Zoom Event: Midwest Climate Summit: October 2020

Midwest Climate Summit to Accelerate Climate Action for Midwest Region

If the 12 Midwest states were a country, it would be the fifth-largest greenhouse gas-emitting nation on the planet. The Midwest Climate Summit, hosted by Ohio State and Washington University: St. Louis with support from the Bloomberg Foundation, kicks off its Fall 2020 Think Tank program on Oct. 2 at 11 a.m. EDT, featuring Robert Bullard, the Father of Environmental Justice. The Think Tank continues with additional sessions Oct. 9, 23, Nov. 6, 20 and plans are being developed for a large spring event. Join us as experts from Ohio State and across the Midwest accelerate climate action, develop a Midwestern response and plan the next steps in solving our climate crisis.  About the summit:  https://midwestclimatesummit.wustl.edu/

Each virtual session will have a unique theme and discussion goals, so join us for all sessions or the sessions most important to your interests. You can find detailed information, session themes and Summit schedules at midwestclimatesummit.wustl.edu.  All sessions are free and open to the public but registration is required to gain entrance.

Zoom Event: Reckoning with Racial Equity, Climate Justice, and Global Warming: October 15-17th 2020

How can we hack ‘business as usual’ for our campuses and communities to face our current crises better and together? Join us via Zoom for a virtual series of sessions grappling with global warming, including the critical matters of racial equity and climate justice.

Organized by Rutgers University.

Register Here

  • Thursday, October 15th           5:00 pm – 6:15 pm              
  • Friday, October 16th                11:00 am – 4:30 pm            
  • Saturday, October 17th           11:00 am – 1:30 pm

Featured speakers include:

  • Ana Baptista | Environmental urban planner; Chair, Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Graduate Program, The New School for Social Research
  • Sabre Bee | Co-founder, Newark Water Coalition
  • Kristi Pullen Fedinick | Biologist and Director, Science and Data, Natural Resources Defense Council
  • Roderick Ferguson | race, sexuality and critical studies, Yale University
  • Yvette Jordan | Educator, Newark Public Schools; Founding member, Newark Education Workers Caucus
  • Winona LaDuke | (Anishinaabekwe) Organizer and eco-economist, Founder, Honor the Earth
  • Helena D. Lewis | Poet, Playwright, and Doctor of Social Work, New Jersey
  • Max Liboiron | (MĂŠtis) Science and technology studies and Co-founder, Civic Lab for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR), Memorial University at Newfoundland
  • Michaeline Picaro Mann | Traditional healer, nurse, and historical researcher, Turtle Clan Mother of the Ramapough Lenape Nation
  • Vincent Mann | Water protector and community organizer, Turtle Clan Chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation
  • Morgan L. Ridgway | (Nanticoke-Lenape) Historian, PhD ABD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Brent Stonefish | Educator, EelĹŤnaapèewi Lahkèewiit (Delaware Nation), Ontario
  • K. Wayne Yang | Educator and Provost, John Muir College, UC-San Diego
  • Reverend Lennox Yearwood | President and Founder, Hip Hop Caucus

More information: https://academicaffairs.rutgers.edu/symposium

OWU Event: Water Management Careers – Students hear from Professionals

Ohio Wesleyan, City of Delaware, Ohio EPA Hosting Free Three-Day Speaker Series

OWU and the City of Delaware will collaborate with the Ohio EPA for an upcoming grant-supported speaker series on water management careers.

DELAWARE, Ohio – Designed for high school and college students, you’re invited to participate in a three-day, online “Careers in Water Management Speaker Series.”

The free event will be held Oct. 5-7 and provide information about careers in stormwater, wastewater, watershed, and drinking water management, among other fields.

The Delaware Run winds through the City of Delaware and Ohio Wesleyan campus. (Photo by Cole Hatcher)

The event is supported by a grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and presented by the OEPA in collaboration with Ohio Wesleyan University and the City of Delaware Public Utilities Department.

