Water Water Everywhere!

Seventy-percent of our Earth is covered with water. Most of this is frozen (for now) and some of it is salty, lots of it is deep underground, some of it is up in the atmosphere. A very small part of it is readily available for our use as liquid water either in lakes, rivers, or shallow aquifers.

There is a finite amount of water on earth – an amount that is neither shrinking or growing, it is fixed. What is not fixed is how water on earth is distributed, and how much water we are contaminating through various forms of use. So we are never going to “run out” of water but we are also not getting any more of it. Water that we use for industrial processing or flush down the toilet, for example, must be treated and cleaned through a mechanical/chemical water treatment process. Or we can send it straight through Earth’s water cycle without treatment, consequences be dammed!

For those who need a refresher, I present the water cycle:

Water Cycle graphic from NASA

Unfortunately, much of the water we send straight to the water cycle via runoff and drain pipes is contaminated with excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus, mainly) and various pollutants that can harm wildlife or set off ecosystem-altering chain reactions. It is a good idea to prevent this from happening.

I made a post recently on our class FB page (Navigating the FEW Nexus) about my visit to one of Manatee County’s wastewater treatment plants (which is an incredible experience, everyone should go). So I am not going to dive into that whole process here, but I would like to talk about ways to replicate a similar process on a household scale by mimicking nature with the use of ponds and marshes, aka Graywater wetlands. This is something I have always dreamed of creating on my own property (#goals) and I was originally inspired while reading Gaia’s Garden by Chelsea Green, a required text for an organic gardening class in undergrad.

This concept of using wetlands to clean water is illustrated on a large scale by the massive storm water treatment areas in the EAA (Everglades Agricultural Area), but wouldn’t it be amazing if we could replicate it on a mini scale for individual households? The answer is yes.

For those who do not know, graywater is the water we use that goes through the sink, shower, and laundry. This water is dirty enough that we cannot directly reuse it, but not so dirty that it necessarily needs to be sent to the sewer lines or septic tank. It only has a bit of soap, food particles, and dead skin floating in it (no excrement). It is perfect for plants and aquatic microbes that can convert the suspended particles into nutrients. All we need is conveyance of the graywater to said plants and mini animals and a habitat for them to live in.

Here is why this is a good thing: Creating a natural system to treat and reuse graywater reduces the strain on local sewage and septic systems, while creating a wetland habitat and water source for irrigation on your property. Graywater closes a loop, creating clean water and fertilizer in the right place and right amounts.

Photo of graywater diagram from Gaia’s Garden

Apologies, for the low quality image above, but this diagram is a great illustration of what I’m talking about – a basic graywater wetland. Water from the household is sent to a shallow marsh where bog plants and grasses feed on the food and skin bits as they settle and decompose. When this marsh overflows it feeds into a series of small ponds which gently waterfall into a deeper pond for fish, turtles, and ducks (sounds like a peaceful zen garden or something amiright?). Eventually this pond can overflow into a swale or system of garden irrigation ditches.

This magical process where by a wetland ecosystem cleans water is powered by the nitrogen cycle, the biochemical process in which microbes process ammonia-based “wastes” and create nitrogen for plants. If you have ever had a fish tank at home you may be familiar with this process.

A very simplified version of the Nitrogen cycle from The Pond Company Inc.

Imagine our graywater is represented by the goldfish, who releases wastes and uneaten food into the system. This is the same process that is going on in a graywater system and literally (probably?) every body of liquid water on Earth. The tiny particles of food, skin, and debris that are washed away break down and form ammonia. Beneficial nitrifying bacteria break the ammonia down into nitrite and then they take it a step further and turn it into nitrate, which is the biologically available form of nitrogen for plants to absorb. The beneficial rhizobial bacteria in the root nods of legumes serve the same purpose.

So with our graywater system, not only do we get a rockin’ koi pond to relax by, but we also clean a large part of the “wastewater” that our household produces and turn it into wildlife habitat and free irrigation for the garden. Sounds like a win-win to me. If you’re not convinced, I will end with an excerpt from Gaia’s Garden:

Using graywater allows us to harvest and use both water and fertility that would otherwise be wasted. And wetlands and ponds are beautiful and incredibly productive garden features that attract a marvelous range of wildlife…When the human inhabitants of this ecosystem use water in their home, bog plants thrive and grow, ponds and waterfalls gurgle, and the glint of flowing water reflects on the leaves overhead. Who would choose the mechanical chatter of sprinklers drenching sterile lawns over this verdant paradise?

Chelsea Green, Gaia’s Garden

UnSUSTAINABLE Events

Large events – be they concerts, conferences, holiday celebrations, community events, parades, or conventions – are more often than not the epitome of unsustainable. Get together hundreds or even thousands of people in a concentrated space over any period of time and you are bound to have issues when it comes to food, energy, water, and waste.

