upon entering the innovation center at the george washington university in washington, d.c., one’s eyes may gravitate towards the freshly brewed black coffee or the rows of tables to work on and supplies like rulers, scissors, and fabrics scattered everywhere, all signs of hard work. it was a craft-lover’s heaven, reminiscent of a kindergarten art class (minus the scissors).

at gw’s innovation center, students are working on an installation with cuban artist and costume designer, celia ledón, for the kennedy center’s riverrun festival on march 22 to april 22, 2023.

the festival is a celebration of the world’s rivers and their role as life-sustaining and art-inspiring passages that course through our planet. with an emphasis on social responsibility, the center commissioned ledón to construct a large-scale figure-garment made solely out of plastic waste with the goal of raising awareness about the dangers of plastic in our waterways and everyday lives. the installation, metaphorically named the shape of water, will be showcased in april in honor of earth day.

aside from having an eclectic fashion sense, ledón is known for designing garments from materials found in trash bins, recycling containers, and piles of unwanted clothes. high fashion runways, numerous art exhibitions, and even feature films, both in cuba and internationally, display her work.

in the center of the room, and wearing her iconic chunky black boots and wide, black-rimmed eyeglasses, celia ledón was hard at work. she used a gigantic stapler gun to piece together flattened water bottles, which seem to be an omnipresent form of litter in the city. the center had collected hundreds of them. a student next to her melted pipettes with a heat gun. other students constructed ecobricks, plastic bottles stuffed with trash and other plastics to create a dense structure. “it’s all about trial and error,” said ledón, as she explained the method to her madness. ledón didn’t have a comprehensive plan of action for the installation, which is how her designs typically start. all ideas were welcome and would be considered as part of the installation in some way, yet it is too early to tell what it will look like.

by helping with the installation, students earn service hours towards a course called food, nutrition and service, taught by tara scully, ph.d., director of the sustainability minor program and assistant professor of biology at gw. scully was also at the innovation center helping to brainstorm ways to transform the plastic. the kennedy center’s international programming department is partnering with scully’s class to assist in creating the installation. along with completing service hours at the innovation center, scully explained that her students have also been doing plastic audits by collecting plastic from areas in d.c., including rock creek park and different locations on campus.

it’s no secret that plastic waste and pollution has become a grave threat to the environment and human health. “in the last 15 years, the u.s. has produced half of all the plastic that exists in the world,” remarked scully. despite plastic’s ubiquity, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled globally, according to the organization for economic cooperation and development. perhaps one of the most threatening forms of plastic is single-use, pieces of plastic that are made to be thrown out, such as water bottles, grocery bags, straws, coffee cups, and more. scully revealed that a large problem is that plastics are not entirely decomposable. rather, every time they break down, they become small pieces known as microplastics. further, microplastics can often contain toxic chemicals that leach their way into our everyday items, food, and most importantly, our bodies. unfortunately, “microplastics have already been detected in both animals and humans,” highlighted scully.

senior richard baltazar, a non-degree student, raised concerns that the installation is glorifying plastic, expressing worry that by making something aesthetically beautiful out of plastic, it’s justification for using the material. “people should be confronted with the stuff they don’t really want to see,” said baltazar. scully agreed and suggested that the installation include an important message that addresses the dangers of plastic such as photos of animals covered with plastic in our oceans. ledón wasn’t quite sold. “i’m a smoker,” she said, “the pictures of collapsed lungs on cigarette boxes don’t phase me. it’s the same for this.” instead, ledón focuses on finding useful applications and exploring alternative ways to make real change.

during her meetings at the kennedy center, ledón learned that not only does the center use plastic cups for their events, but they also don’t recycle them. scully, ledón, and erica wortham, director of the innovation center, are responsible for the initiative to collect plastic waste at the kennedy center itself, a change that the staff have seemed passionate about making.

for those not directly working on this installation, there are everyday ways to be more conscious about plastic use. on top of actively remembering to bring around reusable water bottles or opting for paper bags during the next trader joes run, people can pay more attention to projects like the shape of water that raise our awareness on the issue of plastic pollution. they can also take part in urging places in our communities to ban single-use plastic. above all else, ledón believes we must remember to “have faith.”

the highly infectious fungal pathogen known to target and kill amphibians poses no direct threat to humans; however, its detrimental effects on biodiversity warrant immense concern. bd and similar diseases, like batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (bsal), contribute to a pressing global biodiversity problem. they serve as fuel for additional policy initiatives needed to mitigate these deadly fungi but also target the loss of biodiversity at local, national, and international levels spanning wild, rural, and urban interfaces. there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to these issues. therefore, several policy changes are needed to prevent the spread of bd and similar infectious diseases and help combat the threat of a loss of biodiversity. 

an unlikely disappearance

according to professor of biology at university of maryland, college park, and self-proclaimed “animal lover,” karen lips, ph.d., “bd infects over 700 species across three orders of vertebrates, causes species extinctions, mass mortality events and precipitous and persistent population declines where it has invaded.” lips has spent her life tracking bd’s impact on frogs throughout central america in countries like costa rica and panama. 

