Jenna Jambeck, associate professor in the College of Engineering, is internationally recognized for her research on plastic waste in the ocean and for the Marine Debris Tracker app she co-created. She notes that being active in research helps bring current environmental engineering issues into the classroom for students.
Dr. Sylvia Earle: Learning for a Plastic World
Key concepts:
• new media – critical engagement
• cradle-to-cradle design
• synergy across biosphere & technosphere
• principles: self-organization, connectivity, feedback, collaboration (collaborative intelligence if their behavior is “smart”) and emergence
“Plastic World” in our title has two connotations: the material connotation of a world filled with plastic, and the non-material connotation of a learning society that is “plastic,” flexible to absorb new insights and shift patterns to address a problem. Two amazing champions who foresaw the threats we face today sit at one table:
The National Geographic in its tradition of outstanding reporting is addressing the plastic challenge and recently released an outstanding educational animation, provocatively titled “Are you having plastic for dinner?”
The United Nations Oceans Conference June 5 – 9, 2017.
UNEP has launched an online course on marine litter.
Mission Blue
Mission Blue focuses on saving Hopespots, the last great heritage ocean preserves, from destruction from environmental waste and development. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, former Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), has chosen to focus on the gifts of the ocean to all life, rather than on the debris.
Sylvia Earle has been a leader, inspirer, and educator throughout her life, which as described by Film Director James Cameron in the documentary Mission Blue.
In their publication Cradle-to-Cradle design by Michael Braungart, William McDonough, and Andrew Bollinger, explore a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. Their eco-effective and cradle-to-cradle design provides an alternative design and production concept to the strategies of zero emission and eco-efficiency. The abstract for the book states that eco-effectiveness moves beyond zero emission approaches by focusing on the development of products and industrial systems that maintain or enhance the quality and productivity of materials through subsequent life cycles.
The concept of eco-effectiveness also addresses the major shortcomings of eco-efficiency approaches: their inability to address the necessity for fundamental redesign of material flows, their inherent antagonism towards long-term economic growth and innovation, and their insufficiency in addressing toxicity issues. The transition to eco-effective industrial systems involves a five-step process beginning with an elimination of undesirable substances and ultimately calling for a reinvention of products by reconsidering how they may optimally fulfill the need or needs for which they are actually intended while simultaneously being supportive of ecological and social systems. This process necessitates the creation of an The concept of intelligent materials pooling illustrates how an eco-effective system of management could coordinate material flows in the product system.
IDEO Open, which works closely with the Stanford D School (D for Design) is partnering with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to run a design challenge on packaging and has formed a discussion group about the circular economy on LinkedIn.
The University of California, Berkeley has a Carbon Neutrality Initiative, announced in 2013, which commits UC’s 10 campuses to become carbon neutral by 2025, reducing emissions from its buildings and vehicle fleet by about 80 percent, or 115,000 metric tons. The Cal Climate Action Partnership, part of the Office of Sustainability and Energy, made up of a coalition of students, faculty and staff spearheaded the Berkeley campus’s push for carbon neutrality.
Programs for university level and adults need to be complemented by programs for younger learners. Kurzgesagt presents very clear material for school use.
Life Without Plastic provides information on alternatives to plastics, how safe they are, and whether they can be easily recycled, including glass, ceramic, stainless steel, and wood. Professor Minoo Moallem, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, knew finding alternatives to plastic would be difficult, if not impossible. The exercise raised awareness of our reliance on plastic.
See the app @ earthDECKS.org
Saving Our Oceans from Plastic: articles by Zann Gill
- Adverse Health Effects of Plastic
- Aquaria – Informal Learning Network
- Beat the Microbead
- Bibliography: Plastic Roads
- Boyan Slat: Floater Technology for Ocean Cleanup
- Complex Systems Problems
- Cradle to Grave: Plastic Supply Chain
- Dame Ellen MacArthur: The Circular Economy
- earthDECKS Limelights: Companies to Watch
- Enshrouded in Plastic
- Flamingos Signal the Future We Face
- Floating Trash: More than 4x as bad as we thought
- Give the World a Helping Hand: 3D Prostheses
- Global Ocean Sensing
- Industry Response to the Plastic Challenge
- Nature’s Innovators: plastic consumers
- Ocean Debris Network
- Ocean Ingenuity
- Oceans – Measuring Planet Health
- Plastic Bank – The Exchange Economy
- Plastic – Climate Change Connection: Israel & UBQ
- PLASTIC: Complex Systems Problem
- Plastic: Drinking Water, Table Salt & Mother’s Milk
- Plastic Footprint – Carbon Footprint
- Plastic-Eating Enzyme
- Plastic Gyres and Social Justice
- Plastic Impact Calculator
- Plastic Pollution Coalition: Campaign vs Single Use Plastic
- Plastic & Public Health: Endocrine Disruptors
- PLASTIC: Overview of National Leadership
- Plastic Roads – Global Innovation Ecosystem
- Plastic – The Circular Economy
- The Plasticene
- Plastiki: adventure stories & a big message
- Raising Awareness of Plastic Hazards