" width=\"240\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A counselor in a hazmat suit ready to search campers for digital devices. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Contaminated, contaminated,” they said in robotic voices. Both were wearing white plastic hazmat suits and goggles. I clutched my phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They set down the hula hoop and opened two double doors that led down a long hallway filled with fog machine “smoke.” Someone at the end of the hallway was playing a ukulele.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the walls were stats about Americans’ addiction to their digital devices. “One-third of people would rather clean toilets than their inbox,” and, “25% of people have taken a phone call during sex.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your devices?” asked a woman behind a counter halfway down the hallway. She held out a large brown paper bag. I inspected my phone the way a mother would inspect her child and then I dropped it in the bag.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK, you’re all set,” she said after taking down my name. I walked toward the end of the hall, through open doors, and into the sunlight. On a grassy field surrounded by redwood trees, campers were throwing Frisbees, playing guitars, sporting face paint, consuming free milk and cookies from the welcome table, and embracing each other. That’s the thing about this camp -- everyone wants to give you a hug. And they really mean it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71409\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 356px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun14_IMG_5955_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71409\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun14_IMG_5955_ScreenRes-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"2014Jun14_IMG_5955_ScreenRes\" width=\"356\" height=\"237\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At the archery range, Camp Grounded taps into the nostalgia of summer sleep-away camps. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the next three days I went rock climbing, forded a river, shot a bow and arrow, sang camp songs and learned to build a fire. I drank five-dollar kombucha on tap from the canteen, scrawled my fears on a sheet of paper and burned them in the camp fire, and completely stopped “shexting” -- texting while…using the restroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And on an afternoon walk back from archery I struck up a conversation with a stranger, something I’m too harried to do back home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How did you come up with the name ‘Whisker’?” I asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m sort of a personal chef,” he said. “I kill it in the omelet department.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ah, so ‘whisker’ like a cooking utensil, not like a cat?” He put one finger on his nose and pointed at me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How did you get the name ‘Tickle’?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought it would make people laugh,” I said. “And come on, who doesn’t like a tickle?” He smiled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We walked in silence for a moment. You could hear the wind in the trees and the sound of a bird’s wings flapping. Somewhere back on main campus a piano was playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can I hold your hand?” he asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71412\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 368px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun15_IMG_7001_ScreenRes.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-71412\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun15_IMG_7001_ScreenRes-540x360.jpg\" alt=\"Campers spit colors during the much-anticipated all-camp color war competition. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\" width=\"368\" height=\"245\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Campers spit colors during the much-anticipated all-camp color war competition. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What? Why?” I said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s on the list of things to do in the field guide.” We’d all been issued pocket-size books with suggested activities. Not wanting to ruin the spirit of camp I relented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“OK,” I said. And he reached over and took my hand. For five minutes we walked without speaking across a dirt path back onto the main field, losing track of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I realized Camp Grounded is either the apotheosis of summer camp or the complete upending of it. With no schedules or clocks and absolutely no agenda, campers are encouraged to do “what feels right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than once I heard the adage, “Wherever you go is where you’re supposed to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally, such a willy-nilly approach to structure made many campers manic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have serious ADHD,” a woman named “Conversational Vocabulary” told our cabin group on the first day. “I need to know what is going on!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My bunk mate, a sarcastic New Yorker named “Goldie,” saw the rules as malleable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71387\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4081_ScreenRes1.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71387 size-large\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/06/2014Jun13_IMG_4081_ScreenRes1-240x360.jpg\" alt=\"2014Jun13_IMG_4081_ScreenRes\" width=\"240\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reminders to slow down dot the redwoods. Photo: Daniel N. Johnson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“What could they say if I just asked for my phone back?” Goldie asked. “I mean, they can’t deny me my own phone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later that afternoon, “Coyote,” a moccasin-clad camper from San Francisco had a minor freak out when she realized she’d missed the morning polar bear dip in the creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What? I didn’t even know that was happening! I’m having major \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/03/27/do-you-have-fomo-fear-of-missing-out/\">F.O.M.O. \u003c/a>right now,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>F.O.M.O. was the language we’d learned in our former lives -- Fear of Missing Out. Fear of missing something bigger, better, more interesting. The realization that when your options are limitless, your choice may be the wrong one. But at camp, there were no wrong choices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can sign up for an activity and attend a different one instead,” “Dilly,” our counselor, told us. “Or not go at all. Whatever you choose is the right decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I took this as a sign to sleep in, flit from one activity to the next and not freak out when the survival class I’d signed up for turned into a semi-nude afternoon in a sweat lodge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And do we need such a radical shift to shed our former selves? New names and the virtual erasure of our ages and jobs to simply engage with others? What does it mean that Nature Deficit Disorder is a recognized condition? Do we need four-day immersions to teach us how to play again? Would life be better everywhere if the motto was simply, “Welcome -- free hugs and take a cookie”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Kirk Lombard is lying on the beach, reaching his arm into a white plastic tube jammed two feet into the sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s it,” he exclaims as he pulls out a horseneck clam. He shows the croissant-sized mollusk to a group of \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford University\u003c/a> alumni who are on a tour to understand where their seafood comes from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lombard, who runs \u003ca href=\"http://www.seaforager.com\">Seaforager\u003c/a>, a seafood subscription service in San Francisco, is one of a growing number of fishermen who have started directly connecting people with the food they eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"Fishermen have to generate more value from the same fish they were catching before because we can’t catch more fish.\" -- Duke University economics professor Martin Smith\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Lombard’s “community-supported fishery” provides 275 people in the Bay Area with weekly or biweekly shipments of fresh, locally caught seafood from the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really are getting a very special product,” Lombard said. “I am actually providing them with something that is very hard to get.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because more than 91 percent of seafood in the U.S. is imported, finding local seafood at most nearby grocery stores can be nearly impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For $24 a week, members of Lombard’s community-supported fishery get a package of local fish, such as salmon, halibut, and trout that are available as fillets. Or they can opt for Neptune’s Delight, a surprise combination of small whole fish and shellfish like spot prawns, clams, and mussels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71274\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 235px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Community-Supported-Fisheries-photo-6.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71274\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Community-Supported-Fisheries-photo-6-272x360.jpg\" alt=\"Community Supported Fisheries photo 6\" width=\"235\" height=\"311\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skipper Otto's, a community supported fishery in British Columbia, has become so popular it now boasts a 400-person wait list. Photo: Clare Wheeler.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most fish comes from within a 200-mile radius of San Francisco, depending on what’s in season. Participants can choose from ten pickup locations or pay $8 to have the fish delivered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the freshest seafood product in the city,” Lombard said. “It’s straight from the boat or dockside, or I catch it myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2007, community-supported fisheries have grown in popularity across North America\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>There are now almost 200 throughout the United States and Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh Stoll helped start \u003ca href=\"http://www.walking-fish.org/\">Walking Fish\u003c/a> in North Carolina and the cooperative became so popular he created \u003ca href=\"http://www.localcatch.org/\">LocalCatch.org\u003c/a> so consumers across the country could find similar community-supported fisheries in their area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People from all over the country asked, ‘How can we do this?’” said Stoll. “And it wasn’t because they wanted North Carolina seafood. It’s because they wanted something that was good for local fishermen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Modeled after community-supported agriculture, these community-supported fisheries enable subscribers to purchase a “share” in a CSF, which goes directly to the fishermen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This helps fishermen pay for labor and equipment costs upfront and guarantees a steady supply of fresh, local seafood for members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today fishermen have to generate more value from the same fish they were catching before because we can’t catch more fish. The stocks are maxed out,” said \u003ca href=\"http://duke.edu/\">Duke University\u003c/a> economics professor Martin Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71291\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 351px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Kirk-Lombard-digging.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71291\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Kirk-Lombard-digging-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"Kirk Lombard digging\" width=\"351\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kirk Lombard digs for a large horseneck clam during one of his seafood foraging tours in Half Moon Bay. Photo: Matt Duckworth.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There are a couple strategies to make up for decreased revenue. One option is to provide a higher quality product that you can charge more for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while CSFs help fishermen and provide fresh local seafood to eager consumers, they don’t necessarily tread lightly on the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a misconception that local equals sustainable,” said Robin Pelc, fisheries research manager at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/\">Monterey Bay Aquarium\u003c/a>. “Some seafood may still be overfished or be caught using a drag net.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, several CSFs in the Bay Area, including \u003ca href=\"http://www.localcatchmontereybay.com/\">Local Catch Monterey Bay\u003c/a> use bottom trawling to harvest ground fish. The method of dragging a net across the bottom of the ocean means everything in its path is collected and can often lead to bycatch, or unwanted species that are killed and tossed back into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best way to find out if your seafood is sustainable is ask CSFs a simple question, ‘Is this sustainable?’ and get in a conversation and see what their definition is,” Pelc said. “Ask the people running the CSF and they can tell you the story behind the seafood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelc provides recommendations for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx\">Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide\u003c/a>, which lists unsustainably caught seafood and recommends better alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But just like we’ll never get all of our grains from CSAs, the same will be true of seafood,” said Smith. “There will be large industrial fisheries that will still provide the bulk of seafood protein.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The value of CSFs right now is experimental, and whether it’s an important part of the sustainable seafood model remains to be seen. It’s still an open question.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Kirk Lombard is lying on the beach, reaching his arm into a white plastic tube jammed two feet into the sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s it,” he exclaims as he pulls out a horseneck clam. He shows the croissant-sized mollusk to a group of \u003ca href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/\">Stanford University\u003c/a> alumni who are on a tour to understand where their seafood comes from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lombard, who runs \u003ca href=\"http://www.seaforager.com\">Seaforager\u003c/a>, a seafood subscription service in San Francisco, is one of a growing number of fishermen who have started directly connecting people with the food they eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"Fishermen have to generate more value from the same fish they were catching before because we can’t catch more fish.