earthmonthbanner

 

Across the UChicago community, numerous virtual and in-person programs are scheduled in April around International Earth Day on April 22, 2022. Please see below for ways to engage in and learn more about how our community reflects on environmental impact and ways to leverage data, practices, and policies to find creative solutions to help combat climate change.

Many events open before Earth Day and many are added as the month progresses – check back with us here for details and more information!

National and global events open to the public are also listed at the bottom of the page. Hosting an event that’s not on this list? Let us know!  

Start the Earth month right by GIVING GREEN to campus sustainability efforts including the Office of Sustainability on Giving Day – April 6-7, 2022.  

Working in a lab and want to conserve energy? Shut the sash on your fume hood whenever you walk away from it and remind fellow lab users to do the same.

 

March 22 to June 26, 2022 


10:00am to 5:00pm Tuesday to Sunday

Unsettled Ground: Art and Environment from the Smart Museum Collection
Smart Museum of Art
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff, Public
In person – Reservation Required 

How has the environment shaped artistic practice, and how can artistic form teach us to understand our local and planetary environment in new ways? 

The artworks presented in Unsettled Ground speak to a generative conversation between art and the environment—whether understood as natural, human, or something altogether more complex—across multiple scales of time and space. Drawing on photography, prints, sculpture, and mixed media works from the Smart Museum’s permanent collection, this exhibition positions artists as astute observers of local, regional, and global ecologies, whose work offers new insight into our shared world. Themes of wonder, agency, dispossession, and resistance animate the objects on display, inviting us to reflect on the vital sustenance offered by the earth, as well as its fragility, and our responsibility to the planet and one another. 

Organized by the Feitler Center for Academic Inquiry, this exhibition was collaboratively curated by Katerina Korola (PhD ’21) and the undergraduate and graduate students of her seminar, “Picturing the Earth: Art and Environment in the Modern Era.” Over Fall 2021, the students worked together to research, conceptualize, and develop interpretive materials for the exhibition. Student essays and creative projects, hosted on the exhibition’s digital platform, will offer additional insight into select works on display. 

Artists: 

Arthur Amiotte, Giovanni Castrucci (Attributed to), Mukul Dey, Mark Dion, Ruth Duckworth, Minnie Evans, Terry Evans, Walker Evans, Emile Gallé, Leonard Havens, Bertha Evelyn Jaques, Sheila Hicks, Yun-Fei Ji, Glasfabrik Johann Loetz Witwe, Eli Lotar and Jean Painlevé, Richard Misrach, Timothy H. O’Sullivan, Toshio Shibata, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, H. C. Westermann, and Joseph E. Yoakum.

 

April 1 to April 30, 2022

 

All Day

Battle of Buildings Residence Hall Energy Challenge
Open to – Students  

An ENERGY STAR competition where each Residence Hall community works together to save energy and water. The two Residence Halls with the greatest percent reductions from a three-year baseline will win awards and be recognized on the University’s website and Newsletter. 

Between April 1 and April 30, the University of Chicago will be hosting the 2022 Battle of the Buildings Residence Hall Energy Competition! Each residence hall community will work together to save energy and water. The two Residence Halls with the greatest percent reductions from a two-year baseline will win awards and be recognized on the University’s website and Newsletter!  

Participants: 

  • Woodlawn Residential Commons  
  • Renee Granville-Grossman Residential Commons  
  • Burton-Judson Courts 
  • International House 
  • Max Palevsky 
  • Campus North Residential Commons 
  • Snell/Hitchcock  

Why Participate?  

Energy conservation not only provides financial savings but also reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and provides educational opportunities for students and staff.  Giving students the opportunity to learn about and engage in energy auditing and conservation practices contributes to the University’s 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goal. Plus, there will be prizes for the two “biggest losers”: energy reduction winner, water reduction winner!  

Here are some ideas for ways you can engage your House/residence hall in energy conservation: 

  • Tell your school community about the Battle of the Buildings. You can find weekly announcements, current standings and other resources on this website. Having your whole community on board is the first step in successfully tackling energy reduction goals.  
  • Vanquish energy vampires!  Use your set of plug-load meters to find electronics that use a lot of energy when they are plugged in, even when they are not turned on.
  • Turn-off unused lighting 
  • Report water leaks in restrooms or irrigation systems throughout the facility and building grounds. 
  • Enable the ENERGY STAR power management features on your computer and monitor so they go into power save mode when not in use. 
  • Post reminders to conserve energy.  Having reminders near light switches and electronics will help people remember to turn off and unplug devices.  Students can create their own reminder posters, flyers, note cards, or social media graphics. There are also graphics from the ENERGY STAR program available in the links provided.  

