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Earth Day events bring awareness

Handler Pepe Ordonez, for Wildlife on Wheels, displays the once endangered bald eagle. The eagle was donated to Wildlife on Wheels when it was found with a crushed wing. Also displayed was a desert tortoise, an alligator, and a toucan. Wildlife on Wheels was one of many attractions that celebrated Earth Day. / photo by Michael P. Bailey
Handler Pepe Ordonez, for Wildlife on Wheels, displays the once endangered bald eagle. The eagle was donated to Wildlife on Wheels when it was found with a crushed wing. Also displayed was a desert tortoise, an alligator, and a toucan. Wildlife on Wheels was one of many attractions that celebrated Earth Day. / photo by Michael P. Bailey

by Heather Morales
Staff Writer

Making the University of La Verne community aware of environmental issues, the Associated Student Federation (ASF) Forum sponsored two days of events aimed at educating students, staff and faculty this week in celebration of Earth Day.

From the Sea Shepherds Conservation Society (SSCS), Lt. Marc Gaede spoke Monday in Founders Auditorium on the illegal whaling practices of countries such as Norway and Iceland.

Founded in 1978, SSCS is a non-profit, non-governmental agency that travels the world trying to stop illegal whaling practices and other injustices toward marine wildlife.

“If we don’t take drastic measures now, there is no hope,” said Gaede. “This earth will be a sad place to live in 20 years when we are all alone.”

Gaede spoke on behalf of Capt. Paul Watson, the president of SSCS, who is currently in a Dutch maximum security prison awaiting extradition from the Netherlands to Norway on a 1994 conviction in which he was charged with sinking a whaling ship in Norway.

Gaede also urged the audience to take action and help free Watson from jail by starting a letter writing campaign.

“I talked with him on the phone this morning before I came here to speak,” said Gaede. “He told me they have him in solitary confinement. He spends 23 hours a day in a room with no windows and gets one meal a day.”

Continuing to celebrate Earth Day on Tuesday, ULV hosted a plethora of groups to educate the University community on issues such as endangered animals and electric cars.

From the group Wildlife on Wheels (WOW), Michael Fritzen spoke to the University as he showcased several endangered species.

“We are the voice of the voiceless,” said Fritzen, curriculum coordinator for WOW, as his assistant Pepe Ordonez held an American bald eagle. Some other animals that WOW brought to campus included an alligator a desert tortise and a toucan.

The purpose of WOW is “to bring awareness about the beauty of and the need to preserve animals,” said Fritzen. “If we don’t start with humans then they’re [the animals] not going to get help.”

WOW usually speaks at elementary schools, libraries and bookstores, and Fritzen said that this was their first university appearance.

There was also an electric car on display. The Society of Physical and Life Science Scholars provided pamphlets on the importance of clean air and the use of hemp products as an alternative to non-environmental friendly products. They gave out hemp products such as lip balm in a raffle.

A tree in front of Davenport Dining Hall that fell during high winds in January was replaced in a tree planting ceremony during the luncheon on Tuesday.

Heather Morales
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Michael P. Bailey
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