by Sarah Becker Copyright ©2021 Sarah Becker America’s First National Museum: The Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building In 1879 greenbacks reached a face value with gold; Congress granted female lawyers the right to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the California maxim “the Chinese must go” was popular. Thomas A. Edison discovered that “a thread of carbonized cotton in one-millionth of an atmosphere would burn for 45 hours without overheating,” and Congress passed a bill “allowing a sum…sufficient to erect a fire-proof edifice…commensurate with the size and value of the [Smithsonian’s] many specimens.” America’s first National Museum: the Smithsonian’s Arts & Industries Building [AIB] opened to the public in 1881. Designed by architect Adolf Cluss, the building—“far ahead of its time: sustainable, efficient, and stunningly elegant”—temporarily reopens this month. A severe 2004 snowstorm raised concerns about the stability of the structure and forced the museum to close. The Smithsonian’s second oldest building—the Castle is the first—the AIB is described as “more than a museum.” It was “an incubator; a hall of invention, and the mother of museums.” The opening celebration was grand. Crowds poured in to see Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone; the first cast of a blue whale, “remarkable treasures that…showcased geology, metallurgy, zoology, medicine, anthropology, art, history and technologies.” “It is not generally known that the functions of the National Museum and the Smithsonian are entirely different,” The New York Times wrote in 1879. “The object of the former is the establishment of a collection of specimens, natural and artistic, which shall exhibit the resources of the country, or present at a glance the materials essential to a condition of high civilization which exists in the different States of the Union; to show the various processes of manufacture which have been adopted by us, as well as…
A Bit of History by ©2020 Sarah Becker From The Wright Brothers to Space X In 1901 American scientist, astronomer, and mathematician Simon Newcomb [1835-1909] “predicted that man would never fly.” Said Newcomb in 1903: “The desire to fly like a bird is inborn in our race, and we can no more be expected to abandon the idea than the ancient mathematician could have been expected to give up the problem of squaring the circle…The example of the bird does not prove that man can fly.” Two years later the Wright brothers, Orville [1871-1948] and Wilbur especially [1867-1912] flew a gasoline-powered heavier-than-air machine over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Successfully for 59 seconds. The brothers’ 1903 ascent marked the beginning of aerial navigation. In May 2020 Space X, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s private venture sent two veteran NASA astronauts—Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley—to the International Space Station [ISS] aboard its “gum-dropped shaped” Crew Dragon spaceship. Space-X’s 29-story, reusable launch rocket is affectionately known as Falcon-9. NASA’s program goal: to restore American access to space using commercial partners. NASA astronauts Behnken and Hurley remained aboard the ISS for 65 days; until their August 2, 19-hour journey home. The Crew Dragon’s splash down in the Gulf of Mexico was NASA’s first splash down landing in 45 years. “Since before the space shuttle was retired, NASA has been contracting with private companies to develop spacecraft capable of supplying the station with cargo and, at some point in the future, new crews,” former NASA-ISS astronaut Scott Kelly wrote in 2017. “The most successful private company so far has been Space Exploration Technologies, better known as Space X, which produces the Dragon spacecraft.” Musk’s “bird” indeed can fly! Like the Wright brothers’ airplanes before. The related principles of space flight and atmospheric flight “are not…
by Sarah Becker ©2020 Earth Day Celebrates 50 Years “The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation,” President Theodore Roosevelt—a progressive New York Republican—told State Governors in 1908. “Conservation of our natural resources, though the gravest problem of today, is yet but part of another and greater problem to which this Nation is not yet awake, but to which it will awake in time, and with which it must hereafter grapple if it is to live,” Roosevelt continued. On April 22 the country, the city of Alexandria celebrates Earth Day’s 50th anniversary. That said what exactly do we celebrate? “Rising sea surface temperatures and acidic waters could eliminate nearly all existing coral reef habitats by 2100,” the University of Hawaii Manoa explained on February 17, 2020, at the Ocean Sciences Meeting. Coral reefs harbor the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem globally and directly support over 500 million people worldwide. In fact, scientists “project 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs will disappear over the next 20 years as a result of climate change and pollution.” Although pollution poses numerous threats to ocean creatures, “the new research suggests corals are most at risk from emission driven changes in their environment.” “Much of the emissions spike is driven by the continued rise of transportation emissions, now the nation’s top source of emissions,” the Rhodium Group explained. Rather than develop mass transit competitively, plan and market its metro stations fittingly, the city of Alexandria, despite its multi-modal policy, mostly encourages auto-driven streets. Born in 1858, in New York City, Teddy Roosevelt…
by ©2018 Sarah Becker The Earth is getting Hot… …the politics even hotter. Do Americans adapt to climate change—as President Donald Trump’s environmental policies suggest—or do local, state and federal governments mitigate? Most U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are human roused—the result of burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) for heat, electricity and transportation. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (84%), methane (10%), nitrous oxide (4%) and fluorinated gases (2%). The most abundant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) is the product of burning fossil fuels. “We must look back at history to understand our energy problem, the transition from wood to coal to oil and natural gas,” President Jimmy Carter (Democrat, 1977-1981) said. Carter, the alleged father of alternative fuels, was the first U.S. President to openly criticize America’s dependence on foreign oil; to install solar panels in the White House. “One distinguishing characteristic of really civilized men is foresight; we have to, as a nation, exercise foresight for this nation in the future; and if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future!” President and conservationist Theodore Roosevelt (Republican, 1901-1909) said in 1908. “Let us remember that the conservation of our natural resources, though the gravest problem of today, is yet but part of another and greater problem to which this Nation is not yet awake, but to which it will awake in time, and with which it must hereafter grapple if it is to live.” In October 2018 the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that “greenhouse gases have been rising steadily and mean global temperatures along with it.” The scientists’ warnings are dire. From 1880 to 2012 the average global temperature increased by 0.850 C. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the greenhouse gas produced in the largest quantities and the United States is the…
If Ferdinand Magellan’s 1519 voyage marks the advent of globalization, then former President Jimmy Carter—the alleged father of alternative fuels— appreciates not only his pluck but also the environmental benefit of the windblown sail. Carter was the first U.S. President to openly criticize America’s dependence on foreign oil. True to his cause, in April 2014 he urged President Barack Obama to reject TransCanada Corporation’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. James Earl Carter, age 90, is a 1947 Naval Academy graduate who speaks with a southern twang; a Baptist and former Georgia Governor. He narrowly defeated incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential race. The Watergate scandal still loomed and Carter argued the moral imperative. “One distinguishing characteristic of really civilized men is foresight; we have to, as a nation, exercise foresight for this nation in the future; and if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future!” President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1908. On January 26, 1977 President Carter requested Congress to pass emergency energy legislation. “Nothing more clearly illustrates the serious consequences of our long delay in creating a comprehensive national energy policy than does this legislation,” Carter explained. “Our [energy] program will emphasize conservation,” Carter said on February 2, 1977. “The amount of energy being wasted which could be saved is greater than the total energy that we are importing from foreign countries.” “We must face the fact that the energy shortage is permanent,” Carter concluded, “and emphasize research on solar energy and other renewable energy sources; as well as maintain strict safeguards on necessary atomic energy production.” In 1971 the U.S. had 22 commercial nuclear power plants in full operation. “Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people,” Carter continued on April 18, 1977. “This difficult effort will be…