Local students, businesses, musicians and environmental organizations gathered at Library Mall Saturday to partake in Earth Festival hosted by a student activist group. The Earth Festival was part of a week-long effort to bring the community together and raise awareness about environmental issues in honor of Earth Day Sunday.
Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group Vice Chair and sophomore student Jeff Rolling said the event was more about ""bringing together the unique community of Madison to support the Earth, the Planet and ourselves,"" and less about pushing certain issues like global warming.
The festival had an assortment of entertainment ranging from concerts by local bands to performances by the Taiwan Puppeteer Troup, West African Dancers of Madison, and the Break Dancing Club. Additionally, there was a free supply of donated organic fruit for passers-by.
The Hybrid Vehicle Team, consisting of undergraduate engineering students, also came out to showcase their re-engineered hybrid car, Moovada, which they will use to compete against other schools across North America in Challenge X at the end of the year.
More than 10 local Madison restaurants have also agreed to take part in the WISPIRG Compost Project sponsored at the event by saving biodegradable waste to be collected and sent to local Wisconsin farmers as natural fertilizer.
Since Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, established Earth Day in 1970, the holiday has a close historical connection to the state of Wisconsin and UW-Madison. On April 22, 1970, Nelson encouraged an environmental teach-in as a way to bring attention to the depletion of natural resources, sparking such environmental reform as the Clean Air Act of 1970 and laws to protect drinking water and the ocean. The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies on campus was named after him.
Continuing the tradition, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz made an appearance at WISPIRG's Earthfest to support the Hybrid Vehicle Team and addressed the audience by saying he hopes Madison can strive to be ""the most sustainable, earth-friendly city in the nation.""
Sophomore Carly Swatek, who is involved in UW-Madison's environmental studies program, said Earth Day is a day to celebrate the environment we live in. ""[Earth Day] should be every day,"" she pointed out. ""Showing appreciation of our ‘Mother Earth.'""
Tips for living more sustainable and earth-friendly lifestyles were also displayed throughout Library Mall, with WISPIRG promoting the goal of reducing campus energy consumption by 20 percent per square foot by 2010.
Rolling suggested some ways in which students can go about doing this, from simply turning off lights when leaving a room to eating locally by buying groceries at the farmer's market.
""Too many people seem apathetic,"" he said. ""It's time to do something about your opinions.""
In agreement, UW-Madison sophomore Beatrice Hadidian-Baugher, co-coordinator of Conservation and Recycling Efforts, a WISPIRG campaign, acknowledged that one of the biggest misconceptions about environmental efforts is that there is time to wait.
""The time to do something is now,"" she said.
