The Keep America Beautiful non profit works to educate people on ways to clean up the environment. Their mission is to create a clean and green country that everyone can live in happily. Some of their main points are to end littering, improve recycling,  and restore communities. The nonprofit organizes clean ups and information for people to learn more about small ways they can help the environment. Their goal is to support elected officials and other bigger organizations in environmental restoration. 

This article illustrates more common ways that the environment can be restored. Every citizen in the United States can help to make the environment better. This non-profit shows how by becoming educated in environmental clean up anyone can help. I think this is a very beneficial group that is doing great things for the environment. 

Environmental remediation services heal nature. Scientists figure out the chemical makeup of pollutants, identifying their weaknesses. They break down pollutants into substances, in order to revive the land. Remediation is a scientific process that restores the beauty of nature. The science behind it is complex and develops important methods in order to fully restore broken parts of the environment. One example is soil vapor extraction which pulls harmful gasses out of the soil. This is important to allow plants to grow and ecosystems to thrive. 

This article illustrates the importance of science in restoring the environment. Science can help us understand what is wrong with the environment and how to fix it. This is important because while governments can enact laws to try and prevent the possibility of environmental damage there most likely will always be damage to the environment. So it is important for scientists to find a way to remedy this.

The Ocean Cleanup group is a non-profit whose goal is to clean up the ocean and get rid of the toxins that harm sealife, and sometimes humans. The great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest of the world’s five garbage patches. The Ocean Cleanup Group developed a new system to be able to clear a football field of trash every five seconds. The group’s aim is to remove 90% of floating plastic from the oceans by 2040.

This article was interesting to me because it opened my eyes to other forms of environmental restoration. I had only ever researched on land restoration of national parks and ecosystems on the land. However, the ocean is also a place that needs to be cleaned up. There are so much pollutants and trash in the ocean that are negatively affecting wildlife, and the seafood that humans eat. 

In this NY Times article, the previous Obama “Good Neighbor” act is shown. This rule directed only power plants to clean up their emissions. However, the Biden administrated revised the rule to include all small plants, windmills, and small factories to do the same. The EPA is required to revise rules yearly after failing to do this they had to under a court order. The “Good Neighbor” rule is to ensure that downwind states don’t experience pollution from emissions in other states. 

This article exemplifies the importance of laws and regulations in order to encourage environmental clean-up in the United States. Big industrial corporations should be held accountable for the effect their machines have on the environment and be told to implement programs in order to reduce the consequences of their industrial equipment. 

In this article, a site of an environmental cleanup is described. The article highlights key points from the clean-up that will aid in the restoration of this beautiful space of wildlife. This is the first of four major cleanups, that will lay a foundation for a future High Falls State Park. The company Rochester Gas & Electric is overseeing this cleanup. The worksite sits on top of old foundations of a gas plant, and coal-fired Beebee station.  

This article illustrated a perfect example of how communities across the country are creating small projects to restore habitats and nature to their original beauty. This park will now create many opportunities for citizens in neighbor communities to experience the beauty of nature. This inspires me to consider restoration projects around me and see how my community is working to restore wildlife. 

Washington Examiner. (2023, August 9). Here’s how a former NASA engineer hopes to clean up the world’s dirtiest waterways. Retrieved August 27, 2023 from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/former-nasa-engineer-clean-up-worlds-dirtiest-waterways

After helping remove hazardous pollutants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a former NASA engineer, Albino,  uses those same techniques to restore contaminated groundwater sites. His technique involves what is called a spear, an eco-friendly solvent that is placed in the water to extract and destroy chemicals. They usually stay in the water for up to 12 months and do not harm the area because they are eco-friendly. While he has deployed these spears in many parts of the world, including Europe, the US, and the pacific, recently he has focused on the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. 

Based on Albino’s confidence in his ability to restore the Anacostia river, I strongly believe that his spears will be successful, as they have been many times before. His work is very important since clean, toxin-free rivers can be used as water sources for humans and animals. I think his strategy is very smart because the spears are made up of eco-friendly material so they can stay in the rivers for a long period of time without harming the local environment. This relates to environmental science because it involves both the clean up and the restoration of rivers around the world. 

