The top of the food chain – reserved for the ani-mal kingdom’s most ferocious hunters andmost lethal killers - offersresidency to an unlikelynew predator: gulls.

Though most peoplethink of these sea birds as simplenuisances, easily thwarted by an occasionalshoo-ing, Shoal’s Marine Lab sea bird ecologistJulie Ellis discovered these birds’ potential predato-ry dominance, calling them “the apex predators” inthe marine ecosystem of Maine’s Appledore Island.Ellis researches the impact of the predatory behav-ior of two gull species, the Great Black-backed Gull(Larus marinus) and the Herring Gull (Larus argen-tatus), on the rest of the island’s wildlife.

She proposed that the gulls’ absence on theisland would cause a disturbance, cascadingthroughout the island’s food web, altering its otheranimal populations.

In addition to gulls, Appledore Island is home tomultiple species of crabs, fish and snails. Withoutthe presence of any other natural predators, the gullpopulation remains unchecked. Gulls survey theskies, feed from the waters, and when on land, asserttheir presence with a loud call, reminiscent of alion’s roar. This predator feeds over six times a day,swooping into the water to catch its food. Gullsalso get a huge portion of their meals from pickingaround at the shoreline during tidal changes.

Ellis has been researching gull predation on

Appledore since 2004, focusing on the animal’scoastline cuisine. She investigates the possibleimpact that these gulls’ absence would have on themembers of the marine food web present during

low tide. According to Ellis, the gulls’predation in these intertidal

zones suppresses their main prey, the Johna Crab(Cancer borealis), from overpopulating and over-feeding on Periwinkles Snails (Larus littorea).

“Crabs themselves are important predators inthe intertidal and subtidal zones,” Ellis stated.“They eat urchins, mussels, snails, and other crabs.”She asked, “If gulls are removing all of these crabs inthe intertidal zones, what impacts are these havingon other members of these marine food webs?"

To test the significance of gull predation, Ellisand a team of volunteers set up enclosed gull-freezones at the water’s edge. Ellis predicted that thegull-free zones, guarded from gull predation by wireand water-gun wielding volunteers, would containmore Johna Crabs at low tide. Consequently, she

expected the number of the crabs’ prey, PeriwinkleSnails, would dwindle as a result of the increasedcrab predation in these areas. Lastly, she expectedthat a decrease in the Periwinkle population wouldallow their main food source, algae, to flourish.

Of the three test sites established over fourmonths, only the largest plot (744 meters-squared)showed the predicted effects. A glance showed theabundance of crabs and the scarcity of snailsthroughout this gull-free zone, and subsequent sta-tistical tests indicated that there was both a signifi-

cant increase in the JohnaCrab population and a sig-nificant decrease in thePeriwinkle population.

The algae amount, con-trary to predictions,

remained unchanged, but following the effects ofthis disturbed food web, the Johna Crab’s otherfood sources, like mussels and Dog Whelk snails,decreased in number throughout the test zone.

For Ellis, the most surprising result was adecrease in the number of Green Crabs - a middlelevel predator. This change likely occurred due toincreased competition and possible predationcaused by the increased number of Johna Crabs.

The flourishing Johna Crab population and thediminished Periwinkle and Green Crab numbersshowed that the gulls’ absence caused a populationdisturbance felt throughout the food web.

Ellis’ study ranked the nuisance seabirds at thetop of the food web, the presumed position ofnature’s most reknown predators, like lions andtigers.

Sea Gulls Snatch Top of Food WebPathology

8 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 22 2010

SCIENCEEcology MEdicine

Nicholas St. Fleur can be reached at nas74@cornell.edu.

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEURContributing Writer

Evidence shows that gulls are the dominantpredators on Appledore Island

The Sweet Taste of Death: BeeVenom and Honey

Surely honey, a sweet, golden, and delightfully stickytreat, is harmless? After all, Winnie the Pooh salivatedover it, ancient Egyptians embalmed their dead with itand Romans paid their taxes with it. In actuality, venomfrom honey producers, Apis mellifera, is toxic. Beevenom, known as apitoxin, can be deadly to predatorsand to the one to two percent of the human population.

Recent research has indicated that small doses of thetoxic venom may be medicinally useful even if honeytoxins can prove fatal.

Honey: Deadly?Honey can be as poisonous as bee venom if contam-

inated by botulinum toxins or grayanotoxins.Botulinum contamination occurs frequently and isdetected in up to 13 percent of honey products.

The bacteria Clostridium botulinum is found in mostsoils, in low-acid home-canned foods and indeed, insome honey products. Botulinum is sometimes referredto as “sausage poison” due to its prevalence in improper-ly handled meat.

Botulinum toxin is the most poisonous known sub-stance; a dose of 0.0000001 milligram per kilogram ofbody weight can prove fatal.

Since infants possess far less body mass than adults,honey poses a serious threat to children under 12months of age. This bacterium takes up residence in aninfant’s immature gastrointestinal tract and spews toxinsinto the muscles, muddling nervous system functions.

Recent research suggests that botulism poisoning mayunderlie death in up to 10 percent of Sudden InfantDeath Syndrome cases.

The toxic effects of botulinum arise from its molecu-lar brutality. Imagine a train car full of thousands of peo-ple, representing neurotransmitters called acetylcholine.A train can only leave the station (the outer wall of a cell,the membrane) if it is firmly attached to the tracks. Thetracks that anchor the ‘train’ are fusion proteins calledSNAP-25, syntaxin and synaptobrevin.

Botulinum attacks these proteins, destroying the traintracks between the presynaptic terminal and the postsy-naptic muscle. Since fewer passengers, or acetylcholinemolecules, reach the neuromuscular junction, the mus-cles do not receive the signal to contract and the charac-teristic muscular weakness of botulism poisoning ensues.

Victims often suffocate because the muscles involvedin breathing are inhibited.

Compared to botulinum, grayanotoxin, a plant toxinfrom rhododendrons, laurels and azaleas, infests honeyonly rarely. Unprocessed honey is more likely to containgrayanotoxins than commercial honey since large pro-duction plants pool honey from many sources.

Ingestion of grayantoxins results in a temporary con-dition known as “honey intoxication.” This intoxicationresults in symptoms such as dizziness, weakness, perspi-ration, nausea and vomiting, and higher doses triggerlow blood pressure, shock, irregular heart rhythms, con-vulsions and rarely, death.

