9/27 Alice Li Blog

This week's guest speaker is Susana De Anda. Susana co-founded and co-directs the Community Water Center. She has taken her passion for social justice and turned it into an effort to assist members of her community by providing access to clean drinking water. Susana is determined and a true leader. These traits are apparent during her presentation. Despite the challenges with the drought and shortage, she still works to make sure the community has a seat at the table and that human health is a priority. She started ten years ago by knocking on doors and through her persistence, she now helps low-income residents fight for water and their own health in the San Joaquin Valley.

10/6 Diverse Voices Lecture

Although dependent on the branch of art being analyzed, it typically is mostly performed and watched by people of higher social status. This is especially true when considering events such as plays and art exhibitions, but no matter where you come from virtually everyone has a form of art in their life. For example, most of us enjoy listening to some type of  music - regardless of what this is, it can help bring people closer together. This is what Vernita is trying to do. The arts are an extremely powerful tool, as she proves through some of her scientific studies, and can be used as an element in which important messages are relayed. While Vernita did not have the driving and determined personality that some of our previous lecturers had - like Sussana de Anda - she can get away without having one. It is clear that Vernita is extremely well-versed in this area of study, and has a range of personal experiences to reinforce this. After working in more than 20 countries, and visiting tens of others, she has immersed herself in many different cultures and was able to see the importance of the arts on every single one. It will not be surprising to see Vernita succeed with the unique yet crucial work she is involved with.

9/27 Diverse Voices Lecture

The most surprising thing I learned in this lecture was that thousands of people in California have no access to water, and the government was doing virtually nothing about it before Susanna's effort. I always assumed that water rights were issues seen in developing countries, but never in a place advanced as the United States. What scares me is that after more than a decade, tap water has still not been restored to many of this people, which just goes to show how slow moving the government can be. For the type of work that she does, I believe her personality is very beneficial. Susanna is fierce yet justly determined to get what she wants and what everyone deserves. Not only does is convince the general public that what she's doing is effective and moral, but also will ensure that government actually listens to what she's fighting for. This has appeared to work well for her, since she is now officially partnered with the government ensuring the problem is resolved.

Aisha Sharhan 9/13/2016

Aisha Sharhan

Today went to go meet the panel of the first day of the diverse voices.  This group of panelist were all from Cali, now Michael Mendez mentioned the questions as to why California and that because its an important site of inquiry, it has a  long history of success, they have green house gases solution. Daniel Nepstaib gave a presenting on taking enviornmental justice to scale through international offsets. I feel as though he gave a great introduction as to the topic and at the same time voice his options and still give valuable information as to how the environment is in california along which other panelist. Mari rose taruc asked an important question "will this policy help or hurt kids with asthma?" which then connects to environmental issues/ justice, incourged after getting kicked out of the protects against REDD. She also talked about AB32 is supposed to lower emissions pollution in low income communities.They suffer more during extreme weathers events and breath dirter air. She also mentioned that there are three E's :equity, environment, economy.

Dante Frazer 9/27/16

Dante Frazer 
9/27/16
Environmental Leader

This week the environmental leaders had a panel speaker by the name of Susana De Anda. Susana co-founded and co-directs the Community Water Center. The Community Water Center helps which helps build strategic grassroots capacity to address water challenges in low income communities. She has dedicated over 15 years of her life for this cause. Her discussion was very thought provoking and her passion inspired me as an environmental leader to do more in my community.

Dante Frazer 9/13/16

Dante Frazer
9/13/16
Environmental Leader


This week the environmental leaders had a panel speaker that all had opposing voice on cap and trade. Cap and trade is the most environmentally and economically sensible approach to controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The primary driver of global  emission is greenhouse emission. I agreed mostly with Daniel Nepstaib because his plan was the most comprehensive. Everyone had very good points and are passionate about the environment, even if its in different ways.

9/20 Diverse Voices Lecture

In Sudha's lecture, she descriptively explained the role of environmental justice in Seattle, Washington. Like many other major cities, the discrepancy between where people of low socioeconomic status live and where the wealthy do is huge, and brings to light some serious environmental inequality. In Seattle, areas of high poverty often contain much higher levels of pollution in the atmosphere and in their water. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the people here are people of color, and this is partly due to the extremely large income gap found in the city. Sudha's job is to come together with community leaders who represent people from all over the metro, and figure out the real problems the people are facing, and make them aware to everyone. The official environmental leaders in our country are often apart of the wealthy white class. Sudha want to makes these problems more accessible to the general public, especially when many of the problems trying to be fixed are affecting them the most - the most effective solutions will not be found if these voices are not heard.

