Earthstock 2009 Kicks Off (video)
By Michael Kelly Earthstock 2009 kicked off Friday afternoon, with a festival featuring a gallery of environmentally-friendly cars, animal exhibits and more. The academic mall was filled with students and families taking advantage of the day’s weather. Earthstock is a week-long celebration of Earth Day and a symposium on environmental issues. It started with Friday's festival, and will continue with lectures and events until this coming Friday. "We have different exhibitors from companies, green companies, solar companies, students organizations, all promoting environmental awareness," said Michelle Pizer, Earthstock’s student co-chair. Pizer said the planning committee for Earthstock has been working since November, meeting once a week to put together the event. Prominently featured at the festival on Friday was a campus bus which runs on used vegetable oil from campus dining halls. Jim O’Connor, director of transportation and parking operations, spent his day at Earthstock manning a booth in front of the bus at which students could enter a drawing to name the bus. O’Connor said that Stony Brook featured the bus at this event to highlight their desire to promote campus sustainability. "Our goal in doing the program is to really increase the university’s sustainability and decrease fossil fuel consumption and decrease diesel fuel consumption," he said. For Pizer, Earthstock is a way to raise awareness on campus about how each person can do their part to help the environment. "It’s the best way to communicate to people what they need to do to play their part," she said. "It gets people interested in what we are doing here and what they can do." The rest of this week’s Earthstock events include lectures, concerts and more. To find a full listing of the Earthstock schedule, click here. |
