trCOLOqy'l,lftrK

OLtrT'{'E SOU'TY{
 Volume I

Quinn, Timothy, ed.

Gaia
Copyright 1990

Acknowledgments
Case, Steve. Thanks for the creation of Ecology Week, which gives an
avenue for our students to write their concems and opinions on the
topic of ecology.
Endecott, Kay. Thanks for her typing many of these articles on
WordPerfect.
Finn, David. Thanks for his help in setting up the format for these
articles on WordPerfect.

This publication is named after the ancient goddess of the Earth, Gaia.
She came into being after Chaos, and brought forth of herself the sky, the
mountains, and the sea. Gaia was especially honoured as the mother of all
earth, who nourished her creatures and poured blessings upon them.
A culrent scientific hypothesis is called the Gaia Hypothesis. This holds
that organisms, especially microorganisms, have evolved with the physical
environment to provide an intricate control system that keeps earth's
conditions favorable for life (Lovelock, 1,979). Mankind must strive to reduce
his pollution of the earth in order to preserve the integrity of this life support
system.
It is the editor's and authors' profoundest hope that this publication might
inspire all those who read its contents to treat the world and its inhabitants
with greater respect and undentanding. Our concern for this rich home of
ours has become a global concern, and it is hoped that we can all do our part
to help this worthy cause and keep mother earth alive.
Editor
 Table of Contents

