I Am Science (#IamScience)

One of the many cool things that came out of ScienceOnline2012 was a meme-thingy called “IamScience”.  From Mindy, who created the video below:

“On January 27, 2012, science writer and marine biologist Kevin Zelnio started the Twitter hashtag #IamScience, encouraging scientists to share their individual stories about their traditional or unconventional paths that brought them to where they were today. The response was overwhelming, with hundreds of tweets pouring in over just a few days. 

I’ve collected and excerpted just a handful of them, and set them to Reckless Kelly’s “Wicked Twisted Road”, a song that Kevin mentioned in his original post as holding particular significance for his own path toward science.

You can see a storify of most of the tweets for #IamScience; or you can watch this video. Get Kleenex.

“Magical things can happen when you enthusiastically open your mouth on the internet. One of these magical things is learning how personal experience shapes people’s lives. Looking into others causes you to look into yourself. And then something really magical happens – we learn we are not alone.”  –Kevin Zelnio

Want to make the project bigger? Kevin has offered to put things together in an e-book:

I would like to curate a free e-book of submissions from people about their experiences – good and bad, whatever you are willing to share. Put your name on it or keep it anonymous, doesn’t matter, but people need to hear how your experiences in the past shaped who you are today and what you do.

If you are interested in participating in this project, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at kzelnio at gmail dot com. Submissions are whatever is necessary for you to tell your story, up to 5000 words. Include drawing, sketchpads, poetry, whatever you need to tell your story.

You ROCK, Kevin.

The Michigan Oil Spill

One of the things I’m very surprised about is how people outside Michigan don’t seem to know anything about the MILLION GALLON oil spill that happened in July:

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that more than one million gallons have escaped. That would make it one of the largest ever in the history of the Midwest. But company officials are sticking with their earlier estimation of 819,000 gallons.”

The oil flowed directly into the Kalamazoo River.  In fact, the oil spill happened when the Kalamazoo River was at a historically high level. So, when the water went back to its regular banks, it left a large swath of oily plants and sediments behind.  Lots of plant material and soil is being collected and bagged up; as toxic waste, it will eventually be landfilled.

Here’s what you don’t know if you aren’t here in Michigan.  There is a HUGE network of pipelines carrying raw crude and natural gas all through the midwest. And the pipes are old. They’re metal and they run through swamps and wetlands.  They break a lot, in fact. The Lakehead pipeline carries oil and tar sands, a thick crude that has more heavy metals than conventional oil.  (Large amounts of water are used in the extraction of this oil, and the mining is very environmentally destructive.) This crude carries lots of carcinogens–toluene, benzene, and other nasties.

As of today (Sept. 30th), there are quite different reports being issued about the status of the clean up.  Michigan Radio says that there’s still a lot of missing oil yet to be accounted for. Enbridge says the cleanup is almost completed. I have been involved in some of the wildlife rehab efforts, mainly centered around turtles, and they are still recovering 70+ turtles coated in heavy crude every day.  It takes roughly 2 hours to clean one medium-sized turtle.

And, fall migration is starting.  What will happen to waterfowl heading south if they land in the Kalamazoo river?

It could have been worse, I guess. Fortunately the spill was stopped before it reached the part of the Kalamazoo river that is a PCB Superfund site. All those oils would have worked as a solvent, and released lots of pollutants from the sediments they’re now contained in.

The pipe that ruptured is now pumping crude again.  Here’s the really depressing part–7 months ago, the EPA sent Enbridge a warning letter about possible problems with the pipeline that ruptured.  And another Enbridge pipeline–a different trunk of the same oil pathway–ruptured in Chicago 6 weeks after the Michigan spill.

If you do a search for images of the Michigan Oil Spill, what you see are a whole lot of unsafe work practices.  And, also, depressing stuff like this–an oil boom deployed in a city riverside park, using picnic tables to support an oil skimmer.

Sigh.