Upcoming Events
Students for Climate Action and the Office of Civic Engagement are partnering to put on a screening of Kiss the Ground during Earth Week! Come learn about (more info) with us on Thursday, April 25 at 7 p.m.
Host Group: Office of Civic Engagement & Students for Climate Action
Reduce waste and save the things you love! Join Zero Waste Western at their Repair Fair, where a variety of community members will be coming together to fix small items, including mending clothes, fixing small appliances, and repairing sports gear.
Host Group: Zero Waste Western
This year's Go for the Green celebration will be the annual Housing Sustainability Clothing Swap! Clothing swaps allow residents to swap unwanted clothes and accessories for new-to-you items, combating resource-demanding clothing production, consumerism, and fast fashion.
At the event, we will be raffling off prizes to Go for the Green pledgers and announcing the winner of the competition!
RSVP Link
Host Group: Housing Sustainability
Are you interested in food or farm policy, or simply food? Join us for an Earth Week cook-in featuring fermentation, simple meal prep demos, and even cheesemaking! We'll also talk about student-driven campus projects that prioritize support services and programs around food at Western.
Host Group: College of the Environment & Gigi Berardi
Set yourself up to shop sustainably and grow your own food! At this event, stop by to decorate a free tote bag and plant herbs to start your own indoor or outdoor food garden!
Host Group: Community Service Center
Come celebrate spring and close out Earth Week at the Outback Farm with free food, live music, and fun farm activities!
Host Group: Outback Farm
Art Wolfe will give a presentation with projected images and live narration featuring adventures, an exploration of creativity, and the amazing stories that accompany his images from the new book, Wild Lives.
Introducing the event, Wild Lives author, Greg Green, will discuss the shared premise of the book, talk about the current state of wildlife populations in many of the planet’s biomes, and will read a brief passage or two from the ten chapters of text he prepared for this book.
Wild Lives is a celebration of the extraordinary diversity of species that inhabit the planet. Some are common, some rare, and many are conservation success stories, species that have been brought back from the edge of extinction. Over his forty-year career, Art Wolfe has photographed many species that were once on endangered species lists, but are now flourishing (such as the bald eagle and humpback whale). These recoveries are an uplifting testament to the resilience of life when it is given a chance.
Got the case of the ecological blues? You're not alone! Climate anxiety impacts an estimated 27% of Americans and that number is growing. "Planet Hope" will help you be optimistic but still realistic about the future of Planet Earth. It will feature a presentation by Community Service Center staff based on the work of Elin Kelsey, P.h.D., renowned for her ecological optimism and resilience work. After the presentation, there will be an activity to help you find your role as a leader in the environmental movement. In addition to the presentation and activities, this event is a great way to meet other people who are also experiencing eco-anxiety and form a community with them. While you're there, enjoy free certified regenerative coffee from Tony's Coffee and free bagels from The Bagelry, topped with cream cheese from Trader Joe's.
Our Spring 2024 forums are being jointly hosted by WWU's Sustainability Engagement Institute and Center for Community Learning, and Bellingham Public Library. The forums build on the "Learning Together Through Climate Upheaval" series we initiated last year to enhance the learning capacity of the planet so that we can make the most of the opportunities and challenges of climate change.
We're continuing our effort to host a forum related to each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), which help us approach climate change responses in an inter-sectional, holistic way.
Please join us to share your hopes and challenges related to creating a more sustainable region, and meet others doing inspirational work! We’ll leave with new connections and opportunities for action!
Advocates for climate and environmental justice rely on a diverse set of advocacy tools, from direct action to political organizing to lawsuits. Hear from an expert in environmental law and litigation on how lawyers use their skills to help advance the clean energy revolution and protect environmental justice communities. Learn about the day-to-day work of public interest lawyering, what skills and background are useful, and some stories from the front lines of the nation’s biggest environmental legal battles. There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.
In 2002 a young orca named Springer was discovered near Seattle - lost, alone and 300 miles away from home. Six months later she was rescued, rehabilitated and returned to her pod on the north end of Vancouver Island. Today she is thriving, with two calves of her own. It's the only successful orca reintroduction in history!
Donna Sandstrom will share the inspiring story of Springer's rescue, and how it led her to found The Whale Trail. Learn about current initiatives to protect the endangered southern resident orcas and how you can participate in their recovery.
Our Spring 2024 forums are being jointly hosted by WWU's Sustainability Engagement Institute and Center for Community Learning, and Bellingham Public Library. The forums build on the "Learning Together Through Climate Upheaval" series we initiated last year to enhance the learning capacity of the planet so that we can make the most of the opportunities and challenges of climate change.
We're continuing our effort to host a forum related to each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), which help us approach climate change responses in an inter-sectional, holistic way.
