The Green Observer - Spring 2021

SPRING 2021

The Green Observer R E A D

G R E E N .

L I V E

G R E E N .

Editor's Letter

Dear Observers, With Springtime comes new beginnings. As the winter season phases out with fresh blossoms, there is room for endless opportunity.

In this issue, we will walk you though our path of new discoveries, realizations, and reflections on the state of our Earth and environment.

As you read through the articles and gaze at a variety of fresh pieces, we would like you to look ahead at the future of sustainability. Take a moment to ponder upon your goals for how you can make a meaningful difference in our world.

In this edition of the Green Observer, you will notice tips and tricks on how you can take environmental action and get involved in the Champaign-Urbana community. With the start of the new year, dare to take your first steps towards making an impact.

"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."

-David Attenborough

TAIYA TKACHUK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Meet Our Staff

TAIYA TKACHUK EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ANTONIO CISNEROS YMCA BOARD REP

ZOE HUSPEN

SHALLON MALFEO SOCIAL CHAIR

GRACE GUDWIEN TREASURER

LUCY QUINN ART CHAIR

VERONICA CASEY

ALEXANDRA SCHNEEBERGER

JESSICA MINGIONE

LAUREN UMBRIGHT

ARIANA PALERMO

EMMA RODER

MOIRA SOMMERFELD

JOE LEHMAN

NATALIE MUELLER

Table of Contents 5

7

9

FORAGING FOR FOOD ISN’T

MONARCH BUTTERFLY

BIRD STRIKE: WHEN MANKIND

JUST FOR ANCIENT TIMES!

SPRINGTIME

AND NATURE COLLIDE

- MOIRA SOMMERFELD

- NATALIE MUELLER

- JESSICA MINGIONE - ART BY LUCY QUINN

11

15

17

TAKE A CLASS ON

FEIGNED AFFECTION

THE KID'S CLIMATE CASE -

VEGETABLE GARDENING!

- ALEXANDRA

MAYBE THE THIRD TIME

- TAIYA TKACHUK

SCHNEEBERGER

ISN'T THE CHARM - JOE LEHMAN

19

21

THE GIFT OF GROUNDHOGS

FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW

- GRACE GUDWIEN

- A COLLABORATIVE STAFF PROJECT

5

Foraging for Food Isn’t Just for Ancient Times!

It’s also a sustainable delicious way to eat.

MOIRA SOMMERFELD If I told you that you could find delicious, natural food in your own backyard, would you think of a garden? What if I told you that you could find dinner ingredients on a hike? Foraging has been around as long as humans have evolved into Homo sapiens, and even before we learned to cultivate our land. You might think gathering your food like in ancient times is silly; we have all we need to eat in grocery stores 24/7, and plenty of it. Even “natural food” stores like Whole Foods offer more out of the ordinary types of foods not normally found in commercial grocery stores. Things like rose or lavender syrup, pine sugar, and wild-type organic mushrooms might seem like something you could just find at a farmer’s market, but in reality foraging for such ingredients can be simple and fun!

Now that you’re trying to go out and forage, where do you even start? A lot of plants and flowers look very similar, and lookalikes can be poisonous or inedible.

With practice, these different plants can become more distinguishable, but books and guides help you start on your forager’s journey. Some amazing resources include TikToker Alexis Nikole, aka “Black Forager” on Instagram. Her TikTok is dedicated to her craft of foraging, and she is based in Ohio, so a lot of things you’d forage for here in Illinois are similar to the plantlife in Ohio!

Two book recommendations she made were The Forager’s Harvest by Samuel Thayer and Midwest Forager by Lisa M. Rose. If you want to forage elsewhere, no problem! The Midwest Forager is a part of a series of regional books about the topic.

Depending on your location, foraging can look a little different in every region. It’s hard to know what to look for. These guides and other online resources, such as the Galloway Wild Foods website, can make foraging a success.

6 When

discussing

foraging,

it

is

important

to

Not only is foraging essential for scientific research

acknowledge that foraging is not only an ancient way

and

of survival. Herbalism has been prevalent throughout

perfectly explains the essentiality of foraging as a

time.

Academy,

means to find food for the black community in

Mesopotamians used hundreds of herbs as a way to

America. Finding wild food for both free and enslaved

heal before modern medicine. Chinese emperor

black folks was essential. It filled out small meals

Chi’en Nung is credited with being the founder of

given to slaves, and selling the food foraged gave

classical Chinese medicine, which is still practiced

free black people a means of income. For Alexis,

today in some capacities. Although modern medicine

“foraging as a black woman is an act of rebellion

has taken over herbalism mostly, herbalism was the

through the restoration of knowledge.”

