Like everything else in Las Vegas, Earth Day is … unique

It was Earth Day in Las Vegas, so a handful of people gathered at a shopping center made out of metal shipping containers to dedicate a garden built on fake grass.

The garden is small — just four raised beds planted with a few strawberries, tomatoes and herbs to be shared by the Downtown Container Park’s restaurants and bars — but it boasts a major sponsor: Las Vegas’ new IKEA, which sent a crew to the trendy outdoor commercial center Friday with pots, soil and seeds for kids to take home.

And the Container Park isn’t the only shopping venue celebrating Earth Day. Town Square is marking the environmental holiday with two days of activities, while Downtown Summerlin touts Nevada’s largest Earth Day celebration today.

Corporate sponsors and beer tastings weren’t what activists had in mind when they launched the global day of environmental education and action in 1970, but the Las Vegas version is better than nothing, said local environmentalist Rob Mrowka.

“I think you have to play to your audience. Any way you can get the message out about the importance of protecting the Earth is a good thing,” he said.

Earth Day has always been a tough sell in a place where the desert is treated as something to be “feared and built on,” Mrowka said.

“A lot of things I tried to do with different groups really just fell flat,” he said of past efforts to promote environmental consciousness each April 22.

Not much has changed, said Las Vegas City Councilman Bob Coffin.

“The town still isn’t very aware of Earth Day,” said Coffin before joining the ceremonial first watering of the Container Park garden. “That’s not a knock on anyone. People are busy working.”

Mrowka now lives in New York but often returns to Nevada to work for the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group. He said Earth Day is a much bigger deal “back East,” where it is observed with activism and “issue-driven” events.

John Hiatt, another local conservationist, said Earth Day here has been “taken over by companies and used as an excuse to sell goods and services.”

In some ways, a degree of commercialization can be beneficial — even necessary — because it helps spread the message beyond the usual environmental crowd, Hiatt said.

But such events can also generate a lot of junk, literal and otherwise. Fliers and freebies end up in landfills, while empty gestures masquerade as Earth-friendly action, he said.

“The environment kind of gets lost in it,” Hiatt said.

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow@RefriedBrean on Twitter.