The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allowed the number of
its criminal investigators to drop below levels mandated by Congress.
As Tracy Samilton reports, former EPA officials say that could hurt
enforcement activities across the nation:
Transcript
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has allowed the number of
its criminal investigators to drop below levels mandated by Congress.
As Tracy Samilton reports, former EPA officials say that could hurt
enforcement activities across the nation:
Criminal investigators at the Environment Protection Agency carry guns
and track down the most serious environmental violators. The agency is
required by law to employ at least 200 agents but currently the number
is only 174.
Eric Shaeffer is a former EPA official. He says most states don’t have
criminal investigators, so the EPA’s agents are crucial in keeping
companies honest. He says a good example is the EPA’s recent
prosecution of a Citgo refinery for benzene pollution:
“So they got nailed by a criminal investigation, and
they got convicted, and that’s really important because that sends a
message to the entire industry.”
Congress is now investigating the EPA’s division of investigators.
Julia Sdao and Mitchel Vedder at the waterfront, one of the camp's most popular destinations. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
The Wizniewskis: 58 years of marriage and 58 years of running Varsity. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
The kitchen recycles their plastic cups by washing them in soap and water, and then applying a light bleach/water solution. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
Cleaning up after lunch. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
On "tie-dye" day, the camp is awash in yellow and purple swirls. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
The kids relax after lunch. (Photo by Kyle Norris)
A couple in their eighties has spent the last sixty years running
a summer camp for kids old enough to be their children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren. Kyle Norris has the
story of how the couple has stuck to the old ways of summer
camp, from outdoor activities to food:
Transcript
A couple in their eighties has spent the last sixty years running
a summer camp for kids old enough to be their children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren. Kyle Norris has the
story of how the couple has stuck to the old ways of summer
camp, from outdoor activities to food:
What you arrive at Varsity Day Camp, you’ll see a ton of kids
running around outside. They’re doing all kinds of fun kid
activities. Like this one:
(Sound of pogo stick)
Pogo stick jumping. Jane Selner is the assistant business manager at Varsity. Her
parents, the Wizniewskis – or Mr. and Mrs. Wiz for short – have
run this camp for nearly six decades:
“We pretty much keep it down to earth. No electronics. No cell
phones, no Game Boys. That type of thing. We like them to
really discover nature. The birds, the trees, the animals, the
frogs and fish.”
Varsity is known as an old-school camp. Its campers are
supervised but their day is pretty much unstructured. They’re free to roam-
about the camp’s twenty-or-so activity stations. And everything
happens outside at this South Central Michigan camp. Kids can
choose activities like archery, tetherball, a miniature hockey
game I didn’t really understand, swimming, and arts and crafts.
Mr. Wiz helps supervises the activities, and Mrs. Wiz cooks all
the food from scratch, just like she’s done for the past 58 years.
She says it’s your basic standard camp food. Here she is breezing
through the week’s menu:
“Sloppy joe’s, and we have PB & J sandwiches, celery sticks,
Kool-Aid and chocolate chip cookies (I make all my cookies).
Turkey salad with lettuce, peanut butter and jelly. Tortilla
strips. Warm cinnamon coffee cake, which we’ll have
tomorrow. Grilled cheese, the kids love grilled cheese. They’ll
sit down an hour before we eat. I’ll say we’re going to feed you –
I want to be first and dill pickles…”
Mrs. Wiz’s cooking is pretty popular with all the kids I’ve talked
to. Campers have been known to eat three, four, sometime even
five helpings of her lunches.
But the food is just your basic camp fare. Mrs. Wiz, doesn’t use
any special cooking techniques or fancy-pants ingredients. But
you know what, the kids just rave about the food. They just
love the stuff:
“I’ve had a mother call me and said, ‘Mrs. Wiz, how do you do your
hot dogs?’ I said I put them in a pan of water and boil them. It’s
just they’re so hungry out here. That they play so hard, that it
tastes very good to them.”
