Environmental Snacks

Recently, I moved from Denver, CO to Wichita, KS.  This was more of a forced move than a "Hey, Kansas is great! I want to move there!" kind of move. It seemed like right at the state border, the humidity enveloped us like a stifling, wet blanket. We began to speculate why it could be so humid in the middle of the continent; I mean, Kansas is about as far away from an ocean as you can get in the United States. Digging through my environmental brain, I began to wonder if it could have anything to do with the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies underneath the Midwest, occupying 174,000 square miles. It made sense to me, but, my ever-wandering mind decided to continue researching the aquifer. What I learned startled me. This water, which is the primary source of water for the High Plains region, is not only being depleted, but it is also being polluted. It took 10 million years to make something that we will almost undoubtedly deplete within the next fifty. Yikes. So, I became very cons...

Today, there seem to be an insurmountable number of environmental dilemmas creeping up, which begs the question of how they will ever all be dealt with. Environmental policy is often complicated and it often takes a very specific approach to come up with a solution for these problems. Often, the solution lies in either command-and-control policies, or market-based solutions. Command-and-control policies are cut-and-dried. A limit is set, and those who exceed the limit pay a hefty fine. Market-based solutions allow for more flexibility and creativity, and provide incentives to not only meet a specification, but to go above and beyond. Depending on the situation, one method is often more effective than the other.  For example, the industrial park up the road is infamous for dumping waste into the river. For years, the command-and-control policy has allowed a certain amount of waste to be deposited into the river, but it can be hard to monitor exactly  how much  waste they a...

Over the summer, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time paddleboarding at Sylvan Lake. One of my favorite spots is on the far end of the lake, where you can look into the clear, deep water and see the shimmering bodies of the fish glistening in the sun. It is such a peaceful feeling to be that close to nature. Between over-fishing and pollution, many species are threatened. While pollution may be hard to control, what can we do about over-fishing? When a fishery is managed using maximum sustainable yield policies, the goal is to maintain the population by removing the fish that are being added to the population, thus ensuring sustainable population growth, without the threat of overgrowth. It was not uncommon to see a large number of people dotting the shoreline of the lake or relaxing in their boats, fishing poles in hand, each time I visited. This summer, that is not surprising. Next spring, they will be draining the lake to reconstruct the dam, so bag limits were lifted at the en...

Each year on our planet, thousands of species face the threat of extinction .  As we lose species, we lose biodiversity in our ecosystems, which leads to a plethora of environmental and economical setbacks. While some species benefit tourism, others provide medical benefits or other goods. Value can be measured by an individual's willingness to pay for the resource, or the willingness to accept the loss of that resource. In the case of an endangered species, the contingent valuation method would be the appropriate approach. The contingent valuation method uses open-ended questions, dichotomous choice methods, payment cards, or bidding games. The payment card method provides values on cards, and participants are asked which values are close to what they are willing to pay. When the bidding games method is used, individuals are provided sequential values in ascending order until a value is rejected, or descending order until a value is accepted. Let's take a look at an endangered...

It's hard to imagine that our planet is small enough, threats and disasters have the ability to touch even the farthest ends of the Earth. Industrial pollution contributes to rising temperatures, resulting in melting Arctic ice caps. International trade increases ocean pollutants, threatening marine life all over the world. Each and every decision made by companies and individuals has the ability to impact our planet significantly. Thankfully, there are many international structures in place to protect the interests of the environment. For example, the United Nations, which began in 1945, held many international conferences that are responsible for producing initiatives such as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests, and the Commission on Sustainable Development. The intentions of the UN are as good as they come, but unfortunately, many challenges lie in the path of environmental success. Not only ar...

Many people these days have a very optimistic view of the positive changes being made to our environment. In an Econtalk podcast, host Russ Roberts interviews environmental scientist Jesse Ausubel, and many interesting points are brought up regarding the return of nature to our world.  In this podcast, Ausubel brings up the increase in precision agriculture and how it allows for rising crop yields in smaller areas, therefore, freeing up land that can be reverted back into nature. It's a beautiful concept, one that I think has potential. Ausubel and Roberts volley ideas that could allow for land to be freed from agriculture. Recently, more and more individuals are changing to vegetarian and pescatarian diets, either for health or personal reasons. Ausubel speculates that as these diet changes become more widespread, the need for land to grow crops for livestock would decrease drastically, allowing for nature to reclaim these spaces. He also believes that the use of corn for fuel is ...

