Dearth Day : With Only About 100 People, Turnout at CSUN’s Earthfest ’91 Is Far From Global
Green, it appears, may be out of fashion this spring.
After all the hype that surrounded last year’s 20th anniversary celebration of Earth Day, only about 100 people showed up Sunday for Earthfest ’91 at Cal State Northridge, far fewer than organizers anticipated.
And those who did attend the CSUN festival were, for the most part, the same folks who already ask for “Paper, please” at the grocery checkout. Many said they also sort their trash for recycling, share car pools and use public transportation.
“We tend to be preaching to the converted,” said Andre van Meulebrouck of Chatsworth.
Most who attended seemed to know each other, calling one another by name and talking as they meandered through booths manned by groups such as Zero Population Growth, the Peace and Freedom Party and the California Vegetarian Society.
Heads nodded in agreement as people read flyers--printed on recycled paper--illustrating the effects of uncontrolled growth and deforestation. One flyer described how a device for toilets called Future Flush allows residents to control the amount of water they use with each flush.
Organizers of the event were disappointed with the low turnout, as well as the absence of those seeking environmental redemption.
“We were hoping to have a lot more people,” said Cindy Wilder of the San Fernando Valley Environmental Coalition. “But those that are here are getting something out of it.”
Several in attendance speculated that a larger festival in Pasadena may have lured people away from the CSUN event. Others blamed unpredictable weather for keeping people away, and some said passersby could not find the booths, which were set up out of sight in the center of campus.
A few wondered whether the poor showing was because people are no longer as concerned about the environment.
A recent UCLA survey revealed that Southern Californians are concerned about the environment, but not enough to make drastic changes in their habits.
“If we could think of Southern California as a student enrolled in a course on sound environmental practices and consider our survey as an exam, I would give this student an A for environmental concern and a C+ for actual performance,” said Richard Berk, the UCLA professor who conducted the survey.
“It’s a fad, but it can’t be,” Suzanne Deputy said of the wave of environmental awareness that swept over the country last year and turned Earth Day festivities into places to be seen.
Wearing an Illinois license plate across her chest, Deputy was trying to sell a line of clothing made of rubbish recovered from junkyards and trash bins. Crowds gathered around her booth to gawk at hubcap purses and bottle wrapper belts with seat-belt buckles.
By mid-afternoon, she had made no sales.
Meanwhile, a dozen or so people sat in small groups on an empty field as the North Valley Coalition, an environmental group, announced that it had selected the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to receive the Golden Stump Award for approving expansion of the garbage dump in Sunshine Canyon. The award identifies environmental “assailants” in Southern California, according to Michael Ormsby, who said the board would be inducted into the Environmental Hall of Shame.
