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The beauty of convenience and other observations
Written by Onate Cittlali, Keenan Thomas, Ashlyn Smith
UTK students wax eloquent on the environmental issues that confront us every day
University of Tennessee journalism professor Mark Littmann asks students in his environmental writing class every semester to write short sketches about environmental issues they may witness during any given day. Such an assignment requires an almost poetical approach.
We published one such UTK environmental writing sketch last spring, the infamous story of the orphaned mayonnaise jar of Fort Sanders, and Hellbender Press decided to go with three this fall, because they are that good.
The disposable containers
It is Friday afternoon and the mother of three is at the grocery self-checkout buying her family’s food for the week. Her squeaky, gray shopping cart is domed with 12-packs of Coke, single-serve yogurt, single-packaged snacks, and the typical food staples that her children beg her for. She likes purchasing the individually packed snacks because they fit perfectly in the paper bag school lunches that she gives to her kids every day. That is the beauty of convenience.
Double bag the milk. The eggs and sliced bread get their own bag. Frozen foods are to be separated. She continues to place her cardboard-boxed foods in the plastic bags handily provided to her. The mother pays for her food and crumples her receipt.
When she gets home, she piles her grocery bags on her kitchen island. Carefully taking out each item she bought, she throws the plastic bags on the side counter out of her way. What is she supposed to do with these?
Her kids rush indoors as they get dropped off from school, ready for the weekend. They raid the fridge and each cracks open a chilled can of Coke. It is their favorite drink while they watch the afternoon cartoons. The half-empty cans sit on the coffee table for days before they are emptied.
The mother wonders why her trash bins fill up before the garbage men come each week. She thinks maybe she should start looking into buying Tupperware that will help with that, but washing dishes seems like such a hassle for a mother of three.
That is the beauty of convenience.
-Onate Cittlali
Semi-conscious environmental awareness
The student jumps into the shower while brushing his teeth to conserve water. After completing his morning routine, the student drives 15 minutes downtown with a full tank of gas.
He parks his car in a designated spot. Before class, he makes a stop at a vending machine, grabbing his third soda for the week and swearing it’s his last one. He places the empty bottle into the recycling bin because that’s the right thing to do.
Upon completing his classes, the student rushes to his car. He drives a few minutes to the immediate city outskirts. He parks and enters a pizza kitchen to start his shift.
He dons his apron and sweats next to the constantly operating oven, which only turns off between the kitchen’s closing and opening. The student grabs one of the “92-percent biodegradable” Styrofoam cups to get more soda.
He goes through three cups, along with three pairs of latex-free gloves, during his shift.
As the pizza boxes pile up next to the dumpster, the student heads to his car after work. He drives 20 minutes back to his house, passing a stream of litter on the highway. “At least I don’t do that,” the student thinks. The needle on the gas gauge begins to sway toward empty.
He gets home and jumps into the shower, brushing his teeth to conserve water.
-Keenan Thomas
An urban habitat
The long yellow school bus screeches to a halt at the top of the little neighborhood street at exactly 6:40 a.m.; the brakes are sensitive to the nippy October morning air.
Parents hug their little ones goodbye, wishing them a good day at school – and imploring them to eat the apple in their lunchboxes. The smiling driver closes the doors after the last anxious third-grader climbs the steep bus steps.
It’s a bumpy ride, but the warmth of the bus heaters is putting the boy in the seventh row back to sleep. The girl behind him though likes to paint pictures on the fogged window, with giggles spilling from her and her friend. Several older kids are finishing homework from the night before. The bus is filled with a chorus of whispers and snores, harmonizing with the whirring of the bus engine as it bounces down the road.
There is only one little girl, at the very front of the bus, who does not join in on the muted chaos of the morning. Head propped up against the buzzing window, she stares absently out of it.
Outside is a forest of fluorescent lamp posts under which a small herd of nursing home residents take shelter to smoke. Little sedans sleep in the dewy grass. An early morning runner bounds out from behind a bush.
It seems the tallest trees are chimneys producing fluffy clouds in the cold. She turns away from the window, for there is nothing to see. No one has their nose pressed tightly against the damp window, crowding to get a peek at what roams just outside.
