Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
In this podcast episode, Shane discusses climate change and pollution. He defines climate change as the overall change in the planet's climate, including temperature shifts and changes in weather patterns. He mentions the rising polar ice caps and increased droughts in various countries as examples. He believes that the rapid rate of climate change is due to the amount of garbage and waste being dumped into the environment. Shane also defines pollution as any garbage, trash, or litter that is harmful to the environment. He talks about how he has noticed a lot of garbage and litter around, even in places like his job's parking lot. He acknowledges that major corporations contribute to pollution, but also emphasizes that everyday people need to take responsibility for their actions and make efforts to reduce pollution. Shane wants to raise awareness about the importance of addressing climate change and pollution and encourages individuals to take action, whether through small changes lik Hello, everyone. My name is Shane and welcome to my first ever podcast episode This pilot episode could be the start of a whole bunch of episodes who knows But uh, I would need to come up with a title for that, but I don't really have one but uh anyways This podcast episode is going to be dedicated to talking about climate change and pollution and things of that nature so, uh Sit down grab a snack maybe and get ready to hear me blabber for a half hour Hopefully, it's not too bad for my first time. But uh, anyway, let's get right into it So kind of as a starting point, let's kind of try to define Pollution and climate change like what are they? Where do they come from and things of that nature? So climate change is Pretty much described as how the overall climate of the planet changes Well, that's pretty self-explanatory, but it's more so how the temperatures Kind of increase or decrease as a whole in certain parts so one example of this would be the polar ice caps and how they've kind of Risen in the total heat that they've been getting and melting away at a pretty quick rate But uh, it's not just temperatures It's also like how the weather and climate as a whole shifts in certain areas So it's not just ice caps It's other parts of the world that see warmer or colder temperatures or more severe weather or different weather Lately in a lot of countries including Australia the Western US and I believe Canada even has had some pretty high drought That's been increasingly common even here on Long Island There's been some droughts not like too bad, but like noticeable in some of the recent years so sort of as a baseline climate change is just like How has the planet been changing and it's not? completely bad a bad thing because The earth kind of naturally goes through these phases where it changes its climate, but what is been such a Problem in recent years is that the rate that it's been changing is pretty fast And it's likely due to the amount of garbage and waste that we are dumping into the environment So yes, it is kind of a problem at least in my books I know some people don't really see it as a problem and it's something I want to talk about as we go Deeper into the episode it's definitely one of the topics that I would like to cover so Yeah, climate change. It's a pretty important problem that I Don't think gets enough attention I think we kind of focus on other things and it kind of had a big wave in Like I don't know maybe 10 years ago, but I feel like I haven't heard nearly as much I think there's been other issues maybe rightfully so but it's still but I still think it's worthy of getting more attention than it really has been getting and So to kind of take you back off climate change. How do we define pollution? Well? Pollution in my eyes. It's kind of any garbage trash or litter that is harmful to the environment like Anything that we kind of just dump into the environment without really caring so it can come in forms of I don't know just a pack of cigarettes It can come from Sewage being dumped into lakes and rivers or something. It could come from really just landfills like pollution is all over the place and I this is something that I kind of notice is that I've almost been kind of Not I guess I would call it garbage death Sort of like tone deaf, but you kind of just don't really notice the garbage That's kind of hiding around you until you actually like really try and Actually look for it. I don't know I because we did a cleanup on campus Looking for some garbage and walking around campus. I never really noticed how much garbage there is just lying around tucking corners or The big piles of food wrappers containers cigarette butts. I mean, I don't know There's just so much lying around and I feel like I never really notice it This is something that I noticed at my job to now is that in the parking lot There's just so much garbage and a lot of people just don't really care Like I've seen people throw cigarette butts right in front of me onto the floor or throw their wrappers And this is a garbage can and not really care. I mean, there's just garbage everywhere like pollution it comes in many shapes and sizes and that's Another point that I want to talk about because I think a lot of people like to put blame on these major corporations Which rightfully so they do Contribute massively to the amount of pollution in terms of their factories and their garbage and stuff like that But still I see everyday people just throwing their garbage wherever they want or maybe they're not recycling or it could be any of those things So uh, yeah Climate change and pollution. I really don't like either of them, but I also kind of recognize that It's happening and I don't really I guess this is my effort to try and convince people Like hey, yeah, we really do need to do something. I really should just find a garbage can or maybe I should start recycling You know stuff like that. So let me start by asking a hypothetical question Uh How many times have you been walking around I don't know your job maybe walking to your job from your car or walking to school or Maybe just you're out shopping and how many times have you noticed? Someone littering or maybe you've noticed or maybe you've just noticed piles of garbage lying around or maybe you've seen smokestacks like from factories or Maybe you've just seen someone just dumping their garbage. I don't know. It could be anything Think of pollution. Have you seen anyone? Contributing I mean, I certainly have and I've certainly seen the opposite. So, uh Something that I've seen recently is on my way to and from school. I travel along a I guess I guess I would call it a main road Nichols Road and I've really noticed throughout the semester that there's just a ton of garbage on the there's a grass like middle divider Dividing the two one way like the two lanes on each side and they're both one ways So in this