Rachael Z. Miller uses robots to remove debris from beneath the surface of the ocean. Agustina “Tati” Besada has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean twice. Both women have dedicated themselves to protecting the world’s oceans from the destructive power of plastic — and their impact extends far beyond the coastline.
Miller and Besada will be speaking at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater as part of this week’s Chautauqua Lecture Series theme, “Water: Crisis, Beauty and Necessity — A Week in Partnership with National Geographic.” Miller and Besada are both National Geographic Explorers, and their joint lecture today will dive beneath the surface of the work both women have been doing to reverse the impacts of single-use plastics and microplastics on some of the world’s most important bodies of water.
“You can expect solutions,” Miller said. “You can expect the most optimistic talk about plastic pollution that you’ve heard.”
Miller is the founder of the Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, a nonprofit organization committed to addressing marine debris through a combination of cleanup, education and research. She is also a co-creator of the Cora Ball, a first-of-its-kind microfiber-catching laundry ball; people can toss the ball in with a load of laundry to prevent microfibers and microplastics in their clothes from entering their water system and, eventually, the ocean.
But before she dove head first into combating marine debris and microplastics, and before she became a National Geographic Explorer, Miller was on vacation off the coast of Maine with her husband and two dogs, spending her time away from home removing trash from the cold Atlantic waters. There, she and her husband had an epiphany about how to expand that work even further.
The Rozalia Project, with Miller at its helm, works around the world to clean up marine debris, doing so while also collecting vast amounts of data and engaging communities in educational programming. Also of significant importance, Miller said, is that the Rozalia Project constantly embraces new and emerging technologies, and is always looking into solutions-oriented research.
“We address … consumer debris, microplastics, and microfiber pollution,” she said. “Those are our … big areas, and (it’s in) the whole water column, so shoreline, the surface, and underwater by using ROV, or remotely (operated) underwater vehicles.”
Besada and her husband had been living in New York City for six years in 2018, and her husband had been floating the idea of sailing back to their native Argentina for some time. Besada wasn’t initially on board, but she eventually realized that there might be a lot to learn in sailing on the Atlantic.
She had been working as the director of a recycling center in Brooklyn, and started to wonder what happened to all of the plastic that didn’t make its way through her facility. She decided the best way to answer that question was to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. So she did.
“This idea of looking, by myself, with my own eyes, at what was happening in the most remote areas in the Atlantic — combined with my personal conversation ideas with my husband — that’s how it came to be,” Besada said. “And I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.”
Her voyage across the Atlantic sparked the idea for Unplastify, an organization she founded with her friend Rocio Gonzalez. At Unplastify, Besada works to enact systemic changes to curb the use of single-use plastics. To make those systemic changes, she said, does not actually mean completely tearing down any existing systems. Rather, it means addressing specific issues with targeted solutions, such as eliminating plastic cups at a restaurant or university dining hall.
“It’s very common to think about plastic pollution solutions as things that we can do as individuals, but I don’t think we have the time to convince every individual in the world to care and to change behavior,” she said. “We think that each individual can create systemic change and systemic solutions within their own communities, families, neighborhoods, schools, (and) workplaces. … Each of us can do this.”
Miller and Besada want Chautauquans to start taking the small steps that are necessary to enact sweeping change, whether it be at their workplace, in their neighborhood, or in their school — and with the knowledge that their actions can be deeply impactful.
“It’s hard to act when you feel like your actions will have no effect,” Miller said. “Everyone wants to be on the winning team, and if we can find ways to bring everyone on to the winning team and say, ‘Yes, this collective work will make an impact, that you all can be part of the change making, and it will move the needle,’ it will make a difference.”
