frame 1:

our story begins in a classroom. 16-year-old wren sits in her earth science class at buffalo high school. it’s her last period. there are two more weeks until summer break and they’ve just started their last unit on climate change. mrs. weaver has assigned all of the students different topics that contribute to climate change for their end-of-term papers. wren was assigned ‘generating power: coal’ and winced as she read it.

frame 2:

when wren gets home she lets out the dog and starts researching for her paper. she already knows everything there is to know about coal, her dad is a second-generation miner. she also knows that the coal he mines is sold and burned to generate energy and that the process of burning coal contributes to global warming. he knows she doesn’t like it, every time the topic of work comes up he sees her disapproving frown but they’ve never talked about it. she can’t stand looking at the graphs and figures one more minute so she decides to go to bed early.

frame 3:

at the end of the week, mrs. weaver begins to lecture on global warming. they had already covered deforestation and conserving water but this was the topic wren dreaded most and not because of her dad’s occupation. she tried to tune out her words, “over the past 50 years us average temperature has increased more than 2*f. heatwaves and droughts have also become more frequent and intense, and the arctic ice…” wren’s attention drifts to the window, the sun is just visible at the top of the frame, she stares at it unblinking but she sees something else.

frame 4:

she was six years old when they heard the news. her dad had taken the week off to look after her while her mom visited her sister in california. he held it together in front of the officer but after he shut the door, her dad dropped to his knees in front of her and held her tight. they sat like that for over an hour but then her dad wiped off both their tears and put on her favorite movie to watch. she could hear him on the phone in the other room, her eyes were still running. the funeral was a week later, and by then she saw had heard the newscaster on tv, a massive heatwave in california, and the death toll was up to 85. apparently, wren’s aunt had been at work and her mom had just opened the door for a minute when the dog slipped between her legs and ran, she ran after it, and apparently, they found her a quarter mile away off the trail slumped against a tree, like she was sleeping. they moved into the small trailer a month later.  

frame 5:

when she got home from school that day she sees the heavy dust-covered boots outside the trailer door which means it was one of her dad’s off days. she walked in wanting to pick a fight, she told him she hates that he was a part of it all. he was confused so she went on. she brought up her mom and their voices got louder. he didn’t like to fight with her but he was upset. he had no other skills or experience, it was the only way he was able to pay the bills. he called her ungrateful and then she stomped off and slammed doors. he immediately regretted it. he knew it wasn’t not true and if he was being honest, he hated working in the mines. he hated knowing that his employer had been destroying the planet for decades and he hated knowing the heat is a result of that, the heat that killed his wife.

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two days later and he’s been laid off, they all were, and the mine was shutting down. they were calling it the great recession, people were losing jobs and companies were going bankrupt. he was relieved but terrified, having no idea what to do next. wren knew something was wrong when she saw his boots, he was supposed to be on for three days. they talked and they decided to move, his grandparents lived in florida and he remembered making the drive every winter. wren was devastated to leave her friends but she remembered her dad’s stories of the white sand and turquoise water, she didm’t mention it but she was also happy that he was finally done with the mines.

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the drive took them three days. as they drove, her dad talked to her about how the land has changed. there had been a bad drought again this year and they drove past entire fields of wheat dried up and dead in kansas. as they drove through towns in missouri, wren watched as people lay out sandbags in preparation for flooding that was rumored to hit in the next few weeks. on the radio “despite repeated warnings” by paul mccartney began to play. wren and her dad shared a look and shook their heads simultaneously. her dad told her it never was this bad before, that there were always natural disasters but it was different now. wren told him what she learned in earth science, that these events have steadily become more frequent and more intense. they drove in silence for a while, it felt like mourning.

frame 8:

they decided to get a trailer in a small park outside bradenton on the west coast of florida. they spent the summer working part-time jobs, every night her dad would scan different sites and send in applications, he got one interview but it never went further than that. one hot july night though their luck finally changed. he got an email from a company called sun-tec, they explained that they were a nonprofit organization and had a program that focused on transitioning those who worked in fossil fuels to start working in the renewable energy industry. they paid for his training and within the month he began his new job of installing solar panels all over the state. wren had never been more proud.

