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By Robin Whitlock* The disposal of human waste—arguably one of the oldest problems on Earth—continues as a serious challenge to municipalities and locales across the planet. The World Toilet Organization is promoting international discussion and cooperation toward improving sanitation around the world, particularly in Asia and Africa, culminating in the World Toilet Summit (WTS). Below is an overview of current sanitation systems in use, followed by highlights from the WTS 2022 and an innovative project by Georgia Institute of Technology. Waste is Everyone’s Problem Left untreated, human urine and feces present grave risks to human health and the environment, and so societies all over the world have developed sanitation systems to collect, transport, and treat this waste safely before disposal or reuse. It follows that sanitation systems around the world differ widely in their design. Most people in developed countries use flush toilets. In this system, human waste is mixed with water and transported to sewage treatment plants via a sewage system consisting of sewage pipes and sewage mains. Unfortunately, some societies have inadequate sanitation systems, while others have no systems at all, leaving their populations to void and defecate openly into the environment, thereby causing significant environmental and public health problems. Risks from Untreated Human Waste Human waste is considered a biowaste because it acts as a transmission conduit (“vector”) for pathogens or living organisms that can cause disease. The risk to human health becomes especially acute if it enters sources of human drinking water. This is an everyday reality for many people around the world—according to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 2.2 million people die annually from diseases caused by contaminated water, such as cholera and diarrhea. Sanitations Systems Around the World Onsite sanitation systems typically include pit latrines, septic tanks, and container-based systems where toilets are contained in sealable containers that can be easily removed to treatment facilities. These facilities accumulate fecal sludge, which may include substances such as flushing water, cleaning materials, menstrual hygiene products, bathing or kitchen water (gray water, which can often also include fat, oil, and grease), and solid waste. This material is treated by an approach called fecal sludge management. Recycling Human Waste Human waste is potentially very valuable for agricultural purposes if it is properly treated. Urine, for example, contains a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus, both of which are key ingredients in fertilizer. Feces, meanwhile, contain organic matter and nutrients. For these reasons, in some parts of the developing world, human waste is often recycled and used to irrigate and fertilize fields where there is a shortage of fresh water. Raw human waste is potentially very dangerous, though. This is why sewage treatment systems work to kill off the bacterial contaminants, usually by running it through an anaerobic digester. The product of this anaerobic digestion is biosolids. In the US, about half of the biosolids from the sewage treatment system are returned to farmland. This process is heavily regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which introduced strict standards for biosolids in 1990, with a two-tier system. However, a National Academy of Sciences report in 2002 found that there are no studies that prove a link between biosolids and adverse health effects. In 2013, the US Geological Survey followed with an inconclusive investigation of what happens to plants when biosolids are applied to the soil. With the help of scientists in 2015, South Asian countries, particularly India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, developed composting policies and technology for their nations. For example, there were collaborative efforts between the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), which helped to develop policy advice on the use of wastewater and septic tank sludge in India. In that same year, US scientists concluded that it may be possible to recover valuable metals from biosolids. This could open up a source of metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and copper, as well as other metals regularly used by the electronics industry, such as palladium and vanadium. It is not exactly clear how these metals enter the sewage system, but research by scientists at Arizona State University has indicated that an average American city with a population of about one million people is responsible for about $13 million worth of precious metals ending up in its sewage system each year. Research on potential avenues for recovery is still ongoing. New Research on Using Human Waste in Plants In 2021, Prof. Rebecca Nelson of Cornell University discussed human urine and plants in a presentation she gave in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) Annual Meeting. Nelson explained that plants at the Cornell study site are fertilized with human urine, which recycles its nitrogen and phosphorus content while diverting it from the sewage system. Cornell’s system also saves money as there is less need for conventional fertilizers. Such an approach could be applied in countries where farmers have difficulty obtaining conventional fertilizer and could help to develop a more sustainable food production system. Human feces can be used in those countries to improve the soil structure and absorb rainwater, thereby reducing the effects of drought on crops. Feces can also be converted into biochar which can act as a valuable source of carbon for soil improvement. Some US cities, including Tacoma, Washington; Brattleboro, Vermont; and Chicago, have already started using biosolids from wastewater systems in this manner. Waterless Urinals Honey buckets (portable latrines) and sewage lagoons can be used in remote areas that do not have sewage or septic tank systems. The risk from disease tends to be low in these areas due to less dense populations. For instance, rural villages in Alaska do not try to build permanent conventional waste treatment systems because of the permafrost. WASH and Sustainable Development Goals Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is a key topic in the international development sector, covered by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. The policy document on this is entitled “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” SDG6 recognizes that access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene is “the most basic human need for health and well-being.” Currently, billions of people lack access to these basic services and will continue to in 2030 unless current progress on these matters quadruples. However, demand for water is rising due to population growth, urbanization, and increasing water needs from sectors such as agriculture, industry, and energy. This "water stress" is exacerbated by decades of poor management and over-extraction, pollution of groundwater and fresh water supplies, and water scarcity caused by climate change, underinvestment, and lack of cooperation across national boundaries. Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets: 6.1 By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all. 6.2 By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. 6.3 By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally. 6.4 By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity. 6.5 By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate. 6.6 By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes. 6.A By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programs, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies. 6.B Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management. World Toilet Organization The World Toilet Organization was founded by Jack Sim on November 19, 2001, with an inaugural event called the World Toilet Summit. The aim of both the organization and the summit was to draw the world’s attention to the global sanitation crisis. Since the first summit, the event has attracted the support of NGOs, the private sector, civil society organizations, and the international community. Sim’s founding of the World Toilet Organization was preceded by his establishment of the Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) in 1998. In 2008, Sim founded SaniShop, which focuses on the entrepreneurship for toilet installation on a community level, and in 2013 he worked with the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pass a resolution at the UN General Assembly titled "Sanitation for All," designating November 19 as official UN World Toilet Day. Sim remains as the organization's founder and director, working alongside a team of eight directors. Originally, the World Toilet Organization had fifteen members, but this has grown to 151 current member organizations across fifty-three countries. It aims to continue building the global sanitation movement through collaborative action that provides innovative solutions with an ultimate aim of providing decent sanitation for everyone across the world. It does this through advocacy, education, and a market-based approach to providing solutions. Its major ongoing project is the World Toilet College, which has facilities in Singapore and India, to address the education and training gap around sanitation. The WTS 2022 was held on November 18 to 19 in Abuja, Nigeria, with the purpose of improving collaboration among stakeholders, increasing private sector participation regarding sanitation issues, mobilizing investment, and sharing knowledge on market-based approaches to sanitation solutions. Notably, representatives from eight states in Nigeria expressed their commitments to achieve a total of over thirty-five local government areas (LGAs) becoming open defecation free (ODF) between 2023 and 2025, with more details in the WTS 2022 report. Generation II Reinvented Toilet (G2RT) Project As part of the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” by the Gates Foundation, Dr. Shannon Yee, associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, is leading the G2RT team of seventy engineers, scientists, and industrial designers from around the world toward one goal—developing a plug-in toilet with minimal water input and no sewage output. Its current experimental model has a front end (toilet) and a back end (waste-processing unit). The front end requires just 0.2 L of water to flush, and the urine and fecal matter are separated. The back end treats the urine and fecal matter to produce clean water and odorless “feces cake,” which can be reused. Details on its mechanism can be found here. Current challenges include its size and cost, as G2RT is roughly the size of a washing machine with a target price of $450. It also requires a supply of electricity to run. In a podcast with World Changing Ideas, Yee explains that the big issue here is that “[people need] to be able to treat waste without input water. So, no water coming into the toilet and no output sewage.” If people had an appliance “where you just plug it in wherever you need a bathroom, and it treats your waste,” that would be such a big change, Yee says. “You wouldn’t need to have a dedicated plumbing area for where the bathroom is located. You could put a bathroom anywhere!” *Robin Whitlock is an England-based freelance journalist specializing in environmental issues, climate change, and renewable energy, with a variety of other professional interests including green transportation.

