Climate Change Reaches Marketplace – Come Listen

The articles on carbon capture and sequestration led to a LIVELY discussion at our last meeting. It was a good reminder that taking science in a “greener” direction means taking science into the human arena. What kind of technologies will people accept?

This week’s meeting, 12 PM, Thurs (Nov 5), Chemistry student lounge, will take us into the land of the podcast. The NPR show, Marketplace, ran a series of episodes last week on “The Climate Race” and I hope to download some of these segments and play them at our meeting. If you can’t make the meeting, but would like to see/listen to the segments, follow these links:

• Tues, Oct 27 – Climate change in our own backyards. Beetle infestation is killing large numbers of trees in Helena, Montana
• Wed, Oct 28 – The planet will survive, but will we? The Earth’s climate has changed many times. What do these changes look like?
• Th, Oct 29 – Is there energy to slow climate change? How will tackling climate change create winners and losers in the energy sector?
• F, Oct 30 – How do we live with a warmer planet? The planet has already begun warming. More warming is in store.

Crude – the movie

We skipped our lunchtime meeting last Thursday to free up some time to take in a movie on Friday night.

10 of us (Julie, Claire, Emily, Rhiana, Kassandra, Josh, Paul, Dave, Gwen, and Alan) gathered in the lobby of the Northwest Film Center at 7:30 PM to await the Portland premiere of Crude: The Real Price of Oil, a documentary film by Joe Berlinger. While we waited, we had a chance to people watch as members of the Portland elite who were attending the opening night gala for China Design Now, a new exhibition at the Portland Art Museum, streamed through the lobby.

Crude tells a gripping story about a David-and-Goliath struggle between natives of Ecuador’s Amazon region and multi-national oil companies (Texaco, and then Chevron after they purchased Texaco) over who would be held legally responsible for the destruction of the natives’ habitat, livelihood, and health. The natives’ suffering was documented extensively and the movie also included a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes footage of the environmental and human rights NGO personnel who have taken up the natives’ cause. While we usually focus on fossil fuels from where they enter our lives at the gas pump and exit our cars at the tailpipe, this movie showed us an entirely different set of costs that must be paid in order to feed our addiction to cheap imported oil.

After the movie was over, we walked over to Julie and Dave’s for late-night refreshments and more conversation. Which brings me to an idea that has been suggested before, would anyone like to arrange the rental and screening of other environmentally focused movies? Maybe do this on campus after Fall Break? Any volunteers?

Meeting notes – Th, Oct 1

Present: Claire, Paul, Josh, Julie, Alan

All kinds of ideas were kicked around at our lunch meeting. I was shocked when I finally looked at the clock and saw how quickly the hour had passed. Some of the topics that we picked up:

• Organic farming – is it better than conventional farming?
• Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. According to the Old Testament, Ishmael is the half-brother of Isaac, the favored son of Abraham. In Daniel Quinn’s novel, Ishmael is a gorilla, a “half-brother” to the human narrator. Follow the link to learn more, or better yet, read the book.
• What is the world’s carrying capacity? According to the folks at www.myfootprint.org humans are generally consuming the Earth’s resources for supporting life and then some. Try taking the (short) quiz at their web site and see what your footprint comes out to be (you can also learn ways to shrink your footprint – which ways seem to have the greatest appeal?). Our lunch discussion led to a discussion of “footprints” of various sorts and how a footprint is affected by a society’s technological capacity, e.g., how we can grow much more food from an acre of land today than we could before we started using fossil fuels. I encourage everyone to read the letter that a retired chemist, William Garwood wrote in 2003, titled “Why I Studied Chemistry” (reprinted at the department’s web site with the author’s permission).
• Toxic chemicals. We began by reviewing the article on e-waste being shipped to China for recycling. Discussion then took off in several directions. One direction was the process by which toxic materials and unsafe disposal sites become identified and dealt with. Students were unfamiliar with the case of Love Canal, one of the most famous episodes in recent American history of improper waste disposal. (I strongly recommend reading “Happy Birthday, Love Canal” in Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008, 42(22), 8179-8186.) Another direction involved how toxic chemicals ever get approved for commercial use in the first place. Different countries use different rules and the Precautionary Principle is a rule that has gained favor in Europe, but not in the USA. Why do you suppose this is? Finally, as time ran out, we considered the role that good design might play in preventing toxics from finding their way into commercial products in the first place. Can synthetic chemistry ever mimic Nature’s ability to work with inherently degradable, reusable materials? Some of you might find inspiration in the book, “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

Meeting notes (9/10): biochar and CO2

Present: Mariah, Josh, Erin, Claire, Julie, Alan

Alternate meeting times were briefly discussed. The Doodle poll had produced a couple of alternatives to Thursday at noon, with Wednesday noon and several times on Friday looking about as promising. Because of some schedule disruptions in coming weeks (see below), we won’t do anything about our meeting time for now.

