This afternoon in Rita 101 I was able to attend the talk given by Winona LaDuke. I just want to first state my gratitude to the faculty who made it possible to bring her to the College of Charleston and getting the privilege to listen to her talk. I personally enjoyed my time and she is a true inspiration. She presented “The Sitting Bull Plan” which in summary is to become more efficient in our economy. Help fix the infrastructure that needs to be repaired now (Flint Michigan), instead of causing new problems with increasing more unwanted pipelines. She brought up how these corporations are putting these pipelines in low-income communities and not in white ones. This relates to the environmental injustice that has been discussing in our class with the Warren County PCB landfill. Another cool thing I learned is about the plant, hemp! No not THC but the plant itself can be used to make more sustainable clothing articles. Limiting the chemicals that we put into our waters. Not only with clothing articles, but hemp and be made into biodegradable plastic. We have these obtainable solutions they just are not being put to use. Lastly, I want to leave off with this one last thing Winona LaDuke said throughout her presentation and that is “no time is like the present”.

This is a picture shown durning the talk f the biodegradable hemp water bottle

and this is a photo of her I took durning her talk.

Source

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/microplastics-pollution-falls-from-air-even-mountains/

Microplastics In The Air

Microplastics have been a big issue for a while, we know that it ends up in the sea, and even the marine species who live there but now its traveling through the air as well.

Who/What/How/When/Where/Why

What:  Scientists discover large amounts of tiny plastic particles falling out of the air in a  remote mountain location.

• This is really important because it is the first time microplastics have been discovered on a mountain top
• There aren’t many people in this region, which suggests the particles were transported by wind, through the air, from more populated areas at least 59 miles away
• The area is considered pristine wilderness but the team found an average of 365 pieces of plastic per square metre, suggesting that people are probably breathing in toxic particles even in fresh mountain air.
• Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic waste. Their presence in oceans and waterways has received a great deal of scientific and media attention in recent years. However, not only are they in the oceans but they travel in our air too.

How:

• Researchers spent five months collecting samples from 4,600 ft above sea level in the Pyrenees mountain range which forms a natural border between France and Spain.

Where:

France’s Pyrenees Mountains

When:

Published Monday April 15th

Who:

National Geographic article was written by Stephen Leahy  

 Scientist that published this study where

• Steve Allen,
• Deonie Allen,
• Vernon R. Phoenix,
• Gaël Le Roux,
• Pilar Durántez Jiménez,
• Anaëlle Simonneau,
• Stéphane Binet  
• Didier Galop

Study called: Atmospheric Transport and deposition of microplastics in a remote mountain catchment.

Why:

• Because microplastics can be the next atmospheric pollutant.
• Researchers say Pieces of plastic small enough to sail into the atmosphere can be virtually impossible to clean up, suggesting the only viable solution is to produce less in the first place.

Impact of the event or finding/ relevance to society:

• People are exposed to microplastics through food and air  and these findings raise some worrying questions. Additionally,  there needs to be a better way to approach single use plastic.

Relevance to the course:

• This is related to the course, because this has to do with the environment. Even though we do not know the overall health impacts of microplastics on humans, we do know that it is a toxin and a pollutant. This raises a lot of worrying  questions for us and for the future of our planet.

• Researchers say Pieces of plastic small enough to sail into the atmosphere can be virtually impossible to clean up, suggesting the only viable solution is to produce less in the first place.

Any permanent questions raised by the story

• What are the health impacts of inhaling these microplastics?
• This raises questions on how often we need to purify our air?
• Is living in cities healthy ?

CofC’s Office of Sustainability does a litter clean up every few weeks while using an app made by the SC Aquarium to collect data. I volunteered to participate in a litter pick up on March 8th and spent around an hour collecting debris from the corner of Calhoun and Coming. I partnered up with one of the OoS interns to take turns collecting trash and logging items in the app. Once you download the app you have to join “projects” for what exactly you’re doing because it’s a citizen science platform that many groups use to track different environmental or biological concerns. The OoS uses “litter-free digital journal” to log the items they pick up. The app categorizes the litter by composition and has options for the user to specify if the given categories don’t match.

In 1 hour, my partner and I collected around 317 individual pieces of litter. Most of these were cigarette butts or tobacco related debris. Because of the location where we collected trash, that wasn’t surprising as it’s a pretty busy street and has lots of foot traffic and there’s a short brick wall at the corner of a lot where people sit and smoke. There were fresh cigarette buts that were still round and orange but we also found lots of old butts that looked like dirty cotton balls picked apart. This corner would probably be a good spot for a cigarette butt receptacle, I’ve even heard of ones that are made using recycled butts.