They missed the deer by 10 years.
-Ashlyn Smith
Organized crime put a hit on global forests — along with beef, soy, palm oil and timber interests
Written by Jennifer Devine
We are cutting through forests we need more than ever
This article was originally published in The Conversation. Jennifer Devine is an associate professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University.
Every year the world loses an estimated 25 million acres (10 million hectares) of forest, an area larger than the state of Indiana.
Nearly all of it is in the tropics
Tropical forests store enormous quantities of carbon and are home to at least two-thirds of the world’s living species, so deforestation has disastrous consequences for climate change and conservation. Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, slowing its buildup in the atmosphere — but when they are burned or logged, they release their stored carbon, fueling further warming. Tropical forest loss generates nearly 50% more greenhouse gases than does the global transportation sector.
Knox County increases penalties for littering with fines going to illegal dump cleanup
The Knox County Commission in November voted to approve an ordinance further criminalizing the act of littering in Knox County, according to Hard Knox Wire.
According to the new measure, anyone caught littering could be fined up to $500 for the offense, depending on the amount and type of trash involved. Convicted offenders may also be sentenced to up to 160 hours of trash-pickup duties.
The provision also gives Knox County citizens the right to remove trash from rights of way at their own discretion
Littering is already illegal under state law, but the new ordinance allows Knox County to levy its own punishments. For instance, all money collected in the enforcement of the new ordinance will be placed into an illegal-dump cleanup fund maintained by the county.
Clemson University honors Smokies chief for conservation excellence
Clemson University awarded Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash the Walter T. Cox Award for conservation excellence for his dedication to preserving the natural resources of the most visited national park in the United States.
The Clemson University Institute for Parks, in conjunction with the George B. Hartsog Awards Progran, bestows the annual honor “to recognize individuals who demonstrate exemplary leadership in the field of conservation,” according to a news release from the park service.
“The Walter T. Cox Award recognizes park administrators who exemplify Dr. Cox’s distinguished career in education and public service. Superintendent Cash was one of five individuals recognized this year alongside other national and state park leaders.”
The institute said it gave Cash the award because of his “sustained achievement, public service and leadership in conserving and managing public lands. including the most biodiverse and most visited national park in the U.S.”
In acceptance of the award, Cash acknowledged the difficulties faced by managers of wild lands and other public conservation resources during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Leading staff in providing high-quality services and protecting resources during the pandemic, coupled with an extreme rise in visitation, has been challenging,” Cash said in the release.
“I’ve been inspired by our staff, partners, and communities as we work together to care for the park and to continue to welcome people to this space for rejuvenation and healing. It is an honor to be recognized for this work.”
Visit Clemson Institute for Parks for more information about the award and a full list of honorees.
Memphis takes a stand against convenience stores that feed health disparities
Written by
Citing a dearth of grocery stores and healthy food options, Memphis officials mull action
This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.
“In the poorest Memphis neighborhoods, gas stations serve as the nearest and sometimes the only store with groceries for nearby communities, albeit ones offering unhealthy fast and convenience foods. The University of Memphis noted that the city’s overall poverty rate is 21.7 percent, and rates are even higher among communities of color and among children, with a child poverty rate of 35 percent.”
In some areas of Memphis, there are more gas stations than grocery stores. While a citywide moratorium placed a hold on new gas stations, businesses are still seeking permission from City Council to open against the wishes of local communities.
In March, City Council voted in favor of halting permitting of any new gas stations. Businesses now need to go through the Land Use Control Board of Memphis and Shelby County for permission, and their request would need final approval from City Council.
“It seemed like every week we were passing an ordinance to allow two or three more service stations and we didn’t feel like we had a handle on it. We felt like that needed to calm down,” said Councilman Jeff Warren.
At an October meeting, council members debated whether Broad Avenue needed another gas station (and convenience store). Hundreds of residents in the nearby neighborhoods signed a petition urging council members to vote against allowing another gas station in their community.
“We do not want nor need a gas station at this site. That would make four gas stations within a mile radius. . .I fully expect you to listen to the money, rather than the neighbors,” said one resident.
