From April 19-22, the Sustainability Council hosted daily activities for Earth Week aiming to engage students and inform them about the environment, according to SusCo Co-President Victoria Figueroa (’22).
For the first time, SusCo scheduled a movie screening after school April 19 for students to watch “Don’t Look Up,” a Netflix film about two astronomers who seek to warn the world about an approaching comet that has been used as a metaphor for the climate crisis.
Figueroa said the Council planned to have a screening this year because the movie has been a “hot topic” and gives students the opportunity to engage in sustainability and activism through film.
“For people who haven’t really done much research or people who are just new to activism or just the crisis in general, it was a good way to kind of segue into that,” she said. “We wanted activities that weren’t intimidating, that were welcoming.”
In addition, Figueroa said the purpose of the activities was to help students discover how their interests can relate to pursuing activism.
“Instead of telling people they should care about it, we want to make this week about finding your passion,” she said.
According to Bunny Elliott Granger (’22), students who were not previously involved in sustainability activism had the opportunity to engage in discussions and gain insight on issues like climate change and the increase of wildfires.
“They are forced to think about the environment on some level and gain at least a surface level understanding of the climate crisis,” she said.
Although Earth Day is internationally recognized as April 22, Figueroa said it is vital for the school to recognize Earth Week in its entirety to influence the most students.
“Everybody’s busy, not everybody reads the announcements, so we wanted to give a big enough window of time for everybody to have an opportunity,” she said.
Instead of telling people they should care about it, we want to make this week about finding your passion.
— Victoria Figueroa
Jason Papadopolous (’24) said having a prolonged opportunity to engage in sustainable activities made him want to be more globally aware year round.
“Earth Week made me realize that we should dedicate more time to the Earth and that it shouldn’t just be a week,” he said.
Similarly, Elliott Granger said it is important to draw attention to sustainability for the entirety of the week, otherwise it would not “be on all students’ radars.”
Despite receiving less student participation than previous years, Figueroa said she was still content with the effectiveness of Earth Week.
“It’s definitely not the same turnout as it was a couple years before because school events are still new to people,” she said. “But considering that, we were very impressed with the amount of non-Council people showing up to events. It really warmed our hearts.”
