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Go Green with Alexa Pavan
Hey everyone!
I’m really excited to share with you all my conversation with the thoughtful and inspiring Alexa Pavan, aka @GoGreenWithAlexa.
We dive into everything from accessible sustainability and composting, to coral bleaching, water bottles, and beach cleanups. It’s a chat about progress over perfection, the importance of small, everyday actions, and finding hope in the face of big, global challenges.
We talk:
- 🪸 Coral reefs and climate change
- ♻️ Reducing waste without shame
- 🌱 What it actually means to live sustainably
- 💚 How individual choices can ripple outward
- 🌍 Interconnectedness, agency, and actionable hope
It’s full of insight, encouragement, and gentle reminders that we don’t have to do everything—but we can all do something.
As always, thank you for listening to The Wild Life. If you’d like to help continue making episodes like this possible, you can join for as little as $1 per month (a penny per piece of content) at www.patreon.com/thewildlife. Your support means the world—and makes this work sustainable (see what I did there?).
-Devon
Transcript
Hey, everybody, it's Devin.
Speaker A:And this is the wildlife.
Speaker A:The world is shifting, and not in a subtle blink and you miss it kind of way.
Speaker A:It's loud, it's fast, it's sweaty.
Speaker A:Temperatures are climbing.
Speaker A:Storms are flexing harder.
Speaker A: s, early: Speaker A:And crops, well, they're cropping out, get it?
Speaker A:Like crap, crap and crap.
Speaker A:Crap.
Speaker A:Oh, callows.
Speaker A:Humor in response.
Speaker A:The word sustainability is everywhere.
Speaker A:On products, on storefronts, on press releases and political stages.
Speaker A:But with all that buzz, it's easy to feel lost.
Speaker A:What actually matters?
Speaker A:Do the little things that we do, the reusable bags, the compost, the biking instead of driving, do they matter?
Speaker A:And the truth is yes.
Speaker A:And also no.
Speaker A:Or rather, not on their own, because the real weight that still falls on the wealthiest nations, the biggest corporations, and the fossil fuel giants that have been steering the ship straight into the storm.
Speaker A:But here's the thing.
Speaker A:Just because we didn't cause a fire, I'm so done.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh with myself.
Speaker A:It doesn't mean that we can't hold the hose right.
Speaker A:We have agency.
Speaker A:The choices that we make, messy, imperfect human choices, they can ripple outward into our ecosystems, our communities, even into the futures that we may never live to see.
Speaker A:If we're going to be the last of our species, why not be the best?
Speaker A:Am I right?
Speaker A:Well, we won't be the last, probably.
Speaker A:But, like, what if Today's episode is about those choices and about how to make them without shame, without perfection, and without forgetting who.
Speaker A:Who should be held accountable.
Speaker A:But before we dive in, I want to give a huge shout out to the folks who make this show possible.
Speaker A:My patrons over@patreon.com the wildlife.
Speaker A:You keep the lights on, the mic running and the questions flowing for as little as a dollar per month.
Speaker A:So thank you.
Speaker A:Truly a very, very special, heartfelt thank you to Christy G, Alicia Lawrence, Melissa Keneally, Steph Southard, Meg Midland, Dave, Kathy Cooksey, Kate Lampe, Carissa Robinson, Carrie, Sarah, and Mitchell and Karen Bergman.
Speaker A:You are the best.
Speaker A:The kind of ripple effect.
Speaker A:My guest today is Alexa Pavan.
Speaker B:Go green with Alexa.
Speaker A:And she's someone who has built a whole platform around approachable sustainability.
Speaker A:We're talking coral, compost, climate, grief, hope, the works.
Speaker A:So let's get into it.
Speaker A:So the.
Speaker A:The go green with Alexa.
Speaker A:Where.
Speaker A:Where did that come from?
Speaker A:What was the heart behind it?
Speaker B:So, to be honest, I had an email list at the time, and when I was trying to pivot from my.
Speaker B: had pivoted to copywriting in: Speaker B:Wasn't really that active or anything.
Speaker B:But then I really realized that that wasn't my path or what I wanted to share with the world.
Speaker B:So I had an email list at the time and I was like, hey, what do you guys think about me pivoting to sustainability?
Speaker B:And kind of just brought up a few handles.
Speaker B:And I think the go green with Lexa 1 had the most interest.
Speaker B:But I also, it was my favorite one as well.
Speaker B:Just because I think I like alliterations.
Speaker B:And I mean my name is not part of the alliteration, but I just feel like it's inviting people to do something and it's like clear that it has something to do with sustainability or eco friendly living.
Speaker B:And I get it's kind of confusing because I also talk about ocean conservation.
Speaker B:So it's one of those things where it's like I like to just say I have, I contain multitudes.
Speaker B:I have so many interests that I could not possibly combine them into one handle.
Speaker B:So go green with Alexa it is.
Speaker A:I feel that for sure.
Speaker A:I love that, like the kind of the crowdsourcing nature of it, you know, and you're so right, it does.
Speaker A:There is like an action to it, you know, it's inviting, it is clear.
Speaker A:It's like, this is what we're doing, this is our mission as a community.
Speaker A:So what was the reason for the pivot?
Speaker A:Like, what drew you to sustainability?
Speaker B:I've always been pulled towards sustainability.
Speaker B:It's always been a part of me.
Speaker B:And anyone who knows me outside in the real world was not surprised by this pivot because this was my inherent way of being for my whole life.
Speaker B:I was lucky enough to grow up in a household of my raised by parents who really cared about the environment.
Speaker A:Her parents are immigrants from Brazil and she sees that as a huge part of her views on sustainability.
Speaker B:Now, immigrants are resourceful, they're scrappy, they know how to work with what they have and all, all the same thing.
Speaker B:But essentially they care about the resources so much.
Speaker B:I think immigrants in general have this more, I don't know, like a diff, just a different perspective.
Speaker B:Obviously it's more just seeing things as like, obviously in the US too, everything's very abundant.
Speaker B:Like we have just like a lot of things, a lot of resources.
Speaker B:And I think that when you come here, you don't want to just squander that.
Speaker B:You want to Utilize it to its fullest potential.
Speaker B:And I think immigrants do a really good job of that.
Speaker A:And while Alexa was growing up, they owned a scuba diving business.
Speaker B:They just sold it a few years ago.
Speaker A:And being raised in that environment, it.
Speaker B:Really just taught me that nature is the most important thing we have.
Speaker B:And it's the biggest source of connection in my life.
Speaker B:I've met so many people in that industry.
Speaker B:I worked at the dive shop almost my whole life.
Speaker B:And it just shaped who I was.
