Floods In Argentina

The Tragedy:

Climate Change has affected many countries' weather patterns and is causing casualties to these natives which is changing the life of many people that are being affected. 

In Argentina there were 16 people killed as well as two girls that got swept away by the rising waters, and it is projected that there may be more fatalities. In Bahía Blanca, Argentina, they received a years worth of rain within 8 hours, which was about 400mm. It was twice the city's previous record of 175 mm which happened in 1930. That is a big difference for a record in a city, and climate change is the main factor for all of this happening, that innocent families are being torn apart all because the climate in Argentina has changed and nobody could have predicted it. 

During this tragedy the kids were traveling and the car became trapped in the rising waters, then a truck driver tried to rescue the kids before they were swept away and unfortunately passed in the rescue. 

As well as human casualties, the floods had caused millions in infrastructure damage and left thousands of people homeless and in need of help, which requires the city needs to be rebuilt. The government of Argentina claimed that the extreme rainfall has become more common and more intense due to human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, because warmer air can hold more water vapor. 


How Argentina Is Affected By Climate Change:

Argentina has felt the wrath of Climate Change and the science shows that Argentina will experience devastating climate impacts if it follows a high-emissions pathway, and without the urgent action. Argentina will see a 65% increase in the frequency of agriculture drought by 2050 and heatwaves will last more than 6247% longer. 
 
Even though Argentina only contributes about 0.83% of global emissions they as well can work on reducing their carbon footprints, because like everybody else they have energy production, transportation, and industrial activities, such as manufacturing, mining, and agriculture which all can contribute to Argentina's carbon footprint.

Argentina's climate change plan includes using natural gas as a transition fuel, improving water management, and reducing deforestation, Argentina is also building a new nuclear plant and retrofitting fossil gas power plans to improve efficiency. The plan includes 250 public policy measures to be implemented by 2030 and priorities natural gas as transition fuel. It also calls for lower emissions in agriculture and livestock activity, and focuses heaviliy on improving water management.

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Invasive Species and Climate Change

               Climate change is having a massive impact on the biodiversity and health of many ecosystems across the globe. The mechanisms by which vary from species to species and include everything from increasing temperatures to the pH of the oceans. Another major driver of biodiversity loss is the spread of invasive species. When an invasive species is introduced to and catches on in a new environment where it is not native, it will generally cause damage to that new environment and the native species that live there in a cascade of biodiversity loss. This is mostly due to a lack of competition or predation it has with the natives that allow it to grow and spread way out of control and affect everything else around it. As it turns out, the spread of invasives is closely connected to climate change in a number of cases. For example, warmer winters and higher waters can allow species to inhabit new environments where the conditions weren’t previously favorable for them.

An easy example of this is the Kudzu plant in the southern United States, that literally grows over and strangles the native life out of entire swathes of land.


(Image: https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/indiana/stories-in-indiana/kudzu-invasive-species/)
Kudzu was first introduced to the United States from Southeast China and Japan in 1876. Later, it was actually touted as a way to control soil erosion by the Soil Conservation Service from the 1930s to the 50s. It has since spread over the entire southern United States, causing massive damage wherever it goes. Due to the flexible and adaptable nature of invasive species, the stress put on them by a changing climate doesn’t hit them as hard as it does specialized natives. Kudzu’s spread has previously been limited by cold winters in the northern United States. Our warming winters are allowing this destructive plant to slowly spread further and further northward in the continental United States.

Another example of the spread of an invasive species due to climate change is the Mountain Pine Beetle. The Mountain Pine beetle is native to western Canada and primarily feeds on the phloem of pine trees.


(Image: https://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/opinion/mountain-pine-beetle-is-no-1-invasive-insect-priority)
Like the Kudzu, these beetles have historically been cold limited organisms. Warming winters have also allowed them to spread across the entire country which leads to a mass dying of trees. This is a double-dangerous situation, because on top of it leading to mass tree damage, it also affects the ability of these forests to act as carbon sinks. A large outbreak of these beetles could actually turn some of Canada’s forests into carbon sources.

Warming winters aren’t the only aspect of climate change that allows the increased spread of invasives. Climate change is also opening up new routes for invasives to spread, including more polar shipping routes. Additionally, climate change is making existing tools for the detection and control of invasives less effective. Agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the USDA are currently working on improving the tools we use to monitor and mitigate the damage invasive species can cause.

