Over a hundred blue, green and red tables coupled with sunny weather blanketed the Academic Mall Friday afternoon in celebration of Stony Brook University’s 6th annual Earthstock to help bring environmental awareness to the campus community.
As Aztec dancers entertained students on the grass outside the Melville Library, junior Alicia Ryan, a linguistics major, had a small crowd around her commuter student services booth.
The Commuter Student Services table featured a board full of creative suggestions on how to lower emissions while traveling to school. It suggested carpooling, bicycling, and walking. To Ryan, the goal was simple — to teach commuters how to go green. Ryan suggested carpooling to help save gas and lower pollution. “There’s a carpool forum on Blackboard so commuters can see who to carpool with,” she said.
Even Stony Brook’s bus, the Kernel, which runs on vegetable oil, was on display. David McAvoy, the university’s transportation fleet manager, said the bus gets about seven miles per gallon. Although the number may not seem like a lot, he said city buses only get about 2.5 miles per gallon, and even the hybrid city buses only get 3 miles per gallon. The bus runs off vegetable oil from the Kelly Quad Dining Center that is converted to fuel in a small shed located in the South P lot.
Nardy Honda in Smithtown was also on site, giving out information on hybrid cars with three of their latest hybrid Honda Civic models available for students to look at. Just a few steps away, Jungle Bob’s Reptile World could be found placing pythons on anxious students while a large tortoise moved slowly around their flip-flopped feet.
Psychology major, Rachel Roger, a junior, was passing out fliers and information for her booth with a few students from her Women Studies class. The class, Global Activism, asked students to sign a petition that they planned to send into the United Nations. “Today we’ll be showing movies to promote awareness of the world water crisis. Because of privatization of water, its forced people to collect rainwater or drink muddy water because they can’t afford to pay for clean water resources, “ Roger said. “We are having people sign a petition because water is a right to life and we would like it included in the universal declaration of human rights at the United Nations.”
While the main purpose of Earthstock may be to educate students on how they can maintain a healthier environment, the festival brought a festive mood throughout the campus. As students lounged on the grass and enjoyed the sounds of Peat Moss and the Fertilizers, thoughts of projects, essays and finals were far from anyone’s mind.