Speaker B:And on another side of everything, them being immigrants from Brazil, they had just, like, different interests, I think, than most people I knew.
Speaker A:One of those interests growing tropical trees right at home in the backyard.
Speaker B:Like, we don't have a big backyard or anything, but we live in the coastal city in South Florida, and we made do with, like, a small portion of the yard, but having like, 20 different fruit trees, like copaya, buticaba, jackfruit, soursop, dragon fruit, literally any, like, mango.
Speaker B:I can't even think of all the ones.
Speaker B:Mango, coconut.
Speaker B:I'm gonna try to go around, but it's like all the different fruits.
Speaker B:And with that, we also composted.
Speaker B:These were all just, like, natural parts of my life that I'd never even thought any different of then.
Speaker B:And I just feel like that all of these things shaped me.
Speaker B:So it was always just inherently there.
Speaker B:I was always compost.
Speaker B:Even in college, I got a vermicomposter so I could be able to do in my apartment.
Speaker B:So it was just like everyone who knew me knew that, like, o.
Speaker B:Like, if you're around Alexa, you make sure you recycle that bottle or whatever.
Speaker B:Like, you know, like, it was just a part of who I was naturally.
Speaker B:So when people.
Speaker B:When I told people, like, I wanted to do this, no one was surprised.
Speaker B:And I just feel like it was something that I was kind of scared to do for a long time.
Speaker B:Just because I of that background.
Speaker B:I felt like, oh, I don't really have the, I don't know, credentials or.
Speaker B:Or journey maybe that other people have.
Speaker B:Like, a lot of people online have this journey of, like, I went from a really unsustainable lifestyle to becoming sustainable person.
Speaker B:I didn't really have that, so I felt like it would be harder to connect with others.
Speaker B:But honestly, it was just such a passion of mine that I just felt like, if I'm not doing, if.
Speaker B:If I don't do this now, I will always wonder what if?
Speaker A:In the world of sustainability, you really never know what you're going to get.
Speaker A:There is a lot of purity litmus testing.
Speaker A:If you don't do this thing, then you're not doing it right.
Speaker A:If you, if you don't give up this one thing, then you might as well, you know, be drinking oil for breakfast and smoking natural gas.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:But at the end of the day, here's the thing.
Speaker A:Perfection is the enemy of progress.
Speaker A:Perfection is an unrealistic standard.
Speaker A:And if we hold everybody to that standard, that you have to be perfect and if you don't do it perfectly, you are not welcome in this community.
Speaker A:If we want to call sustainability a community or you, you don't have the right to say that you live a sustainable lifestyle or to speak on any of these things, then, then you are not helping the cause.
Speaker A:Alexa describes her approach as being fun and imperfect.
Speaker A:Human.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think the most important thing is tackling the habits and the actions that you do the most.
Speaker B:I try not to be nitpicky.
Speaker B:You know, like you mentioned, we live in an imperfect world and you know, we're surrounded by plastic for instance, and we use fossil fuels to power our cars for the most part.
Speaker B:And I just feel like, you know, just going from a place of like, oh, that's just so heavy.
Speaker B:That's just so much, we're kind of, you know, there's, we don't have many choices.
Speaker B:I like to just back it up and kind of think about what choices do we have in our control.
Speaker B:And a lot of that has to do with like food and like what we are surrounded by.
Speaker B:Like I would say like our clothes, our food, our homes.
Speaker B:You know, like I would say focusing on the things you can, can control.
Speaker B:I1, one thing I like to start with is even though it's kind of maybe outdated now, but like drinking water out of water bottles, let's say if that's a habit that you're still doing like that like water is the most, is the resource that we need the most of.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So you're going to be drinking a lot of water throughout the day.
Speaker B:Why not change the water bottle to a fil.
Speaker B:You could just be refilling your reusable water bottle.
Speaker B:It's like those habits that like that you do the most, I think are the most important to focus on.
Speaker B:And you know, if you can tackle those other bigger issues, kind of like maybe downsizing from a two car family to a one car family or things like that, like within, if it's possible for you, I would say do it.
Speaker B:But I think that the most important thing is that imperfect Sustainability as a concept looks different for everybody.
Speaker A:So one thing that didn't make it into the.
Speaker A:The final cut of the episode, just for timing reasons, was we were having this conversation about plastic water bottles.
Speaker A:And Alexa, as somebody who works from home and has her reusable water bottle, you know, was not really.
Speaker A:Didn't.
Speaker A:Didn't have, like, a metric of, like, how.
Speaker A:How.
Speaker A:How many plastic.
Speaker A:Like, is this still a thing that we're all doing using plastic water bottles?
Speaker A:Or is this something that we have kind of moved past?
Speaker A:And myself as a classroom teacher, I have kind of a different lens.
Speaker A:I see, you know, 120 students a day who are, you know, a little subset, a little microcosm, a little sample size of, like, you know, society in a way, right?
Speaker A:And oh, my gosh, I guess a little quick story time.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:We were doing a thing at the end of the year last year, talking about.
Speaker A:Students were investigating different environmental issues and talking about their impacts and solutions.
Speaker A:And one of those was plastic bottles.
Speaker A:And my goodness, the things that we learned throughout that process.
Speaker A:High school students, at least mine, use many plastic water bottles per day.
Speaker A:Very few of those get recycled, which, I mean, that's a whole other topic.
Speaker A:We could talk about recycling.
Speaker A:That is not the savior that people believe it to be.
Speaker A:But I think my favorite story was.
Speaker A:And this.
Speaker A:This actually came from several different students was they have, like, a hydro flask.
Speaker A:They have a reusable water bottle kind of thing.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I had.
Speaker A:I had pointed them out.
Speaker A:I was like, yeah, see, like, you have a reusable water bottle.
Speaker A:Like, that's great.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, oh, no, Boker.
Speaker A:I feel this.
Speaker A:I fill this with plastic water bottle water from my plastic bottle.
Speaker A:And I'm thinking to myself, but it's a reusable bottle.
Speaker A:You have a fill station right there in the hallway.
Speaker A:And they're like, oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:I don't like how that tastes.
Speaker A:I like how.
Speaker A:I like how the plastic water bottle water tastes.
Speaker A:I'm going, what?
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:So wait, what?
Speaker A:Just explain, right?
Speaker A:And I'm just like, oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:I'm just flabbergasted.
Speaker A:And they're like, I don't want to carry multiple plastic water bottles around at school.
Speaker A:And so in the mornings, I take, like, three or four water bottles and I fill my reusable bottle so I can bring it to school.
Speaker A:Oh, my God.
Speaker A:Just like, oh, what?
