Mizzou Academy NHS Student Magazine

Mizzou Academy Chapter

FloodHole

June edition 2023

Using technology to prevent a serious environmental issue.

PreservAmbiente A creative and impactful project to save Natal's beaches from pollution.

Recyclearning An iniciative to ludically teach recycing.

Introduction Editor in chief / Alicia Bixby Editors / Ana Esther Rafael Rosas NHS Officers / Maria Luiza Prado (President) Matheus Mascarenhas (Vice President) Maria Alice Costa Medeiros (Secretary)

June edition

Enjoy and learn!

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PreservAmbiente A creative and impactful project to save Natal's beaches from pollution.

Recyclearning

Table of contents Recyclearning Project ........................................................................... 2 PreservAmbiente ..................................................................................... 4 Community Cleanup ............................................................................. 6 Heavy Metal ................................................................................................. 8 penSEAve project .................................................................................. 10 Recycling ...................................................................................................... 12 FloodHole .................................................................................................... 14 Ecosia project ............................................................................................ 16 Curiosity section ...................................................................................... 18

June edition

References ................................................................................................. 20

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PreservAmbiente A creative and impactful project to save Natal's beaches from pollution.

Recyclearning

Recyclearning TEACHING CHILDREN THE IMPORTANCE OF RECYCLING

The issue

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Nowadays, recycling comes as a strong solution to the massive quantity of residues produced. That is because it involves turning waste material into new usable ones, a process that reduces the amount of garbage by giving it new functions and even reducing the number of raw materials taken from nature. Considering recycling benefits the environment, in the 1990s, Brazil's government started a program called "Coleta seletiva" to foment and ease this process. In this program, the trash, before being collected, is organized by its producers into the waste that can be recycled by the local recycling centers and the rest that can not.

Afterwards, recycled residues are taken by a special workforce to trial centers, where they are separated and then sold to recycling industries.

Unfortunately, the Coleta seletiva does not work as it should everywhere, and one example of this reality happens in Varjão.

About the volunteer...

My name is Ana Esther and I am a high school senior at Colégio Presbiteriano Mackenzie Brasília. I am a curious and dedicated girl who loves mathematics. Taking this background into consideration, I decided to join the NHS in 2022 as an opportunity to explore my interests.

Varjão is one of the 33 administrative regions from the Federal District and it has one of the lowest per capita incomes- around R$ 627,81 (Conheça a RA – Administração Regional Do Varjão, n.d.). In this region, even though there is an operational recycling center called CRV, which stands for “Centro de Reciclagem do Varjão” (Varjão’s Recycling Centre) that recycled 88% of the 519,948 tons of waste received in 2022 (SLU, 2022), there is still a big part of the area that is not served by trash collection service. This happens because the company that performs the waste collection in Varjão determines that in this region the workforce only can go through the main avenue. In addition, many residents of the region are reluctant to separate their residues into recyclable material and non-recyclable material. As a result, although Varjão has an infrastructure to practice recycling, it does not do it in its full potential due to the inhabitant’s lack of interest and administrative impediments.

Motivation

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Taking this reality into consideration, my mother adviced me to visit Varjão's CRV. This appointment opened my eyes to how arduous the separation of residues is. Moreover, discussions with its collaborators Ana Carla and Paula clearly showed how difficult it is for the community to embrace their work, as many inhabitants of the region were instructed how to separate their garbage, but still seem not to care. Another event that motivated to embrace the recycling cause was the fact that I have been volunteering in one of Varjão’s community centers called Centro Comunitário Social Tia Angelina, once a month, as a storyteller for children ranging from 5 to 7 years old. Performing this work has made me realize how important it is to inspire kids by discussing topics that are not usually debated in regular schools, such as environmental consciousness and recycling.

Therefore, I believe that seeing the necessity to spread out how people can help both the environment and CRV workers through recycling and the importance of teaching this knowledge to people as early as possible, has made me organize a project to teach kids from the Centro Comunitário Social Tia Angelina about recycling: Recyclearning.

The proposal The project RecycLearing’s main proposal for increasing environmental consciousness in the community of Varjão, fomenting recycling in the region, and helping the CRV workers was to organize three meetings with the children, ranging from 5 to 7 years old, that attended the Centro Comunitário Social Tia Angelina.

