Earth Week is set to kick off at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this week, as 18 students organizations and campus offices will hold events to “examine [their] relationships with the natural environment.”
Now in its fourth year, Earth Week was started by a group of student organizations and the UW Office of Sustainability in 2018 with the goal of educating students, staff and community members about environmental issues.
After a fully virtual Earth Week in 2020, organizers have taken a hybrid approach this year, putting some events online while holding others — like a collaborative mural painting — in-person.
“Due to the pandemic, we have greatly lost our camaraderie around campus,” Natalie Tinsen, an intern working on Earth Week events, said in a release. “By slowly introducing in-person events in a safe and inviting way this year, we can begin building new relationships around sustainability.”
For Friday the 23rd, 13 student organizations led by the Wisconsin Student Climate Action Coalition have planned a Climate Strike rally to “demand climate action for the survival of our communities, our people and our planet.”
The strike will start at the end of Library Mall at 5:30 p.m. and end at the Wisconsin State Capitol around 7:30 p.m. It will feature former Wisconsin state Senate candidate Nada Elmikashfi and new District 8 Alder Juliana Bennett.
The events Facebook page says the strike is dedicated to divestment from fossil fuels and a reinvestment into the community.