The destructive effects of grayanotoxins arise frommolecular recognition and forced entry onto a receptor.First, a grayanotoxin recognizes a binding site on thereceptor of a sodium channel. Imagine this channel to bea ramp leading onto a highway and the receptor to be thetollbooth. If you are a sodium molecule and flash yourE-Z Pass at the gated entrance, you may pass through thetollbooth onto the neuron’s axonal highway.

Grayanotoxin lacks a sodium E-Z Pass but insinuatesitself on the tollbooth nonetheless. Furthermore, it pre-vents the gate from descending as it normally would,allowing all of the sodium molecules behind it to rushthrough the tollbooth unfettered by the momentary wait

for the gate’s ascension.Since these tollbooths, or sodium receptors, control

the excitation level of neurons, grayanotoxin exposureresults in extra excitability since the tollbooth cannotclose its gate (and inactivate the channel). Neurons thatcannot return to baseline excitation levels fire repetitive-ly and, if unchecked, can result in toxicity and cell death.

Excitotoxicity from grayanotoxins can prove fatal.

Bee Venom: Helpful?Although bee venom is potentially fatal, its compo-

nents may prove helpful in enhancing memory consoli-dation and in restoring smooth muscle movement inParkinson’s patients. In addition, apitherapy antidoteshave also been suggested for multiple sclerosis, arthritis,bursitis, and tendinitis, among other diseases.

If apitoxin were a cosmopolitan, apamin would bethe lime juice, as it is the key ingredient that puts the biteinto bee venom. Yet, this same kick may endow beevenom with its therapeutic benefits.

Research suggests that small doses of apamin canaffect memory. Rats exhibited improved memory con-solidation and retrieval skills 24 hours after injection.

The researchers theorized that bee venom could beused to synthetically modify erroneous dopamine levelsfor people suffering from Parksinson’s. Dopamine com-prises 1.5 percent of apitoxin and is a neurotransmitterfound in the human brain. Researchers hoped that treat-ment with bee venom could eliminate the adverse sideeffects of conventional anti-Parkinsonian medication,such as L-DOPA, which often include hypotension,arrhythmias, nausea, gastrointestinal bleeding, and dis-turbed respiration.

Although bee venom has noticeable effects on mem-ory improvement, no definitive studies demonstrateimprovement in Parkinson’s symptoms.

Sophia Porrino can be reached at sporrino@cornellsun.com.

By SOPHIA PORRINOSun Staff Writer

Research transforms deadly beevenom into helpful medicine

SCIENCE THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 9, 2011 13

It is a normal 13 degrees Fahrenheit, December morn-ing, and Katie Wurtzell ’11 walks outside to begin her day.She is not in Ithaca though; rather, she is in Antarctica inthe middle of the summer.On a ship, the Laurence M. Gould, Wurtzell worked on

hydroacoustics — the study of sound waves in water —with Prof. Joe Warren, marine and atmosperic sciences,State University of New York-Stony Brook.Hydroacoustics allows scientists to survey a largeamount of ocean, but the images generated by anacoustic towfish cannot differentiate between cer-tain species. On a team of four scientists that included

Warren, Wurtzell conducted research onsalps — transparent gelatinousfilter feeders — and krill —shrimp-like crustaceans — in aneffort to differentiate the similaracoustic signatures of the two verydifferent organisms. Salps and krill are studied togeth-

er because it has been found that thepopulations of the two species areinversely related. At the same time,both are critical to the ecosystem. Krillmake up the diet of many marine ani-mals, and salps play a significant role inthe world’s carbon cycle as a carbon sink.Wurtzell explained that salps eat large

amounts of phytoplankton, and salp fecalpellets sink in the ocean, transporting alarge amount of carbon away from the sur-

face. This process removes enough carbonfrom the surface waters that salp

populations can alterthe earth’s car-

b o n

cycle.Working 16-hour

shifts, Wurtzell operated a conductivity,temperature and depth instrument, collected samples

using nets and measured the density of salps and krillcaught in the nets, among other measurements. The longdays were difficult, and the lack of sleep became a problemfor Wurtzell, but she says the experience and all the hard-ships were worth it.Although working in Antarctica was a new experience

for Wertzell, going on a research cruise was not.Her experiences began when she partici-pated in Sea Education AssociationSemester, an oceans study abroad program.The 12-week journey in the Pacific Oceanpiqued Wurtzell’s interest in research cruises.After returning to the University, Wurtzell

worked in the Lab of Ornithology’sBioacoustics Research Program on whalesounds. The following summer Wurtzell securedan internship at the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration’s Alaska FisheriesScience Center. There, Wurtzell did work on fisheryacoustics, and as a part of her internship, she went onher second research cruise. That internship connectedWurtzell to Warren’s Acoustic Laboratory forEcological Studies.About joining Warren on the Antarctica research

cruise, Wurtzell said “I never believed in networking, butthat was definitely a who-you-know situation.”Reflecting on her experiences, Wurtzell stated that

boarding a research vessel was “the best career move I evermade.” Even after 13 weeks on three separate researchcruises, she has only seen the tip of the iceberg and is excit-ed for future research cruises whenever and wherever theymay be.

By SEYOUN KIMSun Contributor

Chillin’ in Antarctica: Student Tunes Into AcousticsUndergraduate analyzes sound waves of competing species on research cruise

Paleontology, or the study of prehistoriclife, often conjures up images of dinosaurs.Unfortunately, “for most people, all of ourdinosaur knowledge goes to hell once weturn about seven,” Prof. Warren Allmon,earth and atmospheric sciences, said.He explained, people’s childhood fasci-

nation with the prehistoriccreatures — learning theirnames, collecting toy mod-els and memorizing trivialfacts — rarely developsbeyond a short-lived pas-sion. Prof. Allmon puts it,to many people, paleontol-ogy is little more than an“unpronounceable, narrow,esoteric-sounding branchof human endeavor.” Though many people

view dinosaurs, and byextension paleontology, assomething that kids even-tually grow out of rather than a field ofserious scientific pursuit, the University’sfirst Hunter R. Rawlings III Professor ofPaleontology, Allmon plans to correct thatmisconception and restore that childhoodexcitement for all things prehistoricthrough his courses and lectures on paleo-biology.

