UMUC Go Green Aggregate Feed

People, Planet, and Prosperity

2009-04-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

The month of April was spent working on preparing a final report for our EPA "People, Planet, and Prosperity" project and preparing to take seven UMUC to EPA's National Sustainability Design Expo at the National Mall from April 18-20. The picture on the right shows six of my students in front of our poster at the EPA Expo.

It was an incredible experience and showed that people could get together online, work on a project together, and then come together face-to-face to celebrate and make more connections, all the while decreasing their ecological footprint on a daily basis.

I had students from northern York in England, San Antonio, Texas, and from various counties in Maryland meet in my home to prepare for the Expo, and then present together in front of the judges and the public on the National Mall. Most of us had not met face-to-face before April 2009 although we had worked on this project for almost a year. The fact that we could all come together using the Internet to work on a project on sustainability gives me hope that people can come together to work toward sustainability.

If you want to see the project my students worked on online, please visit http://www.umuc.edu/gogreen/

They did this project while serving in the military, working, raising children, taking care of aging parents, and going to school. The fact that we can come together online and work toward a common problem -- how to make a lighter footprint on our earth -- while doing all the other things that regular people do in life, gives me hope.

Can we change before crisis?

2009-05-04T06:08:00.000-07:00

My cousin Helen sent me the picture on your right last week. My brother and I are in the photo with my maternal grandparents in their home in Rangoon, Burma. I kept thinking about this picture the past week -- with some local-global connections.

The world has changed a lot in the 37 years I changed countries -- from Burma to the U.S. The local-global connection I want to share has to do with resources. My parents recycled (and reused things) in Burma four decades ago because resources were scarce. We moved to Minnesota in 1972, where there were fewer recycling options back then than there were in Burma.

Like people in poor countries, we reused as much of any material as possible in Burma. And when we first came to America, we were poor, and continued our ways of careful use of resources -- until we became part of the American dream. I have seen a lot of people change habits with increased wealth and availability of resources throughout my lifetime. As far as I can tell, it is an innate human trait to go with societal trends, and hence, generally, people from all cultures have adapted to the consumption lifestyles of Americans when they come to America. (Always exception to every general human behavioral rule.)

It is easier to buy things you can afford rather than mend things that can be reused. It takes time to figure out the recycling and reuse options in your community, but we need to change before we are forced to change. I know humans will change in crisis as we did in WWII, and as much of the world does today with every crisis that occurs locally. The question I have is, will we be able to change before we are forced to change?

Is your yard carbon neutral?

2009-04-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well I have started my weekly ritual - mowing the lawn. I have had different feelings about mowing the lawn over the years - from 'not again' to 'it's nice to be outside for a little relaxing time'. The start of my weekly ritual was coincidental with an article I recently read. The article was on whether your yard is carbon neutral.

The debate goes back to whether having grass or having a bed/garden is environmentally better. Don't people say that gras takes more time to maintain than plants or a garden?

Let's think about it in another way.
Which contributes less towards global warming - grass or garden/plant bed?
Is having grass actually a carbon sink?

To maintain a typical lawn, you have to do the following:
- Mow it weekly.
- Fertilize it 2-3 times per year.
- Trim or 'weed whack' weekly.
- Dethatch, aerate, and overseed which may be done with a gas-powered unit.
- Blow leaves in the fall.
- Water
- Apply herbicides for weed control

With the mowing, trimming and watering, along with the energy it takes to produce the fertilizer and herbicides, it is easy to conceive that having grass may not actually prove to be a carbon sink. With the energy use or carbon dioxide produced in taking care of the lawn, it may be more than the actual grass uses for photosynthesis.

