By: John Limbaugh

As student prepare to enter their final week of the semester, campus events and club meetings are coming to an end. But the environmental club used its last week to host Earth Week.

In honor of Earth Day, The club held its yearly Earth Fest on Main Quad Thursday afternoon. Earth Day was Saturday and since the last time the planet reached this part of its orbit, humanity have taken quite a few steps to improve the state of our home and avert the ever growing threats to it.

From toxic pollution and habitat destruction to climate change and extinction, all these issues were discussed at Earth Fest. Organizations from all over the state gathered on Main Quad to celebrate and raise awareness,

Students were not only given the opportunity to learn about the impact water pollution and cross pollination are having, they participated in fun activities like plarning, which involve recycling plastic bags into yarn, and planting sunflower seeds into plastic containers.

Among the vendors at the event, were the McWane, Oak Mountain State Park Wildlife Rescue and the Cahaba River Keepers, who have striven over the year to provide access to safe and clean drinking water for the surrounding community.

“Public Health is the core of the Water keep alliance,” said the vendor, “We believe it’s everyone’s right to go swimming and to feel safe knowing that the water their drinking out of their taps is clean. Want them to be able to eat the fish in the creeks and right now we’re not at that point.”

The Cahaba Rriverkeeper was founded in 2009 to defend the ecological integrity of the Cahaba River. They have taken more than two thousand samples from the river and perform regular water testings to ensure public water sources are safe for swimming and drinking.

Also at the event were representatives from the McWane Science Center, who explained how scientists have begun looking to flies to create genetic diversity as pollinators as the population of bees has begun to drastically decrease.

The environmental club holds its Earth Fest as part of Earth Week every year. To get involved, visit the environmental club’s page on the Montevallo website.