According

to

The

Herbal

pharmaceutical

development,

Alexis

Nikole

roots of modern medicine.

Foraging is an essential activity to human life: in Researchers from the Universiti Tun Hussein Onn

ancient times before cultivation through agriculture

Malaysia found that certain plants in Southeast Asia

was widespread, in order to practice herbal medicine,

are potential anti-Tuberculosis agents. “A total of 132

a means for black people to support themselves

plants species representing 45 families and 107

throughout American history, and as a way to

genera were reviewed; 27 species representing 20.5%

advance modern pharmaceuticals. Even if you

exhibited most significant in vitro anti-TB activity.”

yourself aren’t too interested in picking up wild

Foraging is also essential in the process of creating

mushrooms and plants to cook, it is certainly an

new antibiotics. The hyper immune systems that the

important part of human history. Foraging can be a

world

of

means to tackle the unsustainable practices of

antibiotics has led to such a great collective

agriculture today, and just as a fun activity for your

resistance that scientists are running out of new

hikes. If you want to take a stab at foraging, definitely

formulas for antibiotics. This VICE video series

check out the resources linked in this article. Happy

perfectly explains the refined foraging process of

foraging environmentalists!

is

building

up,

and

overprescription

scientists in Malaysia when looking for new flora to use as an ingredient in antibiotics.

7

Monarch Butterfly Springtime NATALIE MUELLER

Spring is right around the corner, and nature is

The monarch butterfly is unique not just due to

coming back to life with color. Illinois is

its appearance, but it also migrates. The

connected to the color orange, not just for

migration of North America's monarch butterfly

Orange and Blue Illini, but also the monarch

is extraordinary. Unlike other butterfly species,

Butterfly. Illinois's state official insect is the

monarchs cannot survive the cold winters. So,

monarch butterfly, as the result of Illinois

they head south to either Mexico or California

schoolchildren.

during the winter months using air currents to

Students

can

make

a

difference. A butterfly is not always a butterfly;

reach

their

they have a life cycle. The egg and caterpillar

temperatures arrive, the monarchs breed and

come first. Monarch caterpillars are striped

head North. They fly looking for milkweed

yellow, black, and white. They have a set of

plants on which to lay their eggs. If they return

pointy spikes at the tail end of their abdomen.

too early, before the milkweeds have sprouted,

The caterpillar’s only food source is milkweed,

they will not be able to lay their eggs for a new

which is why it is essential to protect it. Once

generation

the caterpillar is ready to become a butterfly it

months, the monarchs fly to the Northern parts

creates a chrysalis. The monarch chrysalis is a

of the US, such as Illinois. Monarch butterflies

teal color with tiny yellow spots. The caterpillar

have three or four generations over the summer

uses its chrysalis to metamorphosis into a

because adult monarchs only live a few weeks.

beautiful butterfly.

The monarch migration is a great wonder, yet

of

destination.

monarchs.

humans threaten it.

A monarch butterfly is very easy to spot due to its deep orange and black line-colored wings.

The orange color serves as a warning sign to predators. The wings also have a black border with white spots. The monarch's body is black with white markings. An easy way to tell the difference between male and female monarchs is that males have two black spots on their tiny bottom wings, which females lack. However, females have thicker wing veins than males.

Although the monarch butterfly might look fragile, it is one tough bug.

As

In

the

warmer

Summer

8

The monarch population has declined due to

Here is more information about creating your

habitat loss and fragmentation of grasslands.

own monarch butterfly garden:

Chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides

https://monarchwatch.org/waystations/

kill both native nectar plants where adult monarchs feed, as well as the milkweed their

Here is more information about monarch

caterpillars need. Climate change can alter the

butterflies:

timing of migration as well as weather

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/M

patterns. Hope is not all lost, though. An easy

onarch_Butterfly/migration/index.shtml

way to help monarchs is to plant a monarch garden filled with native milkweed and their

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-

favorite nectar plants. One can build a

Resources/Wildlife-

monarch habitat in home gardens, at schools

Guide/Invertebrates/Monarch-Butterfly

or businesses, parks, along roadsides, etc.