Air Pollution: What Can We Do? page 1

by Jeff Eidemiller

The Choice is Ours page 2

by Barzin Khalili

The Soil is Turned page 3

by Donald W. Chaffer

Trash Pileup page 4

by Dan Zemmerick

Global Warming page 5

by Howard Lynch

Being Aware of the Material We Use page 6

by Chris Eppler

Too Much Trash page 7

by Trina Baumcher

Soil Erosion page 7

by Chad Lynn

Mary's Olathe page 8

by Elizabeth Michael and Brenda Sheffer

Forests Under Siege page 9

by Ryan Seager

Anywhere U.S.A. page 11

by Quincy Brown

The Ocean page 12

by Stasi Dishman

Recycle ...pageI2
by Bryan Morgan

NightWeaver ....pagel3
by Timothy Quinn
 AIR POLLUTION: WHAT CAN WE DO?
by Jeff Eidemiller
When I start up my car every momrng before
school, gray smoke porus out of the tailpipe, tuming
part of ttre driveway black. It's easy ro walk pasr rhese
spots on the ground, but what do we do when our lungs
start to look like our driveways? We have become part
of a vicious cucle of selfdestruction. Due to our
lifestyles, air pollution has become a very real threar to
our lives.
Many of us are concerned with the impact that
righter pollution restrictions will have on the security of
oru nation. It seems that American car-manufacrurers
might be hard-hit by laws conceming the amount of
pollutants allowed to be emitted by vehicles. This
siruation could lead to foreign control of our market.
Our industries which depend on "dirry" fossil fuels will
also be hurt by any legislation which causes them to
clean up. Many of our "solutions" may turn out to be
dangerous because they are still untested. These are all
sensible arguments.
Other arguments involve more personal
concerns. Any successful clean-up operation will have
its costs. Gasoline will need ro be improved, resuhing
in higher prices. Similarly, improving automobile
efficiency will mean higher car prices and possibly
smailer cars; mid-sized cars and station wagons will be
highly priced so that large families who need them may
not be able to afford them. Luxriry cars will be
available only to the extreme elire. Trucks will be
removed from the streets as much as possible. Older
cars will be forced to meet specifications or else be
removed from the streets. ln industry, power plans
will be resporsible for the cleaning of their coal.
Homeowners are bound !o face higher uriliry bills in
order to support changes. These are serious concems as
well.
We need to be aware of certain substances,
such as chloro-fluorocarbons, hydrocarbons, nitrogen
oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. These
are all emitted" in one way or another, by our
automobiles, and all can be extremely hazardous to our
health. The protection that we refus€ ro pay for wi*r
orrr money will evenrually be paid for in human lives,
if not our own, then those of our posterity. Steve Case,
an Olathe South t€acher who is active in many
environmental issues, had impressions of his own on
our escalating pollution problems: "It's a lot harder to
put a forest fire out than !o prevent one," he
commerlted.
Where government action is concerned, he
stresses caution, however. 'There are potentials," he
said" "but there are problems to be solved with all of
the alternatives. We need to make sure that when we
look at altematives, we're not looking at something
worse." In these touchy situations, research is necessary
before untested solutions are mandated.
Too many of the altematives which the
govemment proposes involve dangerous risks. Methanol
is a proposed replacement for gasoline. Unfortunately,
methanol gives off formaidehyde, which might increase
the greenhouse effect even more than the carbon
dioxide emitted by our cars today. Nuclear energy, at
one time ttrought to be the ultimate solution to our
industrial pollution problems, gives off toxic waste thal
we can't dispose of. Solar power is still thought to be
the wave of the future, seemingly clean, but to create
the solar cells requires the use of highly toxic, cancer-
causing chemicals. Running cars on elecuicity seems a
good solution, but only if you want to let your car
recharge all day after an hour of driving.
We look to the Environmental Protection
Agency for help, but their hands are tied. As Mr. Case
explained it, "Regulatory agencies like the EPA need m
be a little more independent of the politics because, if
these standards are set by what industry thinks they can
meet, *ley may or may not be environmentally sound."
For too many years, we have taken a free
ride, with the environment paying the price; those days
are over. "People have to pay lhe real cost of the
resources rhey're using," confirmed Mr. Case' "and one
of those real costs is pollution: right now we don't pay
for that." With the !ime, resowces, and effort involved
in ttre production of gasoline. and considering the
damage that it is causing, it's a wonder that we can
buy it for such a cheap price. If we were charged for
its true cost, driving would be thought of mote as a
luxury than a right.
Those who are concerned about America in
the world market need not be. Resrrictions on car
emissions will convince people that American producs
are worthwhile. Any standards that we set will have to
be met by foreign corporations as well as domestic.
Any experiments inlo altemative power sources will
teduce our crippling dependency on pefoleum products
imported from the Arab nations, strengthenmg our
economy even more.
[n our automobile market, a move to small
cars would be a wise move. Besides Just being
efficient, smaller cars have become more and more
popular every year. That fact makes our transilion an
e:rsy one.
We must all live in this world; therefore, it is
ou dury to make this world a better place to live. It
will be a sacrifice, most things worth working for are.
We may never see the results of our efforts; however,
our children, or maybe our grandchildren, will enjoy
greater prosperity and cleaner lives. When talking
about the things ordinary people can do, Mr. Case had
said" "We need to have a goal. We need to have a
directions !o go." There can be no better goal than a
healthy furure for ourselves and for the generations to
come. We must do as we feel to be right, whether
that means buying cleaner gasoline, using more fuel-
efficient cars, or trying not to drive more than
necessary. We must ali take ow own action in a
problem more important than any other, the lives of all
creatures on earth. The steering wheel is in yow hands
-- it is up to you to travel the proper road.
*4U4
 THE CHOICE IS OURS
by Bazin Khalili
It is hard to believe that the fate of human
existeace is dependent upon a layer in the stratosphere
that is less than a few millimeters thick. But it is. and
this precious world of ours could be dercrioraring right
undemeath our noses, or actually above our noses. The
gas ls ozone, and tre problem is depletion. Is the
ozone layer acruaily being destroyed or is ir just
thinning out? Is it everr a problem? Whatever the
scenario, we hold the tate of man in our aerosol cans
and fteon containers. It's our decision.
Ozone was discovered in 1840 by a German
chemist by the name of Christian Friedrich Schonbein.
Technically, it was detected in 1785, when a person by
the name of M. van Marum noted an odol near some
electrical machines, but Marum did not wish to
investigate further. It was clearly Schonbein who
recognized it was a new gas, and it was he who named
the air form ozone. It is a word derived from the
Greek ozein, which means "to smell."
Ozone is designared by the slrnbot 0,. In rhe
form of a liquid, ozone is dark blue and extemely
explosive. The gas gives off a pale blue color when it
is in the form of a concentrated gas. This pale blue
gas has a molecular weight of 47.98 and a specific
gravity of 1.658. At atmospheric pressrue, ozone gas
turns !o a liquid ar -111.9'C. On the orher hand, it
freezes at -193t.
The main reason for having the ozone layer m
the sratosphere is for protection. Steve Case, student
naturalist professor at Olathe Sourh High School, is well
versed on *ris topic. [n regard to the srm's radiation,
Steve Case states, "The sun Duts out a lot of
wavelengths of energy and some oi *rose are harmful to
protoplasm, like ulrra-violet lighr. Ozone filrers ir out
by bouncing the U.V. Iight off and converring it ro 0,
for the most part." Wirhout this layer life could not be
sustained on Earth, for rhe U.V. rays would be allowed
to enter the armosphere and kill the world's vegerarion.
Skin cancer cases would rise to epidemic proportions if
it were not for ozone.
To get an idea of ir srength, consider the
ratio of air molecules to that of ozone. There are one
million molecules of air to every *ree ozone molecules.
Even with this ratio, ozone suil succeeds in reflecting
997o of the U.V. rays rying !o enrer the Earth's
atmosphere.
The chemical process by which ozone ls
destroyed is not complicated ar all. Ozone is a
molecule which is made of three oxygen atoms, the
third of which is loosely attached. It is quite unstable
and the third oxygen atom ter:lds to react wittr
something. "Well. we send up all these light weight
particles, fluorocarbons, exhaust from Concord jets;
whatever, and we provide particies for the O, to collide
with. Thus, it b'reaks down to O, and the third oxygen
usually goes off with the foreign marerial or particle."
Many people believe *rat the propellanrs in
aerosol cans are the major problem to the depleting
ozone, fluorocarbons in general. However Steve Case
says that these propellants are minor contributors to the
2
ozone problem. "The biggest problern now is
refrigeration (freon). As people change out their
refrigerators, the freon goes up and does lhe same
things as the fluorocarbons." Companies are coming
