by Mike Myers
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne’s Sustainable Campus Task Force will hold an annual event on Earth Day, April 22, in the Quad.
“Earth Day is a day where we try to clean up our community and school,” said Robert Neher, biology professor at the University.
There will be a variety of booths set up in the Quad from different organizations and clubs. Literature that inform people about Earth Day will be handed out and plants will also be sold at this event.
There will be a picnic outside in the Quad and music will be provided by KULV, Neher said.
Earth Day was first observed in Spring of 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities out of which came the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history, and the impetus for national legislation like the Clean Air and Fresh Water Acts.
By the 20th anniversary of that event in 1990, more than 200 million people in 141 countries participated in Earth Day celebrations.
“We tried to get organizations and clubs to participate in this event, but most have priorities such as class or other tasks that they have committed to already,” Neher said.
The facts show the importance of environmental engagement. Americans are the world’s champion consumers: We use l06 times as much commercial energy as the citizens in Bangladesh.
We are 5 percent of the world’s population, but use one third of the world’s paper, 25 percent of the oil, 23 percent of coal, 27 percent of the aluminum and 19 percent of the copper.
Earth Day might be a small step to fighting those numbers.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to be able to participate in the clean-up of the environment,” said ULV junior social science major Deonne McLean.
