Make every day Earth Day

Fluvarium promotes environmentalism through public education

By Sarah Predham

For the past 40 years on April 22, people all over the world have put off events and projects to celebrate Earth Day. This year, the Fluvarium, a non-profit environmental education centre in St. John's, held an Earth Day fair. The purpose of the event was to show people that they can make a difference in their everyday lives.

Bob Piercy, environmental educator at the Fluvarium, described it as a gathering of like-minded groups and organizations, which have an environmental message and theme to get across, and share in a common goal of making the Earth a better place for everyone.

Groups and organizations from all over the St. John's area and across Canada showed up, all hoping to convey their message and illustrate how easy it is to make every day Earth Day. Organizations in attendance included MUN Botanical Garden, MUN Project Green, World Wildlife Fund, Multi-Material Stewardship Board, Integrated Waste – St. John's, and Take Charge NL.

One of the most popular messages for Earth Day was to bring your own bag. Every group offered their own reasoning for how this can help.

“Leatherback sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish sometimes and [they] get caught in their stomachs,” said Laura Temple, Strandings coordinator of Whale Release and Strandings. She feels this is an important but simple action to take to save innumerable amounts of wildlife, and to remove plastic bags from landfills, dump sites, and natural habitats.

Other ways to cut back on waste are composting and recycling. MUN Botanical Garden brought along a type of compost with worms (Vermicompost), as well as a children’s activity which taught the kids how to make flower pots from old newspapers.

All of the groups provided productive messages and themes, presenting new ideas and ways that everyone can help the environment.

To find more on these, and other environmental tips, you can visit the individual organization websites.

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