middle grass part that kind of stretches almost the entirety of the thing of the road there's just been so much garbage in so much litter and I kind of really took notice of it this semester, especially because we've been talking about it in class like talking about garbage and where it is and how often do we see it clean up stuff like that and Actually in the past few weeks, I guess the past month now there have been people In the morning go they're wearing their high-vis jackets. They have a truck They have pickers garbage bags and they've just been going up the whole entire road at least through The part that I've been on and they've been taking all the trash putting it in garbage bags And then they come back maybe a week later to pick them up in another truck and it's just been really interesting to see because I Mean this comes back to the tone-deaf or garbage theft that I've been talking about I feel like I never really noticed how much garbage there really is in that divider like there's plastic wrappers Containers like anything that you can imagine it's just in that divider like it all ends up there for one what through one reason or another and this Cleanup, I mean it just kind of felt like I don't know It felt kind of weird that I've managed that it just happened while I'm taking a course about environmental advocacy I don't know. It's definitely something that took note. I took notice of and I feel like it was a pretty good example of Something that maybe people could do if they wanted to advocate for the environment because I don't know if this is a I guess universal kind of view on advocacy, but whatever I thought of advocacy groups or Any kind of lobbying groups stuff like that. I always kind of picture big protests people with signs kind of just taking over maybe a street or a block or some area and Kind of just being in the way kind of maybe being a little annoying. I don't know I just don't really view them in a good light, but environmental advocacy is something that's completely different Well, maybe not completely different. There are still plenty of examples of environmental advocates or people doing Protests in favor of the environment where they do some crazy things I'm pretty sure there's been multiple times during NBA games where people have kind of just ran onto the court and sat down in protest I could be wrong, but I remember another protester throwing soup or something or spaghetti at the Mona Lisa, and I think that was for Environmental advocacy maybe I could be wrong on that But uh, I always kind of viewed it in this negative light where There's people doing silly stuff or kind of just wasting their time and not really I guess making an impact, but I've come to realize that just because that I don't really agree with what well their methods the message still kind of matters and they're not inherently inherently wrong with what they're trying to promote and Environmental advocacy writing especially has so many different ways of connecting to people There's poems. There's Reflections on trips like literally anything that you could write about involving the environment could potentially Change someone's views or maybe make people realize. Oh, this is something that I'm interested in There's a problem and maybe I could be a part of the solution or something like that But uh, yeah this work that I've seen on Nichols Road has really kind of I Guess open my mind up realize that wow, there are people that Actually do this stuff in person and the course has shown me all kinds of writing so I'm not a writer, but I definitely feel like I Would like to advocate for the environment in some way I don't think I'm the type of person to protest things like that And I'm sure not everyone is everyone has their own interests their own hobbies and their own ways but I certainly think that you can get a lot of people to back the environment and I think that's I Guess the most important takeaway from this episode, but anyway moving along I kind of went off on a tangent there, but I guess that's fine This is a pilot and I really am not sure. Well, I wasn't sure how I was gonna go about it but anyways Environmental advocacy and Climate change and pollution. Those are the three main things that I've kind of been yapping about so far and They're all kind of groundwork for what I would like to go into I think They're all kind of crucial points to kind of at least get familiar with before I talk about More I guess opinionated and subjective Stances because what I say is not set in stone. Like I'm not Environmental scientists. I'm not a biologist. I'm not a Meteorologist and I'm certainly not an expert in any field, but I'm going to try to give my best Effort at educated or at least maybe educating you guys the listeners about what climate change and environmental advocacy and Pollution really have like how they how they've changed and what it means to Support them or not really support them but stand against them so I think the main question we need to ask to I guess that the groundwork is that is pollution and climate change a Problem and I think short answer. Yes. I kind of talked about that Previously, but I guess we can move further into that by asking is it a growing problem and Long answer is I'm not sure I've done a little bit of research on Pollution levels in the environment and at least in some there's a good Heap of graphs and evidence to show that air pollution and water pollution Specifically have been trending downwards and that they kind of peaked maybe 40 50 years ago like mid 1900s mid 20th century, but uh, I think I can contextualize this a little bit in discussing how we got to these levels in the first place and I think almost everything points back to the industrialization of not just America, but the world and I mean The industrialization we switched from mostly textile work to heavy factory oriented work Where we would put a ton of people in a factory throw them on a sim throw products on an assembly line and kind of spit that out in like these huge quantities and these huge quantities of products required a huge quantities of resource or at least resource gathering so We saw tons of deforestation tons of mining tons of I guess maybe Maybe not at the start of the industrial revolution, but eventually I guess fracking was a big problem over farming just basically overusing the resources that they had and not really taking into account what their actions could potentially entail They weren't exactly worried about 50 years 100 years 200 years down the line and it's hard to In my opinion, it's hard to blame them and let me explain what I mean by that because How many different technologies things have we done? Well, not we but have been done in the past hundred years. How many new technologies have we had? there's been a ton the Internet has completely changed the way that we run as a society and there's Plenty of other examples of things that have