Sudanese Women’s Experience of Deforestation

Today, I woke up and turned on the coffee pot and the turned on the stove to make breakfast. I fixed my food, ate it, and then took a shower. All of this I did effortlessly, relying on my electricity and heat to take feed and clean me. Then, I went to finish my major final project of the semester.

For the past month, I have been researching and writing about women’s response to deforestation in Sudan. Sudanese women are disproportionately negatively impacted by the ramifications of deforestation and are now demanding a voice in legislative and communal matters surrounding deforestation.

Firewood accounts for seventy-percent of Sudan’s energy budget. As a result, the reliance on firewood as well as increased unsustainable agricultural practices, have caused Sudan to have a deforestation rate of 0.84 per annum.

In Sudan, women are often responsible for running the household, including gathering fuel. When there is less fuel available, they are forced to go further distances and carry more fuel or use a different, less healthy fuel such as dung. The forest is also an important commodity for women. Selling wood, fruit, leaves, or gum at market are some women’s primary means of support. The forest is also sometimes the closest and best source of water for rural Sudanese women.

When I woke up this morning, I was able to go through my schedule effortlessly. However, as I was writing this report, I thought of what it would be like to start my day going into the forest to gather enough wood to cook breakfast and warm water for a shower. The labor would intensive.

I am lucky enough to live by a nature preserve; however, what if I did not? What if I lived several miles away from the closest forested area? What would my quality of life and opportunities for success be if the majority of my time was collecting wood?

I know I would not be in college and I know I would be spending the majority of time creating a secure household for my family in which everyone is warm, clean, and fed. Every stick I burned would be precious as it would mean I was that much closer to going to find more forest. Female wood-gatherers in Sudan also report finding wood is dangerous. Not only are they spending immense amounts of time finding wood, they are also putting their life in danger doing so.

I wanted to visualize this experience on my blog because I think it’s important to think about what we have as well as what we can. Greenhouse gases may originate in one place, but they impact the whole world. I have not felt the ramifications of climate change nearly as much as someone who is reliant on the forests for their livelihoods; however, my greenhouse gas output impacts us both. I have just been fortunate enough to not feel immediate effects.

The positive aspect of this project was learning that there are initiatives to help women build resilience to the effects of climate change. My favorite is Zenab for Women in Development. Zenab uses a multi-dimensional approach to advocate and empower women and girls through intersecting issues such as education, climate change, and health. This year, they were the recipients of a Momentum for Change award for ‘Women for Results.’ I encourage you to see their website and learn more about all the ways they’re making a difference in Sudan.

This semester in this class has been such a whirlwind but it was amazing to be able to take time to research this topic. I hope all of you have learned something from this post, and please take a look at the infographic as well as my final paper, below.

Thank you for reading!

Stephanie

ENVS_final

Trying to Understand Earth Systems Science

Today, I want to talk about earth systems, namely, what in the world (see what I did there? Kind of?) an earth system is and how they are telling us important things about climate change and our status as a planet.

Last week, I heard Dr. Lance Gunderson, the head of the Emory Environmental Science Department, speak about communicating the science of global environmental change. I will be honest– this was not my favorite lecture. The science was difficult to understand and I felt like I was two steps behind Dr. Gunderson the entire lesson. In this post, I am excited now to explore what I was missing and provide a more basic overview of earth systems and how they help us understand environmental change.

The purpose of earth system science is, at a basic level, to conceptualize the planet and understand how the different systems of the Earth– the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere–interact as well as understand the impact of the Anthropocene on the Earth and the intersection between people and the environment.

Scientists use earth systems to understand these intersecting components and form predictions. Earth system science can help scientists understand the Earth through a holistic view and can explain how different systems are organized and have evolved. Earth system science is essential to the study of climate change.

Dr. Gunderson addressed two different examples of earth system science in his lecture. The first was the Meadows, Randers, and Behrens III report, Limits of Growth (1972). Meadows et. al. was preoccupied with understanding human growth patterns and when human growth would exceed the planet’s resources. Their focus was economic growth and its impact on human population.