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The Noise is sooooo Loud

     I have learned of a new type of pollution that I would have never thought of. As a percussionist myself, learning about Noise pollution and what it can do was a new discovery. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that noise could cause these issues, but it does. By definition, "What is noise pollution?" : Noise pollution is noise that has surpassed ambient noise levels and hurts humans and animals (https://www.treehugger.com). Our problem as humans is that we seem to get used to the noise (which is still bad for us), but other issues that affect the environment, as well as the wildlife, and even contribute to the global warming issue. 

(www.greenmatters.com) What issues does Noise Pollution cause? Noise pollution threatens the survival of over 100 species. The facts are that animals/insects use noise that the animals use for mating and foraging for food, as well as the marine life that use echolocation to hunt or even track down lost family. A lot of these problems from Fracking for Oil may have caused mass beaching events based on noise pollution. Noise Pollution doesn't just hurt the wildlife, but the planet too. Due to human activities, industrialization, gas flaring, transportation, disposal and treatment of garbage, etc, a lot of carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere, and it traps a lot of heat, so much so that the earth temperature begins to get warmer than necessary and thus we have global warming. (Noise pollution is a link that connects human activities to global warming. What do all of these human activities cause.......NOISE!!!!!!!!!!! Since humans are so used to noise, we seem unfazed by this, right? WRONG!!!!!!



    Human health issues from Noise pollution are something I had no idea could cause several health problems we humans could face and have already had to deal with. 

The third most common chronic physical condition in the United States is hearing loss, cardiovascular diseases can also play a factor.  (CDC)

Noise over 70 dB over a long time can damage your hearing, and noise above 120 dB can cause immediate damage to your ears. The average sound of a firework is 140 dB, and the average sound of traffic (from inside the car) is 80 to 85 dB. (CDC) 

    Learning from this topic I have learned that our loud asses seem to cause more damage then we realised not just to typical types of pollution which makes me wonder what else are we not looking at that is causing issues for our environment. Makes me think of concerts and music festivals that are in the woods, what is being done to the animals that live in those forests (Electric Forest, wrestling events, even sport events like Motocross, outdoor sports, etc) 


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Indonesia’s Plastic Waste Problem: How Can We Fix It?

    Indonesia is a beautiful country with thousands of islands, but plastic waste is a big problem. Every year, more and more plastic piles up in rivers, oceans, and streets. By 2020, Indonesia was producing 6.8 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, and the amount keeps growing. A lot of this plastic ends up in the ocean, making Indonesia one of the biggest contributors to marine plastic pollution in the world (UNEP, 2023).

Photo credit":Massive piles of waste at Bantar Gebang Integrated Waste Treatment Site (TPST) in Bekasi, West Java, captured on June 14, 2024."(CNBC Indonesia/Muhammad Sabki)

How Bad is the Plastic Waste Problem?

  • More than 1.29 million tonnes of plastic go into the ocean every year (UNEP, 2023).

  • Indonesia produces millions of tonnes of plastic, but only a small amount is recycled (Global Plastic Action, 2024).

  • In cities like Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya, plastic clogs rivers and drainage systems, making floods worse during the rainy season (BBC, 2024).

  • Places like Bali’s beaches are covered in plastic waste, affecting tourism and harming marine life (News.com.au, 2024).

How Does Plastic Waste Affect People and Nature?

Harm to the Environment

- Rivers like Citarum River (Jakarta) are full of plastic waste, making the water dirty and dangerous. People who depend on the river for drinking water and fishing are suffering (BBC, 2024)

- Plastic waste kills marine animals. Many fish, turtles, and seabirds eat plastic, thinking it’s food. This leads to sickness and death (UNEP, 2023)

-Plastic pollution makes floods worse because trash blocks drainage systems (BBC, 2024).

Impact on People

What is the Government Doing?

Plans and Actions

  • Plastic Reduction Goal: Indonesia wants to reduce marine plastic by 70% by 2025. This means making better waste management systems and reducing single-use plastics (WeForum, 2024).

  • Banning Plastic Imports: In 2025, Indonesia stopped importing plastic waste to focus on recycling its own plastic (The Diplomat, 2025).

NGOs Helping to Clean Up Indonesia

Sungai Watch

This group, founded by the Bencheghib siblings, places barriers in rivers to stop plastic from reaching the ocean. They have removed over 5 million pounds of plastic from rivers (Condé Nast Traveler, 2024).

Pandawara Group

This Indonesian group of young people works to clean up beaches, rivers, and cities. They have led many successful cleanup efforts and inspired others to join (Jakarta Post, 2024).







Photo by: Pandawara. group. https://pandawara.group/

Solutions for a Cleaner Indonesia

Better Waste Management

  • Improve recycling centers and create more waste collection programs (CCET, 2024).

