Ohio State’s Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, was a tipping point in the attention paid to our global environment and a precursor to many critical environmental advances since that time. This program looks back at the challenges faced in 1970, to evaluate where we are at present and what has been accomplished, and to look ahead as we confront the precarious situation, we face with climate change at The Ohio State University. While we have much to be proud of with respect to environmental advances, our greatest challenges may lie ahead. View this program to hear from leading environmental and sustainability Ohio State faculty and students and for an announcement on Ohio State’s action on climate change.   

Hosted by: Ohio State's School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Sustainability Institute

AGENDA

Welcome remarks by Nicole Jackson, program coordinator, Environmental Professionals Network, and Josh Knights, director of partnerships, Sustainability Institute 

Earth Day’s Legacy and Future presentations by Ohio State faculty.  

3:23 Jeff Sharp, Ph.D., director, School of Environment and Natural Resources 

8:40 Bart Elmore, Ph.D. professor, Department of History 

23:46 Elena Irwin, Ph.D. faculty director, Sustainability Institute and professor, Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics 

38:24 Special Announcement on Ohio State’s Action on Climate Change ready by Josh Knights on behalf of Michael V. Drake, MD, president, The Ohio State University 

44:20 Jayson Velazquez, undergraduate student; Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability major, School of Environment and Natural Resources  

47:43 Luke Bobay, undergraduate student; Environmental Science and Evolution and Ecology majors; School of Environment and Natural Resources and Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology 

48:58 Dominique Hadad, undergraduate student; Industrial and Systems Engineering major; College of Engineering 

50:06 Christina Gore, doctoral student; Environmental Economics; Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics 

Concluding remarks by Nicole Jackson and Josh Knights 

Ohio State’s 50th Anniversary of Earth Day Resources:  

• si.osu.edu/earthday2020 
• go.osu.edu/50yearsearthday  

Speakers

Bart Elmore, PhD, assistant professor, Environmental History; core faculty, Sustainability Institute at Ohio State. Elmore.83@osu.edu

Dr. Elmore specializes in global environmental history and American history. His first book, “Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism,” examines the environmental impact of Coca-Cola’s worldwide operations. Continuing his research at the nexus of business and global environmental history, Elmore is completing another book, "SEED MONEY: Monsanto's Past and the Future of Food," that details the international ecological history of the Monsanto Company. He was named a New America Carnegie Fellow for the 2017 academic year.

Elena Irwin, PhD, professor, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics; faculty director, Sustainability Institute at Ohio State. Irwin.78@osu.edu

A compelling advocate and energetic spokesperson for the Sustainability Institute (SI) and sustainability at Ohio State, Dr. Irwin develops and nurtures SI’s academic activities including interdisciplinary research programs and sustainability curriculum development across natural, physical and social sciences, engineering, public health, planning and policy, and the humanities. Her research addresses the sustainability of human-natural systems at local and regional scales, with a focus on land use, ecosystem services and integrated models of land-water systems.

Jayson Velazquez, third-year undergraduate student, Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability (EEDS) major, School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State. Velazquez.48@osu.edu

Mr. Velazquez’s involvement at Ohio State ranges from being a proud Morrill Scholar, an executive board member for the Latino Student Association, an Inclusion and Outreach Coordinator for the School of Environment and Natural Resources, and a Special Projects and Operations Intern at Smart Columbus. This summer, he will be a Research Fellow with the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. He is passionate about urban community development, and upon his graduation, he is planning to attend graduate school in the Northeast to be proximate to his hometown of Paterson, N.J., where he will research and implement sustainable and socially just community development strategies. His EEDS specialization is Community Development.