Zika, a mosquito-born illness known to cause birth defects, has spread throughout two dozen countries in S.America. Experts say that climate change is playing a role in the spread of the disease. Increased rainfall, in part due to El Niño, a cyclical weather change event, has created a greater breeding ground for Mosquitos and increased heat has both allowed mosquitos to thrive and put more people outside to get the virus.
This Environmental Health Article explains the problem further.
I am personally concerned because I have a trip set up to go to Ecuador for Spring Break and again was hoping to work there this summer. This kind of illness is not something to kid around with and definitely making me reconsider my trips.
But honestly the other side of the coin is that experts anticipate these kinds of mosquito-born illnesses to increase in the future due to climate change, so do I sit this trip out in hopes that these diseases will seize soon or do I confront the reality that very soon these kind of incidences aren't going to be just something I "wait out?"
And even that luxury of choosing not to go to disease-ridden areas will soon not be an option. Why? Because diseases are coming here. Here is a picture of a child from Texas who recently returned from South America and reported to bring back with him the Zika virus.
And this disease will affect not only the health of many, but also hurt many other sectors. Increased taxes for the average person to cover the additional health care expenses needed to deal with these problems, and strangled tourism economies just to name a few.
Signs of global warming are popping up again and again- it's time we take more concrete steps to deal with this serious threat.
Researchers at Wash State University found in a recent study that flame retardant chemicals are escaping at a higher level than originally thought, according to a on Environmental Health News article These flame retardants, backed by the American Chemistry Council, are found in polyurethane foam (which is found in things ranging from furniture, children’s care seats, baby products). These compounds, specifically organophosphate flame retardants, replaced PBDEs due to found health risks; however, the flame retardants have been shown to pose their own serious health risks. Some studies show these flame retardants are linked to cancer and reproductive problems and hormone development. Two of which have been identified by California as carcinogens, and Washington State is introducing a new ban in their House and Senate to limit 5 flame retardants from furniture and children's toys.
Strikingly, these flame retardants could pose more damage than aid to the firefighters. Because of the "toxic soup" that develops as these chemicals are burned, female fire fighters between the ages of 40-50 years old have been shown to have breast cancer rates six times that of the national average.
One of the things I find most fascinating about this whole problem, is the idea of replacement. PBDEs were found to be harmful, but they were replaced by toxic flame retardants. Now in Washington they say with this new legislation comes a commitment to “set up a system to make sure new replacements are safe.” I think this process will be interesting. We see this replacement of something bad by something worse in the case of water bottles and all sorts of products- reminding the public to stay skeptical.
I first heard about this flame retardant issue when watching the documentary “Toxic Hot Seat” . I recommend everyone check out the trailer on the site. It was a wake up call to me that we need to think about the products we use every day.
I still have some questions though. How do we know that these flame retardants are the reason that female fire fighters have higher rates of breast cancer? They are breathing in different chemicals and smoke all the time. And just how disruptive are the flame retardants to our development and hormone development. Does the fire reduction outweigh the risk of cancer?
Sick and tired
of hearing that ‘nobody listens to youth,’ or ‘one person can’t make a
difference’?
If so, it is
time for a trip to an international environmental conference. This past
December, I attended the Paris Climate Talks or COP21. There, youth were some
of the first to arrive and last to leave- never ceasing to demand serious
climate action.
Nearly 5,000
youth arrived in France a week before official negotiations for the Conference
of Youth, a meeting organized by youth organizations around the globe. Here people
learned about the climate agreement and methods to take action.
This momentum
led into the two weeks of official climate talks. Youth groups demanded strict
government regulations to reduce the blow of climate change- recommending
actions like sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, a temperature increase restricted
to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, and decisions that consider both
people today and those of the future.
There is a youth
non-governmental organization, YOUNGO, which was formed six years ago to give
youth a larger stake in the process. There are two members of YOUNGO who are
allowed to communicate information out to the government officials. However
both young and civil society groups are in the clear minority in the rooms
where negotiations took place.