frame 9

our story ends in a classroom. it had already been a month since wren started her junior year at palmetto high school. she stood at the front of the room with a paper in her hand, the entire classroom staring back at her. the assignment had been to write about their heroes and how they have inspired them. wren wrote about her dad, she decided she was going into a career in conservation work, they were both going to make the world a better place. when she showed him the paper that night, he cried for the first time since her mom died.

my story focuses on a family that is deeply affected by climate change in the us. i wanted climate change to drive the story and be part of the setting. this is why i included a heatwave killing the mom to give the dad and daughter a past affected by climate change and motivation for the dad to leave the fossil fuel industry completely. i also used the earth science class to drive the daughter’s actions and give her the knowledge to explain their observations on their drive to florida. i decided to try to make this a very realistic story and set it in america to potentially make a voter who doesn’t believe in climate change realize that they have already seen it with their own eyes at home. i also wanted to end the story with hope and love, having them work to make the world better. these emotions are humanity’s driving force, and i wanted to use this to inspire the reader.

for me, being able to use this creative outlet to share such a powerful narrative shows that anyone, using any of their interests/talents, can raise awareness about environmental issues. my art is a reflection of myself and the issues that are of importance to me.

i want to inspire others to partake in environmental activism in any way that they can. this video not only includes inspiring stories of conservation successes (such as that of the gray wolf and the bald eagle), but also showcases statistics of extinction that will hopefully display the dark reality of the situation we face.

many seem to forget that we are currently in an age of mass extinction, and that a threat to one species is a threat to all. we must learn to respect the flora and fauna that we share this land with, and protect the wildlife that we have already caused harm to. this video aims to achieve this by presenting viewers with an emotional and artistic chronicle of the holocene extinction. 

this is a multifaceted problem, as the environmental protection agency (epa), states that these tiny particles come with a variety of characteristics including size, composition, and are of different densities within our environment.  this invasion of microplastics doesn’t just damage the quality of our oceans, it festers and grows in the air we breathe, our food and drinks, and the products we use. it is so pervasive that, according to science direct, a recent study showed that this army of microplastics has marched its way into people’s bodies, including our bloodstreams.

the result of this study showed that 80% (17 out of 22) of the study’s subjects contained these life-threatening particles in their bloodstreams, which suggests that microplastics are in fact commonplace in most people’s bodies. the damage is outlined in another study from rovira university, which states that microplastics can stretch the membranes of red blood cells to the point where the transportation of oxygen in our circulatory system is affected.

how do microplastics get inside of us?

some people may never consider where the objects in the recycling bins actually end up or if those objects are actually being recycled. according to upstream solutions, only 6% of plastics are recycled and more than one-third of plastic packaging finds its way into the environment. when plastics are left alone in the ocean or on land, they break down into microplastics that can be smaller than five millimeters, resembling the size of a sesame seed. the united nations clean seas campaign found that there are approximately 51 trillion microplastic pieces in the ocean alone.

a handful of these particles may seem harmless, but since they are hydrophobic, meaning of a substance that repels water, an accumulation of them can cover many surfaces and absorb various organic pollutants including pesticides and industrial chemicals. according to the national library of medicine, once these harmful chemicals are ingested by organisms, they can easily accumulate in their systems and threaten their gastrointestinal tract. these particles are often transferred from one organism to another through ingestion, and have been able to reach humans. this common process is known as trophic transfer.

