Category: Article

More Trash Than Fish

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During my high school Environmental Science class, my teacher shared an article with us about trash in our oceans. I asked her for the link and she sent me this:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/01/24/oceans-more-plastic-than-fish/79267192/

I found it interesting that our thrown daily material could have such a big impact when not handled properly. Along with my research of this situation, I found similar articles from different sources that explain the situation.
In the abc 3340 article (my personal favorite), an elementary school teacher, who scuba-dives in the ocean, challenges her students to reduce the amount of daily trash they make after showing pictures that she took during her dives. The images are shocking to the kids to the point that they are switching from nonrenewable products to renewable products.

VOA News: http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/oceans-could-hold-more-plastics-than-fish-2050/3166848.html
BBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35562253
abc 3340: http://abc3340.com/news/nation-world/more-plastic-than-fish-in-our-oceans

Situations like this is something that can be prevented if we pick up trash off our streets, beaches, neighborhoods, and parking lots. And dispose them properly. That is what Pick’n Run is aiming for.

Article: Clean energy gets dirty: Turning sewage into heat

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This article from CNN highlights an invention by Lynn Mueller which captures heat from sewage (sewage heat reclamation):

CNN: Clean energy gets dirty: Turning sewage into heat
by Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, May 24, 2016

Based in Vancouver, Lynn and International Water Systems now have a backlog of projects from around the world for the “Sharc” technology.  The system uses energy to power a heat pump, however, every $1 used to power the Sharq heat pump system produces $4.50 worth of energy.

And no, Lynn Mueller — the inventor of the sewage-to-heat technology — is not related to Martin or I. 🙂

Article: Fitness Trackers Move to Earphones, Socks and Basketballs

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This article from the New York Times highlights several new fitness technologies that are on the market and could be interesting for runners:

NY Times: Fitness Trackers Move to Earphones , Socks, and Basketballs
by Gregory Schmidt, New York Times, May 11, 2016

The technologies listed and reviewed:

 

Article: The World’s Trash Crisis, and Why Many Americans are Oblivious

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At Pick’n Run, we are looking to clean up the small pieces of trash that we find while we are running — “the last mile of trash”.  However, there is a much bigger issue that we as a population of this earth will need to encounter sometime in the future. Hopefully we do it sooner than later, and don’t kick the can down the road.  That problem is actually the amount of trash we generate.  As you will see in this article posted on Earth Day 2016 (April 22, 2016) and written Ann M. Simmons of the Los Angeles Times, we continue to increase the amount of trash we generate and thus put into land fills.  What are we going to do about that going forward?

Here is the link to the article:

 

Catching Loggers with Sound

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Have you ever heard what a rain forest sounds like? If so, what do you hear? Are you able to hear the sound of chainsaws in the background? If not, then that is a problem. Illegal logging are going around cutting beautiful trees behind our backs, all while the sound is blending with the sound of nature.

What is the solution for this? Topher White came up with a solution that involves the sun, trees, environmental friendly materials, and used cell phones. That’s right, cell phones that can catch a chainsaw frequency and notify people around the area to stop the loggers in their cutting process.

If you want to hear more about Topher White’s idea, below is the TED talk video. Take the time to hear what YOU can do to help with his startup Rainforest Connection and save the rain forest.

Planting a Tree One Cup at a Time

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How can you give birth to a new generation of trees and plants with a coffee cup?

The answer, use Plantable Coffee Cups that contain seeds and biodegradable materials that biodegrade in 180 days. Alex Henige came up with the idea of using coffee cups as a product that grows trees from the fact that Americans throw away 140 billion cups annually. Since that it is “a daily consumption that was amounting to a massive pile of waste.” The company is heading to Boulder, CO and Marin Country to have their cups in coffee shops.

For more information about their cup idea, visit the link below:

California Entrepreneur Invents Coffee Cups that can Revive Forests

Exercise to Improve your Mind

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In January, Otago researchers had conduct a test on 52 tertiary students “to test the oft-held belief that the brains of young adults in their prime might not benefit as much as older people from regular sustained exercise” and what they found was evidences “that regular exercise is a way to sharpen our cognitive ability as young adults.” Running for a couple of miles for 5 days would be an example.

For more information about this research and what was found, here is the link to the article: Study Indicates Exercise Sharpens the Young Adult Brain

 

‘All my Trash Fits in a Single Mason Jar’

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How much trash do you make in a day? About 4.4 pounds of trash like Americans? Or how about in a 16-ounce Mason jar?

Lauren Singer is a 23-year-old woman who “is a practitioner of a light-footprint, minimal-plastic lifestyle” and a business owner of The Simply Co.. She avoids “purchasing or using anything that might end up in a landfill.” As you look at her trash on the website, she tells us that the amount of trash she made is actually two years of trash (you will be surprised on what and how much trash was saved from going to waste).

Read Article: ‘All My Trash Fits in a Single Mason Jar’

Also, she has information about her product (a detergent) on The Simply Co.  The detergent has 3 organic ingredients in it. To get the product developed, she ran a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in which she was able to raise $42k.

Would you like to be able to product that little of trash each year?

Easy Running is a Moderate Exercise

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What is the first thought when you hear “moderate exercise?”

Do you think of hard, intensive workout or something else?

Well, if you think it is hard, intensive workout, well, you are just overestimating yourself. Amy Rushlow explains in this article, called “How Hard is Moderate Exercise? Not as Hard as You Might Think”, on how moderate exercise is actually much simpler than it sounds.

After reading the article, has your thoughts changed about moderate exercise? If so, good. If not, here are some examples that you can do as a moderate exercise: walking for an hour, running at a relaxing pace for about an hour, or even riding your bike around your neighborhood. Exercising is just simple to do. Spread out the word to have people to exercise better without having to  feel that you have to go hard. Hope you found your exercise that is moderate.

Exercising is the Prescription for Depression

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Scientists are finding out that exercising reduces the amount of depression and stress that people would have. What they started with was with mice that has a high level of stress and depression. What they ended up was result with something that we could for ourselves. Check out this link that consists an article about the scientists’ finding about finding out how exercising can be our new prescription for depression.

Exercise: Prescription for Depression