UN Environment. (2023, August 23). Largest river and wetland restoration initiative in history launched at UN Water Conference. Retrieved August 14, 2023 from https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/largest-river-and-wetland-restoration-initiative-history-launched-un

On March 23, 2023, the government launched the Freshwater Challenge at the UN water conference in New York. This challenge’s goal is to restore 300,000 km of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands. To fulfill these goals, the Freshwater Challenge will first provide the evidence needed to design restoration measures. Then they will determine which areas need restoration the most. Then they will improve current restoration measures. Finally, they will collect financial reimbursement to fulfill their projects. 

The work of the Freshwater Challenge is very important. Healthy rivers & freshwater ecosystems have many benefits. For starters, they serve as a vital water supply for us humans. They are also critical for adapting to climate change. Since rivers are very degraded, the fish populations are starting to suffer as well. This is why I think that the Freshwater Challenge will be beneficial and should be pursued. This program relates to environmental science because they had to research the best ways to restore the environment and chose to focus on river restoration. This challenge will greatly help us in the future. 

Mission Blue. (2023, April 18). Restoration and Protection in Action: A Year of Success for the Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation on Pangatalan Island, the Philippines. Retrieved August 14, 2023, from https://missionblue.org/2023/04/restoration-and-protection-in-action-a-year-of-successes-for-the-sulubaai-environmental-foundation-on-pangatalan-island-the-philippines/

The Sulubaaï Environmental Foundation, founded by Fréd Tardieu, a French business developer, has been dedicated to restoring the Pangatalan Island, and other Philippine islands since 2011. This year, in 2023, the foundation has already successfully completed many restoration projects. For starters, they have established three MPA’s, marine protected areas, that cover over 760 hectares of land. Within these MPA’s, 200 hectares have been labeled as completely off limits for taking resources from. Further, the Foundation has made plans to build a Environmental Education & Restoration Centre which will help the surrounding communities. 

The foundation has done many impressive projects that will help restore the Philippines environment. I think their hard work and dedication will definitely have visible results and help many of the local communities inhabiting the land. This topic relates to environmental science because it focuses on the restoration of damaged and overused land. The foundation must have done some research on how best to help the environment and this is the study of how to ensure environmental restoration. 

United Nations. (2023, June 8). World Environment Day: from Clean Up Around the Lake to Interactive Dialogue at Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) in Indonesia. Retrieved August 14, 2023, from https://indonesia.un.org/en/235415-world-environment-day-clean-around-lake-interactive-dialogue-radio-republik%C2%A0indonesia%C2%A0rri

The United Nations Environment Programme, an organization who provides solutions to environmental issues, holds an international day for the environment each year. This day aims to bring together communities to help restore the environment by ridding local areas of trash. This year, in 2023, the event took place in many places, including Sawangan, West Java, and Indonesia. Volunteers joined the #BeatPlasticPollution cleanup by collecting and properly disposing plastic waste from around lakes. They collected around 26.6 kilograms of plastic and inorganic trash. 

The UNEP reminds everyone of their shared responsibility to help the environment through their yearly cleanup days. I think making it an official event around the world is a smart tactic because many more people feel inclined to partake which resulted in the removal of a lot of plastic. This event is an example of on-land environmental cleanup, which may not be as often discussed, but is also very important. 

The Ocean Cleanup. (2023, July 7). Introducing the Interceptor Barricade: The Ocean Cleanup returns to Guatemala. Retrieved August 14, 2023, from https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/introducing-the-interceptor-barricade-the-ocean-cleanup-returns-to-guatemala/

In 2023, the Ocean Cleanup, an organization dedicated to the removal of plastic in oceans, visited Guatemala because hurricanes there historically have forced immense amounts of trash to flow through rivers into the ocean. In order to prevent this, they made a barrier for the Rio Las Vacas river, which flows into the Caribbean sea, called the Interceptor Barricade. This barricade was a bunch of floating booms that captured the plastic but allowed the water to flow through. Once the trash was collected, they passed it onto the local waste management authority who sorted and recycled the collected waste. 

This article describes an organization’s attempt to clean up the environment by preventing trash from entering the ocean. Once in the ocean, the removal of trash can be very difficult and often too late, since it could have already harmed animals and the environment, so I think it’s strategic and beneficial to attempt to prevent the trash instead of attempting to remove it. A large part of environmental science is studying how to better the environment and this article stimulates that by providing an example of people attempting to clean up the ocean.