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VOL. 154, NO. 40 | THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020 | SINCE 1934 | WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
GOING GREEN IN A GRAY CITY A look into sustainable living and urban growth in San Jose
The coronavirus pandemic is changing everyone’s daily lives. Because of statemandated shelter-in-place orders, many people are working remotely, resulting in temporarily decreased greenhouse gas emissions, leading some to question if unanimous global movement is also the answer to environmental change. In the midst of this pandemic, some people are using their time to practice sustainable living while others are tweeting false information about dolphins in the canals in Italy. Big technology corporations are still pushing to develop urban work sites that use vast amounts of energy, companies
that mass produce goods have a long way to go in lessening their ecological footprints and farmers are losing money because of limited markets for fresh crops. Although this pandemic has resulted in some improvements, such as reduced air pollution, it also makes evident the parallels between a worldwide health crisis and the incipient environmental emergency. The Spartan Daily examines how these environmental changes aect our lives during quarantine and what changes may continue after for which we must be prepared.
ILLUSTRATION BY MARCI SUELA
Telecommuting
Agriculture
Electronics
Remote work reduces greenhouse gases
Farmers are hit hard as restaurants shut down
Repairing devices keeps them out of dumps
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ACTIVISM
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
COVID-19 C CO COV OV VIID D--19 19
ARCHIVE PHOTO BY MELISSA MARIA MARTINEZ, PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHELSEA NGUYEN FLEIGE | SPARTAN DAILY
Local high school students march through downtown San Jose toward the steps of City Hall after organizing with other climate activists during a Sept. 20, 2019 demonstration.
Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike organizes online Earth Day demonstration amid pandemic By Vicente Vera SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR
In a Feb. 22 interview, Jamie Minden, co-founder of the Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike, said the organization was still planning their next strike on April 22, Earth Day. “We’re hoping to have five to 10,000 people to attend,” Minden said. The coronavirus pandemic spread across Santa Clara County at the same time the youths began preparations for the strike. Only two cases of COVID19 had been confirmed in the county at the time of the interview, but by the climate strike’s most recent in-person meeting on March 8, the number of confirmed cases had jumped to 37. Just eight months earlier, hundreds of thousands of climate activists took
to the streets in massive demonstrations to raise awareness about the incipient climate crisis. Catalyzed by youth leaders like Greta Thunberg, young people comprised most of the dissidents. On Sept. 20, 2019, Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike activists marched shoulder to shoulder toward San Jose City Hall for their first large-scale protest. Approximately 1,000 people shared close quarters and passed around homemade signs, stickers and campaign flyers. Only messages were spread that day and interest surrounding the local coalition grew in the following months. Youth climate activists said climate change should
PHOTOS BY VICENTE VERA
(Above) About a thousand climate activists ranging from high school students to seasoned climate activists walk to San Jose City Hall on Sept. 20, 2019. (Top right) Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike CoFounder Jamie Minden (pictured with laptop) mentors students at the group’s last in-person meeting in March. (Bottom right) Pete McCloskey (right), co-founder of the first Earth Day celebration in California and a former Bay Area congressman, speaks during the online Earth Day strike on April 22.
be treated with the same severity as the pandemic that prompted unprecedented mitigation responses from international governments. Helen Deng, a climate strike co-lead, said the recent fast-paced changes in daily life are a window into the looming consequences of what she describes as the climate crisis. “I just hope people take this lesson into account when they realize, with climate change, you can’t stay business as usual, you have to change your lifestyle otherwise people are going to die,” she said. Fellow Co-Lead Lexie Crilley said that as a climate activist, she is used to dealing with the “impending doom” of facing a worldwide crisis. “Given that we deal with the fear and existential dread of climate change on a daily basis, I feel, for me at least, it’s easier to have a positive attitude,” she said. Large gatherings have since been restricted under California’s shelter-in-place order, forcing the coalition to cancel their plan to
I just hope people take this lesson into account when they realize, with climate change, you can’t stay business as usual, you have to change your lifestyle otherwise people are going to die. Helen Deng Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strike co-lead
march from Plaza de César Chávez for their Earth Day demonstration. According to an April 23 New York Times article, numerous protests worldwide such as the ongoing Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, have moved off the streets because of COVID-19. Minden said they still plan for an Earth Day strike, just not on the streets. “I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but Greta Thunberg is posting about striking from home,” Minden said in a March 24 interview over Zoom. Thunberg, pioneer of the youth climate strike movement, recently used
the hashtags #DigitalStrike and #ClimateStrikeOnline to encourage activists to post pictures of themselves with their strike signs on social media. In a March 28 Instagram post, Thunberg announced that she had recovered from an illness she believed to be COVID-19 because of symptoms she and her father experienced after traveling abroad. “We who don’t belong to a risk group have an enormous responsibility, our actions can be the difference between life and death for many others,” she stated in her post. Minden said she and other team leads organized
an online-only demonstration for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day to prioritize the health of their youth activists. “People are spending a lot more time on social media. We want to maximize that as much as possible,” Crilley said. “We want to just continue to build our base, like Jamie said earlier, by posting art and positive messages.” The youths co-hosted a virtual Earth Day strike with the Palo Alto conservation group Green Foothills. They were joined by local politicians, including the co-founder of the first Earth Day celebration in California, former Bay Area Rep. Pete McCloskey. The activists called in from their homes to share speeches with an audience of about 700 people over the hour-long Zoom meeting. The digital strike opened with San Jose Assemblymember Ash Kalra introducing musician Chris Reed, who played Earth Daythemed music on his guitar. “Fifty years ago, 20 million people turned out on April 22 to protest that Congress wasn’t doing anything about the environment,” McCloskey said. “Now 50 years later, it’s even worse.” Crilley, Minden and Deng also spoke during the digital strike, talking about climate change mitigation efforts and pending legislation such as the Green New Deal. Deng said that the absence of in-person action changes the nature of the climate strike movement, but everyone should prioritize health during such a pandemic. Nonetheless, the coalition and other climate strikes’ continued online presence is essential in rallying people to pressure local businesses and public servants to act on climate change, she said. “I don’t think change is going to come at the national level anymore, I’ve grown really disillusioned with that because of the leadership we’ve seen demonstrated by their response to this [COVID-19] pandemic,” Deng said.
