Free educational
and entertaining environmental events will be offered beginning tonight as the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point marks Earth Week through April 23.
Several notable speakers, including Pashon Murray, will
visit campus. Murray is a sustainable, successful
entrepreneur. She co-founded and directs 'Detroit Dirt,' (http://detroitdirt.org/) a grassroots composting organization focused on local food,
recycling food waste and working to benefit the community socially,
economically and environmentally. The group partnered with Ford on a popular commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAN61QK0aUI
Sponsored
by several student sustainability groups and Central Rivers Farmshed, Murray’s
talk at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, is open to the public. It is in the
Alumni Room of the Dreyfus University Center. Her topic is “Detroit Dirt: Why Do We Work So Hard?”
Others speaking on
campus are:
- Bill
Carroll will present ”Vinyl
Chloride, Cancer and Techology: How Science Saved A Business” Thursday,
April 14. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Science Building Room A121. Carroll,
American Chemical Society
president, will review the history of vinyl chloride toxicology, events of
cancer cases in workers between 1974 and 1975, and how this event became one of
the landmark events in the history of industrial hygiene.
- Nate Hagens will present “A Guide to Being Human in
the 21st Century: Resource Depletion, Behavior and the
Environment” Monday,
April 18. His talk at 6:30 p.m. is in the Alumni Room of
the Dreyfus University Center. Hagens
has advanced degrees in finance and natural resources, is co-director of the
Bottleneck Foundation and teaches at the University of Minnesota.
- Peter McCoy will present “Human-Ecological Relations: Lessons from the Fungal Kingdom” Tuesday, April 19. He speaks
at 6:30 p.m. in the Dreyfus University Center (DUC) Theater. He is a founder of Radical Mycology, a
grassroots organization that teachers skills needed to work with mushrooms and
other fungi for personal, societal and ecological resilience.
- Dan Dieterich will present “What you can do
about Climate Change,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21, in Room 170 of the
Trainer Natural Resources building. He
is with the local Citizens Climate Lobby.
All presentations are free. Community members are
welcome to bring food donations for the
Cupboard food pantry on campus.
Other Earth Week events include documentaries, an
eco-fair, music and activities.
Monday through Thursday, April 18-21, segments of Planet
Earth will be aired. Two parts of the nature
documentary
series will be showed each day, between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., in
the DUC Encore Room. Bring your lunch, and watch the BBC’s series narrated by famed naturalist David
Attenborough.
An Eco Fair will be held from 10 a.m.-4
p.m. Wednesday, April 20, in the DUC
Laird Room. With the theme “It all Trickles Down,” student and community
organizations committed to sustainability will provide information about their
groups and activities. The fair is sponsored by the student Environmental Educators and
Naturalists Association (EENA).
EENA will sponsor
a band, Arm Chair Boogie and Bill, from 8 to 10 p.m. April 20 in the Encore
Room.
Join Twitter
conversations Thursday from 12:30 to 2 p.m. and Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
On Thursday, the Office of Sustainability will answer questions
@sustainableUWSP. Friday, the conversation with business, political and
international leaders will focus on a new topic each hour. Follow the hashtag
#ceu.
Also Friday,
April 22, tours of the Waste
Education Center on Maria Drive will be offered to the public from noon to 3 p.m.
Learn more about the facility, composting and recycling on campus. Students for Sustainability will
participate in tree and shrub plantings from noon to 3 p.m. Friday near the
Trainer Natural Resources Building.
Talks, walks and
activities will take place several evenings at Schmeeckle Reserve between April 14 and April 21. Check
uwsp.edu/Schmeeckle for details about these previously announced topics. On
April 23, a clean water - water conservation event will begin at 10 a.m. at the
Schmeeckle Visitors Center, 2419 North Point Drive, Stevens Point.
The community is invited to attend and learn more about
managing finite resources effectively, said Dave Barbier, UW-Stevens Point
sustainability coordinator.
Earth Day was
founded on April 22, 1970, by U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson as a peaceful teach-in
to raise environmental awareness and protection.
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