What are ecolodges?

Ecolodges are housing accommodations for tourists that incorporate nature and help to protect native ecosystems. They specifically focus on educating tourists on the local wildlife and encouraging practices that help to protect the habitats. Additionally, ecolodges are meant to help boost the local economy with visitors but also ensure that the environment and communities in those areas are not overrun or disrupted by the touristry. To fulfill the mission, ecolodges use renewable energy sources and also have non-toxic or organic products. The other benefit of ecolodges is that the revenue that they bring in help local communities to be able to afford to preserve natural land rather than being forced to sell natural resources to support their economy.

 

Where are ecolodges?

Ecolodges are especially prevalent in Africa because that is where they originated. They originated in the 1990s with the rise of ecotourism, and they offered a more sustainable accommodation than alternatives like green hotels. Nowadays, ecolodges can be found all over the world, and they are especially beneficial in areas with vulnerable ecosystems like rainforests. They can be pricey, but the cost is worth it in order to benefit the local community and also protect the natural habitat that you are visiting.

What is ecotourism?

Ecotourism is visiting natural places in sustainable ways that benefit the local ecosystems and communities. Done incorrectly, attempted at ecotourism could be detrimental to natural ecosystems and potentially displace local communities. An example of this is in Hawaii; a lot of people visit for the beauty and nature, but it has displaced native Hawaiians and also negatively affected local ecosystems. But, in some areas, ecotourism has been very beneficial; some of these places include Costa Rica, Kenya, and Ecuador. Ecolodges are an important aspect of ecotourism because it provides sustainable accommodations that are in line with the major goals of ecotourism.

 

Why choose an ecolodge?

You should choose to stay in a ecolodge in order to protect the nature you are visiting. It is important to be aware of the impact you are making by visiting a location. Ecotourism does not just mean being sustainable environmentally, it also means protecting local communities and cultures. Preserving these cultures benefits the locals but also benefits generations to come as they will be able to experience those cultures as well. So, next time you decide to go on a trip to visit a natural area, consider an ecolodge instead of traditional housing options!

Background

What Occurred?

On March 26th, an announcement was sent to all Philadelphia residents to not drink the tap water. This caused a panic in Philly, and quickly stores were selling out of bottled water. Eight thousand to twelve thousand tons of a water-based latex solution were spilled into a subsidiary of the Delaware river from a chemical facility in Bucks County. A few hours later, they were updated that the water was safe to drink temporary. A few days after that, the tap water was confirmed to be within safe levels and everything went back to “normal”.

Why is this significant?

After occurrences like the train derailing in East Palestine, Ohio, it is concerning to see another spill occur so soon after. Some of the chemicals in the spill included Ethyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate, and Butyl acrylate. Butyl acrylate was actually one of the chemicals that were present in the East Palestine spill as well, so obviously there are some concerns of the possible health implications of this spill. Luckily, since the Delaware is such a massive river, the spill was diluted to within safe levels. Still, what happens when something like this happens again? These aren’t one off occurrences; they are happening in our own states, towns, and cities, and we need to be aware of the dangers of having a chemical plant so close to vital waterways.

 

Opinion

Legislature

In Pennsylvania, 1989’s “Worker and Community Right-to-Know Act” declares that “employers within the Commonwealth and chemical suppliers doing business within the Commonwealth have a duty to make available to employees and to the general public the identity of chemicals used in the workplace, and to make information available as to the known or suspected health hazards posed by the use of or exposure to hazardous substances”. This means that Trinseo, the company responsible for the spill, must inform the public of the risks of this spill. Beyond this, I could not find many more policies about what they must do after something like this.

My Opinion

This news really hit close to home because my home is in Bucks County, and I live close to Bristol Township. I had friends and family living in Philly, and it was really scary to not know what was happening. I hope this is a lesson, not just to the Philadelphia water department, but to water departments nationwide about to handle a spill like this. I think they did a good job and they were really transparent about what was occurring, but at the same time, something of this magnitude should not happen. We should fund more protection to prevent such large infrastructure failures and doing more routine checks on factories that are close to vital waterways to prevent a repeat of this situation.

