Hot Springs Fright

I’m not one to scare easy; in fact I enjoy a good scare. As a teenager horror movies were the only type of cinema worth my hard earn cash, everything from The Blair Witch Project to The Ring, I was the first in line for the fright fest. Now that I am a bit older I choose movies with, I guess one would say a bit more substance, but who knows really. Even though I’m not rushing to see The Saw movies and may have lost my childhood obsession with horror films, I never believed this had any effect on me being able to not fear what most do. I have been proud of being fearless, and would air my arrogance by rolling my eyes with irritation, when my sister would yank on my arm during a suspenseful movie. I have gloated about being able to contain myself and endure the strange and unusual for years that were until recently, where I think my surge of confidence lead me to a humbling experience.

My mother always said don’t let your head get too big, because once it swells, there’s something waiting around the corner to bring you to your knees. How true this was for me Sunday night. Before I get to the nitty-gritty part, I first have to explain what I was doing and where I was going. A friend of mine decided to take me to some hot springs once he found out that I have never seen or been to one before. We packed up our bags with a few snacks, jumped in the car and made our way to the trail head. Once we pulled up to our destination, I could see fall leaves everywhere. We got out of the truck and I could fill the plump ground stacked with colorful leaves.

As we started towards the hot springs, it took us awhile to gain some distance on the trail. I had my digital camera and just couldn’t stop taking pictures; snap here and snap there. Even though the only critics to review my professional digital shots would be my FB friends, I wanted them to be good, or at least reflect somewhat of the beautiful fall landscape I was experiencing. So after stopping and starting, clicking and snapping, we reach the hot springs. Before I could even see the downward step-like structure of pools, a strange smell became apparent in the air. After climbing the last steep hill, I look down to see clouds of steam rise from the still, pools of water like a ghost from a grave. The landscape seemed to be the perfect image of fall.

My friend teased me as he explained that traditionally, hot springs are for skinny dipping, he continued on with a smile and mentioned that, "We’ll probably find most people decided to leave their swimsuits back at home". With this thought in mind, I shifted concentration from the sparkling pools and the falling leaves, and I started to glitch thinking that people below me were naked. It’s not that I wanted to look, but there were people everywhere. My head began to turn like a scene pulled from exorcist; back-and-fourth, side-to-side. I kept thinking, “Are they? No...Mmm, Maybe?” I then leaned over to him and whispered with a smirk, “I think those people are naked in that one.” He began to chuckle and leaned in to reply with a whisper as well, “Charice, I was joking, it is illegal to skinny dip in Utah and there is a Ranger right over there.” Feeling like a right-out fool, I shot him a look hotter than the springs.

We finally found a steaming hot pool with colorful leaves floating slowly over the waters. I stepped in and settled against a rock. Evening was starting to approach, as I sat in the water the light of dusk caught my eye and I directed my body to fully absorb what was left of the day’s sun. The view was one of few that I will never forget. We began to notice that everyone else that was here before us had left. We knew it would soon be dark and decided to start back down.

The hike back down was quiet. Lying in the hot waters relaxed our bodies; the view, I believe, quited our minds. It wasn’t until it was fully dark, that thoughts began to return. Thankfully, we had our headlamps. My headlamp is wrapped around my backpack strap and sits on the front of my shoulder, so when I look back, I can easily see the darkness that follows me. I kept looking back, not sure really what I was looking for, “The boogey man perhaps?” I laughed to myself. I knew that nothing about the dark scares me, it never has, but for some reason I just kept looking behind my back. I grew tired of the silence and proposed we tell ghost stories on our way back down; we had the perfect setting for it.

