Fashion social media influencers, from platforms like Instagram and TikTok, use their status to push followers to a culture of fast fashion, moving people away from sustainability in their purchases. It is a damaging practice that preys on our want of instant gratification and negatively impacts the environment. 

Fast vs. Slow Fashion

When manufacturers mass-produce the trendiest pieces and sell to vendors for lower prices, they are taking advantage of what’s current in fashion to make quick money. This practice, known as fast fashion, costs employees fair pay and produces negative environmental outcomes through selling unethically produced and low-quality clothing. One major cause of pollution in the world is the high quantity of these poorly made clothes — landfills and garbage sites are covered in torn, tattered garments made from cheap dyes at the hands of workers who don’t get paid living wages for their labor.

To stop the pollution and exploitation created by fast fashion, brands and clothing departments need to reach sustainability. Prioritizing quality over quantity of clothing items is a cultural idea that people need to adopt if they want to stall the progression of the climate crisis.

This means keeping clothes for as long as possible, taking care of each piece, buying less and being a smarter product-consumer. This method, called slow fashion, is a more earth-friendly approach to wearing clothing and gives the mentality that fashion is about versatility, not the social internet’s latest craze. 

Clothing Culture

Social media influencers have control over their masses of followers in ways that we don’t yet know the extent of. Whether it’s purchasing clothing online or seeing an ad for a store, when your favorite influencer is promoting a product, it convinces you to want it.

Buzz created from a viral TikTok can make its way through millions of phones, which encourages fashion trends to take shape rapidly and almost subconsciously. One major factor at play in both fast fashion and social media is instant gratification. Influencers receive feedback and money from social media interaction, while those followers get satisfaction from owning what’s considered popular.

The instant gratification of fast fashion is dangerous to the environment and the way clothes are worn and treated. Not only does the production, manufacturing and transport for fast fashion cause greenhouse gases to be created, it involves a large amount of waste byproducts.

In a New York Times article called “How Fast Fashion Is Destroying the Planet,” writer Tatiana Schlossberg said, “More than 60 percent of fabric fibers are now synthetics, derived from fossil fuels, so if and when our clothing ends up in a landfill (about 85 percent of textile waste in the United States goes to landfills or is incinerated), it will not decay.” It’s not just a matter of production costs, as fashion increases carbon emissions and water usage, but how our waste habits damage ecosystems. 

Human Impact

The validation that influencers receive from likes and comments reflects on their viewers and triggers similar behavior. This hurts our wallets and perceptions of wearing fashion, alluding to the belief that having more clothing equates to having better style. An endless cycle continues, as big shopping hauls of cheap fashion lead to poor conditions for laborers and strain on resources. The time has come for sustainability and slow fashion to rise as the majority practice. 

As a consumer, don’t fall victim to inexpensive runway looks to buy more for your buck. Of course, nobody is perfect, and neither is every brand that promotes sustainability in its production. Still, for the sake of society as a whole, people need to adapt to a different mindset of understanding the importance fashion plays in our lives.

Whether you love or hate fashion as a concept, everyone wears clothes and participates in the industry, which is designed to produce what’s in demand and what’s in style. It’s a domino effect — as sustainability in fashion production becomes higher in demand, it becomes the new normal. This puts the responsibility on consumers to shop smart. Fashion can then mean more than simple trends, but as something that lasts. 

india.bown@dailyutahchronicle.com

@bown_india

The post The Promotion of Fast Fashion from Influencers Is Problematic and Unsustainable appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

Appointments are available for a public COVID-19 vaccine clinic being held at Moby Arena on Friday, June 18 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. According to an email notice sent by the Colorado State University Pandemic Preparedness Team, the clinic will be administering first doses of the Moderna vaccine at no cost to recipients. A second […]

Extending the body positivity movement to skin

Most of us have seen the body positivity movement blow up, a push to deconstruct societal ideas of the perfect body — the thin, Eurocentric, size zero model — and promote self-love and body acceptance for women of all different shapes and sizes. Celebrities, influencers and everyday users of social media alike are taking to TikTok and Instagram to post unedited pictures and videos of themselves without flattering lighting and angles as a way of celebrating how their natural bodies really look on a daily basis, thereby teaching us that stretch marks, fat rolls, cellulite, body hair and other so-called “imperfections” are all perfectly normal and beautiful.

