詹妮弗·k·森田著

2024年5月23日

博彩平台的一位教授将与社区志愿者和学生实习生合作，监测垃圾并清理旧金山湾，这要归功于一笔742240美元的联邦拨款。

The grant – one of eight Bipartisan Infrastructure Law awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – is part of a $43 million investment in protecting and restoring San Francisco Bay as well as local watersheds and wetlands.

The funding will help reduce trash going into urban stormwater systems by utilizing the community-based monitoring system Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Julian Fulton developed with 囊状态 faculty and students as well as the nonprofit 保持加州的美丽.

这笔拨款将允许富尔顿将垃圾快速评估数据交换（TRADE）扩展到康特拉科斯塔县。

除了在服务不足的社区开展清理活动和职业培训外，一个由社区志愿者组成的网络，包括高中和大学实习生、大学专家和东湾的两个非营利组织，将监测进入当地水道的垃圾。

垃圾的问题远远超出了视觉上的损害。 下雨时，雨水带着垃圾穿过社区，进入排水沟，在那里流入河流和海洋。

“Environmental scientists have noted trash circulating across the world’s oceans and accumulating in great garbage patches,” Fulton said. “It has a global impact that affects wildlife, and affects people’s livelihoods through fishing and tourism.

“And it impacts people disproportionately in underserved and marginalized areas.”

塑料尤其是个大问题，因为它会分解成被称为微塑料的微小颗粒，在水循环中循环。

“We find microplastics in rainfall. 我们所认为的原始水含有微塑料。 And we really don’t know what the long-term impacts of having plastic in our water are,” he said.

TRADE, which Fulton developed over three years with Environmental Studies Lecturer Christine Flowers and 保持加州的美丽, a nonprofit founded in 1990 to protect the state’s beauty by ending litter, aim to combat this problem. 该项目收集数据，了解有多少垃圾被扔到地上或街道上，并最终进入当地的溪流和河流。

“It’s the basics of environmentalism. It’s something everybody can do. “It has immediate, tangible benefits in that visually you see a cleaner neighborhood." ——塞西尔·卡森，“保持加州美丽”执行团队负责人

The organizers trained students and community volunteers to monitor trash in the neighborhood around Luther Burbank High School, close to Morrison Creek, an example of “participatory research” where anyone can be involved.

“It’s about taking away the idea that only experts can do science,” Fulton said. “It’s allowing the expertise to cascade through other levels of participation and that way we produce science more collectively.”

志愿者将他们看到的垃圾信息输入到一个手机博彩平台程序中，这个博彩平台程序是由萨克州立大学计算机科学教授金颖（音）和她的学生开发的，然后上传到一个在线仪表板上。

烟头和一次性塑料容器，如零食袋和饮料瓶是志愿者发现的最常见的垃圾。

富尔顿说，这个模型可以被全州的社区用来为雨水许可证提供高质量的数据。

“All cities in California and a lot of large property managers, like 囊状态, have permits under the Clean Water Act to discharge our stormwater into the American River or whatever local waterways there might be,” Fulton said.

新的法规要求一些许可证持有者，包括萨克州立大学，证明他们将在2030年之前向水道排放零垃圾。 旧金山湾区社区必须在2025年前减少垃圾。

“So, there’s an urgent need,” he said. 

萨克州立大学的教职员工和“保持加州美丽”将与加州大学伯克利分校的教职员工合作，培训康特拉科斯塔县的大学生和高中生使用TRADE。

“It’s the basics of environmentalism. It’s something everybody can do,” said Cecile Carson, 保持加州的美丽 executive team leader. “It has immediate, tangible benefits in that visually you see a cleaner neighborhood.

“But we also have to realize that litter in our environment is a health problem. It’s an economic problem because it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up. And it’s a social issue, because it makes people feel less comfortable.”

她说，与学生一起清理社区是向他们展示掌握学校或社区自主权的重要性的一种方式。

“The data can also help break the cycle that can lead to littering behavior,” Carson said.

环境研究专业的艾玛·戈德史密斯（Emma Goldsmith）自愿在美国河沿岸的布什湖（Bushy Lake）收集数据，她说，她对发现的大部分垃圾进行了分类，包括随意丢弃的衣服和自行车零件。

“It helped me realize that environmentalism is more of a social science than I previously thought,” Goldsmith said. “The housing crisis is so bad. … We can’t address environmental issues without also addressing social and human rights issues.

“Seeing that first hand was eye opening.”