Volume 119 Issue 18
The Record Horace Mann’s Weekly Newspaper Since 1903
record.horacemann.org February 11th, 2022
Strauss ‘90 discusses sea level rise in second installment of Environmental Speaker Series Naomi Yaeger Staff Writer Chief Scientist and CEO of the organization Climate Central Dr. Benjamin Strauss ‘90, discussed the scientific causes and effects of sea level rise at the second installment of the Environmental Issues Speaker Series on Tuesday night. Lauren B. Kim (11) and Brandon Pae (12) co-moderated the event along with faculty moderators and Upper Division science teachers Camilla Nivison and Oleg Zvezdin. Strauss’ nonprofit organization pairs journalists and scientists to share research on climate change with the public and with policy makers, according to the speaker series website. Climate Central has two main initiatives: providing data and graphics that illustrate climate change’s effects on weather to US meteorologists and providing maps of sea levels to identify populations at risk of flooding. While Climate Central publishes on all of climate change, the organization’s main focus is sea level rise. During the event, Strauss spoke about the different factors driving sea level rise. Strauss said that 90% of the world’s excess heat is absorbed by the oceans. Because water expands when it gets warmer, this has been the cause of most of the sea level rise in the 20th century. Additionally, warming temperatures cause ice to melt, he said. As the melting takes time, a lot of the effects of sea level rise have already been put into motion, he said. “Even if we stopped polluting tomorrow, the seas will continue to
rise, probably for centuries,” he said. In the event, Strauss also discussed the historical evidence for floods 10,000 to 20,000 years ago within the context of flood myths from the Abrahamic religions and the Aborigine peoples. Zvezdin enjoyed hearing about historical examples of changes in climate, he said. “We’ve had periods of low seas and very high seas in the past, and I found it very interesting to tie all of those together, if you will, from mythical, biblical stories of floods to sea level rise and climate change,” he said. Ashley Coburn (10) also found the historical examples of climate change engaging, she said. “The most interesting part for me was when he connected climate change and sea level rise back to Noah’s Ark and all of these ancestral stories,” she said. A consistent theme running through all of these stories was that the rise in sea levels was meant to punish a community for some wrong-doing, Coburn said. However, Strauss pointed out that this time humans can stop the seas from rising. Kim’s favorite part of the event was when Strauss discussed how he addresses climate skeptics, she said. “I really liked his response of how he does not really pay attention to those who are really skeptical about it, but rather focuses on those who are just midway between wanting to help and not wanting to help,” Kim said. “Those are the people that I think we can most focus on and who we have the best chance of getting to help preserve the environment and fight climate change.”
Another interesting part of the series was when Strauss explained the man-made causes of Hurricane Sandy, Isa Melián (10) said. “15% of the damage from the storm was completely caused by humancaused climate change,” she said. Strauss went on to illustrate the disproportionate amount of attention that richer neighborhoods get from flooding in proportion to less wealthy communities, Melián said. When a storm hits Miami Beach, everyone pays attention, but when areas such as Atlantic City flood, the media is noticeably absent, she said. Beyond illustrating the urgent problems that climate change poses, Stauss also discussed potential solutions, Nivison said. “I was struck by his response that, of the problems of the world, climate change would be the easiest to solve,” she said. “He compared it to injustice, where there’s much more nuance. But this is something where we have the science, and we know what needs to be done.” Zvezdin was also interested in Strauss’ claim that climate change could have already been solved. “The reality is right, we have the technology to move away from carbon now in a lot of ways,” he said. “I do think that with a surge of funding and capital, we could transition to completely renewable, completely carbon free electricity production.” Kim chose to moderate the event because she cares about preserving the environment and wanted to help students learn more about climate change, she said. “It’s an
opportunity that I really didn’t get anywhere else, and to be able to serve as a connection between the audience and the speaker was a really valuable opportunity for me,” she said. To keep the event running smoothly, the moderators had to sort through all of the student questions to figure out which they should ask next, Zvezdin said. “There’s a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes,” he said. “We’re all in communication, trying to figure out what the next question is going to be, if it’s going to lead to something else or to some other interesting point.” As a general strategy, the moderators tried to ask more general questions leading into more specific ones, Pae said. To make the large number of questions more manageable, the moderators asked questions that focused around
