by Ivanhoe
A&E Editor

A number of films and lectures will be presented on campus every day from Monday, April 16 to Thursday, April 19 as part of the broader Earth Day celebrations that will be observed on campuses nationwide.

Lectures will include a range of topics on environmental issues.

Sarah Strode and Heather Kokorowski, from the University of Washington Program for Climate Change, will be speaking about the ramifications of global climate change on the Pacific Northwest. They will discuss both the science behind global climate change, and how it will affect our community.

Dr. George Divoky will present some of his research from the University of Alaska’s Institute of Arctic Biology, about how a warming climate is affecting both the bird and human populations along Alaska’s northern coast.

Biodiesel expert Lyle Rudensey, popularly known as “Biolyle,” will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of biodiesel as an alternative to fossil fuels. His lecture will include topics on small-scale homebrewing of biodiesel, trends in commercial production, and the prospect of sustainable, large-scale production.

Shoreline Community College’s Dr. Milford Muskett will talk about the social implications of global climate change, and how some environmental laws are asymmetrically enacted and enforced based on who they benefit most in the short-run. Muskett has a Ph.D. in land resources from the University of Wisconsin and taught at Cornell University in 2004.

The lectures will be accompanied by a film series that will include Homelands, a documentary about the land loss of Native Americans, Planet Neighborhood, which explores measures that can be taken to solve environmental challenges locally, Design E², a program about how environmentally sustainable urban building designs aim to reduce the impact of cities on climate, and the Academy Award-winner An Inconvenient Truth, in which former U.S. Vice President Al Gore explains some of the science and politics behind global climate change.

Earth Week is an extension of Earth Day, which has been celebrated every April 22 in the United States since 1970. SCC’s observance of the holiday also dates back to the 1970s.

Students who want to help with environmental efforts will have opportunities as well. Members of the Worldly Philosophers and Dismal Scientists’ Society, the college’s economics club, will be requesting donations for multi-lingual labeling to go on the new recycle bins the school has purchased. A Saturday community event will take place at Boeing Creek Park, where invasive plant species will be removed and replaced with native trees.

Earth Week events are being organized by the Sustainability Committee, a group of faculty, staff, and students who aim to assess how SCC can become more environmentally and socially sustainable. Two student organizations, the Environmental Club and WPDSS, are helping organize and promote the events.

“I’m looking forward to this year’s Earth Week,” said professor Chip Dodd, one of the organizers of this year’s events. “There are a lot of things happening.”