literally changed how we work the airplane not a thing until around 1910 1915 These massive shipping container boats have completely changed how we ship our products planes as well, but uh do we When these were first being made did we think about? Oh, how is this going to impact the environment or or these resources gonna bite us in the butt in? 200 years that we're using now and I see I remember there's been some of this discussion when discussing I believe it's the batteries that we use in our phones like the I forgot what the name of the metal is, but it's Huge for like the mining for it. It's a super rare mineral or material and I remember there was being some question about the labor that was required to get it, but not really so much Oh, we're draining. Well, there was some about draining it, but I mean, I don't know it's hard to Think that in 200 years ago when there was no internet No, like it took days to contact people in other states even that oh Maybe one of them was concerned about the environment and how this would affect it Like I just find it hard to believe that that was something that they could even think about Like a majority of them were focused on providing for their families getting their kids into a job or into schooling for this few that were and I just don't think it was at the forefront of anyone's mind Especially in comparison today I think there's so much more knowledge about it now than there was when we first started industrializing rightfully So they I mean they didn't really have the tech or the knowledge. I mean in the past hundred years alone. We went from flying planes for the first time to landing on the moon for this first time and now I can sit here in my room and Blabber to a computer screen and anyone with access to it across the world can listen to it If you showed a child from the Industrial Revolution time this and you talked them right out of their factories I think they would go insane. Like I don't see any way that they would be able to comprehend this Much less comprehend the changes to the environment that was mostly a result from that change during their time. So I Think it's important to realize that this Industrialization is kind of like I guess a critical point or a Climax because most of the grass that I looked at Spiked from that time and they kind of started to peak 50 issues ago or around there When it comes to water and air pollution, but yeah that I mean I just don't think it's right to blame them in any ways and it's more on us to Mitigate and kind of learn from the mistakes of the past because we can't change the past. There's no way we could and But we certainly can at least try to change what the future holds so with that being said kind of setting the groundwork from the past why these graphs that I've seen have peaked and Why they raised so fast and why there's so much more Carbon and other waste products in the environment but I Think that climate change isn't just limited to how much air pollution and how much water pollution are being measured because Yeah, they've going down in most areas of the world, but not all like China and India are still premier examples of pollution I know It was a big story a few years ago that the air in China was so bad that at least in a Hong Kong Maybe It was one of the big it was one of their big cities Maybe the capital that the air was just so bad and polluted that you couldn't go outside without wearing a mask And you the sky wasn't blue. It was never blue even It was just constantly covered in smog like that's kind of crazy to think about Like imagine walking out of your house one morning, and it's just smog And it's like that every day like never seeing a blue sky Never seeing this on really like that is That's something you would see in a movie. It feels like like something out of Blade Runner. Maybe you were Interstellar, but like but like it's obviously not just China not just India like it's almost every major first world country and Including some of the second ones like anything country that has some industrialization and has Factories and whatnot like everyone is contributing like But that's kind of the sad reality of it like everyone is contributing and we have continued to grow as A race, I think we've hit 8 billion People this year or last year I don't know we like we're kind of exponentially growing if you look at a population graph Like how the global population has changed over like the past 300 years it is an Exponential increase like it is crazy. How much we've increased in such a short period relative short period of time and I think this trend is going to increase for a while until we eventually plateau for Maybe the reason is that we don't really have enough materials or resources to continue to support this which I think is a very Probable maybe not likely, but at least probable future Can our planet still support this growth and How will it affect? The species on the planet like we've already seen so many animals go extinct in the past hundred years How many more is it going to take until we manage to stop it or at least mitigate some of it? So yeah based on all these things I mean despite the relative decrease that you might find in some of the graphs online or like the ones that I found I Still think that it's a growing problem And this is only like those graphs are only taking into account air and water pollution for the most part like it's still not there's those they're not taking into account the Changes in environments like how much of the ice caps have disappeared in the past hundred years a lot I don't have the exact number off my head but I mean there's been major changes to the ice caps and other regions of the world based on the climate and Yeah, the earth does go through these changes, but there's so much faster and so much more sped up that I think it's worthy of Conversation at least like we there needs to be some effort rather than none. I mean just think about all the Resources and production that we're going to need to support this growth of people. I mean I another graph that I found is a Solid waste graph, and it's kind of the past the present and the future and It starts at 2016 and by 2050 It's expected to increase almost 150 percent in the amount of solid waste worldwide that we have Like where are we going to put all this trash like how is this trash going to impact the environment like we're going to be Using so much and throwing away so much as well, so Yeah, it's a problem I think it's pretty silly to continue to wait or maybe like put this on other generations because how many more generations do we have? really and like I don't think any of us want to see our kids or grandchildren as the last generation or the last normal generation where they have a normal environment to grow up in so Yeah, it's a growing problem And I think we need to put some effort in now rather than later to change it And we've already have kind of seen