Earth Day: the Sharing of the Green: Sustaining the Planet Easier Than You Think
By Alex Breitler, The Record, Stockton, Calif.
Apr. 21–Ulises Alvarez learned a simple truth about the Earth the last time he planted something in his backyard.
“I didn’t put water on it, so it died,” the 9-year-old said.
He pledged to do a better job next time. And that was the whole idea of Stockton’s 20th Earth Day celebration on Sunday — doing a better job at protecting the planet, whether we’ve developed our green thumb or not.
This festival at Victory Park wasn’t just for environmentalists, for folks who compost in their backyards and cook dinner using the sun’s rays and drive electric cars.
It was for folks who sometimes forget to turn the lights off at home. Folks who might not like getting their hands dirty.
And so there was reason for optimism when volunteers with the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation handed Ulises, and many others like him, a tomato plant. More than 1,000 were distributed.
“Put water on it,” local farmer Mike Robinson suggested. The boy nodded.
Not far away, Stockton’s Bev Blum showed off a black pot heated by sunlight reflecting off an aluminum shield. Her rice would be cooked in about an hour, she said — no gas, no electricity.
This feat stunned some observers. Kids poked the pot and jerked their hands away, hissing at the heat.
“I don’t think they’re non-believers,” Blum said. “They’re probably just a little puzzled. But then you lift the lid off the pot, the steam comes out and people are just blown away.”
Children painted masks of endangered species — pandas, tigers and polar bears — and strapped them to their faces before marching in a parade. Bicyclists lay on the cool grass following a ride earlier that morning.
Farmers talked about sustaining the land, compared groundwater to a “giant piggybank” and fielded questions about pesticides and chemicals used on their lands.
There was a day when growers didn’t feel welcome at these types of events, which seemed only for environmentalists, said Katie Matthews, the farm bureau’s director of education.
“We’re working on changing that,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”
Ulises carried his tomato plant to a booth where gardeners displayed a worm box where compost is made. The boy dug around in the soil with a trowel until finding a worm and pretending to toss it in his mouth like a peanut.
“Just kidding,” he said.
He doesn’t love the Earth ONITAGITALICONIthatONIENDITALICONI much.
Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com.
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