This year, Earth Day marks the 42nd anniversary of an environmental movement that started in 1970. Earth Day is all about increasing awareness worldwide and enhancing our appreciation of our natural environment.
To celebrate and increase awareness here at Peter Greenberg Worldwide, Travel Contributor Natasha Tadros interviewed Trammel Crow, the founder of the Earth Day Dallas Festival, and spoke with him about his involvement with the festival as well as his inspirations for a greener environment.
Natasha Tadros: Can you tell us about Earth Day Dallas Festival and your involvement?
Trammel Crow: It’s a festival based on exhibitions. You’ll have corporations talking about how their boxcars are cleaner than trucks or the banks talking about how they have paperless banking. Its more serious than a festival. There are 110 booths only for schools and colleges, from Austin to Oklahoma; Texas AM has a huge agricultural display. The speakers are very important, Laura Bush will be speaking as well as the admiral of the navy—and the navy spends 100s of millions of dollars a year on green. Here we are in Texas, land of the sinners, we leave the car and water running and lights on, this is a fertile field to promote going green.
NT: What can we expect from the festival this year?
TC: The music is fantastic! The music is the way to get people there! We’ll have jugglers, as well. There will be about 80,000 people in attendance. The booths and the stories that are told are what make it so important.
NT: What inspired your interests in the environment?
TC: In 1964, my big brother came back from his first two months of military school, and he said three words to me: politics, environment and population. Besides recycling, I’ve been an armchair environmentalist—wishing it well and not doing too much—but now in the past five to ten years, the burning need to do something and get involved has emerged.
NT: Can you tell us about your involvement with the Texas Conservation Alliance and if it’s had an impact with your participation with Earth Day Dallas Festival and environmental protection in general?
TC: My dealings with them have served as inspiration. They are so earnest all over the state. It is just so inspiring to see them dedicate their lives to this cause.
