Perennial: The Undergraduate Environmental Journal of Berkeley - Issue 5

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RESEARCH

E D IT O R IA L

H PAPERS

Right Here, Right Now: Evolution, Human Activity, and Climate Change Written by Khaled Alqahtani Designed by Lauren Bae Evolution is commonly thought to be a biological process that requires millennia to take place.

And while this may hold true, we actually have witnessed the evolution of different species in our lifetimes.

Whether it is the color of a mouse’s fur or the shape of a finch’s beak, different traits evolve depending on the conditions shaping the species’ environments. Human activities have shaped and shifted those environmental conditions, which can be seen in the effects of climate change. This has led to the evolution of traits that may impact and harm the vitality of different species in the future.

Dr. Caroline Williams, an associate professor at the Integrative Biology department at the University of California, Berkeley, studies the evolution of metabolic physiology in response to novel climates that are emerging because of climate change. As an expert in evolutionary biology, and a science communicator, she delves in this interview into the public’s perception of climate change and evolution, what we can do to combat and reverse the damage that has been done, and the need for hope to move forward.

Non-experts generally think that evolution is a very long process, when it can actually be witnessed within one’s lifetime. How would you describe this general conception?

“It’s true that a lot of what we know about evolution is on the macro-evolutionary scale from studying fossils and reconstructing long term patterns of evolutionary change. But actually, evolution is happening every minute and every hour, even inside our own bodies. When you think about things like the evolution of antibiotic resistant bacteria all the way up to insects adapting over

“ I THINK THAT WE ’ RE CHANGING THE WORLD AND . . . EVENTUALLY, IT MAY BECOME DIFFICULT FOR US TO EXIST IN THIS NEW REALITY ” generations to changes in their environment—these changes are happening within our lifetimes in front of our very eyes. So I think it’s a continuum from micro evolution, all the way up to macro evolution.”

As a researcher whose work involves the study of evolution, how would you simply define it?

“Evolution is the change in gene frequencies over time. And a lot of evolution happens due to natural selection, where genetic variants that improve fitness rise in frequency.”

In this case, how do environmental conditions shape an organism’s evolutionary trajectory?

“The environmental conditions that an organism experiences will impact their fitness and their ability to grow and survive and pass on their genes in that environment. So, the traits that are advantageous in a given environment will tend to increase in frequency, while adaptation or traits that are disfavored will decrease.”

“I think we sometimes think of environmental changes being sort of unidirectional and going in one particular direction.

However, environments are fluctuating on scales from seconds and minutes to days and

hours and to weeks and years. All of these timescales are interacting.

And often fitness is fluctuating on different timescales—the traits that make an organism more fit will change through the day and through the seasons, and then through longer timescales. All of these layers of environmental variation sort of impact their response to selection.”

As you’ve mentioned, fluctuations in environmental conditions are constantly happening, either on a daily basis, or on a larger evolutionary timescale. For example, we’ve seen fluctuations in temperatures throughout history. And as a result, losses and gains of certain traits. But those changes happened naturally.

How would you say human-induced effects contributed to those environmental changes and fluctuations?

“If we’re talking about climate, specifically the Earth’s climate, it has always been in flux. So, we’ve got these very long-term climate fluctuations. But during the entire period of human evolution, the Earth has been in a very mild state—our entire evolutionary history has taken place in a very stable period of temperatures.

And if you look at those temperatures, you’ll notice they have started to increase after the Industrial Revolution, and it looks like this classic hockey stick. We’re now seeing that the average temperature conditions are steeply climbing outside of the range that has existed during the

entire human evolution. And it’s pushing organisms to change and adapt their ecology and evolution, much faster than has ever happened before. It’s one of the fastest rates of change that we’ve ever seen.”

What is an organism that has evolved due to this rapid change and unprecedented heat in temperature as a result of human-induced effects?

“We’re seeing that organisms that live inside cities are adapted to warmer conditions. Cities tend to be hotter than rural areas because of the high amount of concrete and non-permeable surfaces. So, you get this urban heat island effect. Researchers have studied thermal tolerances of organisms that live across the boundaries of cities and found that thermal tolerances are higher inside the city than just a few kilometers outside the city, suggesting that there can be rapid evolution of thermal tolerance in response to anthropogenic changes in climate.”

Does this rapid evolution of adaptations impact the species? If so, can this impact be harmful?

“I think that it’s hard to answer that on a species-by-species basis because we can’t really say whether a given change is good or bad. What we’re thinking

about is the ability to pass on the genes from one generation to another. If it makes the organism more fit for its new environment, which is human altered, then that’s good, right?

But it may also reduce fitness in an altered environment. So, I think we need to be really careful of what we mean when we say as a change, good or harmful because it’s a very specific environmental context that we’re applying that judgment to. On the whole, what I’d say is that we’re seeing a decline in specialist species that have a narrow niche, and that we’re seeing an increase in generalist species, which often tend to be weedy or pest species. And the result is a more homogenous, globalized sort of environment, where we’ve got fewer high abundance species. In some cases, that can lead to less resilient ecosystems.

And it can also reduce other aspects of nature that we care about because a lot of people, like myself, really value biodiversity and all the special unique species and feel very sad about the loss of those species.”

“There are a lot of ways to say what’s good and what’s bad. I think that we’re changing the world, and the biosphere has a great capacity to adapt. And we’re also changing things very fast. Eventually, it may become difficult for us to exist in this new reality that we’re helping to create because of the rapid speed of change. And that’s something I think we need to think carefully about as we choose our course of action.”

What would you think could be potential individual or larger-scale efforts that can at least attempt to reverse the damage

that has been done on various environmental conditions worldwide?

“I think that the most important thing is that we need to rid ourselves of our reliance on fossil fuels. And not only on fossil fuels, but also on just using energy in such a profligate manner. So we need to all work to reduce our footprint on the Earth, reduce the amount of plastic we’re using, and reduce the amount of energy and fossil fuels.”

“That’s going to mean different things to different people.

For some people, it may mean switching their diet. For some people, it may mean putting on more clothing instead of cranking up the air conditioner. We need to protect our remaining wilderness areas by conserving wilderness. But that’s also a complex issue: who are we conserving it for? And who are we taking it from? In order to do that, issues of racial justice and equity have to be considered really carefully. I think that educating ourselves individually about conservation, justice, and equity are some of the most important steps that we can take.”

As a researcher who also worked in science communication, how would you say we can make concepts, such as climate change and conservation, accessible to spread awareness of such devastating effects?

“I think that people need a message of hope, and not of doom and gloom. Although we often deal with the doom and gloom as scientists day to day in our research because we see the huge deleterious impacts that climate change is having, we need to find a way to motivate people. And hope is a much more powerful

motivator than fear. And we need to connect it to people’s everyday lives so that it becomes something so that people see themselves as part of the natural world, not standing over and above. In my own teaching, I try to bring in examples that people can relate to. And I want to work more towards bringing the local community involved in the research—doing outreach to schools and making community connections. So it starts in the classroom, where it makes it a learning community who works together to solve problems and then takes those ripples outwards into the community beyond the classroom.”

Why the Insect Crisis Should Really Bug Us

by Thuy-Tien Bui designed by Andre Zendejas

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When the Ocean Changed Color: RED Tide Events in San Diego, California

by Ava Haddock designed by Leanna Yu I. Glowing

Scripps Pier Chlorophyll Program began in 1983.”

It was 1 a.m. in Encinitas, CA, and the ocean was glowing. Three surfers were a thirty-minute walk from their cars and the roads. The streetlights were blocked by the bluţs. It was pitch black except for the ocean, glowing.

III. Restricted Access

Every time the water was disturbed it glowed an “electric blue” one of the surfers remembered. “When the wave crashes that’s when it’s most intense.

[There’s a] a big ťash on the whitewater, which is super sick.”

The surfers jubilantly paddled out, leaving a blue smokey trail in the water.

Their hands glowed as they dipped into and out of the water. When “your buddy’s paddling out… you kind of like cut back and you just spray your friend with blue water…I remember being able to see the eyebrows on his face—like, the water glows? It was so bright.”

The beach at night feels completely diţerent—every sense is stretched. Surfing in the bioluminescence, you can’t see the waves form behind you. You feel yourself rise and fall with the ocean. It’s blind—when you start to see the wall of black water rise, just turn around and start paddling like hell.

It’ll catch up to you and then suddenly you’re being pulled along with it.

The ocean is pitch black except for “the bottom of the board glowing on the edge,” but suddenly you throw yourself over the top of the wave, and, as the water crashes, everything begins to glow.

A few nights aǁer Ben’s birthday, it was 10 p.m. on the same beach. Tod Adams, owner of Encinitas Surƹoard, was paddleboarding. Standing on his board, “the front, the tip of the board, would just be streaming through the water and that way you would see the color come oţ the board as well.”

Adams isn’t new to algae blooms; he has been surŤng in San Diego for a long time. To him, what was remarkable about this bloom was by surŤng in it, he was risking large Ťnes and arrest.

“When we got out of the water, there was a helicopter that basically chased us out of the water with a light, following us up on the beach, and up the trail to our car, making sure we weren’t going back in the ocean.”

Adams said it was a police helicopter, making sure people didn’t surf.

It was April 2020, and in San Diego, no one knew how COVID could be spread. Every school was sent home, and almost every church service was moved online. SurŤng was banned.

Ben just got this random wave and it just pitched over him and he was in the barrel, and it was glowing and you could see his whole body. It was super cool.”

COVID beach restrictions changed a lot at the beginning of the pandemic—at Ťrst no beaches were open, then one beach for all of North County. It made for “kind of a weird scene with everyone trying to get onto the beach right there and getting yelled at by the lifeguards and police.

Keep walking. Keep running, no stopping—pretty bizarre. Even at night, there were still lifeguards down there trying to make sure that two people weren’t there,” described Goldstein.

This is the night the ocean glowed, as told by friends Ben Goldstein, Jacob Bear, and Timothy Wright.

This upset a lot of surfers. Timothy Wright said the restrictions “just didn’t compute…It made me, like, want to do it more than ever.”

II. Abnormal Levels

IV. “The smell was overwhelming”

In late March 2020, a sensor oţ the coast of Del Mar noted abnormal levels of suspended bacteria in the water. The weeks before, it had rained 200% more than normal, and the surface temperatures of the water were some of the warmest continual temperatures on record. The rain diluted the surface waters until they were stratiŤed and signiŤcantly less salty than normal, and it also washed fertilizer and other excess nutrients into the ocean.

The water is so murky that you couldn’t “see your hand under the water,” said surfer Grace Keefer. A strange artiŤcial-looking foam begins to build on the sand, thick and dirty. She said that “even not knowing that much about algae blooms, it felt unhealthy.”

“

None of these factors by themselves might’ve been relevant, but together they created the perfect storm for a tiny algae oţ the coast of San Diego to grow and divide, grow and divide, grow and divide. A few weeks aǁer the rain stopped, the population of a tiny plankton named Lingulodinium polyedrum had grown exponentially. The tiny eukaryotes covered the entire surface of the ocean. This is called an algae bloom.

L. polyedrum are bioluminescent dinoťagellates—tiny glowing microorganisms. When agitated in the dark, each organism’s scintillon organs use pH gradients to release luciferin, a naturally ťuorescent molecule. Each single organism of L. polyedrum is 35 to 50 micrometers across—which means each is between 35 to 50 millionths of a meter across. And yet, when their population blooms, they can turn the entire ocean electric blue.

While algae blooms aren’t abnormal in San Diego, the bloom in April 2020 was unprecedented in its strength and longevity. One of the surfers remarked, “I’d seen it before, but it was nowhere near as intensely blue and vibrant.” In post-bloom analysis, scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography concluded that they had recorded “the highest cell numbers of L. polyedra ever recorded at Scripps Pier with 9 million cells per Liter on April 27th. The previous maximum was just under 1 million cells per Liter. Scripps scientists also measured the highest chlorophyll concentrations since the

Wright remembers getting out of the water and having what they called “the red tide stink. It was just like… your wetsuit stank a diţerent kind of stank.”

There is a certain beauty to the strange luminescence of the algae bloom at night, but when the sun rises, there’s no avoiding its aţront to the senses. At high concentrations, L. polyedra’s reddish-brown chlorophyll turns the ocean red, brown, and gross. And that’s not to mention the smell.

When there’s suddenly large numbers of dinoťagellates in the water, there are also suddenly large numbers of dead dinoťagellates in the water. These begin to decompose in the water column, and these rotting eukaryotes are the Ťrst part of the stink.

The gnarlier part, though, is decomposing Ťsh. Decomposition requires oxygen, of which there is a Ťnite amount in the ocean. When the dinoťagellate decomposition uses up all the oxygen, the water becomes hypoxic, Ťsh cannot properly breathe, and they die.

Not all algae blooms are harmful, but when they begin to harm the surrounding marine life, they are designated a Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB).

The sheer amount of decomposition the bloom in 2020 made it harmful.

All over the beaches of San Diego, there were washed up dead Ťsh, birds,

and shellŤsh. This was especially true in the coastal lagoons, where there was not enough new and clean ocean water ťowing in and out. There are pictures of the Agua Hedionda lagoon, one of the biggest lagoons in San Diego County, with hundreds of dead Ťsh ťoating on the surface and washed up on the sand.

Cori Schumacher, a former professional surfer and former city councilmember of a beach town in North County San Diego, remembers receiving emails from her constituents “almost daily, from people who were really concerned about the loss of life. Clearly something was wrong. People didn’t understand that it was an [algae bloom], and the [bloom] was sucking up all of the oxygen. And so they thought there was… something just really, really wrong.”

L. polyedra is also known to produce a yessotoxin in small amounts. For a long time in San Diego, surfers told anecdotal stories of feeling respiratory irritation aǁer swimming in the red tide. Goldstein described walking back up to the road aǁer surŤng in the bloom: “By late mornings, you’re pretty tired on the way back up the cliţ. [Aǁer swimming during the bloom], I noticed a little bit more chest tightness.”

year-round and stretch into places they’ve never been recorded. In 2021, scientists declared that four million acres oţ of the Gulf of Mexico were a hypoxic dead zone for marine life.

Dr. Anderson is very hesitant to draw any links between the individual algae bloom in 2020 and any speciŤc anthropogenic cause. When looking for connections, she says it ends up being a guessing game, trying to answer, “how much of this is natural? Can we tweak this knob and change things a little bit? How much of it’s really the climate?”

Even with the uncertainty, it wasn’t a far jump for many people to assume the intensity of the algae bloom was due to the impending eţects of climate change. It was 2020, there was a global pandemic, an election, and the ocean was browner than anyone could remember it ever being. When Schumacher, who at the time was trying to manage a city’s response to a pandemic and the economic crisis it caused, saw the algae bloom, she thought, “Can it get any worse? Like, is the world really ending right now?”

VI. Nothing to be done?

“

The fact that there were detectable amounts of the toxin in the water attests to the sheer size of the bloom, as the plankton produces very small amounts of it. It’s unclear if this toxin contributed to the marine life mortality, but it is clear that unlike the bloom itself, the toxin “can persist in certain ways in the environment that we don’t have a lot of information on still,” explained Dr. Clarissa Anderson, the Executive Director of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

But, even when I’m just on the ťy, I enjoy just swimming out in the water. It’s just being in the ocean,” explained Wright when asked why he surfs. Jacob Bear shrugged and said, “I mean, I only applied for colleges on the West Coast just because I can’t really leave the ocean. It’s the place where I grew up, and I can’t see myself being apart from it… when I see people trashing the beaches and stuţ, it kinda, I guess, angers me? I feel like I’m kind of protective of that connection.”