The photos of the aftermath of Mardi Gras in New Orleans by Sidney Donaldson, recently brought to my attention by a post from one of my colleagues on a class Facebook page, show how wasteful large events can be at their worst.

Burbon Street after Mardi Gras in New Orleans (Photo by Sidney Donaldson)

At their best, events can not only limit or reduce wasted resources, but can also bring attention to environmental issues. Such was the case of Sarasota County’s annual Seagrass Survey, which I was lucky enough to participate in as an exhibitor last summer. This annual tradition is a partnership between local government and non-profit agencies that brings the community together to volunteer as citizen scientists to assess the quality of local seagrass meadows in Sarasota Bay. It is also a fun family event that features local organizations working for environmental causes in the community and features local bands and food trucks.

The event in June 2019 was the first in which the organizers made the conscious decision to go waste-free. They brought in Sunshine Community Compost to collect food waste and help participants sort their waste. Everyone was encouraged to bring their own reusable plates, water bottles, and eating utensils. As an incentive, the County gave away extra raffle tickets to those who remembered to bring their reusable gear. Food vendors require to ditch all single use plastics. There were no plastic water bottles allowed – only aluminum cans which were collected to be recycled.

I was even quoted in the Herald Tribune article at the time (wow so famous!):

Sarah Denison, an education and volunteer specialist with Manatee County’s Parks and Natural Resources, called the approach “cutting edge” and said that it was great to be able to “walk the walk” alongside all the other environmental groups at the event. “We’re not just talking about it, we’re actually getting at the core of all the main principles here,” Denison said.

Simple steps like these require extra preparation and forethought, but they are so worth it. A large part of my job with Manatee County is organizing community events and gatherings of all sizes. Attending last summer’s Seagrass Survey was inspirational, and I look forward to experimenting with new ideas to see if we can improve Manatee County’s events in the future.

On a personal note, I recently planned private party for friends and family, and decided to purchase compostable palm leaf plates instead of using plastic or paper. I collected the plates in a separate bin at the end of the night and threw them in the compost when I got home. Two weeks later and they are already breaking down nicely. You can see the fungi working their magic!

Palm leaf plate decomposing in my compost bin.

A revolutionary group I would like to highlight are the Trash Pirates and Waste Naughts. This group of artists and environmentalists travel around to large events like music festivals and provide waste management services.

I feel like we are on the edge of a precipice and sustainable events are going to be the next new “thing”. Will a little forethought and preparation you can garner a whole of of cred’ from your audience, reduce your impact, and even save money. From choosing a sustainable location, to ditching single use plastics, collecting food waste for reuse, or going digital with advertising and tickets, there are a number of large and small steps event organizers can take to create SUSTAINABLE events.

Entomophagy

Crickets for dinner?

Most Americans would say “EWWWW GROSS!” and immediately feel revolted by the thought. This cultural aversion to eating insects is unfortunate for us. Insects are a healthy, low fat, nutrient dense addition to the human diet – and they are sustainable as heck! As the effects of global climate change impact food production across the world, more societies may be turning to insects to promote food security. The practice of consuming insects is known as entomophagy.

Entomophagy describes the practice of eating insects by humans. The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of certain insects have been eaten by humans from prehistoric times to the present day. Around 3,000 ethnic groups practice entomophagy. 

Wikipedia

Common insect food stall in Bangkok, Thailand. Counter-clockwise, from the back-left to the front – locusts, bamboo-worms, moth chrysalis, crickets, scorpions, diving beetles and giant water beetles. They are deep fried. (Photo from Wikipedia Commons)

When I think about people eating insects, southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Cambodia come to mind. However, thousands of human groups have been consuming insects since prehistoric times, mostly in Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

Recently on one of the course Facebook pages I am engaged in for my studies at the Patel College of Global Sustainability, the professor posted this BBC news video about the locust swarms devastating local crops in East Africa. This is apparently one of the worst locusts swarms in recent history and is threatening food security in the area.

In the video you can feel the devastation and the hopelessness of the farmers and their families as they try to chase away the locusts and watch their livelihoods being destroyed. One farmer in the video claims that his ears of corn, which look relatively untouched, are now unfit for consumption because the local people are unsure if the locusts’ mouths are poisonous.

This part of the video immediately made me question the local knowledge and cultural understanding of locusts in that area. Why are some cultures in Africa locust-averse and some pro-locust consumption? I guess we can ask the same thing about Western cultures, and I think the answer comes down to societal norms and taboos. In order for entomophagy to become a mainstream practice, we will have to break down strong cultural barriers and dispel misconceptions.

