Earth We Are started the year off bright with a bonfire Saturday at Pioneer Cemetery, clearing brush and other debris in preparation for the highway cleanup Sunday.
“We do a lot of different activities that allow us to go out and enjoy nature,” EWA President Sarah Romereim said.
Romereim said the group promotes conserving energy, recycling, cutting down on driving and encourages students to write letters to their congress people.
“We encourage people to think about what their actions are going to mean, what the consequences will be, but also to enjoy nature,” she said.
Junior Trevor Racine, assistant director of public relations, said students should take action and help take care of the environment.
“Earth We Are is a chance to do things in college that a lot of kids overlook when they’re in school,” Racine said.
Roger Boyd, faculty sponsor of EWA, said the group will hold its first highway cleanup at 11 a.m. Sunday. He said members will meet in Harter Union and carpool to the stretch of Douglas County Highway 1055 that runs through the Baker Wetlands.
Boyd said he hopes for 10-12 people to help with the cleanup, which will take an estimated 2-3 hours.
Racine said he plans to attend the highway cleanup.
“They’re the least fun thing that we do, but they’re the most important by far,” he said.
Boyd said between 25 and 30 people attended the bonfire Saturday to take part in the cleanup of excess brush and also to make smores.
“We were cleaning up the prairie, we figured why not make an event out of it,” he said.
Boyd said the group has more events planned for the year, including cleaning a section of Highway 56, planting trees and a plastic duck race in the campus stream that will occur during homecoming week.
“That’s just to get people to appreciate the stream a little more,” Boyd said.
The group also supports and promotes activism from students. Boyd said this includes things like chalking the sidewalks and encouraging students to write letters to their political representatives.
Boyd said the organization will also be participating in a national campaign called “Focus the Nation” which hopes to gather at least 1,000 different high schools and universities from all over the country.
“(We will) have a panel discussion about what we can do to reduce the impact of global warming,” he said.
He said the plan is to collect information from all of the groups and send a summary to legislators. Most schools, including Baker, will hold their discussions on or near Jan. 8.
Romereim said prior to the main discussion, the university will hold an energy conservation summit where students, faculty and administrators will gather to discuss what Baker has already done to reduce its contribution to global warming.
“It’s every person’s responsibility to recognize how they impact their environment and to take positive actions,” she said.
Junior Megan Renehan said she thinks part of the global warming issue is a natural occurrence, but that people still have the responsibility to think beyond themselves to how their actions affect animals and ecosystems and how those effects tie back to humans.
“I think that we need to be careful about what we’re doing and be environmentally conscious,” she said.
“We encourage people to think about what their actions are going to mean; what the consequences will be, but also to enjoy nature,” Romereim said.
Romereim said the group meets at 7 p.m. every other Thursday in the union lobby. Meetings are open to all students.