My friend mentioned that he hated scary things, so my reply was, “I hate lies,” referring to his skinny dipping joke earlier. We both laughed and then I began my story. Fittingly, I told a ghost tale that took place in the woods. Toward the end of the story, I noticed that his head went from looking down at his steps to looking directly forward, and I think once behind him. I thought to myself, “Is the story really scaring him?” I tried to refrain myself, but slowly a little grin began to form on my face. I concluded the tale and we fell back into silence. I could tell we only had a little more to go before we reached the end, just as I was thinking how tired I was, I heard a rustle in the bushes. We both came to a stop and began to fling our heads around to locate the noise. We waited for a moment to see if we would hear the sound again, when nothing happened, we picked up our steps and continued on. Just then the strangest, loudest noise I have ever heard shot from the trees. I screamed as high and loud as humanly possible and without a moment of hesitation took off full-speed. If it hadn’t been dark, I think you could see that my feet were moving too fast to touch the ground.

After I covered some distance from where I had heard the noise, I realized that I had left my friend behind me and I stopped and yelled back for him. I could hear him laughing and jogging to come meet me. As he approached, I was able to calm down and gather my thoughts. Then it came to me, I knew the noise. The strange, foreign sound was a noise any 6 year old could name: a cow. I had forgotten there were cows on this trail. Once again, I felt like a fool. My friend was cracking up and only thing I could think about was karma. Not much scares me and certainly, not a farm animal! In fact, I was the one who was trying to scare him, and to think I almost ran all the way to the car because of a loud moooo!

We hopped back into the car, exhausted from the day we let the radio drive out the silence. Once in a while we would chuckle about the incident and then direct our attention back to the music. My friend pulled up to my house and I jumped out of the car. As I gathered my stuff from the back of the truck, he smirked at me saying, “Allright, Ms.Tough stuff, watch out for those cows, they’re nasty little devils, really.” I’m no Johnny Carson, but I can whip out a quick quip if I need to, however this time I just laughed and shut the door. During the quiet drive, I thought more about the humbling scare. I might have been scared and a little bit embarrassed, I admit it, but then, I thought one thing I wouldn’t have been was dead, right? I took off as if it was the 100-meter dash. I was gone like the wind. There would have been no way anything could have grabbed me at that speed. So, maybe fear isn’t such a bad thing after all.

USEE Member Highlight

Sustain Utah
-by Charice Bourdeaux


We have all heard the saying “you can’t be in two places at once”, well this saying and the basic physics of reality mean nothing to Sustain Utah and their Executive Director/ Co-founder Shelley Marshall. From festivals and events to meetings and community projects, Sustain Utah is in every place that involves the practice of sustainability. I interviewed Sustain Utah’s Executive Director at the Outdoor Retailer’s Expo. She greeted me friendly and took me back through the larger than life exhibits. We passed several booths, of which at least one person had met and spoken with Shelley. With every person we encountered she made sure to tell them about USEE and how great we are. This is the fundamental nature of Sustain Utah. The organization seeks to work with, and in some cases for, not against other environmentally focused groups and institutions. This philosophy came about shortly after a meeting with 20 plus individuals consisting mainly of new nonprofits at Squatters Pub. They discussed the need for new and existing nonprofits to all come together and increase communication between each other. They also discussed the need to provide a source where the community can access information about all of Utah’s environmental organizations in one place. The board of directors consists of a diverse group of individuals and as Shelley mentioned “they each have a deeper involvement within the green community”.

Sustain Utah's mission is to “Support and nurture the development of Utah's sustainability related non-profit organizations”. I asked Shelley what the mission meant to her personally, her answer was to “create a space where collaboration can take place between all environmentally focused organizations". She also stressed the “importance of streamlining information so that the community is aware of what is happening among the different environmental groups”. This mission is seen through with the development of their monthly calendar, the project Shelley mentioned when asked which project she is most proud of. The calendar lists practically every sustainable-related event in Utah, from workshops and fairs, to farmer’s markets and hazardous waste collections.

There is still so much to come from this organization. Their board members and volunteers work hard to provide a comprehensible calendar of events, but are also in the process of working on creating an iphone app. and quarterly lunch-ins. In order to broaden their audience and to maximize their efforts in current projects Sustain Utah is collaborating with USEE on their newly developed volunteer program. They also want to show their appreciation and support of the hard-working environmental organizations by creating ways to give back to these various groups. Sustain Utah is a relatively new organization yet, they have been successful in connecting with a large number of environmental groups and nonprofits. They have demonstrated great support of these groups by providing them with community outreach resources such as the calendar or supplying Cliff bars for nonprofits to give away at their events. From connecting with institutions such as Tracy Aviary to groups like Slow Food Utah, they seem to be everywhere. As I mentioned before, whoever said “you can’t be in two places at once” was definitely not talking about Sustain Utah.

