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The trash problem is literally out of this world

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Carter Henry It’s no secret that humans are a little bit irresponsible when it comes to disposing trash. So it’s no wonder that we have been getting increasingly more creative on how we deal with waste. You can find trash on streets, in houses, landfills and oceans. But I bet you never expected that you can find it in space too. So lets first take a good look at when this all started. I’m going to take you back to the year 1970, at the height of the Cold War and the space race. At this time Russia and the United States are both doing everything they can to get into space and get on the moon. What we do know, is that we did succeed in doing it. What you weren’t told is how many times we shot a satellite into space and got it stuck there. Here’s a rough sketch to give you an idea of how bad it is: Space trash isn’t bags of trash floating around space. There’s no banana peals and diapers in orbit right now. Instead, there’s literally thousands of broken satellites, pieces of rocke...
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Noise Pollution: Time To Turn The Volume Down?

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Afreen Fatima A growing concern in today’s society is the pollution of noise. It crept upon us ever so silently while being loud. Noise-- some may take it as a joke. A pollution of noise? Many may have not even pondered about this, and they might say its absolute nonsense. How is something so ingrained as a part of just our lives causing problems? Noise pollution can happen by a number of different sources, for example, cars, motorcycles, planes, construction, ships, lawn mowers, and leaf blowers. The list is really endless. Generally activities between 60-80 dBA are considered safe if done for less than 12 hours. In regards to human health, exposure to excess noises has been linked to heart disease, type two diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. How does this happen? Loud noises may trigger the sympathetic nervous system and cause a release of stress hormones. The frequent release of these hormones may lead to the development of these problems. Children exposed t...
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What Goes Up, Must Come Down

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By: Chaeryn Yoon Balloons are something that are never missed out on birthday parties and special occasions. A few days ago, I saw a little kid let a balloon accidentally slip out of his hands into the air and it made me wonder, where will that go? We all seen a balloon fly off into the air. But to be honest, most people, myself included, do not think too much about where those balloons will go or what kinds of impact it will have on the environment. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it piles up to be one. People don't consider releasing balloons in the air to be littering, but it is, and they normally end up in oceans and beaches. Balloons are made out of different types of plastic, like rubber and polyester. And, we all know that plastic aren't biodegradable and are harmful to the environment, but a life without it is hard to imagine. Balloons pose serious threats to the environment and the animals. Different animals have been feeding on these colorful pieces...
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The Dangers of Nuclear Radiation

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Bogdahn Vasyutynskyy To many people around America, the events of nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl stand just as a historical event, but they do not think about how devastating the aftermath of Chernobyl was. During the events of the Chernobyl accident, my mother was in a close one hundred mile radius in Kiev, Ukraine. The government had repressed word of Chernobyl until around May 5th, and every single child was being hustled out of Kiev and sent onto trains to other towns. Every building in Kiev was being hosed down and washed to combat any type of radiation. My uncle during this time was in the army and had been tasked with the mission of cleaning up areas around Chernobyl. To combat tragic events like this ever happening again, the populace should first be informed of how dangerous nuclear radiation can be. Chernobyl was the first event in human history in which people had died from radiation related issues. How it had happened was due to poor management by the hands of t...
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No More Nemo?

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By: Akhila Srinivas A lot of you may think that carbon pollution ONLY warms the climate—wrong. Carbon pollution is a MAJOR player in acidifying our Earth’s oceans right as we speak. So what even is ocean acidification? Is the ocean lowering in pH? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. Our oceans absorb almost 1/4 of the carbon dioxide that is emitted into our atmosphere. Every day, this is around 22 million tons of carbon dioxide from factories, power plants, cars, and other anthropogenic sources. The oceans are in serious trouble. But why does this matter in the long run? Ocean acidification causes harm to creatures with calcium carbonate in their shells or skeletons, making it difficult for creatures like mollusks, crabs, and corals to survive. An acidic ocean robs seawater of the compounds these creatures need to build their shells and skeletons, impairing their growth. In addition, increased acidity makes it extremely difficult for clownfish (aka Nemo) to sense predators and f...
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Poaching: Not Just a Way To Cook Stuff

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Poaching: Not Just a Way to Cook Stuff By: Jacob Spalding How many of you would do something illegal for money at the expense of someone or something else? Hopefully none of you would do something like this but alas, there are people that do things like this all the time. One of these actions is poaching. Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. There are plant and animal poaching but for this particular post, I’m going to focus on animal poaching. The main motive for animal poaching is commercial gain and/or trophies. For instance, a rhino horn can cost around $60,000 per kilogram and elephant ivory can cost around $2,142 per kilogram. Clearly this is tons of money in poaching and it makes since that people would try to gain monetarily from this illegal trade. $70-213 billion dollars a year are gained from this illegal wildlife trade. Rhinos and elephants horns and tusks are cut off and the animal is left for dea...
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Turning Trash Into Treasure

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Benny Son Imagine living next to a landfill, smelling and getting frustrated by the gaseous chemical emitted by the wastes. There are so many landfills that are continuously increasing in size, affecting the standard of living for numerous residents. Have you ever been to Carrollton Texas where you experienced that weird and funky smell? Yeah.. that's from the landfills. However, thankfully, there are some countries who have figured out the way to utilize the landfills and make a complete turnaround. South Korea is a great example of it. In South Korea, Seoul, there is a renowned park called, Hanuel Park, that plays a significant role in providing comfort and joy to the Korean citizens. It allows visitors to experience and communicate with nature as it is heavily packed with plants. Would you be surprised if this beautiful park was, in the past, just another pile of trash? In the earlier time, Nanjido used to be a place where nature was preserved, however, in March 197...
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