Study: Coffee Dates Best

  • A new study shows that if you're holding something warm, you might like people more than if you're holding something cold (Source: MarkSweep at Wikimedia Commons)

A study published in the journal
Science suggests that there might be a link
between how warm you are and how much you
like someone. Jessi Ziegler reports:

Transcript

A study published in the journal
Science suggests that there might be a link
between how warm you are and how much you
like someone. Jessi Ziegler reports:

The study was really simple.

Researchers pretended to have their hands really full, and
asked people to hold their coffee for them. Some of the
coffee was iced, some was hot. The people were then
asked to rate others’ personalities.

You know, like in terms of being a “warm” person or a
“cold” person.

They discovered that those who held the hot coffee rated
people as warmer. The people who held iced coffee? Not
so much.

Lawrence Williams at UC Boulder is co-author of the study.

He thinks this has to do with associations made when
you’re a baby. Your first concept of social warmth
coincides with physical warmth.

So, what does this study mean for you?

“This work suggests that going out for coffee might be
effective in getting the relationship off on the right foot,
as opposed to going out for ice cream, for example.”

You heard it here. Coffee dates are a much better bet.

For The Environment Report, this is Jessi Ziegler.

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African Americans and Affordable Energy

  • Wendell Rice points to the new CFLs in Stephanie Bradford’s home (Photo by Jori Lewis)

The cost of heating your home is going
up this winter. It went up last year. It will
go up next year. For some people it’s an
inconvenience. For others it’s a real problem.
Jori Lewis reports Black communities are hit
especially hard:

Transcript

The cost of heating your home is going
up this winter. It went up last year. It will
go up next year. For some people it’s an
inconvenience. For others it’s a real problem.
Jori Lewis reports Black communities are hit
especially hard:

Like a lot of Americans, Darlene Manswell has been struggling. Her Brooklyn, home is
in foreclosure. And she’s been behind on her electricity bills – almost $3,000 behind.

And so the power company, they came a-knockin.’

“They basically came to shut it off and I’m, you know, just bargaining with people.
They wanted the full amount. I didn’t have the full amount. I gave them whatever I
could afford to give them. And they said that’s not, we’re still going to shut it off.”

The price of energy has become a huge burden for many people, but Black communities,
like Darlene Manswell’s, are especially vulnerable.

Andrew Hoerner researches energy use in minority communities for the sustainability
think tank Redefining Progress and the Environmental Justice and Climate Change
Initiative.

Hoerner says Black people pay more of their incomes on home energy and heating
expenses than other people. He says there are a couple of reasons why. First, Black
people, on average, have lower incomes.

“Energy is like food or shelter. It’s a necessity. And people at lower incomes spend a
higher percentage of their income on necessities.”

But, Hoerner also found that Black people at middle and higher income levels still spend
more of their incomes on energy than non-Blacks in all but the highest income brackets.

“I think we’re safe in saying that it has to do with lower quality housing stock for
African American communities.”

It all goes back to a history of residential segregation has left many Black people in older
areas with less well-maintained houses. Those buildings might have loose windows or
poor insulation. And that means they are leaking heat and wasting energy.

Hoener also notes Black people are more likely to be renters instead of owners. And
renters have less control over repairs or improvements.

All of these factors have forced Black communities to find ways to adjust.

Stephanie Bradford certainly wants to. She owns a home in a traditionally Black
neighborhood of Brooklyn.

“These times are serious. So whatever way you have to do to save money, you have
to save it. This winter was horrible. It was a matter of either heating the house or
eating. And it was really a choice.”

She made it through okay. But she knows she has to do better this winter. And lucky for
her, she found a way.

Bradford qualified for low–income weatherization assistance. She’s been able to install
new windows, add insulation and put in new energy-efficient compact fluorescent light
bulbs.

Wendell Rice is the director of the weatherization program. He says making these
changes can help people like Stephanie Bradford weather the economic the downturn.

“She’s doing the right thing, she’s not dodging the bullet by getting the house
weatherized. And if we do what we’re supposed to do here, her bills got to be
cheaper.”

Rice says he wishes he could help everyone. But these programs have a waiting list a
year or two long.

But Rice notes that if he could help more people lower their energy bills, the money left
over could help them save their homes from the bank and their stuff from the repo man
and just go a long way in healing this systemic bias.