some pretty big changes Just in the past Decade ish like last year the Canadian wildfires huge huge Wildfire in Canada I mean it's not uncommon for there to be wildfires in Canada But the size that they were like they covered the the the smoke from the fires covered like the entirety of New York and down through the eastern seaboard not like down through but it covered a big part of the eastern seaboard in the u.s.. Like That's and it's not the first time like I know the cow I did some looking up research Apparently the Canadian ones that I'm referencing were caused Likely by lightning which isn't crazy uncommon But the conditions that allowed this wildfire to get so big and cover such a large area are kind of do in part to us Like the humidity the climate changed up there like there hasn't been one of that size and God knows how long if ever But it like I said, it's not the first wildfire Crisis that we've seen in Australia a few years ago It was I again looked up to see how this kind of manifested But it was mostly due to these crazy weather patterns which again could possibly be pinned on us people but again severe drought super high temperatures and potential human carelessness led to a Huge portion of Australia just burning up. I Mean, I know some of it can't be prevented wildfires happen. It is what it is, but Some wildfires definitely can't be prevented Let's look at California another one state a state in the United States that has had a history of crazy wildfires, especially recently There's little pic. I found these pictures that were kind of crazy to look at it's like us. They called it scars on the Forests of California from these wildfires where it's these big stretches of land It was like over a million acres the one that I saw just completely burnt to the ground and What I also found about wildfires in California at least in the past 30 issues is that they estimate up 86% of the wildfires have been caused by humans and they average about 60 acres apiece so I Don't have the exact number for how many wildfires there were but uh, it's an awfully lot of land That is being just completely burnt to the ground Due to human carelessness one way or another whether it's directly by just throwing cigarettes out or Maybe a camper didn't tend to their wild their campfire correctly, or it could be anything I don't know. I wasn't there, but I think that these are prime examples of What why we need to start doing something? What do we have to do? I'll talk about that a little bit in a little bit, but I Think to start Something that we could do is as Individuals we can become more involved in environmental work one way or another Like it really doesn't take too much effort to become I guess an environmentalist I would call it you just you literally just picking up trash or telling someone. Hey, don't litter recycle that or something like that in my book is Makes you an environmentalist. You just have to care for the environment It's really not that hard and if you want to go even further and join me a group or an organization to Further become involved like there's tons. There's dozens of them that are you could just Google Environmental work or environmental organization and so many of them are looking for volunteers or supporters to Join them and try and work towards whatever goal that they have in mind Some of them are working to protect animals. Some of them are doing trash cleanups on beaches. Some of them are trying to protect certain environments or Certain areas in the state or country that you're in I mean like there's so many like I think a popular one is the world wildlife foundation I don't really know too much about him personally, but I that's just kind of a name I'm throwing out there like there's so many different organizations and groups There's so many different ways that you can become involved like I mean even just picking up litter that you see It takes five seconds wash your hands right after if you don't like it I wouldn't recommend picking up like glass or needles or anything that could potentially harm you but like if you just see a water bottle a coke bottle a coke can I don't know like literally anything on the floor that Wouldn't really bother you or hurt you just throw it in the garbage can throw it in the recycle can like You don't have to join these huge cleanups You don't have to post on social media these cringy memes or whatever like it's not that hard And I think it's well worth our time to do these things like I mean I don't know I know a lot of people don't do these things a lot of people do contribute to litter and a lot of people do Why do they do that? I don't know what goes on in their heads But I guess they really don't care and I think part of it is education and by no means am I saying that oh these people are dumb they litter they Aren't as smart as me whatever I'm saying that like we need to be more like open and engaged in these potential conversations like if you see someone throw Their cigarette butt on the ground be like hey, man There's a garbage can right there, or it's whatever like it's not something that we should be just kind of standing by and idling Like not to be like a Karen or like a pest, but like it's kind of Like as opposed to the alternatives, I think it's kind of worth it to kind of hound someone about throwing stuff on the floor I mean we read a short story flash fiction type piece in class about a dude literally getting ran off the road and Dragged back to where he threw his cigarette butt on the floor like yeah That's a really really over exaggeration, but like just saying hey, man. Don't throw that on the floor I see you that's not very nice of you or something silly like that Like it doesn't hurt, and we don't have to be these super super Advocates we don't have to be these like superhero type people We don't we're not perfect like I understand that But it doesn't hurt to try and I think trying will get us somewhere as opposed to not trying But yeah Another part about not I guess Contributing to the environment is that some people just like to blame other people for the environment and think that oh This one cigarette, but this one coke can this one water bottle whatever on the floor isn't really going to matter it kind of does If you think if you take I don't know 10,000 people that think like that That's 10,000 and you make them throw it out instead of throwing it on the floor that is 10,000 more cigarettes water bottles coke cans Whatever that are not just sitting in the road or sitting in the grass and it adds up like I Mean I know some of them. I kind of get their thinking they want to blame These huge corporations like not to say that these ones that I'm naming are some I don't know who the worst offenders are I really like it's hard to find this information. I guess because no one wants to openly admit to ruining the environment, but uh Think of like the Gulf oil spill. I think that was shell. Maybe