Campus EarthWeek activities raise environmental awareness

Although today is officially Earth Day, campus organizations began activities and events to increase student awareness of environmental issues more than a week ago with the University celebration of EarthWeek.

EarthWeek began last weekend with a conference called "Approaches to Environment-alism," co-sponsored by Princeton Environmental Action and the Princeton Conservation Society, which held several lectures and discussions about the environment and conservationism.

"We have more events, and a greater variety of events, than we have in years past," said S. Helen Labun '02, a member of PEA.

The opening conference was an entirely new undertaking, she said. In addition, there were several lunch discussions and vegetarian cooking classes, which were not offered in years past.

Conference lecture titles ranged from "Can A Scientist Be An Activist. . . And Vice Versa?" to "Making a Difference in the World: Writing Children's Books that are Scientifically Accurate and Encouraging Children to be Involved Citizens, Locally & Globally." Also included was a tour of Terhune Orchards, an activist workshop and workshops on writing about the environment.

"By exploring different areas of the environmental movement, we hope to put together programs that will interest people who haven't been involved with Princeton Environmental Action or Princeton Conservation Society in the past," Labun said.

Terrace Club served as the venue for Thursday night's Zero Impact Party, where candlelight replaced electrical energy sources in hopes of raising student awareness of ways to avoid using energy sources that could potentially be harmful to the environment.

Other events held during the week included a program Tuesday night in which students could donate their dinners to the Nature Conservatory — a non-political organization that preserves land by purchasing it — and the Earth Day fair, in which several groups set up tables at Frist Campus Center.

Run for the Tiger on Saturday raised money for tiger habitat conservation in India.

"This is a way of taking responsibility for things close to Princeton — our mascot," PEA member Kelsey Jack '03 said.

University students joined the NJ Community Water Watch in picking up trash yesterday along the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed.

"It's a cliche to say every day is Earth Day," Labun said. "Our EarthWeek activities illustrate this idea without putting it into a cute slogan."

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Labun added that EarthWeek would focus on some less traditional aspects of environmentalism, such as the impact of the food people eat has on the environment.

"All agriculture has some negative impact, non-meat included, but a high meat diet uses far more resources," she said.

This week, vegetarian cooking classes were held at the Dickinson Street Co-op, featuring chefs from Masala Grill.

"Vegetarian cooking classes will hopefully draw attention to the impact of diet on the environment, while getting people excited about vegetarian food," PEA member Becca Jones '02 said.

Though there was some interest, events were not as popular as PEA would have liked, Jones said.

"Our EarthWeek events have been well received by the student body," she said. "However, our attendance has not been as high as we had hoped. We've had a lot of interest in our events, but not all of those who were interested have come."

PEA members said the lack of participation is a result of last week's unseasonably warm weather and the heavy academic pressures that come at the end of spring semester.

"People are particularly busy at this time of year" Rich Allan '02 of PEA said.