A Column Promoting a More Earth-Friendly Lifestyle
By John L. Turner
John Turner
Recent research has documented that birds are attracted to, but often disoriented by, outdoor lighting. There are many instances of migrating birds flying over suburban and urban areas becoming entrained in these areas, attracted by the glow of countless buildings and street lights. Unfortunately, this often leads to fatal consequences for birds as they collide with the windows that adorn so many modern urban and suburban buildings.
The death of more than one thousand birds flying into the glass facade of McCormick Place in Chicago in October of last year is a stark reminder of the danger that excessive lighting can pose to birds.
What can you do as a home or business owner? Very simple and straightforward — shut off excessive outdoor lighting to reduce your contribution to the upward glow that negatively affects birds. Before you automatically throw on the light switch controlling the outdoor lights give a thought about the birds flying overhead during their winged journeys.
A resident of Setauket, author John L. Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
Ellen Pikitch at the United Nations when she spoke at the 9th International Day of Women and Girls in Science back in February. Photo from E. Pikitch
By Daniel Dunaief
Even as Covid threatened the health of people around the world, a group of 30 leading researchers from a wide range of fields and countries were exchanging ideas and actions to ensure the sustainability of ocean fisheries.
Starting in 2020, the researchers, including Stony Brook University’s Endowed Professor of Ocean Conservation Science Ellen Pikitch, spent considerable time developing operating principles to protect the oceans and specific actions that could do more than ensure the survival of any one particular species.
Earlier this week, the researchers, who come from fields ranging from biology and oceanography to social sciences and economics, published a paper titled “Rethinking sustainability of marine fisheries for a fast-changing planet” in the Nature Journal npj Ocean Sustainability, as well as a companion 11 golden rules for social-ecological fisheries.
The researchers, who were led by first author Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Exeter, plan to share their framework with policy makers and government officials at a range of gatherings, starting with Brussel’s Ocean Week and including the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice.
“We felt something like this was needed in order to reach these audiences effectively,” said Pikitch.
The extensive work, which included two series of workshops, outlines ways to regenerate the ocean’s health and to put people before profits.
The authors suggest that fisheries need to address their contributions to the climate crisis through activities that are polluting, such as dumping fishing gear or plastics in the ocean, carbon intensive or destructive, through the disturbance of sediment carbon stores.
The paper suggests that lost or discarded fishing gear often make up the largest category of plastic waste in the open sea. This gear is not only polluting, but leads to ghost fishing, in which fish die in abandoned or discarded nets.
The authors suggest that labelling fishing gear could encourage better stewardship of the ocean. They also argued that fisheries management has historically focused on economic output, without considering social value and effects.
“We take the view that marine life is a public asset, and its exploitation and management should work for the benefit of local communities and the public,” the authors wrote in their paper.
Pikitch described the work as an “urgent” call to action and added that the researchers will be “meeting with policy makers, retailers, fishery managers and others to discuss these results and how they can be implemented.”
The researchers engaged in this effort to find a way to compile a collection of best practices that could replace a hodgepodge of approaches that overlook important elements of sustainability and that threaten fish species as well as ocean habitats.
“Fisheries are in bad shape worldwide and are degrading rapidly with overexploitation and climate change,” Philippe Cury, Senior Emeritus Researcher at the Institute of Research for Development in Marseille, France, said in a statement. “Efficient and renewed fisheries management can really help to restore marine ecosystems and to reconcile exploitation and biodiversity.”
Pikitch anticipated that some might offer pushback to the suggestions. “If you don’t get pushback, you’re probably not saying something that is important enough,’ she said.
Ecosystem focus
Using research Pikitch led in 2004 from a paper in Science, the group constructed one of the 11 actions around developing a holistic approach to the ocean habitat.
Pikitch’s expertise is in ecosystem based fishery management.
“Fish interact with one another, feed on one another, compete with one another and share the same habitats,” Pikitch said. “For those reasons alone and more, we need to stop managing species one at a time.”
Some policies currently protect ecosystems, including the spatial and temporal management of the Canadian lobster fishery to protect whales and the no-take marine reserves to protect artisanal reef fisheries in the Caribbean.
Still, these approaches need to be applied in other contexts as well.
While some people believed that researchers didn’t know enough to create and implement holistic guidelines, Pikitch and her colleagues suggested that it’s not “necessary to know everything if we use the precautionary principle.”
Pikitch suggested that the Food and Drug Administration takes a similar approach to approving new medicines.
