“Check out these masks that Kat’s mom made us. 2 for each of us <3”, I sent from New York, in a text message to my mom and brother. “Found the n95 mask!” my brother, in Massachusetts, responded two days later. These texts, sent after weeks of shopping in makeshift …
Covid-19, as it’s spread to every corner the globe and claimed more than 125,000 lives, has pushed aside almost every other major news item for the past three weeks. It’s forced dramatic shifts in our day-to-day behavior, and it’s drawn lines among demographics, proving itself to be more dangerous to …
“But why can’t he be an outdoor cat? Maine coons are meant to be out in nature,” my brother said, eyeing Elijah, our then-new cat who has since grown to a size double that of a normal house cat. “Because,” I said, incredulously, “just look at him! If …
You’re sitting in a classroom as a sophomore in college. You’ve recently moved from your rural, inland city to a coastal community bordering Malibu, California. At 19 years old, you feel you have a good understanding of what the world is like, and will be like, for you and your …
On a day like any other, you take your lunch and stroll out to your favorite spot by your local lake to sit and watch the ducks while you eat. When you arrive on this particular summer day, much to your horror, you see that an entire end of the …
We all produce waste, but where it goes next is often left out of the picture. For many, the path our waste takes after we discard it does not play a role in our daily lives. However, the massive amounts of waste we generate pose serious issues in terms of …
What if you were told your home would permanently disappear in the near future. How would you react? The citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands are currently dealing with this dilemma. Their country consists of over 1200 islands and two chains of coral atolls. With an average elevation …
Desert land—all stretching skies and scorching earth—is often viewed as being as void of potential as it is of vegetation. Dry landscapes are perceived as vacant, and hence unproductive. People—and policymakers—tend to associate greenery with product value. As a consequence, when that greenery is absent from a landscape, as it …
There is a never-ending list of things to worry about. We are faced with issues in our personal lives, national politics, and global threats—sometimes even all at once. This is particularly clear in moments like the spring of 2020, as a pandemic emergency disrupts how individuals interact, how governments serve …
As the Australian summer set in, my internship at Cairns and Far North Environment Centre (CAFNEC) came to a close. The heat and humidity made it difficult to be out all day monitoring mangroves and salt marshes. Therefore, during the second half of my internship, I shifted from working with …