\" -- Duke University economics professor Martin Smith\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Lombard’s “community-supported fishery” provides 275 people in the Bay Area with weekly or biweekly shipments of fresh, locally caught seafood from the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really are getting a very special product,” Lombard said. “I am actually providing them with something that is very hard to get.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because more than 91 percent of seafood in the U.S. is imported, finding local seafood at most nearby grocery stores can be nearly impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For $24 a week, members of Lombard’s community-supported fishery get a package of local fish, such as salmon, halibut, and trout that are available as fillets. Or they can opt for Neptune’s Delight, a surprise combination of small whole fish and shellfish like spot prawns, clams, and mussels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71274\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 235px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Community-Supported-Fisheries-photo-6.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71274\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Community-Supported-Fisheries-photo-6-272x360.jpg\" alt=\"Community Supported Fisheries photo 6\" width=\"235\" height=\"311\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skipper Otto's, a community supported fishery in British Columbia, has become so popular it now boasts a 400-person wait list. Photo: Clare Wheeler.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most fish comes from within a 200-mile radius of San Francisco, depending on what’s in season. Participants can choose from ten pickup locations or pay $8 to have the fish delivered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the freshest seafood product in the city,” Lombard said. “It’s straight from the boat or dockside, or I catch it myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2007, community-supported fisheries have grown in popularity across North America\u003cstrong>. \u003c/strong>There are now almost 200 throughout the United States and Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh Stoll helped start \u003ca href=\"http://www.walking-fish.org/\">Walking Fish\u003c/a> in North Carolina and the cooperative became so popular he created \u003ca href=\"http://www.localcatch.org/\">LocalCatch.org\u003c/a> so consumers across the country could find similar community-supported fisheries in their area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People from all over the country asked, ‘How can we do this?’” said Stoll. “And it wasn’t because they wanted North Carolina seafood. It’s because they wanted something that was good for local fishermen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Modeled after community-supported agriculture, these community-supported fisheries enable subscribers to purchase a “share” in a CSF, which goes directly to the fishermen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This helps fishermen pay for labor and equipment costs upfront and guarantees a steady supply of fresh, local seafood for members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today fishermen have to generate more value from the same fish they were catching before because we can’t catch more fish. The stocks are maxed out,” said \u003ca href=\"http://duke.edu/\">Duke University\u003c/a> economics professor Martin Smith.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71291\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 351px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Kirk-Lombard-digging.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-71291\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Kirk-Lombard-digging-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"Kirk Lombard digging\" width=\"351\" height=\"263\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kirk Lombard digs for a large horseneck clam during one of his seafood foraging tours in Half Moon Bay. Photo: Matt Duckworth.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There are a couple strategies to make up for decreased revenue. One option is to provide a higher quality product that you can charge more for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while CSFs help fishermen and provide fresh local seafood to eager consumers, they don’t necessarily tread lightly on the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a misconception that local equals sustainable,” said Robin Pelc, fisheries research manager at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/\">Monterey Bay Aquarium\u003c/a>. “Some seafood may still be overfished or be caught using a drag net.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, several CSFs in the Bay Area, including \u003ca href=\"http://www.localcatchmontereybay.com/\">Local Catch Monterey Bay\u003c/a> use bottom trawling to harvest ground fish. The method of dragging a net across the bottom of the ocean means everything in its path is collected and can often lead to bycatch, or unwanted species that are killed and tossed back into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best way to find out if your seafood is sustainable is ask CSFs a simple question, ‘Is this sustainable?’ and get in a conversation and see what their definition is,” Pelc said. “Ask the people running the CSF and they can tell you the story behind the seafood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelc provides recommendations for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.seafoodwatch.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx\">Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide\u003c/a>, which lists unsustainably caught seafood and recommends better alternatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But just like we’ll never get all of our grains from CSAs, the same will be true of seafood,” said Smith. “There will be large industrial fisheries that will still provide the bulk of seafood protein.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The value of CSFs right now is experimental, and whether it’s an important part of the sustainable seafood model remains to be seen. It’s still an open question.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Scientists may have discovered the source of the Pacific Northwest’s legendary rich waters, in a submarine canyon in the deep ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Washington oceanographers \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL058967/abstract\">published their findings in March\u003c/a>: a surging flow of nutrient-rich warm water from the deep ocean canyon between the U.S. and Canada is swept into the Puget Sound at 20-30 times the rate at which river water comes into Puget Sound from the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70867\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70867 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/juandefucacanyon-450x246.jpg\" alt=\"juandefucacanyon\" width=\"450\" height=\"246\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dynamics of the steep ocean canyon promote upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean waters into Puget Sound and the Salish Sea system. Image: Google maps.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"This is the headwaters of Puget Sound,\" said co-author \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.washington.edu/pmacc/\">Parker MacCready\u003c/a>, a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington . \"That's why it's so salty in Puget Sound, that's why the water is pretty clean and that's why there's high productivity in Puget Sound, because you're constantly pulling in this deep water.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Washington is several times more productive – has more phytoplankton – than Oregon or California. That's been kind of a puzzle, for years,\" said co-author \u003ca href=\"http://www.apl.washington.edu/people/profile.php?last=Alford&first=Matthew\">Matthew Alford\u003c/a>, an oceanographer with the university's Applied Physics Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wealth of phytoplankton supports the Puget Sound ecosystem, from shellfish to salmon runs and orca pods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70876\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 211px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70876 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/m7-211x169.jpg\" alt=\"m7\" width=\"211\" height=\"169\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Parker MacCready, University of Washington School of Oceanography. Photo credit: Kevin Sullivan.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, according to MacCready, the high level of nutrients also results in lower pH, better known as\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/quest/collections/ocean-acidification-2/\"> ocean acidification\u003c/a>. He explains how that works: \"The water that upwells through Juan deFuca Canyon is rich in nutrients because over a long time there has been a steady stream of organic particles drifting down from the surface. The organic matter is food for bacteria, like in a compost pile. As the organic particles are eaten the by-products are nutrients (like the ammonia in our urine) and CO2 (like when we exhale).\" So, when deep-canyon water comes to the surface, it carries both the nutrients that feed some creatures and the\u003ca href=\"http://earthfix.opb.org/water/article/acid-water-take-toll-on-puget-sound-shellfish/\"> lower pH levels that threaten others.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alford and MacCready's research will help make better computer models of circulation through the region, and eventually could help forecast changes in ocean acidity and other ocean events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem style=\"font-style: italic;color: #353535\">Source: \u003ca style=\"color: #dba42e\" href=\"http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/04/14/puget-sounds-rich-waters-supplied-by-deep-turbulent-canyon/\" target=\"_blank\">University of Washington\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Scientists may have discovered the source of the Pacific Northwest’s legendary rich waters, in a submarine canyon in the deep ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>University of Washington oceanographers \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL058967/abstract\">published their findings in March\u003c/a>: a surging flow of nutrient-rich warm water from the deep ocean canyon between the U.S. and Canada is swept into the Puget Sound at 20-30 times the rate at which river water comes into Puget Sound from the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70867\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70867 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/juandefucacanyon-450x246.jpg\" alt=\"juandefucacanyon\" width=\"450\" height=\"246\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dynamics of the steep ocean canyon promote upwelling of nutrient-rich deep ocean waters into Puget Sound and the Salish Sea system. Image: Google maps.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"This is the headwaters of Puget Sound,\" said co-author \u003ca href=\"http://faculty.washington.edu/pmacc/\">Parker MacCready\u003c/a>, a professor of oceanography at the University of Washington . \"That's why it's so salty in Puget Sound, that's why the water is pretty clean and that's why there's high productivity in Puget Sound, because you're constantly pulling in this deep water.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Washington is several times more productive – has more phytoplankton – than Oregon or California. That's been kind of a puzzle, for years,\" said co-author \u003ca href=\"http://www.apl.washington.edu/people/profile.php?last=Alford&first=Matthew\">Matthew Alford\u003c/a>, an oceanographer with the university's Applied Physics Laboratory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wealth of phytoplankton supports the Puget Sound ecosystem, from shellfish to salmon runs and orca pods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70876\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 211px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70876 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/m7-211x169.jpg\" alt=\"m7\" width=\"211\" height=\"169\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Parker MacCready, University of Washington School of Oceanography. Photo credit: Kevin Sullivan.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, according to MacCready, the high level of nutrients also results in lower pH, better known as\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/quest/collections/ocean-acidification-2/\"> ocean acidification\u003c/a>. He explains how that works: \"The water that upwells through Juan deFuca Canyon is rich in nutrients because over a long time there has been a steady stream of organic particles drifting down from the surface. The organic matter is food for bacteria, like in a compost pile. As the organic particles are eaten the by-products are nutrients (like the ammonia in our urine) and CO2 (like when we exhale).\" So, when deep-canyon water comes to the surface, it carries both the nutrients that feed some creatures and the\u003ca href=\"http://earthfix.opb.org/water/article/acid-water-take-toll-on-puget-sound-shellfish/\"> lower pH levels that threaten others.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "The Skin of a Building and Why it Matters",