For The Environment Report, this is Jori Lewis.

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Winter’s Chill to Bring Bigger Bill

  • Due to the price of natural gas and crude oil, it is predicted that it will cost you much more to heat your home this winter (Photo by John Ferguson, courtesy of FEMA)

As summer winds down, you’re
probably not thinking about your
heating bill. But that’s something
market analysts are thinking about
right now. And reporter Kyle Norris
finds the predictions of what it will
cost to heat your home are going up
in a big way:

Transcript

As summer winds down, you’re
probably not thinking about your
heating bill. But that’s something
market analysts are thinking about
right now. And reporter Kyle Norris
finds the predictions of what it will
cost to heat your home are going up
in a big way:


This year the average cost of heating your home is going to cost a good
chunk more than what it did last year.

Doug MacIntyre is an analyst with the US Energy Information
Administration.

“We’re estimating that, on average, the household using natural gas to
heat their home will be spending 24% more than last year. For heating
oil we think the increase will be even higher with house holds spending
about 36% more than they did last year.”

Those predications are made by looking at the cost of things like natural
gas and crude oil. And by analyzing the weather forecast for the up-
coming winter.

MacIntyre says he does not expect these expensive heating costs to go
away anytime in the next few years.

For The Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

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Whooping Cranes’ Poor Parenting

  • Whooping cranes have been abandoning their nests, and eggs, in search of food (Photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service)

The experiment to create a migrating flock
of whooping cranes in the Eastern US is having a
parenting problem. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

The experiment to create a migrating flock
of whooping cranes in the Eastern US is having a
parenting problem. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

About 70 whooping cranes now migrate between the Southeast US and the Midwest.
Wildlife experts have been hoping that more pairs of the birds would start hatching eggs
and raising chicks in the wild.

This spring, at their northern home in Wisconsin, several female cranes did lay eggs and
sat on the nests during cold weather. But when it warmed up, the adult birds abandoned
their nests to look for food.

George Archibald is co-founder of the International Crane Foundation.

“If there is a food stress, when it becomes warmer their drive to feed may increase much
more than when it’s cold.”

Some of the crane eggs were saved and hatched out by wildlife centers.

For The Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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Winter Sledding Audio Postcard

  • This audio postcard captures that moment as a kid when sledding down a hill is the ultimate thrill ride. (Photo by Lester Graham)

There’s a lot of talk about the effects of global warming. But on a
recent frigid night, kids were thinking only of the cold and the thrill
of sledding down a hill. Producer Kyle Norris squeezed into the back of
a couple of sleds with the kids. She has this audio postcard
of the experience:

Transcript

There’s a lot of talk about the effects of global warming. But on a
recent frigid night, kids were thinking only of the cold and the thrill
of sledding down a hill. Producer Kyle Norris squeezed into the back of
a couple of sleds with the kids. She has this audio postcard
of the experience:


“My name is Kayli Mills and I’m twelve years old. Right now we’re
sledding and we’re actually snowboarding because last year we didn’t
really get to do much. It’s dark right now and it’s really fun to do it
in the dark not only is the hill clear, but um, and it’s quiet and
everything but it’s just really fun when you really can’t see much.”


“We’re getting on the sled and you want to sit how it’s most
comfortable to you because you don’t want to fall off, for sure,
especially with two people. Um, I’m sitting just on my butt but with my
legs hanging off. But I’m going to go on my knees in a second when we
take off, just doing this so that the sled doesn’t take off on its
own.”


(Sounds of sledding down the hill)


“Isn’t that fun? Go C.J.!”


“My name is C.J. and I’m nine years old. I smell snow and woods and
we’re at the bottom of Slauson Hill ’cause we just went down and it’s
really dark out and the clouds are white and the sky it blue. Well,
it’s creepy kind of cause, cause it’s a really steep hill.”


(Sounds of the sled thrown down on snow)


“We just sat down and we’ll probably go pretty fast but I don’t know.”


(Sounds of sledding)


“That was fun. That was really fun.”


(Kayli): “Definitely the wind in your hair is the best part….”


(C.J.): “It makes your cheek red when you go down like about five times
cause the wind blows into your cheeks really hard.”