The next most abundant litter were microplastics. There’s street parking pretty much all along where we collected trash, and there were little rigid fragments that looked like someone smashed their mirror on something, so we picked that up as well as a lot of other tiny plastics like pen caps or buttons. The 3rd most abundant litter was paper and cardboard, most of which was food related. These were mostly things like gum wrappers, straw wrappers, receipts and little scraps of paper.

This is the second litter clean up I’ve done using a Citizen Science app, and it was my first with CofC’s OoS! It was a fun way to be involved with other CofC students interested in conservation while picking up trash that would end up in our waterways otherwise. I like both apps but its nice that this one gives you an option to specify what exactly you’re finding, which also provides better data for the people reviewing the findings.

I have decided to review a documentary called “Blue Planet II: Big Blue.” This documentary is available for anyone to watch on Netflix and is in my opinion, one of the best documentaries for younger people who want to get a better idea of what is in and what is happening with our oceans. This documentary shows a plethora of species and their special behavioral patterns that may not be known that they do to the regular everyday human. These patterns shown show spectacular brilliance in certain species that could be lost if we do not help prevent the continuous poisoning of our oceans through waste and pollution.

This documentary includes the behavior patterns of dolphins and also their intelligence in thorough detail. It shows how the porpoises use anemones and other plants as a personal way of protecting themselves from infection with the special antibodies in the anemones. It also shows many other animals and how they survive through their special patterns of migration and ways of predation that are very fascinating. The documentary shows how orcas temporarily stun groups of fish by their violent tail flaps that stun the fish long enough for them to be eaten without trouble. It also does not only focus on the animals in the ocean, it also shows coastal birds like the wandering albatross. These birds are the largest of any living bird of the present day, and because of the overfishing of seas, the albatross has to work much harder than before to find food for themselves and for their offspring so that they can continue to be a species on this planet. They may spend up to a year continuously looking food for themselves and also ingest plastics which are poisons to their diets. This is a continuous problem and will continue to be a problem if we do not step up as humans to fix our planet.

The filmmakers who produced this documentary are definitely trying to push a conservationist agenda to the audience, and doing so in a way that shows the beauty of our earth and why we should work harder to fix these issues. Possible biases in this documentary could be that the filmmakers did not show any positives that are going on in our economic world today, and focused primarily on making the film about how we have not been doing our jobs recently and how we can improve our earthly situation, rather than show positive ways that we have already been working on bettering our world. All in all, I very much enjoyed this documentary and it was displayed in a way that was more fascinating rather than a bore to watch, and I believe that this documentary could be shown to many other audiences that would say the same thing. This film made me think much harder about conservation, and also made me think much more deeply about just how fascinating our earth really is, and why we should work much harder to sustain it and have this beauty be able to be seen by future generations.

Nearing the end of the semester I find myself actively considering my actions so much more than I ever did previously.  Before taking this and another environmental course this semester, I had never had much education regarding sustainability and environmental concerns beyond a general approach.  It was never actively on my mind when I would go shopping or go on late night drives just for fun.  Now, when I go to shopping, I am always recognizing how much waste we produce, how everything in grocery stores is plastic, how much I feel the need to buy when I go shopping for “back to school”, etc…

What really opened my eyes to this was the Carbon Footprint activity and the “Story of Stuff” video we watched.  These two lessons, amongst many others, flipped a switch in my head that made me want to take steps in my own life to help our community and ultimately our planet.  The Carbon Footprint activity made me realize how much nonsense driving I do, just because I like to drive.  I have reduced my driving so substantially that I hardly ever take it out of the driveway.  The “Story of Stuff” opened my eyes to my shopping patterns and the speed at which I go through clothing.  I have always loved shopping and clothing, but have been much more aware of what I buy and how I buy it.  I’ve learned new concepts regarding how fast fashion is far from ecofriendly, which is something I probably would have never thought about while shopping in the past.  Even things as simple as when I go to the grocery stores, I bring reusable bags for myself and my friends as well.  I encourage late night walks instead of drives, as that had always been something my friends and I would do for hours on end to clear our heads.  By making it apparent to my friends that I care about this issue, I feel both encouraged to keep sharing what I learn as well as keep taking these steps to hold true to my word.  By making an active effort with my friends to act on these issues, I feel like they hold me accountable for my own as well so I don’t come across as hypocritical.

Although these actions are very simple and seem like they won’t make a huge difference, they are so easy to do everyday that it makes me wonder why anyone wouldn’t.  I am planning to continue taking steps towards a greener future for myself, and taking courses to educate myself on what I can do further.  Gradually adding different approaches to living, shopping, traveling, etc. is easy and has the ability to rub off on people as well!  Something that has made these actions so easy to remember and carry out is being in a city like Charleston where I frequently see different activities going on promoting a more sustainable lifestyle, different policies coming to be to create change, and people sharing their thoughts and ideas on how to make Charleston a better, greener space.