Algae blooms shiǁ the entire functioning of the oceanic ecosystem. There’s no way to capture the entire eţect—how many Ťsh die, or what repercussions it will have on the upper level of the food chain. Most times, it eventually goes away. But before that can happen, the ocean is covered by a mat of browning rot, and all there is to do is wonder what’s going on underneath.

Life in San Diego County is inextricably linked to water. There’s never enough freshwater, and drought turns every lawn and hillside brown. And yet, people spend the summers submerged– surŤng and swimming and dozing on the sand. Growing up on the coast, most kids learn about the danger of rip currents, the wonder of seeing a pod of dolphins, and the freedom of beach bonŤres. The ocean provides food, tourism, and weather.

V. “Natural and benign” Lingulodinium polyedrum is an armored dinoťagellate. Covered in scraggly and ridged plates; a Scripps Oceanographer in 2005 described the vaguely geometric plankton as “a Brussels sprout covered in wooden plates that runs around a lot.”

It’s photosynthetic and motile, not quite an animal or a plant.

L. polyedrum are primary producers, increasing the availability of dissolved oxygen in the water column and providing food for the copepods and other grazers that eat them. They are part of what makes the ocean in Southern California able to support so much life. Dr. Anderson described their services as “extremely important in fueling Ťsheries productivity.” And yet, when algae blooms out of control, it can be a “double edged sword.”

Algae blooms have been monitored by the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System since 2008, and there is chlorophyll concentration data from oţ the coast of San Diego County reaching back to 1983. Dr. Anderson said that she used to describe these events as “benign…

Prior to that event, I would have always said it was benign.” The scale and longevity of this bloom caused many people to wonder how much of it was anthropogenic.

I’ve been surţng for about eight years.

For me, it’s just about experiencing God’s great creation and the water and having an excuse to be in the water all day.

The feeling you get from great turns, it’s just like nothing else. Like, dude, it’s like you’re Ťoating on the water.

And yet, nobody took action when the algae bloom occurred. Dr. Anderson said that there aren’t really any decisions on a local city or county level that can reduce their intensity—“Blooms are going to be connected to much larger policies and human behavior that are oǁen regulated at the state or federal level.” Cities can manage education and community engagement, or make sure their streams and stormwaters are clean. But what can you do when the entire ocean changes color?

When asked about the city’s response to the algae bloom and the way it aţected long-term water quality policy or community education policy Schumacher said, “Collectively, nothing was done. It was understood that this was a red tide event, and it would naturally move on, and that there is nothing that can be done about it.”

Humans exacerbate algae blooms through nutrient pollution and climate change. When it rains, the water collects fertilizer and other pollution as it ťows towards the ocean. When this polluted water reaches the ocean, the fertilizers and waste that it carries provides excess nutrients for the bacteria in the ocean. It gives them all the resources that they need to bloom.

In a city of people dependent on the ocean, no one really understands why the algae bloom was so strong, or what it means. What’s going on in the ecosystem—the ways that the temperatures are shiǁing and if they’re permanent, if the Ťsh populations have recovered, whether the kelp beds will come back, where the yessotoxin will accumulate, and if this is all our fault—nobody knows. The world is on the precipice of immense change, and we have no idea what strings we’re pulling.

As the climate changes, the ocean is expected to be warmer and more acidic.

The surface waters will mix less, and upwelling patterns will change. All of this will make it much easier for algae to bloom. The EPA has explained that “with a changing climate, harmful algal blooms can occur more oǁen, in more fresh or marine water bodies, and can be more intense.”

The ocean turned blue, and the ocean turned red, and, meanwhile, it was still Ben Goldstein’s birthday. So three friends went to the beach at midnight and walked thirty minutes along the sand to their favorite surf spot.

They paddled out, hands and boards glowing, and “it was awesome—just, like, some of the most pure fun I’d had in forever.”

This is already occurring across the world. The Mississippi River collects runoţ pollution from the entire Midwest, from Chicago to every farm in Kansas. All of this ends up in the Gulf of Mexico, where this pollution and warmer surface temperature have allowed algae blooms to occur almost

(1) Dr. Michael Latz, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2)https://www.surfertoday.com/environment/red-tide-invades-the-waves-of-bondi-beach

Image Sources:

Written by SHARAN N KALKAT K LK KA KAT A Designed by KRISTA VILLEGAS Muddy burrows of water permeated by humidity sustain one of Earth’s most magical phenomena: the mangrove forest. These forests are found around the world in tropical and subtropical coasts, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Dominican Republic, and Pakistan. Serving numerous ecological purposes, these forests are of great importance to many communities. Unfortunately, human activity and

climate change threaten these the areas where mangroves are remarkable forests and their removed for aquaculture and unparalleled composition. large-scale farming projects, the effects of soil erosion are seen As an adaptive method, man- almost immediately. For the grove roots are on stilts, allow- land, this protection against ing oxygen to flow through high tides and saltwater erosion pores on the root’s barks. This is necessary. Additionally, a enables the ecosystems to play a study done by Marine Environcritical role in walling off tsuna- mental Research showed that mis, floods, and extreme winds. the rate at which atmospheric Mangroves are very productive carbon declines is much faster in in counteracting erosion, and, in a mangrove forest than it is in

most other wildlife forest habi-

leading to clearing of forests

Conservation project,” Peterson

tats, making it important to

then leaving them as barren

further stated, “was Seacology’s

keep these habitats intact for the sake of carbon emissions

wastelands when farming is no longer viable. Thankfully there

largest project. It combined mangrove conservation and

reductions.

is a broader awareness of the

replantation

impact of farmed shrimp, and

ty-based sustainable livelihoods and constructed a world-class

Their substantivity is not limit-

with

communi-

ed to ecological significance, as

subsidies, such as those given to Sri Lankan shrimp farmers in

they also sustain entire human

decades past, are no longer an

closure of the project in 2020, Sri

communities. For thousands of years, Indigenous communities

obstacle to conservation.”

Lanka as a nation has kept up the

in over 80 countries have survived off of several functions that mangroves provide such as utilizing the flora and fauna that source life from the forests as well as their wood and sap that is burned and used for

Shrimp farming is not the sole perpetrator. According to an article published in BBC News, palm oil plantations and rice paddies made up around 40% of mangrove forest destruction within the period of 2000 to 2012.

sustainable building materials.

Broadly speaking, these forests have empowered healthy communities for many millennia.

Yet, considering the ongoing climate crisis and large-scale commercial agriculture, these vital ecosystems are now imperiled.

Seacology is one of many leaders in international mangrove conservation––with over 80 of their 350-plus island conservation projects involving mangroves. While talking with Seacology special initiatives manager Karen Peterson about current threats facing mangrove forests, she stated that “Inappropriate commercial development remains the biggest threat. In past decades, shrimp farming has taken a huge toll on mangrove areas,

Another encroachment to mangrove forest protection is tourism. Over the past several years, coastal tourism has increased globally and development has sadly destroyed these forests, especially in countries with economies that rely heavily on tourism such as the Dominican Republic. Indigenous peoples throughout these communities suffer heaping consequences due to bustling tourism, exploitative operations, and lack of global knowledge and acknowledgement surrounding these vastly critical ecosystems.

Despite massive threats inducing mangrove extinction, there are many ongoing conservation efforts by various NGOs. “The five-year Sri Lanka Mangrove

mangrove museum. Since the

momentum.” Currently, the NGO is working on a country-wide Dominican Republic Mangrove Initiative, which is a five-year campaign to educate the public about the importance of mangrove ecosystems for coastal resilience as well as carbon sequestration and sustenance. The initiative also supports community-based mangrove conservation projects to engage coastal residents in preservation and restoration of their local ecosystems. These projects include economic opportunities such as mangrove ecotourism and beekeeping.

Likewise, the Global Mangrove Alliance aims to grow global mangrove habitats by 20% by 2030. These conservation efforts have been extended from the Galapagos Islands to places like Indonesia and Pakistan, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

In four other countries––Mexico, Madagascar, Fiji, and Colombia––grants have been set in place to strengthen sustainable management of over 2.45 million acres of mangroves, consequent-

Mangrove Trees in Bandung, Indonesia, Photo by Jimmy Kohar; https://500px.com/p/alexanko?view=photos ly storing 2 billion tons of carbon while protecting over 300,000 people surrounding the coastal forests.

However, the climate crisis has been prevailing for the past few decades and now is the critical time for mitigation and adaptation. When discussing varying mitigation strategies, forest preservation and afforestation are some of the leading methods of carbon sequestration.

Although imperfect, preserving and rebuilding forests––especially

particular man-

With over 60 species growing throughout several waterlogged coastlines, mangroves are

of both disaster mitigation as well as carbon sequestration is increasingly vital amid the ongoing atmospheric and geological deteriorative operations.

considered by the World Wildlife Fund to be a prime “nature-based solution,” meaning that many strengths to overcome climate change challenges already exist in nature. This is especially true in mangrove forests, which are estimated to store over four times the amount of carbon stored by other tropical forests. Provision

Regenerative development and management is an incredibly crucial part of supporting populations and also keeping these valuable coastal ecosystems thriving. Indirectly, mangroves and other forests provide several economic benefits to vulnerable populations. Young marine life such as juvenile sharks,

groves––is a tremendous tool in the fight against climate change.

alterations

while

developing

roads and seawalls in the early

science and technology have advanced to become large

2000s. This was addressed by

vessels of change. “There have

constructing freshwater chan-

been studies relating environmental engineering to dead

nels to encourage healthy salinity levels and fertile trees.

Currently, there are also engineering efforts to help create a sufficient exchange of seawater without interrupting river drainage. As research into sustainable management continues, coastal engineering projects are more capable of gathering adequate site assessments, methodologies, and documentation that subsequently create more successful conservation projects.

grouper, and parrotfish commonly grow within mangrove waters and swim out to coral reefs as they mature. Sustainable offshore fishing and well-conducted reef tourism are therefore heavily reliant upon sustainable mangrove life functions.

The question that now arises is whether engineering research is advanced enough to take on certain conservation efforts

While some conservation efforts do fail at times, there are ongoing research and engineering efforts to aid in rehabilitation.

For example, 70% of the Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta, a 511 square kilometer mangrove

such as mangroves. In an interview, Maureen Muñoz, an environmental engineering intern for the Environmental Protection Agency, described that “research is generally more localized or begins at a small scale. When we start considering large-scale implementation, such as desalination treatment for Los Angeles County, for a general environmental engineering example, then it becomes more complicated because desalination at a large scale is very expensive.”

reserve in Colombia, became decimated due to hydrological

Throughout

recent

years,

zones in our coasts, growth of harmful blooms, hydrological studies relating to impacts of climate change, and more,” Muñoz added. Yet, as also noted

by Muñoz, public policies and funding are rarely found to be allocated for local populations to be able to generate environmentally beneficial outcomes for damages that larger entities have perpetuated.

Mangrove conservation can be used to create positive impacts amid the current climate crisis.

Efforts in current mangrove conservation as well as in broader coastal and environmental engineering research should not be considered futile, and, in fact, are largely responsible for maintaining current healthy mangrove forests.

Mangrove forests are beautiful natural wonders that foster livelihoods and sustain all forms of life. In the face of the global climate crisis––the greatest public health crisis––more and more people from every stretch of land will benefit from mangrove conservation. It begins with education and wide-scale acknowledgement of both Indigenous land practices and nature-based solutions.

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Coexisting, Composting, and Co-becoming:

Justice in Multispecies Worlds Written by Elaine Zhang Designed by Dakota Margolis Ecological disaster continues to ravage the Earth, devastating human and more-than-human lives alike. A term coming into popular usage to characterize our current geological time epoch is the Anthropocene, from the Greek root anthropos meaning human, emphasizing how human actions are found responsible for both transforming and destroying the planet. In light of enduring environmental inaction, what will it take for humanity to help nurture a habitable planet?

Addressing the pervading issues of environmental destruction requires a reorientation in our understanding of nature. An ongoing concern is that present frameworks of environmental justice and climate justice have done little to meaningfully question one of the entrenched causes of the environmental crisis: human exceptionalism.

Historically, the supposed superiority of the “civilized human” was used to justify the conquering of those deemed inferior, whether that be Indigenous peoples, more-than-human beings, or nature as a whole.

An emerging framework that attempts to challenge the status quo is multispecies justice, which calls for the inclusion of multispecies and morethan-human perspectives, as well as a decentering of the human. In order to imagine truly just, sustainable futures, as Crist et al. puts, we must not be standing on the precipice overlooking the world. Challenging anthropocentrism and the dichotomy between “human” and “nature,” multispecies justice demands a new, expanded form of justice.

What is justice? Who and what deserves justice?

Celermajer et al. writes that traditional Western notions of justice are contingent on “personhood”: those typically “white, male, cis-gender, heterosexual, abled-bodied.” These ideas have been challenged manifold by others, with some questioning the distinction between humans and other living beings, or those advocating for the dignity of ecosystems. The idea of “multispecies” emerges from these challenges to further resist anthropocentric ideas of worth through the acknowledgement that all life is deserving of justice and recognition.

of the World looks to matsutake, a highly prized mushroom in Japan. From commercial processes, cultivation, histories of logging and forest destruction, as well as its ecologies, Tsing tracks the dance of various agents—forests, pines, nematodes, and humans—in shaping the unfolding story of matsutake. Mushrooms exist within multitudes, as do we. “Luckily there is still company, human and not human. We can still explore the overgrown verges of our blasted landscapes—the edges of capitalist discipline, scalability, and abandoned resource plantations,” writes Tsing. Matsutake are able to sprout up in midst of ecological disturbance, within the ruins, and thus offer a glimpse into possibility for living.

According to Celermajer et al., multispecies justice “insists on the need to account for other beings, with their own radically diverse life projects, capacities, phenomenologies, “Our very existences ways of being, functionings, forms of integrity, and are rather the result relationalities.” With roots of countless interspein environmental justice, the animal liberation movecies relationships: the ment and post-humanist microbiome in our scholarship, as well as Indigenous philosophies, guts, the food we culmultispecies perspectives tivate and consume, build upon those ideas to offer more robust, meaneven interactions with ingful, and nourishing ways infectious agents.” of engaging with our world.

Sympoiesis, or “making with,” is what Donna Haraway, a prominent scholar, calls upon in the recognition of multispecies entanglements. Nothing is self-made, self-organizing, or autopoietic—including humans. Our very existences are rather the result of countless interspecies relationships: the microbiome in our guts, the food we cultivate and consume, even interactions with infectious agents. All kinds of life have been and continue to be involved in complex and dynamic relationships of multispecies assemblages.

Practices of “passionate immersion” attentive to worlds beyond humans characterize multispecies studies. Anna Tsing in The Mushroom at the End of the World looks to matsutake, a highly prized mushroom in Japan. From commercial processes, cultivation, histories of logging and forest destruc-

Because multispecies justice is very much an emerging framework rife with new ideas and exploration, there is still much work to do. Tensions are bound to arise even within the field itself of ethicality. For example: to what extent should humans interfere with the relationships of other species? Conservation efforts may entail killing invasive species to help local ecosystems. There is a continued need to try to address such difficult moral questions.

