Anderton’s Earth Week 2021 is coming up, with many environmental activities planned. They include Zoom presentations, clean-up events and others. (Photo courtesy of Northern Michigan University)

MARQUETTE — People can celebrate the environment through the upcoming Anderton’s Earth Week 2021.

The event is named after the late John Anderton, a former head of the Northern Michigan University Department of Earth, Environmental and Geological Sciences. He passed away in March 2014.

One of the many organizers of the multitude of events to be held in-person, outdoors and virtually is John O’Bryan, who is finishing what he called an “individually created degree” in climate advocacy at NMU. O’Bryan has been an intern with the NMU Sustainability Advisory Council, but his involvement with Earth Week is part of an independent capstone course of climate advocacy with Professor Josh Ewalt in the communications department.

O’Bryan said there will be a series of conversations via Zoom next week from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a diverse field of experts to inform the discussion around how NMU can reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

“I’m doing all that I can to advance the process in the hopes of leaving Northern in the best position to pull this off,” O’Bryan said in an email.

“We’re all very excited to be a part of this important moment as Northern finds its path alongside our state and national commitments to climate solutions.”

NMU’s Eta Chi Chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographical Honor Society will offer the following Zoom presentations:

Tuesday, “Green Innovations in Heating and Cooling” — Project Drawdown ranks refrigerant management as the single most important strategy to curb climate change. NMU faculty member Nick Griewahn will discuss green refrigerants. Also, Kevin DeMaster and John Brooks from Mitsubishi will address how widespread adoption of cold-climate heat pump technology paired with renewable energy can help decarbonize campus buildings.

Wednesday, “Solar Options on Campus” — Impact Power Solutions and Homeland Solar representatives will talk about residential to large commercial scale on-site solar power to slash electricity emissions.

Thursday, “Turning Food Waste into Black Gold” — Partridge Creek Farm will explain how it reduces NMU’s emissions by composting pre-consumer kitchen scraps. AgriLab Technologies will also present its advanced aerated compost heat recovery systems, and how NMU could partner with the city of Marquette to implement large-scale composting of food waste.

The entire suite of Earth Week events can be accessed through the NMU Conservation Crew website at https://nmuconservationcre.wixsite.com/nmucc/general-8.

For instance, a community cleanup put on by the NMU Conservation Crew is set for 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Mattson Lower Harbor Park. Members of the crew will be at the park pavilion handing out trash bags, gloves and maps of litter hotspots in Marquette if people need supplies to collect trash.

The individual who collects the most trash from each of the following categories will win prizes from local businesses and organizations. Individuals may collect trash with a group of friends or family, and each individual will be eligible to win a prize based on the amount of trash they collected themselves.

Total trash collected by a group is appreciated but will be divided among individuals in the group to compete for prizes. Winners will be contacted by Earth Day on April 22. Categories are: most trash collected by weight, most trash collected by volume and most cigarette butts collected by volume.

A trail maintenance workshop and session is planned for 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the North Country Trail Wetmore Pond trails. A webinar on “Factory Farming and the Environment” sponsored by the NMU Animal Club and Humane League is set for 8 to 9 p.m. Monday.

Among the other scheduled events are Tune Up Tuesday bike repairs, film screenings and student presentations. Also, the NMU Earth Fest event is set for noon to 4 p.m. at the NMU Academic Mall.

Individuals interested in these and other events can click on the black button next to the days on the calendar on the NMU Conservation Crew website to learn more and register.

O’Bryan said another point of interest is the NMU Two Degree Challenge in which students have a chance of winning a cash prize by submitting a short video of their preferred legislative approach to solving climate change via the EnRoads Climate Simulator. The deadline to submit a video is midnight Friday. See Facebook.com/nmutwodegrees or contact kareschm@nmu.edu for information.

NMU President Fritz Erickson, O’Bryan noted, has invited members of the NMU community to give input on NMU’s strategic plan as it pertains to carbon neutrality by emailing him at NMUPres@nmu.edu by Monday with “strategic plan” in the subject line.

The plan includes: completion of a study to determine NMU’s ability to achieve carbon neutrality no later than 2050, accomplishment of priority goals within the plan, lower levels of carbon emission factors on campus, increased levels of transition to sustainably friendly resources — for instance, converting the motor vehicle fleet from combustion to electric and use of solar energy, and an increase in the number of projects that involve next-generation energy as well as sustainability technology and methods.

In response to the Office of the President’s request for feedback on the strategic plan in regard to carbon neutrality, O’Bryan said the Associated Students of Northern Michigan University on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging the administration to adopt a suite of specific policies to reach carbon net zero.

The next Media Meet on WNMU-TV and WNMU-FM, set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, will be a discussion on regional efforts to fight climate change through further development of renewable sources of energy.

Guests will include O’Bryan, Emily Leach of the Marquette County Climate Adaptation Task Force and Courtney Timmons of the Superior Solar Project, a proposed 1,500-acre solar farm in Marquette County.

The radio version of the show will air on WNMU 90.1FM or live-streamed at wnmufm.org at 7:30 a.m. Sunday and at 3:30 p.m. Monday.