Have a Heart, Do Your Part, Help End Animal Extinction

April 2, 2015April 20, 2015 rbradfo

As mentioned in our blog earlier this week, animal endangerment and extinction are almost always due to overpopulation of humans. Humans have caused the deforestation of major rain forests and pollution of water systems. They have hunted some species to extinction. While we cannot do much to control our ever-growing population, there are ways we can help prevent our species from overrunning the planet and eliminating the creatures we share Earth with. Here are a few ways you can you help prevent animal endangerment and extinction!

1. Check Out the World Wildlife Fun

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)’s website, the vision of this non-profit organization is, “to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.” And that is precisely what they do. Through education and awareness, the WWF has contributed immensely to conservation efforts around the world, whether it’s through call-to-action campaigns (such as the Earth Hour City Challenge) or by helping establish national parks. The WWF is always looking for donations. These donations are put towards conservation research, campaigns headed by the WWF, fundraising efforts, and other relief funds. You can also become a WWF Member and receive invitations to WWF activities (including fundraisers), progress reports on activities headed by WWF, travel opportunities, and much more.

2. Look Into Other Non-Profits for Conservation

There are dozens of non-profits that focus their efforts on conservation. The Natural Resources Defense Control has a comprehensive list of non-profits that are environmentally focused. You can find that list here, but we’ve picked a few of our favorites to highlight below:
Defenders of Wildlife: This non-profit focuses habitat conservation and biodiversity.
Earthwatch: This non-profit is much more scientific research based.
Greenpeace: Looking to get active? Greenpeace is really into peaceful protests!
Oceana: This non-profit focuses most of it’s efforts on ocean conservation, as well as pollution clean-up.
The Wilderness Society: The Wilderness Society not only focuses on the environment, but energy conservation as well.

3. Volunteer!

Volunteering is the most hands-on help you could give towards conservation efforts. All of the non-profits listed above have volunteer opportunities year-round. Whether you give one-time help at a beach clean-up or volunteer to clear litter from the highways in your city each weekend, your volunteering helps more than you know. By volunteering your time and effort, you are allowing others to focus their efforts on bigger projects that require more man power (and time/money) to complete.

How Overpopulation Caused Animal Extinction and Endangerment

March 30, 2015April 8, 2015 rbradfo

Humans tend to get a little “holier than thou” about their presence here on Earth. The fact of the matter is that we’re just one in literally millions. Some of the best guesstimates from top biologists around the world are that there are seven MILLION species of plants and animals on the planet — and that’s not including bacteria! When you break that number down by vertebrate (with a backbone) and invertebrate (without a backbone), our presence on Earth becomes even more insignificant — of the seven million estimated species on Earth, only 5,500 species identify as mammals like us. When you take that number into consideration, we are really only 1 in 5,500: the odds are still against us in many ways. So how is it that one small species has been capable of causing the extinction of thirty species in the last fifty years alone? You guessed it: overpopulation.

While some animal species have gone extinct due to destructive forces of nature (RIP T-Rex) or disease (RIP platypus frog), many of the thirty animals that have gone extinct in the last five decades were killed off due to habitat destruction and illegal hunting (better known as animal poaching) — two activities that are directly caused by overpopulation of humans.

One of the most widely discussed extinctions to happen in the last half-century occurred only four years ago. In 2011, the western black rhinoceros was declared extinct due to hunting. Between 1970 and 1992, the western black rhino saw a staggering decline in numbers — roughly 96% of the western black rhino population had depleted in only 22 years time. The horn of a western black rhino was used for a variety of human needs — weapons, medicine, and jewelry just to name a few. With the rising population, more animal poachers began hunting the western black rhino to keep up with demand. Oddly enough, rhino horn actually has zero medical benefits, so this creature was poached to extinction for nothing more than human greed and ignorance.

The Florida panther is one of the few big cat species that inhabits the United States. Unfortunately, the Florida panther is on the endangered species list due to overpopulation. This big cat once thrived throughout much of the southeastern United States and is now only found in 5% of its original habitat range. A majority of these panthers died due to habitat destruction caused by humans building roads through their home. The increased number of panthers in one concentrated area caused too much competition, which led to many panthers dying out of starvation. As of 2011, there’s only an estimated 100-120 Florida panthers left in the United States. Rapid population growth is leading to more deconstruction of their natural habitat. The Florida panther may be extinct because of overpopulation sooner than we think.