“i would assume living in a place where you’re around a lot of people, you’d probably increase your exposure (to microplastics),” said laura markley, a ph.d. candidate studying plastic pollution at syracuse university. “i think it would really depend on where you live.”

living in a populated city like syracuse, new york, it’s no surprise that most of the residents produce plastic waste. in today’s world, plastic is an ubiquitous staple of grocery shopping that consumers of all ages have a hard time avoiding. “it’s very difficult for an individual to reduce their production when the system is kind of made to produce that way,” markley said.  

shopping bags are not the only significant way that we come into contact with plastics. when we store our leftovers from previous meals or have a craving for the remainder of our takeout, the most convenient way of storing and reheating our food is by microwaving it in plastic containers.

according to markley, there are many processing agents and chemicals that give plastics desirable characteristics, but when those plastics are exposed to certain conditions such as high temperatures, as significant amount of those harmful chemicals within the plastic can leach out into the food we consume. one way this problem occurs is by using the same plastic container over and over again which eventually leads to parts of the plastic shedding off into the food we look forward to eating.

markley also emphasized that leached chemicals can mimic estrogen, the hormone key to the female reproductive system. according to  breastcancer.org, bisphenol-as (bpa) is an industrial chemical commonly found in plastics such as water bottles and sold in stores, that mimics estrogen which can lead to various kinds of cancer in women. markley went on to say, “that was just crazy to me because i was like, how can something i’ve used my entire life, be the source of these toxic chemicals!” 

going to the source

i also spoke with marcus eriksen, ph.d., scientist and co-founder of the 5 gyres organization, who emphasized how recycling contributes to plastic pollution. eriksen mentioned how many of us have been fooled into believing that participating more in this process will solve this world crisis. in reality, more needs to be done than just tossing single-use plastics into the recycling bin.

many materials such as plastic utensils and take-out containers are placed in landfills or end up in our oceans because they can not be recycled.

in our interview, eriksen said that cleaning up a patch of trash in the ocean and on land will not fix the entire problem. rather, it will take strategies to address the source of the issue, such as creating better designs for products and implementing source reduction without plastic. 

at the individual level, we certainly can aim to reduce our use of plastics. but the microplastics issue also needs to be addressed at a higher, larger level – through laws and policies. organizations similar to 5 gyres collaborate with policymakers to form agreements that hold companies accountable for their plastic production and aim to reduce the consumption of plastic. this ongoing world crisis can only be improved by working at its source to truly see a positive difference in our future. 

our government has the choice of acting on this worldwide issue, we just have to push our politicians. this task is easier said than done. but if we, as individuals, begin to hold our own usage of plastics accountable and communicate the dangers of microplastics to our representatives, there is hope that broader change is yet to come.

growing up in northern ghana, kansanga experienced food insecurity early in life. times of scarcity brought famine…and bigger questions. “a couple of kilometers out,” he says “there was a food-secure region with year-round cultivation…” why? how? 

these questions guided his career, which began with the pursuit of finding out why his childhood geographical setting had the recurring issue of hunger. the beginning of the answer was in geography, of which he is now an associate professor at the george washington university. according to kansanga, geography is a tool to think and study across scale. he credits it for allowing him to “contextualize the challenges he observed at home outwardly to national and international dynamics” of global food systems and environmental justice.

as a researcher, kansanga’s work has expanded to analyzing solutions to ecological issues in a contextually relevant manner that encompasses the complexities of communities like his own. his research focus on sustainable agriculture depicts how agriculture is enmeshed with interconnected systems of food security, equity, gender, and other social dynamics. in other words, kansanga’s research is in the growing field of agroecology.

what exactly is “agroecology”?

at its most basic, agroecology is a holistic approach to understanding agriculture within the context of various interacting economic, environmental, and social systems. for kansanga, agroecology emphasizes “reorienting agriculture in an ecologically friendly manner” while maintaining a strong social justice dimension that addresses social inequalities in the food system. it’s an approach that expands beyond academia and forms what the united nations food and agriculture organization describes as a “transdisciplinary field” that “is concurrently a science, a set of practices, and a social movement” composed of 10 key elements. see the fao’s explanatory video here.

the agroecological emphasis on examining social inequalities on a local scale has been especially central to kansanga’s research, where he has found that it helps “create an atmosphere for dialogue at the local level.” this dialogue, kansanga says, often plays a key role in beginning difficult cultural discussions that reckon with themes of gender inequality and traditional family dynamics that play into agricultural systems. often, it comes with engaging communities in critical questions such as:

• does everyone have equal access to the farming process?

• how does gender inequality play out in agricultural communities where women tend to play a peripheral role?

