by Jezel Tracey '24 on November 17, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Opinion

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A regular day of fall on a college campus looks like girls wearing Uggs and guys wearing the same sneakers as they did in the summer. However, this year, fall in Friartown is a bit different. One day, winter is approaching. Next, winter takes a pause and the sunshine is almost 40 degrees warmer than it was before. As animals begin to prepare for hibernation, emotions prepare for seasonal depression, and the leaves prepare to fall, the weather is saying something different. Although most do not pray for the cold, when it hits almost 80 degrees in November, the prayer becomes for the world more than it is for themselves. When a friend gets sick around this time, their response is “it’s because the seasons are changing.” However, this has been the response for most people for the past three months. Whether it’s cold when it’s supposed to be hot, or hot when it is supposed to be cold, the Earth is undergoing an inevitable change: global warming.

Global warming is exactly what it sounds like. When the earth is affected by global warming, it experiences abnormal shifts in weather. However, the problem of global warming is deeper than the decision fatigue that one might experience as a result of not knowing what outfit to put on. Rather, these shifts in weather increase temperatures that can be uncomfortable and damaging in a month like November. Hurricanes, storms, great bodies of water drying out, and wildfires are evident in today’s most recent disasters.

What seemed like an increase in temperature or a nice day of summer meant death, calamity, and catastrophe for the animals around us. When the Earth is warm during times that it is not supposed to be, the ecosystem reflects just that, and the environment as well as society is negatively impacted by it.

Every year, the temperature of the earth increases. Global warming is not news. However, seeing its effects in daily life makes it feel more real or present. It should not be viewed from a superficial level, but rather from a more serious perspective. While it is affecting your choice of outfit, ultimately it has very damaging and catastrophic effects on the future of the earth.

Generation Z has never been the one to take things seriously. In today’s society, the primary source of news comes from social media. While it does play an impactful role in informing the world about what is going on, what often cycles through the feeds and timelines is not an awareness of a given situation. Instead, more memes are being reshared about children never being able to grow up because of the decreased fate of the world and Thanksgiving becoming a cookout. Oftentimes jokes like these are used as coping mechanisms to distract society from the threat global warming has on humanity’s existence.

It is important to look at global warming as not only an environmental issue. Rather, many societal factors need to be considered as well. Oftentimes when individuals have conversations about global warming, they look at what is being affected more than who is being affected.

There are a plethora of communities that don’t have the privilege of turning on the air conditioning when it reaches 80 degrees in November. Specifically, low-income and impoverished communities are susceptible to becoming a victim of natural disasters due to a lack of the proper financial resources to combat them. While the victims of tragedies are taken into account, the reasons why they become victims are not.

While climate change does affect the fate of the Earth’s existence, this does not mean there are no solutions to the issue. Some things one can do to help prevent or slow down the process of global warming are switching to a plant-based diet, recycling, and walking more than driving.

Conversations about global warming are bigger than Twitter and Instagram memes about the world ending. To understand and be proactive in change, it is important to look at the causes, effects, and impacts of environmental issues.

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

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Opinion

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The United Nations released a report just last week about how we are in dire need of climate action, explaining that “the world is still falling short of the Paris climate goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5 degrees C in place.” With these goals out of reach and no concrete plans to prevent our planet from warming an additional 1.5 degrees C, the UN warns that it seems as though immediate changes will be necessary to prevent climate catastrophe. 

World leaders are not doing enough. The report adds that the COP26 Summit held last year did practically nothing to help mitigate climate change at the level that we need to. The UN explains that we will need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent in the next eight years. This number is unheard of, proving how desperately we need climate action and have waited too long. With a World Meteorological Organization report published the day before the UN’s statement that 2021 was a record-breaking year for greenhouse gas emissions, it seems as though climate change poses its greatest threat yet. 

Even as individuals protest and scientists make constant warnings, politicians don’t listen. Recently, activists representing the Just Stop Oil organization have escalated their protests, for example, by throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and mashed potatoes at Les Meules by Monet. One activist even glued his head to Vermeer’s famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. None of the paintings were ruined in the process. 

