UMich hosts circus-themed sustainability event ‘A Carnival Built in H&!!: Responding to the Climate Crisis’

On Friday afternoon, about 50 students attended the University of Michigan’s Student Life Sustainability hosted “A Carnival Built in H&!!: Responding to the Climate Crisis,” a circus-themed drop-in event including games, popcorn and discussions on the climate crisis at the Palmer Commons. The event featured colorful tables highlighting different U-M- and Ann Arbor-focused sustainability initiatives. The groups — including the Kiwanis Thrift Sale store, the University’s Campus Farm Club, the Michigan Sustainability Community, Intergroup Relations program, a joy mapping initiative and more —  offered insight into the climate crisis, mutual aid and other climate disaster-related information.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Clara Gamalski, assistant director of Student Life Sustainability and one of the organizers for the event, said the event was held to make the sustainability-focused programs easier for students to find. 

“If you don’t have an energy science or environmental science background, (the programs are) hard to access, right?” Gamalski said. “So we were like, ‘how do we create a sense of joy, or play, or hope, and try to encourage real interdisciplinarity?’ If we’re gonna adapt to a changing climate, not just mitigate urban emissions … we need creativity.”

LSA senior Navya Yagalla, an organizer employed within Student Life Sustainability, told The Daily the purpose of the event’s carnival theme is to make difficult topics easier to address. 

“You can see people playing games in one corner, we have cotton candy and snow cones, and it’s just a very light-hearted way to talk about bigger topics that actually have meaning,” Yagalla said. “I think it’s a good approach for being able to share information without making it like a super heavy ‘talking-at-you’ kind of thing.”

In an interview with The Daily, LSA senior Ruby Howard, who attended the event, highlighted the games at the event, including Plinko, which guided the player to read facts on climate change, or Pace Fainting, which included painting Michigan-native flowers on a cheek. Howard said that one of the major takeaways of the event was the importance of relying on one another’s unique strengths and building community.

“I wish I had gotten a little more time to read it all, but a lot of it was really cool. What I did get to read (was) very profound.” Howard said. “Thinking about the give and the take of being around people who have skills, and knowing that you have skills, and thinking about that in the context of community, not just self-sufficiency.”

Despite feeling disheartened by the climate crisis, Gamalski said efforts on the campus make her feel hopeful that the community could work to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“On my worst days, I am like, ‘We’re so screwed,’” Gomalski said. “‘There’s nothing we can do about climate right?’ But on my best day I think, ‘Okay, if all our systems are collapsing as a result of climate change, if things are starting to break down, is it possible that we could build something better together?’”

Rackham student Lashaun Jackson, who helped organize the event, mentioned one of the goals for the project was not only to educate students on the climate crisis but also to connect the campus community to inspire change.

“I think a lot of people just don’t realize that civic engagement is a part of sustainability,” Jackson said. “Democratizing how we are, how we live, trying to pull in different fields and perspectives and helping people understand that this is a part of sustainability.” 

Daily News Contributor Meghan Dwan can be reached at mkdwan@umich.edu.