Monday, April 11, 2022 

 

12:00pm CDT  Culture and Knowledge Workshop Series: Katherine Buse

Institute on the Formation of Knowledge

Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual: register here 

Katherine Buse, IFK Postdoctoral researcher discusses the ways that climate models mediate time, space, and events, exploring the implications for humanistic understandings of planetary climate. The peculiarities of early general circulation models developed by Nobel Laureate Syukuro Manabe in the 1960s and 70s help to illustrate the form of the climate model as media. Theoretical and computational decisions about how land, water, and air interact give each model its own relationship to (or regime of) temporality, causality, and reality. Theories of digital media and science fiction, each of which engages with rules of transformation and change over time, can help develop a lexicon for describing these regimes. The talk shows that climate models deliberately create a spacetime of immerselessness, or the refusal of phenomenological engagement. Considering climate models through the lens of science fiction media can shed new light on the idea that planetary phenomena like global climate change are inaccessible to humanistic perspectives.  

 

Monday, April 18, 2022

 

12:00pm CDT Earth Week Kick-off Plant Swap

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person: Register here 


Join Chicago Studies and PGE for our Earth Week Plant Swap

Kick off Earth Week with the Chicago Studies and PGE Plant Swap! In preparation for Spring, bring in your plant cuttings and take some new plants home with you. Simply propagate a healthy section of your houseplant, or grab some extra seeds, and stop by the Urban Lounge at 1155 E. 60th street! Light refreshments will also be served. 

Don’t have any plants to share? No worries, come pick up your first one! There will be plenty of plants to go around.  

 

 1:30pm CDT West Campus Combined Utility Plant (WCCUP) Walking Tour

Office of Sustainability
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person: Register here 

Walking tour of the West Campus Combined Utility Plant provides an in-depth look at the processes responsible for the transmission and distribution of critical utilities such as steam and chilled water across campus and to the medical center.  

 

5:30pm CDT Addressing Climate Change in Illinois

Institute of Politics
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In Person at Quad Club: Register here 

Addressing climate change in Illinois – Rising sea levels, tropical rainstorms, and flooding—in the U.S., climate change appears as a story best understood in its coastal regions. But in the American Midwest, this story takes on a different appearance. Rising temperatures have made winter shorter and, in many places, more mild. Tornadoes have become more common in large cities and suburbs. In Chicago, the city’s lakeshore has been slowly eroding as rainfall has increased. 

In 2021, Illinois lawmakers passed sweeping legislation to combat the dangers of climate change and make the state more environmentally-friendly with commitments towards clean energy and decarbonization. 

With bipartisan support, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act will require Illinois to be dependent on 100% renewable energy by 2050. Its objectives are vast: implementing reduction requirements in coal plants, expanding economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities, and cleaning up the transportation sector. Through this multi-pronged approach, Illinois hopes to become a leader in ensuring clean air and a stabler climate. 

The legislation, which had long-been discussed and debated, was formed after a coalition of environmental justice advocates, unions, business groups and policymakers were able to reach a deal that will allow the state to reduce its carbon footprint while also developing well-paying clean energy jobs. 

Joining us for a conversation about the passage of the new law and what it means for the future of Illinois are:   

Pat Devaney, Secretary Treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO Christian Mitchell, Deputy Governor of Illinois focusing on Public Safety, Infrastructure, Energy & Environment Illinois state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris. This event will be moderated by WBEZ reporter Michael Puente.  

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Christine Hurley. 

 

Tuesday, April 19, 2022  


5:00pm CDT
PGE Artist Talk Alisa Singer: Environmental Graphiti

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment 
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person
 

Join Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment in the Urban Lounge as we unveil new art and historic prints, including a special presentation by artist Alisa Singer on two works in the space from her series, Environmental Graphiti!  Stop by the Urban Lounge at 1155 E. 60th street from 5:00-6:30 PM. 