(Kayli): “I’d say that if you look at the sky it’s very, very
beautiful I think even more than the day could even be. I mean, there’s
not really a sunset but you can kind of see the colors fading in from a
blue to a pink a yellow to a blue it’s almost like a rainbow but the
whole clouds are just a rainbow, dark skies. It’s very pretty right
now.”


(Sound of sled fades out).


Host tag: Those were the sounds of Kayli, C.J., and Austin braving the cold for
an evening sled on Slauson Hill in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Cooling Concerns About Air Conditioning

  • For some, a ceiling fan just isn't enough to cool down. (Photo by Tarrer Pace)

As the hot weather settles in, air conditioners are being wedged into windows everywhere. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly usually tries not to use one. But she finds as the temperatures rise, her concerns for the environment evaporate:

Transcript

As the hot weather settles in, air conditioners are
being wedged into windows everywhere. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Karen Kelly usually tries not to use one. But
she finds as the temperatures rise, her concerns for the
environment evaporate.


Every year – late spring – I start my annual denial of the fact that I need air conditioning.
The problem is, I really relate to the people who wave it away and say, all you need is a ceiling fan and nice cold glass of water.


Like my friend Ross, who has no air conditioning on the job as a home renovator, and no air conditioner at home, either.


“Well, it’s not really anything ethical. I just find that recycled air, it sort of smells bad. And I would prefer breathing steamy but clean air to cooled but stale air.”


Ross is one of those people who thinks it’s silly to use air conditioning where we live, which is in Ottawa, Canada. I mean, come on, we might only have a couple of weeks of hot weather. And in the beginning, I try to do without.


I have fans. I drink iced lattes. I take cool baths.


But the truth is, I can’t take it. My brain just stops functioning properly. Like the time my husband came home to find me trying to work at the computer in tears, because I was so hot. Meanwhile, the air conditioner is in the window, but I was refusing to turn it on.


Part of it is that I’m worried about the impact on the environment. I talked to Corey Diamond at the Clean Air Foundation in Toronto and asked him how bad is air conditioning really?
He agreed it uses a lot of electricity, but even worse, he says we’re all using it at the same time.


“Everybody sort of comes home at five o’clock, turns on their air conditioning, and we get to a point where the electricity grid is at the peak demand that it can access. What ends up happening is when people are demanding more power, they have to use as much coal as they can to meet that demand.”


And that means more pollution, which leads to smog, health problems and maybe even climate change.
Despite that, I recently decided I had to have air conditioning in my car – both for my own comfort and the safety of other drivers.


I tend to get disoriented in the heat. I usually relied on a bottle of ice water between my knees and the windows wide open. About an hour later, I’d be taking the wrong exit off the highway.


So, I recently took my 1990 Honda Accord into the shop to find out if they could fix it. I was prepared to spend a few hundred dollars, maybe more. Then they call back with a quote of one thousand eight hundred dollars.


That’s probably more than my car is worth. The guy on the phone says at that price, he won’t let me get it fixed, even if I want to. So the car is out of the question. But at home, the heat creeps into my living room, and the temptation becomes too great.


Third day of plus 85 temperatures… What more do I have to say?


(Sound of air conditioning)


My 18 month old daughter stands in front of the air conditioner. She reaches her arms towards it. She basks in its coolness.


“How does that feel? Good… good…good!”


I’ve given in to my weaker self. But I’m still determined to use the air conditioner sparingly.
Corey Diamond at the Clean Air Foundation gave me a bunch of ideas on how to do that.


“Keep the blinds drawn during the day. You want to install some ceiling fans if you have some. And lastly, you can add a timer to your air conditioner. You sort of set it to come on at four o’clock and if you get home at five o’clock from work, your house is cool, but it hasn’t been cooled all day.”


At first, Diamond’s group tried to get people to stop using air conditioning. That didn’t work. So they switched gears. They started a program in Toronto where you can trade in your old, inefficient air conditioner for a rebate on a new one. Diamond says the newer ones use as much as 70 percent less electricity.


So as I sit here, telling you this story, I have a new air conditioner with an Energy Star sticker on it.
Which means either the Canadian or American government deemed it more efficient. I do kind of feel like I’m working in a wind tunnel. And I miss the sounds of the birds and squirrels outside my window. But yet, I feel comfortable.