“Paleobiology,” he explained, “is thestudy of paleontology as the relationship ofbiological and geological processes.” Hiscourse, EAS 4790: Paleobiology, examinesthe evolutionary histories of major organ-ism groups through an analysis of their fos-sil records. The ideas and concepts of the

class provide a biological backgroundof earth and atmospheric sciencesthat can be used to inform students invery concrete ways about the presentand future. To expand upon the paleobiological

principles taught in lecture, the coursetakes a hands-on approach to learning withweekly lab visits to the Museum of theEarth, where Allmon holds a second job as

the director of thePaleontological ResearchInstitution (PRI). Allmonutilizes the museum’s col-lection of two to three mil-lion fossil specimens toprovide students with aninformal approach to earthscience education. “W e study one group of

organisms in lab everyweek and then go to themuseum to supplementthe lessons taught in classwith tangible examples youcan see,” Allmon said.

He notes that the museum is an essen-tial tool for helping students understandquestions posed in lecture, like “How doyou use fossils to study climate change?”and “How do fossils tell us about speciesevolution?”In addition to his duties as a professor

and PRI Director, Allmon also conductsprehistoric research. He refers to himself as“an evolutionary biologist who just hap-pens to work on fossils.” His interestsinclude the systematics, ecology and evolu-tion of fossilized gastropods, especially theTurritellidae, which are the high spiraled,screw-shaped marine snails most often

seen inshell shops. “The goal

of my researchin ancient snails isto try to understand the ecological contextof macro-evolutionary change,” Allmonexplained. “I’m interested in the origins ofdiversity from an ecological point of viewand how you go about studying those con-cepts in the fossil record because every-thing of interest to my research is dead,and there are no genes, behavior or softparts to analyze.” Despite his focus on prehistoric snails,

Allmon admits that dinosaurs are of par-ticular interest to him, butnot for the reason that mostpeople would think. For the past 15 years,

Allmon has been constructinga book analyzing dinosaur art,or at least the ways in whichdinosaurs have been por-trayed by people and in pop-ular media over the past sever-al decades. “Dinosaur art reflects a lot

more than what scientistsbelieved dinosaurs lookedlike.” Allmon noted. Whenasked to draw a picture ofTyrannosaurus rex, “manypeople today simply do not

produce an accurate image.” People tend to draw T. rex standing

straight up, as if it had a vertebral columnsimilar to humans because most peoplemake a subconscious attempt to make thedinosaur more relatable to them.Paleontologists, however, have not believedT. rex to have stood in an upright positionsince the 1970s.“People have drawn the dinosaurs that

they have wanted to see, not the ones thatscience has been telling them,” Allmonsaid. “Dinosaur art is important because itis a window into the philosophy and histo-ry of how we think about science.”

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEURSun Staff Writer

Prof.Allmon buries theHollywood image of T.rex

Warren Allmon

Department: Earth andAtmospheric Sciences

Primary Interests: Depictions ofdinosaurs in popular culture

Education: Ph.D. from HarvardUniversity

Class Taught:Earth and Atmospheric Sciences4790: Paleobiology

Seyoun Kim can be reached at sk863@cornell.edu.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KATIE WURTZELL

PROF. ALLMON

Nick St. Fleur can be reached at nas74@cornell.edu.

SCIENCE THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, March 9, 2011 13

Flambéing food is a process in which achef adds liqueur to a hot sauté pan, strikesa match, and ignites the meal in a flash offlame and flavor. But as Christine Hansen’12 points out, the fireworks are more thanjust an impressive visual; flambéing actuallyalters the chemistry of the food.This past summer Hansen, a viticulture

and enology major minoring in food sci-ence, spent her time researching how flam-béing converts alcohols into ethanol and thesensory changes that result from thisprocess. She analyzed how different types ofspirits burned off different amounts of alco-hol when flambéed and whether or not thealcohol left behind affected the dish’s flavor. Hansen explained that the science

involved in this culinary technique comesfrom the chemical reaction caused by ignit-ing the meal. When the alcohol is placed ona pan that has been heated above a certaintemperature called its flash point, it pro-duces a vapor. The flash point is the lowesttemperature at which a liquid gives offenough vapor to ignite when exposed to a

flame. The blazing spectacle that comesfrom igniting the alcohol vapor is the resultof the partial combustion of the heatedalcohol. The process burns away theliquor’s raw taste and leaves behind itsunique flavor fusing it with the food. “Flambéing is more than just heating a

dish or lighting it on fire- it’s a technique ofusing alcohol to prepare a meal in a waythat brings about a change to our sensoryreception of it, a change in its taste andaroma,” Hansen explained, “Since alcoholboils at 172 °F and water boils at 212 °F,flambéing these compounds at tempera-tures above 300°F with something likesugar in the mix will create a chemical reac-tion called carmelization which is used tocreate delicious deserts like Banana Foster.”Other than adding a sweet taste to

deserts though being used for carmeliza-tion, which is the browning of sugar, flam -béing has been used to add flavor to variousmeals like Flambéed pepper steak and bour-bon shrimp flambé. But for her researchHansen wanted to explore this cookingtechnique outside of the kitchen. Shedecided to test the art of the flambé at achemical level to see if the changes in flavor

that it caused were chemiciallydiscernible from heated meat. “If there is no chemical dif-

ference and people can’t tell thedifference, between ignitingalcohol and simply heating itup, then why flambé?” sheasked.Hansen used vodka and

bourbon for her research, “Theideal liquor for flambéingshould be about 40% alcohol,so something that’s 80-proofworks best. Alcohols like beeror table wine should not beused because of their low alco-hol contents which if usedwould run the risk of not ignit-ing,” she said. Hansen also warned that

amateur chefs should be warybefore flirting with the flambé:

“Using too high an alcohol content can bedangerous to the person who’s cooking.Something with a proof above 120 ignitestoo easily and produces intense flames thatcan scorch a person’s eyebrows.” To conduct her research Hansen used a

Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry to ana-lyze the different aromas of her alcohol sam-ples. GCO is a tool used for conducting fla-vor chemistry that identifies the differentodorants responsible for a substance’saroma. The GCO also characterizes thoseodor-activating compounds based off oftheir potency in extracted samples. Sheused this technique of odor identification todiscern aroma differences in flambéed alco-hol samples and the heated up alcohol sam-ples as compared with controls. The GCO

showed a chemical difference; however, shestill needs to determine if people can tell thedifference flambéing causes themselves.Hansen is setting the ground work for

future flambé-related research. The nextsteps for her work are human taste tests tobe conducted here at Cornell that willdetermine whether or not people can dis-cern for themselves the change in flavor thather research has shown, but regardless howthese trials come out Hansen’s research hasalready shown that flambéing is more thansomething flashy and exciting –– it is some-thing chemical.