In our first meeting, we did an interactive reading of the book A Turma do Bixoxujo, written by Ciça. Afterward, we discussed with the children about actions taken by the characters in the story which were harmful to the environment. In the end, kids were able to conclude that recycling is an action that can be taken to prevent those outcomes.

In our second meeting, the CRV’s social manager Paula came to the Centro Comunitário Social Tia Angelina, and explained to the class how the CRV works and also illustrated how they should separate their garbage at home by giving practical examples.

In our final reunion, we took the children to the CRV. There they were able to see all the knowledge acquired in the previous meetings.

Outcomes To sum up, I believe the project RecycLearning was extremely successful for both the children involved and the community. The kids were able to learn valuable lessons about the environment and recycling which can be applied at their homes, especially to teach relatives. As a result, I strongly believe this initiative was a step towards building a more sustainable future.

PreservAmbiente CLEANING AND SAVING BEACHES

The issue

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Natal’s environmental protection is seriously neglected both by the city’s public administration and by its citizens. Just to have an idea, beaches and parks are not clean and the trash disposable process is not handled properly. As a result, it is not only easy to find spots of garbage accumulation through different neighborhoods, but also the city’s main river (the Potengi River) and other natural landscapes are getting dirtier each day that goes by which pushes tourists away. In addition, this contributes to the spread of diseases. Nevertheless, to tackle this complicated scenario, local NGOs do their best by organizing cleaning and awareness events and also by pressuring local politicians for the adoption of more sustainable policies and measures. Still, these efforts are not enough and the litter problem keeps threatening local fauna, flora, and water quality - with the few preserved spaces becoming vulnerable to mankind’s exploration and provoked consequences.

About the volunteer...

Hey, I’m Rafael! I am currently a senior at Colégio CEI. I live in Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte, and enjoy reading, traveling, and working out! I had two main motivations to join NHS, being them: exchanging ideas with new people and positively impacting my community.

Motivation I grew up near the beach, therefore keeping these ecosystems clean is extremely important to me. This is because I want other kids to have the same experience in these places as I did. In other words, I wish that they can enjoy and play without having to worry about bottles and glass in the sand, or even about sewage on the sea. Thus, since I was already concerned about the pollution of these sites, when I found out that NHS’s main theme would be “Environment”, I immediately concluded that this was my chance to promote positive changes in my reality, it was my chance to do something for my city.

Hence, after deciding that I was going to work with beaches, I asked my relatives and friends for some inspiration and ideas to create my project. And they gave me lots of important sugestions. Moreover:

"I also found inspiration from renowned young activists - such as Greta Thunberg. I realized that if they can fight for a better world, I could also do my best!"

The proposal To help mitigate the scenario described, I decided to create “PreservAmbiente” (“Preserve the Environment”, in English) - a voluntary project made of young volunteers willing to impact their local community. Today, the project has 25 volunteers on its WhatsApp group, with its main focus being on organizing beach cleaning efforts. Accordingly, we not just cleaned the city’s coast by picking up trash and then correctly disposing it, but also talked to people in order to teach them adequate and sustainable practices to avoid environmental pollution. In other words, we distributed biodegradable trash bags and also reinforced the importance of properly throwing away your own garbage. Finally, we printed QR codes that would lead individuals to the project’s Instagram account with further tips and details environmental protection.

In the end, we not just had filled several bags with trash for disposal, but also had impacted dozens of individuals and had gained experience with volunteer work and young protagonism.

About possible drawbacks, I believe they relate to the fact that it was a little hard to find an adequate number of volunteers and that we faced a considerable hot day during our first action.

Although, we were able to overcome these difficulties!

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Community Cleanup MAKING THE WORLD A CLEANER PLACE: ONE NEIGHBORHOOD AT A TIME

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the volunte t u

.. er.

I live in a rural community along a highway, and people often throw trash out of their car windows into our front yards without caring about the people, plants, and animals they impact. While many cities have programs and initiatives to keep their roads clean, rural areas collect a lot of roadside litter since the population is sparser than in urban areas and urban programs simply don’t have enough outreach. Moreover, with global temperatures rising, I realize that it is essential for people to come together and work to create a healthier environment. This, combined with rising extinction rates, deforestation, and destruction of native habitats, is devastating to the planet’s health. In addition, where I live, many of my elderly neighbors cannot navigate the rougher terrain, meaning that they must choose between maintaining their properties and risking getting hurt or hiring outside help, even when they may not be able to afford it.

