Lizzie Wright did. She has a habit of educating through song. And have you heard of Cicada Summer? It’s an entire album about cicadas. Yes, the insects. Wright did a track for that, too (her favorite line: “It’s been 13 years or so since you sang for me. not that long ago since your sound was inside me”).

As an artist doing graduate studies in forestry and entomology, she’s more prone to think of the bugs as endearing, eager teenagers rather than freaky, red-eyed pests. Now, her organization has helped usher a new brood of artists-turned-scientists-turned-artists to the University of Missouri. Or at least created some collaborative pair bonds.

SCAPE project poster. Photo by Lizzie Wright.

Many scientists feel differently about their subjects than the general public, but often aren’t taught how to communicate these ideas. Cue the SCAPE project (Science Communication and Public Engagement). In addition to getting trained by writers and professors interested in communicating with policy makers, the SCAPE members — all graduate students in the sciences — have paired up with graduate students in the arts to create art based on their research. Their findings will be revealed in “The Art of Science,” which takes place at Mizzou this Friday, May 10. It will likely be a welcome respite from this penultimate week of the semester.

What to expect:

• Classics by Lizzie Wright on cicadas, taiga biomes and robots are all covered, as well as “Sycamore Tree,” “Long Leaf Pine Tree,” and a song called, “Us,” about a girl observing trees’ similarity.
• Poetry by Walter Bargen about Mark Carlson’s work on Hinkson Creek hydrology and history.
• Installation with artist Miranda Lee and scientist Hallie Thompson, using mostly tools used in the field to create the installation cubes.
• Matt Rahmer’s doing a photo series from working with a chemist who studies Alzheimer’s disease.

SCAPE invites the MU community to join them for a reception in the Mcquinn Atrium of the Bond Life Sciences Center on campus from 6-8 p.m. for “a night of science, art, music, poetry and a periodic table of cupcakes.” RSVP on Facebook.

Our latest move went well. It was not perfect. It still took longer than I thought it would. But in the end, Harold and I were satisfied.

Here’s what we did.

• We had a goal. This may seem obvious, but if you don’t have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish by the end of your move, chances are you aren’t going to get there. We set our sights high for this one:

Our goal was to arrive in Indy with nothing but ourselves and our car. We wanted the things we left behind to be organized in such a way that we can get away without thinking of them until after we get to France. But if we do think of them, they are easy to locate. And we wanted to leave behind a sparkling-clean apartment for our landlords (my in-laws), and no loose ends for them to tie up for us.

• We had structure. After taking into consideration, a) the kinds of things we were wanting to store and, b) the many locations in which these things may be wanted in the future, I decided upon a loose system that became more defined as I worked. Anything we want to take to France stayed with us. Anything we want shipped to Africa went in one pile. Anything else we didn’t get rid of went in another.

With this in mind, it was fairly easy to keep track of things as I packed them. I numbered each box as I packed, making a list of what was inside. Everything we boxed up is either staying in storage in my in-laws’ basement or being shipped to Africa in a year or two, so I was sure to make those two categories easy to tell apart. When I was done, I typed it out and now have a digital copy in addition to our notebook.

• We had the tools we needed. We had the usual: boxes, tape, packing material (we use towels and plastic bags to pack our fragiles). I LOVE packing in apple boxes from the grocery store. They’re super sturdy and pretty roomy so they fit more of those odd-ball items. But sometimes they can be hard to come by. We had some leftovers from previous moves, but mostly used paper boxes because we had a great source and uniformity is a wonderful thing.

But for boxing our stuff up long-term, we stocked up on a few other things:

• garbage bags—when you leave the country and leave your stuff behind for years, who knows what will happen to it. If my in-laws decide our boxes can’t live in their basement, they could end up in a drafty barn or worse. So we put a garbage bag inside each box before we packed it to keep moisture out.
• moth balls—I’m not sure if this is necessary, but I sure don’t want to have maternity clothes shipped across an ocean someday only to find that they’re full of moth holes. Sure, they’ll smell like my grandma’s house for a day or so, but give them enough air and the stink will leave.
• labels—really big, easy-to-read, custom-made labels so that when we call the in-laws asking them to find that pair of boots we decided we need, they won’t be terribly inconvenienced. “Box 7A? Got it.”