out with refrigerators that use freon subsdrutes. The
only problem is that *rey can not be implemented in
old refrigerators, so the old ones must b€ thlown awav
and we are faced with ttre same problem.
Ozone is not only destroyed, but ir is
produced also. Minute :unounts of the gas are created
with each and every lightning strike, automobiles even
produce some 0,. But as Steve Case explains, there is
a problem. "We tend to produce it in piaces we don't
need it. and then as it breaks down it can have some
harmful side effects." When asked if the holes could
actually fill themselves up Mr. Case replied, "Not with
cwrent technology, there's no way to get it up there.
It's got to be in that upper stratosphere or it's not going
to do any good." But in some cases small holes have
been able to fill themselves up.
When the news of the hole over Antarctica
was first heard, there was panic and hysteria across the
globe. Would this be the end of human existence?
Since then, there has not Lreen much word or anxiery
over the issue. [n fact, a hole in the layer was reported
over Norway, but in a short period of time it filled
itself up. It has not since been mentioned again.
Nature apparently cleaned up after us.
What about tire hole over Artarctica? Steve
Case seems to think that it is not a major problem. He
went on to say that "The hole over Antarctica is
seasonai, there's not a constant hole. It closes up
seasonally." So is it a problem, or has *ris issue been
blown totally out of proportion? Mr. Case suddenly
erected himself from his reclined position and spoke
with an air of excitement. "If there's no ozone, it rs a
major problem...If ozone is thinning and if this hole is a
result of ozone thinning, then there's going to be a
problem. We've got snrff that's going up and that will
be going up to break down ozone for the next 25 years,
even if we stopped everything today." Mr. Case once
again leaned back in his chair, carefully placed his feet
on the cluttered desk, and spoke in a father-son manner.
He looked up toward the sky as he wamed, "We need
to slart reacting now hcause if we wait for the
research to come in, it may be too late."
The federal government has surted with steps
in the right direction. h 1978, our government barmed
the use of fluorocarbons in aerosol cans. But that is
only a small step forward. There is still so much that
can be done so as to assure a safe world for our
erandchildren. The choice is ours.
####
 THE SOIL IS TURNED
by Donaid W. Chaffer
At fie ripe old age of seventeen, I sometimes
consider myself wise. I suppose "wise" is a big word
for seventeen-year-old to be throwing arourd, but I that he had lived on a farm in west Olathe since he
often look back on my experiences, and I *rink, Yeah.
Sure. I'm wise...until perhaps last week; lasr week I
met Harry Zimmermaq a truly wise eighry-six-year-old
retired farmer.
About three weeks ago, my leacher told me
about an idea that a colleague of hers had of purrrng
togethera collection of writings on "the land" of
Olathe. A few of these writings were to be social
histories, accounts of the changes in the land given by
long time Olathe citizers. She had the names of some
long-time citizers of the tol.n, and wondered if I would
like to interview one of them, and see what I could
find out. After not much thought, I agreed.
I had moved to Olathe in the summer before
my eighth grade year. My father was a member of rhe
Air Force, and by the second grade, I had lived in five
different homes across the world: Canada, Florida,
Turkey, Germany, and Saint Charles, Missouri. He
retked in 1979 in Germany, and our move to Missouri
was his lust civilian job in twenty-one years. It also
proved to be the first long term geographical srabiliry I
had known. We lived rhere for six years, and I
considered St. Charles my home[own. When the news
came *rat we were moving to Olathe, Kansas, I tried to
take it optimistically. I'm used ro moving. It's fun.
It's a great chance to meet new and exciting people, to
forage into new frontiers, I told myself. Olathe became
my goal. I was to move there, and conquer. I would
carve a place for myself in ttre annals of eighrh grade
Olathean history.
When the actual move came however, after
having much trouble making friends, I quickly leamed
to hate the town. What does Olattre have...for
anyone?l? I thought indignantly. Slowly my indignation
cooied, but upon my receiving an offer to recounr
Olathe history, I still found myself subconsciously
disinterested. Olathe was not much of anything, I
thought. Maybe someone knew its farmland intimately
once, but now it's all just a bunch of nice houses
crowded into suMivisions with enough room left for
develope,s and businesses to remain interested.
The time came and, after winding my way
I
through nursing home's receptionists and nurses, formd
my way to my destination: room 306 - Harry
Zimmerman. T4e recorder in hand,
I stepped delicately in, not knowing what to expect.
"Harry Zimmerman?" I spoke somewhar softly toward
the man lying on the bed at my right.
"Yeah? Hello?" he answered, leaning forward
in his bed.
"Hello, I'm Don Chaffer from the high school
in town. and I'm doing a project on the social history
of Olathe, and I was given your nalne as someone who
has lived here a long time, and I was wondering if I
could ask you a few questions about what Olathe used
to be like," I said newously, all in one breath.
"Well, sure...what's your name again?" and we
were off. That first interview, after getting over my
initial nervousness, went pretty well. I interviewed him
two more rimes after that.
Righr off, he set me straight on his age. "I'm
eighty-six years old," he said. I soon formd out aiso
was two years of age, and had farmed that farm for
forry-one years (1929-1970). He met his wife in high
school, and married her in 1928, at the agc of twenty-
five. They're still married, sixry-one years later. I
asked him if he had any chrldren. He had three, two
sons and a daughter. Ali of them were manied,
successful, :md "workin'
like the dickens," he mld me.
The more time I spent with him thouglu the more I
came to see how much there was to this man...how
much more than just "Harry Zimmerman: 86, retired
farmer, married 61 years, two sons, one daughter..." As
I began to see be]ow the surface of Hany Zimmerman,
I also slowly peeled away my resentment for ttus town,
and *rough him, opened my eyes to its history.
Harry's father was born in 1870 near the same
place Harry was, and he gave a very honesL but
reverent account of the man it was obvious he respected
very much, "He was a hard workin' man, given too
much to worryin', but he was honest. He always
wanted things done up right...didn't allow any shodd.v
work or anything like that. And mo*rer," he said "was
just a down home farm wife." He went on to tell us
about how she always made ali the ciothes and the
food, "and my mother could make rhe best biscuits that
I ever ate." When he told me about how she made,
ingredient by ingredient, he was more anrmated than he
had ever been in any of the interviews, and something
happened inside me. I reaiized *rat he was telling me
about life. He was telling me that the nursing home
floor we were on right now was once someone's farm,
or perhaps someone's home, that Olathe was once a
place where farmers cooperated with the land on good
years, and fought with it on bad ones, that there was
much more to this town than its annals of eighth grade
hisnry. Right then, I realized that every place I'd ever
been in lhis town was packed wih history: every
suburb, a farm, every street, a strip of wheat crop,
every sidewalk, a row of com that Harry Zimmerman
may have harvested himself.
As I sat there in that nursing home room, I
began to see the world through Harry's eyes. It was a
different place. The harsh realiry of change gripped
me. His hometown was a foreign city. "It's so much
different that most of the old timers can't remember
where a lot of *re stuff was. It's house after house up
in rhe northeast comer where it was aii farmland up'tiL
just ten years ago or something like that,'' he told me
once. The farm on which Harry grew up had long
since been sold (i970) and I'm not really sure what ha^s
happened !o it, but the downlown area of Olathe that he
used to go to every Saturday has radically changed, and
the schooihouse where his wife taught was tom down.
The three sisters who owned the farm up a ways had
sold out, and it was now a Wal-Mar! a bank, and a
few other things, and many of the old stores in town no
longer existed. They had been covered over with other
stores, newer ones, and for the most part the farmland
was gone. Where the amber waves of grain once
wavered in the wind, houses now stood...houses, as far
as the eye can see. "Why there was one place then
where there're fifty piaces now! And you've moved
everything ou! into the subwbs now. You don't have
any town reaily. It's all suburbs you know," he told
me.
Not only is the land different, bur the way
things are done. For instance. he told me that when he
married his wife, she retired from her job as a by Dan Zemmerick
principal, "...of course back in those days, when you got
married you retired. You might go to school pregnant
some morning," and farming had changed roo
"...anymore, everything's done with hydraulics
hydraulic bale-lifters. hydraulic this. hydraulic rhat. We
didn't used !o do that. It was the old fork and rhe
scoop shovel and the ax." A lot of things have
changed since Harry Zimnerman was born, and it
seems sometimes a sad thing to see. The old, honest
way seems better, but those who survive are those who
change, Harry recounted a story to me of the first time
his family owned a car. In May 1916, Harry's father
