Earth Week to bridge disciplines, focus on climate change
By Amy Nordrum, Staff Writer
April 19, 2007 | 10:31 p.m.
As concerns over global warming grow, climate change is becoming the most prominent issue on the public agenda. Here in Athens, this is no exception. Ohio University will feature global warming as the theme of its upcoming Earth Week.
Religion. Skin color. Sexuality. Political beliefs. Class. Gender.
In a world bursting with individual and societal differences, writer Wendell Barry put it best when saying, “The Earth is what we all have in common.” Global warming has served as a harsh wake-up call to the reality of this statement. Clean air and water know no social or political boundaries, and neither do carbon emissions. We all share our Earth, for better or for worse.
As concerns over global warming grow, climate change is becoming a very prominent issue on the public agenda. Here in Athens, this is no exception. Ohio University will feature global warming as the theme of its upcoming Earth Week. Earth Week, a brand-new, extended celebration of Earth Day, will bring different events and perspectives on global warming to campus in the interest of expanding student, faculty and community knowledge on this pertinent issue.
Earth Week kicks off Saturday, April 14 and extends through the official Earth Day on the 22. A variety of organizations helped plan this year’s Earth Week, resulting in a diverse schedule of events. An evening lecture series featuring professors and leading thinkers from several disciplines will offer unique ideas about climate change, ranging from environmental to religious. A native plant rescue at Wayne National Forest, a zero-waste and solar-powered music festival and a tour of local homes built using bales of straw in place of less environmentally-conscious materials are also part of the line-up.
Two key organizers of this year’s Earth Week are Sonia Marcus, director of OU’s Office of Resource Conservation, and Scott Miller, who directs the Consortium for Energy, Economics and the Environment (CE3) in addition to serving as senior research manager at the Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs. Both Marcus and Miller have served as the go-to people for organizations hoping to get their events or speakers on the Earth Week agenda.
Marcus hoped to “beef up” this year’s Earth Day celebration to serve as a springtime counterpart to Sustainability Week. This fall event emphasizes practical sustainable living methods, while Earth Week will focus on broader environmental issues.
Climate change encompasses an array of issues and is therefore an appropriate Earth Week theme. Global warming affects everything from loss of biodiversity to food security, and provides a framework for people to recognize the connections between all environmental issues, Marcus said.
“It’s very simple. Climate change is the most dire issue facing this generation. There’s no question about it.” she said. Marcus hopes the Earth Week events will “inspire students to think critically” about climate change.
Scott Miller’s work with CE3 made for a natural interest in Earth Week. Earth Week provides opportunities to advance many of CE3’s goals, including promoting interdisciplinary research and creating innovative learning opportunities. Miller is heavily involved with campus faculty and hopes Earth Week will inspire faculty to think outside their areas of specialization, because “global warming is an issue that no one discipline can solve.”
Though OU is not a leader in climate change research, Miller hopes faculty will realize that there are resources available on campus and leading thinkers in every field that can help OU professors design curriculum and conduct research on such issues. In addition, Miller hopes students “will see beyond the direct environmental consequences of climate change and realize that this is not a problem that is just going to impact one group, it’s going to impact everyone in one way or another.”
Earth Week is the product of a collaborative effort among the Office of Resource Conservation, CE3, the School of Health Sciences, OU’s Masters Program in Environmental Studies, the Earth Justice Network, the Sustainable Living Organization, the Green Network, the Student Activities Commission and the Sierra Student Coalition. A full list of this year’s Earth Week events is available at http://www.facilities.ohiou.edu/conservation/EarthWeek2007.htm