Council members concluded the meeting without making a decision, opting to delay the vote for a month, but the response from local residents was clear: there were more than enough gas stations in communities needing other types of stores.
“Who in their right mind would add a fourth gas station on a street that’s a mile long?” said another resident.
Over the span of 20 to 30 years, Memphis officials permitted gas station after gas station to open throughout the city to the point that “there’s 10 times more per population than Nashville has,” said Warren.
Gas service stations are a lucrative business. According to Forbes, the market relies on minimizing the distance that consumers have to travel, and competition means that at any given intersection, gas stations are often located on each corner.
Get involved: Protestors lock arms to demand TVA swear off fossil fuels for good
Written by Thomas Fraser
Protestors chant and wave signs urging TVA to commit to a fossil fuel-free future during a protest in downtown Knoxville this summer. Courtesy Amy Rawe/Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Activists will demand TVA allow public comments during a protest planned for Wednesday morning outside TVA HQ in downtown Knoxville
Knoxville clean-air activists plan another protest Wednesday outside of Tennessee Valley Authority headquarters to demand a return to public-comment periods and a commitment the huge utility won’t rely on fossil-fuel energy sources in the future.
“Public input is critical right now, while TVA is considering building new, large fossil gas power plants and pipelines, even though they would be contrary to our need to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030,” said protest organizer Brady Watson of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment is also coordinating the protest.
TVA project manager pleads guilty to falsifying reports
Hard Knox Wire: Failure to disclose financial conflicts could put TVA manager in prison
A former senior project manager at the Tennessee Valley Authority could spend up to five years in federal prison after he admitted to falsifying financial disclosure reports over several years.
TVA is the largest public electricity provider in the nation and is in the midst of a fraught effort to lessen its dependence on fossil fuels and reduce its carbon output.
James Christopher “Chris” Jenkins, 60, of Chattanooga, entered a guilty plea on Friday to one count of making a false official statement, according to a spokesperson from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Hard Knox Wire reported.
He was accused of failing to disclose personal financial information during a conflict of interest probe, among other charges.
He faces a maximum prison sentence of five years plus up to three years of supervised release and $250,000 in fines when he’s sentenced in March by U.S. District Court Judge Travis R. McDonough.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Joe Carrico said the case was an example of the bureau’s commitment to fighting corruption.
“There is zero tolerance for those who exploit their official position for personal gain. It erodes public confidence and undermines the Rule of Law,” Carrico said. “We want the people we serve to know the FBI along with our law enforcement partners will hold those accountable who betray the public's trust.”
The ivory-billed woodpecker is officially extinct, and it strikes a chord in Knoxville
Clinging to a maple in the bayou, Jim Tanner finally had the rare nestling in his grasp.
He fitted it with a numbered leg band and placed the bird back in its hole high off the ground.
But true to its seldom-seen self, the juvenile ivory-billed woodpecker squirmed free and fluttered to the base of a giant maple tree in a southern Louisiana swamp owned at the time by the Singer Sewing Machine Co.
The year was 1936, and Jim Tanner was in the midst of doctorate research at Cornell University funded by the Audubon Society as part of a push to prevent the pending extinctions of multiple bird species, including the California condor, roseate spoonbill, whooping crane and ivory-billed woodpecker. Eighty-five years later, the regal woodpecker would be the only one grounded for eternity.
In the heat and rain of mucky, gassy bayous, Tanner compiled data on the range, population, habitat and prevalence of ivory-billed woodpeckers. He camped for weeks at a time in the swamps of the birds’ original range.
On this day, his only goal was to band the bird but he rushed down the tree and picked up the agitated but uninjured woodpecker.
He also wanted photographs.
Tanner took advantage of the moment.
He placed the bird upon the shoulder of an accompanying and accommodating game warden for 14 shots from his Leica.
They were probably the first, and perhaps the last, photographs of a juvenile ivory-billed woodpecker photographed by Tanner in its natural habitat. He named the bird Sonny, and he was the only known member of the species to be banded with a number.
The regal, smart, athletic bird, which peaceably flew over its small slice of Earth for some 10,000 years, was declared extinct last month by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Twenty-two other species also qualified for removal from the Endangered Species List — in the worst possible way.