A corollary to the body positivity movement — the acne positivity movement — has started to pick up steam as well, sparking conversations about acne representation in the media and popular culture. The movement seeks to destigmatize acne and redefine beauty in a way that normalizes not having crystal-clear and dewy skin, but rather embraces pimples, scars and other blemishes. 

I remember my middle school years as a time when everyone around me was going through the motions of puberty, which more often than not was also accompanied by the development of acne. As a late bloomer, I prided myself on my blemish-free complexion, that is until I started my freshman year of high school and watched as my hormones worked to create constellations of pimples that dotted my forehead and cheeks. 

The pain of having acne is both physical and mental. The culture of shame and embarrassment that surrounds such a common condition led me to feel less beautiful when my skin was breaking out. I constantly needed to apply concealer on any red “imperfections” I saw on my skin before I left the house, afraid of baring my naked face in public and being mercilessly judged for any perceived flaw. For so long, I let acne undermine my social life, bailing on plans to go out with friends when I saw a pimple I couldn’t cover up. Making eye contact during a conversation was a daily battle for me, my mind anxiously working to determine whether or not the person I was talking to thought I was disgusting for the pimples adorning my complexion. 

My bathroom cabinets still overflow with all of the skincare products I tried over the years to permanently get rid of my acne and acquire that airbrushed glow without makeup. The experiences I missed out on and the memories I failed to make because I was too self-conscious about my skin still haunt me. 

As I’ve aged, I’ve finally learned to accept that some days, my skin may appear agitated and inflamed, and other days, it will look calm and clear. The intricacies of my hormones, diet, water intake and stress levels all combine to determine how my face looks one day versus the next.

I no longer subscribe to labels such as “good” or “bad” skin, but rather see skin for what it is: a protective barrier that helps shield and protect us from outer threats. I’ve shifted my perspective on my acne from a “dirty anomaly” to something completely normal and natural that I refuse to let burden me with shame or anxiety. I’ve entered into the realm of “neutral ambivalence” rather than a hysteric frenzy whenever I see pimples crop up. I now understand that my skin doesn’t define my beauty — especially not my skin on some random Monday night before I start my period — and doesn’t deserve to hold me back from living my life to its fullest. 

Contact Madeleine Lorie at mlorie@dailycal.org.

The Daily Californian

When a high school student decides to play a sport at the collegiate level, signing a letter of intent means more than just new opportunities. In the world of varsity athletics, teammates train side-by-side in practices and spend hours packed together in buses for travel games. Committing to a team means committing to its community — and the social dynamics that shape it.

During his high school recruiting visit with Brown track and field, Philip Batler ’20 came to campus bearing in mind the question of how his identity as a queer athlete would fit into the team culture. He first became interested in running competitively in middle school, and throughout high school his growing passion pointed him toward a collegiate athletic career. But Batler knew that there was more to athletics than just competing. As he met potential teammates and coaches on College Hill, he also paid close attention to the social atmosphere.

Navigating interpersonal relationships as a queer student-athlete can be complicated by identifying outside of a presumed heterosexuality still predominant in the American mainstream. Within this environment where individuals are expected to be cisgender and heterosexual, every relationship requires deciding whether or not to voice one’s identity and brace for the ensuing response.

But when Batler visited the team, something surprising happened: he met another gay track athlete for the first time. Although the two were never on the team simultaneously — he was a senior on the team when Batler was visiting as a senior in high school — they stayed in touch, and Batler came to view him as a mentor.

“It’s just been amazing because he essentially lived my experience, just four years earlier than I did, and so I would always go to him for advice,” Batler said.

Similarly, Gus Hirschfeld ’21, who was a part of the men’s crew team until his graduation this past May, found that the presence of other queer rowers shaped his experience on his team and made him feel more comfortable eventually coming out.

“Every single year I was on our team there was always an out athlete, so it wasn’t like I was going at it alone. There were always people on the team before me and after me who were also identifying as queer,” he said. “I felt very fortunate to be on a team that had a culture where I didn’t really have to think twice about how I was presenting.”

Visibility and embracing identity

For Batler and Hirschfeld alike, there was always someone to turn to on their team to talk about queer issues. The visibility of other queer athletes helped them embrace their queerness, as teammates’ coming out brought to light an often unseen diversity that challenged heteronormativity.

“That mentorship of somebody who lived that experience as a queer athlete is really just a priceless friendship and mentorship that I’m just so grateful for,” Batler said. “He really did teach me a lot about how to be myself.”

But while, for some, queer visibility in athletics came to serve as a bridge between their individual identity and team culture, for others, the absence of openly queer athletes on their varsity team reinforced a culture of heteronormativity, making them worried by the thought of being the only “out” person on their team.

“Coming into school, I was almost banking on the fact that there would be another girl on my team that would be queer — especially playing field hockey, traditionally a pretty queer sport,” Calista Manuzza ’23 said.

For Manuzza, who grew up in New Jersey playing a variety of sports with her older sister, athletics had always been tied to her social life. Most of her friends in high school played field hockey. But in her first semester at Brown, she found no openly queer athletes on her team: something she found alienating.

“I was really hoping that when I got to school that one of (my teammates) would be obviously queer and I could just bond with that person,” she said. “When I didn’t have that right off the bat, I was devastated. I was like, ‘How am I going to reach out to anyone?’ I felt like that was my easy in, if I could find another person.”

When queer athletes are faced with the possibility of being the only queer-identifying person on their team, it can be isolating and make embracing identity all the more challenging, she explained.

“I realized it was really easy eventually to come out, because no one had a problem with it,” Manuzza said. But knowing there were other queer athletes on the team “definitely would have made it a much easier experience and a much less anxious experience.”

Jack Walker

Performing on and off the field

For many queer athletes, heteronormativity is often embedded in the culture of their sports.

“Athletics in general are very competitive,” Hirschfeld said. For male athletes, “tied to competition a lot of the time is being alpha about things and obviously just like ‘beating up’ on your opponent or things like that.” According to Hirschfeld, even phrases like “beating up” used to describe competition in male athletics are rooted in a performance of a certain ‘macho’ form of masculinity.

According to Batler, sports often fall within a gender binary, where contact sports like football, basketball and hockey are perceived as more masculine. This can reproduce the desire for athletes in non-contact sports to perform masculinity and heterosexuality in a way that can be alienating for queer athletes.

“Whether it was middle school, high school or college … (in other athletes’ perception) track definitely falls more on the feminine side, because it’s a non-contact sport, a lot of us wear either short shorts or Spandex (and) it’s not one of the big four (hockey, basketball, baseball and football) that you have on primetime TV,” he explained.

As a result, many athletes feel the need to overcompensate for the feminine perception of their sport, Batler said, by exceedingly putting masculinity on display. 

While Batler noted that, for him, this issue was less prevalent at Brown, it still created pressure to present in a way that did not align with how he personally identified.

“I was very much into this concept of, ‘I’m gay, but I’m not like other gay people,’” he said. “I was really yearning to be liked and to fit in with straight men, and my teammates.”

But, for Hirschfeld, playing a non-contact sport was freeing. Because the perception of crew landed outside of traditional notions of masculinity, he felt more comfortable expressing himself. “It really didn’t matter who I was with,” he said. “It really was the epitome of a team sport.”

This performance of gender also extends into social life, Claire Pisani ’23 MD ’27, a member of the women’s water polo team, explained. Varsity teams often socialize with other teams, hosting parties and mixers together. For Pisani, this social scene can be a highly heteronormative one in which women are expected to present in a traditionally feminine way and be desirable to straight men.

This social environment, paired with water polo’s perception as an aggressive, more masculine sport implicitly pressures female athletes to “dress a certain way and act a certain way with other men’s teams,” she said. 

Pisani doesn’t fault her teammates for the alienation she felt, but rather the reality of the lack of queer representation on her team. 

Before she came out, conversations on Pisani’s team were often centered upon relationships but were rarely inclusive to queer student-athletes. “The norm was very, ‘Oh, what guys have you been hooking up with?’ and ‘Oh, what men’s team are we mixing with?’ and ‘How do we get this men’s team to want to mix with us?’” she explained. 

Manuzza agreed, adding that “mixing with teams is so heteronormative.”

“My team has mixed with tons of teams, and it’s always our team and a male team,” she said. “Because a lot of girls on my team will complain that they don’t have any friends that are girls outside of the team, I’m like, ‘Why don’t we mix with another female team?’” But the response from her teammates was lukewarm, she said.

Manuzza also noted the issue of male athletes crossing boundaries with her in social settings, disregarding her sexual orientation. “I’ve talked to some of them and been like, ‘Hey, would you ever do that to another guy who likes women?’ and they’re like, ‘No, of course not,’” she said. “Well, I should be comparable to that because I’m not interested in men, and I don’t want you to grab me.”

Even in drinking games at parties, Manuzza found that she was expected to fit into a heteronormative ideal — one that was not easy to break free from.

