Smoothie stations powered by stationary bikes and basil starter kits are just a couple of things to look for in the EMU Amphitheater on next Tuesday, April 22 as student groups around campus join together to promote sustainability and spread awareness of global environmental issues for Earth Week.
To celebrate Earth Day, the Climate Justice League will be giving out 150 basil starter kits to students to promote their campaign, Transition Eugene, which promotes local growing within the community.
“We are disconnected (from the earth), to put it bluntly,” Megan Gleason, co-director of league, said. “And we just need to reconnect and once we start reconnecting by making these individual choices, those individual choices can aggregate into a lifestyle, and those lifestyle choices can be made into collective political actions to actually make a huge difference.”
Gleason believes it is important to be a good consumer by not buying unnecessary items and making small lifestyle choices such as recycling, composing and carpooling.
“We are taught to be consumers rather than citizens,” she said. “That’s a problem.”
According to global issues.com, the demand for consumptions from wealthier countries, such as the United States, means more land in other nations is being used for cash crops instead of homestead or sustenance farming.
The United States Dept. of Agriculture states in 2013, the United States imported 12,383.8 metric tons of fruits, a 50 percent increase from 1999. In addition, the U.S.’s importation of vegetables nearly doubled from 1999 to 2013.
Instead of importing, many stress sustainability through eating food which is grown close to home, which not only benefits communities by giving business to local farmers, but is also a more sustainable option for the environment. Carbon emissions are reduced when produce doesn’t travel as far to consumers.
“I think it’s also (the Climate Justice League’s) plan to get people connected with each other so eventually they can start caring about the place they live and the food they eat so eventually they’ll take a stand and make an institutional change,” Gleason said.
Divest UO – a group that lobbies for the UO Foundation’s divestment in fossil fuel stocks – will also be at the event. This Tuesday the group will be celebrating the approval of their ballot measure, which passed with 2,427 votes in the ASUO primary elections last week.
Casey Edwards, the campaign manager of Divest UO, said it’s important for students to be aware of climate change and to make take action however, that can often be difficult because we won’t always see the immediate results of our choices.
“Not everyone sees the benefit of (lifestyle changes), and we’re really working on something that will benefit future generations,” Edwards said. “We’re a society that loves instant gratification, so convincing people that this is something that will help down the road is something you can only do through awareness.
The Student Sustainability Coalition will help with Climate Justice League’s grow-your-own basil starter kits, and have a bike blender for making fruit smoothies.
Matt Nelson, edible coordinator for the coalition, also thinks Earth week is a great opportunity to let the average student learn about environmental problems so they can feel “empowered” by making a difference.
“I think there is a lot of small things people can do,” Nelson said. “Hopefully (students) can learn about all the cool things that are happening around campus. Right now I’m really hoping that students can kinda learn that from what other student groups are doing.”