by Kaelin Ferland '23 on March 16, 2023
Opinion Staff

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Record-breaking Storms

In December, January, and March, California experienced severe flooding, rain, snow, and wind due to atmospheric rivers, areas of high moisture that transport water vapor from tropical regions to different locations across the world. Once atmospheric rivers arrive on land, they release water in the form of precipitation. These rivers can range anywhere from 250 to 375 miles in width and 1,000 to 2,000 miles in length. Unlike those in California, not all atmospheric rivers are catastrophic and dangerous. Rather, they are essential for delivering water to areas that need it. However, due to climate change, these phenomena could become significantly stronger and more frequent. 

Last December, over one third of Americans were issued winter weather and wind chill alerts in response to reports of unprecedented weather conditions anticipated in 37 states around the country. California was one of these states. By the end of December 2022, about 17 feet of snow had fallen in Sierra Nevada, and since October 2022, 50 feet of snow have fallen in this area. In terms of rainfall, some areas in California were seeing over 40 inches of rain from Dec. 26 to Jan. 11. Millions of people were under flood alerts and thousands were told to evacuate. 

Another atmospheric river has already begun to hit California, the eleventh this winter. On March 10, Governor Newsom and later President Biden issued a state of emergency for 34 counties in the state. As of Monday, 18 million Californians were under flood alerts, and this number continues to grow. Elevations over 7,000 feet are expected to see four feet of snow and those over 9,000 are projecting snowfall amounts around eight feet. Lower elevations are expected to experience significant flooding and high winds. 

Climate change exacerbates natural disasters and extreme weather events. Catastrophes including hurricanes, floods, and wildfires are only a few examples of disasters anticipated to increase in severity and frequency, with atmospheric rivers expected to see similar trends. When our planet increases in temperature, the atmosphere is able to hold more water vapor. This means rainfall numbers and storm intensity will become even greater. According to NASA, these atmospheric rivers will become larger and more frequent. They estimate that they will increase in size by 25 percent and increase in frequency by 50 percent. 

As we continue to accelerate climate change, we will only see more natural disasters and endanger countless more people. As we emit more carbon dioxide due to our reliance on fossil fuels, our atmosphere will absorb more heat. With this added heat, more water vapor can be held in the air meaning more severe and intense rainfall. To prevent these storms, we need to start transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy and prioritize achieving net-zero emissions.  

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on March 16, 2023
Opinion Staff

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Florida’s Red Tide

In October, a harmful algal bloom was detected in Florida. However, the red tide has recently become significantly more dangerous. Since then, the red tide has dispersed its red waters to the entire southwest coast of Florida, spanning 5,000 miles and devastating marine ecosystems. Since Dec. 12, 2022, 20 tons of fish have been found beached along the coast. It’s estimated that 104 sea turtles and seven manatees have also died. Human health is similarly at risk with some Florida residents reporting coughs, difficulty breathing, and burning of the eyes. The red tide is not expected to end in the near future, with conditions expected to worsen before they improve.  

Harmful algal blooms are formed when algal growth increases exponentially. Usually, algal blooms aren’t harmful, serving as a food source for animals that rely on them. However, harmful algal blooms, as the name implies, produce toxins that threaten both wildlife survival and human health. If humans inhale these toxins, they will enter the body and cause a variety of health issues including coughing, difficulty breathing, and eye and skin irritation. If contaminated fish are consumed, however, the human health effects can be much more severe, leading to multiple forms of shellfish and fish poisoning illnesses including paralytic shellfish poisoning and neurotoxic shellfish poisoning.  

The animal health effects are very similar to those experienced by humans. Harmful algal blooms affect not only fish but also marine mammals and seabirds. Fish and shellfish are part of the diets of many marine species, including dolphins and seabirds. This means that, like humans, these organisms are ingesting toxins by eating contaminated fish. Marine mammals, specifically ones like dolphins and manatees that require oxygen, can also inhale toxins when they visit the surface to breathe, leading to respiratory problems.  