Nicholas St. Fleur can be reached at nstfleur@cornellsun.com.

A study conducted at Cornell has found a positive rela-tionship between Facebook use and self-esteem levels.Facebook currently has approximately 500 million users,

who spend more than 700 billion active minutes per month onthe website. According to a study conducted by lead authorAmy Gonzales Ph.D. ’10 and co-author Prof. Jeffrey Hancock,communication, Facebook walls and profiles may have a posi-tive influence on the self-esteem of college students.“When we’re online, we can selectively self-present,” said

Hancock, who is the co-author of the study. “We can takemore time and sound more witty.” The study was conducted in 2009 and published on Feb.

24 in the peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior andSocial Networking. In the study, 63 Cornell students were leftalone in the Social Media Lab in Kennedy Hall. The studentswere divided evenly into three groups: those who sat at com-puters showing their Facebook profiles, those who sat atturned-off computers, and those who sat at turned-off com-puters with mirrors propped against them. Those with thecomputers on Facebook were permitted to spend three min-utes exploring their profile and related tabs. They were alsoallowed to edit their page if they so chose. After three minutes, all participants were given a question-

naire, which measured self-esteem using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. According to Gonzales, “the scale was devel-oped and validated in the field of psychology in 1965 and isused commonly.”When comparing the group with a mirror and no access

to Facebook to the group without access or a mirror, there was

no elevation in self-esteem reported, according to Hancock.The students who were given access to their Facebook pro-files, however, reported a drastic improvement in self-esteemand provided much more positive feedback about themselvesthan the students with no access. Students who not onlyexplored their profiles, but also edited them reported thehighest self-esteem out of the entire group. “Facebook can transform the way we think about ourselves

and our friends and family,” Hancock said regarding theimplications of the study.According to Gonzales, she created the study in order to

study two opposing theories of communication: the objectiveself-awareness theory, or OSA, and the hyperpersonal modeltheory. According to the OSA theory, when an individualfocuses attention on him or herself, their self-esteem may benegatively affected because this focus makes individuals recallall of their faults, problems and defects, and concentrate onthem. The hyperpersonal model theory, on the other hand,suggests that when individuals are asked to focus on them-selves, they tend to think of themselves in a positive, self-esteem improving, way. Because the study showed increased self-esteem in students

who explored their Facebook profiles and no decrease in self-esteem in students who looked in a mirror, its results supportthe hyperpersonal model theory. These results, according to Gonzales, are very exciting.

"There are not a lot of theories that have been tested withinthe computer-mediated communications field compared toother communications subfields, so this was exciting from atheoretical perspective," she said. Though the study is complete, there is still much to be

learned about Facebook and its psychological impacts onusers. "By providing multiple opportunities for selective self-presentation such as photos, personal details and witty com-

ments, social networking sites exemplify how modern tech-nology sometimes forces us to reconsider previously under-stood psychological processes,” Gonzales said.Still, the authors agreed that the study’s findings cannot

make a blanket statement about the relationship betweenFacebook and self-esteem levels. Hancock believed that thestudy might have benefited from expanding its subject pool topeople of different age brackets and socioeconomic statuses.Gonzales defended the study, noting that the use of 20

subjects per group is standard procedure for psychologicalstudies.However, one should still view the results with caution.

“To say that these findings are generalizable is an entirely dif-ferent issue,” Gonzales said.Despite its limitations, some believe that the study pre-

sents valid findings. “The main thing is making sure peopleare connected with each other,” said Liza Brauns ’11, CampusOutreach Chair of Cornell Minds Matter. “Facebook helpsencourage connection with other students.”However, Brauns also cautioned that students “cannot

spend all their time online. That creates an isolation issue.There needs to be a balance.”Gonzales and Hancock both noted that a future study

might observe the long-term effects of Facebook use.“We found that a little bit of exposure does make a signif-

icant difference,” Hancock said. “But is there a peak?”“We have no idea if this is a lasting impact,” Gonzales added.“There have always been negative assumptions about com-

munication technology. This study shows that they might notnecessarily be true,” Hancock said.

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEURSun Senior Writer

Maria Minsker can be reached at mminsker@cornellsun.edu. Katherine Close can be reached at ktc32@cornell.edu,.

Smells like something’s burning | Christine Hansen ’12 plays with fire tounderstand the chemistry of food.

COURTESY OF ROBERT GREIG

Christine HansenMajor: Viticulture and Enology,Food Science Minor

Primary Research: Hansen spentthe summer examining the chemicaldifferences in flabéd food.

Dream Job: Hansen hopes to ownher own vineyard someday.

Most Influential Professor:Prof. Gavin Lavi Sacks, food science,mentioned the excitemnt of flabéingin class, which sparked Hansen’sinterest in the subject. This led to hersummer research project.

Study Shows Facebook Ups Self-Esteem

Hansen ’12 ExploresChemistry of Flambé

By MARIA MINSKERSun Senior Writer

AND KATHERINE CLOSESun Contributor

The Corne¬ Daily SunINDEPENDENT SINCE 1880

Vol. 127, No. 131 n ITHACA, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 n 16 Pages — Free

Mostly CloudyHIGH: 48° LOW: 37°

Construction on a new HumEcbuilding is on schedule andunder budget.

NEWS:

WEATHER:

Building HumEc

Shaun Werbelow ’11 lays out afew lessons he’s picked upduring his tenure at Cornell.

OPINION:The Real Education

The Sun reviews Win Win, anew drama starring PaulGiamatti as a wrestling coach.