COVID-19 stay-at-home measures inspired an uptick in home gardening in the US, according to an article in the consumer advocate publication Consumer Affairs. Researchers at the University of Georgia surveyed more than 4,200 households about their gardening activities prior to, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The UG researchers found a new interest in gardening but warned the gardening industry that the trend may not last. Almost 35% of the survey respondents reported taking up gardening because they were spending more time at home. Over 40% of respondents reported an increase in their usual gardening habits. This included an increase in garden-related purchases. Some 62% of respondents said they intended to return to pre-pandemic purchasing levels. The remaining 38% intended to maintain their post-pandemic purchasing levels. Millennials and those born in 1985 or after were more likely to have started gardening during the pandemic. Millennials and younger respondents were also more likely to discontinue gardening once things returned to normal. Sources: https://journals.ashs.org/horttech/view/journals/horttech/32/1/article-p32.xml https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-sparked-increase-in-gardening-sales-study-finds-032222.html

Study Shows Crucial Role for Iconic Species in Prairie Ecosystems By Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe* The iconic North American buffalo, which fell to near-extinction levels in the 1880s, is now flourishing, thanks to concerted conservation efforts. While bison have long been known as a sustainable food and income source, they are now being shown to be an essential part of a prairie ecosystem. In fact, reintroducing bison to a Great Plains tallgrass prairie ecosystem in the US nearly doubled plant diversity there, says a new study led by Kansas State University (KSU) researchers. The researchers examined the impact of bison on the abundance of native species in prairie landscapes, basing their findings on thirty years of data collected by the 3,487-hectare Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS) in Kansas. KPBS is jointly owned by The Nature Conservancy and KSU. Building Back the Buffalo Biome American bison herds once numbered 60 million animals, but they barely survived the massive hunting and disease threats of the 1800s. Herds dwindled to hundreds or even dozens of animals. Preservation efforts began in earnest by the early 1900s and have never stopped. “The American bison today is a conservation success story, which has gone from less than 1,000 animals left in the world to approximately 500,000 in North America today,” says National Bison Association Executive Director Jim Matheson. Bison remain under threat from anthropogenic stressors. Consequently, they are receiving attention from scientists and other stakeholders who hope to see them thrive. Understanding how humans can help bison regenerate prairie ecosystems and maintain healthy bison populations is crucial to species abundance. The favorable status of bison today is the result of a unique, ongoing collaboration of conservation, agriculture, and public interest in restoring the species, says Matheson. In North America, bison can currently be found in all fifty US states and every Canadian province. This area represents the animal’s native range. While many of these bison are on private land, the species remains undomesticated. Ranchers and producers use this to their advantage, seeking to develop a robust and regenerative tool to maintain soil health and sequester carbon in bison grazing lands. Previous studies indicate that bison grazing encourages plant and species diversity. This includes changing the ground cover or patch structure across tallgrass environments. Bison also tend to “wallow” or vigorously roll around in the dirt. This intense behavior, which helps the animals shed their old coats, relieve insect bites, and add a fresh layer of protective dirt to their hides, leaves behind large, bowl-sized depressions. These “bison wallows” disturb the soil—permitting new vegetation to grow—and create spaces that collect rainwater; these things greatly benefit the ecosystem, researchers have found. In contrast, another study highlighted how humans in some areas of the world are removing bison grazers, thus decreasing grass and wildflower richness, evenness, and diversity over time. Contributions to Ecosystem Health “In high-productivity grasslands, like tallgrass prairie, we see that bison increase the number of plant species and the makeup of the plant community,” says Zak Ratajczak, assistant professor of biology and lead researcher of the KSU study. Areas with bison have less dominant tall grasses, more short grasses typical of drier grasslands, and a much higher abundance of wildflowers, such as goldenrod. The presence of bison in these grasslands has cascading effects on other parts of the ecosystem. For example, in places where bison graze, grasshopper, bee and other pollinator populations grow. “We’re now exploring whether bison affect the abundance of woody plants,” says Ratajczak. “The preliminary results are nuanced and suggest that bison might increase woody plants in some places and decrease them in others,” he adds. Concerns for Climate Extremes A major concern is that periods of severe heat or drought could become more frequent and intense in the foreseeable future. “These events can really test the resilience of species and ecosystems,” says Ratajczak. Based on their current study, the researchers found that plant communities created by bison were resilient to extreme heat in 2011 and extreme drought in 2022. The researchers suspect that the plant species the bison promoted have traits that help them cope with drought. These include new drought-resistant grasses; small, annual plants that reproduce early in the growing season before drought usually sets in; and some wildflowers with very deep roots. (Deep soil is less likely to be depleted during summer droughts). “I think it is really important to realize that the droughts we could face will be more intense and last longer, which could really test these communities,” Ratajczak adds. Researchers found that plant communities took between two to four years to recover after a drought. “What we don’t know is whether the plant community would be resilient if another drought occurred before the plant community had time to recover,” says Ratajczak. Restoration Efforts Require Broad Support Conservation groups are working to expand bison herds on public and private land across the North American continent. NGOs, the federal governments of Canada and the US, conservation groups, Indigenous communities, and private citizens are involved in bison restoration. “Bison farmers and ranchers are expanding herds to meet growing consumer demand for its clean, delicious, and supremely nutritious meat,” adds Matheson. A 2022 study on bison as a potential food source said that the “restoration of bison on tribal lands can, under appropriate vision and planning…[provide] a sustainable protein source to communities with some of the greatest food insecurity in the United States.” This would restore a significant cultural aspect to Indigenous people, adds Matheson. Progress in Protecting Prairie Health Bison are now recognized as a keystone species that impacts the overall health in the prairie ecosystem. The National Bison Association in the US has found that when bison flourish, they attract drought-resistant plants, other native flora and fauna, and birds to newly created habitats. “The future for bison restoration is very bright,” says Matheson. “Efforts on all bison fronts are expanding and have the public’s support across the board,” he adds. In 2016, the United States enacted the National Bison Legacy Act, which was supported by the National Bison Association, Intertribal Buffalo Council, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Hailed as a “historic bill,” the National Bison Legacy Act officially names the North American bison as the US national mammal and honors its cultural, historical, and ecological significance. Sentiment is now firmly focused on the lessons learned from the near-demise of bison and how to manage this legendary species correctly. Along with the “love and dedication the animal has earned from us,” these factors “will ensure its continued return to its native landscape in North America,” says Matheson. *Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe is a freelance journalist and editor. Over the past 10 years, Natasha has reported for a host of publications, exploring the wider world and industries from environmental, scientific, business, legal, and sociological perspectives. Natasha has also been interviewed as an insight provider for research institutes and conferences. Editoral Notes: Sources: Interview with Jim Matheson, Executive Director, National Bison Association Interview with Zak Ratajczak, assistant professor of biology, Kansas State University, and lead researcher

The Earth & I Interviews Karl Willey of the Maryland Oyster Restoration Center of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Oysters have become recognized for their ability to clean water and their role in water ecosystems. Organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) in Maryland have been utilizing oysters for water restoration efforts, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay, America’s largest estuary. Below are edited highlights from Gregg Jones’s interview with Karl Willey, center manager of the Maryland Oyster Restoration Center of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, in which he discusses the role of oysters and that of his organization in restoring the Chesapeake Bay. What is your role with the CBF (Chesapeake Bay Foundation)? I am the Maryland Oyster Restoration Center Manager. With our oyster restoration coordinator, oyster gardening coordinator, four 3,300-gallon oyster growing tanks, and a sixty-foot oyster seeding boat, we engage hundreds of volunteers to help Save the Bay through oyster restoration activities. At our oyster center, we can grow around twenty million to thirty million [oyster larvae] on shell per year and seed them out onto sanctuary reefs in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. These oyster reefs are protected underwater and will never be harvested legally. We also create Reef Balls with spat [juvenile] oysters on them and start a reef that didn’t exist. I call them “small condos,” with a spat-set of around 1,700 spats per Reef Ball. What is a Reef Ball? A reef ball’s a concrete sphere shaped like an igloo with holes in it. The holes allow fish to swim in and out of it, and it becomes an instant reef once you put spat on it. The third activity is oyster gardening. This involves growing several hundred spat-on-shell in cages the size of a mailbox and placing them off privately owned docks throughout Maryland and Virginia. Volunteers and our other partners will tend to the cages, cleaning them about once a month, and in the process see fish and critters on their own mini reef. The fourth activity is shell recycling by collecting oyster shells from restaurants and people that shuck at their homes. We provide locations for them to donate their shells, pick them up, stockpile them, and we set spat on them in our setting tanks by the next summer. How big of a role does oyster gardening take in terms of the work that you do for reef restoration? It’s a big and important role. It gets the word out to the public that oyster restoration is needed in the Chesapeake Bay. Growing oysters says “I care about the Bay