Pop Pulse on Pollution Solutions

March 2, 2015March 4, 2015 sadams7

A rapid increase in urban area dwelling poses one of the most detrimental threats against long-term sustainability. The environment truly suffers the most, even though we are quick to defend our human discomforts: sitting in stagnant bumper-to-bumper traffic, washing dishes by hand, heck – we’re even irritated by sorting our waste to reduce the amount of rubbish and refuse. Some people don’t even bother getting their trash to a bin; making habit of discarding garbage on the side of the road or on the sidewalk.

If only the affect was considered before we complain about trivial things and taking the easy way. All it takes is a few minutes of research to understand WHY it is imperative to our existence as a species to develop renewable sources and WHAT you can do leave a smaller footprint.

Not to recall stereotypes of a neo-pagan, tree-hugging, hemp-wearing, peace sign-posing hippy, but if the Earth was treated like the gift that it is, we wouldn’t have issues of deforestation, air pollution, and mass sewage storage. Pollution alone can (and has) dismantle ecosystems, endanger and eradicate various species of animals who also call this big spinning rock home, and cause disease and health issues for the Earth’s most dominant and dangerous species.

If the majority of civilization is headed towards occupying major cities, we need to get our priorities in order. For one, if the bulk of your neighbors and fellow cityfolk subscribe to environmentally hazardous (basically lazy) behavior, you are more likely to adopt these behaviors by succumbing to a risky form of groupthink. Many of the latest residents tourban areas will have roots in tending farms and looking after land, so it’s important for their new communities to assist them in making economical choices that can sustain city living.

The United States Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a comprehensive list of ways you can reduce air pollution at home, on the road, and in store by adjusting buying behavior. We recap the big ones for you, but please visit the full list here.

AT HOME:

Conserve energy by turning of appliances and lights and unplugging devices when they are not in use or when you leave the room
Recycle paper, plastic, glass bottles, cardboard, and aluminum cans
Keep woodstoves and fireplaces well maintained
Plant trees around your home to provide shade in the summer, but to allow light in the winter. Potted plants also do a great job of reducing air pollutants. We recommend fruit trees, river birch, holly, star magnolia, and boxwood. David J. Nowak of the USDA Forest Service coined the mnemonic device to aid in remembering the benefit of trees: Temperature reduction, Removal of air pollutants, Emission of volatile organic compounds and Energy effects on buildings
Connect your outdoor lights to a timer or use solar lighting.
Wash clothes with warm or cold water instead of hot.
Lower the thermostat on your water heater to 120F.
Use low-VOC or water-based paints, stains, finishes, and paint strippers.
Make the choice to smoke outdoors, or quit altogether

ON THE ROAD:

Keep tires properly inflated and aligned.
In the summer, fill gas tank during cooler evening hours to cut down on evaporation. Avoid spilling gas and don’t “top off” the tank. Replace gas tank cap tightly.
Avoid waiting in long drive-thru lines. Park your car and go in.
When possible, use public transportation, walk, or ride a bike.
Get regular engine tune-ups and car maintenance checks (especially for spark plugs).
Use an energy-conserving (EC) grade motor oil.
Ask your employer to consider flexible work schedules or telecommuting.
Report smoking vehicles to your local air agency.
Join a carpool to get to work.

MAKE SMART PURCHASES:

Choose efficient, low-polluting vehicle models.
Choose products that have less packaging and are reusable.
Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags.
Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently.

It’s Uber Important to Get a Lyft and Reduce Traffic

February 24, 2015March 4, 2015 rbradfo

With the rate at which the world is expanding, it’s no surprise that traffic has begun piling up across the globe. In our own city, it usually takes around two hours to travel a 10 mile distance during peak traffic hours — which seems to be any time Monday-Friday and nights on the weekends. Shockingly enough, there are cities with much worse traffic than ours (which we almost refuse to believe, even though the statistics speak for themselves). Traffic may seem like a huge, inevitable headache, but there are plenty of ways you can change your methods of travel that could help lighten traffic!

