The documentary, Before the Flood, depicted Leonardo DiCaprio interviewing different experts on climate change. He taught the audience about the driving forces of climate change and the carbon footprint humanity is leaving upon the earth. In one scene, DiCaprio went to Greenland to look at the water that went down into a moulin. He met with Jason Box, a professor at the Geographical Survey of Denmark and Greenland, and he told DiCaprio that if the climate stayed the way that it was then Greenland would be gone at some point. This documentary was very eye opening and showed that places, such as Greenland, would eventually disappear if we did not do something about it. Another eye opening fact was that if Greenland does melt, that would raise the global sea levels by several feet which is very concerning. If we do not want things such as the sea levels rising then we have to do something about it now. We have waited too long already to make a difference for the earth. I think it is important that we each start to do our own part in helping the climate such as eating less red meat and voting to put people in office that support climate action.
In the podcast From Stream To Sky, Two Key Rollbacks Under the Trump Administration, the hosts discuss the rollbacks that Trump’s administration has done. Ephemeral streams among other types of waterways will no longer be protected under the clean water act. Trump’s administration limited the number of waterways that would be protected which led to roughly half of all wetlands no longer being protected by the federal government. This is a huge problem because waterways that are not protected, although seen as small and insignificant, can eventually lead the pollution into bigger areas of water such as the Mississippi River.
In the podcast The surprising Origin Of Some Timely Advice: Wash Your Hands, the hosts discussed the childbed fever and how it was killing women after giving birth. It was found that more women were dying in the clinic run by doctors than the clinic run by midwives which was odd. It was later found that the doctors were not washing their hands after helping each patient and would immediately help another patient without cleaning their hands. In today’s world this sounds completely disgusting and cringeworthy but it is important to remember that they did not understand what germs even were. People did not understand the importance of washing your hands thoroughly. The hosts discussed this story because of the widespread panic that is happening because of the coronavirus. They mentioned that the CDC had said that washing hands is the number 1 step to avoiding the coronavirus. This has made me realize the importance of washing my hands after everything that I do in order to keep myself safe from germs and diseases.
Environmental Science 