2020 Rachel Carson Campus Fellows and Stanback Interns Articles
COVID-19 Lessons for the U.S. Food System?
Elise Dudley
12-27-20
In 2020, the pandemic has stressed so many of the systems upon which our country relies. This is particularly true for food systems, with soaring rates of food insecurity among families like farm laborers working in close quarters over long hours in conditions ripe for the spread of the corona virus.
In the US, household food insecurity as a result of the pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis, has doubled to over 23% of households, rising from around 10.5% of households(estimated by the USDA in 2019). The primary risks to food security have included dramatic losses in income, disruptions within food supply chains (domestically and internationally), and other shocks affecting food production. Paired with inadequate relief, millions of people have been left unemployed and struggling to put food on their table. Click here to read more
A Holiday Conversation?
Emma Chervek
12-24-20
The other day I had a conversation with a childhood friend about the negative environmental effects of the agriculture industry, as one does when visiting home for the holidays. And although the two of us don’t see eye to eye on most important issues, we had similar ideas about how this industry harms individuals and the environment. She rallied behind the idea, however, that we shouldn’t worry about potential consequences because environmental regulations exist to decrease pollution. While it’s true that regulations exist, are these regulations effective enough to protect our water from manure-based pollution?
One of the ways CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), or factory farms, contribute to the pollution of our nation’s water is through improper manure management. Lagoons, man-made basins meant to store excess manure, are one of the most common methods of storing manure produced on CAFOs. Manure stored in lagoons undergoes a process known as anaerobic respiration, which results in the release of carbon dioxide and methane. Some negative environmental effects of lagoons are due to overflow caused by improperly built lagoons or weather conditions such as excessive wind or rainfall. But emissions of harmful gasses like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and methane are relatively constant (with some seasonal discrepancies) given the nature of anaerobic lagoons. Click here to read more
New Campus Divestment Action in a Difficult, Socially Distant Era
Emily Irigoyen
12-20-20
In early October, Cambridge Universitybecame the latest high-profile institution to declare its decision to divest from fossil fuels within the next ten years. Georgetown recently announced its intent to divest from public securities of fossil fuel companies by 2025 and to be fully divested from existing private investments in those companies by 2030. Amazing as these breakthroughs by noted campus administrations have been, such university commitments were brought about only after sustained pressure by student activists.
As a climate activist at Vanderbilt University, I have witnessed first hand the passion and drive students feel about climate change and how divestment from fossil fuels is seen as integral to combatting this ever-growing crisis. Yet, despite their dedication, student activists can’t always prioritize their climate movement work on campus. Students have to juggle the financial burdens of their degrees, a semblance of social life, and, most importantly, the various challenges that come with being a student and social distance during a pandemic. Click here to read more
An Ocean of Climate Solutions
Kendall Jefferys
12-20-20
“For all at last return to the sea–to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.” —Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
The ocean is our life source – it gives us every other breath we take. The chemical make-up of our bodies traces back to our watery past, to the beginnings of life in the sea. Absorbing 90% of excess heat generated by greenhouse gasses and 25% of carbon emissions, the ocean also sits on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Since the industrial revolution, the ocean has become 30% more acidic due to excess carbon dissolving in seawater. The RCC Coasts and Ocean Program that I launched over the summer focuses on raising awareness around the wonder and plight of our seas. Within this program, I highlight environmental justice, renewable energy, sustainable fishing, marine life, and ocean pollution. Sharing and advocating for marine science and conservation through postings to the Rachel Carson Council website, monthly newsletters, blogs, and action alerts, I see these efforts as drops of information that flow into larger movements for change. Click here to read more
Visualizing Climate Change: Are Opinion Maps Telling the Full Story?
Brandon Rothrock
12-18-20
Collecting public opinion on global warming and climate change is instrumental in influencing decision-making and policy for the reduction and mitigation of future impacts. Yet, the way public opinion is collected differs across scale, from the national to the local level.
National-level statistics, which are often more easily attainable and cost-effective, can gloss over important differences in opinion at smaller scales such as counties and metropolitan areas. In an effort to combat these inconsistencies, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) developed a model that breaks down national public opinion to smaller scales of measurement, allowing for rich data visualization that speaks to the diversity of Americans’ beliefs, attitudes and policy support. Click here to read more
Politics and the Pandemic: Climate Solutions in the US and North Carolina
Emma Fry
12-17-20
Even now — in the interlude between the chaos of the Trump Administration and the deep exhale that is a Biden Presidency on the horizon — the detrimental and self-destructive climate effects of Donald Trump’s promotion of the fossil fuel industry and casting aside renewable energy feel like impending doom. Scientists warn us we are not doing enough. With data pointing toward rapid global warming, we see the adverse effects of fossil fuels emissions from glacial ice melting to ecosystem collapse to the spread of zoonotic diseases, especially the dire health emergency we face with the COVID-19 pandemic. But with the election behind us and administrations riding into Washington and Raleigh that care deeply about climate change, there is hope that we can rise to our immense environmental challenges before it is too late. Click here to read more
From Fear to Hope: Amidst Turmoil, Climate Change Action Has Been Happening at Every Level
Lindsey Nystrom
12-15-20
As I reflect upon this circus of a year, one thing is abundantly clear — life is unpredictable, and if we have the option to do good, we should. This year was full of grief, disappointment, hurt, and fear. We’ve watched hundreds of thousands of Americans die from the COVID-19 virus, protests erupt around the injustices carried out by law enforcement, and a massive shift in daily life for everyone. While much of 2020 was clouded by frustration and loss, there were some brilliant moments of human kindness and perseverance. From drive-by birthday parties to the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, we’ve seen adaptation on a grand stage. Click here to read more
An Ocean of Climate Solutions
Kendall Jefferys
12-15-20
The ocean is our life source – it gives us every other breath we take. The chemical make-up of our bodies traces back to our watery past, to the beginnings of life in the sea. Absorbing 90% of excess heat generated by greenhouse gasses and 25% of carbon emissions, the ocean also sits on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Since the industrial revolution, the ocean has become 30% more acidic due to excess carbon dissolving in seawater. The RCC Coasts and Ocean Program that I launched over the summer focuses on raising awareness around the wonder and plight of our seas. Within this program, I highlight environmental justice, renewable energy, sustainable fishing, marine life, and ocean pollution. Sharing and advocating for marine science and conservation through postings to the Rachel Carson Council website, monthly newsletters, blogs, and action alerts, I see these efforts as drops of information that flow into larger movements for change. Click here to read more
Colleges and Other Institutions Can Change the Food System
Elise Dudley
12-05-20
Food is at the center of almost every complex social-ecological problem facing the United States today. How we decide to grow, process, distribute, consume, and waste food affects numerous pressing issues: from food security, to chronic diet-related illnesses, to environmental justice and climate change. In the wake of the unforeseen global pandemic, the systems that govern food production and supply chains have proved unreliable for providing our most basic social foundations within the planet’s limits. Click here to read more
Where Does Your Meat Come From? Sustainable Farms Give Alternatives to CAFOs
Emma Chervek
11-12-20
If you’ve spent time driving through the Midwest, you’ve probably driven past a semi transporting livestock. Maybe you’ve scrunched your nose at the smell or pointed out the pairs of eyes staring from the trailer’s ventilation holes as a distraction for the bored kids in your backseat. But have you thought about the trailer’s origin or destination? Maybe not, and that’s not unusual, but there’s more to the agricultural industry than the livestock trailers you pass on the interstate. Click here to read more
Climate Action During a Pandemic
Lindsey Nystrom
11-11-20
My passion for environmental science began in high school. I took an Environmental Science course and immediately fell in love. I have since explored the many complexities and nuances of sustainability. I’ve worked on composting and residential sustainability campaigns, I’m a GIS intern at the National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center doing climate resilience work, I’ve taken ecology and chemistry classes at the University of North Carolina Asheville, and I’ve helped organize trash cleanups in local streams. These are all experiences that I hold close to my heart, as they have informed my values and opinions regarding climate action. Click to read more
Campus Solar Installations and Historic Preservation Raise Tough Issues of Climate Change, Aesthetics, and Equity
Emma Fry
11-7-20
Looking up at the sun-soaked dome of Johnson Hall, the historic main building at the center of the Meredith College campus, I imagined it could be the perfect candidate for a solar installation project. What I didn’t know was that historic buildings have a history of meeting energy efficiency improvements with a full stop. My hopes for the residence halls and main academic buildings giving visibility to the dedication Meredith students have for clean energy were reduced to nothing. I wanted to know why.
On Meredith’s campus it has been difficult for students and faculty who care about sustainability to gain any headway for a proposal to add solar panels atop the roofs of academic buildings. The problem? Older, lovely buildings, including Johnson Hall and residence halls, are eligible to be preserved and protected as historic sites. Click here to read more
Breaking Barriers to SNAP Benefits at North Carolina Farmers Markets
Kendall Jefferys
11-3-20
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about one in seven of families with children in the U.S. experienced food insecurity, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Food insecurity in North Carolina is higher. Here one in five children struggles with hunger, according to a 2020 study by Feeding America.
The pandemic worsened this situation by breaking food supply chains and ending children’s access to school meals across the country, Feeding America reported in April 2020.
The Democratic candidate for Agriculture Commissioner in North Carolina has an idea on how to help: extend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) at the state’s expanding number of farmers markets. Click here to read more
Climate Change: Understanding Place-Based Identity as Sea
Ice Vanishes
Brandon Rothrock
11-3-20
For many Alaskan Native and other Indigenous peoples and tribes across present-day Canada and the United States, climate change has directly affected traditional ways of life. Chuathbulak, a Yup’ik village in southwest Alaska, is made up of less than 100 people. The geographically isolated village is only accessible via boat or plane in the summer and by either plane or driving over frozen rivers during the winter. The isolation strains food availability within the community, as the village’s two grocery stores often only carry non-perishable items that have been flown in over hundreds of miles from the lower 48. Even when perishable items such as fruits and vegetables are made readily available, their price is often so high that families simply cannot afford to purchase them. Click here to read more
More Universities Should Invest in Solar Energy:
What Holds Them Back?
Emma Fry
10-05-20
As a student at a small women’s college in North Carolina, I work to see changes on our campus that reflect the ideals and values that Meredith College promotes in its pronouncements and marketing. I want to see my administrators uphold priorities that will provide the most authentic learning environment possible, and commit to taking visible steps toward a greener campus culture. Such actions would affect all Meredith students. A commitment to clean energy would demonstrate a credible concern for the climate crisis and solidify the college’s claims to sustainability and to racial and environmental justice.
In my efforts to advocate for sustainable actions on Meredith’s campus, I connected with mentors and professors who have been pushing for solar installations for years. Their passion for change sparked my initial interest in finding a way to integrate solar into Meredith’s utility systems; it continues to provide insights into how Meredith College can improve its energy efficiency. More specifically, how can we, as students, compel our universities to take meaningful action on the climate crisis? Click here to read more
As Campuses Close, Where Does That Leave Students
Without Housing?
Julianna Tresca10-03-20
“You know we have students who go here living out of their cars, right?” she said. It was spring, before COVID-19, and just another week for me volunteering at the student food pantry. But I suddenly stopped stocking shelves. Sister Rose, who runs the Hawks Harvest student food pantry at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington (UNCW), made me do a double take.
“I keep a list of students that are struggling with issues like this. If they get into any problems, I’m first on the list to call. They need all the help they can get.” Click here to read more
Climate Action: The Carbon Commitment and Sustainability
on Campus
Lindsey Nystrom
10-02-20
As the climate crisis becomes more and more visible around the globe, student activists have worked here at the University of North Carolina Asheville to take steps to adapt, mitigate, and prepare for its effects. Sustainability has long been a core value at our institution. UNCA has already taken a number of steps to lessen its carbon footprint — implementing sustainable dining practices, placing solar on campus, supporting our entirely student-run Student Environmental Center, placing composting programs in the residence halls, and advancing a bike-friendly campus.
Importantly, UNCA has divested 10% of its endowment from fossil fuels and will potentially divest more in the future. Now students and faculty are strongly advocating for the university to sign onto the Carbon Commitment, a pledge to work to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 that offers campus sustainability organizers a flexible, effective and measurable way to fight climate change. Click here to read more
The Bitter Side of Sugar
Emily Irigoyen
09-30-20
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended lives in countless ways, but for some residents in Palm Beach County, Fla., the respiratory virus poses an even deadlier risk to their health and well-being.
While thousands of parents fear sending their kids back to school because of COVID-19, those in Glades, a small rural community south of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, fear sending their kids back because of exposure to particulate-polluted air.
he cause for this pollution? The outdated practice of sugarcane burning. The cheap yet effective method works well because the water-rich sugarcane stalks permit farmers to freely set the surrounding dry cane leaves ablaze before harvest. This leaves only the sugar-rich stalks behind along with the harmful byproducts of smoke, soot and ash. Despite these consequences, sugarcane burning is the preferred method of harvest in this area, as it reduces transportation costs. Click here to read more
Hurricanes and Marginalization: How Climate Disasters Affect
LGBTQ+ Persons
Brandon Rothrock
09-30-20
In the early morning of August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered the coastal shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The Category 4 hurricane brought extreme flooding, resulting in the failure of New Orleans’ aging levee system. Torrential downpours, combined with the inundation of the city’s two rivers, led to 80% of New Orleans being underwater. Local agencies tasked with providing aid and community support were immobilized, prompting widespread chaos as residents struggled to find adequate food, shelter, and clean water. Many of the tens of thousands of residents that stayed behind huddled in shelters such as the Mercedes Superdome, where tensions ran high, supplies ran low, and the threat of waterborne bacteria became an increasing concern. Others chose to evacuate and seek shelter in the surrounding inland areas of Louisiana, creating massive traffic jams that left evacuees stranded on the interstate. Click here to read more.
Swapping Sea Walls for Salt Marsh? Can Plants Save a
North Carolina Island?
Kendall Jeffrys
09-29-20
Long marsh grasses fringe the shoreline on Pivers Island, home to NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the Duke Marine Lab, in Beaufort, North Carolina. On a calm day, waves lap at the rock sill that frames salt marsh planted along the shore. As waves tumble over the marsh, woody-stemmed plants trap sediment and dissipate wave energy, holding the shoreline together.
The salt marsh around Pivers Island has not always been there—it was planted in the early 2000’s, replacing a degraded bulkhead with a living shoreline. Made of plants, sand, or rock, living shorelines protect and stabilize coastal land using native vegetation and habitats. Click here to read more.
Opening the Doors for Future Marine Scientists
Kendall Jeffrys
07-21-20
Marine science fixates on biodiversity, measuring it, monitoring it, estimating its value—and for good reason.
Biodiversity indicates a healthy ecosystem. But what about diversity among scientists in the field? Research reveals that the geosciences, which include earth, atmosphere and ocean science, are the least diverse of all STEM fields. “Despite the focus of biodiversity in our work, we lack equity, diversity and inclusion in the workforce,” writes marine scientist Stephanie Macdonald who is also the founder of the non-profit The Kaimu Initiative that focuses on environmental education and social equity in its mission to protect our planet. Click here to read more.