1. Public Transportation

Public transportation is any form of transportation that is not a personal vehicle, bicycle, or motorcycle. Many cities refer to their public transportation options as “public transit.” In the United States, New York City sees the highest number of public transit users than any other major city. In fact, a study conducted by FiveThirtyEight Data Labs found that New York City has more public transit users than the sixteen other cities with highest volume of public transit users combined. That same study found that a majority of the best public transit systems are located along the Northeast and West coasts, while the worst public transit systems are located in the south, including Texas and Oklahoma. The Midwest has some cities with extremely successful public transit systems (Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore, etc.) and others that are not as successful. In this study, public transit included buses, trains, subways, and monorails. Public transit systems do cost money, but the most a passenger will likely have to pay, even in major cities, is less than $10 a day. In our weird city, we turn to Capital Metro for all of our public transit needs. To determine what your cities’ public transit has to offer, simply Google “[your city] public transit system” and you should have no problem finding fees, schedules, and services available in your city.

2. Carpooling

Got a bunch of cool friends? Get together with your work or school buddies and come up with a carpool schedule for the week! Not only is it fun to ride with friends and suffer through the traffic together, carpooling with friends will help reduce the amount of traffic in your city. Think of it this way. You and four of your co-workers all live within five miles of one another. Each morning, you all leave your homes around the same time and arrive to work around the same time. Including yourself, there are now five cars on the road headed towards the same destination at the same time. If yourself and your four co-workers got together and devised a carpool schedule, the five cars on the road each morning has now been reduced to one. While it may not seem like a huge impact, imagine the difference it would make if everyone in your office chose to carpool to work. A company with 50 employees could slash the number of cars being driven to work by 80% if everyone went five to a car. WOW!

3. Other Ride Sharing Options

If carpooling or public transit do not seem like your cup of tea, consider other ride sharing options such as taxi cabs, Uber, or Lyft. All of these ride share options operate under the same basic pretense: you call for a ride, someone arrives to pick you up, you pay based off a base rate + distance + time + tip (and in some cases a safety fee) and you’re at your destination! For the most part, taxis tend to cost a bit more than Uber or Lyft. In our awesome city, Uber costs a bit less than Lyft, but BOTH are cheaper than Yellow Cab. The drivers for Lyft and Uber are required to have a clean driving record to ensure that only the safest drivers are getting you to and from your destination. The wait times for these ride share services tend to be much less time than the wait for a taxi. During peak hours, some ride share services tend to up their prices, so be sure to check the price before you book a car! If you’re interested in finding out if Uber or Lyft are available in your city, just click the links!
Have an interesting way that you’re lowering traffic in your city? Got a traffic nightmare story you just need to vent about? How about a favorite song to listen to while stuck in traffic? Comment below and let us know what’s on your mind!

The head of Texas is feeling a little congested

February 23, 2015March 4, 2015 asoybel

Forbes lists Austin, Texas as the 4th US city with the worst traffic, sandwiched between San Francisco at number 3 and New York at 5. So just how is it that a laid back, eclectic, and fun-loving city like Austin has such an appalling case of congestion? We’re about to get into that.

Coincidentally, Forbes also lists Austin as the fastest growing city in the nation with a population of 1.8 million and a growth rate of 2.8%! This is a heavily weighted factor in our dilemma of traffic jams for a few reasons.

First of all, as stated in this NPR article, Austin has long been a city opposed to growth and industrialization. The liberal atmosphere never allowed for mass growth and therefore, no infrastructure was erected in regards to that sentiment. The article continues stating that this mentality is one of a “If We Don’t Build It, They Won’t Come” idealization. However, this thought process has obviously failed any Austinite that has driven ( if you call 2 mph “driving”) along I-35 around 4:30-6pm. Actually, KXAN states that Austin drivers wasted a sum of 41 total hours stuck in traffic in 2014.

However, there is hope! Gov. Tech. explains the possibility of utilizing crowd sourcing for data on how to better improve traffic lights. This could potentially be a structural answer to the ever-lasting issue of traffic. Ideally, this smart-version of congestion control is something we could see being implemented in the next few years. Another structural solution is that of infrastructure like ideas such as Prop. 1 have proposed. Unfortunately, Austin’s residents seemed to think implementing a railway in a strange location would be an unnecessary waste of tax dollars.

Another phenomenon to observe is the course of housing costs and their correlation with traffic. Various residents often cite having to move complete locations in order to happily commute to work or leisure. Therefore, housing rates increase and make Austin a more expensive place to live.