The FDA requires that researchers and pharmaceutical companies demonstrate that a drug is safe and effective before putting it on the market.
Fisheries are making some headway in this regard, but “much more is needed,” she said.
Subsidy problem
The authors highlighted how government subsidies are problematic.
“Many fisheries are highly carbon intensive, burning large quantities of fossil fuels often made cheaper by capacity-enhancing government subsidies,” the authors noted in the paper. “Among the worst performers in terms of fuel burned per tonne of landing gears are crustacean fisheries, fisheries that operate in distant waters, deploy heavy mobile gears like trawls, or target high value, low yield species like swordfish; most of them propped up by subsidies.”
When overfishing occurs, companies switch to catching less exploited species, even when they don’t have any data about new catches. The new species, however, soon become overfished, the authors argued.
In urging fisheries management to support and enhance the health, well-being and resilience of people and communities, the scientists add that abundant evidence of widespread human rights abuses occurs in fishing, including coercive practice, bonded, slave and child labor and unsafe, indecent and unsanitary living and working conditions.
“Abuses at sea continue and more needs to be done to stop this,” Pikitch explained.
Additionally, the authors hope to give a voice to the global south, which is “often ignored in many of these discussions about how to appropriately manage these fisheries,” she suggested.
A beginning
While the paper was published, Pikitch explained that she sees this as the beginning of change and improvement in creating sustainable fisheries policies. She anticipates that the collection of talented scientists will continue the work of protecting a critical resource for human and planetary survival.
“This group will continue to work together to try get this work implemented,” she said. “I’m enormously proud of the result.”
Horseshoe crabs at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai. Photo by John Turner
The bill has passed in Albany, but awaits governor’s signature
By Mallie Jane Kim
The future of a bill to enhance protections for horseshoe crabs in New York waters is unclear, but advocacy around the issue is heating up.
If signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), the bill would prevent the taking of horseshoe crabs for commercial or biomedical purposes in New York. The bill was passed by the state Assembly and Senate June 7, and though it has not yet been called up by the governor for consideration and potential signature or veto, advocates for and against the bill have been working hard to make their voices heard.
“Our job is to make sure the governor is aware that the horseshoe crab is a beloved species, it’s in danger and she can help it,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment, which is spearheading efforts to encourage the governor to sign the bill.
Fifty-eight groups signed on to a September letter urging Hochul to adopt the bill, including Audubon, Sierra and Rotary clubs from around Long Island, as well as the Port Jefferson Harbor Commission, The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor and the Setauket Harbor Task Force.
Thousands of citizen postcards supporting the bill are on the way to the governor over the next weeks, according to Esposito, who predicts the bill won’t get called up before December, a pattern she has noted for environmental bills over the last few years.
“The tough bills are the ones they wait longer to call,” she said. “The issue now is to make sure the public raises their voice.”
Horseshoe crabs, which are relatives of arachnids like spiders and scorpions, are considered “living fossils” since they have been around for an estimated 450 million years, but they have faced a steady decline in recent decades due to harvesting and habitat loss, impacting bird species that feed on horseshoe crab eggs during migration, like red knots. Commercial fisherman rely on horseshoe crabs as bait for whelk, and its blue blood is prized for biomedical research and vaccine development — though there are not currently any permits for biomedical harvesting in New York.
Local fisheries oppose the bill
Opponents of the bill don’t believe a complete ban on harvesting horseshoe crabs is an appropriate way to protect the species, since it is already monitored and regulated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
“If they felt that the horseshoe crab stock was in danger, we would hear about it first,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. “To use a law to regulate a fishery, when they are already regulated by appropriate bodies that have the science to back it, is just not the way to allow fisheries to survive.”
Some individual members of the association have written to the governor advocating against the ban, according to Brady, who added that she believes the proposed regulations are based on feeling, not fact.
“No one wants to see [horseshoe crabs] become depleted to the point where their continued vibrance is in danger,” Brady said, explaining that whelk fishing is a significant aspect of day fishermen’s seasonal catch.
“It would be like suddenly someone says, ‘We’re going to take 20% of your paycheck going forward without any scientific basis for doing so and without any compensation,’” she said. “Would you be OK with that?”
The Long Island Farm Bureau, based in Calverton, is also advocating against the bill with state lawmakers on Long Island and the governor’s office in Albany, according to the bureau’s administrative director Rob Carpenter.
