Unwrapped Earth

designing a sustainable future

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just a boy with a passion

    • ecoExplorations

      If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from my experience with Project Green, it’s that just knowing what’s going on in the world isn’t enough – and it’s time to find solutions and start implementing change. I’ve spent the last few months as an engaging new member of my school’s environmental club, eager to start new initiatives to reduce waste, raise awareness in our community, and forge sustainable connections with others who appreciate our planet. I’ve also realized that little changes go a long way with community efforts.

      One of the current projects that my school’s Project Green is working on is reducing plastic waste. Plastic bottles are everywhere – from vending machines, to the cafeteria, to students who forget their reusable bottles on any given day. One of our projects to combat this unavoidable plastic addition is to spread the wealth of compostable cups around school so that students have quick and easy access to a sustainable solution if they’re without a reusable bottle. It made me realize how much sustainability is about accessibility; it can’t be expected that people change their ways – they need to be offered improved and more accessible opportunities to do so. If we’re ever to reduce their convenience for plastic consumption, we need to give people solutions that work for them.

      Aside from school, we have been exploring ways to increase our impact into the larger community. Part of that was the opportunity to attend a sustainability expo at our local library. That event will give us a chance to meet other environmental organizations in our community and learn about what they have been doing. Up until now, the majority of my environmental work has revolved around school-based initiatives, so I am looking forward to learning from others about community-based sustainability efforts. Who knows – we may meet people who are implementing projects we haven’t even thought of, or perhaps, ways that we can collaborate! This event will also be an opportunity for us to share what we have done with Project Green – work to reduce waste, educate students, and clean up around the local area. Even as a high school group, we have real work projects that could help inspire other community members to do some work, too.

      Education has been yet another area of emphasis for us, and we are currently coordinating an environmental book-reading event at the library. The aim of this particular endeavor is to expose younger kids to sustainability issues in a engaging and fun way. Most kids like nature, but they don’t know how much of it is threatened because of pollution, climate change, and destruction of habitats. Our goal is to get kids thinking about the environment by reading them books that address these issues in an age-appropriate way. Maybe one of them will grow up to be an environmental scientist, a conservationist, or merely someone who makes sustainable choices in their daily lives. This has gotten me thinking a lot about education and sustainability – so much of what people do (or don’t do) for the environment has to do with their knowledge. If they don’t know the problem exists, how can they care about finding a solution? This is why I love that Project Green is not only about action but about raising awareness as well.

      We are also planning a river cleanup close to our school, which I think is going to end up being one of the most impactful projects. Hearing about pollution is one thing, but physically removing trash from a natural space and observing first-hand the extent of human waste’s effect on the environment is another. It will be a shocking experience for not just us from Project Green, but everyone involved. There is something about being in nature and seeing the damage done, that makes these problems feel much more real than hearing about it. I hope this sense of responsibility extends beyond simply being a good citizen of the earth, and stays with people long after spending a day collecting litter from the river.

      In addition to all of this hands-on work, I have also been investigating a very different side of environmental science via NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS) SCHOOL Project. During my first meeting, I was introduced to the world of open science, data sharing, and coding tools for studying environmental issues. I learned how to use GitHub and Visual Studio Code, which scientists use for collaboration on projects and data analysis. I saw how Jupyter Notebooks and Quarto are platforms that scientists use to write and execute codes that visualize environmental trends. What struck me the most, however, was the significance of open data. Much of NASA’s research – on everything from tracking climate change, monitoring water resources, or predicting natural disasters – are public data so that the data can be utilized by a wider audience. Seeing what scientists can do with technology to study and address environmental issues has made me realize that sustainability is not just action at the grassroots level; it is also figuring out data and innovative ways to solve for larger scale problems.

      Through Project Green and the TOPS SCHOOL Project, I have experienced two different, but both extremely valuable, approaches to sustainability. In one case, I saw how small-scale, local activities – such as decreasing waste, cleaning up rivers, and teaching people – can have an impact in a community. In the other case, I learned about the role of technology and data science in addressing global environmental issues. This has made me understand that environmental science is not just one type of discipline. Environmental science is a combination of so many different types of disciplines, whether they be conservation, coding, or policy-making.

      In the future, I want to continue to look at the crossroads of sustainability and technology and what that means to harness data towards more sustainable decisions, but also, it means leveraging creative platforms to reach individuals with education around these important issues. I know there’s still so much to learn. For now, I’m excited to continue to forge through Project Green to learn from TOPS SCHOOL to explore my next path. If you are passionate about sustainability, I encourage you to get involved in someway – whether it be through a school club, community project, or even through small actions in your own life. Every little action matters, and we can make a difference together.

    • my journey

      The more I explore the broad topic of sustainability, I’ve realized that it’s not just about projects and studies – it’s about learning, discovering what I’m actually passionate about, and learning how I can contribute. When I first became interested in sustainability, I was mostly worried about the environment. I wanted to know how we can reduce pollution, reduce carbon footprint, and protect ecosystems, the far-fetched problems. But as I’ve gained more experience through volunteering, research, and my internship, I’ve started to see sustainability in so many different ways – and my interest for it keeps growing.

      Working with Project Green really showed me how powerful education is when it comes to making change. Teaching people about sustainable habits – like reducing waste, composting, and supporting eco-friendly products – taught me how just spreading awareness can spark action. At first, I thought that sustainability was about what we do individually, but later I realized it’s also about enabling others to do the same. Working on local projects and creating resources so people can have an understanding of sustainability helped me realize how much of a strong community can be built when everybody is involved. It made me realize that sometimes sustainability isn’t something that we can accomplish ourselves alone – more so, how all of these little things are contributing to something bigger.