Each of these occurrences, stemming from Austin’s desire to maintain it’s cool and quirky vibe have consequentially been it’s visible downfall. And unfortunately, if structural answers aren’t put into place, we might see this once lively, peculiar, city become a town full of angry motorists.

Lastly, If there’s one nice thought to have while you’re stuck watching the sunset on the capitol building as the hours go by, it’s that traffic has been shown to have a direct relation with economic health. So if you’re not doing well in the traffic, at least your city is!

I-35 photo by Deborah Cannon

Combating Gentrification

February 20, 2015March 4, 2015 dspiro

Does urban growth automatically mean more gentrification? Not necessarily. Here’s some sure fire ways to avoid gentrification from coming to fruition.

1. More low-income housing!

This one seems almost too obvious of an answer. By making providing low income housing at an equal rate as high cost areas grow, displacement may still happen but at the poorest of a city are not literally losing ground in their city. Making sure that low income housing projects don’t disappear in the future is crucial to preventing gentrification from taking place.

Going back to our previous example of Rosewood Courts. While I agree that the land value of Rosewood has increased in value over the years, that does not given developers the right to tear it down and rebuild for the incoming upper to middle class families, thus displacing the previous residents.

However, there are various programs in place for those who do get displaced or just need low income housing today. The City of Austin has many different programs to choose from, therefore I cannot argue that the displaced residents will automatically become homeless. Most of the problem gentrification brings is the displacement of people from their homes that they’ve lived in for decades.

That being said, according to Roger Valdez from Smart Growth Seattle, neighborhoods have notoriously shifted from wealth to poverty to wealth again within the decades since it’s been around. The process of a changing area is not something new and cannot be solely blamed on gentrification. However, one it becomes to the point that only minorities are being displaced and there are no new low income housing areas to go along with the growth of the city’s wealthy metropolitan area, then that becomes a gentrification problem.

2. Protect existing low income housing areas

Again, this one seems too obvious of answer as well. Protecting existing areas will slow down the process of gentrification and it will keep families in the homes they’ve owned for the last couple of decades. It makes sure that families stay in the areas they want to, regardless of their income. Sadly, there are not many programs out there to help families keep their home as much as ones to help them find a new one. I suggest demanding a program for the families who do not wish to move out of the area so they can keep their home.

For more good reads on the subject, I suggest Kalima Rose’s blog post on Race, Poverty, and Environment.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, REPEAT

February 9, 2015February 17, 2015 rbradfo

The amount of waste the United States produces in a single year is astronomical. According to a study conducted in 2012 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans generated more than 251 million TONS of trash in one year. To put that number into perspective, let’s consider the size of the wise and gentle elephant. One male African elephant can weigh up to eight tons. Therefore, the amount of trash we threw into landfills that year is equivalent to 31,375,000 elephants. PS: That’s more than the entire population of African elephants on the planet — YIKES! With so much trash being produced by us each year, there must be more lucrative solutions to our overflowing landfills. Luckily, some old school hipsters in 1970 kick-started the first Earth Day, which introduced the idea of recycling to the United States.

In the same study conducted in 2012, the EPA found that 87 million tons, or approximately 34% of the trash produced, was recycled waste. While 34% is a much higher number than in previous years, it could still be higher. The EPA recommends a three step system to take control of the waste in your life. These three steps are easy to remember, as they all start with an “r”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

The following image demonstrates how this concept is a constant loop, rather than a one-way model.

The first step in the process, reduce, ties in very closely to the second step, reuse. The EPA suggests that the easiest way to reduce your waste is to create less in the first place. Each time you buy a new plastic water bottle instead of investing in a thermos, new materials must be produced to offset the bottle you’ve just used. Making new materials requires the use of raw materials. These raw materials that are taken from the Earth must be remade and transported. This costs money and transporting the goods burns fuel. Therefore, by reducing the amount of new materials made and reusing materials you already have, you are saving both money and materials. In addition to these benefits, reducing and reusing materials also lowers the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases cause climate change, which contributes to everything from intensified storms to the melting of the polar ice caps. Using products to their fullest extent makes it so that less materials are being made each day, which will not only lower the amount of trash generated, but also lower the amount of recycling generated each year. Although recycling is beneficial to the environment, it is still ideal to reuse as much as possible.

