If I Live to be 100

Let’s take a moment and reflect on just how much has changed in the past 100 years since 1919.

In the United States women gained the right to vote, television became popularized, World War II was fought and pulled the nation out of depression, the nation experienced the civil rights movement, 18 presidents have come and left office, the internet was invented and has risen to become instrumental to many of our lives, plus countless other notable moments in just the span of 100 years.

And that’s just a tiny sliver of what has happened in this nation in the past century.

Just think of all that has happened around the globe in the past 100 years. There has been so much. Good and not so good.

Now why think of this?

After reading Cheche Winnie’s post ‘What Will We Tell Them?‘ a creative post about what will we tell future generations about what has happened to our planet in the wake of environmental destruction, it really got me thinking deeply into what may be in store.

Will my generation be the last to experience a tiger? Or what about a gorilla? A rhino? Will there be a wild place untouched by plastic?

These are some serious things to think about when in fact they are all very real possibilities. To think if manage to live to be 100, a feat in itself, how in 2098, all of these things, and more, could happen.

It’s terrifying.

What will this world be for my future children? Or what about there children? Will there be anything left?

We all need to change. Or else, there will be no future.

The air will be unbreathable due to pollution, the water poisoned, the soil will be barren, ice caps melted, storms raging, food becoming scarce, countless species committed to memory ceasing to walk the Earth, and so much more.

We have started something that will quickly move out of our control if we do not start to act.

Mankind needs to realize that out environment, our planet, is our most important asset. Not oil, not the economy, not plastic, not corporations or factories.

We have wounded our planet. And we’re the only ones who can fix it before it becomes terminal and it is too late.

So, let me ask you:

What do you think will happen if you live to be 100? What will future generations have left?

The origin of ‘the last melon’ idea

Now that I am a few posts deep in this blog, I want to take a moment to talk about where the idea for the name ‘The Last Melon’ came from.

Growing up one of my favorite childhood movies was Ice Age, a 20th Century Fox production that came out in 2002 which features the characters of a woolly mammoth named Manny, a saber-tooth tiger named Diego, and a sloth named Sid, who find a human infant and work together and embark on a journey to return the infant to its tribe.

So how does this relate to the blog?

In one scene that has really stuck with me though the years the group (Manny, Sid, Diego, and the baby) happen upon a group of Dodo birds on their journey who are protecting some melons. The group decides to fight with the dodo birds to get the melons to feed the baby and in the process the dodo birds ‘go extinct’ and the group gets the last melon.

This scene effectively utilizes humor to convey the concept of extinction to the audience by using the dodo bird, a well known extinct animal, and through their seemingly dumb actions to defend the melons from the group.

Toward the end of this scene when only one melon remains the dodo birds exasperatedly exclaim: “The last melon!”

And that my friends is where the idea for the blog was born!

‘The last melon’ phrase has stuck with me since! And when I was scratching my brain looking for a title for my blog. It dawned on me that the dodos had already given me my title.

Isn’t it funny how that works?!

I once read a line from Henry Jenkins’s book, Spreadable Media, that said, “…humans rarely engage in meaningless activities.” And it makes me think how incredible it is that a small phrase like ‘the last melon’ can hold meaning enough for me to relate it to Conservation Science and to share it with all of you!

So, now I’m curious:

If you run a blog, where did you get the idea for your title(s)? Do they hold any meaning for you?

Let me know in the comments!

The Green New Deal

(Author Unknown)

Conservation science and the health of the environment are very closely linked.

Without a healthy environment, no matter how hard you attempt to conserve a species or resource, it will ultimately be unable to survive because the environment will not be able to support it.

Mankind has been taking a toll on Earth’s environment and resources in the past 400 years creating all sorts of chaos for the conservation science world.

Just think about it–

In the past 200 years alone mankind has impacted the planet enough through deforestation, pollution, deforestation, and several other factors, to cause the Earth’s temperature and climate to increase at a rapid rate.

This is detrimental to our planet. Species of all kinds are unable to adapt to the rapid changes happening in the environment. In fact, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is DYING due to the rapidly rising temperatures and climate.

But this isn’t new.

Scientists have been noticing the increase in temperature, changes in climate, and mankind’s role in it all for just about 200 years.

If the use of fossil fuels is so detrimental to the environment why hasn’t it been outlawed? Is it because it will ‘damage’ the economy? Isn’t life and future generations more important than money?

The Green New Deal plan proposed by congressmen and women in the U.S. government has been under recent controversy for just that.

This plan outlines steps that need to be taken in order to ensure that the United States moves toward being environmentally responsible and hopefully help avoid the potential catastrophic impacts of climate change on future generations.