Ab o

The issue

My name is Ava Fleury. I am a Senior at Mizzou Academy, and I live in Jefferson City, Missouri, in the United States. I have been competitively figure skating for the last decade, and I joined NHS because I have a passion for education and helping others. I also enjoy reading, drawing, and cooking in my spare time, and I have been playing the piano for eight years.

Motivation My project, Community Clean-up, aimed to help elderly people in my community keep their neighborhood well-maintained and free of litter. A few motivations behind my project were to reduce litter in my community, plant trees, fruits, and vegetables, establish a community garden, and process dead wood on my elderly neighbor’s properties. All of these actions help the environment and my community by increasing sustainability and ecological health. Moreover, these actions are important for my community specifically because many of my elderly neighbors cannot physically do much of the work I did or plan to do in my service project. By helping my community, I hope I am not only serving my neighbors, but also the entire Earth by making the air easier to breath and the world a better place to live in for plants, animals, and humans alike.

“I’m just so grateful that someone is deciding to make change in a rural community. We get sick of trash in our lawns, streams, and gardens. It’s about time that someone took initiative to help our little corner of the planet!”

Quote from a neighbor helped by Community Cleanup

The proposal

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I spent ten hours over the past year helping clean litter out of my elderly neighbors’ front lawns not only to help it look better, but also to provide a healthier environment for the animals and plants who lived there. In addition, I also raised money to buy trees and plan to plant them in April to help increase the oxygen production in my community, help make sustainable habitats for animals, and reduce soil erosion and runoff.

I’ve also set up a plan for the summer to help start a community garden with plants like strawberries, blackberries, cucumbers, eggplants, squash, and watermelon. A community garden has many impacts for the environment, including producing a sustainable food source rather than purchasing food from a big business that uses wasteful irrigation and irresponsible fertilization techniques. Moreover, planting food crops has the same impact on the environment that planting trees does: increasing oxygen production and helping to reduce soil erosion and runoff. In addition, living in a rural community, many retired elderly people do not have the money or ability to get to the grocery store and buy fresh, healthy foods. They end up relying on canned vegetables and fruits, which, while providing nutrients, are not as healthy as fresh vegetables and fruits. Having a community garden ensures that they have access to nourishing produce, boosting their health by improving their diet. One last thing I have been helping with (under adult supervision) is removing dead trees from my neighbors’ backyards and initiating and monitoring controlled burns, both of which help immensely to reduce the risk of a wildfire.

In addition, many houses in my community get heat from burning wood in a stove, so removing dead trees doubles to serve as a heat source for my neighbors. This project was a lot of fun, inspiring, and so refreshing. I really enjoyed being outside in the sun and working to make the world a cleaner place.

Heavy Metal COLLECTING BATTERIES AND EDUCATING TO PREVENT CONTAMINATION

Description After studying the environment and its problems, we came to the realization that one of the main contaminants of oceans, soils, crops and human health are heavy metals within batteries. With that in mind, we decided to create a project called Heavy Metal, which is taking place in Colégio Presbiteriano Mackenzie Tamboré and is being led by the following senior high school students: Isabela Barakat, Léah Fonseca, Luma Viana, Pedro Bastos and Sophia Bastos. It also counted with the help and support of the school’s biology coordinators, Mr. Edilson Pichilliani and Miss.

Maristela Rangel, who made the connection between the students and the school’s head office easier.

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About the volunteers...

Isabela Barakat, Léah Fonseca, Luma Viana, Pedro Bastos and Sophia Bastos are high school students from Colégio Presbiteriano Mackenzie Tamboré, located in São Paulo, Brazil.

The project consists of collecting as many batteries as possible in order to reduce the leakage of heavy metals into the environment, aiming to preserve its well being, by also spreading awareness and incentivizing the love for nature and recycling in children, teenagers, and young adults.

Firstly, we decided that the most efficient way to achieve our goal was by designing battery collectors made of recycled plastic bottles. Furthermore, helping the environment, since plastic is also a main cause of nature pollution. All the members contributed by gathering 3 to 5 bottles each, that later on, were transformed into battery collectors.