He emphasized that the state DEC’s efforts to preserve the species since the population levels in New York were rated “poor” in 2019 — including voluntarily limiting the annual take of horseshoe crabs to 150,000 and requiring mesh bait bags to reduce the amount of crab that fisheries need to use in whelk traps — should be given a chance.
“Before we go and ban everything, I think that needs an opportunity to really work,” he said.
Olivia Ross’ bracelets, which read Stony Brook Strong or Save the Mill Pond. 100% of the proceeds are donated to reconstruction efforts. Photo courtesy Olivia Ross
By Toni-Elena Gallo
Olivia Ross may live in Port Jefferson now, but Stony Brook will always be where her heart is.
The devastating storm that hit Suffolk County on Aug. 18 and continued into the early morning hours of the next day, left Stony Brook in complete disarray, draining the Mill Pond and destroying businesses and homes. Ross, who grew up in the village, felt she needed to spring to action and help the community that has provided her with such happy memories.
“When I was little, all the way up to me taking my nieces and nephews there. So, when I saw that nothing was there, there was no life, it just broke my heart,” she said in an interview.
“Then I said, ‘Why not have this community come together and do something good? Something to unite all of us together?’ I knew I had to do something to help, because it’s so important to me — there will always be a piece of me [in Stony Brook].”
“I thought of this idea because when I was younger, and the BP oil spill happened, my aunt created these bracelets and sold them to give donations to a company that was helping clean up. So, I thought ‘What a great idea,’” Ross continued.
After meeting Ross down at Stony Brook Harbor Kayak & Paddleboard Rentals, Gloria Rocchio, president of The Ward Melville Heritage Organization, said that what she’s doing is “wonderful.”
“The paddleboard business is helping her with sales, and [when we spoke] she expressed incredible affection for the Mill Pond,” Rocchio said. “If the general public desires, they can support the community in this very difficult time.”
Ross said that 100 percent of the proceeds will go to The Ward Melville Heritage Organization for repair and restoration efforts.
“We’re backing them up, and we want to help restore such important parts of the community,” Ross added.
Ross customizes the bracelets, which she buys in bulk, to say “Stony Brook Strong” on one side and “Save the Mill Pond”’ on the other. The bracelets sell for $2 each but donations are also accepted.
“I wear mine every day,” Rocchio said.
Ross explained that with all the “negativity that goes on in the world,” she was pleased to see the positive reactions she received on Facebook, where her bracelets are available on both her and WMHO’s pages, as well as through her email, [email protected].
“I’ve sold over a hundred, and I’m almost up to a thousand dollars in donations, so I am trying to spread the word more. I’ve had a couple of businesses reach out to me asking if they could buy some in bulk, and then sell them in their stores. I love that idea,” Ross said.
And, as far as the damage that remains in Stony Brook, Rocchio explained that the WMHO is working with all facets of government, including at the federal, state, county and in conjunction with the towns of Brookhaven and Smithtown, to get Harbor Road rebuilt, among a host of other issues.
The Stony Brook Grist Mill will be getting help as early as Friday, from an excavation crew, which will begin digging out the sand damage from under the mill’s wheel, by hand, to allow it to turn once again.
Ducks walk alongside the storm-ravaged pond. Photo by Toni-Elena GalloPhoto by Toni-Elena Gallo
By Sabrina Artusa
At Mill Pond in Stony Brook, a group of swans and mallards can be observed on the sandy banks. On occasion, some Canadian geese can be seen as well, crossing the road confused and displaced.
After August’s rain, Stony Brook’s residents — both people and animals — are gradually recouping. A month later, the road ahead is a little clearer as questions on funding and rebuilding become less intimidating.
Community support
Gloria Rocchio, president of The Ward Melville Heritage Organization which owns the Grist Mill and Mill Pond, said she is grateful for the “unbelievable” amount of support the community has shown her organization, especially as she navigates the rebuilding process.
Over 100 people came to cleanup sessions at the Mill Pond where they fished out personal effects that washed into the creek after a nearby house was damaged.
People across the country have been touched by the disaster — Rocchio has received donations and letters from people nationwide. Some were former residents.
Rebuilding
The resolve to rebuild exists in abundance. Governmental officials such as Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R), Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) and community leaders like Rocchio have repeatedly announced their dedication to this area.
“People sat on the boulders, watched the wildlife, watched the sunset — that’s what we want them to have again. We have to have it back,” Rocchio said.