To learn more about Sustain Utah visit: www.sustainutah.org

Spooky Plants: Elephant's Trunks, Pitcher Plants, and Corpse Flowers

This week’s Halloween theme is Ugly Plant Life. We’ve all seen something out in nature that just isn’t aesthetically pleasing, and quite possibly a little frightening. Here are 3 of the creepiest, ugliest and down right odd plants that we could find.

Elephant’s Trunk (Pachypodium namaquanum)

This plant can be found on the Northern Cape of Namibia. It has a thick trunk which is tightly covered in spikes. During the winter months there is a “crown” of leaves, and surprisingly, this pokey plant has velvet-like flowers that appear August to October.

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Albany Pitcher Plant (Cephalotus follicularis)

This plant is found in the swamps of southwestern Australia. The “body” of the plant is shaped like a pitcher and filled with liquid, with a red or purple “mouth” and tiny teeth on the pitcher lid. The lid opens and closes, trapping insects inside. Little Shop of Horrors, anyone?

(photo credit)

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Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanium)

This is one flower you don’t want to stop and smell. The corpse flower can live for 40 years, blooming only once every four to six years. Known as the world’s tallest plant at 5ft high and 4ft wide, this flower is anything but pretty. The corpse flower’s three-day bloom smells of rotting flesh and attracts beetles for pollination.

(photo credit)

In Kansas, Climate Skeptics Embrace Cleaner Energy

October 18, 2010

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

SALINA, Kan. — Residents of this deeply conservative city do not put much stock in scientific predictions of climate change.

“Don’t mention global warming,” warned Nancy Jackson, chairwoman of the Climate and Energy Project, a small nonprofit group that aims to get people to rein in the fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change. “And don’t mention Al Gore. People out here just hate him.”

Saving energy, though, is another matter.

Last Halloween, schoolchildren here searched for “vampire” electric loads, or appliances that sap energy even when they seem to be off. Energy-efficient LED lights twinkled on the town’s Christmas tree. On Valentine’s Day, local restaurants left their dining room lights off and served meals by candlelight.

The fever for reducing dependence on fossil fuels has spread beyond this city of red-brick Eisenhower-era buildings to other towns on the Kansas plains. A Lutheran church in nearby Lindsborg was inspired to install geothermal heating. The principal of Mount Hope’s elementary school dressed up as an energy bandit at a student assembly on home-energy conservation. Hutchinson won a contract to become home to a $50 million wind turbine factory.

Town managers attribute the new resolve mostly to a yearlong competition sponsored by the Climate and Energy Project, which set out to extricate energy issues from the charged arena of climate politics.

Attempts by the Obama administration to regulate greenhouse gases are highly unpopular here because of opposition to large-scale government intervention. Some are skeptical that humans might fundamentally alter a world that was created by God.

If the heartland is to seriously reduce its dependence on coal and oil, Ms. Jackson and others decided, the issues must be separated. So the project ran an experiment to see if by focusing on thrift, patriotism, spiritual conviction and economic prosperity, it could rally residents of six Kansas towns to take meaningful steps to conserve energy and consider renewable fuels.

Think of it as a green variation on “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” Ms. Jackson suggested, referring to the 2004 book by Thomas Frank that contended that Republicans had come to dominate the state’s elections by exploiting social values.

The project’s strategy seems to have worked. In the course of the program, which ended last spring, energy use in the towns declined as much as 5 percent relative to other areas — a giant step in the world of energy conservation, where a program that yields a 1.5 percent decline is considered successful.

The towns were featured as a case study on changing behavior by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. And the Climate and Energy Project just received a grant from the Kansas Energy Office to coordinate a competition among 16 Kansas cities to cut energy use in 2011.

