BPA – Coming to Food Near You

BPA, or bisphenol A, is one of the most hotly debated compounds of the 21st century. Our group has discussed this substance before (Sept 26, 2008), but we are going to take another look in light of some recent articles in the NY Times and Consumer Reports that show how amazingly widespread BPA appears to be.

I’ll be emailing copies of these reports to folks on our email list and we’ll discuss them at our next meeting on Thursday, Nov 12, noon in the Chemistry lounge. For those of you looking for links to the original articles, follow these:

• “Chemicals in Our Food, and Bodies” by Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, Nov 8, 2009
• “Concern Over Canned Foods”, ConsumerReports Health.org, December 2009
  • Overview
  • Deciding on a safe level
  • What we found
  • Alternative packaging
  • What should be done

http://www.consumerreports.org/health/healthy-living/health-safety/bpa/overview/bisphenol-a-ov.htm

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.

Come capture CO2 with us!

We will be meeting in Rm. 402, the chemistry student lounge, at noon on Thursday this week (Oct 29).

The main topic: carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. Julie has sent around two graphics from the Sept 25 “special issue” of Science magazine that is devoted to carbon capture and sequestration. One graphic shows a global map of carbon sequestration projects (p. 1644-5). The other shows how the carbon cycle works (p. 1642-3). Paul also sent in a link to a Daily Show interview of Energy Secretary Steven Chu on some of these same topics from July 21. (C’mon, Paul – the Daily Show is not a news source!)

As usual, we will have a chance to talk about other issues of interest, e.g., the events sponsored by 350.org last weekend, and anything else that pops up.

 

Next Meeting – Th, Oct 1, noon

We’ll meet again on Thursday in the Chemistry student lounge to share lunch and ideas.

I just read an interesting article about electronics waste being shipped to China and poisoning the inhabitants. See “Confronting a Toxic Blowback from the Electronics Trade” (Science, 28 August 2009, p. 1055). This follows up on a story that is covered in the book, “High Tech Trash” (the Reed library owns a copy, but I have borrowed it – come see me if you want to read it – AJS). While googling “high tech trash”, I also came across a recent article in National Geographic (Jan 2008).

What have you been reading lately?

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).

Rebooting the GSP for 2009

It looked like the Green Science Project was going to shrivel up and die last spring. Although a couple of students faithfully kept planning (and attending) meetings, others were just too busy to stay involved. I had my own scheduling problems to deal with, but I’m ready to get ‘behind the wheel’ once again and take us into a new semester. Here are some of the things that I have in mind.

FIRST MEETING – THURS, SEPT 3, ROOM 402 CHEMISTRY

Can you top Thursday lunch? Let’s make Thursday lunch our regular meeting time. The only other lunch I have available is Friday. (Note: I cannot meet on Thursday in the spring, but we can worry about that later.) Organize your schedule accordingly.

Stop by and see what’s going on. Last year I tried to get students to organize our discussions. That was a mixed bag – I think you folks are just too busy – but I’m still willing to have students operate the controls. If that doesn’t happen, I have topics that I would like to present. Here are a few:

• Energy consumption. Is it more important to turn the lights down at home or walk to school? Turns out you might want to do both, but for completely different reasons.
• Climate change. You sleep in a dorm. You live in the library. And you eat, if you have time to eat, locally and organic. So why is your carbon footprint so gigantic? I’ll tell you. Turns out that my footprint may be smaller than yours.
• Forget ‘paper or plastic’. We need to decide ‘iPhone or landline’. We love technology, but is hi-tech love, the kind that requires itty-bitty semiconductors and needs to be updated every 2-3 years, sustainable? How much energy and material goes into making that ultra-cool iPhone?

Green Science is here to support YOU. Ultimately, the entire reason for the Green Science Project is to support and encourage your interest in environmental issues. We are not an “activist” group, but I would like to know how the GSP can help you make your thesis green, get you involved in green science activities on and off campus, and generally make you feel better about the future (without just sticking your head in the sand). Come get involved.

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.)

Controlling Climate Change, PSU, 7 PM, Feb 26

The Environmental Science & Management program at Portland State will sponsor a seminar by Dr. Bert Drake of the Smithsonian Institution on “Beyond an Inconvenient Truth: Can We Control Rising CO2 & Global Warming?”. The seminar will be held in room 238, Smith Memorial Center on Thursday, February 26, 7 PM.

Oct 14 – 16: Environmental Affairs Symposium @ Lewis & Clark

Just caught sight of an article in today’s Oregonian describing a symposium at Lewis & Clark College (located in SW Portland). The intro to the symposium reads:

Eleventh Annual Symposium on Environmental Affairs: Scales of Sustainability

October 14-16, 2008
Lewis & Clark College
As colleges, corporations, and cities across the country scramble to embrace sustainability, it is worth asking what exactly we hope to achieve. The 11th annual Symposium on Environmental Affairs draws together students, practitioners, and community members to discuss sustainability in time and space. Does sustainability mean eternal equilibrium, or is there a role for destruction and restoration? Are local systems always more sustainable? What exactly would global sustainability look like in today’s complex world? Download the 2008 Symposium poster here.

I believe it is free and open to the public. Follow the link for more info. And if you plan to go, notify Reed’s green scientists. Share a ride? Share your interest?