that was like I don't know maybe 10 12 years ago. Wow that was a long time ago, but uh like They dropped how many tons of oil how many? Gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico like that's pretty bad like I can easily see how You could ask how some person would be like oh This cigarette, but it's nothing compared to the millions of pounds of oil or barrels of oil that were leaked into the Gulf of Mexico last year Hypothetically, but like but like imagine your kid came home failed his math test, and he was like oh, it doesn't really matter My best friend Jared also failed his math test that doesn't justify it Just because someone does something wrong or someone fails at something doesn't mean that it okay or anything like it's not a good way Of thinking like it's not fair to be like oh It's on them and not on me to do anything because as individuals we vastly outnumber The big corporations that you're trying to blame and we add up I know that they maybe dump out more They probably make more pollution than any individual will make in a lifetime But compare that to the 400 million people in America for example roughly maybe it's a bit less than that But still like 400 million people are gonna create a lot of garbage, and it's not fair to be like oh I could just throw my garbage wherever I want, but these huge corporations like maybe one like shell for example with a big oil spill I Mean yeah, that was really bad, but 400 million people who also don't care about the environment is arguably worse like I don't know I just don't think it's fair to pin blame on anyone like Blaming people is just gonna get us nowhere like it's time to put our heads together Individuals corporations random dude on the side of the road It doesn't really matter like it's time to like be a collective or like be a whole like It's this individualistic mindset that we have is not gonna get us anywhere at all And it's not fair to blame specific countries like I know I referenced India and China earlier They just happen to be some of the top Contributors obviously it would be beneficial to make them not the top contributors, but someone's gonna take their place as a top It's just kind of how that works obviously I still think they should reduce their emissions They should reduce their pollution stuff like that again as a whole we need to come together be like yeah, this is a problem Yeah, we can fix it Saying oh, it's on shell. It's on Nike. It's on Burger King whatever That's not gonna get us anywhere, it's not on China specifically to fix the global The global climate crisis, and that's one of the other big takeaways that I would like my audience to take away From this episode. I don't think it's fair to blame anyone The world as a whole industrialized the world as a whole is continuing to grow It's not on any individual to take the load and let anyone else I guess sit back relax and do nothing and continue to Do these bad habits and others also kind of moves on into the last thing that I want to talk about where I want to Go into like specifically ground pollution. How is it gotten worse? What historically has made it bad and how as individuals can we contribute to? Reducing it and how can maybe big companies or? countries Contribute to reducing it and the same thing with air pollution and water pollution. How have they changed historically? Who's contributed? Why is it they're being contributed contribute contributions? Sorry to them, you know stuff like that And I think the first one I want to start with this ground pollution because in my opinion, it's the most It's the most applicable to individuals. I mean, I know big companies and whatever Like there's big landfills stuff like that. That's not I mean that's partly individual but we can't really like we can't really Just leave our trash around they kind of have to go to these landfills and whatnot and going back to what I talked about earlier About the Nichols Road though with all the litter and the people that I saw picking up the trash bagging it and then grabbing it Maybe a few weeks later. That's a great example of how as individuals we can produce Our impact our footprint I guess or impact on ground pollution like just Picking up some trash every once in a while. It doesn't have to be like, oh, I every weekend. I'm gonna go to the beach and Pick up garbage for two hours like not everyone's cut out to be that that's completely understandable It's much more realistic to do it I don't know once a month once every other month once every six months It really doesn't matter as long as you're contributing some way somehow I can't kind of I can't complain like There's no there's nothing wrong with picking up garbage Even if it's just once in a while like even if it's just when you see garbage Lying around like you don't have to go out and do cleanups you could just even if it's just picking up after others like it's can't really complain about that like that's great and Furthermore, maybe just don't litter in the first place and maybe talk about that with people that you know So like if ten people listen to this episode and they hear this part about talking to people about littering And they tell every each temperate people tell one person and then each person that they tell us is another person That's gonna exponentially grow. I mean like It could easily reduce the amount of people that are littering So even if they're not littering not everyone litters not everyone to puts garbage on the ground. Not everyone is An offender, but I mean just really any way that we can it doesn't hurt to try I think I said that earlier like the best effort is at least some effort and Furthermore, I guess recycling. I know my family recycles. We do paper cans bottles stuff like that But uh, I'm almost positive There are plenty of areas not areas But I guess people that don't recycle or maybe there are areas that don't really recycle as much. I know in In our County, I don't know if this is a universal thing in America. I don't know specifics, but we have the Garbage men on certain days. They'll pick up a cardboard or paper They'll pick up this paper garbage days and on some days maybe they'll pick up bottles stuff like that. I mean, even if there's just Recycling can that you have and maybe you bring it to a recycling plant. I don't know I mean like there's plenty of ways to recycle There's plenty of ways that you could support recycling. I know that I don't know how Valid this is But uh, I've bought shoes from Nike that they claim are made almost at least I think it was a hundred percent It might have been close to a hundred percent, but almost a hundred percent Likely from completely recycled materials and they were pretty freaking cheap too, especially in terms of Nike Just buying recycled products like I know some that might look bad and Your taste is up to you. I can't force you to buy something. I can't force you to do anything really but Supporting