How can you minimize your lawn care foot print:
- Use a manual, 'old fashioned' mower
- Keep grass length at about 4 inches - reduces water needs and chokes out weeds
- Use organic fertilizers that minimize nitrogen content
- Manually rake leaves, spread organic fertilizer and overseed with rotary or drop-spreader, manually dethatch and aerate
- Increase your garden size or bed sizes with native plants
- Pull weeds manually or let some of them grow
- If the older generations did things manually then we can too

To maintain a bed/garden:
- Plant a plant - locally grown food will save transport costs of shipping tomatoes from across the country native species of woody plants can be a carbon sink and be abel to handle local weather conditions.
- Mulch - save on watering and decrease weeds, lessening the need for herbicides.
- Perhaps fertilize and water (depending on the plant) - use organic fertilizers or soil mixes to promote plant growth.
- Clean the beds - use manual rakes to minimize the use of trimmers and blowers.

Drinking Tap Water

2009-03-08T10:04:00.002-07:00

Some of my earliest memories involve water. Weekends were often spent in the creek next to my childhood home. My brother, sister and I would walk the creek in either direction, stopping only to submerge our heads in our favorite swimming holes. After the ice melted each spring and the vicious water of melting snow subsided we were always anxious to see how the creek changed. We would find our favorite swimming holes filled with rocks or a newly fallen tree across the stream changing the way the stream flowed.

One summer I remember asking my parents if I could drink the water. Through my young eyes the water seemed fine—it looked clean, so I figured it would be fine to drink. I went against the advice of my parents and drank the water anyways. Over the years I continued to drink from the stream with no adverse effects on my health. Of course the stream was not my main source of drinking water. Drinking water from the stream just seemed like the natural thing to do when we were on our creek walks.

I moved away from the stream shortly before my 18th birthday. I returned twelve years later to find the stream a changed place. Much of the forest surrounded the stream had been culled and the where there had once been vineyards, now lie homes. The stream flow seemed reduced, though admittedly, this may be my perception of the creek through adult eyes. I walked the creek with my brother and sister once again. Our “go to” swimming hole was gone and the creek had a layer of brown algae growing on the bed of the stream. It was no longer the creek of my youth; now it was now just another creek. Needless to say I could not imagine drinking from the stream.

Around the same time I started drinking water from the tap again. In the United States the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) protects tap water. The SDWA protects sources of drinking water and ensures contaminants are within safe levels for human consumption. After researching the way we treat water in the United States I felt reassured that tap water is safe to drink, though I still filter the water before I drink it. The problem with drinking water where I live in Maryland is that it has a hint of chlorine. Chlorine is a common disinfectant. An activated carbon effectively removes chlorine along with a host of other contaminants.

Do you fell safe drinking tap water? Do you use a filter? When you travel to different cities within the United States do you feel safe drinking the tap water?

Jeremy

EPA People, Prosperity & The Planet on the Mall

2009-04-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

I was priviledged to be a part of the UMUC P3 team that presented this past weekend on the mall. Although my teammates and I had been working on the project with our amazing Professor Fu for over a year, it was in fact the first time many of us had met in person. Terri flew in from England, Carrissa from San Antonio and the remainder from points up and down Maryland, Virginia and DC.

UMUC is a global University and national leader in providing higher education for adults using an online environment. Our entire project had been completed through online collaboration with help from UMUC marketing and communication departments and the wonderful Professor McLaughlin.

With the acceptance and funding for Phase 1 of our project, the first ever submitted by UMUC, we have set the bar high. Although we did not receive funding for Phase II, the very fact that a group of adults juggling demanding careers, families and various other personal committments in addition to school work, could compete with traditional fulltime students is something that we should all be truly proud of.

The whole focus of our project was to spark a global conversation on how everyone, regardless of where they live, can make changes in their daily lives, that will positively impact the environment (and we don't just mean recycling!) one of many things I don't think the judges completely got! Data on our website already shows that conversation has begun, so while we are understandably disappointed we did not receive funding for Phase II, our project is already a success and I for one will be taking more time to ask my friends around the world "Hey do you wanna talk?"

Acticle from Organic Lifestyle Magazine

2009-04-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

Around the time of Earth Day you can find hundreds of articles related to improving our environment. Here is one article called Starting Your Organic Garden from Organic Lifestyle Magazine that came to me via Oceana. It is a short but very informative article on how to begin your organic garden using compost material and some old fashion tilling. Enjoy!

http://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com/organiclifestylemagazine/20090203/?u1=texterity