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"content": "\u003cp>Cleveland, like many cities, has a fleet of old, drafty buildings. These buildings are energy hogs and account for close to \u003ca href=\"http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2009/06/02/working-toward-the-very-low-energy-consumption-building-of-the-future/\">half\u003c/a> of the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Obama highlighted the building sector recently, announcing \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-6GW6ccLK0\">$2 billion\u003c/a> in energy upgrades to federal buildings, and many in the environmental community say we should be focusing on improving building performance across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71065\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Tremco-005.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-71065\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Tremco-005-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Tremco's chamber simulates stormy conditions to test whether building elements have a tight, waterproof seal.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tremco's chamber simulates stormy conditions to test whether building elements have a tight, waterproof seal.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To get a sense of how and why one might want to retrofit an older building, I climbed inside a local company’s test chamber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the day I visited \u003ca href=\"http://www.tremcoinc.com/\">Tremco’s\u003c/a> Sustainable Building Solutions Test Facility in Cleveland, Ohio, it was drizzling outside, but inside there was a full-on rainstorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here at Tremco they focus on improving the\u003cstrong> skin\u003c/strong> of a building -- that is, its walls, windows, glazing, and basically everything that protects a building from, say, a rainstorm. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> “A typical home in the U.S. today averages about a 15-square-foot hole,\" said Mattox.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>With a couple keystrokes, Tremco Manager Tim Mattox started simulating a heavy storm in their test chamber. The see-through chamber is skinny but tall, stretching up nearly to the ceiling of the warehouse. I can see sprinklers inside the chamber shooting water from every direction. Getting pummeled by this rainstorm is a test wall. They’re testing the ability of one of their silicone sheet products to provide a \u003ca href=\"https://www.opt-osfns.org/nycdsf/forms/custodians/Chapters/7_Caulking.pdf\">watertight seal\u003c/a> on a typical building gap, like one you might see around the edges of a window frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71069\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 188px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_0649.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-71069\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_0649-188x253.jpg\" alt=\"Window gaps, like this one, can be a major source of air and water leakage.\" width=\"188\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Window gaps, like this one, can be a major source of air and water leakage.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Buildings actually have a surprisingly large number of gaps, small stuff usually, but it really adds up. “A typical home in the U.S. today averages about a 15-square-foot hole in the inside of the house just because when you take the collective openings that are available to seal on any given home out there, that’s about what you’re getting -- a 15-foot hole,” said Mattox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t seal off building gaps, moisture can get in, cause mold growth, and rot your walls. A silicone sheet like the one getting drenched in the test chamber also prevents air from leaking out. Stopping air leaks is key to reducing a building’s overall energy use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mattox eventually cuts the jets and prepares to simulate windy conditions and measure the movement of air through this silicone-sealed building gap. Bright-orange tubing feeds into the chamber like a scene out of \u003cstrong>The Matrix\u003c/strong>. “It’s running right now, so he’s pulling a vacuum, so you can sort of see the silicone sheet start to pull in,” said Mattox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital monitors show this gap is well sealed. The sheet’s doing its job and keeping air and water out of the simulated building gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Spiders have a tendency to build their webs in areas where there is a draft,” said Mattox.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Tremco works mainly with commercial properties, but homeowners can benefit from a gap inspection as well, whether you do it yourself or call in a professional. Gaps can be found anywhere in a building, especially at joints where one material or part meets another. Mattox’s advice is to start with the low-hanging fruit: your doors and windows. Swap out old weather stripping, apply an exterior sealant around your windows, maybe stuff some “flex foam” in there, too. Basically find any crack or crevice and seal it off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for a party trick, said Mattox, keep an eye out for spider webs. “Spiders have a tendency to build their webs in areas where there is a draft,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing this will go a long way toward greater energy efficiency and could save you a wad of cash. “Any time it rolls through a duct, you’re investing money into that air, and if you’re not containing that or controlling that airflow, you are throwing money literally out the window,” said Mattox. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“It’s a big deal...It’s not just an energy issue, that can be a resiliency issue,\" said Kerr.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Laurie Kerr is the director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cityenergyproject.org/about/\">City Energy Project,\u003c/a> an initiative of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market Transformation. She says we don’t hear a lot about buildings, but in fact, nationally they’re responsible for about 40 percent of our carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It’s a big deal...It’s not just an energy issue, that can be a resiliency issue. So if something happened, a big storm and it knocked out the electricity for the area, a building that has really good insulation and isn’t leaking is going to maintain its habitability a lot longer than one that doesn’t have a good building envelope, which is the wrapping of the building,” said Kerr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kerr says old buildings need checkups, just as people do when they’re under the weather. Calling in some house doctors -- a professional energy audit -- can be a good way to think through your options, such as sealants, roof insulation, lighting changes, and window and HVAC upgrades. An audit will give you a sense of what options would deliver the best return on investment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just like people, each older building is unique, and most could benefit from a performance boost.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Cleveland, like many cities, has a fleet of old, drafty buildings. These buildings are energy hogs and account for close to \u003ca href=\"http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2009/06/02/working-toward-the-very-low-energy-consumption-building-of-the-future/\">half\u003c/a> of the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Obama highlighted the building sector recently, announcing \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-6GW6ccLK0\">$2 billion\u003c/a> in energy upgrades to federal buildings, and many in the environmental community say we should be focusing on improving building performance across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71065\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Tremco-005.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-71065\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Tremco-005-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Tremco's chamber simulates stormy conditions to test whether building elements have a tight, waterproof seal.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tremco's chamber simulates stormy conditions to test whether building elements have a tight, waterproof seal.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To get a sense of how and why one might want to retrofit an older building, I climbed inside a local company’s test chamber.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the day I visited \u003ca href=\"http://www.tremcoinc.com/\">Tremco’s\u003c/a> Sustainable Building Solutions Test Facility in Cleveland, Ohio, it was drizzling outside, but inside there was a full-on rainstorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here at Tremco they focus on improving the\u003cstrong> skin\u003c/strong> of a building -- that is, its walls, windows, glazing, and basically everything that protects a building from, say, a rainstorm. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> “A typical home in the U.S. today averages about a 15-square-foot hole,\" said Mattox.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>With a couple keystrokes, Tremco Manager Tim Mattox started simulating a heavy storm in their test chamber. The see-through chamber is skinny but tall, stretching up nearly to the ceiling of the warehouse. I can see sprinklers inside the chamber shooting water from every direction. Getting pummeled by this rainstorm is a test wall. They’re testing the ability of one of their silicone sheet products to provide a \u003ca href=\"https://www.opt-osfns.org/nycdsf/forms/custodians/Chapters/7_Caulking.pdf\">watertight seal\u003c/a> on a typical building gap, like one you might see around the edges of a window frame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_71069\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 188px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_0649.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-71069\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_0649-188x253.jpg\" alt=\"Window gaps, like this one, can be a major source of air and water leakage.\" width=\"188\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Window gaps, like this one, can be a major source of air and water leakage.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Buildings actually have a surprisingly large number of gaps, small stuff usually, but it really adds up. “A typical home in the U.S. today averages about a 15-square-foot hole in the inside of the house just because when you take the collective openings that are available to seal on any given home out there, that’s about what you’re getting -- a 15-foot hole,” said Mattox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t seal off building gaps, moisture can get in, cause mold growth, and rot your walls. A silicone sheet like the one getting drenched in the test chamber also prevents air from leaking out. Stopping air leaks is key to reducing a building’s overall energy use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mattox eventually cuts the jets and prepares to simulate windy conditions and measure the movement of air through this silicone-sealed building gap. Bright-orange tubing feeds into the chamber like a scene out of \u003cstrong>The Matrix\u003c/strong>. “It’s running right now, so he’s pulling a vacuum, so you can sort of see the silicone sheet start to pull in,” said Mattox.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital monitors show this gap is well sealed. The sheet’s doing its job and keeping air and water out of the simulated building gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Spiders have a tendency to build their webs in areas where there is a draft,” said Mattox.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Tremco works mainly with commercial properties, but homeowners can benefit from a gap inspection as well, whether you do it yourself or call in a professional. Gaps can be found anywhere in a building, especially at joints where one material or part meets another. Mattox’s advice is to start with the low-hanging fruit: your doors and windows. Swap out old weather stripping, apply an exterior sealant around your windows, maybe stuff some “flex foam” in there, too. Basically find any crack or crevice and seal it off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for a party trick, said Mattox, keep an eye out for spider webs. “Spiders have a tendency to build their webs in areas where there is a draft,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doing this will go a long way toward greater energy efficiency and could save you a wad of cash. “Any time it rolls through a duct, you’re investing money into that air, and if you’re not containing that or controlling that airflow, you are throwing money literally out the window,” said Mattox. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“It’s a big deal...It’s not just an energy issue, that can be a resiliency issue,\" said Kerr.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Laurie Kerr is the director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cityenergyproject.org/about/\">City Energy Project,\u003c/a> an initiative of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market Transformation. She says we don’t hear a lot about buildings, but in fact, nationally they’re responsible for about 40 percent of our carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It’s a big deal...It’s not just an energy issue, that can be a resiliency issue. So if something happened, a big storm and it knocked out the electricity for the area, a building that has really good insulation and isn’t leaking is going to maintain its habitability a lot longer than one that doesn’t have a good building envelope, which is the wrapping of the building,” said Kerr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kerr says old buildings need checkups, just as people do when they’re under the weather. Calling in some house doctors -- a professional energy audit -- can be a good way to think through your options, such as sealants, roof insulation, lighting changes, and window and HVAC upgrades. An audit will give you a sense of what options would deliver the best return on investment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just like people, each older building is unique, and most could benefit from a performance boost.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The next time you drop a bottle marketed as biodegradable into your reusable grocery bag, pause. \u003ca href=\"http://cfaes.osu.edu/news/articles/bio-plastics-not-so-good-biodegrading-ohio-state-study\" target=\"_blank\">New research\u003c/a> shows that not all of these plastics are made equal: some don’t actually biodegrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plastic pollution is a global issue. Long-lasting plastics \u003ca href=\"http://www.theoec.org/campaign/recycling-landfills\" target=\"_blank\">cramp landfills\u003c/a>, pile up in city streets, and create toxic problems in rivers, oceans, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.epa.ohio.gov/Portals/34/document/newspdfs/n_cdd_leachate_evaluation.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">drinking water\u003c/a>. Americans generate over 30 million tons of plastic waste each year, and only 8 percent of that is recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Ohio, plastics are the largest component going into the waste stream, according to recycling expert \u003ca href=\"http://epa.ohio.gov/dmwm/home/recycle.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Terrie Termeer with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. \u003c/a>Concerns about this influx throughout the U.S. have given rise to a new kind of “biodegradable” plastic, which Termeer says is gaining in popularity. Companies are actively designing products that degrade quickly and that are sometimes made from plant feedstocks, appealing to consumers who don’t want to leave behind piles of waste or use materials that are “bad” for the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers picked up on the trend, too, some of whom felt it was cause for concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was always curious about, you know, do they actually biodegrade?” said \u003ca href=\"http://fabe.osu.edu/our-people/frederick-michel-jr\" target=\"_blank\">Fred Michel\u003c/a>, a waste-management expert and professor at Ohio State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biodegradability, a measure of how well something breaks down in compost, soil, or landfills, is an ambiguous term at best. Everything biodegrades completely over time, but your car might take a few thousand years longer to fall apart than, say, a tissue. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has attempted to clarify the term to prevent misleading advertising, but the definition is complex. According to the FTC, a product is biodegradable if it breaks down in certain environments, like compost bins, within a \"reasonable\" amount of time. But each environment dictates different interpretations of “reasonable.” Ultimately, the FTC notes that no matter where something breaks down, it needs to be completely returned to nature within a one-year timeframe in order to be marketed as “degradable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70919\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 364px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/examples-of-exp.