Ms. Paris Strives to Improve Sustainability at Riverdale
Ms. Paris is Riverdale's Sustainability Coordinator.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, as of July 2021, is the highest it has been in recorded human history. 11% of all global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans are due to deforestation, a statistic comparable to that of emissions from all passenger vehicles all over the globe. If these facts, found on conservation.org, don’t demand your attention, the World Health Organization estimates about 250,000 additional deaths in developing countries over the next three decades due to climate change. Such nations, whose infrastructure cannot cope with the crisis without help, could see the most immediate harms of climate change.
How can we do our part in stopping arguably the world’s most pressing issue? Can Riverdale students really make a difference just by doing something as simple as composting a banana peel? Ms. Angela Paris, a visual arts teacher and Riverdale’s own Sustainability Coordinator, described sustainability at Riverdale as “thinking about fighting climate change, and not just fighting it but reversing it.” She emphasized the magnitude of the crisis facing us, explaining that “it's the biggest crisis of my lifetime and probably your lifetime . . . It sometimes feels really abstract and sometimes is right in front of our face and if we’re not thinking about it, nothing else is gonna matter in the future…”
Ms. Paris fell into climate activism in her early twenties. As an adult, it was at the center of her graduate work studying social entrepreneurship for her Master’s degree at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. “I’ve always been interested in the Earth,” Ms. Paris said. “I’ve always loved the Earth, and I think my love for the Earth came before anything...I just started to realize how everything was so connected...So somehow that kind of fed into me doing sustainability work here at school.”
Ms. Paris explained the effects the climate crisis has and will continue to have on the members of the Riverdale community: “Especially for you [younger generations], the jobs and the careers that you enter are going to be functioning through the lens of sustainability...whether the job is in renewable energy or whether the job is opening up a dog groomer, the [sustainability-related] choices available are going to have to be made.” To Ms. Paris, sustainability has to be voluntary even if it seems difficult to insert into one’s lifestyle. For individuals seeking to make a difference, she gave the following suggestions: “Going to town halls and speaking up for policy change...because [policies are] not going to change without demand; voting when you’re 18, and just being more conscious and aware of really everything, including what food we’re eating, what kind of farming practices were involved in that production, and who actually was responsible for harvesting the food.” As Ms. Paris makes clear, the choices we make, no matter how big or small, all matter.
So what are the Sustainability Club’s goals for the Riverdale community? Ms. Paris discussed the composting initiative which launched last April: “Composting is critical, as it helps us to shift the way we see food waste, think about the consumption and the waste, AND determine how much you are filling your plate and whether or not you’re going to eat it all. If there is food left over, make sure that it gets into the compost bin. Why? Because that is a resource that will eventually sequester carbon.” Renewable energy is incredibly significant right now because, according to Ms. Paris, to shift to renewables means to help emissions plateau, thus preventing them from growing and worsening. Ms. Paris pointed out that when the Sustainability Club began to sort for compost, they also started sorting for recycling better as well: “It was kind of this really nice, indirect, positive consequence. The better we get at sorting, the more we see, also indirectly, how much we’re consuming, so that we can then curb that as well. Collecting data in order to educate folks is a main goal because if we don’t know, we’re not gonna do anything.”
The Sustainability Club is also working together to put a compost tumbler on the Hill Campus: a container that speeds up the process of converting kitchen waste into compost. This tumbler will act similarly to the worm bin located in Ms. Paris’ room in Lindenbaum, which is “a small-scale, controlled educational experience for folks to get kind of experiential education into the classroom in a new way.” Ms. Paris explained that what the club will do in addition to composting, education, outreach, and activism on campus will be unveiled shortly.
Ms. Paris also stressed the importance of collective action: “[Change will happen] if we all do it...It’s important that we understand the collective power that we all have together and that coupled with the idea that we’re all going to do it imperfectly. [Writer and activist Rebecca] Solnit also said that change is not linear, and I’ve heard before that growth is not linear. We all need to just remember that and just keep moving. If we all lose hope, what is the alternative? So even if my banana peel feels insignificant going into the compost bin, I’m just gonna keep doing it because the alternative is exactly the outcome I’d never want.”
If we, as a collective community, can support Ms. Paris and the Sustainability Club, we can hold onto that bit of hope that we never have to consider the alternative together. Ms. Paris encourages students to come down to Lindenbaum and see the worm compost bin as well as motivate folks to keep talking. “Keep the conversation going and do not let it die...If you are into composting at lunch and a friend doesn’t have all the information they need, just share [that information] and get people [to compost].”