Follow Vicente on Twitter @VicenteSJSU
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RETROSPECTIVE
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Maverick: chronicles of a death foretold
Gas-guzzler burial symbolized gesture to save environment By Austin Turner
for $1 each, according to previous Spartan Daily reporting. Led by a police escort, eight Kappa Sigma fraternity members pushed the Maverick for part of the 11-mile journey from Los Gatos to campus. Students refused to ignite the engine out of protest because they were determined to push the car to campus and avoid the release of carbon emissions. Once they crossed into San Jose, they lost the escort and the car had to be towed within a block of campus. “It’s in,” humanities professor John Sperling said as it was being lowered. “Thank God, it’s in.” Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, previously assigned his Humanities 160 students to read Paul R. Ehrlich’s “The Population Bomb” as part of the curriculum for the class. The book, written by a Stanford professor, detailed the risk Earth was enduring with the increasing threat of overpopulation. Infatuated with the book and the potential catastrophes awaiting humanity, the class planned the “Survival Faire,” a week-long festival conveying the ultimate undoing of the environment by humans. The festival was capped off by the Maverick’s burial. “We got all focused [on environmental issues],” said Koster, a former student of Sperling. “Why are we doing anything else except working on this?” Taking place at the height of the counterculture, protest-
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
It was February 1970, two months before the first Earth Day. San Jose State University was then called San Jose State College. About 5,000 people stood together on campus in the sweltering heat, where the César Chávez Memorial Arch is now located. Emotions and tensions were as thick as the smog layer up above. Screaming and shouting echoed from each direction. At the time, there was nothing abnormal about that combination. Following a two-hour-long debate concerning the ingenuity of the ensuing exercise, a yellow, brand-new, neverdriven 1970 Ford Maverick was pushed into a 10-foot-deep trench. “That car was like a virgin sacrifice,” said Anna Koster, an SJSU alumna who, at the time, helped plan the event and pitched in to purchase the vehicle. Protestors sacrificed the car in the name of Mother Nature, condemning the internal combustion engine that was polluting the lungs of Earth’s inhabitants. Students purchased the car for $2,500 from Paul Swanson Ford in Los Gatos u s i n g donations and studentb o u g h t shares sold
That car was like a virgin sacrifice. Anna Koster SJSU alumna
heavy hippie movement, the festival was a classic showcase of the rebellion in teenagers and young adults at the time. “[Social activism] was inescapable if you were a student [at San Jose State] in 1970. Student activism was just part of the atmosphere – and activism on a variety of issues,” said Craig Turner, who reported on the Survival Faire for the Spartan Daily in 1970. “The environment was just then emerging as one of those issues.” The Survival Faire was a time capsule of the anti-establishment movement full of immersive exhibits; think the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose meets Burning Man. “The [exhibit] that I remember the most . . . It was a population room,” Koster said. “You open the door and go in, and it was kind of shocking to me because it was jammed full of dolls, baby dolls . . . You barely crack the door open and you’re banging into these dolls.” Rock bands performed throughout the week. There were lectures and skits. Art installations took over classrooms, including an exhibit simulating smog, which suffocated patrons with thick smoke as they walked in, forcing them to cover their faces with paper masks. Koster herself put on an art competition, which accepted
submissions in categories like “creative use of waste” from various college campuses. Like almost every political event at the time, the Faire was met with controversy. Members of the Black Student Union picketed and threatened to block the parade to campus, according to previous Spartan Daily reporting. “As was typical of the day, there were threats to try to bar it,” Turner said. “But the politics of whether it was a good idea to bury the car or not didn’t follow along predictable lines or traditional lines. You had people on the left and on the right who thought this was a bad idea, a crazy idea . . . and also thought that it was a waste of money.” The Maverick “virgin sacrifice,” whether intended to or not, was a headline grabber. It earned the attention of The New York Times and all three major television networks at the time. The Spartan Daily followed suit, detailing both positions of disdain and support for the burial. “It reveals the instigators as wasteful, hypocritical, insincere persons guilty of trying to exploit a serious problem for self-satisfaction,” wrote Donald F. Sinn, a recreation professor at the time. Fifty years later, perhaps a little later than those involved had wished, environmental protection is near the top of the list of political issues in America. “I think it’s evident that while there’s been progress made, and now the state of the environment is pretty much in the forefront of the international conversation of our future, clearly not enough has been done about the deadly – let’s be honest – deadly, issue of climate change,” Turner said. “So while a great deal has been done, we still obviously have a very long way to go.” Follow Austin on Twitter @AustinTurner_ Craig Turner is to senior staff Austin Turner.