Speaker A:Like what people.
Speaker A:Oh, geez.
Speaker A:But I do feel like maybe this is a good moment.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And we talk about this, Alexa and I a little bit more throughout this episode, but just a good moment to chime in and be like, look, there is a role, an element of, of privilege and affordability and access and things like that in the sustainability conversation.
Speaker A:And I, and I don't want to diminish that at all.
Speaker A:There are certain things that people like, certain people are able to do more, certain people are able to do less.
Speaker A:This is about doing what you are able and willing to do, not about holding some high standard and then, and then shaming you if you are unable to meet it.
Speaker A:Look, you are not the one who structured society and, and made it so that your local grocery store wraps all of the produce in plastic.
Speaker A:You are not the one.
Speaker A:Now, if you are able to take action, you know, to try and encourage them to not do those things, you know what?
Speaker A:Awesome, wonderful.
Speaker A:But again, this is not a purity contest.
Speaker A:It is not about perfection.
Speaker A:It is about taking actionable steps in the way that makes the most sense for you in your life.
Speaker B:It's kind of like a tailor made situation to you.
Speaker B:And what those habits are like, somebody might, I work from home, so I, you know, I eat all my meals at home.
Speaker B:But like, let's say you work out and work in office and, you know, have lunch out all the time, and you're constantly getting takeout.
Speaker B:That's one area of opportunity for you because there's so much waste that comes with takeout.
Speaker B:So it's just really, it's an individualized look into how you're moving through the world and how you could change those habits to become just a little bit more sustainable.
Speaker B:And I think that it's also like empowerment as well, because you're kind of like, I'm taking control of the situation, rather letting it control me.
Speaker B:Because I see that a lot in, you know, people who are trying to get into sustainability.
Speaker B:They're like, well, everything's out of my control.
Speaker B:And I just think that's like getting a lot of your agency and autonomy away.
Speaker B:So this is a way to kind of bring that back and be like, okay, there are so many things out of my control, but there's so many other things that I have a choice.
Speaker B:So it's just, it's, it's a tightrope walk.
Speaker B:You know, you're constantly, you know, I, I evaluate things and choices I make constantly.
Speaker B:And having that intentionality is the most important aspect of all this.
Speaker B:It's like, if I can, if I can make a better change, I will.
Speaker B:And if it's maybe Too difficult.
Speaker B:I don't beat myself up over it.
Speaker A:I appreciate you saying that because I see it a lot where people will say, you know, like, well, it's not us, it's the corporations.
Speaker A:And, like, there's an element to that, like.
Speaker A:Yeah, yes, okay, yes, 100%.
Speaker A:I totally understand.
Speaker A:But also remember, corporations are made up of people.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Number one.
Speaker A:Number two, that does not mean that you don't make an effort yourself.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And that does not mean that you as an individual or you as an individual and your ability to form and be a part of a community do not also have agency.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And so, yeah, you know, like, I'm looking at my desk right now, and I'm like, oh, my God, everything's made of plastic and rare earth metals, you know, But I've had, you know, I've forgone upgrades on my phone for however many years.
Speaker A:So I've had the same phone, and it's busted all over the place, but it works, so I keep it.
Speaker A:And I've got my reusable water bottle and.
Speaker A:But things, you know, they're not perfect and they haven't solved everything, but at least I'm not contributing.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And I love what you said about, as an individual, you're also, you know, forming part of a larger community.
Speaker B:Because that's something I say all the time.
Speaker B:Although I do have, like, an individualistic approach to it.
Speaker B:It's just because I want the person to be able to.
Speaker B:I think that's the only way we make change.
Speaker B:We make change first individually, you know, as a choice that we make autonomously, and then those choices ripple.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so what I always say is that we're never just one person.
Speaker B:You are connected to at least one other person, whether that's your spouse or a best friend or a sibling or a parent or like just a friend or a coworker.
Speaker B:You're connected to somebody.
Speaker B:And we all have influence over each other, whether we recognize that or not.
Speaker B:And I think that the.
Speaker B:That's the number one way I choose to go about it, is to model the behavior rather than kind of preach the behavior.
Speaker B:Because, like, you know, obviously online it's a little different.
Speaker B:I'm, you know, making content for a purpose.
Speaker B:But when it.
Speaker B:When it comes to my personal life, I don't really bring it up like sustainability principles or anything, unless somebody brings it up to me first, mostly because I think it brings up a wall between me and the other person where it's like, I'm an expert or whatever, and they're not so what?
Speaker B:Rather, excuse me, rather than doing that, I try to just focus on exemplifying that behavior.
Speaker B:I'm modeling that behavior.
Speaker B:I'm do.
Speaker B:I'm, you know, just bringing my reusable water bottle.
Speaker B:I'm not opting for plastic.
Speaker B:And they notice.
Speaker B:People notice and people ask questions and even strangers.
Speaker B:Like, I go to the grocery store and I bring all my reusable bags and whatever.
Speaker B:And even somebody that the other day asked me, they're like, what's the difference between those carrots and those carrots?
Speaker B:And one, one set of carrots were like loose and the other set of carrots were like bagged up like two pound bags of carrots.
Speaker B:And I went for the loose ones.
Speaker B:And you know, it was just some stranger lady who asked me and I said, oh, well, those are in plastic and I prefer non plastic if I can.
Speaker B:And she was just like.
Speaker B:And then she looked at her cart and her cart was full of those like little thin plastics because we still have tons of plastic in Florida.
Speaker B:And it's like thin plastic bags full of produce, like 20 of them.
Speaker B:And, and she looked at her car and she's like, I should really try to not use as much plastic.
Speaker B:And I was like, I think if you can, that's great.
Speaker B:And you know, that's all I said.
Speaker B:I wasn't going to be like, you know, start, start preaching to her as to why she should do that.
Speaker B:But she took notice and that's, that's the only thing I could hope for.
Speaker A:It's like a pattern disruption thing, like interrupting the autopilot of consumerism.
Speaker B:See, we're all just kind of like rushing to the next thing.
Speaker B:We're not thinking about our habits and our choices as much.
Speaker B:But then I think that's the best part of imperfect sustainability, is it kind of causes us to slow down and, you know, appreciate these little moments and choices and thinking of creative ways of how to, you know, sidestep plastic and all these other issues.
Speaker A:So your, your approach, that, that kind of balancing act between, like making it, you know, here's how you can do it and here's a livable, sustainable way, no pun intended, of doing this sustainability stuff without watering down the urgency of sustainability.
Speaker A:How do you do that?
Speaker A:Because that is tricky.
Speaker A:It's a tricky fine line to walk and you seem to do it really well.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Honestly, I don't know if I do it really well.