      Experiencing the internship at The Spaceship Academy made me see how innovation and sustainability go together. I worked on a project where we helped others track their transportation carbon emissions and reduce them, and it really enlightened me on how technology can actually solve real-world problems. I learned that there is no single solution to sustainability – they need to be innovative and pragmatic. And through this project and my internship, I learned about The Earth Prize competition too, and I saw how other projects had come so far and that inspired my partner and I to restructure our project. We had been trying to tackle the problem of carbon emissions from too many aspects, but through reading former competition winners’ project proposals we realized it is always good to work on just one, specific thing – for example, transportation – and focus intensely on that. This helped me grow as a problem solver and learn the importance of balancing innovation with pragmatism.

      I’ve also recently reached out to the Weinberg Nature Center to volunteer there, which is a place that is very meaningful to me. I used to visit there as a kid, whether it was for fun or for a school trip. It was here where I was introduced and fully emersed in the environment and nature – we learned about the environment and the creatures and plants that lived in them while taking walks through the nature center’s trails. . I’m excited to go back and help them with their educational programs or in any other way. It feels like a full-circle moment, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the center’s work in teaching others about sustainability and conservation. It’s made me realize that sustainability isn’t just about reducing waste or carbon emissions – it’s about helping people connect with nature in a deeper way. I think this is especially important to the younger generations because when you embrace this, you’ll be held more accountable to take care of the planet.

      Although I have not been doing research professionally yet, I have begun reaching out to researchers and learning about how I can dig deeper. In the meantime, I’ve been reading a lot myself. One of the articles I read through during my studies was a discussion about new and emerging technologies that would be beneficial in dealing with climate change and environmental matters. It really inspired me for my internship at The Spaceship Academy, where I’ve been working on a project related to transportation emissions. After going through some of these technologies, I developed a new idea that blends technology and sustainability in a way that never crossed my partner and I’s minds. It’s exciting to feel how learning about these new innovations can push me to think outside the box and offer out-of-the-box ideas to the projects that I take on.

      Reflecting on all that I have learned, I can see how far my understanding of sustainability has evolved. It’s not something – it’s an attitude that can be applied to innumerable areas of life, from global warming to public health. I’m excited to keep learning, questioning, and finding out where my green journey will take me. There is still so much to learn, and I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds.

    • sustainable curiosity

      Science has been a subject that has piqued my interest since childhood. In Earth Science as an 8th grader, I was amazed by the universe’s vastness and how small we are within it, being on a small planet in an endless universe. In contrast, when I took Biology in 9th grade, I discovered the other end of the scale – how communities of microbes inhabit our bodies, each tiny but vital to life. I enjoyed the way science could step back and consider the universe or step forward and discover tiny worlds within us. It revealed that science is very wide-ranging, with infinite directions to follow.

      My broader interest in science motivated me to learn about sustainability. I discovered and attended the ‘Future Leaders of AI’ program, where I designed a chatbot to raise awareness about rising sea levels in New York City. This taught me that there are many areas of sustainability – from technological innovation to community-driven solutions.

      My interest in sustainability allowed me to look for different clubs, organizations, internships, and research opportunities in my area. I’ve witnessed different forms of environmental sustainability through the Project Green club at my school and my internship at The Spaceship Academy. In Project Green, I help teach my community about sustainable actions, including the conservation of energy , waste reduction, composting, through visits to the library and workshops. We have also hosted various hands-on activities that are targeted at a younger audience to educate and encourage them to pay more attention to their environment. While interning at The Spaceship Academy, I am targeting solutions for quick impact such as developing a program to help people monitor and reduce their transportation carbon footprint. Although this project in the making, together, these experiences have showed me that sustainability can be reached through many different ways, whether it is through education or through action.

      I have recently been very interested in the connection between environmental sustainability and human health. Searching for researchers who conduct research on environmental sustainability, I explored NYU research programs. As NYU is both a medical center and university, I was surprised to discover that there were so many professors, even many with PhDs, doing research not just on environmental science but also on the impact of the environment on human health. One of their studies that I immediately took notice of was on environmental factors affecting pregnant women, how air pollution affects maternal and infant health. Unfortunately, this researcher is not accepting any highschoolers, but I was struck with how environmental issues aren’t entirely about the planet – they have concrete effects on humans’ lives and health status.

      This gave me the incentive to look deeper into healthcare’s role in sustainability. I learned that while hospitals are necessary for saving lives, they are also polluters through energy consumption, single-use plastics, and medical waste. I learned examples of solar panels being used by hospitals as an energy source and the use of biodegradable material to reduce single-use plastics. I also learned that efficient disposal of medical waste prevents hazardous chemicals from causing environmental pollution, protecting ecosystems as well as human health. This intersection of healthcare and sustainability is compelling because it addresses two major issues at once – protecting both the Earth and its people.

      Sustainability is such a broad topic, and the more I read about it, the more questions arise. I would like to continue to explore such areas as sustainable agriculture, green technology, and how industries can work together and solve environmental issues. I hope to remain connected with experts, push myself through new ventures, and share the knowledge that I acquire through this blog.

      Science doesn’t just give answers – it allows us to solve the world’s biggest problems. My journey has only just begun, and I look forward to seeing what my sustainable curiosity brings.