Background

History 

Drilling for oil is nothing new, and especially not in Alaska; around 159 million barrels of crude oil were produced by the Alaskan oil industry in 2020. The actual amount of oil extracted in Alaska has decreased drastically since the 1980s, but it is still a lot of oil being extracted. The Willow Project originated in 1999 when the Clinton administration approved to lease the land to ConocoPhillips. In 2018, the company began to try to acquire the permits needed to drill this land for oil. The Trump administration initially approved of the plan, but in 2021 an Alaskan judge ruled against this because of improper environmental analysis.

What is the Willow Project

The Willow Project was initially a propose to build five oil drilling pads in the National Petroleum Reserve- Alaska, the largest piece of federal land. This federal land holds a lot of potential for oil drilling, but it is also essential habitat for many species. It would be able to extract up to 600 million barrels of oil, and this would generate billions of dollars in tax revenue for the US government.

The Biden Administrations Role

The Biden Administration approved a reduced version of the Willow Project with three drilling pads instead of the proposed five. This caused public outrage because of Biden’s promises to reduce the impacts of climate change and to move to more environmentally friendly forms of energy during his campaign.

Opinion

Why it matters

This decision on the Willow Project matters because it will secure oil’s place in the Alaskan and US economy for the next thirty years. It also has widespread environmental impacts, not only because of the use of oil itself, but also the land that it has to destroy to drill for this oil. This federal land is relatively undisturbed, and it has become vital habitat for many types of animals and is also important breeding grounds for many species of birds.

What could have been done 

While a lot of outrage is direct at Biden, he may not be entirely responsible for the Willow Project. The initial leases were granted in 1999, and the leases allowed for ConocoPhillips to develop the land. If Biden had tried to block the proposal, ConocoPhillips may have sued, and this lawsuit could have cost billions of dollars and likely would end with the development of the Willow Project anyways. Reducing the amount of oil drilling pads was one way the Biden administration may have tried to reduce the environmental impact.

My Opinion

I feel pretty conflicted on this issue. Environmentalism really matters to me, so ideally this proposal would have never gone through and instead the money needed to build these oil drilling pads could be put towards more sustainable forms of energy. But, I also acknowledge that the Biden administration may not have had much of a say in this issue. I am curious as to how this will affect the 2024 election season and if more people will vote for the Green party rather than for Joe Biden.

We generate a lot of sh*t. The US produces over 1 billion tons of poop a year. That’s a lot of something that goes to waste. Now, what should we do about all of it? Improper disposal of poop can contribute to pollution since it can contaminate water and soil sources. So, what does proper sewage treatment look like?

First, the sewage has to go through a screening stage in order to remove any non-poop things that must’ve somehow gotten into the sewers. This is pretty self explanatory since random things could clog the system if they are not removed in the initial screening stage. Then, it moves onto the primary stage of treatment. We use the property of density so the heavier things sink and the mostly water continues on. This is where we get a really cool bi-product of sewage treatment – biosolids. Now, you might not think that really condensed sh*t is cool, but trust me, it is. We will get to that in a little!

Next, the mostly water goes onto the secondary treatment stage where it moved through a corrugated material. Bacteria gathers in the material and then, it is left in an aeriation tank and the bacteria eats the organic matter that is left in the water after stage one. Pretty cool! Finally, in the final stage, the water is treated with chlorine to get rid of any of the leftover pesky bacteria. Sometimes, some sewage management plants use alternatives like UV treatment or ozone. In newer sewage management, we are using techniques like reverse osmosis, distillation, and more because our current treatment methods still leave a lot of unwanted things in the water.

Onto the good stuff — biosolids! Biosolids are the leftover result of sewage management and are essentially really compacted poop. Similar to manure, it can safely be used in agriculture to add nutrients to the soil. Around 25% of biosolids go to agriculture, which is a great use. It is interesting because it is very cyclical, just how nature intended it. On the other hand, around 40% of biosolids go to solid waste landfills.

We could use biosolids more effectively to help to lower the need for fertilizer instead of throwing it in landfills. This would require major infrastructure changes so that sewage plants could more effectively harvest and move the waste to agricultural areas. In the long run, though, using biosolids could be a useful tool in sustainable farming practices.