Many drinking games with other teams put her in provocative situations oriented toward heterosexual students. She felt that, despite being queer, if she were to opt out of the demands of the game, it would be “a little taboo.” 

When she pushed her teammates to make these games more inclusive, they saw little value in altering the rules for just one person. 

‘Well, why are we going to change it just for you?,” she recalled them saying. “You’re the only one.’”

“It’s easy to forget that there could be other queer people if there’s nobody who’s actively out,” Pisani said. “Sometimes things are said when they forget there are queer women or gay women who aren’t as feminine.”

“There’s only a few of use who are willing to stand up and say, ‘Yes, I’m queer,’” Manuzza said. “It’s definitely an uphill battle.”

Jack Walker

Challenging the student-athlete stereotype

Despite the challenges of being a queer person in a heternormative space, many queer student-athletes find that their teams are supportive and help them feel more comfortable expressing themselves. For Pisani, the women’s water polo team has been a support system as she navigates Brown as a queer person.

But perceptions of athletes as close-minded or homophobic from those outside the athletic community can make queer student-athletes feel sidelined, discouraging them from calling attention to negative experiences out of fear of reinforcing stereotypes. 

Stereotypes deeming athletes close-minded can also make it harder for athletes to feel accepted and socially integrated within the University as a whole, Pisani explained.

“A lot of my teammates have expressed feeling very isolated and looked down upon by even regular students who think that they just got in because they’re good at sports,” she said. “I think there’s a big impostor syndrome, a collective impostor syndrome, among a lot of my teammates and other athletes I’ve talked to.”

Batler added that while, on one hand, the only time he heard homophobic slurs used on campus was in the locker room, outside of the athlete community he felt athletes were stigmatized as homophobic or close-minded in a way that did not fully encapsulate his personal experience.  “It was really frustrating to have this community that I was actually really proud to be a part of … be painted as homophobic when I had teammates that loved me. They accepted me,” he said.

At times, the stigma of athletes as homophobic can even contribute to the erasure of queer athletes. When all athletes are presented as homophobic or close-minded, Batler said, it reinforces a heteronormative perception of athletes that can make it harder for queer student-athletes to express themselves and overlooks their contributions to the athlete community.

“Sometimes people just generalize athletes as this monolithic community,” Batler added. “There’s a lot of complexity to us and we contribute a lot more than just being the jocks in the room.”

For Manuzza, despite being queer herself, these stereotypes made it challenging for her to feel welcomed in queer spaces at the University or get to know students outside of athletics.

“There is definitely a little bit of a boundary between the athletes and the non-athletes at Brown,” she said. “I found it hard to make friends with people, because as soon as I say I’m an athlete they kind of detach from the conversation … so I found it really hard to make other queer friends in that setting.” 

Creating community

For many, spaces created by and for those understand what it means to be a queer student-athlete are needed.

In the fall of his junior year, Batler reached out to faculty within the athletic department with the idea for a new club: the Student-Athlete Gay Alliance. While it was hard to get people to come at first, over time the organization provided a meaningful space for queer athletes to talk about their experiences and be themselves.

“Being surrounded by people who knew exactly what you were going through was really incomparable, a phenomenal experience and just something I really valued. Not to be arrogant, but I’m really proud of how we built it,” he said. “I really feel like it was a community and group of people I was so fortunate to have gotten to meet and share that space and time with.”

Today, SAGA still faces challenges in maintaining membership — Pisani and Manuzza noted that few male athletes come to events — but it continues to offer queer student-athletes a space they may otherwise lack.

“Having someone who understands the intersection of (the queer student-athlete identity) when there’s not that many people in that space has been such an amazing experience,” Manuzza said. 

Moving forward, there is still room to for the University to improve the queer student-athlete experience, including from an administrative level. In March, Athlete Ally released its Athletic Equality Index, which considers “nondiscrimination policy, trans inclusion policy, sexual harassment policy, fan code of conduct, collaboration with activist groups, LGBTQ+ educational resources and pro-LGBTQ+ training for staff and athletes” in collegiate athletic programs. Brown received a score of 45 out of 100 — the third-lowest in the Ivy League.

“We want to make sure that LGBTQ-identified student-athletes, like all LGBTQ-identified students, are supported by the wide range of resources in the Division of Campus Life,” Eric Estes, vice president for campus life, wrote in an email to the Herald. “It’s important that our LGBTQ-identified students see themselves as represented and affirmed across the staff that support their experience outside the classroom.”

