This week, many Ohio University students are noticing the warmer weather and spending time outdoors. This month, the OU Office of Sustainability wants students to become more aware of problems surrounding the environment.
During the month of April, the Office of Sustainability is presenting Earth Month, featuring events hosted and sponsored by the office, as well as through partnerships with other campus groups.
Hannah Simonetti, the lead organizer for Earth Month, said the main goal of the month’s activities is to get the word out about environmental problems and teach students and Athens residents about the ways they can effect change.
“I like how widespread the events are and how it engages people in different ways,” said Simonetti, a sophomore studying environmental geography. “It gets people thinking about different sustainability issues and how they apply to their lives.”
Simonetti said the Office of Sustainability is promoting more than 40 Earth Month events, which all fall under this year’s theme: “People
(Em)powered.” She said the goals include getting people away from consumer culture and inspiring people to take their communities in a more sustainable direction. She said many students are already very aware of sustainability issues.
“We put a strong emphasis on outreach to the university community,” Simonetti said. “At OU, there is luckily this culture of environmental awareness.”
The events offered during the month range from tonight’s environmentally friendly yogurt-making lesson from activist Annie Lambla to Thursday’s keynote speaker, surfer and environmental activist Rob Caughlan. The organizers will also offer a screening of the film Gasland and host an “Earth Munch,” a collection of free samples of locally grown food.
Interim Sustainability Coordinator Erin Sykes said this year’s theme has a double meaning. “People (Em)powered” not only refers to the physical principle of people becoming more active and reducing waste by interacting with the environment, but it also refers to individuals becoming empowered to change society’s environmental practices for the better.
“One of the things the DIY (do-it-yourself) culture and environmental movement are trying to tackle is to get rid of this mentality that you have to have more stuff and you have to buy more,” Sykes said.
Sykes said she hopes the month has longer, more lasting effects on the university.
“I hope that Earth Month isn’t just one month out of the year that people think about the way they interact with the environment,” Sykes said. “The idea is that people will come to events and it will actually catalyze action and a new way of thinking about the world.”
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