I bought a pack of 81/2 x 11″ label paper, printed, cut them in half, and stuck two of them on each box. Here’s what they looked like:

• We had LOTS of time. We started this two months before the day. Which gave us time to make decisions slowly. Every time I walked past our piles, I had a chance to get rid of one more thing. And every time I needed more time to decide where to put a certain shirt or notebook, I had it. Most of our boxes were packed by a few days prior to moving—it was the stuff we kept with us that surprised us at the end. There was way more of it than we thought!

• We had LOTS of space. We had an empty space in our garage that was perfect for spreading everything out. It was great—our stuff didn’t swallow our living space, and I could go down and pack for half and hour at a time during Lucas’s naps. Everything was just how I had left it. There was no cleaning up or digging things out to get started.

• We had both hands free. The last day before a move is crunch time. It’s the day that you realize that you’re moving. And the day that you spend in a constant state of panic. We decided on a whim to send Lucas away with his grandparents. They were headed to Omaha for Christmas a day ahead of us, and we figured he’d have more fun with them than he would staying behind.

Read “Simplicity is Key” on We Trip, We Travel

As a result, we could put anything on the floor that we wanted, which is very important in the final stages of moving in which furniture is emptied and the odds and ends of the house end up strewn around haphazardly. We were pushing our time limit without him around. I hate to think what would have happened had he stayed behind.

• We were flexible. We ended up leaving behind a few things that wouldn’t fit into our car. And we didn’t let it stress us out. Our reusable diapers didn’t make the cut, so we’re using disposables. My special teacup from a childhood birthday party broke. I’ve moved on. Our external monitor didn’t fit, so we’re doing without. And it’s fine. We try our best not to let what we have define our attitudes or self-image. If people all over the world have never even considered using an external monitor, then I guess we can get along without it.

Do you admire a colleague, staff member, student or professor for their work on the environment? Now is the time to honor them with the first-ever EASC Awards.

Click here for the nomination form.

The award categories follow the University of Missouri’s four values:

• Respect: for those who persistently show respect for natural resources
• Responsibility: for improving a specific environmental issue on campus
• Discovery: for new research related to the environment, conservation or sustainability
• Excellence: for overall excellence in promoting environmental affairs at the University of Missouri

Who is eligible?

• All awards are open to departments, organizations, faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
• The EASC is happy to honor ongoing work, but we ask that the nominee has been active in their leadership during the past academic year.

Winners will be recognized by the EASC through a certificate, public recognition and a gift. In the future, other prizes may be awarded. There may be more than one winner per category.

The nomination form is simple; only two to three questions per nominee.

Please forward this information to others in your department, organization and community. We want to hear about all the great environmental and sustainability efforts going on around campus!

Deadline to apply has been extended to Monday, May 6 at 11:59 p.m. Winners will be announced by Monday, May 13.

A little background

As a conglomeration of students, faculty and staff, the members of the Environmental Affairs and Sustainability Committee are in a unique position to sponsor and promote this award. The awards subcommittee reflects this diversity: Dr. Dan Cohen, assistant teaching professor of religion; Rachel Brekhus, humanities reference librarian; Alicia LaVaute, Sustainability Office administration assistant; Tina Casagrand, senior journalism undergrad; and Laura Hendricksen, junior Spanish major.

This is the first year the EASC awards are being offered. In the future, they hope to offer more tangible rewards, but patience, young grasshoppers. Isn’t it enough to get recognized?

For questions, please contact EASC Secretary Tina Casagrand at kacz82@mail.missouri.edu.

