blog posts

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  Waiting on the world to change? Happy Earth Day everybody – now let’s talk about the climate crisis!

  Apr 22, 2022 9:15 am29 views

  In February of this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began to roll out its Sixth Assessment Report (or AR6). As Dr. Brandon read the report, a familiar pattern caught his eye - “things are getting worse, but there’s a bright side….” 

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  Elevating community voices: Using GIS to think about child welfare in the State of Illinois

  Jan 11, 2022 9:00 am142 views

  What is the importance of community factors to public administrators in the child welfare system? How might different protective or risk factors influence the outcome of youth in care at various decision points?  Technical training in GIS allows public administrators to visually interpret data to understand better relationships, patterns, and trends that may have been missed in a traditional reports.

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  Top 5 Reasons to Get a Degree in Environmental Studies at UIS

  Aug 10, 2021 11:00 am62 views

  Do you want to make a difference? The Department of Environmental Studies provides students with the advanced interdisciplinary training necessary for solving environmental problems.

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  Evaluating Plastic Litter Prevention Strategies on Lake Springfield, Illinois

  Jul 22, 2021 10:00 am255 views

  As summer in Central Illinois rolls on, one thing is sure: Illinois residents depend on and love our waterways. However, some of our main recreational activities and everyday consumption patterns can also lead to high levels of shoreline litter or even widespread pollution, endangering wildlife, ecosystems, and the many summer pastimes that so many of us love.

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  How Can We Prevent the Next Pandemic by Addressing the Wildlife Trade?

  Apr 22, 2021 7:00 am47 views

  The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the world, infecting 134 million and killing nearly 3 million people. The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is thought to have likely originated in bats, a misunderstood and often maligned order of mammals that includes over 1,400 species. How the virus jumped the species barrier remains unclear, but strong evidence exists linking the wildlife trade to human exposure to the virus.  So, what can be done to prevent the next pandemic?

   

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  New executive orders target climate change, job creation, and environmental justice

  Mar 31, 2021 8:30 am159 views

  A new Presidential Administration brings with it new people, priorities, actions, and policies. Presidents’ approaches to environmental policy, in particular, have oscillated drastically during the last several administrations depending on which party the then-President identified with. This oscillation is so familiar to us it may feel like a given - but it wasn’t always this way.

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  Helping Preserve and Enhance our Urban Trees

  Mar 29, 2021 10:30 am102 views

   Urban trees are the pillars of our community. They help decrease air pollution, reduce flooding, produce valuable resources, provide a habitat for wildlife, promote physical and mental health, and encourage a sense of community (Turner-Skoff & Cavender, 2019). We marvel at these benefits, but we also have a responsibility to take care of these trees. 

  You are invited to join us on Wednesday, March 31 from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. for a virtual program on Urban Trees: Planning, Policy, and Planting. This program, which is sponsored by the Citizens Club of Springfield in partnership with the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) Center for State Policy and Leadership, is part of the National Endowment of the Arts Big Read: Sangamon County. Programs and activities are taking place throughout our community in March and April based on the featured book Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.

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  Gloves, boxes, and masks: Waste visibility, challenges, and opportunities during and post COVID - 19 pandemic

  Dec 3, 2020 9:00 am91 views

  Garbage is everywhere but is mostly overlooked in our everyday environment. Though as individuals we deal with municipal solid waste every day, waste infrastructure – like black bags, covered bins, enclosed trucks, industrial waste cycles, and publicly inaccessible landfills - keeps the majority of garbage out of sight and mind.  In reality, in Illinois, landfill space is limited (average lifespan = 21 years), and the Covid-19 pandemic is exposing just how essential, complex, and fragile our waste cycle is.

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  Can the COVID crisis teach us to respond to climate change with more justice and impact?

  Aug 27, 2020 9:00 am23 views

  As the COVID crisis began to bite in Central Illinois this past spring, my Introduction to Cultural Geography students packed up their belongings, left campus, and settled into whatever housing they could, where, among myriad other tasks, they completed their current events papers for my course.  Several of them centered those papers on a developing media narrative:  perhaps Covid-19 held a silver lining for the environment, including the climate, as humans’ greenhouse gas emissions plummeted around the globe.

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  Reducing the Use of Plastic Bags: Five Lessons from Illinois Communities with Plastic Bag Laws

  Jun 30, 2020 9:00 am743 views

  This summer, we have been busy interviewing active citizens, elected officials, and public employees in five Illinois communities that have passed laws designed to curb the use of plastic bags to understand why they took an action on the plastic bag issue, how they designed their local ordinances, and what challenges they have faced during implementation.  Our research project is still in progress, but we would like to offer a sneak peek at what we have learned from our interviews - here are five things you should keep in mind if your city is thinking about adopting a plastic bag ordinance.

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  Centering the Ocean in an Uncertain World: A Post for Inland Communities on World Oceans Day

  Jun 8, 2020 4:30 pm138 views

  June 8 is World Oceans Day. And on every June 8 since 1992, this day has marked an opportunity to raise awareness about the benefits humans derive from the ocean, as well as humans’ reciprocal duty to protect the ocean and use its resource responsibly and sustainably.

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  To China and Back: A Student’s Air Pollution Study Leads to Adventures beyond the Academic

  Jun 2, 2020 9:00 am115 views

  Before I began my research project “Investigation of Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality in China and United States: Volatile Organic Compounds”, I had never experienced the feeling of holding a project so near and dear to my heart that I would fall asleep thinking about it and wake up in the morning having the project on my mind.

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  Protecting Youth - World No Tobacco Day Observed

  Jun 1, 2020 9:00 am40 views

  World No Tobacco Day 2020:  Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use.  Learn about the impact that tobacco use has on the health of people, the economy, and the environmment, and how you can join the fight against the tobacco epidemic.

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  Compost for a Healthier Earth and a Healthier You 

  May 29, 2020 9:00 am44 views

  Observe Learn About Composting Day on May 29th.  According to a National Gardening Association report, 35% of households in the US grow food either at home or in a community garden, an increase of 200% between 2008 and 2017. Now with people still struggling to find food in groceries stores due to the COVID 19 pandemic, there has been another surge in interest.  Anyone can grow their own food, indoors or out, and a good way to begin is to create your own compost.

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  10 Ways to Celebrate Endangered Species Day

  May 15, 2020 9:00 am61 views

  Celebrate 15th Annual Endangered Species Day on May 15th, 2020. Endangered Species Day is an opportunity for people of all ages to celebrate and learn about endangered species and how to protect them.

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  Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day Close to Home with Ospreys

  May 11, 2020 8:45 am70 views

  World Migratory Bird Day is a global awareness-raising campaign highlighting the need to protect migratory birds and their habitats.  In the Environmental Studies Department at UIS, Dr. Tih-Fen Ting takes action every day in protecting one species of migratory birds - Ospreys.

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  Earth Day: Celebrating 50 Years of Environmental Awareness & Action

  Apr 22, 2020 7:00 am208 views

  Today, Earth Day remains an important day to reflect on how far we have come, identify the problems that we must still solve, and decide what actions to take to protect and restore the ecosystems that sustain all of us.

  Although COVID-19 may keep us from gathering together at large public rallies this year, here are three things you can do to celebrate Earth Day today and every day.