recycled products supporting companies that recycle donating to recycling agencies I mean, there's plenty of ways that we can contribute to reducing ground pollution however, I think these giant landfills that we have as Individuals it's kind of hard to do anything about that. Like we've got to have garbage. We're going to have that and These giant landfills. I don't really I could not tell you a solution to that to be honest Yes, we could burn it, but then we're kind of creating air pollution. Maybe we can recycle it Maybe we can compost it but composting it would take God knows how long because plastics take maybe 200 years to deteriorate I really don't know. Maybe we could take all our trash Make a giant crater and like the middle of I don't know Nebraska or something where nobody is and just throw all our garbage in that for I don't know 50 years dig down Maybe like three miles giant crater a mile wide three miles deep But then again, we'd probably fill that in a year So I really it's hard to say what is a realistic way to reduce these landfills that are Peppered all over at least America and in a residential areas. It's there's plenty of landfills peppered around but uh another point that I think is important is farming and I know you wouldn't really think of farming and Pollution in the same breath maybe but it had it was a pretty big problem Pesticides were a huge problem in the late 20th century I believe because they realized that oh these are actually really bad for the environment and a ton of them got banned and moreover from pesticides over farming was a huge problem to win a especially in America in the South and Midwest because we over farmed the crap out of these areas that already weren't very suitable for farming and the dust bowl happened where these huge dust storms came up because the ground was so dry and kind of I Guess rinsed of all its nutrients and I know this is a problem Or at least it has been a problem in the past this one statistic I found estimates that about a third of the world's soil is infertile because of unsustainable land-use management practices a third that's kind of crazy and If we continue to grow we're going to need all the soil or at least grow population wise I'm going to need all the food that we can harvest But uh, most of these problems with farming has been somewhat solved crop rotation or rotation farming and even just letting the Leaving the ground that they formed at one point so that it can recover and re Nutrient or recover. I guess a lot of practices and things have been banned to kind of promote Better farming practices, I guess that's kind of I kind of just spoke on myself, but whatever But yeah farming has been a problem in the past There's a lot of good things in terms of farming that are happening there's a two big ones that I kind of found one of them is kind of like zapping the soil with electrical pulses to I guess it kind of gets rid of all the toxic Nutrient well not nutrients But like all the toxic waste and stuff in them and they kind of just go around Zapping the ground a little bit and it makes it better I really don't understand how that works, but it's been tested a little bit and it seems to be working Another one is a called bioremediation where you kind of they kind of just throw a bunch of microorganisms in Maybe not so good soil and they go in and they eat all of them pretty much like they get rid of it They make it better and it's pretty natural too. So it's I mean as long as the Bacteria and microorganisms organisms that they're using aren't really harmful in any way I seems like a really great way to make our soil better Again, there's plenty of more plenty more Problems that cause ground pollution. I mean Mining is one of them kind of just tearing a giant hole in the earth Explosives that are used stuff like that But There's plenty of ways to at least try to reduce our impact on them. I know Reforestation has become pretty popular recently. Well, not maybe recently but in the past few years a youtuber. Mr. Beast he planted I don't even know how many now, but he's planted probably at least a million trees and that's crazy Like if even if one person just trying to plant that one tree would be amazing He went out and planted a couple hundred thousand a million is we're gonna he has a whole organization dedicated to it like there's Plenty of different ways for us to become involved at least in ground pollution We can't go and stop mining. That's probably gonna be around for as long as humans are around but uh, Yeah, I think I want to kind of pivot away from ground pollution now and talk about air pollution Which I guess we can't really it's not as Applicable for us as individuals to reduce our air pollution emissions because I mean everyone Well, I mean there's some ways I guess the most obvious would be to buy an electric car But uh, they're pretty freaking expensive They're not cheap and it's not in everyone's budget plan to go out and buy a $30,000 Tesla Hopefully in the as time goes on they'll become a lot more affordable but uh It's really hard as individuals to prevent air pollution we kind of there's a lot of things that we need to do in our daily lives and a lot of these things kind of promote or contribute to air pollution emissions cars are probably the most generalizable and the only really solutions that I can think of for Transportation our public transportation buses are a great way trains are a great way for this and One of the things that really bothers me is that I think in Japan they have these bullet trains that can go Across the country in a few hours or maybe it's China I'm pretty sure it's Japan though and these we don't have anything like that in the United States and that's kind of crazy to me if we had a Maybe there's costs. Maybe there's contracts I don't really know but a bullet trains seem like they would be a wonderful thing in the United States especially to connect the east and west coast and The Midwest I mean like even if it's just one line like that could Be such a an affordable travel type and you're not flying on a plane that's gonna burn through God knows how much fuel and These bullet trains use magnet systems like they're not really using that much fuel It's mostly electricity and unless your car is electric trains Like I don't I mean like electric anything really sounds great to reduce air pollution I know a lot of it comes from factories burning fossil fuels A lot of it comes from transportation. I mean, it's kind of hard as Individuals to really reduce it. It's mostly on bigger I guess the bigger groups to make decisions that would Lead to reduction in emissions, but we can always lobby for them We can always argue for them and maybe we'll be heard. It's hard to I guess I can't really guarantee anything with it but uh One I did find one kind of piece of technology that was kind of big a few years ago And it was these artificial trees, which I've heard of