A main factor that leads to harmful algal blooms is climate change. Blooms begin to form when there are more nutrients in the water. Nutrients usually enter water via runoff following periods of precipitation. As climate change increases the severity and frequency of weather events, precipitation and runoff will become more common, fueling more harmful algal blooms. Increases in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere also promote algal growth as algae are a plant species that relies on photosynthesis. Increased temperatures are also optimal for algal growth which will become more common due to global warming. Usually, the winter weather moves algal blooms away from the coast. However, as climate change makes our winters milder, this allows harmful algal blooms to persist and cause further damage.  

Climate change continues to have a relationship with the most devastating environmental issues we are witnessing today. Actions need to be taken to mitigate climate change and prevent subsequent environmental catastrophes.  

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on March 2, 2023
Opinion Staff

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Defense of the Willow Project Contradicts Biden Administration’s Commitment to Clean Energy

The ConocoPhillips Willow project is an incredibly overlooked fossil fuel initiative despite the devastating toll it will have on our planet and its environmental injustice implications. If approved, the Willow project will be the largest oil project in the country, extracting over 600 million barrels of oil in just 30 years. The burning of this oil would release 280 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.  

Willow will also be dangerous to native communities, as living in close proximity to these sites can lead to a variety of health issues. One nearby native community, Nuiqsut, has already expressed their concern and disapproval of this project. Many members of this community are concerned about chemical and noise pollution and potential oil spills, factors that could cause serious health issues. ConocoPhillips already had a gas leak at another one of their Alaskan drilling sites last year. 

The location of Willow in the fragile arctic ecosystem will have devastating effects on the area, making it even more susceptible to climate change. The Arctic is particularly vulnerable to climate change as its temperatures increase four times faster than the rest of the planet due to Arctic amplification. When arctic ice melts due to warming temperatures, the reflective white ice becomes absorbent dark ocean water. This causes the Arctic to heat at a faster rate. Willow will also have a detrimental effect on wildlife, threatening birds, caribou, and other important species.  

The project has already been approved in the Alaska House of Representatives in a 36-0 vote and has unfortunately received support from the Biden Administration. With the Final Supplemental Impact Statement having already been released by the US Bureau of Land Management, it seems as though the government is moving even closer to approving the project. 

Supporting the Willow Project is hypocritical and dangerous. Throughout his presidency, Biden has consistently denounced fossil fuels and supported clean energy, reaffirming his commitment to climate action. On his first day in office, the United States re-entered the Paris Climate Agreement; that same year, he signed an executive order for the federal government to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act was also seen as a breakthrough in climate action being the largest climate investment in US history. The over $350 billion bill would go towards decreasing emissions, important conservation efforts, making clean energy affordable, and combating environmental injustice. 

Everything about the Willow project opposes these policies and the current Administration’s commitment to supporting conservation and clean energy, as well as their commitment to mitigating climate change and environmental injustice. If approved, the future of our planet will be even more uncertain as we move further away from mitigating climate change and decreasing our greenhouse gas emissions. Approving the Willow project would demonstrate not only a lack of support for our planet but a prioritization of money and support for the fossil fuel industry while overlooking the safety of native Alaskan communities and wildlife. We need to hold our elected officials accountable for the promises they make. You can take action by signing Protect the Arctic’s petition to “tell President Biden & Secretary Haaland to say no to Willow.” 

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on February 16, 2023
Opinion Staff

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Eco Updates

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USDA Approves First Vaccine for Bees

Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture approved a vaccine for honeybees to protect these crucial pollinators against American Foulbrood Disease, a highly contagious disease that infects bee larvae and pupae. AFB can spread quickly within honeybee colonies, as well as to other hives, making it particularly dangerous.

Bees have great ecological importance. Without bees, flowering plants and trees wouldn’t be pollinated, causing sharp declines in global biodiversity. Three-quarters of the plants on our planet are flowering species, meaning that without bees, we would lose 75 percent of the world’s plants. Bees are also vital for food production, pollinating around 35 percent of the food we eat. If bees disappeared or went extinct, we would be unable to survive.

AFB affects honeybee colonies via spores. If these bacterial spores enter hives and infect larvae and pupae, the colony could collapse within a matter of weeks. When bees feed larvae food contaminated by these spores, the disease is transmitted to the developing bees. Once consumed, the spores multiply within the larvae and kill them. During development, larvae inhabit honeycomb cells in the hive. When an infected larva dies, it needs to be cleaned out by worker bees. The cleaning process causes the release of more spores, infecting and killing countless other larvae in the hive.

