Environmental_Science – Page 7

SAND.

When I think of sand I imagine the vast expanses that I recall from my childhood. There was Third Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island that I thought was as wide as the Sahara. There was Fort Macon State Park in North Carolina with its long, flat expanses and massive dunes. There was Polly’s Beach in South Carolina with the light house that we could climb. And there were sand castles to build and holes to be dug. There were walks to be taken. And there were those terrible grains that somehow always found their way into my sandwich. There were endless quantities of sand.

But those beaches have vanished. They eroded away with the storms and the construction. No one lived at the beach back then. There were miles and miles of impenetrable salty oak and brush that separated the road from the shore. Now it’s mile after mile of careless condos and beach homes. And the dunes at Fort Macon, they are long gone under the tread of the bull dozer. It seems that everyone lives at the beach now.

More than the sand has been eroded.

But where did it go?

The Guardian published an excellent article on the theft of sand around the globe. They point out that the global building boom has driven the need for sand far beyond what can be provided by legitimate means. Around the world sand is stolen.

Water may be considered the most valued natural resource in the world. It is needed to sustain life – all life. It is needed for industry. It is needed for farming and for homes. Everyone needs water. Some of us have the nearly unbelievable luxury of walking a few steps and turning on a tap and having clear clean water pour out. That is not the case for the majority of the world. But this article is not about water; it’s about the second most valuable natural resource on the planet. What do you think that is?

What gives something value? If we look at how we defined the value of water, value is based on its necessity for life. Most natural resources are mineral and are not generally considered to be directly used as water can be. If you are lost and thirsty, if you find a stream you can drink. Most other natural resources are bound in the earth or are awash in the sea, and they have to be mined. What then is this substance that is considered by many as the second most valuable resource on the planet. Sand!

Not what I would have initially said, but think on it. It’s used to build most everything that allows us to function in large metropolitan communities. So maybe you don’t live in or want to live in a mega city or a city or a town but prefer the country and a simple life. You pack your bags and walk out the door. Onto concrete – there’s sand. You drive down the street with curb and gutter – there’s sand. You stop at the bank and take out all your cash. The bank is made of concrete – more sand. If it’s a big city and the bank is in a skyscraper – there’s sand. You rush back to your car and onto the highway – there’s more sand in the pavement and then mile upon mile of sand imbedded in interstates and roads and bridges and overpasses. As long as you drive on a road or go to the store you are on what is “sand-built”. There’s no way around it. Or is there?

As the population of the earth continues to grow towards 8 Billion even countries that some people refer to as third world are building population centers. Out of concrete – and sand. Everyone needs and wants and is willing to pay for sand.

Don’t run out into your backyard and start digging up what you have there and try to sell it. The world wants high quality sand that has the rough edges that help concrete to bind. And it’s not only concrete; asphalt uses sand too. In asphalt the sand fills the voids in the overall matrix of sand, stone, and “tar”. So how much do we use? Using a measure of how many cubic yards of sand it takes to fill an Olympic size swimming pool, the amount of sand used in the concrete to build the Empire State Building would fill 6 Olympic size swimming pools. And how much sand does it take to build a four lane road asphalt road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas? To build 230 miles of four-lane takes approximately 54 Olympic size swimming pools. And how much sand did the Chinese use to build their artificial islands in the sea between Vietnam and the Philippines? News reports claim that the sand ship used to build the islands created nearly 3,000 acres on seven islands in one year. If we assumed that the average depth of sand underlying those acres is 10 feet (a lot of which was under water) then the project required over 48 million cubic yards of sand, over 14,000 Olympic size swimming pools.

All of this is to say that it takes a lot of sand to build our buildings and our infrastructure. Think of the thousand miles of asphalt paving all over the world that is being laid today. The need for high quality sand is huge. And wherever there is a huge market you can expect a black market to feed the supply. And yes, people are stealing sand and selling it to anyone who wants it.

So now to the point of this tale. Sand is being stolen from all over the world. It is being take off the sea floor destroying habitats. It is being piled up on coral reefs to make islands, and in the process killing the corals and the reef habitat that surrounded them. Beaches are being plundered. Sand is being stolen not from Miami beach but from poor countries that cannot control the thieves. And these thieves often provide the barest of income to the people who welcome any amount of income to try to make their lives better and the lives of their children. As they dredge up the sand or dig up the beaches the collapse of the ecological system means that people who earned their living fishing can no longer do so. Perhaps they even turn to working for the sand thieves. This is not just a question of how we can support the global demand for sand but a question of the 8 Billion (see Post of 8 August 2018). People need to make a living. They need to be able to improve their lives. Right now they will turn to any means to do so. What choice do they have?

