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Health & Fitness

Spring to Green, Iceland Eva, and Ze-Gen (I'm a Skeptic)

With thoughts of spring, Iceland, volcanoes, and that waste-to-energy burning plant they want to put in Attleboro.

I buy plants in the spring impulsively, looking for that different, average flower, the better bloomer or the ones that spread out like there was more than only one plant. I walk up and down plant aisles feeling almost lost, like I have been transported to a lush and verdant island. 

Spring is so needed after the long winter months, and we have had no winter, to my memory, longer than this past one. Green leaves and colorful flowers are a welcome tonic, a sure sign that winter is over.

I especially like the impatiens because you get a higher flower to leaf ratio. Or at least it seems that way. The only problem is that I often buy them and they sit, and sit, and sit until I finally get around to planting them. A few times I have had to throw out plants because they waited too long and death was imminent. But this year all we need are a few sunny days. Will we have them?  Or has climate change brought us a cold, wet summer? 

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Is it climate change caused by cars, factories, and cans of hairspray? Or is it Prima Donna Momma Nature at her best, attempting to and succeeding in outdoing mankind at his worst? (notice the masculine pronouns). I think about the latest volcano from Iceland, Eyallvajaskevorkejjen? (Don’t worry. I didn’t even try to look it up to spell it. There is no way I’m going to try to pronounce it correctly, so  I thought it would be fun to try to spell it the way it is in my memory.)

Remember back in the ’80s?  There was one summer then, a year after Mt. St. Helens erupted, that was the coldest, rainiest summer ever! That was back when we all tanned by lying out in the sun and slathering up with coconut smelling oil called “Hawaiian Tropic.” It was sort of like deep frying only slightly less greasy, more exotic, and incredibly more hip and cool.

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Anyway, I kept waiting for the days to be hot and sunny and it seemed like they never were. I remember thinking that my well laid plans were being completely subverted by clouds. Then someone told me that the smoke, ash, and debris from Mt. St. Helens was to blame because it stayed up in the atmosphere for so long. 

If it is true that it is possible to have colder, wetter years following volcano eruptions, then it may be that the extra clouds and moisture we have this spring are a continuing gift from Icelandic Eya. And if that blame doesn’t sound correctly placed, then we can always blame man, as in “humanity,” which leads me to Ze-Gen: too Green or NOT too Green? That is the question.

My husband and I had a conversation around the dinner table not too long ago that went something like this:

Mr. Byrne: "Honey, I noticed that packet of information that you brought home the other night about that company Ze-Gen."

Ms. Felos: "Hmmm. Yes? What about it?"

Mr. Byrne: "I’m excited to see that a company that does pyrolysis is interested in Attleboro."

Ms. Felos: "Really? Why?"

Mr. Byrne: "Because I have seen that kind of waste disposal/energy creation at work on aircraft carriers and submarines when I worked for QinetiQ in the UK."

Ms. Felos: "You don’t say! I have been worried about the likely negative impact on the local environment. They would be trucking in TONS of waste and that alone is a cause of concern."

Mr. Byrne: "But what happens to waste generated at sea? You might cringe when you hear this, but it often gets thrown overboard. For ships, this is a particular problem since maritime regulations don't allow dumping close to shore. Last summer, I had the opportunity to see how a UK defense company is helping the Royal Navy handle common waste on board ships, sometime referred to as 'black bag' because that's how it arrives, without dumping it overboard and without burning it."

Ms. Felos: "But I think that most people believe that this is a kind of incineration. Are you saying that it isn’t?"

Mr. Byrne: "Well, not exactly, no. What it does is convert the waste into its basic elements; hydrogen and carbon. The Royal Navy and UK defense supplier, QinetiQ, are investing millions of pounds to fit out ships with a technology that uses pyrolysis to handle the waste from the Royal Navy. Pyrolysis is basically what happens when organic materials break down into their basic building blocks — namely, hydrogen (H2) and carbon in the presence of heat but no oxygen. What if regular household waste and other things like pallets, antifreeze and other waste could be converted cleanly into useful hydrogen (which can be burned cleanly) and carbon without any nasty contaminants? That's exactly what QinetiQ is building for the Royal Navy, and as I saw first hand, it works."

Ms. Felos: "Hmmm. I am not persuaded but am willing to listen. Go on."

Mr. Byrne: "Could this beneficial process help local communities deal with problem of how to deal with expensive and messy waste? Up until now, it hasn't been cost effective to do so — but times change and we are now realizing that old methods of waste disposal are simply too costly and impractical for the long term.  yrolysis may be one of the best ways to deal with this challenge for communities around the nation and around the world."

Ms. Felos: "Dear, the problem is that it sounds too good to be true. And things that sound too good to be true usually are. I question whether or not the city of Attleboro will truly benefit from this industry or whether it will suffer the same consequences that it has suffered from other companies who pioneered technologies and left us cleaning up the mess that was left behind. I won’t be supportive of Ze-Gen unless and until we have some hard data on the impact to the community in terms of benefit/detriment of the industry on Attleboro as a whole and the abutting neighborhoods in particular."

Mr. Byrne: "Sounds reasonable."

Ms. Felos: "Of course! Always!"

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