How will the vaccine be administered to these tiny insects? Instead of injecting the vaccines into bees using miniature syringes, the vaccine will be incorporated into the queen bee’s food. Honeybees have a unique method of deciding which female becomes the queen. Multiple female larvae will be fed “royal jelly,” a nutrient-rich substance that causes ovary formation. This ensures that the queen bee is the only female that can reproduce in the colony. Whichever female larva emerges first becomes the queen and consumes the female larvae that have yet to hatch.

Bee biology differs from that of most organisms because the queen bee is the only one to reproduce in the colony. This means that all of the bees in the hive are genetically related. When the queen bee ingests the AFB vaccine it will enter her ovaries and will be passed onto her offspring. Thus, the vaccine will only need to be administered to the queen in new colonies.

Recent reports have stated that over the past 25 years, the Colorado honeybee population has decreased by over 72 percent. According to a study conducted by Bee Informed and beekeepers across the US, from April 2020 to April 2021, 45.5 percent of honeybee colonies across the country were lost. These declines are mainly due to climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation, pesticides, and parasites; however, these statistics could in part be linked to AFB, which is why this new vaccine is so important. Additionally, the vaccine could pave the way for further research into different bee illnesses to see if we can develop more vaccines for other threatening diseases. In the meantime, while AFB continues to have a devastating effect on honeybee colonies, this vaccine will be essential in helping to preserve arguably the most important species on the planet.

by Sarah McLaughlin '23 on February 15, 2023
Editor-in-Chief

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News

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Last Monday, you may have noticed something different at the Ray dish return. On Nov. 21, ECOPC hosted their annual Clean Plate Challenge. For two hours during lunchtime, volunteers from the club set up a table at the dish return area in Raymond Dining Hall and asked students to discard the leftover food from their plates into a tray which sat on a scale. The food waste was weighed and then collected in a bin for composting. The volunteers measured a total of 67.18 pounds of food waste during the two hours.

“Because people were already home for Thanksgiving, this number doesn’t even account for them,” said Sam Dietel ’23, an ECOPC executive board member. “There is likely a greater amount of food waste taking place in the dining hall than was calculated.”

The project was intended to communicate to Sodexo how much food is wasted in Ray and to raise awareness about the problem of food waste. The club displayed a poster with facts about food waste, including that 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are from food waste alone, 1/3 of produced food is wasted, 870 million people could be fed with just 1/4 of our wasted food, the U.S. alone wastes over 100 billion tons of food every year, and $1 trillion is lost globally each year from food waste. However, the event was not intended to shame students for the amount of food left on their plates.

“I just thought it was crazy how I saw multiple people with full slices of pizza and entire plates of food that they did not eat,” said Maggie Ritchie ’25, an ECOPC member who volunteered at the event. “I initially thought the food waste was going to come from large portion sizes given out by the workers, but a lot of the food waste was from the stations where people can pick how much they want, so I think students need to be more aware of the [amount of] food they are taking.”

“A lot of people don’t think about how food waste is a problem beyond just wasted food,” said Kaelin Ferland ’23, co-president of ECOPC. “It’s also an issue in terms of greenhouse gas emissions because food decomposition releases methane, which is four times stronger than carbon dioxide. Many people also don’t consider how the resources like water that went into producing the food are also wasted.”

A week prior, on Nov. 14, ECOPC hosted speaker Rose Forrest, Sustainability Coordinator at Sodexo (and chef). Students at the event expressed concerns about Sodexo’s portion sizes. Many worry they are wasting food and wasting their Friar Bucks. Forrest expressed commitment to creating a more sustainable dining program at PC.

As the event is repeated annually, ECOPC hopes to initiate such change, as they continue to collaborate with Sodexo to come up with sustainable solutions in our dining halls.

by Sarah McLaughlin '23 on February 9, 2023
Editor-in-Chief

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Pick Up After Yourselves, PC

“Darty” season is once again upon us, and for those who remain blissfully unaware of what this entails, don’t expect it to be pretty. Each weekend, the Providence College student body never fails to demonstrate blatant lack of respect for their neighborhood, the environment, and their fellow Friars’ off-campus homes by littering cans, bottles, vape pens—you name it—across lawns, sidewalks, and streets.