The global demand for sand is not going to end. The demand will accelerate. What can perhaps be substituted for sand in all that concrete and asphalt? Desert sand is too round and smooth from having been blown around for eons. To answer this question will take science, inventiveness, and action by governments. Perhaps a substitute can be developed. The Guardian points out that research focused on making artificial sand out of waste plastic may be able to cover 10% of the need. Where then will the rest come from? Right now it’s from the thieves. But is there another answer?

For more insight into this issue, visit coastalcare.org.

The Guardian article may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/jul/01/riddle-of-the-sands-the-truth-behind-stolen-beaches-and-dredged-islands

An Acorn in my Hand

When I walked outside this morning it was warm and humid but there was promise of change in the air. It is August, and we are well into summer so the temperature and the humidity were not a surprise. But I realized in my first few steps into the day that a change was coming. It was not as bright. The sun had not yet come up. The days are growing shorter. Soon we will have darker mornings and cooler nights. Then the moisture will slip away and we will enter Fall and Winter. There will be no more long, balmy days. But it will be a great time to go outside into the dark and to marvel at creation.

Any day or any hour we can look around and see creation all about us. Yet for me to look up at the clear night sky and see the stars and distant galaxies is always the most fantastic of moments. In the current summer nights Arcturus and Vega rule the night sky. The Summer Triangle of Vega together with the bright stars Altair and Deneb is clearly visible even on less than pristine nights. As we approach Fall, Orion with its brilliant display will rise in the night sky.

Each of these stars and the hundreds of billions of stars in each of the visible galaxies are part of the vastness of creation. Each of them – which we see as points of light of varying brightness – was born out of a cataclysmic explosion and a whirling vortex of hot gasses which coalesced to form stars, galaxies, and for us, our planet, Earth. This is not to imply that ours is the only planet. We know we reside in our star’s system with eight other planets (I am including Pluto) and a myriad of asteroids and comets and minor planets. And beyond the Solar system we have discovered there are a multitude of other stars with planets circling them. All of these are part of the vastness of creation. But we are on this one, and that makes it the most important planet in the universe for us. We are part of it. It is our home. It coalesced from the cosmic dust, and so did we.

When I lie down on the grass under a night sky full of stars I can marvel at creation. I look up and let my mind be swept away to amazing and far distant places. I wonder how we will get to there. Will we be able to wander across other worlds? I know that we will someday make that journey, and I am a little sad that I will not be on that ship. I am sure we will find unknown marvels in the vastness of creation.

I stand up from gazing at the stars and look around me. I see the forms of grass waving around my legs and the outline of trees in the darkness. I walk over to an oak tree, and I bend down and pick up a fallen acorn. I hold it up and study it and realize that inside this acorn are packed all the marvels of the universe, the galaxies, our solar system, and this Earth, our home.

8 BILLION !! What are YOU doing?

By the time we reach the next quarter century World Population will reach 8 BILLION people.

This is a troubling number as each one of us will need food and shelter and health care and should have the opportunity to lead a productive and happy life.

But will we all have that opportunity?

It’s up to YOU!

What are you doing to prepare the world for 8 BILLION? What are you doing to help each man, woman, and child to be fed and sheltered and cared for? What are you doing to help each individual have a life in which they have the opportunity to help their community and to feel the joy of knowing they are contributing to the benefit of others.

During the Renaissance, during the Age of Discovery, during the Reformation, when the French Revolution was taking place, there were less than 1 Billion people on Earth.

But with the industrial revolution and the concurrent increases in the knowledge of science and healthy living conditions more people were being born – and living to be older than in the generations before them. 200 years ago the world population was only 1 Billion. The world passed the 2 Billion mark only about 100 years ago. But by the turn of the century in the year 2000 we nearly TRIPLED that number and we soon passed the 6 Billion mark. Population growth has slowed. But we are still increasing, and by the year 2025 we will reach a world population of 8 BILLION people! And the population will continue to grow from there. Projections of population growth are that by mid-century, in the year 2050, world population will increase by another Billion and we will surpass 9 Billion people on our world.

The increase from 1 Billion to 2 Billion, a doubling, took 100 years. To get from 2 Billion to 9 Billion, more than four times the number, will take less than 200 years. The projections for population increase over the 25 years between 2025 and 2050 are that we will add more than 1 Billion people by mid-century. The 1 Billion increase that took over 100 years to achieve after 1800 will take less than 25 years.