The speaker series will include panelists from both the public and private sector, and each session will conclude with a question-and-answer session.

Organizations confirmed to speak during the series include:

  • City of Delaware Public Utilities
  • Del-Co Water Co.
  • Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District
  • Ohio Clean Marinas
  • Ohio Department of Natural Resources: Scenic Rivers
  • Ohio Sea Grant/OSU Extension
  • Phoenix Environmental

The sessions – also part of the OWU classes Introduction to Environment and Sustainability 100.1 and Conversations Toward a Sustainable Future 100.2/400.1 – are scheduled for the following dates and times:

  • 9:30 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. Oct. 5
  • 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6
  • 11:50 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. Oct. 7

For access to the online Zoom sessions, email Caroline Cicerchi, Delaware’s watershed and sustainability coordinator, at ccicerchi@delawareohio.net. Learn more about Ohio Wesleyan’s Environment and Sustainability Program at owu.edu/environment.

OWU Sustainability Task Force: Climate Homework for September

At our first Sustainability Task Force (STF) Meeting for the Fall of 2020, we heard from Jess Wilber of the Citizens Climate Lobby. Jess provided us with some “homework” to do in the next month, nicely summarized on the graphic included in this post. Click on the image for a PDF file of the document.

If you missed the meeting, it was recorded and you can watch it here.

Efforts include joining the OWU and national CCL group, registering to vote, getting involved in calling campaigns (they work!), getting involved in letter-writing campaigns (they work too), and registering for climate-related events.

OWU’s student chapter is already hard at work on these efforts. The student chapter of CCL meets every 1st and third Sunday at 4-4:30ish for an hour or so, and has additional events planned for the Fall semester. Please contact us if you want to attend these Zoom meetings.

For our next STF meeting, Tuesday, Oct. 13 (6:30-7:30 pm, Zoom) Jess will rejoin us to see how we are doing, and we can talk about and plan more efforts for the 2020-21 academic year.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

See you at the next STF Meeting!

 

First OWU Sustainability Task Force Meeting (Zoom): Tuesday, Sept. 8, 6:30pm

Above left: mysterious Olentangy River object, near OWU Campus
Above right: possibly less mysterious, but still really interesting: Jess Wilber, STF guest from Citizens Climate Lobby; Jess is Great Lakes Regional Fellow International Outreach Intern

Join us for the first Sustainability Task Force (STF) meeting of the Fall 2020 semester: Tuesday, September 8 at 6:30-7:30 pm on Zoom.

Please contact John Krygier for the Zoom link.

For the Fall semester of 2020, we are focusing on work with the Citizens Climate Lobby – our OWU student group and the national organization.

We plan to set short and longer-term goals during the meeting. You will be part of those goals.

Joining us is Jess Wilber: a fourth-year student at Oberlin College with a double-major in Environmental Studies and East Asian Studies, a double-minor in Politics and History, and a concentration in International Affairs. She has spent the last two and a half years working for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, an international grassroots non-profit, non-partisan organization that empowers everyday people to work together on effective climate change solutions. She helped to pioneer their current programs for students in Higher Education. She was among the first members of the Campus Leaders Program, which seeks to educate and empower students to become effective climate advocates and organizers in their communities. As part of that program, she founded the Oberlin College CCL Chapter, or OCEAL, and worked with the local CCL chapter to get the Oberlin City Council to pass a resolution endorsing Carbon Fee and Dividend. She also got the same endorsement from the Oberlin College Sustainability Committee and President Carmen Ambar later that year. She was then hired as the organization’s first Regional Fellow, working to expand CCL’s Higher Ed Action Team and directly overseeing its growth. She has also held various internship positions with CCL, including Higher Education Outreach, Volunteer Education & Engagement, and International Outreach.

Zoom on 9/16/2020: Democracy Unchained: A Vision of Our Planetary Future:

Wednesday, September 16 @ 8pm

Registration here.