 

Wednesday, April 20, 2022 

 

10:00am to 6:00pm CDT PSI Divestment Awareness
D
emonstration on the Main Quad

Open to – Students

Join us on the Main Quad from 10 am to 6 pm to learn about student-led efforts to encourage a University-wide commitment to divesting UChicago’s endowment from fossil fuels.

 

11:00am CDT West Campus Combined Utility Plant (WCCUP) Walking Tour

Office of Sustainability
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person: Register here 

Walking tour of the West Campus Combined Utility Plant provides an in-depth look at the processes responsible for the transmission and distribution of critical utilities such as steam and chilled water across campus and to the medical center. 

12pm CDT Earth Week Careers Panel

Green Careers
Open to – Students
Ida Noyes Hall, West Lounge with Will Lutterman 

Please join UChicago Green Careers in welcoming several young alumni back to campus to talk about their careers! Their backgrounds span conservation, law, environmental data analysis, and more. It will also be a great opportunity to network with locally-based environmental alumni. Learn more and be sure to register here on Handshake. 

 

 

 

 5:30pm CDT The Fire This Time: City Mayors Grapple with
Climate Change Costs to their Communities

                      Institute of Politics
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In Person at Ida Noyes Hall: Register here 

The Fire This Time: City Mayors Grapple with Climate Change Costs to Their Communities – Many of America’s most populous regions are reeling from the effects of climate change, from rising sea levels, increased flooding, extreme heat, and a surge in wildfires and hurricanes. At the same time, the nation’s biggest cities within those regions are home to a higher proportion of communities of color. 

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report that highlighted how racial and ethnic minority communities face the most severe harms from climate change. Black Americans are 34 percent more likely to live in areas with the highest rates of childhood asthma while Latinos are 43 percent more likely to reside in areas with the highest projected reductions in labor hours due to extreme temperatures. Throughout the country, mayors, often pressed by climate advocates, have attempted to address the crisis with modest policies designed to the improve health of residents and local economies. 

But can this patchwork approach mitigate the threat that climate change poses to those living in large cities? How can communities of color in America’s major metropolitan areas be better positioned to brace for the impact of climate change? 

Joining us for a conversation about the effects of climate change on cities and communities of color are: 

IOP Pritzker Fellow Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Atlanta mayor (2018-2012) Heather McTeer Toney, former Pritzker Fellow, EPIC Policy Fellow, vice president of community engagement at the Environmental Defense Fund, former mayor of Greenville, Mississippi (2004-2011)  

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Christine Hurley. 

This event is being produced in partnership with the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Program on the Global Environment.

 

Thursday, April 21, 2022 

 

 

 

12:30pm CDT Solar Geoengineering Versus Carbon Removal

EPIC
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person at Saieh Hall – Registration required 

Join EPIC as we host Harvard’s David Keith. 

Reducing temperatures in the next few centuries requires use of either carbon removal (CDR) or solar geoengineering (SRM) or both. Emissions cuts should be the overwhelming focus of current efforts but zeroing emissions just stops making the problem worse—it cannot reduce temperatures on policy-relevant timescales. CDR and SRM differ in many dimensions. Yet it can be helpful to consider them as alternative methods of achieving the same fixed amount of additional cooling at some future time to enable comparison of their physical and social impacts. A CDR facility—industrial or biological—achieves nothing the day it starts, but only cumulatively, year upon year. So, the earlier one demands the cooling, the faster one must build the removal industry, and the higher the social costs and environmental impacts per degree of cooling. I present preliminary results comparing air pollution mortality and land use disturbance from SRM and CDR. These quantitative comparisons suggest that—contrary to widespread assumptions—SRM may be a substantially less risky way to achieve a given amount of additional cooling than is CDR. 


4:30pm CDT
CEGU: Environment, Democracy, and Social Movements

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual: Registration required 


The Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU) is a proposal currently under development by a faculty working group at the University of Chicago. Join us for Environment, Democracy, and Social Movements with Alyssa Battistoni (Barnard College) and Megan Black (MIT), moderated by Dipesh Chakrabarty and Lisa Wedeen (UChicago).  
 


