Quinnipiac University’s Arnold Bernhard Library. A recent string of incidents on a Quinnipiac tour has raised questions about issues of diversity at the school. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
At a university diversity and inclusion meeting last week, students and staff raised concerns about the university’s ability to accommodate people of different backgrounds. A sociology professor said his son, who is Latino, took a tour and felt it was unwelcoming for minorities.
Jim Buccini, a sociology professor and the chairperson of the College of Arts and Sciences Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, is the one who spoke up. He said his son was not interested in going to Quinnipiac after the tour.
According to Buccini, three separate incidents were problematic during the tour. One problem was the only student organization the tour guide talked about was Greek life. The second issue was how the guide described some study abroad programs as “mission trips to third-world-countries.”
The third incident is what stuck out to the Buccinis.
“… When we walked passed the multicultural suite, and I think that was the biggest flub, (the guide) was talking about how that was a place where black and Muslim students hang out,” Buccini said.
This was when something was evident to Buccini, who wished to speak for him and his son.
The multicultural suite located in the Carl Hansen Student Center at Quinnipiac. The incident that stuck out the most to the Buccinis during their tour was when the guide implied the multicultural suite was the place black and Muslim students hang out. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
“They were all microaggressions, right?” he said. “It was nothing intentional. It was nothing to overtly say, no students of different backgrounds, experiences aren’t welcome here.”
Buccini said while the microaggressions weren’t intentional, they are the sorts of things that can easily roll off your tongue when one culture is pervasive.
In an email, Katie Strong, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admission, said diversity is something it works to include in their efforts.
Strong continued in the email:
> “The Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ tours provide information on the offerings of the university and student experience with input from departments, offices, colleges and schools to ensure that a well-versed perspective is given to tour groups. Student Ambassadors are provided with on-going training with guest speakers from the university community and Admissions Staff members attend trainings, including a microaggressions training this upcoming Spring. Our office continues to work with the Center for Cultural and Global Engagement to ensure that we are inclusive to all students in accordance with university standards. ”
— Katie Strong
The most prominent ethnicity at Quinnipiac is white. According to College Factual the student body is 76% white and the faculty is 79% white.
To avoid microaggressions Buccini said people can think about what they’re saying and choose their words carefully. He also said diversity training and mindfulness of other people’s experiences are important steps in being sensitive.
“We can become mindful of the experiences of those who are different than us, of the students who are not represented, the cultures that are not represented or underrepresented on this campus,” he said. “We can become aware, we can train ourselves, or at least attempt to train ourselves, on how to avoid the microaggressions.”
One student, Sheariah Stevens, a sophomore political science major who was tabling for the African Caribbean Student Union, believed the university is working to better diversity on campus.
Sheariah Stevens was tabling for the African Caribbean Student Union in the student center when she mentioned diversity and inclusion efforts are a constant work in progress. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
Stevens was at the diversity and inclusion meeting last week and she says in her three semesters at the school she doesn’t think she’s seen an event that has elicited much change. She said the university’s issues are emblematic of a larger picture.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s a Quinnipiac thing, it’s more our climate it general,” she said. “As people are more understanding and open to other people, then in a few years, Quinnipiac can get more diverse and in touch with other people’s thoughts, ideas and needs.”
One thing Stevens highlighted is the complex nature of diversity issues.
“It’s always important to know that even the people at the top don’t know exactly how to solve everything, so I think it’s a work in progress for everyone and for everyone to be willing to put in the work and hold each other accountable to see that through,” she said.
Students and faculty gathered in the Mount Carmel Auditorium last week for an open discussion on inclusivity and diversity at Quinnipiac. This is where Buccini spoke up about him and his son’s experience. Photo by Taylor Sniffen.
As Quinnipiac works to improve its diversity challenges, Buccini,the sociology professor suggested that students and staff be cautious about how they treat underrepresented groups of people.
“One thing that I think that we need to be careful of, as a predominantly white university with a predominantly white faculty and student body, is we need to be very careful about tokenizing anyone,” Buccini said.
Jay Kaye, who ran as a Republican candidate against Mayor Curt Leng, standing in front of Common Grounds, Hamden. Photo by Bryan Proctor.