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CONSUMERISM
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Zeroing in on effective sustainability Urbanites refocus on zero-waste living during quarantine, but say legislative action is needed By Chelsea Nguyen Fleige & Briana Conte EXECUTIVE EDITOR & STAFF WRITER
In the heart of the metropolitan city of Los Angeles is a small self-landscaped and drought-tolerant garden cultivated by the hands of graphic designer Ginny Blades. Tired of mowing and watering her ordinary green lawn, she wanted to transform her front yard into a garden filled with native-Californian plants to create a less physically and financially demanding home environment. Blades said the small vegetable garden in her yard provides her family of four with delectable produce while also serving as an ecosystem for small creatures to prosper. “If the world is waiting for an external fix, then when will we realize an internal fix is needed?” she said about her mission to promote sustainability. Blades is part of a growing movement of Californians practicing sustainable or “zerowaste” living under shelter-in-place orders, which will continue until at least the end of May. “One thing I’m noticing is I see more people getting outside, but also a lot of people are starting gardens,” said Kaitlyn Meyer during an April 15 Instagram Live presentation about sustainable living. Meyer, garden operations and community engagement assistant for the San Jose State César E. Chávez Community Action Center, added that in times of crisis, people become more aware of how dependent they are on industrial systems. “Sustainability is being more conscious of your actions and the choices you make the same way you would with different social justice issues – it’s the same with the environment,” Meyer said on the livestream. “With every action you are taking in your life, act like it is a way that is going to benefit the planet.” During the presentation, Meyer and Diana Victa, the community action center’s department manager, informed students on how to change consumerism-based habits. Cultivating gardens dominated the discussion and Meyer answered student questions ranging from the types of produce that can be planted now to how to build composting bins. The increasing interest in sustainable living practices isn’t just a local trend. In an article by The New York Times on March 27, science writer for Columbia
BRIANA CONTE | SPARTAN DAILY
Los Angeles resident Ginny Blades cultivates her garden while wearing a face mask. Blades is taking time during the quarantine to increase her sustainable living efforts.
University Meehan Crist makes an argument for continuing some of the habits people have been forced to adopt in quarantine. “Personal consumption and travel habits are, in fact, changing, which has some people wondering if this might be the beginning of a meaningful shift,” Crist stated. “Maybe, as you hunker down with cabinets full of essentials, your sense of what consumer goods you need will shrink.” The question hangs in the air: do individual choices for sustainable living make a difference? Bruce Olszewski, an environmental studies lecturer at SJSU and director of the SJSU Center for the Development of Recycling, said individual sustainability alone could not make the “environmental conscious shift that the planet requires of humanity.” Olszewski said awareness of the products people buy for fulfillment is vital to changing consumer culture. “You have to understand that there are nearly 8 billion of us that are consumers
America’s trash problem 2,555 pounds of waste is generated per American every year. In 2018, 65.4% of materials discarded by homes and businesses are dumped into landfills or burned in incinerators. The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population but produces more than 30% of the planet’s total waste.
So here is why this is all important: we use a linear system of extraction, production, consumption and disposal. The environment always, always, always, works as a cycle. Bruce Olszewski environmental studies lecturer and director of the Center for the Development of Recycling
and the actions of a single person, although important, are not nearly as influential as the actions taken by industry and government,” Olszewski said. According to the World Economic Forum, an independent international organization,
50% of the world’s current greenhouse gas emissions result from the extraction and processing of natural resources, with demand for raw materials under a ‘businessas-usual’ scenario predicted to double by 2050. “In the ’70s we started initiating more legislation, and effective legislation, to reduce air pollution and water pollution,” Olszewski said. “What we have not dealt with is all the mechanisms that create those pollutants, which is basically the production of goods and ultimately the discerning of goods.” In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, giving the newly-formed Environmental Protection Agency the legal authority to regulate pollution from cars and other forms of transportation, according to the EPA website. Olszewski said companies that mass produce goods have very little incentive to reduce the wastefulness of their products because of a lack of concern with where the products end up after being used. “So here is why this is all important: we use a linear system of extraction, production, consumption and disposal. The environment always, always, always, works as a cycle,” said Olszewski. In an open loop and linear economy, many consumer goods eventually become waste. Whereas in a closed loop and circular economy, goods can become resources again, he said. According to a peer-reviewed journal article published by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, called “Circular Economy and Plastics: A Gap-Analysis in ASEAN Member States” by Lewis Akenji and Magnus Bengtsson, “[A circular economic approach] responds to the need for economic models, adapted to biophysical realities, aimed at enabling humans to thrive within planetary boundaries.” As the founder of the SJSU Center for the Development of Recycling, an organization that trains college students for careers as environmental professionals, Olszewski said schools do not provide enough information to students about the critical component in environmentalism: closing loops in the economy. “So as we educate more people about this and as more of our students become professionals, they begin to close open loops, they put the pressure on industry,” he said. Companies that mass produce goods need to make significant efforts to reduce their ecological footprints, Olszewski said. According to The World Wide Fund for Nature website, an ecological footprint is the amount of the environment needed to produce the goods and services necessary to support a particular lifestyle. “It is much more efficient to have industry make less of a problem than manage a problem,” Olszewski said. Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily
Ways to achieve a zero-waste system Make recycling and composting mandatory, universally accessible and less expensive than garbage disposal by implementing a system with community accountability.
Consumer products should be built to last and be easy to repair, reuse, recycle or compost. Ban the sale of singleuse items that are not easily recyclable or compostable.
Encourage use of recycled material in new products. Procurement policies can require institutions to purchase products made with a certain amount of recycled materials.
Require producers to collect hard-to-recycle products after their shelf lives. This will encourage producers to use less packaging and to build long-lasting products.
