U.B. students show preference for nature
The visit of the manatee to Belize City this morning may have been a coincidence, but the Earth Day activities organised in Belmopan were not, as News Five’s Kendra Griffith discovered that our national university is well in tune with mother nature.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Today the University of Belize hosted its second annual Earth Day Fair, inviting environmental organisations to display information and the public to pick up tips on how to be earth friendly.
U.B. Student
“Your children in the future will have the benefits that you have right now like the water, the clean water, and the different trees, the animals in it.”
Nicole Wulff, Lecturer, Natural Resource Mgmt.
“The goal of the event is to increase awareness about the environment, increase knowledge about the environment, encourage a sense of appreciation about the environment with the goal of producing the next generation of Belizeans who are environmentally aware and real stewards of the environment.”
These standard four students of Garden City Primary School collaborated with Marine Science majors from U.B. for a display on water pollution.
Elsbeth Guerra, Garden City Primary School
“When the factory has waste they would dump the waste into the river and when the farm has waste, they would dump the waste into the river.”
Denzelle Usher, Garden City Primary School
“When people fertilise the trees and it drains it washes into the rivers.”
Vinessa Sweeney, Garden City Primary School
“The river is the main source for the people. When the river gets contaminated by the waste, the people drink the river and they get sick from the dirty water. That is why my group is making a homemade water purifier to give the people clean water to drink.”
Ruth Cardinez, Marine Science Student, U.B.
“At the beginning of the experiment way at the first end, we have the water being boiled and the water goes up the hose then it enters the condenser. After it has entered the condenser, it cools down. And then it comes out as liquid again.”
Boasting ninety-four terrestrial and marine protected areas, comprising twenty-six percent of our territory, Belize has always been keen on conservation. The problem is that our ambitions often outpace our administrative capacity. U.B., however, is assisting with that need by offering degree programmes in Natural Resources Management and Marine Science, which have a current enrolment of two hundred and four students.
Nicole Wulff
“We have a stack of applications like that for the next semester. We are very proud of our programme, training students to be our future protected areas managers, working with NGOs, working in government to ensure sustainable management of our resources here in Belize.”
Judith Lisbey, Student, Natural Resource Mgmt.
“I was interested very interested in protected areas management especially and then the programme that is offered in Belize is natural resources management programme and that actually gave me the ability to study the resources of Belize.”
Kendra Griffith
“How are you liking it so far?”
Judith Lisbey
“I am loving it. I love it, it’s very interesting.”
And even if you are not interested enough in the environment to major in it, there is plenty you can do to protect it.
Judith Lisbey
“Not polluting the environment, not throwing garbage everywhere.”
Natalie Cortez, Eco-Friendly Solutions
“These are biodegradable products that we will be getting in pretty soon. These are made from corn, these are made from sugar. In just about a hundred days after they are used with photosynthesis they turn to dust. These are environmentally friendly cleaning products that either have no chemicals or some chemicals compared to what is being used on the market.”
Nicole Wulff
“We burn fossil fuels to get energy and if you simply turn that light switch off, you are conserving energy and by that reducing the amount of greenhouse gases that are being released into the atmosphere contributing to global climate change.”
The university is also trying to practice what it preaches by launching the “U.B. Green Initiative.” They’ve begun to put in recycling bins on campus for paper and plastic products and started a composting operation as a means of utilising organic material. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