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-70919\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/examples-of-exp-431x360.jpg\" alt=\"Michel and his team tested materials like coconut hull, asphalt-covered plastic, and additive-boosted polypropylene.\" width=\"364\" height=\"304\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michel and his team tested materials like coconut hull, asphalt-covered plastic, and additive-boosted polypropylene. Photo courtesy of Fred Michel.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To make a plastic biodegradable, manufacturers have started putting in additives that supposedly allow even the sturdiest plastics to degrade in a backyard compost pile. To Michel, this seemed like an example of \u003ca href=\"http://hbr.org/product/the-drivers-of-greenwashing/an/CMR494-PDF-ENG?N=4294958507&Ntt=+&Nao=1540\" target=\"_blank\">greenwashing\u003c/a>-- a term that refers to misleading marketing tactics that appeal to the Captain Planet in each of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was skeptical about it from the beginning because those materials don’t usually biodegrade,” Michel said. “It’s difficult to imagine a material you could add to them that would magically make them biodegradable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In theory, biodegradable additives work by \u003ca href=\"http://www.goecopure.com/technology/\" target=\"_blank\">attracting microbes that in turn attract more microbes\u003c/a>, increasing the rate of degradation. Some manufacturers also claim the additives are organic and nontoxic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michel reviewed the research but was unable to find evidence to support manufacturers’ claims, so he ran his own experiment. Michel and his team rounded up all sorts of plastics to test their biodegradability: a motley collection of natural fibers, petroleum-based materials with the biodegradability additives, and plastics that shouldn’t biodegrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141391013003066\" target=\"_blank\">results of the research\u003c/a>, published in December 2013, were disconcerting. Traditional plastics with the “biodegradable” additives didn’t break down any more quickly than those without.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t surprised,” Michel said, “but it’s just interesting that there are materials in the market like that, that have claims that don’t seem to be justified in our testing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FTC soon caught wind of the results and began investigating ECM BioFilms, an Ohio-based manufacturer that makes a plastic additive analyzed in Michel’s experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ECM investigation, which remains tied up in court, represents the first time the FTC has ever pursued plastic biodegradability claims. Meanwhile, the FTC has also begun a closed \u003ca href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/05/ftc-approves-final-order-settling-charges-company-made-misleading\" target=\"_blank\">investigation into plastic bag manufacturer American Plastic Manufacturing, Inc.\u003c/a> for misleading claims, which might set precedent for future interactions with plastic manufacturers. Manufacturers of other materials have been charged \u003ca href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/10/ftc-cracks-down-misleading-unsubstantiated-environmental\" target=\"_blank\">hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil penalties\u003c/a> for misleading marketing, but as a first-time offender, \u003ca href=\"http://www.science20.com/advertising_science/blog/plastic_companys_unscientific_biodegradability_claims_barred_by_ftc-135566\" target=\"_blank\">APM was not fined but simply ordered to stop making false claims. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, the marketplace is full of these misleading claims,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.msu.edu/user/narayan/\" target=\"_blank\">Ramani Narayan\u003c/a>, a biochemical engineering professor at Michigan State University and chairman of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.astm.org/\" target=\"_blank\">ASTM Subcommittee\u003c/a> at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bpiworld.org/BPI-Public\" target=\"_blank\">Biodegradable Products Institute\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that helped develop international biodegradability standards. He says it’s often difficult to come across strong research about plastics, but he is pleased with Michel’s paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has given very clear scientific data,” he said. “It’s shown that nothing happens [when these additives are used].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But greenwashing isn’t always deliberate. The language surrounding “bio-friendliness” is so complex that many are just plain confused, said Michel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In addition to there being confusion among consumers about how these materials may be recycled or composted -- or where they end up -- there's also a certain amount of confusion among industries that are trying to become more sustainable and develop more sustainable products, about the end of life of these materials and products, and how they can best address their sustainability goals with these materials,” Michel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some companies have their products tested and certified by the Biodegradability Products Institute. Those confused about particulars can look to the FTC’s \u003cstrong>Green Guides\u003c/strong>, documents that outline what the agency might perceive as deceptive practices. \u003ca href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/10/ftc-issues-revised-green-guides\" target=\"_blank\">The FTC revised the guides in 2012\u003c/a> based on input from consumers who wanted to buy “green” products more intelligently, and enhanced its investigations accordingly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70923\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 414px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/plastic-graph.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-70923\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/plastic-graph-508x360.jpg\" alt=\"The results of the soil experiment. See how poorly the additive-amended materials did?\" width=\"414\" height=\"293\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The results of the soil experiment. See how poorly the additive-amended materials did? Photo courtesy of Fred Michel.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Being certified by the Institute isn’t mandated, and the \u003cstrong>Green Guides\u003c/strong> aren’t rules. You can market any product as biodegradable even if it’s not. There is, however, risk of civil lawsuits. If your product seems fishy, the FTC will investigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Michel isn’t content to simply police eco-friendly claims. He hopes his team’s work gets consumers to consider whether they know how to use plastics correctly, or what these “green” terms even mean. Words like “bioplastic” and “biodegradable” are often used interchangeably, when in fact each implies a very specific method of creation or disposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know that something is a bioplastic, all you really know is that it is something made from plant feedstocks. On the other hand, if you know that something is biodegradable, you may not know what it’s made from, but you do have insight into what might happen to it in certain environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We don’t have much information about the lifecycles of new biodegradable plastics, and what we do know isn’t widely understood by the public. For instance, not all bioplastics are biodegradable, and leaving one in your compost pile would be a bad move. Worse, if people think biodegradable products can biodegrade anywhere, they might send them to landfills. Biodegradable products usually release carbon dioxide, but if they land in an anaerobic landfill environment, they release methane as they very slowly break down -- a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The bottom line is that you can’t count on something breaking down in your compost bin just because it’s made of coconut fiber, for example. Plastics don’t break down quickly because of what they’re made of but because of how engineers structure the molecules within them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I were to draw the chemical structure of polyethylene (PET), derived from plants…or derived from petroleum fossils, [they’d be] identical,” said Narayan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to handle this might be to change package labeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A way to improve things would be to have some sort of lifecycle information on the container rather than just the word 'biodegradable,'” Michel said. “How much carbon went into making that material? What are the other impacts? And then, what should be done with it to have the least environmental impact?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean that's a lot for a label,” he added, “but those are the things you really need to think about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deciphering Plastic Labels\u003c/h2>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Plant-based\u003c/strong> or \u003cstrong>Bio-based\u003c/strong> or \u003cstrong>Bioplastic\u003c/strong>: Plastics that are made from one or more plant starches, including feedstocks like corn, coconut, sugarcane, and wood cellulose. Not to be confused with biodegradable. This term describes the content of the material, not how it operates. Many bioplastics biodegrade in a timely way, but not all.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Biodegradable\u003c/strong>: This term does not indicate source material. Rather, it implies that the plastic can be broken down and eaten by microbes in environments like compost piles. All things biodegrade, but some things biodegrade more quickly than others. Biodegradable materials are those that break down in certain environments like compost bins within a reasonable amount of time, as determined by the FTC.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Compostable\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"http://worldcentric.org/biocompostables/bioplastics\" target=\"_blank\">Compostable products\u003c/a> are biodegradable, but even more so. When compostable products biodegrade, they often do so at a quicker pace and leave behind only \u003ca href=\"http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/humus/?ar_a=1\" target=\"_blank\">humus -- the essential component of soil\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Recyclable\u003c/strong>: As with biodegradable and compostable products, recyclable products can come from any number of feedstocks, but the term refers to their end-of-life situation. Recyclable products are those whose materials can be reused, either in a similar form or as part of another product. Plastics are recycled \u003ca href=\"http://www.nationofchange.org/numbers-plastic-bottles-what-do-plastic-recycling-symbols-mean-1360168347\" target=\"_blank\">according to their recycling symbol\u003c/a> -- a number 1 through 7 surrounded by three arrows in the shape of a triangle. These symbols correspond with types and structures of plastic, like vinyl (3) or polypropylene (PP).\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information about green vocabulary, \u003ca href=\"http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0226-shopping-green#recyclable\" target=\"_blank\">visit the FTC\u003cstrong> Green Guides\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The next time you drop a bottle marketed as biodegradable into your reusable grocery bag, pause. \u003ca href=\"http://cfaes.osu.edu/news/articles/bio-plastics-not-so-good-biodegrading-ohio-state-study\" target=\"_blank\">New research\u003c/a> shows that not all of these plastics are made equal: some don’t actually biodegrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plastic pollution is a global issue. Long-lasting plastics \u003ca href=\"http://www.theoec.org/campaign/recycling-landfills\" target=\"_blank\">cramp landfills\u003c/a>, pile up in city streets, and create toxic problems in rivers, oceans, and \u003ca href=\"http://www.epa.ohio.gov/Portals/34/document/newspdfs/n_cdd_leachate_evaluation.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">drinking water\u003c/a>. Americans generate over 30 million tons of plastic waste each year, and only 8 percent of that is recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Ohio, plastics are the largest component going into the waste stream, according to recycling expert \u003ca href=\"http://epa.ohio.gov/dmwm/home/recycle.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Terrie Termeer with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. \u003c/a>Concerns about this influx throughout the U.S. have given rise to a new kind of “biodegradable” plastic, which Termeer says is gaining in popularity. Companies are actively designing products that degrade quickly and that are sometimes made from plant feedstocks, appealing to consumers who don’t want to leave behind piles of waste or use materials that are “bad” for the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers picked up on the trend, too, some of whom felt it was cause for concern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was always curious about, you know, do they actually biodegrade?” said \u003ca href=\"http://fabe.osu.edu/our-people/frederick-michel-jr\" target=\"_blank\">Fred Michel\u003c/a>, a waste-management expert and professor at Ohio State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biodegradability, a measure of how well something breaks down in compost, soil, or landfills, is an ambiguous term at best. Everything biodegrades completely over time, but your car might take a few thousand years longer to fall apart than, say, a tissue. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has attempted to clarify the term to prevent misleading advertising, but the definition is complex. According to the FTC, a product is biodegradable if it breaks down in certain environments, like compost bins, within a \"reasonable\" amount of time. But each environment dictates different interpretations of “reasonable.” Ultimately, the FTC notes that no matter where something breaks down, it needs to be completely returned to nature within a one-year timeframe in order to be marketed as “degradable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70919\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 364px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/examples-of-exp.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-70919\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/examples-of-exp-431x360.jpg\" alt=\"Michel and his team tested materials like coconut hull, asphalt-covered plastic, and additive-boosted polypropylene.\" width=\"364\" height=\"304\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michel and his team tested materials like coconut hull, asphalt-covered plastic, and additive-boosted polypropylene. Photo courtesy of Fred Michel.