Earth Day

This should be called "Earth Day, or my lengthy ramblings on the conservation of our planet." I wasn't really sure where I was going with this post and I didn't plan anything... I just started writing and this is what happened. FYI: it's long.

The idea for this post is long overdue (try 3 months overdue...), so I thought I'd use Earth Day as my excuse to finally write this. Today we celebrate the 42nd Earth Day, founded in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (holla), a day that paved the way for the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the passage of the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, huge steps forward in the political side of conservation.

Enough with the boring history, here's my history: conservation of the Earth is something I feel very strongly about. If you've ever asked me what I want to do post-college, I probably told you I want to be a Conservation Biologist. Then you probably asked what exactly that is/what that entails... to which I probably responded, "I have no idea." I'm still figuring out exactly what that means and what I want to do, but I'm fairly certain that I'm headed in the right direction.

I've had this path in my mind since about four years ago in high school*, when I was trying to figure out where I was going to college! I had always loved animals, and I thought I wanted to work with horses, so I thought I could be a veterinarian. I wasn't actually in love with the idea of being a vet, but I didn't really know what else I could do... until one day I was reading a National Geographic with a friend, and she said her dream job would be a photographer for NG. I played along and said something about how I could be the researcher from whichever random article we were looking at. I can't for the life of me remember what we were actually reading, but I must have been looking at a picture of some animal, because in that moment a switch flipped in my mind. Up until then I thought I would just take care of other people's pets, make lots of $$, and have my own horses, but that suddenly seemed so narrow-minded and silly (of course now, that sounds like a great, financially sound plan... but no regrets!). My 16-year-old thought process continued as such: "Everyone cares about the cute little puppies and kitties of the world... everyone wants a pet and they'll always be taken care of. But who cares about the wild animals? Who's going to do anything to help some endangered [insert name of a not-very-cute animal] that has no effect on the lives of the general public? Well, damn it, I am!!!" And the rest, as they say, is history... (although some may argue there was an important date sometime in those past four years where I suddenly became obsessed with birds - valid).

*Edit: My mother would like to argue when this actually began: "I would hearken back to the day you came home from kindergarten and said there was a lady who brought an otter to school and that's what you wanted to do when you grew up..." Touché, Mom. 

But I digress - this is about Earth Day! Although, this is my blog, so I can make it as much about me as I want!

Anyway, "conservation" and the "environment" are things that I care about a lot and I think about a lot.  And most people don't think this way. A lot of people just don't have that mindset. Way back in the beginning of the semester, we had a guest speaker in my Conservation Biology class, and he talked to us about "How to save the planet." In his presentation, he said:

WE PROTECT WHAT WE VALUE

THE EARTH IS NOT PROTECTED

THEREFORE, WE DO NOT VALUE THE EARTH

Obviously he meant those words to be poignant and powerful, and they were. It was those tragic words that got me thinking about this, 3 months ago, and it's been stewing in my head ever since... the Earth is in trouble: we have shortages of oil and water, climate change is occurring and it's having huge negative effects on the Earth, extinction rates are at record highs, and the main cause of these problems is the human population, which is currently on a trajectory to dangerously overpopulate the Earth (and threaten even more food, water, and energy supplies). There are people everywhere who are dedicated to studying these things, finding ways to negate the problems, how to actually implement changes, and every day people who live "green" lives. But no matter how great these solutions are, they will have little impact if the majority (if not all) of the general public is not on board. And that is the most frustrating part. 

Many people either don't know/understand the trouble the Earth is in, or they just don't care. I'm not saying everyone has to live without electricity, ride bikes everywhere and be vegan (I certainly don't live a perfect "green" life), but there are so many little things that everyone can do if they just believed that they could (and need to) make a difference. And a lot of it is just about awareness... making people aware of what the problems, and just what they can do to help... but it's a lot harder to actually change someone's mind. Many people do not believe that climate change is occurring. That absoulutely boggles my mind. There is actual, concrete evidence that climate change is occurring... and yet that holds no sway for some people. But that's just shows the different mindset that people have. I am a scientist, and I am prone to agree with something that has been tested and scientifically confirmed. For others that means nothing. 

That's just one of the many struggles of conservation that we have discussed a few times in my biogeochemical processes class (don't worry about it, I still barely know what the class is about...), how do we as scientists convince the skeptics that the science is correct? That Global Warming is happening and it's a problem. It's a really tricky situation, to try and convince someone that what they believe is wrong, and a few professors have said that they've just plain given up! 