Climate Injustice in Florida
Andrei Santos
07-21-20
I grew up in Florida, wading through the sawgrass of the Everglades and lounging on the beaches of Fort Lauderdale. I worked for the Town Hall of my Everglades border city, Davie, and spent many early rising weekends traveling to the coast for beach cleanups, service events, and school board meetings. I love my state. I know it to be a place as rich in diversity as it is in alligator sightings and gorgeous beaches. And yet, cities and towns across Florida have been swept up in protests against police brutality this summer following the killing of George Floyd. In many parts of the country, the threat of climate change will become just as present for many vulnerable communities; in Florida, it already is. Click here to read more.
This Fall, Students Look to Make Their Campuses More Just
Andrei Santos
06-10-20
Over the last couple of weeks, protestors have responded to the death of George Floyd with demonstrations in all fifty states. Although the protests were started in response to Floyd’s death, they have quickly transformed into protests surrounding the broader issue of racism in police forces across the country and systemic racism in the country as a whole. While youth organizers have been responsible for many of the protests throughout the country, students must carry this momentum into the fall semester. The systemic abuse of people of color is not localized to their interactions with the police. In order to progress towards a truly just society we must confront the racial disparities not only in policing, but also the environmental sector. Click here to read more.
Ephemeral Waters
Kendall Jeffrys
06-05-20
In graduate school in marine biology at Johns Hopkins, Rachel Carson conducted research on eels that sparked a fascination in the mysteries of eel migration. This fascination shines through in her later writing on ocean life. “From every river and stream along the whole Atlantic Coast, eels are hurrying to the sea,” Carson wrote in an October 1938 article for the Baltimore Sun. Today, Rachel Carson would be deeply disturbed to know that the waters of the United States, which feed the streams and rivers that eels travel, are at a greater risk of pollution and degradation than they have been in decades. Click here to read more.
Left in Limbo: College Food Insecurity, Job Losses and Waste Rise Amid COVID-19
Julianna Tresca
04-28-20
Picture this: You’re a college student working a few part-time jobs and going to school full time. You barely make enough money to cover tuition expenses, groceries, gas money, and textbooks. You are living paycheck to paycheck. You hear about a virus spreading in China, but you aren’t that concerned and are preoccupied with your own day-to-day worries. Then March, 2020 comes around. You are kicked off your campus, scrambling to go home as your classes transition to an online format. Those part-time jobs you had? Gone. Apparently, you’re not an essential worker. Your parents don’t have the extra income to help support you any longer; they have the rest of your family to support. Oh, and your on-campus housing and meal plan aren’t being prorated, so you have to apply for unemployment and SNAP to afford groceries. You’re an adult after all, you should be able to take care of yourself on your own…right? Click here to read more.
How COVID-19 Is Revealing America’s Food Insecurity
Julianna Tresca
04-11-20
There’s a reason why my college’s campus food pantry, Hawks Harvest, is still open. There is a reason why, for the first time, they are including the food pantry in all email updates for student resources. And there is a reason why students experiencing food insecurity are reaching out more than ever to get support. Those of us attending the University of North Carolina — Wilmington, who live just a few miles from North Carolina’s coast, are used to natural disasters like seasonal hurricanes; missing a week’s worth of school and then picking up where we left off. But a global pandemic with no end in sight with ever-increasing numbers of infected cases? Uncharted territory. Click here to read more.
Is Food Insecurity an Environmental Justice Issue?
Julianna Tresca
01-10-20
At least 15% of University of North Carolina Wilmington students are struggling to get adequate food. We have students at UNCW dealing with food insecurity and housing insecurity who live out of their cars, Resident Assistants (RAs) who rely on school meal plans, don’t have access to healthy options, and are at the whim of school restaurant hours. We have students who are caught between parents going through a messy divorce and having to pay tuition themselves while somehow managing to afford groceries. Click here to read more