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To make a plastic biodegradable, manufacturers have started putting in additives that supposedly allow even the sturdiest plastics to degrade in a backyard compost pile. To Michel, this seemed like an example of \u003ca href=\"http://hbr.org/product/the-drivers-of-greenwashing/an/CMR494-PDF-ENG?N=4294958507&Ntt=+&Nao=1540\" target=\"_blank\">greenwashing\u003c/a>-- a term that refers to misleading marketing tactics that appeal to the Captain Planet in each of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was skeptical about it from the beginning because those materials don’t usually biodegrade,” Michel said. “It’s difficult to imagine a material you could add to them that would magically make them biodegradable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In theory, biodegradable additives work by \u003ca href=\"http://www.goecopure.com/technology/\" target=\"_blank\">attracting microbes that in turn attract more microbes\u003c/a>, increasing the rate of degradation. Some manufacturers also claim the additives are organic and nontoxic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michel reviewed the research but was unable to find evidence to support manufacturers’ claims, so he ran his own experiment. Michel and his team rounded up all sorts of plastics to test their biodegradability: a motley collection of natural fibers, petroleum-based materials with the biodegradability additives, and plastics that shouldn’t biodegrade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141391013003066\" target=\"_blank\">results of the research\u003c/a>, published in December 2013, were disconcerting. Traditional plastics with the “biodegradable” additives didn’t break down any more quickly than those without.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t surprised,” Michel said, “but it’s just interesting that there are materials in the market like that, that have claims that don’t seem to be justified in our testing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The FTC soon caught wind of the results and began investigating ECM BioFilms, an Ohio-based manufacturer that makes a plastic additive analyzed in Michel’s experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ECM investigation, which remains tied up in court, represents the first time the FTC has ever pursued plastic biodegradability claims. Meanwhile, the FTC has also begun a closed \u003ca href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/05/ftc-approves-final-order-settling-charges-company-made-misleading\" target=\"_blank\">investigation into plastic bag manufacturer American Plastic Manufacturing, Inc.\u003c/a> for misleading claims, which might set precedent for future interactions with plastic manufacturers. Manufacturers of other materials have been charged \u003ca href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2013/10/ftc-cracks-down-misleading-unsubstantiated-environmental\" target=\"_blank\">hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil penalties\u003c/a> for misleading marketing, but as a first-time offender, \u003ca href=\"http://www.science20.com/advertising_science/blog/plastic_companys_unscientific_biodegradability_claims_barred_by_ftc-135566\" target=\"_blank\">APM was not fined but simply ordered to stop making false claims. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, the marketplace is full of these misleading claims,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.msu.edu/user/narayan/\" target=\"_blank\">Ramani Narayan\u003c/a>, a biochemical engineering professor at Michigan State University and chairman of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.astm.org/\" target=\"_blank\">ASTM Subcommittee\u003c/a> at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.bpiworld.org/BPI-Public\" target=\"_blank\">Biodegradable Products Institute\u003c/a>, a nonprofit that helped develop international biodegradability standards. He says it’s often difficult to come across strong research about plastics, but he is pleased with Michel’s paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has given very clear scientific data,” he said. “It’s shown that nothing happens [when these additives are used].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But greenwashing isn’t always deliberate. The language surrounding “bio-friendliness” is so complex that many are just plain confused, said Michel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In addition to there being confusion among consumers about how these materials may be recycled or composted -- or where they end up -- there's also a certain amount of confusion among industries that are trying to become more sustainable and develop more sustainable products, about the end of life of these materials and products, and how they can best address their sustainability goals with these materials,” Michel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some companies have their products tested and certified by the Biodegradability Products Institute. Those confused about particulars can look to the FTC’s \u003cstrong>Green Guides\u003c/strong>, documents that outline what the agency might perceive as deceptive practices. \u003ca href=\"http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2012/10/ftc-issues-revised-green-guides\" target=\"_blank\">The FTC revised the guides in 2012\u003c/a> based on input from consumers who wanted to buy “green” products more intelligently, and enhanced its investigations accordingly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70923\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 414px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/plastic-graph.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-70923\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/02/plastic-graph-508x360.jpg\" alt=\"The results of the soil experiment. See how poorly the additive-amended materials did?\" width=\"414\" height=\"293\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The results of the soil experiment. See how poorly the additive-amended materials did? Photo courtesy of Fred Michel.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Being certified by the Institute isn’t mandated, and the \u003cstrong>Green Guides\u003c/strong> aren’t rules. You can market any product as biodegradable even if it’s not. There is, however, risk of civil lawsuits. If your product seems fishy, the FTC will investigate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Michel isn’t content to simply police eco-friendly claims. He hopes his team’s work gets consumers to consider whether they know how to use plastics correctly, or what these “green” terms even mean. Words like “bioplastic” and “biodegradable” are often used interchangeably, when in fact each implies a very specific method of creation or disposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know that something is a bioplastic, all you really know is that it is something made from plant feedstocks. On the other hand, if you know that something is biodegradable, you may not know what it’s made from, but you do have insight into what might happen to it in certain environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We don’t have much information about the lifecycles of new biodegradable plastics, and what we do know isn’t widely understood by the public. For instance, not all bioplastics are biodegradable, and leaving one in your compost pile would be a bad move. Worse, if people think biodegradable products can biodegrade anywhere, they might send them to landfills. Biodegradable products usually release carbon dioxide, but if they land in an anaerobic landfill environment, they release methane as they very slowly break down -- a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The bottom line is that you can’t count on something breaking down in your compost bin just because it’s made of coconut fiber, for example. Plastics don’t break down quickly because of what they’re made of but because of how engineers structure the molecules within them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I were to draw the chemical structure of polyethylene (PET), derived from plants…or derived from petroleum fossils, [they’d be] identical,” said Narayan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One way to handle this might be to change package labeling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A way to improve things would be to have some sort of lifecycle information on the container rather than just the word 'biodegradable,'” Michel said. “How much carbon went into making that material? What are the other impacts? And then, what should be done with it to have the least environmental impact?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean that's a lot for a label,” he added, “but those are the things you really need to think about.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Deciphering Plastic Labels\u003c/h2>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Plant-based\u003c/strong> or \u003cstrong>Bio-based\u003c/strong> or \u003cstrong>Bioplastic\u003c/strong>: Plastics that are made from one or more plant starches, including feedstocks like corn, coconut, sugarcane, and wood cellulose. Not to be confused with biodegradable. This term describes the content of the material, not how it operates. Many bioplastics biodegrade in a timely way, but not all.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Biodegradable\u003c/strong>: This term does not indicate source material. Rather, it implies that the plastic can be broken down and eaten by microbes in environments like compost piles. All things biodegrade, but some things biodegrade more quickly than others. Biodegradable materials are those that break down in certain environments like compost bins within a reasonable amount of time, as determined by the FTC.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Compostable\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"http://worldcentric.org/biocompostables/bioplastics\" target=\"_blank\">Compostable products\u003c/a> are biodegradable, but even more so. When compostable products biodegrade, they often do so at a quicker pace and leave behind only \u003ca href=\"http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/humus/?ar_a=1\" target=\"_blank\">humus -- the essential component of soil\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Recyclable\u003c/strong>: As with biodegradable and compostable products, recyclable products can come from any number of feedstocks, but the term refers to their end-of-life situation. Recyclable products are those whose materials can be reused, either in a similar form or as part of another product. Plastics are recycled \u003ca href=\"http://www.nationofchange.org/numbers-plastic-bottles-what-do-plastic-recycling-symbols-mean-1360168347\" target=\"_blank\">according to their recycling symbol\u003c/a> -- a number 1 through 7 surrounded by three arrows in the shape of a triangle. These symbols correspond with types and structures of plastic, like vinyl (3) or polypropylene (PP).\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more information about green vocabulary, \u003ca href=\"http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0226-shopping-green#recyclable\" target=\"_blank\">visit the FTC\u003cstrong> Green Guides\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch as a Durham, NC brewery makes persimmon beer from foraging to fermentation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not normally a drinker of fruity beers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An occasional orange slice is one thing, but beer infused with raspberry, strawberry, or pear is not my thing. Give me a malty or hoppy beer, just please leave the fruit out of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or at least that’s what I used to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After being introduced to First Frost, Fullsteam Brewery’s persimmon beer, I can confirm that not all fruity beers are created equal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.fullsteam.ag/\" target=\"_blank\">Fullsteam Brewery\u003c/a>, located in Durham, North Carolina, specializes in what they call “plow to pint” beer. That basically means they use local ingredients (including sweet potatoes) in their beer making. On my last visit, their “yeast wrangler” was on her way to a local park to collect pollen samples for in-house yeast production. They use local ingredients because it helps area farmers, it makes their beer uniquely “Southern,” and it’s a great way to distinguish and market their products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70813\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_2762_2_persimmon16x9.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70813\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_2762_2_persimmon16x9-450x253.jpg\" alt=\"Fullsteam Brewery pays community members $2.50 per pound for native, foraged persimmons. \" width=\"450\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Persimmons ripen around the first frost of the year, when they often fall to the ground. Photos by David Huppert\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A few years ago Fullsteam’s Chief Executive Optimist -- yes, that’s on his business card -- Sean Lilly Wilson decided to brew a beer with persimmons, an abundant fruit in the South. But obtaining enough persimmons proved problematic. The specific variety they needed (\u003ca href=\"http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/diospyros/virginiana.htm\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cstrong>Diospyros Virginiana\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>), with its cinnamon and apricot notes, is most commonly found in people’s backyards. So they did what any modern brewery would do: they reached out via Facebook and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/fullsteam/status/119133609192996864\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter\u003c/a>, asking people to forage for persimmons. From Raleigh to Rougemont, people were shaking persimmon trees, collecting the fallen fruit, and selling them to Fullsteam for market rate ($2.50 a pound).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As food prices soar and people search for a way to reduce waste and connect with the land, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/05/16/2014/weeding-out-and-dining-in-foraging-with-tama-matsuoka-wong.html\" target=\"_blank\">foraging\u003c/a> - a hippie-naturalist version of dumpster diving - has seen a bump in popularity across the country. There are countless blogs, books, apps, and even \u003ca href=\"http://foragesf.com/wild-kitchen/\" target=\"_blank\">restaurants\u003c/a> that specialize in collecting wild specimens for edible and medicinal purposes. Today’s foragers are not your typical mushroom hunters of yesteryear, combing the woods in search of the perfect chanterelles. Today’s foragers are often urban, sophisticated, and, very often, \u003ca href=\"http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/culinary/wine-beer-and-spirits/The-Foraged-Beer-Trend.html\" target=\"_blank\">beer-minded\u003c/a>. Which brings us back to Fullsteam’s persimmon partnership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70817\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Angel_foraged.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70817 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Angel_foraged-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Angel_foraged\" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fullsteam Brewery pays community members, including Angel Elliott of Rougemont, N.C., $2.50 per pound for native, foraged persimmons.