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EAS 217 F20
EAS 217 Course Website for Fall 2020
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Submerge marine festival (student vision challenge)
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Posted by Juvincio Compaore on September 24, 2020 at 7:52 pmThe submerged marine science festival was informative. It helped better understand some of the concepts on climate change. The connection between climate change and the aquatic life was made during the festival. It was truly a learning experience. For instance the “Student vision challenge” webinar has clearly presented the solutions for climate change. It was impressive to see that mitigation was not the only solution proposed to reduce climate change. Adaption was also part of the ideas for fighting climate change. As far as I am concerned I believe combining those two solutions will have a positive impact on reducing climate change. Also educating the youngest generation about the impact of climate change on our society as the forum intended to do, is fundamental in the fight against climate change.
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One of the things that really surprised me was the fact that NY had whales and sea horses! I have been in NY for 7 years and I never knew they lived here. I`d like to also go see and identify each whale by the texture and color of their tails, although it might be hard to see since they move fast.
-Josue Criollo
While watching the student led presentations, there was one presenter talking about loose particles from our clothing coming off during laundry. I have never put much thought into where the water goes or how it impacts the environment after washing our clothing. There must be a build up of clothing fibers from laundry that impacts the environment.
-Gabrielle Belaya
This also surprised me! The thought of micro plastics and other pollutants coming from my clothes and pollute the environment is extremely shocking. I wonder if there’s a way to filter the water deposited from our washing machines to help mitigate this issue.
I loved the presentation that Gabrielle mentioned about how washing clothes could affect the environment. I thought it was super informative and eye opening. I have always been conscious about how often I wash my clothes and when but not because I didn’t want to waste water. It never occured to me to think about how the intensity of how I wash could affect the water quality and where then where that water goes. This presentation made me more conscious about the types of clothes I choose to purchase in the future as well as the intensity function on my washing machine when I decide when to wash my clothes.
I did a project on this topic last semester for my writing for the sciences class. Each time we wash our microfibers and plastics end up in the water used to wash the clothes. Also, another source of pollution is the dyes used to color our clothes a lot of manufactures pollute our waters. It is good to wash your clothes less because you are using less water but also extending the life of your clothes. Additionally, a lot of clothes tend to end up in landfills.
While watching the student vision challenge, I was impressed with the creativity that the different presenters used to approach the challenge of cleaning the river. I was particularly interested in using robots to track the pollution at points along the river and wished that they went more in-depth with how these robots will work to clean up and control the pollution in the river.
-Gary Fung
The part about whales got me really interested too, I always thought that the NYC harbor was too small to have whales come around here. I looked up at some articles for research and apparently there have been an increase of whale sightings in New York. They attribute that increase to the fact that the waters have gotten much cleaner due to the environmental policies the city and state implemented. I wonder if the seahorse population has also increased for the same reasons?
This presentation was truly eye-opening for me. I always knew that our rivers are polluted but I never fully grasped the degree to which the way we live our daily lives is contributing to this issue, such as washing our clothes. Like Gary mentioned, I really like the idea of using robots to track the pollutants along the river. Unlike cleaning a highway, it is much harder to remove trash in a river, especially since operating boats are costly and they don’t operate 24 hours a day. Also, it is harder to tight bends and corners. By using a robot to map out high concentration areas in the river, it becomes much more efficient and a more effective way to clean our rivers.
I defeinitely agree. I never put that much thought into the types of material clothing that I wear and especially do not think about how the fibers of those pieces of clothing will travel through our water systems and be potentially harmful to the environment. The experiment that showed this fact was eye opening.
I appreciated how they had different challenges for students of different grades. I am a strong supporter that it is never too early to start bringing awareness on these issues that impact all of us, but more so the younger generations. As mentioned by many, I was in shock to find out about the microplastics in our clothing. I think both Juliana and Rebecca offered effective actions that we can do on our own, however it should not stop there. We must bringing awareness to our family members, coworkers, and friends! I am contating my local representatives to raise awareness—and action—on this matter. As others have wondered, why have these contaminants do not received due attention to reduce their production and mitigate their impact in our ecosystem? I am strongly motivated to choose a topic related to this issue for my final project.
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