Student's Sierra Club Award Funds Panel on Connections Between Sex and Sustainability

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Two panel discussions focused on the connection between global reproductive rights, global population and environmental protection will take place this week as a result of co-presidents of the Students for Gender Equality’s involvement with the Sierra Club.

The first event, “Healthy People, Healthy Environment” will be held in the Walker Room at the Fayetteville Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14. Panelists will discuss how reproductive rights fit into the goals of the environmental movement and other connections between these two issues. The panel will feature Naomi Brodkey, program assistant with the Sierra Club Global Population and the Environment Program; Steve Boss, professor of geosciences at the University of Arkansas; Zola Moon, a U of A researcher and teacher who specializes in rural and environmental sociology; and Joanna Pollock, a doctoral student in environmental dynamics.

The second event, “Sex and Sustainability” will take place at 3:30 p.m Friday, Nov. 15. in the Arkansas Union room 503. This event will consist of a panel discussion geared toward students. This panel will consist of Brodkey, Moon, Pollock and Andrea Love, co-president of the Students for Gender Equality.

These events are made possible by a $1,000 award from the Sierra Club. Last March, Love was selected as a Youth Fellow with the Sierra Club’s Global Population and the Environment program. She attended a conference on the connection between global health, women’s rights, climate change, pollution, and reproductive access. Love was awarded $1,000 to do related work in her community and campus, and used the funds to create “Healthy People, Healthy Environment.”

In September, Love and her co-president Jodi Nimmo in Students for Gender Equality were selected to attend the fall Fellows meeting for the Sierra Club’s Global Population and the Environment program.