Rocchio said her organization has met with an engineer and has hired a marine expert to ensure the debris is cleaned out. Further, she said they are in the midst of designing a new plan for the creek leading to the pond.
The 1699 grist mill was not severely damaged. Over a foot of water washed into the basement on the west side. Now, Rocchio is concerned with waterproofing and repairing the building in a way that prevents further damage. She is also worried that the wheel will suffer from lack of use without water to keep it turning.
Town of Brookhaven officials have also stated their intentions to construct a dam that has the capacity to allow for larger amounts of water to pass through. The previous dam was not designed to endure such a large rush of water.
Stony Brook University
Two of Stony Brook University’s residence halls were damaged after severe flooding, putting the buildings out of commission. The Mendelsohn buildings were flooded with 4-6 feet of water.
With limited housing, the university initiated a $5,000 incentive to students that cancels their housing plan. The university also added beds to rooms in other halls, making them triples instead of doubles and started placing returning students in nearby hotels.
“We have expanded our recharge basins to handle increased demand. Last year, we installed a stormwater pump lift station specifically designed to redirect stormwater away from Gray and Ammann residence halls,” William Herrmann, vice president for Facilities & Services, wrote in an email.
“We have also submitted grants to secure funding for additional mitigation efforts, including the installation of stormwater retention systems, bioswales and rain gardens in the most vulnerable areas of our campus,” he added.
Funding
It is uncertain if federal aid will be secured to fund the repairs to town infrastructure. In order to gain access to federal aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, damages must meet a $37.5 million threshold.
Rocchio said WMHO needs funding for the grist mill.
Homeowners have the option to apply for a grant with the New York State Housing Trust Fund Agency to be reimbursed for damage that wasn’t covered by insurance. Applicants could be given up to $50,000 depending on the county’s median income. Applications should be made through the Long Island Housing Partnership. The deadline to apply is Oct. 7, and grants are awarded until funds are exhausted. Please email LIHP at [email protected] before applying.
Looking ahead
Stony Brook is moving forward, despite the unpleasant interruption the storm posed to summer affairs.
Rocchio said that tourism and visitation to Stony Brook village is almost as it was before Aug. 18.
Avalon Nature Preserve has reopened and was relatively unharmed, although some trails needed maintenance.
After the storm, residents from across Suffolk County organized efforts to save the fish that were stranded in the diminishing pond.
In another instance, a gas station owner, noticing a particularly weary looking Canadian goose wandering outside his gas station, provided food and water to the confused bird, who Rocchio guesses was born at the pond. The bird now hangs around the gas station regularly, even allowing his head to be pet. This owner muses that he adopted the goose, in a way.
“I do believe that when the Mill Pond is back with water that they will come back,” Rocchio said.
It could be some time until Stony Brook Mill Pond and the Grist Mill return to their former state, but it is a comfort to know that Stony Brook remains alive and well, and that the vitality of the community, like the pond, still flows.
Caption: Stony Brook University’s Red Hot Clothing Recycling Bin. Photo by John Griffin
Stony Brook University’s Facilities and Services recently rolled out revamped donation bins for its clothing recycling program. 11 “Red Hot” clothing bins were outfitted with enhanced signage and messaging to encourage students, faculty, and staff to think and act green.
The clothing recycling program has been in existence on campus for more than 20 years, but now, there is a scannable QR code on each bin that links you to the Stony Brook University recycling website. It also explains where your donated goods are going.
Wearable Collections, a New York City-based waste management company, owns the campus clothing recycling bins and collects the donations approximately every two weeks. According to the Wearable Collections website, the donations are diverted away from the landfill and instead go to someone in need, are turned into cleaning rags, or transformed into fibers that are used for mattress stuffing or high-grade paper. The university collects around 10 tons, or about 22,046 pounds of material annually.
“We are excited to share that our new clothing donation bins have been installed across our campus,” said William Herrmann, vice president for facilities & services. “These bins make it more convenient for everyone to contribute, while also highlighting our commitment to reducing landfill waste and fostering a greener future. We look forward to seeing the positive impact these bins will bring not only to our campus but the wider community as well.”
The Stony Brook University recycling website also offers an interactive map that highlights where the clothing donation bins can be found around campus, including Chapin Apartments, Roosevelt Quad, and Roth Quad. Items accepted include clean clothing– even with rips or tears– footwear, belts, handbags, hats, linens, towels, and curtains.