Speaker B:I think that I really, I think there's a lot already a lot of doom and gloom online about the climate Change and, I don't know, maybe a little bit also in terms of sustainability being unachievable, that I kind of try to focus on the parts that we can control.
Speaker B:Like, I keep coming back to that because that's really what it's about to me.
Speaker B:And, you know, I live in a state that's constantly.
Speaker B:I'm in Florida, so I'm constantly bombarded by hurricanes and rising tides, and we have a lot of issues down here.
Speaker B:So to me, it's like, I see climate change.
Speaker B:I've seen over the past 20, 30 years that I've been alive, I've seen it change so much that I'm like, it's.
Speaker B:To me, it's inevitable.
Speaker B:For me to keep pointing it out would be a little silly at this point.
Speaker B:Like, it's.
Speaker B:It's happening, it has happened, it is happening, it will continue to happen.
Speaker B:So I don't know if I.
Speaker B:The urgency is more like, not only does this impact our environmental health, it also impacts human health.
Speaker B:And I think that's where I kind of bring the urgency in.
Speaker B:Because although, like, there is a.
Speaker B:An immediate threat to the environment, I think there's an even more urgent threat to our own bodies.
Speaker B:And we can see that a lot now recently with the plastics studies, all the microplastic and nanoplastics in our bodies and how, like, they've been found in pretty much every organ in the body, every organism on the planet.
Speaker B:And I think that if you consider these aspects, like, you know, this is just the beginning of what we know to be the plastic crisis, you know, and so it's going to get worse.
Speaker B:And I just think that I, as somebody who really cares about health, individual health, like, I can't fight climate change if I'm not healthy myself.
Speaker B:I value that, and it's something that I'm consciously working against.
Speaker B:So to me, I think that's where the urgency comes in.
Speaker B:It's like making the connection that environmental health is human health.
Speaker A:I think, yeah, the more we can find those types of connections because, yeah, sometimes just the environmental part is just too abstract for people, or people think that, well, it's just going to take care of itself anyway or, well, that won't affect me because I've got air conditioning or, you know, whatever it might be.
Speaker A:Oh, we'll have, you know, more beaches and not so bad, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker A:Making those connections, like, y', all, it's not just about, like, temperature.
Speaker A:It's exactly human health.
Speaker A:It's food availability, it's migration, it's any.
Speaker A:It's your retirement funds.
Speaker A:It's so many different things beyond that.
Speaker B:Yes, and exactly.
Speaker B:There's so many topics within sustainability and the ones that I'm passionate about, even what you said about retirement, like the fact that our, you know, our retirement accounts are funding fossil fuels, for instance, we don't know, you know, like, if we're not aware of these things, like, it's kind of just happening in the background.
Speaker B:And yeah, I just think that there is that urgency already.
Speaker B:So I kind of just try to temper that with the actionable and focus on bringing that agency back.
Speaker B:Because I think for so long, sustainability and the environmental movement has been about everything being done onto us.
Speaker B:And I feel like that's just very disempowering.
Speaker A:So if you have listened to the show for a while or you follow any of my social media, you know that, like, one of my favorite things to talk about is the interconnectedness of everything.
Speaker A:Nothing happens on this planet in isolation down from the molecular level to the global scale.
Speaker A:It's a planetary living system.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So one of the things we mentioned earlier in the conversation is that Alexa has been diving for essentially her entire life, not quite since a baby.
Speaker A:That would be problematic, but for a very, very long time.
Speaker A:And her parents own a scuba diving business and all these things.
Speaker A:Now, Alexa is not just a sustainability advocate.
Speaker A:She is also an ocean advocate and a reef advocate.
Speaker A:She does lots of things.
Speaker A:She is a person of many hats.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And sustainability in general is not just about reducing waste or reducing consumption.
Speaker A:It is also about understanding how your actions in those areas are connected to these larger systems.
Speaker A:And so as much as I want to say, oh, we're about to pivot the conversation to talk about diving and witnessing reefs and that sort of thing, it's not really a pivot.
Speaker A:I mean, after all, they are deeply interconnected.
Speaker A:And Alex is going to paint a really beautiful picture for us in a moment too, about how things like diving and reefs and composting and sustainability are all just one.
Speaker A:Are all just pieces of a bigger, very overwhelming painting.
Speaker A:Say, painting.
Speaker A:I think I'm in puzzle.
Speaker A:I'm all over the place today.
Speaker B:Yeah, I've been scuba diving for over 20 years.
Speaker B:You know, it is a unique situation.
Speaker B:I got certified when I was 10 years old, which is the, like, the minimum age for scuba diving.
Speaker B:But it's also because I grew up in that industry.
Speaker B:My parents had that business.
Speaker B:So I was just immersed and it would be like, I have two younger sisters.
Speaker B:We all got certified at 10 years old.
Speaker B:I'm a padi dive master as well.
Speaker B:So I'm professional level scuba diver.
Speaker B:And I would say that just over the years, I've seen the coral reefs change a lot in South Florida, specifically.
Speaker B:That's where I do a lot of my diving.
Speaker B:So I've just seen not just the reefs, but, like, the life in general has just changed.
Speaker B:When I was younger and, you know, part of this can be I was young and enjoying myself so much, but the life was so much more vibrant than I see it nowadays.
Speaker B:But, I mean, I have so many other people in my life to corroborate that information.
Speaker B:Like, it's not just me feeling, you know, that nostalgic, you know, memory of the beautiful reefs.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It really has changed over the past 20 years, and it's become a little bit more desolate.
Speaker B:And I'm sure, you know, people have heard about the bleaching and the negative impacts of climate change with the rising temperatures that we have in South Florida that are, you know, kind of, I don't want to say killing the reefs, because bleaching is not killing the coral, but it's negatively impacting the reefs.
Speaker A:All right, quick sandbar.
Speaker A:Like.
Speaker A:Like a, like a sidebar, anyway, or picture this.
Speaker A:You're a coral.
Speaker A:You're not just some boring undersea rock.
Speaker A:Oh, no.
Speaker A:You are a living, breathing, glow in the dark party host.
Speaker A:And you have a roommate.
Speaker A:Her name, Zozo Lanthole.
Speaker A:She's a tiny algae, a microalgal miracle.
Speaker A:And she photosynthesizes like a champ, turning sunlight into food.
Speaker A:She pays rent and sugar, something that you need desperately.
Speaker A:You've got a sweet tooth.
Speaker A:And you also need that in order to conduct cellular respiration in your mitochondria.
Speaker A:And without that, you would die.
Speaker A:You give her a cozy home.
