By Jennifer Lance •
July 3, 2009
It’s summer vacation, and one thing parents often hear from children used to being stimulated by school all year is, “I’m bored!”. Personally, I am never bored, so I have little compassion when I hear my daughter issue this utterance, but I have found a new book that I think will help her overcome the doldrums. Let’s Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature is a great resource for bored children.
Just as I have little understanding of boredom, I also never find myself needing an activity while experiencing nature beyond hiking and observing; however, children are a different breed. They sometimes need help focusing their energy. Author Jennifer Ward provides 52 outdoor activities. From “Playground for Poets” to “Five Fine Forts”, the summer boredom crisis is solved (and these activities are limited to warm summer months). Furthermore, these games and projects are designed for children ages 8-12. Here’s an example:
Today’s post is by Lisa Moore, a climate scientist at EDF.
NOAA recently released a terrific scientific report that explains, in plain English, the current and projected effects of climate change on the U.S. The nonpartisan report, prepared by the 13-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program, tells a grim but important story, clearly and with lots of powerful maps and charts. I encourage you to check it out to see how climate change will affect your area of the country.
Here are some of the “business-as-usual” projections that my colleagues and I find most striking and disturbing:
You think August is hot now?
By the end of this century, we could be in for much more severe summers all across the country (see maps that follow).
- If you live in New Hampshire, summer could feel like it does today in North Carolina (p.107).
- If you live in Michigan, brace yourself for summers that feel like today’s summers in Oklahoma (p 117).
- And if you live in Texas, you now experience 10 to 20 days a year over 100 °F. By the last two decades of this century, look for 100 such days - that’s more than three months (p. 90).
By Susan Kraemer •
June 25, 2009
Given the climate change coming to most regions of the US, this new roof idea is a great passive cooling solution worth looking at even if you don’t live in the desert regions… now.
Because, by century’s end; you might.
“Summer temperatures in Florida could rise by 10.5F, with the heat effect multiplied by decreased rainfall under the higher emissions scenario. There would be increased hurricane intensity and rising sea levels leads to loss of wetlands and coastal areas.”
“When you’re out in the desert, shade is gold. It’s the most valuable asset you have, so to make more shade was [the] strategy,” says Lloyd Russell of this house he designed to withstand both the scorching heat and the cold of the desert for a client in Southern California.
Russell’s very low carbon way to cool a home is another example of how creatively some architects are thinking out of the box and in the process creating an entirely new design vernacular - architecture for zero energy use in a carbon-constrained, hotter, wilder new world.
By Cate Nelson •
June 24, 2009
The Endocrine Society, a medical group representing the research of hormones, issued an intake warning at their annual meeting earlier this month.
The group is concerned over bisphenol-A and similar hormone-disrupting chemicals, found in plastics, pesticides, and other products. It said in a statement that bisphenol-A is a
’significant concern for public health’ and that it’s important for consumers to take a ‘precautionary approach’ to limit their exposure.
This follows on the heels of a few more studies regarding BPA. First–and most worrisome–is the recent study that showed that human exposure to BPA is likely much higher than previously thought and much higher than deemed “safe” by the FDA. That study’s author, Dr. Frederick vom Saal, who presented his study’s findings at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, said of the chemical:
BPA is now known to be a potent estrogen.
Human and animal studies indicate it could be related to diabetes, heart disease, liver abnormalities, miscarriage and other reproductive abnormalities, as well as prostate and breast cancer
Other recent studies should have us all cutting out the polycarbonate plastic.
It’s in the papers and on TV. It spreads across the Internet (including this very post), and it is finding its way into the classroom. Global climate change is nothing new. And it certainly isn’t going away. Not yet, anyway.
By Susan Kraemer •
June 19, 2009
Suggestions are floated in the current issue of Industrial Engineering & Chemical Research on the best way to farm living diatoms to turn their oil into a new oil field containing “massive amounts of gasoline.”
As previously fossilized fuel supplies dwindle, pinhead-sized diatoms - at the bottom of the food chain - have become the focus of the attention of the rapacious creatures at the top of the food chain. As we humans run out of oil, we have begun to cast about desperately for our new oil supplies.
Where better to look than at the tiny creatures who died to make us oil millions of years ago?
Lets not wait another million years for currently living diatoms to leave us new oil supplies. Lets extract their oil while they are still alive!
VP-FBB on the Antarctic Plateau
As I take off from the ice runway at the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley base, situated on the Brunt Ice Shelf (75o34’S 26o34’W), I finally realise I am living and working at the extreme of human endurance. I am in one of the Survey’s De Havilland Twin Otters, known as Victor Papa Foxtrot Bravo Bravo (or VP-FBB), heading to the remote automatic weather station known affectionately as Baldrick, located at 83oSouth.
The weather station is hundreds of miles from the nearest living thing (human or otherwise) in the middle of the most inhospitable environment on the planet. My life is entirely in the hands of the pilot Mark; fortunately they are very skilled hands.
Kid Guides is a television show hosted by two kids, Matt and Brittney, who travel to exciting locations and give kids a behind the scenes look at aquariums, museums, zoos and camps. And now the shows are on DVD so you can have them at home and available for your kids to watch anytime they want.
I have two copies of Kid Guides Aquariums to give away to two lucky winners.
By Cate Nelson •
May 27, 2009
For the first time, a study proved that using polycarbonate plastic increases your blood levels of bisphenol-A. And not just a little bit, either. After a week of using these materials for beverages, study participants had a 60 percent increase in the level of BPA in their blood.
Bisphenol-A has been linked to early onset of puberty, low sperm count and infertility, and its carcinogenic effects may include breast cancer. It has also been linked to heart disease and diabetes. You’ve heard all of this, I’m sure.
But how ’bout this? Bisphenol-A was first developed as a synthetic hormone. It’s an endocrine disruptor. It affects our children. It affects our adults. And the FDA still refuses to require removal from food contact materials?!
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Agnieszka Fryckowska, Meteorologist and Halley Winter Base Commander at Halley Station in Antarctica. This is the first of an ongoing series of posts written by the Halley Station team, which will give readers a window into life in Antarctica.
Introducing Halley Station (75°34’S 26°34’W), located on the 150m thick, continually moving, Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Named after the Astronomer Edmond Halley, the current station (Halley V) is the fifth to be built. It is the British Antarctic Survey’s most remote research station and has been operational since 1956 (established by the Royal Society for the International Geophysical Year, 1957-58). Halley Station (also known as Base Z) has presented itself in many forms since those first buildings in 1956.
The extreme environment challenges even the most thought out buildings. Blizzards and snow drifts eventually bury any structures left on the ground and the constant movement of the ice shelf compresses any structures under the surface, making these buildings eventually unsuitable for use.
It’s summer vacation, and one thing parents often hear from children used to being stimulated by school all year is, “I’m bored!”. Personally, I am never bored, so I have little compassion when I hear my daughter issue this utterance, but I have found a new book that I think will help her overcome the doldrums. Let’s Go Outside!: Outdoor Activities and Projects to Get You and Your Kids Closer to Nature is a great resource for bored children.
