A Salty Subject

More and more environmental groups are making noise about the devastating impact winter salting has on the environment which is raising awareness and forcing lawmakers to look at alternative solutions.  In Canada alone, the country applies five million tonnes (over 110 billion pounds) of salt during an average winter.  This salt contaminates ground and freshwater, degrades habitat, alters aquatic ecosystems and causes corrodes critical infrastructure such as water pipes.

The massive increase to the salt content of soil located next to roads affects roadside vegetation; often killing the vegetation and impeding its ability to grow back.  Unfortunately, many invasive plants are well-adapted to high levels of salt, leading to a greater potential for invasive species to take over and spread along roadside communities. Researchers in Massachusetts found that road salt use directly aided the spread of invasive phragmites along the Kampoosa Bog in Stockbridge. 

Many wild animals such as moose, deer, cattle, woodchucks, squirrels and mountain goats require essential elements such as sodium in the springtime for bone, muscle and other growth.  Salt deposits exacerbate roadside collisions as the wild salt-seekers are drawn from miles away to lick the mass salt deposits left near highways and roads during the spring.

People living in snowy climates are well away of the devastating effects salt has on their vehicles, perhaps not on what can occur within their own bodies.  Excess salt can contaminate ground and freshwater; water that we drink and use to prepare food.  Not all the salt can be filtered out of the water and can pose health risks to those who require sodium-reduced diets or those with hypertension.

High levels of chloride in water can corrode plumbing and leach harmful metals into drinking water, posing health risks, particularly for people using well water. Corroded water pipes lead to breaks which can cause disruption in service and even flooding.  Not to mention that the elevated chloride levels can also corrode appliances using water such as dishwashers and washing machines.

Sustainable alternatives are being implemented in both Canada and the United States.  Many Canadian municipalities are using a more environmentally friendly de-icing agents such as a mixture of beet juice and salt.  Beet juice works in the same was as road salt, but the beet juice stays on the road longer, so it is not only effective, but requires fewer applications.  In Wisconsin, cheese brine; an industrial byproduct from the dairy industry that is normally dumped as waste, is being combined with salt to create a unique deicer.

More and more people are experimenting with sustainable salt solutions and hopefully in the near future less salt will be used.

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Can a Plant Fight Climate Change & Reduce Fertilizer Use?

The Azolla filiculoides fern— with leaves the size of gnats, is considered a wonder-plant that played a pivotal role in cooling our planet 50 million years ago. Among its many properties, the Azolla can capture CO2 and nitrogen from the air and has genes that provide insect resistance.

Some 50 million years ago, however, the planet was a much hotter place and Azolla grew as far north as the Arctic Ocean. Fossil records show that, fueled by abundant nitrogen and carbon dioxide, the fern formed thick mats across the entire ocean and crept onto the surrounding continents. Over the course of 1 million years, the plant pulled an estimated tens of trillions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, which scientists believe helped cool the planet to a climate more similar to what Earth has today.

Azolla filiculoides is a water fern and has been used as "green manure" in rice paddies in Asia for well over 1,000 years because of its symbiotic relationship with the cyanobacteria Nostoc azollae. The fern and the bacteria work together to capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into something the fern and other surrounded plants can use. This eliminates the need for nitrogen-added fertilizers.
Scientists are hopeful that they will be able to use genomes from the natural bio fertilizer of the plant to help lead to future sustainable agricultural practices.

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Billboard Produces Drinkable Water Out of Thin Air

What would a great ad for a university of technology be? An ad, that itself, solves a problem through technology. This is exactly what the University of Engineering and Technology of Peru and their ad agency have done.  They created the first billboard in the world to make drinking water out of thin air and alleviate the lives of Peru's people.

Trying to inspire young people to pursue careers in engineering, the university and ad teams decided to show how technology can be used to solve local problems. One such problem in Lima is the lack of running water. Due to the extremely dry climate with an annual precipitation of less than 1 inch, most people draw water from wells that are often polluted. On the other hand, the atmospheric humidity in Lima approximates 83%.

A study shows that the Andean glaciers, which provide fresh water for the residents of Peru, among other countries, have shrunk between 30 and 50 percent since the 1970s. As water supplies dwindle amid climate change, growing populations and food insecurity issues innovative solutions must be developed.

The panel consists of five machines which convert humidity into water through use of air and carbon filters and a condenser.  This reverse osmosis, a water purifying process then stores the water in five tanks located at the top of the structure. The filtered water flows into a pipe at the bottom of the billboard, supplying the neighboring community with clean water. In the three months since it was first installed, the billboard has produced 2,496 gallons of water.

Hopefully enrollment has increased at the University.

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