Growing up, Jay Kaye mowed lawns, shoveled snow and painted houses. Painting stuck with him, and for the past 23 years he’s been at Ferraro’s Painting & Restoration. He worked himself up from painting in the field to production manager. When he decided he wanted to head in a new direction, he got involved in local politics.
He said his political journey began in 2018 when he marched in the Memorial Day Parade with the Hamden Republican Town Committee.
“At that point I had already gone to a couple Legislative Council meetings and kind of figured out what was going on, and how the whole system was working, and how broken the system was,” Kaye said. “I wasn’t really sure how marching in the parade was going to help that, but I felt moved enough to march in the parade. I’ll represent Republicans because I really have lost trust in the Democrat’s ability to manage the town properly.”
> “ I wasn’t really sure how marching in the parade was going to help that, but I felt moved enough to march in the parade. I’ll represent Republicans because I really have lost trust in the Democrat’s ability to manage the town properly.”
— Jay Kaye
After being a lifelong Democrat, Kaye lost faith in the Democratic group running Hamden.
The Republican Town Committee was at the front of the parade. Kaye was standing in the middle carrying the committee’s sign. He said seeing the public’s reaction to the Republican group is when he decided the town needed political change.
“Some people were a little more vocal, but there was a respectful clap, where they’d almost look to see who was watching then decided whether they were going to clap or not,” he said. “Which actually cemented the fact that things need to change here because people are afraid to stand up the regime, or whatever you want to call it, the democratic machine, running the town for so long.”
When Kaye started to attend the Republican Town Committee meetings, he said he saw dedication, but low morale. He took this as an opportunity to get involved and run for public office, specifically for Mayor.
“They really needed somebody willing to go out there and represent (them), and instead of Legislative Council, I picked Mayor,” he said. “I thought that would be the best, most effective use of my abilities and would help the town the most.”
He saw running for mayor as an opportunity to communicate a message to voters.
“Listen there’s an opportunity to make a change here,” he said. “We can change the direction (of the town), things are bad, we all know things are bad, but we don’t have to be stuck there, we can make a difference.”
Though he wanted to run for mayor, he wasn’t sure what kind of a toll running would take.
“At first I was afraid it would affect my family and my job, but my family became more and more supportive and my wife even entered one of the races,” he said.
His family backed him, and he said Ferraro’s was also good about giving him the time he needed for his campaign.
Kaye was determined to change the leadership of Hamden. He says he was confident because he saw people believing in his ideas.
> “I think one of my biggest ideas, and it’s certainly not my own idea, it’s been brought up before, was switching the town from a mayoral council to a town manager system.”
— Jay Kaye
“I think one of my biggest ideas, and it’s certainly not my own idea, it’s been brought up before, was switching the town from a mayoral council to a town manager system,” he said.
A town manager is hired by the Legislative Council and Board of Finance to manage the town’s finances, making the role of the mayor smaller. Kaye said a town manager system makes the mayor a cheerleader and advocate for the town and its people.
He continues, “The benefit of this is that the town manager doesn’t owe anyone any favors, isn’t working for a political agenda, isn’t working for anything other than the taxpayer. Basically, working for the town. It’s designed to get rid of any corruption, get rid of cronyism, get rid of party agendas, get rid of paying back favors, and losing control.”
When it came to election night Kaye says he was feeling confident, but he knew after votes were counted in the sixth district he was going to lose.
“When I saw the results coming in, obviously I was disappointed, but I wasn’t disheartened,” Kaye said. “I went to the headquarters (the Elks Lodge) where we were either going to be celebrating or disappointed. The reaction there was actually quite positive because the numbers were strong and we picked up an extra seat.”
He ended up losing the election to opponent Curt Leng 7,412 to 4,898. While Kaye lost, he did win the 9th district, the only district to go Republican.
The graphic above displays the different voting districts in Hamden. The ninth district was the only district to go Republican. Graphic by Nick Slater.
“I think that was a nice message to the Democratic Town Committee saying ‘Look, it may not have happened this time, but change is definitely coming your way.’” he said.
