HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Eastern Mennonite University kicked off its Academic and Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival on campus Wednesday morning. The event gives students a chance to learn from classmates and showcase their own research, creative projects and more.
To kick off the two-day event, keynote speaker Deborah Lawrence, an environmental scientist and longtime UVA professor, shared with students the importance of connecting with nature.
“I’d say the first thing is just go outside, especially in the springtime. This is a perfect time to reconnect to nature. You can’t miss nature in the springtime,” Lawrence said. “You can look at the trees, they’re all budding out. You can enjoy the green. You can think of the flowers, the red buds, the dogwoods. You can think of daffodils, you can be with those plants, and that is your first connection to nature.”
Lawrence said she wants students to understand that stepping outside can have a positive effect on their mental health and can improve their performance in school.
“I think it’s so important, and I think it really is sustaining. So, get outside, and, if possible, be outside. Walk as much as you can,” she said. “No doubt that it makes you feel better. I think it even makes your brain work better, and it’ll make your heart feel better.”
Lawrence said there’s nothing like feeling the fresh sun on your face, especially after a long stressful day at work or school.
“It really isn’t gonna hurt anybody to take a few minutes, and … breathe,” she said. “I actually do think it’ll refresh the brain and all the students should be taking some time out right now, especially just before finals.”
However, to truly enjoy the environment, Lawrence said, we have to take care of it, and there are ways everyone can play a part.
“If you can walk to work instead of driving, that’s great. If you could walk across campus instead of driving, that would be great,” she said. “The best thing that you can do, probably, is think about what you eat. And I’m not gonna say everyone should be a vegan — I personally love a little bacon — but if you just do more plants and less meat, that’s a win.”
Lawrence added that changing habits in small ways can make a big difference. That includes avoiding food waste on what’s left on the plate and what’s not used in the pantry.
“Someone once told me food waste is like going out of the grocery store with three bags of groceries and dropping one in the dumpster on your way to the car. … That’s a big thing. We can all do that, no matter what you’re eating,” she said.
Lawrence said food waste is so impactful to the environment because of the energy that is used in its life cycle, from the fossil fuels burned to make fertilizer, to the fuel that runs the truck to transport products to grocery stores, to the power used to keep food refrigerated before it’s purchased.
She said once the food is wasted, it’s taken to a landfill where it will be smashed and compressed and become a little damp, where organisms will break down the organic food waste, which will then create a dangerous greenhouse gas called methane.
“It’s 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, so if you have a compost, and you’re always composting your food waste, OK, you’re good, because it’s going to be CO2. CO2 is just the basic greenhouse gas, right? But that’s where it came from, the atmosphere, as CO2. [It] went into a plant, became food, but then if it goes out as CO2, that’s not a problem. That’s not like fossil fuels,” she said. “But if that food that came in as CO2 and then goes to the landfill and becomes nothing, that’s a big problem. It’s, like, 25 times bigger than it would have been if it had just gone through your belly and out.”
When it comes to being more considerate about the environment, Lawrence said “everyone needs to be involved.”
“I don’t think it’s just for environmental science students, or my own scientists. I think everyone has a role to play,” she said. “Surely, engineers and planners, people building new technologies, people putting efficiency measures into homes — those are all really important, directly related jobs to how we’re gonna have to deal with climate change.”
Further, as companies that build those new technologies also have people working in communications, finance and more, Lawrence said climate change will involve all sectors of business, meaning “we’re all part of the solution.”
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