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year’s batch of First Frost beer included 550 pounds of native persimmons. Asked if Fullsteam could make the beer without the community support, Mr. Optimist gave an emphatic “no.” They simply don’t have the resources to go into the woods and collect all those persimmons themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Fullsteam admits to supplementing the community-foraged persimmons with commercial varieties, they believe the community is an indispensable ingredient. Their Forager initiative is as much about using local ingredients as it is connecting people with the land. If this sounds like PR green-washing, just spend an afternoon in the tavern talking to employees and patrons. It seems everyone is a backyard gardener, chicken keeper, or farmer’s market shopper. In Durham, buying local is more than a bumper sticker slogan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as far as taste goes, well, I found myself too wrapped up in the legend of the fruit -- they said it’s ripest just before the first frost -- and the history of the beer to pay too much attention to its flavor profile. I like my beer cold and uncomplicated. And this one tasted like beer. Community beer. With hints of foraging and pumpkin. Good enough for me.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Watch as a Durham, NC brewery makes persimmon beer from foraging to fermentation.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not normally a drinker of fruity beers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An occasional orange slice is one thing, but beer infused with raspberry, strawberry, or pear is not my thing. Give me a malty or hoppy beer, just please leave the fruit out of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or at least that’s what I used to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After being introduced to First Frost, Fullsteam Brewery’s persimmon beer, I can confirm that not all fruity beers are created equal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.fullsteam.ag/\" target=\"_blank\">Fullsteam Brewery\u003c/a>, located in Durham, North Carolina, specializes in what they call “plow to pint” beer. That basically means they use local ingredients (including sweet potatoes) in their beer making. On my last visit, their “yeast wrangler” was on her way to a local park to collect pollen samples for in-house yeast production. They use local ingredients because it helps area farmers, it makes their beer uniquely “Southern,” and it’s a great way to distinguish and market their products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70813\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_2762_2_persimmon16x9.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70813\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/IMG_2762_2_persimmon16x9-450x253.jpg\" alt=\"Fullsteam Brewery pays community members $2.50 per pound for native, foraged persimmons. \" width=\"450\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Persimmons ripen around the first frost of the year, when they often fall to the ground. Photos by David Huppert\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A few years ago Fullsteam’s Chief Executive Optimist -- yes, that’s on his business card -- Sean Lilly Wilson decided to brew a beer with persimmons, an abundant fruit in the South. But obtaining enough persimmons proved problematic. The specific variety they needed (\u003ca href=\"http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/diospyros/virginiana.htm\" target=\"_blank\">\u003cstrong>Diospyros Virginiana\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>), with its cinnamon and apricot notes, is most commonly found in people’s backyards. So they did what any modern brewery would do: they reached out via Facebook and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/fullsteam/status/119133609192996864\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter\u003c/a>, asking people to forage for persimmons. From Raleigh to Rougemont, people were shaking persimmon trees, collecting the fallen fruit, and selling them to Fullsteam for market rate ($2.50 a pound).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As food prices soar and people search for a way to reduce waste and connect with the land, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/05/16/2014/weeding-out-and-dining-in-foraging-with-tama-matsuoka-wong.html\" target=\"_blank\">foraging\u003c/a> - a hippie-naturalist version of dumpster diving - has seen a bump in popularity across the country. There are countless blogs, books, apps, and even \u003ca href=\"http://foragesf.com/wild-kitchen/\" target=\"_blank\">restaurants\u003c/a> that specialize in collecting wild specimens for edible and medicinal purposes. Today’s foragers are not your typical mushroom hunters of yesteryear, combing the woods in search of the perfect chanterelles. Today’s foragers are often urban, sophisticated, and, very often, \u003ca href=\"http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/culinary/wine-beer-and-spirits/The-Foraged-Beer-Trend.html\" target=\"_blank\">beer-minded\u003c/a>. Which brings us back to Fullsteam’s persimmon partnership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70817\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Angel_foraged.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70817 size-medium\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/05/Angel_foraged-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Angel_foraged\" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fullsteam Brewery pays community members, including Angel Elliott of Rougemont, N.C., $2.50 per pound for native, foraged persimmons.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Last year’s batch of First Frost beer included 550 pounds of native persimmons. Asked if Fullsteam could make the beer without the community support, Mr. Optimist gave an emphatic “no.” They simply don’t have the resources to go into the woods and collect all those persimmons themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Fullsteam admits to supplementing the community-foraged persimmons with commercial varieties, they believe the community is an indispensable ingredient. Their Forager initiative is as much about using local ingredients as it is connecting people with the land. If this sounds like PR green-washing, just spend an afternoon in the tavern talking to employees and patrons. It seems everyone is a backyard gardener, chicken keeper, or farmer’s market shopper. In Durham, buying local is more than a bumper sticker slogan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as far as taste goes, well, I found myself too wrapped up in the legend of the fruit -- they said it’s ripest just before the first frost -- and the history of the beer to pay too much attention to its flavor profile. I like my beer cold and uncomplicated. And this one tasted like beer. Community beer. With hints of foraging and pumpkin. Good enough for me.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s springtime, and many people are putting on their gardening gloves and planting some tomatoes or maybe tulips in their backyard. But there’s another kind of garden that you might want to consider, especially if you live in a rainy place with old and overburdened sewers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what folks in Parma, Ohio, have done. The Cleveland suburb is a typical neighborhood with homes, lawns, and sidewalks, but there’s something missing: grass. Jen Greiser, a natural resource manager for the Cleveland Metroparks, explains that this is intentional. “For homeowners that signed on to the project, we installed what we call ‘right of way’ rain gardens, and so we worked with a contractor to take up the grass and dig some depressional planting beds and install some plants,” said Greiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70839\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Storm_Drain-from-wikimedia.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70839\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Storm_Drain-from-wikimedia-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Heavy rains can overload the sewers in some cities and cause raw sewage to enter waterways. Photo credit: wikimedia\" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heavy rains can overload the sewers in some cities and cause raw sewage to enter waterways. Photo credit: Wikimedia\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This project is one of many initiatives in this area and across the country that use plantings and greenery to help trap stormwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northeast Ohio is a rainy place, and all that water -- if not absorbed into the soil -- runs off, mixes with pollutants and sewage, overloads the wastewater treatment plants, and ends up spewing out untreated into Lake Erie. This isn’t a good thing for people or wildlife or the lake’s overall ecology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the key strategies for keeping stormwater out of the lake and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmo0FRAVgkM&feature=youtu.be\">in the soil\u003c/a> is to create what’s called “\u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwater.epa.gov%2Finfrastructure%2Fgreeninfrastructure%2Findex.cfm%23tabs-1\">green infrastructure\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stormwater runoff can be stemmed on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vlct.org%2Fassets%2FResource%2FMiscellaneous%2FGreen-Infrastructure-2012-07-11.PDF\">large scale \u003c/a>with stuff like urban trees, wetland protection, permeable pavement, and floodplain management. But it can also be done on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vlct.org%2Fassets%2FResource%2FMiscellaneous%2FGreen-Infrastructure-2012-07-11.PDF\">smaller scale\u003c/a> by individuals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70835\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 378px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/purple-cone-flower-via-flickr-Karen-Blaha.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70835\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/purple-cone-flower-via-flickr-Karen-Blaha-378x253.jpg\" alt=\"Purple Coneflowers, also known as Echinacea, are an attractive plant for a rain garden but watch out for deer, who love to munch them. Photo credit: Flickr / Karen Blaha\" width=\"378\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple Coneflowers, also known as Echinacea, are an attractive plant for a rain garden but watch out for deer, who love to munch them. Photo credit: Flickr / Karen Blaha\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the spirit of springtime, the Metroparks’ Jen Greiser shared some tips with me on how to plant a backyard rain garden that can reduce local runoff and provide some attractive landscaping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get started she suggests a little observation during the next rainy day. “Just put on a raincoat, grab an umbrella, run outside, and stand out there for a little while,” said Greiser. Your neighbors might wonder what you’re doing, she warned, but don’t let that deter you. It’s important to find out where the water’s pooling up. This is the spot to plant your rain garden. And it doesn’t have to be huge: it can fit right into other landscaping schemes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, it’s time to get your hands dirty with some digging. “Instead of our traditional planting beds that are raised above the ground, we’re kind of flipping that over and we’re going to have a more bowl-shaped area for planting,” said Greiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70840\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Switchgrass_roots-wikimedia-Lee-R.-DeHaan.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70840\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Switchgrass_roots-wikimedia-Lee-R.-DeHaan-450x108.jpg\" alt=\"Plants with deep root systems, like this switchgrass, are good choices for a backyard rain garden.\" width=\"450\" height=\"108\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plants with deep root systems, like this switchgrass, are good choices for a backyard rain garden. Photo credit: Wikimedia / Lee R. DeHaan\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You want to fill out your bowl with plants that have deep root systems. Native grasses and shrubs take their roots deep into the ground, so they loosen up the soil and allow for more water to seep in. A mowed lawn, in comparison, has a really shallow root system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also pick deep-rooted ornamental plants, but watch out for the tastier varietals like \u003ca href=\"http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_loca2.pdf\">cardinal flower\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_ecpu.pdf\">purple coneflower\u003c/a>, which Greiser says can just be deer candy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might also want to consider some soil amendments, especially if your soil contains a lot of clay. Mixing in some sand or compost helps water infiltrate through heavy clay. If your backyard soil is already pretty sandy, then a shallow rain garden should work just fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70841\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 190px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rain-barrel-flickr-Digi_D.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70841\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rain-barrel-flickr-Digi_D-190x253.jpg\" alt=\"Another option for controlling stormwater on your property is to place a rain barrel beneath the downspout of your gutter. The collected water can be used for watering plants or washing cars. Photo credit: Flickr / Digi_D\" width=\"190\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another option for controlling stormwater on your property is to place a rain barrel beneath the downspout of your gutter. The collected water can be used for watering plants or washing cars. Photo credit: Flickr / Digi_D\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then wait for the rain. Your garden should soak up the water in just a day or two, so there’s no standing water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greiser says backyards are an important part of overall stormwater management plans for areas like northeast Ohio, where residential parcels abound. “While they seem small in and of themselves, the residential areas make up such a great percentage of our land use here, so they’re really critical, and to the extent that we can get whole neighborhoods involved, it’s a cumulative effect,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some communities even offer incentives to residents who plant rain gardens in their yards. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neorsd.org%2FI_Library.php%3Fa%3Ddownload_file%26LIBRARY_RECORD_ID%3D4725\">knock off 25 percent \u003c/a>from a homeowner’s stormwater fee (if and when\u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cleveland.com%2Fmetro%2Findex.ssf%2F2012%2F11%2Fsewer_district_officials_notif.html\"> those fees \u003c/a>resurface after ongoing \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neorsd.org%2Fstormwaterprogram.php\">court battles)\u003c/a>. Other metropolitan areas, like cities in \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.rutgers.edu/Projects/RGRebate/RGRebate.html\">New Jersey\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://rainwise.seattle.gov/city/seattle/overview\">Washington,\u003c/a> give a major rebate to cover the cost of a rain garden installation. One pilot program in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.epa.gov%2Fsciencematters%2Fjanuary2011%2Frainbarrels.htm\">Cincinnati \u003c/a>actually paid\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70838\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 254px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rainy-leaf-via-Pixabay-by-gama.