UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES AROUND ARIZONA PREPARE TO MARK EARTH DAY
NOTE: The photo captions have been replaced to CORRECT the last name of the subject to Sirovy and note that Sirovy’s research led the school to offer the bags as part of its sustainability efforts.
With BC-CNS-Earth Day-Box
Photos: 1 | 2 (thumbnails, captions below)
By GRAYSON STEINBERG
Cronkite News Service
PHOENIX (Thursday, April 10) _ Kevin Burke hopes he can persuade fellow University of Arizona students to recycle. Joe Costion, a professor at Coconino Community College, is preparing to demonstrate a solar-powered oven. Tori Scott wants to show a global warming documentary at Yavapai College.
With Earth Day 2008 set for April 22, students and professors at the state’s universities and community colleges are preparing exhibits, games, fashion shows, movie showings, musical performances and other events to raise awareness about the environment.
Scott, the activities coordinator for Yavapai College’s Verde Valley campus, said the school will show “An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary featuring former Vice President Al Gore, to inform students about how the environment is changing.
“It’s up to the next generation to take care of the planet,” said Scott, who also is a humanities freshman at Northern Arizona University. “It’s important for people to realize that the earth is changing and we have to be a part of it or it won’t be a part of our lives for much longer.”
Costion, a member of Coconino Community College’s sustainability task force, said people want to help reduce the potential impact of climate change but don’t necessarily know how.
“This whole idea of climate change can be overwhelming,” Costion said. “You’ve got to point people in the right direction a lot of times.”
At Costion’s school, students will have the chance to ride a hybrid electric-powered bus and see a wind turbine in action. A solar-powered oven will churn out baked goods.
Burke, a UA graduate student, is helping plan a fair that will include tips on how students can make their dorm rooms more environmentally friendly.
“If we can reach maybe just a few hundred and get them to think about larger issues, hopefully that’s something they’ll take to their classes and hopefully outside of their classes as well,” Burke said.
Megan Mosby, executive director of Liberty Wildlife, a nonprofit organization that champions the rehabilitation of wildlife and environmental conservation, will bring birds of prey and other animals to Phoenix College for a presentation on how wildlife is important to the environment.
Mosby said she hopes the presentation helps teach people how to treat animals properly.
“A lot of times especially in urban settings, many young people have been separated from wildlife and the role it plays in the natural scheme of things by the sheer fact that they live in cities,” Mosby said.
Students, faculty and staff at Tempe-based Rio Salado Community College have the opportunity to purchase $2 tote bags made from recyclable polypropylene and bearing the school’s name and logo. The totes offer an alternative to retailers’ plastic bags, which are made from petroleum.
Janeen Crockett, a chemistry and physical science instructor at Cochise College in Douglas, is targeting a younger demographic with a day geared toward elementary and middle school students. The event will include student science exhibits and a relay race designed to show how recycling can help conserve resources. More than 900 children are expected to attend.
“These kids that are growing up are going to be the ones who have a lot of choices to make about taking care of the planet,” Crockett said. “It’s like planting seeds in them that there are alternatives to the way we do things now.”
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PHOTOS: Click thumbnails to see full-resolution images and download
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-EARTH DAY: Natalie Sirovy, a Rio Salado Community College employee who handles advertising and vendor relations, shows tote bags the school is selling for $2. The blue bags are made from recyclable polypropylene. The beige bags are made from recycled plastic. With Earth Day 2008 coming up on April 22, universities and community colleges around the state are readying events to mark the day. Sirovy researched alternatives to retailers’ plastic bags, which are made from petroleum, as part of the school’s sustainability efforts. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Stephanie Sanchez)
CAPTION FOR BC-CNS-EARTH DAY: Natalie Sirovy, a Rio Salado Community College employee who handles advertising and vendor relations, shows a tote bag made from recyclable polypropylene that the school is selling for $2. With Earth Day 2008 coming up on April 22, universities and community colleges around the state are readying events to mark the day. Sirovy researched alternatives to retailers’ plastic bags, which are made from petroleum, as part of the school’s sustainability efforts. (Cronkite News Service Photo/Stephanie Sanchez)