bought a Model T Ford from the old man up rhe street,
'The old gentleman thar got (the car) couldn't seem to
control the ttring. One day...he went down the
driveway, and an Old Jersey cow walks out in front of
him and he says, 'Whoa, Nellie, Who4' and pulls on
the steering wheel. Well, Nellie didn'r whoa. The cow
landed up on top of the hood, near the radiator."
So, most adjusted to the car. including Harry,
but there's only so much a man can change. Harry
often spoke with a rather uncertain voice when it came
to commenting on the way things are now. I asked
him once what he *rought of what had happened ro
Olathe (in terms of all of the houses where farmland
once was). He told me, "Oh" I don't know. They're
diggin' up an awful lot of good farmland that rhey may
need some day for food. but I don't know. I guess it'll
work out." Eventually, the new ways are too
uncomfortable. One would rather retreat from society
than ry to keep pace. It certainly can't be easy to
make that decision to retire, to pull away from the
of one's
habits, patterns, and duties that one has had all
life, and Harry told me about that too once when I
asked him about how he felt about having "sold our"
fte insisted on calling it that). "Oh, weil you know,
you wonder whether you done rhe right thing...whether
you should sell out or...if you pulled out at the right
time or now you know...We (Harry and his brother) just
made up our minds...let's see, we was both sixry-seven.
So that was ge$in' up ro dl age when most of the
farmers didn't do too much work."
Then, I was done. I had to write my paper.
The interviews were over. Olathe was no longer the
sarne to me. There were innumerable trials, defeats,
triumphs, pains, and joys permanently erched in the soil
benearh my feet, or beneath my house, or the sidewalk.
They were all there though, and I wondered who we
tltought we were to be covering them up with cement
and houses. I realized, though, that time is that way.
Nothing on this Earth lasts forever - nor the farms, nor
the ways of life, not even Harry. Thank you, Harry.
You've taught me something that I think no one other
A
than an eighry-six-year-old retired farmer from Olathe
could have taught me. The soil is tumed, and a new
day approaches, and while rhere is sadness that the
things we loved and were a pat of are gone, there is
hope because there are new things yet to come.
####
TRASH PILEUP
Picrurethis: You are throwing out the trash just as the
garbage man is pulling up to your house. He is
ttrowing the garbage into the truck and then drives off.
You caught sight of all the garbage in the truck. It
was a mess. Then the train of questions come to your
mind, "Where does all that garbage go?" then, "How
long does it take to degrade (b'reakdown)?" or "What
can we as Americans help control the use of our
garbage?"
The state of Ohio had conducted research of garbage
in the United States. Thosestates that are the biggest
garbage producers in pounds per capita per day are
Califomia, Florida Michigan, Neb'raska, New Jersey'
and Connecticut, with over six pounds per Prson.
(Kansas and Missouri were in a list of four or five
pounds per person 1988). Other research that was done
showed that every Ohioan generates about five pounds
of garbage per day. That is enough to fill Ohio State
University's football stadium every lwo weeks. Ohio
State's football stadium holds up to 80,000 people
(Hallett, 1988).
Scientists are developing plastics with a life span
programmed at the molecular level so that plastics wili
have their suength for use, and then would disintegrate.
Now, the existing piastics have an internal "shock" that
ticks so slowly in terms of their own degradation' that
many plastics have a life span of 200 to 400 years.
Degradable plastics would disappear within a few
months or years (Woods, 1989).
Researchers are planling cornstarch in plastic to help
it self-desruct. Now corn growers are hoping to play
an important role in plastics. Plastic is made up long
chains of hydrocarbon molecules called polymers. It
takes hundreds of years for the bacteria to nibble away
at the ends of these long chains. The polymers can
reduce the plastic to dust in just a few days. When the
starch is consumed by soil bacteria, the plastic weakers
and begins to break apart. By adding cornstarch to the
plastic recipe, the resulting product can rot in less than
six years, as opposed to two or more cenruries for
conventional plastics to decompose (Schmickle, 1989).
A scientist, Gene Iannotti, has been testing some of
the biodegradable plasrics on the market. The resuls
were that the materiais apparently begin degrading when
microorganisms eat the cornstarch that has been added
to them ("Researchers Pursue Secrets of How Plastics
Decompose," 1989).
Even if plastics disintegrate within a few months or
years, that still is not fast enough to handle the crisis
facing cities desperate for landfill space. There are
crirics, scientists, and government regulators who also
worry about residues that might be left in the
envirorunent or food by disintegrating plastics.
Although recycling is a question that comes up at
every environmental conference, it is a conflict of
whether to do it or not. Recycling would help reduce
the cost of plastic bags. The cost of piasric bags is
thirty percent more than *re regular paper bags
("Researchers Pursue Secrets of How Plastics
Decompose, 1989). The one ser back of recychng rs
the process of sorring out rhe degradable plastics from
the non-degradable plastics to help reduce in any plastic
recycling confusion.
As for the people of Johnson Counry, and for rhe
people of Olathe, there should be a way ro derermine
the conflict between recycling the plastic or making
most of it all biodegradable. Also, there are problems
concerning the counties' "landfills"; 'What should be
done about *rem?.' One solution would be to move
them to a remote and designated area. We the people
of Johnson County, should ry to conrrol the amount of
rash that is tkown away each week and tlroughout the
year.
####
GLOBAL WARMTNG
by Howard Lynch
The weather finally wenr haywire early in rhe 21st
century. Summer came earlier than ever before and
lasted ever longer. Winter came and went in a flash.
Some rivers were flooding while o*rers dried out
completely. The seas were rising at a break-neck pace
and entire beaches were being wom entirely away. Salt
water slowly crept inland inro low-lying areas killing
plants and animals. Far away in *re Antarctic regions,
a chunk of ice the size of Alaska broke away. Billiors
of dollars were spent to tr,v and stop the seas from
rising, but it was all in vain. Many of the world's
coastal clties were rmderwater.
It sor.mds like a plot to a science fiction movie, but
it is not; it is real. The greenhouse effect is something
that is slowly affecting the Earth's natural climates.
Some day in the near funrre, instead of ttre Unired
States seliing wheat to Russia, we will be buying ir
ftom them. Today's desers could be tomorrow's farm
land, and what are tropical forests now, may be deserts
lomolrow.
The depletion of the ozone layer is an important
cause of global warming, and not many people are
taking it seriously. It affecs ow lives today, as well as
our lives in the future. The ozone layer, a thin lining
of oxygen molecules that contain three atoms, floats
near the top of fie Earth's atmosphere. It is extremely
important to life because it blocks our 99 percenr of rhe
srm's ultraviolet rays (Benson, 1988). Each year there
is a depletion of the ozone layer of around one percent,
and in some places there is as much as a fow percent
loss. When it is decreased by one percenl there is two
percent more ultravioler light iet in (Maugh, 1988).
This is very dangerous since tire harmful rays rhat are
let in can increase eye disorders and skin cancer,
weaken ttre immune system, damage crops and manne
life, deteriorate some materials, and worsen smos in
urban areas (UPI, 1988). This is also a large enough
amount !o cause up to a l0% increase in non-melanoma
skin cancer. The United States currently has arormd
500,000 new cases a year (Davidson 1988).
There has also been some man-made chemicais
that have depleted *re ozone layer. The chemical that
is causing all these problems is called
chlorofluoro-carbons (CFCs). These are used ln
refrigeration (307o), aerosol propellants (257o), plastic
foarns (254o), cieaning agents and others (20%) (Crowe,
1986). CFCs are in many products which are used
daily and released into the air without the user's
knowledge.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the biggest problem
because it accounts for about one half of the warming.
Since 1958, CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by
25qa. The result is mostly due to the burning of coal
and oil (Maranto, 1986). To make matters worse,
people are desrroying forests, forests that take CO2 out
of the air and replace it with oxygen. CO2 is also
replenished natwally by volcanic activity. Plans and
volcano's help keep the Earth balanced with a average
temperature of 60 degrees, unlike Mars, which is at -60
degrees, and suffers from a deficiency in CO2. Venus,
on the other hand. lies under a thick blanket of carbon
dioxide, and roasts at 900 degrees (Barton, 1987). A
molecule of carbon dioxide, when hit by infrared
radiation turns lhe energy into motion. The molecule
will then rock back and forttr or vibrate. It absorbs the
radiation at 15 microns, blocking most of it. ln other
words, it allows the light to pass through to warm up
the atmosphere, but keeps the heated air from escaping.
CO2 is not the only nafural chemical that uaps the heat
and keeps it from escaping. Some others include sulfur