Controversially, Meadows et. al predicted the economy would collapse in 2030 causing human populations to decline. Economists are skeptical of Limits of Growth because they believe the market is more intelligent than Meadows et. al acknowledge and they also believe the report does not account for human adaptability. I believe Limits of Growth is an important tool for measuring human populations and there could be an economic collapse in 2030 that could cause human populations to decline; however, I also believe it is valid to consider human’s adaptability to sudden change and crises.

Gunderson also discussed the “Planetary Boundary Framework” created in 2009 and then republished in 2015 (see below).  The “Planetary Boundary Framework” considers nine planetary boundaries humans can develop and live within for generations in the future. I loved how the “Planetary Boundary Framework” presented their evidence and conclusion– it is easy to understand and hopeful for viewers as the PBF claims exceeding a boundary can be reversed. This is important because the PBF also says we have already crossed four boundaries– climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen). This is not good for our planet, however, exceeding a boundary is not a permanent condition if we act now to reverse it.

Source: http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html

I encourage you to visit the links and learn more about earth systems science. If anything, they do provide a holistic view of the planet and how climate change will continue to effect us. If this post has left you feeling slightly hopeless (environmental change tends to do that) I encourage you to read my previous post, #KnowYourGoals, for a more uplifting perspective on sustainability. Also, take some time this week to get outside and appreciate our incredible world. Take a hike, go on a walk, run, or bike ride, don’t listen to your headphones and take some time to just be in nature. We live in on an amazing planet it is important to to take time to remember why we want to save it.

Thank you for reading!

Stephanie

What I’m Working On

Hi all,

It’s been a while since I published a full blog post but I’ve been working on some exciting things and I’m almost ready to share.

I have been spending most of my time researching the connection between deforestation and women in Sudan and how this intersection was discussed at the most recent UN Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. It has been an intriguing and exciting project to say the least. Below is a piece of my multimedia project that will accompany the full report. I will of course make it available here when I am done.

I am also publishing small snippets of information I find interesting from the news. I want this blog to feel current and keep it updated with what I am learning as well as updates about my more formal research. Use the tag ‘recent developments’ to track these posts.

I am still thrilled to have this opportunity to learn and blog about climate change. I promise more content soon but I hope this helps until then. Have a great day!

Stephanie

Venezuela is Losing Its Last Glacier

If the political climate was not already bad enough, Venezuela is set to be the first country to lose all of its glaciers to climate change. Scientists have predicted the glacier will melt in the next 10-20 years.

Developed nations like the United States are responsible for so much of the world’s carbon output, yet developing nations, with relatively little carbon output, often pay the price. If you have the privilege of living in a developed nation, it is important to remember that your carbon output is also the rest of world’s carbon output.

Read more about Venezuela here.

In case you missed it, this New York Times piece is an incredible piece of journalism. It’s portrayal of climate change as felt by families in southern India is emotionally gripping, beautifully rendered, and leaves a lasting impact.

Speaking on behalf of the EU…

In this blog, I have spoken before about my connection to Iceland and the importance of Iceland in both my understanding of the impacts of climate change, and my persistent efforts for climate justice.  My connection to Iceland is personal– never have I applied my experience in the country to everyone’s experience nor my knowledge as absolute. However, what if my knowledge was considered absolute? What if I had the responsibility of representing Iceland on a global scale?

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a mock United Nations Climate Change negotiation in my Environmental Science class at Emory University. I was one of two members of the European Union (and Iceland and Norway) delegates, the other being Germany. We were joined by delegates from developing nations, China, India, the United States, representatives from U.S. cities and states, other developed nations, members of the press, climate activists, and lobbyists. Needless to say, it was a full, excited, and opinionated room.

The overall goal of the negotiations was to negotiate an agreement that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to “well below” 2˚C as well as fund a climate fund of $100 billion per year to support developing nations in their transition. As a member of the EU delegation, it was my goal to increase support for climate change mitigation around the world, especially from the other developed nations, the United States, and China. The EU is a world leader in renewable energy sources, climate change policy, and in climate change negotiations. At the climate negotiations in Paris, the EU pledged to reduce emissions by 40% in 2030– an admirable and difficult goal.

Above: Projections of scenarios for different CO2 emission plans (from EU Mock Negotiation Guide)

The United States was the big player in these negotiations. After President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the U.S. (the second largest emitter in the world and the most per capita) the delegates were a bit of a wild card and did not hold the U.S. to the same standards as other developed nations. As part of the EU delegation, I was extremely invested in creating an agreement in which the U.S. was forced to take responsibility for their actions.