Others have posited that multispecies justice frameworks must also engage further with work addressing Indigenous self-determination and critical race theory. Justice for morethan-humans also requires justice for humans. To bring about multispecies justice, it is key to address and resist the injustices around the world where people have been denied basic rights, endured vast inequality, and are constructed as less-than-human. The right to a safe and healthy environment, too, must be inalienable. The concept of a more sustainable world is irremovable from a more just world, and vice-versa, as demonstrated by multispecies entanglements and also more broadly by environmental justice activists.

Although multispecies justice remains primarily a debate within academia, some are looking to

Although multispecies justice remains primarily a debate within academia, some are looking to its practical applications in the real world and the struggle of institutional recognition. To cultivate flourishing multispecies worlds, it will be necessary to also garner widespread support beyond those typically concerned with animal rights or environmental issues. Perhaps finding unlikely allies, such as in social justice movements, will be an integral piece.

Sources

Climate change now threatens the very fabric of the world. It will leave us with countless refugees, human and more-than-human alike as the effects of environmental destruction play out along uneven lines: the topography of differential vulnerabilities constructed by racism, classism, sexism, speciesism, and more. In these troubling times rife with anxiety, Haraway positions her response to resist cynicism and unrealistic hope.

https://www.dukeupress.edu/staying-with-thetrouble

Haraway evokes the term “staying with the trouble” as a practice for multispecies worlding. In looking towards equitable climate solutions, we must neither hope for silver-bullet technological solutions to save us nor fall into pessimism. Staying with the trouble entails attentively responding to the present. And while acknowledging its complexities and imperfections, we must cultivate and critically engage with tangled multispecies connections, “becoming responsible at all sorts of scales and configurations.” In doing so, we can come into a new understanding of being with the world, as part of a larger map of lively interrelationships.

As Haraway writes, “Lots of trouble, lots of kin to be going on with.” The end of the Anthropocene does not require the end of humanity. Yet, there is a demonstrated need to re-envision new worlds and modes of relationships to rebuild from our ruins.

We must embrace daring, disturbing transformations for the possibilities’ just, alternative futures: communities of compost, of kinship, and of multispecies flourishing—and do so tenderly.

https://wires.onlinelibrar y.wiley.com/ doi/full/10.1002/wcc.733 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09 644016.2020.1827608 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09 644016.2021.1957615

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc77bcc

The Fact and the Fantasy of ESG Investing

by Colin Mequet designed by Trisha Andrews Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is WUDQVIRUPLQJ ÀQDQFH ,Q DQ LQdustry known for sponsoring environmental degradation and worker exploitation, investors have diverted around $20 trillion into funds aimed at delivering sustainable and social LPSDFW %ORRPEHUJ SURMHFWV ESG to represent one third of total assets under management E\

and select companies based on their commitment to environmental, social, and corSRUDWH JRYHUQDQFH YDOXHV %\ channeling investment toward UHVSRQVLEOH DQG HWKLFDO ÀUPV more capital is made available to these businesses who can, in turn, outperform their compeWLWLRQ $W WKH VDPH WLPH LQVWLtutional and individual investors can reduce exposure to climate risk (like government UHJXODWLRQ DQG OLWLJDWLRQ

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racial and gender parity in the boardroom—the governance pillar—are straightforward to measure and compare, it is the environmental and social criteULD WKDW DUH H[WUHPHO\ GLIÀFXOW WR FDOFXODWH ,QGHHG (6* UDWLQJ SURYLGHUV have to gather data from incomplete and unaudited corporate disclosures that are often manipulated to portray the FRPSDQ\ LQ D SRVLWLYH OLJKW 7KHVH ÀUPV WKHQ H[WUDSRODWH and interpolate this data, according to their own methodolRJLHV WR ÀOO LQ LWV JDSV )LQDOO\ they rate the company’s global ESG compliance—once again, according to their own weightLQJV DQG SURFHGXUHV What has stemmed from this uncontrolled system for assessing ESG compliance is a multi-billion-dollar ESG rating industry comprising companies using inconsistent, unstandardized data collection DQG LQWHUSUHWDWLRQ WHFKQLTXHV 7KH 86 6HFXULWLHV DQG ([change Commission formally acknowledged this much, commenting, “[ESG] factors are not GHÀQHG LQ IHGHUDO VHFXULWLHV ODZV DQG PD\ EH GHÀQHG LQ GLIferent ways by different funds RU VSRQVRUV 7KHUH LV QR 6(& ‘rating’ or ‘score’ of E, S, and G, and while many different private ratings based on different ESG factors exist, they often GLIIHU VLJQLÀFDQWO\ IURP HDFK RWKHU µ 7KH ODFN RI VWDQGDUGL]DWLRQ among ESG funds creates a PDMRU WUDQVSDUHQF\ LVVXH WKDW calls into question the very naWXUH RI VXVWDLQDEOH LQYHVWLQJ ,Q D ÀQDQFLDO V\VWHP ZKHUH WKH lack of oversight creates moral

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Forever Chemicals: How PFAS Have Avoided Testing and Regulation for Decades

by Christina Pelliccio designed by Terry Jung

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Troubled Waters:

The History of Strawberry Creek

BY Mina Burns designed by sasha pullman

)ORZLQJ DOO WKH ZD\ IURP +LOGHEUDQG +DOO XQGHU WKH LFRQLF 6DWKHU *DWH WKURXJK WKH QRUWKHUQ HXFDO\SWXV JURYH DQG ZLQGLQJ LWV ZD\ SDVW WKH :HVW &LUFOH RQ FDPSXV 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN LV D NH\ %HUNHOH\ ODQGmark.

A lesser known aspect of the Strawberry Creekwatershed is its importance in establishing UC Berkeley’s FDPSXV LQ LWV FXUUHQW ORFDWLRQ 'HVSLWH WKH PRQXPHQWDO LPSDFW RI WKH FUHHN LW KDV IDFHG D ORQJ KLVtory of water pollution and degradation—an uphill battle has been fought to improve creek conditions and reach the current state of the watershed today.

Strawberry Creek has been a vital feature of the land scape long before UC Berkeley was founded. )RU WKRXVDQGV RI \HDUV PHPEHUV RI WKH +XFKLXQ Ohlone tribe were the original inhabitants along the

the stream—a place with vast grasslands and oak forests at the time. The community relied on Strawberry Creek for food and water resources. By supporting D ÁRXULVKLQJ HFRV\VWHP WKH FUHHN KHOSHG ,QGLJHQRXV people to harvest acorns and seeds and hunt game like HON GHHU DQWHORSH ELUGV DQG VKHOOÀVK $V ODQG RZQHUVKLS FKDQJHG DURXQG WKH FUHHN VR WRR GLG LWV WUHDWPHQW ,Q WKH ODWH V WKH DUULYDO of Spanish settlers in the surrounding areas led to a ULVH LQ OLYHVWRFN JUD]LQJ WUDQVIRUPLQJ WKH ODQGVFDSH VLJQLÀFDQWO\ 'XH WR WKH UHVXOWLQJ ORVV RI VWDELOL]LQJ SODQW FRYHUDJH WKH FUHHN EDQN VXIIHUHG IURP VHYHUH HURVLRQ $URXQG WKLV WLPH WKH FUHHN DOVR VWDUWHG WR EH XVHG DV D VHZDJH V\VWHP ZLWK DQ\ UHVLGHQWLDO DQG DJricultural waste being disposed of in the watershed. state constitution was to establish a university.

$IWHU &DOLIRUQLD JDLQHG VWDWHKRRG LQ SDUW RI WKH VWDWH FRQVWLWXWLRQ ZDV WR HVWDEOLVK D XQLYHUVLW\ ,Q &DOLIRUQLD·V ÀUVW ODQG JUDQW SXEOLF XQLYHUVLW\ ZDV HVWDEOLVKHG ,QLWLDOO\ ORFDWHG LQ 2DNODQG WKH university founders debated its permanent placePHQW 2QH RI WKH PDMRU UHTXLUHPHQWV ZDV D VXIÀFLHQW ZDWHU VRXUFH 'XH WR 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN WKH\ eventually decided on its current location in Berkeley. $FFRUGLQJ WR 3URIHVVRU $ODQ 6KDEHO ZKR WHDFKHV QDWXUDO KLVWRU\ DW 8 & %HUNHOH\ ´7KH FDPSXV would not be here were it not for the creek. . . [The campus founders] were looking at water as the key determinant of where to build and they decided that Strawberry Creek had enough water during the year that made it a viable place for campus.”

The university’s establishment had an immediate and drastic impact on the creek. On top of its continXHG XVH DV D VHZHU V\VWHP XUEDQL]DWLRQ RI WKH ZDWHUVKHG LQFUHDVHG DV WKH ORFDO DUHD GHYHORSHG IXUther with the growing university. Roads were built DQG WKH FUHHN ZDV UHFKDQQHOHG IXUWKHU DOWHULQJ WKH watershed. Strawberry Creek’s degraded habitat and FKURQLF SROOXWLRQ GLVUXSWHG QDWXUDO ÁRZ UHJLPHV DQG OHG WR D VKDUS ORVV RI ÀVK DQG LQVHFW GLYHUVLW\ ,Q 0HPRULDO 6WDGLXP ZDV EXLOW RYHU WKH VRXWK IRUN RI WKH FUHHN HOLPLQDWLQJ WKH QDWXUDO ZDWHUVKHG area. The stadium’s infrastructure caused a major GLVUXSWLRQ WR WKH FUHHN ZLWK ZDWHU EHLQJ UHURXWHG into underground pipes and the creek bed being lined with concrete.

The stream’s degrading health did not go unnoticed.

As the growing need to address water pollution was UHFRJQL]HG WKH (DVW %D\ 0XQLFLSDO 8WLOLW\ 'LVWULFW EXLOW D VHZDJH WUHDWPHQW SODQW LQ 7KH FUHation of the plant led to the rerouting of many sewer GUDLQV IURP FDPSXV DZD\ IURP WKH FUHHN 7KLV ZDV QRW D SHUPDQHQW VROXWLRQ KRZHYHU DV QRW DOO GUDLQV ZHUH DGGUHVVHG :DWHU TXDOLW\ DQG WKH KHDOWK RI WKH HFRV\VWHP ZHUH VWLOO KLJKO\ DIIHFWHG DQG WKH FUHHN was deemed a public health risk.

$URXQG WKLV WLPH DFWLRQ ZDV VHHQ DV QHFHVVDU\ WR UHstore the health of the creek. U.C. Berkeley graduate student Robert Charbonneau created the Strawberry &UHHN 0DQDJHPHQW SODQ LQ ZKLFK ZDV WDNHQ XS E\ WKH 8 & %HUNHOH\ 2IÀFH RI (QYLURQPHQWDO Health and Safety. A main part of the plan was the redirection of pipes draining non-stormwater discharges into the creek to preserve overall water quality.

Charbonneau’s restoration project is also credited ZLWK WKH VXFFHVVIXO UHLQWURGXFWLRQ RI QDWLYH ÀVK VSHFLHV DQG WKH VLJQLÀFDQW SURJUHVV WRZDUGV RYHUDOO UHgeneration of stream ecosystem health. ,Q WKUHH QDWLYH ÀVK VSHFLHV ZHUH UHLQWURGXFHG WR WKH FUHHN 7KH ÀUVW VSHFLHV VHOHFWHG IRU UHLQWURGXFWLRQ ZDV WKH WKUHH VSLQHG VWLFNOHEDFN DQG ODWHU the Sacramento sucker and the California roach minnow were brought back. Several generations of these ÀVK KDYH EHHQ ERUQ LQ 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN VLQFH WKHLU UHWXUQ ZKLFK KDV EHHQ VHHQ DV WHVWDPHQW WR WKH LPproving conditions. ,Q DQ DWWHPSW WR SURSDJDWH QDWLYH SODQWV D SURMHFW ZDV VWDUWHG LQ WR FRQVWUXFW D QDWLYH SODQW QXUVHU\ RQ WKH ZHVWVLGH RI *LDQQLQL +DOO :RUNLQJ ZLWK WKH 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN 5HVWRUDWLRQ 3URJUDP VWXGHQW volunteers were able to establish an outdoor nursery RI VHHGOLQJV D JDUGHQ RI QDWLYH SODQWV DQG HGXFDtional signage about plant species for community members.

"The Campus would not be here were it not for the creek...

Strawberry Creek had enough Water during the year that made it a viable place for campus."

volunteers were able to establish an outdoor nursery RI VHHGOLQJV D JDUGHQ RI QDWLYH SODQWV DQG HGXFDtional signage about plant species for community members.

6LQFH WKH LPSOHPHQWDWLRQ RI WKH UHVWRUDWLRQ SURMHFW other initiatives have been part of an active movement to clean up stream pollution and protect StrawEHUU\ &UHHN LQFOXGLQJ VWDELOL]DWLRQ RI EDQNV DQG WKH VWUHDP EHG 7KH EXLOGLQJ RI ÁRZ FKHFN GDPV DLPHG to protect the natural stream bed and prevent further HURVLRQ ZKLFK ZRXOG QHJDWLYHO\ DIIHFW WKH FUHHN KHDOWK GXH WR D ODUJH LQÁX[ RI VHGLPHQW ,Q D UHGZRRG UHWDLQLQJ ZDOO ZDV EXLOW SURYLGLQJ EDQN stabilization while also increasing the habitat available for native plant and animal species.

7R DGGUHVV IXUWKHU LVVXHV RI HURVLRQ WKH 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN (FRORJLFDO 6WDELOL]DWLRQ 3URMHFW ZDV HQDFWHG LQ 9DULRXV FKHFN GDPV WKDW ZHUH LQ SODFH WR VORZ WKH ÁRZ RI ZDWHU KDG GHFD\HG DQG WKHVH ZHUH replaced with natural structures such as rock step pools and a log dam. The stream banks were graded to a stable slope and planted with native vegetation.

