Those who love recycling, trees and the environment had a chance to spread their passion to others on Earth Day Wednesday.
Earth Day began when founder Gaylord Nelson witnessed the horrors caused by the massive oil spill of 1969 in Santa Barbara, California. At the time, a student anti-war movement was booming, so Nelson decided this energy should be put into raising awareness about air and water pollution, according to earthday.org.
As a result, on April 22nd, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks and different auditoriums to rally for a sustainable environment, according to the website.
Disneynature, an independent film label of Walt Disney Studios, has released a nature documentary each year on or around Earth Day since 2007, according to nature.disney.com. This year, Monkey Kingdom was released on April 17 to depict a family of monkeys living in the jungles of Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
Students on campus said they have different ideas regarding what should be done to save the planet.
“I think to save the world we need to recycle more, stop wasting our resources and quit harmful habits,” freshman journalism and mass communication major Mary Frye said. “People outside of Plassmann always smoke, and that isn’t good for the environment or our lungs.”
Bonaventure is located among mountains and acres of open green space, so students said they have opportunities to spend time within the nature setting, they said.
“I go to the Allegheny River Trail a lot. I think it’s a very quiet and calm place to relieve stress. It’s easy to forget about my worries when I’m looking at the beautiful river and all the trees,” Frye said.
Some students said it’s likely that others aren’t thinking too much about how their actions impact the Earth or how they can change the Earth.
“I think that most people don’t really take into consideration how necessary it is to be involved with conservation,” freshman journalism and mass communication major Christina Root said. “It’s up to our generation to create new resources. Even the little things like school recycling projects are helpful to keep us thinking about simple ways to promote being sustainable.”
Students said it’s possible that they should have classes to better understand the importance of protecting the Earth. Some said it would also be interesting to have an Earth Day tradition, like planting a tree.
“I think that everyone should be educated about what we can do to respect and protect the Earth,” Root said.
Earth Day is an annual holiday, so Root said if the Bonaventure community can start planning now, it can plan to make a change not just one day, but every day of the year.
kolbee14@bonaventure.edu