The locusts mouth parts are indeed not poisonous (or rather venomous) and the locusts themselves have been a food source in Africa and the Middle East for generations. In another article from 2013 by the BBC, people in Israel captured locusts and incorporated them in local cuisine, many people may not be aware that locusts are the only insects considered kosher in the Torah. Local chef Moshe Basson recommends them fried, and some enjoy them covered in chocolate or mixed with caramel and sprinkled on meringue.

Fried locusts are considered a delicacy in some countries (Photo from Getty Images)

Both stories about locusts show that swarms can get out of control, to the point where eating them is simply not enough to keep their populations in check. At this point many societies resort to aerial spraying of pesticides to protect crops from massive devastation. However, when the locusts are sprayed they become contaminated and are no longer safe for human consumption.

This interesting conflict has prompted officials in Kenya to discourage local people from consuming locusts. Their reasoning – “You cannot finish all the locusts by eating them, one swarm may have up to 40 million insects,” said Dr Stephen Njoka, Director of Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa. Once chemical spraying has begun, there is no way to determine which ones have been sprayed and are no longer safe to eat. So spraying the locusts to protect what is left of the crops make the locusts unfit for human consumption.

We then have to ask which is better for society and the environment? Killing off some of the locusts with pesticides to preserve what is left of the crops, or letting nature run its course and collecting as many locusts as possible to make up for the loss of crops? At this point it seems we are choosing pesticides, locusts and human health be damned.

Visitors sample insect treats at the Audubon Insectarium (Photo from Audubon Nature Institute)

In an ideal sustainable future, everyone would delight in entomophagy. Sadly, we are a long way away from that future. However, institutions like the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans, Louisiana are trying to change the American perspective with their “Bug Appétit” insect cafe. At this special exhibit, chefs prepare dishes such as cakes made from cricket flour, fried meal worms coated in cheesy powder (similar to cheese puffs), cricket hummus, and chocolate covered ants. All of these delicacies are available for guests to sample for free. Some who are set in their ways may never overcome their fear or disgust, but both young and adventurous eaters could be swayed to participate in entomophagy.

My husband and I visited the Insectarium in November and I was blown away by the quality of their exhibits and how much I learned about insects, even as an amateur entomologist and bug nerd myself. Exhibits like these are more than just a curiosity, they are pulling their weight and more when it comes to changing minds and behaviors. They are exactly the type of educational initiatives we need to make our ideal sustainable future a reality.

Under the Sea

“Mariculture is a specialized branch of aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms for food and other products in the open ocean, an enclosed section of the ocean, or in tanks, ponds or raceways which are filled with seawater.”

Wikipedia

I remember watching an episode of 60 Minutes with my parents about a year ago. It was about this guy in Connecticut, Bren Smith, “the nation’s leading advocate for a whole new type of farming – ocean farming.”

Bren Smith harvesting sugar kelp (Photo from CBS News)

Bren Smith is a seaweed farmer, and he operates one of the largest underwater seaweed hatcheries in the country. He is creating jobs, growing nutritious food for humans and livestock, and creating high quality organic fertilizer. He is doing all of this without industrial chemicals, and he’s sequestering carbon to boot!

For decades environmentalists have been decrying the destruction of ocean ecosystems through overfishing, climate change, and pollution. Nearly 90 percent of large fish stocks are threatened by overfishing and 3.5 billion people are dependent on the ocean as their primary food source. But Paul Hawken with Project Drawdown asks “What if we have it backward? What if the question is not how we can preserve the wildness of our oceans, but how the oceans can be developed to protect them and the planet?”

Aquaculture, or more specifically mariculture, could be our chance for redemption. And I am not talking about giant factory fish farms that mass produce salmon in unsanitary, confined spaces causing the fish to suffer from deformity, disease, and parasite infections.

Farm Raised Salmon (Photo from Paul Nicklen)

I’m talking about small scale ocean farms where complimentary species are cultivated for food, fuel, and fertilizer while cleaning up the environment and helping to reverse global warming. By looking at this problem through the lens of the Food Energy Water Nexus we can reimagine our relationship with the ocean and address multiple overlapping crises.

Ocean farming is not new. For thousands of years humans across the globe have been farming fish, shellfish, and aquatic plants. What were once sustainable, small scale farming practices have been modernized and industrialized. Conventional aquaculture has repeated the same mistakes as industrial farming on land – reducing genetic diversity, disregarding conservation, and wide-scale implementation of harmful practices before the long term effects are completely understood. Large scale aquaculture yields similar results as well – low quality, over medicated, and tasteless products that contribute to the degradation of local ecosystems.

