I know what you’re doing this Earth Day

If there’s one thing we all know about Notre Dame students, it’s that we’re very busy.

Just the other day I was sitting in the lobby of Einstein’s Bagel Bros trying to drown my woes in Honey Almond schmear and all I could do was listen to this interview two tables over of this guy in a Dior suit with a really nifty leather padfolio who was taking 21 credits and ran eighteen and a half clubs and was trying to go into investment banking or something.

The words investment banking alone are enough to strike fear into my very core, but that’s besides the point.   

Then there’s that girl Mary in your Orgo class who’s a total know-it-all, so you gave her a hard time when she missed class last Tuesday, to which she responded that actually she was at the White House explaining the concept of string theory to President Barack Obama so you can kindly fuck off.

I hyperbolize—I only wish I had such a close connection to my all time favorite president, but you get the point. We’re very busy.

What with the late-night connect assignments and lengthy papers and the elaborate job applications it’s easy for us college students to put other critical issues on the back burner without too much thought. I know what you’re thinking: but Sienna, what’s more important than my 32 slide powerpoint presentation on marginal tax brackets?

I don’t know, maybe the fact that as you are reading this we are in the process of turning our planet into a giant ball of greenhouse gasses that will eventually result in both the demise of the human race and those cute little floppy-eared bunnies that like to hop around campus when it gets dark out. 

Now, I assume you’re probably thinking something along the lines of: Oh god, this got preachy real quick. Don’t worry, I’m not going to preach to you.

But I do think that an issue as relevant and far-reaching as global warming should be something that we are conscious of every day. Understandably, it’s hard to prioritize a problem that’s seemingly far off with indefinite consequences over the problems we face in the here and now. I could spend a few paragraphs throwing facts and statistics at you to prove my point, but I think we can all agree—global warming is happening and it’s happening now.

A lot of you might say to this: What’s the point, what am I going to be able to do to single handedly stop humanity’s inevitable extinction? 

Well, I guess you’ll never know if you don’t try. Awareness is key, which is why college organizations like GreeND, Notre Dame’s only environmentally aware student club, are important. 

With the goal of promoting environmental awareness and sustainable practices throughout, they’ve worked on trayless dining this year as well as a Fossil Free ND.

Their future plans potentially include expanded recycling projects and gardens on campus. What better way to incentivize somebody to act with their planet in mind then to show them just how pretty it is.

The leaders of GreeND: Erin Lenke (2019), Brittany Benninger (2019), Abbey Veres (2018), and Tessa Clarizio (2017)

This Friday, April 22, GreeND is hosting an Earth Day Festival on North Quad from 3:30-5:30.

I know, I know, this is a huge sacrifice—when else are you supposed to catch up on all the riveting reality tv shows you missed throughout the week? But you should know that there is going to be a smoothie bike. Is there going to be a smoothie bike on the latest episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians?

I know KK is full of surprises, but I highly doubt it. 

Walking thirty feet to North Quad and taking some pictures and making a smoothie isn’t going to save the world, but I think you should do it anyways. I think our planet is pretty cool. It has big mountains and smooth lakes and really green grass and sunsets that make you want to laugh or maybe cry because they’re so nice to look at. I can’t imagine a world where we don’t get to enjoy these things, but sadly this is the reality we are faced with.

Life is busy, but it’s busy for everyone. If we continue to be too busy to help our planet, one day it won’t be our planet anymore. So let’s stop watching and join in any possible effort we can to move toward a sustainable planet.

Happy almost Earth day. We love you, earth.