Earth Days 2021
Student Poster Competition
The theme of this year’s Earth Days Week celebration is “There is No Planet B.” Once again, as part of the celebration, the university will sponsor a poster competition that features students’ research on a wide range of environmental topics on Monday, April 12, 2021.
Faculty, please inform the competition coordinator— Dr. Severin Kitanov (Philosophy) at skitanov@salemstate.edu —of your intention to include a poster requirement in your Spring course(s), or if you have interest in being a poster judge. The posters must be digital and must be submitted as PDFs directly on Canvas, the latest by April 5, 11:00pm. NO LATE POSTERS ACCEPTED THIS YEAR.
The Earth Day Student Poster Competition is the only judged poster competition on campus. Any class at 200-level or higher can submit posters on the Earth Days Week theme.
Instructors please consider integrating the poster competition into your Spring 2021 course assignments. Issues may include (but are certainly not limited to) such topics as:
- What are the pressures on nature?
- What is nature today, and what factors have contributed to its current state?
- What is the impact of climate change on nature?
- What is the relationship among agribusiness, food production and climate change?
- What is the impact of population growth on nature?
- What is the impact of desertification on nature?
- What is the impact of ocean acidification on nature?
- What is the impact of capitalism on nature?
- What changes have these pressures on nature caused?
- How have deforestation, desertification, habitat loss, species loss, and/or ocean acidification worsened and what is the likely future scenario for these?
- Climate costs: what are the financial, environmental and human costs of climate change? What are the future costs of inaction now?
- What are some examples of carbon footprint analyses?
- Climate casualties: who will be the most impacted with rising seas, more extreme weather, and ever-rising temperatures? What are some examples of case studies?
- What is the impact of climate change and habitat loss on biodiversity?
- Climate justice: what are the moral and philosophical dimensions of climate change? Will climate change bring about cooperation or conflict?
- How does climate change affect war and conflict?
- What is the impact of fracking on the environment and the economy?
- What are the public health impacts of climate change and other forms of environmental degradation?
- What is happening at the global, national, state and local level inside and outside of government to worsen or address the pressures on nature?
- How have Trump Administration appointments and executive actions impacted climate change and environmental issues in general?
- What actions has the 115th Congress taken on environmental issues, and what is the impact on the natural world?
- What does social science research say about why misinformation and disinformation is believed so readily and persistently?
- How have attitudes toward nature changed over time?
- What is the impact of the “post-truth era” on environmental policy?
- What are the implications of the executive and legislative branch actions on fossil fuels for sea level rise?
- What was the role of the fossil fuel industries and other anti-environment interest groups in Election 2016 and subsequent legislative activity?
- What happened on state level environmental ballot measures in Election 2016?
- How are states responding to federal actions on the environment?
- What’s next for cities and towns in their efforts to promote energy efficiency and fight climate change?
- What are the potential economics of carbon taxes on consumer goods and services?
- What are methods of carbon sequestration?
- What role can green chemistry and industrial ecology play in reducing carbon pollution and other pollutants?
- What are the economic and environmental impacts of recycling and conservation?
- How does climate change affect the oceans and marine fisheries?
- What are the ethical and moral dimensions of climate change? or sea level rise?
- In what ways are the executive and legislative branches seeking to weaken the Endangered Species Act? Marine Mammal Protection Act? Clean Air Act? Clean Water Act?
- Can economic exploitation and environmental stewardship be reconciled?
- What is the role of forests in international climate change treaties?
- How should climate change be presented to skeptics? How should skepticism about climate change be handled?
- How can capitalism be leveraged to address climate change? Can capitalism be reconciled with climate change?
- What is the public response to the new attacks on the environment and environmental policies?
We can easily imagine relevant environmental topics emerging from any major discipline at the university.
- Some suggestions on ways to integrate the poster into a course
- Also see Salem State's own guide for Environmental Resources & Earth Day
Posters are not required to follow this year’s theme as long as the topic of the poster relates to the environment and/or environmental protection.
Please observe the following poster submission rules:
- Posters must be primarily the work of students and not faculty; please no faculty co-authors
- Posters must be tied to a class, or to a professor if someone does one as a directed study
- Students may not re-enter posters that have been used in previous Earth Day poster competitions, unless there has been significant or substantial addition or revision
During the celebration posters will be on displayed online, for students, faculty, staff and members of the local community to review.
