Student organizations hold first Climate Change Symposium since COVID-19 pandemic

On Monday morning, students, faculty and alumni gathered at the Toy Lounge in Dey Hall for UNC’s first student-led Climate Change Symposium. 

The symposium was previously hosted by the Carolina Climate Change Scientists from 2010-2020, but did not run again after the COVID-19 pandemic, until now. 

This year, it was hosted by the Climate Crisis Committee of the Graduate and Professional Student Government and the UNC chapter of Strategies for Ecology, Education, Diversity and Sustainability, a mentoring program of the Ecological Society of America.

Grace Layman, a junior at UNC studying environmental science, founded the UNC chapter of SEEDS after her first year at the University. 

“I was really interested in ecology, and I didn’t really know a lot of students here that are also interested in ecology,” she said. “The biology program here, there’s a lot of pre-meds. So, I was interested in bringing ecology resources to the school in order to meet more undergrads that are interested in ecology and provide those resources to them.” 

Layman said that the SEEDS faculty advisor, professor John Bruno, used to be a part of the committee that hosted the symposium each year, and invited the organization to host the event with him. 

The symposium ran from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with faculty talks and a panel discussion in the morning session at the Toy Lounge.  

Bruno gave opening remarks at the event alongside Jim White, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. 

The remarks were followed by faculty talks from Paul Taillie, Miyuki Hino and Amanda DelVecchia from UNC, as well as a talk from Rachel Gittman from Eastern Carolina University. Faculty presented new research about coastal ecosystems, conservation approaches and greenhouse gas flux in streams. 

During her presentation, DelVecchia said that streams are lucrative for understanding where current greenhouse gases are being stored, since they were previously overlooked. With her new research, more can be done to address emissions, she said.  

After faculty talks, there was also a panel discussion on what tools and powers citizens have to combat climate change, featuring Gittman, law professor Don Hornstein and David Neal, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. 

Jadon Wellum, a junior studying environmental science and the vice president of SEEDS at UNC, said that SEEDS took inspiration from the UNC Cleantech Summit — a two-day event in March that focused on clean energy — and other conferences that students and faculty have attended. 

“A lot of our speakers talk about the future and our generation,” Wellum said. “I just want to re-emphasize what they said about it, because I think it is up to us — our generation — to solve this issue that we face now.”

V Edwards, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies, said she found out about the event through the social media of various sustainability-related organizations such as SEEDS and the Sustainable Business Club. 

She said she was excited because some of her previous professors were attending or speaking, as well as being able to network with other students and professionals. 

“The coastal resilience talks — that’s really interesting to me,” Edwards said. “Literally what [Gittman] just talked about, like finding the interconnection between engineering and ecology and trying to find solutions to the problem of rising sea levels.” 

In the afternoon session of the symposium, lunch from The Purple Bowl was provided, and students had the chance to present their research.

“I think especially with the political climate right now, it’s really important to dig into community,” Layman said. “It’s really inspiring to see all the undergrads that are working on climate policy.”

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