Down at the waterfront, eleven-year-old Mitchell is hanging out
with a couple of pals. He’s got sandy-blond hair, surfer shorts,
and a faded t-shirt. He tells me I picked a good day to come to
Varsity, because today is sloppy joe day. Mitchell says – and
this is a direct quote from his mouth – that the sloppy joe’s taste like a little
piece of heaven:
“I’ve been coming here for 5 years and everything’s good…I
think it has something to do with like cooking all day ’cause
they cook all day in morning and cook desserts and it’s all day
cooking, I think it’s made good.”
Six-year old Julia jumps out of her canoe and onto the sandy
beach. Julia says the sloppy joe’s are her favorite thing at camp,
hands-down:
“It’s good because it’s very sweet and hot. It’s very good.”
The sloppy joe’s, like everything else, are cooked in the camp’s
tiny kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Wiz could easily ship in food from a
food service. Or hire other people to do their cooking. “No way,
no how,” they both say. For them, homemade is the way to go:
“Summer camp food should be enjoyable, homemade I think. Because it
tastes good.”
Mr. and Mrs. Wiz not only want the kids to enjoy good food,
but they want them to enjoy time that’s unscheduled and not
filled with violin lessons, after-school clubs, and busy life
activites.
“There’s no pressure, free to choose activity, free to choose
whatever they want lunch, that’s the entire philosophy, that they enjoy themselves and don’t get hurt…And eating is part of the enjoyment.”
Through good food, fun activities, and the great outdoors, Mr.
and Mrs. Wiz teach the kids to open their senses. And to just be
kids in a simple place.
Oh, and as for the sloppy joe’s, I tasted them and they were
really good.
Bernard Brown says making a peanut butter and jelly (or PB and fruit) sandwich is better for the environment than eating a burger or chicken nuggets. (Photo by Jennifer Szweda Jordan)
Bernard Brown waves a peanut butter-smeared knife as he explains how PB & J sandwiches can reduce global warming. (Photo by Jennifer Szweda Jordan)
A cookie cutter can transform a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into a character for a slide show on Brown's website to make the case that a small change can make a big difference in the environment. (Photo by Jennifer Szweda Jordan)
What could be more American, more humble, than a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich? And yet one activist suggests a PB and J a day could help slow
global warming. Jennifer Szweda Jordan recently visited the founder of the
PB and J Campaign:
Transcript
What could be more American, more humble, than a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich? And yet one activist suggests a PB and J a day could help slow
global warming. Jennifer Szweda Jordan recently visited the founder of the
PB and J Campaign:
(Brown:) “So we just spread some peanut butter on your banana bread.
Would you like to try it?”
(Jordan:) “Yeah. Yeah.”
Bernard Brown is trying to get people to see the peanut butter and jelly
sandwich in a new light. On his website, there’s a saintly glow behind a
graphic of the sandwich. He thinks eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
could just save the planet.
Brown estimates that eating one peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch
versus, say, a ham sandwich, or a burger, saves nearly three and a half
pounds of greenhouse gas emissions and 280 gallons of water. In Brown’s
kitchen, he waves a peanut butter covered knife. He explains why he’s using
this comfort food to change the world:
(Jordan:) “Why peanut butter and jelly? Like it’s a pretty processed, highly
processed kind of…”
(Brown:) “Yeah, it’s because it’s the most familiar food I could think of that
didn’t have, that was sort of purely plant-based and wasn’t animal-based at
all. It’s one of these things like people might be scared by words like vegan
or vegetarian. But there’s absolutely nothing alternative about peanut butter
and jelly.”
What’s more, some experts suggest Brown’s not, well, nuts. A Princeton
bioethicist says if 100 million Americans – that’s one of three of us – traded a
burger for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it would make an impact on
the environment. And if we made the same choice three times a week, it
would make a huge impact.
Those who worry that Brown’s dietary suggestions might make a huge impact on the
waistline, take heart. A serving of two tablespoons of peanut butter does have nearly 200
calories and 16 grams of fat. But the fat is not the worrisome saturated type and there’s
some evidence that eating a small amount of nuts each day might reduce the risk of heart
disease, and even prevent cancer.