3D Ocean Farming (Illustration by Stephanie Stroud)

Slowly but surely a small group of dedicated farmers and scientists are turning the tide on industrialized aquaculture. Bren Smith and researchers at the University of Connecticut have developed a new method called “3D Ocean Farming”. This vertical approach to ocean farming is barely visible from shore and can produce a high yield of marine products (including shellfish, seaweed, fish, and sea salt) in a small footprint while simultaneously serving as a storm-surge protector and habitat for marine life (TED).

3D Ocean Farming allows farmers to diversify their crops, making their business more resilient to market fluctuations and climactic changes, including hurricanes. And unlike land based crops, sea vegetables require no additional inputs of freshwater, fertilizer, pesticides, feed, or soil to grow. They require no deforestation, they receive everything they need from the sun and the ocean, and they grow very fast. Certain species of algae and aquatic plants can grow over and inch per day. Kelp, for example, can grow nine to twelve feet long in three months.

Sugar kelp grows on a long line near Homer in the summer of 2014 (Photo by Beau Perry / Blue Evolution)

Seaweed improves the environment by absorbing excess nutrients in the water column that can cause harmful algae blooms (such as red tide) and carbon dioxide (the leading driver of ocean acidification and climate change).

The Department of Energy estimates that seaweed biofuels can yield up to thirty times more energy per acre than land crops such as soybeans.

Shellfish will absorb some carbon, but their real contribution is removing nitrogen from the water column. Nitrogen is three times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas (GHG) and depletes essential oxygen levels in the water. According to the journal Nature, it is the second worst in terms of having exceeded its “planetary boundary.” The main source of nitrogen pollution is land-based agricultural runoff, and much of it ends up in the oceans, where it is now 50 percent above normal levels (Drawdown). There are many projects popping up across the world that combine seaweed and shellfish to clean polluted waterways and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Seaweed is packed with protein, vitamins, and minerals and is a nutritious addition to human diets. Professor Ronald Osinga, at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, has calculated that a global network of sea vegetable farms, with a total area roughly the size of Washington state, could provide enough protein for the entire world population. Humans consume only a fraction of the 10,000 species of edible marine plants, so the potential for discovering new crops and flavors is huge.

Cows Eating Seaweed (Photo by Sean Davey)

But perhaps even more incredible is that certain species of algae, such as Asparagopsis taxiformis a red algae found throughout the world, make excellent animal feed that can reduce the production of methane (a GHG thirty times more potent than CO2) up to 99 percent in ruminants (Drawdown).

Asparagopsis algae contains a key compound called bromoform which reacts with vitamin B12 in the ruminant digestive system and disrupts bacteria from producing methane as a waste product. When this waste via methane off gassing is eliminated, the animal is able to convert more energy to biomass and improve overall production for livestock farmers.

It is also important to note that methane is not the only GHG caused by ruminants and livestock. Feed production and processing is a huge contributor, responsible for 45 percent of livestock related emissions
(Drawdown). Turning to mariculture for some of our livestock feed production is like a one two punch against global warming.

According to the International Programme on the State of the Ocean, the effects of climate change, ocean acidification, and oxygen depletion have triggered a “phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.” Reversing global warming is an invitation to develop the world’s seas in order to save them. This means dedicating portions of the ocean to farming and reserving large portions for marine conservation parks. Rather than building extensive ocean factory farms, we need to encourage decentralized networks of small-scale mariculture operations to grow food, generate fuels, and create jobs.

Ocean farming carefully conceived and practiced could be a vital part of reversing global warming and building a more sustainable future.

Gully Wata

Wata = Water in Jamaican Patois

On Saturday I organized a “Marine Debris Kayak Taskforce” paddle clean up in Bradenton!

Thirteen of us paddled along the mangroves of Palma Sola Bay and collected over 125 pounds of trash and debris!  Most of it was hidden – pushed waaay back up in the mangroves by wind and tides. 

From the edges the Bay looked clean, but if you got out of the boat and climbed through the mangroves the human impact on the area was starkly apparent.

We even found 2 Santa hats! 

Many people don’t realize that most of this trash came from the land.  It wasn’t from lazy boaters or beach goers, it was from trash cans that got knocked over or someone throwing rubbish out the car window.  Wind and rain then carried the refuse to rivers and the ocean, where it floated around until it was trapped in the mangroves. 

Paddling back, our boats loaded with trash.

Finding so much trash in just a small stretch of mangroves makes you wonder how much is really out there? 

And these places are very difficult to access!  The mud is thick and sucks your feet down.  It’s hot and muggy, and there are mosquitoes/noseeums.  Cleaning debris out of mangroves is no small feat!

Most of the garbage that is currently out there will probably stay there for hundreds of years. 

Half of the task-force with our first haul of debris

When “waste” ends up in the mangroves it can harm wildlife and leach toxins into the environment.  But on it’s journey to the sea it can pose a direct threat to humans and increase our vulnerability to flooding. 