it's kind of like these Weird high-tech looking things that don't really look like trees, but uh, they suck up carbon dioxide and Recycle it I guess would be the best way to put it. I Mean, I haven't really found much about them recently Most of the hype around them seems to have gone away They still seem pretty cool like anything that can suck up carbon dioxide and make it Recycle it making it to oxygen or anything like that. Even if it's not a real tree. I mean that sounds good Sounds like something worth our time. I mean air pollution is a pretty big problem, especially like I said before the smog in China and It's actually a pretty big cause of risk factors for dying a lot of People exposed to high air pollution end up dying due to complications that could be related to it This was another this is another thing that I didn't really touch on with ground pollution and farming and pesticides is that our food source If there's pollution in our food sources that kind of hurts us as individuals, too If we're not eating Clean healthy foods. We're going to suffer from it and it's the same thing with breathing clean healthy air So how much longer are we going to put up with like this stuff like how much longer how many more generations until The air isn't really breathable in all in many parts How long until the food that we eat is tainted from pollution like and this also goes with water Which is the last main kind of pollution that I want to talk about I mean, I know there's sound pollution, but that to me isn't really as big of a focus as These core three in my opinion at least but uh water pollution Sewage big contributor in the past a lot of people just dump their garbage into the water I don't think I've personally seen it But I I mean look at them at the amount of garbage on the beach A lot of that stuff is bound to either go into the ocean or have come out of the ocean And those are just the oceans like think about all the countless rivers and lakes all over your state your country, whatever They're bound to get some trash in them to use one way or another It's not great to say the least something that I actually did a project on when I was younger is acid rain and Acid rain is kind of Described as rain that is I guess Acidic obviously But it kind of corrodes the stuff that it comes into contact with like metals and stuff at a much higher rate Like it's pretty bad, and when I was like I don't know in fifth grade we threw the science fair My dad helped me out with a project where we nailed vials out to a bunch of people we knew across the country And we had them collect samples when it rained Water samples, and we tested the acidity of them and I don't remember the exact results that we got but we found a ton of disparity in range in the areas or at least in the Range of the acidity of the water And I think we also had some people collect tap water to test that too, but the point is is that acid rain? It the levels definitely vary I'm sure that somewhere that is highly populated like New York City has much worse acid rain I don't know the countryside in North Dakota or something like that And I think we found that a little bit in our in the science project is that some of the rain some of the ranges We're due to could be due to The in dust not really industrialization, but uh like more highly populated areas is what I'm trying to get at Had higher levels of acid rain, and I think that's what we found. I'm almost positive But uh acid rain is just one part of it again, that's more of a grand scale of polluting into the That's also kind of ties in with air pollution. I couldn't tell you the exact science of it, but Water cycle is pretty simple water evaporates Condenses in clouds rains out so I definitely think that air pollution could tie in as well as water pollution for acid rain But uh yeah, that's a little tidbit from my childhood of experience with Acid rain, and I don't think it's a thing that a lot of people are familiar with and I think it's something that people should be more familiar with Knowing that the rain that is supposed to be clean water isn't clean is kind of scary And it could definitely get worse if we leave it be More stuff that could get a lot worse. I know I talked about oils was before I believe it was deepwater horizon was the one that I was mentioning I could be wrong on that But that was a huge event tons of oil was filled into the Gulf of Mexico so many Animals were affected so many environments were affected But a props to them for eventually cleaning it up and trying to mitigate the damage Again that kind of sucks that it happened, but I can't really change that it happened obviously in the future I would like for it to never happen again, and hopefully these company these oil drilling companies are have taken plenty of precautions to Not let something like that happen again. Who knows maybe they haven't but uh oil spills are a huge problem And moreover in these like water pollution category There's a giant Islands of trash floating around in the ocean in fact. There's two really big ones in the Pacific Ocean. Thanks for the current and That's literally insane to me the fact that there are islands of trash kind of circling about in the ocean How does that happen? How is that like how does no one really care about that that is? So beyond the crazy to me that there are literal islands of chat trash. Thanks for the currents in the ocean I believe in the Pacific Ocean there's one on Closer to America, and there's one closer to Asia because of the way that the currents. I guess flow I Don't really know how to describe it other than that but there's a patch on the right side and well I guess on the America side and the Asian side and Thanks for the currents that there's more and more trash ending up in these giant Great Pacific garbage patch as it is called but uh like that is just it's insane to think about that there are literal garbage patches that can Be described as islands And dumping in the oceans is a serious problem And I think that more there has to be more regulation there has to be some way to do it I don't care how I don't care if you send people Like little Coast Guard to patrol to escort people. I don't care how it gets on. I think it needs to be done Some way these and someone needs to at least try to clean up these patches. I don't care if it's the United States I don't care if it's Japan. I don't care if it's someone in Asia. I don't really care who does it I? would love to advocate for this, but I don't have the slightest clue in how I would get the resources or Materials to clean up something like that. Maybe someone is working on it I don't know, but there is a Western and Eastern garbage patch floating around in the Pacific Ocean and that is just insane and I think it really speaks volumes about how we need to as individuals and as Corporate companies and whatever reduce our garbage that we are throwing out and just leaving in