SOURCES: “TRASH IN AMERICA: MOVING FROM DESTRUCTIVE CONSUMPTION TO A ZERO-WASTE SYSTEM“ BY U. S. PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP EDUCATION FUND & FRONTIER GROUP; INFOGRAPHIC BY CHELSEA NGUYEN FLEIGE
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TELECOMMUTING
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
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PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Remote work drives down emissions By Mauricio La Plante ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Dreaded commutes to work and back are over – for now. As shelter-in-place orders have shuttered businesses across California to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, many technology workers continue to code and develop software from home. Decreased vehicle exhaust on the road could lower the majority of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, said Patrick Brown, a SJSU meteorology and climate science professor. “In order to decarbonize transportation, we either need to drive less . . . or we need to convert these gas-burning cars into electric cars,” Brown said. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. In California study from 2000-2017, 41% of greenhouse gases were caused by the transportation sector, which was the highest source of these gases in the state, according to the California Air Resources Board. “When I used to go to somebody’s desk, now I do a quick five minute phone call,” said Mirko Jurcan, a 2019 San Jose State business administration alumnus and research associate
at the SJSU Research Foundation which works with NASA. Jurcan said he remotely connects with about 40 people for his work with NASA, using software such as Google Meet, Cisco AnyConnect and Microsoft Teams. “My prediction in the next couple of years is that we’re going to see the cancellation of these big sprawling developments right here in San Jose because of the fact that this coronavirus has shown tech companies they can have remote workers and not pay for the overhead of an office building,” he said. Cutting the use of commercial buildings could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California, Brown said, because commercial buildings produce large carbon footprints. “It’s not very energy efficient that we have these houses that we live in and then we kind of keep the temperature at the same temperature all day,” Brown said “Then we go to these buildings that are lighted and have major heat and air conditioning needs and then we sit in the buildings and use a bunch of electricity on a different computer there that’s plugged in all day.” In Silicon Valley, big tech companies have still moved forward with plans to develop
sprawling work sites in big cities, such as the planned Google campus in Downtown San Jose. Construction on the project has yet to start, but the San Jose City Council delayed the development’s approval process, according to a statement from Kim Walesh, San Jose’s director of economic development.
generating on-site solar power, purchasing green power and investing in green projects.” However, a 2019 open letter to Google on climate action signed by more than 2,300 employees showed that the tech giant had made donations to climate change deniers and offered to provide software to oil drilling companies.
In places like San Jose, we can stay at home, and do a lot of our work still from home and that does help with our carbon footprint in this location. Patrick Brown Meteorology and climate science professor
“I think that Google should have a lot of foresight in this area and for whatever reason they thought that it’s still better to bring everyone together in one place,” Brown said. “So if they thought that they could run their business just as well by being totally distributed . . . I think if they thought that that works as well as anything else, they would have already done that.” According to a Google carbon offset report, the company reduces its carbon footprint “through efficiency improvements,
A Google spokesperson was not available for comment on this article. Despite the drastic changes to work habits over the past month and a half, some tech workers believe on-site work is still a necessity and that it should resume once it’s safe to be around large numbers of people. A Google contractor, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity because of Google’s policies barring contractors from speaking to the media, said the company designs its coworking space as more than just an office.
“The culture at Google is a low-stress environment and there’s a lot of amenities you can utilize on a daily basis, so it entices you to work there and be comfortable there,” the contractor said. “For example, if you need to do your laundry, you can take your clothes and do laundry while you do some work or take a bootcamp class or yoga class or whatever you want.” But returning to work around others is not in the foreseeable future, which means remote work is becoming the norm for many people in tech. “It’s good to have quick, instant access to your coworkers,” Jurcan, a 2019 SJSU alumnus, said. “That’s not to say that we’re not effective now . . . everyone’s very responsive.” Despite California’s lowered greenhouse gas emissions from people working remotely, it only accounts for a small part in reducing global warming, Brown said. Brown noted that the state is managing to decouple economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions, according to the California Air Resources Board, allowing the economy to grow as greenhouse gas emissions decrease. “In places like San Jose, we can stay at home, and do a lot of our work still
from home and that does help with our carbon footprint in this location,” Brown said. “But for the globe sense, this is a global problem and it’s all about global CO2 and methane emissions. This type of thing is really small in terms of its impact.” Most greenhouse gas emissions come from developing countries such as China, India and Nigeria, Brown said. He said as these countries grow their economy and population, energy consumption can jump up to 50% of what developed countries use, which can be precarious for greenhouse gas emissions if that energy is from coal or oil. Brown said in order to lessen greenhouse gases, energy policies must change. However, even if reducing California’s emissions has a minimal effect on a global scale, Brown still supports smaller-scale changes. “I can definitely see that we shouldn’t return totally to normal,” he said. “Anything that is easy to do remotely should be done remotely.”
Follow Mauricio on Twitter @mslaplantenews
Have a story idea? Contact us at spartandaily@gmail.com.
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GREEN CAMPUS
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Urban sustainability Making progress toward a zero-waste campus By Chelsea Nguyen Fleige • Executive Editor Illustration by Melody Del Rio • Creative Producer
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or a small urban campus situated on just 154 acres in the middle of a burgeoning metro center, San Jose State’s Office of Sustainability set forth ambitious goals in its 2020 Sustainability Report. Projects slated for 2020 included constructing a new well for the campus and installing 30 electric vehicle charging stations in the Park and Ride Lot by the end of 2019. Many of the plans were derailed by the coronavirus pandemic and California’s shelter-in-place order and will need to be reevaluated.
Recycled or gray water system In 1999, SJSU started using recycled or gray water, eventually converting irrigation throughout campus. All new buildings since then, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library and the Student Union, have dual plumbing to save water during toilet flushing. SJSU has saved more than 100 million gallons of water and decreased potable water usage by 43% since 2013.
Debbie Andres, an SJSU utility and sustainability analyst, said the administration is still working on a carbon neutrality plan to be in place by the next academic year, as well as installing solar power energy options on many campus garages. On this campus map are many of the noteworthy initiatives, programs and facilities that are currently bringing SJSU closer to a sustainable and zero-waste system.
Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center The Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center is LEED Gold-standard certified and 23.6% more energy efficient than required by Title 24, California’s energy efficiency code for newly-constructed and existing buildings. The building uses natural ventilation, recycled exterior materials and an evaporative cooling system.
Landscaping
Bee Protective Campaign President Mary Papazian signed this initiative into effect in Fall 2018, ensuring SJSU will plant pollinator-friendly vegetation and will stop using bee-toxic pesticides in order to protect honey bees.
Grass-cycling
Plants are selected depending on their adaptability to SJSU’s recycled water irrigation system. Native and droughtresistant plants are chosen for landscaping when possible.
