The Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) held their annual Earth Week programming from Monday, April 18 to Friday, April 22. This year’s theme was “Wildflowers: Resilience, Resistance, and Growth”. The week was advertised via social media, an email sent by Chancellor Carol Christ, word-of-mouth, and the Environmental Community slack space.
A central concern of Ukrainian-Russian tensions has been Europe’s dependence on natural gas and oil imported from Russia. In 2019, roughly 40% of Europe’s natural gas was supplied by Russia. The timing of Russia’s invasion of Europe has been noted as significant because energy use is higher in the winter months, as people use gas to heat their homes.
On October 1st, residents along the Pacific coast down in southern California sensed the faint smell of petroleum. An oil spill was confirmed the following day, 5 miles off the coast of Newport and Huntington Beach. This environmental devastation equates to an estimated 144,000 gallons.
The UC Green New Deal Coalition (UC GND) — a democratically organized, grassroots organization — works to promote environmental justice and limit actions that contribute to the climate crisis on UC campuses. In hopes of actively advocating for the termination of the Cogeneration Plan, the UC GND organized a set of events for Climate Justice Week, including an Anti-Cogen rally on campus.
From Monday, October 25 to Friday, October 29 the Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC) hosted Climate Justice Week to educate students about the intersectionality of social justice and climate change. SERC was founded in 2012 to serve as a center for the UC Berkeley student environmental and sustainability community.
On October 28, 2021, the Berkeley Food Institute brought together a panel of Black farmers, organizers, scholars, and activists to bring awareness to the ongoing struggles of Black agrarians and share their stories of anguish, resilience, and hope. Because the majority of Black farmers reside in the southern United States, their battle is one that is rarely discussed among west coast academic institutions…
In fall of 2019, UC Berkeley undergraduate students formed “Pour Out Pepsi,” (POP) a campaign dedicated to breaking UC Berkeley’s corporate partnership with PepsiCo, Inc. As UC Berkeley votes to renew their contract with PepsiCo, POP is showing the campus that when universities function like businesses, they betray their commitments to their students.
For five years, two peregrine falcons named Annie and Grinnel have been living peacefully in the Campanile on Cal’s campus. Peregrine falcons usually mate for life, and this couple has had five successful breeding seasons on campus, resulting in thirteen chicks being born. On April 19th, triplets hatched and can be seen on the livestream.
In the last year, climate activism has become more prominent, especially among young people to make their voices heard seeing that they will be the generation that is highly impacted by global warming and climate change. Youth vs Apocalypse (YVA) is an environmental justice organization started by high school students from Oakland that have fought against inequities perpetuated by environmental issues.
In March 2020, amid campus cries for a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for graduate students and the emergence of COVID-19, UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources (CNR) flaunted a 50 million dollar donation from former Dean Gordan Rausser that they would be accepting in exchange for the addition of his name to the College.
In order to share the experiences of women in the technological field, the Women in Tech Symposium selects a tech-related topic each year and holds panels and discussions to dive deeper into the area of focus. This year marked the 5th Annual Women in Tech Symposium titled The New Era in Human-Computer Interaction.
Between April 17 and April 27, UC Berkeley hosted its third and final open house on the People’s Park Housing Project. The plan includes 950 to 1,200 student beds and 75 to 125 apartments for people currently experiencing homelessness or very low-income residents, open space, and a food market.
Climate activists around the world had big plans for Wednesday, April 22 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Traditional in-person Earth-themed demonstrations and community gatherings in honor of the occasion were cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Still, members of the environmental community at UC Berkeley joined forces to create a virtual Earth Week for students to participate in while remaining safely indoors.
From February 6-7, I attended the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) Energy Summit along with undergraduates, graduates, professors and leaders in energy and resources. This event occurs yearly, and this year was called “The Race Against 2°C,” as an homage to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that an average global warming of two degrees is “the maximum temperature threshold the global community can achieve while averting the worst of climate change.”
The demonstration was held during the UCSF-Mission Bay Board of Regents Meeting. A letter from the United Nations was delivered that is in support of the Kia’i and condemns the University of California for their involvement in the TMT project.
On the morning of November 8, UC Berkeley’s Extinction Rebellion (XR) group held its inaugural “die-in” directly in front of Sather Gate, in hopes of raising awareness of and advocating for action against the climate crisis.
Through film, dialogue and action, the SFGFF intends to educate and build power in the environmental community, as well as create transformative arts experiences for individuals to absorb current environmental realities and envision our possible futures. Bay Area residents, UN Special Rapporteur Leilani Farha, PUSH film director Fredrick Gertten, and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff were in attendance, and each person’s presence transmitted the basic message that they believe something needs to be done. The SFGFF ran from September 24th to September 29th, 2019.
On Friday morning, over one thousand students and members of the greater Berkeley community took to UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza to advocate for climate action. This walkout is only one of thousands of Youth Climate Strikes taking place across the world in anticipation of the UN Climate Summit meeting in New York on Monday.
The Earth is getting warmer, the ice caps are melting, and sea levels are rising. I think it’s safe to say most of us at Berkeley know this, and studies show that most Americans understand and accept this as well. But who is to blame, and who can actually make a difference in solving an issue this big? That’s the question Jessica Ho and KJ Zhao, Founders of Museum of Tomorrow, are trying to answer.
