The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt Problem

 The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt Problem

Written by Grace Hyunjoo Lee

What is Sargassum? Sargassum is a species of leafy brown seaweed originating from the Atlantic Ocean and Southeast coast of the U.S. It supplies habitats and breeding grounds for various species of marine life. 

As summer is arriving, the bloom season of Sargassum is quickly approaching, but maybe a little too quickly this time. Beaches are already receiving an overabundance of this algae, the highest influx this early in the year; an 8,000 km long seaweed belt is drifting into Florida and Mexico.  Although it is vital for marine life to thrive, this year’s bloom is causing an array of issues. 

Through modern agriculture techniques, increased quantities of nutrients are sent downstream into the ocean. Warming waters and changes in atmospheric patterns can also change this seaweed's growth.

Excessive amounts of this substance are causing long brown carpets to be left on the sand and produce the smell of rotten eggs, repelling tourists as well as harming marine life. 

When the huge mats of Sargassum collect at the coast, marine animals can become trapped in or under it and cause breathing problems. It also prevents sunlight from reaching underwater, which is necessary for many plants and grasses. These grasses serve as a vital source of nutrients for many other organisms and Florida’s endangered manatees. 

It is not only causing a disturbance on the beaches but also giving rise to further toxic effects.

When it is washed up on the beaches, it is exposed to the hot sun, causing rapid decay and releasing Hydrogen Sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is a highly toxic gas that can be dangerous to inhale at high levels. 

When the Sargassum dies following decay, it sinks to the ocean floor and smothers coral 

Moreover, the decomposition of algae removes oxygen from the waste and exacerbates the already existing issue, resulting in mass fish deaths.

Unfortunately, environmental laws restrict the removal of Sargassum from the ocean, and the installation of certain barriers or mechanisms can rely on either since they take longer to get approved. There are many opposing judgments about this occurrence; although Sargassum poses a threat to the local wildlife near the coasts, it stores carbon in the open ocean, which controls the level of carbon in the atmosphere. 

Sources:

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/sargassum-seaweed-blob-explained-florida-scn/index.html

Images:

(1): https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/64894471

(2): https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2023/03/14/seaweed-sargassum-beaches-florida-bloom-record/

Protein for dogs!

 

Edible insect cookies for dogs 

Recently, our Ecosave Club team had an exciting opportunity to make edible insect cookies for dogs. Through research, we discovered that dogs can benefit from edible insects as a protein source. However, during our conversation with a dog owner in Korea who feeds their pet edible insects, we learned that edible insect dog food is scarce in the market. This realization triggered our curiosity: why not create our own edible insect treats for dogs? 

With this question in mind, we all visited a Korean dog cafe where the owner kindly allowed us to create our own dog food recipe. We took our edible mealworm insect powder and decided to make cookies for dogs using the insect powder and other dog food ingredients. 

After making and designing the cookies, I had the chance to actually feed my own dog some of the cookies we made! She loved it! 

Through this endeavor, our Ecosave club team aims to continue promoting the value of edible insects within our local Korean community. By highlighting that edible insects are not only a source of valuable protein for humans but also for our pets, we hope to foster acceptance of this sustainable protein source. Together, we believe that we can change our community's perception of edible insects, promoting their usage as an eco-friendly solution that can benefit both humans and our lovely pets! 

photo of the cookies + edible mealworm powder

Written by Ella Hong 

Environmental Injustice

  Environmental Injustice

Grace Hyunjoo Lee

We all have heard of the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘pollution’, but have you heard of environmental injustice? We don’t focus enough on it, yet the issue has been circulating for many decades. It shows how people are unfairly affected by environmental factors due to discrimination. The groups affected are mostly people of color or those with lower income, who are pushed into rural areas of the country where there can be various issues. The issues range from lack of proper filtration and pollution to not being able to provide citizens with basic needs, such as safe housing, clean water, food, and air. So how does this happen? One of the ways is when companies search for unethical methods or easy alternatives to maximize their profit. Corporations and even the government find cheap land to dump their toxic waste and chemicals into, where they intentionally neglect inferior populations.

