Day 8 at sea

Hello, my name is Oscar Prado and I am a second year at California Polytechnic State University, Pomona studying Mathematics.  My expectation for the day was like all others on the ship, full of mystery and anticipation. First, I wake to an incredible breakfast by Bert and Shawn. Nothing is better than getting to enjoy the meal beside the crew and my science partners on a rocking boat while discussing a wide range of topics I would never find myself discussing at our family dinner table. Meals like these peak the long list of what I will miss after this experience is over. This meal was then followed by an incredible lecture by Kristen and Mark. Today’s topic was one I had been anticipating since the first day on the boat. It was apparent that all we had been learning played a part in truly understanding the topic of rising CO₂ levels in our atmosphere. All the knowledge from the CCD level and tectonic plate movement, to ocean currents and Earth’s movement ultimately lead to CO₂ emissions. Understanding each concept made me realize the gravity of what we are doing to our home planet and how uninformed I was about the topic. I find it upsetting I had no true understanding of what greenhouse meant and the fact that we are in an interglacial period of an icehouse. This entire experience helped me realize how devastating ignoring the data we have collected could potentially be and how significant the work done to understand the past is for our future. Apart from this eye opening lesson, we were allowed time to work on our presentation. It was fun to collaborate with all others on the project and rely on each other’s finding to develop our own parts of the overall work. I am proud to be a part of this expedition and am grateful for the experience. I have learned an immense amount of oceanography and about a wide range of topics ranging from opportunities in my future to the way I react under unusual settings. I can’t imagine any other setting that could have provided so much for me in such a short amount of time. I would love to keep writing but the night is only starting and the stars are irresistibly bright outside!