Throughout this semester I have seriously been trying to cut down on my plastic usage. For the last couple of years I have been somewhat conscious of my plastic usage, but this semester I have really been trying to use the smallest amount of plastic possible. Throughout my transition to less plastic it has been extremely fulfilling to know that I am making a difference in the worlds emissions and pollution problems. It is also difficult because my roommate uses an extremely large amount of single use plastic items and just refuses to change his ways no matter how much I lecture him. He grew up in a household where they used a large amount of single use plastics so he just does not know any other way and just struggles with changing. It is hard to have all these single use plastic items in our house and kitchen and avoiding them, but it has progressively gotten easier for me to not be tempted to use those items.     

I have learned from this experience that it is astounding how many people and restaurants use single use plastics. A large amount of restaurants give people straws without even ask their customers. Also a majority of restaurants use plastic cups or lids rather than compostable materials. Having so many restaurants which only have single use plastic options makes it extremely difficult to avoid plastic usage completely, but I have been able to reduce my plastic use significantly. Every time I have had the option of using plastic or avoiding it I have chosen to not use it, but so many restaurants bring drinks out with straws without even asking you. This resulted in me thinking that at times I was failing in avoiding plastic use, but I have to realize that those instances are not my fault. I think I will be able to keep reducing my plastic use, it is just difficult to completely avoid using plastic. For example gatorade only comes in plastic bottles so it is essential impossible to avoid plastic use there, but usually I reuse my gatorade bottles.I have also cut down on my gatorade consumption since cutting down on my plastic use. My oldest brother is extremely environmentally focused and he just recommended that I drink water from a reusable bottle and then only drink other drinks that are not put in plastic bottles. It is also just small things you have to give up, like not using plastic coffee stirrers and small tedious things like that make the whole process of cutting down on plastic difficult.  

The one major daily act that seems to always pop up into my head as a problem is the amount of time I spend driving/in a car a day. I grew up in Westport, Connecticut where most things are pretty spread out and easier to get to if driving. When I came to Charleston my awareness of how much I drive became very noticeable to me because Freshmen year since I was so close to campus I rarely got into a car. Along with that as I walked around the city I realized that this is really not a car city whatsoever. The streets are small enough and people park on both sides, making two-way streets seem like one way. Let alone that half the guys who have cars here decided to make them aggressively big trucks that legitimately can’t fit on the streets of Charleston. Anyway since I started to realize the unnecessary usage of cars here( because everything on the peninsula is a 30-minute walk max from each other) I asked my dad for a bike instead of letting me use the car back at home(which I would have had to drive 15 hours here). He actually got me a really cool electric bike that gets me to school, to be honest, faster than a car would because I am not stuck in traffic and can take some shortcuts cars aren’t allowed too. Honestly, one person changing one small component of their life like this won’t make a massive impact, but what it can do is set an example for others along with boosting the way you feel about yourself/lifestyle which is also very important. With us living in a time period where people’s own outcomes matter more to them than anything else it’s important to have the few who try to push forth change and or support change. Personally, by doing this I go about my day feeling better about myself. I know as of right now this change is very small and only the first of my changes, but if you fast forwarded to my life in about 40 years and I had stayed true to my change my carbon footprint would be so much lower than if I didn’t change. A major problem I’ve come to realize with this change is when traveling far distances. As much as I would like to ride my electric bike all the way it would take like 4 weeks, so I, therefore, have to fly/drive which makes me feel like I’m just giving up on my goal. Also when on vacation with family we are also driving around looking at places. This brings me to the awareness that as much as people want to change there are some things you can’t change unless you want to fully stop doing something(like traveling for work, with family, etc.) Overall i’m very happy with the change I’ve made and have followed it as strictly as possible, but in some circumstances, I must fail my goal.

My sister and I went to the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. This is a festival held every year dedicated to wildlife and the wildlife lovers. I m one of those wildlife lovers and have been going to College of Charleston for three years and this was my first time going to the expo. This festival is to promote wildlife and nature conservation. I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of people that attended the expo but happy that so many people cared about saving wildlife and had an interest in wildlife. There were three exhibits that stuck out most to me and made me want to go back for the next expo. Those three were Turtle survival Alliance, the Department of Agriculture, and the Boone Hall Farms one.

The turtle survival Alliance really struck me because I have heard a lot about turtles dying because of all of the plastic and other pollution in the water. It is very unfortunate that they have to suffer because people are so careless with the environment. I love how this organization was built off of the fact that they wanted to save species of turtles that were being captured and going extinct. I never knew anything about the Asian Turtle crisis until I was introduced to this organization. I visited their website and was amazed at how many turtles they house and keep safe from extinction. Their website is amazing and the pictures they have of turtles are great.

