April 22 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Since 1970, the annual event recognizes and gives voice to an emerging public consciousness of keeping the planet clean and sustainable. With the help of students and faculty, WSU Vancouver has proven that being environmentally conscious should not only occur on Earth Day, but all year round.
Associate professor of biological sciences and School of the Environment, Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens, is an advocate for keeping the Earth clean. As a biologist and an ecologist who specializes in oceanography and aquatic science, she also co-directs the Aquatic Ecology Lab on campus with her husband, biological sciences and School of Environment professor, Steve Bollens.
“The research that I do often has an applied component to it,” Rollwagen-Bollens explained. “We’re investigating questions like, ‘What are the dynamics of harmful algal blooms that occur in Vancouver Lake?’ For instance.”
Another instructor who is looking out for Earth is Deepti Singh, assistant professor for the School of the Environment. After living in Mumbai, India, and seeing the impacts that monsoons had on the region, she realized the gravity of the issue and decided to pursue environmental science.
Singh’s research on climate change directly relates to this year’s Earth Day theme, which according to earthday.org, is climate action.
“One of the main areas of my research, until recently, was looking at how different human activities are influencing climate change and extreme weather events, both regionally as well as globally,” Singh said. “Our climate is changing, and it’s changing because of human activities. Projected changes, even in the near term, can pose pretty large risks to the way we live. The way billions of people are going to be affected, I think, creates an urgency for us to act on climate change. So, I think it is a really good thing that the focus this year is on climate change.”
Rollwagen-Bollens agrees that climate action is a good theme because, according to her, climate change is the overriding environmental issue of our lives.
Senior social science major, Emily Shirron, is one of the hosts of “EnviroMENTAL” a segment on Koug Radio about environmental health. On Jan. 28, “EnviroMENTAL” had its one year anniversary and to celebrate, hosted a clothing swap on campus along with the Fashion Club. Shirron hopes that “EnviroMENTAL” and the Fashion Club will host another clothing swap next semester.
“It was super successful,” Shirron said. “And then afterwards, all the clothes were donated to the Seeds [4] Liberation. Everything worked out really well.”
Seeds 4 Liberation is a youth group that was formed under the Betancourt Macias Family Scholarship Foundation, which strives to support the educational goals of undocumented people.
Shirron explained she feels passionately about climate change and sees an issue with the way it has been portrayed in the media.
“When a TV show has one person representing climate change, and one person representing that [climate change] is not real, that’s misrepresenting the issue. There’s not a 50/50 debate,” Shirron said.
Professor Singh added that the reason for misrepresentation could be that people have a hard time accepting negative things, such as climate change. She explained that the book “Merchants of Doubt,” written by Erik Conway and Naomi Oreskes, two historians of science, discusses a group of deniers who get paid to spread doubt about important issues.
Professor Singh said she believes WSU Vancouver does a good job of staying environmentally-friendly.
“I’ve been pretty impressed with our campus. There are green buildings, there’s recycling on campus, there’s a recent organization that started this semester on climate advocacy. We have a really strong environmental sciences and biology program where people are working on these issues. Our campus is doing a lot, both in terms of education, as well as just leading by example. I think they’re doing a good job.” -Professor Deepti Singh
Shirron added that she feels WSU Vancouver does a good job of conserving energy.
“I actually ran into two-third-party and they were coming on campus to meet with the janitorial staff to talk about how their habits can help WSU stay green,” Shirron said.
Shirron added that she thinks there are ways that WSU Vancouver can improve and spread more awareness about being green. For instance, placing more signs around campus with explanations as to what items are recyclable and which are not.
“We could compost, and my friend has talked about wanting bees on campus. We have tons of land,” Shirron said.
Rollwagen-Bollens agrees that making use of the land around campus would be a great way for WSU Vancouver to practice being green. She said there is a possibility of using leftover grant project money to develop programs on campus that help people understand the environment. She explained that WSU Vancouver can use its land as a resource to educate others.
Typically, large cleanup efforts are scheduled for Earth Day, but the Stay Home, Stay Healthy order makes that difficult. However, there are still many ways to help Earth’s health while staying home. For example, Professor Singh explained that beef production is detrimental to Earth’s health and being more selective in our diets can help benefit the environment.
“Making more environmentally-conscious food choices can be something that each person can do, and in doing so contribute to the problem of climate change,” Professor Singh said. “It’s not just climate change. Animal agriculture has a larger impact on the environment. And it’s also a human animal rights issue. So there are multiple, you know, boxes you can check off. If you want to continue eating meat, even chicken has a much lower carbon footprint than beef does.”
Professor Rollwagen Bollens also offered advice as simple as using reusable tupperware and dishes as opposed to plastic utensils.
WSU Vancouver can be classified a green campus because of its methods of conserving energy and inspiring students and faculty to recycle. Although there is always room for improvement, VanCoug professors are conducting research that benefits not only Earth, but its inhabitants, and students like Shirron are spreading the word about saving the planet.
Happy Earth Day!