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Central Energy Plant The cogeneration facility produces 36 million kilowatt hours of energy a year, as well as chilled water and steam. Cogeneration is the use of a gas or steam-powered engine to produce electricity and thermal energy at the same time. The thermal energy from electricity generation is then used for heating, making cogeneration a more efficient use of fuel rather than other conventional systems. Annually, the plant uses a combined 40 million gallons of potable and recycled water. While other power cogeneration plants’ efficiency ranges between 15-20%, SJSU’s is between 40-60% and supplies 80% of the electricity on campus, according to Charlie Faas, vice president of finance and administration.
Campus Community Garden Situated on a quarter acre of land, the chemical-free and organic garden is located across the street from Campus Village. The garden features fruit trees, vegetable beds, a recycled water system and a composting system – all tended to by student volunteers from the César E. Chávez Community Action Center. Their goal is to address student food insecurity, community learning and environmental justice. All food harvested is free and accessible to students through the Spartan Food Pantry.
Located at 372 E San Salvador St, San Jose, CA 95112
Natural water well sources
Mowed leftover grass decomposes, acting as mulch, a fertilizer substitute, and preventing weeds. This secures nitrogen and retains water, thereby reducing irrigation.
From the 1940s to 2015, SJSU used source wells to access natural aquifers under campus to locally source water. However, during the construction of Campus Village 2 in 2015 the well was covered and the campus sourced water from the San Jose Water Company. Facilities Development and Operations began construction of a new well in the southwest area of campus, hoping to finish by the end of 2019. The university has not announced any progress.
Solar panels to be installed
Center for the Development of Recycling
Debbie Andres, an SJSU utility and sustainability analyst, said, “We are progressing on a solar photovoltaic project consisting of rooftop solar on 10 main campus roofs, along with covered carport solar systems at South Campus.” The solar energy source is anticipated to reduce the carbon footprint by “511 metric tons per carbon dioxide equivalent” and save about $4.6 million through the warranty period.
CDR is a nonprofit research and service organization, part of the Department of Environmental Studies. Established in 1989, the organization has introduced beverage container recycling on campus and has expanded recycling programs.
Decorative fountains Because of water restrictions imposed during the California drought, campus fountains were turned off in April 2014. SJSU began transitioning all the fountains to recycled water systems. Starting in May 2017, the fountains resumed through a gradual transition.
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Ongoing construction Legend nature
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CSU campuses are required to recycle at least 50% of waste from all contracted construction and demolition projects.
Interdisciplinary Science Building The Interdisciplinary Science Building will be constructed to fit LEED Gold Standards, a green building certification program used worldwide, and is scheduled for completion by December 2021. It is the first new academic building to be built on campus in 30 years.
Waste management In 2019, SJSU diverted 1,272 tons of materials from solid waste landfill or incinerators, while disposing of only 266 tons of materials.
SOURCES: SJSU 2020 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT, PREVIOUS SPARTAN DAILY REPORTING, CHENGPOWER.COM, CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION AND WIKIPEDIA
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AGRICULTURE
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Farmers forced to destroy crops
COVID-19 wiped out restaurant markets, but food continues to grow Santa Clara County farmer facing drop in demand for fresh produce left with grim option – destroy unsold crops
PHOTOS AND PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY VICENTE VERA
Pink flags scattered across patchy fields of lettuce in Gilroy warn farmers not to touch vegetables that no are longer in such high demand because of COVID-19.
By Vicente Vera SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR
GILROY — With the closure of venues and institutions such as restaurants, hotels and schools comes a plummeting demand for fresh crops in the service and catering industries. According to Earnest Research, restaurants suffered a 42.3% slowdown in the week immediately following California’s shelter-inplace order. Many farmers working through the coronavirus pandemic continue to lose money as a result of dwindling markets, said Jess Brown, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau. On the other hand, farmers who produce food for retail markets have more outlets available to them. The largest available outlet is grocery stores, deemed essential businesses by Gov. Gavin Newsom. “There’s also the small-scale farmers who have things like community-supported agriculture. They’re called ‘CSAs,’ where you subscribe and get boxes of produce every week,” Brown said. “Their subscriptions have gone up because people want to access local, fresh produce.” Brown works alongside farmers to promote agriculture in the open fields of Santa Clara Valley, which include cities south of San Jose such as Gilroy and Morgan Hill. Unlike businesses that were able to shutter temporarily and schools that suspended in-person classes until the fall, still-growing crops could not be put on pause once seeds were sowed. Paul Mirassou, president of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau and farmer with B&T Farms, said he’s had to “disc out” much of his harvest – destroying the crop and recycling it back into the soil. “Right now we’re having problems with lettuce, which we planted in the winter, we’re harvesting now. We’re going to get 25 acres right now,” he said. “It cost $4,000 an acre to grow and to disc it up. $4,000 an acre [is] a lot of money lost.” Using an agricultural tool known as a disc harrow, named after its row of metal discs, farmers till the soil where they wish to plant crops. But as the crops Mirassou planted in the winter reach peak harvest, he’s had to churn dead lettuce and spinach back into the ground with the device. “During Easter, people plant a lot for that, and then nobody had an
During Easter, people plant a lot for that, and then nobody had an Easter party, so no demand. You just disc it up into the ground, just kill the organic matter. Paul Mirassou Santa Clara County Farm Bureau president and farmer
(Top) Fresh lettuce grows among a field of decaying lettuce off Pacheco Pass Highway in Gilroy. (Left) The disc harrow (center) is an agriculture tool traditionally used to till the soil where crops are planted.
Easter party, so no demand. You just disc it up into the ground, just kill the organic matter,” Mirassou said. Along the Pacheco Pass Highway in Gilroy are fields with patches of decaying crops left unharvested and undestroyed by farms facing financial burdens. Pink flags staked in the ground offer a stark reminder to farmers walking across the crop field – “DO NOT HARVEST.” Mirassou said he applied for small business loans under the federal Payment Protection Program and has since received them to help keep his business afloat.
