The University of Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club hosted a “Planet Party” on the Diag Sunday afternoon to inform U-M students and Ann Arbor residents about climate change, related current events and sustainability initiatives. The event featured informational tables from organizations such as Fridays for Future, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, Mighty Earth and the Food Recovery Network. Attendees also participated in screen printing, crocheting with plastic bags, educational games and sustainability-themed giveaways.
The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization that focuses on creating an influential environmental movement. Members often engage in current sustainability initiatives and environmental political engagement actions.
Yousef Rabhi, District 8 Washtenaw County Commissioner and current member of the national Sierra Club’s executive committee, spoke at the event. He urged attendees to support various pieces of legislation related to environmental efforts, including bills to protect Michigan groundwater and reversing plastic bag restrictions.
“I passed the first ever Michigan plastic bag ordinance so that in grocery stores it wasn’t just a free flowing dispensary of plastic bags that end up in our environment,” Rabhi said. “What happened in response to that ordinance is that the Republicans that controlled Lansing at the time passed a bill specifically to ban local communities from regulating single-use items like plastic bags … Now that Democrats have a trifecta in Lansing, two bills have been introduced, one in the House, one in the Senate, to repeal the ban on bag bans, and I need your help to get those passed.”
Rabhi later spoke with The Michigan Daily about what he believes the University and Ann Arbor should focus on in regards to the climate crisis and the U-M carbon neutrality plan.
“Something I think that the University should focus on is the importance of natural areas in the context of carbon,” Rabhi said. “(The University) owns a massive amount of forest land in and around the community. On North Campus, there are a lot of beautiful forests. I have long been asking and pushing the University to create a program where it can actually inventory the carbon sequestration capacity of its own trees and forests.”
Rabhi also said getting involved in environmental activism can take many forms.
“It could be something as simple as falling in love with nature, like (going) to the Arb,” Rabhi said. “If you already have a deep love for the environment, then maybe take the next step and contact … your local government official and ask them to get engaged and involved on this issue. Maybe it’s going to a constituent hour and bringing these issues up.”
LSA freshman Katya Deckelbaum, rising president of the U-M chapter of the Sierra Club, told The Daily she brainstormed the idea for the event last semester and spoke on her vision while organizing the event.
“My vision was to promote sustainability, environmental education and sustainable development worldwide,” Deckelbaum said. “It seems that the word ‘sustainability’ can be tossed around at times so we wanted to make this event an engaging way to learn more about these current issues.”
Deckelbaum then spoke about shortcomings she has identified in Ann Arbor’s composting efforts and ways she hopes to increase sustainability metrics on campus.
“Composting is so easy, however, it is not found much on campus,” Deckelbaum said. “For example, Sweetgreen serves their food in compostable containers. So, I will go there to get a meal and then eat it on the Diag with nowhere to compost what I have left. And with a University that has the means of providing this, it is really frustrating.”
Deckelbaum also spoke on the importance of the University being transparent with climate information on campus with regard to both the successes and shortcomings of their sustainability initiatives.
“It is hard for students on campus to understand what is going on and how best to help with sustainability efforts,” Deckelbaum said. “For example, if students were to be informed about how much energy the University intakes is from DTE, more people would know how to address this issue better and organizations can focus their efforts on more specific climate related issues.”
Engineering senior Brendan Ireland is current president of the U-M chapter of the Sierra Club and also helped organize the event. Ireland spoke on the administrative transition between former University President Mark Schlissel and current University President Santa Ono, specifically highlighting how each have engaged in climate change efforts.
“It was a really fun experience to have the transition between President Schlissel and President Ono because one of the first things Ono wanted when he came into office was to be with as many students as possible and wanted input on how the University can be better in terms of sustainability,” Ireland said. “There has been a lot of work recently with the new president and it has been really great to see this, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Along with the Sierra Club, the University chapter of Fridays for Future played a part in organizing the event. LSA sophomore RoAnna Pollock tabled for FFF and organized an educational game on how to dispose of different waste items. Pollock told The Daily the two organizations wanted to put on the event to celebrate Earth Day and educate students and community members.
“There are a lot of opportunities for students to get engaged with environmental work on and around campus that they’re not aware of,” Pollock said. “So one of our main goals was just to partner with other groups and show students all the different opportunities that they have.”
U-M alum Lena Swirczek is an organizer for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group. Swirczek told The Daily the organization is trying to build up their presence at the University and let students know about their program, and the ‘Planet Party’ was a great place to do that.
“It’s really nice to be able to talk to other people who are interested in sustainability because I think the state level is a lot of times where students don’t really know what’s happening about environmental legislation,” Swirczek said. “The Michigan Senate just introduced a bill that would potentially take Michigan to totally renewable energy by 2035, which is something I don’t think enough people are talking about. So, (we) want to really get out the word about what’s going on at the state level and how students can actually be part of the movement to pass important legislation.”
The Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization that works at local, state and national levels on environmental justice issues, partnered with the city of Ann Arbor to host a table educating attendees on waste disposal. Education director Katy Adams told The Daily the organization looks for opportunities to connect with the public and raise awareness about the topic of waste.
“There is a lot of confusion around what can be recycled because there are different systems and different rules and different communities,” Adams said. “It’s really important to know what your local rules are and that’s why it’s really important also to get out and do regular education with the public on this … Recycling systems (are) very dependent on the public using them correctly so that we don’t get contamination and that we can have a good market for recycling down the road.”
Following his talk, Rabhi spoke with The Daily on his opinion of the current climate crisis issue.
“It is important to understand that climate change is all around us,” Rabhi said. “While of course we all enjoy these beautiful warm days we also know that this is not supposed to be happening. Hopefully this catalyzes people into action to make a difference so that future generations can live on this planet.”
Daily Staff Reporters Astrid Code and Emma Lapp can be reached at astridc@umich.edu and emmalapp@umich.edu.