My conservation biology professor has told us what a tough, thankless and sometimes heartbreaking field it can be to work in. Our job is to find ways (and money) to save animals/land that are being pushed to the edge of their limits. We might spend a huge amount of effort, time and money to save one species, just to find that 10 more have become threatened or endangered. How can we sustain the needs of nature against the needs of a growing population that is expanding against it? Some have compared conservation biology to the medical stations of battlefields; there are just so many "wounded" coming in that we have to pick and choose which are the best candidates for success. 

But despite the difficulties, there are success stories, and we are making progress. One of the most inspiring success stories is that of whooping cranes (love 'em): in the 40s there were only 21 individuals, but due to the dedication of a small group of people, they helped save the species and there are around 599 birds today!! Other species, like bald eagles and gray wolves, that were once endangered have now been removed from the endangered species list! We are developing more green technology every day, and a lot of people are changing their mindsets and making even the smallest choices that will help the planet. I am determined that someday I will be able do something to help, even if it's just saving one population or species, or educating the public. I do value the Earth, and I think it's worth protecting because we have to live here, as do generations to come, and what good is the Earth if it's damaged beyond repair? We can all play our part and contribute, large and small, to protect the Earth, because it's all we've got!! 

(Here are a few easy ways you can help the environment: Plant a tree, compost, bike instead of drive every once and a while, unplug electronics not in use, use travel mugs and waterbottles, recycle, and many more...)

Long, rambling, address over. Happy Earth Day.

xoxo

Hannah

winning and losing

I would love to make this a super up-beat and happy post about our win at Chicago, but suddently this week has become a much more complex mix of emotions for me. I'm so happy to say that this past weekend, the Ninjas went down to Naperville, Illinois to defend our championship title at the Chicago Invite and WE DID IT! We went 7-0 for the weekend, we had a lot of parents/family there to watch and support us, and we had almost our entire squad there working together beautifully the entire weekend. Coming back to reality and a week full of tests and papers and projects was hard, but riding that championship wave made it bearable, and seeing my girls every day at practice didn't hurt either.

Yesterday at around 9pm Liz and I were sitting in a cafe studying when the new USA Ultimate (preliminary) rankings were posted. We knew we would move up in the rankings since we had just won a tournament (and won all of our games), but I don't think anyone was prepared for us to jump 11 spots to 19th place! And as of now, we have 4 NORTH CENTRAL BIDS TO NATIONALS! At this time the team kind of flipped out, the group text went crazy, twitter feeds were blowing up, and facebook of course.... We are now a top 20 team! How nuts is that?? I am so so so so so so so proud of my team, how hard we've worked this season and how we've really come together to work towards our goals and become a tight-knit team and family. No matter how we do at Sections, Regions, if we make it to Nationals or not... I know we will push it hard through all of those tournaments and support each other and do our best. And that's all we can ask for! So that was kind of exciting! I don't think anyone could really concentrate on school work for the rest of the night!

But then when I came home I heard some sad news that my friend's little brother had died. I haven't actually talked to this friend in a long time, but we were neighbors growing up and we were good friends from kindergarten all the way into high school. This news hit me pretty hard, and I was just plain shocked for a while. It is obviously heartbreaking to lose any family member or loved one, a parent/grandparent, but for some reason it is always so much more tragic to lose a young person. All I could think of was how my friend must feel... or how I would feel in her place. I couldn't imagine it, and all I felt was overwhelming sadness for her and her family. I've never experienced the death of someone that close to me, and I don't know how I would respond. Although I've lost three of my grandparents, I think I was too young at the time to really understand...

All day today, my mind has kept going back to this. It made me at least slow down for a few minutes at a time and think about what I value and prioritize in my life, because it could be taken away in an instant. I (and I think many college students) tend to focus so strictly on school, working myself to exhaustion just for a deadline or a grade. My education is important to me, yes, but is it as important as being happy? How do I balance those things? Am I making the right choices to make sure I am living the life I want to live? Am I being honest with myself and with others as much as possible? And most importantly, am I surrounding myself with people who are supportive, people who I love and who love me in return? Do they know how important they are to me? Knowing how, as a fellow teammate so rightly put it, "shy and awkward" I am, I probably don't vocalize these things enough. Maybe I should try harder. Maybe they already know. I'm often reluctant to show my emotions and risk appearing vulnerable, but all these emotions are bottled up somewhere in here, and I wish I were better at letting myself open up and tell those people in my life just how much they mean to me. I hope they do know... but I think I'll make the effort to tell them anyway.