dioxide, from fossil fuel burning; nitrous oxide, from
natural processes; and methane, from the digestivc
processes of insects and cows (Yulsman,198'1)' Nobody
can tell just what kind of an impact these have srnce it
is hard to calculate just how much is released" where it
goes, and what becomes of it.
As more of these chemicals are released into the
atmosphere, many cities will
have greatly increased
lemperatures. New York which has around 15 days
with temperatures above 90 degrees, will have an
estimated 48 days in the year 2030. Chicago, which
has 16, will have 56, and Dallas, with 100, will have
162 (Begley, 1988).
Many scientists think that the Earth's surface
temperatures will rise 3 n 8 degrees by 2030. A tlnee-
degree temperature change may not sound like much'
but it comes with some p(etty dangerous side effects.
An alteration in worid temperature could change
weather patt€ms, increase the danger and frequency of
storms, taise sea levels, and alter ocean currents. It
will also disrupt agriculture, cause changes in forests,
wetlands, and water resowces. As weather gets better
in some places, and worse in others, people wiil migrate
to those places that are doing better. All that migration
will cause economic and political disruptions.
Al*rough few things can be done to stop global
warming many soiutions have been suggested to try and
stop it. One solution is to piant trees, but in order !o
do that, a forest the size of Europe would need to be
plantcd A forest thar size would usc up one third of
the world's fcrtilizer, and there would not be a
sufficicnt unounr of water for ir Anothcr possibiliry
would be to make more shade. One wav to do rhir
would be to seed the upper atmosphere 'oi& enough
sulfur dioxide to absorb rwo percent of the incoming
sunlight. Thar idea would not work eirher since it
contributes o acid rain. It would also cosr $21 billion
a year, and require between 750 and 80O flights a day.
A third way would be o ake the CO2 that electrical
power plants and other major sources put inlo the
atmosphere and pump it under ground to old oil wells
or into the bottom of the sea where ocean currenrs
would take ir down ro rhe botlom. Alrhough the CO2
would,presumably, no! re+merge for hundreds of years,
it still does no! have solutions for the millions of the
smaller sources like automobiles and home fumaces.
Another way is to switch the rypes of fuels that are
being used. [n other words, fossil fuels tike coal and
oil would be abandoned in favor of nuclear or solar
enerry (Barton, 1987). Many scientisrs feel that none of
these ideas will work because so much has already been
put into the atmosphere. It is like a rime bomb rhat's
set to go off, and nothing can stop it.
The constant increase of world-wide temoerature is
a cwrent problem, not a fuure one. It may already be
too late !o stop some of the effects; but if we cut back
on some of the dangerous elements that are causing iL
we could prolong rhe possibility of global destrucrion.
####
BEING AWARE OF THE MATERIAL WE USE
by Chris Eppler
Awomen is getting dressed for a dinner party.
As she gets ready, she decides to wear her black &ess,
diamond earrings, ivory b'racelet, black leather pumps
and matching purse. When her dare picks her up, he is
wearing his Italian suit, black leather shoes, and a gold
watch embedded witil diamonds. The woman decides
!o wear her fur coat !o keep warm. On the menu ar
the dinner party is filer mignon wirh a side dish of tuna
salad. Ivory, ftu, leather, jewels, meat, and tuna -- are
these the signs of wealth and good taste, or are ttrey the
hardships placed on animals and people today? We
must be awae of the ethical choices we make about rhe
materials we use.
There re many hard facts about ivory that
can not be ignored. Each piece of ivcy hrs a dead
elephant tied !o iL Thirry perceirr of the wcld's (the
elephant's) ivory is used in the United States. Eighty
percenl of market ivory is illegal. Each elephant killed
represents a subsgrrial loss to the total population of
elephants (Lrwis, 1989). Thirty-five pcrcenr of one
hmdred and three jrmiors, surveyed at Olathe South
High School in January of 1990, said rhey did own
ivory (Eppler, 1990). This is a lor of death and
desruction for piano keys or a b'racelet"
Much of the gold and disnonds sold in
America are mined in South Africa. If suppliers will
not specify where these jewels came from, it is very
likely tirey could have rhe labor of blrck slaves or the
6
stench of aprtheid intenwined with the sprkling
diamond c shiny gold.
Is it because we do not lgrow or becau.se we
do not cae? Ninery-seven percent of those surveyed do
not lmow (or check) to see where their diamonds arxi
gold were rnined Eighty-eight percent will buy gold
and diamonds knowing they came from South Africa
(Eppler, 1990). Is it becarse society is so gung-ho to
buy the best, that we do not care about the suffering of
others?
Another cause of animal suffering is furs.
Millions of animals are trapped each year (especially in
North America). Once they are trapped, they usually
do not die immediately. The steel jaw raps usually
snag a leg, and the animal bleeds to death. If the
animal does survive the rap, but does not get free, it is
usually beaten or stom@ !o deuh (PETA, 1990).
Trapping is not the only way animals are
killed for furs. Animals raised in captivity (mostly
minks and foxes) are crammed into tiny cages where
they are underfe4 have inadequare water, are exposed
to disease, ae infested with parasites, and suffer from
severe stress. Once they are fully grown, they are
killed by cheap but agonizing methods such as anal
electrocution, poison, and/or suffocation. Even if they
do not die outright, they are skinned anyway (PETA,
1989).
Luckily, fru coats are losing their demand and
not as many people are buying them. Seveary-four
percert of the juniors surveyed will not btry a fur coat -
- even if fashion and cost is not an issue (Eppler,
1990). Although this frgure is good, the mrnder will
not s[op mtil one hundred percen! of all the people will
not buy fur.
Almost everyone owns leather and almosr
everyone eats meat. This is also murder. Ninery-nine
percent of tlrose surveyed eat meat more than fow umes
a week (Eppler, 190). What is the difference between
killing a cow or a nrkey and killing an animal
considered !o be more "vaiuabie"?
The murder of animals for food goes beyond
just what we eat. To get tun4 defenseless dolphiru are
ofte,n slaughtered either to get !o *rc tuna or somerimes
just for finr: "Listening to five hun&ed dolphins
strieking in panic as they fight and gasp for air... living
dolphins were dragged aloft trashing and flailing in
terror before being literally crushed o death in the
powo block" (Dngwall, 1989, p.3). Because runa
gather under herds of dolphins , dolphins are killed in
order to get the tuna ne€ded for human consumption.
In frct 373,000 dolphins die each year as a result of
hrpooning. The dolphin is quickly becoming a
csrdidate for the endmgered species list (Dolphins,
1989). Only one brand of runa Alabindo, does not kill
dolphins in or&r !o gain profirs.
Is all the death and desrrrdon worth the
glamour and enjoyment of using these pod.rcts? We
must take a stand. We have !o be aware and informed.
We have to be awde of the ethical decisions we make
whenever we buv materials to use, wear and eat.
####
 TOO MUCH TRASH
by Trina Baumchen
Have you ever stopped to think about where
your emplv Coke can goes after you drink it? What
about the fr.mnies or sports section of the newspaper
tirat you just read. They go in rhe rrastL righr? The
ragic realiry is this..."Americans collectively toss out
160 million tons (of rash) each year--enough to spread
30 stories high over 1,000 football fields wide; enough
to fill a bumper to bumper convoy all the way to the
moon" (Beck, 1989). That is simply roo much trash,
but it could be much less if people would only recycle
aluminum, glass, paper and plastics.
Because ow country has grown up with an
abundance of nalural resources, we never really had a
reasonto recycle. But now, we, as a counuy, have
woken up and discovered that we simply create too
much rash. The garbage in the country keeps growrng.
"The amount of trash has increased 807o since 1960"
(Beck, 1989). The average U.S. family creares 6.73
bags of trash a week, 29 bags of trash in a month, and
i75 bags in six months (Beck, i989). That is quire a
bit of trash when taking into consideration how many
people there are in the U.S. The really sad parr is rhe
fact that half of the trash could be recycled.
Unfornrnately, the issue of recycling has a few
major problems. One problem is the fact rhat. "many
people simply refuse !o recycle newspapers, aluminum
cans, sqap steel and iron, beverage cans, and glass
bottles. Many thiak it's silly and a wasre of their time"
("Feeding the World's People: Food and Agriculture,"
p. 159). The people that feel this way just don't
understand that if we don't start to recycle soon, the
trash is going to take over this corlrrtry.
On the other hand, there are also people who
realize the need for recycling. According ro Mary
Buehrer, an Olathe Souttr High School biology reacher,
the people of this counry would recycle if they could
just have the opportunity: "The majoriry of ttre people
are ready to do recycling. They're jusr wairing for
either their ciry governmenr or somebody to say 'O.K.,
here's how we're going to do ir.' I rhink most of the
public is ready. They're saying, 'Give us a plan.'
Even if you want to voluntarily recycle, there's no
place to put it," claims Mrs. Buehrer.
But the other problem is rhat until rhe
govemment does give us a plan, recycling won't
happen. There have been efforts to starr recyciing