The energy experiment started as a kitchen-table challenge three years ago.

Over dinner, Wes Jackson, the president of the Land Institute, which promotes environmentally sustainable agriculture, complained to Ms. Jackson, his daughter-in-law, that even though many local farmers would suffer from climate change, few believed that it was happening or were willing to take steps to avoid it.

Why did the conversation have to be about climate change? Ms. Jackson countered. If the goal was to persuade people to reduce their use of fossil fuels, why not identify issues that motivated them instead of getting stuck on something that did not?

Only 48 percent of people in the Midwest agree with the statement that there is “solid evidence that the average temperature on earth has been getting warmer,” a poll conducted in the fall of 2009 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed — far fewer than in other regions of the country.

The Jacksons already knew firsthand that such skepticism was not just broad, but also deep. Like opposition to abortion or affirmations of religious faith, they felt, it was becoming a cultural marker that helped some Kansans define themselves.

Nevertheless, Ms. Jackson felt so strongly that this opposition could be overcome that she left a job as development director at the University of Kansas in Lawrence to start the Climate and Energy Project with a one-time grant from the Land Institute. (The project is now independent.)

At the outset she commissioned focus groups of independents and Republicans around Wichita and Kansas City to get a sense of where they stood. Many participants suggested that global warming could be explained mostly by natural earth cycles, and a vocal minority even asserted that it was a cynical hoax perpetrated by climate scientists who were greedy for grants.

Yet Ms. Jackson found plenty of openings. Many lamented the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. Some articulated an amorphous desire, often based in religious values, to protect the earth. Some even spoke of changes in the natural world — birds arriving weeks earlier in the spring than they had before — leading her to wonder whether, deep down, they might suspect that climate change was afoot.

Ms. Jackson settled on a three-pronged strategy. Invoking the notion of thrift, she set out to persuade towns to compete with one another to become more energy-efficient. She worked with civic leaders to embrace green jobs as a way of shoring up or rescuing their communities. And she spoke with local ministers about “creation care,” the obligation of Christians to act as stewards of the world that God gave them, even creating a sermon bank with talking points they could download.

Relatively little was said about climate.

“I don’t recall us being recruited under a climate change label at all,” said Stacy Huff, an executive for the Coronado Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which was enlisted to help the project. Mr. Huff describes himself as “somewhat skeptical” about global warming.

Mr. Huff said the project workers emphasized conservation for future generations when they recruited his group. The message resonated, and the scouts went door to door in low-income neighborhoods to deliver and install weatherization kits.

“It is in our DNA to leave a place better than we found it,” he said.

Elliot Lahn, a community development planner for Merriam, a city that reduced its energy use by 5 percent, said that when public meetings were held on the six-town competition to save energy, some residents offered their view that global warming was a hoax.

But they were very eager to hear about saving money, Mr. Lahn said. “That’s what really motivated them.”

Jerry Clasen, a grain farmer in Reno County, south of Salina, said he largely discounted global warming. “I believe we are going through a cycle and it is not a big deal,” he said. But his ears pricked up when project workers came to town to talk about harnessing wind power. “There is no sense in our dependency on foreign oil,” he said, “especially since we have got this resource here.”

Mr. Clasen helped organize a group of local leaders to lobby the electronics and energy giant Siemens to build a wind turbine factory in the area. When the company signed a deal in 2009 promising to create as many as 400 local jobs, it stirred a wave of excitement about the future of wind power.

Now, farmers expect to lease some of their land for turbines and rely on wind power as a stable source of income, he said, and land prices are rising as result.

“Whether or not the earth is getting warmer,” he said, “it feels good to be part of something that works for Kansas and for the nation.”

Blog Action Day: Breaking the Bottle Habit

Enjoy the following post by Amanda Nelson, one of USEE's talented interns!

(Photo Credit)

I recently came across Blog Action Day, an annual event where blogs across the globe join together to blog about an important world issue. This year’s theme is WATER.