Julie called two upcoming seminars in environmental chemistry to our attention.

• Prof. Lynn Russell, Scripps Institution of Oceanography & UC San Diego, will be speaking on Thursday, September 15, 4:15 PM.
• The following week, Prof. Kris McNeill (Reed ’92), U. Minnesota (but soon-to-be ETH in Switzerland) will be featured as the Thomas Dunne lecturer on Thursday, September 22, 4:15 PM.

Since each seminar offers an opportunity to meet with prominent environmental scientists on the same day that the Green Science Project would normally meet, we decided to cancel our Sept. 15 and 22 meetings in order to encourage group members to attend events connected with the seminar. Students can go to lunch with Dr. Russell (and the chemistry department will foot the bill) by showing up in the chemistry lobby at 11:50 AM. A similar encounter with Prof. McNeill will also be available and possibly a chemistry-sponsored dinner as well. Contact Julie for more details.

Finally, we turned to a discussion of some newsworthy stories. Claire alerted us to an article in The Economist (Tuesday, Sept 15, 2009) “The Virtues of Biochar”. Biochar is a substance produced by pyrolysis of agricultural materials, e.g., corn stover, that enhances the fertility of soils and also absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere. Next, Alan took us through his “high-carbon” lifestyle and sorted out the CO2 emitted by a year’s use of natural gas and electricity around the house, gasoline from his car, and jet fuel from airplane trips. The details are intricate so they will be presented in a separate post.

Meeting notes (9/3) + preview (9/10)

Thurs, Sept 3 meeting. 5-6 of us (me, Julie, Mariah, Erin, Claire, Josh) gathered around a table in the Chem lounge last Thursday. I offered a more structured Green Science Project than last year’s group — 10-15 minute weekly presentations, the rest social/discussion time — and asked for suggestions as to topics we might discuss. I loosely characterized suggested topics as either Eco-Cool Stuff or Eco-Disasters. Here’s what popped out:

Cool stuff

• composting toilets
• water desalination
• microbes in landfills
• bioswales
• Beijing Olympics

Disasters

• geo-engineering
• clear cutting
• melting glaciers
• Superfund sites
• landfills

Not bad! I’m sure more ideas will emerge as we go along, but we’ll definitely try to tackle a lot of these. Which brings me to the next issue: boosting participation. Everyone agreed that it would be nice to have more people in the group. Here are some of the steps that we are going to take:

• Mariah – advertising the group (also searching the IMC for relevant DVDs)
• Claire – signator
• Erin – provide a presence for us at the Friday fair (that was two days ago)
• Julie – continue to email our stuff to the Env Chem class

I have received some emails from other students who couldn’t make the Thursday lunch meeting and so I’ll try to find another meeting time that could accommodate more people. Stay tuned.

Next meeting: Thurs (Sept 10), noon, Chem 402. Topic: How I’m Killing the Planet (by spewing out huge quantities of greenhouse gases). This might be a good lead-in to geo-engineering in the following week(s).

Plan a green chemistry course? Hear Nate Lewis?

I was hoping that someone would want to keep the blog rolling, but it looks like this will fall to me for awhile longer.

There have been several meetings in recent weeks

Roughly three weeks ago – students met (without me) to discuss directions for the Green Science Project. A number of worthy ideas were proposed. Promising.

Then two weeks ago – Sarah J., Erin S. and I gathered in Capeheart for lunch. Sarah and Erin were especially interested in learning how experiments in lab courses are (or are not) designed to be ‘green’.

