Beginnings Of Our New Plastic Crew
This past week saw a great turnout for our first ever Plastics Orientation open call. Fifteen future plastic researchers joined Zach and Professors Anderson, Steele, and Kefela to learn about our ThermoFisher Nicolet FTIR Microscope and ATR units and how we use these powerful tools to characterize macro- and microplastic of all shapes and sizes. This current cadre of assistants will start on projects in a few weeks. One of the chief tasks for plastic researchers this year will be to perfect and bolster the confidence in our processing time and workflows. Once we have those workflows down we will truly be able to make this cutting edge instrument available to the wider environmental monitoring community across our region. Our goal is to make characterization of plastic pollution available as cheaply as possible (only charging what we need to cover maintenance and the time of undergraduate technicians).
Keep on the lookout for future trainings if you missed this round of orientation.
Hope When We Needed It
It was with a heavy heart that I read the news last Tuesday night. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, had died at 91.
The late 1980s were a time of deep fear and resignation. The inevitability of pending nuclear Armageddon permeated almost everything. Crystalized most sharply in 1983’s The Day After, hope seemed a precious and delusional commodity. Who would have guessed optimism would have been sparked from the “Evil Empire” head so many once saw as the devil incarnate?
The fatalism many of you now voice about our unfolding climate and biodiversity crises is identical to my teenage self’s sense of powerlessness and inability to bend the curve before Gorbachev and Reagan held their first summit. Amazingly, all it took was someone with courage to break that cycle and to see the possible within a sea of pessimism. I am neither a Pollyanna nor foolish enough to think a single person ended the Cold War singlehandedly. But I also know the power and influence a single person can wield can be enormous. Mr. Gorbachev brandished that power.
The sudden optimism and relief that permeated much of the late 1980s and early 1990s must seem like a fantasy novel to many of you. In particular, the jubilation of 1989 is probably particularly difficult to understand. That year both Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall–the symbolic and visceral embodiment of the iron curtain itself–came down. It is an understatement to say this would not have happened as bloodlessly and rapidly as it did without Mr. Gorbachev at the helm.
Gorbachev was a central lynchpin in breaking the apparent inevitability of death and destruction. And I had the luxury of thanking him for choosing the path less travelled and for embracing the years of slings, arrows, and derision of all kinds inside and out of the former Soviet Union. Our world is better for his having been here and for his stepping into the then-uncharted arena. The message for our own time is that worry and understandable despair need not be permanent. Gorbachev showed that we are never too far gone.
If the “Evil Empire” could change course, we too can surely tack onto a new, more just and sustainable heading.
Welcome Back Celebration
The most important thing for this coming week (other than being able to sleep in on Monday morning) is our FALL WELCOME BACK!!! Get it on your calendars!
Please block off time in your Thursday schedule to spend a bit of time with your fellow ESRMers. We will be meeting outside on Sierra Hall’s 2nd floor terrace, just adjacent to our lab spaces. While you can come by anytime, try to make either 11:30am or 1:30pm wherein the faculty will mass up and have some brief announcements. We will have food, free ESRM t-shirts, free ESRM hats, clubs, and all manner of good vibes. Come on by.
Masking Recommended but not Required
As per the announcement of Friday from President Yao, the declining case rate of COVID-19 infections has motivated his decision to drop the mandatory use of masks in indoor spaces on campus. As of September 6th it will again be up to individuals to wear masks as they see fit (although public transportation options on campus still require masking as per county guidance).
Effective Tuesday, September 6, indoor masks will be recommended but not required on campus or at affiliated locations (i.e., Channel Islands Boating Center, the Goleta instructional site, and the Santa Rosa Island Research Station (these policies will also be the goal for the SRIRS, but we will continue to work with our partners at the National Park Service to ensure that we meet their requirements)). Masks and testing will continue to be available on campus.
-President Yao’s campus-wide email on September 2, 2022
That said, my guidance and suggestions from earlier this year when we last went from “mandatory” to “optional” still hold; let’s be supportive and respectful of everyone. If you find yourself in situations or spaces where the faculty, staff, or students around you are wearing masks, please strongly consider popping on a mask in support of their health needs or concerns. And of course, consider getting a new vaccination booster (more widely available later this week) which rolls in Omicron variant protection. AND why not get your annual flu vaccination while you are at it. Every little bit helps!
We’ll end with my guidance from last academic year: