It’s been 46 years since the first Earth Day was commemorated with 20 million people participating in rallies across the world.
While Iowa State doesn’t have nearly as many people as were present at the first Earth Day, some of the same issues represented then are challenging our Earth today.
Beth Caissie, assistant professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, Paige Myers, sophomore in global resource systems, and Maximilian Viatori, associate professor of anthropology, spoke to the Iowa State Daily in regard to their views on Earth Day and the environmental issues plaguing the world today.
ISD: Earth Day is this Friday. Are you doing anything special for it?
Caissie: “I’m not. I feel like I probably should. It comes at such a busy time in the semester.”
Myers: “I am. This whole month I’ve been doing the zero waste challenge, trying to eliminate everything that I would’ve put into the landfill. The Green Umbrella is sponsoring a zero waste week this week so I’m doing social media stuff with that and I’m tabling on Earth Day for my business Rejuvafruit.”
Myers regards this Earth Day as different from the past because she’s more aware of her effect on the environment considering her zero waste challenge, which she’s participating in for the whole month of April.
Myers: “I’m actually really excited about earth day this year because I’m really passionate about food security and with that comes a lot of food waste so trying to make sure that doesn’t happen makes me really passionate about the effects that food waste can have on our environment."
Maximilian Viatori: “I am not. I think things like Earth Day are good reminders maybe of broader things that are going on that are obviously things we should be dealing with and thinking about on a daily basis, but as we get caught up in our regular work and life we forget about them.”
Caissie, Myers and Viatori all recognize the other 364 days of the year as being adequate time to practice conservation and sustainable efforts.
Caissie: “I definitely recycle and compost and ride my bike as much as possible. I try to only use the energy that I need. The kind of car that I drive, fuel economy was a factor in buying it."
Caissie also just invested in a water heater for her home which will reduce the amount of energy her family uses.
Since Myers has switched to being waste free this month she has been cutting down her plastic consumption by buying food items in bulk, using reusable silverware, a recycled toothbrush, and cloth napkins. She has also started a composting system that she keeps at the hall desk in Maple-Willow-Larch. Myers cites her switch to a waste free month as the reason she’s considering transitioning her life permanently to that kind of lifestyle.
Viatori makes an effort to walk or ride his bike to school every day, pays attention to the amount of waste he is producing, and donates money to conservation groups to help fund their research efforts.
ISD: Who do you look up to in terms of environmental activism?
Caissie: “I feel like since I’m a scientist I sort of struggle with how much activism is appropriate for me to do and I try to disengage from the political [sphere] as much as possible. On the other hand I feel like it’s really great that people are willing to get really involved.”
Caissie cites groups like Greenpeace as important organizations that work to raise awareness of issues in order to encourage people to become conscious of their interactions with the environment.
Myers: “I really admire the Green Umbrella organization on campus because they do a lot of work to make students more aware of their environmental impact, and then with that the Office of Sustainability has the Live Green initiative and I think they do a really good job.”
Viatori: “There are, I think, a lot of really important local conservation groups that are doing really good work.”
Viatori recognizes the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation as one local group he admires. He cites this statewide private nonprofit conservation organization as doing important work by setting aside conservation land and reclaimed land in Iowa. Viatori also admires the nonprofit environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy for their work linked to the Pacific Ocean.
Viatori: “They’re doing a lot of important work right now orientated towards reducing the amount of contaminants in garbage that goes into the Pacific Ocean, which is a huge issue and it’s going to become a more and more important issue as climate change continues to effect the nature of the Pacific Ocean."
ISD: If you had to choose one environmental issue that is most important to you what would it be?
Caissie: “Climate change. I really feel like it’s the biggest challenge that we are going to face in the next 100 years. [We'll have to] figure out how to adapt to climate change because it’s happening whether we like it or not.”
Right after college Caissie moved to Alaska for six years where she saw firsthand the effects of climate change. While working in Alaska for an environmental organization Caissie experienced winters shorter than usual that resulted in premature thawing in December and January.
When in Alaska, Caissie talked to native Alaskans that rely on walruses for their food and livelihood. They told her of the noticeable changes that they’ve seen in just one generation in regards to hunting and ice conditions.
Caissie: “I think the other thing that I’ve seen in Alaska is permafrost thaw. Much of northern Alaska and also Russia have been frozen since the last glacial, so for tens of thousands of years it’s been frozen. Now that it’s thawing it’s impacting the environment in a lot of ways."
One impact Caissie has seen due to the thawing is the release of methane into the environment from ice. Caissie’s studies based on sediment cores in the Bering Sea allow her to study small fossils of single celled algae called diatoms.
