Tying a Local Environmental Issue to Human Drivers of Environmental Change

Learning Resources reintroduced us to many key concepts in Biology, Chemistry,

Physics, and more. This interdisciplinary approach is a hallmark of Environmental Studies because

it is when we move toward systems thinking, we truly start to understand how to manipulate our

surroundings into producing the yields and results we wish to see or obtain. This necessity to

combine fields of study and learn from each other was highlighted by group member Wesley Myrer,

as well as supported in the reading by P. D. Tortell in the Earth 2020 article, which stated that "by

embracing the disruptive power of the creative and performing arts, science can reach new

audiences, engaging both rationally and emotionally to move beyond paralyzing anxiety, bringing

new perspectives to long-standing questions" (Tortell, 2020, p. 8690).

Transcending simply involving various fields of study in the discussion, I chose to highlight

issues surrounding environmental justice and equity, wherein the need is not simply to bring

representatives of privilege from the varying fields into the work, but also the imperative to bring in

historically marginalized peoples and their experience. We can see that when we recognize

indigenous land use practices, as well as the realities of colonialism and disproportionate resource

use, the only sustainable way forward is to look into policies that acknowledge and reflect this

appropriately. The Montreal Protocol, for example, was the success that it was because it

“recognized the unequal burdens of responsibility between industrialized and developing

countries” and through this equitable approach to a shared goal, every nation on Earth ratified it

(Tortell, 2020).

One Student addressed both the US’s history utilizing Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

(DDT), as well as it’s ongoing efforts at remediating the damage being done by polychlorinated

biphenyls (PCBs), as exemplified in the Hudson River in New York (US EPA, 2016). He wondered

what we saw as defining the “Anthropocene,” to which I purported land use and plastics playing a

major role, as well as quoting Tortell in that “the accumulation of these wastes, on land, in water

and in the sky, is the most visible manifestation of the human impact on planet Earth; it is, perhaps,

the defining geological signature of the Anthropocene” (Tortell, 2020, p. 8689).

Our discussion further included the failures and learning opportunities provided by the

Biosphere 2 project from the early 1990s. Another student introduced us to this attempt to create

a pseudo-Earth completely sustainable within its confines with eight human participants. The

experiment encountered several issues, some such as “irrational antagonism” - which is harder to

solve due to the human aspect - and drops in oxygen levels - which are easier to solve with evolving

scientific innovation (Nelson, 2018). I suggested that since most of the oxygen on Earth is produced

through plankton in the ocean that perhaps this could be something that could be incorporated into

the Biosphere ecosystem for a more successful trial.

Resources

Nelson, M. (2018). Biosphere 2: What Really Happened? Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.

https://dartmouthalumnimagazine.com/articles/biosphere-2-what-really-happened

Tortell, P. D. (2020). Earth 2020: Science, society, and sustainability in the Anthropocene.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(16), 8683–8691.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001919117

US EPA (2016). Hudson River PCBs | Region 2 | US EPA. Hudson River PCBs.

https://www3.epa.gov/hudson/just_facts_08_04.htm#:%7E:text=For%2030%20years%20

ending%20in,remain%20in%20the%20river%20sediment.