Dr. Joyce Chen on Development Economics

I attended Dr. Joyce Chen’s question and answer session on development economics on Wednesday, April 8. I attended this session because I was interested in her research on climate refugees and climate migration. She has conducted much of her research in Bangladesh and how the people there are responding to climate change. She has found the country is transitioning to being more urban and that there are more occurrences of seasonal migration among its people. Women are also migrating more for work in garment factories and other employment opportunities now than in the 1990s. Her research also shows that when people migrate to larger cities for work, they are moving to other coastal cities instead of moving to inland cities that are less at risk to rising sea levels and therefore have fewer accessible freshwater sources for drinking water. Dr. Chen found through her research that gender plays an important role in each family’s response to climate change because men are mostly the ones making the decision for their household. I am in a class on women, environment, and development this semester and this topic and been discussed throughout the course.

When asked how she is able to conduct research in Bangladesh from Columbus, Dr. Chen responded that she tries to go to Bangladesh once a year, but that she has a partner there who helps her design survey questions and goes around to the communities to ask them.

Dr. Chen also mentioned that she thinks the topic of immigration should have been mentioned in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals because climate change is going to cause millions of people to flee their countries due to extreme drought, increased flooding, more extreme and frequent natural disasters, and disease.

Environmental Film Series: Ice on Fire

I attended the Environmental Film Series on Tuesday, January 28 in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Chemical Building as an academic event. The Series played Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest documentary called Ice on Fire about the numerous solutions that exist to minimize or reverse the effects of climate change. I found it refreshing that, unlike many environmental documentaries, this film did not spend the bulk of the time trying to convince the viewers that the climate is changing as a result of humans’ impact. Instead, it interviewed a few scientists who work in that field and showed some of their data and then shifted the focus to the solutions. One of the solutions that stuck out to me involved growing crops for human consumption in large greenhouses. These greenhouses would have atmospheric carbon dioxide pumped into them after the carbon dioxide was separated from other atmospheric gases. Not only would this take carbon dioxide out of the air, but it would also use it to produce plants in favorable conditions for them. Other solutions included renewable energy sources that are not as well-known as solar and wind, like tidal energy from the oceans.

After the showing of the film, Tom Darrah, a professor in the earth sciences department, spoke on his thoughts of the film. I appreciated his perspective as someone who has been a professional in the field for a while. One point that he brought up is how necessary it is to make the public aware of the potential solutions to climate change that exist, however, he thought many of the solutions mentioned in the documentary were rather fantastical and their effectiveness was likely over-embellished when you think of the change we need on a global scale.

Even though most of the solutions were being tested in the United States, climate change is an international problem that effects everyone on earth and does not pay attention to national borders. As an environmental policy major, many of my classes touch on the squabble between developed and developing countries about how much effort each country needs to be putting in to minimize climate change. Regardless of your stance in the matter, countries like the United States need to be taking charge on researching and developing solutions since we have been putting out excessive amounts of greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, I think it is important that this film put such an emphasis on what scientists, farmers, and other Americans are doing to reduce our impact on the environment.

Second-year Transformational Experience Project Expo

I attended the Second-year Transformational Experience Project Expo on Wednesday, November 20 at the Ohio Union as an academic event. The first presenter I talked to had completed her STEP project on an education abroad program in Seville, Spain that she participated in at the end of her junior year in May of 2019. While in Seville, she took four classes at a sister school to Ohio State and was able to transfer that credit to fulfill some of her GE required classes. She especially noted how much she loved being able to practice her language skills at all times. Whereas in Columbus she can only practice her Spanish in the classroom, she was able to speak it in restaurants, in the street, and with the host family she stayed with. By spending three weeks in Spain, she was able to really immerse herself into the culture and took advantage of being so close to other countries by also going to Morocco, Portugal, and Paris. I have also taken many years of Spanish classes from grade school through college and would love to be able to practice my skills in a Spanish speaking country through a similar program to this one.

The second presenter I spoke with used her STEP funds for a three week education abroad program to Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands through the Fisher School of Business. Through this program, she was able to meet with people from numerous Scandinavian companies and hear presentations about what they are doing to make their companies more sustainable. She had the opportunity to meet with large companies like Ikea as well as smaller, lesser known businesses. I am especially interested in sustainability and the initiatives that companies are currently pursuing and would personally consider going on a program like this. When her group met with one of the larger companies, their presentation consisted of the sustainability audits of other companies and how they have been improved. When asked about what their company is specifically doing to become more sustainable, they had limited answers. This is fascinating to me since it shows how companies want to appear more environmentally-friendly, but can fall short of actually becoming more sustainable.

The third presentation I heard was about an education abroad program in New Zealand through the School of Environment and Natural Resource about sustainable tourism and human impacts on the environment. The presenter spoke about going on the trip this past May for three weeks. She also talked about the amazing natural places they got to witness firsthand because their learning and lectures were all done in the field. Not only did she get to learn about the environment, but she was also moved by learning about the native Maori people. This presentation was especially interesting to me because I am hoping to go to New Zealand with this program this coming May. Since I am in the same school as her, I was particularly interested in if she was able to secure scholarships through our school. She mentioned that she was able to fund her trip through scholarships with our school, as well as the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Science and the Wolfe Scholarship.