He might not have gotten the win he was hoping for, but he wants to give the race another shot.
“I’m going to stick with it,” he said. “I’ve already kind of decided that in two years I probably will run again, but right now I just want to focus on what I can do to help the town as a resident.”
In the meantime, Kaye plans to continue spending his time helping Hamden. He said he has a lot of energy left to give to the community.
“I just turned 55,” he said. “I still have some years left in me and I have plenty of energy. I really did want to be the mayor so that I could use that energy to give to the community and really help the town, but I can still do that just as a resident, I don’t necessarily have to be the mayor to do that, and I’m going to continue to do that.”
Fortune CEO Alan Murray spoke at Quinnipiac University’s Mount Carmel Auditorium about the future of journalism, and how Fortune Magazine is raising its journalistic standards going forward.
Chief executive officer of Fortune, and journalist since the age of 9, Alan Murray, came to Quinnipiac University on Friday to discuss the future of journalism, the importance of facts in a functioning democracy and old ladies on Facebook.
“Look, I do believe that facts are the most important building blocks of a successful society,” said Murray, “The discovery of facts is the first step in our legal process, and an understanding of facts is critical to the democratic process. A common basis of factual knowledge is the key to our ability to work together in our communities, and in our nation.”
The event titled “The Death of Truth: The Future of Journalism in the 21st Century” began around 2 p.m. at The Center Communications and Engineering, in a three-quarters full Mount Carmel Auditorium, for a discussion between Murray and School of Communications Dean, Chris Roush.
Murray, who says he’s been a journalist since the age of nine, gave an introduction to the crowd expressing the need for facts in society “Unfortunately, we live in a time when facts are under attack in lots of different ways,” said Murray.
From the beginning, Murray expressed he wasn’t interested in talking about the president and politics, but what he calls the ‘disturbing’ trend of the devaluation of facts in America.
“Unfortunately, we live in a time when facts are under attack in lots of different ways,” said Murray, “Let me say right up front, this is not going to be about President Trump. Yes, he has a peculiar attitude towards facts, but I think the problem we have as a society predates the election, and will continue long after he’s gone.”
Roush, the dean of the School of Communications, lead the discussion with Murray and asked him what things Fortune Magazine is doing to address issues of accuracy. “I think understanding that the values have to change somewhat and that people need to know that Fortune Magazine, like People Magazine, is committed to being right, more than it is to being first.”
What is Fortune magazine doing to address this issue? What are the standards that Fortune has, and what are they doing to make sure its readers understand that this is a credible news organization?
There are a couple of ways to answer that question.
One is just that in the age of 24/7 news organizations, all of us, have had a shift in priorities, and we explicitly tell our reporters it’s more important that you be right, than you be first. Because somebody who doesn’t care about right is more likely to be first. And then that’s a change from the days of print newspapers when you have a 24/7 news cycle, and you had enough time to do the adequate checking to make sure what you’re putting out is accurate. Sometimes you’d be on deadline and there’d be a lot of pressure, but it’s not the pressure you have now where every minute is madness.I think understanding that the values have to change somewhat and that people need to know that Fortune Magazine, like People Magazine, is committed to being right, more than it is to being first.
The second thing is one of the things that’s happened in the move from print publications to online publications is that there’s been a desperate search for eyeballs, because eyeballs are the way you get more ad dollars. I think that’s had a negative effect on all of journalism because the kinds of things you do to get eyeballs aren’t necessarily the things you would do to ensure the quality of the coverage. Being first helps you get more eyeballs. The google algorithm will treat you better, if you’re first. Having a sharp edge point of view will always get you more eyeballs than giving the straight take on the story. I think the desperate chase for eyeballs has caused a deterioration in journalism, including at Fortune.
What we are doing, in the midst of right now, is changing our business model. We will, in January, put up a paywall, we’re going to focus more on premium journalism, we will depend more on those who read us to pay for the journalism we do. That’s a good thing in terms of our focus because we’re going to be focused on producing news of a quality people are willing to pay for. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for democracy because the only people who are going to get that news are going to be the people that pay for it.