Without milkweeds, monarchs would not lay their eggs or get energy from the nectar for migration. There are many milkweed species, but for ones a little closer to home are the common milkweed, swamp milkweed, butterfly milkweed, and poke milkweed are an excellent selection for the Northeast region of the US. No effort is too small to help save this small but mighty butterfly.

9

Bird Strike: When Mankind and Nature Collide JESSICA MINGIONE

An estimated one billion birds are killed

The Graduates in Ecology and Evolutionary

annually in the United States due to accidental

Biology (GEEB) recognized the importance of

in-flight collisions with windows. In fact,

this threat and launched the 2019 Bird Strike

accidental window strikes are among the top

Survey. They aim to identify which campus

three anthropogenic causes of avian mortality

buildings have the most bird collisions so that

along with outdoor cats and habitat loss. The

they can minimize future risk by applying window

significant

economic

decals. They continued their survey in Fall 2020

benefits generated by wild birds are invaluable.

in order to apply decals to more windows as well

Based on estimates of 3 billion fewer birds in

as gather more data in hopes of influencing

North America compared to 1970, we must

future building plans to include bird-friendly

make every practical effort to reduce avian

designs. They recruited volunteers to walk

mortality as much as possible.

morning and evening routes through the North,

environmental

and

Main, and South quad to patrol for dead birds. As

As you look out the window, longing to be

of November 2020, 489 birds have been found

outdoors enjoying the warming weather, you

dead on campus by window collision.

may wonder why a bird could possibly want to trade places with you. Well, the reality is that

Some mortality hotspots include the Beckman

when a bird sees a window, they are not

Institute (159 birds), the Temple-Hoyne Buell Hall

looking through it to the inside, but rather they

(43 birds), and the Electrical and Computer

are seeing the reflection of outdoor space off

Engineering building (37 birds). The Beckman

the window. Birds collide with windows for a

Institute features reflective windows with tall

variety of reasons. In the daytime, windows

trees directly next to the building, creating the

reflect the vegetation or sky near the window,

illusion of more trees. All three buildings have

creating the illusion of continued habitat or

extensive windows in common. Illinois is part of

open space. If windows are parallel to one

the Mississippi Flyway, a path that approximately

another across a room, birds can mistake the

325 bird species and billions of individual birds

windows as a clear passage to fly through. At

pass through each migratory season, making our

night, migrating birds that rely on celestial

campus particularly high-risk for collisions. As a

cues to direct them can be drawn toward

university

lighted windows. This is especially relevant

environmentally friendly, this threat to avian

during the migratory seasons: March-May and

conservation

August-November.

mitigation.

that is

strives worthy

to of

be attention

more and

10

How can we do our part to protect wild birds?

First, we can assess the arrangement of our

Lastly, we can reduce risk of nighttime collisions

yards. Place bird baths and feeders closer than

by turning off outdoor lights and closing the

three feet from a window or more than 15 feet

drapes during the migratory season. By doing

away. The close placement prevents birds

our part to decrease bird strikes, we can

from building up enough speed to severely

positively

injure themselves upon collision and the

preserve their invaluable role in the ecosystem.

impact

avian

conservation

and

further placement makes birds less likely to pay attention to the windows altogether.

You can find more information about the UIUC Bird Strike Survey here:

Next,

we

can

focus

on

the

windows

themselves. For a more discrete solution,

https://www.life.illinois.edu/geeb/service/2019-

screens on the outside of windows can break

2020-geeb-strike-survey/

up

https://alecluro.com/campus_bird_window_surv

the

reflection

and,

luckily,

they

are

commonplace in many living situations. If a

ey_page/

bird does happen to fly toward the window, they may bounce off of the screen potentially resulting in less injury. There are also window films that allow you to see out of the window but reduce transparency and reflectivity from the outside, allowing birds to see the otherwise invisible threat.

If you want to get creative with your window films and decals, there are many decals available online as well as fun DIYs for birdproofing your windows. Affixing decals on the inside of windows every 4-10 inches prevents the appearance of a clear flight path or continuous vegetation.

ILLUSTRATION BY LUCY QUINN

11

Take a Class on Vegetable Gardening!

Excerpts from an Interview with HORT 105 Professor Sandra Mason TAIYA TKACHUK First, could you give us a brief overview of what someone can expect to learn from your class?

The goal I have for my class is to bring gardening to where my students are. The thing is, many students are not able to have a big garden at this point in their lives. Besides teaching my students about how different vegetables grow, I want to help them learn how they can start gardening right now in a way that is accessible to their lifestyle.

