Community Admist the Overwhelming

 Abstract

This summer, I discovered the southwest is truly an amazing place - from the towering mountains of Flagstaff, to the red rock of Utah, to the flourishing desert of the Coronado National Monument, all of it never ceased to surprise and amaze me. When it came to picking a master’s project in one specific area, however, I wilted in despair.

In a world with so much beauty, and so much destruction, climate change, too, can feel overwhelming. My advisor, though, had a groundbreaking suggestion - what if the two other graduate students and I essentially worked together on the same master’s project? 

Community is essential if we want to move forward on climate action. For me, I think COP27 is the fertile soil that I am excited to see what seeds will be planted, resulting in a flourishing community excited about climate action - both at the COP and when I return home. 

Full article

July 12, 2022

My eyes blinked drops of sweat away as I watched a black and orange wasp latch onto the small white flowers of the milkweed. Giving my head a small shake, I tried to clear my mind enough to count the seconds the wasp was pollinating amongst the 115 degree heat baking off the red rock of Utah. 

July 20, 2022

Thorns clawed at my shirt and threatened to grasp my skin as I fought my way through a thicket of Robinia neomexicana. This plot must be a control plot, with no treatments of herbicide or mechanical cutting applied. When our field crew finally placed the 1mx1m quadrat in line with the two rebar poles, it was time to do the same thing we’d been doing for the past 9 hours - ID the plants, estimate cover, and measure them.

August 16, 2022

Martha pulls up the pink flags that marked where the small but mighty rare plant Pectis imberbis grows amidst the jagged terrain of the sky islands. As we clambered our way to the road down a steep face covered in loose rock, we saw a rattlesnake slither its way across the road.

October 10, 2022

The towering rocks, trees, and cacti I spent my time around in the summer have been replaced by surrounding buildings in Flagstaff. However, I fell like the research process has just started. I worked on many different projects this summer, collecting data about plants from the Utah desert to the Ponderosa forests of northern Arizona. 

Now, I just have to pick a project from all these choices. 

The thought of having to choose a masters project, come up with a question, design methods for a study - I didn’t even know where to start! 

At a research meeting, my advisor said something that sent the tension rolling off my shoulders.

“Science is so collaborative these days, why don’t all three of you work on a chapter of your thesis collaboratively?” 

The other two graduate students in our lab and I looked at each other in surprise, but also in relief.

We wouldn’t have to sit alone in our windowless office and stare at our blank computer screen, wondering how to even start brainstorming ideas for a research question. We wouldn’t have to spend hours in the field alone, measuring plants to collect a large enough dataset for our thesis project. We wouldn’t have to suffer reading a scientific paper alone, wondering how we could incorporate it into our research. 

Instead, we’ll have each other there to support, correct, and bounce ideas off of when needed. 

The first thing I thought of when I heard about the opportunity to go to COP27, was that it would be an amazing opportunity for me. 

But, now I’m realizing that it’s not about me. Alone, I’m a wilting flower of overwhelming despair when it comes to climate change. 

Now, I’m most excited for the community, support, and relationships that will bud from COP27. Not only will I build relationships with fellow observers at COP27, but also when I get back from Egypt, there will be perfect fertile soil for building new and nurturing existing relationships in my home(s) here - Flagstaff, Michigan, and we’ll add West Virginia too. 

While I’m sure the experience at COP27 will be amazing and fruitful, I think it will be these relationships I form that will be the real fertilizer for a growing movement towards climate action.