Living sustainably and caring for the environment continue to be promoted as important matters and highlight positive change to the Inland Empire community.
The Box Theatre in Downtown Riverside recently hosted a free Eco-Fair where a crowd of people from the community came by to show support and interest in environmental awareness. They also came by to attend Riverside City College’s third annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival.
The Oct. 10 event was RCC’s first year hosting the two activities off campus and having them fully opened to the public.
Greg Russell, co-advisor of the student Sustainability Collective Club, has been at RCC as a professor in life science, and has been working with the club’s sustainability committee for five years.
Russell encouraged the importance of coordinating with students and people who were at the Eco-Fair and making sure the word is getting out about fostering awareness and building environmental action as a community.
“It’s really important to enable students to have the voice to make decisions that will ensure their future and our future,” Russell said, “(and) one way to do that would be to simply learn to live sustainably.”
Among the groups with booths at the fair was Overflow Farms, a nonprofit organization that was created to grow wholesome and healthy foods for the community. The group doesn’t use pesticides or weed control chemicals, nor farm approved chemicals. All is grown organically.
Overflow Farms gives to local food banks, churches and helps those in need. They also offer volunteer opportunities to learn about various aspects of farming, including sowing seeds, planting vegetables, and harvesting crops.
At the event was Joz Sida, the first chapter director for Sierra Club Sangragonial, a chapter under the Sierra Club umbrella. She covers both Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It is one of the oldest local environmental organizations, standing at 93 years old.
Sida highlighted how the Sierra Club is an organization that connects people with nature, protects the abilities to explore nature and is always fighting for open spaces such as national monuments and public parks to ensure the ability to have conservation in these open spaces.
However, she noted that the overdevelopment of warehouses is a big problem all across the Inland Empire.
“We have one of the poorest air quality in the country, it’s not healthy, it’s not safe, it’s not fair,” Sida said. “We’ve also seen an expansion of big truck air pollution in our region, and a lot of kids are developing respiratory problems at a very young age.”
Riverside Neighbors, a group that also opposes the overdevelopment of warehouses, also had a booth at the Eco-Fair. The group is made up of concerned residents who formed in specific opposition to the Grove warehouses. They are worried that the Grove warehouse plan would increase traffic noise and pollution as well as threaten wildlife. The group encourages others to join the fight to preserve local neighborhoods.
Jennifer Smith, Riverside Neighbors founder, explained that the warehouse plan for Sycamore Canyon has not been built. Local government authorities unanimously denied the plan last May.
“It has been a long time coming – three and a half years of fighting – but so far no warehouses have been built there,” Smith said, “and that is because of consistent unanimous opposition from the neighborhood and together we were able to make a difference.”
