Week brings notable speakers to support sustainability
This year’s Sustainability Week is the first to be hosted by both the College of Natural Resources and USU’s Sustainability Council.
The week will include free movies, displays and other events, said Michael Butkus, academic adviser for the department of natural resources.
“The purpose of Natural Resources and Sustainability week is to make people on campus more aware of natural resources and sustainability programs, and to get them involved,” he said.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, the collaborators will host a Sustainability Kickoff in the TSC International and Sunburst Lounges where students can come to plant seeds and learn about sustainability efforts on campus.
From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, a Natural Resources and Sustainability Fair will be held in the TSC Lounges. As part of the Blue Goes Green Sustainability Council initiative, students will be able to meet with various campus groups involved with natural resource management and sustainability.
Students will also have the chance to learn about sustainability through Blue Goes Green Walking Tours on Thursday. Students meeting at the first floor atrium in the BNR building at 11 a.m. will be able to participate in a guided tour of USU’s efforts to go green. At 1 p.m., students can meet at the south doors of the Spectrum to tour USU’s extensive heat plant and tunnel system.
The Quinney Library will be sponsoring several films throughout the week, all at 7 p.m. in the first floor atrium of the BNR building to promote conservation and environmental sustainability. The documentary “No Impact Man” will be shown Monday, “The Cove,” an Academy Award Winner for the Best Documentary of 2009, will be shown Tuesday, and the film “Ghostbird,” which documents a community’s efforts to protect woodpeckers, will be shown Wednesday.
There are also several speakers expected in the week’s events. Wednesday’s activities include seminars by guest speaker Mike Sutton, the Vice President of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and a College of Natural Resources alumnus. There will be a seminar at 10 a.m. on the future of seafood and how oceans can be protected while still providing us with sustainable seafood sources. In another seminar at 4 p.m. called “Protecting Our Oceans: Establishing Marine Reserves in California,” Sutton will discuss the conflict between conservationists and fisherman in their efforts to protect and expand the capability of the world’s oceans.
Tom Wigley, from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, will also speak to students at 4:40 in the Sunburst Lounge about geo-engineering on Thursday.
Friday’s events include the start of the two-day Utah Bioneers Conference in USU’s Eccles Conference Center with the theme “Revolution from the Heart of Nature.”
Carlisle said, “Bioneers is a national conference held annually in California and broadcast to cities nationwide including Logan. Bioneers seeks to effectively merge ideas from environmental sciences, engineering, business, social sciences and other disciplines to solve environmental and social problems.”
Students will be able to attend USU’s annual Reduce, Reuse and Rock Concert Friday night at 7 p.m. in the International Lounge to hear featured artists such as Julia Mecham and Battle School.
The week wraps up with a 9 a.m. service project on Saturday to help USU scientists remove Brown Trout from a local river. Advanced registration is required and those who are interested can receive information by calling (435)797-4022.
Photo and research displays will be up all week in the International Lounge to help students learn more about other sustainability efforts being made around the world. The biggest message, Carlisle said, is to let students know that they can always make a difference.
“I fear that ‘being green’ is the new hip thing to do and that many students’ interest in sustainability and the natural world is a passing trend,” Carlisle said. “However, natural resources and sustainability issues are not going away anytime soon and finding solutions to those problems and thereby maintaining natural ecological processes is critical to sustaining life globally.”
Butkus said he hopes that the events will help students become more involved with their environment. USU’s efforts in sustainability have been an example to other universities and encouraged that involvement, he said.
“We should be concerned about our environment because it is the right thing to do, and we should always try to preserve our resources,” Butkus said.
– ariwrees@gmail.com