5:00pm CDT
Divestment poster-making

PSI and EJTF
Open to – Students 

Join us in McCormick Lounge from 5 to 7 pm to create posters for the upcoming student demonstration urging the University to make a commitment to divesting its endowment from fossil fuels.

7:30pm CDT Just Earth: Films for A Sustainable Future

Smart Museum of Art
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff, Public
Free at 5550 S Greenwood Ave 

This outdoor film screening presents work by established and emerging filmmakers that interweave the pressing concerns of climate change with racial, economic, ecological, and social justice.

The program—a reprise of a screening held last fall—includes films by University of Chicago student filmmakers Atman Mehta, Jode Sparks, and Andrei Thüler as well as UChicago alumni Cameron Hu, Amy Tian, and Ellen Askey. It is presented in conjunction with the UChicago Earth Week 2022 celebrations as well as the exhibition “Unsettled Ground: Art and Environment from the Smart Museum Collection.”

Featuring
— Desynchronized (Olivia Leyva and George Denison, 2021)
— This Extraordinary Rock (LiCo: Cameron Hu, David Habets, & Stefan Schafer, 2020)
— I Can Only See Shadows (Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, 2016)
— Zhashagi, Echo Maker (Steve Zieverink, 2015)
— Loss (Atman Mehta, 2021)
— Alaskans in Chicago (Jode Sparks, 2021)
— Globalized Consequences (Amy Tian, 2021)
— Downstream (Ellen Askey, 2021
— P.E.T.s (Andrei Thüler, 2020)

The films will be projected onto the façade of the Smart Museum. Please bring your own blanket or chair and set up on the grassy area between the Smart Museum and Henry Crown Field House.

This film program is co-presented by the Smart Museum of Art and Center for Leadership and Involvement at the University of Chicago. 

 

Friday, April 22, 2022 

 

 

 

12:00pm CDT UCSC Earth Day Panel

The Office of Civic Engagement
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff, Alumni
In person at UCSC, 6030 South Ellis Avenue: Registration Required 

Please join UCSC as we hear from a dynamic panel of leaders in environmental justice, discussing themes of community, sustainability, and collaboration. This invigorating, interactive experience is designed to help you gain insight on being an active stakeholder in the Chicagoland area. Panelists will be announced soon. Lunch will be provided. 

 

12:00pm CDT Earth Day Wellness Table

Bartlett Dining Commons
Open to -Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In Person

 

Celebrate Earth Day with campus Dietitian Cecily Martinez as she hosts a wellness table offering various ways to help our planet. This event will feature a “pledge” board where students and staff can write their own ideas for how they plan to celebrate the earth.

2:00pm CDT West Campus Combined Utility Plant (WCCUP) Walking Tour 

Office of Sustainability
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person: Register here 

Walking tour of the West Campus Combined Utility Plant provides an in-depth look at the processes responsible for the transmission and distribution of critical utilities such as steam and chilled water across campus and to the medical center.  

 

Saturday, April 23, 2022 

9:30am CDT  Midway Plaisance Park Clean-up

Midway Advisory Council (MPAC)
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff, Public
In person: Sign up here

On Sat., April 23 we’re cleaning up Midway Plaisance Park. Please join us! All ages are welcome. Rain or shine. Meet at Midway Plaisance Park at the beginning of the clean-up. If you have any questions, please contact Site Captain Matthew Isoda at matthew.isoda@gmail.com. Brought to you by Friends of the Parks and our partners.

 

9:30am CDT Earth Day of Service: UCSC Invests in Chicago

The Office of Civic Engagement
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff, Alumni
In person: Register here for volunteer sign-up 

Do you want an opportunity to have a positive impact on a Chicago community? Here’s your chance! Join us on Saturday, April 23 as UCSC ventures out and works side-by-side with game-changing organizations right here in our own backyard. You can learn about and contribute to a mission-driven organization, and find out how they are fostering growth on the South Side. 

 

Sunday, April 24, 2022 

 

9:30am CDT Birding with the Chicago Ornithological Society
and ENST Alum Edward Warden

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person: Registration Required 

New to birding or a full-fledged “birder”? All experience levels are welcome to join us for our Earth Week bird walk in Jackson Park with the President of the Chicago Ornithological Society, and UChicago Alum, Edward Warden! Step just outside of campus and witness the dazzling number of species that call Chicago home.  

