麻豆影院

Senior Virginia Weiskopf and PhD candidate Emily Nocito, both in environmental studies, head to the United Nations to research marine conservation

There are many roads to U. N. Headquarters in New York City. Senior in environmental studies and 2022 UROP-grant recipient Virginia Weiskopf chose one that Robert Frost might have called 鈥渓ess taken.鈥澨�听

鈥淚 just kind of bothered a lot of people,鈥� says Weiskopf.

But she didn鈥檛 bother just any people. She bothered the right people. People like 麻豆影院 environmental studies Assistant Professor Cassandra Brooks.

鈥淚 took a class with Dr. Brooks called Governing the Environment,鈥� says Weiskopf. 鈥淚 was so inspired. So I bothered her many times: 鈥楬ey, could you be my mentor?鈥� 鈥楥an I work with you?鈥� 鈥楥an I please work with you?鈥欌��

Weiskopf鈥檚 persistence paid off. 鈥淥K,鈥� Weiskopf recalled Brooks saying. 鈥淲hat do you want to do?鈥�

Weiskopf admits that, 鈥渓ike any 21-year-old,鈥� she didn鈥檛 exactly know. She just knew she wanted to protect the environment. So she told Brooks, 鈥淚 really like what you do, so could you just give me something to do?鈥�

Brooks helped Weiskopf narrow her research focus and introduced her to Emily Nocito, a fifth-year PhD candidate in environmental studies.

is no stranger to the United Nations. She鈥檚 been there many times鈥攕o many times, in fact, that she calls it a second home. She鈥檚 attended conferences there, participated in the U.N.鈥檚 Major Group for Children and Youth, and gave a speech there after winning the 2015-16 Millennium Oceans Prize for founding 10 by 2020, a youth-led nonprofit dedicated to ocean education and literacy.

Visiting the United Nations

This August, Nocito and Weiskopf journeyed to U.N. Headquarters to attend the fifth Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, the purpose of which is to finalize a multinational agreement (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, or BBNJ) for protecting the high seas, those stretches of ocean that lie beyond any one country鈥檚 borders.

Nocito and Weiskopf want to know what goes into striking such high-stakes deals. How, for example, might more regional marine conservation efforts, like those enacted by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, influence large-scale agreements like the BBNJ and vice versa?

What Nocito and Weiskopf learn at the United Nations will affect not only their current research projects鈥擭ocito鈥檚 dissertation and Weiskopf鈥檚 honors thesis鈥攂ut their work post-graduation as well.

鈥淏eing at the conference,鈥� says Weiskopf, 鈥測ou get behind the scenes of what is going on in the debates,鈥� which 鈥測ou wouldn鈥檛 see reflected in the draft and final text of the agreement.鈥�

Nocito agrees: 鈥淵ou get so much more than just reading the newspaper article. 鈥� You actually get to see how the sausage is made.鈥�

Yet unlike with sausage, seeing how these deals are made hasn鈥檛 turned Weiskopf鈥檚 and Nocito鈥檚 stomachs. It鈥檚 done precisely the opposite.

鈥淔or every moment that I鈥檓 exhausted and frustrated and under-caffeinated and I just want to go to bed,鈥� says Nocito, 鈥渢here are a 100,000 more moments of me wanting to be a part of this process. This is a historic treaty, and to say that I鈥檝e been involved in any capacity is something that I鈥檓 sure I鈥檒l be telling my kids and grandkids and people on the streets. It鈥檒l be my fun fact for life.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to go to the U.N. and be involved with international relations and the environment,鈥� says Weiskopf. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a dream come true.鈥�

Protecting the high seas

When asked why this work matters, Nocito and Weiskopf are wary of drifting into the deep and dizzying waters of philosophy, a subject they say lies outside their comfort zones. And yet they admit that understanding the importance of the high seas, and of protecting them, requires some imagination.

Not that the high seas aren鈥檛 intrinsically valuable. They are, Weiskopf and Nocito argue. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just amazing that they鈥檙e part of our universe,鈥� Weiskopf says. 鈥淚t would break my heart to lose all that biodiversity.鈥�

And not that the high seas serve no practical purpose. They do. 鈥淓very other breath we take comes from phytoplankton algae,鈥� says Nocito, referencing the microscopic organisms that inhabit our oceans.

No, it鈥檚 for reasons of place and time that we must draw upon the imagination.

For one thing, Nocito explains, most people will never visit the high seas. 鈥淚t鈥檚 two hundred nautical miles out. You鈥檇 need to be on a fishing vessel for six months, a year, two years to see it.鈥�

And though the BBNJ will benefit us now, Nocito and Weiskopf assert that it鈥檒l prove even more critical for those yet to be born.

鈥淭he people at the U.N., they鈥檙e working on something bigger than themselves,鈥� Nocito says.

Weiskopf agrees, adding: 鈥渇or future generations.鈥�

Some may find it discouraging to devote their time and energy to places they鈥檒l never see and people they鈥檒l never meet, but not Nocito and Weiskopf.听听

鈥淭here鈥檚 something poetic about it,鈥� says Nocito.

They may not be philosophers. But poets? Poets they may be.