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Xianmian Lecture II: Understanding Plastic Pollution

April 17, 2023

On April 13th, marine biologist Dr. He Yinan visited the campus and gave a lecture on marine plastic pollution to the students. After receiving an enthusiastic applause from the students, Dr. He began the lecture with a story of a seventeen-year-old youngster discovering plastic pollution and devoting time to solving this environmental issue. Dr. He played a video about the history and categories of plastics to the students for them to better understand plastic. After the video, she mentioned that plastic is given both the title “the greatest invention of the 20th century” and “the worst invention of the 20th century”. Then, Dr. He explained in detail about the effect of plastic on shearwater (a group of birds) and plankton. When she mentioned that, by 2050, 99.8% of shearwater will have harmful plastic within their bodies, the students immediately derived strong pity on these organisms damaged by humans indirectly. Some students were recalling their past memories of producing plastic waste and they desired to change their way of life now. After briefly explaining how plastic spreads in the vast ocean, Dr. He provided the students with some “additions” and “subtractions” in daily life at last that can help the marine environment. For example, when shopping, we can spend just a few seconds to read the recycling labels and composition of commodities, and then buy those that will not severely damage the environment. Before the lecture ended, Dr. He read a passage to the students, telling them to start protecting marine environment now instead of thinking that it is not the time to do it yet and leave this task to our descendants.

(Written by Samuel Song, Alex Dong, Tesslyn Guo Pictures by Molly Wang Reviewed by Qian Zuo)