in the 1980s, lips first discovered the disappearance of amphibians in those concentrated areas. it began with the golden toad in costa rica. “when it first disappeared, people didn’t know why,” lips said. the sites she was researching were secured, protected, and remote, so a disappearance like this was strikingly unusual. she first blamed the weather, but the decline in species was too drastic.

when lips returned to central america in the 1990s, frog numbers were abnormal and her research team found “dozens of dead or dying animals,” on their paths of study. they were quickly able to determine that it was bd that was killing off the frog population, or rather, a catalyst for their extinction. bd is an invasive species with zoospores, rounded, water-borne cells that help to move bacteria around the species. according to scholars at global change biology, zoospores spread bd by settling on the frog and entering the cells of the skin, ultimately causing a fatal cardiac arrest. lips calls these zoospores “little balls,” yet despite their benign nickname, they make it especially easy for bd to spread and kill off various amphibian species.

bd ultimately paves the way for an even bigger issue: a catastrophic impact on wildlife biodiversity. “when you remove amphibians from the ecosystem, bugs and tadpoles also disappear, and as a result, entire ecosystems shift,” lips said. during her research, lips also discovered other indirect effects of bd on human health. after the frogs disappeared in costa rica and panama, there was a 10-year increase in the number of malaria cases. 

old laws, new fungi

bd is already in the united states and while there isn’t a definitive way to cure populations with the disease on a global scale, the further spread of bd can be prevented. the u.s. fish and wildlife service (fws) is actively monitoring the spread of bd through many ways such as activating first responders to mitigate the impact, said meghan snow, fws staff member. these efforts are making headway, but only on a small scale. for instance, snow described that biologists are helping frogs fight the deadly fungus, but they’re focused in california. the bd epidemic needs more large-scale change. not only do these mitigation efforts need to continue, but there needs to be an increase in regulating the trade of these infected species. 

enter: the lacey act. introduced by iowa congressman john lacey in 1900 after a noticeable decline in north america’s wild game species, the lacey act prohibits the “trade of any species taken in violation of international or domestic law” and regulates the import of injurious wildlife, according to the wildlife society. while this may seem like a good sign for stopping the spread of bd, the list of animals is small and the sad fact is that most species are unregulated. according to lips, she nearly “had to beg fws to add more animals.” 

in 2013, researchers discovered a new chytrid fungus known as bsal. much like how bd attacks the skin of frogs, bsal attacks the skin of salamanders. because north america is “the global hotspot for salamanders,” noted lips, the fws placed a ban on the import of 201 salamander species under the lacey act in 2016. according to a recent article featuring lips in the atlantic, bsal has not been detected in north america. bd, on the other hand, is already present in many areas of the united states. while the salamander ban under the lacey act acts as a preventative measure to stop the potential spread of bsal, there lies a gap in policy to make effective strides towards mitigating bd, which lips believes to have been pushed to the sidelines.

protecting our biodiversity 

approaches to helping solve this problem span wild, rural, and urban interfaces in which lips outlined many policy initiatives. for instance, on the wild interface front, it’s about placing efforts to reduce deforestation, protect habitats, and increase research on wildlife disease. in the rural interface, it’s increased surveillance on these species and regulating wildlife harvest. for urban interfaces, efforts to create effective vaccines and treatments for amphibians, reduce trade and trafficking, and monitor these invasive diseases are key. 

other approaches stem from a need to quantify the value of nature, lips said. “currently, we don’t have a system in the u.s. to document all the species,” she said. “you need to know how many exist and how good they’re doing before you can measure their value.” there are still a lot of unknown gaps in biodiversity. compiling tangible lists of species is a way to close these gaps, as lists help people visualize the impact of biodiversity crisis. 

under the current administration, a climate and environment division was created to underscore their very commitment to tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. in 2021, the white house office of science and technology policy (ostp), added five new experts in biodiversity to the division, including heather tallis, ph.d. previously, tallis worked with the natural capital project, a platform striving towards quantifying the value of nature. 

looking ahead

the bd epidemic is just one of the many catalysts for a loss in biodiversity. the hard truth is that the world is facing a huge biodiversity crisis. bd and bsal are just contributors, so any efforts to mitigate the spread of these deadly fungi can help immensely in moving the needle towards a brighter future for the environment. “it’s not just about the frogs,” lips said, “it’s also about the importance of protecting biodiversity.”

it can be especially hard to grasp the personal impact of a loss of biodiversity as a result of these species-destroying fungi. if there’s anything that the covid-19 pandemic has proven, it’s that understanding a global spread of disease is important and that the management of emerging infectious diseases at national and international scales requires close attention. but, it’s not just about covid-19, it’s also about the epidemics that are silently killing amphibians and ultimately biodiversity.