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-70838\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rainy-leaf-via-Pixabay-by-gama-254x169.jpg\" alt=\"When in doubt, think like a rain drop. Wherever water pools up in your yard is the best spot to plant a rain garden. Photo credit: Pixabay / gama\" width=\"254\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When in doubt, think like a rain drop. Wherever water pools up in your yard is the best spot to plant a rain garden. Photo credit: Pixabay / gama\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>people to plant them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jen Greiser says would-be rain gardeners should aim to get their plants in during the spring to soak up all the May showers, though a fall planting would also work well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your green thumb is a little rusty, just remember to think like a raindrop and you can’t go wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>Additional Links\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.phillywatersheds.org/doc/Homeowners_Guide_Stormwater_Management.pdf\">Rain Garden Manual for Homeowners\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.phillywatersheds.org/doc/Homeowners_Guide_Stormwater_Management.pdf\">A Homeowner’s Guide to Stormwater Management\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/maescapes/rain-gardens/plants-rain-gardens\">Rain Gardens - Plants\u003c/a>, from Penn State Extension\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.rainscaping.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.main/typeID/37/index.htm\">Rain Garden Plants\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.neorsd.org/I_Library.php?SOURCE=library/2011NR05b_Native-Plants-for-Horticultural-Plantings.pdf&a=download_file&LIBRARY_RECORD_ID=5791\">Ohio Native Plant Suggestions for Horticultural Plantings\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://blog.nwf.org/2014/03/your-backyard-a-stormwater-sponge/\">Your Backyard: A Stormwater Sponge\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s springtime, and many people are putting on their gardening gloves and planting some tomatoes or maybe tulips in their backyard. But there’s another kind of garden that you might want to consider, especially if you live in a rainy place with old and overburdened sewers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s what folks in Parma, Ohio, have done. The Cleveland suburb is a typical neighborhood with homes, lawns, and sidewalks, but there’s something missing: grass. Jen Greiser, a natural resource manager for the Cleveland Metroparks, explains that this is intentional. “For homeowners that signed on to the project, we installed what we call ‘right of way’ rain gardens, and so we worked with a contractor to take up the grass and dig some depressional planting beds and install some plants,” said Greiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70839\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 379px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Storm_Drain-from-wikimedia.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70839\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Storm_Drain-from-wikimedia-379x253.jpg\" alt=\"Heavy rains can overload the sewers in some cities and cause raw sewage to enter waterways. Photo credit: wikimedia\" width=\"379\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heavy rains can overload the sewers in some cities and cause raw sewage to enter waterways. Photo credit: Wikimedia\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This project is one of many initiatives in this area and across the country that use plantings and greenery to help trap stormwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Northeast Ohio is a rainy place, and all that water -- if not absorbed into the soil -- runs off, mixes with pollutants and sewage, overloads the wastewater treatment plants, and ends up spewing out untreated into Lake Erie. This isn’t a good thing for people or wildlife or the lake’s overall ecology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the key strategies for keeping stormwater out of the lake and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmo0FRAVgkM&feature=youtu.be\">in the soil\u003c/a> is to create what’s called “\u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwater.epa.gov%2Finfrastructure%2Fgreeninfrastructure%2Findex.cfm%23tabs-1\">green infrastructure\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stormwater runoff can be stemmed on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vlct.org%2Fassets%2FResource%2FMiscellaneous%2FGreen-Infrastructure-2012-07-11.PDF\">large scale \u003c/a>with stuff like urban trees, wetland protection, permeable pavement, and floodplain management. But it can also be done on a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vlct.org%2Fassets%2FResource%2FMiscellaneous%2FGreen-Infrastructure-2012-07-11.PDF\">smaller scale\u003c/a> by individuals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70835\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 378px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/purple-cone-flower-via-flickr-Karen-Blaha.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70835\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/purple-cone-flower-via-flickr-Karen-Blaha-378x253.jpg\" alt=\"Purple Coneflowers, also known as Echinacea, are an attractive plant for a rain garden but watch out for deer, who love to munch them. Photo credit: Flickr / Karen Blaha\" width=\"378\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Purple Coneflowers, also known as Echinacea, are an attractive plant for a rain garden but watch out for deer, who love to munch them. Photo credit: Flickr / Karen Blaha\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the spirit of springtime, the Metroparks’ Jen Greiser shared some tips with me on how to plant a backyard rain garden that can reduce local runoff and provide some attractive landscaping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get started she suggests a little observation during the next rainy day. “Just put on a raincoat, grab an umbrella, run outside, and stand out there for a little while,” said Greiser. Your neighbors might wonder what you’re doing, she warned, but don’t let that deter you. It’s important to find out where the water’s pooling up. This is the spot to plant your rain garden. And it doesn’t have to be huge: it can fit right into other landscaping schemes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, it’s time to get your hands dirty with some digging. “Instead of our traditional planting beds that are raised above the ground, we’re kind of flipping that over and we’re going to have a more bowl-shaped area for planting,” said Greiser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70840\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Switchgrass_roots-wikimedia-Lee-R.-DeHaan.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70840\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/Switchgrass_roots-wikimedia-Lee-R.-DeHaan-450x108.jpg\" alt=\"Plants with deep root systems, like this switchgrass, are good choices for a backyard rain garden.\" width=\"450\" height=\"108\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plants with deep root systems, like this switchgrass, are good choices for a backyard rain garden. Photo credit: Wikimedia / Lee R. DeHaan\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>You want to fill out your bowl with plants that have deep root systems. Native grasses and shrubs take their roots deep into the ground, so they loosen up the soil and allow for more water to seep in. A mowed lawn, in comparison, has a really shallow root system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also pick deep-rooted ornamental plants, but watch out for the tastier varietals like \u003ca href=\"http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_loca2.pdf\">cardinal flower\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_ecpu.pdf\">purple coneflower\u003c/a>, which Greiser says can just be deer candy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might also want to consider some soil amendments, especially if your soil contains a lot of clay. Mixing in some sand or compost helps water infiltrate through heavy clay. If your backyard soil is already pretty sandy, then a shallow rain garden should work just fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70841\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 190px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rain-barrel-flickr-Digi_D.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-70841\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rain-barrel-flickr-Digi_D-190x253.jpg\" alt=\"Another option for controlling stormwater on your property is to place a rain barrel beneath the downspout of your gutter. The collected water can be used for watering plants or washing cars. Photo credit: Flickr / Digi_D\" width=\"190\" height=\"253\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another option for controlling stormwater on your property is to place a rain barrel beneath the downspout of your gutter. The collected water can be used for watering plants or washing cars. Photo credit: Flickr / Digi_D\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then wait for the rain. Your garden should soak up the water in just a day or two, so there’s no standing water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greiser says backyards are an important part of overall stormwater management plans for areas like northeast Ohio, where residential parcels abound. “While they seem small in and of themselves, the residential areas make up such a great percentage of our land use here, so they’re really critical, and to the extent that we can get whole neighborhoods involved, it’s a cumulative effect,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some communities even offer incentives to residents who plant rain gardens in their yards. The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District will \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neorsd.org%2FI_Library.php%3Fa%3Ddownload_file%26LIBRARY_RECORD_ID%3D4725\">knock off 25 percent \u003c/a>from a homeowner’s stormwater fee (if and when\u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cleveland.com%2Fmetro%2Findex.ssf%2F2012%2F11%2Fsewer_district_officials_notif.html\"> those fees \u003c/a>resurface after ongoing \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neorsd.org%2Fstormwaterprogram.php\">court battles)\u003c/a>. Other metropolitan areas, like cities in \u003ca href=\"http://www.water.rutgers.edu/Projects/RGRebate/RGRebate.html\">New Jersey\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://rainwise.seattle.gov/city/seattle/overview\">Washington,\u003c/a> give a major rebate to cover the cost of a rain garden installation. One pilot program in \u003ca href=\"http://www.ideastream.org/index.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.epa.gov%2Fsciencematters%2Fjanuary2011%2Frainbarrels.htm\">Cincinnati \u003c/a>actually paid\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70838\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 254px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rainy-leaf-via-Pixabay-by-gama.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-70838\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2013/08/rainy-leaf-via-Pixabay-by-gama-254x169.jpg\" alt=\"When in doubt, think like a rain drop. Wherever water pools up in your yard is the best spot to plant a rain garden. Photo credit: Pixabay / gama\" width=\"254\" height=\"169\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">When in doubt, think like a rain drop. Wherever water pools up in your yard is the best spot to plant a rain garden. Photo credit: Pixabay / gama\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>people to plant them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jen Greiser says would-be rain gardeners should aim to get their plants in during the spring to soak up all the May showers, though a fall planting would also work well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If your green thumb is a little rusty, just remember to think like a raindrop and you can’t go wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>\u003c/h2>\n\u003ch2>Additional Links\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.phillywatersheds.org/doc/Homeowners_Guide_Stormwater_Management.pdf\">Rain Garden Manual for Homeowners\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.phillywatersheds.org/doc/Homeowners_Guide_Stormwater_Management.pdf\">A Homeowner’s Guide to Stormwater Management\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://extension.psu.edu/plants/gardening/maescapes/rain-gardens/plants-rain-gardens\">Rain Gardens - Plants\u003c/a>, from Penn State Extension\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.rainscaping.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.main/typeID/37/index.htm\">Rain Garden Plants\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.neorsd.org/I_Library.php?SOURCE=library/2011NR05b_Native-Plants-for-Horticultural-Plantings.pdf&a=download_file&LIBRARY_RECORD_ID=5791\">Ohio Native Plant Suggestions for Horticultural Plantings\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://blog.nwf.org/2014/03/your-backyard-a-stormwater-sponge/\">Your Backyard: A Stormwater Sponge\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Tobacco Gets a Makeover as New Source for Biofuel",
