Four Environmentalists You Should Know

Throughout history, environmentalists have had a great influence not only on natural spaces, but also on our individual lives. Here are four influential ones.

●John Muir (1838~1914)

His lifelong love for hiking began when he hiked to the Gulf of Mexico in 1867. Muir spent much of his adult life wandering in—and fighting to preserve—the wilderness of the West, especially California. His tireless efforts led to the creation of Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, and millions of other conservation areas.

●Rachel Carson (1907~1964)

Born in rural Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson went on to study biology at Johns Hopkins University. After working for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Carson published The Sea Around Us and other books. Her most famous work, however, was 1962’s Silent Spring, in which she described the harmful environmental effects of pesticides (杀虫剂). After Carson’s observations were proven correct, pesticides like DDT were banned.

●Wangari Maathai (1940~2011)

Wangari Maathai was from Kenya. After studying biology in the US, she returned to her home country to begin a career in environmental activism. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which, by the early 21st century, had already planted some 30 million trees, provided jobs, and secured firewood for rural communities. In 2004, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while continuing to fight for the planet.

●David Brower (1912~2000)

David Brower was associated with wilderness preservation. He became the Sierra Club’s first executive director in 1952, then, over the next 17 years, the club membership grew from 2, 000 to 77, 000. It won many environmental victories under his leadership. After leaving the club, he went on to found other environmental groups like Friends of the Earth, and the Earth Island Institute.

In every Summer Olympics since 1952, with two exceptions, the host country has won not only more golds but also more medals than it did in the previous summer games. Japan, who hosted this year's games, won far more medals than it got from the previous Summer Olympics in Rio in 2016. Brazil more than doubled its golds in 2016. In the 2008 games in Beijing, China harvested 37 more than it took home in 2004. Only Finland, in 1952, and the United States, in 1996, saw their medal counts drop at home. Why?

The biggest plus to competing at home is the positive energy from a supportive crowd, according to athletes. Briana Scurry, a former goal keeper for the US women's national soccer team, said playing in the US during the 1996 Summer Olympics helped her team beat China to win gold that year. "We had 76, 000 people at the final in Athens, Georgia, all cheering for us, while China had a much smaller cheering audience, "she said.

Another reason that can hurt athletes from other countries is travel. International 7

competitions often require long flights across multiple time zones, which can influence their sleep. Foreign athletes may also be unaccustomed to the food and training equipment available at the competition. Even the weather may throw off a competitor used to a different climate. The host countries have additional benefits to help their athletes succeed. Competitors from host countries have to meet lower qualification standards than their foreign competitors. That may contribute to the phenomenon of host countries sending much bigger teams to their Olympics than the previous summer games when they competed abroad.

Japan got yet another benefit this year thanks to a new policy adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2016, which allows the host countries to add several new sporting events to their games. It meant that baseball, softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing—all popular sports in Japan-were Olympic events in Tokyo. And Japanese athletes have already medaled in four of the six sports.

Researchers have long sought ways to design air conditioning systems that can work without such greenhouse gases as HFCS, but none has come close to being a direct replacement. A small Irish company, however, now states to have come up with an answer.

Exergyn, based in Dublin, has been working on a 60kw prototype(原型机)which not only avoids HFCS, but also has the benefit of having few moving parts. The system uses a material called a shape-memory alloy(合金). SMAS, as they are known for short, have the unusual ability to return to a predetermined shape when heated. The SMAS produce heat when their shapes are changed by compression(压缩), and then absorb it when the pressure is gone and they return to their original shapes.

Tony Ennis, Exergyn’s chairman, says this method of cooling is not only more environmentally friendly than an HFCS system, but will also be less expensive to buy and 30%～40% cheaper to run. It will be lighter and smaller, too. As for reliability, he says the prototype’s performance suggests the unit could operate for more than 40 years without a problem.

When Dr. O’Toole, an expert in memory materials, cofounded Exergyn in 2012, his intention was to use the SMAS to create a system that would turn low grade waste heat into electricity. But the challenges presented by HFCS persuaded him that air conditioning would be a quicker way to bring the technology to market. Development is still continuing, but products may be only a few years away.

He has not given up thoughts of producing electricity. He even wants to expand its application to other products, such as refrigerators and heat pumps to absorb heat from the ground for home heating. When time allows, Dr. O’Toole and his colleagues hope to get to work on those ideas, too.