The Wildfire: A Vicious Cycle

By Hans Yang, Grade 9

Gregory Slade stood in front of his vehicle, silently observing the secluded nature retreat he owned for years- a roaring inferno only a few hundred feet away devouring the beautiful leaves of the wonderfully verdant forest adjacent to the front side of the establishment. Having ushered his guests and staff member to safety a few days before, he hung back to witness the tragedy. Turning away, he evacuated to Queensland twelve hours later, knowing of the fate of his labor and love.

The Fraser Island Fires tore through the ecologically sensitive nature sanctuary relentlessly in the last month, only another unfolding chapter of the bushfire crisis that made its genesis in the 2019-2020 bushfire season. It was also yet another raging beast unleashed by a beach bonfire, and fueled by extremely dry conditions. Doubtlessly, the populations of exotic creatures suffered immensely- such as the incredibly rare pure-bred dingoes, false water rat, and flying foxes.

So how do we put out these fires? Water.

But how much water?

Thirteen thousand kilometers away, frustrated Oregon residents asked the same question to their local weather forecasters and meteorologists. The estimate they received was flabbergasting- a whopping 556,666,205 gallons of water would be required to cover the 205,000 acres of land that were currently on fire- to cover the land by one tenth of an inch. In contrast, an average of 101 gallons is used every day by the average resident of a city.

Using these values, the amount of water to cover the land by 1/10 of an inch is equal to the daily water usage of 5,511,546 citizens. Furthermore, 1/10th of an inch is not enough to vanquish most fires- and also detrimental to environments, water supplies, and could lead to the repetition of these disastrous events.

The majority of the water used in wildfire fighting stems from local water sources near the fire, such as groundwater, reservoirs, and other bodies of water which provide a balancing of air humidity and plant support in the area. After a fire, the depletion of the crucial water supplies causes a major change or multiple in environments, such as reducing plant life, making habitats inhospitable, and destroying much of the elements, and disrupting the balance. Also, major water supply contamination can occur.

According to a reputable environmental organization, “During active burning, ash and contaminants associated with ash settle on streams, lakes and water reservoirs.” (EPA 2019). Flame retardant utilized by forest fire teams can also lead to more of these events, even going to an extent to find its way into drinking water in the cities nearby. The aftermath of these events are expensive to fix- a geological institution proclaimed, “water providers spent more than $26 million on water-quality treatment, sediment and debris removal, and related issues after two recent wildfires in Colorado” (USGS), money that could be spent on different, more valuable causes.

All in all, the world will continue to have its cycle of natural diminishment and reinvigoration, pockmarked by the dirty deeds of man-made disasters, which will undoubtedly grow more severe as temperatures rise due to global warming, and gradually reduce our water supply to a trickle. To prevent another Fraser Island, another Big Sur, it will take an enormous amount of active awareness and a plethora of blessings.

https://mailtribune.com/news/happening-now/billions-of-gallons-of-water-would-quench-our-wildfires#:~:text=Covering%20our%20wildfire%20acreage%20with,12%2C000%20gallons%20of%20fire%20retardant.

https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/water-quality-after-wildfire?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

Replenishing Earth’s Resources: Space Mining?

By Emma Li, Grade 11

Water is one of the most sought-after natural resources in the world. Despite its seeming abundance on Earth, our planet’s available freshwater (usable water that isn’t locked away in glaciers, too polluted for use, or so deep underground it wouldn’t be feasible to extract) only constitutes 0.5%. To put that in perspective, if all of Earth’s water were shrunk down to 100 liters, the water accessible to humans adds up to half a teaspoon (0.003 liters). (1) The implications of water scarcity on Earth are devastating, and many countries largely concentrated in Africa and South Asia were indicated to have vulnerable water resources in the United Nations’ 2015 World Water Report. (2)

Other important resources like oil and coal are also becoming increasingly difficult to harvest due to diminishing quantity; the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere projected that we will run out of oil in 2052, natural gases in 2060, and coal in 2090. (3) The finite amount of natural resources currently at our disposal means that we will eventually run out of the materials needed to sustain life. At the current rate we’re gobbling up the Earth’s resources—1.75 times more than the ecosystems of the planet can regenerate per year—that time may be approaching quickly. (4) It is in part why we are looking beyond Earth to deep space for priceless reservoirs—asteroids, moons, even other planets—in search of rare metals such as platinum and, of course, water. Mining these resources from space may alleviate some of the strain we put on nature, giving it enough time to replenish its inventory for our continued use.

If space mining were to become a serious pursuit, our first target would most likely be the closest extraterrestrial body to us: the Moon. The Moon is a rich source of uranium, titanium, silicon, and other natural resources. Helium-3 in particular, found in scarce quantities on Earth but in abundance on the Moon, is of interest for its energy potential. (5)

Recently, NASA confirmed the existence of water on the Moon. In the early 2000s, several missions to the Moon, including NASA’s Cassini and Deep Impact, identified hints of hydrogen on the lunar surface but were unable to confirm whether or not that hydrogen belonged to water. Samples brought back from the Apollo Missions revealed hints of water molecules in the glass and rock, further supporting the belief that there might be water on the Moon. (6) While several other satellites detected signs of the molecule H2O, the locations of the water sources were always located on the permanently dark side of the Moon, where it remained trapped due to the extreme cold. However, NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected water in the soil of the Clavier Crater, which lies on the side of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. Unfortunately, the water discovered by SOFIA is measly, amounting to about 1/100 of the water found in the Sahara Desert. (7)

Unlike our Moon, Europa, one of Jupiter’s many moons, is (at least in theory) a global ocean. The entire moon is covered in a sheet of ice estimated to be up to 20 miles thick, under which lies what could be more than twice as much water than is in all of Earth’s oceans. (8) Scientists discovered signs of water on Europa in 2018, when old data from the Galileo orbiter and Hubble Space Telescope showed plumes rising up from Europa’s surface. The water on Europa is saltwater; it more so resembles the waters in our oceans than something we could use easily. The discovery of water on another planet is still remarkable, especially because of what it could suggest about life in space.

