Science + Activism

by Megan Clendenan

Here in Canada, we’re nearing the end of summer, but there’s still time to take advantage of the still-hot weather. One thing I love to do is go swimming – whether it’s in the ocean, a lake or a river, there’s nothing like jumping in (usually quite cold!) water to cool off and feel like it’s vacation time.

When you head out for a nice swim on a hot day, the last thing you want is to be floating through a sea of fecal bacteria. But sometimes that’s what happens….

When Stella Bowles was 11, she began to ask questions about why she wasn’t allowed to swim in her local river in Nova Scotia. She learned it was because of straight pipes, a sewage-disposal system that flushed waste from toilets directly into the LaHave River. Even though they were illegal, there were 600 straight pipes emptying raw sewage into the river. Stella was upset by the straight pipes and wanted to know how polluted the river was because of all the fecal contamination. She decided to do her grade 6 science project on the topic. After reaching out to a local conservation non-profit, Stella found a mentor who helped her take samples of river water and test for bacteria.

Artwork by Julie McLaughlin, from pg. 84-85 of Fresh Air, Clean Water: Our Right to a Healthy Environment

 

She found contamination levels well above Canadian standards for swimming and boating. She decided she had to share her findings, as the river was a health hazard. With the help of her mom, she started a Facebook page and spread the word. She also put up a big sign by the river that said “This River is Contaminated with Fecal Bacteria.” Stella’s efforts got people’s attention, including the Canadian government. More than two years later, in 2017, the government finally announced that it would spend $15.7 million to clean up the LaHave River.

Science + activism can help create change! Citizen scientists who warn of danger and continue to speak up, as did Stella, can have important positive results for both human and environmental health.

Want to learn about more young scientists creating change? I had the opportunity to interview Stella as well as a number of other exceptional youth activists, scientists and artists for my book FRESH AIR, CLEAN WATER: OUR RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT. And Stella is herself an author – check out her book in the resource list below.

Sources/Resources

Bowles, Stella, with Anne Laurel Carter. My River: Cleaning up the LaHave River. Halifax, NS: Formac Publishing, 2018.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/stella-bowles-lahave-river-clean-up-funding-1.4184663

Can rivers, lakes and trees be granted their own rights, just like people?

By Megan Clendenan

April 22nd is Earth Day – a great opportunity to consider how we are caring for our home planet. Are we using the golden rule? Are we treating our planet how we ourselves would like to be treated?

A different perspective shows us how everything on Earth is connected.

 

 

The right to life. Freedom from discrimination. These are fundamental human rights, recognized by many – if not all – countries worldwide. Basic human rights are certainly not universally applied, as many people still face discrimination, unequal treatment and outright persecution. However, when human rights are recognized they do provide a legal framework that helps to protect many people and enable them to live more secure, free and healthy lives.

Could this same idea be given to help conserve and protect nature itself?

And if so, how exactly can we define what ‘the rights of nature’ means? In his book, The Rights of Nature: A legal revolution that could save the world (2017), David R. Boyd argues that it refers to “the rights of non-human species, elements of the natural environment and…inanimate objects to a continued existence unthreatened by human activities.”

The idea that we have both rights and responsibilities to care for and respect the natural world has been a part of many Indigenous cultures for generations. In 2017, after years of discussions with the Maori people, New Zealand granted legal rights to the Whanganui River, the third longest in the country. The river is now a ‘legal person’ with rights and responsibilities. It is represented by the Maori people, who can protect the river in court if need be. New Zealand is not the only country offering nature its very own rights.

Whanganui River, New Zealand Photo credit: Duane Wilkins

Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution protects the natural world and anyone can go to court on behalf of nature. In 2011, an Ecuadorian court ruled that a proposed road would violate the Vilcabamba River’s right to health as construction would dump huge amounts of rock, sand and gravel into the river, causing the river to flood and affecting people who lived nearby. Road construction was halted, and this was the first ever legal ruling on the rights of nature.

In 2016, a group of Colombian youth between the ages of 7 and 26 took their government to the Supreme Court citing failure to protect the Amazon rainforest. Each youth had been impacted in their home community by the effects of climate change, air pollution, or water contamination stemming from a lack of environmental protection. In 2018, the Supreme Court declared that the Amazon river ecosystem itself has the legal right to environmental protection.

In 2021 in Quebec, the Mutuhekau Shipu River (also known as the Magpie River), threatened by environmental degradation, became the first river in Canada granted legal rights. In a process led by the Innu First Nation, the river was declared a ‘legal person’ with nine rights, including the right to flow and the right to be free of pollution.

There are many other countries granting legal protection to nature, including Bangladesh, India and Bolivia. Granting rights to nature is not without challenge. For example, who will speak on behalf of the protected nature? And after a court protects a river with rights, what happens next? How is protection implemented, and, if it’s not, then what? And what about farmers, industries and other communities who feel that by giving nature its own rights, their own rights are being infringed upon? There are many thorny issues to untangle. However, the provision of legal rights is one tool that can be used to help conserve and protect nature from contamination, destruction and the continuing effects of climate change. Given recent IPCC reports on the state of our planet, we need to use all available tools.

What do you think?