(YDOXDWLRQ RI VWUHDP KHDOWK UHPDLQV DQ RQJRLQJ SURcess. The addition of data gathering stations has been a useful tool in monitoring creek conditions. Scott %URZQ SULQFLSDO K\GURORJLVW DQG JHRPRUSKRORJLVW DW %DODQFH +\GURORJLFV H[SODLQHG WKH VWUHDP PRQLWRULQJ V\VWHPV WKDW WKH FRPSDQ\ KDV LQ SODFH ´:H have a number of stream gauges throughout the creek ZKHUH ZH·UH UHFRUGLQJ ZDWHU OHYHO DQG ÁRZ IRU JHQeral monitoring purposes and collecting background data for restoration projects.” ,W LV FOHDU WKDW WKH PDQ\ SURMHFWV WR LPSURYH WKH ZDWHU quality of the creek have helped clear out the remQDQWV RI KLVWRULFDO KXPDQ SROOXWLRQ ,Q WKH ZRUGV RI 3URIHVVRU 6KDEHO ´(YHU VLQFH WKH HQYLURQPHQWDO movement during the Cultural Revolution of the late V DQG HDUO\ V WKH KHDOWK\ UHODWLRQVKLS EHWZHHQ WKH FUHHN KDV EHHQ JURZLQJ DQG JURZLQJ IRU \HDUV %XW VWLOO WKHUH·V VWLOO VR PXFK WKDW FDQ EH GRQH µ

The treatment of Strawberry Creek has come a long ZD\ HVSHFLDOO\ ZKHQ FRPSDUHG WR LWV IRUPHU XVDJH DV D VHZDJH V\VWHP +RZHYHU DGYRFDWHV DUJXH WKHUH are still steps that could improve overall ecosystem KHDOWK $GGLWLRQDOO\ RWKHUV KRSH WR UHVWRUH WKH FUHHN to a management system practicing the same level of UHVSHFW WKDW WKH ,QGLJHQRXV +XFKLXQ 2KORQH WULEH EHstowed on the creek when they were the main stewards of the land. One method proposed by scientists ZRXOG EH WR GD\OLJKW³RU H[SRVH WR WKH RSHQ DLU³ more areas of the creek. $FFRUGLQJ WR 3URIHVVRU 6KDEHO ´6DOPRQ XVHG WR UXQ XS WKLV FUHHN DQG KDYHQ·W EHHQ VHHQ IRU GHFDGHV >UHFHQWO\ @ VDOPRQ UHWXUQHG WR VRPH SDUWV RI WKH (DVW %D\ DQG KRSHIXOO\ WKH\ FDQ UHWXUQ WR 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN DJDLQ VRPHGD\ µ :KHQ ZDWHU LV IRUFHG XQGHUJURXQG WKURXJK SLSHV PDQ\ NLQGV RI ZLOGOLIH VXFK DV VDOPRQ FDQQRW FDUU\ RXW WKHLU UHJXODU PLJUDWLRQ URXWHV 'D\OLJKWLQJ WKH FUHHN ZRXOG EH RQH ZD\ WR make the watershed a more viable habitat for salmon to once again return. ,Q D VWDWHPHQW E\ 3URIHVVRU 9LQFHQW + 5HVK ZKR conducts research on aquatic biology and water polOXWLRQ DW 8 & %HUNHOH\ ´&RPELQLQJ VHYHUDO VWUHDP UHVWRUDWLRQ VWHSV WKH 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN SURMHFW KDV PDGH D VLJQLÀFDQW GLIIHUHQFH :KHUH QR ÀVK ZHUH SUHVHQW WKHUH DUH QRZ VHOI VXVWDLQLQJ ÀVK SRSXODWLRQV SUHVHQW LQ WKH VWUHDP \HDU URXQG ,Q DGGLWLRQ WKH VXFFHVVIXO VDODPDQGHU UHLQWURGXFWLRQ DQG WKH UHWXUQ RI FUD\ÀVK DQG VQRZ\ HJUHWV LQGLFDWH D functioning stream community.” %\ ORRNLQJ DW WKH KLVWRU\ RI 6WUDZEHUU\ &UHHN ZH can see the many adverse conditions that watershed health has overcome to reach its current state. There is a clear need for continuing management and restoration work to ensure that the creek remains a vital part of U.C. Berkeley’s history moving forward.

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How Behavior Design Can Lead to Collective Environmental Action Written by Dennis Song | Designed by Lauren Bae To build resilient urban communities in an age of global warming, the City of Berkeley fills its Climate Action Plans with behavioral design tricks to encourage its citizens to become more environmental.

Behavioral design is no alien to mankind. Parents peer-pressure children into going to school, and authorities use propaganda to promote wartime behavioral practices.

In a changing climate, the City of Berkeley uses research in environmental behaviorism to accomplish goals set in the City’s Climate Action Plan. With an astounding 24% decrease in water use from 2012 to 2015, Berkeley now plans to apply similar tactics to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 2000 levels by 2050.”

In 2020, Berkeley banned natural gas in new buildings. Becoming “fossil fuel-free as quickly as possible” is a critical strategy to achieve the Climate Action Plan, according to Billi Roman, City of Berkeley Planning Department’s Manager of

the Office of Energy and Sustainable Development.

However, for a city with 150 years of history, the existing buildings, too, need to be electrified. Persuading homeowners to electrify their buildings is not an easy task.

“It just sounds like it includes too many complications,” said one condo owner on Shattuck Ave. “I mean electrification? To fully electrify my condo, I have to replace my kitchen with an induction cooktop, and that sounds complicated and expensive enough!”

“Electrification is troublesome and expensive,” reported another house owner in West Berkeley.

To change people’s negative perceptions on home electrification, the City social markets behaviors.

“Behavioral design is all about norming and social marketing behaviors.” According to Roman, to norm a behavior is to tell the target

audience that “everybody is doing it,” and to social market a behavior is to “sell” a certain behavior by conducting market research on the behavior from the audience’s perspective. These two techniques go hand in hand.

In the home electrification project, social marketing techniques are used extensively. The City conducts surveys, organizes communal presentations, and holds discussion gatherings as a form of market research on homeowners perceptions on electrifying their properties.

After finding out the problem lies in the “troublesome” and “expensive” process, actions are taken to reduce such anxiety.

“You want to make your home more energy efficient and comfortable” is the first sentence homeowners read when visiting the website of The Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN), a network of Bay Area’s nine counties’ “local governments partnering to promote [...] energy, water and greenhouse

“B ehavioral design is all about norming and s o c i a l m a r k e t i n g b e h a v i o r s .” gas reduction.” The strategy is to sell home electrification by emphasizing that the owners are reducing their bills by making properties more energy efficient.

That is not the only way BayREN tackles the property owner’s expense crisis. BayREN promises that every small homeowner is eligible to get “free technical support with a Home Energy Advisor,” which also reduces the homeowner’s worries for the process’s troublesomeness by providing expert guidance.

Moreover, BayREN avoids price tags. Instead of telling property owners the price for installing a heat pump, the governmental organization tells the amounts of rebates their owners are eligible to earn.

“Replace your conventional gas dryer with a high-efficiency heat pump dryer and watch your energy use tumble — by at least 28%,”“Enjoy [...] comfort and savings with a heat pump [...],” and “save $1000” are examples of BayREN’s benefits-focused promotional strategy.

Social marketing is powerful but “there needs to be more institutional changes,” pointed out Roman.

Relying entirely on voluntary work results in loss of incentives. In other words, attracting people to become more environmental by educating them on the possible benefits can only achieve so much.

To further attract citizens to renovate their properties, the City now requires homeowners to access an emissions report when purchasing homes that clearly states the emissions from home gas and electricity consumption. Clear instructions on

how to reduce the emissions are also outlined.

However, according to the Office of Energy and Sustainable Development, providing resources indeed reduces the “troublesomeness,” but only to a certain extent. Appealing to benefits with persuasion only “increases the number of people doing renovations but doesn’t get to the levels needed,” according to Roman.

Therefore, in the future the City will look into electrifying a greater number of existing properties through concrete requirements or institutional regulations.

But additional institutional regulations alone will not achieve goals set by the Climate Action Plan. “Social marketing and regulations are pushing the needles, now we need community engagement,” said Roman. For instance, BayREN has a community ambassador program that appoints home energy advisors directly to neighborhoods to act as role models for locals to see.

There are also peer invitations when purchasing services.

Additionally, the City hosts in-person discussion groups within neighborhoods to promote communal responsibilities in environmental actions.

More interestingly, the organizers find that the property owners may agree to get renovations immediately but often forget to do so after returning to home. Therefore, the organizers now designate time during the discussion event to watch the property owners sign up for electrification on the spot.

The City also experimented with gamifying the process of reducing carbon emissions. Neighbors competed with each other to see who can emit

the least carbon within a certain time period. However, the competition among neighbors was at last found to be unhealthy and did not put enough emphasis on collaboration.

Regardless of the skilled use of behavioral design tricks, there are still challenges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the city. There are “some things the city will never control,” said Roman, “like diet carbon footprints.” Organic food is expensive and diet carbon footprints are tied strongly to culture deeply embedded in people’s daily lives.

Nevertheless, Roman considers direct collaboration between governmental agencies and communities to be the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“In the past, cities hired consulting firms, now we go directly to communities to ask for their needs.” This new “co-creation” model has advanced the Climate Action Plan significantly. For example, through directly speaking to communities through forums and meetings, the City successfully found out that low income families did not care much about the rebates won through setting up induction cooking. What they really needed was air purifiers that supported the children’s health.

Although behavior design can be a useful tool for tipping the needle towards public participation in climate action, behavior design alone is not sufficient to drive deep decarbonization. In the future, the city government will work closely with communities to co-create equity policies that “build trust and connections,” finding out their needs directly and building resilient long-term relations.

Fees Apply After Check Out: The Environmental Costs of Online Shopping

by ELENA HSIEH designed by TIFFANY HO Overconsumption. Retail Therapy. Impulsivity. Dopamine.

Two Day Shipping. Capitalism.

With the boom of mass production and the evergrowing ease and convenience of getting desired products at the click of a button, Americans have turned to online shopping as an alternative to going in stores. Adding the burden of the global pandemic, online shopping has even transformed from a point of convenience to a safe necessity, especially for the disabled and elderly. Looking at recent trends from 2014 to 2019, e-commerce sales ratios have nearly tripled globally. As

of 2021, global online retail has reached an enormous $4.8 trillion in the U.S. alone, and it is projected to grow by 20% each year. With its growing popularity on such a large scale, it is worth considering all of its GUDZEDFNV 'R WKH EHQHÀWV RI online shopping really outweigh the environmental costs associated with the packaging and shipping of items?

As a clerk working at the front desk of U.C. Berkeley’s Clark Kerr dormitory, I get a glimpse of how many online purchases students make on a daily basis. Broadly, we process over

one hundred packages a day, amounting to just over one thousand every three months.

Every morning, carriers from USPS, Amazon, and UPS haul in cartloads of boxes and bags, with FedEx, DHL, and OnTrac trickling in throughout the afternoon. From there, we sort WKURXJK WKH SDFNDJHV E\ ÀOLQJ the bags and stacking the boxes. We then label the packages with stickers and mark identiI\LQJ QXPEHUV DQG ÀQDOO\ SURcess it to each student’s name on a portal database. This repetitive and lackluster process often leaves me contem-

plating the bouts of excessive overconsumption. I, too, have found myself scrolling aimlessly through online retailers more often than I would like to admit, which has sparked my interest in the environmental detriments of online shopping.

Impulsivity and Dopamine Impulsive shopping is not only a habitual cultural phenomenon, but rather, it is rooted in science—particularly when analyzing the concept of dopamine. In terms of the role of chemical hormones, dopamine hits when you buy something.

With online shopping, that domine hits when you make the purchase and when it arrives and you open it, so you get a GRXEOH EHQHÀW 7KXV ELRORJLcally, more excitement is generated when shopping online as opposed to shopping in person.

This is not helpful to the evergrowing trends of overconsumption, when ordering more items online becomes fundamentally easier than walking DURXQG D VWRUH WR ÀQG WKH LWHPV you need. Today, despite being surrounded by abundance, Americans are still collecting more stuff. In 2018, we spent $240 billion on goods like jewelry, watches, luggage, books, and phones eleven though our population only grew by 17% during that time. However, in broad numbers, it is important to recognize that there are still EHQHÀWV WR RQOLQH VKRSSLQJ LQ modern society.

7KH (QYLURQPHQWDO %HQHÀWV of Shipping Oftentimes, when the detriments to online shopping are considered, shipping becomes the central area of concern.

However, research shows that

LW PD\ DFWXDOO\ EH EHQHÀFLDO WR purchase items via an online store rather than to drive to a storefront. At face value, online shopping with slower shipping options has a smaller carbon footprint than driving to retail store to search, purchase, and return a product. When the founder of GreenStory, Navodit Babel, was interviewed on this matter, he maintained, “Online VKRSSLQJ LV GHÀQLWHO\ PRUH eco-friendly than brick-andmortar shopping. The main cause of this chasm is the emissions produced from the customer driving to the store. The energy used to power a retail outlet also has an impact on the sustainability of physical shopping.” It is easy to condemn Americans’ obsession with online retail as unsustainable over-consumption, but when the numbers are pitted against in-store shopping, online shopping appears to be the more eco-friendly option.

Think of delivery services as public transportation for your packages, where everyone’s package rides the same bus instead of a personal car. The average package produces just six ounces of carbon dioxide, which sounds diminutive but has to be multiplied by millions of deliveries. Going to the store to pick up one item averages around thirteen miles, producing approximately 144 ounces of carbon dioxide, which is twenty-four times more than the delivered package. In essence, you would have to pick up twenty-four items in order to break even. A product you buy in-store has to be shipped from a manufacturer factory to a warehouse or storage facility WR D VWRUH DQG ÀQDOO\ WR \RXU

home. However, when you buy VRPHWKLQJ RQOLQH VSHFLÀFDOO\ with home delivery, it doesn’t have to be transported to the store before being transported to you.

Not to mention, the carbon footprint of running a website alone is also drastically less than the energy it takes to power and maintain a building space. The author of “Decarbonizing Logistics,” Alan McKinnon, writes that “wherever your latest purchase comes from, transport from the store or warehouse to your home likely dominates the delivery footprint.” The MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics reinforces this sentiment, reporting that consumers who exclusively shopped online could have a carbon footprint (related to their shopping) almost two times smaller than that of a traditional shopper.

Simply put, the lower carbon emissions from transportation paired with the greater accessibility for individuals like the elderly and the disabled point WR WKH EHQHÀWV RI RQOLQH VKRSping.

It is important to realize that there are still many faults within such a seemingly convenient advancement. Just because you buy an item online, it doesn’t mean the item is sustainable because we must keep in mind supply chains, material sourcing, worker wages, sustainable materials, and more.

The Detriments of Shipping While there may be instances when shopping online is more environmentally conscious, there is another side to the coin when it comes to shipping.

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It is important to note that the the impact of a delivery depends heavily on the density of the addressee’s community: a rural community would not see a drastic difference in carbon emissions in driving to the nearest supermarket versus waiting for a delivery van, while a populated suburban community would theoretically see more environmental beneÀWV IURP UHVLGHQWV SXUFKDVLQJ online and waiting for their delivery to their surrounding neighborhood.

It is estimated that carbon emissions of products increase by 35% when shipped separately than when shipped together.

Two-day shipping and overnighting packages triple the transportation emissions because the company no longer KDV WKH DELOLW\ WR ÀOO XS D YDQ WR deliver the parcels; they must

ship it immediately because of the time barrier. The biggest polluter for delivery services is the ‘last mile,’ and those emissions are multiplied every time the delivery is unsuccessful. Same-day and instant delivery are the fastest-growing segments in the last-mile environment, growing 36% and 17% annually, respectively.

Amazon, for example, already delivers to 72% of all customers within 24 hours. To add fuel WR ÀUH EHWZHHQ DQG of all deliveries are unsuccessIXO RQ WKH ÀUVW WU\ VR GHOLYerers often make a second or third attempt. If they are still unsuccessful, the consumer must drive to a warehouse to pick up the package, negating DOO EHQHÀWV LQ WHUPV RI FDUERQ emissions. Demand for urban last-mile delivery is expected to grow 78% by 2030, leading to 36% more delivery vehicles

in 100 cities around the world, posing shipping to be a greater GHWULPHQW WKDQ D EHQHÀW WR RQline shopping overall.

