Presented by Bill McKibben
Environmental activist, decorated author and co-founder of campaign website 350.org, Bill McKibben will provide perspective from his years on the front line of the climate fight. "On a hot planet, in the midst of a hot political fight, we will take a step back and consider, as coolly as possible, where we find ourselves and what our options might be."

A local watch party in Knauss will be followed by a discussion. Refreshments will be served.

For WMU students - This workshop will teach you not only about the environmental benefits of vegan cooking but will also provide a meal for you to get a taste of what a vegan meal looks like.

Discuss the first two chapters of Leah Thomas’ Intersectional Environmentalist, with KVCC instructor Claire McSwiney, who will lead a conversation about why congregational Green Teams would broaden their focus to include those who disproportionately bear the burden of environmental harm. Hosted by Hope for Creation and the WMU Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

The Kalamazoo City Commission will make a proclamation of March as Climate Emergency Month and Jamie McCarthy, Sustainable Development Coordinator, will recognize the 35 commercial buildings in Kalamazoo who have joined the Kalamazoo Energy Collaborative.

Discuss Leah Thomas’ Intersectional Environmentalist, chapters 3 & 4, with KVCC instructor Claire McSwiney, who will encourage us to acknowledge privilege, engage with those most affected, and move to right the environmental injustice in our community.

A presentation from the Grand Rapids Community Collaboration on Climate Change about their organization and work. Although we are all negatively impacted by climate change, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are disproportionately impacted and aren’t genuinely represented in the current environmental and climate change movement. C4 provides the resources for our communities in the fight for climate justice.

Brought to you by the Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition

In observation of Climate Emergency Month, the Kalamazoo Nature Center is focusing on Forest Health during our day-long Maple Sugar Festival on Saturday, March 11, 9am-5pm. The tradition of making maple sugar in the Great Lakes Region goes back thousands of years to the Anishinaabe people who were the first to begin harvesting this special regional food. Shifting climates threaten this long-standing tradition. On the main campus, KNC's Maple Sugar Festival will feature interpretive tours through a newly-planted climate-resilient sugarbush as well as a student -staffed informational table on Forest Carbon Capture from KNC's high school conservation biology Career Technical Education class. KNC's Ardea Youth Climate Leaders will be showing folks around the historic cabin and demonstrate historic sugaring techniques at the DeLano Farm and Homestead.

Presented by Dave Karowe, WMU Professor of Biological Sciences

Presented by Mary Robinson, First woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

21st Peter M. Wege Lecture on Sustainability at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

How do we reduce our waste with plastics that we can't recycle? Attendees of this event will learn how to repurpose single-use, thin plastics and repurpose them into eco-bricks. Eco-bricks are a way that we can reduce our waste while providing a new life to our waste.

Organized by the Office for Sustainability and Students for Sustainable Earth. Event has limited space so register quickly via ExperienceWMU! Event will run from 10-11:30am.

Presenters: Dr. Allen Webb and local teachers.
A presentation and panel for teachers and future teachers K-12, all grade levels and all content areas.

Co-Sponsored by the College of Education and the CCWG.

Presented by Teddie Potter, Clinical Professor, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota.

Presented by Alec Koppers.

Event will be from 4:30 - 5p.m. There will be a reception with light appetizers; 5:00 - 6:45 p.m. Co-sponsors:
Asylum Lake Management and Planning Council, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Department of Geography, Environment, and Tourism.

Climate Change Conference hosted at Loyola University Chicago

Loyola's annual Climate Change Conference will convene experts from multiple disciplines to explore how climate-driven migration will affect communities locally and globally. The conference draws inspiration from Loyola's enduring Jesuit values of social justice, service to humanity, and care for our world, highlighting the need for just and equitable solutions to the climate crisis.

Featuring:
Sean McCann, Michigan State Senator and chair, Senate Energy and Environment Committee
Dr. Denise Keele, Director, Michigan Climate Action Network
Brendan Mortensen-Seguin, Director of Sustainability, Western Student Association

In this workshop we will be taking a slightly different approach to sustainability. We will explore how building community and healthy community systems in turn brings us closer to earth mother. You will be invited to journal, share in ritual, meditate and discuss your feelings in a safe container held by our facilitators. Please bring a journal, a writing utensil, a meditation cushion or blanket to sit on, and anything else you need to feel comfortable. All are welcome to come and share.

