Saginaw Valley State University’s (SVSU) Registered Student Organization (RSO) the Climate Stick Club will be hosting climate change advocates for a lecture followed by a fireside chat to spread awareness about climate change.
As part of its mission, the Climate Stick Club spreads awareness about the dangers of burning fossil fuels and the subsequent release of CO2 into the atmosphere. They do this through education and advocacy.
Climate control advocates Bill McKibben and Angela Ardis will be leading the lecture.
McKibben is the founder of the Third Act, an organization that encourages individuals over the age of 60 to act on climate change.
Ardis is the Michigan state director for NextGen America, a youth voter organization that works to encourage young voters to develop awareness on current issues such as climate change.
McKibben and Ardis will address the issue of climate change and discuss ways to stop it.
After the lecture, Emma Abedrabo, a junior Environmental Science Major and president of the Climate Stick Club, will be facilitating a fireside chat along with Pat Race, an environmentalist from Bay City and founder of the Climate Stick non-profit organization.
The purpose of the fireside chat is to ask McKibben and Ardis questions about their presentations in a more casual setting.
Abedrabo hopes many students and community members will attend to learn ways they can help with climate change.
“Most people are under the impression that there is nothing that individuals can do to make a difference, but this simply isn’t true,” Abedrabo said. “The biggest way for students to make an impact is to make sustainable purchases and consume consciously.”
Buying sustainably, Abedrabo elaborates, includes purchasing items with less packaging, paper, or wood products instead of plastic and products from ethically sourced materials.
She also cites that avoiding overconsumption coupled with sustainable purchases will force large corporations to move towards creating more sustainable products.
“Fast fashion alone is responsible for more CO2 emissions than the combined emissions of the aviation and shipping industries,” Abedrabo continued. “We as consumers hold an incredible amount of power. Because of that, corporations will continue to produce unsustainable products as long as we continue to purchase them.”
Beyond purchasing sustainable items, Abedrabo points out other ways individuals can live more environmentally friendly, such as by “using less water, carpooling more often to cut back on gas usage, or substituting a few meals with plant-based foods.”
The climate change discussion and fireside chat will be held on Tues. April 11 at 6:30 pm in SVSU’s Curtiss Hall banquet rooms.
At 5 p.m., members of the Climate Stick Club will be gathering outside of Curtiss Hall to take a photo for the event. Students and community members who support the event are encouraged to join in the photo. Those who join in the photo will get a free Climate Stick T-shirt while supplies last.
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