9/13 Diverse Voices Lecture

Carbon offsets are incentives for companies to lower their carbon emissions, and in turn help fund their projects and other energy-sustainable practices. That being said, one of the major issues with this idea is that companies spend their offsets elsewhere and continue to be unsustainable - regardless of being more expensive. If I was a senator of California, I would work on trying to create the most ethical project possible, while keeping California at the top of the world in terms of sustainability. While this project may be very efficient for the government to implement, only large corporations have a say in what is happening, leaving the general public out of loop. Additionally, nothing is being done to relieve areas of California with high pollution (usually people in poverty), and the areas that need the cleaning up the least are getting it. I don't believe the bill that requires California to lower their emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 is feasible, because the state is still debating on a method that would be most effective to achieve this. The REDD offsets program has received lots of backlash from the public, keeping it from its full effectiveness - when the public does not agree, it is very difficult to make progress with something.

09/20 Lecture Diverse Voice

Today's speaker is Sudha Nandagopal who is the new program manager for Seattle's environmental justice initiative. From the lecture, I learned more about the goals of the initiative and the presence of environmental injustice throughout the country. The three goals of the Equity and Environmental initiative are that all people and communities benefit from Seattle's environmental progress; that communities most impacted by environmental injustice are engaged in setting environmental priorities, designing strategies, and tracking environmental progress; and that people of color, immigrants and refugees, people with low incomes, and limited English proficiency individuals have opportunities to be part of, and leaders, in this movement. According to Sudha, in order to gather all the people impacted by environmental injustice, they must make them trust the government and their leader. They must take part in all the environmental projects and make a change. Without their help, then the movement will not be successful. I am glad to see that there is such a strong project happening from the opposite side of Connecticut, all the way at Washington.

09/13 Diverse Voice Lecture

REDD stands for Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation. It is an international offset project that claims to preserve forests in tropical countries. From the lecture and the articles, I believe that REDD should be kept out of California. California's top offset buyers are the state's most profitable oil companies and big corporations. They will not make emissions reductions on site, which will only threaten California's most vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable communities consist of 62% people of color compared to 38% of whites. REDD also gives governments an opportunity to control and profit off of indigenous people's forests. These indigenous people will not be able to continue their cultural practices. There will definitely be violence and fights over the territory. Lastly, REDD clearly will not result in less emissions. Even when a government pledges to "avoid deforestation," it can turn around and cut down that same forest. REDD will not benefit California at all.

Collecting the Silversides

Ashley Ceravone
Environmental Leaders
7/21/16

On Mnday, July 18th, the Environmental Leaders set out to complete part two of our experiment: collecting fish samples.
We made our way out to the Quinnipiac River, meeting up with Zosia and Lynne, to collect 10 Juvenile Silverside fish.  But, before collecting any samples, we had to record the water temperature, oxygen levels, and salinity.  Then, we finally were able to suit up and head into the water.  With multiple attempts and no fish caught, we tried a third time and finally caught a vast amount of Silversides.
Once we were done, we packed up and head to the other side of the river to repeat the same process, but this time being more successful than the first stop.  And lastly, the team made our way to Long Wharf to collect samples.  This time, I took a break from recording data, and joined the team in the water.  In less then no time, I managed to trip and fall in the water.  But other than my wet clothes, the experience was one I wont forget.

july 21 Aisha Sharhan

On Monday the 18th we went fishing for silverside fish. At first it was we didn't catch anything but shrimp which was really cool. Me along with the other environment leaders wear wafers and went in the water of the Quinnipac river and long wharf. We entered the water with a beach seine that had a thicker each in the middle to collect the juvenile fish. It was really interesting and fun to see how we caught the fish and how they looked, also the experience of going in to the water. The rolling day on Tuesday the 19th Ivette brought her boss in,rick, to talk to us. he was very energetic and interesting to listen to. Yesterday on Thursday the 20th we had two guest speakers come in and talk to us about GIS and how to map the sites that we placed the poles and collected the silverside fish. That was a really cool experiene and now i know how to GIS and I'm glad the guest speakers had the time to come into our class and teach us about how to do that.

July 21st Dante

On Monday July 18th Me, Aisha, Ashley, Lynne, Jesus, and Zosha went fishing in the Quinnipac river in hopes of finding Atlantic silverside to test for mercury accumulation in the fish. We caught a lot of shrimp at first but as time went on we became much more efficient at catching Atlantic silversides with our huge beach seine nets. The following day our content leader Ivette Lopez not only introduced us to what she does at the USFWLS but also to her charismatic boss Rick who gave us insightful tips on his job,birds,and how important it is to treat the environment with respect. Yesterday we had two librarians (Miriam and Carla) teach us how to properly research for information that is accurate. Also we learned what GIS was and how essential it can be in the next few years.

aisha Sharhan 7/14/2016

Today we discussed about the skit and play that we performed about how people have to work together to preserve our natural resources.  after finishing that ideas of how we would show awareness about mercury flowed through presenting on how we would make a news show and entertain the people. by having this news show we would be able to connect with the humor of people and make sure the information we provide for them sticks and they could go and tell others on the topic to help bring awareness. I cant wait for Monday so that our group can meet up with Zosia and collect the Silverside fish to collect research and add them with our moss project. i cant wait to see how close the silverside fish are and how mercury effects the water and could affect the people swimming in them.

