BOONE—Appalachian State University celebrates Earth Week with a variety of programs beginning April 20. All events are free and open to the public.

On April 20, a Love the Earth Celebration will be held from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sanford Mall. Activities include an “Express Yourself  Parade” from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. around campus and African dance lessons with Sherone Price from 3:30-4:45 p.m. on Sanford Mall. Express Yourself is an expressive art therapy program for children and adults with developmental disabilities.  Anna Ward leads this high school group in a drama activity.

The sustainability film series will show “No Impact Man” from 7-9 p.m. in I.G. Greer Auditorium, with a panel discussion to follow.

A sustainability symposium will be held April 21 from 1-6 p.m. at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center. The event is sponsored by the university’s graduate chapter of the Net Impact Club and the Walker College of Business.

The event features a keynote address by Kevin Walsh, an engineer of hybrid vehicles, panel discussions, an eco-fashion show and a technology expo. Admission is free and the public is invited. For more information, visit http://netimpact.appstate.edu/ and look for the heading “Earth Week Events.”

Walsh’s talk begins at 1 p.m. The eco-fashion show begins at 2 p.m. Panel discussions on “Corporate Responsibility” and the “Local Business Movement” will begin at 3 p.m.

The “Living Technology Expo,” cosponsored by the university’s Sustainable Energy Society, begins at 2 p.m. and runs concurrently with other activities.

Appalachian’s Student Government Association sponsors a “Rock Your World” concert April 21 from 4-10 p.m. on Duck Pond Field.Earth Day activities will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 22 on Sanford Mall. Sponsored by the university’s Sustainable Energy Society, activities include face-painting, Yoga lessons, mural painting, plant sale, the opportunity to make your own tye-dyed T shirt, a recycled art showcase and a renewable energy education station.

In addition on April 22, Dr. Tarla Rai Peterson, an internationally recognized expert in environmental conflict resolution, will present a talk from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Plemmons Student Union’s Table Rock Room. The talk is sponsored by the Department of Communication, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Office of Sustainability and the University Forum Committee.

Peterson will discuss the challenges and advantages of community-based conservation programs and how the U.S. Department of Interior’s Recovery Implementation Plan (RIP) acknowledges diverse perspectives and invites collaboration to resolve environmental controversies.

Peterson is the author of “Sharing the Earth: The Rhetoric of Sustainable Development” (1997) and “Green Talk in the White House: The Rhetorical Presidency Encounters Ecology” (2004).

For more information, contact Dr. Cindy Spurlock at spurlockcm@appstate.edu or 828-262-2222.

The Doorways International Program Series presents a talk by Chuanhui Gu April 22 at 2 p.m. in Belk Library and Information Commons room 421. Gu is a member of the Department of Geology.  His talk is titled “Environmental Issues in China: Local Research with Global Relevance.”

Larry Gibson will lecture on “Mountaintop Removal Mining” April 22 from 4-5 p.m. in Plemmons Student Union’s Linville Falls Room. His family land located on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia is surrounded by one of the largest mountaintop removal coalmines in Appalachia. Gibson founded the Keepers of the Mountain Foundation to preserve and foster the values of mountain culture and education others about the destruction caused by mountain-top removal.

The planned showing of the sustainability film “The Age of Stupid” originally scheduled for April 22-24 has been canceled.

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