Speaker A:She gives you snacks and color.
Speaker A:It's beautiful.
Speaker A:It's symbiotic.
Speaker A:It's peak friendship goals.
Speaker A:But then you're a little stressed out.
Speaker A:The ocean starts to heat up, like.
Speaker A:Like way up.
Speaker A:It's acidifying, and you just.
Speaker A:You just can't.
Speaker A:You just can't keep it together.
Speaker A:So your little algal roommate starts acting weird.
Speaker A:So weird, in fact, that your immune system's like, no, you know what?
Speaker A:Get her.
Speaker A:Get her out.
Speaker A:Evict.
Speaker A:Evict.
Speaker A:And suddenly she's gone.
Speaker A:And without her, you're not just alone.
Speaker A:You've lost the color in your life.
Speaker A:You're pale, like bone white, like a ghost of your former self.
Speaker A:Now, that's coral bleaching in a nutshell.
Speaker A:Like an Acorn is an oak tree.
Speaker A:Now, you're not dead yet, but you're not thriving either.
Speaker A:You're depressed, you're starving, exposed, vulnerable to disease.
Speaker A:You're just laying on the couch and honestly just trying to hang on.
Speaker A:Coral bleaching is a desperate response to stress, mostly from warming waters, thanks to climate change.
Speaker A:Thanks ExxonMobil.
Speaker A:Other offenders include pollution, overexposure to sunlight, or even just a really bad low tide.
Speaker A:If conditions don't improve fast enough.
Speaker A:That's, that's when we get into the area of like, you know, death.
Speaker A:If your algal buddy doesn't move back in, you might die.
Speaker A:You're that codependent.
Speaker A:And that's heartbreaking because coral reefs support 25%.
Speaker A:I'm going to get really close to the mic here.
Speaker A:Coral reefs, despite covering like 1% of the ocean, support 25% of all marine life.
Speaker A:That's like being the landlord of an undersea apartment complex and accidentally evicting everyone, everyone, every.
Speaker B:Just.
Speaker A:Are you kidding me?
Speaker A:So anyway, coral bleaching isn't like, oh, let me just be white for a little bit.
Speaker A:No, it's, it's like a really, really big red flag from the ocean saying, hey, can we maybe cool it down?
Speaker A:It's getting hot.
Speaker A:But here's the hopeful part.
Speaker A:If we do cool it, if we reduce emissions, protect Reese, let nature do her thing, some corals can bounce back.
Speaker A:That algae might just return.
Speaker A:The color, the life, the party, it could all come back.
Speaker A:Science, policy, and maybe a little bit of compassion can help reefs go from ghost towns to get this ready, ready, ready, Glow towns again.
Speaker B:I don't think people realize how much all of life, not only just in the ocean, but in the world.
Speaker B:All of us humans, every part of the food web, is dependent on the ocean and coral reefs specifically.
Speaker B:And you can see a lot less fish, a lot less big fish.
Speaker B:And that's not just from climate change and rising sea temperatures.
Speaker B:It's also from like invasive species like flying fish and poor water quality and things like that.
Speaker B:But yeah, unfortunately I have seen things change and that's why I feel like it is part of my duty as somebody who has been doing this for a long time to make that known and just make those connections too, about not.
Speaker B:It's not just ocean conservation or, you know, land based conservation.
Speaker B:It's all the same and it's, they're impacting one another.
Speaker B:And whether you live on the coast or in a landlocked state, you are being impacted by the ocean.
Speaker B:And yeah, that's that's, there's, it's such a vast subject, but it's so important to the climate conversation.
Speaker B:I wish some people, I wish people understood a little bit more about corals in general.
Speaker B:Like, that they're an animal, not a plant that, you know, although they only cover 1% of all the ocean floor, they house 25% of all marine life.
Speaker B:So that's like insane to think about.
Speaker B:Like, this is a global, you know, figure, not just in South Florida.
Speaker B:And when it comes to the threats, I think, I just wish people knew that everything was connected.
Speaker B:I think people think that if coral reefs die, it'll just be like another extinct species, you know, that we didn't really, didn't really affect us.
Speaker B:But in the end, every species affects us.
Speaker B:Like the extinction of any species affects us.
Speaker B:I'm not saying we're going to see the extinction of the species.
Speaker B:Like, you know, like, of course, cor.
Speaker B:Like, of corals as a whole.
Speaker B:There's so many coral restoration efforts being, being done all over the world.
Speaker B:I hope that doesn't, it doesn't get to that point by my, my point of all this is just to say that if it does, that would be detrimental to the human race.
Speaker B:And I, I do believe like the rest of the natural world will make do and find a way to adapt, but I think humans are going to be tremendously impacted and I just wish we could care a little bit more about ocean conservation.
Speaker B:And you know, like I mentioned before, not just if you're in the coast, on the coast, but like inland it matters just as much.
Speaker B:We get 50% of all of the oxygen available to us from the ocean.
Speaker B:You know, we always attribute that to trees, but like, trees only do half of the work, you know, and we need all.
Speaker B:Like, I think that's just another way to say we need all of these ecosystems working together.
Speaker B:We can't just have one or the other.
Speaker B:And that to me that's just like, mind blowing.
Speaker B:And Also it absorbs 30% of all the carbon in the atmosphere.
Speaker B:So, like, that's huge.
Speaker B:Like, that's why we haven't really seen these drastic, drastic effects like, that we thought we might have seen already just because the ocean has absorbed so much that heat, which is insane if you think about.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:I even think about, like, inland because I'm in, I'm in Minnesota and like, I do a whole lesson sequence and stuff about like, farm, farm to phytoplankton, like how, you know, things that we do here cause impacts in like, the Mississippi, and then how that flows out and the dead zones and like, you know, you're.
Speaker A:You're connected to the ocean.
Speaker A: Even if you're, you know,: Speaker A:Some of those other impacts about, you know, the oxygen one.
Speaker A:I'm always so fascinated by that, and I just, I wish more people knew that because it's just so cool.
Speaker A:That's just amazing, you know, and reefs as.
Speaker A:What's the word I'm looking for, like, diffusers of waves and things, you know, that's, that's also an important function.
Speaker A:And like, you know, people just kind of think, oh, it's just some pretty animals that might disappear.
Speaker A:It's like, well, a little more than that.
Speaker B:They create these barriers that are protecting hundreds of millions of dollars of assets on the coast.
Speaker B:Like, that's just like, you know, I.
Speaker B:Economically, they're so important to us.
Speaker B:Like, we in South Florida specifically, we could not live here if we did not have corals.
Speaker B:And that's the part that I wish people understood is that like, we, we need that.