When we come to college, most of us want to be treated like the adults we are. But it’s impossible to be treated like adults if we act like children. Littering is irresponsible, disrespectful, bad for the planet, and a physical manifestation of entitlement and laziness. There is absolutely no reason to do it, and it is so easy to not do. Even on campus, where, like the blue light system, you can’t stand anywhere without seeing at least one trash and recycling bin, we wake up each Sunday morning to cans, bottles, coffee cups, and broken glass all over the ground.

Surely you wouldn’t do the same to your own house or your yard at home. So why is it okay to disrespect our campus and the surrounding community?

For years, ECOPC has been hosting Eaton St. cleanups, where a dozen or so volunteers head out before most students are awake on a Sunday morning with gloves and trash bags to pick up all the garbage. This year, one cleanup was the morning after Halloween, so costume pieces and decorations were added to the mix. Not only does this demonstrate the same blatant laziness and disrespect to our off-campus community, but it also shows a huge wastefulness problem. Most of these costumes and decorations were probably just purchased, only to be immediately thrown away—and don’t even reach the trash bin. 

The 02908 Club also has their own clean-up crew who takes care of messes on the weekends, and students leasing the houses face serious fines for litter at the end of the school year. Underclassmen littering at these seniors’ houses could be costing them upwards of $250. Two weekends ago, the 02908 Club workers spent seven hours picking up trash from PC students.

Unfortunately, it is impossible and unnecessary for ECOPC members and the 02908 Club crew to clean the streets and campus every day. PC students have to start taking accountability for their own actions. There are so many easy ways to avoid littering—carrying your drinks in a reusable cup, bringing empty bottles and cans to recycling bins (Are you missing one in your dorm? Email recycle@providence.edu), and reminding your friends to do the same. It’s easy to have fun on the weekend without disrespecting the community and the environment.

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on December 8, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Eco Updates

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I love Christmas, but I also love the planet. I won’t be the Grinch and take away your wrapping paper and plastic trees, but it’s important to consider the environmental impact of this holiday so that we can celebrate in a way that is more sustainable and less harmful to our planet.

One way that you can minimize your environmental impact this year is by rethinking gift wrapping. According to Biffa, one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent waste management companies, 277,000 miles of wrapping paper are thrown out every holiday season in the UK alone. Considering that the US population is about five times the size of the UK’s, the amount of wrapping paper wasted in the US is likely much higher.

 A substantial number of trees is required to produce this much paper. Deforestation not only decreases biodiversity and takes away important habitats from species, but it also impedes our planet’s natural ability to mitigate climate change. This is because trees naturally remove carbon dioxide from the  air for photosynthesis. According to a 2021 study in the scientific journal Nature, some sections of the Amazon Rainforest, which once served as an important absorber of carbon dioxide, have been releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb due to deforestation. This has major implications for climate change.

Instead of traditional wrapping paper, try reusing the same wrapping paper each year. Saving and reusing the gift bags and tissue paper that you acquire throughout the year is also a great alternative. You can even use brown paper bags that you get from stores as wrapping paper and add some decorative twine to give it a more natural look. The Cowl you’re holding can also be a great alternative (especially if you use its festive front page). Instead of using regular plastic tape, use washi tape, as it is made from natural materials and can be recycled along with your repurposed wrapping paper. If you’re set on using ribbons and bows, keep reusing them year after year rather than disposing of them after one use. Sustainable gift wrapping doesn’t have to be ugly.

Trees are also obviously a huge part of Christmas, and there’s always the question of whether real or fake trees are better for the planet. The surprising answer is that real trees are more environmentally friendly. According to the Nature Conservancy, 10 million fake trees are purchased every year, with 90% of them being transported long distances from China to locations all around the world. This results in a significant amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with shipping and transportation. This doesn’t even take into account the energy and emissions from artificial tree production.