Trash can clog up storm drains and make rain water flood our streets and homes.  Now lets combine that with sea level rise and stronger storms! 

This phenomenon happened multiple times while I was living in Jamaica. 

In this photo you can see where people walk to the edge of the gully and dump their trash. 

Many shanty towns are built along side “gullys” or giant concrete storm drains.  The people who live there are impoverished and don’t have regular trash pick up.  They burn their trash or throw it in the gully to have the rain wash it away. 

When there are large rain storms, these trash piles flow down the gullies and block up storm drains, causing the water to overflow and flood streets and homes with highly contaminated water.  

All of these gullies lead straight to the ocean and mangroves.  

In 2016, used condoms and Styrofoam boxes full of human feces clogged storm drains, causing flooding in Montego Bay (the second largest city and one of the most popular tourism destinations in Jamaica). 

A Jamaican woman passionately talks about the effects of flooding in her neighborhood, cause by a gully overflowing.

The waste problem is a global one, and it is increasing our vulnerability to flooding caused by irregular weather patterns and climate change.

Cleaning up the mess we have already made feels good, and is a small step in the right direction. But trash is entering our environment on a massive scale every day. We will not fix this until we change the way our “stuff” is designed, and adopt a cradle to cradle mindset when it comes to our cycles of consumption and waste.

Bigger Fish to Fry

Climate change: Obsession with plastic pollution distracts attention from bigger environmental challenges

This headline recently caught my eye as I was scrolling my Facebook news feed. In the article, Stafford and Jones argue that our obsession with single use plastics is a convenient distraction from the broader issue of climate change. It is also argued by Stromberg in an article for Vox that steps individuals are taking to reduce their consumption of single use plastics are easy, feel good and “symbolic” actions with minimal positive impact on the overall state of our climate.

Plastic pollution covering Accra beach, Ghana. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Environmentalists who carry their reusable water bottles and grocery bags can signal their virtue and rest easy knowing they made a difference, however small. They (myself included) can conveniently avoid making more difficult and long term lifestyle changes to reduce their carbon footprint, or put in the work as a political activist for climate friendly policies.

Both articles call for changes in personal lifestyles and broad structural changes from the top that encourage sustainable energy production. These are good things to advocate for, and it is important to keep our eye on the prize, but I think there are a few other factors at play.

Climate change is a very complex and seemingly distant concept that is difficult for the layperson to relate to. Most people in the developed world have not yet directly felt the impacts of climate change. But they have seen sea turtles suffering with straws up their nose and dead whales with stomachs full of plastic.

Albatross chick found with stomach full of plastics on Midway Atoll. (Photo by USFWS)

While we Americans may not be able to directly relate with climate change (even though people all over the world are suffering), charismatic megafauna are being choked by plastic pollution! Gasp!

For many, that is enough motivation to take small steps to reduce personal consumption of single use plastics. Human children suffering on a faraway island in the South Pacific is not nearly as alarming as a cute dolphin with a plastic bag cutting into it’s head. And enacting major cultural shifts, like moving beyond materialism as a basis for our well being, is a lot easier said than done.

A month after Cyclone Pam struck Tuvalu, the main square on Nui Island was still under water. (Photo from Silke von Brockhausen, UNDP)

Yes, reducing our plastic consumption may be small potatoes compared to mitigating the catastrophic effects of climate change like ocean acidification, super hurricanes, and sea level rise. And focusing on specific items like straws and plastic bags instead of banning ALL single use plastics is another distraction from the bigger issue. But solving the waste problem in general will bring us far reaching positive impacts that are intimately linked to climate change.

By transitioning to a circular economy and embracing cradle to cradle design, we will reduce our waste and conserve resources in the process. We will emit less carbon because there will be less need to mine and process virgin biological and technical nutrients. This coupled with renewable energy policy would put us well on our way to reversing the effects of climate change. These are changes that need to come from the top and we need the actions of individuals, through political advocacy and consumer choices, to make that happen.

The awareness that has been brought to the waste problem through our obsession with single use plastics can be used to our advantage. With the right messaging and interpretation, we can ride this wave and get the masses onboard to demand the structural changes needed to move our civilization towards a more sustainable future.

Choose a Job You Love…

And you’ll never work a day in your life. Or so they say.

I have been feeling overwhelmed with work the past two weeks and have found little time for myself, let alone school work. But I am one of the lucky few that can say I truly love my job. It often doesn’t feel like work, and the bad parts of my job are really not so bad.

I often find myself doing things that relate to what I am studying at the Patel College of Global Sustainability (PCGS), and I am able to create opportunities to share this knowledge with others.