How did you become interested in vegetable gardening yourself?

I learned a lot from my grandma, who was really into gardening. I became fascinated by it, and I gained practice from growing tomatoes! I fell in love with the feeling of creating something that you can reap the benefits of. When you garden, you know exactly how the food you eat was produced. I also worked for 30 years with the Illinois Extension Program, which taught me a lot about gardening.

What is your favorite thing about vegetable gardening?

I love to graze from my garden! It’s fun to try a little bit of everything.

Is there a connection between vegetable gardening and environmental sustainability?

Definitely, I mean it can’t get more environmental than food. When you garden, you get good, local veggies. Something I say is “your food shouldn't travel more than you do!” I like to know where my food comes from, and gardening helps us get nutritious produce in a sustainable way. Participating in community gardens is a great way to get involved.

Is it possible for students to vegetable garden if they live in an apartment or a dorm on campus?

Absolutely! Something I’d recommend is getting a grow light if you want to start gardening indoors. You can also try experimenting with microgreens because they can grow really well in containers. You should also get creative and think beyond a traditional garden, like using recycled containers! (Even something as simple as leftover yogurt cups!) I’d also tell students to get outside and check out the Student Sustainable Farm right here on campus.

12 What are some of the best vegetables to grow for beginner gardeners?

The first thing I’d recommend is growing leafies, like spinach, lettuce, and collard greens. You can also try microgreens because you don’t even need soil! You could just opt for a grow mat. Herbs are also a good option, like mint or chives, because you could easily grow them on a windowsill. You should also try out “garbage gardening”, where you use stuff from veggies you buy from the grocery store. You can use the ends of celery and hearts of romaine lettuce to start a garden!

What is your all-time favorite vegetable?

Tomatoes! I love sun sugar tomatoes, yellow cherry tomatoes, and big beefsteak tomatoes. They are especially great for grazing!

some things you may get to grow & Take home!

13

14

15

Feigned Affection ALEXANDRA SCHNEEBERGER

16

This piece reflects the common use of organic symbolism in fashion marketing and the irony therein.

It is widely known that the textile industry is a major polluter, worsened by the heightened popularity of short-lasting, internet-inspired trends. Yet, natural motifs of flora and fauna are used to sell the very products that destroy them. Such is the destructive paradox of natural imagery in haute couture.

17

The Kid's Climate Case Maybe the Third Time Isn't the Charm JOE LEHMAN

On February 10th of 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declined to rehear Juliana v. United States. Juliana, otherwise known as the Kids’ Climate Case, is an aggressive lawsuit by a group of children against the federal government. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the government from, among other things, using or supporting the use of fossil fuels. The plaintiffs filed the case in 2015. Essentially, they argued that the government was not going enough to combat climate change and that failure deprived American children of their fundamental rights.

The government asked the district judge to dismiss the case, but he allowed the lawsuit to go forward. The government then asked the Supreme Court for relief, and while the Court said the request was premature, the Justices gave a word of caution: “The breadth of respondents’ claims is striking, however, and the justiciability of those claims presents substantial grounds for difference of opinion.” Nevertheless, the plaintiffs persisted, and after a few more motions and orders, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the case could not go to trial. In a last ditch effort, the Plaintiffs asked for the entire Ninth Circuit to rehear the case, but they declined to do so.

What now?

Well, the organization Our Children’s Trust – the major backer of the lawsuit – has indicated that they may try to take their case to the United States Supreme Court. Apparently, the Trust thinks that the third time may be the charm – they were winning in the district court, they lost in the appellate court, so maybe they will win at the Supreme Court.

We are not qualified to give legal advice, but filing for a writ of certiorari will do far more harm than good to the cause the plaintiffs are advancing.

Think about it. In 2018, the Supreme Court (with a 5-4 conservative/liberal split) doubted the lawsuit’s merits. Now, in 2021, with Justice Barrett replacing Justice Ginsburg, the Court is split 6-3 conservative/liberal.

18

Justice Amy Coney Barrett being sworn in by Chief Justice Robert. Justice Barrett’s ascension to the Court shifts the ideological balance from 5-4 to 6-3. Photo courtesy of Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

If the Justices doubted the case then, they would certainly doubt the case now. But more than being an exercise in futility, giving the conservative Court an opportunity to rule on a case like Juliana could open the door for a majority opinion that – through dicta or flat out ruling – shuts the door on a number of climate related causes of action. Giving the Court an opportunity to rule on a radical cause of action poses a danger to the plethora of other, less radical lawsuits working their way through state and federal courts. For example, five states filed lawsuits against various corporations under various theories including public nuisance and trespass. There are also a growing number of cities joining in the fray.