companies, but they were unsuccessful. They simply
will not work mtil the government and private centers
slart !o work together. 'The labor and energy costs of
recovering scrap from trash are often high, making
recycling less profitable" (Environmental Science, p.
159). Recycling is a business and without the interest
and support of the govemment, private ceilers, and the
people, it will never be a success.
"Why have a recycling company if you can't
make money? You can't slay in business," says Mrs.
Buehrer.
As of this moment, people are throwing away
things that should be recycled. This can be stopped,
and successful recycling centers can be started with
your help. We Americans need to take action by
voicing our opinions. We need to get our governrnent,
city or national, to tell us what to do and to give us a
plan for recycling. We need to face the facts and see
to it that recycling is the only answer.
####
SOIL EROSION
by Chad Lynn
Pick up a handful of soil and irnagine it is the
earth's surface. Take three-fourths of the soil out of
your hand -- that is how much of the earth is covered
by water. What is left represents ttre land. Now drop
one half of the soil to accoun! for desert regions,
glacier poles, and mountain peaks where things will not
grow. Finally, drop one-tenth of what is left to account
for the places where p€ople live: cities, towns, roads,
and houses. What is left is ttre soil we have to support
life on earth. This topsoil is rickling through our
hngers at an alarming rate.
Every year the United States loses about 6.4
billion tons of topsoil because of erosion. You could
take this 6.,1 billion tons of topsoil and fill 320 million
dump trucks, and ttrey would line up end-to-end and go
to the moon and three-fourths of the way back
(National Wildlife Federation, 1988). Five acres of
topsoil would spread over an acre of land and would be
as thick as a dime (National Wildlife Federation, 1988).
So when an lowa farmer plants an acre of com and
loses fifteen tons of topsoil, he is only losing four-
tenths of a centimeter of topsoil. This does not seem
like that much until you realize that it takes natural
processes 500 years to form one inch of topsoil
(National Wildlife Federation, 1988). At the rate at
which *re soii is eroding, ir will take less then 1fl)
years to lose every single acre of farmland we have
right now (Sampson 1981).
There are several types of erosion: water
erosion. wind erosion. and land erosion. Water eroslon
is the worst ty'pe of erosion (Sumner, 1990). It is
where water carries soil away. The soil usuaily ends
up in the oceans, rivers, lakes, and other places where it
is not wanted (Sumner, 1990). Wind erosion is where
wind carries the soil. Sometimes the wind carries the
soil a short distance, and sometimes sevetal thousand
miies. In addition, there is iand erosion which is the
loss of farmland for urban use. The figures above do
not include iand erosion -- but we can not forget land
erosion for every hour there are 200 new Amencars
and every hour there are 220 fewer acres to feed them
with. This loss is equivaient w 23 average size farms
in Missouri going out of business every single day
(Sampson, 1981).
The use of the soil for agriculture goes back
7,000 years to the fertile valleys of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, often referred to as Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia is estimated to be the site where eleven
empires had risen and fallen. Today this land only
supports one-sixth of its population. Conservationist
Walter C. Lowerdermilk has determined that neglect of
the land has often been a major factor in the fall of
empires and barren nanue of much of today's world
(Sampson, 1981). If we are nor careful, our abuse of
the land could lead us to the same fate.
ln order for us !o adequately reduce this soil
erosion problem, it is going !o take goverrunent
involvement. The government has tried a little bit, but
they are going to have to do more. Some of the things
the government must do are set aside exremely erodible
land, set stricter regulations requiring anli-eroslon
methods, and do something to reduce land erosion.
America's population is projecred to be 300.3 million
by the year 2030, and in order !o have enough land to
support such a multirude of people, the govemment
must stop the urbanizing of the prime farmland
(Deparrment of Agriculture, 1980).
Soil erosion is a problem that should be
major concem for everybody, not just farmers. Farmers
having land to farm are direcrly and indirecrly
responsible for 257a of America's jobs(Hynes,
Campbell; 1986). In addition to this, rhe farmers'
ability to create an abrurdance of food allows each and
everyone of us an abundance of food to eat at a lower
percentage of our disposable income then most other
industrial nations of *re world. Also, by reducing wind
erosion, we are reducing the amount of dirt particles
that are blowing around in the ciry, which will be better
for our health and make everything a litrle bit cleaner.
Finaliy, if we really have a desire to provide an
adequate future for our children, then ir is ow
responsibiliry b do our share in the fighr ro prevent soil
erosion today.
Soil erosion is not as bad as it was in
1930's because of recent soil conservation methods and
programs. There is still much that can and must be
done, considering the alarming rate at which we are
losing soil and land. Some of the ways that are being
used to stop erosion are using conservadon tillage,
which is the process of leaving more crop residue on
the surface; creating more wind biocks such as trees,
bushes, and other things like sunflowers which are used
a little bit in Califomia; and alternating cash crops such
as com and soybeans with hay and other grasses.
There are hundreds of other ways in which we
reduce erosion depending on the location. Those in
town can so such things as plant grasses where there is
dirt and place straw over this area until the grass grows.
If you personally want to know more abut what you
can do, all you have to do is cail your closest Soil
Conservation Service.
Hopefully, it will not take something like the
dust storms in the 1930's for Americans to realize rhe
importance erd urgency of this problem. Hugh
Hammond Bennett does a gmd job of telling how
Americans in the 1930's came across this probiem when
he said
"This particular dust storm was over the
Nation's (sic) capitai...I suspect that when
people along the seaboard of the Eastem
United States began to rasre fresh soil from rhe
plains 2,000 miles away, many of them realized for the
first time that somewhere something had gone
wrong with rhe land (Department of
Agriculnue, Soil Conservarion Service; 1989, P.4).
6
MARY'S OLATHE
by Elizabeth Michael
and
Brenda Sheffer
"When they tore down rhe bandstand, it just likely
broke my heart!" Mary Boles exclaimed as we sat in
her small room in Delmar Gardens. The room was
crowded with memories and old photos, telling the
stories of her past. Mary was bom in Olathe and has
lived here most of her life. She proceeded to tell us
about her childhood memories of the bandstand in what
we now know as downtown Olathe. It was busy on
Thursday evenings, with the citizens of the lown
gaftering to hear the brassy music, compare crop
a growth, catch up on the latest gossip, and to see how
much the young'uns had grown.
As we listened to Mary talk about her pas!, our
minds tried to picture these activities occurring in
Olathe as we know it today. It was almost impossible.
She spoke of all the people of the town as one unit, a
family. For us today, walking on the same ground as
those people in Mary's time, we meet bustling
strangers, hidden behind stem, ursmiling masks. It's
hard to imagine Olathe as a small farm community'
with everyone in town attending Thursday night band
concerts. Of course. the bandstand was resurected and
it stands today, but who would think of ga*rering there
for a social event?
Is this change what we call progress or are we
losing something by all of this suburban expansion and
*re these srip-malls? According to Mary, whom we
consider an expert on this subject, the modem life in
Olathe is no comparison. "We were just a tiny lown
then, everybody knew everybody else," she said with
misty eyes and far-away thoughts filling her mind. She
taiks of the old hotel that stood where the Johnson
County Jail is today. Behind that, where now is found
a looming, concrete car park, Mary describes the quaint
shops that lined the street. "...Those were all stores and
they tore 'em down," she said with strong emotion.
She believes the old way was better and hearing her
can argument, we're in no position to disagree. Impersonal
uaffic lighs now block the street comers where one-
man popcorn stands used to invite passers-by to stop
and chat awhile.
What has caused people to alienate themselves from
this "community family?" Though there could be many
explanations, one topic that kept arising in our
conversation was the expansion of the land and the
changing of the boundaries. Surrotmded by a sea of
farmland. Pine Sreet and the Frisco Tracks marked the
outer limits of Mary's home town. It seems like a 20
acre stretch of farmland would be a bigger wall
between people than a four foot backyard fence.
However, that is not the case. As the community of
Olathe grows, the relationships between the people
become more distant and cold. An example of the
difference can be formd in another story Mary told us.
When she was young, she moved no Califomia for a
few years. Upon returning to Olathe, the news spread
quickly that ttre "Little One" was back. She was given
this nickname as a youngster growing up in Olathe
because of her size. The fact that the entte rown