Hit the Mat

ARTS:

3 |

9 |

11 |

Univ. AssemblyChanges Charter

“Climate change is the biggest prob-lem humans have ever dealt with,” BillMcKibben, writer and environmental-ist, said to a crowded Call Auditoriumas a part of the 2011 Jill and Ken IscolDistinguished Environmental Lectureon Thursday.McKibben, who has been called the

“world’s best green journalist” by TimeMagazine, discussed 350.org, hisworldwide campaign against climatechange, and the dangers of globalwarming.The effects of global warming are

real and they can be seen, he said, point-ing to the year 2010, which had thehighest global temperatures to date.Record highs were reached in more

than 17 countries, including Russia,Belarus and Ukraine, he said.McKibben referred to a day he spent inPakistan when the temperature reacheda scorching 129°F. He also said that, inRussia, heat waves of over 100°F creat-ed wild fires that swept across the coun-try side. But fires were not the only disasters

caused by the heat, he said. Last year, aseries of flood events damaged Pakistan,Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Queensland,Australia.“When you have heat like that, it

manifests in many ways,” McKibbensaid. “Warm air holds more vapor thancold air, effectively loading the dice fordeluges. What we’re seeing here is snakeeyes — just look at Pakistan.”

Hot in here | “Green journalist” Bill McKibben gives a talk in Call AuditoriumThursday about the dangers and reality of global warming.

SHAILEE SHAH / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

More Students Than NormalCaught With Marijuana on 4/20The Cornell Police De -

partment reported four countsof unlawful possession of mar-ijuana Apr. 20, three of whichwere located in dorms onNorth Campus. Although there were more

possessions reported than onan average day, CUPD ChiefKathy Zoner said that “there isno indication by our reportsthat the date had anything todo with them.”According to the Cornell

Police daily crime log, therewas an average of one count ofmarijuana possession every twodays over the past two weeks.Zoner said that on Apr. 20,

2010, there were no reportedcounts of unlawful possessionof marijuana, because suchincidents tend to “ebb andflow.”In preparation for 4/20, the

CUPD had a “heightenedawareness” of potential mari-juana possessions, but therewere no special actions taken,Zoner said.

Students affiliated withCornell who are found to be inpossession of marijuana oncampus are typically referred toa judicial administrator andrequired to appear in court,Zoner said. One student, to whom The

Sun granted anonymity, wasreferred to the Ithaca CityCourt after the CUPD foundhim to be in unlawful posses-sion of marijuana in his dormroom in Mary Donlon Hall.This student said he found

the police to be “cool” whenthey knocked on his door,though he said that handingover his vaporizer to theCUPD was “like a cryingmother handing over her new-born.”“[The officer] kept asking

me why it took me so long toanswer questions, even thoughI think it was pretty obvious,”he said. “I was too high to eventhink, or talk, for that matter.Thanks, weed brownie.”

— Compiled by Liz Camuti

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEURSun Staff Writer

A panel of 10 faculty memberstackled topics ranging from thevalue of student protest to acade-mic freedom in the classroomThursday afternoon. The panelwas organized by the StudentAssembly in connection withResolution 79, which would cre-ate a student bill of rights.

If implemented, the studentbill of rights will be an “easy-to-use policy document that willhelp educate all students as totheir rights as members of theCornell community,” bill sponsorAndrew Brokman ’11, studentassembly representative at-large,told The Sun earlier this month.Prof. Kevin Clermont, law,

emphasized during the panel thatpeople can only mandate rights

from the government.“What you’re doing is creating

an agreement … for rights thatdon’t really exist,” Clermont said.“A bill of rights will fill that gap ofwhat students assume they have,but really don’t.”Prof. Lee Adler, industrial and

labor relations, contrasted therights that Cornell students havewithin a private university tothose in a public university, wherethere is “the availability of certainfractured constitutional rights.”“You ain’t got no rights in a

private university except what thelords up above — the trustees —have given you,” Adler said.Prof. Risa Lieberwitz, industri-

al and labor relations, stressed theimportance of protest and freespeech in the student bill ofrights, especially in the context ofthe recent folding of the AfricanaCenter into the College of Artsand Sciences.“I keep emphasizing this issue

of information because one of thethings that bothers me a lot aboutthe University … is that thingsseem to be more and more that

We’re gonna fight | Students attend a panel discussion onThursday about their rights within the University.

LAUREN BIGALOW / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Panel Discusses Proposed Bill of Rights

Writer Tells of Global Warming Dangers

Members seek increased influence

A new University Assembly charter will increasethe U.A.’s influence over University decisions, accord-ing to Prof. Emeritus Charles Walcott, neurobiologyand behavior, chair of the U.A. executive committee.Approved by President David Skorton on April 13,the new charter will take effect June 1, Walcott said. Edward Strong grad, vice chair of the executive

committee, stressed the importance of a clause in thenew charter that reads, “Responsible University offi-cials shall consider designating the Assembly, or oneof its constituent assemblies, as a stakeholder in eachimpact statement.”“This means that rather than be reactionary to new

University policies, the U.A. and its constituentassemblies are actively involved, in real time,” Strongsaid.Other changes to the charter include giving the

heads of the other assemblies on campus — theStudent Assembly, the Graduate and ProfessionalStudent Assembly, the Employee Assembly and theFaculty Senate — seats on the UA and a restructuringof the U.A.’s committees.“The University Assembly represents the interests

of the whole University community… The problemwas that there was no good communication with theother groups,” Walcott said. “[Now] the groups willhave communication with the other groups.”The new charter will improve the U.A.’s ability to

represent all of its constituencies by improving com-munication, Walcott said.“There will be the sound of trumpets in the night

when the charter goes into effect. ... None of the

See ASSEMBLY page 5 See McKIBBEN page 4

See RIGHTS page 5

By TAJWAR MAZHARSun Staff Writer

By JOSEPH NICZKYSun Staff Writer

NEWS4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, April 22, 2011

Human activity has sent Earth“profoundly out of balance,” hesaid. Human actions have causedtemperature to rise a collective 2degrees Celcius across the globe, hesaid.

McKibben warned that furthertemperature increases could havedisastrous effects on the planet.

“If one degree melts the Arctic,we would be fools to see what fouror five degrees can do,” he said.

McKibben expressed optimism,however, about humans’ ability tocurb environmental dam-age. He described scientificand engineering methodsthat have shown thathumans can make the nec-essary changes. Windpower is currently thefastest-growing source ofelectric generation in theworld, he said, and biofuels are effi-cient alternatives for fossil fuels.

“As well as the scientific andengineering methods have worked,[they] just show how badly thepolitical method has worked,”McKibben said.

The reluctance of rich nations toacknowledge climate change hasbeen especially detrimental to poornations, McKibben said.

He described his experiences inBangladesh last year during an out-break of dengue fever, a diseasespread by mosquito bites. The rapidand intense occurrence of the tropi-cal disease was caused by an upsurgeof the mosquito population in the

region — sparked by increasinglywarmer temperatures, he said.