As summer melds into autumn, the changes in temperature and daylight length are hardly, if at all, noticeable to us. But not so with the trees of Long Island’s forests. They are attuned to incremental changes in environmental conditions and have begun to prepare for the impending winter although it is still several months away.
The first and most conspicuous sign of this preparation is the color change in the countless leaves adorning the almost countless trees. During the summer leaves are filled with chlorophyll pigment necessary for plants to photosynthesize. As summer wears on, trees begin to break down chlorophyll pigments, reabsorbing the vital nitrogen and as a result other pigments are revealed. The color of the leaf depends on which pigments appear — anthocyanin produces red colored leaves, xanthophyll creates yellow, and carotene results in orange and gold. A fall season with cool nights and warm sunny days produces the most intense colors.
There are a dozen or so tree species along the North Shore providing the riot of color a that a spectacular autumn burst can bring. Two wetland trees are especially colorful, indeed brilliant — red maple and black tupelo. Their leaves turn an intense orange-red, so colorful it appears if they are illuminated from an internal light source.Tupelo starts turning early — beginning in mid-August.
Add to this the butter yellow of the hickories, the lemon-yellow of sassafras, the bright red of scarlet oak (easy to understand how it got its name when you see it in autumn splendor), the similarly colored red oak, the solid tan of beech, the duller orange of black oak, and the solid gold of black birch, and it’s clear that Long Island’s forests can paint an eye-pleasing show!
Fortunately, there are many parks and preserves along the county’s North Shore where you can see leaf change. Caleb Smith State Park Preserve in Smithtown can be a go-to locale given the amount of red maple and tupelo growing in and along the park’s numerous wetlands. The same goes for the adjacent Blydenburgh County Park. Cordwood Landing County Park in Miller Place, a gem situated on the shore of Long Island Sound, produces a nice palette of color that includes two rarer orange-leaved trees — Hornbeam and Hop Hornbeam.
A walk along the Long Island Greenbelt Trail in Arthur Kunz County Park on the west side of the Nissequogue River, accessed from Landing Avenue in Smithtown, can be good for leaf peeping with an added bonus of beautiful views of the river and its marshland, the grasses of which turn an attractive russet color in the fall.
Makamah County Nature Preserve in Fort Salonga is similar — colorful woodland scenes with peeks out to the adjacent marshland. A less well-known county park, fine for leaf peeping, is Rassapeague County Park located in the Village of Nissequogue along Long Beach Road.
A little further afield, the 100,000 acre Pine Barrens Preserve of central and eastern Suffolk County offers many places to view the leaf change and is especially beautiful in certain areas as the bright red and orange of the red maples and black tupelos blend with the tans, browns and burgundy of various oaks. Adding to the palette here are the medium green colors of Pitch Pine and in some places the darker greens of Atlantic White Cedar.
Good places in the Pine Barrens to see the leaf change are the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, Cranberry Bog County Nature Preserve accessed by County Route 63 in Riverhead, and The Nature Conservancy’s Calverton Pond Preserve in Manorville.
A resident of Setauket, author John L. Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
This article originally appeared in TBR News Media’s Harvest Times supplement on Sept. 12.
Minghao Qiu presenting at the American Geophysical Union Conference in San Francisco last year.
Photo courtesy of M. Qiu
By Daniel Dunaief
When Minghao Qiu woke up in Beijing on Jan. 12, 2013during his freshman year in college, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing or, more appropriately, not seeing. The worst air pollution day in the history of the city mostly blocked out the sun, making it appear to be closer to 8 p.m. than a typical morning.
Minghao Qiu
While Qiu’s life path includes numerous contributing factors, that unusual day altered by air pollution had a significant influence on his career.
An Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, Qiu straddles two departments that encapsulate his scientific and public policy interests. A recent hire who started this fall, Qiu will divide his time equally between the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Renaissance School of Medicine’s Program in Public Health.
Qiu studies fundamental questions in atmospheric sciences as they influence human health.
He is part of several new hires who could contribute to the climate solutions center that Stony Brook is building on Governors Island and who could provide research that informs future policy decisions.
Noelle Eckley Selin, who was Qiu’s PhD advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, suggested Qiu is a valuable scientific, policy and educational asset.
“Stony Brook is doing a lot to address climate in a serious way with great research,” Selin said. Qiu joining the institution “could really help out the university’s broader climate efforts and make them more impactful.”