Estes emphasized that the University has taken measures to increase support and representation for the LGBTQ community at an administrative level. This has been reflected in an increase in the staffing and budget of the LGBTQ Center, including an annual budget increase of 276 percent for the LGBTQ Center since Fiscal Year 2016, and a focus on “compositional diversity in our hiring in Campus Life over the past five years,” he explained.

“These and other important commitments of resources and support … lift up and benefit the entire LGBTQ community, including student-athletes,” he added.

Meanwhile, the intergenerational work of queer student-athletes building support in their community one person at a time is changing the way queer athletes experience Brown.

“I’m hoping that when they get to Brown, there’s more of a greeting for queer athletes right up front. I felt like I had to wait a few months of being at Brown before I was even exposed to the fact that we had a queer group for athletes,” Manuzza said. “I’m just hoping that it will be something people will be proud to say they’re a part of.”

Batler hopes that future queer athletes and their intersectional identities will be welcomed wholeheartedly.

“It’s not that it’s brushed under the rug, it’s that you’re celebrated for it. Like, yes, we love that you bring this to the table, not just as an athlete, but we love that you contribute this other voice to the community that we build as a team,” Batler said. “What I hope for is just a level of openness that has never been seen before.”

And, for Batler, seeing his younger teammate kiss another boy at a track team party gave him the sense that, one way or another, progress was being made.

“I was like, wow, I don’t think I would have been that confident to do that” as an underclassman, he said. “That just made me feel excited. I hope — no, I don’t hope, I know — that it’ll just keep getting better for each incoming class.”

Touted as “the world’s greatest” animation, gaming and entertainment event, RTX returns for its 11th year, with a second digital alternative to its annual convention RTX at Home July 8-17.

Conference History

A sort of cross between Comic-Con and SXSW, RTX celebrates and features gaming, animation, internet culture and content creation with sneak peeks for game releases, panels with creators, cosplay contests, animation screenings and other interactive programming.

From its inaugural event in 2011 with a crowd of 500 to the over 60,000 expected attendees in 2019, RTX has become a huge part of the Austin event scene with local bars, restaurants and venues joining in the festivities with their own specials and mini-events.

The conference was created by video production company Rooster Teeth LLC. Founded in 2003 by Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, Geoff Ramsey, Jason Saldaña, Gus Sorola and Joel Heyman with the production of their series Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth Productions now has over 9 million YouTube subscribers and supports podcasts, video game development, live-action productions (“Rooster Teeth Shorts,” “Immersion,” “Day 5,” “Million Dollars,” “Podcast But Outside …,” “On the Spot,” etc.) and animation (“RWBY,” “Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures,” “Camp Camp,” etc.).

Rooster Teeth content spans across six dedicated channels, each with its own unique groups of hosts and content including Achievement Hunter (1.58M subscribers), LetsPlay (3.77M subscribers), Inside Gaming (1.32M subscribers), Funhaus (1.57M subscribers) and Death Battle (4.8M subscribers). Rooster Teeth also hosts the RTX events in Austin, Sydney, London and at home.

The RTX started in 2011 is usually held annually in Austin, Texas, but moved online in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, Rooster Teeth announced the return of the RTX at Home virtual model, tweeting, “After serious discussions, we have made the decision to cancel this year’s in-person RTX Austin 2021. The health and safety of our staff, Guardians, and community is our number one priority.”

RTX plans to return to Austin in 2022, but moving to a virtual space in 2020 and 2021 has allowed for an even wider audience to take part as compared to previous years.

Movement to the Virtual

The RTX at Home virtual programming features much of the same content that fans have grown to expect from this event, including special one-time virtual specials and activities. Events like meet and greets, group happy hours, panels and personalized video recordings allow fans a chance to interact with the Rooster Teeth on-camera personalities and behind-the-scenes staff. Virtual spaces like the Community Corner, Cosplay Contest and Artist Gallery allow community members to interact and share their art and passion.

RTX at Home will also feature the third annual Podcast Festival and the RTX Animation Festival, with a highly anticipated sneak peek of RWBY Vol 9. For those interested in the content creation industry, RTX at Home also offers virtual mentoring sessions, with a variety of gurus from various Rooster Teeth departments offering advice and perspectives. Finally, RTX at Home promises an exciting slate of yet-to-be-announced one-of-a-kind virtual evening events from Achievement Hunter, Face Jam, Funhaus and Squad Team Force, as well as the RTX at Home Rave with DJ JONK!