“This is not fair that those 150million people — half the popula-tion of the U.S. — have to suffer forour carbon emissions,” McKibbensaid.

Ironically, the carbon emissionsfrom Bangladesh are so small thatthey hardly show up on global read-ings, he said. Instead, he attributedthe increased temperatures inBangladesh to American actions.Although the United States consti-tutes four percent of the world’spopulation, it contributes almost 20percent to global carbon emissions.

“I can’t do the moral math, butthose beds of sick people withdengue fever told me that the prob-lem’s on us,” McKibben said.

To prevent further globaltragedy, McKibben said he started350.org in an effort to combat theclimate crisis. The website is tryingto spark a global grassroots move-ment, comprised of volunteers frommore than 188 countries collaborat-ing together for environmentalchange. The name 350, McKibbenexplained, is symbolic to the envi-ronmental revolution. Some scien-tists have said that 350 parts permillion is the safe limit for humani-ty of carbon dioxide in the atmos-

phere. Currently, the amount ofcarbon dioxide in the atmosphere is392 parts per million, he said.

The half-million supporters andvolunteers of 350.org from morethan 188 countries change the oldstereotype of what an environmen-talist looks like, McKibben con-tended. Rather than old, wealthywhite men, the environmentalists ofthe present are a majority black,brown, and Asian youths from poorcountries all over the world because,according to McKibben, and theyare the ones who experience theeffects of climate change the most.

As a part of his 350 campaign,McKibben and his colleagueshave mobilized more than1,400 global actions for climatechange. People from India toAustralia to Cornell have sentin pictures of themselves withthe 350 logo to show that theyare making a stand to change.

So far, 350.org has gotten117 countries — two thirds of theworld’s nations — to sign and tosupport its goal, according to thegroup’s website. 350.org also con-vinced Obama to pledge cuttingAmerica’s carbon emissions by 80percent before 2050, McKibbensaid.

The message of 350.org is thatchange for responsible climate con-trol needs to come “not from onelight bulb at a time, not from onecountry at a time, but from oneplanet at a time,” McKibben said.

Speaker Pushes for Action Against Warming

“If one degree melts the Arctic, wewould be fools to see what four orfive degrees can do.”

Bill McKibben

McKIBBENContinued from page 1

Nicholas St. Fleur can be reached atwonderboy@cornellsun.com.

Ithaca isGORGES

www.cornellsun.com

Call 273-3606Monday-Friday 9-5for informationabout placing yourad in THE DININGGUIDE

10 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 14, 2011

SCIENCEPLANT PATHOLOGY ENGINEERING AGRICULTURE SCIENCE

Bananas are America’s favoritefresh fruit. Every year Americans eatmore of them than apples andoranges combined. But unlikeapples, for which there are GrannySmiths, Red Delicious, Fuji, amongothers, and oranges, which aremembers of the citrus family, thereis only one banana variation readilyfound in American markets: theCavendish.The Cavendish is the seedless,

yellow “dessert type” banana thatAmericans slice into their morningcereal and adorn their banana splitswith. Of the thousands of bananacultivars, or variations, availableworldwide the Cavendish is by farthe most common. As a result ofthe vegetative growing techniquesthat large corporations use to pro-duce the Cavendish, each of theover 100 billion commercialbananas sold annually is a genetical-ly identical clone of one another.This lack of natural diversity,though ben-eficial forinternation-al market-ing, has leftt h eCavendishvulnerableto specieswide disas-t e r— a n du n f o r t u -nately forthe billionsof peoplewho enjoythem, at r o p i c a lt h r e a tknown asPanama dis-ease is cur-rently devastating banana planta-tions throughout South Asia andAustralia, and threatens to spread to

the Americas.Panama Disease, also called

Fusarium wilt, is caused by the fun-gus Fusarium oxysporum. The fun-gus originates in thesoil and travels up theplant’s vascular sys-tem, essentially rottingit from the inside out.A January edition ofThe New Yorker refersto the disease as the“H.I.V of bananaplantations” because itcan be easily transmit-ted from plantation toplantation throughcontact with infestedsoil. “The problem with

Fusarium wilt is that itis caused by a fungusinfecting the roots ofthe banana plant,eventually movinginto the vascular sys-tem and basicallyplugging it up so thatthe plant can’t get suf-

f i c i en tw a t e ra n dminer -a l s , ”said Dr. AliceChurchill, plantpathology and micro-biology. “This causesthe leaves to wilt andturn yellow, resultingin reduced photosyn-thesis and eventualdeath of the plant,”she said. Churchill’sown research is with asimilar fungus causeddisease that affectsbanana plant leavescalled Black Sigatoka,also known as “blackleaf streak.” Black Sigatoka,

while serious, is successfully con-trollable with chemical sprayings,unlike Panama disease. Currently

placing quarantines around infectedareas in South Asia and Australia isone of the few protective methodsthat scientists can take to prevent

the Fusarium wilt from spreading.Though many question the possi-bility of a banana apocalypse,according to Churchill, such anevent is likely to occur because ithas happened once before.“By the end of the first half of

the last century, a strain of thePanama disease pathogen, knownas Race One, had basically wipedout the ‘Gros Michel’ cultivar,which was the commercial bananagrown at that time in CentralAmerica,” she said. The GrosMichel was the dessert banana thatgrandparents enjoyed as kids; it wasapparently bigger, hardier, andtastier than the Cavendish varietythat is eaten now. But the reasonwhy people no longer make bananacream pie out of Gros Michel today

is because by the 1960s the cultivarwas rendered virtually extinct bythe Race One form of Panama dis-ease. This was the time when the

Cavendish replaced it as the global-ly produced commercial bananabecause it was found to be resistantto Race One. But now a new strainof the disease, Tropical Race Four,has appeared in South Asia—andthis time the Cavendish is notimmune.“If disseminated widely, Tropical

Race Four would affect approxi-mately 85 percent of banana pro-duction worldwide,” warnsChurchill. “So if, or when, it comesto this part of the world, not onlywill it kill Cavendish banana, whichis typically what most of us eat, inthe developed countries, it willdestroy other cultivars as well,including many types of cookingbananas.” She explained that almost90% of bananas worldwide are

grown for local con-sumption and overhalf a billion people inplaces like Africa andAsia depend on themas a staple food. “In the United

States we eat on aver-age 33 pounds ofbananas per year, butin Uganda and othercountries in east Africathey eat almost 550pounds of bananas insome form each year”she said. “This diseaseis a problem, not onlybecause of its potentialimpact on the priceand availability of ourfavorite fruit, but alsobecause it’s a lifechanging event for thepeople in developingcountries who rely onbananas as a staplefood and incomes.Those affected by

Fusarium wilt lose both their liveli-hoods and an important source ofnutrition.”

