ECOSPIRED

In the past month, the 1300 feet long Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal for six days. This event caused a huge setback in shipments and international exports, but how did it affect the environment? More generally, is the Suez Canal “eco-friendly”? After reading some articles about the environmental impact of the Suez Canal, I came across mixed opinions and captivating information which had to be shared.  The building of the Suez Canal began in 1859 when Ferdinand de Lesseps , a French consul to Cairo made an agreement to build a 100-mile canal to connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas. The canal allowed a direct shipping route from the East to the West which significantly decreased the maritime travel time as seem in the image below. However, ships were not the only ones taking advantage of this shortcut. The construction of the Suez Canal created an invasive corridor, it acted as a passage for foreign species from the Red Sea to enter the Mediterranean Sea. Once organisms fr...

As an environmental advocate, I generally side with the greener options as I believe that they are an investment for our future. However, we must not forget that environmental justice and social justice go hand to hand. Not every pro-environmental decision is an advantage to society and the economy. The controversy following President Joe Biden 's decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline was related to its social and economic effects. Many were happy for his commitment to the environment, while others believed it was a financial mistake. For this blog, I decided to see this event through the lens of both sides in order to fully understand the controversy. As environmentalists, we want people to hear our thoughts, so we must also listen to the opposer. The Current Keystone Pipeline The Keystone Pipeline transports tar sand oil from Alberta to the middle and end of the United States. Alberta gets these large amounts of crude oil from the Canadian Boreal forest and has been d...

  During my first year as an Environmental Engineering student, I took a course called "Earth Engineering." It was mainly about soil mechanics, yet the first lesson discussed the natural resources left on this earth, and how humans use them everyday. The most surprising fact was the amount of freshwater on our planet, which is barely anything!! As the years go by, experts keep warning us about the arising water scarcity problem. We have already heard many horror stories like the Flint water crisis, and there are many more to come. To learn more about our current situation, I wrote about the present water issues and their unknown future. As the planet continues to warm and the world population endlessly grows, the need for water is increasing at a dangerous pace. Majority of the planet is water, however fresh water is the main source of drinking water for humans, and it only constitutes about 1/10,000th of one percent of the total water; of this minute amount, 68.7% is loc...

  The year 2020 has brought many unexpected turns, the most dramatic being COVID-19. There’s no doubt that it had a pivotal effect on the economy and society as a whole, but I wanted to talk about its impact on the environment. As I was researching, I came upon hundreds of articles, some which argued that C OVID -19 had a positive impact on the environment, others which said it created more problems. As the end of the year is upon us, I wanted to write about the influence C OVID -19 had on the earth. There are several topics to discuss, but I chose to focus on the more common environmental factors.   “We have therefore made the assessment COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic”, this news was announced on March 11th by Dr Tedros from the World Health Organization (WHO). From this point onwards, the world shut down. Businesses had to close, schools transferred to remote learning and above all, everyone went into isolation. It was a vital adjustment for everyone, there w...

When working on redundant projects I like to listen to podcasts, it allows the time to go by and inspires me to write. This past month I’ve been listening to “ Overheard at National Geographic ” , an episode about the Towers of Ladakh got me interested in how often humans have to create solutions due to nature’s cycle. It got me thinking that though nature can be unexpectedly hindering, it also has provided us with many answers. In this post, I compare two situations where nature has been an inconvenience and where it has assisted.  The first story takes place in Ladakh , a region located in northern and eastern Kashmir and is one of the highest regions in the world. It is filled with beautiful high plains, deep valleys, brackish lakes and glaciers. The climate is very dry and cold due to its high altitude and has only about 80mm of precipitation every year. Ladakh sits on a mountain range that neighbours the Himalayas, these mountains block most of the rain clouds leaving Ladakh ...