RTX at Home runs July 8-17 and will include a mix of free-to-watch and ticketed events delivered virtually on a variety of platforms including the Rooster Teeth website and apps. Tickets, registration, schedules and information can be found on roosterteeth.com and @RTXEvent on Twitter.

h.graham@dailyutahchronicle.com

@_HeatherGraham_

The post RTX at Home Entertains Audiences Virtually for a Second Year appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

UCPD investigates arson, damaged card reader at Unit 2

Madeleine Fruman/Staff

An arson was reported by UCPD by the central building of Unit 2. An “access control card reader” and nearby landscaping were burned.

UCPD reported an arson at 2650 Haste St. by the central building of the Unit 2 residence hall Wednesday.

At 5:20 a.m., an unidentified male burned an “access control card reader,” as well as nearby landscaping outside the building, according to a UCPD email. UCPD spokesperson Lt. Sabrina Reich added that the case is currently under investigation and that no updates are currently available.

The email asks anyone with information on the arson to contact UCPD at 510-642-6760.

Check back for updates.

Aditya Katewa is the executive news editor. Contact him at akatewa@dailycal.org, and follow him on Twitter at @adkatewa1.

The Daily Californian

As a kid, my parents often took me to Utah’s Hogle Zoo. Being the know-it-all I was, I’d spout new animal facts I had learned to anyone I talked to after our visits. Many of us likely share similar childhood memories of visiting zoos and aquariums. However, when I returned to Hogle Zoo as an adult this year, I found it lacking the wonder I’d known as a child. Instead, it saddened me to see the animals stuck in small habitats that bore little resemblance to their natural ones. And they had no privacy with all the children pressed up against the glass.

Utah’s Hogle Zoo maintains a better environment for their animals than many other zoos, even within the state. Lagoon houses 40 animals, including many big cats, in terrible conditions. Their pens are too small for the animals and don’t provide adequate protection from park patrons. Compared to Lagoon, places like Hogle Zoo and the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium almost feel like animal sanctuaries, but that does not change the fact that captivity actively harms animals. Utah needs to require higher standards of care for all animals in captivity.

The Reality of Keeping Animals in Captivity

It’s been shown time and time again that animals in captivity suffer. The orca is perhaps the most well-known example of the toll captivity can have on animals. In the wild, orcas live complex lifestyles which cannot be replicated in a small tank. Orcas in captivity die much younger, struggle to exercise properly and cannot maintain the social bonds they would have in the wild. This disruption to their lives causes captive orcas to act more aggressively towards trainers and other orcas. Sometimes orcas in captivity grow so stressed that they will even self-mutilate.

Like the orca, other animals, such as big cats, elephants, birds and sharks, all experience intense stress in captivity. While each species will have a different and unique experience in captivity, every captive animal is deprived of its natural habitat and social structure to be gawked at by us humans.

Do Zoos Have a Positive Influence?

The harm experienced by captive animals has long motivated animal rights activists to advocate against keeping animals in zoos. For just as long, zoos and aquariums have justified their existence as vital institutions for conservation and education. The San Diego Zoo, for instance, helped save the California condor from extinction, bringing the population from only 22 in the wild in 1982 to over 400, with 240 living in the wild.

Utah’s own institutions play a role in conservation. The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium takes part in several Species Survival Plan Programs. This coral rescue initiative works to educate about sustainable food and tries to reuse and conserve water in the aquarium as much as possible.

The Hogle Zoo donates proceeds from its carousel to conservation, works towards sustainability in its own operations and takes part in conservation groups like 96 Elephants and Wild Aware Utah.

Speaking from my own experience, going to the Hogle Zoo as a child taught me the importance of conservation. Seeing animals in real life while learning about threats to their survival like habitat encroachment and poaching lead me to be passionate about conservation as an adult.

Utah’s Animals Must Also Be Protected

Zoos in our state serve as a harmful institution for the animals who live there, while also providing an educational and conservation-focused experience for their guests. If Utah creates higher standards for animal care, then the zoos in our state can be more humane for the animals we claim to care about.

Humane animal housing reform should focus on animal habitats and socialization. To legally house animals now, an institution needs to comply with the national Animal Welfare Act, which requires caretakers to provide food, water and veterinary care. But it fails to address the habitation and social needs of animals.