> “That’s a good thing in terms of our focus because we’re going to be focused on producing news of a quality people are willing to pay for. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for democracy because the only people who are going to get that news are going to be the people that pay for it.”
— Murray
Tell the Audience a little bit about what’s been happening at Fortune the last couple years, you’ve had three owners in the last two years, is that correct? What does that mean for the magazine?
Its been pretty wild. I joined five years ago just as Time Inc., the magazine company, was being spun out of Time Warner. That actually at the end of the day was a good thing, because what Time Warner had done is said ‘You, Time Inc., will continue to publish magazines, but we will let CNN handle online.’ so Fortune until five years ago, didn’t have a website. The Fortune web presence was part of CNN Money, and they said ‘We’re going to let Warner Brothers be our video outlet. So you can’t do video, you can’t do online, all you can do is print magazines.’ Which is effectively a death sentence. So it was essential to get Time Inc. out of Time Warner. That happened five years ago.
That was about the time I joined Fortune. We spent a lot of time building up our online presence, and when I became chief content officer I really focused on that. One of the things that had happened is there were 24 magazines at Time Inc. They didn’t talk to each other, so there were days, in 2017, I think it was 2017, Adele was at a concert and revealed that she had been asked to perform the Super Bowl, and she said ‘no.’ which was a huge story. We thought ‘How could somebody say no to performing at a Super Bowl?’ and at Time Inc. there were eight different stories written by eight different publications, on that Saturday, largely identical stories. So we weren’t taking advantage, at all in the digital world, of the scale of publishing a bunch of different magazines.
There was another day that same year when two different websites, that were part of Time Inc., published an avocado banana nut bread recipe on the same day. Different recipes. They all had different technology platforms, and it was just crazy. So I spent a lot of time unifying the digital platforms of the 24 magazines, which helped get them a larger digital presence.
But then very shortly after I took the job, Time Inc. was up for sale. We spent a year in investment banking meetings talking to potential buyers of Time Inc., but most of them after closely looking at it said ‘Nah, this is a print magazine, see ya later!’ Finally at the end of that year, Meredith, which publishes Better Homes and Gardens, AllRecipes, and a number of service magazines largely aimed at women, purchased time Inc., and then very quickly said we’re not interested in Henry Luce’s most favored babies, the first publications of Time Magazine. Which were Time, Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated, so we’re gonna sell all those. Then we went back into the investment banking process for another year to sell Time, Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated.
Murray spoke to the crowd at Quinnipiac about the changing journalism landscape. He talked about how journalists face the constant threat of job loss, and media outlets tanking or being sold. He said “I don’t want to discourage anybody here, but if you can find any place in journalism that isn’t in the midst of constant disruption these days, applause to you. I think what happened among journalist was ‘Yeah, wow. Is this place even gonna be here in a year? But is any other place going to be here in a year?’ It’s no more disrupted than any other media organization.”
Fortune was ultimately bought in December. It’s a long story, I’ll finish up soon, I promise. Fortune was finally sold last December to a Thai billionaire by the name of Chatchaval Jiaravanon, who asked me to be the CEO, and we’ve spent the last eight to nine months carving ourselves out of the company we were in for 89 years, and setting ourselves up.
Big step towards independence on Monday. We moved into new offices.
Because of that uncertainty around Fortune and its future, how do you keep journalists from leaving to go to greener pastures and how do you attract journalists to work at the magazine?
I don’t want to discourage anybody here, but if you can find any place in journalism that isn’t in the midst of constant disruption these days, applause to you. I think what happened among journalist was ‘Yeah, wow. Is this place even gonna be here in a year? But is any other place going to be here in a year?’ It’s no more disrupted than any other media organization.
I mean, think about what we’ve been through in the last couple of years with the rise and the collapse of MIC, the millennial news organization, which a year before it collapsed was seen as the kind of answer that everybody should follow. I mean BuzzFeed has had its ups and downs. I think for those of you who want to go into journalism careers you need to have good seat belts because it’s not a smooth ride.