The truth is these lawsuits are more likely to succeed than Juliana ever was. Of course, the Plaintiffs are probably smarting from their loss, and want their theories vindicated. But no case exists in a vacuum.

The Juliana plaintiffs ought to accept their loss, and keep away from the Supreme Court. The third time is not always the charm. Especially not when it threatens the success of more viable lawsuits.

19

The Gift of Groundhogs GRACE GUDWIEN

What’s the largest squirrel in Illinois that has its own holiday? A groundhog. Groundhogs, which are also known as woodchucks, have several benefits to ecosystems and humans that sometimes go overlooked. You can probably think of some of these benefits, since they are literally in the name of a groundhog - they hog up the ground. By “hogging” the ground, we mean that they dig and burrow through the land, which aerates the soil by mixing up the materials and nutrients in it as well as adding fresh air into it. Basically, woodchucks are little fuzzy gardening tillers.

The burrows and underground trenches and dens left behind from all this digging provides animals with a safe place to live. Groundhogs themselves often live in these burrows; they even hibernate in them during the winter. Once the woodchucks leave their dens, though, other small mammals can use them. Just how you will likely will live in multiple homes throughout your life, and other people will move into your previous home, woodchucks live in different burrows throughout their lives, and foxes, opossums, and other animals will move into abandoned burrows.

Lesser known, though, is woodchucks’ part in preventing and curing Hepatitis B. Hep. B is caused by the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) that infects the liver in humans. It is transmitted like many viruses - through saliva and other bodily fluids. Woodchucks have a similar virus, adeptly called the Woodchuck Hepatitis Virus (WHV), that infects groundhogs’ livers. The main difference between the two viruses is that WHV completes its course from the onstart of infection to full-out liver disease from start to finish in 3-4 years. In humans, HBV takes 30-40 years, meaning it takes 10 times longer. Because WHV only takes a few years to progress, scientists at Cornell University can study the entire journey of the virus in a groundhog. They have determined that hepatitis viruses can cause liver cancer.

20

Luckily, immunization through vaccines can help prevent the cancer. The study also found that the precautionary drugs used to prevent a body that is receiving a liver transplant from rejecting the new liver can increase the replication of HBV. Should these drugs still be used, probably, but food for thought. Finally, by looking at parts of the virus’s genome, or pieces of its DNA chain, the study found that ultrasound and MRI imaging can detect liver cancer in patients early.

So why are we telling you all of this? Besides the fact that groundhogs can help with some amazing things, these animals are underappreciated by society in our opinion. When many people think of groundhogs, they consider them pests in their garden. And while we’re sure these big, furry squirrels can take the heat, it is important to remind people that all animals deserve some love - not just the big, charismatic animals that every three-year-old knows, like tigers and elephants. Even if just a single person decides that woodchucks might be something to appreciate, that value can spread from one woodchuck-loving guy or gal to another and create a groundbreaking groundhog-supporting community.

21

From a Certain Point of View A COLLABORATIVE STAFF PROJECT

Both the November 2020 election, and the January 2021 Inauguration sent the United States on a rollercoaster. Emotionally, mentally, politically, Americans from all over the ideological spectrum were left confused, anxious, and devastated. Naturally, the perspectives of Americans are as diverse as the range of emotions experienced. No one experienced the 2020 election the same as anyone else.

The Board of this magazine is no exception. For our Spring 2021 edition, we wanted to bring to the forefront some of the real issues that have been changing since November 2020, while also expressing some of the widely diverse emotions we experienced. These are the topics that are dearest to us. Some of us chose to express ourselves in prose, others in poetry, and still others graphically.

We hope that by expressing different points of view, different thoughts, and different emotions, maybe we can bring the dawn of change just a little closer.

- Joe Lehman

22 The Keystone XL pipeline extension has become a hot topic of debate under the Biden administration. The Keystone XL pipeline project is an extension of the Keystone pipeline that has been operating since 2010. The extension would allow the pipeline to transport 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day in the United States for the Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energy.

Back in November 2015, the Obama administration vetoed the pipeline. As soon as the Trump administration took office, he signed an executive order to continue the project and personally issued a cross-border permit to the pipeline developer. On Joe Biden's first day in office he cancelled the permit allowing the Keystone XL pipeline extension to cross into the United States from Canada.