  Everywhere we go, there are signs of a movement toward a cleaner Earth for future generations. To live sustainably is to meet the social, economical, and environmental needs of a culture, while also securing resources and environmental quality for future generations. Sustainability, which is as much about economics as it is about ethics, falls into two categories: Weak sustainability and strong sustainability. Weak sustainability argues that "human capital", or man-made capital, can substitute for natural capital. Strong sustainability, on the other hand, doesn't view natural and human capital interchangeably, rather, it views the two as complimentary. Ideal strong sustainability has no natural capital depreciation. Where efficiency is concerned, it does not go hand-in-hand with sustainability; Instead they can be viewed as two pieces of the same puzzle. Although one does not directly imply the other, they can be compatible. Ideally, efficiency promotes profits, which s...

  Climate Change: it's all the rage these days. Despite years of debate over it's existence, I think that this years overactive hurricane says a lot about how threatening it actually is. Over three-hundred fatalities were reported this year as a direct result of hurricanes, with billions of dollars (or more) in damage. So, what are we going to do about it? These days, there many options for the production of energy. Coal, which has been widely used all across the world for centuries, is cheap and abundant, but emits large amounts of sulfur and nitrous oxides into the air. It is dangerous to mine, and it contaminates groundwater. Also commonly used is natural gas, which is essentially a byproduct of crude oil. It is clean-burning, abundant, accessible and affordable, but it is also highly combustible, and the hydraulic fracturing which produces it is dangerous to the environment, releasing methane and contaminating groundwater. (Fracking has also been accused of causing earthqua...

  Thanks to the great Industrial Age, we have an unlimited amount of stuff available to us. Along with this stuff comes pollution, and lots of it. Unfortunately, there is no way to go back in time to fix the damage industry has caused, so what are our other options? Often, policies can be implemented to curb the amount of pollution being produced, and that's exactly what many companies are beginning to face. Take a paper cup factory, for example. Paper factories, with their pulping and bleaching processes, release chemicals not only into the air, but also the water. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, fine particulate matters, lead, chlorine, and carbon dioxide are just a few of the pollutants release during the paper making processes. These pollutants come with a plethora of implications for both human health, and the health of the environment. They cause acid rain, heart and lung problems, irritation of the respiratory system, impaired visibility, and damaged crops....

  A few years ago, I went to Yellowstone National Park on family vacation. I have never experienced anything so beautiful, delicate and complex. I was completely enamored with the geysers, mudpots, and hot springs, and I was able to witness a few rare eruptions. Thus began my obsession with geology. Yellowstone is a popular travel destination year-round, and it's easy to see why. Acres of land beckon skiers and snowmobilers in the winter, and the summer allows for a multitude of hiking, biking, and wildlife viewing opportunities. There is something for everyone in over three-thousand square miles of space. But what about the other organisms that make up this dynamic ecosystem? With tourism on the rise, Yellowstone National Park's wildlife is facing a crisis. Dynamic analysis is of utmost importance when it comes to Yellowstone. What effects do our actions have on the wildlife that inhabits the area? Is the park being utilized in a way that maximizes it's net benefit? Which ...

  As the season fades into the southern sun , I reminisce upon our summer camping trips. There is something  so  magical about being in the mount ains, away from the complications and burdens  of everyday life.  Technology becomes nonessential, conversation flows freely,  life becomes   delightfully  simple . It’s not hard to see how humans lived like that for hundreds of years.  Unfortu nately, everyday life also slithers   it s  way  in to the backcountry. It frustrated me the number of fires we encountered  on our trips  that were still burning. We came across one that had  four - foot  flames! We drive into campgrounds that are full of trash, broken glass, and remnants of human waste. It’s heartbreaking that people can’t be more considerate than that.    But there’s good news. It doesn’t have to be this way.     There are pros and cons to both public and private campgrounds in nationa...