Last week – Sarah J., Cameron K., Zuzu O., Kassandra R.-S., Julie Fry and I met in GCC A for lunch. Sarah’s notes on the meeting follow:

Thank you everyone who was able to make it to last week’s meeting. Last week we began a discussion of integrating green science at Reed. The idea of creating a green science/chemistry seminar or class was brought up along with the possible goals for doing so. Julie (our new environmental chemist) brought up her probable green environmental chemistry course next fall, in addition to interest in forming a green science class/seminar with student involvement. The practicality of another course at Reed was a recurring subject. We need to think of ways to balance students’ and professors’ already busy schedules with the possible addition of another class. An important factor in such a class would be student involvement. Any new class would require more than just interest. It would require involved student effort in creating and continuing such a class. The possibility of have the class be for credit to encourage students to add the class to their schedules, was brought up. The meeting ended with the idea of individuals bringing their own ideas of what to include in a possible green science course.

Sarah also added these newsy reminders for upcoming meetings:

This week’s meeting will be Tuesday at noon in the chemistry lounge. We will be continuing the discussion form last week about possible green chemistry and/or green science seminar topics. What would people be interested in looking at? What subjects should be covered in such a course at Reed? Please come with your ideas and opinions. Another topic for possible discussion is possible projects on campus, and looking at sustainability at Reed, with focus on the science departments’ environmental impact. Remember also that this Tuesday evening there will be an expedition to Linfield College for Prof. Nate Lewis’ talk (press release). If you are interested be in the Chemistry entry way by 6:15 PM Tuesday evening. (Note added by Alan: The meeting and Nate Lewis’ talk are the same day. See you there.)

Oct 31 meeting notes

Present: Erin Smith, Look Tobin, Kassandra Reuss-Schmidt, Patrick Fink, Sarah Jablonski, Alan Shusterman

Food pundit Michael Pollan’s open letter to the next president has attracted media interest. The article was described in a post made by Stonebikkhu on Oct 13. He was also recently interviewed by Teri Gross for Fresh Air (Oct 20). We listened to a good bit of the interview, but had to stop with about 10 minutes left to go.

The full 40 min interview can be listened to online. (Podcasts of Fresh Air episodes can also be downloaded for free.)

Oct 10 meeting notes

Present: Cameron Kellett, Look Tobin, Kassandra Reuss-Schmidt, Patrick Fink, Tom Dunne, Alan Shusterman

The meeting began with Tom introducing himself to the group. Tom is a professor emeritus in chemistry and was responsible for teaching Chemistry 225 (Environmental Chemistry Seminar), Natural Science (his students analyzed waterflow and water quality in the Reed Canyon), Chemistry 212 (Inorganic), and other chemistry courses. Tom reported on the previous evening’s lecture sponsored by the economics department: Energy Policy for Electricity Markets: Wholesale Electricity Market Design (Prof. W.H. Hogan, Director, Harvard Electricity Policy Group). Tom’s assessment, which seems to be confirmed by the next-to-the-last slide, is that there are two kinds of market regulation and Prof. Hogan does not endorse all forms of deregulation.

Kassandra and Patrick reported on a special biology seminar that they had attended the previous day. the speaker was Dr. Sasha Kramer (Reed ‘99), the director co-founder of S.O.I.L. (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods). Her group is trying to improve sanitation in Haiti while simultaneously improving the nutrients found in topsoil. This is achieved partly through the use of special composting toilets that return nutrients to the soil.

Look, Cameron, Alan, and Tom then talked briefly about the previous week’s chemistry seminar speaker, Dr. Lisa Farmen (Crystal Clear Technologies), and her company’s projects for improving water quality. We also briefly discussed the article on water quality that Alan had sent out by e-mail and Alan encourages everyone to learn more about their “Water Footprint” by investigating the information at waterfootprint.org.

We will not meet next week (Oct 17) or the following week (Fall Break). See you after Fall Break.

Sept 26 meeting notes

Present: Look Tobin, Sarah Jablonski, Erin Smith, Cameron Kellett, Alan Shusterman + 2 newcomers Ida Peric, Kassandera Reuss-Schmidt

Sadly, I’ve lost the little scrap of paper that I was keeping notes on, but this is what I recall. If you’ve got something either add it or send it to me (these pages can always be edited).

Electronic waste. What happens to electronics after they go into the trash (or into “recycling”)? Most of us are old enough to remember some treasured family electronic bite the dust. Generally, these things get thrown in the trash, not repaired. The problem is going to grow substantially next year when TV broadcasts go digital (Feb 09) and people begin tossing out their old analog receivers. Do you know what compounds are in your electronics and what happens to them after they enter the environment? Are your electronics a valuable source of material? The Technology Solutions file of the ES&T journal (Sept 15, 2008, p. 6782-3) contains a short article describing recent efforts to harvest valuable materials from electronics. Another take on electronic waste is provided by the book, High Tech Trash by Elizabeth Grossman takes a broader and deeper view of the problem (the Reed library owns a copy of the book). And I also came across a National Geographic article with the same name that isn’t too long a read. Also see previous blog post on e-waste.