and its critters” to our neighbors, lobbyists, and legislators. People are voting more for restoration work in the Bay and generally want to do more for Saving the Bay. Getting people involved throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed in restoration work, whether it’s planting a tree or growing oysters, is a vital part of restoration. It helps us do our job in large-scale restoration efforts. Our volunteers educate our legislators that make political decisions allowing us to build more reefs in our public waters. How long has CBF been involved with oyster restoration in relation to the Chesapeake Bay? We started in 1996 with oyster gardening in Virginia and Maryland. It attracted donors as people saw how effective and exciting oysters are. Donors said they wanted to invest more money into restoration, so we slowly grew larger. CBF invested into a sixty-foot oyster seeding boat that we run named Patricia Campbell, named after donor Keith Campbell’s wife. Historically, what would a natural, pristine oyster reef or tributary look like? What did they look like back in the 1600s before they were damaged by humans? There are very few scriptures, writings, or logs from captains back then describing exactly what they looked like. They could describe them partially by saying that oysters were jetting out from the water at low tide, a ship could run aground on it, and you could eat your fill, and even after your fill, still see billions of oysters out there—a carpet of oysters. Building up to that would be almost impossible today, but what we can do is start it by putting oysters on the bottom of the Bay, based on oyster reef charts done by the state of Maryland in 1905. That’s where the partnership starts between nonprofits like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and local, state, and federal agencies. The University of Maryland (UMD) and Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) scientists survey the bottom to find out where we could rebuild reefs. Then the Army Corps of Engineers and Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will place the substrate, whether it be shell, rock, or crushed concrete, on the bottom. After putting the substrate down, other partners like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Oyster Recovery Partnership will seed the reefs with millions of spat-on-shell. Scientists later monitor the bottom and find out how it did. More than fifty adult oysters per square meter is considered a healthy oyster reef. It may take a decade to get reef like hills underwater. What you really need in a reef is a three-dimensional structure that would filter the Bay, provide habitat, and help break up the stratification in the water, allowing more oxygen to be pulled down from the top to the bottom, minimizing the dead zones in Chesapeake Bay that kill fish during the summertime. I think that is vitally important. What you really need in a reef is a three-dimensional structure that would filter the Bay, provide habitat, and help break up the stratification in the water. The second bonus you get out of the 3D structure of an oyster reef is that it breaks up big waves during storm events. Right now, we have a lot of shoreline erosion and land loss along waterfronts. Big catastrophic events like hurricanes can cause significantly more damage without the oyster reefs there to dampen down the larger waves. Reefs play an important role in protecting fish and other critters, water quality, and shorelines. Yes, there also isn’t much vegetation, right? Right. If you have a hard shoreline, it makes it worse. A marsh or beach would look more natural and inviting in front of a home. Oysters are analogous to the coral reefs in the Caribbean, the beautiful reefs you see when you go snorkeling in the blue water. All the fish live around it, but, once you swim away from it, you see very few fish by the sandy bottom. Life is similar in the Chesapeake Bay. Oysters are the Bay’s reefs. If you take all the oysters out of the Bay, then you just have sand and mud. There really isn’t much left in the Bay, thus making the oyster a keystone species. Without the oyster reef, many fish species would not exist in the Chesapeake Bay. A rockfish, for example, loves rock. If you remove an oyster reef, which is oyster rock to some fish, a rockfish would be less likely to live there. They travel there to spawn but wouldn’t if it weren’t for the oysters. Other critters that live in the oyster reef are important, such as the oyster toad fish that lives on the bottom in an oyster reef with the goby, blenny, and skilletfish. There’s a long list of such species. And on the bottom under a reef there’s the benthic of organisms that benefit from the waste from oysters. Exactly how do oysters benefit the Bay? When an oyster eats, it filters everything out of the water. It grabs all of it and filters it into its system. And it identifies what it doesn’t like and packages it up into a pseudo-feces and distributes it on the bottom where other organisms will consume it. For algae and things it likes, the oyster will send them through its gut and digest them, which then becomes feces on the bottom that other organisms will consume. So, oysters clean the water column, whether it be dirt, suspended solids, or algae. One large adult oyster over three inches can filter up to fifty gallons of water per day. You could deploy ten billion oysters in the Bay for restoration activities. With that amount of energy in the water, oysters can filter out a lot of suspended solids and clean the Bay. When did scientists first see the decline of the oysters and have concern? There’s actually an interesting book called The Oyster: A Popular Summary Of A Scientific Study (1891). It was written back in 1891 by William Keith Brooks, one of the oyster commissioners for the state of Maryland who was in charge of watching over the oyster population. It was a huge industry; people made millions of dollars off the oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. The commissioner saw the oyster depletion and wrote the book. Ken Paynter, a scientist through the University of Maryland, wrote the foreword on a reprint, which came out about a hundred years later. Brooks reflected that oysters are having problems and we could fix it now if we take certain steps, but it did not happen. One of the ideas is relevant today in Virginia: using rotational reefs. If a healthy reef gets down to around ten oysters per square meter, they’ll close that reef from harvest and let it grow back. And maybe in three years they will open it back up again after a survey. That is what Brooks recommended. Back then in the 1800s, they had a lot more oyster larvae floating in the water column that could rehabilitate and reseed itself. If the watermen replaced the shells back in the water and the spat settled on it, harvest could happen in two years. You could then continue harvesting as long as you don’t overharvest. He saw the writing on the wall. He wrote that book while he still was a commissioner and got fired. To answer your question of when scientists first recognized the issue, I don’t even know. Somewhere in the 1800s, Connecticut area oystermen overharvested the oysters and basically didn’t have anything else to harvest. The tool they had up in Connecticut was the dredge. They brought down the dredge to the Chesapeake Bay, and very quickly Maryland saw it was an efficient tool and made a law that prohibited dredging in the Chesapeake Bay unless you were a Maryland resident. So, Connecticut oystermen became Maryland residents. Overharvesting oysters and oyster diseases in the 1950s changed some harvesting rules. Today, most large dredges are only used on skipjacks to harvest on public oyster bars. What are some of the hurdles that have been encountered and overcome to restore oyster populations? Challenges in oyster restoration include climate change, sea level rise, water quality, and oyster diseases. There’s still poaching going on in certain areas of the Bay, which is a challenge for our DNR police. Other challenges include the cost of doing restoration correctly and the limitation on shell. Shell—that used to be free—is valuable now. People would give you bushels of shell when I first started restoration, but now it costs over $7 a bushel. Many watermen want to get involved in oyster aquaculture, but there is a cost to set spat-on-shell and put it in the water. That's another hurdle, the sheer cost and volume of work, but I see it getting easier in Maryland. The state has set aside an oyster aquaculture division within the Department of Natural Resources that helps the watermen/farmers. DNR can make it quicker and less expensive to get involved in oyster aquaculture. The state needs to invite more watermen and other people switching over from wild oyster harvesting to oyster aquaculture, which is more sustainable. We have very few wild oysters left in the Chesapeake Bay. Like old growth forests, some are in our oyster sanctuaries. These old reefs have tolerated diseases, water quality changes, and climate changes, and our new reefs can benefit from their offspring, creating more resilient reefs in the Bay. It seems it’s quite a collaborative effort between the state, DNR, universities, and nonprofits. Absolutely. We also have the public volunteering and voting, legislators creating new laws, and the watermen with extended knowledge. Watermen help in the restoration work. They’ll hire their boats out to pull up oysters and do monitoring plus seeding oysters back into the Bay. There are multiple sectors in the oyster industry that are helpful. And they know they need to do the right thing to keep oysters in the Bay for generations to come. Where does Maryland stand in relation to other oyster restoration efforts in the US and globally? I’m pretty sure that the Chesapeake Bay is the leader of oyster restoration in the world. Other countries have been doing oyster aquaculture for hundreds of years, some being in Europe and Asia. Many efforts in oyster farming have been made, but restoration is a growing trend. Being one of the largest restoration efforts in the world, it’s not done perfectly. It’s done the best we can and we learn, but, quite honestly, it has ended up going very well. Especially the first oyster sanctuary we finished at Harris Creek that met the fifty oysters per square meter mark. It is doing quite well and will be studied for years to come. What are some of the target goals of the efforts here in Maryland and Virginia? I know you have ten tributaries, right? Yes, that goal is ten tributaries, five in Maryland and five in Virginia by the year 2025, and we’re almost there. If you go out [in Virginia] and monitor their reefs over a season, more than likely they will get a natural spat set in those reefs. Just about every year or every other year, they’ll get one with a nice spat set, but it’s a little harder in Maryland. We’ve got to have the right salinity, so the upper reaches of the lower salinity areas may not a get a natural strike every year or a heavy set. It’s a little heavier lift up here to get a reef to sustain itself without the help of re-seeding it every couple years. But at some point, the “tipping point” will be reached. Finally, can an individual get involved in oyster gardening to help the restoration work? Yes. If somebody wants to do it on a larger scale, we’ll work with them and give them the equipment they need. You can send an email to marylandoystergardening@cbf.org. *Gregg Jones is the outreach director of the Hyo Jeong International Foundation for the Unity of the Sciences (HJIFUS), the publisher of The Earth & I.