The GND outlines many important factors such as changes that need to be made to move toward being more environmentally considerate (the U.S. and other affluent nations tend to be the biggest offenders to the environment), and social issues such as wage stagnation and growing inequality in between economic classes.

Much of the push-back and controversy stems from the U.S.’s two main political parties basically being unable to agree on anything. That is not the only culprit however, as many people are also pushing-back on this proposal because of its ties to socialism and potential damaging impacts on the nation’s economy. Plus no plan is ever perfect and there are unseen flaws that would reveal themselves.

In my personal opinion, mankind as a whole needs to make some major moves for the sake of our planet and future generations that will follow us. I don’t know that the Green New Deal is going to be the exact way to go about these new changes, but it is a good start.

If anything is ever going to change we need to make a head-on-charge into the problem. If you don’t want it to hurt the economy, fine. Then figure out a way to change that also kick-starts the economy.

It is possible!

What it comes down to is that we must stop putting money before the health of our planet and the lives of future generations of people, like you and me, that will inhabit it.

What are your thoughts on the topic? I would love to hear them!

Inspiring Conservation: School Mascots

One of the best ways to inspire change is to start with educating children and younger generations on issues.

Today’s kids are going to be the future of our society.

They will be our future doctors, lawyers, judges, scientists, politicians, journalists, presidents and so much more one day.

From a conservation standpoint, today’s kids will be the future in either saving or further damaging the environment. So what is being done to educate them?

I caught up with my now 13-year old sister, who attended one of the local elementary schools in Western Massachusetts for a majority of her pre-high school years, to find out!

Q & A with Victoria K. on Conservation Education:

Me: So what elementary school did you attend when you were younger?

Victoria: I went to E.N. White Elementary School in Holyoke, Mass.

Me: Did your school have a mascot?

Victoria: Yes! We were the tigers and we were proud of it!

Me: Did you learn anything about the tigers while you went to that school?

Victoria: A ton! We learned that they were big predatory cats that lived in the jungle-regions of Asia, the kinds of animals they hunted, what their stripes were for, and that they were endangered.

Me: Did your class or school ever do a fundraiser to help out tigers?

Victoria: Yes! The school once a year would raise money to ‘adopt a tiger’ through the World Wildlife Fund.

Me: Awesome! Thanks for having the time to chat with me!

Victoria: Anytime!

A tiger and its cub. (Author Unknown)

What I got out of this conversation with my sister is that some schools that have an endangered species, like the tiger for instance, as their mascot, are educating the children that attend their school on the animal, its importance, and things that they can do to help.

If more schools started to use this idea of making an endangered animal their mascot and educating their students about its importance to the environment society might be able to make a big change in our views and motivation on conservation science.

Change starts with us, but future generations are the one who have the ability to take the idea and run with it!

Interested in symbolically adopting a Tiger or another endangered species?

Check out the World Wildlife Fund’s symbolic species adoption page to see how you can help!

Plastic: a silent killer

Plastic is beginning to overrun our planet.

It’s everywhere from the plastic packaging our food comes in, to the clothing we wear, to the containers we drink water and other drinks from, to the shoes we wear, cars we drive, flooring used in buildings, and so much more.

Isn’t that kind of crazy?

To think just a couple hundred years ago plastic, in any form, wasn’t even invented yet and here we are today in 2019, and plastic is in almost everything everywhere!

For instance, I am sitting here writing this right now and all of the clothing I happen to be wearing is almost half composed by some sort of plastic fiber. 200 years ago what I am wearing wouldn’t even be possible!

So what does my outfit choice today have to do with conservation science and the environment?

PLASTIC POLLUTION! That’s what!

A group of ducks swimming by plastic pollution. (Author Unknown)

After reading a post by Ihagh G. T. (they’ve got some really intriguing reads on environmental science!) on increasing amounts of environmental pollution despite efforts to clean and reduce pollution, it really got me thinking about how all of this plastic we are using is polluting our environment, choking wildlife, and damaging habitats.

Ihagh G. T. brings up some really interesting points in their post like pollutants impacts on the environment (SPOILER ALERT: they are NOT good), ways we are currently handling pollution, and factors that are increasing pollution beyond the ability to currently control.

One major point contributing to the increasing levels of pollution to include plastic wastes is rising population levels. If you remember last week I dedicated a post to the fact there is almost 8-Billion people on our planet and that brings with it some major problems we all must address.

Like did you know there is a huge patch of plastic waste in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that’s larger than the state of Texas??

Plastic pollution in our oceans is no joke.