Afterwards, Léah Fonseca and Luma Viana became responsible for the creation of the project’s visual identity, which was used as advertising, with folders and notes sent to the student's parents through the school app. As a group, we crafted the plastic bottles into battery collectors and started displaying them in every school building. We also created mascots for the project, with the aim of using them when addressing the topic with children for a better understanding. Mr. and Mrs. Battery (Sr. Pilha and Sra. Bateria) are mascots but also collectors in the elementary school building.

Also, as part of the process, we went to all the classrooms: elementary school, middle school and high school, and explained about the project, talking about how they were supposed to donate the batteries and why they were harmful to the environment. Now, we collect the batteries monthly and give them to qualified places for disposal.

Seeing the progress of the project and how much the students are donating and helping, we decided to keep up with the initiative throughout the year and aim for the possibility of passing the lead to a group of 2024 Seniors.

The project had even its own mascots: Mr. and Mrs. Battery!

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Impacts This project impacts the world by reducing the negative consequences that batteries and their heavy metals cause to oceans, soils, crops and human health. Since the beginning of the project, we have already collected 1 bottle of 12 liters of batteries and we will continue collecting and causing such a positive impact in our community until the end of the year.

Although collecting batteries was our main goal, we were able to spread awareness by teaching children and teenagers about the negative impacts of heavy metals in nature and the importance of doing the correct form of battery disposal.

penSEAve project PROTECTING FORTALEZA'S ENVIRONMENT

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he volun t t t ou

r ee

Fortaleza is a city known for its beautiful beaches. It is something that is part of our culture and day-to-day life, therefore, we know first hand how important it is to keep these places clean. More than just being tourist attractions, beaches are a complex ecosystem that is vital both to the biological and social life dependents on it. There are roughly 400 species of fish living in the Ceará waters, and that's not even considering other types of wildlife such as mammals or plants! Additionally, many families depend on the sea for their income through practices such as "Fish Markets" and "Jangadeiros" which are still very common and culturally significant.

Unfortunately, keeping this environment clean is a difficult task to upkeep.

Ab

Description

My name is Maria Luiza Gomes Prado, I am 18 and I have recently graduated high school at Colégio Santa Cecília in Fortaleza, Brasil. Some of my main values and hobbies are actually related to volunteering and helping my community, therefore, joining the National Honor Society seemed perfect for me.

That is why our project aims to educate our community about the importance of protecting the environment and cleaning up this important ecosystem. This goal is represented in the name of the project which is inspired by the word "pensive" which means "to seriously reflect" and the word "sea" as we wanted to reflect on how we are connected to the beach and how we may take care of it.

Motivation For my service project I collaborated with my former High School classmates, Isabel Arraes and Vitória Brandão, to create a project that would benefit our community's environment. We wanted to create a project that would solve issues that were specific and important to our community needs and that others could actively participate in, so we developed "the penSEAve project". Overall, this was a very positive experience for all of us as we were able to connect with our community on a level we had never before and contribute to a better approach to our very special environment. It was amazing to see how others interact with the same space, to hear different perspectives on how to care for the environment, and see how our actions can have a positive impact on our community

"It was amazing to see how others interact with the same space, to hear different perspectives on how to care for the environment, and see how our actions can have a positive impact on our community."

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Proposal We organized our project in two steps. First we organized meetings with a group of almost 30 individuals. We met online twice, for about 1h30 each, and discussed the importance of the sea in our lives and the environment, as well as strategies to protect it from threats such as pollution and man-made interventions. Then, we organized an event where we would spend a morning cleaning a portion of the beach and talking to locals and tourists about the importance of protecting the environment.

This event lasted about 4 hours and we had the help of five volunteers and the three members of our group. We were able to clean 10 kilos of litter off the beach and talk with about 20 strangers, thus, spreading the message of our project further along.

Recycling: TRANSFORMING SOCIETY BY TEACHING CHILDREN HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD!

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Issue

About the volunteers...

Trash production is something that has been in human society since the start of the ages. Since then, the amount of waste has been increasing very fast, coming to nowadays as 21 billion tons produced everyday. A solution that has been used for a long time is also reusing the trash for other purposes.

This method, known as recycling, is really effective in giving other use to what humans produce, even reducing what is discarded in nature.