Speaker B:But like you said before, it's.
Speaker B:I think the part of the issue is that some people or most people will never experience what it's like to dive in a coral reef or, or even like they, it's just so.
Speaker B:It's such a different world to them that they don't even think about it.
Speaker B:It's just sight on unseen that they're just like, oh, it's out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker B:I don't, I don't know what's going on over there.
Speaker B:It must be nothing.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:There's so much going on under the surface.
Speaker A:So that connection, because you, you work with coral now, you've.
Speaker A:And then, and then, you know, the, the growing foods and, and the composting.
Speaker A:And I couldn't help but be like, wow, that's like, that's like the circle right there.
Speaker A:What, what for you.
Speaker A:Like, I.
Speaker A:Just curious, like, if you, if you had to like, tell somebody how those things were connected, what would you say?
Speaker B:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:So it's such a big topic, but I love, I love this topic.
Speaker B:So whatever we do on land affects the ocean.
Speaker B:Because as we kind of like you alluded to, like, the Mississippi's connected, goes back to the ocean.
Speaker B:Every waterway comes back to the ocean.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:So we.
Speaker B:It's connected and it's all one big ocean.
Speaker B:We like to call it oceans, but it's all one big ocean.
Speaker B:And, you know, the world's covered by 70% of it, so.
Speaker B:That is one thing to think about, like the diffusion alone of all, like anything.
Speaker B:That's why plastic is such a problem because it's just being taken all over the world via the ocean and you know, our trade winds and things like that.
Speaker B:But so composting for instance, like I, I guess I should talk about the absence of it.
Speaker B:When you don't compost, you are what you are sending right now, like what a lot of states are doing in Florida included because we don't have municipal composting in Florida.
Speaker B:But you are putting your organic matter into a trash bag.
Speaker B:The trash bag is now suffocating that organic matter.
Speaker B:It's only getting some oxygen, but, or oxygen is required for decomposition, right?
Speaker B:So that not only is it going to the landfill in that plastic bag, it's going to be layered on top of other trash.
Speaker B:The lack of oxygen now causes only a partial decay of that organic material.
Speaker B:That organic material is now like partially decayed and mixing with the other trash in the bag and in the landfill, which is like leading out, leaching out A leachate is what it's called.
Speaker B:And it's basically like a toxic sludge that emits methane, which methane is a very potent greenhouse gas that leads to the warming of the atmosphere.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so landfills emit a lot of methane causing the warming of the atmosphere.
Speaker B:The warming on the atmosphere is causing the warming of the oceans and is contributing to the death of corals.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So I guess like it's maybe easier to explain it in that way that without this system, without the compost property waste management systems, this is a, an issue that's affecting not just the land but the ocean as well.
Speaker B:And another part of that is agriculture.
Speaker B:A huge problem that we have in South Florida, in Florida in general, is that agricultural practices are.
Speaker B:They use a lot of synthetic fertilizer and synthetic fertilizer is awful for the environment.
Speaker B:And basically it's when you put too much of it and especially in a place like Florida where it rains a lot there, it's there, there's runoff from that fertilizer.
Speaker B:That, that fertilizer is basically just an excess of nutrients.
Speaker B:Those nitrogen rich nutrients end up in our waterways and then end up in the ocean.
Speaker B:And I'm sure a lot of people have heard of, and if you haven't, I'd recommend looking up red tide and blue algae.
Speaker B:But it's basically causes this imbalance in our oceans and our waterways that leads to like an algal bloom.
Speaker B:So a lot of algae just spawning up and causing, you know, basically A choke, choking out oxygen and all the nutrients that these, the ecosystem and specifically fish need to survive.
Speaker B:So you know, that was caused from agriculture, but it's also caused from improper waste management from the methane.
Speaker B:So the, all these systems are connected, right, because we, we need proper waste management systems to not, not raise this temperature in our atmosphere.
Speaker B:So then we don't have rising sea temperatures.
Speaker B:And then also those algae blooms are like made, made worse by warming temperatures.
Speaker B:So it's kind of like, I think that the ocean bears the brunt of a lot of these issues.
Speaker B:And it's only because it's like able to absorb so much that we don't really notice it as much.
Speaker B:And it's like more the coastal cities that are experiencing it right now.
Speaker B:But I think over time we're going to see more and more inland cities be affected, but not, but not just from like land pollution, land issues, but it'll be from like coastal or ocean based problems.
Speaker A:Yeah, I did this thing at the end of the year last year that I was just thinking about where we had like all these models that we'd done and we had made them progressively more complicated throughout the year.
Speaker A:But then kind of like as we were nearing the end I was like, well let's like just simplify this, right?
Speaker A:We've got all these inputs and all these outputs and all these things going on.
Speaker A:Let's just reduce this down to like what, what is it at its base and kind of just got it down to like life and death and circle of life.
Speaker A:And I was like, I mean, yeah, you know, that's what all this is, is about is this, this, this continuation of this cycle of life and death and then back to life, this reciprocity, this, you know, give and take of everything and, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker A:And so wherever you can in your life have awareness of your actions are all kind of a part of this cycle, this, this larger cycle of contributing to life or contributing to death.
Speaker A:Both are needed, both are necessary.
Speaker A:But what is your role in it?
Speaker A:And you know like something like composting is, you are seeing to renewal in that process of death, if you want to say death, you know, that process of renewal in it of you know, recycling these nutrients for use to give more life and, and how that is in itself reducing, you know, impacts that could lead to death distantly far away from you and stuff.
Speaker A:It's just, it's, it's, it's cool, it's a cool mirror in a way to hold up, you know, These practices of, like, composting in your daily life and how that can connect, you know, to the oceans themselves.
Speaker A:And you said it.
Speaker A:You did say it very well.
Speaker A:Like, how it's all.
Speaker A:How it's all connected on those.
Speaker A:Those, like, really big scales.
Speaker A:It also freaks me out a little bit just thinking about, like, how much organic stuff is just trapped up in.
Speaker A:In garbage.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:Sometimes I think about, like, water.
Speaker A:Then we have so much bottled water.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Like, how much ends up in landfills with, like, the lid on in the plastic bottles.
Speaker A:And this is fresh drinking water that is just now locked in a landfill somewhere.
Speaker A:That's kind of scary.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's so important to think about.
Speaker B:It's like.
Speaker B:And even, like, a banana, for instance, like a banana peel.
Speaker B:It takes, like eight years or something for a banana peel to break down in the landfill.
Speaker B:Whereas, like, in a compost system, maybe like in Florida, probably like a couple weeks, like.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Which is crazy.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And it really is so easy to do.
