Environmental Fridays Elevates into Season IV by Princella Tobias

Environmental Fridays Elevates into Season IV by Princella Tobias, Founding Publisher, Benton Spirit Community Newspaper.


Happy New Year. All the best for 2023. We enter this New Year and a new season of Environmental Fridays
(https://www.theenvironmentalfridays.com/) with great anticipation. We do so in the aftermath of COP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Egypt for two weeks last November. As Environmental Fridays Season IV begins on Friday, January 13, 2023, two other important environmental dates to remember in January includes the International Environmental Education Day on January 26 and the International Reducing CO2 Emissions Day on January 28.


Topics in Environmental Fridays Season IV range from challenges and opportunities facing small island nations, the environmental benefits of cultivated meat biotechnology, the environmental poetry of African Americans, natural resources and environmental conservation in Tobago, the environmental impact of the fashion industry, finding environmental solutions through biomimicry, environmental health in rural communities, the connections between breast cancer and personal care products, and environmental clean-ups in indigenous communities.


Once again, our guest speakers come from a variety of backgrounds, expertise, and experiences. They come from Barbados, United Kingdom, Grenada, New Jersey, Tobago, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, Trinidad, Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, and New Mexico. They represent governmental, nongovernmental, business, educational and volunteer organizations.


Ms. Stacey de la Campa, Community Manager and Ambassador Program Coordinator at Island Innovation (https://islandinnovation.co/team/stacey-alvarez-de-la-campa/) will be our inaugural guest speaker for Season IV. She will cover the Environmental Challenges and Sustainability Opportunities of Small Island Nations in her talk. Her January 13, 2023, presentation is the first of sixteen episodes that meets via Zoom (Meeting ID: 840 7511 3359) every Friday at 9:30am EST until the April 28th episode from the A 4 Asthma team (https://www.facebook.com/groups/a4asthma).


An important goal of Environmental Fridays is to engage and mentor our next generation about environmental challenges and concerns that we face around the world, from local to global. Each week, notifications would be sent out broadly across multiple media platforms, including in the Benton Spirit (http://bentonspiritnews.com/) to provide more specific and detailed information of the upcoming lecture, guest speaker and the Zoom link. All are welcomed to attend and participate in these public science episodes either live on Zoom or via video-on-demand on YouTube. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to join our online Environmental Fridays Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/environmentalfridays. If you want to participate in Environmental Fridays as a student, teacher, potential guest speaker, co-host, community member, partner, co- sponsor, or have any questions, please contact Dr. Desmond Hartwell Murray, Founding Director of Environmental Fridays, Inc. at environmentalfridays@gmail.com. 

Welcome to the Environmental Fridays News Blog

Season IV Environmental Fridays Public Science Announcements (EF PSA) Video Contest Guidelines

Season IV Environmental Fridays Public Science Announcements (EF PSA) Video Contest Guidelines

By Desmond Murray • January 13, 2023
This contest is open to all Michigan high school and college students. It is co-sponsored by Building Excellence in Science and Technology (BEST Early) and the Benton Spirit Community Newspaper in collaboration with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s Office of the Environmental Justice Public Advocate, and Honor Credit Union. It

EF 10 Cover, Friday, November 19, 2021

By Desmond Murray • November 19, 2021
Thank you to Grand Valley State University Professor of Geology Dr. Peter Wampler . His lecture on Safe and Sustainable Water for Haiti can be viewed here on YouTube. To learn more about Professor Wampler's work in Haiti visit and view the following: http://www.gvsu.edu/haitiwater . Also, a paper by Professor Wampler on Evaluation of Hand–Dug Wells in Rural Haiti can be seen here . Wampler is a broadly trained environmental geologist, geomorphologist, and surface water hydrologist with a background in both academic and government regulation of mining and storm water. He received a PhD in 2004 for work on human- and climatic-induced changes along the Clackamas River in Oregon. Since arriving at Grand Valley State University in 2004 he has worked with undergraduate and graduate students on applied geoscience research: 1) evaluating GVSU’s storm water runoff footprint and assisting in designing Best Management Practices for GVSU, 2) investigating water resources, water treatment, and groundwater contamination pathways in rural Haiti, 3) evaluating human impacts to river systems resulting from dams and other structures, and 4) Using Geographic Information Systems to create household radon hazard maps for Michigan using geologic data. Thank you also to our co-host this week, Ms. Alyssa Newsome. She is a junior at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) from McAdams, Mississippi. MSMS is a public residential high school for academically gifted and talented students, and it is a member of the National Consortium for Secondary STEM Schools (NCSSS). She is a member of Wags and Whiskers, FCS and Test Prep Club. She enjoys English and Biology and after graduation, she hopes to major in zoology or microbiology and become a large animal veterinarian.

EF 9 Cover, Friday, November 12, 2021

By Desmond Murray • November 12, 2021
Thank you Dr. Joy Banner , co-Founder of The Descendants Project and Director of Communications for The Whitney Plantation. Her lecture was on the History of Environmental Racism and can be viewed on YouTube here . She shared her living testimony and personal history about environmental racism. We are glad that Environmental Fridays was an instrument and a platform to highlight the unforgivable disrespect and danger that money, power and greed shows to both ancestors and descendants. We invite you to visit and support The Whitney Plantation and The Descendants Project . Thank you also to our co-host this week, the amazing Regina Ruth Strong , the state of Michigan's first Environmental Justice Public Advocate. She briefly recalled how moving it was when she visited The Whitney Plantation some years ago. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Michigan State University, as well as a Master of Science degree from Purdue University. Regina earned her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America and is also a Senior Fellow in the Great Lakes Region for the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP). 
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