Interviewed student from Westmont High School, Maria Edirisinghe.
Question: What parts of the environment and climate change do you focus on and what do you do to fight climate change?
Answer: I focus on environmental injustices where marginalized communities are disporotionally impacted by the negative effect of climate change. The way I fight climate change is through participating as an organizer at Sunrise Silicon Valley.
Question: Piggybacking off of the last question, are you a part of any organization? If so, what do they stand for/ fight for?
Answer: Sunrise Silicon Valley is a group of youth activists fighting for climate justice, and it is a smaller hub of Sunrise Movement. We try to make change through various activities such as hosting climate strikes to raise awareness, educating our community, and encouraging climate literacy in youth education. Additionally, we try to make change by endorsing politicians and policies that we believe accurately represent the green future we want through text banking, canvassing, etc.
Question: What are your thoughts on fake grass and its impacts on the environment?
Answer: Although artificial grass saves water and is easier to maintain, it is still a petroleum based product that disrupts the natural cycle of the environment in specific ways. Fake grass can be permeable to liquid, but it does not absorb waste and it is possible to use greywater to save water when watering your lawn instead of going and purchasing fake grass. Fake grass can cause an excess of contaminated runoff that is a danger to aquatic life, and it is also associated with overheating as synthetic turf will warm up easier. Real grass, on the other hand, helps clean air, slows the flow of rainfall, and provides a wildlife habitat to all those little critters that are crucial to the function of our ecosystems that drive production.
Greywater: A system of redirecting used laundry machine water from the house into buckets (outside of the house) to then use to water gardens, lawns, plants, etc.
Question: Personally, do you think that real grass or fake grass is more beneficial to the environment and why? Can one or the other be more beneficial in different places of the world?
Answer: In my opinion, I believe that real grass should be used wherever it can be maintained as it is essential to our ecosystem and the clean air we breathe. However, I would say that it would be more efficient to use artificial grass in areas suffering from drought to help preserve water or in places where it is too expensive for people who are already financially struggling to upkeep. This can save money used on water bills and can be beneficial in other areas of their day to day lives.