Excessive Packaging Another noticeable vice to online shopping to bear in mind is the packaging associated within the shipping and delivery process. Average boxes contain 20% of wasted space which shipSLQJ IDFLOLWLHV ÀOO ZLWK SURWHFtive packaging which eventualO\ ÀQGV LWV ZD\V WR ZDWHUZD\V DQG ODQGÀOOV 7KH FRQWLQXHG production of bubble mailers, packing peanuts, air pillows, DQG RWKHU LQÀOO PDWHULDOV RQ top of inadequate disposal further strains the environmental repercussions of shipping. Adding on, when consumers select the two-day shipping option, the products that are requested are not bundled in the same box because they come from

different and multiple facilities. This increases packaging like boxes and excessive shipping materials, which generates more waste. Items shipped to stores and warehouses still use packaging materials, but mass packaging saves more materials in the long run than millions of individual parcels.

Therefore, we must consider packaging as another factor in the equation of whether or not the online marketplace is truly as environmentally-friendly as it seems.

requires additional packaging, customers purchase fewer items per online transaction, and multi-item orders often result in multiple deliveries.

A study modeled that by 2050, the world could support the equivalent of three times the current global population if only global consumption levels drop by 60% back down to 1960 levels. This is why we must, as a society, immediately curb our consumeristic mindset before our population levels become dictated by our habits of overconsumption.

Overconsumption The increase in free-time and the inaccessibility during the coronavirus pandemic has also increased online consumption, with 45% of consumers say they have purchased non-essential items during the lockdown.

Unfortunately, this is not a single, irregular occurrence as commercial propaganda has been woven into holidays. For Christmas and Valentine’s Day, people buy their loved ones mass gifts which contribute to the average yearly emissions footprint of roughly 650 kg of CO2 for Christmas alone. For Easter and Halloween, people buy pounds of candy and other small knick knacks to stuff plastic eggs or treat bowls. It’s the constant buying and giving just to validate feelings into a tangible object that drives the mantra of capitalism, a tradition of stress, propaganda, personal desire, social pressure, and status signaling that society cannot rid itself of.

There Is Still Hope Despite the dire environmental consequences that emerge with the rise of online consumption there have been futuristic efforts put forth to curb the detrimental effects of e-commerce. One of the main avenues of focus is shipping as the demand for urban last-mile delivery is expected to grow by 78% by 2030, leading to 36% more delivery vehicles in 100 cities around the world. In response to these trends, companies like Amazon have been experimenting with drone and ground-based robots for delivery services. There have even been apps that are currently being initiated to further the interconnectedness of a growing online consumer market.

One such app is named Roadie, which is being created as a package hitchhiking system that connects your package with a delivery already heading in that direction.

Overall, the online marketplace is a major source driving carbon emissions related to transportation and production for three reasons: e-commerce

While there have been progressive developments in some major companies, there are many things that we as individuals can do in an increasingly digi-

tal world. When it comes to checking out, try to purchase multiple items to be shipped in the same packaging and choose the slower shipping option if possible. It is also wise to research what you want online, then try to buy it from a local store you can walk, bus, or bike to. Buying secondhand is also a great alternative to purchasing from online retailers, ideally in local thrift stores (shoutout to U.C. Berkeley’s ReUse store!) or online on platforms like Depop, Poshmark, or Mercari.

On the other side of the spectrum, sellers can be eco-forward by reducing the amount of packaging for a product by selecting the right sized box, choosing compostable or biodegradable packaging, or even reusing packaging.

As a general rule of thumb, try to practice mindful consumerism: don’t buy stuff that you know you will return and consider if you really need an item before clicking ‘pay.’ At the end of the day, lower consumption is always better, and trends like capsule wardrobes, zero-waste households, and no-shopping challenges have emerged as a fresh change of pace in a capitalistic economy fueled by materialism.

Although I have presented many facets illustrating the darker side of the digital marketplace, I believe that online shopping as a whole should not be demonized or FRQÁDWHG ZLWK WKH GLUHFW GHPLVH of our planet. Rather, we ought to keep these habits in mind and educate ourselves to make the best moral decisions as consumers. In such a society where our lifestyles are evolving with rapid digital advancements, let us try to do our best in aspects as simple as online shopping in order to make the future a little greener.

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The Reali-tea of Yerba Mate: Exploitation, Colonialism, and Regeneration

by Nishita Dashpute designed by Alyssa Ha

Your palm closes over the last can of Yerba Mate in the fridge, a cooling sensation washing over you. Closing your eyes, you imagine the sweet tang of the cranberry pomegranate hitting your tastebuds. Life is good.

The sharp crack of the iconic yellow Yerba Mate can be heard all over college campuses in California as it has skyrocketed in popularity, yet the drink’s dark history of colonial exploitation and land degradation generates skepticism about the sustainability of the drink.

The History of Yerba Mate Yerba mate, Ilex paraguariensis, was originally harvested by the Guaraní people in what is now modern-day Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina along the Parana-Paraguay river system. Following the arrival of Spanish Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century, yerba mate harvesting shifted from wild collecting to plantation cultivation.

In order to be consumed, the harvested yerba mate leaves were dried and ground up. The ground leaves were then mixed with boiling water, creating a mate-infused tea that offered the Guarani people greater stamina.

7KH SK\VLFDO EHQHÀWV RI WKH \HUED PDWH FDXJKW WKH attention of the Jesuit missionaries and Spanish settlers. Quickly realizing the value of the plant, the Jesuit developed large plantations, yerbales, using Indigenous labor to cultivate the yerba mate trees.

Not only were they stripped of their land, but the Guarani people were forced into slavery by the Jesuit missionaries as they worked on the yerbales. The Guarani worked from sunrise to sundown, and many died in the swampy lands en route to the plantations as well as from exhaustion.

The loss of their land to the Spanish settlers and missionaries left a profound impact on the Guarani people who believed that their land was a gift from God. The occupation of their ancestral land prevented the Guarani from practicing their cultural traditions, driving many Guarani to suicide.

Domestication of yerba mate by the Jesuits led to its commercialization and the creation of a mate market in South America. The economy of South America was largely controlled by yerba mate trade and was used to pay for iron and other manufactured goods.

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by the Guarani to pay the mandatory tribute to the Spanish crown.

In the mid-18th century, the Spanish crown sought to UHGXFH WKH LQÁXHQFH RI WKH FKXUFK WKXV H[SHOOLQJ -Hsuit missionaries from all their lands, including South America, leading to the abandonment of hundreds of yerbales. Yerba mate production sharply declined until the 1890s when European settlers immigrated to the “yerba mate belt,” reinvigorating the yerbales.

While the new yerbales yielded twice the amount of yerba mate as native forests, they also yielded far more ecological consequences as the associated deforestation contributed to increased soil erosion and loss of nutrients. The once sacred Guarani land had been devalued to unproductive swathes of soil.

Present Day Efforts in Sustainable Yerba Mate Cultivation The effects of the unsustainable management practices of the European settlers are currently being combated by agroforestry, a forestry practice in which trees are grown alongside crops, in this case, with mate trees. Mate trees are shade-tolerant and thus the non-agricultural trees are able to shade the mate, alORZLQJ WKHP WR UHWDLQ PRUH QXWULHQWV DQG ÁDYRU In addition to reforesting the land, the non-agricultural trees provide more organic material for the soil, reduce erosion through increased root mass, diversify farms, and provide additional sources of income for farmers. The trees also decrease soil temperature, create horizontal precipitation, and moderate effects of the winds as well.

The agroforestry model has been adopted by many companies, including Guayakí, which uses the market-driven regeneration model in conjunction with agroforestry to restore the health of forests in South America. In addition to being shade grown, Guayakí yerba mate is organic, allowing the company to buy and sell their products at more than twice the market price, providing Indigenous farmers with higher prices for their yerba mate.

Guayakí’s market driven regeneration model supports the growth of agroforestry as the “market where we sell our products [ . . . ] the demand of those products is increasing the demand for the supply of the products [ . . . ] and thus makes the rainforest worth more intact than cut down,” said Craig Foxhaven, a marketing representative for Guayakí. The market drives the regeneration of the forest as increased demand increases agro-forested land in rainforest.

7KRXJK *XD\DNt LV DQ $PHULFDQ IRU SURÀW FRPSDQ\ they do not own any of the farms from which their yerba mate is sourced. Instead, they partner with the native people who own the land in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The agreement allows for locals to harvest yerba mate and be paid fair wages by Guayakí.

The farmers are also able to keep as much of the yerba mate as they like.

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5HJHQHUDWLRQ FDQ EH GHÀQHG DV WKH LGHD RI GHYHORSLQJ in a manner that manifests continual growth, and, for Guayakí, regeneration is “looking at the big picture.”

7KH\ DOVR RSHUDWH D QRQ SURÀW RUJDQL]DWLRQ LQ 6RXWK America that contributes to clean water, builds schools, and purchases jerseys for local children. The company supports social regeneration through community reinvestment. Guayakí farms only hand harvest 40-50% of the mate trees, leaving much of the tree intact, further incorporating the principles of regeneration into their practices.

Despite the many promises of the market-driven regeneration model, there are still some improvements to be made. While Guayakí mandates 2,000 individuals of 30 native species per hectare on their associated farms, many of the agroforestry trees are non-native.

However, the company is actively working to increase the native trees on their agro-forested lands.

William Rosenzweig, professor at the Haas School of Business whose work focuses on sustainability and regenerative agriculture, approves of the market driven regeneration model. However, due to the specialized niche that Guayakí resides in, it has limited social impact. “They [Guayakí] are interesting and meaningful, but I think they are somewhat limited in their impact in a specialty niche,” said Rosenzweig.

Beyond Guayakí Yet, the model Guayakí has developed can be applied to larger companies to bring meaningful change. Currently, companies “still see themselves as brands, which means that they see themselves as marketers, so they do things in response to consumer interests,” said Rosenzweig. But the marketing of the yerba mate product brings historical production issues to consumer attention, resulting in a “trickle-up effect,” where small companies bring attention to the consumer market, which then pressures larger companies to alter their practices.

The Guayakí branding promotes a socially and ecologically sustainable drink, attracting many socially-conscious consumers. The exploitation of Guarani land and labor allowed the yerba mate industry to prevail and though Guayakí’s practices work to actively support Indigenous communities, their small niche limits their social impact. A combination of consumer pull, economic incentive, and policy change is required to pressure large companies to alter food systems in order to decolonize and regenerate. Yet the question remains: can sustainable industry ever compensate for the history of colonialism?

by ERIKA RIEDEL designed by ANGEL LI It isn’t uncommon to witness a daring U.C. BerkeOH\ VWXGHQW GDUW DFURVV RQFRPLQJ WUDIÀF WRR much in a rush to wait for the pedestrian crosswalk signal. While a head-on collision with a car GRHVQ·W LQYRNH PXFK IHDU IURP VWXGHQWV WKH LPpending doom of climate change seems to weigh heavier on their conscience.

Depictions of climate change in the media have particularly swayed younger generations’ response to the climate crisis. “I think more Gen Z have social media so it’s easier to be targeted E\ PLVLQIRUPDWLRQ EXW , DOVR WKLQN ROGHU JHQHUDWLRQV DUH ZRUVH DW UHDOL]LQJ IDFWV YV IDNH VWXII µ said freshman Linda Krellner. $FFRUGLQJ WR .UHOOQHU ´WKH PHGLD GHÀQLWHO\ SOD\V a role in shaping public perception of climate FKDQJH µ ,Q IDFW VKH DWWULEXWHV PXFK RI KHU SHUspective on climate change to the media as it “can VRPHWLPHV PDNH PRUH RI D QLKLOLVWLF LPSDFW µ “I try to have an optimistic perspective on the fu-

ture of the planet but it’s very easy to fall into a hole in the media where you are convinced that the Earth isn’t saveable and the time to do someWKLQJ LV WLFNLQJ DZD\ µ VDLG .UHOOQHU One recent example of climate change being portrayed with alarmist rather than hopeful rhetRULF LV LQ WKH ÀOP ´'RQ·W /RRN 8S µ 'HVSLWH LWV 2VFDU QRPLQDWLRQ IRU %HVW 3LFWXUH WKH ÀOP KDV received backlash for evoking feelings of guilt and nihilism for the viewers. Starring Leonardo 'L&DSULR DQG -HQQLIHU /DZUHQFH WKH PRYLH IROlows two astronomers as they try to warn the world of an approaching meteor that will deVWUR\ HDUWK D PHWDSKRU IRU WKH LPSHQGLQJ GRRP of climate change.

With the fate of the planet ultimately in the hands of incompetent world leaders rather than civilLDQV FULWLFV FLWH WKH ÀOP DV JHQHUDWLQJ D VHQVH RI anxiety rather than invoking activism in young generations. According to Eric Levitz in his article “Don’t Look Up Doesn’t Get the Climate Cri-

VLV µ WKH PRYLH PLVFRQVWUXHV FOLPDWH FKDQJH DV being an all-or-nothing phenomenon rather than the nuanced and ongoing issue that it is: “climate change provides us with neither a hard deadline QRU D FOHDQ ELQDU\ EHWZHHQ VXFFHVV DQG IDLOXUH µ 6HQLRU 8PXW 8\JXU KRZHYHU LV XQSKDVHG E\ WKH bleak narrative in the media and is instead grateful for having access to environmental news at all. $FFRUGLQJ WR 8\JXU KH ´GLGQ·W UHDOO\ KHDU DERXW the advances [in the severity of climate change] in Turkey since it is not ‘newsworthy’ compared WR DOO WKH % 6 RXU SUHVLGHQW VD\V µ Despite watching the news everyGD\ ZKLOH LQ 7XUNH\ Uygur didn’t “see much about climate FKDQJH µ EXW VLQFH PRYLQJ WR WKH 8 6 he has noticed it receives more coverage. $FFRUGLQJ WR 8\JXU while he believes that global warming is UHDO ´PDQ\ SHRSOH LQ 7XUNH\ GRQ·W ÀQG LW D SUHVVLQJ LVVXH µ

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“I now see that switching to sustainable options can also be feasible in the long run and we should urge private sector and the government to take a step forward in that way.” - Umut Uygur

This climate denial in Turkey can be attributed to the lack of government subsidies to reduce carbon IRRWSULQW WKXV PDNLQJ Turkish people unable WR ´DIIRUG WR SD\ D SUHPLXP IRU HFR IULHQGOLQHVV µ said Uygur. +RZHYHU VLQFH PRYLQJ WR %HUNHOH\ 8\JXU KDV since realized the importance of providing opportunities for people to minimize their carbon footprint before it’s too late. “I now see that switching to sustainable options can also be feasible in the long run and we should urge the private sector and the government to take a step forward in that ZD\ µ VDLG 8\JXU While Krellner believes the media to play a role LQ VKDSLQJ SXEOLF SHUFHSWLRQ RI FOLPDWH FKDQJH she “wouldn’t say the media pushes either denial RU EHOLHI EXW LW FDQ EH SRODUL]LQJ IRU HLWKHU VLGH

Newfound accessibility to climate news has instilled in Uygur a sense of “hope IRU WKH IXWXUH µ +RZHYHU Uygur is wary that Western Europe and the U.S. are the only global actors making strides towards halting climate change.

“These two regions comprise only a minority of the world’s population so I am worried about how we can make these techQRORJLHV FRVW HIÀFLHQW IRU WKH UHVW RI WKH ZRUOG µ VDLG Uygur. )RU .UHOOQHU DV ORQJ DV VZLIW DFWLRQ LV WDNHQ climate change can be mitigated regardless of whether an optimistic or pessimistic narrative is

portrayed in the media.