Speaker A:You mentioned the.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker A:The vermiculture, Ben, in college, I did the same thing.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:It was like a random point.
Speaker A:I was just like, you know what?
Speaker A:This sounds fun.
Speaker A:Let's do it.
Speaker A:And like, you know, people were friends of mine.
Speaker A:They're like, that's gonna stink.
Speaker A:Like, what's wrong with you?
Speaker A:Why would you do that?
Speaker A:And stuff?
Speaker A:And I was like, I don't know.
Speaker A:I just wanna see.
Speaker A:I didn't have any issues with it.
Speaker A:It was super easy to maintain.
Speaker A:It's just throw in scraps here and there and then use the compost to, like, grow plants and stuff.
Speaker A:It was awesome.
Speaker A:I loved it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You do that in my room.
Speaker A:What am.
Speaker A:Why am I not doing that?
Speaker B:That would be a great idea for the kids because, like, I don't know, I loved worms as a kid.
Speaker B:I still love worms.
Speaker B:But, like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:A lot of people would be, like, freaked out.
Speaker B:They're like, you're just gonna have a box of worms in the house.
Speaker B:And I'm like, I mean, they're outside.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Like, I don't know.
Speaker B:I don't find them that gross.
Speaker B:I think that, like, that they're essential to life.
Speaker B:So I don't know.
Speaker B:I can't.
Speaker A:Like, they're writhing around on the carpet or something, you know, like, they're.
Speaker A:They're sealed up, like.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So a little heavier.
Speaker A:Not that sustainability in general can't be really heavy, but.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:When you take a step back and you really start to, like, take it all in and, like, all these connections and sometimes the Guilt or the burnout or the news, the.
Speaker A:The pressures and stuff.
Speaker A:How.
Speaker A:How do you navigate.
Speaker B:How do you navigate all of that ego anxiety?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I will say that's like a normal part of being, like, a conscious, aware person.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I think that, like, ignorance really is bliss.
Speaker B:And I feel like, wow, sometimes, like, wouldn't it be nice to just not care as much?
Speaker B:But I think at the end, it's also a blessing because I just think that empathy is important.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And I think that with all of this, I come back to the fact that there are so many people doing amazing things out there to help the environment and to bring community together for the greater good.
Speaker B:I think that there's so many amazing organizations out there, but not even just that.
Speaker B:I think what I do personally when I'm feeling really down is get in community.
Speaker B:And one of my favorite places to go is my community garden.
Speaker B:And whenever I'm there, like, the people are so friendly who work there, and anybody who's just visiting is so kind and willing to spark up a conversation.
Speaker B:But, like, usually they have events at my garden, and I can, like, plant fruit trees or just come together for, like, an art kind of crafting situation.
Speaker B:And, like, every time I leave those events, I'm, like, so full and so happy and so optimistic, and I just feel like, wow, there's just so many amazing people out there that truly care.
Speaker B:It's not just me.
Speaker B:I'm not alone, you know, because I think that's so easy to feel like, oh, God, I'm so alone.
Speaker B:I. I'm the only one who cares about this or, you know, what is my one contribution or, you know, mean, like, foregoing a plastic bag.
Speaker B:What is that actually doing for the environment?
Speaker B:And I think that's really.
Speaker B:It's just a natural loop that we get in as, like, conscious people and people who maybe overthink things.
Speaker B:I overthink things.
Speaker B:So I just feel like you.
Speaker B:It's natural to get into that space.
Speaker B:And I just think that the number one thing I would say is, like, label that.
Speaker B:That it's natural and be like, okay, this is.
Speaker B:Other people feel like this as well.
Speaker B:And especially other people in the environmental space or even just people who care about nature, that love nature.
Speaker B:They're, like, you know, worried about it vanishing.
Speaker B:I think that's a normal feeling for those people, for any of us.
Speaker B:So I think that the number one thing is connecting with community and then connecting with organizations, because, you know, we can do a lot as an individual, but we can do so much more together.
Speaker B:Collectively.
Speaker B:And it really brings a lot of joy.
Speaker B:Even if you're not doing anything like that.
Speaker B:Environmentally focused.
Speaker B:Like, even just being in an organization where it's like they're doing something positive for the surrounding community can be so uplifting.
Speaker B:And I think that we really need to really focus on those activities at this time especially.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:Is there something recently that you've done or maybe an interaction on a post or something like that that's like, really stood out to you, that, like, brought you joy and was, like a good reminder of, you know, why you do what you do?
Speaker B:I will say last Sunday, I was part of a reef cleanup, and it was like a tri county reef cleanup.
Speaker B:So we had five different dive boats in three different counties go out at the same time.
Speaker B:And was over 100 divers all cleaning the same stretch of reef, but, you know, different parts of it.
Speaker B:We have over 350 miles of reef in South Florida, but we were cleaning about, I would say, like a hundred, like, throughout.
Speaker B:And that brought me immense joy, carried me throughout the week.
Speaker B:And I just even just stopped to think about, like, all the people that came out for that event.
Speaker B:Like, diving is not a.
Speaker B:It's a.
Speaker B:It could be an expensive hobby.
Speaker B:So, like, to see people, like, choose to use this hobby and their time and their energy and their money in this way to support a conservation event like that and to really just pull up trash, like, that's all we're doing is like, we're diving, we're enjoying ourselves.
Speaker B:Of course, we're seeing beautiful things, but also we're pulling up trash.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:It just brought me such immense joy.
Speaker B:And I've been through.
Speaker B:I've been part of so many cleanups throughout my life below the water, like, under the water and above.
Speaker B:But like, this one specifically, I was just so grateful to be part of.
Speaker B:And I think that it comes back to that community piece.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:Like, it wasn't.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's fun doing it by yourself.
Speaker B:Like going on a personal beach cleanup.
Speaker B:I do that often, but, like, when I do with other people, I'm like, oh, this is why I do what I do.
Speaker B:And I love it so much.
Speaker A:I wasn't even there.
Speaker A:And I feel like that's going to carry me, like, through the.
Speaker A:Through the week like that.
Speaker A:Just to hear, you know, that there's other people out there and that there's people out there who are volunteering their time to do that sort of thing.
Speaker A:So for people listening, what would be.
Speaker A:And I know this is tricky.
Speaker A:This is a tricky thing.
Speaker A:Especially because it's kind of different for everybody.
Speaker A:And I get that.
Speaker A:But if there was something that you personally could ask everybody listening to do just one small step that they could take after hearing this episode, what would you want that to be?
Speaker B:Okay, so you said it was going to be a little complicated, so I'm, I'm going to start with one.
Speaker B:But I have a caveat.