There are thousands of marine species that are harmed by all of the floating plastics and wastes in our oceans. Sea turtles mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish and ingest them, fish of all kinds mistake small bits of plastics for food and die of starvation, sea birds will pick up bottle caps and other small plastic pieces thinking that they are food, bigger marine life like sharks, whales and dolphins are getting snared in abandoned fish netting, the list goes on.

Sea turtle strangled in netting. (Author Unknown)

So with populations and consumption rates rising, and quick, what can we do to protect our oceans, wildlife, and other natural environments?

There is unfortunately no simple immediate answer. BUT that doesn’t mean that there isn’t ways we can help!

One good place to start would be tackling our littering problem. Believe it or not, the ocean is NOT a dumping ground for all of our trash and waste. I know, crazy to think, right?

By picking up after ourselves and properly disposing of our waste, we would be keeping massive amounts of plastic waste out of habitats and the stomachs of wildlife.

Another simple thing we can do as consumers to reduce plastic pollution is BUY LESS SINGLE-USE PLASTIC!

Most of the plastic that ends up in our oceans comes from things like water bottles and cups, styrofoam, plastic bags, plastic packaging, and fishing gear.

So instead of grabbing another plastic water bottle, how about a metal or glass one you can use over-and-over again? Or how about you buy and use a reusable bag next time you go to the grocery or department store? Or invest in a metal straw so you don’t have to keep grabbing a new one?

The possibilities are endless!

We must change. If we have any hope of saving our planet from becoming the one featured in Disney’s WALL-E, we must act. Only we can save our planet.

Go Outside!

There really is no better way to develop a love and respect for our environment and wildlife than getting outside and experiencing our planet’s natural places!

Being from Western Massachusetts, the Mt. Tom State Reservation is one of my personal favorite places to escape to. It’s close, it is home to a ton of wildlife who depend on the protected area as their home, and it has a ton of hiking trails for people of all capabilities.

Photo of a sign of Mt. Tom in Holyoke, Mass. (Author Unknown)

As a photographer by trade,

It is only natural of me to bring my camera with me on excursions into nature.

You can check out some photos of one of my favorite summer hikes around the reservation below!

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Getting outside and into nature doesn’t have to be a big huge ordeal, it can be as simple as going for a walk around your local park or in some cases even into your own backyard!

What’s really important here is the connection you make with nature and the outdoors.

The more invested we are into our environment, the more we are going to be dedicated to protect it and all it offers both us and the wildlife that call it home.

So get outside!

Make a connection with the outdoors and natural world! You never know what you might find!

Conservation and Dr. Seuss’s ‘The Lorax’

Growing up in Western Massachusetts made me a fan of the works of Dr. Seuss from a young age. I remember when I was around 10 years old and found out that the town of Whoville in ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas!’ was based on the neighboring town of Easthampton and how flabbergasted I was at the fact.

Dr. Seuss, the pen name for Theodor Seuss Geisel, created many children’s books over his years as an author and illustrator. Some of my favorites include ‘Green Eggs and Ham’, ‘One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish’, and ‘The Lorax’ among many others!

The book I would like to focus on today though is ‘The Lorax’ and its connection to conservation.

The book cover to Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax.

This book goes over the story of a boy who lives in a polluted area and his visit to the Once-ler to hear the story of the Lorax.

The Once-ler tells the boy about his arrival in the area a long time before when it was lush and green and filled with Truffula trees, animals, and clean water and air. He then begins to tell how he began chopping down trees for his business needs. The Lorax then appeared to him hoping to protect the trees. But the Once-ler did not listen to his pleas and instead chopped down every last one of the trees. He polluted the air and the water in his wake.

The Lorax then left the once pure place and left only once trace: the word UNLESS.

Upon the Once-ler’s talk with the boy he realizes just what the word meant.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” –The Lorax, Dr. Seuss

The Once-ler then gives the boy the last Truffula tree seed to plant and advises him to grow it and protect it.

Dr. Seuss’s ‘The Lorax’ is an effective satire of society today and how corporations are harming the environment. Through the intriguing story-line and the use of unique and quirky characters like the Lorax himself, Dr. Seuss is able to convey to children and adults alike, the importance of protecting our environment.

If we poison our planet and our environment, there is no coming back from that. We will destroy ourselves. It is up to us to be the ones that ‘care a whole awful lot.’ because really ‘nothing’s going to get better. It’s not’ if we don’t step up now and take care of our wildlife, our oceans, our air, our whole environment now.

The choice is ours.

From Dr. Seuss’s, The Lorax

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

That’s a phrase you’re probably pretty familiar with right?

Going past the alliteration, this phrase actually outline a major component of environmental science and works its way into the conservation science discipline.