The Robinson Preserve NEST

Last week we kicked off a recurring program called Nature Night @ the NEST (our beautiful new center for Nature Exploration Science and Technology at Robinson Preserve). The idea behind Nature Night is a science and nature themed program for adults with an expert guest speaker presenting their research on local environmental issues and projects.

For the first installment, I was able to bring together representatives from Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, and New College of Florida to present on a citizen science project they conducted last September in Manatee County, called TeaTime4Science or the Tea Bag index.

Professor Oberle explains the carbon cycle and blue carbon to program participants.

Lead by Professor Brad Oberle from New College of Florida, students and volunteers went out in Manatee County’s coastal Preserves and planted both green and red tea bags. About 90 days later, they went back to retrieve the tea bags and brought them to the lab to dry them and measure the remaining mass. The aim of this study is to determine how different soils store carbon, and to share the results with researchers around the world to gain a better understanding of carbon sequestration in soils, and how this process plays into climate change.

Here in Manatee County, we planted the tea bags in the wet, salty soils of mangrove swamps and salt marshes, and found that these soils are REALLY GOOD at storing carbon! Because of their high salt content and low oxygen levels, decomposition happens at a much slower pace and microorganisms may have a harder time breaking down carbon molecules and respiring carbon back into the atmosphere.

Another interesting finding Professor Oberle discovered is that newly restored habitats store carbon better than mature habitats. One hypothesis for this phenomenon is that the microorganisms at a mature site have had more time to develop and multiply, whereas a restored site has undergone a lot of disturbance and the microbiological processes are still recovering.

Perhaps the coolest part of this experiment is that researchers and teams of citizen scientists have replicated it all over the world, and data is available to the public at http://www.teatime4science.org/

Another amazing project I got to work on last week was a kayak clean up of Ware’s Creek, a waterway that runs through the heart of Bradenton. At it’s headwaters, Ware’s Creek is a drainage ditch that runs through a trailer park, past the DeSoto Mall, and through residential neighborhoods before emptying into the Manatee River, right next to downtown Bradenton.

Ware’s Creek Cleanup Volunteers after a successful workday.

My employer, Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources, provided free kayaks and safety gear for Volunteers, and I was able to participate in the clean up with my co-worker.

We found all kinds of junk. I ended up getting out of the boat and walking up the canal bed because there was so much I could not reach from my kayak. The funniest thing we found was a foam Frankenstein head, probably a lost Halloween decoration. I was surprised by how much clothes I found, and ancient beverage cans that were from the 70s and 80s.

At first it was difficult to pick out the trash from the surrounding environment. Some of it had been buried and embedded in the stream bed for so long it had developed a camouflage patina. But once you developed a critical eye, human refuse was popping out everywhere.

We collected over 150 pounds of trash in about 2 hours.

Getting paid to work on projects like Nature Night and Volunteer Clean-Ups is a privilege that I am grateful for. Being able to share these experiences with others, and spread awareness of issues like climate change and the waste problem, is the icing on the cake.

Interpreting Climate Change

Over the past decade, climate change has become a highly politicized and contentious issue in the United States. Climate skeptics are quick to cite potential threats to the economy or historical climate variations when words like “carbon footprint” or “greenhouse gas emissions” enter the conversation. The strong negative emotions tied to the climate debate can cloud objective discussions. At the same time, describing the climate issue with statistics, figures, and scientific jargon can turn off the general audience, and even arouse suspicion. By using interpretive techniques, we can more effectively communicate climate change to diverse audiences.

The field of interpretation, or communicating the meaning of something in a personal way, was first formalized by Freeman Tilden in 1957 with his book, “Interpreting Our Heritage”.

Freeman Tilden, US National Park Service

The Six Principles of Effective Interpretation that Tilden put forth can help us to communicate climate change in a meaningful way.

• I. Any interpretation that does not somehow relate what is being displayed or described to something within the personality or experience of the visitor will be sterile.
  
• II. Information, as such, is not interpretation. Interpretation is revelation based upon information. But they are entirely different things. However, all interpretation includes information.
• III. Interpretation is an art, which combines many arts, whether the materials presented are scientific, historical or architectural. Any art is in some degree teachable.
• IV. The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.
• V. Interpretation should aim to present a whole rather than a part, and must address itself to the whole man rather than any phase.
  
• VI. Interpretation addressed to children (say, up to the age of twelve) should not be a dilution of the presentation to adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach. To be at its best it will require a separate program.

One of Tilden’s most well known phrases hints at the power of effective interpretation:

Through interpretation, understanding; through understanding, appreciation; through appreciation, protection.

Freeman Tilden

When talking about climate change, beware of numerical data, statistics, charts, graphs, and scientific jargon. It is important to keep a positive tenor and avoid doom and gloom, especially around children who can sometimes overreact to negative information.

