6 minute read
The Tipping Point
THE TIPPING POINT
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why saving the planet means saving each other first
written by Neha Sahota; illustrated by Diana Presas
Picture this: the year is 2049. Humanity is struggling to survive. In India, constant flooding has eradicated the economy, and farmers are frequently unable to produce a reliable crop yield. In Guatemala, higher temperatures have resulted in a rapid spread of contamination and pathogens. In the United States, unpredictable weather patterns have decimated already poor infrastructure, destabilizing living conditions for millions of people. While this situation may sound dystopian, much of it resembles an unfortunate reality reflected in the world today. The Indian government has clashed with farmers over laws that ignore recently fickle weather crises and favor cheap, high-yield crop strains that impoverish soil health. Latin America is experiencing heightened transmission of temperature-influenced diseases like dengue. And the power outage and water shortage in Texas this past February has exposed how vulnerable our facilities are to new weather patterns. Not only are all of these issues rooted in climate change, their repercussions disproportionately burden individuals who most lack the resources to protect themselves.
The critical cultural context that underlies the impacts of climate change can often go ignored, posing challenges to the pursuit of environmental protection for all. The lack of diversity in academia hinders our exposure to the important perspectives we need to understand these issues that exist at every local and global level. I had the opportunity to interview Bashir Ali, a PhD student at the Eliason lab in UC Santa Barbara. Ali studies integrative physiology, a field that concentrates on the structure and function of biological systems at different levels of organization. Ali’s work centers around how changes in climate and environment can affect the physiology of marine organisms.
Ali didn’t always know that he wanted to pursue research—Ali entered college on a road he thought was headed towards medical school. His time in a non-medical lab proved to be an eye-opening experience that propelled him towards pursuing research instead. He joined the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program and was exposed to conservation studies at a level he had never seen before. In fact, he credits this program as a major driving force behind his decision to pursue a PhD.
This highlights the value of scholarship programs that directly exposes students to new career paths. After all, many students enter college with no real experience or understanding of the career paths open to them yet are expected to commit to a field of interest. This issue is exacerbated for students of color and first-generation college students, who may start out with a more limited view of the options they have. These programs can help diversify academia and science by supporting students like Ali.
Ali’s journey into science wasn’t linear, and his formative life experiences and the challenges he faced motivated him to persevere. As an immigrant from Somalia, Ali moved from continent to continent. This experience “put things into perspective” and built him to be patient and resilient, traits he finds immensely helpful while navigating the obstacles novel research presents. It also helped him through undergrad; Ali says, “I did poorly in chemistry in undergrad, and a lot of the work I do right now is all biochemistry, so don’t ever get scared by bad grades or not doing as well as you thought. You could end up doing your PhD in that same topic.”
Ali was challenged by a rough transition into college academics, but after coming out on the other side, he has realized that it is all about “learning the system.” His most valuable advice for first generation students is that “if you are struggling with something, don’t tell yourself you aren’t capable. You are totally capable of learning it.” He emphasizes the value of students reaching out for help figuring out how to learn: “school is more learning how to learn than how smart or good you are.” He points out that even the smartest person in the room will fail if they don’t know how to prepare or what to expect. We can extrapolate this to a large-scope issues as well; how about climate change research? Even the most widely-published scientists would be unable to propose effective solutions if they don’t accommodate for the human environment. Context always matters.
Ali describes his field of integrative physiology as a “reverse engineering” of sorts. Just as structural engineers may construct solutions based on their environment, Ali emphasizes that we can deconstruct the biological relationships in our surroundings to better adapt to the challenges we face. Each of the levels of order in an organism, from molecular to visceral, have their unique responses to a stressor which are integrated to produce an organism-level response. How does increased temperature affect the enzymes within a seahorse’s kidney cells? How is this relate to the overall response of the seahorse kidney? By examining these relationships, scientists like Ali can elucidate, and someday predict, how climate change stressors impact organisms.
When it comes to humans, Ali understands that the devastation of climate change “will have more impact on underrepresented groups of people...people who most don’t think about.” Ali points out how the lack of diversity among climate science researchers has resulted in conservation efforts that, while well-intentioned, are limited in cultural perspective and end up fruitless. Cultures around the world have their own views on the role of nature: some cultures revere nature’s complexity and beauty, others see fear its raw power, and still others see it as a force to be subjugated. These perspectives count; as Ali states, “Biodiversity without human diversity is a complete contradiction”. If a conservationist tries to work with native land without first understanding its inhabitants, their culture, and what they know about the land, they are not pursuing conservation. Ali remarks, “When you think about the environment, most people tend to think about forests or isolated areas without humans—but that’s not true. There are humans that inhabit those environments, and you have to conserve everything, including human culture.” Ali points to the ongoing Flint Water Crisis as an infamous example of the consequences of our disregard for human life and sustainability in favor of cheap and ineffective “quick fixes.” According to the Washington Post, between 6,000 to 12,000 Flint children were exposed to lead-contaminated water, which means this disaster will continue to irreversibly damage public health for decades onward.
Reflecting on how these severe outcomes were completely preventable, Ali explains that, “For underrepresented students who are coming into science, this is just as important as becoming a doctor. When you think about being a doctor, you think about saving lives ... climate research is the same thing. 50 years from now, we’re going to be facing a lot of problems, and we are going to have to step up and do the work. We have to figure out a way to help ourselves and be part of the solution.”
We need to start now. The patient is our planet. By implementing infrastructure to support diversity in higher education and bring perimeter populations to the center of conversations, we can plant seeds to ensure the future health of all lands and communities.
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