Stony Brook’s Annual Earthstock Celebration

On April 24th I attended Stony Brook’s annual Earthstock celebration with Golden Key, the club I am. Earthstock is an event held to spread awareness of why we should protect our environment. It also gives examples of how to conserve our planet in various ways. While there were many tables with different themes at Earthstock, our table allowed for whoever wanted to stop by, to plant their own seeds. Participants then got to bring home their newly planted seeds with hopes that they will grow into a beautiful flower to put in their garden. One of the other tables I spent a lot of time with was the Quogue Wildlife Refuge. This table attracted me due to the furry animal that was there. I got to meet the little guy who was a rescued opossum. The organization told me he was two years old and that they had saved him from his mother’s pouch after she was hit by a car. He was very sweet and cute and anyone was allowed to pet him. I was reminded of our class lecture #18, “Suburban Nature”. The part about Levittown in Long Island stuck in my head. The story I thought of was the one of Julien Kane taking in the baby skunk because his mother was killed. I remembered us having the class discussion about whether or not this was a good idea. I thought it was a good thing to do, being that the skunk would have most likely died on its own. I also think that a nice alternative to having domesticated him in the house, would have been to bring him to a place like the Quogue Wildlife Refuge. Seeing the rescued opossum made me think of how nice this organization was to take him in since he, like the skunk, probably would have been dead without their help. I know many people would disagree with this feeling of mine, but to me if there is very little chance of a wild animal surviving on their own, there should be places like the Quogue Wildlife Refuge to take them in and allow for them to live their lives. Events such as Earthstock are ones that I think are particularly important