Vanessa Kosinski
Nature, often unintentionally, weaves its way into every part of one’s life. No matter where you are from – a different country, a different state, or a different world – one of the most important facets to our existence is our sense of place. In World of Wonders, Aimee Nezhukumatathil guided readers through her life and memories, while using her connection with nature to illustrate how, despite her family moving a lot, the natural world became a constant for her.
Being born and raised in Reno, Nevada, I was fortunate enough to grow up within a stone’s throw of numerous hiking trails and uninhabited land. Reading Nezhukumatathil’s essays made me feel nostalgic for those moments of my life in which nature played an integral role – building sledding paths with my dad, seeing a desert pupfish for the first time, or taking my first field trip in college to explore the desert and the species that call it home.
With unprecedented changes in climate, the Earth is transforming, and this can challenge our place in the world – and those memories we have are clinging onto a climate that we are familiar with. Understanding these changes, and the effects they are having on water resources in the West, is the core of my work at DRI – using remote sensing to investigate water consumption. The goal of the project is an open-source dataset that anyone can access to understand their water usage – this will help inform water users about their consumption and potentially lead to better water management. However, it is my unique experiences with my natural world that have led to my drive for challenging the notion that nothing can be done, nothing will change, and nothing I do matters.
“Where does one start to care of these living things amid the dire and daily news of climate change, and reports of another animal or plant vanishing from the planet? How can one even imagine us getting back to a place where we know the names of the trees we walk by every single day? … Maybe what we can do when we feel overwhelmed is to start small. Start with what we have loved as kids and see where that leads us.” - World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, p. 159
Vanessa Kosinski grew up in Reno, Nevada, where she was fortunate enough to complete her undergraduate in Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Since she was young, she has always found herself gravitating towards subjects involving the Earth and how humans are impacting the fundamental rhythms of nature. Vanessa is hopeful to be starting her Master’s next year in Atmospheric Science, gaining a deeper understanding of how the changing climate will continue to alter our “normal.” In her free time, she enjoys spending the day outside, learning how to cook (and often failing) new recipes, and of course reading.