For many, these acts don’t make sense, and they are unsure of how these paintings connect to climate change and environmental issues. Others are worried about how these protests could cause environmentalists to be viewed in a negative light. However, some did support the Just Stop Oil protestors, pointing out how it’s frustrating that people are more angered about these actions than the lack of political action in the environmental sector. 

It is confusing why the activists are targeting these paintings, specifically, given they have no relation to climate change; however, this isn’t the point of these demonstrations. The activists are trying to make a statement about how these paintings will be worthless if we continue to do nothing. In our society, it can feel like our traditional forms of protesting are not enough. Every September, Fridays for Future organizes a global climate strike involving hundreds of locations around the world and hundreds of thousands of protestors. In Germany alone, there were protests in 270 cities and approximately 280,000 people took to the streets. However, every year it seems as though these protests are overlooked and ignored by world leaders who continue to not take political action. 

These protests haven’t caused nearly as much conversation about climate change as these activists have. While the Just Stop Oil demonstrations are over the top and seem to go too far, they have been effective in starting a massive conversation about climate change. However, as with most protests, this attention will be short-lived, and society will move on and forget. These efforts will ultimately be overlooked and climate action will be delayed, despite the scientists’ warnings and our demands for change.

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on October 29, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Editorials

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When you look at climate change in the news, it is easy to feel hopeless and discouraged. It is impossible, especially recently, to open your phone without seeing headlines on social media about how the climate crisis has already begun to devastate communities around the world. From natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, which has been named the second deadliest hurricane to hit Florida since 1935, to the large-scale flooding in Pakistan that has left over 30 million people displaced, it can seem as though we are already too late. 

It is easy to feel powerless in the fight against climate change, and when you keep seeing people with plastic water bottles in their backpacks while you try to carry your reusable one every day, you might feel like your actions are pointless. When you and only a handful of other students attend ECOPC meetings on a campus of over 4,000 students, it is just as easy to assume that you’re the only one that cares.  

Climate optimism does not mean ignoring the news and the reality of climate change or not advocating for sustainability because everything is going to be okay. It is definitely not a form of denial, naivety, or ignorance. Rather, climate optimism requires us to do the opposite and be aware of what is going on. We need to acknowledge what humans have already done to mitigate climate change. It is a form of hope for our future.  

There are many actions that have already been taken to help slow the effects of climate change, all of which should inspire climate optimism. The governor of New York recently announced that the state is going to ban gas-powered cars by 2035. This means that all new cars in the state will have to be zero-emissions vehicles. Other states including California, Massachusetts, and Washington have set similar goals. In other news, the founder of Patagonia has recently decided to give away his company and donate all profits to help fight climate change. Additionally, the Biden Administration announced plans to plant one billion trees in an effort to combat deforestation. At the end of September, researchers reported that because of conservation projects, grizzly bears, white-tailed eagles, and gray wolf populations in Europe saw a 44 percent, 445 percent, and 1800 percent increase, respectively.  

As the generation that will be responsible for dealing with the climate crisis and its consequences, it can feel overwhelming, especially for young people. It can sometimes feel like the fate of the world is in our hands. While this is true, it does not have to be intimidating. We still have some time left to fix the problem, but having a constant doomsday mindset will not get us anywhere or help us come up with solutions. If we continue to be pessimistic about our future and claim that humans are too late to reverse what we’ve started, we cannot expect the problem to be solved. Optimism is what will ultimately inspire, change, and save our planet.  

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on October 29, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Campus

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With Halloween right around the corner, many of us are starting to prepare for costumes and parties. Most of these preparations are often unsustainable and it’s important to consider alternatives that are less environmentally harmful.  

According to a study from the United Kingdom, seven million costumes are thrown away each year in that country alone. This is equal to 2,000 metric tons of plastic or 83 million plastic water bottles. One of the most popular materials used in costume production is polyester, accounting for about 69 percent of all costume materials. To reduce plastic waste in this area, try buying costumes that aren’t made of polyester. You can also donate or give your costume to a friend to reuse next year. An even better solution is to go thrifting for a costume and purchase items that you can wear after Halloween is over. There’s no point in buying something that you’ll only wear once. Thrifting is also much more ethical than fast fashion websites.  