ROAR is a central Ohio group of climate and environmental activists. Their latest event is on Zoom, featuring some great speakers on contemporary politics and the environment.

We’d welcome your presence at ROAR’s next NEXT WORLD CONVERSATION  on DEMOCRACY UNCHAINED… with David Orr from the Oberlin Project and Joel Wainwright, co-author of CLIMATE LEVIATHAN. How can we rebuild our democracy to significantly address the interlocking crises of Covid, Climate Change and our dysfunctional political system?  Please join us–and spread the word!

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 8:00 pm: DEMOCRACY UNCHAINED 

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Special Assistant to the President of Oberlin College. The Oberlin Project was formed out of David Orr’s vision of full-spectrum sustainability: an all-encompassing joint venture by the town and College to create a thriving, sustainable and environmentally friendly community in Oberlin. He is the recipient of six honorary degrees and other awards including The Millennium Leadership Award from Global Green, the Bioneers Award, the National Wildlife Federation Leadership Award, a Lyndhurst Prize acknowledging “persons of exceptional moral character, vision, and energy.” He has been a scholar in residence at Ball State University, the University of Washington, and other universities. He has lectured at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. He has served as a Trustee for many organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the Bioneers. He has been a Trustee and/or advisor to ten foundations.

 Joel Wainwright is Professor in the Department of Geography at Ohio State University, where he studies political economy, social theory, and environmental change. He is author of Decolonizing Development (2008), Geopiracy (2013), and, with Geoff Mann, Climate Leviathan (2018).

Dr. Anderson Receives NSF Funds for Online Field Ecology and Data Science

OWU’s Dr. Anderson, the second nicest professor on campus, has been awarded a NSF grant!

The National Science Foundation is awarding Ohio Wesleyan University a one-year, $86,735 grant to oversee the creation of online teaching tools that advance field ecology and data science.

Laurel J. Anderson, Ph.D., OWU’s Morris Family Professor of Natural Sciences, is the principal investigator on the federal grant. She also is president of the Board of Directors for the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN), a consortium of colleges and universities that will work together to create the new teaching tools. Dr. Anderson will partner with Dr. Tim McCay from Colgate University to administer the project.

“The pandemic has created an urgent need to reimagine our teaching of field ecology, which is usually done with in-person field trips,” said Dr. Anderson, who helped to found EREN in 2010.

“However, field ecologists also use computer technology extensively to explore natural patterns at large scales,” she continued. “These projects allow us to meet our need to socially distance and have students collecting data wherever they happen to be. Then, we use online tools and datasets to see how their data fits into large-scale patterns.”

The National Science Foundation (NSF) grant will support four projects developed by teams of faculty-researchers at schools across the nation. The projects are:

  • Backyard Pollinator Surveys led by Dr. Kaitlin Stack Whitney at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
  • Plants in the Human-Altered Environment led by Drs. Jason Kilgore at Washington & Jefferson College and Karen Kuers at The University of the South.
  • Mosquito Surveys along Anthropogenic Impact Gradients led by Dr. Allison T. Parker at Northern Kentucky University.
  • Lichens in Diverse Landscapes led by Drs. Danielle Garneau at SUNY Plattsburgh, Matthew Heard at Belmont University, and Mary Beth Kolozsvary at Siena College.

The teaching tools being created will use data from the National Ecological Observatory Network(NEON) to show students how local data connects to ecological patterns at a continental scale.

NEON is a continental-scale ecological observation facility fully funded by the NSF and operated by Columbus, Ohio-based Battelle. NEON provides open data from 81 field sites nationwide to document how ecosystems are changing. The information is used to better understand how human activities affect ecology and how society can more effectively address critical ecological issues.