Full Body Burden is bold and beautifully composed. Full of portent, it recounts the twin tales of Iversen’s family and the nearby Rocky Flats complex. Both were crumbling, due to alcoholism and poor management, respectively. Both were fixed on “keeping up appearances.” And both drew black marks on the otherwise sunny innocence of Denver suburbia. As radiation spread into air and water, Iversen dreamed about boys, her neighbors tidied their houses, and kids splashed around in the town’s lake. Although Iversen’s sister protested at the factory and sat in on activist meetings, the author never considered herself “one of those people.”

Instead, in the beginning, Iversen acquaints us with her world of meadowlarks, dusty trails and the smell of fresh hay. This sense of environmental identity resonated with me, although my childhood was all whip-poor-wills and creek beds. I learned how Colorado’s seasons change with Chinook winds and cottonwood buds. Iversen’s horse is her retreat. Her “eyes filled with tears from the wind” while riding or learning to rock climb with her boyfriend, and characters move across the page.

Iversen’s vivid sense of place grants instant familiarity, and all the while Rocky Flats looms in the background. There, too, drama unfolds, where the author has sewn together narratives about plutonium meltdowns and FBI takeovers. Returning home as an adult, she lands a job typing incident reports during the facility’s cleanup. Everything clicks. The stories converge. The factory on the hill is now a common office, and out of the shadows, these workers are real people. That complicates the good-and-evil plot many activists like to tell. Environmental justice and self-sustaining become blurred in real life, even after meticulous research indicates outright negligence. The workers aren’t to blame. It’s the government cover-up.

Although Full Body Burden is paced like a novel, facts derive from stacks of task force reports, primary interviews, legal hearings and dozens of old newspaper articles. Accusations come cold and calculated, with the reader left to decide where the operation went wrong. Meanwhile, Iversen identifies the root problem: a cultural propensity for silence. We see it after the Cold War, and we see it in her own family. Even after one of her father’s car accidents breaks Iversen’s neck, she doesn’t tell him for years. “Silence is an easy habit for a family or a community,” she writes. I read this and get chills.

By bearing witness to Rocky Flats’ blunders, Iversen breaks the silence. Full Body Burden serves as a powerful model for storytelling, for anyone who feels breaches of justice personally, for anyone who deeply cares about where they live and strive to ensure it’s protected. I couldn’t put this book down. I read it by flashlight in a van on a trip to Nebraska and snuck a few pages in during classes. When Spring Break forced me to sacrifice the book for less weight, I instead told the story to anyone who would listen. We all should. If there’s one takeaway from this book, it’s that silence will spoil progress. So it’s on all of us to keep talking.

Full Body Burden is available in hardcover online or at all fine bookstores. You can pre-order the paperback at the author’s website.

For car ownership to be as sustainable as possible, it’s important to own a car that has a cult following. You want to be able to easily find support and resources for your car. You can’t do that if you’re the only person you know of who’s trying to change a window motor on their Volkswagen Phaeton themselves (if you’ve even ever heard of the Phaeton). You have to get a car that lots of people have, lots of people enjoy, and lots of people work on themselves.

Good cars for this are cars that are specifically designed to be modified.

Ford, for example, knows that people like to modify their Mustangs and F150s, so Ford makes it easy for aftermarket parts to “bolt on”, so to speak. This means that most of the car is going to be easier to take apart than a car like a Chrysler 200 convertible because Chrysler doesn’t expect you to modify the 200. Other good examples are cars that are frequently used for racing. Cars like Mazdas 3s or Miatas, Nissan Zs, or Honda Civics. While my BMW 3 series wasn’t designed to be easily modified, lots of people race BMW 3 series and modify them. As a result, there are lots of people who know how to work on BMW 3 series and there are a number of forums, blogs, websites, and aftermarket companies devoted to modifying and maintaining BMW 3 series.

Cult cars also tend to be cars that a large group of people consider to be special.

