TO celebrate the 35th anniversary ofEarth Day, the Universidad Nacional(UNA) and the Ministry of Environmentand Energy (MINAE) organized a seriesof commemorative activities yesterday,today and tomorrow.The celebration at UNA, north of SanJosé in Heredia, was yesterday, andincluded a morning painting workshopfor children, alluding to Earth themes,and ended with a poetry reading by geographystudents in the evening.Activities also included theatrical performances,a conference on protection ofarchaeological resources and an exhibitionof magazines, projects and products,such as goat milk and plants, by studentsfrom the faculty of geography.MINAE personnel from BraulioCarrillo National Park, on the road to theCaribbean province of Limón, and theCentral Volcanic Range ConservationArea coordinated two days of activities inLa Unión de Guápiles, near BraulioCarrillo park, starting today with educationallectures and videos for children atthe La Unión school.“The official ceremony is at 11 a.m.on Saturday, when balloons filled withseeds representative of the conservationarea will be set loose with the goal ofspreading the seeds,” said Olga Durán,the environmental education chief of theconservation area.Both the Environment Ministry andUNA have celebrated Earth Day since1997.“In 1998 we celebrated in Talamancaand the following year, members of theBribrí indigenous community came to ourHeredia campus for the festivities,” saidUNA geography professor and Earth Dayevent coordinator Ileana Araya.Earth Day was born April 22, 1970,from the counterculture movement in theUnited States that stood against the warin Vietnam, according to Araya.She described Earth Day as not justan environmental celebration, but a“commitment to care for the Earth.”More than half a billion peoplearound the world celebrate the holidayeach year, according to the Earth DayNetwork, an association founded by theorganizers of the first Earth Day, includingformer U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson.For more information, visitwww.earthday.net.
Today in Costa Rica