The ivory bill inhabited the swamps of the Deep South, far removed from Rocky Top, but old visages of the departed were found in Little Switzerland in South Knoxville. The work of Tanner, who would go on to complete a rich ecological research career at the University of Tennessee, has been memorialized by a talented East Tennessee science writer.
And the Southern Appalachian region has other long-gone kinships with species that vanished from the Earth a long time ago.
Get involved: Share your vision for the Tennessee River this evening
Open house for ideas at Mill and Mine is part of the Tennessee RiverLine project
You can share your cultural and environmental visions for the Tennessee River and Knoxville waterfront during an open house this afternoon hosted by members of the RiverTowns Program leadership team.
They will be taking down your thoughts as part of the overall Tennessee RiverLine project, which is a blueprint for economic development and ecotourism along the 652-mile length of the river, from Knoxville to Paducah, Kentucky.
The drop-in event is set for 4 to 7 p.m. today (Nov. 8) at the Mill and Mine, 227 W. Depot Ave. in downtown Knoxville.
Hellbender Press covered the dedication of the Tennessee RiverLine in May.
“Residents are invited to drop in and share their ideas about how Knoxville’s riverfront can be improved in the future to increase equitable public access to river spaces and experiences; improve river health and resource stewardship; and promote entrepreneurship and economic development for the city and region,” according to a news release.
A previous open house was canceled because of inclement weather. Similar events are planned for other locales along the line.
If you can’t make the event, you can share your thoughts about Knoxville’s riverfront on the Tennessee RiverLine’s online survey.
Mountain bikers plan campground in South Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness
Written by Thomas Fraser
Project would burnish Knoxville’s outdoor credentials
A group of local outdoor enthusiasts intend to establish a “bike-in bike-out” campground and construct an amenity-filled clubhouse and nature exhibits on 16 acres adjacent to Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness.
Carter Miller, a South Knoxville native, is the project’s general manager, partnering with locals Eva Millwood and Bryan Foster to craft the space on Sevierville Pike.
They gently dropped their “Drop Inn” concept Saturday at the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club fall festival in South Knoxville.
“We’re stepping out today with our new project that’s been in the works this year... it’s gaining momentum, and we are really, *really* stoked about it!” Millwood said on social media.
“So it’s The Drop Inn, Knoxville’s first on-trail bike-in, bike-out campground in the urban wilderness. A total of 16 acres adjacent to Marie Myers and William Hastie parks, with trail connectors along the Year Round Get Down.
Millwood said a formal media announcement is planned soon.
This article has been edited for clarity.
University of Tennessee climate panel: Scientists say don’t despair. Yet.
Written by Thomas Fraser
Scientists discuss climate challenges and solutions during 2021 One Health Day
As climate experts and scientists huddled in Glasgow in an international effort to stem potentially disastrous global environmental changes, a panel of doctors representing multiple disciplines at the University of Tennessee and beyond offered their assessments of climate challenges and solutions.
Their take on climate change? We have problems, but we also have solutions. Hopelessness will drive you crazy. Stay healthy, stay informed and do your part to mitigate the long-term environmental consequences of a changing Earth.
Above all: Don’t despair and don’t lose hope.
The panel, held Nov. 3 at the UT Student Union and presented by the UT One Health Initiative, consisted of the following experts:
— Dr. Gus Engman, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture
— Dr. Kate Evans, Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
— Dr. Joshua Fu, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennesse
— Dr. Sindhu Jagadamma, Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture
— Dr. Kristina Kintziger, Department of Public Health, University of Tennessee
Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity and don’t include the full response. Questions were submitted ahead of time or during the panel discussion.
What do you see as the largest threats of climate change, especially related to your individual research interests?
Engman: Changing precipitation patterns are something I think about a lot.
Pretty much all the rivers in the world are expected to have changes to their flow regime.
These changes in droughts and floods are a really large issue.
I think a lot about aquatic communities. If we are scarce on drinking water, we are always going to prioritize people having that water, over the fish or the bugs in the streams.
There are all kinds of impacts to life histories and interactions with communities in streams.
