🌍 How Kids Can Save the Planet | Dr. Tracy Fanara | Ailani's Little World

In this episode of Ailani’s Little World, we sit down with Dr. Tracy Fanara to talk about BIG science questions, protecting our water, and how kids can make a real difference in their communities!

Did you know? You don’t have to be a grown-up to help the planet. Small actions, like keeping trash out of drains and being mindful of what goes into water, can make a BIG impact! 🌊

👩‍🔬 Science isn’t just about learning, it’s about taking action and protecting our world.

✨ Could YOU be part of the next generation of planet protectors?

👉 LIKE this video, COMMENT one way you can help your environment, and SUBSCRIBE for more fun science adventures with real scientists!

#ScienceForKids #SaveThePlanet #WaterProtection #STEMEducation #FutureScientist #EnvironmentalScience #CleanWater #AilanisLittleWorld #DrTracyFanara #EcoKids

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

What is a big science question or mystery you still really want to explore in the future?

SPEAKER_00 0:15

There's so many. I actually have a list of mysteries that I want to explore. What I think the most important thing that people focus on is desalination, our drinking water, because we only have so much fresh water. It's the only water that we have. You know, we're not making new water and we're adding new chemicals to that water all the time. We're finding more ways to use fresh water with data centers or anything else that we need. Population and all that. So I think desalination is the future. And solar power, I think we need to find a way to harness the energy of the sun without using batteries that have chemicals that can be destructive, that need to mine, you know, just more efficient ways to harness the energy of the sun and story. But Earth mysteries, gosh, I don't know which one. I mean, just red tide alone has so many mysteries. Like we don't know if it has a cyst phase or a phase where it goes dormant and then comes to life when water currents move it around. We don't know exactly what role it plays in the ecosystem. And I can say that about so many other species. Like we just don't know all of the diversity that goes into the ocean ecosystem. Another thing is we're always discovering new organisms. It'd be really cool if we knew all of the organisms, so then we knew how to save them before they went extinct. What else? I don't know. What's a mystery that you wanna explore?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I wanna know like more of the ocean because I heard that people haven't discovered like the whole ocean.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Like the deepest parts. I haven't been to all of those places.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

You're exactly right. That's a huge mysteries in the ocean. We've mapped the ocean with ephemetry, but we haven't really studied all the depths of the ocean, right? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an office called the Office of Ocean Exploration. And they go down and they put ROVs with cameras and they have live feeds so you can actually watch. And sometimes they find a new organism that they never knew existed. It's pretty crazy. Just studying the ocean bottom and figuring out where fissures are, where all of the different physical and then chemical and biologic functions that all make up this ecosystem. And I think it's really important that we learn that fast before we start exploiting the ocean for minerals or for oil drilling or whatever else, because we don't realize that we're at the top of the food chain, right? Just picture like a Jenga set, right? And we're at the top and we depend on all these other things to survive. We don't realize it, but their blocks are being taken out because we're in the sixth mass extinction and challenges are being brought to us. So these blocks are being taken out and we're at the top and we don't feel it yet. But the structural integrity or how strong that tower is is lessening. It's getting more fragile and more wobbly. And at one point, the whole thing can fall. So it's really important that we understand all of those blocks that we depend on to survive before the tower falls.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

What's something that kids can do to help keep their water safe in their neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Oh, there's a lot of things. You can encourage planting of native species, and you can plant those yourself. In a lot of places like Florida, grass isn't native. It's just what people put on their lawns and it changes the microbiology, it changes everything, and then they water it using water that we have very little of, and then they put chemicals on it, like herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers. And all of that runs off every time it rains and impacts our natural water bodies. So encouraging native species that don't require fertilizer and extra water is always a great thing to do. On top of that, water conservation, you don't realize how much water you lose when you keep the faucet on when you're brushing your teeth, for example. You always keep it on. But little things like that can conserve water.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

And then she she turns it off right away. And we're brushing our teeth. She's like, turn off the water.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

You are good. Nice work. Yeah, she knows her stuff. But yeah, native species, and then just protecting your waterways, finding out like a lot of policies are changing that will change what can be built on the land. And every time something is built on the land, especially when we don't need that thing that's built on the land, it changes the water quality and the hydrology. So trying to encourage conservation of our natural spaces is really, really important. And then, of course, beach cleanups. I run a bunch myself. Where are you guys located?

SPEAKER_02 4:43

We live in Southeast Asia. We're actually in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

No way!

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

It's our evening right now.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

What kind of issues do you guys have over there?

SPEAKER_02 4:52

What are some of the problems that we have on the city?

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Um, it's a lot of trash.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

It's a lot of pollution.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Yeah. Like sewers go into the rivers, which make it pretty dirty and like stinky.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah. Those are two big things that plague the United States as well. The sewer overflows and of course trash. We have programs that clean up the trash, but to repair the pipes and build bigger storage. So every time we build something on the ground, we're changing that hydrology. So water that used to soak into the ground now runs off, and we have all of this volume to take care of, right? And so when we get big storms, that water can basically overwhelm systems, like rivers and things like that. But you can also have really old pipes that the water that does seep into the ground, those pipes get inundated, and if they're old pipes, that water can get in there. And so there's more water going to the treatment plant than there's capacity for, and they have to dump raw sewage. And this happens all over the United States. People don't even realize that it happens.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Yeah, because it's just too much water.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

We want to say thank you so much for coming on today. Where can the boys and girls listening find out more about what you do and see more about your lessons and stuff?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I'm on social media at Inspector Planet, and I also have a website where you can sign up to be part of the Planet Posse. Then I also have Project Inky is the hydrology platform going to schools and teaching kids about flood safety. And then, of course, we're expanding on camps as well. So there's going to be lots of opportunity to get involved and to do some hands-on science and learn about how to reconnect with nature through survival skills mostly.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

That's awesome.