This did not work.

The U.S. barely contributed to the climate fund, projected low rates for emissions reductions, and a higher starting year to begin reductions than the EU. Thus, in order to compensate for the United States’, lack of participation, the EU and the other developed nations were forced to impose a trade sanction on the United States, give more money to the fund, and commit to almost unrealistic goals for emission reduction. Only by these actions were we able achieve a 2˚C increase in global warming.

As a delegate for a developed nation, I found that there was a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, however, not nearly as much as developing nations. Developing nations both have to strategize ways in which to build their economies and mitigate climate change. Furthermore, island nations, like Fiji and the Philippines, are some of the most vulnerable to climate change, despite their relatively low emissions. Thus, developing nations must take responsibility for climate change in the worst way for other countries that had years to build their economies at the cost of environmental health.

My largest challenge during this simulation was speaking for all of the EU despite being a representative for a small nation outside of the EU. I did not know many other countries’ stances on climate change and made promises for regions I did not represent. I also had no clear view of what I was promising and what it would mean in terms of future policy, economic, and social costs. Did I promise too much? Or did I not promise enough?

Overall, this exercise was best at helping me understand why climate change negotiation agreements take years to negotiate and begin. It is because negotiations are difficult and different countries have different views and limits of what they can do to mitigate climate change. It is also difficult because the United States is currently not taking responsibility for its part in creating the climate crisis we are currently facing. As a citizen of the United States, this was the most disappointing aspect to realize, but also, my biggest call to action.

 

Featured Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/18451724915

Educating the Future

In fourth grade (way back in 2004),  I subscribed to National Geographic Kids. In my first edition, there was an article about global warming. The article discussed how doing things like driving cars and leaving the lights on was emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and causing the Earth to warm. The Earth warming meant that more and more species were becoming endangered and the ice caps were melting.

This astounded me. It was horrifying to think that the things I did everyday were impacting the environment in such a negative way. This small bit of climate change education prompted me to become a young environmental activist. I stopped eating meat. I encouraged my parents to invest in a hybrid car. I turned off the lights when I left the room and became a stickler for composting and recycling. The health of the environment had become a priority in my life.

My Girl Scout troop and I during a third grade science trip.

Learning about climate change at such a young age was clearly important me. However, in Atlanta, students do not have the chance to learn about contextualized climate science until sixth grade. What do I mean by contextualized? National Geographic scholar Daniel Edelson remarked in a 2011 presentation that, “it’s not possible to teach climate science on its own so that people can understand it.” Instead, climate science only makes sense if it is included as part of an integrated education in earth science. In Atlanta, public school students only have the opportunity to learn climate change alongside climate science in high school.

When I learned this, my fourth grade heart wept. Kids have the potential to gain so much from learning about climate change in elementary school! Climate change, especially when taught correctly, can change a child’s life. Thus, for the last month, I and another student have been working on a series of three infographics and a literature review for teachers in order to begin contextualized climate change education in the Atlanta Public School system. Our resources are aimed at teachers in charge of grades 3-5. There is already a environmentally focused unit in the third grade curriculum and by third grade, students have the ability to understand the workings of the atmosphere and chain reactions, both of which are necessary to comprehend climate change.

We chose this approach because we found that one of the most major issues preventing climate change education is lack of knowledge in educators and uncomfortability teaching climate change. Our three infographics aim to address this. The first provides a basic summary of the science behind climate change and the greenhouse effect. This is a starting reference for teachers to begin their journey learning about climate change and provides a reference for teaching students the most essential elements of climate science. The second dispels common misconceptions about climate change for both teachers and students. Our aim is to help educators become more comfortable answering questions about this subject as well as teach climate change despite the social and political controversy that surrounds the subject.

Our third infographic provides four local activities students can do to enrich their understanding of climate change. It has been shown that relatability is an important factor of climate change education and developing and nurturing the idea of a sense of place and local or regional effects of climate change can prove less overwhelming for both teachers and students when dealing with a global topic like climate change.

We hope these resources can help educators teach children more about climate change and climate science. Environmental education is so important for young people as they will have to continue to work on lowering emissions and protecting the Earth in order for future generations to come. Education is the first step to this movement.