To assist struggling farmers, Brown said he discussed federal government assistance with Rep. Jimmy Panetta, who represents portions of Gilroy. “I think one thing that they could do is to help the growers who are food institution-type growers bring the product to market and purchase it and distribute it to food banks throughout the country,” Brown said. “A lot of people [are] in need of food because of being unemployed.” Protecting local farmland and community gardens ensures that locals need not worry about food
shortages, said Matt Freeman, assistant general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. The Open Space Authority relies on state bonds to provide grants that fund its work, some of which may be repurposed for an economic stimulus package, leaving less grant money available for it to support farmland and agriculture protection. “We’re working with a few landowners to protect really critical farmland so that it can’t be so divided,” Freeman said. “We make these properties available for
ongoing agriculture.” He said that the COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped the valley’s mission, though progress has slowed because of the economic shutdown. Mirassou said he oversees 2,800 acres on his farm just a few miles from the Gilroy Premium Outlets, and although oversupply has led to discarded crops in the past, it has never been so widespread. “Hopefully we’ll go back to normal when we’re ready to harvest [again], if not, we’ll probably have a lot of big problems when we go harvest those crops,” Mirassou said. He said economic relief will come once he secures the small business loans he’d applied for, and while his losses for this season’s harvest have become evident, the fall season’s harvest remains as unpredictable as the COVID-19 pandemic. Follow Vicente on Twitter @VicenteSJSU
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POST-PANDEMIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Green spaces give solace to students think the public, American public, global public, will recognize the importance and significance of nature for the benefit of the people and that nature provides a very powerful mechanism.” Michelle DeCoux Hampton, a nursing professor at SJSU, said over the phone that nature is conducive to relaxation and mindfulness and that by indulging in the outdoors, people are becoming more aware of their mental well-being. “Some people are so deeply affected by it that they’re really taking solace in nature, so I’ll say we’re really redoubling our efforts to protect the open spaces, to plan new amenities, trails [and] community gardens,” said Matt Freeman, assistant general manager of Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority conserves the natural environment, supports agriculture and connects people to nature by protecting open spaces, natural areas and working farms in Santa Clara and neighboring areas. Freeman said his team saw unprecedented levels of youth interest in using the parks and trails on weekends and typical levels of visitors at preserves on weekdays. “I think for some folks too there really is something about accessing nature, to take solace and maybe connect with their spiritual side a little bit more,” Freeman said. “So it’s been really gratifying to be able to keep the preserve.” Despite facing some slowdowns in grants,
CLASSIFIEDS CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Freeman said the Santa Clara Valley Greenprint, a 30-year roadmap that identifies goals, priorities and strategies for land conservation and highlights opportunities for partnerships and funding, is still set to be implemented. “I think it’s great, these efforts that cities are making, to make those spaces available to us to the degree that we’re not overusing them and crowding into certain locations,” Hampton said. The shutdown of nonessential businesses and the heat of cabin fever has sparked a newfound respect from students of open green spaces. “I’d definitely say that I’ve taken advantage of the local parks much more than before the shutdowns,” chemistry freshman Sammy Mendoza said. “Now that gatherings
and regular face-to-face contact with other people are largely on pause, going to the park for a walk has helped maintain a sense of calm and relaxation that isolation tends to diminish.” Green spaces are typically for recreational purposes, however, they have shown to offer a bit more during this pandemic. Parts of Central Park in New York City have been transformed into an outdoor field hospital with beds, tents and ventilators for COVID-19 patients, according to a New York Post article. In an email, a spokesperson for Santa Clara County Parks and R e c r e a t i o n
stated they have set up a respite location in the Santa Clara Convention Center and will continually evaluate their plans during the pandemic. “We have this pandemic necessity, enabling us to work together as a collective . . . recognizing that this space was used during this pandemic in a very unique way,” Iwasaki said. “I like to think that this pandemic will provide us to be more innovative and creative and do things differently so that we thrive later instead of just surviving in response to this pandemic.” Follow Gia on Instagram @phamtasticxx
DOYLE
Mix together isolation, boredom and closed parks and it takes a toll on some students’ mental health. “Spring is usually a time for me to go on a lot of beautiful hikes before the heat of summer comes. I’m actually surprised at how much missing that outdoor time is affecting me,” said anthropology sophomore Alona Hazen in a text message. “I think that seasonal affective disorder or seasonal depression has been prolonged for many people because we aren’t doing any of the activities that usually signify the arrival of spring.” All the local parks within walking distance from Hazen’s house in Downtown San Jose are closed off and Hazen said she and her younger brother are struggling to adjust to the lack of green space around them. Although Hazen walks around her block, she said it is not the same as being at school. “Campus as a green space is something we take for granted and I will definitely appreciate it more when the shelter in place is lifted and we’re able to go back,” Hazen said. As schools and businesses closed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, scores of people flocked to the parks and open spaces that remained open. “Because we live in a fastpaced life, on the go, we don’t take many opportunities to enjoy these green spaces like we should be doing on a
regular basis,” justice studies junior Austen Bradford said. “I’ve learned to appreciate all types of green spaces again and I’m going to continue utilizing them from now on.” A California Parks and Recreation news release ordered the closure of all vehicular access to state parks in order to curtail mass gatherings and unnecessary travel. Santa Clara County Parks suspended all special events and programming and closed the following county parks: Metcalf Motorcycle, Calero, Stevens Creek, Lexington Reservoir and Field Sports Park, as well as local archery ranges, disc golf courses, dog parks at Vasona, Los Gatos Creek and Ed R. Levin and all campgrounds, museums, visitor centers, group sites, yurts, golf courses, and playgrounds. However, Santa Clara County parks and trails remain open as outdoor areas for hiking from dawn to dusk. Santa Clara County Parks also noted that Coyote Creek Parkway and the following county parks: Sanborn, Mt. Madonna, Joseph D. Grant and Stevens Creek, are not as heavily impacted with people, so the public can visit these alternative outdoor spaces to hike while practicing social distancing. People can also walk the trails during off-peak hours from Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “People are social human beings and we are part of the environment,” said Yoshitaka Iwasaki, professor and chair of the Department of Public Health and Recreation at SJSU. “So after this time I
NB Y NAT HAN
STAFF WRITER
RA TIO
By Gia Pham
ILL
SUDOKU PUZZLE Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains every digit from 1 to 9 inclusively.
