Kiera Butler

Senior Editor

Kiera answers your green questions every week in her Econundrums column. She was a hypochondriac even before she started researching germ warfare.

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Kiera has written about the environment, arts and culture, and more for Columbia Journalism Review, Orion, Audubon, OnEarth, Plenty, and the Utne Reader. She lives in Berkeley and recently planted 30 onions in her backyard.

Beijing's Clean Olympic Air: Mostly Luck?

—By Kiera Butler

| Wed Dec. 28, 2011 7:21 AM PST

Smog in Beijing

Back in 2008, the Chinese government went to great lengths to improve the air quality in famously smoggy Beijing in time for the Olympics. For months in advance of the games, the city's motorists were only allowed to drive on certain days, and more than 300,000 of the most polluting vehicles were taken off the road entirely. The results, everyone thought, were impressive: A 2009 study found that the measures had reduced pollution by half.

But hold your applause: A newer study, released Tuesday, found that favorable weather conditions—rain at the start and wind during the games—played just as much of a role in the clean-up as emissions controls. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used models to analyze weather and smog conditions in the weeks leading up to the games, as well as during and after. They confirmed that the pollution during the games was about half as bad as usual. But they also found that strong storms were responsible for half of the overall smog reduction. In a PNNL press release, a lead scientist on the study said Beijing officials were "lucky" that the weather cooperated.

The researchers also found that the pollution didn't just disappear when it was blown out of Beijing; rather, it moved to an area about 50 miles south of the city. It would have helped if the government had extended its strict emissions rules out beyond city limits, said the PNNL scientst. But considering just how grave Beijing's smog situation has become in recent months, it's pretty clear that the city and its environs are in need of much more than a quick pre-game clean-up. For a video of commuting in Beijing that will make your lungs hurt just to watch, click here.

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The Science of Pickles

—By Kiera Butler

| Tue Dec. 27, 2011 9:26 AM PST

Pickles are mysterious things. You take a regular old vegetable. Just your average cucumber, carrot, bell pepper. Add some brine, maybe a few spices, and then, a few days later, presto! A pickle. But what really causes this magical transformation? The latest episode of The Field Trip podcast sets out to find an answer:

On our tastiest field trip yet, we investigate the delicious world of fermentation and the bacteria that make it possible. We take a trip through Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley, where owner Alex Hozven explains the art and science behind fermenting food and shows us how they make sauerkraut, pickles, kombucha and other mysterious surprises. At Cultured, they use traditional methods of fermentation — that means no heat, and no vinegar, but plenty of Lactobacilli and other friendly microbes. Come with us as we explore “the cave” and learn about its billions of tiny workers.

Then we check in with fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods and expert on all things pickle-y. We hear about some surprising and tasty treats that we had no idea are made through fermentation, and learn about some of the ancient roots of pickling, and why it was such an important method of food preservation in the era before refrigeration.

Have a listen:

Where Have All the Fish Gone?

—By Kiera Butler

| Wed Dec. 14, 2011 4:00 AM PST

Fans of science and radio rejoice: The Field Trip is a new podcast series dedicated to bringing you your science fix in smart and entertaining little audio packages, each one the perfect length for a commute, treadmill session, or getting-ready-for-work time.

The Field Trip crew has graciously allowed us to share their second episode with Mother Jones readers. The topic: fish. "To discover why so many of them seem to be disappearing from the world's seas," writes the crew, "we talk with Captain Mike Hudson, a commercial salmon fisherman, and Dr. Luiz Rocha at the California Academy of Sciences." Have a listen. (And once you're done with that, listen to the first episode here. The topic of that one is Mars, and you won't want to miss the explanation of why showering in space is really very dangerous.)

Front page image: US Fish and Wildlife Service—Northeast Region/Flickr

10 Smart Kickstarter Projects for Your Holiday Cash

—By Kiera Butler

| Mon Dec. 12, 2011 4:00 AM PST

You could get your pal these charming vintage Cabbage Patch Kids earmuffs for Christmas. Or...not.

It's not like there's any shortage of awesome stuff to foist upon your friends and family this holiday season. For example: Maybe they want this irrational numbers wall clock or a pair of leg corsets. And who could resist a wine-bottle holder shaped like a drunken deer?

But just in case you're a mean old scrooge who doesn't believe your relatives deserve this statue of a disembodied hand cradling a naked baby with wings, here's another idea: Support a DIY project that your giftee might find cool. Crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo make it easy to find worthy campaigns. Here are 10 of our favorites:

1. Project Repat (Kickstarter): An astounding 95 percent of donated clothes end up in the developing world,* where many end up getting thrown away. The Project Repat crew rescues the old clothes, then works with artisans in the developing world to transform them into new hipster fashion statements to be sold in the United States. The proceeds go to charities in the countries where the clothes made their stopover.