Try to use positive examples of actions that people can take, positive visions of the future, exciting new technology, collective actions that make a difference, and references to shared values (helping, conservation, innovation, independence).

Reduce your Carbon Footprint!

Avoid getting into “data debates” with climate skeptics who often quote incomplete science to justify their position. If confronted, listen carefully and respectfully to what the skeptic is saying. Acknowledge their key points, and without agreeing that their points are correct seek to find common ground where you may share similar perspectives. This approach can increase your credibility and remove the argumentative energy from the conversation.

A large part of effective interpretation is the connection of tangibles to intangibles. Tangibles are real world objects and experiences which provide our brains with sensory evidence. Intangibles provide meaning, and include feelings, values, memories, relationships, and beliefs.

When interpreting climate change, we suffer from a lack of tangibles to connect our audience to the issue and provide their brain’s with sensory evidence. Climate change seems remote from our daily experience. Most of us are not yet suffering tangible consequences. Consequently, we have to first present intangible values and meanings and then connect them to tangible consequences. Our goal is to make climate change immediate and tangible.

Niagara Falls partially frozen by Michael Muraz

We can use real world examples that present similar conditions to those we will experience as the climate warms, such as the flooding of NYC subway tunnels after hurricane Sandy or sunny day flooding in Miami Beach. As sea levels rise we will experience more high tide flooding and suffer greater impacts from storm surge. Similar comparisons can be made between unseasonable rainfall, snow, droughts, and other extreme weather events that may have occurred recently in your area.

It is important to not present these examples as threats but as tangible events that most people have directly experienced or heard about from people in affected areas. Any single weather event can be debated, but taken together these events provide evidence for a changing climate and demonstrate that humans will be directly impacted.

Lastly, it is important to know your audience. Talk to them to gain a sense of their background, interests, and perspectives. Knowing a little about your audience will help you connect their values (intangibles) to tangibles. And remember Tilden’s 6th principle, interpretation for children should not be a dilution of the presentation for adults, but should follow a fundamentally different approach.

Heritage Washing Away

One of the greatest threats posed by climate change is sea level rise (SLR). As land based ice melts due to warming conditions at the Earth’s poles, all of that liquid water has to go somewhere. Spoiler alert: It ends up in the ocean.

Humans around the world are already feeling the effects of sea level rise. Low lying islands and atolls in the Pacific are disappearing and coastal cities in the US are experiencing “sunny day flooding” – sea water coming up through storm drains and flooding streets during high tide events, no rain necessary.

Sunny day flooding in Hollywood, Florida (Photo by
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

As the ocean increasingly encroaches on land, all of Earth’s inhabitants will have to adapt. The threats posed to our health, the economy, and the natural world will be catastrophic. I tend to cringe at sensationalism and extreme words like “catastrophic”, but in this case I think it’s an accurate descriptor.

One threat posed by SLR that is often overshadowed by direct threats to life and wallet is the loss of historical sites and cultural heritage resources in coastal areas. As sea levels rise, world heritage sites including the Statue of Liberty, the Sydney Opera House, historic Jamestown in Virginia, and the moai statues of Easter Island are at risk of falling into the sea.

Many of the iconic moai statues of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) are immediately on the coast and threatened by SLR (Photo from Archaeology Orkney)

Heritage washing away is happening right in our backyard at Egmont Key, an island in the mouth of Tampa Bay. Over the past 100 years, Egmont Key has lost over half of it’s original land mass to erosion from waves and currents, caused by sea level rise between 4-8 inches. What is now the western shore used to be the center of the island.

Map of Egmont Key’s receding shoreline over the past 100 years (Photo from the Seminole Tribe of Florida)

Egmont Key has an incredible historical record and has been occupied by humans for a variety of purposes throughout time. Originally the island was used by Florida’s prehistoric Natives and possibly Cuban fishermen as a temporary hunting and fishing ground. Later the island was identified by the United States Government for it’s strategic placement at the mouth of Tampa Bay. Various forts and military installations were constructed there in the 19th and 20th centuries to defend Florida, including a lighthouse and gun batteries constructed during the Spanish/American War, which still stand today.

Ruins of Battery McIntosh constructed on Egmont Key to defend Tampa Bay during the Spanish/American War

The wooden structures which made up Fort Dade and subsequent human settlements are long gone, but the concrete and brick structures that were once on the southern part of the island are now in the sea.

The sunken remains of Battery Burchsted, off the south west coast of Egmont Key, is a popular stop for snorkel tours (Photo by Island Boat Adventures)

As part of my Ecotourism class with Dr. Brooke Hansen, I am assisting with a research project to document and tell the story of the Seminole Indian experience on Egmont Key in the mid-1800s.