Most banana scientists agree

that it’s only a matter of time beforetropical Race Four of Panama dis-ease makes it to this part of theworld. “All it takes is one personwith [infested] soil on their boots toinadvertently introduce it intoCentral or South America, thesource of bananas for NorthAmerica.” To defend against the upcoming

outbreak, some scientists haveturned toward genetic modificationin order to build a better banana.There are efforts to sequence thegenome of resistant banana culti-vars, identify the genes that givethem resistance and then transferthat gene into the susceptibleCavendish bananas. Another possi-ble solution to the banana blightwould be the commercial produc-tion of a different banana cultivar,one that is resistant to Tropical RaceFour, which would replace theCavendish. But the prospects forthis alternative are low becausemany of the current resistant culti-vars look and taste much differentfrom the Cavendish and may notfind acceptance in the global mar-ket. “My guess is that for the future

of the banana, we’ll have somethingnew, but I think it’s likely going torequire genetic engineering,” pre-dicted Churchill. “It’s going torequire people having a betterunderstanding of why genetic engi-neering may be the only means forcontinued export production of thissterile crop and where we may needto compromise to have continuedeasy access to America’s favoritefruit. Otherwise, bananas probablywon’t be as readily available on ourtables as they are now.”

Panama Disease Threatens Common BananaBy NICK ST. FLEuRSun Senior Writer

Nick St. Fleur can be reached at nstfleur@cornellsun.com.

Prof. Alice Churchill photographed the discolored banana plants due to Fusarium wilt on a research trip in China two yearsago.

COURTESY OF ALICE CHURCHILL

The fungus plugs the vascular system of the banana once the infection begins to spread.COURTESY OF PROF. ALICE CHURCHILL

“All you need isone person with[infected] soil ontheir boots whowalks to thewrong place andintroduces it toCentral andSouth America...”

Prof. Alice Churchill

Prof. Churchill says future of America’s favorite fruit imperiled

SCIENCE THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, November, 2, 2011 11

To Build or Not to Build the Keystone XL Pipeline

Tar sands mines in Alberta, Canada, con-tain a reserve of 175 billion barrels of retriev-able oil, making it the third-largest crude oilreserve in the world after Saudi Arabia andVenezuela. TransCanada, a Canadian gas andoil company, has proposed the construction ofa pipeline called the Keystone XL that willtransport the heavy crude oil over 1,700 milesfrom Alberta to refineries along the GulfCoast. The construction is a $7 billion com-pletion of the company’s existing KeystonePipeline that will allow for stalled oil inCushing, Okla., to flow south to be sold. Thecurrent Keystone Pipeline carries half a mil-

lion barrels of oil a day, but its planned expan-sion would increase oil production to over900,000 barrels a day. The Consumer EnergyAlliance along with twenty-five other organi-zations in support of the Keystone XL projectreport submitting more than 450,000 com-ments from Americans calling on the U.SDepartment of State to allow construction ofthe pipeline on American soil. While propo-nents of the pipeline cite many potential ben-efits, other Americans oppose the KeystoneXL, saying that TransCanada’s exploitation ofAlberta’s dirty tar sands threatens humanhealth and the future of the environment.

Science of Tar Sands ExtractionTar sands, also called oil sands, are known

as a dirty form of oil because of the extensivecarbon-producing process that it must under-go before it can be used for fuel. Tar sands aremade up of mixtures of sand, clay, water and aheavy, carbon rich form of natural oil calledbitumen. Bitumen is a thick, black and tarrysubstance very resistant to flow. After it isextracted, it needs to be broken up extensivelybefore being put into a pipeline.Oil sands extraction incorporates conven-

tional methods like mining at depths above 80meters and non-conventional methods alsocalled in-situ methods, at even greater depths.Drillable methods account for 80 percent ofthe oil sand recovery under the surface. Afterextraction, the tar sands are mixed with hotwater and a caustic chemical, sodium hydrox-ide, to separate the bitumen from the clay andsand. Further processing gets rid of residualwater and small solids from the mix leavingbehind just the bitumen, which is thicker thancrude oil. The cracking process, also known asupgrading, heats the bitumen up in a big ver-tical column and injects chemicals at variouslevels to split its carbon chain and allowhydrogen to attach to it, making it moremobile. The more the molecule is cracked, thecloser it gets to being fuel that would be used

in a car as gasoline. After upgrading, the bitu-men becomes a synthetic crude oil that can beplaced in the pipeline to travel to the refinery.The in-situ methods use thermal stimula-

tion to remove the bitumen from the sandwhile it is still in place. This is done at depthswhere drilling is not feasible. Cyclic SteamStimulation and Steam Assisted GravityDrainage are in-situ methods that inject steamdirectly into the sands to heat it and make thebitumen less viscous so that it can flow out likeconventional crude oil. TransCanada uses thewater flowing from the Athabasca River fortheir in-situ methods because regulations pre-vent them from mining the water from thewater table.These extraction methods emit three times

more greenhousegasses than conven-tional crude oil pro-duction and requirethree barrels of waterfor every barrel of oilproduced, totaling upto 400 million gal-lons of water a day.The mining methodsalso scar the land-scape and leavebehind tailing ponds,which are filled withbitumen and clayresidues and poseenvironmental prob-lems for human sani-tation and migratorybird life. The projectalso poses risks forindigenous peopleliving downstreamfrom the tar sandsand may be linked toincreased cases ofcancer, renal failure,lupus and hyperthy-roidism among theirpopulation.Along with risks

to human health,many people are con-

cerned with risks to wild life and naturalresources. Construction requires cutting down740,000 acres of Canada’s pristine boreal for-est, which is a part of the world’s largest car-bon storehouse. Mining would endanger theforest’s wildlife and release harmful green-house gases. The pipeline would also crossover the Ogallala Aquifer which supplies 30percent of the ground water used in Americanagriculture and 80 percent of the drinkingwater in the surrounding eight states. Spills areparticularly risky, because once tar sands oil isupgraded to the point where it can actually beput into a pipe; it comes like liquid sandpaperand is highly cor-rosive. Many cit-izens are con-cerned at thepossible threatthat a spill in thepipeline wouldhave on theirwater supply.Pipeline spills