By David Dodge* Few may have seen them before; they don’t want to stand out. Hutterites—women in bright colored, plain dresses and men in somber, dark jackets and hats. They’re almost always at a local farmer’s market in Montana, South Dakota, and in Alberta, Canada, on a Saturday morning selling fresh eggs, carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables and products of their farm. This quaint image of a quiet, rural people is challenged by the Green Acres Hutterite solar-powered farming colony in Bassano, Alberta. The pacifist Hutterites emigrated from Eastern Europe to the North American plains during the late 19th century, escaping almost three centuries of religious persecution, like their Anabaptist “cousins,” the Amish. While the Amish eschew modern technology, the Hutterites have become ambitious, industrial-scale farmers. The Green Acres colony has a population of about 80 people. The colony farms 20,000 acres, and powers its hog and chicken operation, its one-of-a-kind plastics recycling plant, Crowfoot Plastics, and its residences exclusively with solar energy. The Brothers Hofer Dan Hofer, the “financial boss” of Green Acres, and his brother, Jake Hofer, Green Acres’ electrician, along with David Vonesch, Chief Operating Officer at SkyFire Energy, the company that installed the colony’s two-megawatt solar system in 2015, are proud to show visitors the solar farm up close. The more than 7,600 solar modules are quite a sight, rows of them all facing south. It’s a field of blue that just sits there, quietly harvesting light from the sun and powering the colony’s future. “It still blows me away to this day,” mused Jake Hofer. “Yes, you look at the system, day after day, and there’s nothing moving, no moving parts, and yet it creates all this energy.” One of the two megawatts (MW) of solar electricity produced supplies the Crowfoot Plastics recycling plant, while the rest powers the farms’ operations and the colony’s residences. “You look at the system, day after day, and there’s nothing moving, no moving parts, and yet it creates all this energy.” Hutterite Culture Once one understands a bit about Hutterite culture, their embrace of solar power makes perfect sense. “Every piece of our colony’s livelihood is an asset and is very important,” said Dan Hofer. “You grow and supply your own meat, you grow and supply your own garden and vegetables as much as possible, so [solar power] falls kind of in the same category. It’s self-sufficient. You’re relying on your own resources; you’re not relying on someone else.” “We did it for economic reasons,” said Dan Hofer. “They [the banks] didn’t have an issue at all. After seeing some of the numbers, how the economics would work out, they were fully supportive.” As for the environment, Dan Hofer said the clean nature of solar energy is gravy: “We’re all polluters of the land, so it’s good to give something back.” For solar project developer SkyFire Energy, the project was a first in terms of scale. “The solar resource here is some of the best in Canada,” said Vonesch. “A system installed right here will produce about 50 or 60 percent more than if the same system were installed in Germany,” the top solar electricity producer in Europe. The wind resource in Southern Alberta is also among the best in Canada. So why did the colony choose solar and not wind? “Maintenance was one of the big issues,” chuckled Jake Hofer. “And I’m terribly scared of heights.” Making an Investment for the Future Thanks to a keen business sense and a DIY attitude, Green Acres pushed the envelope on the cost of the solar. The result should be a payback of their investment in 15 years if electricity prices remain low, or as few as 10 years if they start to escalate, according to Dan Hofer. “I think because of this system, because of Green Acres taking this leap, we’ve seen increased interest in these types of systems, and this scale of project,” said Vonesch. “It’s taken the ‘what’s possible’ to a new level, and lots of people are looking at it and following suit.” Intrigued by the economics, people from all over Alberta have visited and taken a cue from the Hutterite solar farm and started projects of their own. ‘Crowfoot Plastics’ Recycling Plant Green Acres’ commitment to the environment is demonstrated by the plastics recycling plant it owns and operates with electricity sourced from their solar farm. When farmers run out of grain storage space, they like to use gigantic plastic grain bags. These are less expensive than storage buildings. When filled they look like giant “grain sausages” stretched out on farm fields but once they are emptied “these tons of plastic are begging to be recycled,” writes Linda Maendel in her Hutterite blog. The Crowfoot Plastics recycling plant takes those large plastic sheets, cleans them, and turns them into small plastic resin pellets that are used to produce new plastic products, like garbage bags. Solar Pioneers The Green Acres Hutterite Colony was a pioneer in securing solar as an investment. Solar is now the cheapest method of generating electricity in the world, and today solar is booming in Alberta. The Granum Hutterite Colony also got involved with solar by leasing their lands to the Claresholm Solar Project, the largest in Canadian history at the time operations began in October 2021. The Granum colony made the project more cost-effective by doing one million dollars' worth of work helping build the solar farm. They will also benefit from lease payments that stretch well into the future. The colony’s participation in this project is quite an accomplishment for a community that still grazes their sheep on the same lands (underneath the solar panels) as they have always done. *David Dodge is an environmental journalist and a photojournalist who has worked for newspapers, published magazines, produced radio, and was the production manager for a Canadian nature publisher. He produced more than 350 award-winning EcoFile radio programs on sustainability for the CKUA Radio network. Find out more about David Dodge’s visit to the Green Acres Colony at https://youtu.be/ZDW2Yg0SOB0.