A major area that represents the core of environmental injustice is Cancer Alley. Cancer Alley is a long area of land in the United States where over 150 petrochemical plants and refineries exist. The name is a direct representation of its living conditions; “its residents are 50 times more likely to develop cancer than the average American”(Colarossi). This is a major example of environmental racism since its residents are primarily black. The situation has gotten to its worst point, where now many honored members of society refer to this as another type of slavery. 

So how can we contribute to reaching environmental justice?

Simply educating yourself and those around you can make more people aware of their own actions, including what companies or brands they support. Discovering your local organizations, such as advocacy groups for social causes can promote their work and help more people reach it. 

Works Cited:

Rev. Ben Chavis, right, raises his fist as fellow protesters are taken to jail at the Warren County PCB landfill while protesting the dumping of contaminated soil in their community near Afton, North Carolina, on Thursday, Sept. 16, 1982.

Philippines Outreach

 Philippines Outreach

Grace Hyunjoo Lee

The members of Ecosave Club have been helping those in need in the Philippines in collaboration with Open Hands for many years. To list a few of the activities, we have been sponsoring children with no legal status so that they can obtain birth certificates and be registered as lawful citizens of the Philippines.  We also have been helping provide water kits to families who do not have access to clean water so that they can drink clean filtered water.  When the trip to the Philippines was confirmed with travel restrictions lifted, all 5 of us got excited that we could finally meet and interact with those in the Philippines.
The first place of visit for the outreach was Bay Town in Antipolo city. When we arrived there, many of the children were gathered in the open area and greeted us. Contrary to my imagination, the kids seemed to have positive energy. A few of the children even approached us and held out their hands, meaning they perceive us as respectable people. Taking this hand and holding it up to their forehead symbolizes sharing our luck with them. Through small acts like this, I learned that the children had a positive image of us and this made me want to leave a good impression of us and to try to understand them as well.

When I looked around the open area we met the children, I realized it was surrounded by a concrete structure with grids, which looked like a giant beehive. The structure was a cemetery with some rooms blocked and the rest open; the enclosed ones had corpses inside. The whole village were living next to the cemetery and the children were playing right in front of the dead bodies. During the rainy season, the water would fill up to 3 or 4 stories of the cemetery and when the water level comes down, water that filled the enclosed rooms and the corpses inside would flow out and children would play in the puddle of the water.
We walked around the village and found that most of the houses were very small and were built with wood panels and plastic tarps and I could imagine water dripping into the house when it rains. We visited 3 families to listen to their stories and to see how they are using water kits. Since the houses were very small, there was not enough space for all 5 of us to comfortably move, and it was very hot in the house with not enough ventilation. When I heard these houses weren’t the worst of them, I was shocked and understood how difficult their lives must be. All 3 of the families we visited said the water kits were very useful and it looked like they were diligently maintaining the kits for clean water. Some questions we asked about the difficulty they suffered from triggered emotional responses from the ladies, and it angered me that resources were not distributed equally amongst the social classes during the pandemic.
The contrast between the children’s moods and their quality of life struck me to realize how much happiness they can find from the little things they have while many of us are dissatisfied with abundance we possess.

Through this entire outreach experience, including Bay Town and the Cherryl school, I was able to connect deeply with the people here and understand their living circumstances much more. Directly communicating with the people who had been watching my educational videos was really exciting and motivated me for the next activities I will be doing with Ecosave!

The Role of Green Leaders of the Next Generation

Role of Green Leaders

Written by Caleb Paik

Up until these past years, green leaders have been pretty lax. Human leaders disregarded the austerity of climatic changes and with the increase of environmental hazards around the world, it is crucial that the world now needs future green leaders that will play an essential role in helping to restore the earth back to its healthier, former state. One of these roles can be partaking in the development of green technologies or products. Green products or technologies are sustainable articles designed to minimize environmental impact. 

Whether you realize it or not, green products are all around us. These products can include reusable cups, reusable lids, reusable shopping bags, recyclable cutlery, recyclable plates, and etc. All of these products have a common purpose of being eco friendly by being reusable or recyclable. They also aid in the process of keeping pollution, specifically plastic, widespread to a minimum. Still, with these products only about 9% of the plastic is reused or recycled. Around 12% is incinerated and the rest is unused, and either accumulated in landfills or natural environments. 