Education and Awareness

  • Teach people how to reduce plastic use and properly dispose of waste (UNEP, 2023).

Encourage Eco-Friendly Products

  • Promote the use of biodegradable materials and reusable products (WeForum, 2024).

Can Indonesia Solve Its Plastic Problem?

    The fight against plastic pollution is not easy, but Indonesia is taking steps in the right direction. Indonesia can reduce plastic waste and protect its environment with strong government action, public support, and NGO efforts.

But more work is needed! We must all do our part by reducing plastic use, recycling, and supporting cleanup efforts.

resources


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The Fight for National Parks Workers - A Flawed Firing Strategy

In the past few months, the Trump administration has fired tens of thousands of federal employees, across multiple federal agencies. This slashing of the federal workforce has been advanced under the banner of trying to root out waste, fraud and inefficiency among the federal workforce. Throughout this campaign, the National Park Service has suffered considerably, and if insufficiently staffed, these precious parks face the threat of entirely collapsing. 

At this moment, it is unclear exactly how many National Park Service employees have been lost. Most park websites have yet to publish details on which jobs have been lost amid the culling, and the NPS’s national office has not distributed a list of fired employees. However, nonprofit groups and public webspaces, especially social media platforms, have been working to coordinate the losses. The Association of National Park Rangers has compiled a crowdsourced list that roughly outlines and tracks the firings, but the list is still unofficial. So far reports across different websites and associations range from 750 to 1,000 firings. Concretely, some of the hardest hit parks include the Everglades National Park, Shenandoah National Park, and the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. For instance, the Everglades National Park has lost 15 employees this far. While that number may sound miniscule, it is important to understand that National Parks span thousands of miles and host thousands of visitors every single year. The sheer mass and scale of these public institutions necessitates far more than a skeleton crew. If this understaffing persists, it poses an incredible threat to the preservation of public lands and delicate protected ecosystems. 

However, the very tactic of firing being utilized is proving an Achilles’ heel. Critically, the tactic to these firings has been to target probationary employees. Typically, a probationary employee is a recent hire to the agency or a long-serving employee who was moved or promoted into a new position. The second part of this definition, those that are simply being promoted, has served as a crux to both the problem itself and the potential solution to it. To the negative end, it means that highly qualified individuals are being the ones fired, career employees who have worked hard and are moving into higher positions. Those being fired are not only park rangers but educators, biologists, ecologists, and EMTs. 

The tragedy of this loss is in some way remedied by its methodical flaw. Because these are highly skilled employees, their terminations are easier to challenge. Initially, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel had been involved on the behalf of federal workers at least until agency head Hampton Dellinger was also fired. Currently the agency’s future remains unclear, but nonetheless individual lawsuits claiming unlawful termination have prevailed. National Parks workers cannot simply be terminated “at will,” there must be a cause for their termination. The template dismissal letters that the Parks were instructed to use often cited unsatisfactory work. However, this is easy to disprove when the worker being fired is one that has won efficiency awards and was in the process of being promoted for their work. 


Photo Credits: 

Government Building 

Protesters

Scale and Gavel


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The Benefit of Listening


It is rare but it happened, I found a news article that was not necessarily devastating to hear or doom inspiring. The article I am talking about is called Humpback Whales Are Singing More: Number of Song Has Doubled as Food Sources Become More Available. The feeling was more encouraging when I saw the name for the source of the article, which is goodnewsnetwork.org. This organization has been providing good news since 1997. This study is important to note because it is an example of humanity performing the seemingly impossible task of communicating with the environment.

Included in this article is a report summary and a link to the research study that found increased variations in the detected songs from three species of baleen whales. This study was funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and an annual grant to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Using hydrophones and Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS), researchers have been recording the acoustics from a 100 km (62.14 miles) section in Monterey Bay since 2015 at an average frequency of 256 HZ. For frequencies ranging from 10HZ to 200kHZ, researchers used an omnidirectional hydrophone called an Ocean Sonics icListen HF.
The three whale species involved in the study were Blue, Humpback, and Fin Whales. Each of these species have different dietary habits with Blue Whales having the most restricted diet. Blue whales mostly just eat krill while the Humpback also focuses on schools of krill it also feeds on anchovies and other small fish. The Fin Whale has the most diverse diet, being known to feed on larger fish and squid. As of recently, the number of songs from Humpback whales has increased in the central California Current Ecosystem (CCE). Using isotope data from Blue Whale and Humpback Whale biopsy samples, scientists conclude that the presence of foraging fish species has also increased.

