A past comedian brought his talents to Muncie Saturday to speak about a serious issue: sustainability.
More than 100 people from Muncie and Ball State listened to Jim Poyser, the keynote speaker for the Living Lightly Fair.
Poyser discussed the obstacles to awareness and education about sustainability.
“That’s the hardest thing: how do you communicate the predicament, because then it becomes, ‘What do we do about India?’” he said. “Well, we can’t really worry about India. Let’s just do cool stuff right here and teach kids the right skills and just let it go.”
Laura Buckles, a 16-year-old junior from Muncie Central High School and a member of the recycling club, couldn’t agree more.
“He was really descriptive and liked to get the audience involved,” she said. “Usually, [speakers] just try to push it on kids. He actually showed examples. It was not another boring lecture.”
Over the past two and a half weeks, Poyser has spoken to more than 7,000 students around Indiana. He spends most of his time as executive director of Earth Charter Indiana, going from school to school teaching students and educators ways to become more sustainable.
Teaching students how to farm effectively on a local scale has the potential to create a better community, he said.
“If every student in Indiana learned how to grow food, if every school would be a farm, this would be awesome,” he said. “It would evoke the great heritage of Indiana and agriculture. It would bring people together who would otherwise be arguing, and kids would be eating good, locally produced foods and be happier.”
Despite the different schools that he has visited, he has not stopped at Muncie until the fair.
“I have not been in a Muncie school yet,” Poyser said. “There were some kids from Muncie Central coming up and thanking me. I hope to be invited to speak, though.”
For Poyser, he can’t just ask to come speak at a school, he has to be invited.
“If you just send an email to a teacher or a principal, they won’t know who you are. You’ll just end up in their spam folder,” he said. “You need someone to make contact for you on your behalf to give you that foot in the door.”
Poyser also discussed climate change and the importance of not giving it an alarmist tone when teaching younger generations about the issue.
“We have to be happy in the face of horror,” Poyser said. “We have to alter our brain chemistry to approach this in a happier and different way, at least for children.”