The only mention of the Seminole experience at the Egmont Key museum

During the Third Seminole War (part of the process of Indian Removal by the US Government which began in 1817) Egmont Key was used, for all intents and purposes, as a concentration camp for Seminole Indians before their removal from Florida to Indian Territory. A guarded wooden stockade, built on Egmont Key in 1858, held at least 300 Seminoles, mostly women and children, as they awaited ships to bring them to New Orleans and eventually Oklahoma and Arkansas.

It is said the Seminole Chief Tiger Tail, while being held on Egmont Key, drank a cup of crushed glass mixed with water and killed himself, and 10 Seminole warriors walked into the sea, rather than be removed (Scheidecker).

In 1858, Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs was captured in Fort Myers and agreed to be removed, bringing an end to the Third Seminole War. He was transported with 125 other tribe members to Egmont Key, where they joined the last captives to be held on the island and were boarded on the steamer Grey Cloud to begin their journey north to Indian Territory.

Painting of Polly Parker by Robert Butler

But the story doesn’t end there. The steam ship, Grey Cloud, stopped to refuel around the St. Marks area, in the Florida panhandle. It is said that a Seminole woman named Polly Parker and a dozen other Seminoles were allowed on shore to gather roots and herbs for medicine. When Polly gave the signal, the Seminoles scattered from their captors and hid in the forest. Half were recaptured, but Polly Parker escaped and made the long walk back to her home near Lake Okeechobee. Polly lived to be over 100 years old, and her descendants went on to form a large portion of the Seminole Tribe we know today. Polly Parker is regarded as a tribal hero.

Listing of bodies at the replica cemetery on Egmont Key

It is unknown how many Seminoles died while captive on Egmont Key. A replica cemetery on the island today includes the burials of five Seminoles, Chief Tommy and four children. The original cemetery on the island was dug up in 1909 to make way for a parade ground, and 25 bodies were re-interred in the St. Augustine National Cemetery.

The Seminoles know only too well Winston Churchill’s aphorism that history is written by the victors. Their Egmont captors didn’t speak their language, barely bothered to learn their names and inaccurately recorded their fate. Many Seminoles are believed to have died on Egmont, but nobody can say how many or where all were buried. Fort Dade may have been built atop Seminole graves; others may have been lost to the encroaching seas.

Dan Chapman, USFWS

This portion of Egmont Key’s history and the painful Seminole experience is woefully underrepresented in historical documents, literature, and modern day interpretation of the site. It is a part of history that many would prefer to forget.

Egmont Key is directly threatened by sea level rise and could be wiped off the map by the next major hurricane to hit the area. Shoreline erosion was vividly apparent on our visit to the island in March 2019.

Through the Applied Heritage and Sustainability Research Project, a collaborative effort between Dr. Brook Hansen of Patel College of Global Sustainability, Laura Harrison with the USF Access 3D Lab, Antoinette Jackson of the USF Heritage Lab, and Dave Scheidecker with the Seminole Tribal Historic Preservation Office, we are aiming to preserve and share the Seminole story of Egmont Key. By using terrestrial LiDAR and GIS analysis to create 3D models of Egmont Key, this project will give voice to painful Seminole history while creating a permanent digital record of a site threatened by sea level rise. We hope to share this product with the public by creating a 3D virtual reality experience that can be viewed at schools, museums, pop up installations, and at home on personal VR headsets.

The Egmont Key Project Team posing atop Battery Mellon on 3/3/19
L to R: Timothy Lomberk, Laura Harrison, Brooke Hansen, David Scheidecker,
Antoinette Jackson, April Min, and Sarah Denison

I am honored to be part of the initial research phase of this exciting project which combines sustainability, anthropology, history, interpretation, and 3D visualization technology. I can’t wait to see the fruits of our labor!

From Research to Practice

Last week I was able to incorporate some of my research and learning from the Waste Not Want Not and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation classes at PCGS into my professional work as an environmental educator for Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources!  It was very exciting to be able to practice what I preach and teach others about sustainability as it relates to waste and energy.

I am responsible for our Home School programming, which occurs every other week at Emerson Point Preserve. For February’s for Home School Biology Lab class (designed for students 11 and up) I decided to cover waste and biodigesters! The class included a power point presentation on waste, cradle to cradle design, climate change, and biodigesters. 

I asked the students to think about ways they can solve the waste problem and to consider what happens to their waste.  We made model biodigesters out of plastic bottles and tubing to demonstrate how anaerobic digestion can be used to transform our food waste into sustainable energy to power the world. 

Check out the pictures of the kids getting into it!  It was very rewarding to share this important topic and see the students engage with it intellectually.  

If you would like to replicate this lesson with your students, please download my presentation and lesson plan below!

Lab Report / Lesson PlanClick to Download

Powerpoint PresentationClick to Download

The videos I included in the presentation can be found here: