Jóvenes por el medio ambiente (A1)

During third trimester, students in A1 read Luis Sepúlveda’s novel La historia de una gaviota y del gato que le enseñó a volar, a heartwarming story of a cat who is charged with teaching a young seagull how to fly after the young nestling’s mom had been killed in an oil spill. The novel centers around themes of commitment, friendship, trust, and perseverance while also reminding the reader about the impact of human carelessness and the importance of environmental protection. To complement this novel, students learned about environmental activist Chiara Sacchi from Argentina while also researching an environmental issue important to them. Over the course of six weeks, students read articles and watched videos related to the environmental issue they had chosen, and later compiled their findings into 5 distinct reflections, which they posted to the Meridian Instagram account. Please visit the Meridian Instagram page to read the full posts, or scroll through the images below!

Jesse says: I researched recycling, and specifically how plastic recycling doesn’t usually happen the way we think it does. I learned about how it actually happens and why that is, as well as possible solutions to the huge problem of overuse of plastics. It was informative, interesting, sometimes a little sad, but also fun!

Zayna says: I chose to look at food waste for my project. Each week I was more and more surprised by new information and facts I learned. Although climate change can make me feel helpless at times, researching a topic that was interesting to me gave me hope about our future!   

MARY ALICE: El impacto medioambiental de Bitcoin

The subject I researched for the Instagram project was cryptocurrency and its environmental impact. I learned a lot about the issue, as well as some things that I had heard but that weren’t clear to me until now. For example, how is mining Bitcoin using electricity a problem? Sure, it’s a lot of power, but electricity doesn’t pollute, right? The answer is fairly simple— the reason crypto mining is so detrimental is because it uses so much power in the first place but especially because the source of that power is often something very polluting, such as coal. This turns a wasteful but otherwise harmless activity into something that can do a lot of damage environmentally. An interesting fact I saw was that all Bitcoin mining worldwide uses more electricity than many countries— for example, the Philippines, which have a population of 110 million and still use less electricity yearly than Bitcoin mining. I learned about a few solutions, which can work together to help fix the issue: The two main approaches are making the mining process more efficient, and fixing the sources of energy used by mining computers. A new system, called a Proof of Stake system, allows computers to mine Bitcoin at a fraction of the energy used previously by eliminating the competitive cryptography-problem element of mining. And solar energy is a very good idea when it comes to powering cryptocurrency mining worldwide. As someone who barely knew anything about Bitcoin before this project, I found the research very informative and eye-opening, and I know much, much more than I did at the start. I can only hope that the people following Meridian on Instagram also learned a thing or two about cryptocurrency from me in the process!

JESSE: El reciclaje

For this project, I chose to look into the issues within the plastic recycling industry. Ever since plastic became so widely used, we have been dealing with the issue of how to dispose of it, and since the 1970s, recycling has been seen as a solution to this problem. The problem is, when we put all of our plastic into that blue bin, we assume it all gets recycled and that we're doing our part to save the planet, most of that plastic actually just ends up in landfills. There is so much plastic being used every day that there isn't enough infrastructure to deal with all of it, and even if there were some types of plastics simply can't be recycled. When recycling started to become popular, it was marketed as this amazing solution, and even though it is obvious that it isn't working, this narrative is still popular. Because it provides this story on an easy solution, people are more than willing to believe it, and this is exactly what the plastic companies want in order to make more money. If people think that all of the single-use plastic that they are putting in the recycling bin is actually getting melted down and turned into something new, they most likely won't put as much thought into how much plastic they are using, and therefore the plastic companies will sell more plastic, and make a lot more money. Ideally, the solution to this issue starts with these companies, but because they are profiting off of it, they aren't likely to do much unless they have to, and the only way to make them change is to change our own habits. If more people put more thought into how much plastic they are buying and using and throwing away, and where it is actually going, we can decrease our plastic consumption, therefore producing less plastic, and hopefully forcing these companies to change.

ESMÉ: La contaminación del océano

The topic I chose for this project was the different causes of marine pollution and how they affect sea animals. One of the biggest causes of marine pollution is plastic. There is a huge amount of plastic waste in the ocean and animals often end up eating it or getting caught in it, which is very harmful to them. Another major cause of marine pollution is oil spills. Animals often get caught in oil and drown. The chemicals in oil are also very harmful to marine life. There are many organizations that work to help marine life and reduce pollution. Some examples of these organizations are the Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, Oceana and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

ZAYNA: El desperdicio de alimentos y su impacto medioambiental

For this project, I chose to research food waste. The problem of food waste interests me because of its contribution to climate change. With climate change, I often feel helpless because it feels like it’s hard to make a difference as an individual. However, through my research of the impact of food waste, I have learned that reducing food waste, even on the individual level, has a big positive impact on the environment. By saving leftovers, storing food correctly so it doesn’t go bad, and ordering less food at restaurants, we can reduce our carbon footprint. One thing that was really interesting to learn about was the level in which most food waste occurs in different regions. In the United States, about 40% of wasted food is thrown out by consumers. This just emphasizes how important reducing food waste is in our own homes. Something all of my sources highlighted was the fact that we have enough food to feed everyone but hundreds of millions of people live in hunger because of poor distribution of food. In the future, I’d like to see companies spread more awareness about this issue and how to reduce food waste because I, like many people, didn’t realize how much food we really waste (a third of all food grown is wasted!).

NIKO: El reciclaje

The topic I chose to research for this project was recycling. One of the main things I learned was that many of the largest waste corporations are trying to get children involved in recycling. For example, Waste Management posts many videos on their Youtube channel teaching children to recycle correctly. Additionally, something that surprised me was when I learned about Mexico’s informal trash program. In Mexico, there are people that sort trash in order to make a living. While this may seem like a good thing, Mexico’s increased recycling program will put these people’s only income at risk. I would like to see large corporations, not just waste-related ones, put a greater emphasis on recycling, especially increasing the ability to process recyclables that are currently not recyclable.

ABSINTH: La deforestación

The topic I chose to research was deforestation, destruction of habitats and endangerment to animals due to deforestation. One of the main things that I learned was that humans cause so much destruction for our own personal gain and we don’t stop to consider how this is going to affect the world when it comes to future generations, the animals, and the world as a whole. There are plenty of programs out there that help with deforestation and lowering our carbon footprint, as well as just raising awareness of this issue. There are a variety of things you can do such as calculate your own carbon footprint and calculate how many worlds you would need to live the way that you live, as well as websites with ways you can change your life in order to better our planet.