JOKIN’ AROUND What happens if you eat yeast and shoe polish?
Every morning you’ll rise and shine!
SOLUTIONS
ACROSS 1. Browned bread 6. Constellation bear 10. Nobleman 14. Come from behind 15. Catches 16. Hawaiian feast 17. Fragrant oil 18. Coagulate 19. Goddess of discord 20. Picture 22. Actors in a show 23. Notch 24. A haphazard assortment 26. Peddle 30. Female sheep 31. Stir 32. Double-reed woodwind 33. Contributes 35. Angry 39. “Darn it!” 41. Coach 43. Muzzle 44. Sketch 46. Adolescent 47. Central 49. Santa’s helper
50. Existence 51. Selection 54. Dour 56. Trumpet 57. In a non-hurting manner 63. Therefore 64. Citrus fruit 65. Female demon 66. Brother of Jacob 67. Poems 68. A group of soldiers 69. Knows 70. Cravings 71. Indications DOWN 1. Snare 2. Pledge 3. Countertenor 4. Thin strip 5. Beginners 6. Having sufficient room 7. Connected by kinship 8. Cease 9. A breathing disorder 10. Voters 11. Hearing-related
12. Lift 13. Vigorously passionate 21. Gather 25. Norse god 26. Mats of grass 27. Black, in poetry 28. Corporate image 29. Legume-like 34. Littleness 36. Anagram of “Sage” 37. T T T T 38. Sea eagle 40. Ear-related 42. Horrible 45. A systematic plan for therapy 48. Position 51. Impudence 52. Cowboy’s best friend 53. Keyboard instrument 55. Thaws 58. Adjutant 59. Indian dress 60. Dirty air 61. King of the jungle 62. Blabs
04/29/2020
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IDEOLOGY
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THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
Alt-right sect of environmentalism Viral tweets and temporarily lowered emissions have brought out dangerous ecofacist musings
Chris Padilla STAFF WRITER
With the coronavirus pandemic forcing people to stay home, wildlife has reclaimed the places people left vacant. While some would jokingly say that humans are the problem, others take the issue of humanity’s impact to extremes. As pollution cleared, Twitter lit up with tweets about the transparent canals of Venice filled with pods of dolphins. Footage from the city of Bergamo, Italy showed wild boars roaming the streets without fear, demonstrating that without people, nature can begin to “heal.” This would be great, except it’s all crap. Dolphins aren’t swimming in Venetian canals and those boars were actually in Liguria, Italy, not Bergamo. More importantly, the boar footage was filmed before the pandemic. Stories of animals venturing into cities are less about nature reclaiming the planet and more about curious animals wandering into previously busy places, such as turkeys meandering into Oakland. Some animals are also seeking out food in inhabited areas because tourists are no longer feeding them, much like the sika deer of Nara, Japan or the monkeys of Lopburi, Thailand. The claims that “nature is healing,” a mostly harmless fallacy, can sometimes be followed by the troubling sentiment that “humans are the virus.” These ideas stem from a philosophy known as ecofascism. While it sounds like tree-hugger ideology, it is more in
line with “Mein Kampf ” rather than “FernGully: The Last Rainforest,” an animated movie about fairies trying to save the rainforest. Ecofascism argues that the environment is dying because of human influence and only when humans are removed from the equation can the Earth recover. A major part of the philosophy are the so-called “lifeboat ethics” codified by ecofascist Pentti Linkola, who compares the Earth to a sinking ship with only one lifeboat left. In his theory, only a few people can be saved if the Earth is to recover and anyone who tries to fill that proverbial lifeboat would sink it if they tried. While the theory is dismissible as a gross oversimplification of how the world actually works, ecofascism has recently gained traction in dire and fatal ways. The Christchurch, New Zealand shooter who targeted mosques in 2019 wrote in his manifesto that he was an ecofascist, linked nationalism to environmentalism and called immigration an act of “environmental warfare.” The notion that if humans vanish, the Earth will flourish into a new Garden of Eden is almost romantic in a grim way. But the caveat to this philosophy is that adherents of ecofascism don’t really mean that every human should die, just that the ones who aren’t white should. In August 2019, the El Paso shooter who was responsible for a mass shooting at a Walmart, posted on the online forum 8chan that he was preventing a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He also said he was inspired by the Christchurch shooter. In his own manifesto, he mentioned that if enough people died humans could continue their way of life. Both shooters combined killed a total of 73 people.
The claims that “nature is healing,” a mostly harmless fallacy, can sometimes be followed by the troubling sentiment that “humans are the virus.”
While ecoterrorism is traditionally the purview of the extreme left, it is clear that ecofascists are elements of the extreme right, if their anti-immigrant rhetoric and their proud use of the word “fascist” weren’t big enough hints. Their beliefs about genocide helping the environment are also wildly flawed, as the environmental effects of one person or even a hundred people are negligible compared to even one corporation. “You can measure a person’s impact, but there would be a lot of digits behind the zero in terms of percent of global emissions attributable to or savable by an individual,” said Richard Heede, co-founder and co-director of the Climate Accountability Institute. According to a 2019 Stanford University study, the per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. was around 17 tons in 2018, with a lower average for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, a carbon dioxide emissions report from British Petroleum in 2019 put the company’s emissions at over 5 billion tons in 2018, just in the U.S. Luckily, ecofascism seems to be a fringe movement for now. Online assertions of nature reclaiming the Earth are met with memes mocking the idea, with cats on airport conveyor belts or toilet paper back on store shelves, returning to their “natural environments.” These are usually captioned, “The Earth is healing. We are the virus.”