Maria Cerqueira, Fernanda Ognibene, Guilherme Dau de Lima, Murilo Hadad, and Lúcia Siqueira de Faria are high school students from Colégio Dante Alighieri, located in São Paulo, Brazil. Read some quotes from them below!

Even though being an essential manner of avoiding the consequences of our waste in nature this practice hasn’t been used constantly by the communities, and in some cases not being done correctly. In this context, Brazil is suffering from the lack of effective recycling policies. As an example, in 2018, of the 79 million tons of trash produced, 30% had the potential for being recycled but only 3% actually was.

"When I found out about the opportunity of entering the National Honor Society, I jumped right into it because I love having experiences of leadership" - Maria "I was eager to make my project because I strongly believe that we are responsible for our mistakes and for their correction." - Murilo

Other data shows that this incorrect disposal is affecting the economy: Brazil lost 14 billions of reais with the incorrect separation of trash.

This emerging issue hadn’t been part of my notion, until the realization of this project. When me and my friends started to think of what we could do in terms of ambiental actions for saving the environment, a friend of ours came up with the idea of teaching children about the recycling process, including a workshop for making recycled toys.

After this amazing idea, we got in touch with the issue, after we did some research on Brazilian websites. With those data in mind, me and my friends were able to better know the size of this problem and understand there was a need for action.

With what was brought before, this problem regarding the lack of attention for a good recycling practice, affects the whole country that loses money, generating consequences to the economy and the society, as well as the effects of the trash that is not recycled in nature, making the environment more toxic, for example. Nowadays, in Brazil, there are policies for the implementation of selective discard of trash, and some people working to collect the recyclables in the streets, but still those actions weren’t able to reverse the situation.

Motivation When the group started to idealize this project, and how it would work, we got inspired to do our best job in the theme of recycling. We don’t think there is a specific inspiration, as a person or NGO that created an effect on our work, but we presume that there are different aspects in our society that created an impact in our minds, in terms of giving the strength to think wider of what is being done to save the environment: for example, the actions of Greenpeace all over the world, as well, as different people that try everyday to create a change in the world.

We believe that everyone in the world has the mission of creating their impact in the world.

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Throughout our lives, a lot of people helped us to get here, to be in this position of leadership, people who made us able to be someone critical, and therefore, see the world in its reality.

Today, we think that we need to change the world, and do something that can create a good effect on other people. So, no matter what problem, we think that we have an opportunity to change where we live, and turn it into something better.

At the moment, the NHS proposed a project for us. We think it is our role, and every student's role, to put their thoughts in the problem, and try very hard to change their reality. So we guess we want to do this because, is the way to give back to society, and therefore help others, and especially the environment. As we said before, this is very meaningful because it is a path for completing a part of the mission we all have: to help the others beside us.

Proposal Thinking of the possible ways of reducing, and avoiding greater impacts of the lack of recycling in Brazil, there was an idea that came from a friend of our group: teaching children about this important process, including therefore, a workshop to produce recyclable toys. So, thus we embraced this amazing plan and decided to collaborate in terms to make this project come to reality. Further, the group decided to make classes divided in two parts 1) The lecture about recycling, and how to correctly discard our waste, 2) a small workshop that would consist of producing toys from the trash we make.

With the idea stated, a friend in our group could arrange a partnership with the Institute Meninos São Judas Tadeu. After, we could plan three days, which we could put in practice for 2 hours, the workshop with the group of children that usually go to the Institute.

"The benefits of this project will be the immense impact on how the children see the world beside them, and therefore, transform the way their families discard trash"

FloodHole A SIMPLE DEVICE CAPABLE OF AVOIDING FLOODS

Issue Flooding is an issue that affects people all around the globe. Not only are they responsible for over 5000 deaths annually, they cause the destruction of heritage sites and millions of dollars in property damage every year. This is exactly the case in Brazil, where in early February, the greatest rainfall and, therefore, flood, took place, just two hours away from where I live. It resulted in the loss of 57 people, and 700 more had to leave their homes due to an imminent risk of collapse. This tragic event moved people from all around the country, who started donation campaigns to help the victims.

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However, this was not an isolated occurrence.

Earlier last year, another flood happened in Rio de Janeiro. That one caused the death of 241 people and what was possibly the greatest cultural loss of all time in Brazil: the destruction of the Imperial Palace, which dated back to the 1800s.

About the volunteer ...