Selin appreciated how Qiu was eager to dive deeper into questions, wanting to ensure that conclusions were valid and asking how to use data to test various ideas.
As a mentor, Qiu has proven inspirational.
“A lot of my current students will go and talk to him and come back to me and say, ‘[Qiu] had five excellent ideas on my project,’” Selin said. “That’s characteristic of how he works. He’s really generous with his time and is always thinking about how to look at problems.”
Policy focus
Using causal inference, machine learning, atmospheric chemistry modeling, and remote sensing, Qiu focuses on environmental and energy policies with a global focus on issues involving air pollution, climate change and energy transitions.
Qiu would like to address how climate change is influencing the air people breathe. Increasing heat waves and droughts cause people to use more energy, often through air conditioning. The energy for the electricity to power temperature controls comes from natural gas, coal, or fossil fuels, which creates a feedback loop that further increases pollution and greenhouse gases.
“Our work tries to quantify this,” Qiu said.
He also analyzes the impact of climate change on wildfires, which affects air quality.
In a research paper published last year, Qiu joined several other scientists to analyze the impact of wildfires on air quality.
The study, published in the journal Nature, found that since at least 2016, wildfire smoke eroded about a quarter of previous decades-long efforts to reduce the concentration of particulates above 2.5 microgram in several states.
Wildfire-driven increases in ambient particulates are unregulated under air pollution laws.
The authors showed that the contribution of wildfires to regional and national air quality trends is likely to grow amid a warming climate.
In his research, Qiu seeks to understand how to use energy and climate policy to address air pollution and greenhouse gases.
“Renewable energy and climate policy in general provides potential benefits,” Qiu said.
He uses publicly available data in his models.
New York pivot
While wildfires have been, and likely will continue to be, an area of focus for his work, Qiu plans to shift his focus to the kind of pollution that is typically more prevalent in New York.
In large urban cities, pollution often comes from a concentration of traffic, as people commute to and from work and drive to the city for entertainment and cultural events.
“We are going to pivot a little bit, especially to factors that are more relevant” to the Empire State, he said.
While climate change is a broad category that affects patterns across the world, air pollution and its impacts are more regional.
“The biggest impact of air pollution happens locally” particularly in terms of health effects, Qiu said.
From Beijing to MIT
Born and raised in Beijing, Qiu began connecting how climate or energy policy influences air pollution at MIT.
“When I started my PhD, there was not much real world data analysis” that linked how much renewable energy helps air quality, Qiu said. “We have historical data to do that, but it’s a lot more complex.”
After he graduated from MIT, Qiu moved to Stanford, where he shifted his focus to climate change.
“There, I got to collaborate more directly with people in the public health domain,” he said, as he focused on wildfires.
Personal choices
Despite studying air pollution and climate change, Qiu does not have HEPA filters in every room and, by his own admission, does not live a particularly green life. He does not have an electric car, although he plans to get one when he needs a new vehicle. He urges people not to sacrifice the living standards to which they are accustomed, which can include eating their preferred foods and traveling to distant points in the world.
Qiu believes there are choices individuals can make to help, but that the kind of decisions necessary to improve the outlook for climate change come from centralized government policy or large enterprises.
“I have great respect for people who change their personal behavior” but he recognizes that “this is not for everyone.”
A resident of Hicksville, Qiu lives with his wife Mingyu Song, who is a software engineer. The couple met when they were in high school.
When he’s not working on climate models, he enjoys playing basketball and, at just under six feet tall, typically plays shooting guard.
As for his research, Qiu does “rigorous scientific research” that draws from historical data.
“I feel a sense of urgency that we would like to get the answers to many of the scientific evidence as quickly as possible to communicate to policy makers,” he said.
He wants his research to be impactful and to help policy makers take “appropriate measures.”
Participants of the 2023 Stone Bridge Nighthawk Watch. Photo by Kathy Ishizuka
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
It’s that time of year again! Four Harbors Audubon Society invites the community to join them for their 8th annual Stone Bridge Nighthawk Watch at Frank Melville Memorial Park, 1 Old Field Road, Setauket every evening through Oct. 6, from 5:30 p.m. until dusk.
The group will be tallying migrating Common Nighthawks to better understand nighthawk population trends. Join them at the Stone Bridge to witness nighthawks as they pass over during their migratory journey to their wintering grounds in Brazil and Argentina. Bring binoculars. Visit www.4has.org for further details.
A resident of Setauket, author John L. Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.
VOLUNTEERS WANTED
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