During this time every year, the leaves turn all sorts of different colors; red, brown, orange, yellow, and sometimes even purple. What is normally a beautiful sight has quickly turned to panic and terror for all students on the University of Minnesota campus. All round campus, there have been reports of leaves falling from trees and sticking to people. This is a huge problem as the University of Minnesota students have to deal with picking these leaves off of themselves in class and when they get home causing a mess. It is a true terror as this has never happened before and people don’t know what to do about it.
Personally, I’ve seen students who are fully covered in leaves as if they had been glued on to them. They are typically very frightened and do not know what to do about these leaves. I spoke with one University of Minnesota student, Thomas Luzum, and it’s gotten to the point where he is contemplating whether to stay inside and never go outside again.
It does not help that the University of Minnesota has many trees on its campus with many many leaves attached to them. In one particular instance, I saw one individual, who could not even walk because of the weight of the leaves attached to them. They kept screaming, “I’m going to be late to class!,” which was very frightening for me as if this were to happen to me I would miss class as well. In another instance, one student’s shoes were completely covered in leaves, it looked like he had two pairs of shoes on. At first I thought this was pretty cool and very fashionable, then I started to think of how this is affecting this individual. While he was walking it looked like he was weighed down and was having troubles getting to where he was going as the leaves were sticking to the ground as well. Again, I was scared for myself as I never want to be slowed down when I am trying to go somewhere.
During the Fall and when we are on our way to winter, the harsh winds and changing temperatures aid in detaching these leaves and allowing them to fall to the ground. However, there has never been a case like this where leaves that fall to the ground are sticky and stick to people. There are some factors I would like to discuss that may be the route of the cause to this problem. The ever changing climate and weather has led to these issues, specifically those who are contributing to this problem, big corporations.
Big corporations are contributing to this problem of sticky leaves on campus through pollution changing the chemical make-up of the rain that falls down. Somehow, pollution is making these leaves sticky from when it rains. The rain sticks to the leaves making sort of a gorilla glue like substance on the leaves. The leaves on campus do not come off easily when they stick to you. They leave a residue behind from the compounds mixed from the pollution and the leaf material. This is a huge problem as student’s lives are affected by these sticky leaves and causes them to panic.
Students are trying to figure out ways to stop the pollution from affecting the rain water but there is little we can do as college students. Watering the leaves as it rains has proven beneficial in stopping the spread of this sticky substance so it doesn’t mix with the leaf contaminants. Thomas Luzum also stated this:
