While Earth Day was welcomed with great environmental enthusiasm in the 1970’s, the movement has been de-energized by overwhelming apathy in recent years.
“There is definetely lack of interest in Earth Day nowadays,” said Chris Karch ’04, a member of Fairfield University’s Student Environmental Association (S.E.A.). “There used to be specials on TV when I was little, now no one seems to care much.”
Fairfield’s S.E.A. has taken steps to raise awareness about the April 22 event on campus, but their efforts have gone unnoticed due to lack of interest by the student population.
“We tried to hold activities last year but the S.E.A. was near defunct so that made it difficult,” said S.E.A. member Julia Lundy ’04.
However, members don’t plan on letting their fellow students’ apathy overtake their own interest and abilities.
“It’s a bit early so nothing is planned as of yet but we are definetely counting on having some sort of event planned for Earth Day,” said Rob Keder ’04.
The decline in interest in Earth Day is by no means limited to the campus of Fairfield University. This has been the general feeling nationwide in recent years. This current sentiment at Fairfield is shared by students who work with the environment at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
“Students these days aren’t motivated by goals that could help the environment. The feeling of activism just cannot be matched by those who attended school in the 1970’s,” said UMass student Eric Lewandowski ’02.
Fellow student Douglas Moss ’02 agrees with this statement, saying, “Even at a school like UMass where there is a diverse group of students with a wide range of interests, there isn’t a whole lot of enthusiasm on this campus.”
Lewandowski and Moss have helped organize events on Earth Day such as speakers on solar energy and pollution as well as planting trees and vegetation around campus on Earth Day itself. Chelsea Crane ’02 also helps organize similar events at the University of Vermont campus and her feelings are consistent with those at Umass.
“We do get a good number of students involved and interested, but not as many as there should be for a school that has 15,000 students,” said Crane. “People just cannot seem to get pumped up about issues like global warming,” added Crane. Fairfield University professor Dr. Lisa H. Newton agrees with Crane that, these days, there aren’t as many tangible issues to tackle. “In 1970, we took them by surprise,” said Newton. “A brief period of success in the early ’70’s was the product of a vast dislike ofcorporations and a youthful enthusiasm for ideal causes.”
It is also true that corporations have gone out of their way to stem activism in the communities surrounding them. “Interest in the environment has declined due to a vigorous and well-financed campaign against it, led by all industries that might be regulated and, therefore, less profitable if the public got enthusiastic about it,” said Newton.
However, those at Fairfield will not be deterred by the recent downturn in activism.
“The best we can do to bring enthusiasm back is to raise people’s awareness and teach them to be active in their own environment because it is what they live in,” said Keder.
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