I had heard about Mt. Trashmore in my Environmental Engineering Classes and on my way back from vacation this morning I spotted a sign for it on the side of the highway. We got off the highway and entered the park. It was a huge park and full of a lot more people than I expected on an early tuesday morning. People were climbing to the top while others jogged around. My mom and I walked about 1/4 of the way around it before we turned around to head back to the car. It seems to be a semi-hidden fact that this used to be a landfill. There are no signs that indicate a history of the site and I wonder if people are just ignorant of the naming or they just don’t really care.

The park was created in 1974 and is an example of landfill reuse as its creation consisted of the conversion of an abandoned landfill into a park.

The other day while I was on youtube I clicked on a video to watch and as usual an advertisement popped up. Now, I usually just hit the skip button when they come on but this ad caught my attention. This video opened with a scene of a beautiful natural landscape. Below is the link to the video:

Turns out it’s an ad for Subaru. Subaru has an initiative which they call “Zero Landfill” in which Subaru works with the National Parks Conservation Association and their already started initiative to become “America’s first Zero-Landfill automaker, with all waste recycled or reused, to our current National Park Zero-Landfill Initiative.” Here is a video describing the initiative in more detail:

Here is a link to a national geographic article about the partnership: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/150629-zero-landfill-national-parks-yosemite-grand-teton-denali/

After reading about the initiative, I am all about Subaru partnering with this initiative and doing what they can do reduce the amount waste they send to landfills, that is huge. However, the main problem with companies like Subaru is their contribution of greenhouse gas emissions and what they add to the huge issue of our time, climate change. Perhaps they should also be addressing that.

My family flew out to the east coast for fall break to see me and my brother who goes to Colgate, but also to show my youngest brother who is a senior in high school some different schools on the east coast. The goal was to show him one school that was urban (Fordham), one school that was semi-urban (Lafayette), and one school that was rural (Colgate). I visited all of these schools with him, and one of the things that stood out to me while visiting them was the “nature” found on campus at each place and what green initiatives were apparent on campus.

Out of all three schools, colgate seemed to be the most environmentally friendly. I know through my brother that they require two outdoor education classes, but their campus also encourages a lot of interaction with the environment. It had a lot of green space and there were wild animals such as geese all over the place. There were also a lot of signs and projects advocating for being environmentally friendly. Fordham also had a lot of birds on its campus, but the small patches of green space were nothing compared to colgates rolling fields and dense forrest.

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California is the latest state to ban plastic microbeads that have taken over the cosmetic industry. These little plastic balls are used as exfoliants usually, but once they are washed down the drain, they enter the oceans and other resources as more toxic beads than they originally started out as. This means that fish consume them, then we eat them. According to the New York Times Article from last week, California has one of the strictest laws of all states that have banned the beads; they have banned industries to even create biodegradable microbeads.

The article also referred to the “Story of Stuff” video on microbeads, which went into more detail on why they are so bad for the environment and for humans. This brings me to my own personal care product created by “Neutrogena naturals” which is their purifying pore scrub using willow bark and jojoba beads for exfoliation. I bought this product over the summer and I have been very happy with the result, but also happy to not feel guilty about the product I’m using.

NY times article : http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/business/california-bans-plastic-microbeads.html

Story of Stuff Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=131&v=uAiIGd_JqZc

Eco Friendly face scrub by Neutrogena: http://naturals.neutrogena.com/products/pore-scrub

This is another picture from First Landing State Park in Virginia. The place where the park sits used to be the beach hundreds of thousands of years ago. This is just a cool picture of moss growing on top of sand, over a mile from the shore.

On this Columbus Day weekend I took an appropriate excursion to First Landing State Park which is located in Norther Virginia. Although Christopher Columbus did not actually discover the continental United States, we still have a federal holiday to celebrate (Hooray!). First Landing State Park was the location where Captain John Smith and his crew (yes, Pocahontas was still incredibly historically inaccurate even though they got one name right) first landed in 1604.

The Bald Cyprus trail is a pleasant 1.5 mile loop through and around cypress swamps. Areas that separate the various sized low wetlands are parts of the trail that cross over forest covered dunes, making for a few slight uphill and downhill climbs. The trail has a number of boardwalks and observation platforms that carry you over and allow you to look into the swamps.

While on the loop I saw these “knees” of the Bald Cyprus trees, for which the trail is named. The knees are of unknown value to the tree: some believe they provide stabilization for the trees while others think it may contribute to its oxygenation. Scientists remain unsure of their function, but they certainly add a little wonder to nature. 

For months I had a trip planned for fall break. I was suppose to head down to Columbia, South Carolina to visit a friend from home and to get a real SEC football experience. However, Mother Nature had a different plan for me as historic floods ripped through Columbia. As a result of this rain storm, a dam breached in the city and flooded out many residents. With law enforcement stretched thin and limited running water, my SEC experience slipped from my fingers as the game was moved from Williams-Brice Stadium to Baton-Rouge, LA. Seems kind of ironic being that Hurricane Katrina ripped through Louisiana exactly 10 years ago?

I spent the week trying to figure out if I should still make the trip since my friend’s apartment and most of downtown was left undamaged. As I researched the city’s damage I came across this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/05/what-the-historic-south-carolina-floods-can-and-cant-tell-us-about-climate-change/.

This article discusses the affects climate change may have had on the South Carolina floods. One conclusion it draws is that this flood exceeded the NOAA predictions for Coumbia’s 1,000 year flood event and reminds us that this type of flooding is consistent with what we expect to see with a warming climate. Hurricane Joaquin even made the article as an example of how a warming Earth and ocean produces “weather on steroids”. Although we cannot claim that the S.C. floods were directly caused by climate change, we do know that extreme rain events will increase as a result of climate change.

The science behind this flood event is still premature but I have a feeling that with time we will be 98% sure climate change had something to do with this.

P.S. The Gamecocks lost. People may blame Coach Steve Spurrier on the loss but I think I can speak on behalf of many Gamecock fans when I say it is Joaquin’s fault.