May 2018
With all the Earth Day related environmental events available for tabling, April is always a busy month for HOI Group volunteers. This year we had tables at four April events.
At Pollinator Family Day at the Peoria Riverfront Museum on April 7th, our table provided information on why pollinators are in trouble, including the negative impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides and the increased use of glyphosate (Roundup) on GMO corn and soybeans. We provided steps homeowners can take to make their yards pollinator friendly, including using a wide variety of native plants and avoiding modern hybrids. We also provided information on Sierra Club Illinois legislative priorities and how the public can contact their local legislators to make their voices heard. This was the fourth year for Family Pollinator Day at the Riverfront Museum, and it is always well attended by families and young children.
We also had our pollinator information on display at the Walnut Grove Festival on April 14th at Eureka College. The event, sponsored by Eureka College's Student Alliance for a Greener Environment (SAGE), celebrates the environment, sustainability, and promotes local artists, vendors, musicians, and performers.
The Earth Day Festival at Forest Park Nature Center, this year on April 21st, is always the most well attended local event by the general public and has the most environmental organizations and vendors participating. Our table continued with the theme of pollinators and also had information about rain barrels. There was a steady stream of people throughout the day asking questions.
The HOI Group participated in the Clean Water Celebration with a display at the Peoria Civic Center on April 23rd. Past topics for our display have included rain barrels, coal ash, and fracking. Our topic this year was The Impact of Climate Change on Oceans. Over 2,000 students, grades 4 through 12, teachers, and members of the public attended. We focused on three primary ways climate change is impacting the oceans: rising sea level, rising ocean temperature, and increased acidity.
To show sea level rise to the year 2100, we had a 9 foot tower students could stand next to and see the probabilities of the sea rising to different levels (best case versus worst case scenarios).
To show land-based ice melt's impact on sea level, our exhibit displayed two containers of water, one with ice not in the water (land ice), and one with ice in the water (sea ice). As the ice melted, students could see that the water level rose in the first container with land ice but did not rise in the second container with sea ice.
To show thermal expansion (responsible for 50% of seal level rise), we displayed two flasks with glass tubes and thermometers inserted through rubber stoppers. One flask was kept at room temperature and the other heated to a temperature approximately 20 degrees higher. The room temperature flask had no water in it's glass tube but in the heated flask the water rose into the glass tube.
To show how ocean acidity is increasing by the absorption of additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, we blew into a cup of water with a straw (we exhale carbon dioxide). A pH meter in the cup of water continuously transmitted the pH of the water to a graph on a tablet, and within a minute students could see the acidity of the water increasing.
Click here for more pictures of our displays at this year's Earth Day Festival at Forest Park Nature Center and the Clean Water Celebration.