Since 1980, the generation of municipal solid waste has grown by 60% - nearly 246 million tons per year in 2005!
almost half of the paper used in the USA is now being recycled into new paper products. That's more than glass, metal, plastic, and "miscellaneous" combined.
pick up tree trimmings and Christmas trees and turn them into mulch for parks and landscaped street medians.
largest and most productive
estuaries in North America.
However, in 1993 the EVOS Trustee Council funded an additional survey
that estimated 7 km of shoreline were still contaminated with subsurface
oil.
Because a significant survey of Prince William Sound had not been
conducted since 1993 and the cumulative extent of the remaining oil was
unknown, concerns were generated by the public and scientific
communities about the oil’s possible continuing effects on humans and
fauna potentially exposed to the oil directly or indirectly.
Without an accurate assessment of
the extent of the remaining oil, subsistence food-gatherers, consumers
of commercial fish products from the area, and tourists have used mostly
anecdotal evidence as the basis for economic decisions regarding
resource utilization in the affected area.
Consequently, the Auke Bay Laboratory (ABL) with funding from the EVOS
Trustee Council, took on the task of assessing the remaining oil along
the shorelines of Prince William Sound during the summer of 2001
The
primary objective of the project was to measure the amount of oil
remaining in the intertidal zone of Prince William Sound. Secondary
objectives include determining the rate of decline of oil on these
beaches, estimating the persistence of the remaining oil, and
correlating the remaining oil with geomorphological features.
heavily and moderately oiled
The 2001 survey adopted a stratified random/adaptive
sampling (SRAS) design. Two random pits were excavated to a depth of 0.5
m (1.6 feet) in every stratified block (0.5-m verticle drop in tide
height) within a grid system established at each site. If subsurface oil
was discovered in any of the randomly stratified origin pits, then
additional adaptive pits were excavated above, below, to the right, and
to the left of the origin pit until the extent of the oil patch was
determined.
Buried or subsurface oil is of greater concern than surface oil.
Subsurface oil can remain dormant for many years before being dispersed
and is more liquid, still toxic, and may become biologically available.
A disturbance event such as burrowing animals or a severe storm reworks
the beach and can reintroduce unweathered oil into the water.
The toxic components of this type
of surface oil are not as readily available to biota, although some
softer forms do cause sheens in tide pools.
1) Surface oil was determined to be not a good indicator of subsurface
oil.
2) Twenty subsurface pits were classified as heavily oiled. Oil
saturated all of the interstitial spaces and was extremely repugnant.
These “worst case” pits exhibited an oil mixture that resembled oil
encountered in 1989 a few weeks after the spill - highly odiferous,
lightly weathered, and very fluid.
3) Subsurface oil was also found at a lower tide height than expected
(between 0 and 6 feet), in contrast to the surface oil, which was found
mostly at the highest levels of the beach (Table 3). This is
significant, because the pits with the most oil were found low in the
intertidal zone, closest to the zone of biological production, and
indicate that our estimates are conservative at best.
The possibility of continuing low level chronic effects of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill seem very real now, although measurable population
effects would be very difficult to detect in wild populations.
Sea
otters and harlequin ducks fall into this category
such as sea otters, harlequin ducks,
and their intertidal prey.
The last beach assessment was completed in September 2001. Supporting
chemical analyses will be completed in fall 2002, and a final report
with statistical analyses and conclusions will be completed by April
2002.
well, almost. More often than not, the minimum age requirement for skydiving is 18 years old. However, there are some places that allow 16-year olds to participate in the sport.
First of all, if this is your first time sky diving, you will be given a lecture about the sport that would last for at least 4 hours.
Aside from that, you will also get to try on the skydiving outfit and other equipment that can weigh as much as 35 pounds.
Those who weigh 200 to 230 pounds are very much welcome to sky dive as long as they are in good shape.
On the other hand, for those who are between 230 to 250 pounds may also sky dive provided that they in really good shape
Note that skydivers freefalling in a group just use their hands to tell each other about their situation. It’s just too noisy to talk!
a single jump is only limited to an 80-second freefall time.
To avoid injuries when landing, a sky diver must deploy his parachute around 2000 to 2500 feet.
The price of skydiving actually varies from one drop zone to another. More often than not, the price of the S/L course ranges from $120 to $150. Then, you also have to pay for the AFF course, which ranges from $250 to $300. And if you are still a beginner sky diver, don’t forget that you also have to pay for the tandem jump (when someone is strapped to you and controls the jump and landing), which is worth $140 up to $200.
Let this exhilarating moment be captured and prepare to pay additional $50 to $75.