These costume statistics, however, don’t include the plastic waste associated with candy wrappers and packaging. Americans spent 2.6 billion dollars on Halloween candy in 2019, equivalent to 600 million pounds of candy. Because candy wrappers aren’t made with recyclable materials, this means that billions of wrappers will be thrown into landfills. To add to this issue, plastic is primarily composed of oil, a fossil fuel, which further worsens the environmental impact of plastic. To help minimize candy wrapper waste, you should look for candy that comes in cardboard or paper, as these materials are recyclable. 

Another unsustainable Halloween tradition is pumpkin carving. While it may not be obvious, there are many different reasons why this activity is harmful to our planet. According to the World Economic Forum, 900,000 metric tons of pumpkins are thrown away in the United States every year. In the United Kingdom, 95 percent of pumpkins grown annually are used for Halloween. Because most of these pumpkins will be used for carving and subsequently thrown away, this means that 18,000 metric tons of pumpkins will end up in landfills. This poses an issue in terms of food waste and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as waste associated with pumpkin cultivation.  

Like the rest of our food waste, as pumpkins decompose, they release methane and carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gasses contribute to global warming. The United Nations states that about 8 percent of all greenhouse emissions are the result of food waste. Because of the significant number of pumpkins wasted around the world, it is undeniable that they will have a large contribution to global warming. If we are growing pumpkins for the sole purpose of carving them and then throwing them away once Halloween is over, this is an unnecessary waste of resources like cropland and water. Instead of buying real pumpkins to carve, buy a fake, hollow pumpkin from a craft store. They look realistic and you can reuse them year after year. 

Halloween doesn’t have to be scary for our planet. It’s easy to make different choices and changes to make it a more sustainable and less wasteful holiday.  

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on September 29, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Eco Updates

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Climate change intersects with many different areas of social justice, including race, gender, and class. Gender equality and feminism, specifically, have connections to climate change and environmental issues, as women are disproportionately affected by climate disasters. This means that gender inequality is worsened by climate change.

The Ecofeminist Movement is centered around the relationship between climate change and gender equality, both of which are the result of the world’s patriarchal society. By advocating for the rights of our planet, we also advocate for women’s rights.

A recent study found that women and men, while spending approximately the same amount of money, release significantly different amounts of greenhouse gasses. This is primarily because men spend more money on gasoline and fuel, while women purchase products that have much lower carbon footprints. Despite emitting 16 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than men, women are more vulnerable to climate change and its effects.

Women in poverty are most vulnerable to the climate crisis. Usually, women in developing countries, such as Kenya and Benin, are responsible for getting water and food for their homes, and this process becomes more difficult as climate change worsens. With drought and food scarcity projected to worsen in the future, this process will become even more difficult and dangerous for women. As women and girls spend more time trying to find these resources, they have less time available for their education. This means that the climate crisis will have an impact on women’s education in poor communities.

Women and girls also have a higher chance of being harmed in natural disasters. They are less likely to be notified of impending severe weather events, leaving them little time to evacuate. Women also have less accessibility to resources that help them prepare for these emergencies, and following the disaster, they’re less likely to receive aid and relief. Because climate change also intensifies social, political, and economic issues, violence against women also could be heightened.

Gender inequality continues to be a prevalent part of our society. Until changes are made to ensure women’s rights across the globe, women and girls will continue to bear an unfair burden for climate change. They are most affected by climate change, yet there aren’t many women in power to advocate for themselves in this area. There needs to be more representation for women in the political sphere so climate change and gender equality are taken more seriously. Women and girls need to start becoming involved in environmental activism so that they can advocate for themselves and stop being overlooked.

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on September 29, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Eco Updates

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Despite their tiny antennae, fuzzy bodies, and adorably disproportionate eyes and wings, it seems like everyone is scared of bees. Yes, they sting when they’re threatened, but without bees, we wouldn’t be able to survive. Unfortunately, through climate change, pesticide use, and habitat loss and fragmentation, we have caused significant declines in the populations of these important pollinator species.  

