This year’s Earth day fell on April 22. This is the day to honor our planet, thank it for everything it provides for us, raise awareness, and maybe even learn a little bit about sustainability. What is sustainability you ask? Well, it is the ongoing goal of having humans be able to maintain its natural resources and environment to achieve some sort of economical and ecological balance. In honor of Earth day, I asked some Environmental Science majors what college students should do to practice sustainability in our beautiful Isla Vista. Here are a few things they recommend that you can easily do:
- Use less fuel!
Environmental scientists all agree that gasoline is bad and factors into climate change. Gasoline releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it is burned which ends up trapping heat, in turn, being a dominant factor in global warming. This use of fossil fuels pollutes our environment, worsening our air quality and destroying layers of our atmosphere. To prevent from using more gasoline than need be try to use other forms of transportation to decrease the amount of fossil fuels burnt. If your destination is an easy distance, ride your bike! If the bus is on route to where you need to go, take public transportation! If a friend is going to the same place as you, carpool!
- Use reusable items!
Plastic items get disposed of and you think that they may just be going to the trash so it doesn’t matter, but it really does. Plastic pollutes our oceans harming our sea animals. As well, they destroy the underwater ecosystems and habitats that are necessary for our wildlife to thrive. Not only does plastic waste kill animals underwater, but terrestrial animals have been recorded to also ingest, choke, and get caught in plastic. Plastic waste produces chemical pollution negatively affecting plant growth and creating toxins for humans. So instead of using that plastic fork, use a metal one. Replace straws, containers, utensils, and any other sort of plastic materials with anything that is glass or metal.
- Do not support fast fashion
Believe it or not, fast fashion pollutes our environment. The use of cheap plastic fibers are heavily leaked into our environment, polluting oceans and lands. These micro-plastics are not able to break down or be recycled, so they are just piling up by the day. As well as saving the environment, you can kill two birds with one stone and also prevent the exploitation of underpaid and sometimes underage workers. Buy good quality clothing that will last you a while, go thrifting, and swap clothes with friends. There are many solutions to stop buying cheap items that will be thrown away in a month that are also damaging our planet.
- Get involved!
There are so many opportunities for students on campus to get involved in many ways to save the planet. There is a program called Adopt a Block, organized by the Isla Vista Recreation and Park district which allows you to “adopt a block” in Isla Vista to clean up with a bucket and grabber for as many hours as you would like. Another organization you can join as a student in Greek life is Greeks Go Green (GGG). GGG is an organization that brings awareness to sustainability issues and projects for greek life members. As of now they are working on getting each fraternity and sorority house green certified meaning the building operates in a way that protects the environment. Lastly another organization to get involved in is the Isla Vista Surfrider Foundation. This organization started by surfers, hosts beach clean ups, creates ocean friendly gardens and many other activities to protect our oceans. For more information about any of these organizations, click the title of each to be sent to their respective website!
Whether you agree or disagree with climate change, it is time to give a little love to our planet. The Environmental Science majors that I interviewed gave some very simple tasks to practice every day to help out our beautiful Earth. One person can make an impact on their own, but we need to rally a large community to make substantial change. What would we do without our beautiful blue skies, bright green grass, tweeting birds, and clear waters? Let’s come together in the spirit of Earth day and make a change, Gauchos!