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PRINCETON BOROUGH — Though he had been concerned about the environment since his childhood, Derek Gideon, now a sophomore at Princeton University, never thought he could have an impact on it.

“I read a lot about environmental issues but I always thought about it as something scientists and engineers would need to worry about,” he explained. “It never occurred to me that someone interested in writing could be involved.”

Then, in high school, Gideon went to a writing workshop in Vermont, where he learned about the environmental themes in “The Lord of the Rings” and discovered non-preachy ways to write about the environment.

“I realized that everyone can have a reason to care about the environment and everyone can contribute in some way,” said Gideon, who now edits a Princeton student environmental blog.

This is precisely the message environmentalist students at Princeton hoped to convey to their peers on Earth Day. More than 10 environmentalist student groups joined together to showcase student performances and bring sustainable food and merchandise to campus with the hope of engaging students who are not environmentalists….

Read the full article at nj.com.