Bees are responsible for pollinating one third of the food we eat. When they travel from flower to flower, pollen adheres to their legs, transporting pollen to the next flower. Without bees, it would be significantly more difficult for this pollination to take place, preventing crop production that we rely on to survive. Because of these rapid declines in bees, people in China have begun pollinating crops by hand; however, this is an extremely ineffective method compared to the efficiency of bees. This shouldn’t be viewed as a possible solution if bees go extinct.  

Bees are involved in food production at every level, not just with fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Without bees, we wouldn’t have alfalfa or other crops that are consumed by cows. This means that our meat and milk supply would also be negatively affected. More obviously, bees produce honey out of nectar, directly impacting our honey supply. 

Bees also help in our fight against climate change. By pollinating flowering plants and trees, they help these organisms that naturally convert carbon dioxide into oxygen via photosynthesis to reproduce. While wind pollination is somewhat effective in transporting pollen to plants, this method is unreliable and doesn’t work for all plant species. For 75 to 90 percent of flowering plants, they need to be pollinated by pollinators like bees and butterflies, making wind pollination insufficient. 

Aside from their importance to our food systems, bees also help promote biodiversity by pollinating flowers. Without bees we would not have the variety of trees and flowers that we do now, leaving our world barren and empty.  

Threats like pesticide use, habitat loss and fragmentation, and climate change have all had dramatic effects on the global bee population. In conventional agriculture, farmers rely heavily on chemical pesticides to deter pests and protect their crops; however, they adversely affect the same bees that are responsible for pollinating the crops. By killing bees with pesticides, crop yield is minimized. There’s no reason why we should be using these chemicals that are toxic to the very insects that are responsible for producing our food.  

Habitat loss and fragmentation are also significant threats to bees. As the human population continues to grow exponentially, so does our demand for food. This means that more fields and forests that are home to many pollinators need to be cleared for cropland. Also, through our irresponsible agricultural methods, soil is depleted of its nutrients, making it infertile and unable to grow more crops. This leads to more clearing of natural and wild land for agriculture.  

One of the easiest ways that we can protect bees at an individual level is by planting a diverse variety of wildflowers, specifically those most beneficial to pollinators, such as zinnias, toadflax, coneflowers, and lavender. By increasing the availability of these flowers for bees, we provide them with greater amounts of pollen and nectar that they need to survive. Many people are also unaware that bees need to drink water. Putting a small, shallow water source near the garden will also help these pollinators. 

On a larger scale, we need to rethink conventional agriculture to be more considerate of bees. This involves being more conscientious about pesticide use and switching to biological methods of pest control that don’t involve toxic chemicals. Additionally, habitat destruction for the sole purpose of cropland needs to be reconsidered, meaning that farmers should switch to agricultural methods that don’t deplete soil nutrients as frequently. This would allow the same cropland to be reused year after year, preventing deforestation in another area and the cycle from repeating.  

Without bees, our global food system would collapse and our planet wouldn’t be nearly as biodiverse as it is right now. A world without bees is much scarier than a world with them. Because of everything that humans have done to bees, it seems like they should be more afraid of us than we are of them.  

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on September 15, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Eco Updates

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Catastrophic floods have recently devastated Pakistan, leaving over one-third of the country underwater and displacing 33 million people. Over 1,000 people have already died, but these numbers continue to rise. Typically during this time of year, Pakistan’s monsoon season causes heavy rainfall; however, this year, the rain has been ten times heavier than usual, and with the monsoon season lasting from July through September, there is no clear end in sight.

This is just one of the ways in which climate change will impact our planet. As greenhouse gasses are emitted into the atmosphere, temperature and precipitation frequency increase. Warm air is more effective at holding moisture than cold air. Because Pakistan has been experiencing some of the worst heat waves on the planet, this has allowed the atmosphere to trap moisture, leading to these unprecedented downpours.

Heatwaves have also caused glacial melting in Pakistan. Pakistan has the second greatest number of glaciers, following the polar regions. This has directly contributed to flooding as water from glacial melt enters the Indus River via tributaries, causing it to overflow.