French Scientist Proposes Possible Mechanism By Mark Smith* Few terms are more divisive among the medical fraternity than homeopathy. For its supporters, this branch of “alternative medicine” represents a host of potential treatments, but for others it represents a crackpot—perhaps even dangerous—dalliance with pseudo-medicine that has no place in modern healthcare. Both camps have made claims and counterclaims about whether homeopathy has any real merit, with critics often pointing to the lack of real scientific data to back it up, as well as a practical explanation of how it impacts the body. But could a branch of science that deals with the very building blocks of existence help shed new light on homeopathy? A French scientist thinks it can. And he’s not alone. What is Homeopathy? Homeopathy is a term many associate with “alternative medicine” for the treatment of mild ailments. But what exactly is it? Homeopathy seeks to treat conditions by using small doses of substances that might otherwise induce or exacerbate that condition. For example, treating the effects of hay fever by using extracts of an onion to prompt the eyes to water and nose to run would classify as a homeopathic treatment. Developed in the 1790s by German doctor Samuel Hahnemann, the fundamental belief underpinning homeopathy is that the body can cure itself if properly prompted and that “like cures like”—hence the term homeopathy, a contraction of the Greek words homeios (similar) and pathos (disease). It is possible that this homeopathic belief may have originated from observations of the effectiveness of inoculation and variolation (inoculation for smallpox, which is now obsolete) during the 18th century to treat certain diseases; in any case, it is a phenomenon that may be attributed in certain instances to the way the immune system or inflammatory response functions to heal disease or injury. In practice, homeopathy involves concoctions that can be made from things like herbs, crushed bees, poison ivy, and white arsenic, all designed to stimulate the body’s healing properties. Treatments are created by repeated dilutions of the relevant substance—a process known as potentization—and with each dilution the healing effect increases. How Is it Viewed? While homeopathy has gained a following in countries, including the United States, Germany and United Kingdom, mainstream medicine continues to view it with skepticism. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) stopped funding homeopathy in 2017 after a report declared it to be “no better than a placebo.” But it continues to enjoy support from high profile figures globally, including Charles III—the king of England. There have been experiments showing efficacy for such ailments as rheumatoid arthritis. For instance, Gibson et al reported in 1980 that “there was a significant improvement in subjective pain, articular index, stiffness and grip strength in those [rheumatoid arthritis] patients receiving homoeopathic remedies whereas there was no significant change in the patients who received placebo.” Again, in 1989, a study by Fisher et al found “that the homoeopathic medicine R toxicodendron 6c was effective for a selected subgroup of patients with fibrositis. The improvement in tenderness, which is the best discriminator of fibrositis, was particularly distinct.” However, according to a brief by the Earl M. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota (UMN), while research on low-dose, high-dilution substances in living organisms can be found in conventional peer-reviewed scientific journals, much of it is of insufficient quality and quantity to draw conclusions. The UMN brief suggests that homeopathy is not a therapy or modality, but “an entire system of medicine, with its own paradigm of understanding health and illness (see What is Homeopathy?).” It goes on to say that this profound difference will require researchers, if they seek to address efficacy, to keep the way “homeopathy is practiced clinically” in mind when designing their studies. They conclude that “the gold-standard, biomedical research model for drug interventions (one disease or symptom, one drug, double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective trial) is not an ideal research process for homeopathy.” "This means,” they conclude, “that the gold-standard, biomedical research model for drug interventions (one disease or symptom, one drug, double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective trial) is not an ideal research process for homeopathy.” An Atomic Explanation? While homeopathy has been around for centuries, it may be a relatively new branch of science that will unlock its mysteries and explain what’s going on. Quantum physics, which appeared in the 20th century, centers on the study of energy and matter at the very smallest atomic and subatomic levels, such as when a photon strikes an atom. Its aim is to uncover the behaviors and properties of the very building blocks of nature. In this minuscule world that includes “dark” and anti-matter, nature behaves very differently than it does in the visible world around us—a concept that is giving rise to a whole new type of scientific discovery. It is this branch of science that some believe may hold the key to explaining why homeopathy does have efficacy. Insights from a French Chemist Marc Henry is Professor Emeritus at the University of Strasbourg in France, and an expert in chemistry and knowledgeable in quantum physics. He told The Earth & I that early results of homeopathy, while very promising, had no theoretical framework to back them up to a scientific community. “During the 19th century, very good results were obtained against epidemics such as cholera,” he explained. “The success was so brilliant that all the kings, princes and nobility at that time were using homeopathy, and this is still the case today. “The development of chemical industries in the 20th century has led to a decline for the layman. The results were there—but there was no theory for explaining them.” It’s All in the Water It was Italian physicist Emilio Del Giudice who proposed that water molecules form structures, and that these structures are then able to store tiny electromagnetic signals. During homeopathy’s potentization, the crude medicine is diluted in a water/ethanol solution, followed by a vigorous shaking at each stage of dilution. This process reduces the toxicity of the original substance while retaining the substance’s electromagnetic properties. This is supposedly the case even for dilutions beyond Avogadro’s number, a level where it is presumed that molecules of the original substance no longer exist. This would mean a homeopathic treatment might send an electromagnetic message to the human body that matches the electromagnetic frequency of an ailment. By doing so, it could stimulate the body’s own healing responses. What is Water Memory? A controversial aspect of homeopathic theory relates to something called water memory, the purported ability of water to retain a memory of substances previously dissolved in it—even when the water has been diluted to such an extent that there are no detectable traces of it left. Prof. Henry believes that water plays a “crucial role” in conveying this coded information needed to make homeopathy effective. However, experiments by other researchers have shown that the theory of “water memory” appears unreliable. Scientists argue that the concept of water memory defies the third law of thermodynamics, which says that “disorder tends to a maximum.” They refer to “the established scientific model” of atoms and molecules moving randomly in liquids, a phenomenon known as Brownian motion. This law, they argue, would disallow water memory of a previously dissolved substance that no longer shows existence in the liquid. Manzalini and Galeazzi, on the other hand, state in a 2019 study that all living organisms are an “open system” that exchanges energy, matter, and information with the external environment, “operating far from thermodynamic equilibrium.” How is this so? They explain that such exchanges take place through complex “non-linear” interactions of literally billions of different biological components, at multiple levels, from the quantum up to the macro-dimensional. This “open system," as they call it, exhibits something known as “quantum coherence,” which is “an inherent property of living cells, used for long-range interactions such as synchronization of cell division processes.” This “open system” exhibits something known as “quantum coherence,” which is “an inherent property of living cells, used for long-range interactions such as synchronization of cell division processes.” They claim to find support for their theory in quantum biology, which they say demonstrates that quantum coherence is “a state of order of matter coupled with electromagnetic (EM) fields.” They say this ordered state supports the workings of life and is explained by quantum field theory (QFT), a “well-established theoretical framework” in quantum physics. Prof. Henry theorizes: “Water, owing to its very small molecular weight, has a well-resolved electronic excitation spectrum. It can then use vacuum's energy to create ‘coherence domains’—predicted by quantum field theories.” In a two-part 2019 piece in Homeopathy & You, Prof. Henry defined a coherence domain—in the case of water—as “a large amount of similar densely packed water molecules that display a coherent collective behavior as a densely packed swarm of birds in the sky behaves as a whole, autonomous, inseparable entity.” Prof. Henry is widely published on the subject and a strong advocate of a quantum explanation for what he says is homeopathic efficacy. He freely admits he is not a quantum physicist but a chemist who has studied it. He said that because homeopathy was not rooted in the atomic and subatomic world, some argue that the behaviors of quantum physics cannot be applied to it. But he takes the opposite view. “I used the same quantum physics as that involved in superconductors and superfluids that are macroscopic quantum things. So, we just cannot say that quantum physics rules the world of infinitely small things.” Funding is Needed He added that there was “a strong need” for additional funding to further the understanding of the intersection of quantum physics and homeopathy. “What I see ahead for the field of homeopathy is to have money for a better characterization of what is a homeopathic remedy,” he said. He referenced the DynHom project, led by Michel van Wassenhoven, which is devoted to promoting the effectiveness of homeopathy. He said: “Giving more money to this kind of research based on sophisticated—and expensive—measuring devices is crucial.” Quantum Medicine? Despite the deep skepticism of the medical and pharmaceutical professions, scientists like Prof. Henry believe the quantum realm—with all of its quirks and strange behaviors—holds the key to providing a scientific explanation for what has previously been unexplainable. Securing that explanation will require funding, dedication, and a will to take the research further in order to see if homeopathy can ever become an accepted tool at the disposal of the mainstream medical community. *Mark Smith is a journalist and author from the UK. He has written on subjects ranging from business and technology to world affairs, history, and popular culture for the Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, and magazines in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