The main takeaway from this article is described in the title and the second sentence. But there is much more to learn from this study such as marine heat waves, how fast they move and how influential they can be even years after they occur. Simply by listening to the acoustics of the ocean we can gain more insight into how our environment is changing and recognize that the human species might want to change too, as we learn how deeply connected and truly reliant, we are on other species and animals for our own survival.


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The Year 2100 and Its Reality

 

As of 2025, the world's climate change situations seem dire with America pulling out of the Paris agreement and oil companies showing no sign of stopping. I'm sure all of us are wondering what the future will look like in 2050? Or even 2100? 

Well, after looking over a few articles, the future I'm about to describe is going to sound bleak, but remember it is not too late to change what our future will look like! 

Imagine it is 2050 and we have blown past the 1.5 target that world leaders promised they would stick to and the earth has warmed 2 degrees. This would lead to regular heat waves and wildfires. Heat waves specifically would be estimated to be 8 or 9 times more common. These high temperatures would cause power outages as power grids struggle to keep up with energy demands to properly cool homes. Many people would be forced into hospitals due to heat stroke, dehydration, and exhaustion. It's estimated that by 2100 over half of our remaining glaciers will have melted.


As the sea heats up, its volume increases due to thermal expansion together with increased water from glacial melt which elevates the sea level by well over a meter. Entire nations like the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu are uninhabitable as large parts of their islands will be submerged. 

Due to rising tides and extreme storms, flooded buildings and crumpled infrastructure, in places like Jakarta, Mumbai, and Lagos, people will have to abandon their homes and turn to migration if they wish to live. Overall, its estimated 250 million people will be displaced. 

In places like New York, 10-meter-tall seawalls will have to be built on the city's coasts. Another downside would be that by 2100 a lot of ocean life will be extinct due to the ocean reefs being destroyed and rising surface water temperatures. 

Grocery prices would skyrocket as food and water become scarce in all communities. As intense heat waves, droughts and floods make it increasingly difficult to support plant life, hundreds of millions of people are put into famine. 

I know that climate predictions can feel overwhelming and terrifying at times but something that is worth noting is that many experts responsible for these assessments keep an optimistic view. Since some countries have first begun taking steps to lower their emissions warming projections have shifted downwards. In less than a decade we have reduced our projected emission rates so that we are no longer on track to hit 4-degrees of warming. Policies that invest in renewable energy sources support electric transportation protect our forests can help mitigate the worst effects of climate change. 

However, this does not mean it is OK to take a sigh of relief. These same climate experts have also stressed that current politics and pledges don’t do enough in speed or scale. Enacting real change will require bold solutions as well as collective action. There is still time to change our future as every action taken to combat climate change helps.  

Here is a short video I wanted to share that shows us our current path to the future of climate change if action is not taken to properly address climate change called Dear Future Generations: Sorry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLJscAlk1M

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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Fossil fuels have a huge effect on the planet with the greenhouse emissions they produce. Where they are extracted from also can have an effect on the environment. From hundreds of miles long pipelines cutting through pristine ecosystems to oil rigs off the south coast of the USA. As many people in southwest Michigan know the effect of this all too well. In regards to the Line 6 disaster. This is not only a Michigan problem with the largest oil spill in the world’s history happening in the Gulf of Mexico. 











On April 20, 2010, disaster struck the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. An explosion when off on the oil rig killing 11 workers and injuring 17 more. The fire could be seen from 40 miles away. This was only the start of the travesty with 60,000 barrels of oil spilling out from the well each day. NOAA. This resulted in 4 million barrels of oil being put out into the environment until it was capped 87 days later. It was capped by injecting cement into the leaking area. EPA. This rig was owned by BP a British oil company and has paid around 69 billion in clean up and law suits. BP. (Keep in mind that information is from BP themselves, the amounts vary depending on source.)



Ecological Impact:
With 4 million barrels of oil spilled into the ocean, there was a huge impact on the environment. No one was spared, with the oil impacting coral reefs, birds, fish, marshes, mangroves, fishermen, residents, tourism, and people livelihoods. 1,300 miles of coastline being affected by this spill with winds and currents spreading it. NOAA. Around 167,000 sea turtles killed, 93 species of birds exposed to oil, 21 species of dolphins and whales injured, 2-5 million larval fish killed, and 8.3 billion oysters killed during restoration projects. NWF. This only to name a few. When all of us die, the dolphin and whale populations have still not recovered from the oil spill. This is only one oil spill that has happened on this planet and will not be the last. These fossil fuels are destroying our planet and killing people. Oil companies have blood on their hands.

As we see this new administration push back environmental protection acts, we wonder if this is only the start?

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