Whether one is a conservative or liberal it is extremely hard to deny that actions we take every day affect the Earth, from driving our cars to school to not sorting out bottles into recycling in our rooms. All of these things damage our planet.
Saving our planet has to start with each single student on this campus, we cannot feel unattached from our planet, the media must also do it’s part to stop portraying those who are environmentally conscious as hippies and liberals.
A big part of why a lot of people don’t pay attention to how their actions affect the environment is because of this stigma. While Earthstock is a play on words on Woodstock the greatest gathering of hippies and musicians ever Earthstock is an attempt to inject environmental stewardship into the lives of everyday people.
Every student must take a few moments to stop and think about what they can do every day to lower the impact that they have on the planet.
It already feels that we are leaving our country in terrible shape for future generations, so shouldn’t we at least try to ensure that our planet is healthy? It may seem that something small like Earthstock on a college campus can do little to staunch the global trend of environmental destruction, however this is exactly the kind of small-scale change in attitude that is required around the globe.
If every town, city or college dedicated a week or a day to real environmental education and then continued from there, that shift in thinking could be what is needed to save our planet. This may all seem grandiose, but Stony Brook has always been a very large player in the sciences and a lot of great research and development has been born here.
Stony Brook also has the potential to make huge strides in “green” technologies, the talent and resources are there – it is up to students to push the science department into this vital area.
This push for green technology will not only be great for the Earth but could potentially make Stony Brook a leader in such fields and could propel our university to new heights as a center for such research.
Many influential movements have started on college campuses. Stony Brook Southampton’s main cultural focus was the environment and sustainability and since the students there are to be integrated onto main campus starting next semester, it now seems like the perfect time for this to become one of our main agendas as well.
Students who are making the difficult transition from Southampton to main campus will appreciate this as well as show us what we can do to spark real enthusiasm from the student body when it comes to the environment.
The consequences of us not taking care of our planet are huge and almost painful to think of, one day perhaps in the near future our children or grand children will have to suffer because we decided that we were going to be too lazy to make an effort on this front.
Scientific facts are hard to ignore and according to most scientists, the earth’s health is in rapid decline. Lets all do our part and make sure there is still some green left on this planet in the future.