2. Pop-Hop Books & Curio (Kickstarter): Considering the dire plight of independent bookstores, perhaps the bookworm in your life would appreciate a donation on her behalf to this new books/zines/collectibles store and arts space in LA.

3. Biket Initiative (IndieGoGo) This cool project eventually aims to bring bamboo bike factories to the developing world, but in the meantime, it's giving bikes to children who have no other way of getting to school. Your donation of $50 buys a bike for a kid in Mali.

4. Everyone Is Gay (IndieGoGo): In its own words, Everyone Is Gay is "an advice website for all, with an emphasis on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) youth. The website uses humor and honesty to support these youth, to dialogue with others in the LGBTQ community, and to simultaneously keep everyone laughing." Your donation will help EIG launch a nationwide tour to high school and college campuses.

5. The First 70 (Kickstarter): By July 2012, the state of California plans to close 70 of its 278 state parks. Saddened by the news, a group of friends decided to try to see all the parks before they were gone for good. Along the way, they discovered that "no one knew exactly what the conditions of closure would be, nor could they see how the state would ultimately benefit." As a result, they're aiming to make a documentary film in a bid to change the officials' mind.

[Read more in the Mixed Media blog]

The 10 Most Sugary Kids' Cereals

—By Kiera Butler

| Wed Dec. 7, 2011 4:00 AM PST

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cap'n Crunch's OOPS! All Berries is one of the 10 most sugary kids' cereals on the market, according to the Environmental Working Group.

As a kid, I once begged my mom for a product called Ice Cream Cones cereal. That name really tickled Mom, the sheer audacity of it. It wasn't even trying to sound healthy! Needless to say, Ice Cream Cones never made it into our shopping cart. Apparently, it didn't make it into very many other shopping carts either: According to Wikipedia, it lasted for only a few months in 1987.

I'd always kind of thought that the demise of Ice Cream Cones Cereal proved that even stressed-out parents wouldn't go for such an unapologetic nutritional disaster. But boy was I wrong! In perusing a new report on sugar cereals from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), I learned about many modern cereals my seven-year-old self would have been clamoring for, including Smorz, Froot Loops Marshmallows, and Cap'n Crunch's OOPS! All Berries.

In case you couldn't tell from their names, those cereals pack in a lot of sugar (or corn syrup, but as I've said before, basically same diff). And they aren't the only ones: EWG found that three of the most popular kids' cereals (Kellogg's Honey Smacks, Post Golden Crisp, and General Mills Wheaties Fuel) contain more sugar per serving by weight than a Twinkie, and 44 others have as much sugar as three Chips Ahoy cookies.

The top 10 worst, ranked by percent sugar by weight:

1	Kellogg's Honey Smacks	55.6%
2	Post Golden Crisp	51.9%
3	Kellogg's Froot Loops Marshmallow	48.3%
4	Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch's OOPS! All Berries	46.9%
5	Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch Original	44.4%
6	Quaker Oats Oh!s	44.4%
7	Kellogg's Smorz	43.3%
8	Kellogg's Apple Jacks	42.9%
9	Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries	42.3%
10	Kellogg's Froot Loops Original	41.4%

EWG points out that the sugar content in these dessert-like cereals is much greater than federal guidelines recommend:

More than three-quarters of children’s cereals do not meet the federal Interagency Working Group's proposed nutrition guidelines for 2016. Far more meet the industry’s standards for foods nutritious enough to be marketed to children.

Eighty-two percent of General Mills children's cereals don't meet the federal guidelines, but only 5 percent fail to meet the industry's standards. Not surprisingly, General Mills has joined other food, media, and entertainment companies in calling to replace the government proposal with industry's more lenient guidelines.

But major cereal makers don't even take their own industry's targets seriously; one-fourth of children's cereals contain too much sugar.

So what's a parent to do? In my house growing up, my folks were partial to a rather dreary cereal called Amaranth Flakes. If you prefer your cereal a bit less austere, these major brands are good choices, says EWG

Kellogg's Mini-Wheats:
Unfrosted Bite- Size,
Frosted Big Bite,
Frosted Bite-Size,
Frosted Little Bite
General Mills Cheerios Original
General Mills Kix Original

Even cheaper, and hardly any sugar at all: a bowl of oatmeal.

The EWG has more breakfast factoids and suggestions here.