(Raphael) Sung Bin Lee
2024 Youth Climate Activism Award - Essay
Raphael was presented with his YCAA Certificate by Ms Amelita Kutcher, Science head and Environmental leadership advisor at the school Awards ceremony.
(Raphael) Sung Bin Lee β is a 17 year old from British Columbia
My Environmental Impact
On November 20, with my friend Cathy Yeung, I co-hosted a youth conference called Diversity in Marine Science: Inspiring Youth in Ocean Sustainability for environmental leaders across Victoria. Raising over $970 in funding, connecting with leading experts in ocean sustainability, and obtaining district and school approval, I organized the event's details and proposed it at the district meeting. By advertising through the district, we had over 40 students from across Vancouver Island who applied to the conference, and we were able to facilitate 30 participants. The event ran successfully with the help of volunteers from the Youth to Sea cohort and Mount Doug KELP Ocean group, serving sustainably catered lunches for all. The presenters shared their work from monitoring cetaceans to addressing ocean pollution and climate change, and we received Ocean Wise media coverage.
The conference culminated in a creative discussion on how each person can make a difference. Participants came up with solutions and project ideas that they could pursue individually or with a group, from the culinary use of invasive green crabs to a mechanism for reducing boat noise pollution. We achieved our aim of raising ocean climate awareness and inspiring youth in ocean careers.
This year, I was chosen as leader of the Ocean Group as part of the Environmental Leadership program at my school which I have been involved for 3 years. I led beach cleanups at Cadboro-Gyro Park and restarted the microplastic survey initiative, conducted at several beaches including Willows Beach and Glencoe Cove, sending the data for researchers to utilize. In addition to leading the Ocean Group, I regularly volunteer in the school garden to grow produce for sale and remove invasive species on Mount Tolmie. In the school, Iβm also involved in regular garbage cleanups across campus and collecting and sorting recycling from classrooms.
After being accepted into the Youth to Sea Program by Ocean Wise last year, I was able to participate in further volunteering with a passionate cohort. Not only did I have the opportunity to volunteer on new projects and large events, but I was also able to work on group initiatives such as addressing climate anxiety. At the final showcase at the Royal BC Museum in February, I presented my work and networked with climate activists including the Minister of Education.
At the beginning of 2022, I was involved in several invasive species removals at Mount Tolmie. I noticed an abundance of biomass being disposed of. I wanted to create sustainable fabric from invasive species. After doing some chemical and biological research, I determined that there was a lot of potential with the high levels of cellulose in plants. Using my school chemistry lab, I could extract cellulose from Scotch broom using a nontoxic procedure that I created. My two future goals are to experiment with aquatic invasive plants and produce a wearable textile from the isolated fibres without excessive water.
As part of the submissions application we asked participants to answer these 3 questions in addition to their essay or video.
What future goals do you have around your environmental and climate work, and do you have any future projects in mind?
The success of my ocean conference has inspired me to take on a bigger project with a bigger impact. Through Ocean Wiseβs Ocean Accelerator Grant, I plan on hosting a multi-day hackathon for ocean related climate solutions, with room to develop ideas in more depth and explore possible solutions. By utilizing the creativity of youth, we can make so much progress in our fight against climate change.
My other future project in mind is improving water quality monitoring through quantum-enhanced spectroscopy. The EPA has defined the maximum contamination level (MCL) for most of the contaminants in drinking water from the microbiological to inorganic contaminants, which determines the limit of detection of most water monitoring techniques. However, in-line water monitoring requires high speed, high precision, and reasonable cost yet the current methods are unable to meet all three criteria. I plan on investigating applying squeezing-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for this purpose.
If you could share with us one message of hope for our planet, what would it be?
The first words my best friend Cohen said to me were βHey, are you interested in saving the bats?β during third grade recess, as he approached me on the line for the zipline. As he told me about his Earth Rangers campaign to save the endangered brown bat, we bonded over our shared love for nature and conservation. Despite how hopeless and overwhelming the challenge our Earth is facing seems to be, our hope lies in the passion and compassion of our youth. Our future generations are not only the vessels for which we pass on our struggles and perspectives: they have the power to be the solution themselves.
I think our biggest challenge is reconciling the self-interest of individuals and companies with the collective interest of communities, ecosystems, and the world. As John Nash once said, even in the cases that seem inevitably selfish, there is always at least one βsituation in which everybody is doing the best they can, given what everybody else is doing". I believe that passionate activists have the power to shape a Nash equilibrium in terms of sustainability, so we can secure a safer future for everyone.
Who or what inspires you to work on climate change?
One of my greatest inspirations currently is Abiel Ma, who I discovered through LinkedIn. His innovation, VUALA, is an artificial stomach that can separate food waste from the garbage by using targeted microorganisms and mechanical design. This was an idea that I had while working in my school garden, and to see someone put it into action is inspiring.