“If everyone treated climate change as a global emergency just like when COVID-19 started we would be able to make great strides and continue many ways of living without reaching a point of no UHWXUQ µ VDLG .UHOOQHU Sources https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ the-moment-youth/201903/the-psycholo-gyclimate-change-why-feelings-matter KWWSV ZZZ PWVX HGX ILUVW DPHQGPHQW DUticle/1042/berkeley-free-speech-movement

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& ) ( Ű ! ǔǕ 1 Ǖ Ű Ǖ ļ Ǖ Ǖ ǔǕ Ĩ Ǖ Ǖ Ǖǔ ǔ Ű ǔ \ AUTHOR: Mia Thomas, Kendall Weisiger, and Ashley Shafer ABSTRACT 2XU YDQWDJH SRLQW ZLOO EH IRFXVHG DW WKH ORFDO OHYHO DQG PRUH VSHFLÀFDOO\ IURP WKH SHUVSHFWLYH RI smallholder farmers in the coffee industry. Our major question focuses on the origins of the coffee industry and the subsequent coffee crisis of the early 2000s, and how this crisis has impacted the economy and ecology of coffee production for smallholder farmers in Honduras. We use global market perspectives and local primary sources to gain insight on what factors have exacerbated the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the region most drastically, investigating the causes, the interrelation dynamics, and the impacts of these drivers.

Background: History of the Coffee Industry in Honduras The development of the coffee industry in Honduras followed a more tentative path than other areas of Central America such as Mexico and Guatemala. Overall, Honduras had a weak central government which led to them having a poorly integrated national market and the least developed transportation infrastructure in Central America. These issues complicated the expansion of agricultural production. Honduras’ coffee production was mainly for domestic consumption and local markets before the 20th century. Their role as an important coffee exporter began in the 1950s as the government began taking measures for economic development, including improving the national infrastructure and boosting agricultural exports (Eakin et al.). The United States Agency for International Development and the United States government have SURYLGHG ERWK ÀQDQFLDO DQG WHFKQRORJLFDO DVVLVWDQFH WR improve and expand the country’s coffee production capacity (Eakin et al.). Additionally, the Banco Nacional de Fomento did work in order to build coffee processing infrastructure from the 1950s to the 1970s. Since the beginning of the 1960s, “much of Central America’s countries were exporting members of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) which controlled more than 95% of the world’s coffee production and set member-state export quotas and prices” (Bielecki et al.).

In the 1970s, a series of laws were put in place which caused the rising importance of coffee. The promotion of coffee production became even more prominent when the government created the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE), and the national development bank started giving loans to medium-sized coffee bean growers. In 1982, the Coffee Enterprise Protection Law declared all coffee producing lands to be exempt from Agrarian Reform Law regardless of their environmental considerations or legal status. Decree 175 then went on to establish an annual subsidy for road improvement in proportion to the coffee production in 1987. The creation of the National Coffee Fund Law allowed a fund to be made to cushion producers from price shocks. However, the ICA was not renewed in 1989, leading to the global coffee prices to plummet and continue to fall in

the 1990s. Honduras has promoted technical improvements for the means of coffee production, which then encouraged higher quality harvest of coffee. Many policies led to conWLQXLQJ H[WHQVLRQV RI FRIIHH SURGXFWLRQ DQG WRRN WKH ÀUVW steps at improving the quality of coffee. Honduras’ coffee production grew tremendously, by 192%, from 1989/90 to 1999/2000 (Bielecki et al.).

Many professional analysts think that the current coffee crisis is mainly due to oversupply. Due to the regulation of coffee being in the hands of each producing counWU\ H[FHVVLYH DPRXQWV RI FRIIHH ÁRRGHG WKH LQWHUQDWLRQDO markets. Moverover, new coffee-processing technology has increased competitiveness in the industry for producers. At the same time, there has been a decreasing number of international coffee distributors, roasters, and buyers, causing “a depressive effect on prices, which has widened the gap between farm gate and retail prices” (Eakin et al.). This has created exponential change in the global coffee market, especially as the economic and environmental spaces for smallholder production are being increasingly threatened.

The Honduran government has negotiated with other countries in Latin America to destroy large sums of low-quality coffee due to this crisis. The National Coffee Fund also provided nearly $20 million to coffee producers for each sack of green coffee produced through a payment. However, only IFCAFE members could take advantage of the subsidy.

Geographic Origins and Spatial Dynamics In terms of the geography of the industry, the exact location of the origin of coffee does not have concrete coordinates. A variety of myths point to the geographic origins, and many believe coffee farming began thousands of years ago by the Incan population while others point to the Ethiopian plateau. In fact, many believe the Oromo peoSOH RI (WKLRSLD ZHUH WKH ÀUVW WR GLVFRYHU FRIIHH·V FDIIHLQDWed nature and have passed this myth down for centuries.

Scientists believe Ethiopia is likely the geographic region of origin based on the biology and genetic makeup of the SODQW +RZHYHU WKH ÀUVW SULPDU\ GRFXPHQWDWLRQ RI FRIIHH in both its plant and drink form, occurred within the 15th century in Yemen (Weinberg et al.). Around the same time, German botanist Leonhard Rauwold mentioned the plant in his notes during an exploration to Africa. It was not until this period that coffee began being commercialized on the

$UDELDQ 3HQLQVXOD OLNHO\ FRPLQJ WR <HPHQ VSHFLÀFDOO\ through trade routes from Ethiopia in the Red Sea. It was this region that spread coffee production and consumption into Europe since many European travelers brought coffee back from the East and continued to trade the commodity along the Spice Route. Europe is KRPH WR WKH ÀUVW ´FRIIHH KRXVHV µ ZKLFK H[SHGLWHG WKH popularity of the resource rapidly; by the 18th century coffee became a world renowned export crop for its KLJK PDUJLQ RI SURÀW :HLQEHUJ HW DO The production of coffee remains largely in the tropical areas of sub-Saharan Africa and has since spread to the majority of the tropical regions near the HTXDWRU 7KH OHDGLQJ SURGXFWLRQ DUHDV DUH VSHFLÀFDOO\ centered between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, growing in around 80 countries in South and Central America, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

Honduras is the largest producer of coffee in Central $PHULFD DQG WKH ÀIWK ODUJHVW SURGXFHU LQ WKH ZRUOG (Ucles).

Smallholder Farmers in Honduras As discussed in the introduction, the early 21st century coffee crisis “represented one of the worst market shocks producers had ever experienced” in Honduras (Tucker). There was a global overproduction of coffee, driving prices to record lows. Central America had recently been hit by Hurricane Mitch, and a regional drought around the same time, devastating the homes and farms of many of its communities. The majority of coffee grown across the world was produced by smallholder farmers at the time who often only owned less than 10 hectares of land (Caswell et al.). Small-scale IDUPHUV LQ &HQWUDO $PHULFD VSHFLÀFDOO\ GHSHQG RQ WKHLU coffee production, and the combination of low market prices and hurricane damages drove many smallholder coffee farmers into extreme debt. Simultaneously, WKH ODUJHU UHJLRQ IHOO LQWR DQ H[WUHPH ÀQDQFLDO FULVLV largely from the dramatic shift in prices of their major export. Transnational corporations capitalized on HonGXUDV· GHÀFLWV XVLQJ WKHLU ORFDWLRQV LQ &HQWUDO $PHULFD WR WDNH RYHU D ODUJH PDMRULW\ RI WKH SURÀWV DV VPDOOKROGer farmers were unable to support themselves (Tucker).

The impacts of the early 2000s coffee crisis has continued to devastate the smallholder coffee farmer sector of Honduras. The original crisis catalyzed a social, economic, and political platform for a downtrend in success for these communities. Since then, there have been a variety of additional confounding factors that continue to threaten the longevity of the livelihoods of small farmers in Honduras.

Economics Honduras is the “least literate, least urban, and least industrialized country in Central America” (Ruhl).

This has presented economic problems in the smallscale farming sector, especially during the early origins of coffee production. Without a wealthy population or any government support (most of the government efforts focused on other political issues in Honduras),

gaining access to infrastructure and trading resources (i.e roads to move resources, vehicles etc.) was next to impossible for local coffee farmers. Ever since these issues presented themselves in the early 21st century coffee crisis, coffee has been “on the leading edge of economic, social, and environmental development schemes that now reach many major industries” (Weinberg). Honduras’ coffee farmers’ livelihoods depend on this invariability, and IRUFH IDPLOLHV WR HE DQG ÁRZ EHWZHHQ VXUYLYDO LQ UHODWLRQ to the movement of the coffee market. Marked with widespread poverty, many Honduran locals migrated to the 8QLWHG 6WDWHV LQ KRSHV RI ÀQGLQJ EHWWHU ÀQDQFLDO RSSRUWXQLWLHV RQO\ WR EH GHSRUWHG EDFN RU XQDEOH WR ÀQG ZRUN Upon returning back to Honduras, the lack of access to running water, electricity and other basic needs presented economic challenges. Relying on a seasonal infrequency of coffee production, and the growing competition between other farmers and larger agricultural powerhouse companies quickly drove out—and continues to drive out—many of the small-scale farmers from the coffee industry. They simply cannot afford it. Household incomes were, and continue to be, drastically impacted by the coffee crisis in Central America. One of the most impacted sectors of income was the “change in availability of hired labor for harvesting,” which was interrelated heavily with the mass migration to the United States during this time (Tucker). Economics is a driving force in the livelihoods of Honduran farming communities, as many of the farmers are forced to compromise their traditional, cultural farming and social practices for capitalist ones in order to scratch the surface of economic advancement. MigraWLRQ VSHFLÀFDOO\ KDV EHHQ GULYHQ E\ HFRQRPLFV DQG ZLWK many Honduran farmers working in coffee originally, this factor alone has driven out many small farmers from the industry (Reichman). This has taken an incredible toll on the culture of Honduras’ smallholder farming families.

Currently, Honduras coffee accounts for nearly 3% of coffee production in the global economy. Coffee production and exports out of Honduras has increased VLJQLÀFDQWO\ GXH WR ´DQ LPSURYHG GLVWULEXWLRQ LQIUDVWUXFWXUH PRUH HIÀFLHQW SURGXFWLRQ SUDFWLFHV DQG VXFFHVVful efforts to curtail the [rust fungus]...” (Herrell et al.).

The volatility of the plant, however, continues to impact smallholder farmers despite improvement efforts. The existing poverty and lack of access to many fundamental resources puts the majority of smallholder farmers at a ÀQDQFLDO GHÀFLW IRU SURGXFWLRQ UHO\LQJ KHDYLO\ RQ FRIIHH·V ÀQDQFLDO RXWSXWV 7KLV FUHDWHV PRUH URRP IRU ODUJer corporations to invade the industry—as they have no other outside challenges other than that of the ecological nature of the coffee bean—exacerbating the oppression of the livelihoods of the farmers due to competition. It is important to additionally note that the increased competition has historically caused inter-communal violence between farmers over land access and export politics.

The ecological barriers and subsequent economic, political, and social externalities have created a longstanding and cascading impact of this invariably on the Honduras economy.

A variety of efforts have been taken in order to

Table 1: Impact of the coffee crisis on household income and expenditures. Table retrieved from Tucker, C. M. 2012. “Honduras’s Smallholder Coffee Farmers, the Coffee Crisis, and Neoliberal Policy.” combat this ecological (and subsequent economic) challenges of coffee production for smallholder farmers.

Many cooperatives have been created to provide these farmers with greater access to world markets. This is ofWHQ GRQH WKURXJK WUDGH FHUWLÀFDWLRQV WKDW LQFUHDVH WKH value of the product, as well as more modern production technologies. Other more commonly known programs VXFK DV )DLU 7UDGH 'LUHFW 7UDGH DQG 2UJDQLF FHUWLÀcations have created a “speciality” sector of coffee-enabling farmers to be more competitive if they are able to meet these standards. This emphasizes quality over TXDQWLW\ IRU SURGXFWLRQ ZLWK D VSHFLÀF HPSKDVLV RQ HWKics. However, it is important to note who this literature is sourced from; many of the statements these NGO proJUDPV KDYH FUHDWHG DUH RQO\ IRU WKH EHQHÀW RI WKH FRQsumer. Labeling coffee as “speciality” often creates more room for western companies to upsell the good, incentivizing customers with empty phrases surrounding the “quality” or the “source” but most often simply changing the packaging. More often than not, the increased price WKDW LV VROG WR WKH FRQVXPHU LV QRW DQ LQFUHDVHG SURÀW margin for the smallholder farmer. The additional profit is kept by the company who bought the coffee from small Honduras farmers, and many of the large NGO programs do not consider this dynamic. They focus heavily on specialty coffee, and less so on ensuring farmers have a living wage and a sustainable livelihood. The economic crisis that Honduras faces within the industry is multifaceted in origin, and highly controversial in terms of solutions (Herrell et al.).

yields. In a recent study conducted by BioMed Central, it was reported that 66% of coffee farmers reported negative effects from climate change on their crops. This problem is only expected to get worse, as it is predicted that, around 2025, bean production in Central America will fall by 20%. Additionally, by 2050 around 40% of the current areas used for coffee production will become unsuitable for cultivation.

Given that this report is highly concerning for both producers and consumers of coffee, policy makers in Honduras and other parts of Central America have been advocating for government assistance and aid to help small-scale farmers become resilient to these negative repercussions. Due to the effects climate change has on the production of coffee beans, over 50% of coffee farmers in Central America reported altering their harvesting practices or utilizing adaptation strategies. Some of these strategies include: planting more trees, higher use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, and the conservation of soil and water.

These strategies alone are not enough to combat the negative effects climate change has on small scale coffee bean farmers, especially with climate change becoming increasingly more severe. Through the same study done

by BioMed Central, small-scale farmers were able to speak on what would be helpful from the government. 40% of coffee farmers discussed the need for fertilizers and other agrochemicals, 40% mentioned the need for technical support, and many touched on more training regarding PDUNHWLQJ DQG DFFHVV WR ÀQDQFLQJ

Environmental Conditions Climate change disproportionately impacts smallholder farmers due to their reliance on rain-fed agriculture and lack of technology that can help mitigate unpredictable weather patterns affecting production

COVID-19 in Honduras In the last year, COVID-19 has exacerbated the problems that Hondurans had already been facing such as extreme poverty and violence. According to the World Bank’s reports, their organization has helped Honduras

recover from the pandemic by prioritizing saving lives threatened by the pandemic, protecting the poor and vulnerable, securing the foundations of the economy to shorten the time to recovery, and strengthening policies and institutions for resilience based on transparent and sustainable debt investments. Through different investment projects, the United States has committed roughly $542.95 million to support and elevate education, water/ food security, disaster relief, and other sectors hurt by COVID-19.

Small-scale coffee farmers in Honduras were especially vulnerable to the pandemic since much of their business is reliant on exports. The World Bank’s response to the coffee sector in particular was very vague.