The Nature Conservancy adds that in the US, there are up to 500 million trees for sale on farms. Of these trees, only about 30 million will be bought and used for the holiday season. This leaves a significant number of trees left over to be used as a habitat by many different organisms. The remaining trees will also be able to absorb carbon dioxide for the rest of the year. For the trees that are cut down, farmers will continue planting seeds in place of those trees. When you’re done with your real tree, they can also be recycled, while artificial trees cannot.

During the holiday season, we see a sharp increase in electricity use because of Christmas lights. In a 2008 report from the US Department of Energy, 6.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity are consumed every year for holiday lights alone. The Center for Global Development states that this is more energy than countries including El Salvador and Ethiopia use in one year. Energy use is harmful to our planet because electricity relies on fossil fuels. According to the US Energy Information Administration, in 2021, 61% of electricity consumed was generated from fossil fuels. When we burn fossil fuels like coal and oil to produce electricity, this releases greenhouse gasses which cause global warming. We should try to decrease our energy and electricity use to help mitigate climate change. Also, think of how many times you’ve taken your Christmas lights out of storage, plugged them in, and they don’t work. Buying new lights and throwing out the old ones only adds to this waste.

To help decrease the amount of energy used for holiday lighting, try looking for LED or energy efficient string lights and light bulbs. Traditional bulbs waste 90% of their energy creating heat, while only the remaining 10% is actually used to produce light. LEDs are also much more reliable and durable than traditional lights, meaning that you’ll avoid that yearly frustration when your lights don’t turn on. Additionally, you can put your lights and candles on a timer so that they aren’t on long after midnight when everyone’s asleep. This also means you won’t forget to turn them off and waste energy.

Having a sustainable Christmas doesn’t mean sacrificing your favorite traditions, but by making small changes, you can make the planet merrier.

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on December 3, 2022
Opinion Staff

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From Nov. 6 to Nov. 18 world leaders met in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt at the 27th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, otherwise known as COP27. The two-week-long summit focuses exclusively on climate change, as well as the steps countries should take to achieve the goals outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. The treaty reaffirms the commitment of almost all of the countries in the world to combating climate change, with countries agreeing to take the necessary actions to prevent the planet from warming an additional 1.5 degrees celsius. By avoiding this number, we can avert some of the most severe effects of climate change. However, we are far from reaching this goal, as the United Nations recently announced that the planet will warm an additional 2.1 to 2.9 degrees celsius by 2030. We’re also not close to reaching the deforestation goals established at COP26 last year.

This means that this year’s COP27 summit was more important than ever. Unfortunately, it seems like every year, people are left underwhelmed and disappointed by the lack of political progress made during the conference, accusing it of being performative rather than productive. The conference has been harshly criticized by many, including 19-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg, who claimed that it’s “mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention,” and people need to “realize what a scam this is and realize that these systems are failing us.” When speaking at COP26 in 2021, she publicly denounced the summit as “a failure,” saying that it will just “maintain business as usual,” allowing those in power to benefit at the expense of the planet. It wasn’t surprising that Thunberg did not attend this year’s conference as she has in the past.

When investigating the companies that sponsored COP27, it does seem as though Thunberg is correct in her description of the summit as “a scam.” Understandably, the conference received a lot of criticism for being sponsored by Coca-Cola, a company that profits from plastic water bottles made of petroleum and oil. According to a report by Corporate Accountability and the Corporate European Observatory, 95 percent of COP27 sponsors had connections to the fossil fuel industry. as stated in another report from Global Witness, somehow 636 lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry were at the conference. There’s no reason this many individuals profiting from the very thing that is driving climate change should be allowed to attend a conference trying to phase out fossil fuels.

At this year’s conference, around 80 countries, including the United States, were in favor of the elimination of fossil fuels by 2025. However, many countries that rely on oil exports economically did not support this proposal. This was a huge missed opportunity to drastically decrease our global emissions.

There were some positive agreements reached at the conference. As expected, climate justice was at the forefront of the summit. This is important because the conference was held in Egypt, and Africa is the continent most affected by climate change, despite contributing to it significantly less than developed countries. After days of negotiations, leaders of developed countries finally agreed to establish a fund to provide financial support for developing countries that are most impacted by the climate crisis.