Sustainable agriculture is an important aspect of environmental policy and advocacy. According to the EPA, integrated pest management is an approach to pest control that uses information about the life cycle of pests and pest control methods to have the least impact on people, property, and the environment while still being economical. The reason IPM is so important is because pest control and food waste due to pest invasion is a significant environmental issue. Inappropriate or miscalculated pesticide use has many detrimental impacts — not just environmentally, but also on people and wildlife.

Pesticides have been attributed to various health conditions in many different species such as cancer, reproductive effects, birth defects, and more. Pesticides are also very dangerous to farmers and people who have to handle them since they can be very toxic and have both potential dangerous short-term effects and long-term effects. There is also a loss in biodiversity with the use of pesticides because they often kill species they didn’t intend to. Some studies have found that the loss in biodiversity costs hundreds of billions of dollars annually, which is very alarming economically. That is why people are turning to a new method of pest management.

IPM is difficult to define because it can vary greatly for different plant species and bugs. It focuses more on prevention of pests than actual elimination of pests (what pesticides do). There is no way to check if your food uses integrated pest management, which makes it difficult to use consumer power to advocate for the use of IPM. It is also difficult to legally define if a product is made with IPM practices because they can be so broad.

A good way to support these efforts are to support Penn State’s efforts of developing IPM practices, since we are a university that does a lot of research into this subject. This can include going to entomological talks or information sessions. Additionally, you can try IPM in your own garden. IPM does not necessarily mean organic, but you can use an organic approach to IPM. This guide is for home gardeners and how to implement IPM. If you are unable to identify the pests in your garden, a great forum for advice is Reddit’s “r/whatsthisbug“. Additionally, iNaturalist is an app that uses AI to identify insects and plants, and it can be another great resource in finding out what critters live in your garden. Finally, a great way to help is to tell others about integrated pest management. They might just adopt it in their farm or garden and slowly help to reduce the use of pesticides in agriculture!

I’d be willing to bet that all my readers have heard the phrase “going green”; but what does “going green” even mean? Is there a quota companies have to hit to claim they are going green? Or some regulation of the phrase in marketing? “Going green” is actually a marketing tactic adopted by companies as the ideas of sustainability became more mainstream, but there is no real significance of the phrase.

Companies have discovered that if they turn their products green, they will appeal to a wider audience and, therefore, get more sales. They use words like “plant-based”, “clean”, “pure”, “natural”, “green”, and more to create the image of an environmentally friendly product, but the products are not necessarily as environmentally friendly as the packaging may make it seem. There is even a term for it: greenwashing. Products may hold up to some of their claims, but it is still greenwashing if the company makes no other efforts to be sustainable.

A great example of this phenomenon is when a hotel told their customers to use less towels in order to be more sustainable. While their claim is true that doing less laundry is more sustainable, the hotel did this in order to reduce the cost of laundry. They made no other efforts to be sustainable except for telling people to use less towels (which is convenient considering that it saves them a lot of money).
When I noticed a shift in products being offered to more “green” products, I was excited. I thought that big companies were finally starting to adopt policies that would help in sustainability. Little did I know that most of these campaigns were not actually companies changing their ways but rather a way to mark up prices for the same product.

The FTC has cracked down on some greenwashing. There are regulations about how companies may advertise their products, such as needing to back up claims with evidence and ensuring that their claims are non-deceptive. Despite these efforts, many companies are still able to get away with greenwashing. For example, the product Coca-Cola Life being green and containing the word “life” might lead consumers to believe that this product is more eco-friendly than regular Coca-Cola. In actuality, it just is a reduced calorie version of Coca-Cola.

This may beg the question of how we can shop for more sustainable products and not be tricked by misleading marketing. One of the main ways to find greenwashing is looking for vague buzzwords that actually have no claim behind them such as “pure”, “natural”, “non-toxic”, and “clean”. Additionally, having packaging that is green and has natural imagery without any substantial claims is another sign that the product is greenwashed. Researching brands is time-consuming, but it is another way to find companies that are actually sustainable.

At the end of the day, it should not be the responsibility of the consumer to have to weed through hundreds of misleading marketing to find a true sustainable product. One of the best ways you can fight against green-washing is to fight for legislation to make marketing have to be more clear and transparent.