With these products in mind, it is significant to recognize that the priority in environmental restoration is shallow. Therefore, it is also crucial to spread the fact that future green leaders have a very important role in impeding the continuation of environmental harm.

Resource Recirculation

Resource Recirculation

Written by Caleb Paik

When we think about waste, we tend to think about materials that bring harm to nature. These materials can be perilous and most often they are unwanted. Plastic waste, for example, is definitely one that brings harm with huge effects. Most of the millions of tonnes of plastic collected are brought to landfills, but some believe that this itself is a waste of a valuable resource. With the determination to change this, the chemical industry of the Cefic organization developed solutions to recycle plastic waste that would normally be sent to landfills, or incinerated.

With the help of chemical recycling technologies, the chemical industry was able to figure out a process. These technologies can break down plastic waste and transform them into secondary raw materials, materials that are recycled to be used instead or alongside the original source, to produce new chemicals and plastics with nearly identical quality. As of now, the organization successfully developed consumer products such as food packaging, mattresses, refrigerator parts, etc. However, they plan on taking it to an industrial scale. 

This infographic shows how chemical recycling technologies work. It shows how they can transform waste into a reusable product, creating a cycle. This can be done through three processes: Dissolution, Depolymerization, and Conversion. These processes handle the plastic waste that would otherwise be disposed of. The first process, dissolution, takes the idea of extracting plastic. It uses heat and solvents to dissolve the plastic into polymers and additives. While the polymers are untouched, the additives are replaced to produce the new recycled plastic. The second process is the depolymerization method, which takes the idea of breaking the waste down into basic building blocks. Using different combinations of chemistry, solvents, and heat, the polymers within the waste are broken down into monomers. Potential contaminants are then removed from the monomers. Finally, these monomers are “fed back” into the normal plastic production process, as a secondary raw material. Finally, the last process is conversion. Conversion takes the idea of turning it into raw materials. Using heat and chemistry, the waste is turned into either liquid or gas. Depending on which one, it takes place with the absence of oxygen, or the presence of oxygen respectively. Similar to the depolymerization process, potential contaminants are then removed. The liquid or gas then reenters the chemical production chain as a secondary raw material. 

• https://cefic.org/a-solution-provider-for-sustainability/chemical-recycling-making-plastics-circular/

Edible insect protein as pet food

Eco-friendly pet owners are turning to edible insects as an alternative food source for their pets. 

Experts suggest that there are numerous benefits to feeding edible insects to pets. 

Firstly, environmental benefits include the following: 

- Edible insects contain a lot of protein whereas farmed species and animal meat contain high fats, oils, mineral and vitamin levels 

- According to the University of California at Davis, a single cow raised for meat produces around 220 pounds of methane gas each year. Such mass production of methane gas in the process of farming contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. On the contrary, insect farming (an edible insect) produce lower rates of methane. For instance, crickets (edible insect) produces less than one percent of the greenhouse gas that cows produce. 

- Due to the fact that insects require less space for farming, it is possible to use less land whilst still creating similar rates of nutritious food. This helps to reduce carbon footprints whilst still sustaining the nutritiously valuable aspect of edible insects. 

Because more and more pet owners, who have an eco-friendly mindset, are searching for edible insects, there have been an increase in the number of companies that provide edible insect as pet foods. For instance, Jiminy's is one of the first companies to add powdered cricket protein to dog foods and treats. They continue to promote the consumption of edible insects for dogs by claiming that insect protein is great for dogs with food allergies, a well balanced approach for the dogs' diet and is free of the pathogens that plague the meat industry. 

After seeing that edible insect protein has become a business model for pets, I was very intrigued by the idea that edible insects are not only seen as an alternative food source for humans but also for our beloved pets as well. In the future, as a member of the ECOSAVE club, I hope to be able to promote the implementation of edible insect protein in pet foods in my local community as through research, I have found that there aren't many edible insect pet foods in Korea. 

Written by Ella Hong