are a seriouscause for con-cern amongopponents of theKeystone XL. In2010, USpipeline rupturesand explosionskilled 22 people,spewed over170,000 barrelsof crude oil intothe environ-ment and cost1 billion dollars’worth of dam-age. Earlier thisyear, the first leg of TransCanada’s KeystonePipeline gushed 21,000 gallons of tar sands oilin southeastern North Dakota. This was the

pipeline’s twelfth spill within a year of its con-struction, although the other spills were on amuch smaller scale. But these problems haveprompted TransCanada to use stricter regula-tions with its Keystone XL, stating that it willbe the safest crude oil pipeline built in theU.S.“If it gets approved, the Keystone XL will

mark the beginning of a new era of how wecross environmentally sensitive areas and howwe install and maintain these pipe systems,”said Michal Moore, senior fellow and profes-sor of energy economics at the School ofPublic Policy at the University of Calgary andvisiting lecturer at Cornell. Along with adher-ing to stricter regulations, the TransCanadaCompany will be incorporating cleaningrobots called pipeline inspection gauges or“smart PIGs” that monitor the pipe’s condi-tion. “The PIGs are a remote vehicle that they

can send down the pipe with a lot of teleme-try. It will literally run down the length of thepipe and perform diagnostic tests on metalintegrity and joints, and in some cases even doremote repairs,”Moore said.

Job CreationAccording to

TransCanada, theirpipeline will helpcreate jobs, stimu-late the Americaneconomy withcheap fuel pricesand reduceAmerican depen-dency on MiddleEastern oil.Tr a n s C a n a d areports that con-struction of their pipeline will create 20,000manufacturing and construction jobs whichthey project will increase the personal incomeof American workers by $6.5 billion. Theyalso state that the project will generate morethan $585 million in new taxes for the statesalong the pipeline’s route. An independentstudy by The Perryman Group even estimatedthat the Keystone expansion would stimulatemore than $20 billion towards the US econo-my and create indirect jobs totaling over119,000 person-years.But the Cornell Global Labor Institute

conducted its own study titled Pipe Dreams'Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost by the Construction ofKeystone XL, which investigated the jobclaims made by TransCanada Corporationand the Perryman Group. Their findingsreport that the Keystone XL project will actu-ally have minimal benefits on the Americaneconomy and job prospects. “The number ofjobs being projected for this project is relative-ly small,” said Sean Sweeney, director of the

Cornell ILR Global Labor Institute. “Rightnow the U.S. unemployment rate is at 9.1percent. Our calculations show that if you

hired everybody who you expected to hire inyear one of the project –– both direct andindirect employment –– the U.S. unemploy-ment rate would still be 9.1 percent. So this isnot a game changer in terms of unemploy-ment.”Their analysis also points out the flaws in

the Perryman Group study stating that it doesnot accurately report how it reached its jobclaim calculations and that its estimate of119,000 indirect jobs has not been substanti-ated, putting their own estimate at a muchlower 5,000 to 9,000 jobs. The report alsoshows that the actual building process is noteconomically in America’s best interests asmuch as TransCanada had previously said.The study states that the company will spendonly $3 to $4 billion in the U.S., not the $7billion that it had claimed in its PresidentialPermit Application. That extra money will bespent on the Canadian portion of the pipelineand on previous construction phases, theyreported.

Environmental Impacts and ActivismSome Americans oppose the Keystone XL,

citing TransCanada’sextortion of Alberta’sdirty tar sands threatenshuman health and thefuture of the environ-ment as large risks.Environmentalists

argue carbon pollutionwill sky rocket if thepipeline is built and thejobs created are notworth the hazardstowards the climate andhuman health. They saythat replacing the cur-rently used crude oil

refineries with tar sands oil brought by thepipeline will increase greenhouse gas emissionsby 38 million tons per year, equivalent to car-bon pollution from 6 million cars; a changethat they say our climate cannot handle.“We’ve got the science here showing what’s

wrong with the pipeline, but for that scienceto matter, we need to have regulations thatunderstand the science and politicians who arewilling to take into account what the factssay,” said student activist Jesse Reed Steberger’12, interdisciplinary studies.In September, he was arrested outside of

the White House for protesting against theKeystone XL pipeline with ten other Cornellstudents. He joined the over 1,200 otheractivists from the Tar Sands Action to bearrested for their civil disobedience over thecourse of 15 days. “President Obama isn’tfaced with the question of creating more jobsor protecting the environment” said Steberger,“He is presented with what choice to make forour future. Is he going to support big corpora-tions and the economy that has been spi-raling downward? Or is he going to movethe United States into a new clean energyfuture that’s going to lead to Americanprosperity and an economic recovery?”Steberger along with 4,000 other envi-

ronmental activists plan to return to theWhite House fences on Nov. 6, one yearbefore the Election Day, to protest theconstruction of the Keystone XL pipeline.While some welcome the potential job

opportunities, lower fuel prices andincreased energy security that the con-struction process might create, othersdoubt the job creation and fear environ-mental consequences. The president’spending decision has split many Americancitizens based on their opposing views.Despite the debate around its potentialbenefits and hazards, the Keystone XLproject already received approval fromCanada’s National Energy Board back in2010. Its further progression stems on thedecision of President Obama to allow ordeny construction cross the internationalborders into the United States.

Hands tied | K.C. Alvey ’12, along with several other Cornell students, wasarrested in Washington, D.C. during a protest about the pipeline in Sept.

COURTESY OF MITCH PAINE

Follow the yellow brick trail | The U.S. State Department outlinedthe proposed Keystone Pipeline.

COURTESY OF THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Potential benefits like job creation re-examined; environmental risks raise student concernsBy NICHOLAS ST. FLEURSun Senior Writer

Nicholas St. Fleur can be reached nstfleur@cornellsun.com.

“We’ve got the science hereshowing what’s wrong with thepipeline, but for that science tomatter, we need to have regulations that understand thescience and politicians who arewilling to take into account whatthe facts say.”

Jesse Reed Steberger ’12