FTC Team member Morgan Kim (11) said that the teams had less time to prepare since the season started late in mid-December. As a result, the teams made efficient use of their weekly club meetings and robot-building sessions on Saturdays, she said. “The commitment everyone put in was particularly evident,” she said. Whether or not the event would be in-person was a question until a few days before the event, Gruen said. “We were hopeful and optimistic that we would be in person, and we’re so fortunate we were able to compete head to head and meet the other teams,” he said. This competition was an especially fun experience because it was an inperson event, co-team-manager of HM’s FTC Team 4326 Larry Tao (11) said. “The highlight of the competition for me was being able to compete together with all of the other teams in person,” he said. Having competed in FTC tournaments before, Kim was elated to have the opportunity to attend inperson, she said. “Despite the masks, I recall the passion and fervor of each school,” she said. A highlight of the competition for Kim was the sheer amount of team spirit, she said. “There was so much support between our sister teams,” she said. Everybody had a lot of nervous excitement because the event was the first in-person competition, Rao said. “Robotics competitions are really great experiences, but they can also sometimes be a little hectic,” he said. It
took a while for the team to get used to in-person competitions again, he said. Rao enjoyed competing in person. “Robotics is great no matter what, even with online competitions, but there’s just something special about being in-person, talking to other teams and competing in matches, that really just can’t be beat,” he said. Rao was also glad that the transition from online competitions to in-person competitions was smooth, he said. During the competition, teams were competitive on the field, and were frequently finalists in the off-field awards, Gruen said. “We were very excited and proud that team 16568 took top honors by winning “The Inspire Award,”’ he said. According to FIRST, The Inspire Award is given to the team that best embodies the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. Rao was thrilled that team 16568, The Cybernetic Lions, won
Strauss’ work in sea level, which eventually led into questions about how people could be inspired to take action, he said. Coming away from the event, Nivison hopes that students learned about the logistics of sea level rise, she said. “I hope that students that didn’t know as much about it were able to learn what’s causing sea level rise and where sea level rise is affecting people now,” Nivison said. “It’s important to think about who’s been contributing to climate change and who’s been affected because it’s often not the same.” Pae found the event to be very meaningful, he said. “Connecting with someone who’s a professional in this field, like how Strauss was, is the most valuable experience,” Pae said. “I’m definitely feeling more inspired now to start tackling climate change and specifically rising sea level.”
Jorge Orvananos/Staff Photographer
SMILES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT Strauss at the Speaker Series.
Team 16568 places first in FTC Robotics qualifier
Aanya Gupta/Staff Photographer
TECHY TEAMMATES Students test robot before the round.
Joshua Shuster Contributing Writer The school’s FTC 16568 team won first place at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics qualifiers on Sunday and will advance to the state championships. All four of the school’s FTC teams attended the qualifiers, which took place at the High School for Constructions, Trades, Engineering & Technology in Queens on Sunday, faculty co-advisor and coach Sam Gruen said. The qualifiers were the teams’ first in-person competition in two years. The tournament consisted of building a robot that would have to navigate a field by traversing barriers and racing against time to load and deliver certain items to checkpoints, according to the FIRST website. FIRST organizes youth robotics competitions across the United States. The school’s FTC Robotics program
consists of four teams, each building smaller-scale robots for tournaments. Teams began preparing for the competition this December. The teams were responsible for designing and building their robots, and documenting their process for the competition, Gruen said. Coaches help with logistics, as well as diagnosing and troubleshooting issues with the robots students built, though teams rarely needed feedback from the coaches, he said. While the coaches aided students in their projects, students did a great job of determining the root causes of the problems with their robots, and coming up with workable solutions on their own, Gruen said. FTC Team member Avi Rao (11) said that the Coaches and Captains did a great job getting the teams to the venue in the first place. “It was actually almost completely normal, besides the masks of course,” he said.
Aanya Gupta/Staff Photographer
BEEP BOOP 16568’s first-place robot.
the Inspire Award, he said. The award denoted team 16568 as the best team at the competition, Rao said. “It was great celebrating with them, and it was just a great win for HM overall,” he said. For many team members, this event was their first experience with competition in robotics. Rao said that the competition was a great learning experience for all the freshmen and sophomores who never attended a competition before. The FTC Robotics Team will look to attend at least one post-season event to give new members a chance to build and drive robots, Gruen said. Tao was surprised that fellow team members were organized and motivated despite the fact that many of them had never gone to a competition before. Tao is sure that the teams will continue to improve, and results will be better with each tournament, he said.