When animals are stressed because of these changes in precipitation patterns and changes in flow patterns, they might become more susceptible to other stressors, like disease.
Changes in algal community composition can impact the entire water quality of a stream, and that might happen because of these changes in precipitation patterns.
These places that are experiencing these extreme droughts really worry me. The Colorado River already doesn’t even flow all the way to the ocean anymore. That’s a huge change. Because we take up so much water for agriculture.
If a stream runs out of water, it’s not a stream anymore.
Evans: From a meteorological perspective, the biggest event that hurts people's health is actually heat waves. A lot of press goes to tornadoes and hurricanes and storms but in fact these large domes of hot air (are deadly), which happen because of changes in the large-scale weather patterns.
The greenhouse effect insulates the earth, it makes it more uniform in temperature and so that changes the flow patterns that go around the earth. That changes those big weather systems that come in and how long they stick around.
When you talk about these long droughts, we know that’s what's we have to understand: Will they last longer, be more humid, less humid, and that has huge impacts for human health as well as the food they eat and the plants that grow.
Kintziger: Heat also has a bigger impact on a more indirect pathway to human health. Not just heat-related illness but also cardiovascular impacts, renal impacts and even mental health impacts.
Heat is the one that keeps me up at night. We are seeing increasing temperatures globally and we also have this urban heat island affect.
Our vulnerable populations in the cities — inner cities with lower-income housing, homeless populations — they are going to experience heat very differently than people who live in newer buildings with better cooling and infrastructure and have better capabilities for adapting to heat.
Even the movement of butterflies is affected by supply-chain issues
Written by Casey Phillips
A postman butterfly feeds on a bloom in the Tennessee Aquarium’s Butterfly Garden in Chattanooga. At any one time, the garden may host 1,000 to 1,500 butterflies representing more than 200 species. Courtesy Tennessee Aquarium
Butterflies are back at the Tennessee Aquarium after pandemic bottleneck
Some of the Tennessee Aquarium’s most entrancing, cherished residents — and there are literally thousands of them — have been absent for more than a year and a half.
The aquarium has been unable to source butterflies to fill the Ocean Journey building’s Butterfly Garden since early 2020 because of supply chain disruptions.
The butterflies typically originate from Costa Rica. Every week, about 500 butterfly chrysalises — the life stage between caterpillars and full-fledged adults — are delivered to the aquarium. By raising specific plants, Costa Rican farmers can attract butterflies that use the plants as egg-laying sites and feeding sources for their offspring. By collecting and shipping chrysalises to facilities like the aquarium, farmers can earn a reliable income without resorting to destructive agricultural practices that threaten their country’s rainforests.
And just in time for the holidays, the Tennessee Aquarium’s Butterfly Garden will reopen to the public Nov. 5. This warm, light-filled gallery in Chattanooga is once again filled with these jewel-like insects, which flutter in the air by the hundreds.
“They have so many bright colors and intricate patterns that they’re kind of like living works of art,” said entomologist II Rose Segbers. “The butterfly garden is special because it’s completely immersive. There really aren’t any barriers between guests and the butterflies or the habitat.
“You can see everything just like you would in nature, and a butterfly might even land on you.”
Walking through the garden is like being whisked into the steamy, lush wilds of a Costa Rican rainforest. The interior of the gallery is always kept warm and humid — a welcome escape from the cooler, dreary days of autumn — and seemingly every leaf, blossom and branch serves as temporary resting spot for butterflies of every description.
At any one time, the garden houses as many as 1,500 butterflies. These can come from any of more than two dozen species, from cerulean-winged blue morphos to enormous tawny owls with their tell-tale eyespots.
“You get a lot of variety in here,” Segbers said. “If you come here one week, you’ll see a certain variety of butterflies, but if you come back a week later, you might see completely different ones. It gives people a good excuse to keep coming back.”
The cocoon-like chrysalises can be viewed hanging from racks through a special viewing window in the garden. Their shells often look drastically different from the butterflies within. Who would suspect that the familiar orange, black and white monarch butterfly would come from a gold-fringed, jade chrysalis or that leaf-like pink or green chrysalises are host to brilliant yellow cloudless sulfurs?