Source: OWU News & Media

OWU ENVS Earth Day ’20: Cooking for a Healthy World with Chef Del Sroufe

About Chef Del Sroufe

Chef Del Del’s cooking career began when he was just eight years old; creating dishes from whatever he could find in his father’s kitchen. By age of thirteen he was flaunting his culinary talents by preparing family dinners, much to his mother’s delight. After high school Del shelved his love for the kitchen and sold men’s clothing while he attended The Ohio State University School of Business. Selling suits and ties did not polish Del’s wing tipped shoes so he set out to pursue his passion, cooking. He landed a position at one of Columbus, Ohio’s premier vegetarian restaurants, The King Avenue Coffeehouse, and began to establish himself as a leader in the industry.

In 1997 Del opened his own bakery, Del’s Bread, where he created, prepared and served delicious vegan pastries, breads, potpies, calzones, smoothies and other sorted delicacies to the palate of his Columbus based clientele. In 2001, Del transitioned from his bakery business to start a vegan Personal Chef Service, preparing eclectic plant-based cuisine to his already captivated audience. During this time, he developed what became a very popular cooking class series, sharing many of the delicious recipes he had created over the years with his students.

In 2006, Del joined Wellness Forum Foods as Executive Chef, where today he continues the tradition of delivering great tasting plant-based meals to clients locally and throughout the continental United States. Del continues to teach cooking and health classes and is a keynote speaker at local venues and events around the country.

Del is the author of Forks over Knives: the Cookbook, on the New York Bestseller list for more than 30 weeks; Better than Vegan, the story of his struggle with weight loss and gain, and how he managed to lose over 200 pounds on a low fat, plant based diet and; The China Study Quick and Easy Cookbook due to be published in May of 2015.

More: https://chefdelsroufe.com/about-chef-del/

!!!Virtual Earth Day Week ’20!!!

Please Distribute and Share!

Follow us for details on vEarth Day ’20
Let us know what you are doing:
comment below, or
#OWUENVS, or
@OWUENVS Twitter: https://twitter.com/owuenvs

EARTH WEEK CHALLENGES 

SUN 4/19  Welcome to Earth Week! Earth Day 1: To start participating, follow #OWUENVS on Twitter and post a photo of the Earth – where you are – on Twitter, or Instagram (#OWUENVS) or email to John K. Do your best to share the stuff you do for the rest of Earth Day Week (social media or otherwise)

MON 4/20 Earth Day 2: Together, let’s #StopTheSpread of pollution and #FlattenTheCurve on CO2 emissions. Go to FootPrintCalculator to find out how many Earths it would take to sustain your lifestyle for everyone, and how we can all take steps to scale back. Share your findings with us. Questions? Ask Kayla.

TUE 4/21 Earth Day 3: Since we can’t march tomorrow, make a sign (out of used paper bags or scrap paper) declaring your commitment to the planet and put it in your window for your neighbors to see for the rest of the week, or try experimenting with found art. Questions? Ask Aayla.

WED 4/22 Earth Day 4: It’s the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day! Join us on Zoom at 8 pm EST for a screening and discussion of Anote’s Ark, a film documenting the struggle of the island nation of Kiribati, one of the first to face being wiped off the map by rising seas. Details to follow. Questions? Ask Dustin.

THU 4/23 Earth Day 5: Take action. Use Citizen Climate Lobby’s calling tool and our Green Stimulus Talking Points to reach out to your lawmakers and tell them that the environment must be included in the next COVID-19 stimulus package to protect public health and the economy in the long term. Questions? Ask Celeste.

FRI 4/24 Earth Day 6: Happy Friday, treat yourself to a great meal! From 5:30-7 pm EST, join us on Zoom as Chef Del Sroufe teaches an interactive course on sustainable plant-based cooking, and learn how the food you eat affects the world you live in. More details to follow. Questions? Ask Genaro.

Happy vEarth Day! Earth Day! Week!

The Ohio Wesleyan Sustainability Task Force & the Environment & Sustainability Program. 

Organized by students in ENVS 399: Sustainability Practicum