San Jose State community members gathered Tuesday on Seventh Street Plaza for the “Cool Solutions for a Warming Planet,” an event aimed to address climate change issues.
California State Senator Dave Cortese gave a speech during the event focusing on what measures California is currently taking to combat climate change as well as how happy he felt to see students at the event.
“It’s always great to see so many young leaders here today and there will continue to be opportunities, lots of opportunities, for youth and to be [part of] this climate movement,” Cortese said.
He said he thinks climate literacy is the next big step to take.
“California currently has over 3,200 fellows in their cause for network,” Cortese said. “We're all working to better their community and, of course, fight the good fight.”
He said he was proud of bringing the California Climate Action Board, the statewide coalition environmental stewards and next generation leaders at SJSU.
The California Climate Action Board is a multi-agency team that coordinates the state’s climate efforts, according to its website.
“Few climate service project participants, including many college students in that program, can directly impact climate action for the greater good, as well as engage in climate education,” Cortese said.
Besides the event speakers, “Cool Solutions for a Warming Planet,” spotlighted vendors who, through their businesses, looked to spotlight climate change issues.
Take Back the Tap, one of the organizations that had a booth at the event, works to reduce the consumption of plastic bottled water.
SJSU student John Francis Parsons, who works with Take Back the Tap, said his organization specifically tries to raise awareness about plastic water bottles.
“We have a very limited clean water supply worldwide so it's really unfair how these plastic water bottle companies are exploiting poor communities and taking advantage of the limited water supply we have with water that's not safe to drink,” Parsons said.
Take Back the Tap also exhibited a turtle made up of plastic bottles on its table.
“This exhibit is about a turtle and we are trying to show a depiction of what a turtle has to live through and how plastic water ball corporations are killing marine life,” Parsons said.
The event also illuminated innovative technological transportation.
More specifically, the Solar Powered Automated Rapid Transit Ascendant Network (SPARTAN) Superway, an ongoing research and development program developed at SJSU in 2012, showcased an innovative solar-powered transportation system.
Burford Furman, SJSU mechanical engineering professor and co-founder of SPARTAN Superway, said the project is the future for transportation because of solar power with zero emissions and no particulates.
“So it is not like a line-cord, Caltrain or the light rail,” Furman said. “The vehicles travel along the guideway and on top of the guideway are solar panels, which collect all the energy needed to run the system.”
He also said the project has been developed by SJSU mechanical engineering students who have worked on the technologies for the transportation system.
“We would love to have it ready by tomorrow,” Furman said. “But getting funding for a transportation system is very different from receiving funding for a widget.”
Some of the vendors at the event also tried to spotlight the importance of food waste and its consequences.
Spartan Eats, the sole provider for food and dining services at SJSU, had a tent at the event where it catered food for the attendees.
Jacqueline Ernst-Smith, registered dietitian and wellness director at Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, said awareness about food waste is critically important.
“Our food today incorporated imperfectly delicious products,” Ernst-Smith said.
She said utilizing imperfect products from top to bottom, for example to make a sauce or a pesto instead of tossing them, is really important to avoid food waste.
Ernst-Smith also said it is fundamental that everybody starts working on slowing down the effect on a daily basis.
“I don't know if we can bring it all back to happy lands,” Ernst-Smith said. “But I think we can slow down all that.”
In addition, the SJSU Environmental Resource Center attended the event to bring awareness about how people's individual choices play important roles in climate change.
Kalanna Eldridge, the director of the center, said her and other members of the center were asking attendees to make their own independent pledges toward the environment by providing them notebooks.
She said some examples of pledges suggested to students varied from recycling, to reducing carbon emissions by carpooling or riding bikes.
“We are also giving them reusable bamboo straws, instead of plastic straws and we're giving out environmental stickers and buttons that we've made from magazines,” Eldridge said.
She said it is important to start addressing climate change individually and is taking steps herself to create change.
“For example, reducing my plastic use, not buying not purchasing water bottles and staying away from single use plastics,” Eldridge said. “In general, I am just trying to really go to the sustainable aspect of things.”