Our state should pass laws that require certain habitat sizes and designs and allow for animals to socialize in a healthy way based on their natural needs. Laws that require zoos and aquariums to house animals more humanely would make happier animals and happier zoo visits for every guest.

Additionally, zoos currently function as a family adventure. The state can also consider shifting the focus to educating guests and making them a part of conservation efforts. This would give adults a reason to come back to support conservation efforts.

We must start making drastic changes to the way we think about zoos if we want to resolve the big problems they present. Designing zoos solely with our entertainment in mind makes it impossible for the animals who live there to be healthy and happy. Even though Utah’s own zoos and aquariums treat animals slightly better than circuses or roadside zoos, we shouldn’t be content with the bare minimum.

k.cushman@dailyutahchronicle.com

@kcellenc

The post Cushman: Utah Must Protect Its Animals in Captivity appeared first on The Daily Utah Chronicle.

Gophers redshirt senior diver Sarah Bacon competed in the U.S. Olympic trials throughout the week of June 6, finishing in third place with a total score of 912.10 across 15 dives throughout the preliminary, semifinals and the finals.

The four-time NCAA Champion fell just one spot short of qualifying for this year’s summer games behind winner Krysta Palmer (1011.95) and Hailey Hernandez (926.55).

Final Round – Saturday, June 12

On Saturday, Bacon trailed the top two divers, Palmer and Hernandez, by 87.15 and 25.90 points heading into the final round.

The Olympic hopeful competed in the final round and was 14.45 points short of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games, finishing in third place with a total score of 912.10. The 25.90 point margin was too much to overcome with just five dives remaining.

However, the hometown native gave it everything she had; three of Bacon’s five dives scored a whopping 72.00 points or above. It was her best five-dive performance of the trials as she totaled 344.10.

Bacon got off to a hot start with a marvelous inward two-and-a-half somersault pike, earning 75.00 points from the judges after her rotation allowed her to enter the water with minimal splashes.

On dive two, Bacon over-rotated on her back somersault two and a half pike, causing her to enter the water slightly sideways. As a result, the judges deducted points from her score as she earned 55.50 points. The redshirt senior trailed Alison Gibson by 33.30 points, who held the second qualifying spot, heading into round three of dives.

Bacon continued sizzling on dive three, scoring an incredible 76.50 points on her reverse two-and-a-half somersault pike to cut Gibson’s 33.30 point gap to 19.80 heading into the fourth round of dives.

Following up her magnificent third dive, Bacon earned 65.10 points from the judges on her forward three-and-a-half somersault pike, continuing to cut the gap and trail new second place holder, Hernandez, by 18.95 points going into the last round of dives.

The Gophers veteran needed a massive score on her last dive that would give her a chance to finish in the second qualifying spot, and she did just that, scoring 72.00 points on her forward two-and-a-half somersault, one twist pike.

Unfortunately for Bacon, Hernandez scored 67.50 points on her last dive, and it was more than enough for her to hold onto the second-place qualifying spot.

An earlier miss in the preliminary round also proved costly in Bacon falling short of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer.

The semifinal round – Tuesday, June 8

On Tuesday evening, Bacon competed in the semifinal round and remained in fifth place after her ten dives with a total score of 568.00. This total allowed Bacon to make the top-12 cut to make the final round of the three-meter springboard finals, giving her a chance to represent Team USA at the Olympic Games this summer.

Bacon’s best dive of the semifinal was her first of the night. With her back toward the water, she jumped and completed an inward two-and-a-half somersault pike that earned her 67.50 points from the judges, the highest score she had through the preliminary and semifinal.

The hometown native also saw similar success on her second dive. Bacon executed her back two-and-a-half somersault pike that earned her a total score of 63.00 points from the judges, which was more than double what the judges awarded her after her miss in the preliminary round.

To complete Bacon’s semifinal round, she scored 57.35 on dive four with matching 54.00s on dives three and five.

The preliminary round – Tuesday, June 8

On Tuesday morning, Bacon competed in the preliminary round. She finished in fifth place with a total score of 272.15 through her first five dives. This total earned her the opportunity to advance and compete in the semifinal round.

The Olympic hopeful’s best score of the round came on dive four. Bacon dived gracefully toward the water, completing a forward three-and-a-half somersault pike that earned her a total score of 66.65 points from the judges.

Bacon found similar scoring success on her last dive of the preliminary. She executed a forward two-and-a-half somersault, one twist pike similarly impressing the judges as she did on dive four to earn a score of 63.00 points.