Speaker B:So the number one thing I would suggest that if you wanted to make an impact as an individual and in my opinion makes the biggest impact overall, I would say it's composting.
Speaker B:I would say find a way to divert that organic material from the landfill to the earth.
Speaker B:And there's so many ways to do that.
Speaker B:Like I mentioned before, we don't have municipal services here in Florida for composting.
Speaker B:I live in an apartment, so I can't do it myself anymore.
Speaker B:I grew up doing that, but I can't do that anymore.
Speaker B:So I use a service in my area and it's like a valet service kind of thing.
Speaker B:They give me a five gallon bucket, I fill it up with organics they, you know, put outside my door on my pickup day, they swap it out for a clean bucket and the process continues.
Speaker B:They take it to like a large facility, like a.
Speaker B:It's basically a lot of land and they just have these big piles where they can process that material so you can search for like a service in your area and it's really affordable.
Speaker B:And I'd say it's something that like would make the most impact as an individual.
Speaker B:There's also community gardens that offer like composting for the community.
Speaker B:You could find a drop off location.
Speaker B:Like sometimes there are free drop off locations and free as in subsidized.
Speaker B:So someone always pays for these services.
Speaker B:Just keeping that in mind, waste management is very important and should be paid for and it is paid for by somebody.
Speaker B:So, you know, community gardens, doing it at home using a vermicomposter.
Speaker B:There's so many different ways to go about it.
Speaker B:That's what I would suggest.
Speaker B:And then with that, I would love to give you like three different things that you could do.
Speaker B:But I would say I think the most important and impactful thing besides composting would be to just start becoming aware of your most common and repetitive habits and actions and just thinking about how you can make that action more sustainable.
Speaker B:And whether that's carpooling instead of just, you know, driving separately or that's bringing or opting for a reusable water bottle and filter situation rather than buying classic water bottles or, you know, bringing.
Speaker B:Looking at the packaging when you're at the grocery store, if you have the option for glass instead of plastic or, you know, loose produce rather than packaged produce.
Speaker B:And it's really just bringing it back to that awareness.
Speaker B:And then once you start becoming aware, you can start making those changes.
Speaker B:But it has to start with that pause before you make an action.
Speaker A:Sometimes just noticing, really noticing that that is the spark, that that is the beginning of change.
Speaker A:Thank you, Alexa Pavan, for joining me today on this episode of the Wildlife.
Speaker A:Sustainability is something that I don't spend enough time talking about, just, you know, sustainable living, sustainable lifestyle, that sort of thing.
Speaker A:And I just appreciate the opportunity to, to be able to do so.
Speaker A:As we ended the interview, we also had some conversation about, like, bringing composting into the classroom and that sort of thing.
Speaker A:So that's a conversation that we're going to have a little bit more of.
Speaker A:We might be collaborating on a carousel post to share kind of what we discuss and learn and all that stuff as well with, with all of you.
Speaker A:And so I'm, I'm excited for that.
Speaker A:I'm excited for the school year to start.
Speaker A:I can't believe I'm saying that, but.
Speaker A:But I am.
Speaker A:And to maybe try, try some of that stuff out.
Speaker A:So, again, if you would like to follow Alexa on social media, check out her Instagram.
Speaker A:It's great.
Speaker A:Go green with Alexa.
Speaker A:She's got all sorts of accessible tips for how you can make sustainability a reality.
Speaker A:I was trying to think of a pun and I couldn't.
Speaker B:I couldn't.
Speaker A:It's just early and I haven't had enough coffee.
Speaker A:Coffee is my pun juice.
Speaker A:Anyway, thanks for listening.
Speaker A:I'm Devin Boker, this is the Wildlife.
Speaker A:And if you would like to support this show, you know, I just want to throw out there.
Speaker A:Okay, if you'd like to support the show as little as a dollar a month, you can do that@patreon.com the wildlife.
Speaker A:And it's, it's.
Speaker A:When I say dollar a month, the amount of things that I've put out, right?
Speaker A:Videos, podcast episodes, things like that.
Speaker A:Look, I post way too much.
Speaker A:Sometimes I post like four or five times a day.
Speaker A:It's ridiculous.
Speaker A:It's a sickness.
Speaker A:We're talking like nickels on the nickels on the dime.
Speaker A:Is that the right term?
Speaker A:We're talking like nickels, like nickels per, per piece of content.
Speaker A:If I don't post, I could always give you your nickel back.
Speaker A:I need to stop.
Speaker A:I should be stopped.
Speaker A:Someone run me over.
Speaker A:Please don't.
Speaker A:Actually, that.
Speaker A:That would be painful and deeply unfortunate for my children.
Speaker A:You could just.
Speaker A:I'm just saying.
Speaker A:All I'm trying to say is it's.
Speaker A:I. I put out a lot of stuff.
Speaker A:My Field Guide to Wonder series, my toolkit on climate action, my.
Speaker A:My series beyond the Count on.
Speaker A:On Wolf conservation, the podcast, the other random videos and things like that.
Speaker A:It would.
Speaker A:It would just be nice and helpful.
Speaker A:Editing software, things like that.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:It all adds up.
Speaker A:It gets quite expensive.
Speaker A:And so anything that can help help me to continue doing this is obviously appreciated.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It helps me keep it get this sustainable.
Speaker A:And if you'd like to support for no dollars, that's totally fine, too.
Speaker A:Fun fact.
Speaker A:You can join the Patreon for free without spending any money.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:It's a whole thing.
Speaker A:You just don't get as many of the cool perks as people who do join for dollars.
Speaker A:I think the discord is something that you can join.
Speaker A:I'm gonna be straight up.
Speaker A:I've been, like, trying to get that discord going, like, hey, y', all, let's talk about animals.
Speaker A:And just not a lot of people doing that yet.
Speaker A:So if you're like, I'd love to hop in there and talk about animals, please.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:I'd love that.
Speaker A:You could also just rate and review the show wherever you're listening, Listening Spotify, Apple, podcast, any of those things.
Speaker A:I'm rambling at this point.
Speaker A:I've been going for 3 minutes and 42 seconds, and the odds are you are no longer listening.
Speaker A:You went, oh, the episode's done.
Speaker A:And you.
Speaker A:You ended, you exited, you did something else.
Speaker A:You're moving on to other things.
Speaker A:So if you are still here, let's just have a moment to pause together in silence.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:That was quite nice, actually.
Speaker A:Very short, but that's all I could handle.
Speaker A:All right, well, stay curious.
Speaker A:Get outside, assuming you are somewhere that's not having incredibly horrible air quality like myself and peace out, rainbow trots.
Speaker A:See you next time, Sam.
