The first annual Earthfest at Tufts will be celebrated with music and fanfare today in the Campus Center. The daylong festival - sponsored by Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO), Massachusetts WaterWatch, and the Tufts Mountain Club - comes in honor of Earth Day.
ECO co-chair Cindy Chang said Earth Day is a time to recognize that the environment is the basis of life and to publicize commonly unknown facts about contamination. "Earth day hopes to bring light to the issues which affect us all, such as global warming, toxic waste, water and air pollution, and the depletion of the ozone," Chang said.
Earth Day has been celebrated worldwide since 1970, but this marks the first year that there will be an on-campus Earthfest alongside ECO's traditional low-key events. The event will include live music, food, and raffle prizes as well as a video featuring comments from University faculty, administrators, and students concerning the importance Tufts places on environmentalism.
"We hope to include people who are usually not involved actively with environmental concerns and to give everyone who comes through the campus center more information about the environment," Chang said.
Organizers of Earthfest hope to educate students through information booths that provide general information about vegetarianism, global warming, ocean pollution, and link them to social justice issues such as hunger and poverty.
Environmental issues are important to Tufts, Chang said, especially compared to other schools. She said a good method to measure how concerned and involved students are is by examining the strength of the recycling program. She said students could always make increased efforts to separate trash and recyclables properly to prevent waste.
Students on campus feel that Tufts succeeds as an environmentally conscious school. "There are lots of recycling places all over campus that students can use," sophomore Seth Leiboh said.
Common sights such as students driving cars around campus and leaving lights on all day in dorm rooms are examples of poor energy use, Chang said. She thinks the biggest environmental abuse on campus is students leaving their computers on all day when they are used for no more than an hour. "This sucks up a lot of energy, and when every single student does it, we waste a lot of energy," she said.
While Freshman Caitlin White said that environmental campaigns - such as the annual fall "Do It in the Dark" - are important, she thinks they need to be run year-round.
"A conscious effort is made to reduce the amount of energy used on campus, but it is not something we should campaign for just for one week or for Earth day," she said. "Environmental awareness needs to be addressed on an more regular basis because it is a constant problem."
