On April 22, the whole world celebrates Earth Day. We decided to take it one step further and on April 20-22, EMIS Earth Weekend took place. As the main theme of the event, we chose climate change. These three days were full of learning, discussing and taking actions, through which we could reduce our environmental footprint.
On Thursday, the first day of the event, lectures took place. Our guest speakers were Robert Roach from EMIS, prof. Yoav Yair from IDC Herzliya and prof. Alon Tal from TAU. They presented different perspectives on the climate change and talked about possible futures. On the second day, we went to a unique place – a hydroponic farm on the top of the Dizengoff Center where we learnt about the food crisis and how we can deal with it. In the evening we watched a film “Tomorrow”, followed by discussion, which revealed differences in how environmental issues are seen in our countries. On Saturday we focused on action – there was a role-play MUN-style debate – Climate Change Conference Simulation – where students represented world leaders and sought possible solutions to stop the global warming. Lastly, students had a chance to join us in cooking a vegetarian dinner, decorating the recycling bins or building the community garden.
The first EMIS Earth Weekend was a very successful event with tens of students engaging in environment-related activities. We see such events as crucial in building awareness regarding sustainability among youth.
Green Team 