The University of Vermont has a full slate of events for this year’s Earth Week, which marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, which arguably remains the largest global teach-in in history. The full list of UVM events can be found here: https://uvmbored.com/earth-week/ The following events, organized by EcoCultureLab and its partnering organizations, will be held online and open to the public.See here for a more complete schedule.
TUESDAY, April 21 - 2:30-4:00 pm: Sustainability in the Pandemic Era. The Gund Institute presents a panel covering topics including food insecurity, disease ecology, mental health, and economic recovery. Speakers include Meredith Niles, Chris Danforth, Stephanie Seguino, Brendan Fisher, Luz de Wit, and Jon Erickson. Further details here. Register here.
EARTH DAY, WEDNESDAY, April 22, 12:00 noon-1:30 pm EDT (4:00-5:30 pm GMT): “WHEN CORONA MET CLIMATE CHANGE… WHAT CHANGED?” EcoCultureLab hosts a series of live, short (under 3 minutes), and creative responses to the “meeting” of coronavirus and climate change. Think of them as two waves: a tidal wave we can more or less see on our horizon coming to meet an even larger, slower wave that has been arriving for decades. What happens when the first (which may or may not be a child of the second) meets the second? And think of ourselves looking back from 50 years on — from the perspective of Earth Day, 2070 (which we are christening Ecotopia Day) — and telling the story of how “everything changed” when this happened. A virtual human chain of “emotional weather reports” from the sagging century-midpoint between the first global teach-in on the environment (April 22, 1970) and an anticipated ecotopian world, optimistically dated to April 22, 2070… Spiked with visions of how to get from here to there. It’s not too late to submit proposals for “When Corona…” here. This event launches EcoCultureLab’s Feverish World: From Pandemonium to Ecotopia project. Follow this link to join the live event.
EARTH DAY, WEDNESDAY, April 22, 4:30-5:30 pm: Disturbance, Recovery, Discovery: Lessons from Tropical Rainforests. This is the University of Vermont’s Earth Day Keynote Talk by rainforest ecologist, Guggenheim Fellow, and women’s science advocate Nalini Nadkarni. Follow this link to join the live event.
THURSDAY, April 23 - 4:30-5:30 pm, “BOIL THE OCEAN” with Marina Zurkow and Una Chaudhuri EcoCultureLab’s Earth Week speaker, media artist Marina Zurkow, will speak on climate change, oceans, and the post-natural condition. Zurkow is one of the leading contemporary artists addressing how we think and feel about climate change and related ecological issues. In works like "Dear Climate," "Wet Logic," and "Oceans Like Us," she and her collaborators work with the tools of new media, virtual reality, video installation, and others to encourage personal engagement with the "wicked problems" of our time. This talk will feature a conversation with eco-theater pioneer and New York University professorUna Chaudhuri, whose books include "Animal Acts: Performing Species Today" and "Ecocide: Research Theatre and Climate Change." Follow this link to join the live event.
SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS HERE. See also the Gund Institute Events Page . And feel free to join our partnering institution’s, the U. of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute’s, all day event on Monday,Earth Day@50: Aspiring for Sustainability, Striving for Justice, Crafting the Planet. Register here.
Image: Elixir I, by Marina Zurkow