My name is Vinícius Silveira Tôme de Siqueira, and I am a 17-year-old student at Colégio Dante Alighieri, in São Paulo. I have always loved using engineering to solve everyday problems, and I have joined the NHS as a way to use my skills to solve those who are closest to me: my neighbors.

This project shows how technology can be a great ally when it comes to solving environmental issues!

Although this sort of natural disaster happens almost every year, the government ignores the problem, saying that it will enforce old regulations that should have been applied ever since they were created, over 30 years ago.

As Brazil is a country that already faces a massive wage gap in the less developed regions, I believe that preventing floods is a way to minimize the negative impact that decades of "misgovernment" caused, as at least a part of the nation's history would continue to be preserved.

Proposal As a way to contain flooding in urban environments, I have developed, in collaboration with Thiago Maeda, the FloodHole, an automated structure capable of detecting clogged manholes. This new design also contains a separating cone in the middle, which will stop the accumulation of trash and increase the water flow at higher residue levels.

Motivation There are several NGOs that try to combat floods in Brazil. However, most of them focus on helping those affected instead of coming up with solutions to the problem in the first place.

Hence, I felt compelled to use my engineering and programming skills to try and solve this drawback that affects every layer of society, including me. Traffic jams are common in São Paulo, and they are even more intense when floods happen. They are so extreme, in fact, that according to the latest research, they are responsible for a 1.8% contraction of the country's net GDP between 2000 and 2020. Not only that, but they mess up the entire metropolitan transportation system, and can sometimes wreck people's cars.

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Another main motivation for this project is that such natural disasters are responsible for intensifying the disparity between the richer and the poorer. By having their houses destroyed and being deprived of access to culture (due to the destruction of monuments), the less wealthy can have their situation aggravated and their kids' education ruined.

The automation system was inspired by an existing Brazilian concept, which is capable of detecting the presence of organic material in existing manholes. We have improved this design, by being able to detect other potentially disrupting materials and the total water flow as a redundancy. Our prototype also included communication systems that relay information about the problematic manholes to a monitoring center, this way increasing efficiency through the entire network.

Residue detection would happen through the use of ultrasonic sensors, and water flow measurement with the help of infrared sensors.

A cellular connection would be used to aid the transmission of data to the monitoring center.

Ecosia project TACKLING DEFORASTATION

Issue

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The issue that I brought up to do my project is not directly related to my community but affects it somehow. The problem that I’m talking about is deforestation in the state of Amazonas, which was caused by the illegal burning of the amazon rainforest, and is it occurrence is growing on the past years. Even if São Paulo and Amazonas are very distant from each other, there was a consequence of this burning that affect the city. On August 19th of 2019, there was a great black cloud that covered the entire sky of São Paulo, making the day seem like night, and this cloud was brought from the smoke produced by the burning of trees in the Amazonas, making masses of wind transporting the cloud to São Paulo. This cloud not only made the sky dark, but also affected some other factors like wifi signals, airplane trafficking, and meteorology studies, making the entire society worried about the phenomenon.

About the volunteer ...

My name is Arthur Watanabe Nakamura, I’m 17 years old, and I’m in my last year of High School in Colégio Magno of the city and state of São Paulo. For my hobbies and living, I like studying, dancing and do physical exercises. I’ve joined the NHS with the objective of doing projects that could benefit not only my community level but also the world in general with their influence.

Motivation Due to this issue and this meaningful day, I and my group started to think of ideas to reverse the process of deforestation, so then events like that don’t happen ever again. Days like the 19th of August of 2019 showed how deforestation intervenes, not only in nature, but also in society, making it be necessary for solutions from all parts of the world and, obviously, from the Brazilian nation.

Proposal The proposal that my group offered is the “Ecosia project”, which consists of a website, that grew a lot in its use after the 19th of August of 2019. Ecosia is a website and search web just like other ones like Google, Firefox, or Safari, but what makes it different from them is the dynamic that it has with its users. According to the website, if you do 50 searches on the website or share it with other friends, you help to plant one tree in the places the Ecosia corporation acts that need forestation processes, like in Burkina Faso, Indonesia, and, the most important one, Brazil in the Amazon rainforest.