Ask the internet. Ask your neighbors. Ask people where you work. Ask your Government. Ask your church. What can we do – what can I do – so we will be ready?

This is a question for all of us – for you and for me. How am I preparing to help the world at 8 BILLION? And then 9 Billion!

Each of us should rejoice in the Earth. Each of us should go out and experience the world, nature, wild life, birds, crawling things, all of it, including our fellow human-beings.

When we stand in a park or in the woods or next to a flowing stream or pause beside a field of wheat or a bed of sun flowers, we should marvel at it and we should also ask ourselves, “What can I do to preserve and prepare the Earth for all my new neighbors?”

And then act!

The picture of the child is based on a photograph at wallpaperbetter.com.

Quail and Sparrow

I submitted my siting to the online bird database. The first thing they told me – and I expected them to tell me this – was that I likely did not see what I told them I saw. But that’s ok, the data managers’ responsibility is to ensure the data submitted makes sense.

What I had seen was a black bellied whistling duck (BBWD). But I knew the bird was way out of its normal neighborhood. The BBWD is a bird of Florida and southeast Texas and up the Mississippi River as far as Tennessee. The map of its range can be seen on the black bellied whistling duck page of the terrific, on-line Cornell guide to birds. But it is not seen in a creek in the hills of Virginia. But that’s where I saw him, or rather them. Three BBWD standing in a creek on those long, very unduck-like legs with their long necks held high.

They looked quite at home in this lowland stream. And I was very much at home in the outdoors walking these woodland paths. I had not seen one of these long-legged ducks before, but I knew them from pictures. I was certain they were not geese. But I was surprised to see them there minding their business while I minded mine. As I watched them they flew off to some other more private stream. I imagine that they were heading back to a location that they are more use to. I watched them until they disappeared through the trees. I stood and continued to watch and listen in case they circled back. They did not.

What is it about birds that has the capability to enrapture us?

I think it’s because they make themselves available to us. They fly overhead. They will sit in a bush – perhaps hidden – and sing to us and to all of creation. They have the capability to remind us of the life and the beauty that is abundant in this world. And knowing this, they also remind us of our responsibility to enjoy and protect them, and to protect areas in which they can live so that they come back year in and year out to nest and sing and give new life and joy. The appearance of a certain bird may be a harbinger of spring. Or it may be an indication of a change in the weather, as gulls flocking inland may be warning of a storm. Their morning songs bring up the sun. And their last flights of evening bring the return to the nest and the calm of the night.

There are two birds in which I am currently interested as a volunteer citizen-scientist for a national park. I help with the park’s bird observation and management programs. It’s great. I have a reason to be out in the woods and the open fields. And it takes me out for the sunrise and into the new day that follows. I often hike to my listening stations in the pre-dawn darkness. It takes me out in the Spring and in the Fall and my task is – to listen to the birds sing.

I listen for the gentle call of the Northern Bobwhite Quail and the often hidden and reclusive Henslow’s Sparrow, a little bird of the open fields. The surveys each bird are repeated in selected areas along specific transects with established stations. It requires standing still and listening; it requires patience. Often I do not hear the quail whether it be the well-know “bob-white” call or the more muted nesting calls that might be heard. Nor do I often hear the Henslow’s Sparrow the thin, reedy notes that might rise and fall in the tall grass. But that’s all part of being outside. The birds are allowing me to share their home. I come with respect and quietness. And I am rewarded, if not by the song of my subject bird, by the call of all their feathered partners of the woods and fields.

Listening and surveying for these birds is part of an overall program to determine the health of the local environment and its ability to support these birds and birds similar to them. If the birds are present it means that they have an adequate food supply and have a place to perch, or hide, or loaf. I love that term and often picture the quail loafing around their nesting area. However, absence of these birds indicates that they and other birds may not find the food or cover or level of calmness that they like in order to take up and maintain residence in the area. As noted above we have a responsibility to ensure that we maintain and conserve areas where wildlife may thrive and we can go and loaf ourselves.

And the Whistling Ducks, they are welcome to come back anytime, but I agree with the purveyors of protocol on the bird site. This is not a normal occurrence, but it is the normal and the not-normal that continue to draw me outside to enjoy the birds, and the woods, streams and open fields.

Halcyon!

Picture is taken from Jules Breton’s painting “The Song of the Lark” from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.