Time For Creativity

Ashley Ceravone
Environmental Leaders
7/14/16

Time For Creativity:
Internships can usually be extremely serious, sometimes a little too serious.  But thats the thing that makes Environmental  Leaders so exceptional.  We know how to research and get the hard work done, however, we also know how to make this processes enjoyable.  As a team, we are creative, comedic, and cleaver.
To make learning entertaining, we gathered our skills to preform and record a skit on the importance of watersheds.  We also are planning to create a satyrical film to get a wider audience engaged in the danger of mercury and our current study.
The internship process is incredible serious, but even scientists need to enjoy their practices!

Currently...

Ashley Ceravone
Environmental Leaders
07/13/16

The Environmental Leaders are currently in their second week of summer work, and the experience has been one we won't forget.  Last Wednesday, July 6th, my peers and I went out to various different locations to plant the moss pole into the ground for further analysis in the future.  While the moss samples are out collecting the mercury in the local area, the Leaders are obtaining as much knowledge on mercury as we possibly can; including guest speakers, such as Zosia Baumann and Justin Elicker, field trips to local community garrets and the New York Science Museum, and also brief lectures from our mentors.  With the help from all these resources, we are becoming young intellectuals and soon to be experts on mercury.

july 13 Aisha

07/13/16
 today we meet Justin Elicker, he is part of the new haven land trust. As a brief lecture Elicker explained and taught us about the salt march and how they would dig a core out of the march and examine it for mercury levels. Elicker then drew a diagram on how the core worked. which is basic just the grass dying and then creating a new layer from the marsh to grow from. int he graph that he presented us the amount of mercury increased in the year 1950 and then decreased as soon as we discovered it and then tried to decease it. He then brought our group to a community garden near by and presented the concept behind it as why its important to the community.

Alice Li June 21, 2016 Blog

Alice Li

Environmental Leaders Internship

June 21, 2016

The element Mercury is discussed in depth today. Mercury is an element with an atomic number of 80 and atomic weight of 200.592. It is also known as "Quicksilver" due to its silver, white color and liquid form at room temperature. Little is known about mercury in the past which resulted in the wide use of them in everyday lives. For example, during the Felt Industry in America, America's top hat making company in Danbury, CT believed that Mercury helped speed up the process of making hats. The people who were exposed to Mercury became "crazy" and "full of madness." In 1941, the American Health Association finally realized the potential health hazards of mercury and decided to take action. Mercury was also well-known to the ancient Chinese and Hindus and has been found in 3500- year-old Egyptian tombs. It was used in potteries and gold extractions as well. Mercury is popular today too. It can be used to make thermometers, barometers, and other scientific instruments. Mercury conducts electricity and is used to make silent, position dependent switches. Mercury vapor is used in streetlights, fluorescent lamps, and advertising signs. Mercury is widely used but it poses serious harm to not only the environment but animal and human lives. Mercury is poisonous and can enter the body through the respiratory tract, the digestive tract or directly through the skin. It accumulates in the body, through bioaccumulation, eventually causing severe illness or death.

On a positive note, researchers are conducting more experiments on mercury and their potential hazards. For example, there was a recent research on mercury contamination in the New Haven Harbor. Scientists were curious to see whether there was a trend in Mercury contamination and elevation of metals. They also wanted to identify the nature of the contamination and compare historic and current conditions of mercury accumulation. They found that overall, there was a subsurface peak, which means that there was a decrease of input in recent years. However, they collected some data with surface peaks which means that there was an increase of input in recent years. Scientists concluded that reducing the amount of point source, including factories, waste facilities, and industries, definitely helps reduce the amount of mercury in water sources. However, nonpoint riverine sources may also be a reason for the accumulation of mercury and metal over time. Therefore, the reduction of point sources is not the only solution.

6/21/16 Blog

In today's meeting we solely discussed the element Mercury - the properties of it, the effects it has on humans, its uses in society, and important experiments that his has been researched in. We began today with a discussion of the paper we had to read for the week. This was a scientific article based out of Yale University, and the research was done close by in the New Haven Harbor. In this experiment, the goal was to determine how the concentration of Mercury has changed over time in the harbor. In order to effectively do this, the group took sediment core samples from outlined locations in the harbor, brought them to a lab and used a mass spectrometer to determine the concentration of various metals in the core. What they determined was that the concentration of Mercury has decreased in recent years, with a correlation between Mercury changes and other metals.  Additionally, they realized that there was a huge variance of Hg concentrations throughout the harbor, so many samples are needed to accurately show the variance.

Dante- Mercury

Dante Frazer           

6/21/16

1. The history of mercury is interesting to me because so many people used the element for various different purposes like art,paintings and pottery but they had no idea it was dangerous and toxic.Mercury could also be found in cosmetics,dental fillings,thermometers and at one time in hats.

2. Mercury can affect humans in many different ways; it can cause Minamata's disease,CNS,neurological programs and other non-antidol diseases by Biomagnification and Bioaccumulation.Biomagnification is mercury through the food chain, bioaccumulation is when mercury builds up in your system.