Treasure Earth

Last Tuesday was Earth Day and that means celebrations were happening everywhere across Southern California. Last week I went to two Earth Day events: “Treasure Earth,” the city of Glendora’s Earth Day festival and the Earth Day celebration here at the University of La Verne.

“Treasure Earth” had a small, farmer’s market-like Earth Day celebration that included an e-waste recycling event, a trails committee display and one heck of a juggling show by juggler David Cousins.

The Earth Day celebration at ULV had much more information and interactive booths. I bought all-natural lip gloss, learned about sight-seeing by going Metro and how to do some composting in a empty coffee can.

Some of the interactive things I did included playing a fishing game about toxic waste. I also bought a $2 t-shirt supporting our Green Institute for Village Empowerment program at the school.

The fishing game was like something out of an elementary school family fair. A kiddy pool was filled with floating pink and blue baskets. The aim of the game was to fish out the baskets using a fishing pole. Each basket had fish puzzles as prizes.

“It’s important to conserve our ground water, it really impacts our environment,” junior biology major Zain Alshamiyeh said.

Alshamiyeh is a member of SPLSS, Society of Physical and Life Science Scholars. She was on hand explaining the effects of acid rain.

“That’s our little game,” she said. “The baskets represent hazardous waste.”
The pink baskets were the ones that represented hazardous waste. Whenever someone was able to fish up a pink basket, that person received a special prize which included a glass fish or giant NBA and Lakers pens.

“So many people played that it broke,” Alshamiyeh said.

I then stopped by to visit a booth promoting vegetarian life. I got free stickers, a cute coloring book, a DVD and a business card of my favorite vegetarian place: One World. Even though I’m not a vegetarian, I’m not down with fur or animal testing.

Next was the Klean Kanteen and Chico bags booth.

Vanessa Martinez of Sigma Kappa explained the importance of reusing plastic bags and water bottles.

“It costs more to recycle than to make the product,” Martinez said.

The Chico bags were cute pink and blue reusable bags that even came in a little carrying sack. These could easily be tossed in your purse and bought out when it was time to bag some groceries.

She also explained the dangers of plastic water bottles.

These bottles are “temperature sensitive (and) leaks into your food and liquids.”

Martinez had about 20 bottles available for purchase, but by 1:30 p.m. they had sold out. She had a list of more than 20 people who wanted to order more bottles from the sorority.

The “Treasure Earth” celebration in Glendora had a very different variety of booths.

The trails committee had a display of animals and insects located in Glendora. Aside from the possums and ladybugs I’m used to seeing, there were snakes and a section of bats. And not just one kind of bat, there were several. Bats in Glendora? I was surprised, that is too close for comfort for me. Walking sticks, beetles and other insect life was on display. Even though I though their legs and hard exterior scared me, these little guys needed to be protected and recognized on Earth Day along with everyone else.

If these creatures are too much for you to handle, “Cats in Need,” a “No Kill” shelter was also on site adopting out cats and spreading awareness about the importance of spaying or neutering your pet. According to the shelter, for every one human baby born, 15 puppies and 45 kittens are born. Think that’s too many? Well, if two uncontrolled breeding cats and their kittens and all of their “grand-kittens” are never spayed or neutered, this one family will produce close to 14,000,000 cats in their ninth year of breeding.

My favorite exhibit was about smart watering. A model of the city of Glendora was on display. The sloped region was sprinkled with brown food coloring to represent mud. Then a sprayer used to represent water showed how the “mud” would rush down the city of Glendora into the ocean.

Also featured at Treasure Earth was a composting demonstration, free California poppy seeds (native plants require less water), native plants for sale and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Glendora sells compost bins for $25.

Some media forces taking an initiate on Earth Day include the Los Angeles Times and GE. The Los Angeles Times front page had a story about the effect of food on the atmosphere right next to the story, “Gas price hikes ahead.” The chart explaining the life cycle of cheese gave a great visual about link between what we eat and greenhouse gas emissions.

GE is also showing commercials about ways to conserve energy during what it is calling “Earth Week” A husband restrains his wife from beating up the toaster because it is stealing from them-energy that is. GE is giving tips on how people can conserve energy by unplugging appliances when they’re not in use.

With all this information, go out and do something today. Recycle, donate clothes, buy organic, Go Metro, don’t eat cows, plant a tree or anything else you can think of that will help the Earth.
That’s how we all can help.

For more information about low cost spay and neuter referrals, call the Pomona Valley Cats in Need at (909) 622-0121.

Household Hazardous Waste Roundups are happening Saturday through June 21 in the cities of Azusa, West Covina, Pomona/Walnut, Pasadena and Irwindale. For more information about where and when these Roundups take place, visit www.lacsd.org/HHW/HHWFLIER.htm