According to a
member of the Sierra Student Coalition, Katie Gibson, only nine badges were permitted
to the 70 incredibly well-informed members of the Sierra Club attending the
conference. Youth, who made up about a quarter of the 70 members, were lucky to
share two of the nine badges. But even with two badges, students in the coalition
made it work switching up who received the prized badge every couple of days.
And whoever went into the conference room that day tracked down negotiators,
trying to get their ear and persuade them to support strong climate
legislation. They were strong, persistent and when push came to shove, feisty.
“These are not
things that I was not involved in creating so we have to leverage the space in
a way that we are heard and understood and we are going to hold [government
leaders] accountable. So that is why we are [here]. And we will continue to do
this no matter what,” Gibson said.
With lack of
accessibility into the negotiating room, youth found other ways to get their
voices heard. Dyanna Jaye and Timothy Damon, leaders of SustainUS, a U.S. youth
environmental advocacy group, said they generated attention around these issues
through measures like demonstrations and social media.
"[Youth] are really calling countries to
task," Damon said.
One of
SustainUS’s primary goals is to decarbonize the global economy by 2050. This
would require equal amounts of “carbon sinks” or places to absorb carbon like
oceans and forests as the amount of emission outputs. To demonstrate this
concept, youth drew an “O” around their right eye to represent zero-net emissions
by 2050.
Youth were
instrumental in some of the largest demonstrations reminding political leaders
that they were in Paris, and demanding action.Actions included the placement of 10,000 pairs of shoes in a Paris
square (representing the number of people ready to march for climate action and
social justice), to “fracktivist” rallies where youth demanded that “oil stay
in the soil.”
And the noise
didn’t stop in person. Hundreds of thousands of videos, podcasts, tweets and
posts flowed out of the mouths of protestors onto the walls of social media.
And the pinging
of the phone followed me back to the youth hostel where I was staying. Youth from
around the world ended up sharing bunk beds and stories. The girl who lay in
the bed next to me was from India and the boy in the bunk above me had be
displaced from his home in Alaska due to rising sea levels. We talked about the
environmental challenges in our own communities and shared solutions for the
future. These conversations only began in the negotiation rooms and continued
throughout the night, until the light shinning through the windows reminded us
that it was morning.
Jaye explained
one of the most important roles of youth: their “international identity.”
Negotiators put their domestic concerns as number one, which can prevent
necessary global action, she said. But youth, she added, stick with the big
picture. Damon agrees.
"There is a
generational identity taking priority over national identity," Damon said.
Damon acknowledges
flaws in youth activism like a high turnover rate of students since nobody is
paid for their work. Also, there was a clear majority of youth from the Global
North, where the conference was held. Regardless of the flaws, he agreed with
Jaye that the role of youth is fundamental. He recalled specific examples. In
this year’s text, he worked with the Guatemalan negotiator to include the
importance of “intergenerational equality concerns” in the preamble of the
agreement. Other youth contributed to an “environmental education” component of
the agreement.
And even when youth
were quiet, their presence had an impact. During climate talks in Warsaw in
2013, Damon recalled that the youth put black tape over their mouths to
represent their lack of representation at the table. As negotiators left the
meeting, he remembers them coming over to the youth to ask about their
concerns.
Youth are not only
active at the conference, but also when they come home.
"While youth bring an international
perspective, they are still domestic actors," Damon said.
As domestic
actors, youth can take what they learned from all of their experiences ranging
from late night talks with the students sleeping in the bunk above them to the
message of a girl speaking up at a rally.
I, for one, look
forward to bringing those lessons home.
Students represent what they believe is the relationship between
the oil industry and the public.
Students from around the world have come to share their stories at the UN climate change talks. Four students won the Spoken Word 4 The World Competition, a spoken word art competition. They went to COP21 in Paris to share their stories of how their communities had been impacted by climate change. I had the privilege of sitting down with Isabella Avila Borgeson and Terisa Tinei Siagatonu, two of the competition winners whose Pacific Island communities have already been affected my Climate Change.
They each share their stories and recite their poems for me. They work off of each other, and right as one says something heartfelt and powerful, the other one is the first one to respond with a comforting "yeah sis" or a deep "umhmmm." They are not actually sisters but they share an experience- both their communities have been effected my changing weather patterns.
Here is the segment Isabella has written under
her Youtube video to describe her story.