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"content": "\u003cp>Tobacco is about to get a facelift. As a key ingredient in cigarettes, the plant contributes to gum disease, emphysema and cancer. This has led to a decline in cigarette sales and tobacco production in the United States over the past 25 years. But one research team thinks tobacco could provide a societal benefit by becoming a new source for biofuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the things that make tobacco bad are really good for fuels,” said \u003ca href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/people/bill-shelander\">Bill Shelander\u003c/a>, business development specialist at\u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\"> Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you smoke cigarettes you are smoking tar and nicotine, and the tar is bad for health,” he said. “Tobacco is unusually high in tar content and it’s the type of chemical that can be converted into fuels -- they are precursors to oil. If these plants were buried for millions of years they would be a very nice oil reserve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lab has partnered with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeley.edu/index.html\">University of California-Berkeley\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.uky.edu/\">University of Kentucky\u003c/a> to engineer tobacco so that its leaves produce oil that can more easily be converted into a fuel source for everything from cars to yachts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, called \u003ca href=\"http://ucbiotech.org/folium/\">Folium\u003c/a>, is backed by a $4.8 million grant from the \u003ca href=\"http://arpa-e.energy.gov/\">Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy\u003c/a> or ARPA-E, a \u003ca href=\"http://energy.gov/\">U.S. Department of Energy\u003c/a> agency that funds the research and development of emerging energy technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70734\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 341px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/NextMeal_Tobacco_Arwen_Curry.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70734\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/NextMeal_Tobacco_Arwen_Curry-377x253.jpg\" alt=\"NextMeal_Tobacco_Arwen_Curry\" width=\"341\" height=\"229\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers introduce genes from cyanobacteria and algae to increase the amount of oil that is produced in tobacco leaves. Photo: Arwen Curry, KQED Science\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The idea for biofuel -- using plants as a fuel source -- is nothing new, but it has gained popularity in recent years with rising gasoline prices and concern that burning fossil fuels is a main driver of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most common source for biofuel in the U.S. is corn, which is fermented and turned into an alcohol, called ethanol, that is added to gasoline and used to power automobiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To create biofuel from tobacco, researchers have added genes from algae and cyanobacteria that can process sunlight more efficiently than corn does and convert the sunlight into hydrocarbons via photosynthesis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydrocarbons in the engineered tobacco are a form of bio-crude oil, an antecedent to fuel. This bio-crude can be stored in the leaves and directly removed and processed to create biofuel, which requires fewer steps than making ethanol, the researchers say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because less processing is required, at a commercial scale biofuel from tobacco could be price competitive with gasoline at three to six dollars a gallon, said Peggy Lemaux, a University of California-Berkeley biologist working on the Folium team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plant has several other distinct advantages, said Lemaux. Tobacco doesn’t compete with the national food supply. It occupies 350,000 acres of land, compared to 95.3 million for corn, and is cultivated in designated areas where it has been produced for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also can be harvested several times a year and it produces more biomass than traditional biofuel crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We need alternative sources of fuel, but we also need researchers to come up with remedies to end the [tobacco] industry’s behavior that harms soils and communities -Marty Ortañez \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the University of Kentucky have been planting and machine harvesting tobacco on a two-acre plot to measure the potential yield. The tobacco biofuel has not been used in vehicles yet and would need more financial backing for testing after the three-year Department of Energy grant runs out this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say there are lots of problems with the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pesticide pollution and inhumane working conditions are prevalent in the countries where tobacco is grown, said anthropology professor \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/CLAS/Departments/anthropology/AboutUs/Contact/DepartmentDirectory/Pages/MartyOta%C3%B1ez.aspx\">Marty Ortañez\u003c/a> of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucdenver.edu/pages/ucdwelcomepage.aspx\">University of Colorado Denver\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tobacco is an industry that relies on child labor,” said Ortañez. “We need alternative sources of fuel, but we also need researchers to come up with remedies to end the industry’s behavior that harms soils and communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, released \u003ca href=\"http://www.hrw.org/reports/2014/05/13/tobacco-s-hidden-children\">a report\u003c/a> about the dangerous working conditions for children as young as seven who work in U.S. tobacco fields. Many young workers were exposed to pesticides and nicotine that sometimes resulted in acute nicotine poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orlando Chambers, managing director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www2.ca.uky.edu/KTRDC/\">Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center\u003c/a> (KTRDC), said that tobacco used for biofuel would be machine harvested, making child labor a non-issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Conventional tobacco uses lots of labor, but genetically modified tobacco would be planted closer together and be machine harvested,” Chambers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortañez contends that tobacco research, whether for biofuel or cancer vaccines, ultimately helps tobacco companies’ portray the industry in a positive light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70755\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 343px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/Tobacco-harvesting_300x225.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-70755\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/Tobacco-harvesting_300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: La Casa del Habano and Habanos S.A.\" width=\"343\" height=\"257\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tobacco for cigarettes is picked by hand but tobacco grown for biofuel would be more efficiently harvested by machines. Photo: La Casa del Habano and Habanos S.A.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Tobacco for biofuel is just another strategy for the tobacco industry to derail the discussion about unfair contracts and low leaf prices [for farmers],” said Ortañez. “It’s the last-ditch effort of tobacco companies to represent themselves as having any sort of benefit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When contacted, cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris declined to comment for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Folium biologist Peggy Lemaux, the research is neither supported nor influenced by the tobacco industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This project had nothing to do with big tobacco,” said Lemaux. “It was thought of by a bunch of researchers because it’s not an edible crop, it has a high biomass and it’s easy to genetically manipulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lemaux and other scientists participating in Folium have not received money from the tobacco companies, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the problems associated with tobacco farming, Ortañez does believe Folium has merit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am excited that the biofuel project will get people talking about labor rights and unfair wages,” said Ortañez. “There’s a lot of room for tobacco to improve.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Tobacco is about to get a facelift. As a key ingredient in cigarettes, the plant contributes to gum disease, emphysema and cancer. This has led to a decline in cigarette sales and tobacco production in the United States over the past 25 years. But one research team thinks tobacco could provide a societal benefit by becoming a new source for biofuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the things that make tobacco bad are really good for fuels,” said \u003ca href=\"http://eetd.lbl.gov/people/bill-shelander\">Bill Shelander\u003c/a>, business development specialist at\u003ca href=\"http://www.lbl.gov/\"> Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you smoke cigarettes you are smoking tar and nicotine, and the tar is bad for health,” he said. “Tobacco is unusually high in tar content and it’s the type of chemical that can be converted into fuels -- they are precursors to oil. If these plants were buried for millions of years they would be a very nice oil reserve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lab has partnered with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkeley.edu/index.html\">University of California-Berkeley\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.uky.edu/\">University of Kentucky\u003c/a> to engineer tobacco so that its leaves produce oil that can more easily be converted into a fuel source for everything from cars to yachts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project, called \u003ca href=\"http://ucbiotech.org/folium/\">Folium\u003c/a>, is backed by a $4.8 million grant from the \u003ca href=\"http://arpa-e.energy.gov/\">Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy\u003c/a> or ARPA-E, a \u003ca href=\"http://energy.gov/\">U.S. Department of Energy\u003c/a> agency that funds the research and development of emerging energy technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70734\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 341px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/NextMeal_Tobacco_Arwen_Curry.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-70734\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/NextMeal_Tobacco_Arwen_Curry-377x253.jpg\" alt=\"NextMeal_Tobacco_Arwen_Curry\" width=\"341\" height=\"229\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Researchers introduce genes from cyanobacteria and algae to increase the amount of oil that is produced in tobacco leaves. Photo: Arwen Curry, KQED Science\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The idea for biofuel -- using plants as a fuel source -- is nothing new, but it has gained popularity in recent years with rising gasoline prices and concern that burning fossil fuels is a main driver of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most common source for biofuel in the U.S. is corn, which is fermented and turned into an alcohol, called ethanol, that is added to gasoline and used to power automobiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To create biofuel from tobacco, researchers have added genes from algae and cyanobacteria that can process sunlight more efficiently than corn does and convert the sunlight into hydrocarbons via photosynthesis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydrocarbons in the engineered tobacco are a form of bio-crude oil, an antecedent to fuel. This bio-crude can be stored in the leaves and directly removed and processed to create biofuel, which requires fewer steps than making ethanol, the researchers say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because less processing is required, at a commercial scale biofuel from tobacco could be price competitive with gasoline at three to six dollars a gallon, said Peggy Lemaux, a University of California-Berkeley biologist working on the Folium team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plant has several other distinct advantages, said Lemaux. Tobacco doesn’t compete with the national food supply. It occupies 350,000 acres of land, compared to 95.3 million for corn, and is cultivated in designated areas where it has been produced for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also can be harvested several times a year and it produces more biomass than traditional biofuel crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">We need alternative sources of fuel, but we also need researchers to come up with remedies to end the [tobacco] industry’s behavior that harms soils and communities -Marty Ortañez \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the University of Kentucky have been planting and machine harvesting tobacco on a two-acre plot to measure the potential yield. The tobacco biofuel has not been used in vehicles yet and would need more financial backing for testing after the three-year Department of Energy grant runs out this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But critics say there are lots of problems with the idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pesticide pollution and inhumane working conditions are prevalent in the countries where tobacco is grown, said anthropology professor \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/CLAS/Departments/anthropology/AboutUs/Contact/DepartmentDirectory/Pages/MartyOta%C3%B1ez.aspx\">Marty Ortañez\u003c/a> of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ucdenver.edu/pages/ucdwelcomepage.aspx\">University of Colorado Denver\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tobacco is an industry that relies on child labor,” said Ortañez. “We need alternative sources of fuel, but we also need researchers to come up with remedies to end the industry’s behavior that harms soils and communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group, released \u003ca href=\"http://www.hrw.org/reports/2014/05/13/tobacco-s-hidden-children\">a report\u003c/a> about the dangerous working conditions for children as young as seven who work in U.S. tobacco fields. Many young workers were exposed to pesticides and nicotine that sometimes resulted in acute nicotine poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Orlando Chambers, managing director of the \u003ca href=\"http://www2.ca.uky.edu/KTRDC/\">Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center\u003c/a> (KTRDC), said that tobacco used for biofuel would be machine harvested, making child labor a non-issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Conventional tobacco uses lots of labor, but genetically modified tobacco would be planted closer together and be machine harvested,” Chambers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ortañez contends that tobacco research, whether for biofuel or cancer vaccines, ultimately helps tobacco companies’ portray the industry in a positive light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_70755\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 343px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/Tobacco-harvesting_300x225.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\" wp-image-70755\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/quest/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2014/03/Tobacco-harvesting_300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: La Casa del Habano and Habanos S.A.\" width=\"343\" height=\"257\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tobacco for cigarettes is picked by hand but tobacco grown for biofuel would be more efficiently harvested by machines. Photo: La Casa del Habano and Habanos S.A.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Tobacco for biofuel is just another strategy for the tobacco industry to derail the discussion about unfair contracts and low leaf prices [for farmers],” said Ortañez. “It’s the last-ditch effort of tobacco companies to represent themselves as having any sort of benefit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When contacted, cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris declined to comment for this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Folium biologist Peggy Lemaux, the research is neither supported nor influenced by the tobacco industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This project had nothing to do with big tobacco,” said Lemaux. “It was thought of by a bunch of researchers because it’s not an edible crop, it has a high biomass and it’s easy to genetically manipulate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lemaux and other scientists participating in Folium have not received money from the tobacco companies, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the problems associated with tobacco farming, Ortañez does believe Folium has merit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am excited that the biofuel project will get people talking about labor rights and unfair wages,” said Ortañez. “There’s a lot of room for tobacco to improve.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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