Climate week activities spur dialogue on sustainability

MSU is currently hosting its annual Climate Week from April 22-26, which features a lineup of educational activities and discussions aimed at fostering environmental awareness and action. The events, open to both the university and the public, underscore local climate activists’ ongoing mission to integrate climate science and sustainability into campus culture.

Paul Lachapelle, a faculty advisor to the Campus Climate Coalition and a key organizer of the event, emphasized the crucial role of educational institutions in addressing climate change. "This institution as a whole has an obligation to talk about climate change because it's such a critical issue facing humanity," Lachapelle said. 

He further stressed the importance of preparing students for the environmental challenges they will face throughout their lives, influencing everything from their careers to personal decisions about family size and lifestyle​​.

The first half of the week kicked off with a lecture by professor of photography Ian Van Coller, titled "Naturalists of the Long Now." Van Coller discussed his artistic work that combines photography with environmental science, which aims to visualize the impacts of climate change over the immense and incomprehensible span of Earth's history also known as “deep time.” 

According to Van Coller’s website, “Naturalists of the Long Now” breaks down barriers between art and science, and creates a dialogue between text and image, landscape and viewer, expert and novice, past, present and future.” 

On April 23, P.h.D candidate Pico Alt from MSU's Department of Earth Sciences presented the findings from her study on historical vegetation and fire patterns in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

On the same day Michael Reidy, a history professor, discussed the John Tyndall Correspondence Project (JTCP). 

This project focuses on making the work of physicist Tyndall’s contributions accessible to our understanding of the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect. According to the JTCP’s website, “[Tyndal] studied the conditions that produce glaciers, leading him to the topic of radiant heat, particularly how gases absorb solar radiation.” The JTCP also underscores the importance of Tyndall’s research, “Throughout the 1860s his study of atmospheric gasses continued, and he became one of the first scientists to recognize the earth’s natural greenhouse effect and how various gasses affect it.”

Throughout the week sponsors, MSU Climate Solutions Group, MSU Campus Climate Coalition and Gallatin Valley Earth Day will collectively host a raffle with prizes from local businesses and feature book displays at the university library to engage the community further and spread awareness on climate issues. 

MSU's Climate Week will continue with more events, which can be found on MSU’s website: https://www.montana.edu/communitydevelopment/climateweek.html.