To learn more about the rights of nature, why the right to live in a healthy environment should be protected as a human right, as well as inspiring environmental court cases from around the world (many led by children and youth!), check out my book Fresh Air, Clean Water: Our Right to a Healthy Environment, illustrated by Julie McLaughlin and published by Orca Books (March 2022).

Soaking Up Storms

 by Megan Clendenan

Where I live, in the Pacific Northwest, autumn means rain and plenty of it. The rain pours down and flies sideways, soaking your cuffs and everything else if you’ve forgotten an umbrella.

If you’re out walking during a storm in a city, you might notice rainwater soaking the streets, skidding across parking lots and sidewalks and then pouring into drains – if they aren’t clogged by soggy leaves or other debris. All that storm water draining into the sewer mixes with oils, heavy metals, pesticides and other pollutants that are on our roadways. In cities, where impermeable surfaces such as concrete sidewalks, roads and parking lots are common, a significant portion of rainfall ends up in the sewer system alongside whatever chemicals it has picked up along the way. Then, depending on the city’s location, it runs into nearby waterways, lakes or oceans.
 

With rising global temperatures and changing weather patterns, more than 50% of the world’s population now reside in cities, on the front line of climate change. How can cities cope? One strategy is to learn from nature, and adapt urban buildings, infrastructure, and surfaces to work with the surrounding ecosystem.
 

Take Seattle, Washington, a city with significant annual rainfall. In 2017, a nonprofit group called Urban Greenprint teamed up with engineers, biologists, and city planners to study how they could design buildings and infrastructure to help mimic the evaporation rate of the Pacific Northwest forest to help reduce flooding as well as reduce polluted runoff from washing into the nearby Pacific Ocean.

 

Can you count all the layers? Photo by Megan Clendenan

The forest consists of thousands of layers, which work together to slow the rain and retain moisture before it reaches the ground. Moss and tree bark can hold water like a sponge. Douglas fir trees, common to the area, have needles that spear raindrops, breaking them into smaller parts, increasing the amount of evaporation and decreasing soil erosion.
 

With thoughtful design, urban buildings and other infrastructure can mimic layers found in the forest. Living walls can slow rainfall as it moves from the roof, through the textured green wall, absorbing moisture during each stage of the process. Canopies, awnings, screens and wire sculptures can mimic the ability of pine needles to split raindrops and increase evaporation. Green rooftops and ‘rain gardens’ planted next to sidewalks can soak up water like sponges.

A rain garden next to a sidewalk also shields pedestrians
from the cars. Photo by Megan Clendenan

So next time I’m out during a big rainfall, I’m going to keep my eyes open for places where my city is soaking up the storm – and where adaptations could be made.

Design Concepts Learned from Pacific Northwest Forests, Urban Greenprint, Seattle
https://issuu.com/urbangreenprint/docs/urban_greenprint_seedkit_v1
https://www.asla.org/climatemitigation.aspx
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/green-infrastructure-how-manage-water-sustainable-way 

Biomimicry

Most of us know what a mime is -- that's a person who mimics a movement so it looks like they are climbing a rope or walking against a strong wind. Some people can mimic the voice of a famous person. But mimicry goes beyond trying to look like or sound like something else. Here's an introduction to Biomimicry, written for Sci/Why by Kim Woolcock and Megan Clendenan.

Biomimicry is a relatively new field of bio-inspired design that takes a page from nature’s handbook in an effort to create more sustainable, renewable products. Instead of what we can take from nature, biomimicry looks at what we can learn from nature. Biomimicry inventions and innovations can breathe new life into how we design our cities, how we manage waste, create packaging, robotics, clothing design, travel – the list is almost endless.

What would it be like if we could create anti-bacterial surfaces inspired by shark skin? Or design less painful needles by observing how mosquitos bite? What if we could figure out how better to transport vaccines by learning more about tiny organisms called tardigrades?

What if we could learn to design like nature?

For example, biomimicry can lend inspiration to green chemistry. From the glow of fireflies, to the stretchiness of spider silk, to the spicy kick of mustard, nature holds many examples of powerful chemicals that are produced inside organisms, at ambient temperature and pressure, unlike in industrial processes.

We all know glue doesn’t work very well when it’s wet. Have you ever tried gluing wet cardboard together? But non-toxic glues that work in wet conditions would be incredibly useful in medicine.

Scientists are looking to organisms that live in the intertidal zone, such as sandcastle worms (Phragmatopoma californica). These worms can glue grains of wet sand and shell into underwater fortresses that protect them from pounding waves. Plus, they’re kind of cute.

 

By Fred Hayes for the University of Utah - University of Utah, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8320561

The new glues could be used in bone reconstruction, instead of metal pins or plates. With strong, non-toxic adhesives that work in wet conditions, small pieces of bone could be held in place until they healed, as in facial reconstruction, in dentistry, and other medical and engineering applications.

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Kim Woolcock and Megan Clendenan are co-authors of Design Like Nature: Biomimicry for a Healthy Planet, which is a new title in the Orca Footprints series that explores how biomimicry is inspiring scientists, engineers, and kids around the globe. It provides history and background on natural and synthetic materials, introduces the science of biomimicry, provides inspiring examples, and invites kids to imagine themselves as future biomimicry pioneers. 

“Have you ever held a seashell and wondered how its delicate swirl can be so strong? Or lay down under a tree so tall it touches the clouds and wondered how it withstands the strongest winds? Nature is a genius at design!”