Caissie: “I can actually see the species that are in the sediments and be able to tell how much sea ice was there in the past because some species live in ice and some species live in open water. I look at periods of time that the earth warmed in the past and my research questions look at how ice changed when the earth was warming."
Through her research Caissie works to find answers regarding the retreat of sea ice in the summer in the arctic and if that has happened before and if it has then what happened to the ecosystems when ice disappeared.
Myers: “I think at this point food waste is most important to me.”
In September of 2015 Myers and three other Iowa State students started the business Rejuvafruit with the aim of reducing post-harvest loss and malnutrition while encouraging economic development and environmental sustainability.
The group of students collect produce that’s safe to eat but doesn’t get purchased by consumers because of blemishes. The group dehydrates the collected produce into a product that isn’t noticeably unappealing. They then donate these products to food pantries and other programs in Iowa.
Beginning in August Rejuvafruit will be partnering with the Horticulture Research Station. Apples harvested through the horticulture research station are used in the dining halls but around five tons every year get thrown away because they are too small. Rejuvafruit plans to use these unmarketable apples in its dehydration efforts. Rejuvafruit will also be working with the department of food science in order to gain access to a commercial dehydrator.
Since September, Rejuvafruit has won “best overall pitch” in the Iowa State Innovation Pitch Competition and first place at the Iowa State University College of Business Dean's Advisory Council pitch competition.
Rejuvafruit’s eventual goal is to be a nonprofit while selling their products in stores so they can use that profit to give monetary donations to food pantries, homeless shelters and summer lunch programs.
Viatori: “It has to be climate change right now. I don’t think that there’s a more pressing issue and I think almost all other issues are one way or another related to that.”
Viatori credits climate change as an existential threat and the biggest looming crisis right now for humanity and people as a whole. The lack of discussion on climate change within our current electoral cycle leads Viatori to believe that there are still people today that don’t see this issue as a threat that needs to be talked about more publicly.
Viatori: “I don’t even know if it’s an issue of getting enough attention or getting the right attention.”
As a cultural anthropologist Viatori focuses on studying people and how they deal with environmental issues. A past project Viatori worked on studied ecological crises and how information and knowledge becomes established around those.
With the small portion of climate change inclusion in presidential elections Viatori notes this as a potential reason for people doubting climate change's existence.
Currently, Viatori is studying fishing and fishery politics in Peru. His work is linked to conservation issues such as contamination of coastal waters and the problems poor fishermen and women face due to the depletion and over-harvesting of fish stocks.
Viatori notes that climate change will also affect these fisheries in in Peru due to the greater variation in ocean weather patterns.
ISD: What would you like to see done to get these issues diminished?
Caissie: “I think that going forward we need to take a hard look at energy use and both figure out ways that we can get rid of fossil fuels as fuels for transportation and also get rid of fossil fuels for electricity.”
Caissie credits the government as being a good source of encouragement for people to develop new technologies. With federal governments backing new technologies in energy and changing from centralized power systems to distributed power systems, Caissie sees a road towards a brighter future.
“I feel like the federal government really can spend money in the direction of solutions for climate change and that’s the most important thing,” Caissie said.
Caissie also sees simple changes people can take such as using reusable water bottles and reusable cups as ways to help conserve.
Caissie: “I guess the thing that I’d really like to see happen is have conversations about climate change move away from ‘is climate change real or not’ and move into ‘what are we going to do so that when sea levels start to rise we know how cities are going to deal with that’. Nobody in New Orleans wants to move New Orleans so we need to figure out what we’re going to do with New Orleans before it’s under water.”
Myers: “I think composting on campus would be an incredible thing.”
Myers cites education on composting to be something lacking on campus.
Myers: “I met some Oregon State University students this past week at a conference and they have composting all over their campus so people know what’s compostable and they know what composting is and they know the positive effects it can have so yeah I just think that’s something we are far behind on at Iowa State.”
Myers also views simple acts like taking only what you can eat at dining halls, ordering only what you can eat at restaurants and eating slightly bruised produce as ways to reduce waste within our environment.
Myers: “Once you realize how much you’re wasting and what that does to the environment and how many people don’t have enough to eat it makes it a lot harder to throw things away.”
Viatori: “I think there’s probably a whole host of things. I’d like to see more green development.”
Government funding and initiatives to find new, innovative ways to reduce emissions is one step Viatori sees as helping the future of our Earth.
Viatori sees improving public transportation and making it more efficient and affordable as a way to cut emissions.
Viatori also notes that there needs to be more thought on how cutting emissions can be addressed without adversely affecting poorer citizens. Solutions for climate change must benefit all people rather than a select few.
As for how the average person can help combat climate change, Viatori had a rather simple idea.
Viatori: “Walk more."