Presented by Missy Stults, Sustainability and Innovation Manager for the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In November 2019 the Ann Arbor City Council unanimously adopted a Climate Emergency Declaration, stating that climate change is one of the most important issues of our time and that responding to the climate crisis necessitates a mobilization on par with those activated during times of disaster. The Council also committed to charting a path for how the Ann Arbor community could achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2030. Over the next four months the Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability and Innovations mobilized dozens of community partners and volunteers, thousands of members of the public, dozens of technical advisors, and peer communities in a planning process that culminated in the adoption of a Living Carbon Neutrality Plan detailing an indicative pathway to achieving the city’s ambitious goal.

Since then, as Sustainability and Innovations Director, Missy Stults has led the implementation of this plan. Please join us to hear about her experiences and lessons learned in a presentation that will be of great educational value to Kalamazoo voters.

How can people of faith and conscience learn from each other’s histories and advocate together? During the first hour of our time together, we'll watch a livestream featuring Missy Stults, Ann Arbor's Sustainability and Innovation Manager, describing how that community adopted an inclusive carbon neutrality plan. Then (as some folks join us after seeing Missy live at KPL) we'll turn to "People + Planet," the final chapter of The Intersectional Environmentalist, as a guide for taking our own next steps in Kalamazoo. In this final session of our four-part series, we'll share a vegan meal and include time for participants to share their own stories and for congregational Green Teams to share their current and aspirational projects. All are welcome!

Rev. Rachel Lonberg, Pastor at People's Church

Rebecca Solnit writes, “Think of the Carboniferous as a sixty- million-year inhale by plants, sucking carbon dioxide from the sky, and the last two hundred years as a monstrous human- engineered exhale, undoing what the plants did so long ago.” How might we, residents of this time of exhale, during a month that local activists have called Climate Emergency Month, transform our grief at climate change into ferocious love and courageous action?

This workshop is for giving activists the tools they need to recharge through a beginner friendly yoga and meditation class. Stick around after class for tea and a chat!
Co-organized by the Office for Sustainability.

By some estimates, there could be as many as a billion people by 2050 who are no longer able to survive in their native land and will be looking for somewhere else to live. How can the world handle this? Come talk with the author of 'Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World', an award-winning science journalist, author, broadcaster, and speaker.

What is the sustainability job market like? What resources are most helpful? This panel event is geared towards WMU students who are interested in pursuing a career in a sustainability field. All majors from Psychology to Engineering to Business Administration and everything in between play a role in sustainability. Panelists include recent alums in a variety of jobs and Dr. Lisa DeChano-Cook, Advisor of the WMU Climate Change Studies minor.

Presented by Gaia Vince, U.K. journalist (BBC and The Economist) and author of Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World.

U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Representative from Michigan
The first Muslim woman to ever serve in the Michigan Legislature and currently the Congresswoman for Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, which includes the city of Detroit and many surrounding communities.

Presented by Jonathan Milgrim a Faculty Specialist in the WMU Dept. of Philosophy.

Part of the Lecture Series of The Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University.

This event provides students with the supplies and knowledge they need to get started with growing plants of their own with minimal space. This workshop will go over container types and experimentation with different cover crop seeds to find the lowest maintenance container system.

The event focuses on sustainable, clean water issues led by the 2021 class of Medallion Scholars who are traveling to El Salvador and Guatemala over spring break installing electric and solar powered water filters in rural areas.

March 23 Mix It Up with focus on sustainable, clean water issues led by the 2021 class of Medallion Scholars who are traveling to El Salvador and Guatemala over spring break installing electric and solar powered water filters in rural areas.

Presented by Ron Kramer, WMU Professor of Sociology
Climate disruptions and the potential for nuclear war are the two key existential dangers of our time, and the nexus between the two is often ignored. These twin apocalyptic threats have much in common and need to be considered together because they intersect with and intensify the risks of each other.