Panel on Climate Change and Environmental Issues

 

On March 5th and 6th, I went to a two day academic panel on climate change and environmental issues. The first day, located in Drake Hall, centered around international and national environmental issues whereas the second day was located in Hagerty Hall and focused more so focused on the state and local levels. The panelists included Colin O’Brien, staff attorney for Earth Justice, Scott Weaver, Director of Air Quality for American Electric Power, Cathy Becker from the Ohio Sierra Club, Kate Bartter from the Sustainability Institute at Ohio State, and Serdar Tufekci from Ohio State Energy Partners. Each panelist brought fascinating knowledge from their unique backgrounds and made for an informative and captivating discussion.

One of the discussions from the first night that stood out to me was sparked from the question of what is keeping the United States from using 100% renewable energy, especially considering how there are known renewable energy sources like wind and solar that our country could adapt. Even though energy companies and environmental lawyers are typically pinned against each other, both Colin O’Brien and Scott Weaver agreed that a large factor is that money talks for politicians. Since fossil-fuel companies are currently set up to be carbon-based and are profiting from how they are now, they do not want change even if it puts our future at risk and their donations to politicians sway politicians to agree with them. Additionally, another challenge that I had not thought about before is that there will have to be a lot of thought put into how to manage energy storage, particularly for cars, and keeping the cost manageable.

It was also exciting to hear from people who are involved in environmental issues particularly in Ohio and Columbus since that is easier to visualize and put into perspective. Before the second night of the panel, I did not know that the city of Columbus had committed to using 100% clean renewable energy by 2050. One of the ways to do so that I learned is to look at the areas that are consistently spending too much on energy to see if it could be because of inefficient buildings. Not only does this help the environment, but it also helps those living in these areas which tend to be lower income families to begin with. Ohio State University, specifically, is also working to be more environmentally friendly after the last president said that if universities do not take lead on climate change, then who will? The university now has 24 Gold, Silver, and LEED certified buildings. In addition, wind energy meets 15% of the main campus’s energy needs and some residence halls are heated and cooled with geothermal wells.

Being a student in the School of Environment and Natural Resources, this event heavily resonated with me because I got to hear from people working in this field. I am an indecisive person by nature, and when it comes to deciding on a major it is no different. My answer to the always pressing question “what do you want to be when you grow up” fluctuates depending on what movie I am watching or what book I am reading. However, after attending this panel discussion, I am more sure than I have ever been that this is the field I want to work in.

Climate change directly relates to International Affairs because issues like water pollution, air quality, and global warming do not stop at national borders. In environmental issues, politicians and civilians cannot only think about how policies and practices would affect them, but how it would affect the earth as a whole. Because this is an international issue, we need international commitment to switching to environmentally friendly practices.

 

 

 

Education Abroad Expo

On September 4th I attended the Education Abroad Expo in the Ohio Union put on by the Office of International Affairs as an academic event. The expo opened my eyes to the multitude of opportunities there are to study abroad during my time at Ohio State. Prior to this, I knew that I wanted to study abroad since I have many family members and friends who have done so and had great experiences. However, I was unsure about how I would schedule my classes in order to be able to study abroad and still graduate on time. After attending the expo, I feel confident that I will be able to schedule my classes in a way that I will be able to study abroad for a semester. I was also nervous about being able to afford the expense of studying abroad, but I am less anxious about that now that I have heard about the many opportunities for scholarships and grants.

Regardless of where I study abroad, I am hoping to gain a greater understanding of the culture and to broaden my knowledge of the world from the experience. I joined the International Affairs Scholars Program because of my love for traveling and meeting people whose backgrounds differ from mine, so I want to utilize the opportunities I have to travel as much as I can while I am in college. I would preferably like to be abroad for a semester in Europe so that I could take weekend trips to other countries. At the moment, as I am only seven weeks into college, being away from my family and friends for an entire semester seems impossible, however, I know that challenge will be worthwhile to be able to make the most of my time abroad. Because I have taken Spanish since I was in the first grade, I would love to be able to use that knowledge to talk to native speakers no matter where I decide to study.

While I would prefer to study abroad for a semester, I was also introduced to study abroad sessions during the month of May that interest me. For instance, the School of Environment and Natural Resources offers a four week study abroad course in New Zealand to learn about their sustainable tourism and how people are effecting the environment. Not only did the pictures from the trip look breathtaking, but the upperclassman I talked to who had gone on the trip this past summer raved about her time there. This student is a business major and particularly enjoyed having the opportunity to talk to entrepreneurs in New Zealand and learning about how they are making their businesses environmentally friendly. This stood out to me because I assumed students from the School of Environment and Natural Resources would make up the entirety of the students on the trip, so the fact that people from many different majors attended her trip over the summer greatly interests me as another way to meet new people.