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ELECTRONICS
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020
11
Buy a new device
It’s time for you to buy a new device with the latest features. It feels significantly better than your previous one, but when you put it in your bag, you notice your wallet feels a bit lighter too.
Device gets damaged You spilled some chocolate milk on your laptop or dropped your phone and the screen broke. It still works, but you really need to fix it or get a new one.
‘Recycle’ or throw away You saved up enough to buy a new device, time to “recycle” your old one. Unfortunately, in some cases recycling is used to mislead consumers about where their device will go.
Repair the device Break the wasteful cycle of buying, damaging and throwing away a device. Instead, get it repaired to help both the environment and your wallet. PHOTOS COURTESY OF PXFUEL, GADGET GENIE AND IFIXIT. INFOGRAPHIC BY KUNAL MEHTA AND MARCI SUELA
BINARY BOMBSHELLS
Reduce waste with repair be a recycler in name only.” Puckett explained that recovering the few valuable metals inside devices is a toxic process done in developing countries where people don’t have adequate protective equipment. The easy solution to this problem is to reuse and repair our slightly broken Kunal Mehta devices rather than chucking them in SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR a landfill or “recycling” center. It’ll cut down on the manufacturing of new I remember the first time I learned products too. about rechargeable batteries. My new That’s not an easy task though, and remote-controlled toy car was eating it goes past switching batteries – most through AA batteries, so my parents electronic components in our devices are gave me a set of rechargeable ones. difficult to access, repair and replace. Rather than throwing away six AA In the ’90s and early 2000s, if your batteries into the landfill every few USB port stopped working, you weeks, I could reuse the same set over could take off the case and swap in a and over again. replacement. Now you just give in and As rechargeable battery use became find a workaround until you can afford more widespread, I expected it to get a new computer. would reduce the amount of electronic Online repair community iFixit rated waste in the world. Unfortunately, the the 2019 MacBook Pro as a 1 out of 10 opposite has happened because of on its repairability scale because key corporate greed. Manufacturers have made it harder for components including the keyboard, people to repair their own devices, such battery and memory are glued or riveted, as by switching out batteries, in order to making it significantly more difficult sell more units. It’s time for this wasteful to repair. It’s not just Apple creating lockedpractice to end and for the right to repair down products – the Microsoft Surface to be guaranteed. Laptop earned a zero in repairability. I could easily pop the battery out of my first cell phone during the late 2000s. Given that it wasn’t designed to be opened at all without damaging the When the battery stopped holding as laptop, repair becomes effectively much charge, it would take less than 10 impossible. seconds to swap in a new one. That said, it is possible to create Phone makers realized that if they laptops that are easy to repair. Recent HP made it hard to switch the battery out, EliteBook models earned 9s and 10s on consumers would either pay them to the iFixit scale. do battery swaps or buy new phones During the coronavirus pandemic, because the repairs were too hard being able to repair medical equipment or complicated. In 2010, when the iPhone 4 came out, quickly becomes a matter of life or death. According to Business Insider Italia, Apple began using a new type of screw in mid-March an Italian hospital found called the pentalobe security screw. Whatever Apple’s intentions were, the volunteers who could 3D print a valve change had an immediate impact. People needed for ventilators. The volunteers couldn’t open up their phones for repair asked the manufacturer for the design, because no one besides Apple employees but were turned down as it was patented and likely illegal to reprint. had pentalobe screwdrivers. Thankfully, that didn’t stop them, as If you opt to get a new phone instead they redesigned the part from scratch, and choose to recycle your old one, you might not be helping the environment as successfully printing valves that the hospital could use, likely saving lives in much as you think. the process. Jim Puckett, the executive director of That’s why we need the government to the Basel Action Network, which works step in, because companies are abusing against the export of toxic waste, told NPR’s Fresh Air in 2010, “A recycler can copyrights and patents to prevent us
Manufacturers have made it harder for people to repair their own devices, such as by switching out batteries, in order to sell more units. It’s time for this wasteful practice to end and for the right to repair to be guaranteed.
from repairing devices we legally own. Imagine for a minute if the car you bought didn’t come with an owners manual. If you wanted to refill the oil or switch in new tires, you’d be required to go to the car company’s own service program. We wouldn’t stand for such a world, that would be absurd. But in reality, more and more components of our cars are operated by computers that are often solely controlled by manufacturers. In 2012, Massachusetts voters passed a “Right to Repair” initiative with 86% support, requiring car manufacturers to provide the same information their dealers use to vehicle owners and independent repair shops. By 2014, car makers voluntarily agreed to follow the requirements of the Massachusetts law nationwide starting with 2018 model-year cars, according to The Atlantic. Except now, Massachusetts voters will be heading back to the polls in November to vote to expand the law to include a “vehicle’s telematic data,” which includes monitoring and other diagnostic information that cars have started collecting. Philosophically, it’s quite simple – if you own a product, you should have the technical and legal abilities to modify it as you want. If manufacturers don’t want to enable that, it’s up to us to lobby our representatives in the state and federal governments to pass right-torepair legislation. Once again, Massachusetts is on the right track. Its state legislators are working on a Digital Right to Repair Act, which would make similar requirements from the 2012 initiative mandatory for all electronic device manufacturers. The bill passed state House and state Senate committees in January 2019, but hasn’t seen any action since. However, I’m hopeful that it will become the blueprint for similar legislation across the country. Follow Kunal on Mastodon @legoktm@mastodon.technology Binary Bombshells appears every other week on Thursday.