The World Bank framed this problem by stating that “the coffee crisis is actually part of a broader rural crisis caused by weather shocks (such as Hurricane Mitch and droughts), low international agricultural commodity prices, and the global recession” (Varangis). The World Bank advised countries including Honduras to pursue “broad-based sustainable development” to improve their economy and that increased competitiveness and GLYHUVLÀFDWLRQ ZRXOG EULQJ ORQJ WHUP VROXWLRQV Before the COVID-19 era, the World Bank acted similarly in that they focused on growth and development within Honduras but did not address the root cause of the coffee crisis. According to the World Bank, by focusing on economic development and investing in human capital, the most vulnerable can gain from job opportunities, including small-scale coffee farmers. But within their reports regarding economic growth, we did QRW ÀQG DQ\ UHIHUHQFHV WR FRIIHH EHDQ IDUPHUV EHLQJ helped from the national growth of the Honduras economy as a whole, since their focus was on “sustainability of the electricity sector, as well as governance and the business climate” (World Bank).

Coffee Leaf Rust Outbreak Smallholder coffee bean farmers have disproportionately been affected by coffee leaf rust in Honduras and other parts of Central America. Coffee Leaf Rust is a fungus that destroys the life cycle of coffee bean production. This decline of around 16% to 32% experienced IURP WKLV RXWEUHDN VLJQLÀFDQWO\ GLVUXSWV WKH OLYHOLKRRGV of smallholder farmers who are highly dependent on the income from coffee beans (Govt USA).

Many organizations realize the severity of this problem for small-scale farmers, given that they often do not have access to technology and funding to manage their plants affected by coffee leaf rust, and have given loans and aid to Honduran farmers. Early Warning Coffee System for Coffee Production began helping smallscale farmers in 2012 in an attempt to warn farmers when an outbreak is likely to occur and steps to mitigate the repercussions from it. Additionally in 2012, the Honduran government gave loans to coffee farmers to deal with the initial outbreak, but many have not paid off these loans and are accumulating interest. This has been an ongoing problem for small-scale farmers as many are still recovering from the 2011/2012 outbreak.

Primary Responses from Small-Scale Farmers Many hypothesized that farmers would respond to the crisis through activities that were designed to cope with and survive the markets’ negative effects on their income and livelihoods. These activities include taking proactive measures to not only address the current predicament but to prepare for future un-certainties and predicaments. To measure farmers’ adaptation, local households were asked about any changes they made in their production strategies, such as changes in planted area, changes in crop mix, intro-duction of alternative crops, or engagement in organic coffee production as a new commercial strategy. These numerous changes represent the conscious decisions that entail investment, risk, and commitment of the IDUP XQLW WR D VSHFLILF H[SHFWDWLRQ RI WKH IXWXUH 7KH\ were interpreted as adaptations because they went be-yond coping mechanisms that are normally used to ad-dress a crisis, such as decreasing input use or seeking temporary employment. $ VXUYH\ VSHFLILFDOO\ GRQH LQ /D &DPSD +RQduras showed that farmers reported changing their SURGXFWLRQ VWUDWHJLHV LQ D VLJQLILFDQW ZD\ LQ WKH SDVW ILYH \HDUV 7KH PRVW IUHTXHQW UHVSRQVH ZDV FKDQJHV LQ the planted area, however, a large percentage of farmers reported also changing their crop mix. Responses of Honduran households, compared to that of Mex-LFR RU *XDWHPDOD UHIOHFWHG PRUH GLYHUVH DJULFXOWXUDO strategies, different attitudes toward coffee, and larger land-holdings. Hondurans tended to be more positive DQG ZHUH FRQILGHQW WKDW FRIIHH SULFHV ZLOO ULVH DJDLQ eventually, so they wanted to be ready for that oppor-tunity. Out of the households surveyed, 32% of them “who observed change [in public policy] associated this change with infrastructure and social service improve-ments… rather than public investment in production or coffee” (Eakin et al.). Very few farmers discussed the coffee retention program “as a positive public sector response to the crisis, but they were very much in the minority, and these were the largest producers in the sample who had easier access to governmental pro-grammes” (Eakin et al.). Many of the surveyed farmers also expressed that there were considerable obstacles they faced when adjusting to the crisis. Around the communities that were surveyed, medium and large scale farmers were the ones who had the most success with alternative methods.

Hondurans’ optimism in regard to prices increasing again can be explained by how they have rel-atively less experience growing coffee than other Cen-tral American countries, therefore making it hard for them to guage this crisis’ severity and the price volatil-ity. Many producers in Honduras have diverse subsis-tence and livelihood options, as coffee is not the only thing they produce. Hondurans are able to leverage the low cost of wages and free labor through family and

Table 2: Adjustments of coffee farmers. Table retrieved from Tucker, C. M. 2012. “Honduras’s Smallholder Coffee Farmers, the Coffee Crisis, and Neoliberal Policy.”

social networks, whereas farmers in other countries do not have that luxury. If prices do not rise and they continue to become lower “it is likely that farmers will re-evaluate and seek alternatives” (Eakin et al.). Other areas of Honduras with a longer history in the coffee production industry may have a greater dependence on coffee and therefore different perspectives.

The livelihood strategy of smallholder coffee farmers include a combination of assets, resources, and capabilities that people, households, or communities use to reduce their vulnerabilities and maintain or improve their standards of living. The vulnerabilities that they are trying to reduce include the external risks, shocks, and stress that people, households, or communities face while trying to secure their livelihoods.

Common vulnerabilities for Central American smallholder coffee farmers include climate change, weather, natural disasters, plant diseases, and pests. Economic conditions are also counted as vulnerabilities, such as production costs, consumer and food prices, and global coffee prices. Coffee cultivation is only one activity within Central American smallholder coffee farmers’ livelihood strategy to reduce vulnerabilities and improve their standard of living. Smallholder coffee farmers tend to diversify or adapt their livelihood strategies in order to decrease food security-related and regional CLR (Coffee Leaf Rust) outbreak vulnerabilities.

Solution Recommendations and Concluding Thoughts In response to the coffee crisis, nongovernmental organizations and the public sector in Hondu-

ras have enacted numerous policies. Topics that these policies incorporate include reducing volume of production (mainly at lower altitudes), promoting crop diYHUVLÀFDWLRQ RU FRQYHUVLRQ HQFRXUDJLQJ SURGXFWLRQ IRU more niche markets, and economic compensation. There is still no data on how these policies will impact coffee production and smallholder farmers. However, there has been indication that smallholder farmers in the studied regions of Honduras did not have access to economic compensation from these organizations due to the lack of information, strenuous requisites, and excessive bureaucracy.

Based on the current data and trajectory of both the Honduran economy and ecological conditions, we believe local intervention is an essential strategy to increase smallholder farmer autonomy. Improving the livelihoods of these farmers and agricultural communities is multifaceted and deep rooted in the history and market of the region. Understanding the gravity of large-scale change is necessary in order to preserve the cultural and historical nature of the Honduran culture. Embedding or forcing western policies into local communities is not the solution. Many of the NGO programs that are currently instated in the Global South have ulterior motives and are unsustainable, especially in the agriculture sector. In order to better understand farmers’ responses and the appropriate institutional mechanisms to improve their livelihoods, and the link between environmental factors, policies, and farmers’ decisions in agriculture, there needs to be more research done and further case studies executed. This would enable a more precise action plan that

LV VSHFLÀF WR WKH PDUNHW LQ +RQGXUDV DQG WDNH LQWR DFFRXQW VSHFLÀF HFRQRPLF VRFLDO DQG SROLWLFDO VLWXDWLRQV instead of creating blanket policies for large regions like “Central America.” Enhancing risk management would simultaneously combat the externalities of the changing climate and other ecological problems. Additionally, increasing farm-level organization on a local level has the potential to create a streamline process that enables farmers to participate in environmental planning initiatives, increase access to information on the market and the ecological conditions of the region, and provide greater access to niche markets (Eakin et al.).

Using the historical background of the coffee industry and the most prevalent crisis within it enabled our research to analyze the origin of the inequality and oppression of smallholder farmers in Honduras. These ÀQGLQJV DVVLVWHG LQ SLQSRLQWLQJ WKH GULYLQJ IDFWRUV RI WKH current destruction of these communities’ livelihoods, as well as determining the effectiveness of global intervention through NGOs and policy change. The economic, environmental and social threats to the smallholder farmers in Honduras are actively problematic and show no potential of alleviation in the mere future. Intervention and assistance are both necessary and urgent, yet they must be done using appropriate research methods and culturally sustainable practices for the preservation of the rich culture of the area. The large majority of famLOLHV LQ +RQGXUDV UHO\ RQ DJULFXOWXUDO H[SRUWV VSHFLÀFDOly coffee, for the economic well-being of themselves and their communities, and it is more pressing than ever to prevent large corporations and NGOs from westernizing the agriculture sector of Honduras for the preservation of the fruits, of the environment, and all those who depend on it.

Works Cited Bielecki, C. D., & Wingenbach, G. (2019). “Using a livelihoods framework to analyze farmer identity and decision making during the Central American coffee leaf rust outbreak: implications for addressing climate change DQG FURS GLYHUVLÀFDWLRQ µ $JURHFRORJ\ DQG 6XVWDLQDEOH Food Systems, 43(4), 457–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/2 1683565.2019.1566191 Eakin, H., Tucker, C. M., & Castellanos, E. (2005). “Market Shocks and Climate Variability: The Coffee Crisis in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.” Mountain Research and Development, 25(4), 304–309. https://doi. org/10.1659/0276-4741(2005)025[0304:msacvt]2.0.co;2 Eakin, H., Tucker, C., & Castellanos, E. (2006). “Responding to the coffee crisis: a pilot study of farmers’ adaptations in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.” The Geographical Journal, 172(2), 156–171. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2006.00195.x Harvey, C. A., Saborio-Rodríguez, M., Martinez-Rodríguez, M. R., Viguera, B., Chain-Guadarrama, A., Vignola, R., & Alpizar, F. (2018, August 14). “Climate change impacts and adaptation among smallholder farmers in Central America.” Agriculture & Food Security. https:// agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-018-020

)FSSFMM , . 3 5FXBSJ BOE + .FIMIPSO i)PO duran Coffee Trade: Economic Effects of Fair Trade CertiILFDWLRQ 2Q ,QGLYLGXDO 3URGXFHUV µ KWWSV DJHFRQVHDUFK umn.edu/record/252729/?ln=en Honduras. Mercanta The Coffee Hunters Honduras Countries. (n.d.). https://www.coffeehunter.com/coffee-country/honduras/.

Reichman, Daniel R. “The Broken Village: Coffee, Migration, and Globalization in Honduras.” Cornell University Press, 2011, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j. ctt7zcgs. Accessed 2 May 2022.

Ruhl, M. J. (n.d.). Agrarian Structure and Political Stability in Honduras. https://www.jstor.org/stable/165506. The World Bank in Honduras. World Bank. (n.d.). https:// www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview#2.

Tucker, C. M. 2012. “Honduras’s Smallholder Coffee Farmers, the Coffee Crisis, and Neoliberal Policy.” Central America in the New Millennium: Living Transition and Reimagining Democracy. https://www.academia. edu/3901883/Honduras_s_Smallholder_Coffee_Farmers_ the_Coffee_Crisis_and_Neoliberal_Policy.

Varangis, P., Siegel, P., Giovannucci, D., & Lewin, B. (2003, March 1). “Dealing with the Coffee Crisis in Central America : Impacts and Strategies. Open Knowledge Repository.” https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18273.

Weinberg, B. A., & Bealer, B. K. (2002). “The world of caffeine: the science and culture of the world’s most popular drug.” Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/World-Caffeine-Science-Culture-Popular/dp/0415927234.

Ucles, Francisco Bueso (2021) Coffee Annual. https:// apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReSRUW%\)LOH1DPH"ILOH1DPH &RIIHH $QQXDOB7HJXFLJDOpa_Honduras_05-15-2021.pdf

Agroecology in Cuba: Innovation, Economic Degrowth, and Sustainability

AUTHOR: Lance Mann

Cuba is a highly politicized topic in America.

It is also a unique place to study because it is touted as the gold standard of sustainable agriculture in the international community. Its capital, Havana, is often described in platitude with a longing nostalgia for the colonial era “frozen in time” (Currie). This fanaticism neglects how Cuba is an important case VWXG\ XVHG WR GHVFULEH VLJQLÀFDQW KLVWRULFDO DQG political events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States trade embargo, peasant empowerment, traditional knowledge, food sovereignty, and current challenges of agroecology from new FRUSRUDWH LQÁXHQFH LQ WKH UHJLRQ ,W ZLOO EH XVHIXO WR look towards the urban sector, using the capital of Havana as example, and examine how ideas of agroecology and food sovereignty can be applied there while comparing them to case studies in rural Cuba.

I will look at the beginnings of the implementation of agroecology through socialist policies, which lay the groundwork along with traditional peasant knowledge, for the transition to this type of agriculture after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. Farmer-to-farmer movements, such as Cuban National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), will also be examined for their success in expanding and maintaining agroecological knowledge across the island for the ultimate goal of total food sovereignty.

The collapse of the Soviet Union along with the U.S. economic embargo, the Special Period, and its effects on Cuba are well documented. This period’s implications for agriculture involve fossil fuel shortages which led to loss of fertilizers and pesticides, paralyzing the industrial agriculture sector ´+DYDQDµ 0DQ\ ZRXOG DVVXPH &XED ZRXOG ÀQG a crop to specialize in to export and earn money to buy other food imports (“Post-Cold War”). However, the country turned inward for solutions where they changed land use, especially in the urban sector, to SURGXFH WKHLU RZQ IRRG DQG SURPRWH VHOI VXIÀFLHQcy with the absence of fossil fuels (“Post-Cold War”).

While it is argued that the promotion of sustainable agriculture and agroecology was invented from this crisis out of necessity, Cuba’s agricultural innovation can be traced back to traditional knowledge from farmers (Fernandez et al.). It was from the collapse of an interconnected industrial society that allowed for this knowledge to be taken seriously and promoted throughout the country (Fernandez).

This is not to glorify the Special Period (1990-

1995). Manuel Franco studied this period extensively.

His results show that the country experienced a famine where adults lost as much as 25% of their body weight (“Health Consequences”). The famine was combated with home gardens utilizing diverse crops to help with a lack of food provision from the state (Wezel and Bender). DiYHUVLÀFDWLRQ RI IRRG SURGXFWLRQ ZDV YHU\ LPSRUWDQW IRU the Cuban population to improve overall nutrition, and this was done through the urban agricultural movement (Fernandez et al.).

Another reason that is often cited for the apparent success of urban agriculture in Cuba is the national movement to promote the use of organoponics.

Beginning in December 1987, the central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party encouraged the use of organic substrates such as crop residues, household wastes and animal manure to grow food in raised garden beds (“Havana”). Organoponic gardens were ideal in urban spaces because they utilized barriers of wood, stone, and bricks to line furrows in soil, which is then constantly added to with compost and other organic matter, thus building the height of the garden over time (“Havana”). Most of these gardens use drip irrigation, intercropping, crop rotation, and integrated pest management for biological control to produce nutritious vegetables all year round with yields up to 20 kg per square meter (“Havana”). In addition, there were the enormous savings from fertilizers and pesticides, from US$39.5 million and US$2.8 million to US$300,000, respectively (“Post-Cold War).