There are a number of ways in which one can strive to lower their waste and increase their reuse of materials. Perhaps the most obvious way to reduce waste is to buy used. There are big name thrift shops, such as Goodwill or The Salvation Army, that offer donated shoes, clothes, furniture, dishes, and virtually every other kind of material for a discounted price. You can also check out thrift shops that are specific to your own city. In our weird and wonderful city, places such as Plato’s Closet, Buffalo Exchange, and Thrift Land offer a vast selection of goods. There are ways in which you can lower the amount of disposable items you use on a daily basis as well. For example, rather than packing your lunch in a paper bag each day, buy a reusable lunch box. Instead of buying a cup of coffee from Starbucks, bring a coffee mug to work and use the community coffee pot. Another way to reduce waste is to buy items with minimal packaging. There is no reason to purchase an item that is wrapped in six layers of cardboard, plastic, or Styrofoam. All these items do is create clutter.

The “big five” items that are recyclable include paper, plastic, cardboard, aluminum, and glass. However, there are plenty of other items, such as food waste and clothing, that can be recycled as well. Most recycling plants will accept the “big five”, but you may need to do a little digging to determine where you can recycle old furniture, electronics, and clothing in your area. The easiest way to recycle is to keep everything sorted that you’ve used. Any department store or more specialty shops, such as The Container Store, will have a number of items (think: RubberMaid) to choose from, depending on how much recycling you incur in a week.

Fun Fact: Goodwill will take any item, even if it is ripped or stained, and send it to a recycling plant if they deem it unfit for resale.

So try this! Each day this week, find something in your life that you can reduce, reuse, or recycle. Whether it’s going to a vintage thrift shop for a weekend shopping trip with your girlfriends, recycling your plastic water and buying a reusable one, or setting up a method for keeping your recyclables separated at your home, you will be doing a big part to not only help the environment, but keep the amount of waste generated by our massive population under control.

Have a cool or interesting way that you’ve been reducing the amount of waste in your life? Comment below and let us know the steps you’re taking to sustain the environment in our ever-growing world!

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”

February 9, 2015February 17, 2015 asoybel

Okay, we’re not going to waste your time here *pun seriously intended*. But what we do want to do is talk about waste, and why it’s got us buzzing over here at Pop Pulse! Have you ever checked this out? With all of these people being added to the world on a daily – millisecond – basis, it’s hard to imagine how much waste we actually produce. So we’re going to break it down for y’all!

“Waste and wastes implies unwanted or unusable materials.”

Specifically, if we’re talking about a consumerist, capitalist, market economy, (like that of this glorious nation that we’re based in), we’re speaking in terms of supply and demand. This means that the consumers in the market are making the rules about what is being produced. And naturally, when man is able to pick and choose, the overbearing flaws any system are amounted to human error. In this case, I’ll compare it to the the ” eyes bigger than your stomach” effect.

Now, if you didn’t have grandparents like mine, I’ll break it down for you: Grandma bakes a pumpkin pie, I love pumpkin pie, so I go up and get three slices… Unfortunately my 12 year old stomach can only handle maybe one slice, so the other two contaminated pieces are thrown away (lets pretend my parents weren’t human garbage disposals). With that analogy in mind, it’s easier to understand why so much waste is produced in our country. But just how much waste are we talking? And why should anyone care? Well don’t worry, we’re getting there.

If we’re talking about one person and their day-to-day pumpkin pie struggles, along with product packaging and everything else that produces waste, well they typically produce 4.3 pounds of waste per day. So if we reference that population tallier from earlier, we’ve got about 1376000000 lbs of waste a day in the U.S. given that each individual balances that mass out for each other. That’s 3060 statues of liberty in mass, just for a bit of perspective.

So just where do we put all of that waste? Well, the majority of our nation’s waste is either distributed to landfills, or combusted. The problem with the former, is that we get air pollution and ground water pollution. As we should know by now, humans are a contributor to the issue of greenhouse gases — in particular, methane and carbon dioxide. These gases have harmful effects to the environment and climate. Older landfills that were constructed before recent legal constraints lack liners to prevent chemicals from leaching into the surrounding groundwater – therefore contaminating drinking and crop water. Not to mention, landfills are visually displeasing.

So unless we change something… we obviously have a problem.