I really wanted to write this blog today because I’ve only recently opened my eyes to the world outside my own. I went to the Brad Paisley concert in September and his tour was all about water, fittingly called the H2O Tour. There was a video playing about people who need water all over the world and you could help by texting and donating money. I was amazed at the facts and sent a text in right away. A few weeks later I started looking more into the water shortage around the world, and stumbled across Blog Action Day.

When deciding on what to write about, I came across a topic that impacted me personally more than the others, a topic that most can relate to.

Water bottles. How many of these do you go through in a week? How about a month? Even a year? You’d be surprised that the average person drinks 200 bottles per year as reported by TriplePundit. At first I brushed this statistic off, but then I really started thinking about it and I’m sure it’s possible. I buy a 20 pack of bottled water about 3 times a year, then random stops at the gas station, not to mention when trying to choose a healthier option when eating out. Now, what happens to these bottles when I’m finished? I throw them away, and not usually in a recycle bin.

Annie Leonard has put together a new short film, “The Story of Bottled Water”, that exposes the bottled water industry and their lure of having us consume bottles of water from snow-capped mountains or exotic lands. These bottles take 17 million barrels of oil to produce as reported by Food and Water Watch and 86 percent are NOT recycled.

Watch this informative video and go buy a reusable water bottle. It’s a small step but it will have big impact.

Get involved in Blog Action Day.

More facts about Water.

Annie Leonard’s “The Story of Stuff”

Bone-Chilling and Mysterious Weather

As promised, this week we bring you “bone-chilling, thrilling weather disasters!!”

The Bermuda Triangle.
Has anyone ever come out?

We’ve all heard about this mystic and mysterious corner in the North Atlantic Ocean, but is there a scientific explanation for the unusual events that occur in the Bermuda Triangle?

Christopher Columbus recorded the first unusual event to occur in the Bermuda Triangle area when he wrote about his compass acting bizarre. In fact, the Bermuda Triangle is one of two places on earth where magnetic compasses do not point north. This could be one reason that so many ships and airplanes get disoriented and "disappear" in this area of the Atlantic.

Some say that in the twentieth century the Bermuda Triangle claimed more than 1,000 lives. Countless ships and airplanes have disappeared in or above this area never to be seen or heard from again. This phenomena has only added to the Bermuda Triangle myths of monsters, giant-squid, aliens, time warps, and even portals to the lost continent of Atlantis.

There could be an explanation for the disappearance of these boats and planes. Unpredictable weather can create short-lived but sever storms, and swift ocean currents and deep marine trenches effectively hide all evidence or debris of these storms.

While there is some scientific evidence to explain this phenomena, many still believe there is something unexplainable and unknown in the Bermuda Triangle. Regardless of whether or not you believe that this corner of the ocean contains aliens or time warps, is pretty amazing and mysterious.

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Tornadoes
Can a tornado really send you to the Land of Oz?

Often called “nature’s most violent storm” a tornado begins with a thunderstorm and advances into a circular, fast moving column of air extending from the clouds to the ground. These air filled funnels can move with tremendous speed of 250 mph or more! That’s faster than a NASCAR driver, but probably not enough to take you to the yellow brick road.

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Ice Storms
Here is the bone-chilling part.

Ice storms are created when ground temperature is below freezing (32 F), above ground is close to freezing, and when frozen rain/hail covers the region. Ice storms occur in areas with no snow, though it can occur in areas with snow.

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Tune in next week!

5 “Scary” Insects and Animals (Part 2)

Believe it or not lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) are not the “scariest” animals on earth. Here are 3 more animals that give lions, tigers and bears something to fear.

Vampire Bats (Desmodus rotundus)

Late at night these bats emerge from abandoned buildings, dark caves, hollowed trees and mines found in Central and South America. These bats received their name because they do need blood to survive; but don’t worry, these bats won’t be eying your neck for their next meal. Vampire bats make a small cut with their teeth into cows, pigs, horses and birds and lap at the free flowing blood. In other words, they only snack on other animals.

Another reason these bats are unique: they can walk, run and jump. And they are surprisingly friendly to humans.

