SOU promotional for the ScienceWorks Earth Day celebration, photo credit to SOU
April 22nd was Earth Day, and it was widely observed in Ashland. On Friday, from 3:30 to 7:00, the ScienceWorks Museum and a collection of Ashland vendors got together, outside, to celebrate the occasion. The event was activity heavy, with the most emphasis put on hands on experiences. I got there at 6:00, and even then, with the town shrouded in healthy sheets of April to May rains, the event was packed to the gills. In the spirit of Earth Day, and considering the limited parking at the venue, attendees were encouraged to find other ways to ScienceWorks other than driving, which lots of locals in raincoats ended up doing. I was one of them, and the trip down Walker was wet, nice, and cool.
Earth Day is the most well known and publicly visible event demonstrating support for environmentalism and environmental protection. The Earth Day Network, now earthday.org, coordinates activities globally to advance environmental causes. The celebration was a reaction to the catastrophic 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, when, on January 28th, an offshore drilling platform experienced a blow-out five miles off the California coast, killing thousands of animals and devastating countless habitats in the Santa Barbara Channel. The spill was the catalyst for environmental legislation over the next few years that creates much of our modern regulatory framework.
Originally intended to be celebrated on the first day of spring, since 1970 Earth Day has been held every year on April 22nd. This was because it was thought to be the best way to get college students involved, since the week of April 19th through April 25th didn’t fall during spring break or finals, or conflict with religious holidays like Easter or Passover.
Ashlanders observe Earth Day quite a bit more seriously than anywhere else I’ve lived. Activities and vendors were everywhere, and everyone– whether they walked or drove– had the future on the front of their minds. It’s been said that environmentalism is fundamentally both conservative and forward thinking, because it both deeply considers the value of the world we were left with and also is about preserving it for future generations. “It doesn’t make any difference for me, one way or the other,” one man, who said he was seventy seven years old, told me with a smile on his face. “It’s not something that will affect me very much.”
ScienceWorks made the Earth Day celebration happen by cooperating with Southern Oregon University. There was music at the Thaldin Pavillion, located in the SOU Farm, from the beginning of the event to 6:30. I caught part of the wonderful performance of vocalist Julia Funk, and inside the ScienceWorks Museum there was an after party concert from SHINE ON BAND, which imitates Jerry Garcia Band and Grateful Dead.
It’s hard to argue with the logic that there’s nothing more important than the soil we walk on and the air we breathe. In that case, the Earth Day celebration at ScienceWorks should be heartening. It was a sprawling but organic cooperation between the Museum, the University, artists from all over, and a bunch of citizens who were just in the area. Attendees left with a greater sense of responsibility, a better understanding of what our collective responsibility to the community and world.