On November 8, 2013, super
typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) hit my mother's hometown of Tanauan,
Leyte in the Philippines.
I moved back to Tanauan one month after the typhoon to help my mother rebuild
our home, and stayed for the next 2 years working as a community organizer on
relief/rehabilitation projects throughout Region VIII.
Learning about my family's stories of death and trauma surrounding the Ocean
was a vivid part of my experience. In my community/family/motherland, climate
change means re-learning the Ocean. I was always taught that the sea is a
sacred place, where I come to speak to my ancestors and find healing in salt
waters. With the increased intensity and frequency of natural disasters hitting
island countries like the Philippines as a direct result of global warming, my
family's relationship to the sea is changing.
The ocean is now a mass grave of family members and townsfolk whose bodies were
washed away by storm surge waves during the super typhoon.
This piece, titled "Yolanda Winds" is dedicated to my mother, a
survivor of the super typhoon, who struggles to forgive the sea. A reminder
that we are a people of the sea. And for some of our families, sharing our
stories about climate change, typhoon seasons, and rising oceans - is an act of
resistance, necessary for our survival.
Other Spoken Word Artists have made a splash in
previous Climate Change Conferences. Here is Kathy Jetnil-Kijner from the
Marshall Islands. At the end of the segment, she recites her poem which she has
written for her daughter to talk about what the future of climate change means
to her community.
Esau Daniel Sinnok is a delegate of the Sierra Student Coalition and an Arctic Youth Ambassador for the Arctic Council. He lives in Shishmaref Alaska, where he is already feeling the effects of Climate Change. Shishmaref loses 2-3 meters of land each year due to climate change, storm surges and rising sea levels. I met Esau because he was sleeping in the bunk above me at our Youth Hostel, Le Generator, in Paris. He filled me in on what was happening at home. Sinnok's family had to move when he was a kid due to rising sea levels. In June 2007, his uncle fell through the ice in a spot that was normally solid during that time of the year. Since then, he has seen regular changes in his day-to-day life. Because ice doesn't form until later in the season, his community can't go hunting when they normally do. But the greatest threat is that all of Shishmaref, Alaska will be under water in 25 years. Esau came to the conference to get the message out there. He wishes youth activists like himself could get into the negotiation rooms to get their stories told, but as a youth he also feels empowered. "We are the future leaders of the world."
I meet Sudarshan Chaudhary, a 33-year-old farmer from Nepal.
On the Paris metro during the UN Climate Talks, COP21, I overheard him talking
about a new type of organic farming he was using on his farm, biodynamic
farming. Intrigued, I introduced myself
and quickly learned more about how Sudarshan was adjusting to climate change.
He is incorporating new natural methods to increase productivity on the farm-
like using small ponds to collect rainwater and cow dung as fertilizer. Below
are two segments of Sudarshan telling his story.
A little more about him: After talking a class from a New
Zealand farmer, he learned different practices of biodynamic farming and
changed his traditional synthetic –based pesticide farm into an all organic
farm that works with natural cycles. He then started to teach seminars in his
village. His community didn’t believe him that cow dung would lead to just as
productive soil as fertilizers. But he gave it to them to try and the villagers
found that it worked miracles. He is now trying to build the momentum in his
community by “making youth circles” where the young farmers can lease land in
their community for community-based biodynamic farming. Ultimately, his dream
is to start a School of Farmers.
Sudarshan believes that cows are necessary for agriculture
because they provide “dung” for an alternative, all-natural,
fertilizer—compost, and his community uses the manure for bio-gas to supply
electricity to more than 40 households in his village.
Sudarshan recalls that after talking a class
from a New Zealand farmer, he learned different practices of biodynamic farming
and changed his traditional synthetic –based pesticide farm into an all organic
farm that works with natural cycles. He then started to teach seminars in his
village. His community didn’t believe him that cow dung would lead to just as
productive soil as fertilizers. But he gave it to them to try and the villagers
found that it worked miracles. He is now trying to build the momentum in his
community by “making youth circles” where the young farmers can lease land in
their community for community-based biodynamic farming. Ultimately, his dream
is to start a School of Farmers.