Jordan Katz seminar. We also heard a report from students who had attended this seminar the previous afternoon. The gist of the seminar was:1) avoiding serious problems from global warming required some kind of control over CO2 levels in the atmosphere; 2) global energy consumption forecasts suggest that 10-20 TW (that’s terawatts) of carbon-free power would be needed fairly soon (next few decades?); 3) the power needs to be in the form of fuel rather than electricity; and 4) the only real shot at solving this problem is to develop a solar-powered chemical reaction that produces fuels. To learn more, see CCI Solar – Powering the Planet and check out this previous blog post. (An aside: we also discovered that we didn’t know much about the role nuclear power might be able to play in meeting global energy needs.)

Bisphenol A (BPA). This subject produced an animated discussion of how BPA is used, why it is (and whether it should be) a matter of concern, and how companies are going about replacing it. For those who would like to know more, a good starting place might be this quotation from a previous blog post (Oct 4, 2007): “The on-line articles that were posted previously on this topic are especially interesting because they present 1) the industry view (Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group), 2) the view of scientists who are especially worried about endocrine disrupting chemicals (Our Stolen Future), and 3) the difficulties that government-supported panels have in making firm scientific conclusions.”

Thurs, Oct 2 Chemistry seminar (Rm. 301, 4:15). Alan encouraged students to attend this seminar titled “Nanotechnology and Applications for Water Purification” and to escort the speaker to lunch. The latter is easily achieved. You show up in the Chem building lobby between 11:45-11:55 and meet the speaker. Go to lunch. Save your receipts. Chemistry reimburses you. We can pay for up to 10 students (no alcoholic beverages).

‘Green Science’ Launches into Fall ‘08

We finally held a meeting of substance on Friday, Sept 19. Maybe this heralds a bold new era for the Green Science Project?

Attending: Look Tobin, Patrick Fink, Cameron Kellett, Erin Smith, Sarah Jablonski, Julie Fry, Alan Shusterman

We discussed future activities that we could engage in and tried to assign activities (planning, brainstorming) to specific group members. Here are some things that we came up with:

• Green food technology (partly motivated by our successful tour of the Cal-Gon Dairy last January and probably partly motivated by lunch). Look would like to see how cheese is made. Sarah and Alan are interested in baked goods. Erin was interested in pizza. Patrick thought he might be able to arrange a tour of a local CSA farm.
• Climate change. Julie suggested getting a speaker from Climate Trust. This group raises money for carbon offsets and we have many questions about how this can be done responsibly.
• Green chemistry/manufacturing. Cameron said he would like to know more about this. Julie thought it might be possible to get a speaker from Intel.
• Sustainable urban development. Several people expressed an interest in green building practices and modern recycling. Perhaps invite someone from the Master Recycler Program to come talk? Perhaps take a look at the events planned by Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development.
• Environmental quality. What’s in our water? Local jurisdictions have water quality labs that we might visit. There is also a state Department of Environmental Quality lab in the vicinity. Perhaps a tour of one or the other could be arranged.
• Bioremediation. Erin and Patrick are going to look for some local projects that we might visit.
• Speakers. Alan said there was still room on the spring seminar calendar for chemistry if we had an appropriate speaker in mind. The speaker could be local, but there is a budget for bringing in someone from farther away. We need to think about this sooner rather than later, however, because potential speakers have other commitments. Erin and Patrick asked about the more biologically-oriented speakers. The group supported the idea, but Alan said that would have to be arranged through, and sponsored by, the Biology department.

More brainstorming is needed. We need to generate more ideas and see what actually gets people moving. (Also, my apologies if anyone’s cherished idea didn’t get listed. I was working harder on eating lunch than on taking notes.)

More students are also needed. Please talk our group up among your “green” friends. More participants make it easier to plan activities, detect directions that the group would like to move in, and to attract outside involvement (speakers, tours, etc.).

Next meeting: Friday, Sept 26, noon, Chem 401. We will continue planning and getting to know each other. Maybe someone will have some progress to report on one of the ideas listed above.