remembered not only her but also her nickname
demonstrares the closeness of the community. Today,
neighbors move in and out without introductions, much
less becoming close enough to formulate niclsrames.
Another case in which the difference between Mary's
life and our lives is evident can be found in another
event of her childhood that she related to us. As a
child, she was ofter cared for by the bandsrand leader.
Since her mother died when she was an infant, the
community took the responsibiliry of helping rro rarse
her. She recalls the secruity and happiness of sirring
high on the bandstand wirh the musicians as they
entsrtained the townspeople. After many years, the
band leader came under Mary's care at the communiry
nwsing home. He remarked [o her one day, "You
never knew you'd be takin' care of me when you grew
up, did ya?" The interaction and closeness berween
members of lhe communiry poins out that the duties
they felt were inherent to belonging to a small-town
sociery.
During ow conversation with Mary, we found
owselves longing to be a part of "her" Olathe, or at
least erase the damage time has done. The expansion
of Olathe itself has had manv oositive
^
asDecrs.
However, in Mary's and our *.'u. losi the
securiry and friendships of a "y"r,
small lown society.
Although a replica of Olathe as it was then is
unattainable now, we can leam from them and reach
out !o those in our immediate neighborhood. Perhaps,
the closeness of the past can never be duplicated, but
the isolation we choose is unnecessary. Instead of
fresh, hot, popcorn from a friendly vendor, a plate of
cookies for a neighbor would be a way to b'reak down
some barriers between people in Olathe today.
####
FORESTS UNDER SIEGE
by Ryan Seager
Today our world is under siege. Every day there are
not only millions of species of plant iife being killed,
but aiso thousands of animals, and even our own
species. Pollution is the killer. Humans put a net tkee
biilion tons, that is 6,000,000,000,000 pounds of carbon
into ttre atrnosphere m the form of carbon dioxide,
methane, cloroflourocarbons, and other harmful trace
gases each year (Breck, 1988). This carbon in the air
is causing global warming known as the greenhouse
effect. The burning of our tropical rain foresrs is
reieasing unbelievable arnounts of carbon dioxide into
the atmosphere. If something is not done immediarely
to solve this problem, the world will face grave
consequences.
Imagine increased famine, miliions more people
starving m death each year. Imagine an extra two
million illegai immigranrs entering ow counrry each
year because their economy failed. Imagine deserts
spreading not only on the interior of land masses, but
also on *re coastal regions. We can not imagine any
longer. We must begin to take action. The destruction
of the ropical rain forests must stop! Our lives depend
upon lt.
American conservationists have worried for decades
fiat the burning and destruction of our tropical rain
forests will rob the world of one of its oldest, most
complex ecosysrcms and &ive !o exlinction million of
exotic plants and animals. These rain forests only
occupy 87o of the land on earth, but at least 70Vo of the
world's plants, animals, and insects can be found there
(Mittermeier, 1988). This realiy becomes significant
when one realizes rhat 907a of certain groups like
insects and plants have yet to be discovered
(Mirtermeier, 1988). The undiscovered plants and flora
in ttre Brazilian rain forest, alone, could provide cures
for many different diseases; but as they are desroyed,
so are lhe possible chemicals for cwes. If the rain
forest in Brazil is desroyed, so will more than one
million species of plants and animals (Linden, 1989).
In addition to all the wildlife the forests possess, it is
also a major storehouse for carbon dioxide. The
growing population and increased industrialization are
putting more carbon dioxide into fie air than ever
before. Scientists say that deforestation accounts for up
to 50Vo of the carbon dioxide emissions now taking
place. This percentage then makes up half of the
global warming Gye. 1989). When trees are ieft iiving,
they will store the catbon that the people of today are
producing. The trees wili store the carbon dioxide and
then emit oxygen into ttre atmosphere. When the trees
are burned, not only is this ruining the storehouse for
carbon dioxide, but the buming of the trees actuaily
sends more carbon dioxide into tJte air.
The Brazilian forest is being destroyed at a very
rapid rate. At the present rate of
consumption, the
world's rarn forest may be gone in 30 years according
to the World Wildlife Fund ("Debt-for-Narure Swaps,"
1988). According to the United Narions Food and
Agricultural Organization. 42,000 square miles, an area
the size of Louisiana, is disappearing each year
(MacDougall, 1987).
This rapid destruction of the rain forests is due to
the lifestyle of people in the developed, temperate
countries. like America. The desires of these rich
people for tropical hardwood furniture, wall paneling,
and other products has tempted many third world
goverrunents to over exploit their forests in order to
increase their foreign exchange and trade capabilities
(MacDougall, 1987). The following are five major
causes of deforestation: the use and abuse oi forests to
farm, graze livestock provide timber, supply firewood,
and wage war (MacDougall, 1987).
The peasants doing some of the damage have large
families, and they are fighting for survival. These
people do not think *rey can do any harm to the giant
jungle in South America. These peasans believe the
jungle will heal itself, and that it could never be
destroyed (Linden, 1989). The people in Brazil would
most likely not venture into the forests without the
goverrrment.'s incentives. These people do not
understand the complications of desroying the Brazilian
rain forest. Most Brazilians look at the United States
and see how this nation became industrialized
destroying our own trees in search of new land' Now
the Brazilians are trying to do the same thing in order
to become indusrialized. These people are just taking have set land aside for parks to help the problem of
all *re profits they can get now and letting future rain forest destruction.
generations care for themselves (MacDougall, 1987). A The problems of ttre Third World -- its poveny. its
study has been done on the economy of the aea, and it ignorance, its debt -- never really seemed to affect
was found that an acre used for the fruit" latex, rubber, Europeans and Americans. No longer. It is a little
and timber -- not including the medicinal plants and warmer than it used m be (Breck, 1988). The problems
animals-- is worth 53,600. The same area of an acre of the greenhouse effect are shoncoming if something is
wouid be worth only 51,300 if it was used for cattle not done about the rain forests soon. Solutions need to
farming or a wood pulp plantation (Mittermeier. 1988). be made. now!
The people of Brazil do not realize this. They ####
believe the area to be great for agriculture. This is a
complete failacy. The forest is able to survive in soil
ttrat would not normally support weeds. When farmers
burn the trees and kill the life of *re forest, they are
also killing the life in the soil. After the crops use up
the nutrients from the ashes of the forest, then the
ground will no longer produce profitable harvests, and
the farmer moves on to new land. The orocess rs
continuous, more and more w:rstelurnd is beine created
(Mirrcrmeier, 1988).
The World Bank has also created problems. Since
1982, the bank has been giving Brazil ioaru n build a
1,100 mile road into the Amazon frontier. This road
has opened an area the size of West Germany lo rice
growing and other developrnerrt. It has also encouraged
half a million people to settle and ry ro farm rhe area,
many of whom would nor have got into farming the
jungle without the road. "One lesson we learned in the
Amazon is that when you improve a road, you unleash
unconuolled development on the rain forest," says John
Browder, a specialist on Rondonias deforestation from
Virginias Poiytechnic Insriture (Linden, 1989 p.82). The
combination of the road, farming, and the peasanrs
ignorance have caused the deforestation of the rain
forest.
What can be done to save the forests? First of all
the people of Brazil need to become aware of the
situation in their country. Public awareness would help
lower the numhr of citizens raveling deep into the
jungle. Fewer people would do less damage, and the
forest would not be destroyed at such a rapid rate.
Perhaps the best hope for the forest's survival is the
growing recognition that the forest are more valuable
when left standing than when cut down (Linden, 1989).
If along with this recognition the govemment would
stop giving free land as incentives !o settle *re interior
of Brazil, this destruction would be limited signihcantly.
Peasants would not make the effort to try and settle
farms in the jungle if they knew they could make more
money using the forest for its resources rather than
destroying it.
Another possible idea is "debt-for-nature" swaps.
These are a form of rent paid to the countries
possessing the forests. "Ir is only logical that the
countries that control forest lands will begin m demand
rent in one form or another for the service they provide
the rest of the worl4" @reck, 1988 p.12). The
counFies that control most of the rain forests also owe
one-fourth of the world's debt. Conservation
organizatioru can then pay part of the country's debt in
exchange for the protection of ttreir rain forests. This
has worked effectively in Costa Rica and Guatemala
("Debrfor-Nature Swaps," 1988). These two countries

