Author: Richard

I am a retired obstetrician-gynecologist who has been fortunate to live and work in the wonderful community of Durango, Colorado for 40 years.

Categories
Population

Educate with These Projects

The article below may be copied or published but must remain intact, with attribution to the author. I also request that the words “First published in the Durango Herald” accompany any publication. For more information, please write the author at: richard@population-matters.org.

 

Educate with These Projects

© Richard Grossman MD, 2008

 

            This month the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) publicized their report “Climate Change and Water”. It says that there is “…abundant evidence that freshwater resources are vulnerable and have the potential to be strongly impacted by climate change, with wide-ranging consequences on human societies and ecosystems.”

            The report goes on to state that our current freshwater control technology is likely to be inadequate to deal with events in the future. The intersection of decreasing supplies of petroleum, increasing human population and climate change is liable to be calamitous. “Climate change challenges the traditional assumption that past hydrological experience provides a good guide to future conditions.”

            Life is impossible without water! How can we prepare the next generation to deal with this huge problem? What can we do to help our kids and grandkids get ready for their future?

            A series of programs teaches students not what to think about water and other environmental issues, but how to think about them. They have been carefully developed by teams of educators and scientists from all over the country. The projects succeed in helping kids from kindergarten to twelfth grade learn about the world they live in.

            Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) is taught all over the country, and in many other countries, too. Project WET promotes appreciation, knowledge and stewardship of water resources by making classroom-ready teaching aids available to teachers.

            The WET guidebook includes over ninety activities. Each is labeled for an age range, if it is best indoors or outside, for a large or small group, etc. Each has a teacher-friendly introduction as well as a detailed description of how to guide the activity.

            “Dust Bowls and Failed Levees” is an example of one of these activities. Designed for high school students, its subtitle is “Witness, through literature, the effects of droughts and floods on human populations.” Students read passages from Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and try to imagine how a modern author might document the tragedy of Katrina.

            The activity “Where Are the Frogs?” is aimed at middle school students. It shows the effect of acid rain on the growth of plants such as marigolds or beans. (Frogs are also affected by acid rain but it is better to observe the effects on plants in the classroom). First, the lesson explains what an acid is. Students then prepare solutions of weak and stronger acid that are used to water the plants. They observe growth over a month. The experimental procedure is given in an activity sheet that includes a data collection page. (These activity sheets, but not complete lessons, may be found on internet at: www.projectwet.org).

            The water cycle is illustrated for younger kids by “The Incredible Journey,” an activity for a large room or playing field. Skills involved include organizing (mapping); analyzing (identifying components and relationships) and interpreting (describing). Students (or chance) determine the movement of water within the hydrosphere.

            What about other environmental issues? They are dealt with in the other Projects: Learning Tree (www.PLT.org, dealing with plants, trees and forests), WILD (www.projectWILD.org, concerning wildlife) and Project Food, Land & People (www.foodlandpeople.org, focusing on the interdependence of agriculture, human needs and the environment). Although similar in basic structure, each has its own history, literature and website.

            Too many kids in the USA spend too little time outside nowadays. They grow up neither understanding nor respecting the great web of nature. As adults they will be much more likely to destroy our planet than people who appreciate its intricate workings. This is why I feel that quality nature education is so important. The Projects offer superior learning opportunities.

            Recently I was one of several people from Durango who attended a facilitator training. Our goal is to prepare teachers all over the state so they will be comfortable teaching the Projects. Most of the others at the training are professional educators, including two professors from Fort Lewis College, so it took intensive concentration (and my wife’s help) to get me up to speed.

            Here in southwestern Colorado we are lucky to have an employee of the Colorado Division of Wildlife who oversees these Projects. As Southwest Regional education coordinator, Leigh Gillette added a big spark of enthusiasm to our training. If you would like to learn more or to teach from these resources, call her at 375-6709.

          Unless kids learn to value the natural world, they will not be willing to protect it when they are adults. These four Projects help children understand the complexities of nature.

Categories
Carrying Capacity Durango Herald Environment

Ski

The article below may be copied or published but must remain intact, with attribution to the author. I also request that the words “First published in the Durango Herald” accompany any publication. For more information, please write the author at: richard@population-matters.org.

 

Ski

© Richard Grossman MD, 2008

 

One of the conditions of my wife’s and my courtship was that she teach me how to ski. I got back at her by teaching her to drive.

This has been a cold, snowy winter. Although we’re all grateful for the moisture, many people have had a difficult time with all the shoveling and power outages. It was a real Colorado winter!

If you read the Herald regularly you know that I recently accepted a wager on global climate change. Dr. Roger Cohen bet $5000 that the climate will be cooler in a decade; I hope he is correct. Unfortunately, there is much evidence that the climate is warming, and that we humans are causing the change.

This cold winter does not undermine the concept of global warming. “Global climate change” is a more descriptive term than “global warming” since not all parts of the world will heat up. Furthermore, there is so much variability in climate from year to year that a cold winter doesn’t prove that global warming isn’t happening.

            It would be absolutely amazing if all the people—with all our consumption—didn’t alter the planet’s climate in major ways. One savant predicted that climate change will lead to decreased agricultural productivity. Lack of food will cause the death by starvation of hundreds of millions of people. Our population has outgrown our planet! I am sad that my grandchildren are likely to suffer from the profligate expansionism of my generation. We can help restrain climate change with our daily decisions, including skiing.

            It was late February when I started writing this, and snow was abundant both in the air and on the ground. I shoveled one morning and skied cross country in the afternoon. Both were good exercise. The day before, we hit Purgatory (now officially “Durango Mountain Resort”) for a beautiful day of powder. When we stopped to catch our breath on Sally’s Run, my wife commented “You’re really smiling!”

            On skinny skis we travel through the woods close to our home. With just a short car ride we’re off on forest roads or going cross country on gentle slopes.

There is a lot to see in the winter woods. Deer, elk and cottontail rabbits are common. Once we were treated to a glimpse of an ermine (the short-tailed weasel in its winter coat) as it porpoised through the snow. We also enjoyed tracking a mountain lion walking along a road up north. The big cat had come out of the woods, gone up over the snow bank at the side of the road, and then walked along the road. We were sure that it was a cat because the prints were lacking claw marks. At one place we saw where it had lain down and left a clear imprint of where its tail had rested. We have also had a peek of (or seen the tracks of) voles, mice, coyotes, turkeys and many other animals.

            Comparing alpine and cross country skiing, there are several differences. Skinny skis take us into quiet terrain where we seldom see other people—and usually our dog can come along. Cross country skiing is always a good workout.

            At Purgatory we usually run into friends, so it is more sociable. It is fun to push our skills to see if we can survive the black diamond trails. There is intermittent exercise with a chance to catch your breath on the lifts.

            Another way to look at the comparison is cost. Cross country is quite inexpensive. In addition to financial expense there is also the cost to the environment. Roundtrip to Purgy takes over two hours and a half tank of gas. Although convenient, the lifts that haul us up hill have an environmental price. They run on fossil fuel that generates green house gases. All in all, cross country has much less impact.

            It is possible to estimate the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide produced in a year—the “carbon footprint”. This should include direct uses (such as burning fossil fuels) and indirect usage (such as the energy used to manufacture a pair of skis). My favorite calculator (although it doesn’t include one’s choice of skiing) is at www.bp.com. You’ll find the calculator link in the lower right corner.

            We are fortunate to live in an area with wonderful outdoor activities, including skiing. In order to keep our environment healthy, however, we should make conscious choices to decrease our impact.