Of course, Brown and nutritionists still suggest partnering a low-sugar peanut butter with
whole grain breads, and low-sugar jellies, or even fresh fruit. And Brown hopes people
consider moving beyond the peanut butter and jelly:
“On the website, we go into other different, other foods people could try – a
bean burrito’s a good example. Black bean soup. Falafel. We even tried
mentioning tofu. I’m not sure if it scares people away.”
Brown really wants to win over people by keeping the campaign from
becoming a crusade. He says that even a vegetarian like him is turned off by
overly radical, moralistic or bloody efforts against meat-eating, or for saving
the world:
“I think have a lot of messages that, ‘Things are very scary, you must change
your life.’ And so, it’s to try to come in with a softer approach, I think. The
ideal is to reach people who aren’t reached with more intense messages.”
Brown hopes to disarm you with playfulness. And what could be more playful than
playing with your food – turning peanut butter and jelly sandwiches into
people?
(Sound of fast typing)
On a laptop computer, Brown calls up a slide show he’s made of a
gingerbread-style cutout couple, peanut butter and jelly boy and girl. They’re
making a snowman and chatting. When PBJ boy gets a little sad, his
companion wonders why:
“He’s concerned that maybe global warming will mean there won’t be
conditions for making snowmen in the future.”
(Jordan:) “Can you read this one? They’re very sophisticated?”
(Brown:) “PBJ Girl says, ‘Well, anthropogenic climate change is a serious
problem. It should only affect the climate gradually. I’m positive we’ll able
to build a snowman next year.’ And then PBJ boy says, ‘Well, I guess that
makes me feel better, but what if our grandkids never see snow?'”
The girl says if we reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it might stay snowy in
the winter. Then she backs up Brown’s claim that it’s easy enough to do: just
have a sandwich that looks a lot like her and visit the pbjcampaign.org
website.
PBJ boy and girl are just the beginning.
(Sound of jingling cookie cutters)
Brown has a jar full of more cookie cutters like those he used to make the
boy and girl. He figures a wider variety of peanut butter and jelly creatures
could act in slide shows and carry out other environmental messages.
Brown’s not just limiting his work to online skits. He’s also trying to build a
calculator into his site so visitors can register the number of peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches they’ve eaten. Then he can track the impact. No
matter what, though, Brown plans for the campaign to remain light, fun, and
easy to swallow.
For the Environment Report, this is Jennifer Szweda Jordan.
The bald eagle was protected by the Endangered Species Act for 40 years, but researchers are still finding toxic chemicals in the eagles' plasma. (Photo by William Bowerman)
Once every five years researchers are permitted to come to a site in Michigan and take young birds from the nest to test them. (Photo by Kendall Simon)
Immature birds are still delicate because their feathers are still not fully developed. (Photo by Kendall Simon)
Researchers still find DDE, the egg shell-thinning compound, in the eagles that live along the Great Lakes. (Photo by Kendall Simon)
Some years ago, tests on baby eagles' blood
from Michigan showed a spike of an unknown chemical. Lab
tests found it to be from a product called Scotch Guard, a stain
repellent for fabric produced by the 3M Company. (Photo by Kendall Simon)
A researcher holds one of the eagles. Some call this eagle research the oldest continuous wildlife survey in the world. (Photo by Kendall Simon)
The bald eagle came close to extinction
before strong measures were taken to help pull
it back. The eagle was protected by the Endangered
Species Act for 40 years. And the government banned
toxic compounds such as DDT that caused damage to the
eagles’ eggs. Bob Allen caught up with researchers
who are monitoring the health of the birds. They’re
finding the birds are still being exposed to toxic
chemicals:
Transcript
The bald eagle came close to extinction
before strong measures were taken to help pull
it back. The eagle was protected by the Endangered
Species Act for 40 years. And the government banned
toxic compounds such as DDT that caused damage to the
eagles’ eggs. Bob Allen caught up with researchers
who are monitoring the health of the birds. They’re
finding the birds are still being exposed to toxic
chemicals:
We’re on a steep, heavily wooded hillside about a mile above a
barrier dam on the Muskegon River in Michigan. The land is part of a private
church camp. So, human intrusion on the site is low. And the
pond behind the dam provides plenty of food for eagles rearing
their young.
