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CHICO — Chico State held its annual “This Way to Sustainability” conference Thursday and Friday focused on challenges, ideas and solutions to the climate crisis.
The conference featured experts from a variety fields of ecology, which aimed to raise awareness and plan for a more sustainable future.
“It’s a day dedicated to elevating climate justice,” said Cindy Daley, professor and director of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative and Organic Dairy Program. “We’re hoping the conference engages people and lights the fire around other community action groups.”
This year marks the conference’s 16th year and Robin Wall Kimmerer and Lil Milagro Henriquez were the keynote speakers for Thursday’s conference.
“It was so powerful,” said student coordinator Sara Johnson. “We had different representatives from (California State Universities) and how they are impacted as a California Indian. Native Americans feel like they’ve been discarded.”
“Robin Wall Kimmerer gave an amazing presentation. We need to do a better job at addressing Native American culture,” said Daley. “We are finding out how to walk the talk and reduce our carbon footprint,” said Daley.
Daley said the “amount of passion and dedication these Native Americans have. They develop courses and preserve the culture and language. In native populations there’s a lot of work to be done. They promote biological diversity. Our goal is to honor Native American stewardship and return to that natural land.
Daley stated that Native Americans are passionate about developing courses and preserving culture and language.
“In native populations there’s a lot of work to be done. They support biological diversity. The goal is to get back to that and honor Native American stewardship of their natural land,” Daley said.
Gathering of the community
After Thursday’s conference, Chico State students and the larger Chico community gathered at Chico Women’s Club in the evening for the 2022 Environmental Community Gathering hosted by Butte Environmental Council.
Caitlyn Dalby is the director of Butte Environmental Council. She said that the gathering shows students, as well as the community, the work that goes on locally in environmental projects.
“It’s networking, it’s learning what groups they can get involved with for volunteering, job opportunities and projects they’re interested in,” Dalby said. “It’s an opportunity to engage amongst each other.”
Local environmental groups are involved in fire restoration and traditional ecological knowledge, housing and forest management, as well as political action. They also set up information booths and volunteer opportunities for the community.
Chico State’s Friday conference was continued by Tracey Olsborne, who was the keynote speaker. Her talk focused on climate justice as well as higher education.
“Friday will be focused on Black Americans. We’re going to talk about integrating climate justice with impacts of climate change. Black Americans are a very underrepresented group on campus. A powerful presentation will be followed by a panel discussion. We are hoping it will be a popular session,” said Daley. “We are hoping students become educated.”
Chico’s 2018 student coordinator is Adam Finnegan.
“Chico State is one of the prettiest campuses I had seen,” he said. “It’s unbelievable what the team has done with the campus. Native plants were restored. It’s a tree campus but also a bee campus.”
Finnegan is originally from Ecuador where he claims he witnessed many oil leakages. Finnegan was raised in Ecuador and taught at a young age how to prevent climate change and how to get involved to make the world a better place.
Student Coordinator Jacob Ortbal said “We’re getting the community working together to help everyone with issues and make it something people know about. There’s such a passion behind it and we want to help people get involved.”
Ortbal stated that the conference provided a valuable lesson in mindfulness and how to be more sustainable.
“Everyone needs to cultivate respect and knowledge,” Ortbal said.
