TU Playing Key Role In Global Environmental Conference

Press release from Towson University:

By Cody Boteler on April 5, 2021

In early April, thousands of university and high school students around the world
will participate in 100 same-day events focused on how state and local action can
help solve climate change by 2030.

The Bard Center for Environmental Policy (CEP) has organized “Solve Climate by 2030,” a series of global dialog webinars for participants in 50 countries, including each
U.S. state. TU will serve as the host for Maryland.

On April 7, the university will host a panel featuring Staci Hartwell, environmental and climate justice committee chair with
the NAACP Maryland State Conference; Jennifer Kunze, a program manager with Clean
Water Action; and Del. Jared Solomon, who represents District 18 in Montgomery County.

Other events will feature different speakers and have different focuses but all be
centered on the theme of solving climate change by 2030.

“We’re not having the same conversation, but we’re talking about the same topic. I
think that will be revolutionary, honestly,” says Karlee Perry, an environmental engagement
fellow with the Office of Civic Engagement & Social Responsibility.

Perry, an English major from Baltimore, says she did not pay a lot of attention to
environmental issues until she started attending college—and she now pays a lot of
attention to the climate.

“I realized that a lot of what I care about so deeply now, I could have cared about
earlier if I had been taught about it,” she says.

That’s part of why Perry says she’s so excited to be helping promote the event: She’s
also working as an intern for Solve Climate by 2030. Part of the event is encouraging teachers—from K–12 through college courses —to “make
climate a class.”

Solve Climate by 2030

Register here

To register for Solve Climate by 2030: A Policy-to-Action Community Discussion, featuring
panelists from the NAACP, Clean Water Action and the Maryland House of Delegates,
click here.

That means dedicating one class lesson, in any subject, to how climate change affects
that subject, explains Thomas Potter, president of the Student Environmental Organization
and sustainability project coordinator in the Office of Sustainability.

“An interdisciplinary understanding of the climate is not just important for the ‘environmental
kids;’ it’s not just the kids in tie-dyed shirts who like to recycle. It’s deeply
important in anything you do,” Potter, an environmental studies major, says. “We’re
a part of the environment; we are a part of nature.”

Bard CEP has teaching guides that connect climate change to everything from geography
and chemistry to statistics, psychology, economics and literature.

Normally around this time, Towson University would be hosting its annual Environmental
Conference, says Paddy Watson, assistant director of sustainability. Health and safety
limitations led to the pivot of partnering with Bard’s CEP, she says.

Engaging in the global dialog webinars is a way for members of the higher education
community and high school students in Maryland to have important conversations about
climate change and local action.

Luis Sierra, assistant director for civic engagement, says TU's work representing
Maryland in the global conference is creating more opportunities for students and
the community at large "to have these important conversations about the future of
our planet."

"I am especially proud of and excited about the major role that student leaders play,
both in this event, and in environmental justice efforts as a whole, as they continue
to apply their learning and their passions towards continued advocacy and civic engagement
to address the environmental issues we face in our communities," he says.

Towson University is committed to sustainability and has a history of taking action
at the regional level. The FoodShare Program, for example, is celebrating its fifth anniversary. TU has also been recognized by
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its commitment to reducing food waste and by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to forest conservation

Chris Salice, associate professor and director of TU's environmental science & studies program, says he is proud of and inspired by the university's commitment to sustainability
and the environment.

"A primary reason I moved back to Maryland, and to TU specifically, was to be part
of an organization that is taking meaningful steps toward improving the environment,"
he says.

This press release was produced by Towson University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.