Now I’m reluctant to turn the air conditioner off.


For the GLRC, I’m Karen Kelly.

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New Road Surface Could Mean Fewer Salt Trucks

  • A new coating on a road surfaces could lower its freezing point, preventing ice formation. (Photo by Cristian Pricop)

Drivers are testing out a new road coating that could reduce accidents in the winter. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports, it might also mean fewer trips for highway salt trucks:

Transcript

Drivers are testing out a new road coating that could reduce accidents in the winter. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill reports it might also mean fewer trips for highway salt trucks:


Russ Alger directs the Institute of Snow Research at Michigan Technological University. He’s come up with an aggregate that can absorb road salt. The aggregate is glued to the road surface with a tough epoxy. Alger says the aggregate can hold onto road salt for an entire season. That means when it gets cold, the salt will prevent ice from forming.


“And so in essence what we’ve done is we’ve lowered the freezing point of the pavement itself, and what that means is, twenty degrees pavement temperature now, ice won’t form at the surface of it.”


It also means road crews can use less salt, and make fewer trips to trouble spots. The new coating was installed on a bridge in Northern Wisconsin. Alger says accidents there have been reduced dramatically. It’s also being tried out on some runways at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.


For the GLRC, I’m Stephanie Hemphill.

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Rough Water for New Fast Ferries

  • Ferries on the Great Lakes are getting faster; but some ferries are not experiencing the same speed in their ticket sales. (Photo by Anne-Marie Labbate)

Two high speed ferries that began operation on the Great
Lakes this year have shut down for the winter. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports that for each of the boats, the first season did not go according to plan:

Transcript

Two high speed ferries that began operation on the Great Lakes this year have shut down for the winter. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports that for each of the boats, the first season did not go according to plan:


The Lake Express Ferry that crossed Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Muskegon exceeded predictions and carried more than 120-thousand passengers. But the boat cancelled its November and December schedule because of a low number of bookings. Lake Express President Kenneth Szallai insists the problem is not people being reluctant to cruise the lake in cold weather. He says the company just didn’t do enough to market the late-season service.


“People are used to the traditional ferries ending up in October… and because we didn’t do our part of it… they didn’t realize we’d be operating and so our sales were kind of flat for those two months.”


Szallai says the Lake Express will again carry passengers next spring. Another high speed ferry between Toronto and Rochester, New York abruptly shut down in early September. A Rochester newspaper reports problems include, quote, questionable business decisions, bad luck and lack of cash. It’s unclear when the boat will resume service.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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New Insulating Material Could Save Energy

  • From lighter, thinner ski boots and other cold-weather clothing... (Photo by Adam Fowler)

A new insulating material could cut down on home heating
costs and save on materials in construction. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Katherine Glover tells us about Aerogels:

Transcript

A new insulating material could cut down on home heating costs and save
on construction materials. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Katherine Glover
tells us about Aerogels:


Aerogels look like frozen smoke, and feel like styrofoam. Up to ninety-nine
percent of an aerogel is empty space. This makes it an excellent insulator. Last
year, the first aerogel jacket hit the market. And aerogel footwear inserts are used
by the U.S. military and the Canadian National Ski
Team. Ed Hogan is the marketing manager of Aspen Aerogels.


“Everybody knows how much cold feet can spoil an outing, right? And this stuff
is so thin, you can put it in a shoe or put it in a boot, and you hardly notice it.”


Because they’re new, aerogels are still expensive relative to other materials. The
company says once they gain in popularity and the price goes down, they could be used
as insulation in walls and the clear form could be used in windows. This could cut down
dramatically on heating costs. And, because aerogels are so thin, the company says
houses could be built with less lumber. That’s because less lumber would be needed
to make room for aerogel insulation.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Katherine Glover.

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Invasive Fish Rears Ugly Head in Great Lakes

  • With its ability to breathe out of water and wriggle its way over land during dry spells, the media has dubbed the northern snakehead "Frankenfish." Its appearance in Lake Michigan is scary to scientists. (Photo courtesy of USGS)

A few weeks ago, a Chicago fisherman caused a stir when he found a northern snakehead fish. The discovery set off a frantic search to find out if yet another invasive species is threatening the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jenny Lawton has this report:

Transcript

A few weeks ago, a Chicago fisherman caused a stir when he found a northern snakehead fish. The find set off a frantic search to find out if yet another invasive species is threatening the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jenny Lawton has this report:


Just before Halloween, the so-called Frankenfish reared its ugly head… filled with sharp teeth… in Chicago’s Burnham Harbor on Lake Michigan. And it’s still a mystery as to just how it got there.


Although the snakehead is arare item in some Asian cuisines, there’s a more common suspicion amongst local experts and hobbyists. That snakehead was probably a pet that outgrew its tank, and instead of the traditional farewell down the toilet, it was set free in Lake Michigan. Free to eat through the Lake’s food web.


Local pet store manager Edwin Cerna says that’s why he stopped selling the fish years before they were banned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. He remembers one day, when he was adjusting a tank, he accidentally got in between a snakehead’s lunch and its mouth.


“He bit me in the hand… made me bleed. It hurts. It’s got a nice strong jaw and that’s why it’s so dangerous because it can kill big fish, literally cut them in half. It’s almost like a big old killer whale, like a miniature version of it.”


But why on earth would anybody buy a vicious fish that can grow up to three feet long in the first place? Jim Robinett is with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. He says he’s a fish geek.


“I gotta say, as a little fish, when you first buy them, they’re really attractive; they’re neat little animals, but they eat like crazy. They’re voracious.”


Robinett knows not to be fooled by the little guys because what happens next is the perfect plot for a B-horror movie. He says the snakehead fish grows quickly, eventually eating everything in its tank. If it doesn’t die from overgrowing that tank, its owner might be tempted to dump it into a nearby body of water where it will keep eating its way up the food chain. Robinett says that’s the fear in Lake Michigan.


“They could potentially start picking off small salmon and lake trout, which is native to these waters here, they’re not real discriminating, they’ve been known to take things as large as frogs, some small birds, even small mammals that happen to get in the way there close to shore. They’ll eat anything they get their mouth on.”


Most hobby fish don’t last long in Chicago’s cold water. But the northern snakehead is different. The snakehead is native to northern Asia, and the Lake Michigan Federation’s Cameron Davis says that makes the fish feel right at home around here.


“It’s a lot like us Midwesterners, it just kind of hunkers down and… that’s part of the problem with the snakehead is that it can live under very extreme conditions. Which means it’ll out compete those other fish, and that’s a tremendous problem.”


Snakeheads have another edge on other species. The fish guard their eggs, giving their young a better chance of reaching maturity. But perhaps the most peculiar thing about snakeheads is that they can breathe. In addition to its gills, they have an organ that works like a lung and allows it to breathe air. It’s able to live up to three days as it uses its fins to wriggle across land in search of another body of water.


But looking down into the murky waters at Burnham Harbor, Davis says we shouldn’t run screaming yet. It’s not exactly a horror film scenario.


“I don’t think that the snakehead is going to come and grab our children out of schools and eat them or anything like that. But it is a problem for those of us who like to fish for yellow perch and whitefish and some of the things that make the Great Lakes so fantatstic, could really be threatened by this fish getting into Lake Michigan.”


Other invasive species cause an estimated 137-billion dollars of losses and damages in U.S. waterways each year. Cameron Davis says simply banning the local sale of fish like snakeheads hasn’t been enough to keep the Great Lakes safe.


“We’ve got to stop imports of these kinds of fish into the United States. We can’t protect the Great Lakes unless we’re checking these things at the door when they come into the country. It’s that simple.”


Davis is pushing for the passage of the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act. The bill would allocate a total of 174-million dollars to develop new technology for identifying and eliminating the invaders if and when they arrive.


So far, local authorities ahven’t found another snakehead near the banks of Lake Michigan, but Cameron Davis says the initial find just proves how hard it is to regulate what comes into the country’s largest body of fresh water.


Standing on the dock at Burnham Harbor, Davis looks out over the dark waters and shakes his head.


“It’s just an indicator that we’re in a race against time right now. Let’s hope that if there are more than one out there, that they haven’t hooked up.”


If they have, he says, it could truly be the stuff horror movies are made of… at least, for the other fish in the Great Lakes.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jenny Lawton in Chicago.

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