In total, more than 35,000 hectares (over 87,000 acres) are cultivated in Havana alone, and it is estimated that about 90,000 Havana residents are practicing agriculture of some sort (Koont, Fernandez et al.). In 2012, total production included 63,000 tons of vegetables, 20,000 tons of fruit, 10,000 tons of roots and tubers, 10.5 million liters of milk from cows, buffalo and goats, and 1,700 tons of meat (“Urban Agriculture”). There were eight goals outlined by the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI) in the early 1990s to facilitate alternative models of agriculture: ´ DJULFXOWXUDO GLYHUVLÀFDWLRQ UHSODFHPHQW RI WUDFWRUV DQG RWKHU PDFKLQHU\ ZLWK R[HQ DGRSWLRQ RI LQWHJUDWHG SHVW PDQDJHPHQW WR UHGXFH UHOLDQFH RQ SHVWLFLGHV SURvision of support for research and development of new VXVWDLQDEOH WHFKQLTXHV LPSOHPHQWDWLRQ RI D ODUJH VFDOH DJURHFRORJLFDO PHWKRGV WUDLQLQJ SURJUDP HQFRXUDJHPHQW RI LQFUHDVHG FRRSHUDWLRQ DPRQJVW IDUPHUV DQG DQ effort to curb urbanization to ensure adequate rural labor supplies” (Nelson et al.).

The Center for Public Impact explains that with

the help of MINAGRI, it is estimated that 25,000 people worked on about 1,800 hectares of land in Havana from 1990 to 1994 (“Urban Agriculture”). There are many governmental policies that are claimed to have facilitated these seeming successes in urban agriculture. First, in 1994, the state started subsidizing farmers’ markets that allowed a direct relationship with consumers. This created higher prices to meet their quotas (Fernandez et al.). Another important action was taken by the VI Communist Party Congress in 2011, which released restrictions on food sales for urban farmers that started campaigns to market towards hotels, restaurants, and other vendors (Fernandez et al.). The Guidelines for the Social and Economic Policy of the Party and the Revolution is another important government policy document that recently detailed some guidelines specifying the need to reduce agricultural inputs and encouraging the development and implementation of urban agriculture across Cuba (Fernandez et al.). It is claimed that this movement was crucial in subduing the food crisis in the 1990s by promoting agroecology through the training of many farmers, other tradesSHRSOH DQG HYHQ JRYHUQPHQW RIÀFLDOV LQ IDUPer-to-farmer movements such as MACAC and ANAP (Fernandez et al.). These teachings or trainings are often informal and collaborative, and they have had resounding success in educating tens of thousands of people (Fernandez et al.). This practice has helped urban farms, in conjunction with productive school programs, supply food through subsidization to retirement homes, hospitals, and other large scale institutions (Fernandez et al.).

Some of these radical policies and techniques such as organoponics and other sustainable urban agriculture practices described above, are examples of agroecology. Miguel Altieri says the following about agroecology: “Agroecological systems are deeply rooted in the ecological rationale of traditional small-scale agriculture, representing long established examples of successful agricultural systems characterized by a tremendous diversity of domesticated crop and animal species maintained and enhanced by ingenuous soil, water, and biodiversity management regimes, nourished by complex traditional knowledge systems,” (Altieri et al.).

He further explains that these systems have had ample success in feeding people throughout the world in diverse ecosystems (Altieri et al.). A small farm, such as the ones seen in Cuba, can be a revolutionary paradigm that promotes principles such as diversity, synergy, recycling and integration as well empowering the community on a local level to meet the challenges of the current crises on the global level (Altieri et al.). One farmer describes what it is like to grow food using these principles saying, “On an agroecological farm, if one thing doesn’t make it,

another one will. There’s always something to eat. It doesn’t matter what happens”(Agroecology in Cuba).

Altieri, among other highly respected academics and agroecological practitioners, explains that this is the only solution for increasing oil prices, as we saw in Cuba, and the global climate change that we will have to adapt to (Altieri et al.).

Agroecology, if implemented correctly, will foster food sovereignty for communities. Food sovereignty is a concept developed by La Via Campesina in response to the destructive forces of neoliberalism in the 1990s (Leitgeb et al.). It emphasizes the rights of people to the land, which can be used to produce and distribute food ecologically, socially, economically, and culturally in an appropriate manner to their particular circumstances. Food sovereignty will sustain communities in the long term (Leitgeb et al.). In Cuba, this type of work can fall under the category of land retribution to promote sustainable, organic, and urban agriculture supported by strong grassroots organizations such as the National Association of Small Scale Farmers (ANAP, Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños), the Cuban Association of Animal Production (ACPA, Asociación Cubana de Producción Animal), and the Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians (ACTAF, Asociación Cubana de Técnicos Agrícolas y Forestales) (Altieri). A massive milestone achievement in the work towards food sovereignty in Cuba occurred in 2006 where peasants, a part of ANAP who controlled only 25% of agricultural land, produced more than 65% of the country’s food using 72% fewer chemical inputs WKDQ LQ $OWLHUL 7KLV LV D TXDQWLÀDEOH VXFFHVV IRU national food production that aims to replicate across Cuba to promote agroecology and food sovereignty. In an attempt to further this success, Cuba, along with Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, has spent a total of 100 million US dollars towards food sovereignty (Leitgeb et al.). They also formed the Bolivian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) in 2005 claiming to implement food sovereignty as well as other national policies in conjunction with La Via Campesina (Leitgeb et al.). However, an interesting point that should not be overlooked is brought up by Friedrich Leitgeb and his colleagues in their essay for Agriculture and Human Values titled, “Increasing Food Sovereignty with Urban Agriculture in Cuba.” They say, “...having a Democracy Index of just 3.52 (Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2013) seems to contradict the government’s commitment to food sovereignty, which includes putting control locally as a basic principle of the movement” (Leitgeb et al.). There is some vagueness surrounding the Democracy Index in which it can overlook cooperative production units. However, the participation of farmers in local decision making is one of the main WHQHWV RI DJURHFRORJ\ DQG D GHÀQLQJ HOHPHQW RI IRRG sovereignty that may be overlooked by the Cuban government (Leitgeb et al.). If this country wants to conWLQXH WR EXLOG LWV VRYHUHLJQW\ DQG VXIÀFLHQF\ ZLWKRXW

imports from countries such as the United States, it will have to incorporate peasants into their policymaking process to ensure true food sovereignty and resilient agroecological design.

One case study the Cuban government can look towards is a survey done on a rural family farm in Pinar del Rio, Cuba over the course of 8 months. It looked at different aspects of food security such as availability, access, stabilization, utilization, gross net gains and soil health (Lucantoni). Lucatoni summarizHV WKH ÀQGLQJV RI KLV VWXG\ ZKHUH KH VWDWHV “All conclusion pointed towards a positive transition where food security indicators due to diversity of crops produced which increased the quality of family diet, not to mention economic viability, reduced dependence on external inputs and nonrenewable HQHUJ\ DQG VRLO KHDOWK DQG UHDFKHG IXOO GHÀQLWLRQ RI agroecology farm according to ANAP and moved towards the most important idea of food sovereignty” (Lucantoni).

However, there are some instances where there is a lack of “producer commitment” to these principles that could pose challenges for the future of agroecology in Cuba where farmers could be swayed by economic forces to adopt a more industrial model (Nelson et al.). This comes at a time with new geopolitical challenges in regard to Cuba’s changing relations with the U.S. The U.S. Agricultural Coalition for Cuba (USACC) is attempting to push for the end of the historic embargo on Cuba by lobbying Congress to implement agricultural investment and trade interests of the U.S. Export-Import Bank onto the national agenda (Graddy-Lovelace). A statement released by the U.S. Wheat Associates president explains, “We should be able to garner 80–90% of that [wheat] market as we do for the rest of the Caribbean. It’s simply logical” (Graddy-Lovelace). This brings up many classic agrarian questions such as how peasants will be able to cope with a neo-capitalist economy that has the main goal of grabbing and industrializing their land? *UDGG\ /RYHODFH 2Q WKH ÁLS VLGH WRWDO VWDWH FRQWURO through communist ideals is equally destructive to the campesino identity, as it greatly limits their autonomy through monopoly (Graddy-Lovelace). While historically the Cuban countryside has survived years of the failed promises of communism and capitalism, new questions are posed with these changing relations with the United States: could Cuban farmers produce exportable goods while maintaining agroecology and food sovereignty, or will the U.S.’ neoliberalism and industrial agriculture dominate the landscape. If the latter, how long will this new market take to materialize? (Graddy-Lovelace). It is clear who will win and who will lose with a free market between the U.S. and Cuba, yet we are still waiting to see it play out while pondering what other options small farmers and disadvantaged countries have.

One economic option that must be considered

by any country that understands the value of sustainDELOLW\ LV GHJURZWK $ GHJURZWK HFRQRP\ LV GHÀQHG DV “an equitable and democratic transition to a smaller economy with less production and consumption” (BoilODW HW DO %\ GHÀQLWLRQ WKLV SKLORVRSK\ LV LQ GLUHFW opposition to capitalistic thought that promotes inÀQLWH JURZWK E\ DQ\ PHDQV QHFHVVDU\ 'HJURZWK GRHV QRW GLVFDUG WKH IXOÀOOPHQW RI EDVLF QHHGV VXFK DV IRRG health, education and housing (Boillat et al.). Rather, it emphasizes the need for reducing energy and materialistic consumption in society (Boillat et al.). Questions regarding the implementation of degrowth on a large scale remain to be answered. However, in Cuba, the country can start with reducing food imports and continue investing in decentralized methods of food production such as agroecology and food sovereignty (Boillat et al.). With most of this groundwork laid out in Cuba such as economically egalitarianism and abolition of agribusiness, there is a unique opportunity for GHJURZWK WR EH UHDOL]HG RQ D VLJQLÀFDQW FRXQWU\ZLGH scale (Boillat et al.). This can be achieved through cooperation between social movements representing small farmers’ interests from both the global North and South that promote a “low environmental impact econRP\µ WR UHGXFH DUWLÀFLDO UHOLDQFH RQ WUDGH H[SRUWV WR buy cheap imports for food security, fossil-fuel energy reliance and materialistic overconsumption while promoting national and community-based land and food sovereignty (Boillat et al.).

In brief, as we enter the start of the 21st century, many assert that Cuba serves as a template on how to implement agroecology to feed the world in response to the ecological and economic crises created by industrial agriculture and neoliberal policies in both the forms of capitalism and communism (Fernandez et al.). However, as we continue to see how Cuba will respond to our current and future global crises, one of the most glaringly obvious issues this country faces is their rapid population decline. It reached its peak population of 11.34 million in 2016 and in the years from 2019 to 2020, Cuba’s population did not experience any growth and in actuality, their population declined by 0.06% (“Cuba Population’’). This trend, due to low birth rates and an exodus of young people from the country, is projected to last through the rest of the century with an estimated population of around 6.73 million by 2099 which is essentially half of what it currently is (“Cuba Population’’). Cuba will be left with an aging population projected to be the ninth oldest by 2050 (“Cuba Population’’). Does this completely invalidate the claims of success in sustainable agriculture in the country, or is this an entirely new problem separate from the history of governmental overreach? What does this mean for agroecology, food sovereignty and sustainable degrowth? It means that, shamefully, the Cuban government has monopolized so far to the point where young SHRSOH IHHO WKDW WKH\ FDQQRW UHDS WKH EHQHÀWV RI LQQRvation in agroecological practices in their country and

must leave. If the Cuban government supported the full manifestation of agroecology, they would let go of their centralized power and control to social cooperatives such as farmer-to-farmer movements that address the needs of people at a local level. This would foster stronger communities and a desirable place to live as the promises of agroecology, ecological, social and economic wellbeing, are realized. In turn, this will encourage youth participation to advance these technologies for the actualization of a hopeful future.

Degrowth does not mean the degrowth of human population and life. It means the degrowth of centralized economic and governmental forces that exploit natural resources and human life for the wealthy few at the top of the hierarchy. The alarming trends of population decline in Cuba are not caused by a failure in agriculture, rather, a failure in national leadership.

Works Cited Agroecology in Cuba: For the Farmer, Seeing Is Believing. https://www.fao.org/3/bl991e/bl991e.pdf.

Altieri, Miguel A. “The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture.”

Monthly Review, vol. 63, no. 8, 2012, p. 23., https:// doi.org/10.14452/mr-063-08-2012-01_3. $OWLHUL 0LJXHO $ HW DO ´$JURHFRORJLFDOO\ (IÀFLHQW Agricultural Systems for Smallholder Farmers: Contributions to Food Sovereignty.” Agronomy for Sustainable Development, vol. 32, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–13., https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-011-0065-6.

Boillat, Sébastien, et al. “What Economic Democracy for Degrowth? Some Comments on the Contribution of Socialist Models and Cuban Agroecology.” Futures, vol. 44, no. 6, 2012, pp. 600–607., https://doi. org/10.1016/j.futures.2012.03.021.

“Cuba Population 2021 (Live).” Cuba Population 2021 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs), https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cuba-population.

Currie, Laura Penaranda. “From Colonial Port to Post-Revolution: Urban Planning for 21st Century Havana.” Columbia University, 2012, https://doi. org/10.7916/d8sj1k8p.

Fernandez, Margarita, et al. “New Opportunities, New Challenges: Harnessing Cuba’s Advances in Agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture in the Context of Changing Relations with the United States.” Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, vol. 6, 2018, https:// doi.org/10.1525/elementa.337.

Graddy-Lovelace, Garrett. “United States-Cuba Agricultural Relations and Agrarian Questions.” Journal of Agrarian Change, vol. 18, no. 1, 2016, pp. 43–66., https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.12190.

“Havana.” Havana: Growing Greener Cities in Latin America and the Caribbean, https://www.fao.org/ ag/agp/greenercities/en/ggclac/havana.html.

“Health Consequences of Cuba’s Special Period.”

CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L’Association Médicale Canadienne, Canadian Medical Association, 29 July 2008, https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2474886/.

Koont, Sinan. “The Urban Agriculture of Havana.”

Monthly Review, vol. 60, no. 8, 2009, p. 44., https:// doi.org/10.14452/mr-060-08-2009-01_5.

“La Via Campesina: International Peasants’ Movement.” Via Campesina English, https://viacampesina.org/en.

Leitgeb, Friedrich, et al. “Increasing Food Sovereignty with Urban Agriculture in Cuba.” Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 33, no. 2, 2015, pp. 415–426., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9616-9.

Lucantoni, Dario. “Transition to Agroecology for Improved Food Security and Better Living Conditions: Case Study from a Family Farm in Pinar Del Río, Cuba.” Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 44, no. 9, 2020, pp. 1124–1161., https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2020.1766635.

Nelson, Erin, et al. “Institutionalizing Agroecology: Successes and Challenges in Cuba.” Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 26, no. 3, 2008, pp. 233–243., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9156-7.

“The Post-Cold War Cuban Food Experiment.” Rapid Transition Alliance, https://www.rapidtransition. org/stories/the-post-cold-war-cuban-food-experiment/.

“Urban Agriculture in Havana.” Center For Public Impact (CPI), https://www.centreforpublicimpact. org/case-study/havana-urban-agriculture.

Wezel, A., Bender, S. “Plant species diversity of KRPHJDUGHQV RI &XED DQG LWV VLJQLÀFDQFH IRU household food supply.” Agroforestry Systems 57, 39–49 (2003). https://doi-org.libproxy.berkeley. edu/10.1023/A:1022973912195

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