Please dress appropriately for this event including multiple layers, and comfortable walking shoes. There will be binoculars available to borrow. We also recommend bringing water and preferred snacks! 

This event will take place rain or shine. Please contact Tess Conway, programming coordinator, with any questions at tconway@uchicago.edu. 

 

Wednesday, April 27, 2022 

 

 

 

 

 

5:30pm CDT Urban Hike: Historic Jackson Park with Julian Bachrach

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person: Registration required 

Join Chicago Studies and Open Studio for an Earth Week Urban Hike in Jackson Park with Julia Bachrach, Chicago historian and author of City in a Garden: A History of Chicago’s Parks. This Urban Hike with focus on landscape design and the historic features of neighboring Jackson Park.  

Participants will meet at the Statue of the Republic and the tour will begin at 5:30PM. Please dress appropriately for this event including multiple layers, and comfortable walking shoes. We also recommend bringing water and preferred snacks! 

This event will take place rain or shine. Please contact Tess Conway, programming coordinator, with any questions at tconway@uchicago.edu. 

 

 

5.30pm CDT Has Carbon Pricing’s Moment Arrived?

EPIC
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person at David Rubenstein Forum – Registration required 

Join EPIC for a deep dive conversation into carbon pricing, and how a policy could be structured to help consumers, the climate and energy security. The event will include bp’s senior vice president Mary Streett, who oversees the company’s government and public affairs, as well as EPIC’s 2021-2022 policy fellows Heather McTeer Toney, vice president of community engagement for the Environmental Defense Fund, and former Congressman Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), who proposed a carbon tax-gas tax swap when he was in Congress. The event will be moderated by EPIC’s journalism fellow, Lisa Friedman, climate policy reporter for The New York Times. 

 

 

Thursday, April 28, 2022 

 

12:00pm CDT Expositions Spring Issue Launch

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
In person 

Join the Program on the Global Environment and Chicago Studies for the launch of the Expositions Magazine Spring Issue. Expositions aims to highlight environmental and urban scholarship through creative forms. Stop by the Urban Lounge (1155 E. 60th Street) to grab a copy and celebrate with live readings from the authors and light refreshments.

Friday, April 29, 2022 

 

12:30pm CDT CEGU: Animals, Territories, Environments

Chicago Studies and the Program on the Global Environment
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff
Virtual: Registration Required 

Discussion with Matthew Gandy (Cambridge) and Mindi Schneider (Wageningen) moderated by Neil Brenner and Victoria Saramago (UChicago)

The Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU) is a proposal currently under development by a faculty working group at the University of Chicago. Based in the Division of Social Sciences, CEGU is envisioned as a robust interdisciplinary platform for critical thinking, advanced research, and innovative pedagogy on the societal and spatial dimensions of climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental transformation.  

CEGU faculty and students will seek to investigate and respond to the environmental crises of our time not only by advancing climate change awareness and environmental literacy, but by actively centering questions about climate change and socio-environmental interdependencies in the epistemologies, conceptual frameworks, analytic methods, data sources, and normative foundations of social research at large. 

Please join us for an inaugural series of events this winter and spring. 

Further event listings can be found at cegu.info. 

 

 

9:00am CDT Midway Tree Inventory

Midway Plaisance Advisory Council
Open to – Students, Faculty, OAAs, Staff, Public
In person: register and learn more here

Help the Hyde Park TKs and Midway Plaisance Advisory Council complete the inventory of the Midway Plaisance!

No experience necessary, all volunteers are welcome to join. TreeKeepers, Arborists, and others can learn a valuable skill while helping enhance the region’s tree canopy!

CEU’s will be available for Certified Arborists.

 

 

Want more Earth Week content? Check out these events taking place nationally and globally: 

 

April 18-24
Earth Week Film Fest
One Earth Film Festival
Virtual – view screenings and get tickets here 

April 19
TED Talk: Eco-Edition – Earth Month
Virtual – details here

April 21-23
48 Hour Earth Day
Democracy Lab
Virtual – details here 

Countdown to Earth day
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
https://www.epa.gov/earthday  

April 22
Earth Day Live: Debating Planet Earth’s Urgent Issues
EARTHDAY.ORG
Virtual – details here
 

To find more events around the world: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2022/  

Scroll to Top