> “I mean, think about what we’ve been through in the last couple of years with the rise and the collapse of MIC, the millennial news organization, which a year before it collapsed was seen as the kind of answer that everybody should follow. I mean BuzzFeed has had its ups and downs. I think for those of you who want to go into journalism careers you need to have good seat belts because it’s not a smooth ride. ”
— Murray
How can I get my 79-year-old mother to stop reading Facebook for her news?
Yeah, I know what you’re saying. It’s really tough. I think you need to sit and have a conversation with her about the importance of facts and the importance of truth.
She doesn’t want facts she just wants to read what she wants to read.
If we’re going to survive as a society, I think we need to get beyond that, but I think your mother will probably be okay at this point, but the rest of us need to figure out a way to get beyond that.
Dean Roush sat down next to Murray to lead the discussion on the future of journalism. Roush amused the audience when he asked how he can stop his 79-year-old mother from reading her news on Facebook. “She doesn’t want facts she just wants to read what she wants to read,” said Roush.
Roush then opened the room for discussion,
Attendees picked Murray’s brain for approximately 30 minutes on everything from paywalls, to the possibility of there being one central organization everyone believes as factual,
Though Fortune is pursuing standards to improve its story’s truth and accuracy, some feel larger solutions are still out there blowing in the wind.
“People have certain beliefs, so anything that supports them, it makes them more comfortable,” said Don Everett, Milford, “I’m not sure what can be done about it. How do you reach people who are so involved in social media today?”
What Everett expressed relates to the issue Roush raised with his mother. No matter how much quality journalism is out there, they feel people will continue to go on social media and be surrounded by a bubble of information they find to be true.
Everett believes this creates problems.
“They don’t have time to even think about checking what they hear, they’re processing and going on to something else,” said Everett. “I’m not sure what can be done.”
People in the Mount Carmel auditorium sat as Murray gave an introduction highlighting everything from how he got started as a journalist at 9, and what he believes the solutions are to keeping journalism accurate and safe in the future.
Although Everett felt some questions were left unanswered, one audience member was impressed by Murray’s appearance.
“I didn’t expect him to be so capable of answering questions,” said William Dean, freshman journalism major, Quinnipiac. “He was very quick on his feet, and I appreciated his ability to answer questions thoroughly, and interestingly. He kept the audience engaged, and you don’t normally expect that from a CEO of a big company.”
Why the salt marsh sparrow is going extinct, and how rising seas and climate change are sealing its fate.
The salt marsh sparrow, a song bird found in coastal marshes from Maine to Virginia, is losing about 9% of its population each year. Sea level rise and a transforming environment are predicted to seal the bird’s grim fate. The sparrow is projected to join the likes of the dodo bird and passenger pigeon within the next 51 years. Photo courtesy of Patrick Comins, Executive Director, The Connecticut Audubon Society.
As sea levels continue to rise, conservationists work hard to ensure the future of Connecticut’s 98-plus miles of coastal marshes.
Connecticut’s coastal marshes help protect communities from ravaging storms and battering waves, and many species, including the salt marsh sparrow, call them home.
To safeguard marshes Sacred Heart University has positioned large Swiss-cheese-like concrete balls in front of a section of a marsh at Stratford Point, where Audubon Connecticut now manages them. Scientists call them reef balls, and they reduce the impact of slapping waves.
A scientist who helps manage the site says salt marshes and their inhabitants are better off thanks to the hollow concrete orbs.
Above: The reef balls at Stratford Point in 2014 compared to 2017. Over the three-year course there’s a noticeable increase in reef balls. In 2017, the marsh behind the balls appears to be more lush.
“There’s some hope for salt marshes, and salt marsh sparrows. Instead of killing a marsh, we actually grew one,” said Genevieve Nuttall, conservation programs associate at Audubon Connecticut.
A conservation project started by Sacred Heart University and managed by Audubon Connecticut involves concrete spheres called reef balls in front of a portion of the marsh at Stratford Point to protect it. Photo courtesy of Genevieve Nuttall.
Reef balls provide moderate optimism for Nuttall, but the researcher leading the charge on salt marsh sparrow research says current conservation projects may not be enough for salt marsh sparrows that nest in these salt marshes.
