Taylor Walters - February 26, 2026: Beach Cleanups (Free-Choice Entry)

I've been volunteering with the Surfrider Foundation through the CNU Surfrider Club for a while now and I think it is connected to the experiences, feelings, and judgments that come with climate aesthetics, which we've studied in class. Surfrider is a nonprofit dedicated to the protection of the world's oceans and beaches, and we do regular beach cleanups in the Hampton Roads area. The thing about beach cleanups is that they are satisfying and kind of heartbreaking at the same time. You spend a few hours filling bags with plastic bottles, cigarette butts, straws, fishing line, and all kinds of other trash, and the beach looks so much better when you're done. While you do feel accomplished, you also know that in a week it'll need to be done again. What keeps me coming back isn't necessarily the idea that we're solving the problem. It's more how being there, actually present with the damage, changes how seriously I take everything. It's easy to care about ocean pollution from a distance. It's much different when you've personally pulled a plastic six-pack ring out of the sand and thought about what it would do to a seagull or a turtle. Though I'm disgusted by beach pollution, it may not bother others as much because they haven't had this kind of personal experience. This connects to the climate aesthetics that we've discussed in class because cleanups show how aesthetic judgments overlap our moral knowledge and I think that's why they matter beyond the bags of trash they produce. It's also much easier to practice ecotherapy without trash everywhere!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kip Redick Introduction

  Welcome to the Introduction to Environmental Studies 2026 blog. To post,   click “new post” to start your entry, you will then be able to write your blog. Make sure to start the blog with your name and the subject of the entry (just as you see in the title of this post. Blog entries will be considered informal writing assignments and as such will be graded more in relation to content than style. Blog entries will contain questions and answers to questions, as well as reflections which relate to daily classroom discussions, completion of exercises, and reading assignments.   Any questions the student has when reading or completing assignments should be written in their blog.   Reflections may relate to connections the student makes between discussions in this class and those in other classes, between arguments raised in the readings in this class and those raised in other classes or in informal conversations.   Students are encouraged to apply the ideas learned...
Read more

Kip Redick Student's Free Choice Example

  Here is an example which would be a free choice entry.    Since last semester, I have been on e-board for the Green Team at CNU. I am the sustainability and research chair and my role is to make campus more green and sustainability which is challenging because CNU tends to be stubborn and not want to change. Although I have been struggling to do my job and change things, I have gotten so much insight from the other Green Team members because we come from different customs and view points. We have bonded over our love for the environment and our need to change. We have our own rituals were we try to connect with nature through meditation, yoga, and reciting poems and sharing ideas. We have a big/little system called Oaks and Acorns in order for new members to know how the group works and become close to each other. Green Team is not dominated by one class, one religion, or one race. That is why I love this organization so much. We are all accepted and brought...
Read more

Kip Redick Example of a Student's Choosing

  This is an example of a topic of the student's choosing.   During the summer of 2022, I attended an environmental encounters trip to Iceland with Dr. Kip Redick, Dr. Joe Balay, and 14 other students. It was a two week trip, but those short two weeks completely changed my life. I learned about more things than I thought was possible in 14 days, and I've never been more interested in learning before. It completely opened my eyes to a whole new perspective, on how the world should live, and what the environment should look like. Everyone was so kind, and they are the most environmental conservative countries.  While there, we did many different activities, including hiking on a glacier. It was so fun, but exhausting and kind of sad at the same time. It was obvious to see how much the glacier have had melted in the past years due to global warming, as there was a large glacial lake at the bottom with melted ice, and the glacier was all rock and sediment before w...
Read more