Entomologist Rose Segbers pins blue morpho butterfly pupae to a hanging tray, where they will hang until they emerge in a few weeks time. Courtesy Tennessee Aquarium
From climate change to water quality, UT One Health Day examines the challenges of our time
Charles Henry Turner
The University of Tennessee One Health Initiative will host an impressive array of climate-related discussions, presentations and museum tours Wednesday, Nov. 3, at the UT Student Union on Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville. A virtual option is also available for the day-long event, which is affiliated with the 6th Annual World One Health Day.
The day will feature a “One Health and Climate Change” expert panel discussion, which is set for noon and includes perspectives ranging from the UT Institute of Agriculture to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
A kayak outing and trash cleanup along the Tennessee River and its tributaries are also planned, as is a tour of UT Gardens, and the herbarium. McClung Museum at Circle Park will offer up its freshwater mussel collection for closer inspection and host a tour examining archaeology findings related to the indigenous inhabitants of Tennessee.
Check out University of Tennessee One Health Day for a full schedule and more information.
The Conversation: Climate change is muting fall leaf color
Written by Marc Abrams
This view from Heintooga Ridge Road offers a good vantage point to absorb the brilliant fall colors breaking out across the mountains in North Carolina in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Research indicates the reliable fall color regime in the Southern Appalachians is affected by climate change. Courtesy National Park Service
It’s just the latest way humans have altered Appalachian forests
This story originally appeared in the Conversation. Marc Abrams is a professor of forest ecology and physiology at Penn State.
Fall foliage season is a calendar highlight in states from Maine south to Georgia and west to the Rocky Mountains. It’s especially important in the Northeast, where fall colors attract an estimated US$8 billion in tourism revenues to New England every year.
As a forestry scientist, I’m often asked how climate change is affecting fall foliage displays. What’s clearest so far is that color changes are occurring later in the season. And the persistence of very warm, wet weather in 2021 is reducing color displays in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. But climate change isn’t the only factor at work, and in some areas, human decisions about forest management are the biggest influences.
Longer growing seasons
Climate change is clearly making the Northeast warmer and wetter. Since 1980, average temperatures in the Northeast have increased by 0.66 degrees Fahrenheit (0.37 Celsius), and average annual precipitation has increased by 3.4 inches (8.6 centimeters) — about 8 percent. This increase in precipitation fuels tree growth and tends to offset stress on the trees from rising temperatures. In the West, which is becoming both warmer and drier, climate change is having greater physiological effects on trees.
My research in tree physiology and dendrochronology — dating and interpreting past events based on trees’ growth rings — shows that in general, trees in the eastern U.S. have fared quite well in a changing climate. That’s not surprising given the subtle variations in climate across much of the eastern U.S. Temperature often limits trees’ growth in cool and cold regions, so the trees usually benefit from slight warming
In addition, carbon dioxide — the dominant greenhouse gas warming Earth’s climate — is also the molecule that fuels photosynthesis in plants. As carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increase, plants carry out more photosynthesis and grow more.
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Big South Fork seeking information on vehicles dumped in Blue Hole
The National Park Service and officials with Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area are still looking for those responsible for dumping derelict vehicles in a remote part of the park known as Blue Hole.
Park staff found two vehicles and a boat illegally discarded in a section of the park closed to traffic. The junk was discovered Aug. 26 and staff and rangers had to pulled from other projects to clean up the mess.
Park staff recovered an abandoned vehicle, UTV, and boat from the Blue Hole section of the park that appeared to have been dumped in separate incidents.
“The resulting cleanup pulled staff away from planned trail work and public safety duties. Additionally, illegally dumping trash and other items create a negative visitor experience for those hoping to enjoy the serene natural beauty of Big South Fork NRRA,” said Superintendent Niki Stephanie Nicholas in a press release.
“Visitors are reminded that abandoning property in the park is prohibited by federal law.”
Anyone with information concerning these incidents is encouraged to contact the NPS at 423-223-4489 or leave a confidential message on the Resource Protection Tip Line at 423-569-7301.
The 24-hour tip line allows callers to remain anonymous.
More...
