Environmental Studies department and various other organizations on

campus, the Environmental Student’s Organization planned out this

year’s Earth Week events that led up to Earth Day, which is held

every April 22.

From April 18 until Thursday, Sacramento State students had

opportunities to learn how they can be more environmentally

friendly through lectures, poetry, a documentary and tabling in the

Library Quad.

Professor Michelle Stevens on April 18 lectured on the restoration

of the Iraqi natural marsh system. The marsh system once covered an

area twice the size of the Florida everglades and had its waters

diverted due to dam projects and intentional drainage.

About a dozen vendors from various green industries were in the

Library Quad on April 19, ready to answer questions from the

community and guide them to recycling resources.

The vendors showcased what each business or organization was doing

to help clean up the environment. The vendors showed a need for

proper disposal of items that contain toxic parts, such as

computers and other electronics.

To help with this awareness effort was the California Electronic

Asset Recovery program. The program takes old electronics, or

e-waste, and breaks them down to their basic components, said

program representative Raquel Cloninger.

The company uses a centrifuge along with high-powered magnets to

break apart the electronics safely.

Cloninger said it is essential for electronics to be disposed of

properly.

“It is very important to recycle e-waste, because not everyone

knows that their e-waste has toxic and harmful chemicals like lead

and mercury. We definitely want those products broken down

responsibly,” Cloninger said. “This all done so it will not hit the

landfill and get into the water supply and damage the Earth

further.”

Another company called Clean Tech is helping to find ways of

compacting garbage with the use of solar technology. With their

trash can line called “Big Bellie Solar,” representative Bob Nelson

said the trash can will reduce the number times the trash needs to

be collected.

“The compacting mechanism inside the trash can will compact the

trash to four to five times the volume of regular loose trash. This

will then cut down on the use of vehicles to transfer the trash to

a facility and the manpower needed to round it up,” Nelson

said.

The Environmental Student Organization hosted animal activist Matt

Kimura of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society on April 20. Kimura,

featured on the Animal Planet series “Whale Wars,” talked about how

his group prevents the poaching of whales in the Antarctic Ocean

near a Japanese whaling fleet.

In order for their missions to be successful against the Japanese

whaling fleet, the members aboard the Sea Shepard fleet practice

set routines so they will be prepared for anything, Kimura

said.

“The most interesting thing we do at sea is launch our smaller

single-engine boats at full speed when we plan to engage a whaling

ship. And on any mission, most of the action is directed toward and

at the smaller boats from the larger whaling ships,” Kimura said.

“So what we came up with were specific drills, as we found it took

12 people to pull off our missions correctly.”

To wrap up Earth Week events for the campus, the club hosted a

lecture and documentary for the campus community.

Professor Virginia Matzek presented a lecture titled “10

not-so-simple things you can’t do to save the Earth.” The lecture

centered on the misconceptions about what makes an

environmentalist.

There were no events scheduled for Friday, as that day is

designated as official Earth Day and the campus community was

encouraged to get involved organized Earth Day events around the

city of Sacramento.

“Currently the campus is involved in recycling and composting

programs. But what I am really excited about is the work we are

doing in the residence halls,” Jones said.

The residence halls house 1,700 students and prepare meals for the

residents to consume throughout the day. Jones said the halls have

instituted resource-saving techniques.

“In the dining commons, they have gone to tray-less dining to cut

down on food waste. This in turn cuts down on the amount of dish

detergent being used, which helps with trying to be more green,”

Jones said.

Knowing that it can be difficult to recycle on a regular basis,

senior environmental studies major Laurel Rhodes, president of the

Environmental Student Organization, said there are organizations

willing to help in the effort.

“Recycling is important, but I feel that people think it is a hard

thing to do. And we want to show that it is not hard and there are

resources available to help them do it properly,” Rhodes

said.