April 2, 1997
Earth Week Events at Middlebury College
Once again this year, a week-long series of events
will take place at Middlebury College to celebrate Earth Week,
the national observance held annually to promote environmental
awareness and to further educate communities about environmental
issues and concerns. Events on campus will be open to the public,
beginning on the weekend of April 19, with a pre-Earth Week concert
by the popular New England-based band, Percy Hill. The concert
will take place on campus in Ross Lounge, Saturday at 10 p.m.
Tickets for the concert will be sold at the door: general admission
$6; Middlebury College students $4.
On Monday, April 21, at 12:45, Adam Werbach, the
23 year-old president of the Sierra Club, will lecture on “Hopes
for the Future of the Planet,” at Mead Chapel. In the evening,
animal tracker Sue Morse returns to Middlebury campus to share
her knowledge of Vermont carnivores. She will give the talk “Mountain
Lions and other Large Carnivores” at 7 p.m. in the Munroe
Lecture Hall.
On Tuesday, April 22, at 8 p.m., keynote speaker
for Earth Week Robert Cox will return to Middlebury College to
deliver his lecture “Opportunities for Rebuilding Environment
Law in the Aftermath of the 104th Congress,” at
Mead Chapel. Prof. Cox, formerly the president of Sierra Club,
currently teaches and studies communications studies, social movement
theory, environmental advocacy and environmental justice at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, while maintaining
his position as vice president of the Sierra Club. His lecture
will focus on opportunities in the next few months to move significant
legislation regarding environmental issues, such as clean air
standards, and the role of student activism in the movement.
A poetry reading will be on Wednesday, April 23,
at 8 p.m. at Weybridge House. Middlebury College professor of
English and environmental studies John Elder will participate,
reading from his own works. Donations from this event will go
toward production costs of The Otter Creek Journal, a publication
printed each semester through the cooperative effort of Middlebury
College students, faculty and staff, and contributions from the
public will be gratefully accepted at the door.
On Thursday, April 24, at 4:30 p.m. in the Grand
Salon of le Chateau, the Christian Science Organization, together
with Middlebury College student organization Environmental
Quality, will co-sponsor a lecture by Joni Jung titled
“A Hopeful Planet.” Ms. Jung will examine the interrelationship
between environmentalism and religion, particularly Christian
Science.
On Friday, April 25, the successful new film “Microcosmos”
will be showing at 7 p.m. and again at 9:30 p.m. in Twilight Auditorium.
“Microcosmos,” a 1996 Cannes Film Festival nominee,
will offer audiences the revelation of an amazing world of insects,
set to the film’s prize-winning musical score.
Earth Week will be concluded on Saturday, April 26,
with the “Herbicide Road Show,” a festival of movies,
puppets, and slides, put on by Burlington’s Native Forest Network
to promote the protection of forest lands. The show will take
place in Dana Auditorium of the Sunderland Building, from11:30
a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Everyone is welcome to attend these events, sponsored
by Middlebury College’s Environmental Quality to honor, with the
rest of the nation, Earth’s sanity, health and welfare. Says
EQ Steering Committee member David Sterrett, “It’s going
to be a very educational and fun week!” Most events are
free, except where otherwise indicated, and anyone seeking further
information about Earth Week, or EQ, may call Paul Woodworth at
443-3927.