All are welcome to join, either in-person or online, the launch of a Community Voices Series at the first Michigan Climate Action Network Members’ Meeting of 2023!

This month’s Community Voices will feature groups advancing equitable climate solutions in Kalamazoo and West Michigan and the quarterly Members’ Meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss initiatives, actions, and upcoming events. Come ready to learn about Kalamazoo’s efforts toward bold climate action, get updates from MiCAN, and share your work!

Noon-1:30 pm (light refreshments provided)

Event runs from 9am-1pm

Come out to see a range of electric vehicles including cars, trucks, and bikes. Talk to current owners and see how to charge vehicles at the WMU charging stations.

This workshop serves to teach participants the techniques and principles of visible mending. Visible mending is a method of clothing repair that covers up holes, stains, and fitting issues in a creative, eye-catching way with techniques including embroidery and patching. Attendees are encouraged to bring any clothing items they wish to mend. Organized by OfS and WMU Library

Jeff Kodish is an environmental attorney with more than three decades of experience representing plaintiffs in environmental torts, citizen groups, and government agencies. He has been the lead attorney in a number of high-profile enforcement actions arising from violations of laws designed to reduce GHG emissions, and has been actively involved in cases addressing air pollution from oil and gas operations and coal-fired power plants. Jeff obtained his undergraduate degree in Environmental Biology and Political Science from the University of Colorado and his law degree from the University of Oregon. Jeff will be discussing several cases involving the generation of millions of dollars worth of fake credits under the Renewable Fuels Standard program, and lessons learned from these cases

Green Drinks Kalamazoo is an informal monthly meetup at a local establishment to highlight and discuss anything under the umbrella of sustainability. We host a lively mix of folks from NGOs, academia, government and business. Everyone invites someone else along, so there’s always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organizing network. Come one, come all!

The group will be virtually discussing March's read; The Big Fix: 7 Practical Steps to Save Our Planet by Hal Harvey & Justin Gillis (Sept 2022)

We will have an open conversation about what being an imperfect environmentalist looks like including combatting those guilty feelings we have when we are not “perfect”. The event is open to all.

Farmers market held on campus for students and community members. Organized by Wayne Bond and OSE

Presented by Paul Clements, WMU Professor of Political Science, director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Climate Change Policy and Management and the Master's Program in International Development Administration.

Today's world is one of great climate injustice. What is the current status of the international institutional architecture for addressing climate change and its main effects, and how has it evolved over time? What international institutions are needed for just mitigation, adaptation, and support for victims of harms from the climate crisis, and how could they be established?

Join ModeShift Kalamazoo, WMU Climate Crisis Working Group, and Kalamazoo College for a screening of ‘Together We Cycle.’ Activities, light snacks, and refreshments will be provided.

The film ‘Together We Cycle’ investigates the critical events that led to the revival of the Dutch cycling culture.

Learn about the status and future of the Bronco Challenge for Sustainable Impact - a challenge to solve problems threatening the future of humanity. Working in teams of 3-5 people from diverse disciplines, students submit competitive proposals with ideas to develop solutions to a wide variety of issues identified by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Join us and enjoy light refreshments as we play to bring awareness to campus about climate change and it's current impact.

Come join us for a leisurely social hour with other individuals concerned about the climate crisis. Organized by WMU's Medallion Scholars

Dr. Michael Méndez, Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning and Policy at the University of California, Irvine and author of Climate Change from the Streets, will give a presentation on his research into how activists in California have pushed the state to incorporate environmental justice into state climate policies. Afterwards there will be a panel discussion exploring issues of climate justice in Michigan and how to center justice in Michigan’s climate action plans. Ms. Regina Strong, Environmental Justice Public Advocate for EGLE, and Ms. Michelle Martinez, Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment, will participate in the panel discussion and share insights from government and activist experiences. This session will address issues of environmental justice, policy, and what kinds of training and skill sets can build capacity for advocacy and government work.

Refreshments will be served at the watch party in the WMU Center for the Humanities

Hear and learn from students across campus as we explore shared concerns about the climate crisis from a holistic perspective where interest in the environment, politics, culture, economic, biodiversity, and social issues intersect.