Rozalia Project Intern Blog: A Shift in how we Live our Lives

This intern blog comes from Dana Wilfarht. Dana grew up on the North Shore of Massachusetts, graduated from Roger Williams University with a semester with Sea Education Association along the way.

On the water, life becomes simpler. Necessities become the bare essentials, a little bit of comfort and nothing more.  

While on a forty day Pacific Ocean crossing with Sea Education Association, the motto “Ship. Shipmate. Self.” became a serious reality.  It was difficult to understand the relevance of this phrase but once land was out of sight, this seemed to be prevalent each and every minute while at sea and more-so, now, on land as well.  First must come the ship, or the planet, as they are what supports life as we know it.  Next come shipmates because relying on each other is not only more enjoyable but truly necessary.  Finally, it is important that we consider ourselves. 

After studying marine debris on this trip across the Pacific, the magnitude of the problem we are facing bared its ugly face. Very quickly the idea of a simple lifestyle became much more appealing than going back to the consumer driven lifestyle I was familiar with before.  It was humbling to see the world with a different set of eyes. How did our world become so disposable? Single use plastic water bottles are more the norm than refillable. Plastic bags are everywhere and are used as a convenience for a minute or so, but then last in the environment for thousands of years.  Our focus shifted from quality of life to creating conveniences that accommodate our new, fast paced lifestyles.

Though we cannot travel back in time and save the planet from ourselves, what we can do is to research and educate.  I believe that knowledge is the most powerful drive of change.  If people knew the real damage that our single use plastic, styrofoam, etc. is causing, I am hopeful that there would be a big shift in how we live our lives. Chaos to simplicity. Quantity of material goods to quality of life. Appearing happy to true happiness. 

Rozalia Project Intern Blog: You Think you have Time

Michelle Levano is a student at Roger Williams University studying Environmental Science. Like us, she likes to spend time along the sea with her dog (Lola, below) and is excited to join Rozalia Project to make a difference... but also enjoy some time on American Promise with Hickory and Smudge.

“The Trouble is, you think you have time” – Buddha 

Coming from Long Island, my entire life I have never been more than the 20 minutes away from the water. I have always had a passion for the water; I have been competitively swimming since I was ten years old and was on varsity swimming on high school. Our family life has revolved around the ocean since I was young; even with transfer for suburban life I still found myself on the seashore monthly. The ocean to me is a mystery, which is part of the reason why I love it so much. I often like to compare the ocean to a human being; it has its hectic and calm days just like the rest of us. 

One of my favorite courses I have taken here at Roger Williams University was oceanography. The class really opened my eyes to the significant role that the ocean plays on this planet. This class really brought to my attention how in trouble our oceans are. Even in our own Mount Hope Bay, the ecosystem is currently threatened due to pollution, eutrophication, and increasing temperatures due to the coal power planet up the bay.   

 My first and only trip to the west coast was a very enriching experience. This trip led me to realize the drastic difference in respect for the environment between the east coast and the west coast. This is one of the main reasons I am interning with the Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean this summer, in order to instill a more “west coast” view of the environment- one of respect and responsibility. People need to learn that the earth does not have unlimited resources, and what we do have we have to take care of.  Our decisions of today may not have an effect tomorrow, but later on down the road they will. If people do not stop to realize the importance of the ocean now, we may be too late. 

Rozalia Project Intern Blog: An English Lit major taking action

Today's intern blog is from Kaleigh Wilson, English Literature major at Roger Williams. Kaleigh gives us a different perspective than our science majors and kicks it off with some Tolkien...

In 1931, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote the following lines as a small portion of his grander poem entitled “Mythopoeia”:

The movements of the sea, the wind in boughs,
green grass, the large slow oddity of cows,

 thunder and lightning, birds that wheel and cry,
slime crawling up from mud to live and die,
these each are duly registered and print
the brain's contortions with a separate dint.

There exists a common yet unique understanding of the elements within our natural world amongst most humans, as Tolkien states. For me, this understanding takes on another dimension in which I feel a distinct connection to each one of these elements. I envy the cormorant and exchange patience with the trees. The ocean challenges me, and I am a grain within the sand. Growing up in a log cabin in the woods with a rural, ten minute walk to the shore must be the basis for this environmental bond, but I did not always know that truth. 

As I made my way about the outside world, it became vaguely apparent to me that this deep-seated coexistence that dominated my perspective was not entirely universal. A plastic cup crashed amongst the waves on Fire Island. A clear plastic shopping bag floated beside me at my favorite spot on Cedar Beach. An old cellophane balloon hung from the branches of the oldest oak tree in my neighborhood. It was confusing at first—this entanglement of the natural and the unnatural. 

When choosing a college to study at, I was naturally, and unconsciously, drawn to Roger Williams University: a liberal arts school with a rural, bayside campus. Two years later and halfway to a degree of some sort, I decided what my major would be—English Literature. It was a strange decision. I am not a diehard reader. I do not have a bountiful collection of my favorite works by my favorite authors. Now, though, two years later, I understand why I really chose it. 

The rule of thumb within my major, as I interpret it to be, is this: it is not always important what you are looking at, but how you are looking at it. It does not matter that The Iliad is an 800 page text about humans, gods, goddesses, and the Trojan War that occurred over 3,000 years ago, but it does matter that it is read with a clear knowledge of ancient Greek culture and custom in order to realize which concrete events translate to abstract significances. This analytical process that I learned during academic study allowed me, and continues to allow me, to understand our world today. 

Like Tolkien writes, we all know what the environment is—the ocean, the fish, the trees—but our world is bereft of a general understanding of how we are to interact with it. For me and many others it is an innate respect. For some it is a learned appreciation. I like to think that for the remainder of people it is simply a blank void. Enter Rozalia Project. 

My participation in Rozalia Project’s mission for a clean ocean is my duty. While I have been part of beach cleanups at home and organized a shore cleanup on RWU’s campus, I have never done my part on a large scale from the water itself. Although I have shared my strong environmental feelings with my peers, I have never educated groups of open-minded individuals on the motives and methods towards a clean ocean. I am proud and eager to say that my time aboard the American Promise will not only teach others how to connect with their natural surroundings on a sublime level, but will further my commitment to our beautiful Earth.