Between the icy sidewalks, cold temperatures and short daylight hours, outdoor recreation might be near the bottom of your wishlist for the beginning of spring semester. But with current COVID-19 restrictions, getting outside can be a fun way to spend time with friends, get to know the campus and Pioneer Valley and enjoy some wintery New England fun. Here are eight outdoorsy activities to try on and around campus this winter.
Iris Duquesne is an 18 year old climate activist from France. Duquesne first became aware of climate change during her late elementary school years, according to a podcast interview with The Guardian. She assumed that adults and those in power were doing something to combat the climate crisis, but when she looked into the issue she was underwhelmed by the amount of attention it was receiving. Duquesne said she wanted to “bring [her] opinion to the table and try to do something.”
Presenting at scientific conferences can be difficult for early-career scientists, especially with the logistical challenge of traveling to these events. Microbiologists in the Five College Consortium and beyond have the advantage of having a symposium right in their own backyard. The Pioneer Valley Microbiology Symposium is an annual graduate-student-run one-day scientific symposium hosted at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty members who conduct microbiology research are invited to present their work. Mount Holyoke College microbiologists — professors and students alike — often attend this symposium.
Lilly Platt is a 13-year-old England-born, Netherlands-based climate activist who centers her work around reducing plastic pollution through her initiative called Lilly’s Plastic Pickup. According to Global Citizen, in 2015, after Platt and her family moved to the Netherlands, she went on a walk with her grandfather and, in an attempt to improve her language skills, decided to count pieces of plastic. “We counted 91 pieces of plastic in only 10 to 15 minutes,” Platt told Global Citizen. Her grandfather explained to her that the plastic garbage then makes its way into the ocean to become “plastic soup,” according to an interview with Earth.org. This led to Platt starting Lilly’s Plastic Pickup, through which Platt goes on regular trash pickups, sorts the trash and “take[s] pictures of them and post[s] them on social media,” according to an interview with Global Citizen.
The 26th Conference of the Parties, also referred to as the COP26, was held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 after being delayed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COP was created by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty signed in 1992, according to New Scientist. This year’s conference took place in Glasgow, Scotland, in partnership with Italy, where pre-COP events were held, according to the COP website. The COP26 is part of multiple larger U.N. treaties, including the COP, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, which was created during the COP21, according to the COP26 final briefing. The Washington Post reported that nearly 200 countries were involved in the COP26. It brought nations together to focus on mitigating climate change and preventing warming over 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, from Al-Jazeera to CNBC, many major news publications have expressed that the COP26 failed to develop concrete plans to reach that goal.
In mid-October, both the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration released statements on their websites that endorsed a booster shot for COVID-19 in certain populations. The CDC stated that people who are 65 years and older, as well as those who are over 18 years old and live in a long-term care setting, work or live in high-risk settings and/or have underlying medical conditions, are eligible to get the shot. Some states, such as Colorado, Kentucky and Michigan, are allowing anyone 18 or older to receive the booster shot. The CDC and FDA statements recommend waiting six months before getting the boosters for Moderna and Pfizer and two months before receiving the booster for Johnson & Johnson. The Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson or Janssen boosters are currently under an emergency use authorization, according to Yale Medicine.
Elizabeth Wathuti is a 26-year-old climate activist from Kenya. She is the founder of the Green Generation Initiative, which aims to plant fruit trees and focuses on “implementing environmental projects and activities with young people for a sustainable future,” as stated on their website. The site claims they have grown over 30,000 trees. This success has been completed in collaboration with Kenyan middle and high schools, and the website attributes the trees’ 98 percent survival rate to the students’ involvement in keeping them alive.