This means that they will maintain them better and keep them longer. When I bought my 1976 BMW 2002, I had actually wanted a 1972 Mercedes S class, but the BMW had more of a cult following. With roughly 400,000 2002s produced between 1968 and 1976, it was the car that put BMW on the map and proved that a sports car didn’t need a massive V8 to fast and fun. I happen to be from Tulsa and I  have probably met 75% of the people in Tulsa who own 2002s. Accordingly, I have a long list of people who I can call on when something goes wrong on my 2002 and they’ve all had or heard of whatever the issue may be. Owning a cult car gives you access to a great community and sense of camaraderie that you can’t get with an average car.

Cult cars also lend themselves to having easy to find parts.

Parts for my 3 series and my 2002 are all over eBay and other websites, and a slew of companies offer high quality aftermarket parts built specifically for my cars. This wide availability of parts and access to knowledge mean that when something goes wrong on your car, you can easily fix or replace it and usually for a lower cost than if you had a car people were less enthusiastic about. The result is that cult cars can give you a great experience well into high mileage. My 3 series, for example, has over 220,000 miles and while I occasionally have issues with some of the amenities of the car, I’ve maintained and overhauled most of the suspension and drivetrain so it still runs and handles like it’s only a couple of years old.

My first days with a new bike were quite exhilarating. I went riding for hours on end just to see the sights in the beautiful fall weather of mid-Missouri. I traveled all the way down to route K and down by the Missouri river bottoms and eagle bluffs to Rocheport and I quickly became an expert rider. I found myself simply perusing through the streets of Columbia just to show off my ride as much as possible because of how much I enjoyed it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the City of Columbia, but driving a scooter in St. Louis is an even more enjoyable and fulfilling experience with exponentially greater places to visit and more scenic drives through the city and county.

I began to do even more with April, even going out to Finger Lakes State Park and trying some dirt biking with a scooter (awesome). By this point I was quite adept in maneuvering my baby, but in the summer of 2012 I had my first wipeout. Traveling to my organic agriculture research job at Bradford Farm I took a left turn at ludicrous speed (40ish MPH) and was thrown to the side of the street as April slide on her side for about 200 feet. Luckily I only scratched my left arm and leg, but it taught to respect the road a bit more and to be more careful.

That fall, no pun intended, I decided to give her an upgrade by replacing her exhaust pipe with a much lighter and larger pipe which gave me an extra 6 MPH as well as changing the weights in the variator which gave me an extra 2 MPH. After this I was able to gain a top speed of 55 MPH which is just greater than 1 MPH per cubic centimeter combusted, which is greatly efficient.

By now I have had April for almost two years and am getting around 101 MPG, but I am still unsatisfied and am itching for even more efficiency and even more power. It will be hard on me to let go of my favourite vehicle of all time, but I figure some other, young college student can experience the thrill of owning a sport scooter, while I move on to a new niche in the motorcycle market, the electric performance bike.

Made by Zero motorcycles in Palo-Alto California, the Zero DS ZF11.4 motorcycle is a completely electric lithium-ion powered bike that gets 426 MPGe in the city with a top speed of 95 MPH. The battery pack life span until 80% is near 284,000 miles and can charge in as little as 4 hours on a standard 110v outlet with a quick charge kit. To top it all off, shes a hott looking thing, take a look.

As I embark on a new chapter in my pursuit of becoming carbon neutral, I will keep you informed along the way and teach any and all who are willing to listen of my adventures sans el coche. Stay classy Columbia and always keep your tweaking caps on.

Photo: Miranda Metheny

This week’s ideas come from Finland!

We know them for reindeer and heavy metal, good education, cell phones and Angry Birds. If that’s not enough reasons why Finland is awesome, check out what I’ve found on my trips to the land of a million lakes and the midnight sun.

IDEA #1 — Party Tricks

If you want to host a simple party, with some nice cold drinks and salty chips, you’re going to need some ice cube trays and chip bowls, right? Wrong. Both of these one-step recycling ideas are so simple, I couldn’t believe I’d never seen them in action back home.

Photo: Liisa Lundell

Party Trick Number One: Recycle the plastic packaging from chocolate truffles to make cute and convenient ice cubes!

Photo: Liisa Lundell

Party Trick Number Two: Forget the bowl; just cut a hole in the top of the chip bag and you’re ready to serve!

IDEA #2 — Amazing Insulation

This is a great example of how to solve two problems at once. Finland is cold all winter and bright all summer (even at night), so good insulation and dark blinds are a must in any Finnish home. Lots of heat escapes through windows, so a double-framed construction will keep a room a lot cozier. That much is common sense.

Photo: Liisa Lundell

But tucking the blinds in between the panes? That’s genius! No more trapped dust, tangled cords, toddler strangulation risk or bent blades. The blinds can be raised, opened and closed with a wand on your side of the glass, and worked smoothly and efficiently every time I tried them out… which I may or may not have done repeatedly, just for the novelty of it all.

IDEA #3 — Magic Drying Cabinets!

Washing dishes is one of the most tedious of daily tasks. We stack a pile of dirty dishes, wash them, stack them in another pile to dry, and finally stack them all back in the cupboards. The worst part of this process is dealing with the cups and glasses – they get that funky smell if you leave them upside down, and collect dust and spiders if you leave them right-side up. Leave it to the Finns to solve all our problems…

Photo: Liisa Lundell

Look, and look again. The cabinets have become drainboards, and the drainboards have become cabinets. Just close the doors, and your kitchen will look as elegant as any other – and all the while allowing air to circulate and the odd drop of water to drip into the sink below. Sheer sadism is the only logical explanation for why these aren’t standard issue around the globe.

Please invite your friends to these events, and while you’re there, thank a volunteer!

The Sustain Mizzou executive board started Mizzou Sustainability Week last year. It featured events such as an E-Waste Drive, Fresh Beets Benefit Concert, picnic on Lowry Mall, transportation fair, and keynote about dumpster diving.

Step One: Ask the Big Question

Do you even need a car? Most of our Footprint Magazine readers are students at the University of Missouri. Many of them live in Kansas City, St.Louis, Chicago, or somewhere along the way to one of those places. This means that there are a slew of ways to travel between school and home without owning a car. You can carpool with a friend or stranger, take a train, a bus, a shuttle, or even ride a motor scooter (as one of our other contributors has been known to do). Even if you live in places that are not near these larger cities, you may be able to carpool with another person who already owns a car and hails from your hometown. You could also hitchhike, which despite being statistically safe, is not an in which adventure I am willing to partake. Please write to us, however, about your experience if you give it a try!

Getting around Columbia certainly doesn’t require owning a car.  The bus system is decent, and the city is very bicycle friendly. The university is also a hub for the WeCar car sharing program allowing you to rent cars by the hour or for a couple of days. And, when all else fails, you can certainly get a ride from another car owning friend.

Sometimes, the answer to the question is going to be that you do, indeed, “need” a car. But give it a great deal of consideration and make sure that you actually need the car and don’t just want it. The following are some good questions to ask yourself:

A culmination of a lifelong pastime, at age 56, Moreland will embark on a solo journey from the headwaters of the Missouri River to the confluence with the Mississippi river – solo, via kayak.

Moreland always has a smile on her face. Photo from her blog.

Just around the corner

Moreland explored the rivers of southern Missouri for a few years in the mid-‘90s then moved to Columbia, eventually moving not far from Cooper’s Landing on the Missouri River. She spent her first few years adjusting to the community; five years passed before she discovered the Missouri River was no more than ten minutes away. With that revelation, Moreland went to the Alpine Shop and bought two kayaks in 2001. That purchase signified to her that Columbia was home.

