Thousands of people gathered Sunday on North Boulevard in downtown Baton Rouge to eat, listen to live music and support Louisiana Earth Day.
Baton Rouge has held Earth Day celebrations since 1990, said festival coordinator Susan Hamilton. This year, Hamilton said she expected around 50,000 participants.
“The goal is to teach people how to take action and protect the environment in their daily life and work,” Hamilton said.
The volunteers and the different organizations helped further that goal by making learning about the environment fun and entertaining, Hamilton said.
Biochemistry junior Danté Johnson and environmental management systems and chemistry sophomore Autumn Acree held a demonstration at a booth for the University section of the American Chemistry Society.
The students were demonstrating the difference between Styrofoam packing peanuts and packing peanuts made of starch, which dissolves in water and are more environmentally friendly, Johnson said.
Acree dropped a Styrofoam packing peanut into a cup of water, then the one made of starch to show the process and explained how something so simple could help the environment.
Biology senior William Helt was present at a booth for a University Conservation Biology lab. Helt said the class involves learning about the benefits of prescribed burns and the effects it can have on wildlife and trees and ecosystems they inhabit.
Biology senior Courtney Tuminello said the goal of the booth was to reach out and try to get kids outside.
“It gives kids a little bit of a way to relate to trees around them,” she said.
Geology sophomore Elly Smith was with the University Geology Club’s booth that displayed various minerals found in everyday products.
The Geology Club often advocates for earth sciences at different events to get more people interested in geology, Smith said.
“A lot of kids don’t get to experience geology,” Smith said.
Natural resource ecology and management junior Arianna Rivera volunteered with the Greater Baton Rouge Clean Cities Coalition that had seven different alternative-fuel vehicles on display.
The organization advocates alternative energy forms for use in vehicles to ease American dependence on oil.
Rivera said Baton Rouge is a city that is a great target audience for alternative fuel, especially those powered by natural gas.
“We’re letting people know what our mission is,” she said.