Because of the flooding, Pakistan is also at risk of a food crisis. The floods have destroyed Pakistan’s cropland and killed countless livestock. Pakistan already struggled with food scarcity and hunger, and now these issues are projected to worsen. Two million acres of cropland have been affected and hundreds of thousands of livestock have been killed.

Of the 33 million people displaced by the floods, 16 million of them are children. It has been proven that children are more vulnerable to climate change than adults. Around 500 of the over 1,000 deaths are children, due to drowning and water-borne diseases.

Pakistan accounts for only 0.4% of our global emissions yet is experiencing the most devastating effects of climate change. For comparison, the United States is responsible for 21.5% of emissions, but does not experience its impact to this extent. Instead, developing countries are left to deal with consequences that they don’t bear responsibility for. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated this week that countries “more responsible for climate change…should have faced this.”

It is estimated that 10 billion dollars will be required to help Pakistan recover from this catastrophe, and it could be years before Pakistan fully recovers. It is our responsibility as a wealthy, developed country to provide aid to countries impacted by climate change, especially those who have contributed the least to this problem. As one of the main drivers of climate change, it only makes sense that we fix what we have started. The floods in Pakistan are only a preview of the destruction to come in the next decade if we do not act. We need to start taking climate change more seriously and treating it as the grave threat that it is. We need to start taking accountability and make significant change at a global scale before we are too late.

by Kaelin Ferland '23 on September 9, 2022
Opinion Staff

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Campus

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In spring 2022, PC Dining announced its plans for Eco To-Go, a program that allows students to use reusable to-go boxes in Ray instead of wasteful single-use containers. While the initiative is supported by many students, others complained that it is inconvenient. Considering the significant environmental impact of paper and plastic, which these containers are made of, this is an ignorant complaint given our current ecological state. 

While some may argue that these boxes aren’t environmentally harmful because they can be recycled, this is not the case. It is important to reduce our consumption before recycling, which is why the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” is in this order. First, we’re supposed to reduce, then reuse, and finally recycle, meaning that recycling is not the solution. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 only 8.7 of plastic was recycled, leaving plastic in landfills and oceans. There is a significant impact of plastic pollution on our marine ecosystems. It’s estimated that every year, eight to 10 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans. The effects of this are devastating, as plastic breaks down to form microplastics, which many small organisms mistake for food. This is also an issue in terms of biomagnification, as organisms who consume these organisms indirectly ingest this plastic. This is one of the reasons why scientists have recently discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time. 

Paper to-go containers are not as harmful as plastic, however, they usually cannot be recycled because they’re too dirty and saturated. Here at PC there is an even bigger underlying problem. Even if we were to recycle these to-go boxes on-campus, there is no guarantee that they would actually be recycled. At PC, a lot of our recycling is contaminated, which means it’s brought to landfills instead of recycling plants. Many students are unaware of this problem and continue to recycle incorrectly by putting trash and unrinsed recycling into the bin, resulting in contamination.

Plastic production is also directly related to the fossil fuel industry. It is estimated that eight to 10 percent of our oil consumption is used to produce plastic. This means that plastic is not only a pollution issue but a fossil fuel issue. By continuing to use plastic products, we support the fossil fuel industry, which continues to destroy our planet and contribute to climate change. 

There is also a significant amount of water used in plastic production. It is estimated that 22 gallons of water are required to produce just one pound of plastic. This poses a water conservation issue as water is a finite resource. Recently, we have been experiencing droughts across the country. Natural disasters like these are only projected to increase in severity and frequency as climate change worsens. 

Vulnerable countries will experience these consequences the worst because of our irresponsible water use, despite releasing significantly less emissions than wealthy countries and contributing the least to climate change. It is ignorant to complain about carrying around a reusable to-go box when there are people who are struggling with access to a basic human need because of our actions as a developed country.

The reusable to-go boxes help PC students minimize their environmental impact. While it may be seen as a burden to some students, it’s a simple way for us to decrease our ecological footprint. It is selfish to continue to contribute to environmental issues when we are not impacted as severely, and it is better for us to make these sacrifices  and be inconvenienced now before we are too late.