By Jaqueline Sordi* 2022 has been a year of extreme weather events worldwide, resulting in humanitarian disasters with thousands of deaths and hundreds of displaced communities. Fortunately, help is in sight for poorer nations to mitigate the resulting damage and to build up climate change resilience. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) concluded on November 20 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with the establishment of a historic loss-and-damage fund to help poorer nations tackle climate change. Nevertheless, the conference fell short on goals to fight global warming and make progress on commitments to phase out fossil fuels. These goals were expected to limit a possible global temperature rise this century to “well below 2 degrees Celsius [above pre-industrial levels] and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees.” This is one of the key objectives around which the 2015 Paris Agreement was formed at COP21, and so it has become shorthand for the success of every subsequent climate summit. This latest round of UN climate talks gathered more than 35,000 people from almost every country in the world. The two-week meeting was held against a backdrop that included an energy crisis propelled by the war in Ukraine and scientific data reiterating that the world is not doing enough to tackle carbon emissions and protect the future of the planet. Today, national pledges to tackle climate change could lead to around 2.4 °C of global warming this century, far above safe levels. According to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2022, limiting global warming—preferably to 1.5 °C—is the only way to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, but this would require rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. Today, national pledges to tackle climate change could lead to around 2.4 °C of global warming this century, far above safe levels. “Humanity has a choice: Cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact—or a Collective Suicide Pact,” United Nations Secretary- General Antonio Guterres said in his COP27 opening remarks. Historical Agreement on ‘Loss and Damage’ As the world gets hotter, extreme weather events such as more intense and frequent heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods already threaten human physical and mental health, but some socially and economically disadvantaged groups face the greatest risks. According to data from the Sixth IPCC report, in more vulnerable regions of the world—such as the small Oceanic Islands, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Central America, West Africa, and Central Africa—mortalities caused by extreme weather events were fifteen times higher in the last decade than in regions more adapted to climate impacts. That’s why developing countries have been seeking financial assistance to rescue and rebuild the physical and social infrastructure of areas devastated by extreme weather. This year, for the first time, this issue was on the official COP27 agenda. By the end of the meeting, more than 190 countries agreed to establish a fund for loss and damage. “This represents a significant step forward in the global fight against the climate emergency,” said Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Programme. But the final text of the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan remained vague, with no guidance on how much money the fund needs or who will pay into it. No Progress on Fossil Fuels ‘Phase Out’ The burning of fossil fuels accounted for 86% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 2011 and 2021, according to the IPCC. Last year at the COP26 in Glasgow, countries committed to phasing down the use of coal. It was the first time a resolution on fossil fuels had been included in the final text, but environmentalists and scientists subsequently criticized it for not meeting the goal of the Paris Agreement. The COP27 final text disappointed, with no progress to include a commitment to phasing out all fossil fuels. This year, many people expected countries to go further and include a commitment to phasing out all fossil fuels, but the COP27 final text disappointed, with no progress on this issue. Some observers said the lack of progress on fossil fuels was not a surprise, given that a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists—636 people, according to advocacy group Global Witness—attended this year’s event No Aggressive Move To ‘Keep 1.5°C Alive’ Science has proven it is still possible to meet the 1.5 °C target, beyond which disastrous climate impacts are believed to lie. But to achieve that goal, countries need to act aggressively and quickly, while reducing GHG emissions by 50% by 2030. Although this issue was debated until the very last minute, the final UN COP27 climate summit text fell short on efforts to lower GHG emissions and did not mention additional curbs on fossil fuels. Reduction of greenhouse gases remains voluntary. Ambiguous Resolution on ‘Low-emission Energy’ The final text of the COP27 implementation plan emphasized the need for a rapid reduction in global GHG emissions “through increase[s] in low-emissions and renewable energy,” but little was offered in the way of specifics. Experts say the elasticity of the language keeps the door open to some fossil fuels, such as natural gas, being considered part of a green energy future. Critics say that while natural gas is a cleaner-burning resource than coal and liquid petroleum, it still emits large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of both CO2 and methane. Overall, COP27 accomplished something historic with the new loss-and-damage fund. If it is properly financed, the most-vulnerable countries will have gone home as the winners. But fighting symptoms is not enough, and many observers chided this year´s climate summit for failing to deal with the factors causing climate change. Experts say the world is running out of time to avoid the worst-case scenarios of global warming. According to Natalie Unterstell, president of the Talanoa Institute, a climate policy think tank in Brazil, “it is necessary that governments and their diplomats assume ambitious commitments” to advance technological and financial change and increase public support for decarbonization in their countries. *Jaqueline Sordi is a Brazilian journalist and biologist, specializing in science and environmental journalism. She has a master’s degree in environmental journalism at UCLA and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in communications at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

CONTENTS NEWS SECTION Cleaning Up Plastic Pollution The Earth & I Editorial Team Carrots or Kale? Study Shows Fetuses Responding to Tastes The Earth & I Editorial Team ‘Mindfulness Meditation’ Shown to Ease Anxiety Disorders The Earth & I Editorial Team DATA SECTION ESG Investing: A Tale of Two Sets of Statistics? The Earth & I Editorial Team Washington DC-area Microgrid Powers Electric Transit Buses The Earth & I Editorial Team Four Eco-Friendly Proposals to Tackle Food Insecurity The Earth & I Editorial Team Zambians Forage for a Wide Variety of Foods The Earth & I Editorial Team UNICEF Reports on “Worst in a Decade" Nigerian Flooding The Earth & I Editorial Team COVID-19 Increased Gardening in the US—Will the Trend Last? The Earth & I Editorial Team CLIMATE CHANGE Archibiotics: Visionary Architecture and Design for a Better Planet The Earth & I Editorial Team COP27: Climate Change Leaders Establish Loss-and-Damage Fund for Stricken Nations Jaqueline Sordi NATURAL DISASTERS Red Clouds, Rainbows, and Rafts Yasmin Prabhudas ENERGY Living Off the Grid: Meet the ‘Hydrogen Houses’ Rick Laezman Canadian Hutterite Farmers Secure Their Colony's Future with Solar David Dodge WATER QUALITY Going Beyond ‘Yellow’ Snow: Contaminants in White Flakes Come from Many Directions Kate Pugnoli Cleaning the Chesapeake’s Waters with Oyster Restoration The Earth & I Editorial Team WASTE MANAGEMENT How ‘It’ Was Treated in 2022: Global Sanitation Efforts Culminate in World Toilet Summit Robin Whitlock ECONOMICS & POLICY The ‘Greening’ of Capitalism Dhanada K. Mishra EDUCATION Nature-based Education Boosts Wellbeing and Pro-Environmental Behavior Deborah Talbot

By Deborah Talbot* “There’s so much nature out here, … I only have two eyes and one brain, and I think it’s going to explode!” exclaimed a six-year-old student at a school in Georgia, US, where a third of class time was spent learning outdoors. The student was quoted in a research report, “From Muddy Hands and Dirty Faces … to Higher Grades and Happy Places,” about children’s growing disconnect with nature, its consequences, and how to remedy it. A Children’s World Without Nature? The research documents how contemporary kids are less likely to roam freely and are more confined to home, the classroom, and scheduled play. As a result, children’s emotional connection to nature is diminished, as well as their emotional wellbeing, creativity, and resilience. 