Please join us to share your hopes and challenges related to creating a more sustainable region, and meet others doing inspirational work! We’ll leave with new connections and opportunities for action!
The relationship between science and policymaking is complex and multifaceted. Policymakers are faced with the unenviable task of integrating social aspects (economic, social, and political considerations) with the latest scientific research. The Los Alamos National Lab (one of the Department of Energy's 17 National Labs) plays a key role in providing this scientific research. The National Labs tackle the critical scientific challenges of our time - from combating climate change to discovering the origins of our universe - and possess unique instruments and facilities, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. We address large scale, complex research and development challenges with a multidisciplinary approach that is unique in our country's research portfolio (which includes academia and private industry).
Puget Sound is one of the largest estuaries in the United States. The area's unique geology, climate and nutrient-rich waters create and support biologically productive coastal habitats. Population growth has contributed to the degradation of Puget Sound, including declines in fish and wildlife populations, water quality issues, and changes in coastal habitats. The US Geological Survey has been conducting interdisciplinary studies in Puget Sound since 2006 through its Coastal Habitats in Puget Sound (CHIPS) project to address these challenges. Recently, the CHIPS program conducted research in Bellingham Bay to understand contaminant transport, biological uptake, and toxicity. This talk will cover the findings of these studies and the implications for the Sound's ecosystem.
Our Spring 2024 forums are being jointly hosted by WWU's Sustainability Engagement Institute and Center for Community Learning, and Bellingham Public Library. The forums build on the "Learning Together Through Climate Upheaval" series we initiated last year to enhance the learning capacity of the planet so that we can make the most of the opportunities and challenges of climate change.
We're continuing our effort to host a forum related to each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), which help us approach climate change responses in an inter-sectional, holistic way.
Please join us to share your hopes and challenges related to creating a more sustainable region, and meet others doing inspirational work! We’ll leave with new connections and opportunities for action!
Discover your next great read with this series of presentations by authors, poets, artists and naturalists sharing their latest works. As part of this Spring Series, we’re honored to welcome back Institute instructors, friends and contributors including David B. Williams, Tele Aadsen, and Nikki McClure. Dig through Washington’s prehistoric past, celebrate our kinship with wolves or listen to Rachel Carson’s words echo through the clouds as guest speakers share readings and artwork inspired by the wonders of the unique region we call home.
Registration is requested for each event – your $5 registration will save you a seat and can be used towards a purchase at Village Books – tickets may be available at the door if space allows.
Note: Grace Wang, Director of the SEI, will be hosting a Lunch & Learn with the authors on campus on May 30.
Location: TBA.
What perceptual cues are experienced wildland fire leaders at the field-level identifying and responding to under extreme time constraints and situational uncertainty? In this talk, I will introduce and discuss the Recognition-Primed Decision Model and its role in shaping wildland firefighter training and its utility for high-risk, high-pressure decision-making.
As climate change alters communities in complex ways, water bodies are projected to experience profound adverse effects, particularly aquatic systems in higher elevation and mountainous regions. Warmer temperatures decrease the snow cover, resulting in increased runoff of nutrients in these mountain freshwaters, altering the habitat of zooplankton communities and fracturing the food web. The slow reestablishment of deciduous and coniferous vegetation in the Mount St. Helen’s National Volcanic Monument provides a resource-limited environment to study how the reintroduction of terrestrial vegetation influences aquatic communities. Ponds created by the 1980 volcanic eruption’s debris avalanche provide the unique opportunity to fill knowledge gaps in our understanding of terrestrial-aquatic linkages. Assessing the effects of certain organic matter and zooplankton community change as a result of a syndrome called “brownification” could provide valuable understanding of the response to climate change and ecological patterns, and insights into how to protect these critical freshwater habitats better.
Western’s Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) was adopted in 2017, serving as the University’s blueprint for protecting the local and global environment, upholding social equity, creating economic vitality, and maintaining human health. In the seven years since, we’ve had success and challenges. Today’s talk will address sustainability initiative on campus, with a focus on energy (Jeff Aslan), curriculum (Grace Wang), and co-curricular initiatives (Kate Beck).
Witness some of the most surprising animal behavior in Greatest Wildlife Photographs, a new exhibition from National Geographic. The very best wildlife pictures from the pages of National Geographic magazine have been chosen to be displayed at the Whatcom Museum. Curated by renowned nature picture editor Kathy Moran, this exhibition is a celebratory look at wildlife with images taken by National Geographic’s most iconic photographers such as Michael “Nick” Nichols, Steve Winter, Paul Nicklen, Beverly Joubert, David Doubilet and more. Showcasing the evolution of photography, the images convey how innovations such as camera traps, remote imaging, and underwater technology have granted photographers access to wildlife in their natural habitat.