“It’s positive that people are starting to pay even a little bit of attention and try to experiment, but given that these birds have as little as 20 years, not 50 or 60 years, it’s just not clear we can solve the problem fast enough to be able to prevent the extinction,” said Dr. Chris Elphick, an ornithologist at the University of Connecticut.
Due to more frequent nest flooding the salt marsh sparrow, which nests exclusively in salt marshes on the Atlantic coastline from Maine to Virginia, is predicted to join the likes of the dodo bird and passenger pigeon within the next 51 years.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology currently lists the sparrow as a priority bird, and sea level rise fueled by climate change is drowning it out of existence.
> “Our model suggests somewhere around the middle of this century we expect this species to go extinct,” said Elphick, “It could be as early as the 2030s, or it could be as late as the 2060s. ”
— Elphick
Population Decline
Elphick says that if we started 20 years ago, maybe the outlook for salt marsh sparrows would be better.
His data projects somewhere between the 2030s and 2060s the point of no return will be reached, meaning that nest flooding will occur every two weeks. Two weeks is too frequent for the nests and their delicate contents. Though this critical point hasn’t been reached yet, scientists are seeing the destruction taking place.
A former student of Elphick’s has witnessed the population decline.
“I’ve worked on marshes where in 2007 I could go out and capture 50 salt marsh sparrows in a day very easily,” said Jennifer Walsh, a researcher with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “I’d return to the same marshes in 2015-2016 and maybe see four birds on the whole marsh.”
Populations are dying fast.
Elphick says 75% of the global population of salt marsh sparrows has disappeared since the 1990s. That’s roughly 9% of the population dying every year.
“If you can assume that the rate of decline continues, that suggests that the species is on a very rapid trajectory towards extinction,” said Elphick.
Nesting
Sea level rise is making it difficult for the species to nest successfully.
Their nesting territory is in the high marsh and they build their nests right above the high tide line in the grass. Walsh says looking down into the opening of her 12-ounce coffee cup reminds her of looking into a sparrow’s nest.
The rapidly disappearing salt marsh sparrow nests in the tall grasses of coastal salt marshes. Walsh says looking down into the opening of her 12-ounce coffee cup reminds her of looking into a sparrow’s nest. Elphick says the sparrow is a unique songbird because the fathers are promiscuous, and nests often contain eggs from multiple fathers. Unlike other song birds, the fathers do not protect the nesting territory. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
High marsh areas are used to flooding occurring about every 28 days.
“Salt marsh sparrows have a nesting cycle that’s about 26-27 days long,” said Walsh.
But tides are getting too high.
“Historically this (26-27 days) has been enough to get them through these high tides, but tides are getting higher due to sea level rise, and we’re having these more unpredictable storms, and the frequency and duration of storms is cutting into their nesting cycle and making it harder for them to fledge offspring.”
Where the species is adapted to living is no longer safe.
“Basically the places that are safe within these marshes that these birds have evolved to be able to use are becoming less and less safe even though they are specialized and are able to identify these good spots, these spots are getting worse, and worse, and worse,” said Elphick.
The tides are changing too fast.
> “If they had thousands of years to evolve new habitat selection behaviors, then they could probably handle the changes, but these changes are happening too fast. The population is already so small that the likelihood they could evolve to those changes on a reasonable timeline is very, very, very low.”
— Elphick
Photos courtesy of Patrick Comins.
Rising Water
Sea level rise shows no signs of stopping.
Data from NASA shows sea levels rising at 3.3 millimeters a year. If rise continues at this rate, then 100 years from now water levels will be over a foot higher, and this will mean more devastating high tides. Levels a foot higher are impactful for coastal locations like Miami, New York City, Bridgeport and New Haven.
The city of New Haven is one of the cities in Connecticut that’s expected to be affected by sea level rise. Nasa data suggests rise at 3.3 millimeters a year. In 100 years a foot of water will be encroaching on New Haven and coastal cities across the globe.
Connecticut’s communities are already taking on water.
“All of our coastal towns, not only in this state, but across the Atlantic seaboard are realizing that the sea is rising, their infrastructure is getting flooded on a much more constant manner, and during high tides a lot of roads are underwater where 20 years ago they weren’t,” said Min Huang, a migratory bird program leader at the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.