Here’s how:

The more we reduce what we consume; whether it be what we buy, how much water we use, or how much resources we take up, the more that is left for the environment to sustain itself. Think of reducing plastic packaging or buying less consumer goods! This action is the most important step of them all if you ask me!

If we reuse what has already been produced without having to use energy or other resources to change the item(s) it prevents us from using new resources! Think of going to a second-hand store or reusing an old t-shirt by cutting it into cloths!

Finally, if we recycle goods we can keep from using new resources of materials by using energy and processing to renew older materials! Think of recycled paper products or turning recycled plastic into materials for jackets!

By following on with the principle of reducing, reusing, and recycling, we can collectively conserve the natural resources our environment has to offer by leaving unused resources alone which enables the environment to sustain itself.

With this topic in mind,

I want you to go to this Ecological Footprint Calculator and see if everyone lived in the way that you live, how many planet Earth’s worth of natural resources it would take to sustain the human population. Once completed, if your result ended up using more than one planet, I challenge you to make two small changes in your day-to-day lives to reduce your impact on the environment!

Challenge your friends too!!

Conservation Genomics?

In the field of Conservation Science you typically hear about the declining populations of endangered species to include plants, animals, and even fungi. Their decline is most often linked to loss of habitat, changing climates, and in some cases poaching.

But there might be a reviving new scientific discipline that could potentially help mankind save endangered species and protect the global environment.

This discipline sprouts from the study of genetics and it utilized by conservation scientists to assess populations of endangered animals for amounts of genetic diversity remaining within the species DNA, evolution over time of the species, and many other genetic characteristics of plants and animals.

With the advancements in genetic mapping and overall genomics conservation scientists are becoming better equipped to be able to understand and aid ailing species more accurately and efficiently than ever before. The knowledge gained also allows scientists to understand the significance and importance of conserving and maintaining biodiversity on the planet.

If certain species are lost, like the Puerto Rican Amazon parrot for instance, it could severely harm the ecosystem it is a part of because it plays the essential role of a seed-disperser allowing trees and other vegetation to regrow in places where it has been removed.

But through conservation genomics the light shed on the species and others can help give them special attention and potentially another chance with proper human intervention.

Puerto Rican Amazon parrots are a critically endangered species of parrot native to the island of Puerto Rico.
(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo by
Tom MacKenzie)

The Center for Conservation Genomics is actually located within the Smithsonian Institutions right in Washington D.C.! It is here that much of the research into this discipline occurs that could help save countless species across our planet in the near future.

Who knows,

Maybe within the next 50 years or so the study of genomics and genetic engineering might be able to revive ailing and possibly even extinct species so they may again inhabit the Earth!

What I Can Do

Is my generation really going to be the last to see tigers living in the wild? Or the last to see a polar bear? Or what about a lady’s slipper plant native to North America? These are all some of the questions that I consider when I think about conservation science.

Now conservation science goes hand in hand with environmental science, if we collectively do not work at helping the environment things are only going to get worse no matter how hard you try to save a species.

So what can I do?

I often find myself asking this question. There is only so much one single person can do to work toward saving and conserving the planet’s wildlife if everyone else ignores the problem. I personally am always trying to find ways in which I can help make a difference.

Fortunately, there are many options to get involved with the conservation science movement. For instance, you can locate your local wildlife sanctuary and volunteer, you can donate to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund, your local wildlife sanctuary or refuge, or to the national parks, and much more.

When I was a senior in high school I volunteered at my local wildlife sanctuary in Easthampton, Mass. Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary , which spans from Easthampton into parts of Northampton in Massachusetts, and provides essential habitat for hundreds of species. It was here that I assisted a resident researcher with locating and counting the salamander population in order to gain knowledge on what was happening in the environment.

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  A salamander from Acadia Wildlife Sanctuary.

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  My friend Kavonnah holding one of the salamanders during our population assessment.

Fun fact!

Salamanders are known as an indicator species! This means that their presence or absence, abundance or changes in their population numbers indicate the health of the environment that they are in. The reason for this? Salamander’s skin is very sensitive to the air and its environment around it! If pollution in the area increases salamander populations would decrease. So looking to the little amphibians is a great way to start assessing the health of the local environment.

I am always looking for ways and opportunities to help the environment and conserve our wildlife populations. In fact just small changes in our lifestyles can help make a big difference in our environmental impacts.

The phrase reduce, reuse, and recycle is short and sweet but means a ton in terms of how we can change our lifestyle to conserve and save wildlife and the environment.

Do you have any ideas or experiences with conservation science or volunteering opportunities? I would love to hear about them! I’m always in the market to help out the environment!