CAMARILLO, Calif. - Students at California State University Channel Islands just returned from taking a trip of a lifetime at the Canadian Arctic, experiencing climate change up close and personal.
A sea full of broken ice, a gorgeous sight, but in reality the Canadian Arctic is quickly changing and not for the better.
“It looks so pristine,” said Korenna Estes, a Senior studding Biology at CSUCI. “You think it is an isolated place far from us, far from human kind, and this is unfortunately not true. It is not as pristine as it seems to be."
Four students from Cal State Channel Islands took the trip of a lifetime over the summer. They went on an 18-day expedition to the Arctic to research climate change by collecting scientific data.
“We wanted to know how climate change is happening, and what it is doing to the arctic communities, so we also did visit an indigenous community called Pond Inlet, and we were able to talk to the locals there about how climate change is affecting their community,” said Estes.
Students noticed the negative impacts immediately.
“In the first parts of the expedition, it was a real shocking factor not to see ice right away,” said Estes. “When you think of the Arctic you think of all this ice and glaciers and when we first got there there wasn’t as many as I thought.”
“I think the biggest shock was that it was 50 degrees on some of the days which is unheard of in the arctic,” said Melvin Kim, also a senior at CSUCI who took the trip. “It was pleasant for us, but probably not so much for the animals that depend on the sea ice.”
Students collected water samples and what they discovered under a microscope was shocking.
“There is a lot of different kinds of microplastics that we found,” said Estes. “A lot of different sizes and colors. And even though you can not see it in the water, it is there under the microscope,” said Estes.
“The way that these microplastics get there which is very shocking is that they are light enough to get thrown up by the wind, and they get carried over to the Arctic, and they settled down into the ice,” said Kim. “They freeze over and as the ice melts they start to release all the plastics.”
The research is still being processed, but in the meantime, students at Cal State Channel Islands want to try and reverse climate change.
“It is important to really get active in your communities about climate change because it is real and it’s happening,” said Estes.