Once every five years researchers are permitted to come here and
take young birds from the nest.
“Usually we try to keep people about a quarter mile away from the
nest. And that way we don’t have human disturbance that
would cause them to fail.”
Bill Bowerman is a wildlife toxicologist from Clemson
University. He first became part of this eagle survey as a grad
student at Michigan State more than 20 years ago, about the time
researchers began taking blood and feather samples.
Wildlife veterinarian Jim Sikarskie says eagles sit atop
the aquatic food chain, so any contaminants in the ecosystem
eventually show up in them:
“The contaminants that are in the plasma from the blood and
from the feathers then help us evaluate the quality of the water in
the area around the nest. So we do birds from different watersheds
every 5 years as part of the water quality surveillance plan.”
The nest is a tangled mass of twigs in an aspen tree swaying in a
strong breeze about 60 feet off the ground. As the research team
approaches, the female lifts off and begins to circle and squawk
just above the tree-tops.
They lay out syringes and test tubes on the ground. Walter
Nessen gets ready to climb the tree. He’s worked with
Bowerman monitoring sea eagles in his native South Africa.
Walter buckles into his harness and straps a pair of climbing
spikes to his boots. He has the kind of wiry strength and agility
that makes for a good climber. He prefers not to use gloves to
handle the eaglets because he relies on a sense of feel between
his hands and their legs:
“Immature birds, nestlings, are quite delicate because their
feathers are not hard-pinned. In other words, there’s still
blood circulating inside the feathers as it’s growing. One has
to be careful not to bend them or break them because they
will not develop further. That’s the most important thing.
The other thing is you need to take care the birds have big
claws. It’s one of the first things developing on the birds so
they can attack you and claw you and scratch you and that
kind of thing.”
Walter wraps his climbing rope, really a polyester-covered steel
cable, around the trunk of the tree, locks it into his harness and up
he goes.
First he checks nestlings to be sure they’re old enough and in
good condition before lowering them down in a special padded
“eagle bag.”
With young eagles on the ground, everyone becomes hushed and
businesslike. Bowerman writes down the eaglet’s weight and
other measurements. They’re four to five pounds with some
down-like feathers still clinging to them. Most prominent are
their dark beaks and yellow-orange claws.
Sikarskie carefully drops a cloth hat over an eaglet’s head to keep
the bird calm. Then, he talks a young grad student through
taking her first blood sample from the underside of a delicate
wing.
The two nestlings are examined for parasites. Then, they’re leg
banded, tucked gently back in the bags and hoisted aloft. They’re
out of the nest for maybe fifteen minutes.
Places like this, far upriver from the Great Lakes, were refuges
for eagles back in the DDT era. Eagles survived here because
fish couldn’t pass above barrier dams on the rivers and carry their
toxic burden with them, and Bowerman says the difference is still
noticeable today:
“If you live along the Great Lakes you still have higher levels
of PCBs. You still find DDE, which is the egg shell thinning
compound that caused the eagle’s decline in the first place. If
you’re in an area like this which is upstream of the Great
Lakes, there’s much less level in these inland birds.”
Eagle research in Michigan extends back 47 years.
Bowerman calls it the oldest continuous wildlife survey in the
world. It’s a record that documents the recovery of a species in
trouble, but sometimes the information has a more immediate
impact.
Bowerman says some years ago, tests on baby eagle’s blood
from Michigan showed a spike of an unknown chemical. Lab
tests found it to be from a product called Scotch Guard, a stain
repellent for fabric produced by the 3M Company.
When told about it, 3M hired Bowerman’s professor, John Geise,
to find out how widespread the compound was:
“John’s lab went all across the world collecting tissues of
different wildlife species. And they found it world-wide. And
that’s why 3M took scotch guard off the market.”
Bowerman worries that monitoring efforts will slack off when
bald eagles are off the Endangered Species list, and that new
contaminants will be missed. But he can’t help being inspired
by the birds’ recovery:
“Does it make you any more alive to watch that beautiful
eagle soaring around? And it’s really neat to see how many
there are now. So this is just spectacular.”
