Texas A&M Is Leading The Way For Earth Day 2017

By Keith Randall, Texas A&M Marketing and Communications

DALLAS, April 17, 2017 – Texas A&M University will once again be a major player in Earth Day Texas, a three-day event set for April 21-23 at Fair Park in Dallas, with numerous academic departments and speakers participating in projects and programs that impact the environment.

Earth Day Texas has grown into the world’s largest annual forum for sharing the latest discoveries, policies, products and corporate practices that are shaping the world. The event will host a wide variety of government agencies, academic institutions, businesses, environmental organizations and speakers during the Earth Day Texas festival.

Texas A&M is the largest educational exhibitor for the second consecutive year.  Texas Aggies continue to increase their participation in Earth Day Texas and are able to showcase diverse research and innovation, as well as community partnerships and outreach initiatives.

“As the largest educational exhibitor at Earth Day Texas, Texas A&M is poised to take center stage,” says Casey Oliver, regional manager with the Provost Office of Texas A&M’s Public, Partnership & Outreach division.

“We’ve been working together all year with more than 12 colleges, agencies and departments, and we are eager to share our work and to show others what makes Texas A&M so unique. With informative presentations and specially designed architectural structures and displays from accomplished faculty members like Negar Kalantar from the College of Architecture, Texas A&M will help educate attendees with interactive exhibits and hands-on demonstrations.  Kalantar has designed two large retractable structures that will provide the visual display for the comprehensive campus exhibit at Earth Day Texas. These structures are highly efficient, are more durable and require less energy and fewer materials to build. Working with students from different disciplines to bring the design to life, this is just one example of how Texas A&M is transforming education through innovation and action.”

As a major partner of Earth Day Texas, Texas A&M and its affiliates will be well-represented at the event, with booths, speakers and interactive displays from the Colleges of Geosciences and Architecture, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the Texas A&M School of Public Health, the Texas A&M Center for Applied Science, Texas A&M AgriLife, the Texas A&M Health Science Center and others.

Notable speakers and participants this year will include:

  • Texas A&M President Michael K. Young;
  • Sec. of Energy and former Texas Governor Rick Perry;
  • JB Straubel – Co–Founder and CTO Tesla, Inc.
  • Susan Eisenhower —  President of The Eisenhower Group and grand-daughter of President Dwight Eisenhower and Supreme Allied Commander WWII;
  • Ryan Sitton, Texas Railroad Commissioner;
  • General Wesley Clark, Sr. (Ret.) – Clark is a retired General of the United States Army who spent 34 years serving our country and is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
  • Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D. – Earle is a world-renowned oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer dubbed the first “Hero for the Planet” by Time magazine.
  • Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D. – Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and associate professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is director of the Climate Science Center.
  • Sid Miller – Miller is the Texas Agriculture Commissioner and is a former vocational agriculture teacher and nine-time world champion cowboy.
  • His Excellency Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr. – Remengesau Jr. is the president of the Republic of Palau and is leading the effort to implement the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, the world’s sixth largest, fully-protected marine area.
  • Laura Turner Seydel – Seydel is the chairperson of the Captain Planet Foundation, which supports high-quality, hands-on environmental stewardship projects that have enabled more than 1 million youth across the U.S. and around the world to make significant environmental improvements to their schools and communities.
  • Paul Watson – Watson is a marine wildlife conservation and environmental activist who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching group focused on marine conservation.
  • Senator Sheldon Whitehouse – Whitehouse is the U.S. Senator for Rhode Island and member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
  • Kate Williams – Williams is CEO of One Percent for the Planet, a nonprofit environmental organization that leads a global network of businesses, nonprofits and individuals working together for a healthy planet.

Earth Day, established in 1970, is considered the birth of the environmental movement.

Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin, was inspired to start Earth Day after he witnessed a massive oil spill in 1969 off the California coast.  His goal was to get people thinking and energized about the environment, the effects of water and air pollution and other issues impacting Earth.

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 was a huge success and eventually led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Act.

Motivated to make an impact on the environment and affect change, Dallas developer Trammell S. Crow founded Earth Day Texas in Dallas in 2011. In four years, Crow and his team transformed a small city-run environmental fair to the nation’s largest Earth Day exhibition, bringing people and organizations together to create a greater awareness and understanding of our environment.

Crow is also the founder of the Texas Business for Clean Air Foundation, an organization of prominent business leaders throughout Texas who are committed to matters that affect air quality in the state. Crow has received many accolades for his work, most recently, he was named Texas A&M University School of Public Health’s inaugural Public Health Hero award.

Earth Day Texas is free and open to the public.  For more about Earth Day Texas, including daily schedules, events, booths, displays and other key information, go to http://earthdaytx.org/