10
 ANYWHERE U.S.A.

by Quincy Brown

Mayor Jim, who isn't really the mayor, sits in his chair on his
porch and waits to die.
He is the oldest person in this town, or what's left of the town.
His ancestors founded it:
the town of Anywhere, U.S.A.
It once had a population of fifty but now has only seven members left.
The closest town to Anywhere is called Somewhere.
Somewhere had a Nuclear Power Plant, but it melted,
So Somewhere is now nowhere.

Something strange happened to Anywhere.

Three weeks ago the water line which ran from Somewhere Lake to
Anywhere's faucets became contaminated.
No one knew, so people began to die everywhere in Anywhere.
They drank the water and died, all but ten.
Mayor Jim is allergic to water so he needn't worry of death.
At least not then.
Something happened to the other ten people.
Six of them became radioactive and crazy.
They used the three other people for meals, because the food was all rotten.
Now if you've been keeping track, that leaves us with Mayor Jim and the six
crazies.
They hunted at night, and it was day, so Mayor Jim was safe.
After a few houn the sun set and Mayor Jim heard them coming.
They were hungry and he was too old to fight.
The Mayor kept on rocking in his chair until they pulled him out of it, and
before the night was through, Mayor Jim had become a three-course meal to
those crazies.

That is the story of Anywhere and Somewhere that could happen everywhere
if we don't start to take care.

ll
 THE OCEAN
by Stasi Dishman

The ocean is a beautiful and calming creation.

The ocean is a home for many animals.
The ocean is a place where humans can relax
and enjoy the tranquility of the waves.

The ocean is not a dumping ground for human's waste.

The ocean is not a place for the extinction of plants
and animals.
The ocean is not something we should take for granted.

The ocean can take its revenge,

The ocean can take its toll,
The ocean will win in the end.

Recycle

by Bryan Morgan

Staring at the trash

Piled in mountains.
Wondering...
Why does it happen?

Watching machines
Squash it flat.
Thinking...
Does it have to happen?

Frustation transforms,
Rolled into tears.
Screaming...
When will it happen?

t2
 Night Weaver
by Timothy Quinn

I walked the winding path alone one night

To watch the stars fade in and out of sight,
When, taken by surprise, I found myself
Within a web of the spinner himself.

But each creation has its own design;

Tomorrow I would bring a friend of mine
To help me sweep the cobwebs from the sky
And watch Orion hunting up on high.

IJ