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Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)

These fuzzy, gremlin-looking creatures are from Madagascar and are classified as primates. These primates have bony, witch-like fingers that they use to pick insects and food from tree trunks and branches.

Madagascar superstition believes that if an Aye-aye points their middle finger at you it’s a death sentence, so you’d best not cut one off in rush hour traffic.

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Blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus)

Remember the movie Monsters vs. Aliens? How about the blue blob Bob? Turns out there really is an animal that is a blob, well a blobfish. Blobfish live deep in the waters of Australia and Tasmania. These fish are primarily a gelatinous mass that is barley denser then water.

Blobfish will eat any edible matter as it floats by. Do you think they can smile?

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Stay tuned for next week’s “spooky” weather phenomenon!

Maryland sets requirements for comprehensive environmental education

By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 22, 2010; 7:30 PM

Students in Maryland will go through a comprehensive environmental education program from the moment that they enter pre-kindergarten until the day they graduate high school, under new regulations approved by the Maryland State Board of Education.

The move comes as environmental issues take ever-greater prominence, in school and in society, and state education officials said that they want to give environmental topics extra attention. In addition to studying issues in the classroom, students will be expected to create and implement a local project that "protects, sustains, or enhances the natural environment."

But officials at both the state and local levels said Wednesday that they did not expect the new requirements to fundamentally transform how the subject is taught. Most school systems cover most of the issues in their classes, and the requirements are designed to formalize the expectation that the issues be addressed, state school officials said.

"We made a big step in saying it must be in the curriculum, that every student must have that exposure prior to graduation," said State Superintendent of Education Nancy S. Grasmick. "Let's weave it through the curriculum and bring it to a younger age."

No special class devoted entirely to the environment will be required, nor will the topics be on statewide standardized tests.

Students will have to learn about ecosystems, natural resources and health, examining "how their personal and collective actions affect the sustainability" of ecological, economic, political and social systems.

They also will analyze "positive and negative impacts of human activities on earth's natural systems and resources."

In Montgomery County, school officials praised the change.

"This infuses more of an importance into the whole subject," said Laurie Jenkins, supervisor of outdoor and environmental education programs for Montgomery schools. "We're trying to create environmentally literate students."

Students in Montgomery already do service projects such as testing water quality, planting native species and making mulch, but Jenkins said that they could do more, especially at the earliest ages.

In Virginia, environmental education is found throughout the curriculum, but no central list of requirements exists, said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education. Students learn about the Chesapeake Bay watershed in classes.

Nationwide, there has been a push to include more environmental issues inside the classroom - and even an attempt to make the classrooms greener. Environmentally friendly school buildings are being built across the country, including several in the Washington area. And an initiative called No Child Left Inside, which would provide federal funding to get students out of the classroom and into the environment, has been proposed as part of the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Scary Insects and Animals (Part 1)

October is here and you know what that means: Halloween, candy, scary costumes, haunted houses, creepy-crawlers and more. For the month of October we thought it would be fun to explore a different scary insect/animal, plant, weather, and environment/green living for each week. We’re excited to learn and share something scary and new each week.

Are you ready? Here we go.

The Army/Soldier Ant (Eciton burchelli)

From South America the army ant is a small but deadly predator. With colonies ranging from 300,000 to 700,000 these ants can grow to reach a half-inch in length. They have massive, strong and knife-like jaws half their own length! Holy cow! For food instead of hunting using scouts or searching individually, these ants travel in gigantic armies. My favorite feature about these ants, they are BLIND!

(Photo Credit)

(Photo Credit)

The Horned Baboon Spider (Ceratogyrus)

These spiders are in the tarantula family and live primarily in South Africa (thank goodness). Horned and fuzzy, these eight-legged creatures grow to an astonishingly legspan of 5 inches! That’s bigger then a cell phone. These spiders get their name from the horn or plug projecting from their carapace (torso). 6 mm fangs that have an orange and black coloration, 8 eyes in a cluster on the top of their carapace make these horned baboon spiders creepy and crawly.

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Check back for 3 more scary animals. And be sure to stay tuned ALL month long for more spooky posts!