Author Archives: griffinsr

Citizen Science Litter Pick Up

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CofC’s Office of Sustainability does a litter clean up every few weeks while using an app made by the SC Aquarium to collect data. I volunteered to participate in a litter pick up on March 8th and spent around an hour collecting debris from the corner of Calhoun and Coming. I partnered up with one of the OoS interns to take turns collecting trash and logging items in the app. Once you download the app you have to join “projects” for what exactly you’re doing because it’s a citizen science platform that many groups use to track different environmental or biological concerns. The OoS uses “litter-free digital journal” to log the items they pick up. The app categorizes the litter by composition and has options for the user to specify if the given categories don’t match.

In 1 hour, my partner and I collected around 317 individual pieces of litter. Most of these were cigarette butts or tobacco related debris. Because of the location where we collected trash, that wasn’t surprising as it’s a pretty busy street and has lots of foot traffic and there’s a short brick wall at the corner of a lot where people sit and smoke. There were fresh cigarette buts that were still round and orange but we also found lots of old butts that looked like dirty cotton balls picked apart. This corner would probably be a good spot for a cigarette butt receptacle, I’ve even heard of ones that are made using recycled butts.

The next most abundant litter were microplastics. There’s street parking pretty much all along where we collected trash, and there were little rigid fragments that looked like someone smashed their mirror on something, so we picked that up as well as a lot of other tiny plastics like pen caps or buttons. The 3rd most abundant litter was paper and cardboard, most of which was food related. These were mostly things like gum wrappers, straw wrappers, receipts and little scraps of paper.

This is the second litter clean up I’ve done using a Citizen Science app, and it was my first with CofC’s OoS! It was a fun way to be involved with other CofC students interested in conservation while picking up trash that would end up in our waterways otherwise. I like both apps but its nice that this one gives you an option to specify what exactly you’re finding, which also provides better data for the people reviewing the findings.

Coastal Conservation League’s Advocacy Training

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I attended an Advocacy Training event on January 31st hosted by the Coastal Conservation League. The event was put on by College of Charleston organizations Alliance for Planet Earth, CofC Democrats and CofC Vegan Club. The event began with the CCL’s Community Outreach Coordinator Jasmine Gil introducing herself and giving background on what CCL does. The Coastal Conservation League is an organization that lobbies for environmental protection of the Carolina coasts, but also for other local progress like transportation, food and agriculture solutions, and social inequality in the lowcountry. The CCL works with local communities, businesses, residents and volunteers to protect the natural resources and beauty of Charleston, as well as the surrounding coast. One of the biggest ways they help do this is by being very vocal to policy makers and local government representatives to be clear on how they want them to vote, in the interest of local ecosystems and people. The 30-year organization was instrumental in helping get the ban on plastic bags passed in Charleston last year.

The purpose of this advocacy training was so that students who are interested in conservation could learn how to actively participate in passing policies that promote conservation and stop policies that threaten our ecosystems. Jasmine and Caitie Forde-Smith, the CCL’s Communications Director, laid out a basic outline of how we can each be part of creating change in our communities. To block or pass policies, we should be aware of what is being proposed and what environmental impacts these proposals would have if enacted. They used the example of a bill that is on the table currently and could have large environmental consequences. This bill proposed by Republican policy makers would be a state-wide ban on bans, like the plastic bag ban, claiming that banning things like plastic bags and straws reduces jobs… but there aren’t any plastic bag manufacturers in SC. Furthermore, the bill threatens local municipalities’ autonomy on deciding what they want for their own communities. This ban on bans would negatively impact Charleston’s ability to regulate plastic, impacting our wetlands and beaches, and subsequently tourism. Next, we should be aware of who our representatives are, and to reach out to them stating how we want them to vote and why it’s important to us that they do. An easy way to contact a representative would be to send an email, but the CCL suggests calling them if you’re comfortable making phone calls because they are more impactful and personal. As part of the workshop, Caitie asked for 3 volunteers to call their representative to urge them to oppose the ban-on-bans bill in front of the group on speaker. The first 2 volunteers went up, then I volunteered. Caitie helped me find out that my West Ashley representative was Sandy Senn. Caitie gave me some background information on Senn, telling me she was a republican but a lowcountry native, and that she votes in support of the environment usually, also telling me to butter her up with thanks for her vote for the plastic bag ban. I called, introduced myself as a biology major at CofC, told her I oppose the bill and it’s important she vote against it because it will have negative impacts on our marine ecosystems and thanked her for working to protect the lowcountry.

This workshop was very informative, engaging and fun. The Coastal Conservation League focused on the importance of being educated and aware of local issues, to be vocal about issues you are passionate about and to reach out however you can to be active in our own communities. I am personally interested in volunteering with the CCL after learning about everything they do in support of our local marine habitats. The Coastal Conservation League does a lot of interdisciplinary work pertaining to environmental protections and making Charleston and the Carolina coasts more sustainability focused. They work with local communities to secure and distribute locally grown food, advocate for local green energy, fight for clean air and land protections, preservation of historic land and sites, and provide support to local farmers. All the work they do combines policy, profit, people and the planet.

The Amazon being destroyed for gold

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The Amazon is being destroyed for gold

Kann, D. “Record levels of gold mining are destroying one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, study shows.” CNN, 8 Feb. 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/08/world/gold-mining-deforestation-peru-record-levels-trnd/index.html Accessed 11 Feb. 2019.

 

The Amazon is being destroyed for gold, from the CNN article “Record levels of gold mining are destroying one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, study shows.”

Who: The people of the Southern Peruvian Amazon What: the illegal destruction of one of the most biodiverse ecosystems Where: the protected Southern Peruvian Amazon When: since 2017 Why: for the incentive of $100/day for gold How: clearing forest and harmful mining methods

 

The Amazon rainforest is one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth, and the biomass of these forests is responsible for cleaning much of the earth’s air. People have been over-harvesting resources in the Amazon for decades, and now in one of the most untouched parts of the Amazon rainforest, Peruvians are contributing to this deforestation and polluting their own areas with mercury so they can find gold to make money. In the past 2 years alone, 45,565 acres of forest have been felled for gold mining. Mercury is known to damage immune, digestive and nervous systems in people. The river systems being polluted carry water all over South America and are sources of water and livelihood for people and organisms all over the continent. This illegal gold mining affects innumerable people and the long term effects of high amounts of mercury can be deadly.

 

This trend affects people, the planet and profit.There are many points where intervention can occur to stop the deforestation and pollution, and where people and the planet can benefit as opposed to how they are suffering now. The Peruvian government has tried for years to enforce the protection of the Southern Peruvian Amazon with no progress, and the incentive for people to continue mining is the pay. If the government could create opportunities for these people to make good wages at the same time as stopping the deforestation and hopefully taking steps to reverse the damage done, they would be closer to being sustainable.

 

If the people need money this badly, can the government incentivise protecting the areas instead? Can they create jobs to contribute to re-vitalizing the forest? Is there anything that can be done to remove mercury from the environment?