Thanks for reading!

Stephanie

See our project below!

climate_change_midterm_1 (2)

 

Girl at Sunset

 

 

When the Ash Settles

I was about to embark on a year long study abroad program in Iceland. I was accepted, I had a host family, a school and I could not have been more excited. And then the volcano blew.

In the spring of 2010, Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted. While a relatively small volcano eruption, the ensueing ash caused widespread airport delays an flight cancellations across Western Europe, earning the volcano a spot of notoriety. Saturday Night Live did a skit on the eruption and a Sky News segment in Scotland went viral when a Scottish man screamed, “I hate Iceland!” at the newscaster.

The ash from Eyjafjallajökull fell within a few weeks and all hysteria surrounding the incident was eventually forgotton. However, I have always wondered the eruption impacted the climate. Did the impact cease when the ash fell?

The short answer to this question is: no. Volcanic gases can influence the climate for several years after an eruption. But how?

Volcanoes are components of the geosphere, one of the five spheres of Earth’s climate system. The geosphere includes all the geologic materials on Earth like rocks, soil, ocean basins, and volcanoes. The geosphere is intimately connected with the other four spheres of the climate system. A volcanic eruption impacts the climate through its interaction with the atmosphere. If a volcano eruption is powerful enough, it can blast aerosols into the stratosphere (a part of the Earth’s atmosphere) (Burch and Harris 47). In the atmosphere, aerosols, or sulfuric acid drops, can reflect solar energy and cool the earth. Aerosols can stay in the stratosphere for much longer than other parts of the atmosphere because the stratosphere contains little water vapor, and so the aerosols are not, “rained out,” (Burch and Harris 41). Therefore, when a volcano, such as Eyjafjallajokull erupts, the aerosols can cool the Earth for a few years after the eruption by around 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius (Burch and Harris, 47). For us, this means that volcanoes are not just natural disasters, or the reason your cross-continental flight is delayed, but also a temporary cooling devices.

In a human lifespan, volcanoes cool for short periods of time. However, over millions of years, volcanoes can heat. Volcanic eruptions release CO₂,  though much less than human emissions. If Earth did have a high rate of eruptions over a million years, the CO₂ from the eruptions would cause an increase of CO₂ in the atmosphere, causing temperatures to go up. This system is caused a feedback system: a deviation in a system that initiates a linked sequence of events that either counteracts or reinforces the original deviation (Burch and Harris 47).  However, as I stated above, volcanic eruptions would have to occur regularly over a time span much longer than a human lifespan for this heating to happen.

To answer my original question, no, the affects of Eyjafjallajökull did not cease when the ash fell or when the hysteria ended and planes began to fly again. Instead, the Earth felt the ramifications of the eruption for several years after as a temporary cooling system.

Thanks for reading!

Stephanie

The Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010

 

 

References

Burch, Sarah L. & Sara E. Harris (2014). Understanding Climate Change: Science Policy and Practice. Buffalo: University of Toronto Press

Eyjafjallajökull (2010). Retrieved from  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull

 

 

 

NASA’s “Earth Right Now”

I have been reading NASA’s “Earth Right Now “climate change blog as a source of inspiration. Recently, NASA funded a trip to Greenland to study the melting glaciers. The blog posts from this trip focus on transporting the reader to Greeland. Through these first-person experiences, science lessons about climate change and the Artic climate are interpersed.

Laura, the author of this particular blog post, “Sun and Sky, Snow and Ice,” keeps the writing extremely conversational. She focuses the topics of the blog on her own questions about the environment of Greenland, thus allying herself with the reader. Scientific questions are handled with ease, answered with metaphors or simple, conversational language.

In the last paragraph, Laura leaves this experiential writing in order to give background about the project NASA has undertaken in Greenland. Leaving the most factual and least conversational piece to the end is clever– by writing about her own experience in Greenland first, Laura forces the reader to ask themselves why Laura is in Greenland. Thus, the last paragraph becomes an answer for the reader instead of a lecture at the beginning.

If you have time– please check out NASA’s blog here: https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2594/sun-and-sky-snow-and-ice/

I promise it’s worth your time!

 

Thanks for reading!

Stephanie