• would food production increase if women had the same access to agricultural resources and processes?

furthermore, agroecology provides a framework for preserving and integrating local knowledge alongside innovative solutions — two components that can, at times, seem at odds with each other. but together, they offer much more, as “traditional systems,” kansanga says, “are the basis of scientific advancements in agriculture.” and given a safe environment where farmers actively collaborate with and contribute to agroecological research, kansanga says that traditional insights meet with scientific knowledge and spur innovation and studies into the scientific background of traditional practices.

for example, for centuries, local farmers in sub-saharan africa would plant in raised mounds of soil with intercropped beans and millet to consolidate nutrients and create a form of what kansanga compares to “instant manure” that increased productivity.

however, as the economic principle of maximizing growing space was popularized, many farmers moved to monoculture row crops that lost the ecological synergies of the traditional mound intercropping system. now, agroecology gives researchers like kansanga the space to study traditional practices and work with farmers to create agroecological systems that are more powerful and resilient. 

why is the community lens of agroecology important?

without the lens of communities, agriculture is understood only through the environmental and economic lenses, which kansanga says is a “limited view of how agriculture should be.” relying on technological solutions based on overlapping economic and environmental interests is like “applying a bandage without addressing structural undertones” that make systems unequal and, therefore, unsustainable.

agroecologists seek to understand how ecologically friendly principles and social justice intersect in a way that draws from the three pillars in the united nations’ understanding of sustainability: economic, ecological, and social. in his research, this unique perspective has allowed kansanga to add more nuance to conversations about sustainable food systems, or “agroecosystems,” in west africa. 

for example, kansanga’s studies include examining the multidimensional impact of africa’s green revolution, which was carried out by the alliance for a green revolution in africa (agra) with the aim of reducing food insecurity and poverty in africa. agra primarily focused on increasing agricultural productivity by expanding smallholder farmer access to mass-production technology like commercial seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation systems. however, agroecologists like kansanga emphasize that agra also had socioeconomic impacts on local farmers that changed the local distribution of wealth, displaced traditional staple crops, altered soil and land quality, and shifted gender dynamics.

under the more comprehensive scope of agroecology, kansanga worked with a team of researchers to uncover how the mechanization of smallholder agriculture in the african green revolution contributed to increased gender inequality in ghana.  local women, their research revealed, were displaced from traditional roles in the local agricultural system as the use of heavy machinery contributed to cutting down the native vitellaria paradoxa, or shea trees. in ghana, where shea processing remains one of the only livelihood domains where women control the income input, the shea trees growing in agricultural fields provided valuable access to livelihood resources and a degree of economic independence.

here, kansanga says agroecology goes beyond other approaches to agriculture – like regenerative agriculture – in that it acknowledges gains in ecological productivity and benefits, but also poses the question: “what about the inequalities that underscore the system?” agroecology argues that “inequalities should also receive attention” in agriculture and provides a framework for a community-oriented approach that encompasses social justice and equity for the most marginalized as vital components of sustainable agriculture.

beyond west africa: where do we go from here?

kansanga hopes that his research is only the beginning of cultivating more support for agroecology in and beyond the region. “africa,” he says, “has a good chance of asking the social inequity question and addressing it first because it is not neck-deep in agricultural modernization.”

unlike much of the global north, africa has what kansanga says is a late-comer advantage where intensive agriculture and heavy mechanization have yet to take hold completely, and there are remnants of traditional practices left. still, he challenges the global north to examine food systems with an agroecological approach that recognizes how their agricultural systems are interconnected with systems of inequality within the global north and to reinforce such systems in the global south. 

on agroecology,  kansanga says, “it’s working,” but its journey towards integration into mainstream consciousness is stymied by challenges of resources and funding. still, agroecology is moving the conversation of agriculture beyond the economy and the environment and back to the communities and people it sustains. it challenges advocates of sustainable agriculture to understand agriculture as more than an economic and ecological issue, but a social justice issue. agroecology offers the opportunity to build valuable communal contexts into a more equitable global food system, and for kansanga, this includes personal contexts as well, because ground zero for agroecology is home.