With the kayaks purchased, Moreland confided to the salesperson their intended use on the Missouri River. She remembers the salesperson remarking that the sale would not have happened with that knowledge. Moreland, who once lived in Yosemite, busts the myth that the Missouri River is dangerous with a laugh. “It’s my lazy river,” she says.

The Big Muddy does not scare her. She remembers once losing a paddle during a kayak race, and without pause she backpedaled with her hands to retrieve the floating paddle. “I like a challenge,” Moreland says. If she completes this spring’s trip down the Missouri, Moreland will be the first woman to paddle the Missouri River solo.

Missouri River Relief is hosting a benefit concert for Janet tonight at Mojo’s.

Motivated by future generations

This feat is not just self-serving for Moreland. A recent graduate of University of Missouri’s School of Education, she plans to use her trip as a teaching tool to her future students. She hopes to teach science and/or social studies at a local middle school and incorporate lesson plans on the Missouri River into her curriculum. Just before our interview, Moreland had attended a job fair. She hopes to land a teaching position before she leaves so that she can tailor lesson plans to certain subjects and ages of her future students.

The history of Native American habitation along the river, French exploration of North America, early pioneer hunting and trapping, Lewis and Clark’s voyage, the steamboat era and the Army Corps of Engineers dredging and damming of the river will all be incorporated into Moreland’s teaching. “There is so much untold history to teach our children,” Moreland says, especially referring to Native American history, for which she has a soft spot. In July she will stop at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for a 2-day education event.

Moreland plans two books to interpret her trip: one full of lesson plans and the other a memoir. She will closely study the wildlife at the source area of the Missouri River, where there are several lakes – the largest 230 miles long, and take weather samples.

Above all, Moreland will focus on teaching about stewardship of the Missouri River through lessons on watershed management and water quality. She actively promotes the nonprofit Missouri River Relief through her blog and will continue to do so on her journey. “There’s some sustainability issues that need to be addressed,” Moreland says. She does not want the Missouri to one day have the same fate as the Colorado River, which no longer flows into the ocean because of human interference.

If she does not get a teaching position for the fall, Moreland entertains the idea of continuing her paddle to the Gulf of Mexico, via the Mississippi River. She is not scared of running out of steam; endurance is not an issue for her. Among the many provisions on Moreland’s list, she hopes to construct a terrarium that will hold sprouts of leafy greens so that she can pluck fresh lettuce and spinach at her heart’s desire. Sponsors such as the Alpine Shop and Walt’s Bike Shop have given her gear. She will have a solar charger for her laptop and cell phone, and her kayak already made the trip down the Big Muddy once before. It is the same kayak that Australian man Bob Bellingham took down the Missouri River last summer.

Community support is vital to Janet’s successful voyage. See below for online donations and a benefit concert.

Music and fundraiser tonight

The Riverbillies are coming to town and you’re invited!!!  Please join us for a rockin’ send off and fundraiser for our inspiring, adventure-seeking friend Janet Moreland, as she prepares to embark on a 2600-mile kayaking expedition down the Missouri River as the first WOMAN to ever paddle the entire length of the river solo, from “source to sea”!

A “Love Your Big Muddy Blues Benefit” will be held at Mojo’s on Wednesday, March 27^th from 5-9 pm.  A $10 donation is requested at the door, and there will be a raffle full of awesome prizes, not to mention a Charlie Brown Boogie Down dance-off competition.  Local blues musicians John D’Agostino, Scott McCullough, Dennis Ternamian, Dave Bandy, Steve Andsager and the power Debbie D among others will come together to celebrate and raise awareness about Janet’s trip of a lifetime.

One Woman, One River, 2600 Miles

EVENT DETAILS:

Date:  Wednesday, March 27^th

Time:  5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Location: Mojos, 1013 Park Ave. Columbia, MO 65201

Donation: $10 at the door.

Event Page:  http://www.facebook.com/events/427915293960865/

Donate Online: http://www.gofundme.com/loveyourbigmuddy