Our main source of metals besides the Moon would probably come from asteroids, which contain lots of raw materials like iron, nickel, and magnesium, and comets, which may contain water and carbon-based molecules important for life. (9)

The technicalities of actually harvesting these materials will require extensive research and development; we currently do not have technologies advanced enough to make space mining a regular industry. We also need to sort through a whole range of logistics. Who gets to do the mining? How are countries going to divide the “land” and “spoils”? Will we have to set up some sort of permanent settlement for harvesting full-time? What sort of harm would we do to our Earth and the masses we use? Still, the prospect of successfully extracting resources from space is exciting, and we would simultaneously be able to learn more about what’s in the universe with us. Wouldn’t that be fun?

(1) “Water Facts - Worldwide Water Supply” US Bureau of Reclamation California Great-Basin

(2) “The United Nations world water development report 2015” United Nations

(3) “When Fossil Fuels Run Out, What Then?” MAHB

(4) “Earth Overshoot Day 2019 is July 29, the earliest ever” Global FootPrint Network

(5) “The approach to sustainable space mining: issues, challenges, and solutions” Xu, ECMS 2019

(6) “There’s Water on the Moon?” NASA Science

(7) “NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon” NASA

(8) “Europa” NASA

(9) “NEO” NASA CNEOS

The Golf Industry and Its Irresponsible Water Consumption

By Renee Wang, Grade 9

Although most avid golfers have noticed the small, black, and unassuming sprinkler heads scattered across the lush green fairways of golf courses, few realize just how much water goes through them each day in order to maintain these man-made paradises. According to NPR(1), the average golf course uses over 300,000 gallons of water each day, and in extreme cases, such as Palm Desert, CA, up to 8 million gallons a day is used due to the dry desert conditions. There are over 34,000 golf courses in the world(2), this equates to around 10 billion gallons of water being used each day just to irrigate these golf courses, while only satisfying a minuscule portion of the population who play this prestigious sport. On the flip side, with over 2 billion people in the world lacking water for at least a month a year(3), this amount of water can make a significant difference. According to USGS(4), the average adult consumes upwards of 100 gallons of water a day; therefore, 10 billion gallons of water can provide for the daily consumption of 100 million people.

Golf courses often also feel the need to overwater their fairways to maintain the bright green color that is pleasing to patrons of the course. There is a common misconception that the greener the grass is, the better quality the course. According to Adam Moeller for the USGA(8), “golfer expectations...have contributed to the idea that aesthetics, particularly lush green grass,... define good conditions”. To experienced golfers, this is a greatly problematic opinion, as it causes excessive overwatering, hoping to achieve the brilliant green that attracts golfers. Overwatering not only wastes water, it affects the firmness of the fairways, and ultimately creates muddy and wet conditions.

Many suggest that there are far too many golf courses that cater to far too small of an audience, and thus eliminating some defunct golf courses might help with water conservation. The United States has seen a consistent decline in the number of golf courses since the 1960s. According to Jared Green from ASLA(5), over the last 4 decades, 1000 golf courses have closed their doors, with the land that they had previously sat on converted to things like housing units, community areas, wildlife habitats, and other spaces.

Despite these efforts, golf as an industry is strong and will stay strong in the foreseeable future. In 2018, Forbes reported that the golf industry had contributed 84.1 Billion dollars to the US economy in 2016 alone(6). The financial stability of this industry has encouraged a focus on how water can be conserved on existing golf courses. This water conservation issue has drawn increased attention from government departments, research institutions, as well as the individual golf courses. Their studies and efforts have mainly fallen into three areas: water resource modification, course renovation, and bioengineering applications in grass and soil.

Many courses have made the shift from freshwater to reclaimed, or recycled, water.

Reclaimed water is effluent water taken from sewage, treated to remove bacteria, and made suitable for agricultural use. However, it cannot be used for golf course irrigation as easily. To implement reclaimed water for golf course use, the water, grass, and soil all need to go through extensive testing in order to prevent damaging the course. This process is both difficult and expensive. The pipes needed to carry this type of water and the related infrastructure and construction costs are also very expensive. These drawbacks deter many golf courses from using reclaimed water.

Some golf courses have also converted irrigated rough areas to out-of-play areas that need little to no irrigation. Rancho Santa Fe Country Club in San Diego, CA, has recently renovated their golf course, replacing around 15% of maintained rough and even fairway with unirrigated desert area in an effort to conserve water. Members of the club were generally very pleased with the changes. Because of the careful planning and selection of the areas to be converted, the resounding opinion was that they did not affect playability.

The irresponsible water usage of the golf industry has troubled environmentally concerned golfers for years, and efforts are being waged to solve this problem every single day. The next time you play a round of golf, look out for signs signifying the usage of reclaimed water, or the desert areas that could have wasted so much valuable water, and think about the water you have helped save.

**(1) “How Much Water Does Golf Use and Where Does It Come From?” NPR

(2) “How Much Water Does Golf Use and Where Does It Come From?” ESPN

(3) “Water Scarcity” WWF

(4) “How Much Water Do I Use at Home Each Day” USGS

(5) Jared Green

(6) “The Economic Impact Of Golf: $84 Billion In The U.S.” Forbes

(7) “Dr. Brian Shwartz discusses TIFTUF Certified Bermuda”

(8) “Irrigate for Playability and Turf Health, Not Color” Adam Moeller

Cover photo from istockphoto.com