However, the redshirt senior had a miss on dive two that played a crucial role in her falling short of qualifying for the summer games. As Bacon launched off the springboard to complete her back two and a half somersault pike, she did not get a full rotation on her last somersault and nearly landed in the water horizontally. The judges awarded the dive a total of 27.00 points.

To round out Bacon’s preliminary scores, she earned 58.50 points on dive three and 57.00 on dive one. She trailed the lead diver, Hailey Hernandez, by 32.50 points heading into the semifinal round.

On June 4, Utah made national headlines after Gov. Spencer Cox declared a Weekend of Prayer, encouraging his constituents to pray for rain to alleviate the state’s current drought. Cox’s ignorant claim that prayer would be a viable solution to the extreme drought has made our state the nation’s laughingstock.

But that same weekend, light rain showers did sprinkle the Salt Lake Valley, only reinforcing Cox’s inadequate and comical attempt at combatting the state’s severe water shortage. While Cox and his supporters saw the rain as the “divine intervention” they eagerly anticipated, I saw it as a mere coincidence. If Cox really wants to conserve water during this crisis, he must do more than request prayers.

Last summer, the Utah drought intensified, making for the driest summer ever recorded. Forecasts remained bleak during the winter. Considering that Utah receives 95% of its water from the annual snowpack, this lack of precipitation caused concern. And this year, Southern Utah’s snowpack is only 20% of what it should be. The water in major Utah reservoirs, which hold the majority of annual precipitation, also fell 15% from what they were at last year.

Now, the drought has impacted a jaw-dropping 2.7 million citizens statewide. Farmers, who use more than 80%  of the state’s stored water, have felt the drought the most. Many farms have needed to sell livestock to cope. Northern Utah farms were told that they will only receive somewhere between 40%-50% of their average water allotment after crops were already planted. And since soil moisture is also at an all-time low, this season’s lack of water will be devastating to farmers, resulting in a major revenue losses for those in the agriculture industry.

Beyond these discouraging numbers, Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the nation, and many predict the population boom will continue increasing. We must solve the water crisis now by setting precautions and taking strict conservation actions. Otherwise, the state will not be able to maintain this population growth.

While state leaders have little control over the drought itself, they certainly have control over how we conserve our water moving forward — and currently, they haven’t done enough.

On March 17, Cox issued an executive order, stating that Utah was in a state of emergency because of the statewide drought conditions. The declaration will give agriculture workers and all other Utah citizens access to emergency resources to combat the drought. In the last months, Cox has repeatedly emphasized that citizens should take shorter showers and fix sink leaks while disregarding the fact that indoor residential use only makes up a mere 4% of Utah’s water usage.

Cox and his administration also encouraged citizens to “Slow the Flow,” a phrase coming from the campaign comprised of different community state partners and their passion to conserve water. The campaign’s website has helpful resources such as conservation tips, rebate programs and lawn watering guides.

But the website also provides a link to the state’s “Hall of Fame or Shame,” a tactic adopted from other drought-stricken areas. The site allows citizens to highlight their neighbors’ watering strategies – for better or for worse. The site has received criticism as it can inadvertently divide rather than unite communities in times of hardship, and arguably achieves little.

Thankfully, at a press conference on June 8, Cox declared that all state facilities reduce their outdoor watering to twice a week, and in Southern Utah, three times a week. While these actions stepped in the right direction, the Cox administration also made it clear that water conservation remains specific to counties and local governments. But the state has reached the point where acting on small local levels will no longer suffice. Instead, we need drastic, overarching actions statewide.

A good place for the state to start would be to imitate Nevada in banning rarely used grass areas from being watered, which could be anything from office parks to street medians. Water conservationists predict that this simple restriction will result in a 15% decrease in water consumption annually. Another positive solution would be for the state to invest in more water infrastructure to help better conserve water.

But perhaps the most promising solution would be removing water property taxes statewide. Currently, water taxes are subsidized, resulting in cheaper prices for individuals. If we removed property taxes on water, it would no longer be subsidized, resulting in higher water prices. Utahns would then be forced to understand water’s tangible value and be incentivized to conserve the water they do have.

I do believe in the power of prayer. People coming together in faith to fight for a common cause can have miraculous results, and I do not dismiss this. That said, I also believe in science. We can withstand this drought only if we rely on facts rather than faith. Together, we can conserve the little water we do have in an intentional way.

t.soter@dailyutahchronicle.com

@SoterTheadora

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