Dri’s Series from South Africa, Part One: Allow Me To Introduce Myself
Hey Dri Squad!
Caroline Deignan here. I’m the proud cousin of Deirdre aka “Deej” aka the *badass* founder of Dri. Deej and I have been thick as thieves for as long as I can remember. We grew up two towns apart, spent hours in her childhood pool playing bottle cap (if you know, you know), and never needed an excuse to insist on a sleepover where we talked all night (no seriously - we did not stop talking), laughed way too loudly (cackling is genetic, it turns out), and straight up tortured our families who were just trying to get some sleep. Some of my biggest moments and most important conversations include Deej and even now, separated by 7,817 miles, we’re still two peas in a pod, just talking about more ‘adult’ things like our aspirations, our career goals, and what we want to do with this precious shot at life. I can’t remember a time when Deej wasn’t talking about the environment, her awareness and concern for it, and her deep desire to be part of the solution in its preservation. It's literally no surprise to me that here we are, both barely 30 years old, and yet Deirdre is the founder of Dri, a company up-cycling ocean and ocean-bound plastics to create durable umbrellas that make the world a little cleaner, a little safer and a little better.
I’m currently sitting in Cape Town, South Africa, glancing out the window at the rain pounding the ground (yes, it really is raining!) wishing that I 1. had a Dri umbrella at my disposal and 2. had a tiny way that I can contribute to a better and greener world. Full disclosure, when I offered to help Deej do some research on ocean plastics during my sabbatical (read: unemployment) I didn’t expect her to take me up on it. Not because I wasn’t genuine in my offer, but because, quite frankly, I didn't know how I could be of help. While I’m all for people and missions tackling the behemoth issue that is ocean plastic and its disintegrated counterpart, microplastics, I ashamedly fell into the category of “oh man, I’m so overwhelmed by all of this that I might just stick my head in the sand and hope other people come up with the solution”. Turns out I’m not alone there- eco-anxiety, the chronic fear of environmental cataclysm as a result of climate change, has become prolific and impacting people’s mental health around the globe. Between some introspection, some chats with Deirdre, realizing climate change is here to stay, and reading this blog post on Dri’s website, the ocean plastic issue was reframed for me– it went from ‘I don’t know how to help, so I’ll carry on business as usual’ to ‘I’m a person who makes choices that matter.’ Absolving myself from the ocean plastic problem was a conscious choice, and I realized I was perfectly free to make the inverse one.
So here I am! An adventurer who flew the nest and has been living in South Africa (because why not?), headstrong on challenging myself and the status quo in the process. I’m someone who is utterly fascinated by human behavior and health related decision-making. In short, I’m just trying to better understand what makes us humans tick. That includes investigating potential answers to complex questions, such as the one that's currently on my mind; If we understand that ocean plastic and microplastics are taking a huge toll on the health, abundance and equilibrium of the ocean’s ecosystem, will we act more urgently in preventing ocean plastic if we start to understand the implications that it’s having on our own health as humans?
I’ll cut you a deal- I’ll do the footwork (let’s be honest- I have the time) and because you’re busy, I’ll keep it short n’ sweet, breaking it up into digestible chunks about the problem and the solution. All you have to do? Just hang tight and keep your eyes peeled for my findings; in this series we'll talk about ocean plastic, micro-plastics, their impact on human health, and most importantly, what's being done about it. Because have faith; there's a lot.
Until next time,
Your self-appointed plastics research aficionado,
Caroline
About the author: Caroline Deignan has a public health research background, conducting a variety of social behavioral analyses of topics such as HIV, TB, HPV and climate change. Caroline moved from Boston, Massachusetts to South Africa in 2016 to conduct TB research for “six months”. Six years later and she hasn’t left, thanks to the beautiful country and people of South Africa. She has gone on to receive her Master’s in Public Health from the University of Cape Town, and is currently looking to become involved in work that examines understanding human behavior and end-user perspectives on biomedical HIV prevention options. Caroline loves a good hike, anything that requires getting into nature, sitting down with a good book, and belly laughing over an ice cold IPA with her nearest and dearest.