This site really interests me and my group, because if we show people and our community how it works and its dynamic, there will be a great increase of planted trees not only in Amazon that needs forestation but also in other parts of the world, by only doing searches on the website. So, our group decides to do a presentation for our school about this site and the impacts that it has on the environment to reverse events like the 19th of August 2019.

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Also, to grow the engagement of the website use, we promote a competition with students, in which the one who gets more trees, gets a good prize, and the other two, that did at least one tree with the website, will receive other prizes. We manage the students’ trees through a virtual form, so then we can have a better overview of the people who answer the forms.

The prizes for the competition were hoodies, mugs, eco-bags, and cups from our high school commission, in which the students from the last year take part to do a lot of fun activities and parties, as it is their last year in the school. These accessories that the commission sells are all from the parties that they do during the year called “Burn Out”, and they have a symbol, which is a dog, and the name of the party on it. The first one of the competition would win a hoodie, a cup, a mug, an eco-bag, and also a bonus prize, which is a bonsai, that is a little Japanese tree that needs extreme care from it user, making it an excellent symbol and prize for the person that helped to plant a lot of trees with the site. The second place person would only receive a hoodie and the third place a cup, a mug, and an ecobag of the party. The outcome of this project was outstanding, as our forms had a lot of people who sent their number of planted trees, resulting in a number of 300 trees planted, just with the website use. With that, we’ve managed to show the school and its relatives how we can reverse deforestation just with the use of Ecosia, and probably we could make the website stay in use with its users, making more trees to be planted with the Ecosia corporation.

Some posters that we put in the school to increase Ecosia use, by showing the QR code that goes to the website, and another one that goes to the forms, if the person was interested in participating in the competition.

Curiosity section “Every year we dump a massive 2.12 billion tons of waste. If all this waste was put on trucks they would go around the world 24 times. This stunning amount of waste is partly because 99 percent of the stuff we buy is trashed within 6 months." (The World Counts, n.d.)

“The amount of electronic waste (or e-waste) has been exploding in recent years along with technological developments.

Roughly 50 million tons of e-waste is produced a year and most of it is shipped to / dumped in poor countries in Asia and Africa."

(The World Counts, n.d.)

“Around the world, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute." (10 Shocking Facts About Plastic, 2021)

“More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are already floating in our oceans." (10 Shocking Facts About Plastic, 2021)

“Some 700 species of marine animals have been reported so far to have eaten or become entangled in plastic." (10 Shocking Facts About Plastic, 2021)

“ A single mature tree, meanwhile, may take in about 50 pounds of carbon dioxide per year."

(How Many New Trees Would We Need to Offset Our Carbon Emissions? | MIT Climate Portal, n.d.)

“Floods cause more than $40 billion in damage worldwide annually, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development." (Nunez, 2021)

“Antarctica is losing 151 billion tonnes of ice per year, roughly equivalent in weight to the rock that makes Mount Everest, according to NASA’s Grace Follow-On satellite." (Brian Skerry, National Geographic Image Collection, 2021)

“The homes of 200 million people will be below sea level in 70 years."(Brian Skerry, National Geographic Image Collection, 2021)

Sources:

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https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/10-shocking-facts-about-plastic https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/state-of-the-planet/world-waste-facts https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/floods#:~:text=Floods%20cause%20more%20than%20%2440%20billio n%20in%20damage,decades%20to%20more%20than%20100%20people%20a%20year. https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-many-new-trees-would-we-need-offset-our-carbon-emissions

Final message Our projects demonstrate that we can all make a difference in our communities!

And, more importantly when it comes to the environment, that we can all do our best to save and protect our beloved planet!

We count on you to keep preserving Earth!

Thank you so much!

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References 10 Shocking Facts About Plastic.

(2021, March https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/10-shocking-facts-about-plastic

25).

National

Geographic.

Brian Skerry, National Geographic Image Collection. (2021, November 5). . . .and four that offer hope.

National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/26facts How many new trees would we need to offset our carbon emissions? | MIT Climate Portal. (n.d.). MIT Climate Portal. https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-many-new-trees-would-we-need-offset-our-carbonemissions Nunez, C. (2021, May 3).

Floods 101.

Environment. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/floods#:~:text=Floods%20cause%20more%20tha n%20%2440%20billion%20in%20damage,decades%20to%20more%20than%20100%20people%20a%20year.

The World Counts. (n.d.). planet/world-waste-facts

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https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/state-of-the-