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.