CUNY Academic Commons

I agree in that taking the “easy way” or most convenient way isn’t always the best course of action. Past generations due to industrialization thought the same way as Josue Criollo did in that they did whatever necessary to manufacture large quantities of products in a short amount of time, and flash forward to present day—here we are trying to…[Read more]

I agree with Hillary, education is the single most important aspect when it comes to the change in behavior that we are seeking. As she mentioned, it starts with the awareness that the general population lacks; not to mention the accelerated, short term, convenience seeking lifestyle that we have gotten used to. Regardless of these challenges, I…[Read more]

I appreciate the different perspectives and how informative they are in helping understand what motivates consumers when it comes to deciding what materials to use in their daily lives. The truth is that single use plastic simply is not sustainable. Yes, it is convenient; sure, it’s light, resistant, can be made to look beautiful, “easy” to…[Read more]

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…[Read more]

I completely agree with you Lauren. It was my surprise to find out that just in NYC local waters more than 200 fish species are present! OVER TWO HUNDRED! Did anyone else get to see the seahorse they caught in NYC harbor? Whales seen within miles of NYC waters?! It was quite a pleasant surprise and some refreshing news since the reports of species…[Read more]

I agree with you in that there is rarely any news media coverage about out local water pollutions and I think that this is A big reason as to why water poluttion has got to the point that it has now, especially with plastic pollution. If more coverage was given to significant issues like this, then plastic bag usage would have been banned much…[Read more]

In my opinion, the submerge festival was pretty interesting and helpful in understanding more about the impacts that humans have on marine life. The one thing that caught my eye the most was the discussion of plastic pollution. In largely populated cities(like new york) where there is a lot of human activity, plastic pollution is a major issue.…[Read more]

Mahmoud Ahmed wrote:MICROPLASTICS! I have always known that normal-size plastics that are dumped into water bodies pose a huge threat to the marine life as well as human life. However, I never really thought of microplastics, and how they are as damaging and threatful as other plastics, as a matter of fact, they could be more dangerous since they…

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Prior to watching the live video, I thought that the river was not as maintained. Although the event was targeted towards kids, It was very eye-opening for me. I learned that there are so many aquatic wildlife living within the waters and to quote from the live stream “the river was a living thing itself”

-Laiba Sajid

One solution I would suggest regarding increasing the frequency of water fountains, is installing a fountain at each fire hydrant. Fire hydrants are generally not in use 90% of the time, and especially in the summer people open them and waster water. My idea is that by sharing the water of fire hydrants for fountains, we can reduce the need for…[Read more]

I agree with lauren on the fact that people should realize how much money they’re spending on plastic water bottles. My family recently took a liking to buying a pack of water bottles each month and I hate it because it’s a waste of money and it also isn’t good for the ecosystem in the long run. In my home country it was rare for people to buy…[Read more]

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 would reckon that reusable materials are much more cost effective for buyers and manufacturers. They might cost more to make initially but there isn’t a constant need to be producing at the rate that we do with single use plastics. You buy a reusable shopping bag and you’re set for years to come and you save money, since thankfully we get…[Read more]

I never thought of NYC and its immediate surroundings as much of a source of nature and wildlife. I heard and see people with fishing poles and wondered where the heck they were fishing. It was an absolute joy to learn that there is an abundance of life below the dark surface of the Hudson. It was quite fascinating learning about all the species.…[Read more]

When I was younger, using plastic water bottles was basically unheard of. There were water fountains all over the place… Now when I go to the park, the fountains are often non-working. Is there a stigma against water fountains? New York City water, in particular, starts out super-clean in the Catskills, and sure there is some possible…[Read more]

True 100%. I feel like media are only showing the world’s  oceans  are polluted to get more coverage and attention. It sad that media rarely covers our community plastic issues. But I believed we as individual can make difference by posting the reality of NYC plastic pollution through social media or creating blogs. Even though we may not d…[Read more]

Even though the plastic bag ban for NY was implemented last month, we were behind compared to other states such as California. Other countries have long implemented this ban too, such as Colombia. I feel like we could be doing better as a state to reduce plastic waste.

I don’t think that it’s a sign of failure, but more a sign of lack of…[Read more]

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…[Read more]