You are invited to Friday’s Great Smokies African American Experience Project Townhall meeting
Oak Ridge National Laboratory helps keep our cool as refrigerant restrictions begin
Written by Thomas Fraser
Brian Fricke, group leader for Building Equipment Research, conducts testing in his refrigeration system research lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jason Richards/ORNL
ORNL pursues refrigerant efficiencies and alternatives as we warm the Earth to keep things cold
You can flick it off; it’s cool.
Finally there’s a window, literally, for the annual retirement of your air conditioner. But the freezer aisles at your favorite supermarket aren’t going anywhere.As summer slowly slips into autumn and we aspire to warm ourselves through winter, let’s consider the cost, economically and environmentally, of keeping ourselves under blankets in August or loading up on frozen burritos on a broiling day inside the deliciously cool air of a grocery store freezer aisle.Let’s cast a cold eye toward Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where engineers are developing improved storage and transmission techniques to limit the harrowing climate-change effects of coolants and refrigerants, even as new pollution restrictions come into effect.Coolants have played a role in environmental change and global warming since the very advent of the crudest cooling devices.Refrigerants have even driven human-settlement patterns and development of areas with harsh, hot climates such as the American South and Southwest. They’ve been rough on the Earth’s atmosphere and played an oversized role in climate change.It’s kind of complicated:Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) used in 20th-century cooling and refrigeration systems thinned the ozone layer.Then the hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) that replaced them turned out to be greenhouse gases that in some cases were 4,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, itself a powerful driver of climate change.The recent federal climate change directive requires an 85-percent phaseout of HFCs over the next 15 years.So what will replace those coolants as heat waves associated with climate change only increase, in the near-term at least, the use of refrigerators and air conditioners across the world?Scientists and engineers at ORNL are working on the next generation of coolants — and the efficiency and safety of their delivery systems — as HFCs are phased out.Published in NewsLast modified on Friday, 02 September 2022 16:48Published in News
Anti-nuke nun jailed after Y-12 protest dies at 91
News Sentinel: Nun who served time after Oak Ridge weapons protest dies in Pennsylvania
Sister Megan Rice, who along with two others were prosecuted by the federal government after breaking into the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 10 in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.
Rice, a member of the order of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, penetrated the secure perimeter of Y-12 in July 2012 along with two other Catholic activists for prayers and protests outside a bunker containing uranium, according to the Associated Press via the News Sentinel. The incident prompted numerous inquiries about the security of Y-12 and put the inherent danger of nuclear armament in the media spotlight.
The trio was charged with felony sabotage but served only two years of their federal prison terms.
“While testifying during her jury trial, Rice defended her decision to break into the Oak Ridge uranium facility as an attempt to stop “manufacturing that...can only cause death,” according to a trial transcript.'
“I had to do it,” she said of her decision to break the law.
“My guilt is that I waited 70 years to be able to speak what I knew in my conscience.”
Permafrost is a ticking methane bomb
Smithsonian: In Russia, even rocks emit greenhouse gases
The melting Siberian tundra north of the Arctic Circle released millions of tons of methane last year as regional temperatures rose to 11 degrees (°F) above average.
Methane has a shorter effect than carbon dioxide on global atmospheric change but is still 70 times more potent than CO2 in its overall global-warming potential. Its accelerated release on such a vast scale represents an immediate challenge to restricting overall global warming to less than 3 degrees (°F) by the end of the century, which scientists agree is necessary to prevent dramatic climate change. Methane’s potent global warming potential is why many conservationists oppose the use of natural gas as an energy source.
But in Siberia, even the rocks are emitting methane. Scientists were surprised to find that limestone exposed by disappearing permafrost itself generated high levels of methane. Tundra fires have also accelerated the release of methane and other gases, and have come at great cost to the Russian government and the rural inhabitants of the vast region.
That means economical and practical means must be developed elsewhere, at least, for methane management.
But according to the United Nations Economic Council for Europe:
“Despite methane’s short residence time, the fact that it has a much higher warming potential than CO2 and that its atmospheric volumes are continuously replenished make effective methane management a potentially important element in countries’ climate change mitigation strategies. As of today, however, there is neither a common technological approach to monitoring and recording methane emissions, nor a standard method for reporting them.“