65% of primary school teachers worldwide found children in their care received less than one hour of outdoor playtime a day, with 12% saying children had less than half an hour. The “Muddy Hands” report reveals 65% of primary school teachers worldwide found children in their care received less than one hour of outdoor playtime a day, with 12% saying children had less than half an hour. The trend varies across nations, with 29% of American teachers saying they had outdoor lessons less than once per month compared to 72% of Australian teachers. A study in England, UK, shows that one in nine children had not set foot in a park, beach, forest, or any other natural environment for at least 12 months. From Nature Connection to Climate Awareness A research study by Otto and Pensini (2017) surveyed over three hundred 4th to 6th-grade school children on their ecological behavior, connectedness to nature, and environmental knowledge. They found that by being encouraged through Nature Based Environmental Education (NBEE), connectedness to nature had the strongest (69%) influence over pro-environmental behaviors when compared to environmental knowledge (2%). A systemic review by DeVille et al. (2021) indicates “that overall time spent in nature leads to increased perceived value for connectedness to nature and, subsequently, greater pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors.” Being in nature leads to a detachment from materialistic values. Researchers have found that those with self-transcendent (a focus beyond the self, for example, altruism) and biospheric (valuing the environment) values were more likely to hold pro-environmental beliefs than those with self-enhancement (personally focused) values. Wellbeing, Creativity, Resilience Can environmentalists use this understanding to change behaviors? Perhaps, because most people care about the well-being of their children, even if climate change feels more remote. Given the evidence that engaging with nature enhances wellbeing, creativity, and resilience in children, it can also enhance their—and their parents’—earth-protectiveness. In the UK, over 450 primary school children and their teachers responded to a questionnaire before and after Wildlife Trust events. Personal wellbeing and health increased after the events, alongside nature-connection and pro-environmental values. The children commented: “I enjoy being outdoors more” (83%); “It made me feel calm and relaxed” (81%); “It made me feel refreshed and revitalized” (79%); and “I would like to spend more time in nature in the future” (78%). The researchers observed that children had high levels of enjoyment, curiosity, and observation/engagement with nature. It also enhanced their social relationships. Research found strong positive associations between connection to greenspaces and pro-social behavior, enhanced mood, increased attention and resilience, and a sense of self-determination. Sprague et al. (2022) confirmed these findings on the impact of nature-connection on young people's personality development. They found strong positive associations between connection to greenspaces and pro-social behavior, enhanced mood, increased attention and resilience, and a sense of self-determination. Attention restoration theory teaches that experiences in nature enhance mental focus and concentration and personal restoration to health and wellbeing. We All Need a Forest School Many innovative educators seek to create new modes of schooling to reconnect children with the natural world. Alternative educational systems, such as the Montessori approach, see the benefits of children moving around in and having a tactile relationship with the natural world around them. The risky play movement is predicated on the idea that taking risks builds confidence and resilience in life. Forest schools—where children spend a proportion or, in some cases, all their time outdoors—take tactile, hands-on, and adventurous learning to a natural, outdoor setting. The first formal forest school, influenced by Steiner-Waldorf schools, was set up in Denmark in 1952 by Ella Flautau and other parents after observing the neighborhood children gathering in forests to play. Since then, forest schools have spread worldwide, typically for younger children. When it comes to tweenagers, there are some nature-based Montessori and Steiner-Waldorf schools available that combine nature- and classroom-based learning. However, by the time children reach their teenage years, the majority become “trapped” in formalized education in a classroom with frequent exams and pressure to succeed. The forest school approach can benefit children of all ages. A study in Scotland of adolescent girls’ engagement with a forest school showed that girls at risk of mental health and behavioral problems reported improvements in their mood, confidence, social skills, and relationships. These improvements persisted beyond the setting of the forest school. Forest schools increase children's physical and creative skills because the natural environment provides complex physical challenges and enables free, unsupervised, and “risky” play. Why It Matters All this research matters because children's and teenagers' mental health trends are worsening in many respects. In the US, the number of 12-17-year-olds experiencing a depressive episode rose from 8.1% in 2009 to 15.8% in 2019, before the pandemic. A study of students aged 11-14 in the UK found one-third reported depressive symptoms. War, poverty, socio-political instability, and climate change are causing repeated anxiety, even trauma. Engaging with nature can help young people's mental health and encourages them to care about nature’s health. The future of the world may depend on it. *Deborah Talbot is a journalist with three decades of research experience in sustainability as a concept, focusing on cities, the environment, eco-tech, and education.

By Chris Laszlo* Common sense—and solid scientific evidence—recognizes the benefits of spending time in nature. John Muir, the well-known American naturalist, called readers into nature with his captivating 1894 book, The Mountains of California. “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings,” he wrote. “Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.” How much time in nature is actually needed to notice a difference in oneself? According to one study, just five hours per month is sufficient to improve mood, vitality, and feelings of relaxation (Williams 2017). Moreover, time in nature can be spent in a city park as easily as in a forest, beach, mountain, desert, or grassy plain. Why is this so important? Because modern populations are often cooped inside buildings or homes. A 2016 survey by The National Trust in the United Kingdom found that almost 50% of preschoolers lacked regular outdoor play sessions while older children, aged ten to sixteen, spent only thirteen minutes a day on vigorous outdoor activity. The modern world’s sedentary lifestyle stands in contrast to those seen throughout human history, where people lived and worked outdoors in nature. Nature, the Ultimate Restorative It shouldn’t be a surprise that spending a beautiful day outside, among trees, birds, flowers, and perhaps gently flowing water, can increase happiness and a sense of well-being. Harvard naturalist E. O. Wilson is one of many scientists who has hypothesized that nature has a restorative power over people (Wilson 2009). He noted that we have a natural affiliation with nature that is ingrained in our biological heritage. Phrased more poetically, the pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson wrote (Carson 1962): Those who contemplate the beauty of the Earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. ... There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. ‘Forest Bathing’ and Other ‘Connectedness’ Activities In the Seiwa Prefectural Forests of Japan, city residents practice shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing,” which means taking in the forest air on long walks. Forest bathing became popular in Japan in the 1980s and today is a recognized preventive health-care practice. One research study measuring the physiological effects of forest bathing on 280 young adults concluded: “Forest environments promote lower concentrations of cortisol (a hormone associated with stress), lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity than do city environments.” Such immersions in nature have also been proven to bring a host of psychological benefits, as people engage in fewer negative emotions and less self-referential thinking. In addition to nature immersion, there are ways to practice “connectedness.” We can set aside time for mindfulness meditation, journaling, or doing a body-scan or emotional scan. There are relationship-type practices of connectedness, such as loving-kindness meditation, gratitude practice, and appreciative inquiry. Also, there are practices that connect us to God or the transcendent, which include prayer and spiritual reflection. On a personal note, I consider this a distinct category in my research and teaching—a way to be more connected and whole as a human being. This connectedness and wholeness can take either the form of observing—in a focused way—flora or fauna in nature, or a more immersive experience, where you go into nature and just allows yourself to be present in it. A hypothesis of my research—together with colleagues for six to seven years now—is that people who experience a greater sense of connection to nature are more likely to care for others and future generations. It also changes people's behavior, as will be explained shortly. There are many studies that show the benefits of nature connectedness. One study, a meta-analysis, examined “nature connectedness” and “happiness” across a great number of different studies and found a statistically significant correlation. While a relationship or correlation does not imply causation, in this case, the findings show that, generally speaking, more time in nature is associated with a greater sense of happiness and well-being. Highly recommended books on the subject are Richard Louv’s The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder and, more recently, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams. Physics Reveals Connection, Not Absence Physics is in some ways the most fundamental of the sciences in describing the behavior of the world. Physics, for much of the last 300 years, has been based on the concepts of particles and forces. Actually, the idea of atoms seen as separate particles in empty space goes all the way back to Greek philosophers like Democritus, who first came up with the term atomos in Greek. The figure below shows an illustration of two atoms, with their protons and neutrons in the nucleus, and electrons spinning around them at great distances from them, and the atoms are somehow separated in empty space. In such models, the only forces acting on them are gravity, electromagnetic fields, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. That was the paradigm of the science that many people grew up with. However, quantum physics in particular is giving rise to a new idea that, in fact, at the most infinitesimal level of the universe, there is a connected and coherent unified field, a field of energy and information that connects everything (above right). Rather than thinking about space as being a vacuum, space, in fact, is a plenum (full). It is now known that the universe contains dark matter, dark energy, and gravitational waves. Along with these fields of energy, vibrational fields of energy connect everything, not just metaphorically—but actually. Quantum physicists speak about objects or living systems as excitations of the quantum field, which is now a proven domain. Experiments such as the double-slit experiment, as well as Bell's theorem