the environment Because Garbage patches in the ocean are probably just the start of it If this continues they're going to continue to grow in size And there's probably gonna be more garbage patches in more areas in like on land or maybe we'll see giant garbage patches in the sky somehow who knows but uh Like this is just insane that it's gotten this bad I know that as a whole we've been trying to get better But like what is going on with this no one seems to want to put the time or resources in at least From a country like governmental standpoint no one seems to really care about it like I see this as a huge problem like there's little animals There's animals living in these environments and these animals could become our food they support the environment that they live in it doesn't like There's so many different reasons that I could go on and do a whole another episode about this I feel like about why these garbage patches are a problem, but uh Those I think in my opinion are the biggest problems in at least concerning water pollution These garbage patches just dumping in general leaving which end up kind of leaving microplastics, which again is another huge topic But chemical dumping just dumping in general and I guess tragedies like the oil spill Again these it's hard to kind of put this as an individual Standpoint and I could see why where the blame would be on companies especially in the case of the oil spill But again, it's we have to at least do something we have to advocate for it somehow and this is my way I guess of advocating for better conditions and less pollution Who knows maybe? The leader of shell will hear this and reduce all their emissions by 100% who knows but I've kind of been waffling for an hour now about climate change and pollution and all these different things that Are happening and can be done. So I'm gonna try and wrap it up but uh, another thing one last thing about water pollution is uh, I Saw a tick tock or something about these Trash boats, I guess you would call them going up and down rivers and I think it was, California and they were just Collecting garbage just Right out of the river and into the boat. I don't really remember how exactly it works I kind of lost the tick tock. I couldn't find it But like there's these efforts being made to clean up the waterways and that is great. I think we should support Organizations like that. I think we should support these movements whether it's monetary with money or just Reposting them showing it to a friend I really don't care how we support it as long as we're supporting it and this goes for all kinds of pollution if you see Someone that comes with some generational. Oh my god, this could solve air pollution ground pollution farming problems, whatever I do not care. I think it's on us to continue to spread these ideas Funding well, maybe not everyone can fund them but at least support them That's the biggest thing support them contribute some way I know I've been harping on this a lot probably some effort is better than no effort in my opinion But as a quick recap talked about climate change, what is it? What is pollution? How has it kind of? Changed over time What are the different kinds of pollution talked a little bit about each kind of pollution and what is going good for them? What is going bad for them? What could we possibly do as individuals and what kind of falls to? Greater collective like governments or companies and Again, I just want to hammer this point home one last time before I finish is that this sort of seesaw effect with Individuals on one side and big companies or governments corporations, whatever on the other side I really don't think that it should sway too far one way I think it's on both sides to Kind of to like clean up the environment like if it's just the individuals doing the pushing on the seesaw There's only so much that we can do we can only get up so high I mean then it's really on us to egg on the big companies corporations, whatever on the other side to Also put their foot forward and also push off and do stuff to help the environment I really think it's on both sides to contribute and it shouldn't fall on one person in one country one One state one whatever everyone has their own problems But I think that a global problem like climate change and pollution is something that as a whole as a global community We need to stand up for and I really I really hope that all the blabbering that I've done About talking about climate change pollution like all the things that have changed over time The recent tragedies all this stuff that I've been talking about the ways that you could get involved. I really hope that Some of it I guess would rub off on people and they would start to realize. Oh, yeah, I could go and clean up the park nearby I could just do that once every once in a while or I could I Realize that I litter a lot and that's not really a good thing of me and I'm gonna stop littering I mean, I don't know. There's so many different ways that people could contribute to the environment There's so many different ways that as a person I can contribute again I'm not a big protester kind of person. I don't think I'm a big writing kind of person But doing this is cool. It's fun It's ways for me to I guess spread environmentalist ideas in a way that I kind of enjoy I guess or at least that I think I enjoy I don't really know. This is my first episode Will I enjoy it if I do ten more episodes? Who knows? Will you enjoy? Cleanups after one cleanup. I don't know. Will you enjoy cleanups after ten cleanups again? I don't know. There's so many different Options that we have you can go and protest coca-cola or Nike or someone? I really don't care do something get up off your butt out your chair. I know this was a long podcast Episode it's coming up on an hour So yeah Get up stretch your legs go run over to the nearest park pick up some garbage run up to the nearest Big company that you know, like maybe it's a Walmart. Maybe it's a target who knows and be like, hey Stop polluting or do something. I don't really care as long as you're helping out But yeah I think I covered almost everything that I wanted to cover and I hope that there was at least something that you could take away And maybe apply in your life from this or maybe there's something that you didn't know and you've learned something Wouldn't that be cool? But uh again my stance. I think it's important that both sides both Me my brother my mother my father My cousins your mother your father your cousins. I think it's important for all of us to contribute in some way and Maybe if we all contribute Maybe we'll just maybe we'll have a better future and yeah I would like to thank you for making it this far through a whole hour of me blabbering. I couldn't imagine Sitting here listening to myself for an hour blabbering, but I'm gonna do it anyways So, yeah, thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed it