Developed countries have already made such a promise in 2009, agreeing to give $100 billion to countries threatened by climate change every year. While this number would be nowhere near the amount of money required to help developing countries adapt to this threat, it shows how developed countries are starting to acknowledge their greater role in causing environmental problems. However, this agreement was supposed to happen by 2020, but it still has yet to take effect. With the failure of the last pledge and climate change worsening, this new fund will be imperative to help developing countries.  

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on November 17, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Eco Updates

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Climate and weather are two entirely different concepts. When we talk about the weather, we’re referring to short-term changes in our atmosphere, whereas when we talk about climate, we’re referring to long-term changes and atmospheric trends over time. Yet despite these important distinctions, whenever there’s an abnormal period of warm weather in November or December, everyone’s quick to claim that it’s climate change or global warming (also two very different concepts, but that’s a topic for another article).

The facts make the existence of climate change inarguable. However, to be informed and knowledgeable about this issue, we need to change the way we talk about climate change and be familiar with and more aware of what we’re talking about. By using incorrect language and terms, it seems as though we don’t fully understand what climate change is, which is a problem. If we want to raise awareness and advocate for change, we need to understand the issue at hand in order to have these discussions.

We can’t say that last week’s temperatures reaching the high 70s is climate change. It was the weather, a brief period of warm temperatures. What is climate change? Is it the fact that these past years have had significantly higher temperatures than the years before? The World Meteorological Organization just announced that the last eight years were the hottest on record. This is evidence of climate change. We can use these temperature trends to support the existence of climate change, but we can’t cite this temporary increase in temperature that we experienced in the middle of November as proof.

Another example is hurricanes and natural disasters. Yes, there were many hurricanes and floods this year, but we can’t say that this is evidence of climate change without looking at data from previous years. If the data shows that the frequency of hurricanes and natural disasters has been increasing in recent years, and it is higher than it was in the past (which they do), then we can say that this is evidence of climate change. According to a 2021 report by the World Meteorological Organization and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, natural disasters have increased in frequency by five times over the past 50 years.

The same relationship is true for when it’s abnormally cold for a day or two in the spring and summer months. Some take this as an opportunity to deny climate change, an inaccurate statement as they are making this claim based on the weather, not climate. These short-lived fluctuations in temperature cannot be used as evidence against climate change.

If you look at the numbers, it’s clear that climate change is happening. All of the data indicate that with each year, temperatures continue to rise along with natural disaster frequencies. But when it’s unusually warm during the winter, we can’t just say that it’s climate change, just as when it’s unusually cold during the summer, this doesn’t disprove climate change’s existence. In the end, climate change is happening regardless of whether or not we notice it, even when we can’t feel or see it ourselves. However, we can’t and shouldn’t only pay attention to the problem when we feel its effects. At some point, we’ll end up noticing it but won’t be able to do anything to solve it.

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on November 17, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Campus

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After many years of trying to implement composting on campus, ECOPC was finally able to bring composting to Raymond Dining Hall last spring, and the program has since extended to Alumni over summer. This has had a substantial impact on decreasing our on-campus environmental impact, specifically in the area of food waste. From April 2022 through September 2022, we had already composted about 68.2 tons of food waste in Raymond Dining Hall alone. Since extending the program to Alumni over the summer, 3.3 tons of food in Alumni have been composted instead of being brought to  landfills. This number accounts for just the months of August and September, bringing the total to 71.5 tons of food waste that we have diverted from landfills.

This is not a small number. Composting will have a significant positive effect on our planet. This is a huge step in starting to take environmental issues seriously at PC. There is still a lot to be done in terms of sustainability on campus, but we are definitely moving in the right direction. Hopefully this will open the door for even greater and more impactful sustainability projects at PC.

Over one third of food is wasted around the world, and it’s estimated that people waste one billion tons of food annually. This is a huge waste of the water and resources that go into producing this food. Also, with food decomposition in landfills being responsible for up to 10 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions, food waste has devastating consequences in terms of climate change.

With Thanksgiving approaching, it’s important to keep this in mind. However, reducing our food waste is something that we should focus on year-round given its environmental impact.