There are a lot of ways to celebrate Earth day. You could plant a tree, commit to recycling, or start composting. For many Bradley Student, celebrating earth day meant attending a lecture on Climate Change.
Everyone was gathered for the Science and Politics of Global Climate Change talk presented by Jeanie Bukowski. It took an in-depth look at the causes of climate change, the history of when it was first discussed in 1827 by Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier.
The presentation went over aspects like the greenhouse effect, natural processes versus anthropogenic (man-made) factors of climate change, the Paris agreement of 2015 and how to respond to the changes with strategic plans.
When asked why she put on this program, Bukowski explained it was due to student encouragement.
“Basically, my students who are currently in my class asked me to do it,” Bukowski said. “I have been doing something like this in a variety of venues so it kind of stems from my interests.”
Bukowskis said climate change first peaked her interest when she was traveling in Spain and Portugal.
“I was doing work on cross boundary water policy with the shared river basins between Spain and Portugal,” She said. “I started seeing a lot of these climate change impacts, so I got interested in it and things gradually developed and Dr. Morris and I started doing the class together.”
Students have taken notice of her passion for the environment and have begun educating themselves about climate change and its repercussions.
“I think it’s important that we realize that [climate change] is increasing at a larger rate than expected because there aren’t really any changes being made by policymakers or fossil fuel companies,” said Ariana Galvez, a freshman political science and international studies double major.
Bukowski hopes that students gain better insight about climate change and the reasons why we need to do something about it.
“It’s more of a politicized issue in the U.S. more so than most of the other countries in the world,” Bukowski said. “I want people to get what scientific consensus is and where that research comes from and why we know what we know. Secondly, that we are all responsible.”
