CSULB Sustainability Speaker Series @ the Japanese Garden: Anika M. Ballent

1250 Bellflower Boulevard,Long Beach CA 90840

16 November, 2021

Description

An enlightening talk with Algalita's Education Director Anika M. Ballent about the impacts of plastic pollution and ways you can help Join the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden and the CSULB Office of Sustainability for the first event in our year-long Sustainability Speaker Series. This monthly series will bring compelling experts and influencers from diverse fields to speak to our campus community about a range of sustainability topics. Each 45 minute talk will be followed by Q & A with our guest speakers so bring your curiosity and your questions! Creating a World Where Plastic Pollution is Unthinkable The 1967's film quote: "One word: Plastics" rings true in today's observation of plastics' ubiquity in our natural and built environments, but not in the way it was envisioned. The health, equity, and environmental challenges that plastics pose today are hard to swallow, however, we have solutions at our fingertips if we are willing to embrace them. In this presentation, Education Director Anika M. Ballent from the local non-profit organization Algalita shares over 2 decades of experience and perspective on this issue, as well as insight into the most recent developments in the movement, and how you can get involved. Anika M. Ballent – Education Director at Algalita Anika’s academic experience is in oceanography, freshwater and benthic microplastics, and developing educational content around the complexities of the plastics issue. Her adventures have brought her on a research expedition in the Baltic Sea, back country hikes in Yosemite, Ontario’s freezing winters, and rowing races in the Netherlands, Spain, Germany. Her creative inlets are all types of handiwork; at present, gardening. Anika’s Bachelor and Master’s work at Jacobs University Bremen and University of Western Ontario, are the foundations for her resolve contribute to the issues of plastic pollution and climate change. Based in Long Beach, CA, her current work with Algalita is focused on creating novel education programs to prepare young people to be critical thinkers who demand a beautiful future.