The Keystone XL pipeline project has elicited complicated reactions from both fossil fuel energy lobbyists and environmentalists. TC Energy promoted the pipeline as an opportunity for 119,00 new jobs in America. A State Department report found that the project would actually create 2,000 new two-year jobs and about 35 jobs total after the construction of the extension. The other primary argument for the pipeline extension was that U.S. fuel prices would go down, but NRDC found that most of this oil would be sent overseas to other markets. There is also the uncertainty of possible pipeline leaks due to the corrosive nature of tar sands oil. Environmentalists argue that the increased greenhouse gas emissions and possibility of pipeline leaks make the environmental consequences high of this project. There is also concern that the pipeline will run through the communities of Indigenous people, religious leaders, farmers, ranchers, and business owners and negatively affect them. A possible pipeline leak could be detrimental to any nearby drinking water sources. The decision that the Biden administration has made to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline will set the tone for the future of clean energy in the United States. President Biden will need to focus on creating more jobs in green energy to determine the public sentiment towards clean energy and the economy.

- Zoe Huspen

23 One major policy consistently under threat by shifting political climates is the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Agreement is an international accord that has been adopted by 197 countries, nearly every nation on earth, to address the climate crisis. The United States became a signatory to the Paris Agreement in April 2016 through an executive order by President Barack Obama. By signing on, we agreed to cut our climate pollution and strengthen our commitment to substantially reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to protect the future of our planet. Yet, Donald Trump’s campaign to presidency introduced a new wave of climate denial around the nation. Trump officially pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on November 4, 2020, leaving a dismal precedent for our continued participation in climate action.

Yet, on his first day as President, Joe Biden sent a letter to the United Nations signaling that the United States would rejoin the Paris Agreement. The United States reentered on February 19th of this year, showing new hope for our involvement in global environmental protection. Yet, so far, the Paris Agreement alone has not done enough to slow global climate change. The UN World Meteorological Organization states that global temperatures are still on track to rise 3-5 degrees by the end of the century, which would be above the target cap of 2 degrees. Even with U.S. involvement in the Paris Agreement following this election cycle, our world faces the threat of extensive species extinction, food scarcity, and dangerously high sea levels. As a nation, we must step up and become more engaged leaders in the fight against the climate crisis if we are to continue life on Earth as we know it.

- Taiya Tkachuk

24

Environmental protection is a major considering factor for me when I enter the voting booth, or fill out my mail-in ballot in this case. During the 2020 election cycle, Biden came forward with clear policy initiatives to combat climate change. His plan to reduce carbon emissions and have the U.S. operating on clean energy by 2050 is ambitious and very necessary to make meaningful progress towards managing the global climate. The executive orders signed on Biden’s first day in office were a significant step in pushing the federal government in the right direction. Section two of the “Protecting Public Health and the Environment” order calls for the immediate review of actions taken during the previous administration that rolled back environmental protections. It also ordered new proposals for emission regulation to be completed by September 2021. We’ve still got a long way to go ‘til September, so I’ll remain optimistic. However, I hope to see the administration take more steps to reduce emissions in the near future, especially before the summer rolls around.

- Emma Roder

25 America needs a Green New Deal. We need legislation that puts us on the path towards a clean energy economy, fights for environmental justice, protects Indigenous nations, and recognizes climate change [1]. From what I remember, the Green New Deal (or simply, GND) faced harsh criticism when it was introduced and did not make it through the legislative process. Under the Biden Administration, I would imagine that environmentalists would have a better chance at signing the GND into law, right? During the presidential election, Biden did not support the GND in order to appeal to moderate voters. Yet, he has promised to commit to environmental action in much of the same ways as the GND would. One executive order has called for the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps to “conserve and restore public lands and waters, bolster community resilience, increase reforestation, increase carbon sequestration in the agricultural sector, protect biodiversity, improve access to recreation, and address the changing climate.” This echoes the clean energy job creation promises of the GND and addresses important facets of conservation. That same order sets guidelines for a “carbon pollution-free electricity sector,” zero-emissions government vehicles, an increase in renewable energy, and a national climate task force, among others. The protection of the environment and acknowledgement of climate change by this administration is a much needed improvement from the past four years, and activist organizations and GND-supporting politicians are optimistic. While Biden’s series of climate conscious executive orders are not necessarily the GND, I am still hopeful for a green future.

- Veronica Casey