Sea level rise is flooding towns, diminishing salt marshes, and expected to cost Connecticut a pretty penny.
According to SeaLevelRise.org, “There are already over 7,000 properties at risk from frequent tidal flooding in Connecticut. The state is planning over $2 billion in sea level rise solutions, which include restoration projects, catastrophic flood prevention, and building seawalls.”
With sea level rise, coastal wetlands across Connecticut and the U.S. are disappearing.
If Connecticut and other areas lose their coastal marshes, they lose the benefits that come with them.
The Value of Marshes
With dwindling wetlands Walsh says we lose important biodiversity and natural storm barriers.
“I think preserving salt marsh habitats should speak to everyone because salt marshes provide barriers from coastal storms, and it’s been shown that places with active and healthy salt marsh ecosystems have saved millions, and millions of dollars,” said Walsh.
Lost coastal marshes means communities inland lose a natural barrier from clobbering storms and thumping waves.
“If you think of salt marshes as a buffer, the storm will hit the marsh instead of the house, which will help prevent an insurance crisis,” said Nuttall.
On top of that, Nuttall says marshes are responsible for absorbing and storing greenhouse gases.
Less marshland results in less protection, and storms hit local communities harder, causing millions more in damage.
Mass Extinction
We’re not just losing marshes though. According to scientists, fading coastal wetlands, and the extinction of the salt marsh sparrow are emblematic of a larger issue: climate change and the degradation of Earth’s ecosystems.
Elphick says the salt marsh sparrow is the proverbial “canary in the coal mine.”
“Humans are decimating wildlife habitats across the globe right now and whether people want to believe it or not, we’re going through the greatest mass extinction in human history,” said Huang of the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.
There have been a number of mass extinction events throughout geological time. Elphick says that since humans have been on the earth, we’re now facing the fastest rate of extinction across species since the death of the dinosaurs.
“The current number of species that have been lost is nothing like as severe as those previous mass extinctions, but the rate at which species are starting to go extinct, or predicted to go extinct in the next century or so is equivalent to during those mass extinction events,” said Elphick.
This has big implications for humans.
> “If the animals can’t live here, then ultimately the humans won’t be able to live here either. Again, humans are really just animals as well.”
— Huang
Current climate change and extinction trends boil down to toxic human activities.
“The fundamental problem is that we’re very massively changing the climate on the planet, and if we don’t get serious about doing something, then it will not just affect the sparrow, it’s going to affect hundreds of different species of birds and other things, as well as having very serious repercussions for people,” said Elphick.
A plastic spoon among seashells and seaweed on a beach at Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven, Connecticut. Humans are changing the natural environment by putting things into it that are not meant to be there. A couple examples are trash, and gaseous emissions.
Where Humans Fit In
Scientists agree, humans are destroying the environment. The things is that humans have the ability to change this. Elphick says the the planet hasn’t reached the point of no return yet, but it will if people don’t take action.
Scientists say if you want to help, reduce your individual carbon footprint, get involved in your community, and vote for politicians that prioritize the environment. To preserve marsh life, a video by Coastal Resilience says to ask your congress members to support natural and coastal infrastructure projects, and to support the expansion of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act.
Humans play a major role in helping fight against climate change and destruction of the environment. Actions such as reducing individual carbon output can help in combating climate change. Made with Pablo.
Researchers say the sparrow likely can’t be saved.
“A single species like a sparrow is not terribly important,” said Elphick, “The trouble is we’re taking this attitude with hundreds of species, if not millions of species. That continuous erosion of biodiversity does have repercussions on how the ecosystem works, and it impoverishes the variety of life on the planet, and has aesthetic, ethical, as well as economic consequences for us.”
Humans are degrading the environment, and wiping species off the face of the earth. People alive and soon to be alive will no longer be able to see some of the precious wildlife that exists now.
> “One way to think about it is if you took one Van Gogh and burned it, would that really change anyone’s life? Probably not, but it would be one less bit of beauty in the world and one less thing of interest in the world.”