I was interested in the Department of Agriculture because of everything that was going on with the government and how it effected food industries and providers. I was curious to know if they had been as effected. I have been trying to change my eating habits and want to start eating more healthier, fresher foods which is another reason I was drawn to this exhibit. They have a state farmers market and I have been wanting to go to one since I can remember. I was surprised to know that they had one about 45 minutes away from where I live and two more in Greeneville and Columbia. I will definitely be paying them a visit over the summer.

Boone Hall Farms brings back so many memories. When I was younger, I used to go there for Halloween or thanksgiving and getting pumpkins, participate n the haunted houses and everything. I love Boone Hall farms and seeing them made me feel like a child again. Their food is so good and they also have different farmers markets. I have not been there in so long but I want to go back.

SEWE was definitely a great experience for me and I would love to go again. I’m not looking forward to the people traffic or car traffic either though!

The documentary I chose to review is “Before the Flood”. This film features the famous actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, going on a journey to see how climate change is affecting different areas all over the world. Leonardo was nominated by the United Nations to be the Messenger of Peace, a position where he would be able to fly to many different countries and speak to their government officials about how climate change is affecting them.

Throughout the film, Leonardo went to many different places, including Canada, the Arctic Circle, Miami, Florida, China, India and back to Washington D.C to conclude with an interview with Barack Obama. While on this journey, he was able to first hand see how bad climate change already was in these areas. When in Canada, the film showed oil sands and how hot air is literally being pumped into the ground in order to extract the oil from the sand. In the Arctic, it was shown that in just five years over 30 feet of ice had melted. In China and India, overpopulation and poverty were such extreme issues and over 300 million people were living without power. However, he was able to expand on how China is making an effort to switch over to solar and wind power. Leonardo and the filmmaker’s agenda was not only to show the devastating affects of climate change, but also to promote to the viewers how to help prevent them.

It is so important that our generation step up and confront climate change as a real issue. The film showed that there are still so many people in the United States government that are climate change deniers, and work so that no bills get passed to put policies in place to combat this issue. A lot of these deniers are also paid out by big oil, which is an extremely corrupt issue and needs to be stopped. In the end, Leonardo spoke in front of the United Nations and reported on all of the things he had seen while traveling the world. He reported that his overall view was very negative, and it was up to each and every individual to return to their country and try to change their ways for the better of the world. it is a tough thing to ask of everyone to do, but it is so important that we band together and help the one place we all live. The Paris Climate Agreement was signed before this film came out, so Leonardo did report on how great this accomplishment was. He still posed the question, will all these countries really uphold what they agreed to?

The overall message of the film was to show that climate change is not an if; it is already happening all over the world in numerous ways. The United States is not a leading example of how to combat climate change, and he speaks out to say that we as a nation need to become more aware. This message is extremely powerful and to me does not have any bias. It is hard to be bias about helping the planet, it is a place that everyone lives and the one thing that as a species we can aim to protect.

https://archive.org/details/youtube-90CkXVF-Q8M

In my own day-to-day life, I would consider my lifestyle to be relatively sustainable. Recently, however, in ENVT 200, we conducted a survey throughout the class to see how many Earths would be necessary to sustain all life if everyone made the same choices I did. Needless to say, I was blown away by the result, finding that over THREE Earths would be needed for everyone to live the way I do. As a college student, I am limited in the amount of things I can change about my personal routine if I want to lessen my eco-footprint; however, that does not mean that change is not possible. I tried a few things out for a while like emphasizing recycling between me and my roommates, constantly drinking out of a reusable bottle, etc. But, nothing made me feel like I was getting change that meant something, and could improve my own life aside from making me feel a little less guilty about using so many resources. Then, I thought about my utilities. Many people do not realize how lessening the amount of utilities they use can actually help; on top of it, so much money is saved and the changes one makes are not too noticeable. For a month, I actively shut lights off around the house when unnecessary, I shut the air off in the house when no one was home, and I was more conscious about my showers. These changes sound like things that should be a given, but if they are not actively being thought of, then they fall by the wayside. After a month, my utilities were almost cut in half, and I could have been saving all of this money/using so much less energy if I was more aware. I brought this to attention of my fraternity and my friends, and they have been reporting back similar results. I think that people are not aware of how easy and effective it is to save money and use less, but once it is thought of in a tangible and rewarding way, like saving money, more people get on board!

Maybe people my age are forgetful, but I think that the reason my peers seem to be unaware of the simplicity in helping the planet is the idea that, “an individual is ineffective in saving the planet.” The line of thinking is shared by many people, and it could not be further from the truth. I have a tangible experience in my life that puts me at ease when thinking about my eco-footprint on this planet, and I saved money/improved my life in the process. All that was necessary was to wear a couple extra layers when living in the house during the day time, and taking a little extra time to make sure the lights/water is not being wasted. I think when people hear about what a difference that experience made for me, it makes them want to have similar change in their lives.