experiment (see below), show this interdependence and describe fundamental reality. Bell's theorem experiment was a way to examine the behavior of paired particles. The figure above shows a Source that generates particles V1 and V2, which are paired in the sense of having the same wave phase. Once they are paired, they are shot off in opposite directions to crystal A and crystal B, each of which has a mirror in it. Each mirror has a 50% chance of shooting the particle up and 50% chance of shooting the particle down. This experiment has shown that paired particles that are shot out remain paired even across great distances. Thus, if V1 and V2 are paired, and if V1 hits crystal A and goes up (+1), then V2 (shot out at the same time) will hit crystal B and also go up (+1). This can be repeated tens of thousands of times, as this is what the coincidences detector shows, and you will never once find the case in which paired particles emerging from the crystals go in opposite directions. This includes cases in which V1 goes up and V2 goes down (-1) or the reverse, with V2 going up and V1 going down. This is what quantum physicists call entanglement, not nonlocality, and it can happen across very great distances. Considering a person’s relationship with nature at this most fundamental level, it is a relationship of oneness. That degree of instant correlation, holding over very great distances, suggests that it happens faster than the speed of light. Thus, Erwin Schrödinger, one of the early great quantum physicists, concluded that quantum physics reveals a basic oneness of the universe. This is important because, considering a person’s relationship with nature at this most fundamental level, it is a relationship of oneness. There are other sciences, such as epigenetics, that show that it is not only genes that determine things such as life expectancy and disease, but also a person’s relationship with nature. What that relationship is, whether exposed to pollution or to healthy nature, affects the proteins that wrap the genes and lead to gene expression, either good or bad. Finally, from the nineteenth century onward, the rise of Darwinism and then Neo-Darwinism, as well as the economics of William Stanley Jevons and John Stuart Mill, led us to believe that human beings were essentially selfish, competitive, and separate—what the existentialist called the “bounded human being.” However, we are more recently starting to see that there are, in fact, lessons from nature by which we can better understand human nature as relational, cooperative, and connected. Consciousness also is undergoing an interesting controversy, with physicalist theory versus universal field theory. Physicalist theory maintains that we generate consciousness just inside our brain, like a supercomputer, while universal field theory suggests that consciousness is actually a property of the universe that we can tap into. Thus, our brains are almost instruments that tap or tune into a universal consciousness through microtubular lattices (see the figure below), and there is good scientific research emerging on this. All of the science now tends to converge with spiritual traditions. For example, in the teachings of the Vedanta from the Hindu tradition, or Vedic tradition, starting with the Rig Vedas and then the Upanishads, there has always been this idea of “Brahma,” the background field from which the manifest universe comes. Native American traditions consider human beings as relatives of animals and plants. “All My Relatives” refers to how a Native American would see a rabbit or fox or even a tree. In Africa, you have Ubuntu, the idea that “I am who I am because of who we all are.” In China, Japan, and elsewhere, we have Taoism (Daoism), the notion that there is the “Way” (Dao) and that in practice we can become one with the Way. In Buddhism as well, he who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings and all beings in his own Self. Then, you have Ein Sof, which is an ancient symbol from the Kabbalah, an early thread in Judaism, that also has this notion of an ineffable background to the reality you experience. Consciousness and Connectedness In conclusion, many people see the world as made up of separate objects, like separate vortices in a river. The image below shows a river in which vortex A and vortex B seem stable and separate, as if they have their own structure in time and space. But perhaps a better way to see them is how they are merging dynamically in the river. David Bohm, the quantum physicist, called it “undivided wholeness in flowing movement.” The benefits of connecting to nature are shown by contemporary research. These include overall health improvement; stress relief; reduced negative emotions, such as decreased fear and anger; enhanced positive effects; improvements in mood and increased subjective well-being; feelings of joy and happiness; a sense of reconnection with self; kinship ties in teams; a heightened sense of community, kinship, egalitarianism, and belongingness, along with increased empathy (Florence 2017); a stronger sense of place; and improved cognitive abilities, including creativity, cognitive flow, and mental performance in problem solving. Connecting to nature also increases personal well-being. It can raise awareness of how our actions impact others, and it can transform people and leaders, in particular, by increasing their emotional, social, and spiritual intelligence. It can increase entrepreneurial creativity and collaboration, and perhaps, very importantly at this time in human history, can strengthen pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors. In the business courses I teach on flourishing enterprise, it is becoming clear that flourishing in business requires both a strong financial business case and behavioral change, and that the consciousness of connectedness—including a consciousness and connectedness to nature—are central to lasting behavioral change. Acknowledgments The content above draws on selected works of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, John Archibald Wheeler, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, David Bohm, Richard Feynman, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Planck. It benefits greatly from pioneers who sought to integrate quantum physics and philosophy: David Bohm’s Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980), Ken Wilber’s Quantum Questions (1984); Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Sciences (1994); Ervin Laszlo’s The Interconnected Universe (1995) and The Self-Actualizing Cosmos (2014); among others. I owe a further debt to Paul Levy’s Quantum Revelation: A Radical Synthesis of Science and Spirituality (2018), Lothar Schäfer’s Infinite Potential: What Quantum Physics Reveals About How We Should Live (2013), and Allan Combs’ Consciousness Explained Better: Towards an Integral Understanding of the Multifaceted Nature of Consciousness (2009). Revisiting these works were part of a broader research program on Quantum Leadership at Case Western Reserve University, starting in 2014 and funded by the businessman and philanthropist Fred Chavalit Tsao. Extensive field research led to our book, Quantum Leadership: New Consciousness in Business, published by Stanford University Press in 2019. *Chris Laszlo is Professor of Organizational Behavior, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, USA. He researches and teaches flourishing enterprise and is the co-founder of Sustainable Value Partners, USA. Editorial Note: This article was adapted from a presentation by Prof. Laszlo at the Third International Conference on Science and God, a virtual meeting held in April 2022.

On February 24, 2022, the Russian military invaded Ukraine, causing “the most rapid forced population movement within Europe since World War 2.” Researchers addressed the humanitarian and environmental impacts of the war in a new study in The Lancet. As of Aug. 10, 2022, 12,867 civilian casualties were reported in Ukraine, including 5,401 deaths. According to the UN, 972 of those deaths were children. Over 6 million people became registered refugees in Europe alone. Some 6 million people have been internally displaced, and this number could be closer to 8 million. War has devastated Ukraine's infrastructure, causing disruption to vital services such as waste management and agriculture. It has caused environmental contamination that includes toxic chemical releases from damaged industrial facilities. Ukraine’s fifteen reactors at four operational nuclear power plants raises grave concerns, as do radioactive sources at other sites. Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01739-1/fulltext

Very Likely, Some Experts Say During his tenure as Britain’s longest-serving Prince of Wales, Prince Charles consistently championed environmental causes that included devoting landscapes and architecture to carbon capture. Amid speculation about whether the newly crowned King Charles III will continue his environmental activism, a new media report suggests that he will. In a September 15 report by ABC News, Prof. David Victor of the University of California, San Diego's School of Global Policy and Strategy, noted that King Charles “is taking the crown very late in age, and everybody knows what he stands for—and for a whole range of topics.” Previously, King Charles “used his position to raise awareness, not just in the UK but around the world. He has, for a long, long time, probably earlier than many politicians, understood the importance of this issue,” said Bob Ward, a scholar at The London School of Economics and Political Science's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. "He was talking about this before it was cool,” Alden Meyer, a senior associate at E3G, a London-based think tank on climate policy, told ABC News. What King Charles has said about the environment wasn’t always popular, but these actions now bolster confidence that he will continue his advocacy. As recently as 2021, when the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) convened, the monarch said that young people feel “frustration” regarding the environment and that leaders should take note. ABC News cited King Charles’ estate, Highgrove House, as evidence that he has already applied his passion for the environment to his personal life. Purchased in 1980, the estate’s grounds have organic gardens and a “wild garden” that serves as a wildlife habitat. The estate also features solar panels and a “natural sewage system.” Following its September 15 report, ABC News stated in an October 2 report that the new king “has decided not to attend the international climate change summit in Egypt next month, fueling speculation that the new monarch will have to rein in his environmental activism now that he has ascended the throne.”