Earth Day encourages people to appreciate the planet

By ERIKA LINDQUIST

Earth Day, a universal holiday for the natural wonders of our planet, celebrates its 35th anniversary today.

“People take [the planet] for granted,” said Roland Brady, an earth and environmental sciences professor. “The air we breathe, the food we eat and the surface we walk on” are all things we share with the planet, he said.

When the first Earth Day took place in 1970, it was a time when cities were plagued by smog and polluted rivers. Advances in science and technology have revealed to us that the Earth needs special attention.

“It’s important to take time to inform about these things,” said earth and environmental sciences professor Keith Putirka.

Earth Day is a day to “bring awareness to the public at large, kind of a way to advertise,” Putirka said.

He stresses the importance of being aware of problems in order to make good decisions to help.

“We need to protect our planet because it’s all we’ve got,” said Kathrynn Polfer, a senior geology major and president of the campus geology club. Polfer said the one thing she would encourage students to do is recycle. “If we don’t renew the renewable resources, we are going to run out.”

Putirka said the community needs to be careful about how it uses water because wells are running dry and there have been problems in supplying water.

Polfer also cautioned that “people need to be concerned with the amount of water they use because it’s not coming in as fast as it is going out.”

Other issues in the Central Valley are contamination and air pollution, Putirka said. Students can help out by riding their bicycles or carpooling to school, he said.

In celebration of Earth Day, the geology club is showing a movie on the history of the United States Forest Service to help spread the word about the importance of taking care of our planet. The movie will be shown in the Industrial Technology building, Room 101 at 2:00 p.m. and a representative from the U.S. Forest Service will speak.