Celebrating Earth: Earth Day 1997

     Sampson the lion lounged in the shade Tuesday at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas while 3,000 students from area schools joined in the nation's 27th annual Earth Day celebration.
      The 7-year-old lion seemed content to stretch out on the cool, campus grass while Earth Day observances a few yards away reminded participants to help save the planet, the theme of Earth Day since its first celebration April 22, 1970.
      It wasn't the quiet sanctuary of his African homeland, but the laughter of the boys and girls and the thunder of passenger jets landing and taking off at nearby McCarran International Airport didn't seem to bother the big cat.
      It beat the alternative -- cowering in a photo booth, the job this proud animal had before the nonprofit Keepers of the Wild rescued him along with Hope, a black jaguar; Emma, an African leopard; and Samoti, a young African serval -- wild cats whose numbers and habitats are dwindling.
      For 14-year-old Cheresse Myers, Sampson was the highlight of her Earth Day. But the day also was about other things, she said, like cleaning the air, protecting water supplies and recycling household trash.
      "At my house we have a recycling bin," the eighth-grader from Cashman Middle School said, adding that Earth Day should take place more often to stimulate awareness about the environment and how it must be shared by people and wildlife.
      "Every once or twice a month, they could put on something," Myers suggested.
      At the Sierra Club booth -- one of 65 exhibits at the event -- people breathed deeply into straws while pinching their noses and exercising. The feat, known as the straw challenge, simulates the shortness of breath.
      "That's what air pollution can do to your lungs. Today, 122 million Americans are still breathing smog-filled air," says the club's brochure, signed by some 200 UNLV students who participated in the challenge during the weekend.
      The brochure is an open letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to fight for stronger health standards "to get smog and soot out of our air."
      Asked about the other 364 days in the year not marked by Earth Day, Sierra Club member Tamara Shaw said, "We have to have our consciousness all year long and participate in talking to legislators and acting responsible.
      "For each one of us, Earth Day is every day," she said.